More on ComicCon

The boys even got some role-playing in at ComicCon, with a Wizards of the Coast booth where they had gaming tables set up to teach the basic Dungeons & Dragons game and Magic the Gathering card games. They've been playing D&D with Mike for a while now, so they thoroughly enjoyed that, and I have to say that despite all of us being a bit confused with Magic, we dug it. We got sample decks and will be trying to play. The guy running the game was really thorough and nice in explaining the game. He also told me that Cutie Pie is actually at a great age to start learning the game, which really surprised me; I guess I never thought of a CCD as a kids' kind of thing. But it incorporates reasoning, planning and math skills; not bad, when you think of it.

Heartbreaker and I also found a great booth, Lerner Publishing, where they publish Choose Your Own Adventure-type graphic novels. Heartbreaker loved it, and as I checked out the books and information they had there, so did I. The rep at the booth was really personable, too, which always helps. We ended up completing a scavenger hunt that took us to a few more cool publishers' booths, and he got a free book out of the deal. And I bought him one of the graphic novels.

We've been fans of the Sci Fi Channel show, Who Wants to be a Superhero? for the two seasons it's run so far (I've heard that Sci Fi only contracted to do two seasons of the show - come ON, we need a third season!). The first season runner up, Fat Momma, was always Heartbreaker's fave to win. And she was at ComicCon! We saw her table as we were on the way out, so we made sure to stop over and say hello.

She is the nicest person! She signed her comics, gave Cutie Pie and Heartbreaker each an autographed postcard, and took a picture with them. The boys loved it and I thought she was really great.


One of the main reasons for going to ComicCon this year was so Heartbreaker could meet Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books - I've blogged about them here (and I just finished the third book, The Last Straw) and about how Heartbreaker's such a huge fan. We got on a surprisingly quick line, and he got to meet Mr. Kinney. Not much time for chat or even pictures, which explains why the line moved so quickly, but Mr. Kinney did notice that Heartbreaker's name was the same as his own son's, so Heartbreaker got a kick out of that. And now he has an autographed first edition of his own!

Cutie Pie and I got to sit in on another main reason for attending the Con this year - we got to hear Mo Willems, who writes the Elephant and Piggy, Knuffle Bunny, and my particular favorites, the Pigeon books. Aside from the genius who tried to get him to sign autographs in the middle of his presentation, it was a great time. He read Elephant and Piggy's Are You Ready to Play Outside?, Leonardo the Terrible Monster, and, to my joy, Pigeon Wants a Puppy. I told Mike that I'll never be able to live up to that kind of storytime; the guy is great.



I told you there was a Sleestack. I spent the latter part of the evening trying to call up videos on YouTube and illustrate to the kids how cool the Sleestacks are. Kids today. Harumph.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. The kids got lots of swag and Mike and I got to enjoy being immersed in geek culture again. And ate a lot of carb-filled crap. Convention food at its finest.

ComicCon is Teh Awesome

Where to begin? ComicCon was simply awesome this year. It's the first year I've gone to a Comic Con at Javits since Reed Exhibitions, the company that organizes BookExpo, took it over, and man - they really tidied up the house.

I didn't go on Saturday, where a lot of events were happening, but I went on Sunday - Kids' Day - and the kids' admission was FREE! There were a lot of kids' events set up, so it was a great day for the kids.

Oddly enough, my pictures have posted in the reverse order I'd wanted. Let's review.

Cutie Pie takes lessons in bad-assery from the best. And will one day go on to say, "When I left you, I was but the learner, now I am the master."

The order of the day was dress-up, and it was quite awesome to see people walking around in various stages of Jedi and stormtrooper dress. We also saw a Cobra Commander from G.I. Joe, several adorable little Boba Fetts, and a Mayor from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Cutie Pie pretty much took his picture with every stormtrooper he could get near; Heartbreaker, who's a 'tween now and eschews such childish foolishness, politely declined. Even when I embraced a Sleestack (more on that later).

Neither of the boys were too cool, however, for lightsaber lessons. It was a moment that would make any mother worth her geek label proud. The New York Jedi were kind enough to conduct lessons for the kids all day long, and were really wonderful in working with them.

No matter what new 'thing' Cutie Pie finds interest in, he always comes back to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He loves these guys. So when we saw all four of them walking around the convention floor, we made sure to get Cutie Pie in there. Look at that face. That's just sheer joy.

Jesus Christ, that's a lot of people.

More in the next post.