Post # 5, To The Conventions We Go!

Greetings Readers! Today I am going to be talking to you about one of my favorite events to go to. Conventions! I have loved super heroes since I could remember. The ability to save the day and prevail just about everything thrown their way was just fascinating to me! To see super heroes and heroines go from clumsy fighters to butt-kicking vigilantes while learning about their own lives and characteristics was inspiring. Some would say it's to far-fetched to relate too. For me though, that just helped me relate more. Sometimes we need something more out there instead of the conventional.

A small chunk of my growing collection

I wasn't heavily interested in comics until after Joss Whedon's 2012 blockbuster hit, The Avengers. I fell in love with Hawkeye. In the film he is played by Jeremy Renner and runs around with the bow and arrow. A lot of people thought he was a bit useless compared to the other heroes. I of course thought he was the best and wanted to learn more about him. So I thought why not hit up the local comic book store and do just that.

Refocusing onto conventions. Conveniently enough, a year or so after I got into comics was also the year that TopCon was announced. Conventions are gatherings of people who share similar interest in ranging topics. They buy, sell, cosplay, discuss, compete, and just generally enjoy "nerding out." There are many conventions that offer people to meet stars and prominent figures from the works the fans enjoy. This could be authors, actors, voice actors, and artist. Conventions don't have to solely focus on comics. In fact nowadays almost all conventions that use the word comic in their name also focus on other things. Tv shows, video games, table top games. movies, book series, etc can appear at comic cons or there can be conventions that focus on one topic instead of multiple. Hearing Topeka was getting it's own convention was thrilling!

2015 marked TopCon's second year. The event was in September at the Ramada Hotel downtown. It lasted 3 days took up downstairs of the hotel, the main commons, and at least 5 rooms of the Ramada's main building. There were comic book dealers, art work, cosplay merchandise, video game tournaments, table top game tournaments, cosplay contest, independent film premiers, and much more. The environment was lively! There all sorts of people. From babies to grandpas! One of my favorite things was seeing family cosplay. There was a family dressed up as Batman, Catwoman, and the son was Robin. How cute is that! It was exciting to see how much bigger this year's convention was compared to the first one. The first TopCon was just a large room with 3 smaller rooms attached. People were crowded and even had a bit of trouble getting around.

This year also marked the first year of EmpowerCon. This a similar convention to TopCon but focuses on the message of empowerment. This year focus was on women. The guest were woman who have worked hard in their field. The main guest were Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman), Gigi Edgley (Farscape) and Naomi Grossman (American Horror Story: Asylum).

It's nice to know that both of these events are growing. The conventions give people a chance to connect with each other and spend the day enjoying what they love. TopCon and EmpowerCon are still in their early years and have plenty of room to expand. We are no where near as big as conventions like San Diego's ComicCon but with time who knows. To continue showing you about conventions below is a video showing how wicked awesome some cosplayers can get. The one in the video if from a much larger convention but it helps you get the idea.

Both events will be coming back. TopCon 2016 will occur in September and EmpowerCon will return next February. Feel free to click on each to go to their websites and get the latest news. If you are interested in checking out a local comic book stores Topeka has two major ones. Boom Comics and Gatekeeper. They host tournaments and other events too!