My wife and I may have different goals and preferences at conventions, but one of our stronger common interests (besides a wish for better concession stand food) is a love of seeing other fans in costumes. All that inspiration, sartorial effort, and fashion derring-do enlivens and enriches even the most jaded, crowded, bizarrely laid-out of conventions.

Careful readers will note I’ve just reused the intro from Part 3. Not much has changed since then. We like costumes. Here are more. Please enjoy some.

X-Men are usually a staple, but this team has taken an uncommon direction in presenting the original X-Factor lineup from 1986, when Beast, Cyclops, and Iceman reunited after Jean Grey’s second resurrection. Angel was off-camera to the left, engaged in conversation. Leave it to billionaire playboy Warren Worthington III to find time for brokering deals.

Cyclops #2, and extra credit if you recognize Dust, a Muslim X-Woman from recent years.

After we returned home and reviewed our photos, I was shocked to realize we hadn’t captured a single Wolverine. The closest we came was Miss Wolverine below (neither X-23 nor the MC2 Wild Thing, the most well-known in-continuity Wolverine lady analogs), who brought her friends She-Hulk and Storm.

In addition to She-Hulk (as well as Hulk and Moon Knight from Part 3), the Avengers were also represented by WWII Captain America. Curiously, military costumes were otherwise in short supply in all the areas we walked.

Also bringing weapons: Harley Quinn in her classic ensemble.

The classic ensemble allows freedom of movement, convenient product branding, leisurely comfort, and a badge of honor when forced into inter-company mash-ups, as witnessed here moments before delivering a finishing move to Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat.

This version more closely resembles Harley from DC’s New 52 reboot. The costume looks great here (despite the missing headgear), but I’m still bitter that Secret Six had to die so that Harley’s Suicide Squad could replace it.

Video game fans might prefer the Harley variant from Arkham Asylum, pictured here with fellow nogoodniks the Red Hood, Calendar Man, Ra’s al-Ghul, and our old pal Victor Zsasz from Part 3.

On the other side of the law are Batgirl, Nightwing, and sometimes Catwoman, depending on her mood and whether or not the local museum has any new cat-based jewelry exhibits. (While I’m thinking about it: considering the obsessive nature of Julie Newmar’s portrayal in the 1960s series, one wonders why Gotham curators and jewelers of the time didn’t simply abstain from exhibiting anything remotely feline. Catwoman would never have robbed again.)

Bane refuses to fraternize with the other DC villains beneath his notice, and instead attempts to make friends with black Spider-Man. If only the muffled mask allowed the pleasure of intelligible conversation instead of turning him into Charlie Brown’s gym teacher.

Sticking with tradition are the classic Bat-villains of yore. If you can name at least three, you’re normal.

Poison Ivy may have been too new to be included in the Batman TV show in its heyday. Hopefully someday she’ll have the chance to appear in a live-action film. Done right, I mean.

Even Andrew Garfield’s new Spider-costume appeared on the con floor, here accompanying his non-friend Juggernaut.

Mexico offers a different take on super-heroics: LUCHADORES!

Competing in this same category: the original Pitier of Fools! The man who put the “Club” in “Clubber Lang” and the “ab” in DC Cab! The one, the only, America’s favorite gymnastics instructor and stale cereal salesman…Mr. T!

Every entertainment convention has its mandatory costumes. You’ll almost always see at least one Jedi, one Vader, one remote-control R2D2, one Superman, one Batman, one Captain Jack Sparrow (a recent addition to the ranks), one Star Trek crewman over age 50, one scantily clad booth babe you should really stop staring at, one steampunk couple, one Victorian England dress, one Doctor Who, and at least two Ghostbusters.

This is the first time I’ve ever seen an entire Ghostbusters squadron, all quoting movie lines in unison like Christmas carolers chanting “Deck the Halls”.

We conclude our costume programming with this happy drunken orc, who will probably have cousins attending this weekend’s GenCon here in Indianapolis. If you’re there, be sure to raise a flagon and try not to stumble backwards into someone’s booth full of fragile artwork.

The miniseries finale! Rather than cut back to three hours’ sleep per night, I decided early in the process to pace myself and set aside some photo sets for the conclusion, rather than trying to post hundreds in the space of a single day.

Winning in the category of Best Fan-Made Inanimate Object was, for me, Lego Order of the Stick. I have a hard time getting into webcomics, but Rich Burlew bypasses this prejudice by reprinting his stick-figure fantasy-comedy in paper editions, so he gets a pass.

We photographed several actors from a distance for value-added entertainment. Some didn’t really care, and would even offer free photos if you asked with utmost humility. In some areas photos were forbidden to keep throngs of amateur paparazzi from suffocating each other and ruining everyone’s weekend. In more than a few areas it wasn’t discouraged at first, and then later it totally was, as “No Photos in This Area” migrated from one table to another as stars came and went. For example, at one point early Saturday, The Walking Dead‘s Jon Bernthal looked like this:

Later that afternoon, Bernthal looked more like this:

That tenacious volunteer wasn’t the only hard worker at a thankless job. I’d like to offer very special thanks to our good friend Last-in-Line Guy. When autograph lines snaked around other lines, when lines changed location or dissolved altogether, or when Q&A seating lines threatened to crush each other in heated civil war, this man and his fellow soldiers were right there in the fray, doing their best to make sense of it all, point you in the right direction, and be honest with you when your day was about to be ruined by an unexpected line-capping.

During the entire Stan Lee ordeal, which was orchestrated entirely by unwritten procedures (my least favorite kind! How did they know?), this particular gentleman aided my wife more than once by orienting her in the right direction and sifting through the aimless crowds to discern the exact places our objectives required us to be. Thank you, Best WWC Volunteer Ever, for helping our Stan Lee experience actually happen.

Bernthal’s costar Norman Reedus was intermittently present but generally flocked whenever he was in the house. On the other hand, Reedus’ Boondock Saints costar Sean Patrick Flannery was a little more accessible. I’ve never seen Saints, but my wife recalls him well from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

Without all those Ghostbusters holding their town hall meeting in the lobby, we had a better view of the ECTO-1 and the Notorious V.I.G.O.

Kevin Sorbo may have been a nice fellow to meet, but the only work of his that I own is a copy of a forgotten basic-cable movie called Prairie Fever that my mother-in-law once gave me as a near-random Christmas present. I previously met one of his costars in that film, Felicia Day, at another con not too long ago. When I mentioned it to her, I think I unwittingly unlocked some repressed memories of a not-awesome experience. Rather than risk doing the same for Sorbo, I left it at home.

Also from the strongman department: frequent con attendee Lou Ferrigno, a regular at the Hyatt across the street around breakfast time.

I…have no idea. Little help? Has anyone out there fought a villain called the Horned Juggler?

Most folks know Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks. I didn’t learn she was also in Winter’s Bone until after the con. I wish I’d researched better beforehand — a great film that reminded me of places I know and fear in our own state.

Lego Clerks vs. Lego Gundam. The crossover to end all crossovers! Special three-minute feature presentation! Even less if Silent Bob isn’t wearing his Mallrats utility belt!

Eureka star Colin Ferguson had one of the healthiest lines all weekend. We’ve never seen the show, but we had to acknowledge the fan base turnout.

Classic heroes, modern flourishes. For the traditional super-hero fan.

James Hong wasn’t the only Blade Runner vet in attendance. Sean Young also appeared on Saturday, including in her own Q&A. We actually skipped most of the scheduled Q&As because the crowds were more insane in that section of the convention center than anywhere else, because we had no shortage of activities on our plate, because we’re terrible at thinking of original questions, and because sometimes we’re terrible at feigning patience while listening to others’ lame or inappropriate questions.

Thus we conclude our five-part series and bid farewell to that overstimulating weekend at last, having had a few days now to readjust to an everyday life in which I’m not surrounded by people who share 20% or more of my interests. Despite the scheduling hitches, my complete failure to locate Tom Peyer’s alleged table, the literal miles of walking, the experimental new layout that turned parts of Artists Alley into an unfortunate wasteland, and the concession-stand pizza I never want to eat again, I’d call the event a success in our book.

Until our next convention, then! And, Lord willing, our next Wizard World Chicago. Thanks for reading.

(Special thanks to those fellow fans whose moments added the right touch of je ne sais quoi to the whole shebang — that one couple we met last year who knows who they are if they know who we are; Jenn in James Hong’s line; the Green Power Ranger; the nice lady who traded photographer duties with me at Amber Benson’s table; the father of two with the positive Lou Ferrigno anecdote; and the wonderful gentlemen in front of the conference center across the street who were selling Italian sausages and brats precisely when and where we needed them most.)

This weekend our fair hometown of Indianapolis hosted the 45th edition of GenCon, one of America’s oldest and largest gaming conventions. When I was a kid, it was hosted up Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, which I remember because once per year TSR’s Dragon Magazine would include a free GenCon event schedule as an insert, several pages long. I was in the upper years of elementary school at the time, but as a precocious fan of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and other TSR games, I thought that a gathering of RPG fans would be a unique experience. I fell away from RPGs after junior high after all my friends moved away, and never really returned to the hobby. For me 2003 was a little too late for GenCon to relocate here, but we outsiders can find entertaining sights and activities among the massive crowds. At the very least, my past allows me to get more jokes than the other non-gamer commoners.

Attendance in 2011 was in excess of 36,000. This is no gathering of a dozen sweaty guys in a single hotel conference room. Not only does GenCon use just about the entire convention center (including the recent expansion made possible by the demolition of the old Hoosier Dome), it also requires additional gaming space in several adjacent hotels. If your interests and gaming specialties are diverse enough, you could tally up miles’ worth of steps all over downtown Indy on your pedometer by the time your four-day weekend is over…if you could afford to take that much time off work, and also owned a pedometer.

This was my third GenCon, having missed the last two due to scheduling issues. I’m still hesitant to pay extra to participate in any real games, but I certainly wasn’t bored this year. I’ll outline some of our activity options in some other installment because I’m exhausted after conventioneering two weekends straight and I’m running out of time tonight. For now, please enjoy some samples from GenCon’s 27th annual costume contest, as well as costumes proudly worn throughout the grounds outside of competition.

About that contest: some of those photos weren’t the greatest. I deleted many, kept many more than aren’t worth keeping, and will still have to keep pruning. The ballroom was poorly lit even with every house light fired up, but was kept dim throughout the contest. Flash photography was forbidden, largely to ruin the day for most of us with inadequate cameras that blur everything when the flash is turned off. Worse still, my wife and I were roughly back in row 10, which was hardly ideal (albeit still in the front third of the ballroom, better off than several hundred other attendees fared — the smart Costume Contest audience members start lining up at least two hours early). We did what we could with the location, technology, and limitations at hand. It’s something we enjoy doing, to show our appreciation and awe for those with the flair for this particular aspect of the scene. This installment features some of our better shots and their better costumes, but we regret a fair amount of greatness that we missed nonetheless.

One more disclaimer: as an old man, my knowledge of anime and MMORPGs is woefully sketchy. If you catch me misidentifying anyone, please don’t hesitate to call me out. I like learning, I like giving credit where it’s due, and I have no problem owning up to my own ignorance, which will only worsen with age if someone doesn’t stop me here and now.

Onward, then:

While contestants are organized backstage, pre-show entertainment is usually provided each year by DDBD, a belly-dancing troupe. This, like cosplay, is another hobby that’s best left to other people besides me.

Overall winner of the shebang was this looming Tauren warrior from World of Warcraft. On the right, if my hasty notes can be trusted, is someone from Tsubasa who won the Anime category.

Winner of the Science Fiction/Super-Heroes category was Lady Mechanika, from Joe Benitez’ creator-owned Aspen Comics series of the same name.

The winners of the Fantasy category were a duo. Rusty the Gnoll (unsure which specific fantasy game — gnolls aren’t unique to one) posed with the photogenic prowess. His dwarven partner proved more elusive.

Champions of the Group division: steampunk Ghostbusters, successfully merging two of the mandatory convention cosplay types into a single victorious, Victorian hybrid. Their inspired motto: “Who ya gonna telegraph?”

A special prize was given to the overly tall Arkham Asylum version of Bane, hopped up on the Titan drug and ready to flatten you if you can’t master the mystical Zen art known as “sidestepping”.

Also receiving a special prize: Kaylee’s fancy dress from the Firefly episode “Shindig”. That shared moment between Kaylee and Mal remains one of my favorite non-funny moments of the entire series.

Dr. Girlfriend from The Venture Bros.

Zelda, a character even aging NES owners like me should recognize.

Alternate take on Zelda, Twilight Princess style. She even sang for us, but the song escaped me — something pretty about shining a light or somesuch.

Marian Hawke from Dragon Age. Photos of anyone who wouldn’t hold still looked not unlike her weapon there. Prime example: one contestant as a guy from a Resident Evil death squad spent his onstage moments performing some nifty tumbling and stomping and dodging of imaginary fire. He refused to hold still for a single second. At such a distance and without permission to use a flash, our cameras totally hated and rejected him. Sorry, guy.

Lilith Sahl from Trinity Blood.

Inquisitorial Guard from Warhammer 40K.

Gary and Walter from The Muppets, alongside good ol’ Captain America. Gary also received a special award as the longest-running entrant (every year since 2000). Kudos!

Vash the Stampede, from Trigun.

Captain Hook Gaston, the Evil Queen, Hades, and Jafar represent for Disney Big Bads.

Ichigo from Bleach.

Also armed with a sword of sorts: Darth Revan from Star Wars: the Old Republic.

Deadmau5! The only musician costume in attendance.

It took me some time to convince my wife that, yes, Uncle Marvel was a real comic book character, and yes, this costume is uncanny in its accuracy. If you’ve ever had the chance to read the original Captain Marvel comics by C. C. Beck, Otto Binder, and other writers from the 1940s and ’50s, I strongly recommend them over the humorless travesty that the “Shazam!” mythos has been for the past twenty years. Yes, I sincerely do prefer good ol’ Dudley here to that mess.

To be continued!

[In our next episode: more costumes, maybe a little more blurriness, the three media guests, and lots of something called League of Legends, which I'd never heard of before today.]

My wife and I present more of our Costume Contest and non-competitive costume pics from GenCon 2012 in Indianapolis, as we personally witnessed on Saturday, August 18, 2012. Same disclaimers apply as in episode one regarding photo quality. Neither of us is a professional photographer, unless someone wants to PayPal us a tip in exchange for a copy of the original file for any of these pics. Then we’ll consider ourselves professional photographers. Until that impossibility happens, we’re just two fans sharing our experiences with a lovable, enthusiastic crowd.

Drow knights, either from Tolkien, Dungeons and Dragons, or one of their descendants.

Darth Talon, from John Ostrander and Jan Duursema’s erstwhile post-ROTJ series Star Wars: Legacy.

Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus, Spider-Man 2099, and Peter Parker. And to think, Spidey 2099 was worried that no one would recognize him. Even before my son and I played and loved Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, I already had (and still have) my complete run of the original Peter Parker/Rick Leonardi Spider-Man 2099 series (not the later issues after David left, though — meh). Consider yourself identified and appreciated, good sir.

Zot the Wizard, from a board game called Red Dragon Inn. As a longtime fan of the works of Scott McCloud, I find this name problematic.

Q in his judge’s robes from “Encounter at Farpoint”, one of the very few openly Trek fans in evidence.

A nurse from Silent Hill, apparently a video game set in a world where health care costs are carefully controlled and all the medical professionals in America quit their jobs except Dr. Nick Riviera.

Lady Captain America works just as hard for the troops, but for half the paycheck. BOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Flo, live from Progressive!

INTERMISSION.

We’ll now take a momentary break from costume pics to allow readers to fetch snacks, visit the facilities, check email, return other people’s calls, and unwind for a few minutes. For those of you who are comfortable and have no needs at the moment, please enjoy this brief summary of the media guests on hand.

Wil Wheaton, Internet columnist and hardy survivor of child stardom, had the longest line of them all. He was last to arrive because he stopped on the way to pick up a copy of Netrunner, then tweet a photo of himself with it. We have a photo of him taking said photo, but this one sums up the just-this-guy ethos that’s kept him from turning into a geek diva.

Nichelle Nichols was as sweet and lovely as ever, but had a surprisingly short line, possibly because she’s no stranger to cons. We’d met her years ago, so we stood aside to allow others their chance.

Wes Bentley was a last-minute addition to the lineup, substituting for canceled guest Kristin Bauer, costar of a vampire show we don’t watch. Bentley, the costar of The Hunger Games and Best Picture winner American Beauty, had no line that Saturday. I like to think that all four-day attendees mobbed him on Friday and wanted to give us Saturday-only schlubs a chance. Much appreciated.

Of all the participants in Authors’ Avenue, my wife had her sights set on meeting one: Michael Stackpole, the man responsible from some of her favorite X-Wing Rogue Squadron novels. I bought a digital copy of his newest novel, the super-hero noir In Hero Years…I’m Dead, which I hope to read if someone ever buys me an eBook reader for a gift. Impulse convention buys are doubly fun when you don’t think them all the way through.

END INTERMISSION. And now, back to our show.

This satyress was in charge of line-forming for author Paul Genesse and held us at bay until he packed up at 11 a.m. and gave up his booth to the incoming Mr. Stackpole.

I believe that’s a Poison Ivy variant, but I’m not sure who Lady Purple Stabby-Fingers is. At left is a member of Organization XIII from Kingdom Hearts 2. At right is a trio from the hobbyist collective called …And Sewing is Half the Battle, who dressed and performed their own rendition of The Scarlet Pimpernel. When we arrived home and uploaded our photos from cameras to PC, I was flabbergasted to discover this was the best shot we had of them. I wanted to spike both cameras on the ground and stomp them to bits.

Fortunately, thanks to the miracle of the Internet, a previous offstage performance by the same three sartorially superior players is available for online viewing. Once again the day is saved, thanks to YouTube!

Alas, the name of this fairy-style character is forever lost in a mishmash of several costume-contest notes that couldn’t be matched up to specific photos.

One of two Deadpools we caught. They should totally have fought it out for ‘Pool supremacy.

A quiet moment and some candy shared between one of a few Sailor Moons and one of several thousand Doctor Whos in the house. (Seriously, the Who North America booth was filled with Whovians poring over the Who-merchandise and Who-supplies. With such a hardcore fandom willing to represent for it, I’m beginning to get the impression that perhaps it might be a not-bad show.)

Caitlyn, the Sheriff of Piltover from the MMORPG League of Legends. I’d never heard of LoL before GenCon and had some reading to do when I came home. Regretfully, I have to abstain from MMOs because I’m well aware of how many hours I’d spend on them per week if given the chance. It’s for the sake of all my other hobbies and family that I have to say no.

Swain and Lulu, also from League of Legends. I don’t think they’re sheriffs.

If I’ve done my math right, I believe this is an entire League of Legends class reunion. I’m not sure how many years have passed since graduation, but they look younger than ever.

To be continued!

[In our next part: still more costumes, including a few low-quality samples of competitors who appear to be vibrating at the speed of Barry Allen.]

Thanks very much to those of you who’ve been enjoying, sharing, and starring in the photos that my wife and I took at GenCon 2012 last weekend here in Indianapolis. Rest assured the city always gets a kick out of your presence, and I’m not just referring to tourist dollars. (Seriously, everyone left and took all the pizzazz with them. Bring back our pizzazz! WE NEED IT.)

Please enjoy this last hurrah of cosplay fun and outright fashion victories. Newcomers may refer back to entry #1 and episode 2 for your “Previously On: GenCon 2012 Photos” recap. All previous disclaimers regarding quality and old-people ignorance apply as before.

Local variety band il Troubadore aren’t always representing for Trek in their live performances, but you have not experienced “American Pie” until you have heard it in the original Klingon.

Steampunk Wonder Woman.

The first Harley Quinn we ran across. She had the Arleen Sorkin voice down, too. In fact, I’m wondering whether or not this was the same Harley we saw at Wizard World Chicago the weekend before.

Billing himself as Gumshoe the Orc Shaman, I’m fairly certain this was the guy’s own World of Warcraft character, not necessarily a cousin of Shrek.

JAWA! Somewhere in my house is my old collection of a few dozen Jawa action figures, plush toys, and vehicles. In my old apartment, I used to have a Jawa diorama atop my entertainment center. I may need to add one of these new organic models to my collection.

The Red Skull plots to overthrow the GenCon staff, institute an evil new order, and burn all copies of any WWII strategy game that allows the Allies to defeat the Axis.

Two more Harleys, a Riddler, a Robin, and an Ivy. At the rate that Harley costumes of all versions are catching on, their ranks will threaten to outnumber the convention Ghostbusters and Doctors Who before too long. On the other end of the spectrum, plain white Jedi knights and Trek crewmen have definitely been on a downswing in 2012.

The emcee introduced Gandalf here as “the Jägermeister Wizard”. Either I missed out on a YouTube meme, or I stopped reading The Book of Lost Tales, Part One a few tales too soon. Maybe you just had to be there, and you had to be drunk.

The remaining photos would, in a crueler world, exist only as unpublished outtakes. The issue wasn’t costume quality in any of these cases. If your costume looked like the product of ten hasty minutes with cardboard and a couple of markers (or more likely, if your “costume” was just a character T-shirt and matching ballcap), I probably wouldn’t have pointed my camera at you in the first place. In a few cases it was camera issues on our end. In most cases, we were daunted and stymied by the task of taking photos of moving targets from Row 10 in a darkened ballroom without permission to use flash.

I’ve decided I have the unmitigated gall to shrink these down for flaw minimization purposes and share them anyway, because I was impressed by the diversity of works and characters that were represented from all walks of life and hobbydom. An amazing amount of effort and craft were put into many of these, and I’d love to be directed toward better shots of many of them. Also, in a few cases, I’d greatly appreciate it if someone could educate me on character names.

Left: The emcee’s intro reached my ears as “Delarosa from ‘Homestar’.” I’m 105% certain I misheard. Looks great, but my attempts to ID her ended in multiple dead ends.
Right: General Baggy, mascot for Battle Foam, company specializing in storage for game miniatures.

Left: I thought these were Heartless or Nobodies from Kingdom Hearts. My son says I’m wrong.
Right: My failed notes say, “Kath of the Shadows, ‘Song of Ice and Fire’”. Most likely wrong. Haven’t read any of the series. Looks cool anyway.

Left: Battletech Clansmen. They got into a fight onstage and stopped paying attention to us. Presumably part of the act.
Right: Master Chief and…we don’t have an XBox, so I don’t know his buddy. Assistant Master Chief? Major-Chief? Apprentice Chief? Just plain Chief? Or does he get mad when you call him Chief?

Left: Aayla Secura. I didn’t say there were no Jedi around.
Right: Not sure, but if we apply crossover math, green top plus tiny hat equals Steampunk Poison Ivy. Am I close?

Left: Beauty and the Beast, personal interpretation. Remember, Walt Disney didn’t write the story and doesn’t own it. CG ballroom gowns are not mandatory.
Right: Professor Oak, Nurse Joy, and Chansey perform a pretty amusing Pokemon skit.

Left: My notes say “Stalkers, Guards of the Pits”. My eyes say stilts are always a neat trick, and I predict within two years, plague masks will be the new steampunk goggles.
Right: Bellatrix LeStrange. On her way back to her seat, she shrieked from the camera-hating darkness, “I KILLED SIRIUS!” Spot-on.

Left: My takeaway was “dragon poetess”, due to her open-mic poem recital.
Right: Battle Armor Haldir from Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers was another of the costume contest’s special-recognition winners. Mild coincidence on our end: Craig Parker was at Wizard World Chicago last weekend, except as part of a trio signing for fans of his TV series Legend of the Seeker. I felt sheepish having him autograph our copy of The Two Towers while ignoring his costars, so we ended up bypassing their shared booth.

Left: I’m pretty sure these were from Soul Calibur. If I’m wrong, they’re from Dragon Age. In a barely related note, “Caliber Dragon” would be a great name for a comic book.
Right: This one made it into my notes as “Dragon Age old lady”. I distinctly recall she referred to herself as an “old lady” in third-person, so I can’t be too far off.

Left: An original Darth with co-opted elements of Vader and Maul. Plus a mace.
Right: Musical guest Dan the Bard entertains us troops outside the Exhibit Hall before opening on Saturday.

Left: I wrote down “Triangle Head”, but this is actually Pyramid Head from the Silent Hill series. I was one dimension off.
Right: Alex Mercer from Prototype.

Left: Wizard paparazzo.
Right: Wizard paparazzo’s target: Wil Wheaton and his newest acquisition, the coveted Netrunner. Wheaton’s version of the moment was tweeted seconds later. (This isn’t a costume pic, but I couldn’t resist.)

To be concluded!

[In our final chapter: GenCon objets d'art and other less-sought-after sights.]

On and off over the past two decades, Starbase Indy has served proudly and admirably as one of the longest-lived geek-culture gatherings in Indianapolis. Originally a purebred Star Trek convention by design and preference, its scope has broadened over time as organizers and attendees proved amenable to the presence of more than one fictional universe in their midst. Granted, it’s no coincidence that the festivities have grown more inclusive as Paramount Pictures withdrew Trek from prime-time television and lamented the decreasing aesthetic returns from the latter-day movies. The JJ Abrams reformatting certainly didn’t hurt the cause, but SBI today is a smaller, tighter gathering than its earliest incarnations — now run locally and purely For-Fans-By-Fans, not by out-of-town sideshow promoters who fancy themselves the next Gareb Shamus.

My wife and I have attended more than a few SBIs. We took a break for several years during a long, unpretty transitional period, but made our tentative return in 2010 when a few encouraging signs enticed us back. We enjoyed ourselves so much that year, we were happy to attend in 2011 as well. This selection of highlights from our last two SBI experiences is by no means the complete collection of every photo we took, nor does it represent all the SBIs we’ve ever attended. Our souvenirs date back far enough that many were created using the ancient medium that primitive man once called “35mm film”.

2010 Highlights:

Special guests included Ethan Phillips, best known to Trek fans as Neelix from Star Trek: Voyager, also known to even older TV viewers who can remember as far back as Benson.

Also appearing from Voyager, Tim Russ. Younger viewers now know him as a principal on the Disney Channel smash iCarly.

Not all the guests are major names, or even former major names. Prior to this convention, the biggest films on Crystal Allen’s resumé were Anacondas 3 and 4. Nonetheless, her stage Q&A was entertaining, and she was a delight to meet even though neither of us has seen the episode of Enterprise in which she played an Orion slave girl.

Naturally there are costumes. Behold: the original Avengers!

Representation from our local chapter of the 501st Legion is also not uncommon. Just as no one cares about east-coast/west-coast rap rivalries anymore, so have Star Trek and Star Wars fans learned that we all must live and work in harmony, or else the con fails and no one gets to have nice conventions anymore.

2011 Highlights:

You’ve had to have seen Tony Todd in any number of movies and shows. Trek fans know him as Worf’s brother Kurn, but he’s also made lasting impacts in Candyman, the Final Destination series, the first season of TV’s Chuck, and countless other flicks — Beastmaster, The Rock, The Crow, and more, more, more. I even caught him in a recent episode of Hawaii Five-O the other day.

John Billingsley was known to us as Dr. Phlox, one of the two best things about Enterprise. I understand he’s also been on True Blood, but that’s really not my thing.

Billingsley’s wife, Bonita Friedericy, was best known as the mighty General Beckman from TV’s Chuck. She’s very much stage-trained and gifted with a voice that boomed across a ballroom even without a microphone.

Nurse Harley from Arkham Asylum wasn’t just there for the ambience: she was working at the registration desk.

And in case you’re wondering, yes, Trek costumes aren’t exactly extinct. You’re guaranteed at least a few Klingons every time, as well as unusual choices such as the original series’ Yeoman Janice Rand…of sorts.

Once again, we enjoyed ourselves so much, my wife and I have ordered our tickets for Starbase Indy 2012. After a trial run in December 2011, this year SBI returns to its original time slot on Thanksgiving weekend, November 23-25, with the following guests in store:

* Nicole DeBoer — Ezri Dax from season seven of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
* Robert O’Reilly — the Klingon leader Gowron from Star Trek: the Next Generation.
* J. G. Hertzler — the Klingon general Martok from Deep Space Nine.
* Alexis Cruz — We’re told he had meaty roles on Stargate: SG-1 and Touched by an Angel.

Other guests will include actual accredited scientists, authors, artists, musicians (including local favorites Five-Year Mission, and the group called il Troubadore that we witnessed at this year’s GenCon), and more more more! SBI frequently tosses in such value-added special touches as free lunch, breakfast, or snacks (donations welcome); classic arcade games (old-school cabinet style); toy dealers; local fan clubs; games for the kids; screening rooms; charity auctions; costume contest; and, sometimes best of all, other fans.

More details are available at Starbase Indy’s official site, including ticket prices, location, and such. We’re looking forward to this year’s shindig, and hope to see more than a few people there.

Each year for the last five years I’ve kept statistics on the number of trick-or-treaters who graced our doorstep during the Halloween celebration of neighborhood interconnectedness and benevolent snack donation. Up to 2007 we lived in a secluded section-8 apartment that roving candy-hoarders easily overlooked. After we became first-time homeowners, our first Halloween in the new house blew us away as the head count soared without warning from zero to dozens. Our supplies were exhausted so quickly that a few poor stragglers were cursed with rejected Easter leftovers. Three cheers for the eternal freshness of American preservatives.

Since 2008 I’ve always tried to take attendance through the night. Previous years’ head counts were as follows:

2008: 51
2009: 105
2010: 112
2011: 74

This year’s experience performed like so:

First TOTer arrival time: 6:01 p.m.
Final TOTer departure time: 7:59 p.m.
Total number of trick-or-treaters for 2012: 58
Gain/loss from Halloween 2011: -21.62%

That decrease is marginally less alarming than the 2010-2011 drop of -33.93%. Any number of factors could have diminished this year’s turnout. It was a school night, unlike the last two weeks’ worth of fall recess. Temperatures were in the 40s, never a hospitable environment for the more fragile, mollycoddled children out there. Perhaps kids across America were preparing for tonight’s new episode of The X-Factor and wanted to secure their seating positions so they wouldn’t miss a thing. None of this dented the steely resolve of my generation from making their appointed October 31st rounds. If and when a viable time-travel system is operational and fully funded, my first experiment will be to abscond with my younger self and some of my childhood friends, bring me/them here, and see if my generation can teach this generation a lesson about what childhood should look like.

Costumes this year included but weren’t limited to:

3 fairies
2 Ghostfaces
1 burlap Ghostface
scarecrow
2 Scarecrows
gaucho
hot dog with mustard
devil
ballerina (Bunheads pride?)
owl
skeleton
2 hooded skullfaces
1 unhooded skullface
Optimus Prime
Lady Captain America
Wolverine
Freddy Krueger
Jason Voorhees
box of Mike & Ike’s candy
faceless mask
military man
2 Roaring-’20s gangsters
bumblebee
cat
leathery cat-eared something with skirt

Most bizarre costumes: a pair of older teenage girls in matching Buzz Lightyear footie pajamas. I regret to report that many costumes were hard to distinguish because winter coats make it hard to appreciate the artistry of the store-bought uniforms they conceal.

Most amusing guest: a two-year-old scarecrow who, when I opened the door, waved and yelled, “HIIII!” He weaved around my legs and into our living room, then yelled, “HIIII!” to my wife, who returned the greeting and gently escorted him back to his mark so that we could restart the scene from the top. It’s not uncommon for some beginners to require a little extra direction and maybe some notes on their performance.

A few of tonight’s entrants observed the necessary skills I outlined in a previous entry. Alas, more than a few kids merely stood and stared at me as if tonight were BMV practice. I expected it from the under-6 set; when it’s coming from teens old enough to drive, you get one piece of candy deducted from your handout, replaced with my fervent hopes that someday you find the self-improvement life lessons you need.

Extra credit is owned to the two kids who complimented our cute little dog, and the three who went above and beyond with jubilant wishes of “Happy Halloween!”, which made up for some of the silent, passive panhandlers who couldn’t be bothered to say their lines. Exemplary recognition is awarded to young Lady Cap for complimenting my outdoor decorations. I kept myself on a stricter budget this year and did the best I could with what I had on hand. I’m glad it wasn’t all in vain.

Special note for my neighbors: if any of you is missing a white pillowcase with butterflies on it, please let me know. Your child, or possibly a bully, left it on our lawn. It was empty when I found it and doesn’t match any of our sheet sets.

As if Black Friday weren’t busy enough, my wife and I attended the seventeenth iteration of Starbase Indy on Friday and Saturday. This fan-run Star Trek convention is a longtime Thanksgiving weekend event that she and I have done several times (see previous entry). The convention cordially welcomes actors and fans from other shows and universes as well, but Trek still commands center stage.

Two of this year’s guests approached their Saturday Q&A with an unusual flourish. Fans of Star Trek: the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine will remember Robert O’Reilly as Chancellor Gowron, ruler of the Klingon Empire and frenemy of Worf. Don’t let his now-genial features fool you. Once upon a time, Gowron’s gaze was penetrating and frightening. Today his voice is no less stentorian.

J. G. Hertzler was DS9′s General Martok, a longtime ally of Worf, key player in the Dominion War, and successor to Gowron upon his death at Worf’s hands. As with O’Reilly, Hertzler could still be heard at the back of an auditorium even when his microphone malfunctioned.

O’Reilly and Hertzler shared a Q&A on Saturday in style. With the remarkable assistance of makeup artist John Paladin, the dastardly duo spent a few hours donning familiar faces and uniforms that the fans haven’t seen in a very long time.

That Klingon Bird of Prey was lugged over 350 miles to Indianapolis from Riverside, Iowa, home of another, more famous Trek convention and anointed Birthplace of Captain Kirk. After this photo, both actors were gracious enough to autograph the ship and pose for additional photos with its talented caretakers.

Gowron reborn onstage:

An imposing Martok, complete with the same eye injury that didn’t hold him back during DS9′s final seasons.

The two old friends sang, they danced, they gadded about. Here, Gowron marvels while Martok performs his part of a ribald joke about chickens that I can’t repeat here, partly because I wasn’t clear on the exact punchline.

The two had a grand old time making jokes at Kentucky’s expense, swapping Bill Clinton impressions, belting out the occasional showtune, and remarking incredulously to a younger fan not yet overloaded on Trek trivia, “You were not there when the great Gowron died and ruined Star Trek forever?”

At one point, a hyperactive Gowron played “Talk to the Audience” with an accommodating fan. Disappointed with the number of empty seats in the back, he decided to test his microphone range, left the hall, and wandered other parts of the convention, shouting at attendees to come join the fun. We could hear him broadcasting for several minutes until he finally broke contact somewhere distant, possibly in the hotel next door for all we knew.

One of several impromptu musical numbers included a quick take on “The Warrior’s Anthem” sung in the original Klingon. Any costumed or honorary Klingons in the audience who knew the words and possessed a true warrior’s spirit were invited up front to join in the chant. All other cowardly Klingons in the audience were rounded up and executed.

At the end of their time slot, Martok and Gowron were joined onstage by their guest MC, Trek podcaster and cosmetologist Moxie Magnus. (My aforementioned clipfest included a photo of Moxie, but was mislabeled as merely Janice Rand. The management apologizes profusely for the error.)

Sometime between noon and 2 p.m. Hertzler and O’Reilly escaped their makeup no worse for the wear, cheerfully signing autographs as if nothing special had happened today.

To be continued. In tomorrow night’s chapter: the non-Klingon guests!

Despite the focus of Part One on Klingons extraordinaire Robert O’Reilly and J. G. Hertzler, they weren’t the only unforgettable personalities appearing at this year’s Starbase Indy convention. For Trek fans who’d attended previous cons (and therefore already had the chance to meet each Klingon warrior), the headliner would be Nicole DeBoer, making her first Indianapolis appearance. She’s known to us as Ezri Dax, a season-seven regular from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, who had big shoes to fill when Terry Farrell’s Jadzia Dax exited the series.

In her Q&A, DeBoer also fielded questions about her non-Trek work such as The Dead Zone, Kids in the Hall, Stargate Atlantis, one schmaltzy direct-to-video Christmas movie, and the cult flick Cube. She recounted a couple of audition stories, and was candid about her Canadian heritage, particularly how working in Toronto afforded her career opportunities for which she’s eternally thankful. She also wished for a new Trek series about the post-DS9 adventures of Captain Ezri Dax, but that alt-reality is likely a job for fanfic writers. Preferably good ones.

If you’re more into real science than sci-fi, returning to Starbase Indy was Dr. David A. Wolf, a genuine astronaut — veteran of several Space Shuttle missions, spacewalks, and extended space-station assignments, one of which lasted over 120 days and necessitated two years of physical rehab after his return to Earth.

Dr. Wolf brought a compilation of NASA footage from his various voyages in the general direction of the final frontier, including launches, zero-g acrobatics, and spacewalks. He recounted one especially harrowing tale about his first spacewalk, which dragged out to an unplanned and dangerous fourteen hours due to severe airlock malfunction. He’s one of several astronauts who recently retired from NASA following the decommission of the Space Shuttle program. Considering that NASA is now averaging two Americans into space per year, Wolf expected far fewer opportunities for actual space-bound missions and decided it was time. NASA’s loss was Starbase Indy’s gain.

Alexis Cruz is best known as Skaara from the Stargate universe, but also plugged his involvement in an indie graphic novel called The Unprofessionals and a planned adaptation of the ancient TSR RPG Metamorphosis Alpha. He’d love to spearhead a Stargate comic book series of his own, but would have to commandeer the publishing rights away from current holder Avatar Press.

Returning SBI mainstays included Trek cartoonist David Reddick and one-time actress Deborah Downey, whose claim to fame was playing the main “hippie chick” who “rocked with Spock” (both phrases hers) in the well-known Star Trek episode “The Way to Eden”, a searing political indictment of space hippies living in space hippie communes and making space hippie music.

Downey is a veteran of many a Starbase Indy gathering. (She’s become to SBI what Noel Neill is to Metropolis’ annual Superman Celebration.) In honor of her ongoing support and contributions to SBI, the staff presented her with a meticulously hand-crafted replica of her original space hippie instrument. The presenter was even dressed as her character. For extra Eden-osity, both were also joined onstage by Mirror-Spock wielding Spock’s own space hippie instrument from that same episode. Sadly, both were merely space hippie replicas, neither imbued with the necessary space hippie technology required to make them work or jam.

My wife wasn’t on the guest list, but she found that if you waited until a lull between stage presentations, asked nicely, and appeared cute and harmless, security would let you sit in the Captain’s Chair for a very special photo op.

To be concluded! In tomorrow night’s finale: costumes!

Let’s face it: costumes are the real reason to attend a sci-fi convention. Celebrities are okay. Talented writers and artists are nice to meet if they’re not terrible people. Panels, Q&As, and fan club meetings are great opportunities for great minds to hang out together. There’s also something to be said for wandering the dealers’ room for new hobbyist purchases, whether new items you’ve never seen or vintage collectibles you could never afford. My wife and I even attended an interesting lecture on nineteenth-century forensics, which drew comparisons between the original Sherlock Holmes stories and later historical developments in the field.

When it comes to Internet recaps, though, costumes are the main attraction. They celebrate our favorite characters, they showcase the creativity and inspiration of dedicated fans, they enliven the dullest moments of any convention, and they help distract us from garish hotel carpeting.

Among the best of this year’s bunch: a pink samurai, hanging out for a moment here with one of Indianapolis’ own Naptown Roller Girls.

Naturally, standard Trek characters were out in full force, such as Q and his companion from the Enterprise crew.

For fans of the original series, an old-school classic-Trek Klingon made a rare con appearance, courtesy of the local chapter of the Starfleet Command fan club.

Also patrolling the premises: Bukai the Dragon Ranger, from the Super Sentai sixteenth iteration, Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. Or, y’know, “the Green Power Ranger!” to you Americentric rabble.

For anyone who feels left out because they don’t recognize any of these costumes so far, I present…TV’s Velma! If I have to explain who she is, you should consider buying at least one screen-based object for your house or shack.

Friday night opening ceremonies included a color guard performance by assorted sci-fi personalities, as well as musical numbers and tributes and such.

If you didn’t bring your own costume, you could either buy shirts and accessories from the dealers’ room, or visit the very special NASA exhibit, which included a simulated astronaut’s uniform available for try-ons. You, too, could feel what it’s like to be among those brave pioneers who come as close to infinity-and-beyond as NASA’s shoestring budget will stretch nowadays. Unfortunately the suit wasn’t made for guys like me who are too tall to be horse jockeys. I couldn’t even wedge my head inside the helmet. My wife, on the other hand, fit just fine and totally stole my planned photo op. Good for her. Not that I’m bitter.

Also part of that NASA exhibit: a genuine moon rock from the planet Moon, the only object in the entire convention that had its own security guard on duty.

In addition to costumes and costume accessories, available products and goods in the dealers’ room included Trek action figures of years past, tons of Doctor Who paraphernalia, Japanese snacks, Trek pet toys, and these residents of the Island of Misfit Board Games. If I’d panned left, the shot would’ve included a game I once owned as a kid, The MAD Magazine Game. Good times.

We conclude here with an encore appearance by Messrs. O’Reilly and Hertzler from Part One, returning for the grand finale in a special souvenir photo taken with this writer and his aforementioned wife.

And a fun time was had by all, especially the two Klingons who were mesmerized by my Hawaiian shirt.

The End. Thanks for reading!

From a purely photographic perspective, our family found 2012 far from boring, to say the least. It wasn’t without its share of trials, tears, and terrors, but it’s my fervent hope that the memories of those invigorating events caught on camera should outlast the emotional scars of the uglier incidents for years to come.

Some of the following subjects are from photo parades previously shared here on MCC. Some are from events that occurred prior to MCC’s inception on April 28, 2012. Some of these are sneak previews of photo parades that have been held in reserve until the conclusion of the 2012 Road Trip series, which is not represented in this gallery since it has its very own de facto home page.

That being said: the lighter side of 2012 from my limited vantage point appeared as follows. Enjoy!

To learn more about MCC photo collections from 2012, visit your local library for further reading that doesn’t exist, or check out these past entries:

* Indy 500 Festival Parade 2012 Photo Gallery
* Metropolis Superman Celebration 2012 Photo Gallery
* Threat Level Milquetoast: Visiting Indiana Beach Without Kids
* Indiana State Fair 2012 Photos: Sandwiches, Sculpture, and a Surprise Celebrity
* Wizard World Chicago: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five
* GenCon: Parts One, Two, Three, Four
* Starbase Indy: Parts One, Two, Three

Legal disclaimer for the record: though the above-displayed “2012 in Pictures” gallery is entirely comprised of photos I personally snapped, all other galleries on this site are the collaborative efforts of myself and my amazing wife, to whom I owe ongoing credit and endless gratitude for any number of contributions and general above-and-beyond support in 2012.

See you in 2013!

[Special thanks to the WordPress.com Daily Post, whose Weekly Photo Challenge was directly responsible for today's topic, which aims to complement and expand upon my previous MCC 2012 in Review.

Today is also Day Seven of the seven-day WordPress.com Daily Post's "Just Do It!" Weekly Writing Challenge, in which WordPress bloggers were dared to post-a-day for seven consecutive days. This visual retrospective is lucky number seven, the show-stopping finale. Thanks for visiting!]

This year my wife and I are gearing up to attend our third consecutive C2E2 comic-book-’n'-entertainment convention up in Chicago, happening April 26th-28th, 2013. We missed the inaugural year in 2010 due to a schedule conflict, but I’ve made a point of prioritizing it on my calendar ever since. I rather like the idea of someone attempting a Midwest version of the San Diego Comic Con.

Most people in our hobbies are familiar with the longer-running Wizard World Chicago con, whose present incarnation emphasizes its celebrity autograph show while casually including some comics on the side. Though C2E2′s 2013 guest list implies that their entertainment-guest budget has been exponentially increased, they nonetheless attract a much wider lineup of comic-book writers, artists, and fans as well. C2E2 has one major advantage in my book: the major comic companies — Marvel, DC, Dark Horse — have sided with C2E2 over WWC, appearing each year at the former while having sadly eschewed the latter for years.

* * * * *

C2E2 is nowhere near the size of San Diego, but obviously dreams of being such someday. It presently uses only one section of Chicago’s enormous McCormick Place convention center, which has plenty more room to offer if Reed Exhibitions decided they needed some value-added sprawling space. 2012 attendance was pegged at 41,000, up from 32,000 in 2011 and well above its 2010 debut of 27,500. San Diego could still beat up C2E2 and steal its lunch money, but I’m eager to see it keep growing.

The following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in two parts, was previously shared elsewhere online at the time, but never on a site I could call my own…until now. Midlife Crisis Crossover wasn’t created until a few weeks after C2E2 2012; thus it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this retrospective of our first C2E2 — chiefly, pics of some of the most interesting costumes we witnessed. For the average con attendee, the costumes are one of the most fascinating, creatively engaging aspects of the convention experience.

(Not that it was all about costumes. Your humble author and his even humbler wife were each allowed a moment to strike our own poses courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.)

Even type-A cynics who have no time for super-heroes know these guys. DC Comics may have forced them into new costumes two years ago, but fans dressed in the classic versions will outnumber the usurper togs, guaranteed.

Cyclops and Jean Grey represent for the Marvel side, during a brief time frame when neither of them were dead.

Fan conventions are never all about super-heroes. You can always count on a few Ghostbusters, one or more Indiana Jones, the occasional stray Captain Jack Sparrow, and an increasing number of Doctor Whos. Leave it to Jedi Masters Kit Fisto, Plo Koon, and Saesee Tiin to keep the Force alive.

Two of my favorites that year: Marvel’s classic mismatched buddy-hero team, Power Man and Iron Fist.

Fans who enjoy the CW’s Arrow are likely unaware that, in his advance years, Oliver Queen later had a son who followed in dad’s super-heroic footsteps. Connor Hawke wore the Green Arrow mantle for several years while his dad was dead, but was eventually sidelined after his resurrection. As far as I know, poor Connor ceased to exist after DC’s New 52 reboot.

Another couple of favorites: Hawkman is tough to pull off in a crowded atmosphere because of the constant risk of wing damage. His companion is G’Nort, one of the most incompetent, mentally unaware Green Lanterns of all time. As comic relief, he ruled. He now resides with Son of Green Arrow in post-reboot limbo.

From the world of video games, meet King Mickey from the Kingdom Hearts series, one of my son’s childhood favorites. (The first two games rank pretty highly with me, too. The final boss battle in KH2 remains one of the most stressful yet successful moments in my entire gaming history.)

Lest anyone think it’s all about American media, rest assured that anime/manga fans show up in droves. Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop is but one of a pantheon. I’m sure you know her companion. Oh, and whatshisname the droid, sneaking into the shot like a tiny, jealous diva. Squint hard and you’ll spot at least one Ghostbuster as a veritable buried Easter egg.

To be continued!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

The following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in two parts, was previously shared elsewhere online [in 2011], but never on a site I could call my own…until now. Midlife Crisis Crossover wasn’t created until a few weeks after C2E2 2012; thus it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this retrospective of our first C2E2 — chiefly, pics of some of the most interesting costumes we witnessed. For the average con attendee, the costumes are one of the most fascinating, creatively engaging aspects of the convention experience.

Last time we focused on some of the good-guy costumes we encountered. Now it’s the bad guys’ turn. Darkseid, Shredder, and Dr. Doom bid you welcome and insist that you submit or else.

Like the World’s Finest team we saw in part 1, traditional Penguin is another classic for viewers young and old.

If you only know of the Kingpin from the film version of Daredevil, this one may be lost on you. This is a dead-on recreation of John Romita’s original design, complete with superfluous cane and trademark cigar that in today’s world would earn him an instant PG-13 rating.

We’ve been told Electro will be one of the villains to appear in the Amazing Spider-Man sequel, to be played by Academy Award Winner Jamie Foxx. It’s a safe bet that Foxx will not be sporting the Steve Ditko headgear, but I had to award bonus points to this gent for the LED faux-electrified grip.

Mojo is an otherdimensional tyrant and TV executive who tangled with the X-Men a few times back in the late ’80s and was designed by an intermittent but influential artist named Arthur Adams. Sebastian Shaw was the character Kevin Bacon played in X-Men: First Class, except without his traditional Inner Circle retro-England garb correctly worn here. Now I don’t have to imagine what a Mojo/Shaw team-up would look like, but I’m not convinced it would last long before egos clashed.

Another one of my favorites from this year: Black Adam, longtime arch-nemesis to SHAZAM!, a.k.a. Captain Marvel.

I’m neither a Doctor Who fan nor a hater, but I’m guessing people like old-school Daleks. Behold, then!

To this day I have no idea what this was supposed to be, but I had to commend him for staying in character. He shambled around, hunched over and jabbering nonsense. If you tried to approach him, he recoiled. If you took his picture, he made happy animal sounds. (I hope he was just playing a character, anyway…)

Dieters of the world, beware one of your several thousand sworn enemies: free samples of addictive Japanese fruit candy! Do you dare negotiate with their giant-sized living spokesmodel?

This is an Uglydoll. They had a booth at the con. They seem mostly lovable.

Rather than an ending in which the bad guys win, we’ll conclude here with a couple of surprise hero types: a Tron warrior and a Na’Vi from Avatar, each representing for movies as counterbalance to all the comic book folks.

I have more 2011 pics if the public demands an encore, including photos some of the comic-book creators I met, but I tried to winnow down the collection to a manageable size, plus I omitted several blurry shots. That hideous red carpeting did us amateur photogs no favors.

Gentle reminder: C2E2 2013 will be held April 26th-28th at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center/ Plenty of tickets are still available! Rest assured MCC will do its part to share the experience. (Expect a C2E2 2012 retrospective before then, too.)

We’re now two weeks away from this year’s C2E2, the fourth installment of Chicago’s up-’n'-coming comic-book-’n’-entertainment convention that hopes someday to achieve the size and reach of the San Diego Comic Con if enough of us Midwesterners support it.

Every C2E2 has plenty of activities for the hobby enthusiast: entertainment guests signing autographs; popular comic book creators speaking at panels, holding Q&As, and likewise autographing for fans; aspiring young creators gathering in Artists Alley and hoping to sell you on their own proud efforts; comic-shop owners and SF collectors selling vintage back issues, rare toys, and bargain-box oldies by the pound; booths representing the major comics publishers, including Marvel and DC; and — most noticeable of all — fans attending in costume, resplendent in their creativity and/or audacity.

Part 1 of MCC’s C2E2 2011 retrospective has a much longer intro with more information about the con and its history. As with that two-part miniseries, the following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in three parts, was previously shared elsewhere online last year, two weeks before Midlife Crisis Crossover was born. (Someone should remind me sometime to tell the story of how C2E2 was indirectly responsible for MCC’s creation in the first place…) For the sake of bringing my works under a single, unified creative banner, it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this memory parade of our second time at C2E2.

We commence with the wider-appeal characters first to stress that the ‘E’ in “C2E2″ stands for “entertainment”. Comics are a major part of the proceedings, but there’re more to most comics fans’ interests than graphic storytelling alone. Exhibit A: the outlandish stylings of Effie Trinket and Caesar Flickerman from The Hunger Games.

Our Hunger Games heroine, Katniss Everdeen, was a popular costume at each of the major cons we attended last year.

Though he was a comic character first, most folks know Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer from the underappreciated Disney adaptation, starring Academy Award Winner Jennifer Connelly, former spy Timothy Dalton, and the creepy mayoral candidate from AMC’s The Killing as the Rocketeer.

Zuul and the Ghostbusters, just hanging out as if their differences were settled and no streams were ever crossed with explosive, marshmallow-liquefying results.

A cluster of Death Star employees, no doubt happy with their workplace environment and little suspecting that their health insurance will ultimately be a complete waste of money.

A Return of the Jedi Biker Scout hangs out with Colonial Marines from Aliens, swapping stories and complaining about their grisly fates.

Most obscure of this lot is the Shogun of Harlem from the obscure 1985 martial-arts cheesefest Berry Gordy’s the Last Dragon. I saw it in theaters when I was twelve. To this day, I’m still not sure what to think of the movie or the costume. This won the Saturday costume contest, partly for originality and partly because he yelled and overacted a lot onstage. Yelling and overacting are surefire winning moves in many convention costume contests.

Representative ape from Planet of the same. In their alt-future, purple is the new armor.

Three Disney Princesses and one Warrior Princess hang out with one truly lucky Stormtrooper…by which I mean he has slightly better odds of survival than those doomed Death Star henchmen.

To be continued!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

[T]he following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in three parts, was previously shared elsewhere online last year, two weeks before Midlife Crisis Crossover was born. For the sake of bringing my works under a single, unified creative banner, it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this memory parade of our second time at C2E2.

Part One focused on movie-based costumes. For this installment, our focus is the attending majority who support Marvel and/or DC Comics. Some were more inspired by Marvel films than by Marvel comics, but wouldn’t exist without the comics’ success in the first place.

In a rare moment of Big Two detente, WWII Captain America costars in his own special inter-company crossover with the grim-’n'-gritty 1980s version of Green Arrow, the first version of the character to retire the trick arrows and fight crime using only traditional, pointy, frequently lethal arrows…except in this photo, because C2E2 has strict weapons policies. Armed WWII Cap will be fighting to defend the both of them, then.

On the lighter side, Smallville‘s own Green Arrow was a little more mannered and a lot more charming than the ’80s incarnation. I’ll be curious to see if any Arrow fans appear this year in shirtless regalia.

Fans of DC’s animated universes will recognize the Joker’s pal Harley Quinn, and Starfire from Teen Titans.

Steampunk versions of established characters is a costume subgenre gaining popularity at cons. Such alt-universe flourishes will guarantee your costume will resemble no one else’s, and since you devised it yourself, no one can tell you you’re doing it wrong. Here, Steampunk Rogue and Steampunk Polaris represent for a hypohetical team of Steampunk X-Men.

X-Force was later shaken up and reformed after the con, so now all we have are recent memories. Front row: X-23 and Deadpool. Back row, left to right: Dark Beast, Domino, Archangel, Thunderbird, giant-sized Lockheed the Dragon for some reason (he’s usually housepet-sized), Wolverine, Cable, and Just-Out-of-Frame Lad.

Two X-Force members also posed with other X-folks, not just their color-coordinated teammates. Left to right: classic Juggernaut, movie Wolverine, classic Magneto, original Gambit, original Rogue, ’90s Cyclops (give or take a decade).

Frequent Spider-Man foes the Black Cat and the Rhino show off their ill-gotten gains, taken from the First National Bank of OldMoviePropVille. Caught unintentionally in the background are the Invisible Woman and possibly Captain Jamaica.

The illusionist known as Mysterio has yet to be allowed in any of the live-action Spider-Man films, but kids who enjoyed the 1990s animated series might remember him. We assumed his helmet had air holes and we weren’t oblivious to muted cries for help.

At the end of the Saturday costume contest, the Dark Knight was more than ready to take out the trash…or, preferably, to hunt down the evildoers responsible for this wanton abandonment of litter.

To be continued!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

[T]he following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in three parts, was previously shared elsewhere online last year, two weeks before Midlife Crisis Crossover was born. For the sake of bringing my works under a single, unified creative banner, it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this memory parade of our second time at C2E2.

Part One featured movie-based costumes. Part Two was all about Marvel and DC Comics — “the Big Two”, as we comics fans know them. Here in the action-packed conclusion, it’s everyone else’s time to shine.

One such couple of lovable misfits: Pee-Wee and Globey!

The name of the Snowths may not be common knowledge, but you may know their one hit, as performed on The Muppet Show.

Dr. Clayton Forrester and an alt-universe Joel Robinson send happy greetings and Hamdingers from Mystery Science Theater 3000.

How Voltron can see or breathe, I have no idea. Extra credit points are owed to anyone who can identify the anime schoolgirl character in the background — assuming she’s a specific character, and not just really lost.

Van Fanel from the anime series The Vision of Escaflowne shows off his extendable wings. I’ve seen a few costumers attempt wings at different cons. Extending and retracting are the toughest effects to nail, but always impressive when they work.

Members of the villainous Organization XIII from Kingdom Hearts 2.

Three warriors from the Dragon Age games. If they have names, I’d be curious to know. One of the hardest parts is trying to match names with costumes that fall outside my geek specializations. Assistance from those in the know is always appreciated. Also, unlike the average old person, I like learning new things.

Kitana from Mortal Kombat — one of several MK characters I saw hanging out last year. Note the beach-ready Stormtrooper abiding in the background.

King Bowser, boss about town and proud owner of eight castles. Clearly one of the 1%. BOOOOOOOO.

Link from The Legend of Zelda, two guys from Portal, a hammer-wielder of unknown origin (oh, how I loathe my ignorance), and Marvel’s antihero Deadpool, showing up in the wrong entry on purpose.

We conclude the three-part retrospective with this group shot from the Saturday costume contest, whose participants included Poison Ivy, Deadmau5, Two-Face, a couple of Jokers, the Rocketeer, Buddy Christ from Dogma, Green Arrow, Disney princesses, a Doctor Who Clockwork Man, and more!

C2E2 2013 will be April 26th-28th in Chicago at McCormick Place (West Building). Tickets are still available and guests are still being added. Coverage and souvenirs will be forthcoming on Midlife Crisis Crossover, because it’s kind of an annual highlight for me. Should be fun!

As I type this, the fourth annual Chicago Comic and Entertainment Exposition (“C2E2″) its wrapping up this year’s three-day run, April 26-28, 2013. C2E2 dreams of becoming the Midwest’s answer to the fabled San Diego Comic Con, or any of the large-scale comic-book conventions that all your glamorous coastal cities hold and monopolize to a sickening, sybaritic excess. Not that we easily dismissed, frequently deprived, flyover-state residents are bitter. My wife and I missed the first year, but have attended every year since then. I’m there for the comics; my wife’s there for the entertainment. Our respective hobbyist enthusiasms enable a sort of synchronized synergy so that neither of us is bored all weekend long.

This week I’ll be sharing photographic souvenirs from our C2E2 experience, divided into media categories, to be apportioned and shared as quickly as possible. Many of them are costume pics, but not all of them. Several attendees may find themselves strolling through backgrounds as living, walking, oblivious Easter Eggs.

Four caveats for first-time visitors to Midlife Crisis Crossover:

1. My wife and I are not professional photographers, nor are we worthy of press passes. You’ll notice that right off. These were taken as best as possible with the intent to share with fellow fans out of a sincere appreciation for the works inspired by the heroes, hobbies, artistic expressions, and/or intellectual properties that brought us geeks together under one vaulted roof for the weekend. We all do what we can with the tools and circumstances at hand.

2. Though two of us took the photos, Midlife Crisis Crossover is written and cobbled together by this one old guy, who suffers from the continuing distractions of a full-time job. I plan to post our results as quickly as possible, but they won’t be instant. If any C2E2 attendees out there are searching desperately for pics of themselves or of other specific costumes they saw, I’ll gladly check our files and, if we actually caught you on camera, will cheerfully move you closer to the front of the line, or at least let you know which installment will be yours. We didn’t catch everyone. Despite DC Comics’ insulting expectations to the contrary, McCormick Place is kind of big and was filled with many, many people this weekend. Oversights happen.

3. We didn’t attend Sunday. Sincere apologies to anyone we missed as a result.

4. Corrections and comments are always welcome. I like learning new things, especially when I’m trying to write about characters and series that are beyond my particular geek foci.

Onward!

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This year C2E2 had a separate costume contest each and every day. Friday’s was a smaller affair, but Saturday’s had a large corporate sponsor, bigger prizes, and (coincidentally?) fancier entries. Winners were selected in five different categories, along with a Grand Prize winner who took home $250.00 in American cash.

The Grand Prize winner: a living embodiment of the TARDIS console. Not quite “The Doctor’s Wife”, but circuit boards and working LEDs served as fascinating accessories.

The award for Most Creative Costume went to the Queen of the Darts. She’s like the Queen of Hearts from Alice of Wonderland, except with darts, because hearts are a terrible weapon. Try throwing handfuls of hearts at an enemy and watch how pummeled you get. Also, throwing knives aren’t an option because they don’t rhyme with “hearts”.

The award for Most Technical Costume went to the T-Rex Megazord from the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (i.e., the first season to be dubbed, recut, and aired in America), whose limbs were so cumbersome that it couldn’t walk up the stage steps and had to be lifted by a few helpers. In order to exit, he had to turn around with his back to the stairs and allow those same helpers to lower him offstage backwards, while a few of us audience members made obnoxious “BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP” backup-alarm noises in unison.

The award for Most Accurate Costume went to Marvel’s newest version of the man called Nova. I expect him to appear in Marvel’s planned Guardians of the Galaxy film. Over his shoulder you’ll notice the Green Ranger’s Dragonzord, also from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Sadly, he lost against the T-Rex Megazord due to a wardrobe malfunction that can best be described as hip displacement.

The award for Best Performance went to Ms. Marvel, who followed up this pose by dropping and doing the splits. I don’t recall which issue showed Carol Danvers performing that move. I can only imagine the hilarity if the T-Rex Megazord had tried the same.

The award for Crowd Favorite (i.e., contestant that earned the loudest applause and hollerin’) went to tiny Optimus Prime, a small child dressed in boxes as Optimus’ human form…who then dropped and transformed into an authentic-looking semi made of boxes. Parents frequently joke about how small children are sometimes more captivated by the boxes that held their new toys more than they’re captivated by the toys themselves, but I’ve never seen a kid who elevated box appreciation into a skill set. I’d pay to possess that kind of ingenuity.

Runner-up in the Crowd Favorite category: Carl Fredricksen’s house from Pixar’s mUp. If she’d brought enough helium balloons to levitate to the ceiling, I guarantee she would’ve buried crafty li’l Optimus Prime Jr.

The winner of the Friday costume contest was a zombie nurse from the video game Silent Hill, who won on a combination of accurate, creepy appearance and lurching, shambling, silent performance. (Due apparently to lack of corporate sponsorship, Friday didn’t have multiple categories or winners. That’s probably because Fridays at conventions historically have much lower attendance than Saturdays, though this could’ve been a great opportunity for a small media startup to make a benevolent impression.)

Other competitors in the Friday competition included but weren’t limited to Lara Croft, Tomb Raider; Ashe from the MOBA League of Legends; Spawn; and the original man called Nova.

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The TARDIS Console was hardly the only Doctor Who fan in attendance. My wife and I aren’t Whovians largely because we’ve yet to find the time to watch the previous 274 seasons, and because we’d hate to think of all the in-jokes and callbacks we’d missed if we didn’t watch them first, even if they’re not mandatory. Regardless, we can appreciate the dedication we saw in force this weekend, and were shocked that Who-related characters seemed to outnumber both Star Wars and Star Trek cosplayers combined.

I recognized my favorites of the bunch as Who people because I sometimes read articles about shows I don’t watch. I’m peculiar that way. Behold: gargoyles from the episode “Blink”. Remember: don’t look away!

Another living embodiment of the TARDIS, retro-style.

Yet another living TARDIS, plus a humanized Dalek, plus one of the few Trek costumes on the premises, crossing Nurse Chapel’s medical uniform with Yeoman Rand’s hairstyle.

Another humanized Dalek. I’m beginning to think this is some kind of joint effort calling for Dalek tolerance. I refuse to be fooled.

At center stage is one of the Ood, a classic Who alien race. Sharing the stage are a pair of Jokers, a Death Star sanitation engineer, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, and Ashe from League of Legends again.

Dedicated old-school Whovians, I’m guessing. They were in Peter Davison’s autograph line. Seemed like a good possibility. Either way, they were better dressed than I was.

Speaking of which: special guest Peter Davison, the fifth Doctor Who, had one of the two longest autograph lines all weekend long. (The owner of that other endless line: Jason David Frank, beloved Power Ranger.)

To be continued!

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Links to other installments:

Part 2: Costumes from Screens Big and Small
Part 3: Costumes from Marvel, Image, and Other Comics
Part 4: Geek Culture Settings and Artifacts
Part 5: Actors and Creators Who Made Our Day

Continuing our coverage of C2E2 costumes and other notable sights. Disclaimers are same as before. Corrections are welcome.

Many of this year’s superhuman costumes were based on their filmic counterparts rather than the print versions. I wasn’t surprised to see Bane number among this year’s popular choices. If nothing else, the Dark Knight Rises version is warmer and less revealing than his original luchador ensemble.

Another Bane appeared with his Nolanverse pals Batman and Catwoman. At left, a skeptical Phoenix represents for comics.

Still another Bane invited his Nolanverse buddies Joker and Scarecrow, along with special guest Alt-Universe Two-Face.

Tim Burton’s Catwoman reminds us that Christopher Nolan’s trilogy isn’t the be-all-end-all for every fan.

The Zack Snyder version of Watchmen‘s Silk Spectre pals around with a Dick Tracy suitable for either the one movie or the long-running comic strip.

Also bridging the gap between movies and 1980s mature-readers comics: V and his fabulous Vendetta.

Predator would like a moment of your time, if you’re not busy.

A different Predator will be right with you, right after he takes this important call and/or initiates his self-destruct sequence. As moody as he is, it’s hard to tell which way he’ll go sometimes.

Good news for us: no citywide detonation today. A relieved, merry Predator instead leads Link from Zelda, a fairy friend, and Harry Potter in a life-affirming parade around the exhibit hall.

Geek convention photo album bylaws require the presence of at least one Star Wars character or else. Fulfilling our quota are these two Biker Scouts, who don’t seem the least bit perturbed that the long-lost remains of the late Darth Maul have been stuffed and mounted for Rebel Alliance viewing pleasure.

Adhering to the same inscrutable-full-mask motif is the Blue Power Ranger, kicking off our TV section.

From kickoffs to sidekicks, our man Kato proves he doesn’t need the Green Hornet with him on patrol.

Also on patrol: there in the world is Carmen Sandiego.

Visiting from a different world: Marvin the Martian, hanging out with the Silent Hill nurse from Part 1.

Also appearing from a cartoon: Tigress from the lamentably canceled Young Justice.

Also heading our way from a canceled TV show: the cast of Firefly. Taking their photo is Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones, in no danger of cancellation anytime soon.

Also benefiting from a large audience: Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time. Her acquaintance Finn was momentarily distracted.

Most distracting of all: He-Man and Skeletor. By the power of Grayskull, THEY HAVE THE POWER. And so on.

To be continued!

* * * * *

Links to other installments:

Part 1: Costume Contest Winners and the Doctor Who Milieu Revue
Part 3: Costumes from Marvel, Image, and Other Comics
Part 4: Geek Culture Settings and Artifacts
Part 5: Actors and Creators Who Made Our Day

Continuing our coverage of C2E2 costumes and other notable sights from April 26-27, 2013. Disclaimers are same as before. Corrections are always welcome.

In this installment: comic-book characters! At last, Marvel fans can thrill to the sight of Juggernaut versus Deadpool, no holds barred. Meanwhile, the tenth Doctor Who looks on and laughs as if he’s above such tomfoolery.

Standing by Juggernaut’s side: Pyro from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The film version played by Aaron Stanford eschewed the Mighty Mouse color scheme, but I promise this is an accurate portrayal of his original costume.

Fear not for Deadpool. Remove one from a convention, and more shall rise to take his place, and his weaponry shall grow ever more ridiculous. In the distance, Finn from Adventure Time refuses to be intimidated.

If you love weapons but hate guns, perhaps you might prefer Mjolnir, the hammer of the mighty Thor, God of Thunder. At least one fan found herself transfixed.

You say you love weapons, hate guns, and hate Norse mythology? Fine — have some Iron Man instead.

Yet another Avengers options on deck with Black Widow, from the “living weapon” category.

If you know Marvel more from the movies than from the comics, you’ll meet Nova and Gamora in 2014′s Guardians of the Galaxy. Please enjoy this educational sneak peek.

I was happy to see heroes from other companies represented by their fans as well. One of the most colorful was Invincible (co-created by Robert Kirkman of Walking Dead fame). Accompanying him here are Insect Queen (old DC villain of sorts) and a Ghostbuster, of which there must always be one in every online convention photo album. Consider it another quota satisfied.

Also from Image Comics: the somewhat more well-known Spawn! This would be closer to the movie version, but not too far removed from Todd McFarlane’s original vision.

If you prefer, here’s a Spawn closer to the comics page, albeit with a less angular-billowy cape.

Once upon a time, before the Saturday morning cartoons, Casey Jones from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles also counted as an indie comics hero. He was played by Elias Koteas in the first TMNT film way back in 1990, but it remains to be seen if he’ll be included in the upcoming, apprehensively anticipated Michael Bay revamp.

Also traversing the barrier between black-and-white graphic storytelling and the silver screen is Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Too bad she didn’t bring her giant hammer.

Though major publisher DC Comics opted out of setting up a promotional booth alongside the other publishers, DC’s fans didn’t let us down. Here’s a round of appreciation for Harley Quinn, who brought her giant hammer.

Also appearing on behalf of DC’s super-villains: Black Adam, arch-nemesis of SHAZAM!

One villain unknown to general audiences: the Red Lantern known as Atrocitus. Like other Red Lanterns, he hates Green Lanterns and regurgitates power-blood. For some reason.

I would assume zombie Wonder Woman qualifies as villainous as well, unless her Themysciran heritage can override the invasive zombie nature. Assuming Themyscira is still in New 52 continuity and hasn’t been usurped by the old Paradise Island trappings. And zombie Wonder Woman, of course, is not to be confused with the Blackest Night Wonder Woman, who was also undead Wonder Woman except the resurrection process transformed her costume into more sinister togs with different emblems. For some reason.

(Some days, I miss being young and wanting to know everything about comics.)

For traditional fans who care nothing for continuity reboots and just want samples of the licensed merchandise all-stars they know and love, we present two Flashes and a Batgirl.

To be continued!

* * * * *

Links to other installments:

Part 1: Costume Contest Winners and the Doctor Who Milieu Revue
Part 2: Costumes from Screens Big and Small
Part 4: Geek Culture Settings and Artifacts
Part 5: Actors and Creators Who Made Our Day

As we continue our coverage of last weekend’s fourth annual Chicago Comic and Entertainment Exposition (“C2E2″), we pause the cavalcade of costume photos and momentarily turn our cameras in other directions — starting with our surroundings. According to the Chicago Tribune, over 53,000 of us packed into McCormick Place over three days to share our common interests without fear, to celebrate the characters and stories that made a difference to us even when no one else got them, to encounter extraordinary sights beyond the purview of humdrum everyday life, and to buy cool stuff in person instead of from the distant comfort of our isolated world surveillance caves.

Every geek convention has its prerequisite components. And as any comic book collector knows, everything cool needs its own logo.

(You had to arrive early to obtain a crowd-free shot of the sign. Even now, you can see Ms. Marvel lurking in the shadows.)

At an average convention, the action begins at 10 a.m. If you want to snap up any convention-exclusive merchandise before it’s sold out, or merely have some elbow room in the exhibit hall for a short time before the general population arrives, you might consider arriving early, as these several thousand forward-thinkers did.

Waiting two or three hours in line before the day begins is not uncommon, least of all for my wife and myself. We’ve waited in some record-length lines in our time. A two-hour wait is nothing if you’re prepared for it. For this year’s preparation, we bought a weekend pass instead of a Saturday-only pass, took vacation time from work, arrived in Chicago midday Friday, sailed through most of our to-do list, and consequently didn’t care what time we arrived on Saturday because we had no time-sensitive matters left undone. It helps that Fridays are never as crowded as Saturdays. Value-shoppers’ bonus: when we bought tickets in advance (back in October 2012), weekend passes were only $5 more than 1-day passes.

For many fans, the highest priority is autographs, whether from famous celebrities or from our favorite comic book creators. Of all the possible lines mankind ever invented, autograph lines can be among the worst non-medical kinds. Saturday crowds kept the celebrity autograph area hopping, but on Friday it was curiously devoid of fans and guests as of 1 p.m.

Only two guests kept steady lines all weekend long, even on Friday: Peter Davison, the fifth Doctor Who; and — believe it or not — Jason David Frank, the original Green Power Ranger from the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (the original incarnation of America’s bowdlerized version of Japan’s Super Sentai series). Apparently Mr. Frank is legendary and/or beloved, as his Friday afternoon line demonstrates here.

Discussion panels and actor Q&As are a common activity. The best conventions have many to choose from, all vying for your attention. There’s always a schedule conflict between two interesting events, always hard choices to make. Lines form early for most panels because good seats can be hard to nab. Sitting in the back is serviceable, but the immediacy of the front rows is better. After all, no one attends a convention to hide from the guests.

If you’re among those blessed or possessed of proper journalist credentials, press passes can be obtained for prime seating, all the better for you professional writers to see and hear everything to ensure an accurate and glowing writeup after the fact.

You can check out the publishers’ booths for promotional giveaways or new books for sale. You can peruse the booths of the many dealers plying their wares, new or used, clearance-priced or collector-upcharged. You can visit Artists Alley to meet your favorite comic-book pros or encourage some budding young artists just getting started in the field. Or you can wander around thunderstruck and gawking at the fans in costume. If you don’t recognize their characters, feel free to ask. No harm done, and you might learn about someone new.

Important anti-stereotyping tip: cosplayers are common, frequently talented, and often wonderful, but not all of us attend in costume. Ordinary street clothes are perfectly acceptable, though you can spot costumes in every direction. There are precious few “wrong” ways to dress. (Fair warning: “naked” is indeed one of the wrong ways. I quote from the rules and regs in the C2E2 program: “Naked is not a costume.”)

At your first convention, you might stop and stare a lot. After a while you get used to the sartorial differences, and everyone lets everyone else be, no matter how colorful.

Why keep staring at people and creeping them out, when you could instead be feasting your eyes on all the things? Don’t kid yourself — this homemade Crow T. Robot knows you want him, baby!

The discerning adult shopper has many upscale products to consider. Even bedroom wear can be found for the right price, such as this genuine Wookiee-skin bathrobe.

From the look-but-don’t-try-on clothing department, on hand this year was an exhibit of actual costumes worn by real Hollywood players during the filming of The Hunger Games. Seen here are outfits worn by Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket (as well as her Reaping microphone) and Union Stuntman #71 as Fifth Peacekeeper from the Right.

Men who have no use for souvenir dresses can instead turn their attention toward the Mach 5 from Speed Racer. Costume spotters should note the cameos here by the Penguin, Ant-Man, and Bishop from the X-Men (I think — man, he’s changed since I stopped reading X-books ages ago).

Longtime MCC followers may recognize the significance of this floor art, the beginnings of a large-scale tribute to NBC’s Revolution. The finished results were posted April 28th on the show’s official Facebook page.

Some items may stand out even though they mean little to you. Start-up companies are always anxious to turn heads, attract an audience, and find some way to spread the word about their endeavors. Amazing colossal zombie kid is one such mascot who really wants to be your friend.

And then there’s…um, yeah, I don’t even know. You’re on your own with Googly-Eyed T-Rex here.

All in all, conventions for comic books, sci-fi, of gaming offer a variety of opportunities for geek culture to flourish, to revel, to synthesize itself into new forms, to relish our multimedia multiverse of options for exploration, enlightenment, or entertainment. As for my wife and myself, it gave us a much-needed chance to work out our differences by pitting an irresistible force against an immovable object. In true geek fashion, we’ll be arguing for years over who won.

To be continued!

[Special thanks to the WordPress.com Daily Post, whose Weekly Photo Challenge provided partial inspiration for the structure of this segment. Thanks for visiting!]

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Links to other installments are enclosed below for the curious completists among you. Happy viewing!

Part 1: Costume Contest Winners and the Doctor Who Milieu Revue
Part 2: Costumes from Screens Big and Small
Part 3: Costumes from Marvel, Image, and Other Comics
Part 5: Actors and Creators Who Made Our Day