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By Phurpurska

Halloween can never come soon enough! That’s a good thing because every year it seems to start earlier and earlier. For us, the season started July 29th with Sinister Circus, a whole three months before All Hallow’s Eve. The event was marketed as a “Haunted Costume Summer Ball” aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA that took place after the Midsummer Scream Convention. The idea was to offer a dance party and costume contest for convention goers after a day of exclusives and sneak peaks for events like Dark Harbor and Halloween Horror Nights. This was a far cry from what we actually experienced, but first let’s do a walk through of what there was to do.

The Good, The Bad, and The Scary

Once checked in, guests were shuttled up a tight flight of stairs and led immediately into a large, but extremely over-crowded dance floor. It reminded me of a Vegas nightclub around 1 am. For those who have experienced this, you know the claustrophobic feeling. I would imagine its how a child feels coming into this world for the first time. The dance floor experience overshadowed what was actually a neat and fairly well themed stage they had set up. Throughout the night, various acts would perform attempting to maintain some sort of circus atmosphere. We arrived just in time to see the silk performer do a set dressed as a crazed circus clown. Next to the dance floor was a DJ, as expected, playing 90’s and current top 40. This was great! Unfortunately, the DJ and his speakers were right next to the line for one of the two bars. Later in the night I would get to experience just how loud they were first hand. If you crossed the dance floor and hooked a hard right, there was a long aisle that led to the food (pizza, popcorn, and nachos), a tequila bar selling flights of tequila, a short maze experience, and a hookah lounge. The maze was a pleasant surprise! They had a tent set up with fog machines and green lights which made it feel like you were walking through a moist and dank swamp. I know how uncomfortable the word moist is. Let me tell you, it is the perfect way to describe the feeling inside the tent. I drew a little layout below for everyone to get a feel for how the entire Circus was set up. Now even though there seemed to be plenty to do, there was one huge and glaring problem. The place was terribly organized and way too small for the crowd they drew. We found out later on this was primarily due to the fact that the Queen Mary and Midsummer Scream were not communicating and oversold the event.

Our Night

So what did we do? We spent the night tracking down the Dark Harbor characters. After we found a few, we avoided the whole mess and posted up at the hookah lounge. Completely worth it! And we had a ton of fun catching up.

Sinister Circus aboard the Queen Mary By Phurpurska Halloween can never come soon enough! That's a good thing because every year it seems to start earlier and earlier.

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You never know when an open bar will pop up at Comic-con. You’ve got to be ready at all times!  

At Comic-con (sometimes) you can get to do some really cool stuff without any planning at all. Going to this kind of meet-up is pretty out of character for me. I feel super awkward interacting with celebrities when they are at press/business functions. If fact, I usually avoid meeting celebrities all together. If I do meet them I usually say something stupid (I would like to blame the usually-present free alcohol).

My friend Rebecca and I had just gotten our orders at Starbucks when we started checking our social media and this popped up:

(Notice the time stamp. Tweet at 10am for an 11am open bar.)

The cast of The Magician’s and free booze at 11am? We had slept 4 hours and been up since 4am so this seemed like an excellent idea.

We made our way from Horton Plaza over to the Gaslamp Marriott (passing the Rickmobile on the way). When we arrived the hotel and restaurant were almost empty.  We asked some of the hotel staff if an event was happening and they let us sit at one of the restaurant tables while one of them checked what was going on. We weren’t sure we had the right place considering the line for the Game of Thrones experience was across the way and no one was leaving to try an hit up the open bar. The staff confirmed that there was indeed a meetup happening at the (small) bar that was roped off and told us we could wait at the table or go around to the outside entrance where some other fans were arriving.

At slightly after 11 we were let in to the Longitude bar where Buzzfeed had assembled Jason Ralph (Quentin), Stella Maeve (Julia), Hale Appleman (Eliot) and Summer Bishil (Margo). The bar started pouring wine and beer and we were encouraged by the press running the event to have a free drink on them.

It ended up being a very intimate meet and greet. At first there were only about 20 fans there. The first groups of fans greeted the cast while several people that appeared to be covering the event for Buzzfeed or other news outlets took photos and live-streamed the event. At some point the cast were handed the Buzzfeed microphones and seemed confused as to what exactly they were supposed to do with them. We grabbed our wine and waited for our turn to chat with them.

Rebecca and I were interview by Summer when she ended up with a mic. She asked about how our Comic-con was going and what our plans were. We had to tell her that we weren’t going to make the panel for The Magicians the next day since we were planning on Hall H (OMG why did I say we weren’t going nooooo…). I wish I had remembered to get a picture with her since Margo is one of my favorite characters. Hopefully, the whole interaction wasn’t as as cringe-inducing at the time as my memory of the experience is. We then briefly spoke to Hale. I told him that I wished Jen and Chris (my fellow bloggers) had been able to come because they really love the show (success! that wasn’t stupid or embarrassing). We were able to snap a couple pics with Hale and Jason before we attempted to move out of the way so other people could make their way forward.

The event was only 30 minutes and the bar was starting to get way too packed so we downed the rest of our wine and then gracefully exited out what was probably a side door, or floor length window; I’m not really sure but it was the quickest way out.

Sometimes having holes in your schedule leaves time for free booze and celebrity interactions. One of the best things about SDCC is that there is always something to do and not everything requires an excel spreadsheet of who is waiting in line.

Us with Hale Appleman at The Magician’s meetup. Photo edited by Kurt Brotschi

Us with Jason Ralph at The Magician”s meetup

Meeting the cast of SYFY’s The Magicians at SDCC 2017 You never know when an open bar will pop up at Comic-con. You’ve got to be ready at all times!  

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I made my annual trip to Stan Lee’s LA Comic Con (formerly Comikaze) this year on Sunday. The members of this blog have been attending this con in some capacity for several years; including once being vendors. While this con is smaller than Wondercon or San Diego Comic-con it now has Stan Lee’s name on it, and has been able to pull some pretty interesting guests over the years.

The con seemed pretty well organized this year.  There were plenty of staff directing attendees to the box office and the badge pick-up. We showed up at 11am, an hour after opening.  I don’t drive to get downtown anymore since parking has gotten expensive. We noticed that most of the lots close to the convention center were advertising thirty dollars. I’d recommend taking the metro if you have convenient access to it.

Entry was painless. Weapons check was happening before they even let you in the door for registration this year. They also stopped a girl in front of us that had a Harry Potter-style wizard’s wand and made her exit and go through weapons check before they would admit her (which may have been a bit over-kill). They were also performing bag checks as you entered. This, in addition to their change in costume policy disallowing any fake guns or things similar to guns, may have been too strict for some people. We were able to walk right in and get our badges and lanyards without waiting. If you didn’t buy badges during the pre-sale they were available at the box office. Like may conventions, the price during pre-sale is lower than what you will pay at the door.

  The first floor of the south hall was home to large groups of cosplayers and photographers all day long. I think that this con has a ton of interesting and beautiful costumes.  It helps that it is usually the same weekend as Halloween. There was plenty of room to walk around and through if you wanted to get pictures or see the costumes up close.

We headed up to the exhibit hall first. The main stage is also located in the exhibit hall. This year they moved the stage from the center of the hall to one side which seemed to help with some of the congestion and noise issues they have had in the past. Unfortunately, the main stage has limited seating which means you have to stand to watch any panels unless you luck out and grab one of the 60 seats to the left or right of the main stage. 

There was a large variety of vendors and artist at this year’s con. If you are a regular at some of the other So Cal conventions there are some notable absences including the T-shirt tower people, WeLoveFine, and most of the comic publishers. This con is definitely geared more towards pop culture and less toward comics even though there were comics vendors on the floor. Since we have worked this con as vendors, and because we regularly make purchases at this con, we have heard a lot of complaints of tons of people browsing and no one actually buying anything. I will mention that there were several “vendors” that were only there to sign you up for time shares (and most likely, sell your information). One of which was using the San Diego Comic-con logo to attract attendees. I recommend that attendees to this con take a second look at who they are giving their contact info to.

I, personally, use this con to buy gifts for the holidays because there are consistently good deals. I can’t compare the deals on Sunday to what was happening on Friday or Saturday but it appeared that prices may have been cut to liquidate stock since it was the last day of the con. I was impressed with the variety of merchandise available as well. It was the first con of the season where I was able to find multiple things that  I wanted for myself. 

Since this con is on Halloween weekend most of the vendors keep candy at their booths so that kids that are attending can trick-or-treat. There are a lot less people dressed in bondage gear or being lead around on leashes then other cons that are host at the LA convention center (looking at you AX). The atmosphere at this con and the trick-or-treating seem to lend to a family-friendly atmosphere.

We decided to attend the Makeup National Championships. Entrants were given the theme of “undead glam” and they had to execute a makeup on a model that they brought with them. No prosthetic were allowed. The lack of actual chairs at the main stage let us get close to the makeup models but it was still annoying. Another setback of this being in the main hall for panels was that the crowd in the exhibit hall was playing loud music during parts of the judging of the contest. There were very few spectators compared to the numbers I saw attending some of the earlier panels of the day that had special guests, and it was obvious that the PA was exhausted (high energy but lots of foibles and forgetting to let the judges ask questions). The makeup was pretty impressive and the prizes for the winners seemed well worth their participation: a cash prize and MAC products along with MAC classes. The winner did a very subtle and detailed clown makeup. I’m sure that the judges could see a lot more than we could since the stage lighting washed the model out.

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  If you are coming to this con specifically for Stan Lee then you are definitely going to get what you paid for. There was a Stan Lee exhibit this year (there usually is), panels with the man himself, and the ability to purchase photo ops and autographs. There are also usually exclusives; such as this years’ Stan Lee Funko Pop.

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  This con is doable in a day if you aren’t going for specific guests or panels. The exhibit hall floor can be covered in a few hours and you will still have enough time to grab an autograph or see a few panels. They have started hosting more parties on Saturday nights, so if you are staying downtown or don’t have to drive this could also be a fun option. They have some Magic tournaments that run during the con and also a cosplay competition with generous prizes. And if you have never cosplayed before what better time to give it shot that Halloween weekend?

If you are looking for a convention in LA that is easy to get to and doesn’t require as much planning as Wondercon or Comic-con this is probably the con for you. There are not a lot of free things at this con (other than the Halloween candy) so be prepaid to pay out for autographs and photo ops.  I would also make sure that you buy your tickets during the pre-sale or online through Goldstar or a similar ap to get a better price on the badges since you will need your money for the actual convention when you get there.

So see you again next year Stan Lee’s LA Comic Con! As long as you don’t raise prices and nothing more interesting or fun is happening (Halloween will always win over conventions).

    Stan Lee’s Comic Con 2017 I made my annual trip to Stan Lee's LA Comic Con (formerly Comikaze) this year on Sunday.

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By Phurpurska

This past Saturday the whole team got together and traveled out to Pasadena, CA for the annual Designer Con. It is typically a fun filled weekend where we get to see local independent artists putting out some really unique pieces ranging from startup toy lines to pop culture inspired art collections. The exhibit hall in the past has been hassle free, relaxed, and in a good way relatively empty. For whatever reason, this year was completely different.

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What Happened? – We arrived this year only to get to wait in a 20 minute line even with presale tickets. I know this sounds bougie considering it is still a con, but when you remember the days when you could walk up and buy a badge without waiting, it’s hard not to be a little sad. The con started out with two halls which has now expanded to three. The first hall has been and will always be extremely over packed. It always sets off the engineering side of my brain like, “How is this not a fire marshall concern?” But I digress. The main point I want to make is all three halls are like this now. Not only is it really annoying to perform the con shuffle through every aisle for the entire day, it just makes the con feel less unique. I expect the crowds and lines and smells at Comicon, but not Designer Con.

  What’s Next? – I suppose any convention that has what it takes to develop a strong following inevitably gets bigger and bigger. Just look at Stan Lee’s Comikaze. Designer Con seems to be moving in that direction which has me wondering if next year they will upgrade to the Long Beach Convention Center or even the West Exhibit Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center. As long as they figure out how to avoid the drama caused by long lines and ticket issues, I have to be happy for them. On the bright side, growth for the con means growth and exposure for all the local artists who have a history with the convention. But in reality, how long does that last before the larger companies come in a change the con forever? I mean part of the issue is when sponsors like Paul Frank hop into the mix. I guess only time will tell.

Designer Con – Pasadena 2017 By Phurpurska This past Saturday the whole team got together and traveled out to Pasadena, CA for the annual…

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A Sampling of Mini Escape Rooms at Scarela

A Sampling of Mini Escape Rooms at Scarela

By Jen Tichman At Scarela this year we had one goal: to try out as many mini escape rooms as possible. Here’s our ranking from best to worst #1 Crossroads Escape Room: The Asylum Although we are a bit biased because we have played (and loved) the 2 escape rooms Crossroads currently offers (link) I think objectively this mini-room was still the best at the con. The asylum had everything I love…

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By Jen Tichman

The days preceeding and following Sinister Circus were mired in facebook drama on the page for the event. Allow me to attempt to break down the various complaints: 

Rule Breakers

Days before the event, freakouts began to occur over a list of rules issued by the Queen Mary. One of those rules stated that masks  and facial prosthetics wouldn’t be allowed. This seems reasonable for an event where people will need to prove that they are old enough to purchase alcoholic beverages. However, this does not seem reasonable for people who are coming straight from a halloween convention or who are hoping to attend a halloween themed costume ball.  

  In a final back-pedal Queen Mary issued the following statement allowing masks put on after entering the event and prosthetics that rendered the wearer “completely identifiable”

So things were already off to a bad start.

Post-event criticism

After the event the negative reviews began to roll in. The first major complaint was that the event was oversold and the event space was too small. Now the poor layout was definitely something we experienced but since we arrived early to the event we had no issue with getting through the door. Apparently there were some who waited outside, and some who weren’t allowed into the event at all! Although con rules state always come early, people should still be expected to enter an event they purchased a ticket to.

Apparently there was miscommunication between the Queen Mary, the owners of the venue, and Midsummer Scream, the halloween convention putting on the event. It appears that the Queen Mary sold their own tickets which were not accounted for when Midsummer Scream was selling theirs. This was the rumor about how Sinister Circus became oversold.

What kind of a ball is this?

Besides logistics, complaints were also made about the theming and music. I have to agree with some of these commenters. Sinister Circus billed itself as a halloween “ball” and what we got was somewhere between a backyard haunt and a lower-tier nightclub.

And the final verdict:

Sinister Circus Facebook Drama By Jen Tichman The days preceeding and following Sinister Circus were mired in facebook drama on the page for the event.

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Waiting for Hall H

Waiting for Hall H

You may or may not know what Hall H is. I’ll cover the basics so that the rest of this post makes more sense. Hall H is the largest room that San Diego Comic-con holds panels in. The room can hold 6,500 people. While this number may seem large, in reality there are more than 100,000 people at Comic-con every day. The majority of panels that are scheduled for this room are for the most popular IPs…

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The Cast of Game of Thrones on Conan at SDCC

The Cast of Game of Thrones on Conan at SDCC

This year I was lucky enough to get tickets for the Conan show that was filmed at SDCC with the cast of Game of Thrones. Conan White Walker Funko Pop! (photo via the Funko blog)   Conan usually announces the tapings on his show and via his website/twitter. Getting tickets is basically an online raffle. There is no information provided about the tapings other than the date and the location when…

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By Jen Tichman

Was Blade Runner 2029 the best offsite this year at Comic Con? Many seem to think so

I think I’d agree! Here’s a brief rundown of why I think it worked so well :

Good line management and early start time: even those who didn’t decide to arrive at 7am like us still reported about a 2 hour wait for the offsite. This is well worth it for most offsites at Comic Con (maybe not the alien experience) and definitely worth it for the amount of effort put into Blade Runner. It was nowhere near the 10 hours for Game of Thrones or the overnight wait for West World  

Our group arrived at 7am and was the second group allowed into the experience right around 9:15am. There was also a shorter line for folks who wanted to skip the VR. Some reported they got through the non-VR line in only 45 minutes!  

Once inside the event I never felt rushed, but somehow they managed to keep the crowd moving and prevented people from baking in the sun outside. The free umbrellas (like the one we later used while waiting in line for Atomic Blonde) and water bottles they handed out also helped the not baking in the sun part. This is a huge contrast to Game of Thrones. The 10 hour wait time? That wasn’t just for people who showed up when the off-site opened at 11am. People who showed up at 4am STILL had to wait that long meaning they weren’t out of the experience until around 3pm. That’s half your day at Comic-Con spent in a line.

Notice the white free umbrellas on the left

VR : VR is the hip new thing for off-sites and I have to say I don’t hate it. Yeah the graphics were a little shoddy (was that on purpose though? Maybe a nod to the original Blade Runner?) but we sat in motion activated chairs that made the whole thing feel like an amusement park ride! I got a little nauseous from it but I can’t fault the experience for that since all motion simulator rides make me sick.

Immersion: Blade Runner knocked it out of the park on this point. After removing our VR glasses we continued the story with a fantastic environment that felt like we were dropped right into the world of the movie. There were plenty of actors roaming about like police officers “arresting” guests and accusing them of being replicants. I wish I had interacted with the actors more since they seemed to stay in character the entire time, but I’m pretty terrible at improv so I couldn’t think of anything interesting to say to them.

However, friend of the blog Rebecca DID interact a bit more with the actors. After a photo op that declared her a “replicant” she was accosted by an actor who demanded she perform five squats before she could continue on her way.

  Free stuff: Blade Runner delivered on this point too! Normally a free shirt is expected from an off-site event. If you’re lucky you can even get a shirt that’s close to your size! Not only did Blade Runner let you decide what size shirt and what design you wanted, but the shirt was also delivered in an adorable vending machine that displayed your name at the push of a button!

I’m always a fan of free food at offsites and Blade Runner just happened to give out samples of two flavors of noodles. In fact when Mary visited on Sunday they let her have as much as she wanted! Funnily enough these noodles were not handed out at the noodle bar, but in a room around the corner.

We also walked through the facade of a brothel and ended up at a small bar where we received 2 shots of Johnny Walker and 1 mix of Johnny Walker and ginger ale. The drinks were served up in little test tubes with a screw top. I’m not a huge fan of doing shots of whiskey at 9 in the morning so I ended up pocketing them for later.

Fast Track Exit: After cramming our faces with two servings of noodles (breakfast of champions) we decided it was time to leave. The exit happened to dump us right into a separate, shorter, “fast track” line for the Expanse Escape Room. I don’t know if this was an official decision on either offsite’s part but it worked out very well for us!

Negatives: I think the only thing I can knock Blade Runner for is the fact that by Sunday the free shirts had run out. They still had free posters that popped out when you pushed the vending machine button, but let’s be real: would you rather have a shirt or a poster?

From the long list of positives and one short negative it is clear that Blade Runner was my favorite off-site this year. Hopefully we’ll continue to see more sites like it at future cons!

    Blade Runner 2029: The best off-site at SDCC 2017 By Jen Tichman Was Blade Runner 2029 the best offsite this year at Comic Con? Many seem to think so…

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Check out our new blog recapping this years Fandom Fest.

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This year The History Channel took a break from handing out Vikings drinking horns at Comic-Con and put together an activation for their new drama Project Blue Book. The show is based on real top-secret investigations into UFOs conducted by the US Air Force between 1952 and 1969.

The offsite was located in Comic-Con’s Experience in the Petco Park parking lot (formerly the Interactive Zone), and did not require a badge. We visited in the afternoon on Thursday and the line was relatively short.

Once you reached the front of the queue and registered on their website you were assigned to one of the staff that would make a record of your alien or UFO sighting. This was something completely unique to this offsite this year. The activation was themed like a military base and you were seated on a small camp stool across the table from and actor who asked a series of questions about your alien encounter. After you answered all of the questions your record was sent to an artist to generate a personal sketch of your story. The sketch wasn’t available until 30 to 40 minutes after you left the experience (which was just enough time to get some free DC ice cream so it didn’t seem inconvenient at all).

The second part of the experience was a room where sketches based on UFO or alien sightings were projected onto the walls with audio recordings to accompany them. This part of the walk through was less memorable since it was not interactive. All of the staff and actors did a great job staying in character as they led us through each segment.

The final room was set up as a command center where the sketch artists were working and where we able to send a message to space.

I can’t remember having attended a History Channel offsite like this before. I know my friends and I have attended Vikings boat rides and the Vikings funeral previous years at San Diego Comic Con. The overall presentation and themeing was well done and definitely presented the show in a compelling and fun way. Being able to tell them your “experience” put you in the show and made you part of the drama.

Your visit got you not only a personal sketch, but a lanyard for Blue Book headquarters and a comic (Project Blue Book – Case #1972). I spent the rest of the weekend of SDCC recommending this offsite to other attendees.

My only request for next year would be more air conditioning.

Find out more about Project Blue Book here: https://www.history.com/shows/project-blue-book/about

The Project Blue Book Activation at SDCC This year The History Channel took a break from handing out Vikings drinking horns at Comic-Con and put together an activation for their new drama Project Blue Book.

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This year was our first year attending the LA art show (we are aware this isn’t technically a convention, bear with us).

The show took place at the LA convention center this January. We were able to get discount tickets online through Groupon. According to the FAQ on the LA Art show website there are also discounted tickets available for certain museum members and members of non-profit groups. If you happen to be a docent at one of the museums exhibiting at the show your admission is free.

Parking downtown is very expensive so we opted to take public transport or use a rideshare app to get downtown. There was a very short line/security checkpoint at the entrance to the escalators leading up to the exhibit hall that took about five minutes. There were a lot of people but never so many that you felt overwhelmed. There was plenty of space to walk and view the art on display.

There are many museums and galleries that were exhibiting modern and contemporary art from their collections (the show’s focus was on modern and contemporary art). Many of the art works were for sale. The displays covered the entirety of the south exhibit hall floor, and even with not attending any of the programming, it took us more than three hours to walk through.

In addition to viewing the artworks there were a few interactive exhibits that were interesting or funny. One exhibit was supposed to allow individuals to experience synesthesia. Another was made of punching bags with faces that would (most likely) make you want to punch them. Jen and Chris also participated in an exhibit that used a Microsoft Kinect to make music and was accompanied by visuals.

There were several places throughout the hall where you could get food (fancier food than what is usually on offer at a convention center) or beverages, including refreshments for those 21+. What’s a gallery show without wine and cheese after all?

Here are some more pictures from the show. It is a great chance to see a little of what LA’s art scene has on offer.

And even if the art doesn’t hold your attention there are plenty of things to do downtown once you are done or want a change of scenery.

The LA Art Show 2018 This year was our first year attending the LA art show (we are aware this isn't technically a convention, bear with us).