Posted in: Comics | Tagged: comic con, Comics, des moines, entertainment, wizard world

Through The Wind And The Rain – Wizard World Des Moines Comic Con

Published Sun, 15 May 2016 12:00:26 -0500

SaraJean Greenaway (of Nerd Team 30) writes for Bleeding Cool

I will be honest, coming from a what I like to think is a happening city like Denver Colorado, my hopes for the 2^nd annual Wizard World Des Moines Convention were not very high. Could a state the has seven times more hogs than people put on a comic convention successfully? Would people even show up and care? The short answer is yes. The long answer is, well, yes .

The start of the convention on Friday had us kind of in the middle of heavy thunderstorm which is not uncommon for this city. It was a miserable and wet start. However, slowly the people showed up, the convention floor filled and that electric sound of a busy con floor came through loud and clear and steadily continued through the weekend.

I find that the cosplayers in this city are pretty dedicated. Even with the rain, the wind and the humidity way over 100% (I am pretty sure that is true) they all came out this weekend in full gear and were happy to do so. And the happiness thing, it must be infectious because it seemed like everyone was genuinely happy to be there and they were so nice! It was a wonderful change of pace from the other conventions that I attend each year. Today I asked assistance from one of the volunteers to find a panel location, and instead of making me feel like a total moron he very politely old me where to go and how to get there. I can see this polite attitude thing being a big draw for me coming back to this convention if it goes forward.

For how small this convention is, they managed to get a few really good comic names to show up. We have Colleen Doran, Greg Horn, Michael Golden and Phil Hester just to name a few. I had things signed, picked up new items and even commissioned a new Hellboy inked sketch from Phil to add to my growing original art collection. It was very awesome. On the other side, like every other convention, they had quite a few young indie artists/writers trying to sell their art, or comic, or book- whatever it is, to anyone willing to stop and lend an ear. I grabbed many new indie comics and 2 awesome painted commissions of JML's Dawn to add to my collection.

The Celebrities section was a little slim, however that is the least important thing to me at a comic convention. There were however 2 celebrity panels that I found very worth my time and enjoyed going to a lot. The first was a panel a Batman: The Animated Series panel with voice a Kevin Conroy (Batman) and Loren Lester (Robin). They discussed what it takes to get into the world of voice acting, how Kevin got the role of Batman, and what they would like to see happen in the future for Batman animated features. All in all it was a fast paced and entertaining panel with 2 of my heroes from a childhood favorite show.

The second Panel I went to see was a panel with Chloe Bennet who plays Daisy 'Skye' Johnson in the Marvel's Agents of Shield television series. I was honestly not expecting much from this but Chloe was hilarious! She said in that panel that she had originally wanted to be a comedy actress when she was studying and you can tell. She is sharp, witty and she brought her very good looking boyfriend Austin Nichols, who you may know as one of the stars of The Walking Dead. Together they talked about going on double dates, what projects she would like to work on and which literary characters they would like portray. Chloe wants to play Hermione Granger. Austin wants to play Jay Gatsby. At this point the crowd turned on Austin and told him he has to play Ron to Chloe's Hermione. It was moments like that which really made this panel enjoyable and well worth my time going to see.

All in all for a 2^nd year convention in a somewhat small Midwestern capital, I had a blast. I am glad to see that these are gaining popularity in places where the people may not get a chance to go to larger conventions. Having something local really builds a sense of community for the comic goers and it gives everyone a safe and fun place to go out and be themselves- which I found was something lacking the year I lived here in my teens. I give this convention a thumbs up. It well exceeded what little expectations I did have and gave me everything I look for in my convention experience. I can see myself coming back next year to see how it grows.

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