New location. Larger building. Improved line up.
Last Saturday I attended the Dallas ComicCon. While it was much further to drive than the old location, the lineup was well worth it.
Since I got there about 10AM I was still able to park for free at the Irving Convention Center. I arrived and parked in the back and on the top of the garage and surprisingly had an elevator not 50 feet from my car.
I appreciated the show putting out roadside signs to help with the navigation. I also liked that they had John Romita Jr signing before the doors open. 
Who can complain about a TARDIS waiting for its Master with Klaxon bell ringing? The TARDIS was almost magically. Young and old wanted a photo of it and with it. It didn’t matter if you were in a Starfleet or Imperial costume, you wanted to see and take a picture of the TARDIS.
With the larger venue came more cosplay, more vendors, more fans, and more talent.
For the most part the lines for the big names (Stan Lee, Leonard Nimoy, Thomas, Jane) were organized and flowed fairly quickly.
Some animals are more equal to others - Animal Farm. Again, I appreciate that the volunteers guarding the lines are looking at badges and taking the time to filter you into your proper location. This convention does the best job of honoring the value of VIP or Priority badges.
I met some friends and made some new acquaintances. Did you know that Deep Ellum runs an internet version of cable access shows? I bumped into Wolfman of Terror Radio. Got to http://deepellumonair.com and then look through the various shows – you only really need to watch Terror Radio. He and his girlfriend were fun to talk to and while we are a generation apart in age I felt we communicated well. They put up with my incessant questions (Are you married? Set a date? Does mom and dad like him? How long have you been dating, etc, etc, etc) with more patience than I deserved.
They also put up with my comic book artist ignorance. We were all in the line for Amanda Conner and they asked what I was getting signed. I politely showed them the copy of the The Pro I had. They hadn’t heard of it so I flipped through it for them and they enjoyed what they saw. They asked how I found out about it and I had to admit I was getting the autograph for a friend. And then the questions started about what I read. I had to plead the 5th as I don’t read many comics or graphic novels. And they were okay with that.
While standing in line for Nimoy I had an interesting conversation about Tweeter. The lady I was waiting with said penultimate. I love that word. So British and arcane and powerful. The first thing I thought was it’s too long for Tweeter. It eats up 11 characters of your 140. That’s not good. Then I figured no one would ever say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious on tweeter. That’s a 1/3 of your tweet. We then wondered what other words Tweeter would kill off in its draconian limit of characters.
While I shouldn’t be surprised how much I enjoyed this convention I am. I still have the silly notion that local conventions are small and amateurish. Dallas ComicCon has really proved otherwise.
AH
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