ROAD TRIP Re-Descovering My Inner Geek:
Phoenix Comic Con ‘15 by Michael Buffalo Smith
(The following story is dedicated to the mem- ory of mine and Eric’s best friend, Bill Hudson, whose name came up several times a day during the Con. He would have loved this one.)
My friend Eric Wenzel had been singing the
praises of Phoenix Comic Con for years now, and telling me I really needed to come out and go to one with him. Well, this year it fi- nally happened, and boy howdy was it ever a good time. Now, I can’t be sure, but judging by what I
saw over this past weekend, I would assume Phoenix Comic Con is second only to San Diego Comic Con. Eric says the San Diego event is much bigger and packed wall to wall with people. To that I simply say, if it’s any bigger or busier than this one, I don’t care to go. After all, there were times during this con- vention where I could not make my way through the crowd without turning into The Hulk and becoming the most aggressive Buf- falo in the place. There were no traffic pat- terns. People are coming at you from the right, the left, diagonally, from overhead...(well, there were a lot of Super Heroes...) Initially I was planning to report on this
bad boy on a day by day basis, but once I re- turned to the Palmetto State, it all kind of blurred into one large event that kept a child-
like grin plastered across my mug for several solid days. Heck, I still haven’t stopped smil- ing! To all of the fine folks I met at the Con I’d
like to say it was a true pleasure meeting each and every one of you, from comic dealers to celebrities to cosplay masters - and that in- cludes you, Boba Fett!
The Phoenix Convention Center was a
great place for this event. It was sprawled out across multiple floors and into the hotel next door, even bleeding out into the streets. The last time I truly geeked out had been at the Star Trek Atlanta Con way back in 1977, al- though I did attend a few smaller ones up until around 1980. But Star Trek Atlanta was very, very different from today’s Cons. Number one: Back then, you could pose for
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