March ~ April 2012 ~ Vol. 5, Issue 8

By Tara Watson

3/25-25/12,Overland Park, KS - It was a glorious week-end for a convention. The sun was shining, the traffic was light and the Missouri and Kansas D20 Girls were on the road to the Overland Park In-ternational Trade Center for Planet Comicon 2012. D20’s Grace, Sairin, Tasia, Little Al-ice, Apocalypse Sue, Trinket, Ana Gore and Willa were vol-unteers for the weekend.

And what a weekend it was!

The Overland Park In-ternational Trade Center is tucked away behind the bus-tling Metcalf Avenue, a quiet building bordered by parking garages, grass and a small duck pond. But on March 24, it came alive as its doors opened. The D20 Girls ar-rived early, ready to pitch in wherever necessary. Our job was to man the doors and help guide attendees to where they wanted to go. Some of us guided the flow of traffic and some greeted attendees as they approached the building and in the main lobby.

From the start, it was obvi-ous that Planet Comicon 2012 would be much bigger than anticipated. As the doors opened, the line extended out-side the building to the park-ing lot. There was an air of palpable excitement through-out the building. People of all

kinds attended: families with small children, groups of cos-tumed twenty-somethings and even an elderly couple wearing matching Superman shirts. There were collectors who rushed the vendors and came away pulling handcarts loaded with new treasures and thrilled children who waved their very own $5 light-sabers. More than once the cry of, “Oh, the humanity!” rang out, sending ripples of laughter through a crowd that could very easily have become surly. It was their attitude that kept me going, despite the fact that I was standing in full sun wearing polyester and four inch heels.

I was dressed as the Joker,

and so many children stared wide-eyed. Some dared to wave, and a few even said hello. One tiny tot gave me a bear hug and then squealed, jumping up and down, posi-tively vibrating with excite-ment. Her dad had to remind her that she’d wanted to take a picture with me. No matter their reaction up close, they all smiled and whispered to their parents as they walked away.

I didn’t get to go to any panels. I was so busy meet-ing people and directing them to where they wanted to go that I missed them. The staff member in charge of the doors commented to me “This is twice the number of people

we had last year. This is just nuts.” He also repeatedly thanked me for the help and was so genuine that missing the panels was merely a side note. I did see the Star Wars groups parade past on their way to the Star Wars Costume Cavalcade. I was particularly impressed by the precision in Darth Maul’s makeup.

Cosplayers at the con had the opportunity to have Jason Tracy Photography take free pictures for portfolios. While I waited for my turn I checked out the nearby Free Games Library, sponsored by the Gamer's Haven and KantCon, a tabletop gaming convention held in the Kansas City area in July.

On my way back to the ven-dors room I almost ran over a pair of unfortunate women in the aisle. As I apologized, I realized that they were Robin Thorson and Amy Okuda of the popular web series The Guild. Yes, I almost took out Clara and Tinkerballa. They were quite civil, considering the surprise I’d given them.

The guest list for Planet Comicon was stellar. Head-lined by Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian of the Star Wars franchise) and Edward James Olmos (Admiral Wil-liam Adama of Battlestar Ga-lactica), there was a guest for

See “Comicon” on Page 14

Planet Comicon brings in more crowds than expected

Billy Dee Williams signs autographs at Planet Comicon in Overland Park, KS in late March.

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PublisherOGO Publications

Editor in ChiefJondi Soper

Copy EditorTiana Pimentel

GraphicsJason Kieth Hembree

ContributorsSarah Tanner

Marie SchiavoneLily Luu

Christie ThomasTara Watson

IcV2.comcon-news.com

MailOGO Publications

PO Box 2224Columbus, OH 43216

Telephone1-877-646-0010

E-mailpress@ogopublications.com

Publisher Contributors Mail

Miu Feles

Graphic Artwork by : Christie “Puppet” Thomas, D20 Girls Project. View the color ver-sion at http://candiedchris.deviantart.com/

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04/25/12, Denver CO Denver Comic Con goes six feet under to unearth TV’s hottest stars. The locally- powered organi-zation just announced the addition of three celeb-rities from AMC’s The Walking Dead to their al-ready smoking hot guest list.

Lauren Cohan (Mag-gie Greene), Steven Yeun (Glenn), and Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes) will take over the Mile High City months after the shocking finale of their 2nd chart-busting season. And the Rocky Mountain region couldn’t be hap-pier.

The demand and ex-citement for Denver’s first Comic Con, tak-ing place Father’s Day weekend, June 15th-17th, 2012, has been so great that the organizers were recently encouraged to move up within the Colo-rado Convention Center. Originally positioned in the smaller Mile High Ballroom, the event will move to Hall A upstairs with room to stretch out with over 100,000 square feet. Dr. Christina Angel (Co-Convention Director) explains: "We planned on the smaller space for our

first year, but the response has been so overwhelm-ing - from vendors, deal-ers, artists and attendees - that we quickly outgrew that space. I should have known this would happen; Denver has such an amaz-ing and diverse population of active and enthusiastic people, and we're so proud to call it our home. After walking the sprawling space, I think everyone is going to be as excited as we are to give Denver the pop culture experience it so richly deserves."

Lauren Cohan and Ste-ven Yeun are the perfect pairing to appear together at the inaugural event as they play opposite each other as Maggie and Glenn, the budding romance that is contrasted against the apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead.

Cohan, known as the fierce beautiful tomboy, Maggie Green, is no

stranger to TV and film. She has just signed on for season 3 of The Walking Dead and has had pivotal guest star arcs on NBC’s fan-favorite Chuck and the CW hit The Vampire Diaries. On the big screen, Cohan has appeared op-posite Heath Ledger in Casanova, starred in Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj and appeared in the iron-ically-named Death Race prequel Death Race 2. Cohan’s other television credits include a guest spot on ABC’s Modern Family and a series regular role on the CW’s Supernatural.

Yeun, who plays the very popular and ever re-liable Glenn, got his start in the Chicago Improv scene. And it wasn’t long before he had a cameo in the critically-acclaimed and top rated sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, as Shel-don’s former roommate. He has also appeared in

Law and Order as well as several short films.

Chandler Riggs plays the youngest lead role, Carl Grimes, son of Rick and Lori who is the in-quisitive boy struggling to understand the new world into which he has been thrust. The ten-year-old Riggs has several com-mercial credits. He ap-peared in the Lifetime Movie The Wronged Man and had his feature film debut in the Sony Pictures Classics film Get Low.

The Denver Comic Con and Literary Conference is set to take place on Fa-ther’s Day weekend, June 13th-17th.

For ticketing informa-tion, hotel discounts and for up-to-date announce-ments about the conven-tion, check out the official website at www.denver-comiccon.com and www.comicbookclassroom.org-to learn more.

Denver Comicon expands to include Walking Dead stars

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By Lily Luu

As a Playsta-tion loyalist, I never thought I’d ever get an Xbox. I was one of those, “why pay for something that P l a y s t a t i o n gives out for free?” How-ever, my love for all things Star Wars ended that sort of thinking. When I heard Microsoft was releasing the Xbox 360 Lim-ited Edition Kinect Star Wars bundle, I had my pre-order in the moment it was an-nounced.

The Xbox 360My greatest fears of my

new toy being completely gaudy were silenced the moment I opened the box and saw the beautiful Xbox 360. It truly looks like R2-D2 turned into an Xbox. To the blue and white body we all know and love, down to the tray that reads, “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re our only hope.” This machine looks and feels like a true Star Wars fan created it. The single best part was finally plugging it in and pressing that power but-ton. It’s as if I was Prin-cess Leia programming the blue print to the Death

Star and R2D2 is talking back to me.

The ControllerR2’s companion is the

C-3PO controller. It’s shiny and new, just like he was in Episode 3. The me-tallic texture is something to get used to, but the weight and feel are right for an Xbox 360 control-ler. My favorite stylistic element of the controller is the wiring detail in the middle.

The Kinect/GamesAs the first white Kinect

created, it’s truly a thing of beauty next to my black TV. The contrast is remi-niscent of Chanel and her simplicity in design. The first thing I had to try out was the new voice com-mands. It’s pretty cool having a R2-D2 Xbox 360

that you can say “Xbox Open Tray” and it does! The Star Wars Ki-nect game that it comes with is a lot of fun. Going through all the games, I’m a huge fan of the “Star Wars Dance Off” game. The cheesy dance moves, Slave Leia and Storm Troopers dancing, and the parody of new songs made in the Star Wars lyrics. “Genie in a Bottle” will never sound the same.

With its 320 GB of space, wireless internet connection and breath-taking design, the Xbox

360 Limited Edition Ki-nect Star Wars bundle was worth the waiting, anticipation and honestly the price tag.

For an avid Star Wars/Xbox 360 fan, this is truly the coolest piece of hard-ware any loyal geek can buy.

Star Wars Xbox Bundle brings over PS loyalist

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By Marie SchiavoneThe D20 Girls Project

Sometimes more expen-sive items prove to be bet-ter products, however in some instances this is not the case. Recently this has been an issue for me when purchasing large amounts of make-up to be used for photo shoots and special make-up effects. So when finding a viable set of colors and eye shadows to create my most recent dragon look, I searched several options before finding a nice, afford-able alternative to help create a scaled look on my face and legs that would last throughout a en-tire day of photo shoot and con-vention move-ments.

First instincts take you straight to the mall, to the make-up counter where there is a variable cornu-copia of colors and tex-tures of make-up, from L’Oreal, M.A.C. and even Bare Minerals; the options seem endless, but hope-lessly expensive, even for the smallest kits

The small kiosks in the mall, with the glittering masses of eye shadows colors were just as discon-

certing. While the colors were vibrant, and versatile, the price of three colors for $38 was a bit more ex-pensive than anticipated. Though the color scheme was perfect for the task at hand, and possibly for future events, I could not justify spending so much on something I may not use on a daily basis.

The next stop was Wal-

Mart, and while the array of options was exciting to see, the color options were disappointing. Hard candy provided a few brighter color options at a cheaper price, but once the dual color pencil made its way to testing, the color was not brilliant enough, and fad-ed very quickly. The same results were found at the local Walgreens and CVS locations. More than nec-essary color options were

available through brands such as Wet’N’Wild , and Jane, while staying in a more affordable price range. Oftentimes, it was under $5 for a singular eye shadow or pencil.

Though many other options were available. I chose the $.99 baked eye shadow colors from Sal-ly’s Beauty Store to cre-ate the dragon scale effect

While not my first choice, the different colors and price made them the easy choice for this project.

Ultimately the look was created by three colors of eye shadow - a green, a blue, and a black, and a pair of fishnet stockings. The stockings were placed over the area and the col-ors were gently dabbed onto the skin through the pattern to create the look. It was all sealed in by a

soft spray of hairspray to the skin. Altogether it was a fun look for a small price.

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Special effects make-up doesn’t have to cost a fortune

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By Lily LuuThe D20 Girls Project

Since Marvel Studios in-troduced The Avengers to film in 2003, we’ve been slowly learning about each Avenger and hearing their classic lines. From “Hulk Smash!” to “Puny Mor-tals”, it’s been an amazing nine years and it’s finally come to this: Avengers As-semble! Sadly, those partic-ular phrases were never ac-tually spoken in the movie.

In the skillful hands of Joss Whedon, The Avengers lives up to the impossible bar that geeks everywhere have set. The movie begins, and viewers are taken to space where they find out where Loki, Thor’s adopted brother with daddy issues, wound up after his battle with Thor. Loki meets with this weird hooded looking person only known as “The Other.” They devise a plot to take back the Tesseract and Loki can have his re-venge and take control of Chitauri army.

Ok enough about the plot line, this is about the Aveng-ers themselves. So without further ado, here are some of the movie’s greatest character moments.

Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) – Every line that comes out of this man’s mouth is genius and his tim-ing is perfect. The best mo-ment happens when Tony starts talking about why Loki’s attack happened the

way it does. He calls Loki a diva and someone in need of attention with flashing lights. Then the light bulb hits and he knows where Loki will be staging his attack.. (Come on…think about it) Also, because of this movie, I will never think of shawarma the same.

Captain America (Chris Evans) – The debate still goes on about what hap-pens when the Fantastic Four shows up in Avengers 2, but for now he is Captain America and does a won-derful job. It still makes me giddy every time he throws his shield and I have to say “Shield Slash” every single time in my head.

Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) – Though I was sad that Edward Nor-ton declined to follow up his fantastic performance in The Hulk with another fantastic performance in The Avengers, I must ad-mit that Mark Ruffalo did a wonderful job portraying the brooding genius Bruce Banner. Bravo, Mark! If you have been living under

a rock and have been avoid-ing spoilers just in case you get to see it, I won’t spoil anything big for you, but I will say that the best mo-ment in this entire film is a Hulk-rage of godlike pro-portions

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) – Does being the only “god” in the group have any advantage? Iron Man can fly, Hulk can smash just as well and Captain Amer-ica’s Shield apparently ne-gates Mjölnir. I thought I’d never say it, but Thor has much better lines than Iron Man. Maybe it’s the accent or near Shakespearean way he delivers his lines? The ladies might agree it could just be the big muscles and blue eyes.

Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) – Something about bows and arrows are just sexy. Thank Odin (get it?) that he’s not in a purple leotard and a stupid mask. Instead, he’s in a gorgeous high tech get-up with the coolest set of tech arrows I’ve ever seen in a movie. Seriously, coolest tech ar-rows EVER! He makes

Katniss look like an ama-teur.

Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) – Saving the best for last, the super spy Black Widow may not have the coolest tech, super pow-ers or a super suit, but what she lacks in all of those, she makes up for in intelli-gence, manipulative prow-ess, and combat moves fan-boys only wish they could be at the business end of. My fan girl moment? She was speaking Russian. Comic book and movie ties back together.

Best moment in the mov-ie: The dialogue between genius billionaire playboy and genius scientist with anger management issues. Sexiest genius scene I’ve seen ever.

The Avengers is all about the characters, but without a witty script, some great CG and one tear-shedding moment, this could have been as bad as that travesty X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The Avengers assembled better than my expecta-tions. Lastly, don’t forget to stay until the end. As per usual, clues as to the prem-ise of the next film show during the end credits. To fans of the original comics: you just might see a famil-iar face!

The Avengers is rated PG-13 and is out in the-aters now.

Avengers Assemble on screen for memorable moments

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By Sarah “Hynotiq” TannerThe D20 Girls Project

At the end of April, one area of Chicago was overtaken by an amaz-ingly large crowd as An-ime Central encompassed the Hyatt, the Convention Center and the Double Tree Hotel. The sheer size of the crowds at ACEN was overwhelming to a newcomer to the conven-tion.

Thousands of attendees spread themselves from place to place to attend hundreds of panels and with the convention being spread out between three places, getting around was not too easy on the first day of the convention. However, by the end of day one everyone seemed to be getting the hang of it…including myself.

ACEN featured a list of guests that could make any anime fan foam at the mouth. Vic Mignogna, famous for literally hun-dreds of voices including Edward on Fullmetal Al-chemist; Cassandra Lee Morris, a voice actor best known for her work as the voice of Leo and Luna on Yu-Gi-Oh ; martial arts experts Daniel and Jil-lian Coglan; Brina Palen-cia, voice actor and singer for FUNimation; Asuka and Make, fashion design-ers for Angelic Pretty and

many more. The convention went

on mostly without a hitch, with the exception of one incident involving a fire alarm, which caused a chain reaction of problems for the rest of that day. It was unclear as to if some-one pulled the fire alarm or if there was, in fact, a small fire somewhere. However, everyone in the Hyatt had to be evacuated and the mishap led to delays in panels, and panels being moved to other rooms or being canceled altogether for the rest of the day as well as a late start to that evening’s rave.

With the presence of so many fashion design-ers both as vendors and as special guests, ACEN presented several fash-ion shows. The fashion shows were among the larger events at the con-vention, along with the masquerade and the two raves. The fashion shows showed a unique side of the anime, Japanese and

American Japanese styles. They were very interest-ing and even if the clothes weren’t for you, the shows were interesting if you had never attended a fashion show before.

The raves, as with any rave, were large and very hot. The volume of the music seemed to be on the end of uncomfortably loud, even for a rave on such a large scale. How-ever, all of the DJs did a fabulous job and they played great music, keep-ing the rave going and the people in attendance hop-ping.

As a gamer, I was pleased to see many video game-themed cosplays among the endless sea of anime cosplayers. As I was dressed one day as a character from League of Legends, I was excited to find other people also dressed as characters near and dear to my heart from that game. There were also game cosplays from Mor-tal Combat, Portal 2, Soul Calibur, Katamari, Leg-end of Zelda, Catherine, Team Fortress 2 and many

more. Some oth-er costumes which were popular this year were Homestruck, pedobear, Gir and an array of char-acters from Star Wars.

As with any conven-tion, the bulk of the crowd tended to gravitate to the vendor hall during the daytime hours. The hall offered a wide variety of anime items, manga, costumes and costume accessories, t-shirts and much more. One section of the hall was dedicated to advertising other con-ventions and had tables with information about upcoming conventions in the Midwest from Ohio to Missouri. Another section featured an array of tal-ented artists selling their creations and even taking commissions for person-alized drawings, for the right price.

Anime Central can be overwhelming due to the massive crowds, but it is an amazing convention and well worth making it a regular stop along your convention season route every year.

ACEN delivers great convention, despite massive crowdsFar left: ACEN at-t e n d e e shows off their cos-play as Pe-dobear.Left: Attend-ee dance at the rave.

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By Lily Luu

Lilith Lu will be review-ing the Sailor Moon Manga re-release series as it comes out monthly. Look for it each month exclusively in G.A.M.E.R.S.

Sailor Moon was Amer-ica’s first exposure to shoujo (female marketed material) and it hit us like nothing we’ve seen be-fore. As the manga was hard to come by for me, I never got the chance to read them until now.

Usagi Tsukino is 14 years old and in her sec-ond year of junior high. A self-admitted cry baby and always late to school, a chance meeting with a talking cat named Luna

changes her life. Her mission is to become the guardian of beauty and justice, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.

She goes through bat-tles, similar to those of her battles in the TV show and meets the dashing and handsome Tuxedo Mask

who is always around to save her. Throughout the manga, readers are intro-duced to the rest of the Sailor Scouts; Sailor Mer-cury (Ami Mizuno), Sailor Mars (Rei Hino), Sailor Jupiter (Makoto Kino), and the ominous Sailor V’s presence is all around in video games, posters and news clippings.

Once together, the Sail-or Scouts have a new mis-sion: to the find the Silver Millennium Crystal and to find and protect the Moon Princess as she is the only one that can harness its true power. For first time readers who want to pick up a new series, this is one that changed America’s vision of Japanese manga

and is a must read, even though the art style is a bit outdated. Old fans of the manga will appreciate the new cover art as it has been updated to capture a new audience. Fans of the TV show, that never read the manga, will love the familiar battles, vil-lains and heart-warming scenes. I personally loved seeing Usagi’s first kiss all over again.

Stay tuned for the next review or else in the name of the moon, I will punish you!

Sailor Moon Volume One manga is created by Naoko Takeuchi. Distrbuted and translated by Kodansha Comics. Sailor Moon is rat-ed “T” for teens age 13 and up.

Sailor moon re-release is a must-read

~ Nerd News ~Green Lantern the animated series

coming to DVDHal Jordan and the

Green Lantern Corps embark on their latest intergalactic missions as Warner Home Video (WHV) releases Green Lantern: The Animated Series — Rise of the Red Lanterns (Season 1 Part 1) on DVD. Based on the adventures of the popular DC Comics super hero, Green Lantern: The Ani-mated Series, currently part of Cartoon Network’s DC Nation programming block (Saturdays at 10 a.m. ET/PT), is produced by Warner Bros. Anima-tion and animation legend Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series; DC Universe Animated Origi-nal Movies). The two-disc DVD set featuring the first 13 episodes of the CG-an-imated action series will be available on August 28, 2012 for $19.97 SRP.

‘The Avengers’ dethrones

‘The Dark Knight’Marvel’s “The Aveng-

ers” continues to assemble moviegoers into theaters at an incredible rate. After 20 days in theaters over-seas and 10 days in the-aters domestically, Earth’s Mightiest Movie has shat-tered records to become

the 11th highest-grossing film of all time world-wide, the highest-grossing film of 2012 and the high-est-grossing comic book movie adaptation world-wide, nabbing the throne previously held by “The Dark Knight.”

Cartoonist takes 25 lashes

Iranian cartoonist Mah-moud Shokraye has been sentenced to 25 lashes for a cartoon depicting Ah-mad Lotfi Ashtiani, a local member of parliament, ac-cording to The Guardian. Shokraye was sued by the politician over the cartoon, which implicitly criticized him over political inter-ference in the country’s sports. A court in Markazi province gave the cartoon-ist the unprecedented pun-ishment, according to the report, which was picked up from an Iranian news service.

Reactions from other cartoonists have ranged from leaving the country or self-censoring to avoid a similar fate to doing their own cartoons of Ashtiani in protest.

Heroclix iPad gamecoming in October

HeroClix TabApp, a new game integrating Wiz-Kids miniatures with the iPad, will launch in Octo-ber. The iPad will be used as a digital game board,

with minis placed onto the device recognized by a software developed by WizKids sister company Icarus Studio. Exclusive content and game maps are unlocked based on the miniature selected. A swipe of the tablet will al-low players to move along the virtual board and take part in high-action battles.

The iPad game will be available free through the iTunes app store; minis will be sold through the normal WizKids network.

No licenses were named, but the game will “bring popular characters commonly featured in NECA’s product lines to the game,” according to the announcement.

Green Arrow series picked up by CWThe CW network an-

nounced that it was add-ing five new shows to its primetime lineup in the fall including Arrow, an adaptation of the DC Comics superhero Green Arrow, and Beauty and the Beast, a reboot of the 1980s series starring Kris-tin Kreuk in the Linda Hamilton role.

The CW network is hoping Arrow can come close to the success of Smallville, the long-run-ning DC Comics-based series, which featured Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang. Now Kreuk is star-

ring in another CW series, a reboot of the fantasy-inspired Beauty and the Beast show from the late 1980s that starred Linda Hamilton and Ron Perl-man.

‘Dark Shadows’ Earns $550K At

Midnight ShowsTim Burton’s richly

comic take on the vintage soap opera Dark Shadows took in a modest $550,000 at 1,600 locations at mid-night shows on Thursday. Analysts are predicting a domestic total of between $35 and $40 million for Dark Shadows, which cost $100 million to produce, stars Johnny Depp, and should appeal to female viewers more than The Avengers.

The situation overseas is more difficult to predict. Thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Johnny Depp is huge over-seas, and Dark Shadows will open in every major overseas territory except Japan. The Avengers has already been shown in many territories for several weeks and Dark Shadows will likely win a lot of head-to-head con-frontations, but will it be enough?

everyone. Celebrities, well-known artists, and respected writers filled the guest list.

Williams’ panel was packed. Fans were ex-cited to learn more about the actor, as was attested to by the extensive line as they waited to shake his hand and get his auto-graph. One fan dressed as the Joker said that he’d had his picture taken with three other actors from Batman, and Williams was the whole reason he was there.

I was fortunate to meet Edward James Olmos on Sat-urday, and he was extremely gracious. Olmos arrived ear-ly, chatted with vendors and artists before opening, and met fans, took pictures, and signed autographs all day both days in addition to a Q&A. On Sunday he revealed that he’d been there all weekend with a dislocated shoulder.

Erin Gray of Buck Rog-ers fame was equally charm-ing, discussing the American education system with us as well as her influence on young women as Col. Wilma Deer-ing. She was joined by co-stars Felix Silla (Twiki) and Gil Ge-rard (Buck Rogers).

Other celebrity guests were Jake Lloyd (Anakin Skywalk-er in “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace”) and Adrienne Wilkinson (The Daughter in “Star Wars: the Clone Wars”). Blair Butler of the G4 Network’s “Attack of the Show” and creator of the comic “Heart” was also on hand to greet fans, in addition to the abovementioned Thor-son and Okuda.

Nick Lowe, senior editor for Marvel’s X Men comics, was in attendance, reviewing portfolios of hopeful artists.

He led a panel featuring cur-rent X Men creators entitled “X Men: Xtreme”.

The D20s lost count of how many pictures were taken of us, along with the multitude of other really phenomenal cosplayers. Tasia was thrilled to meet Kevin Dillmore and Dayton Ward, authors in the Star Trek universe.

Saturday afternoon a cos-tume contest, hosted by “The Damsels of Dorkington” was held in the main Atrium. D20 Willa entered with her rendi-tion of the Scarlet Witch. She was defeated by a Captain Jack Sparrow with an excel-lent listing swagger.

Artists’ Alley featured art ranging from Star Wars pinup art to Marvel Zombies. Names like Bruce Jones and Michael Golden leapt out, and capping one aisle was Tim Sale’s table. People lined up with boxes of comics waiting for signatures. He didn’t speak much, but signed comic books like a ma-chine. When one man offered his single comic, he was sur-prised when asked to sign it to someone. The man’s com-ment: “It might have ruined the value of the comic, but I don’t care. It’s MINE.”

Sunday, I saw the con from

an attendee’s vantage point. The crowd was smaller, but still quite robust. Gil Gerard’s comment: “I’ve never seen this many people on a Sunday at any of these things.” Quite a compliment for Kansas City fandom!

We were disappointed that Man of Action Studios, creators of my son’s favor-ite cartoon, Ben Ten, had gone, but were cheered when Ghost Rider co-creator Gary Friedrich gave the kids signed Ghost Rider cards. The Tower of T Shirts, a staple at any con, fascinated my daughter. She gazed in wonder up at the rows of tees I had to drag her out to continue onward.

We stopped in a corner populated by four different Star Wars fan groups. Inter-estingly enough, my son had no interest in taking pictures with Rebels, only the bad guys. Later, when purchas-ing their own $5 lightsabers, he asked if they had any red ones. Something in me won-ders if I should be worried.

Next up was a life-sized TARDIS, and a bevy of Doc-tors of various iterations. A female Fourth Doctor was posing for pictures in front of it with her companion, robot

dog and sonic screw-driver. Unfortunate-ly, the TARDIS wasn’t in working order.

As Planet Comicon wound down and the crowd diminished, the event coordina-tor, Chris, explained departure plans to Gray and Olmos. Ol-mos thanked him for the hospitality and working so hard to make things run so smoothly. Chris’ re-sponse was a smile, a nod, and “Of course. That’s what we do.”

The D20 Girls helped close down and usher out the stragglers, tired but content. A few days later, Grace received an email from Chris: "(Grace); You and your group were amazing help. Thank you so much. I hope we didn't burden you too much with the volunteer duties.We knew there would be a crowd. We did not know there would be THAT crowd. The size of the attendance took us by sur-prise. And you and your mem-bers were unfailingly helpful when we needed assistance."

To quote you, Chris, “Of course. That’s what we do.”

Planet Comicon 2012 was a rousing success. With af-fable guests, talented artists, a lively vendors’ room, and fascinating panels backed by a thoughtful and energetic staff, it will be a tough act to follow next year, but I’m sure Atlas Comics & Collectibles and Planet Promotions will be up to the task.

Where will the MO/KS D20 Girls turn up next? Catch us at Tabletop Games and Hobby in Overland Park, KS on May 20 and at Con-QuesT in Kansas City, MO on Memorial Day weekend!

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