Stan Lee’s ComiKaze 2012 wrap up

I should mention here that this is only ComiKaze’s second year. I know they said they intended to be somewhere between New York and San Diego in terms of attendance. From what I hear, that didn’t happen. Since this was only their second year, they had a few kerfuffles. Because LA has never had a con like this before, apparently none of the attendees knew con standard procedure. I’ve heard stories that when people showed up, and had to wait in line to get in after prebuying tickets, they just left, since prices were so low. I’ve also heard stories of people waiting between 3-4 hours just to get in. This is apparently an LA cultural thing that everyone got so pissed off at having to wait. That shit is standard at any con I’ve ever been to. Hell, at Otakon it is a big event waiting in line for hours on Thursday for ‘LineCon’. Apparently attendees thought it would be like a movie or something and they could just walk in after showing right at 10 when the doors opened. I don’t really know why cons have such a problem with this, but none has ever done it right where there is no line, no issues, and a minimum of waiting. I still don’t know why badges can’t just be mailed for all conventions like PAX and NYCC, and then have a QR code backup if you don’t get it in time. It seems that would be easy, but I’ve heard many cons complain people will counterfeit badges if they get mailed before hand. It can’t really be that large a concern. ComiKaze severely underestimated how much they could handle and were overwhelmed on Saturday. They apparently got help on Sunday from the Convention Center staff, and things ran much smoother after that.

One thing they did differently that I’ve never seen before was they put the main stage right in the middle of the show floor, that way for the major events you didn’t have to walk all over the place or leave the room. However, that meant there were no chairs. It’s an interesting approach to a common con problem with panel access.

Our day started Saturday with a Velociraptor in a Jurassic Park power wheel driving past our booth. She was being chased by a Jurassic Park Ranger, but I couldn’t manage to get them both together. Those things go surprising fast on a full charge. Also early in the morning, Felicia Day stopped by the booth next to us for the California BrownCoats to hang out and sign some stuff. Apparently her handler was none too happy I was taking her picture, as she gave me quite the stink eye.

There was a lot of really good cosplay. I saw a bunch of things I’d never seen before, like a guy as Groo from Despicable Me, and a Stan Lee, though I suppose he could also be the poster for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Scruffy from Futurama, complete with a copy of Zero G Juggs. There was also a crazy dude on stilts, I believe from Hellraiser, and the evil guy from the Fifth Element.

No con is complete without it’s share of hot lady cosplayers, and ComiKaze had plenty. Every con has to have at least one Tifa, and I managed to find a really good one. I also found a group of Cobra’s finest, that had a really good Baronness, even if her boobs were all plastic costume. I could never find Jessica Nigiri’s booth, but fortunately she found ours, and she was wearing a pink ranger dress to boot! I never did get a chance to take a picture of Hannah Minx, but after she raced past our booth, I can see why she’s so popular. Either she’s lost some weight since a lot of the videos of her I’ve seen, or her corset was incredibly tight, or both. Either way, the net effect is her boobs looked huge on her tiny body. I also saw a fantastic Jessica Rabbit, who I assume is also somewhat famous, as she was being hurried along by handlers, but I didn’t immediately recognize her. I also ran into a well done Lady Death, complete with body paint, and a Tinkerbell.

There was also a lot of great retro 80’s/90’s cosplay. I saw a Doc Brown and a separate Marty McFly, complete with the jacket, shoes, hat, inside out pockets, and a copy of Grey’s Sports Almanac. There was an April O’Neil, and a Knight Who Says “Ni”, complete with fish. There was a vendor who did a really awesome Pee Wee Herman, and an old school cartoon Cyclops, complete with all the pouches. I also saw a nice Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, and for some reason a guy from Devo with a Dracula muppet with an Arkham Asylum Harley Quinn.

There was also a TON of people from Adventure Time, I must have seen like a hundred Finns. The only group I photographed was the one below. I don’t know how they got their skin to be that color, but whatever it was, it came out fantastically. There was also a group of dudes there that build full size RC astromech droids, and was driving around like three different R2 units. In addition to those, they also had this adorable Wall-e they drove around that stopped traffic everywhere he went.

That’s all the cosplay pictures I have. I really only left the booth to watch two things, and I have video of them both. I went to go watch the “Nerf War Turf War”, run by Max Landis, who I had no idea who he was at the time. It turns out he’s Jonathan Landis’ son, and the screenwriter for the movie Chronicle. He was a pretty awesome dude, minus cursing around a bunch of kids. I’ll admit, I might have gotten more than a little carried away watching people shoot each other with Nerf guns, which is why the video is so shaky, but it was pretty exciting to watch. That little Flash kid was just adorable. Also, I didn’t see much of it, but those Quidditch people take their shit seriously, and were all like real buff athletes, and it looked incredibly difficult to play.

The other thing I left the booth for was the Metal Aqua Coast To Coast Panel, featuring C Martin Croker (voice of Zorak & Moltar), Dana Snyder (voice of Master Shake & Granny Cuyler), and Jon Schnepp (producer on Metalocaypse), which was hosted by Adrianne Curry. I only really know her from The Surreal Life and as Mrs. Peter Brady and from being too hot a cosplayer she’s been kicked out of a few cons, but she was really awesome. I’ll save you a writeup, as I have the whole Q&A portion below, but it was basically Dana Snyder belittling people in the Master Shake voice for a hour, and it was hilarious.

Final Thoughts? We’ll, I had a ton of fun there. Besides Jess Nigiri, I also ran into one of my new favorite people, Black Nerd Comedy, who was super nice, and Seth Green, who was just there as an attendee, so he wasn’t taking pictures, but he too was nice (and short). I didn’t really buy a bunch of stuff, mostly because I would have to fly it home, and frankly, I’ve been doing so many of these cons they all blur together and there isn’t much new stuff at any given one that I haven’t seen. We did get to meet the guys behind Cyanide and Happiness, who drew us a custom comic, and after they left, we took their table cover that they had been drawing on all weekend. There were the standard con complaints. I hear a bunch of people were upset Todd McFarlane was only there for one day, and only signed briefly, but he’s Todd McFarlane, what do you expect? People were upset with the waits, and that everything wasn’t organized well. They were upset with panel time and place changes, and were expecting like a comic section, and an anime section, but I think that’s mostly because they had never had their own con in LA, so they had no real basis for expectations and were being unreasonable. Frankly, for being a second year con on par with Wizard World, it was run pretty much the same, but you can tell these people actually cared and were trying their best, unlike Wizard who is only about the allmighty dollar. Next year the con is extending to 3 days, which should allow all the hiccups to be worked out on a less crowded day. Next year, now that everyone involved is a bit more experienced, it should go more smoothly. One thing that would really help is more social media integration, and if they used one of those program apps like Guidebook to keep people more informed. Also they should spread out the net a little wider, it was mostly focused on Horror and Comics, because that’s what the people running the show like, but there was next to no anime and very little video games besides the Activision booth. I think if they take the time to really mold the audience’s expectations, ComiKaze can really grow to challenge WizardWorld and ComicCon, especially with Stan Lee’s name attached. For a second year con, I don’t think it could have gone any better. If you’re on the west coast, and can’t get into San Diego, I’d highly recommend going next year, it can only get better. We’ll see you there!

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JohnScott is the proud owner of a life size replica Captain Kirk Chair. He is a hoarder of Comic Books, Transformers, and Star Trek action figures. He attended Space Camp as an adult. He has taken vacations to the closing of the Star Trek Experience and the final night Shuttle launch. He has been known to yell at his television when the kids can't put together the damn statue in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. When not writing for InsufficientScotty, he is a Software Engineer for a major healthcare communications company. You can Email or follow on Twitter @NotEnoughScotty or Facebook