Before I begin, I just want to say a few words about season 2 of Supergirl. In fact this whole post has spoilers—look at it as kind of a review mixed with thematic discussion. I highly recommend that you do not continue reading if you haven’t seen it yet, but if you have or do not care, just go ahead. I won’t judge.
Yesterday, Salt Lake Comic Con held their press conference for their fifth annual Comic Con event. As they do with all of their press conferences, for both SLCC and FanX, they announced their first round of guests. It seems like they are really putting together their best show yet, and with the announcements yesterday, they have a good start. Below is a list of my top five guests announced so far.
The short of it is, two weeks ago I went to FanX and I had an amazing time, and I’ve only just gotten around to writing about it. If you want the long story, read on.
Yes, I can make this list work. I can come up with 17 reasons that the year 2017 is going to be a good one that are all geek-related. Can you? Is there anything on this list you didn’t think of? Anything I didn’t have room for?
While you’re digesting your turkey and pie and thinking about the things you are grateful for, feel welcome to browse this list and the attached photos, and if you want to give feedback you can share why you are grateful for Salt Lake Comic Con. Disclaimer: yes, next week for my personal blog I’m going to be posting a wish list for guests to have at future SLCC events, so if you think I’m buttering up the Salt Lake con organizers I won’t blame you for thinking that. And bear in mind, none of these are in any particular order…except towards the end.
It can look like Cosplay came out of nowhere. But science-fiction and fantasy have been popular genres for generations now—one could argue that they’ve been around as long as literature itself. Costuming has been around since the first scifi conventions in the 1930s and 40s, when people would dress up to fit into the genre they liked to consume, not necessarily to reflect certain characters. By the 1970s there were formalized costume contests and standards for costuming. The term “cosplay” itself was invented by a Japanese news reporter who visited an American convention in 1970 as a shortened form of the terms “costume play”.
Summer of 2015, Jake asked for people to come co-write for The Geeky Mormon. I posted my first article in July. So it’s been more than a year—more like a year and two months. But better late to get around to an anniversary-type post than never. This isn’t really to brag on my achievements but to look back on what else I’ve been doing with my life in addition to The Geeky Mormon as well as some of the changes that have happened, some I may have mentioned in writing, others not so much.
Utah has gained a reputation in recent years as a haven for geeks of all fandoms and degrees of interest. The rising popularity of Salt Lake Comic Con and the golden age of Geek on the internet has fueled the creativity and talents of many locals into pursuing cosplay. For this reason, it is no surprise that so many people are moving to the vibrant and diverse state of Utah to set up a home. It also helps that there are some fantastic real estate opportunities in Utah too. Just check out these New Homes for Sale in Ogden Valley for example. Anyway, as a member of this vibrant cosplay community, I would like to give my readers a glimpse into what we do and introduce them to some of my fellow cosplayers. Some of us are part of major costuming organizations like the 501st Legion, others are part of smaller local charity groups. Some of us invest considerable time and money into making elaborate, screen-accurate costumes. Others can’t bring as many physical resources, but we make up for it with lots of heart and dedication. Some of us live outside of the Salt Lake-Ogden-Provo area, but thankfully the internet makes it easy to keep in touch on a daily basis and we can share ideas and post photos of our work.
You should never underestimate the power of cosplay in groups. I’ve been a part of a charity group for a while, but for this Comic Con I planned to do something a little different. Livewire was my favorite villain in Season 1 of Supergirl. Since her outfit didn’t look too hard to imitate, I decided to cosplay her. Then a few months ago, one of my Facebook friends decided to put together a DC Villains/Arkham group for comic con. I decided to volunteer Livewire.
Who else is exhausted after three days of comic con goodness? Maybe you’re not exhausted now because hopefully you have had some time to recover. I’ll bet you were exhausted on Saturday night when you got home. Maybe I’m just saying that because I was so tired. I always am after Salt Lake Comic Con, but it’s always worth it.