Lexington Comic & Toy Con: This Was A Triumph

I attended a couple of conventions last year which were really well attended, but at Lexington Comic & Toy Convention I got to experience things from the other side: I had my very own booth. For those of you who were there, you know how absolutely busy things were all day long, but that craziness proved to be great success for all those involved. The attendees totaled over 4000! This is a phenomenal turnout considering that this was the first year of the convention and LCTC was only held for one day, from 10 - 5. With only 250 VIP tickets sold, that is an amazing figure. I was so impressed by the costumes that people were wearing. They ran the spectrum of Marvel and DC, Soviet Russian, and many, many Mandalorians!

The day was full of events for the con-goers like a Q & A panel with the Power Rangers as well as panels with Mike Grell and Mark Ryan, an MMA demonstration from Jason David Frank, and the costume contest. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend any of those, but I did get to talk to so many wonderful people at the KGG table. I want to personally thank everyone for stopping by and saying hello. I hope everyone enjoys the GEEKSOAP, shot glasses, t-shirts, and mugs. I really appreciate the interest so hopefully there will be something just as awesome!

Though I didn't get to talk to many celebrities and comic creators that were there, I did get the opportunity to meet both Neil Kaplan and Mark Ryan. These two voice-over actors have done amazing work and I was so honored to get to talk to them both. Mr. Ryan and I agreed that we thought that the turnout for the convention had been amazing for the Lexington area. Through some research, I saw that he was in First Knight, which is one of my favorite movies. So really, meeting him was like of 1 degree of separation with Richard Gere. :-D Oh, and of course, he is the voice of Bumblebee from Transformers and that's pretty awesome too!

Mr. Kaplan has been involved with some fantastic projects such as Star Wars the Old Republic and Starcraft 2. He mentioned that he'd been talking with the folks at Blizzard again, so maybe we'll get to hear him in Mists of Pandaria. I wonder if he can do an Asian accent? I did find out that Mr. Kaplan has been working on a comic book called I, of the Wolf, in which he creates a re-envisioning of the Wolf/Man legend. Troy and Will from Completely Comics and I got to talk to him for a few minutes about the comic book and I must say that I'm really excited about this series. I, of the Wolf looks at the legend of the Wolfman in a new way by looking at how these werewolves really come to be. There are plenty of twists in the series as well, so I really look forward to reading it!

Speaking of Will and Troy, I have to thank them for stopping by the booth! It was so much fun to see them again and hang out with them for a little while. Check out their convention wrap-up blog post and the latest episode of the Completely Comic podcast! They have been so supportive of me in the last few months and I am thankful to call them friends. Huge thanks and a shout out goes to the amazing folks of Beaucoup Pop and the amazing Jenny Stead who were my table neighbors. Thanks for helping me through my first convention experience!

He was so excited to meet me!

There are so many people that I got to meet at LCTC who have been so supportive of the blog via the internet and it's so great to have finally put a face with the name/internet personality. And frankly, things are still kind of a blur because the day went by so quickly that I'm so sorry if I didn't mention you here! I finally met the guys from Comic Book Jerk, who were hilarious! I got to talk to Eric Bannister who is the organizer Derby City Comic Con, that I attended last year, and which just happened to be my first convention ever! I also finally met Daniel Frazier, the creator of Nightclaw and Prowler, who I got to hear about on Completely Comics last year. Eric and Dan were awesome guys and I look forward to talking to them again at DCCC this summer, if not before.

Huge thanks go out to Lesley Karpiuk of The Pink Toque who donated her fantastic Batman GEEKSOAP for me to give away to you wonderful people. She is without a doubt one of the nicest people that I have ever met and has been such a friend to me the last three years that I've been around the geek scene on Twitter. Thank you also to Jason Sizemore of Apex Publications who donated the shot glasses and mugs that went like hotcakes! And of course, thanks to Wyn Morris of the Morris Bookshop who provided the t-shirts, bookmarks, and bumper stickers. People love your store, Wyn! Also, thanks to Troy who dropped off the comic books courtesy of Completely Comics as well as Justice League buttons. I put one on my exhibitor lanyard!

So, this is my wrap-up of Lexington Comic and Toy Convention. It was an amazing experience and I can't wait to do it again next year. I do not have a booth at any more conventions in 2012 planned as of right now, but I will be attending quite a few all over Kentucky and the tri-state area. Hopefully, if I'm at a con in your town, we can say hello!

Thank you all for your support and I look forward to seeing you again really soon!