Wizard World.

Wizard World Texas happened this weekend and it was a blast. I think this is the 3rd or 4th year the convention has come to Dallas. Last year was not fun. There were more corporate sponsors than anything else and most of the smaller vendors were booted out. It lacked the personal touches that smaller conventions have and so we were worried that this year would suffer from the same problem. Luckily, we were wrong.

Apparently, at the last minute, the convention organizers called up several anime dealers and offered them table deals if they would attend. A few did, which made the convention a little more interesting. But, as some of you know, science fiction/comic book crowds don't necessarily mix with anime crowds. We spoke with a dealer who happens to be a good friend about this and received some interesting insights.

While I enjoy sci-fi and comics as well as anime, that's not always the case. Apparently their spending habits are quite different as well. I don't know if anime will be a permanent feature of Wizard World, but the objective is to crush other conventions. Isn't that terrible? We average about 1 convention a month here in Dallas, so we're very lucky. But I can see the fellowship vary from con to con. Wizard World wants to offer a little bit of everything, so as it to make all other conventions obsolete. I doubt that will happen, but they might kill off 1 or 2 of the smaller cons.

We had a lot of fun. Funimation had two large displays, giving away free ramen. Of course I scored several... >_> I got a couple of free t-shirts, some magnets and we entered as many sweepstakes as possible.

There was a Toyfare booth with a fun little contest. You get to decide the category and the booth runners would decide the question and you'd have to answer it in order to get a chance to spin the prize wheel. I spent my time in line trying to figure out what category would be my strength. I mean, what subject do you feel most confident on if you knew you were going to be tested on it? Without any additional prep, just go in and answer the question! It was kind of nerve racking. Senor suggested Giant Robo and I was like "yeah! duh." Senor's category was King of the Hill. Luckily, the judges didn't know anything about GR, so it made my question a lot easier... ^_^ Ultimately, we won some lame comic books.

The big highlights of the convention were Lou Ferrigno and Sarah Douglas. I got to meet both of them and take pictures, etc. I brought my Hulk TV series DVD and had Lou sign it. He is such an amazingly gentle person, despite his large size. He's incredibly sweet and personable. For those who don't know, he was born with significant hearing loss, so he tends to remain quiet. We've been watching the original Hulk series on DVD and I forgot how awesome that show really was. Bill Bixby is the f-ing man!

Sarah Douglas, in case the name doesn't sound familiar, played Ursa in the first two Superman movies. She was General Zod's girlfriend, of sorts. Her quirk was collecting patches, badges and medals from her conquests. Sarah is a very tall woman in person and positively gorgeous. She's probably 54 years old now but still incredibly stunning. She carried herself very well and she was great to talk to. She didn't mind answering lots of questions and talking about her experiences. She wore this purple blouse which was largely unbuttoned and loose. Really, just a crazy wonderful woman to meet. I got a promo signed by her that I plan to get framed later.

I'm looking forward to thanksgiving and Christmas this year. No reason in particular, just looking forward to the end of the year holidays. I hope everyone is doing well and having fun. I actually scanned a handful of cels the other day and might eventually update with them! O_O hehe.

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