Vegas Comic Con

Hi, guys! I was recently approached by vegas.com to do a post to help them promote the Vegas Comic Con, based on a couple of my older posts on my trips to World Fantasy Con and Dragon Con. I've actually never been to Comic Con, though it's on my bucket list for sure. I go to cons as a writer, as I have no gaming experience whatsoever other than what my teenager tells me (he's big into it). I'm also a huge geek, so anything Dr. Who/Buffy/Star Wars/etc. is going to pique my interest.

World Fantasy Con is a purely literary con, and the year I went Neil Gaiman was the keynote and did a ton of different things. There are only like 800 people at WFC, so I literally got to be in the same bar getting drinks as Neil. Charlaine Harris was also there. It was AMAZING. At Dragon Con, I got to meet lots of other famous fantasy authors like Laurell K. Hamilton, Jim Butcher, and Chuck Wendig. They were both amazing cons, but quite different.

So, in no particular order whatsoever, here are a few random things I've picked up from cons:

 Cosplay - Go big or don't do it. 

I contemplated briefly wearing something for Dragon Con, and I'm SO glad I didn't. Cosplay people are serious. As in, they spend mega bucks on their costumes. I don't think there's any half-assing it, unless you want to get laughed at. Plus, you will be expected to pose with people for pics constantly, and the better cosplayers really get into their role and act the part of their character. I may be a bit too shy to do that myself...

Be prepared for up close and personal

Cons, especially at night, are sometimes standing room only. Dragon Con, based in Atlanta, has like 80,000 attendees. Basically, a huge portion of downtown Atlanta shuts down and caters to this event. It spans like six hotels, and that's just the primary hotels. When trying to get anywhere inside, and sometimes outside on the streets, you will have to get real friendly with others.

Download the app and plan ahead

At any given time at a big con, there are tons of different things going on at once. Download the app for the con and plan ahead of time what you care about most. And don't forget to plan for horrendous lines and extra time for all the bodies you have to travel through to get from one place to another. It's so worth it!

So...

If you're headed to the Vegas Comic Con, you can check out the vegas.com travel page (no, not getting paid for the plug, just thought this would be a fun post). Alas, I will not be going, but now I'm having con fever big time... to anyone who is going, have a blast!