As comic book and pop culture conventions go, the Amazing Las Vegas Comic Con is definitely still in its infancy at just a couple years old. The community support for it however makes it very likely to become one of the more popular cons in the Western United States. With Jim Lee as the guest of honor and a slew of the biggest names in comics, it was a fairly intimate atmosphere for the big guns and the indie writers to mix, mingle and show their wares.
One of my personal heroes, Len Wein, who has created over a hundred characters in is writing lifetime talked the future of Swamp Thing with me while a couple of artists Eric Mengel (of Ocho) and Denny Riccelli (Get That Chicken and Cousin Harold) talked about the con circuit and what it’s like when you are the “away team” comics compared to being the “home team” ones in Arizona. It was an opportunity to meet the author of one of my favorite current titles Chew, John Layman, and geek out with him about Mars Attacks and how he fulfilled a life dream by getting to write Mars Attacks On Ice! There were stories of boarding schools in hell, Bigfoot on distant planets and lots and lots and lots of talk about Guardians of the Galaxy. There were special editions covers and posters for all kinds of characters imaginable and in the middle of it all Maximum Comics had a Midway full of games.
You didn’t have to be a comic fan to be into the convention as there were tons of geek interests represented: Panels on how to write books by the Winner Girls and even makeup lessons from a whole slew of the casts of SyFy’s FaceOff. Not only was cosplay in full effect but the Heroes of Cosplay were present in the form of Holly And Jessica. There were costume contests and kids cosplay on parade and even cartoons on a big screen Saturday and Sunday.
This convention has taken off thanks to Maximum Comics support and I am already looking forward to next year.
