The first Kansas City Comic Con comic book and pop culture convention wrapped Sunday at the Kansas City Convention Center at Bartle Hall. We bid farewell as Doctor Who’s Colin Baker headed to the airport to return home to England and other guests set out across the country after a long and exciting weekend in the Midwest, leaving behind some happy and (exhausted) fans. But first, crowds again lined the aisles Sunday, grabbing last-minute selections of prints from artists, books from writers, and comic books and collectibles from the several dealers on site.
Sunday saw more panels, more autographs and photo ops, and more conversations with creators.
Our vote for the best cosplay of the show? This Kansas City Royals-inspired Iron Man. What better cosplay ambassador to the first Kansas City Comic Con than this superhero?
But it was hard to beat this great costume of a Gnoll from Dungeons & Dragons:
Excellent work!
Our vote for the best new addition to conventions anywhere this year was Jo Kamm’s 3D Photobooth. Unlike the 3D photobooth featured at last year’s World Series, the 3D Photobooth at KCCC printed highly detailed, large figurines. And unlike other 3D printing booths we’ve seen before, Kamm’s software and technology recreated recognizable faces. We’ll feature the process used at the booth in a later article, but our response and those of various passersby watching the imaging in process was simply “Wow!”
Here Kamm renders examples of a digital 3D, 360-degree image of both our Radagast ensemble from Saturday…
… and our Gimli cosplay (also shown above):
Your borg.com editor moderated the “Authors of Young Adult Fantasy Fiction” panel, featuring published authors Elizabeth C. Bunce, Bethany Hagen, and Colleen Boyd:
The panel featured discussions of young adult and fantasy fiction as genres, the writing and editing process, and each author’s works and experiences in publishing.
Sean Astin’s panel was the featured celebrity panel Saturday:
Astin discussed his career and acting background, including his many roles in modern classics including The Lord of the Rings and The Goonies, as well as some lesser known films. He credits his own discipline as an actor to his mother, well-known actress Patty Duke. Astin recounted getting wounded by a large loom during the filming of Middle Earth scenes in New Zealand, requiring him to be rushed off to the hospital via helicopter. He recalled all the stones around him during his filming of key mountain scenes with Gollum and Frodo being incessantly repainted by the crew, none of them actually made of stone. He answered questions from attendees and finished his talk by praising showrunner Matt Driscoll for putting together this new convention.
We met up with Astin again, who brought national press attention to the show this weekend with an image of him and this excellent Sauron from the Springfield Fellowship:
And here is your editor with Astin after the panel:
Here is comic book icon Jim Shooter talking with fans at his booth in Artists Alley:
And more cosplay–from Game of Thrones and Big Hero 6:
Congratulations to Matt Driscoll, Justin Cline, Bryan Fyffe, Bryan Timmins, the helpful Henchmen, William Binderup and our friends at Elite, all the writers, artists, celebrities, and vendors, and everyone else who worked on the show for throwing a great first convention, and for keeping tens of thousands of attendees happy and entertained all weekend.
C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com
