I was on the road at 7 and after a brief stop at the credit union was on my way driving on Bayshore with few other cars and not many joggers. 10 minutes later I was parking my car inside Fort Brooke and then it was a short walk to the Tampa Convention Center.
It was already a long line at 7:30. I talked with a few people in line and saw people in nice costumes walk by. Soon it was 8am and we all hurried inside. The line moved fast when the doors finally opened.
I'm glad I brought paper money because the Cash line was fast. Then I headed to the freebie table to pick up an Iron Man poster and a bag. Then I found a wall out of the way to take a quick glance at the program guide. The three big draws for autographs and photo ops were Carrie Fisher, Lea Thompson, and Linda Hamilton. The ladies were the honored guests.
Surprisingly the dealers room was opened at 8am. Generally there is a 1 to 2 hour wait and another long line to get in. This year I just walked in. I always walk up and down each aisle just to see what each booth has. Then I remember what booth has what I want and where I am likely to spend any money.
It was the usual Star Wars toys, Star Trek memorabilia, and of course comics and magazines for sell. Nothing really grabbed my attention and then I found my favorite booth each year, the one selling Japanese candies and snacks. I was less impressed this time because I found the same items cheaper at MD Oriental Market in Pinellas Park. For example, he wanted $10 for Green Tea flavored Kit Kat that you can get for $5 at MD. Not sure a sweet deal at Comic Con. He did have a Sriracha shirt and I did buy that. I have been looking for one for a while and decided $20 was a good price for a shirt.
During my initial trek through the massive dealers room, there were few anime goods however the anime booths I stopped at had excellent figures. I didn't find any tables with DVDs or blu-rays. Café Anime Tampa had good legitimate DVDs like my favorite, Genshiken. I stopped briefly to say hello and then I was at the used game booth.
It is hard to find import games in the US unless you shop online and the best option is to fly to Tokyo for Nakano Broadway or Super Potato in Akihabara or go to Osaka for Den Den Town. I always find the best used games in Den Den Town. So I was happy to see some imports. I didn't find any Dreamcast games but the Playstation games were only $10 each and it was buy 2 get one free. I picked up Dino Crisis, Sister Princess, (possible dating sim,) and the weirdest game I could find. I got it just because it was weird and that was Puffy, I Love You. Puffy is a Jpop girl group that had a mega hit in Japan back in '98 with the Jet album. Years later they had their own cartoon, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi on Cartoon Network. Looking through the game manual, I saw that you needed a pistol controller. That was odd for kawaii idols singers but I can't really judge it until I actually play it.
I went downstairs to see if anything interested me. The panels were very typical. The celebrity guests wanted too much. I had already seen the dealers room and that meant I could finally do what I wanted and that was take pictures of cosplayers. at 10am there wasn't that many people. I was sitting in a chair bored, waiting for something to happen. Then a really cool cosplayer came walking in and after taking his picture, I was off in search of cosplayers.
Tampa really has some unique and creative individuals and I saw some amazing costumes at Comic Con. Most of the good ones were handmade. After picture taking in the hallways and the dealers room, I ran into Travis Kirk and agreed to help him out with photo shoots.
So I headed downstairs to the Riverwalk and it was raining. After waiting around, I decided to go back to the dealers room to see if I could find Travis. Then I noticed that in the afternoon, the con was in full swing and people were everywhere making it hard to walk.
Ok my only bad experience at Comic Con was when I was looking out a window looking for my friend. The sign above the door said Exit so I walked out. Then a real rude, 19-year old Sentry employee yelled at me that this wasn't an exit despite the fact that Exit is clearly displayed above the door. He didn't seem like he would shut up so I almost demanded to get his sup's name. The biggest disappointed were the idiots hired by Sentry who had no concept of working events and dealing with the public. None of the Sentry staff was up to par and extremely unprofessional. If I'm paying $35 to get in, better treatment and a professional staff is needed. After I walked away from the angry young fool, I went backstairs and waited at a table near Riverwalk. Soon I spotted Travis and I was off to my first real photo shoot. I am still learning everything my Canon Rebel T3i can do.
The first photo shoot was a lot of fun. I was just holding an umbrella with a flash but I was also learning about lighting and angles. It was a really relaxed shoot and it went smooth.
I helped out with another one in a stairwell that provided interesting challenges. It was hard to get the angles I wanted in a small confined space and I really hoped that the rain would stop. There is so much scenic beauty outside.
The next one was a lot of fun. I met Rennie Starks, who I liked and followed on Facebook but had never met in person.
She brought three of her friends and we had a wonderful time shooting outside while the rain was lite. That was a great shoot. Rennie was so into her Harley Quinn character that her personality really shined through the photos I took. You can follow her here.
https://www.facebook.com/renniestarkscosplay
Here are some of the ones I took.
Rennie and her friends were so outgoing, energetic, and friendly that you couldn't help but get caught up in the enthusiasm. That really made Comic Con special.
After that, it was time to return home. With all the rain Bayshore was flooded and blocked off, Swann was flooded so I carefully snaked around side streets that weren't flooded until I made it safely back home.
Overall, Comic Con was a good experience. Hopefully next year Sentry will be replaced by a professional security and events company. At the very least the sullen youth needs to be retrained or let go. No excuses for such a bad employee with a crap attitude.
All of my pictures of Tampa Bay Comic Con are here.
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