This weekend's comic con is back with comics, games, collectibles, contests, panels, artists, and more Suicide Squad Harley Quinn’s than you can shake an elaborately painted baseball bat at. While the Pokemon craze meant there was some strong competition from the Misty/Ash cosplay couples, the Harley/Joker cosplay couple is a staple of cons, but that means they all blend together after the first couple dozen. Not Charley Quinn, though!
The crowd for this year’s Manly Man Facial Hair Competition was far larger than its inaugural event last year, and the contestants were well-prepared. There were waxed mustaches, swirls of facial hair trimmed carefully on cheeks, and massive beards.
The actor who played uber-villain Joffrey Baratheon, Jack Gleeson, spent 40 minutes being absolutely lovely, which was really bizarre to try and wrap my brain around. He casually chatted and smiled the whole time, returning compliments from the audience. He even had a different accent, a soft Irish brogue, which made it even crazier to watch. He doesn’t sound like he has any plans to return to acting any time soon, perhaps because of how strongly his role on Game of Thrones is imprinted on him.
We checked out the League of Little Legends Kids’ Zone and saw the next generation of geeks building with legos and learning origami.
The Game Cave had a hall full of table-top gaming, filled with all ages of people battling.
A crowd-favorite every year, the Dagorhir Foam Sword Fighting Arena had people lined up, waiting to be the next to grab a foam sword and shield and fight. Where else can you see Spiderman sword-fight French Kiss?
The Grid is an 8,000 square foot room filled with electronic gaming, from Halo to classic arcade.
I don’t have any reason for having any preconceived notion about what a Pokemon Hip Hop Experience would be, but I expected it to be a group of people performing songs about Pokemon. Instead, it was very cute and interactive, with Professor Oak and Trainer Red talking about the original Red & Blue Pokemon games and then taking questions from the audience about the game. After their chat, Trainer Red invited people to come up to the stage and he freestyled about the Pokemon they showed him from their Pokedex.
The best improvement this year was how the Costume Contest was done. In the past, it has been clunky, awkward, and inefficient. This year was like an assembly line of costuming, with the contestants smoothly entering and crossing the stage after being introduced. The MC was a scarily accurate Peter Griffin (The Family Guy), who entertained the audience while the judges were mulling things over. The overall winner was an incredible Sora from Kingdom Hearts, though I can’t imagine how hard the Ghost Rider, complete with bike, made that decision for them.
My Sunday at the con started with Ian McDiarmid, an actor who may be well known in theater circles for his Broadway performances, but here he’s Emperor Palpatine. He walked out and pretended to throw force-lightning at the delighted crowd. He dished on casting, the makeup process, and told some great behind-the-scenes stories.
Freestyle Dungeons and Dragons was hilarious once again. After casting the characters, the dungeon master deftly walked them through their hilarious journey.
The Pokemon theme continued with this genius Magikarp and trainer combo.
We came across this group in the back of the expo hall that looked like they were from a video game. When I asked about their amazing outfits and makeup, I found that they were from Chamber of Terror, a nautical haunted house that is held on the SS American Victory, docked in the Ybor Channel.
Penguin Knife Fight was some of the best improv I’ve seen. Improv can often either be bad or terrible, but this never got awkward or uncomfortable. They were very witty and clever, and the whole room was cracking up together.
Live model drawing gave the artists at the con a chance to draw cosplay model Janna Von War-Bear, who was dressed as San from the classic Studio Ghibli movie “Princess Mononoke”.
This year’s con was definitely different than some of the years past. The price for Saturday had increased $5, which may not sound like much, but it was enough that many friends had decided to skip this year, rather than pay the $40.00 regular entry price. I also noticed that this is the first year in as long as I can recall where there was no VIP option. There were food trucks lined up out front to offer an alternative to the $15 cuban sandwich, and judging by the winding lines for each truck, they were definitely appreciated. In all, I’m so proud of Tampa’s con for continuing to grow and bring in great names and entertainment that cross all nerd genres every year.
This article appears in Aug 4-11, 2016.