Sac-Con: March 3, 2013

As much as I enjoy attending the larger comic conventions, the smaller conventions are head and shoulders more enjoyable. They have a more intimate, family feel, less hostile crowds and you can sit back and enjoy interactions between people, which is something you rarely get at a major convention (SDCC, NYCC). It’s nice to actually talk to people and have a pleasant, unrushed conversation instead of being herded through a turnstile like cattle to keep the lines moving.

The Sac-Con, at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in Sacramento features a nice blend of comics, anime, toys, TCG’s, video games and art, something that the major shows tend to fall a bit short on. This show occurs every 3-4 months and features a wide variety of guests in the world of animation and movies and art. In addition, they have free Yugioh and Magic the Gathering tournaments, so there’s a little something for everyone at this show. Furthermore, there’s always a healthy amount of cosplay featured, and they even hold a small Masquerade contest towards the end of the show for the exhibitionist enthusiasts.

This show was one of the most crowded ever. The parking lot was completely full for the first time ever.

Before going in, there were cars all decked out with anime themes and characters.

Fox News even stopped by to see what the hub-bub was about.

The lines to get in were insane!

The way to remedy this is to pre-register. Pre-registering is $2 cheaper than paying at the door and you get to forgo the painstaking process of waiting in line, which as I’ve learned, can cost you some good deals if you’re a toy hunter.

I arrived right at opening and this was MY line to get in.

I was in and registered in less than 5 minutes and didn’t even have my print-out. The first several hundred or so received a free Adventure Time poster along with a nifty program booklet.

The first thing I usually do is wander around the sales floor to spot any early deals on action figures. It’s also good to catch up with a few of the vendors that I normally see at these shows. Sometimes, I spend too much time shooting the breeze with people and miss out on things, but it's all in fun. Unfortunately for me, there wasn’t much that interested me at this show as far as action figures. No biggie! They have free TCG tournaments in the stage area, which is a huge plus.

The Sac-Con features a vintage Video Gaming room with all the systems from years past along with cartridges for sale.

They even had an Xbox 360 Street Fighter vs. tournament that received a good deal of attention.

These shows feature vendors that sell all sorts of… well, things to tickle your fancy.

You gotta love the Bootleg video guy. Honestly, I don’t know how he gets away with selling this stuff. “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying,” I suppose.

The Art exhibit room had some pretty cool drawings and paintings.

Image Comics’ Jimmie Robinson was in attendance, and he happily signed a copy of Bomb Queen for me. Jimmie is a real cool cat.

I got to chat with him for a spell and on top of signing my books…

We discussed WonderCon, SDCC, Image comics and the proposal of Oakland having another ImageCon. Unfortunately, he said there were no plans to have another. He went on to say the only reason they had last year’s show was because it was Image’s 20th Anniversary. On the positive front, he will be in attendance at SDCC 2013.

Ron Lim was in the house.

DC Douglas was signing.

From Adventure Time, John DiMaggio was in attendance and garnering quite the crowd.

For the majority of the day, the sales floor was packed with people.

People are starting to show up to these events in record numbers, and comic conventions are starting to find their niche in the fabric of American pop culture. With the comic culture and comics in general comes a negative stereotype of fanboys not practicing good hygiene. Unfortunately, this stigma is well-deserved as there were certain areas that reeked of ass and armpits throughout the center.

I’m pretty sure some of these guys don’t understand why they can’t get women, but someone is going to have to eventually bite the bullet and tell these guys to wash their asses. NOBODY likes a sloppy, funky guy, and with comic geeks being as tall and stout as ever, that’s just more stink to go around… and I’m sure these guys know they smell like compost, but don’t wash due to sheer laziness. Instead of running a $400 Yugioh Mermill deck, how about running some hot, soapy water and cleaning your stinky ass? A shower a day will keep the flies away. Just watch this video:

There should be a stench detector when you walk into the sales floor of a comic convention. If it goes off, they should take you to the back and hose your funky ass down like the hoses in Birmingham, Alabama. Thereafter, they should confiscate any money you have and force you to buy deodorant and Tic Tacs. There is NO excuse to stink, especially if you’re in a comic convention. My rant for the blog. J

One incident that was humorous and odd was a guy approaching me to ask if I like Gentlemen’s clubs. WTF? I stood there kind of bewildered because I was wondering if my expression was saying, “I want strippers.” Well, this guy was the manager of Club Déjà Vu in Sacramento and he told me that they were having a cosplay contest at the end of the month, and anyone that comes to the club in costume gets in for free. To further that, all the strippers will be dressed up in costume on this night. The manager asked if I would like to go and before I could answer, he handed me 3 free passes to the club. LOL! You can’t make this stuff up!

But wait, there’s more! A stripper that works at the club walked up, told me the same thing AND gave me another free pass! I asked if I could take her photo (because she was way cute) and as evidence of what just transpired. She asked if I wanted to be in it with her, but I politely declined. Instead, Spidey happened to be walking by, so he took the photo with the hottie. Spidey likes strippers!

Now, I have 4 free admission passes to Club Déjà vu in case I want to get my freak on, smell like stripper lotion and cigarettes and have some girl’s sour breath in my face.

Per usual, there were a good deal of cosplayers at this show, and I always like to wrap these blogs up with the cosplayers.

This cutie seemed to have a bit of an attitude. I couldn’t tell if she was genuinely trying to be in character, or just being rude. If you don't want the attention, don't dress up, folks!

Juggling Mario!

Finally, a Green Lantern!

You can’t beat a Star Wars dress!

The more I attend these shows, the more I sometimes feel like a dirty old man. There were some cosplayers that looked really good in skimpy costumes, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask for their photos because they could have been a smidge young, and I felt bad. For example, there was a girl that could have been between the ages of 16 to 21, but I didn’t want to risk the Pedobear moment. She was wearing a dark pink wig and a mini skirt with striped stockings. This girl had a body to die for. Couple that with an angelic face, fair skin and those poofy lips... Anyway, that quite possibly could be a tell-tale sign that I’m getting too old for this stuff.

Even though I didn’t buy much from this show, I still managed to spot a few good deals.

…and all of this for under $20. The key is to negotiate because these people detest the idea of packing their stuff up and taking it back home. These 3 items would have been $30+ if I paid their asking prices.

Big ups to my boy Djuan, a friend from way back for lunch, and providing some of the coverage photos for this show. It was cool chatting and catching up after several years. Sucks about WonderCon, but there's always Big Wow! and the San Jose Super Toy show on 3/9-10/2013.

I had a nice drive home, had a chance to reflect on the event (while contemplating about those free strip club passes) and enjoy a pretty sunset.