Santa Fe Comic Con 2014
Irradiated by Stingray
Santa Fe took a look around and noticed that every two-bit one-horse town in the nation was holding comic conventions and was raking in mad bank from a bunch of nerds with disposable income, and decided to hop on the bandwagon. The inaugural SF Comic Con was held at the Buffalo Thunder casino….in Pojoque, which is about 15 minutes away from Nerd Ranch, so you’re damn skippy we went. It was pretty small, which was to be expected for a first run in a fairly low-density part of the state/nation, but it was a lot of fun. There were a few teething issues that’ll likely be resolved for next year, but the crowd had a great energy, and everybody was incredibly friendly. And that’s coming from someone who hates crowds. I even got into the spirit of things.
I’ve got a hard time being objective about it since I know where every tiny flaw and compromise is, but overall I’m fairly pleased with how it turned out. Didn’t win anything, but didn’t expect to either. And the costumes that won, I didn’t lose, I got beat fair and square.
The costume was definitely a hit with the crowd; I think easily a couple hundred people asked to take my picture (and if anybody sees any across the web, or happens to have been one of the people there who took one, throw the link in comments!). I terrified a couple of toddlers (Note: HUGE SUCCESS), and got a ton of compliments ranging from the calm to the wildly enthusiastic (one, explaining to a friend: “This badass is the fucker WHO RIPS THE SKIN OFF PEOPLE!”) LabRat is convinced I was a close 2nd on the popular vote contest.
I think I’m going to make a few minor tweaks based on how yesterday went and probably trot it back out for the bigger Albuquerque con in January.
October 27th, 2014 at 11:39 pm
That is a sweet costume. I’ve stayed at the Buffalo Thunder Casino, tagging along with my husband who was going to a business conference…As I recall, it’s pretty isolated. But there are upsides to that, like that you can stay up late doing con stuff and partying, instead of trying to figure out how to get back to your hotel room that’s 15 miles away…
October 28th, 2014 at 1:22 am
Awesome costume, but to be fair that isn’t all that hard.
After I got too old to go trick or treating I used to don a very basic costume that covered me head to toe and sit dead still at the gate to our chain link fence, like one of those dummy decorations. I’d let the trick-or-treaters go past and get their candy, and then scare the shit out of them while they were on their way out and had let their guard down. It was surprisingly effective. It always cracked me up when they’d walk by me on their way in and say things like “it looks so real!” Those were the ones that always jumped highest.
Toddlers and smaller kids seemed to have a sixth sense that something wasn’t right and often refused to even go through the gate, though. They’d start crying before they even got near me. I kind of felt bad and would drop my act for them.
October 28th, 2014 at 11:40 am
“The costume was definitely a hit with the crowd”
“What’d Stingray dress up as?”
“An extrovert.”
Looks cool!
October 31st, 2014 at 7:33 am
Ah, Halloween, the good ole days. I used to dress up in a scary costume (black robe and hood, chainmail coif on backwards so my face was just a gray blank). Open the door slowly, and watch the reactions.
That was when parents went around with their kids in the dark. When I still lived in the US (been 20 years now, geez), Halloween was going downhill fast. Trick-or-treating mostly while it was still light out, and not very many kids either.
October 31st, 2014 at 1:56 pm
“I terrified a couple of toddlers (Note: HUGE SUCCESS)”
Aw, I think you -like- kids! So, when’s the Nerdling due?
November 2nd, 2014 at 10:16 am
Well done sir!