NOLA Comic Con

Some highlights:

Fan Art – This is always what I look forward to on the floor. As an artist, I love to be inspired by all of the creativity and imagination people put into their fan art. I love a good clever juxtaposition, and I tend to gravitate towards those who combine illustration with graphic design. I got some good stuff this year … Goonies, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Avengers posters. I'm actually slowly running out of wall space for this particular habit, but I don't care. I love it!

Cosplay – Seeing all of the costumes is half the fun. It's a way of life for some of these incredibly talented craftspeople.

I had a hard time believing that this guy wasn't actually Spock.

This was my biggest fangirl moment. Star-Lord. I may or may not have stalked him for this picture.

Actual Comics – I didn't spend too much time looking at comics this year, mainly because when I had time on Saturday, it was way too crowded to pay attention. It was a bit hard to browse without getting in someone's way. I'd suggest going on a Friday or a Sunday in the future, to be able to enjoy perusing all the comics.

Drawing/Writing Contest – This was held at Fulton Alley. I had never been there, and I have to say, it's the swankiest bowling alley I have ever seen. I was by myself, so I befriended a pair of "bronies", who in all honesty, I wasn't sure existed. It's always something I heard about in passing and had never given too much thought. Bronies are bros who like My Little Pony. I thought it was a myth. I was wrong. Bronies are real, you guys. They explained to me that in 2010, a newMy Little Pony cartoon came out that was so good, even dudes started liking it. Hey, that's cool.

Anyway, the writing prompt was to create a story about a superhero or a villain's worst date. I won second place by writing about Loki and Cinderella's disastrous blind date at a local Midgardian tavern. Totally weird.

Panels – I've been to a few comic cons, but never made it to any panels until this year. I always thought the good ones would be too hard to get into, and I've never been interested in sitting in a long line for hours to see a celebrity from the back of a room … but it wasn't like that at all. I just walked into most of them.

• Paranormal City, Aaron Sagers, Chris Melancon (Paranormal Society of New Orleans), Cedric Whittaker (Airship Isabella), and Lord Chaz, (Lord Chaz Tours).

These New Orleans experts of all things paranormal, proceeded to freak me out with talk of hauntings and supernatural craziness. I also learned about something I'd never heard of before … apparently New Orleans has sewer people. Weird. But there were two things I came away with, that will always stick with me.

For one, Cedric Whittaker said the coolest thing … "New Orleans is a city built by pirates for pirates, and nothing has changed." I was like … damn. Truth.

And for two, as I mentioned above, Lord Chaz (who has the best haunted tours in the city) is a Buckeye fan. We are everywhere. He also told me a dirty joke about red heads, which I can't repeat, because this site is at most, a PG-13 site.

• New Orleans Ghost Hunters, David & Mark Laville

I absolutely loved these guys, because first and foremost, they said not to believe everything you hear or read. They proceeded to debunk most of the stories surrounding the LaLaurie Mansion, yet still believe there is some crazy shit going on out there. Their explanation? It's all just science that we don't understand yet … as lightening used to be viewed as a supernatural force, our understanding of the unexplained will one day be explained, through advancement in technology. I totally respect that. These guys are the real deal.

• Ian Somerhalder & Paul Wesley, The Vampire Diaries

This was my first panel featuring very famous people. Right off the bat, before they came out on stage, the host asked the crowd to not ask any weird questions, or anything too personal. At first, it was cool. There were a lot of questions like … "If you could be any supernatural creature what would you be?" Ian's answer: "Paul Wesley's hair." Okay, those were cute. But then someone asked what type of cologne they wear so they could spritz it on their bedsheets, and I was like O____o

Awkward.

There were times that I couldn't even watch The Office on TV, because I can't stand awkward and embarrassing moments. This was a whole new level for me. I know that these people are famous, and they live in the spotlight, and kind of have to deal with this sort of thing, as it's what they signed up for … but at the end of the day, they are people. Guh. I could write a whole blog post about the weird shit that was asked throughout the day, but then I'd have to relive it. But having said that, all questions were handled with a certain level of grace that I found to be commendable. In the end, they are actors, and can act their way out of inappropriate questions, like a boss.

You could tell that Ian Somerhalder was excited to be there, as he's from the area, and he was able to talk about his charity for a bit. He said that Louisiana is second to last in education and second in pollution, and that through his foundation, he'd like to help reverse that. Very cool. You go, Ian Somerhalder … you beat big oil and the crumbling education system. If anyone can do it, it will almost certainly be a Civil War-era vampire.

• Brett Dalton, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I dipped out of the The Vampire Diaries panel early to go to this one, becauseAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D. trumps them in my DVR viewing these days. This was probably my favorite panel, as Brett Dalton totally surprised me by being seriously funny, and since most of the people asking weird questions seemed to still be in the Vampire Diaries ballroom, people were able to ask him genuinely interesting things. He talked about his craft, stage acting, stunts, all about his character, and how his motivations are always turning around.

The only time I felt a little sorry for him, was when a girl dressed as Loki asked him if Loki was ever going to end up on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. … and then a girl dressed up as the Black Widow asked him if any of the Avengers were going to show up. It seemed as though Brett Dalton was the guy they used to get all their Marvel fangirling out. It was their way of pretending that Tom Hiddleston or Jeremy Renner were there. Hey, I can understand that.

• Tom Felton, Harry Potter

Not at all like Draco Malfoy. He seemed like a seriously cool guy. I was kind of disappointed that he wasn't a little bit evil.

• Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy – This was the only panel on Saturday that didn't have any cringe-worthy moments for me, probably because Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn are not celebrities who are necessarily of the "dreamy" variety. Although Gunn did get a lot of questions about his involvement on Gilmore Girls, but those seemed to be actual legitimate questions.

• Evan Peters, American Horror Story, X-Men: Days of Future Past

The only one that was tough to get a seat for, was the Evan Peters panel. I had no idea this guy had such a following, as there were people fighting for a spot to sit down. Standing room only.

But this is basically how his panel went:

Question: I love you!

Question: I love you, so much!

Question: When is the X-Men: Days of Future Past extended version coming out on DVD?

Question: Oh my God, I love you!

Question: Do you love Emma Roberts more than you love being here?

Question: OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU!

And here is me:

I left early.

The panel I felt bad about missing was Karl Urban's … the whole thing actually reminded me of music festivals, where you're not going to be able to make every show you want to see, as a lot of them overlap. You always end up having to make a very painful decision.

Another highlight for me, and the last thing I'll mention, was The Haunted Mortuary … they had a very convincing booth filled with very life-like corpses, and some actual zombies who were running around and scaring people, mainly kids. I loved it.

Can't wait for next year!