I love pop culture conventions. I am a regular at A-kon, Dragon*con, All-con and more every year. This year was my second year going to Dallas Comic-Con. This is a young convention in Irving that manages to attract some amazing stars. This year the headliner, Nathan Fillion, was unable to attend last minute due to health reasons, I was looking forward to seeing Nathan Fillion speak, but I am understanding of a celebrities demanding schedule and health concerns, so I didn't immediately freak out and cancel my plans to go when he cancelled.
I spent the bulk of my time volunteering with the Austin Browncoats, and had a great time working for them in the Exhibit Hall. I made a few small purchases (soft kitty hoodie ftw!) and made some new friends working there. As always volunteering in a dealers room is a blast, but unfortuntately I felt as though this con was lacking in diversity in its exhibitors. I like to see more creative dealers than just common toys, vintage toys, and comics in my dealers. Yes, its the comic con, but when every booth is just another t-shirt booth or a place selling comics and posters, its a bit silly to fill up a huge hall with it. I would have preferred to see more people creating jewelery, handmade props, and outfit and cosplay accessories. I was really hoping to see some geeky corsets and was unfortunately, dissapointed. There was only one steampunk booth there at all! All this would be fine if there were more panels, but, the majority of the panels were large rooms with celebrites (and pseudo-celebs) speaking, which means if i wanted to go to any panels, I would have to wait in a line for more than an hour. I am fine with that occasionally, but I also enjoy panels by artists and writers, I like hearing from the workshop end of comic creation and animating.
Now the part that really pissed me off. The venue is TOO SMALL. As I said earlier, I go to many conventions every year, most larger than Dallas Comic Con, and this convention was dangerously crowded. God forbid had there been an emergency, and EMT personnel had needed to get somewhere in a timely manner, or if there had been a fire and the building had needed evacuation, I would have expected to see tramplings. Upon leaving the exhibit hall I had half a mind to try to venture up the escalators to the higher floors to see what was happening. That desire was quickly dashed upon seeing the wall of people (that was backing into the exhibit hall, making it almost impossible to exit) at least 30, probably 40 feet deep. A quick look at the sardine-packed people, and knowing that there was nothing I absolutely had to see upstairs, convinced me it was time call it a bust and go home. I wrestled (literally) my way through the mass of people, several of them trying to elbow me to keep me from "cutting" in line (even though I was saying aloud I was just trying to reach the building exit). I walked to my car, thankful I was parked reasonably close today, since yesterday I was probably a quarter mile away on the far edge of the overflow parking, and went home.
So now im writing this, not regreting the experience, as I didn't have to buy my pass, but boy, if I had spent the money on a 3 day pass, I would have been furious at the experience.
