Yesterday (Saturday the 28th), my nephew and I drove down to Orlando for MegaCon 2016! This year it was bigger and "better". I put the quotes there because, to be honest, I feel it's getting too big. We had a great time, but it was sooooo crowded! That said, this year it was 4 days of comic, cosplay, anime, etc...
So, we get herded in to get our tickets. Above is a pic of the ticket line... the one for prepaid tickets. It took half an hour in the line, but in all fairness, the line kept moving. I've been in worse lines in previous years.
So, we get in, and start heading towards our first stop: Artist Alley! First up, we see my friend Cory Laub, and stop to visit with him. After that, we skip over one aisle and see Rich Bernatovech and Jamie Fay. As always, it was a pleasure to see them. From there, we made our way through the aisles, checking out the art, until we found Fernando Ruiz and Dan Parent! I've known both of them online for years and years, and of course from their work for Archie Comics. I met Dan a few years ago up in Montreal, and then at previous MegaCons. This was Fernando's first MegaCon, and I'm glad I finally got to meet him in person. Fernando was one of the very first artist I got commissioned art from years, and years ago. The first piece he did for me was a Reggie piece, and this year I had prepaid a Reggie piece from him and got to pick it up at the show! Amazing work! By the way, check out their awesome new comic Die Kitty Die! We also ran into Terry Huddleston and visited with him briefly. I know a lot of these gentlemen from online, and Rich and I go back to our (pre-internet) days in the TNT Apa (amateur press association). This makes Artist Alley into the social hour for me, which my nephew is very patient with!
This year, Artist Alley had at least twice the amount of artists. I picked up some indie comics there, and met a few new artists.
We had a photo op with Carlos Valdes, who plays Cisco on Flash. We made it there ahead of time, and while I thought they were disorganized on getting the line together for the event, they made up for it by Getting It Done! Once the time started for the photos, we were 8 minutes from being in line to picking up our photos. Of course, it's a quick get in, take the photo, get out. We did not get our photos signed later on. We had seen the crowds and lines in the celebrity section, and when we were done with the sales floor, we were done!
The sales floor: Oy vey! Crowded! It was difficult to look at things because we'd head for something, and someone would cut us off. Some deals had made little caves out of their booths, and that makes it difficult for more than one person to look at a time. We still managed to pick up some comics and graphic novels, but not many. To be honest, I saw very few comic dealers. I mostly saw merchandise of some sort of another. I did pick up the series Con Man on dvd! Hilarious!
I took a few photos of cosplayers. Not as many as I'd like because I don't like to block the flow of traffic on the sales floor. And then, when we're done... we were tired and mainly wanted to head for the car. There were a lot of great costumes this year!
In all, we had a great time at MegaCon! We always do! And we enjoyed the Koy Wan Chinese Buffet in the Altamonte Springs area afterwards! Yummy! I do miss the days when it was a big convention, but not this big. Still, I think it's great that we have such a large con in Florida! We only drive down for a day, and the sales floor is our objective. One of these days I need to stay overnight to hit some of the other events. There is a lot to do and see at MegaCon!
Now, it's time to read some of those comics I got...
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