Louisiana Comic Con!!!

Bossier City, LA

North Louisiana has a lot of wonderful things going for it.  Unfortunately, having an excellent comic convention hasn’t been one of those things in a long time.  Thankfully that shortcoming has been erased with the first Louisiana Comic Con in Bossier City, LA at the Bossier Civic Center.  Myself and a friend left southern Louisiana a little after six in the morning and made the long trek up to Bossier City.  We arrived at the Civic Center at around 9:20 or so and managed to find a fairly good parking spot just minutes before a huge crowd of people invaded the area.  We got into the pre-registration line waited for forty or so minutes before getting into the door.  We were part of the lucky ones who got in at a decent time.  I’ll touch on this particular subject a bit later.  For now, let’s focus on the positives.

The convention had a nice amount of vendors, artists, and media guests.  Vendors were selling everything from comics to Chibis and soaps to statues.  Artists offered prints, sketches, and comics that they worked on to anyone interested in them.  There were a few authors as well.  A couple of cosplayers were featured, as well as a few fan groups such as Southern Geek (of which I’m a proud member), the 501st Legion, and the Rebel Legion.

For a first year event, I was rather surprised at not only the large amount of costumes on display, but the skill level shown as well.  There were many very well executed costumes and a few, like my own, that were just worn for fun.  Of special note was MoodHair Cosplay, who cosplayed as Batwoman/Kate Kane.

I did not attend any panels at the convention.  There was only one panel room (which is both good and bad), and the panels focused primarily on the media guests.  Speaking of media guests, the convention featured Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, Theodus Crane (The Walking Dead), Scott Schwartz (A Christmas Story), Nicholas Brendon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Mary Kate Smith (King of the Nerds), and a few others.  I took a little time to talk to Ms. Smith and I must admit that she was an extremely sweet and friendly lady who had nothing but positivity for any and every person that spoke with her.  I got a quick photo and an autograph from her.

I spent most of my time hanging out with my friends in Southern Geek.  I don’t like broadcasting names in this blog unless I have permission, but I will say that Rafe White and his lovely wife, Shannon, have taken Southern Geek and turned it into something very special.  I had a lot of fun hanging out with them and Rafe ended up winning the Discount Dark Knight’s Earth 2 Batman contest.  I also hung out with a few fellow Whovians and some Star Wars buds as well.

With all of the wonderful things going on, I have to mention that there were a few negative items that popped up.  Of course, most of these were due to the fact that this was a first year event at a venue that wasn’t ready to handle the massive crowd that the convention attracted.  Many people stood outside in the rain for many hours to get into the event.  The line was for “day of event” ticket buyers, though, and pre-registered people got in a lot faster.  There were naturally a lot of people that were upset, but I do not entirely fault the event runners for this mishap.  I consider this to be a learning moment for the show runners and hopefully they’ll expand to more than one day and have a larger venue to use.

Having such a large crowd in such a small venue also lead to crowded walking areas.  At certain points during the day I literally could not move when walking through the vendor area.  This isn’t the first event that this has happened to me, and again, I hold the venue more at fault than the show runners.

One final thing that I want to bring up about the event was the food.  It was VERY cheap for a convention.  Hot dogs were only two bucks!  Had this been a Wizard World event, the same hot dog would have cost me six or eight dollars. Granted, the offerings ranged from the aforementioned hot dog to corn dogs, nachos, candy, and soft drinks, but as cheap as it was, I’m not complaining.

The Discount Dark Knight had a very good time making people smile, threatening to tie the Flash’s shoelaces together the next time he challenges him to a race, and generally making people smile.  One lovely young lady dressed up as Pinky Pie from My Little Pony asked DDK for a hug.  Another even asked him for a picture!  He was a mini celeb for just a few brief minutes.

Oh, and this lovely lady called DDK “Puddin!”

Overall, Louisiana Comic Con was a successful event than ran into typical first year bumps.  It was a bit chaotic, a whole lotta crowded, and very, very fun.  It was great to catch up with friends (some that I haven’t seen in almost two years) and just nerd out for a few hours.  I’m pretty sure that this event is coming back next year.  It may not be at the same venue and I hope it’s longer than just one day.  I wish only the best of luck to this event in the future!

As always, thanks for reading.  The next event that myself and the Discount Dark Knight plan to attend is CoastCon in lovely Biloxi, MS.  It’s the Gulf coast’s oldest fan run event and a personal favorite of mine that I haven’t been able to attend for the last two years.  Get ready, Biloxi, DDK is coming your way!