The marathon continues! As promised in our first installment, please enjoy more photos from the first annual Indy PopCon convention. Same guidelines apply: we’re fans, not pros; corrections and comments welcome; hope they’re enjoyable.

Part Six: our last remaining costume photos from other categories that didn’t receive separate entries — characters from movies, TV, American animation, the time-honored “potpourri” division, and ensemble setups. After disqualifying several photos that were either blurry or missing key portions of anatomy, what’s here is what’s left of our costume pics. That’s not to say the Indy PopCon marathon ends here. Two more entries should be following this week, and then MCC returns to its regularly random programming of whatever and stuff.

Japanese virtual pop star Hatsune Miku bids you welcome.

Also from the world of music, but differently fabricated: Lady Gaga!

From a singer who wears meat to a mascot who sells meat: it’s Big Boy! Appearing on behalf of the online T-shirt store One Man Surf Party.

A very different product ambassador: Franken-Berry! Still hot off his April appearance at C2E2 in Chicago.

A very different movie monster: Alien! Now with wings.

From one monster to another, it’s…I, uh, have no idea.

A much more recognizable face: Kaylie from Firefly! She was officially introduced as “Steampunk Kaylie”, but the differences are minor.

A more obscure name: Susan Sto Helit, granddaughter of Death, from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. I’ve only read four of those, none of which she was in, so I have some catching up to do.

Going ultra-secret-double-obscure: the Red Bandit and Nurse Evelyn from Tarsem Singh’s The Fall.

A slightly more well-known duo: TV’s Green Arrow and Black Canary.

A bit more famous: Belle and her dad Maurice from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. The enchanted rose is a nice touch.

Also from the Department of Old Man Cosplay: the Ice King from Adventure Time.

His former neighbor on Cartoon Network: Cheetara from Thundercats.

Appearing on a rival network: the eponymous star of Nickelodeon’s The Legend of Korra.

From another channel altogether and refracted through a different prism: quoth the MC, “gender-bending Princess Kenny from South Park.” Her moment on stage was, of course, a death scene.

From super-short winter kids to super-high winter monsters: the Russian Yeti was the tallest competitor in the costume contest and took several minutes to lumber up and down the dinky stage steps. I’d be curious to see how he stacks up against the fire-breathing dragon we saw at C2E2.

Two-part grand finale:

My wife and I went home in the late afternoon for a while for housekeeping and recharging purposes. (That’s one of the perks of attending conventions in your hometown. I’ve learned this now that Indianapolis has any conventions to its name.) When we returned to the Convention Center, we ran into a photo shoot for several dozen cosplayers and snapped a couple of group pics just as they were finishing up.

Previously unseen faces in photo #1 include a couple of Minecraft guys, Arkham Asylum Harley Quinn, Arkham Asylum Scarecrow, Batman, Deadmau5, Corvo from Dishonored, three or four protagonists from Assassin’s Creed, a much better look at Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII, and Link from The Legend of Zelda.

The final new faces in photo #2: another Thor and Loki; the Riddler; another Joker and two more Harleys; Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece; and Temari from Naruto. Once again my broad gaps in anime knowledge are telling here and I won’t pretend otherwise, but you get the idea. This was a fantastic weekend for anyone who wanted to see or feel their favorite characters living out loud.

…

For MCC, this is it for Indy PopCon costumes…but the best is yet to come!

To be continued!

[Links to other entries will be in the right sidebar this week, then inserted into each entry after the series is finished. Thanks for visiting!]

Not taking Khal Drogo seriously would prove to be his last mistake. After the scene of carnage, his friends divided up the contents of his pockets between them.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: my wife and I attended Gen Con 2014 and took pictures as usual.

Parts One through Three were the Costume Contest winners and contenders. Part Four was cosplay in the exhibit hall, the other halls, the other rooms, out and about, and wherever. Part Five: more of those, but the last usable ones in our collection. If you’re not shown here, either our destinies didn’t cross on that fateful Saturday, or we crossed at mistimed moments (really sorry I missed Pirate Harley Quinn), or we have a tragically blurry pic of you that’s not worth anyone’s upload time. Better luck next year, maybe?

For those who know every fictional character ever invented, this entry shall be your geek-culture playground, as it contains the largest number of “WHO DAT” cosplay moments. If you recognize any of the unnamed folks in these pics, now’s your chance to label them with pride.

Onward!

Disney Team-Up presents Maleficent and Anna from Frozen! With a cameo from stuffed Olaf.

A very different Olaf teams up with the Red Mage from Bravely Default.

Old school Final Fantasy Black Mage (and Baby Chocobo!) teams up with…uh, these guys.

Dartz and Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh!

The Ice King from Adventure Time.

Wanda from The Fairly Oddparents! We were in line for the same food truck. Cosmo was already eating and we didn’t want to intrude. After lunch, memory failed us and we forgot to catch up with them. Alas.

He was working a booth, so I’m guessing he was…a product?

Some knights! I really, really feel like I should recognize these. Curse this old age and my overstuffed yet deteriorating brain.[UPDATED 8/19/2014, 9:15 p.m.: Meet Kitiara and Lord Loren Soth from the Dragonlance novels. Special thanks to OrcStompRunner for the assist.]

Possibly a distant cousin of Drogo’s victim up there. Very, very distant.

One of the thousands of couples in attendance, just like us…well, except if a war broke out. They’d last much longer than we would. [UPDATED 8/19/2014, 9:25 p.m.: Elspeth Tirel and Garruk Wildspeaker from Magic: the Gathering. I saw another pic of them over on io9.]

Minotaur with red mohawk. Have labyrinth, will puzzle. And kill.

Goblin! Because you can’t go wrong with the classics.

Jedi, Batman, anime guy, Link, Thor, Spider-Man, I CALL COSPLAY BINGO.

We began with Game of Thrones; we end with Game of Thrones. Happy trails from Daenerys and Drogon!

(Special thanks to my son for recognizing some of these for me, or for having better connections than I do. I owe him either way.)

To be concluded!

* * * * *

Other chapters in this very special MCC series:

* Part One: The Costume Contest Winners
* Part Two: More from the Costume Contest
* Part Three: Costume Contest, Last Call
* Part Four: Costumes Around the Show Floor
* Part Six: Things Besides Costumes

Personal fave of the entire show: 8-bit Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII.

This weekend was that time again: our annual excursion to Rosemont, IL, for Wizard World Chicago, a four-day entertainment convention packed with tens of thousands of attendees seeking actor autographs, viewing the panoply of cosplayers demonstrating their sartorial talents, wandering Artists Alley in search of new comics and art, or hoarding merchandise from the dealers and exhibitors. The big-name comics publishers haven’t attended in years, but WWC seems to be doing well nonetheless, playing to their strengths and not paying total lip service to their comic-con roots.

My wife and I took plenty of photos as usual, many of them usable. We’ll be sharing those over the next several entries, but I’m still too fatigued from the experience to figure out how many entries these will take. Part One begins arbitrarily with costumes from movies, video games, and from Doctor Who, because arbitrary categorization helps me organize my thoughts more clearly. I’m not the kind of guy to upload fifty random cosplay photos and yell, “HERE!” Hence, themes.

Enjoy!

Ms. Pac-Man demands a SACRIFICE.

Ezio from Assassin’s Creed, plus a surprise Harley Quinn.

It’s time for the Family Feud! Introducing the Marios: Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess, Wario, and Waluigi!

The cast of HALO and their amazing friends.

Vince Glortho and his pals, a Ghostbuster and the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man. YOU WILL ALL PERISH IN FLAMES.

Who ya gonna call? Not Zombie Ghostbuster!

Queen Amidala and her handmaiden Sabe hold court with Moondust, Grandmaster of the Order of Celestial Dragons (an original character from the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO), along with his pupil Mikazuki.

A rare cosplay variant: Darth Vader unhelmeted.

Kid Witch-King, who’s gonna command a whole army someday and then you’ll be sorry you called him “cute”!

Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter from Tim Burton’s vision of Disney’s sequel to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

Classic Robocop. Accept no reboots.

The Seventh Doctor and his new companion, Silk Spectre from Watchmen.

Amy Pond in various versions was the most popular women’s costume we saw this year. We even saw a few mother/daughter pairs doing Amy at different ages, boosting our readings on the Adorable Scale up into the stratosphere.

Creepiest variant: the Amy Pond doll from “Night Terrors”. BRRRRRR.

YOU BLINKED. See ya sixty years ago.

Tiny red Dalek still needs time to IN-CU-BATE!

Professor River Song. I’d tell you who she is if you’ve never watched Doctor Who, but…well. Spoilers.

Silence will fall when the question is asked! And that question is, “How cool is this?”

To be continued!

* * * * *

Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

* Part Two: DC Comics Costumes!
* Part Three: Marvel and Dark Horse Costumes!
* Part Four: Animation Costumes!
* Part Five: Last Call for Costumes
* Part Six: People We Met
* Part Seven: The Geek Stuff
* Our Least Favorite Wizard World Chicago 2014 Souvenirs

…BECAUSE I’M BATMAN!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

This weekend was that time again: our annual excursion to Rosemont, IL, for Wizard World Chicago. My wife and I took plenty of photos as usual, many of them usable. We’ll be sharing those over the next several entries, but I’m still too fatigued from the experience to figure out how many entries these will take.

Part two, then: the amazing world of DC Comics. Enjoy!

…BECAUSE I’M LEGO BATMAN!

Batman #3 faces off against Harley Quinn #1 and Poison Ivy #1.

Harley #2 and Ivy #2 somehow manage to subdue Doomsday, the monster who killed Superman. That must’ve been some crossover.

Harley #3 reunites with the Joker and lets the Scarecrow tag along for laughs. And fear.

Harley #4 doesn’t need her Puddin’ or any other backstabbing partners slowing her down.

Riddle me this: why couldn’t the Bat-Villain enter the motorcycle race? Because he didn’t bring a Harley!

Marvel/DC crossover #1: Catwoman and Evil Tobey Maguire from Spider-Man 3 spend the day swapping Hollywood cautionary tales.

Marvel/DC crossover #2: Flash and Cap, who sound like bomb-squad buddy-cops.

Marvel/DC crossover #3: Deathstroke and X-23, patiently awaiting their own solo movies. “Someday,” they whisper to each other.

Batgirl fears not for her secret identity. Endanger her loved ones and she’ll end you. No worries.

Erica Durance arrived hours ahead of schedule for her Saturday signing and attracted quite a line. From outside the crowd, Arrow looks on in silence.

Supergirl and Power Girl team up while Joker #2 lurks in the background.

Dr. Fate, DC’s renowned magical hero, calls upon the power of Nabu to end all these Dr. Strange movie rumors.

Wonder Woman’s first starring role in a feature film was far more entertaining than anyone expected. The role was recast for her next movie due to salary issues.

The original Captain Marvel, a.k.a. SHAZAM! Maybe someday we’ll see someone recapture the magic of the old Beck/Binder classic tales, but it hasn’t happened in ages.

Zatanna, also fed up with all the Dr. Strange chatter. “REVEROF OBMIL TNEMPOLEVED NI HSIUGNAL EIVOM EGNARTS ROTCOD!” she casts in vain.

The real Lobo. Accept no reboots.

To be continued!

* * * * *

Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

* Part One: Costumes! (Movies, Games, Doctor Who)
* Part Three: Marvel and Dark Horse Costumes!
* Part Four: Animation Costumes!
* Part Five: Last Call for Costumes
* Part Six: People We Met
* Part Seven: The Geek Stuff
* Our Least Favorite Wizard World Chicago 2014 Souvenirs

The Avengers! Classic lineup, different take.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

This weekend was that time again: our annual excursion to Rosemont, IL, for Wizard World Chicago. My wife and I took plenty of photos as usual, many of them usable. We’ll be sharing those over the next several entries, but I’m still too fatigued from the experience to figure out how many entries these will take.

Part three, then: representatives from the Marvel Universe, along with a few folks from other comic-book companies. Enjoy!

Venom and Moon Knight welcome you! And they’re watching you.

The early-80s Storm that we have yet to see Halle Berry attempt, and Wolverine between costume changes.

The Scarlet Witch and Ms. Marvel, more Avengers assembling.

Deadpool in all his normal regalia.

Kid Deadpool and Chef Deadpool. Thus is the Crisis on Infinite Deadpools at hand!

Sir Deadpool, Esq., dedicated follower of fashion.

X-23 hangs out with Wolverpool. Or Deadverine. Whichever.

A different X-23 hangs out with her new friends Rogue and Li’l Beast.

The Winter Soldier and the most complex set of Falcon wings we saw on the show floor.

Dani Moonstar from the New Mutants in Valkyrie form, alongside Colonel Stars & Stripes.

Dark Phoenix and Spider-Woman, confirming they’re perfectly content to choose their own comfortable poses.

Tony Stark, with working arc-reactor and repulsor lights connected to a belt-buckle control mechanism. Radioactive fuel sold separately.

This pic of Stan Lee, the White Queen, RoboCap, Iron Man, War Machine, and Bronze Iron Man was 10,000 times cooler before we found out the guy was probably a Stan cosplayer. The dozens of fans swarming him were pretty convinced. There was even a handler somewhere in this mess telling people to stand back and give him space…

Betcha know who Star-Lord is NOW, HUH?

Comics not from Marvel, part 1 of 3: Darth Talon from Star Wars: Legacy, and Darth Revan from Knights of the Old Republic (the comics and the game). Also, special cameo by Finn from Adventure Time.

Comics not from Marvel, part 2 of 3: Hellboy! Plus a luchador.

Comics not from Marvel, part 3 of 3: my wife meets Herbie the Fat Fury! Yes, he’s a real character. Yes, I’ve heard of him. No, he’s not a YouTube star. You’d be surprised what happened in comics back in the ’50s and ’60s. It took me a while to explain Herbie to her, though.

To be continued!

* * * * *

Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

* Part One: Costumes! (Movies, Games, Doctor Who)
* Part Two: DC Comics Costumes!
* Part Four: Animation Costumes!
* Part Five: Last Call for Costumes
* Part Six: People We Met
* Part Seven: The Geek Stuff
* Our Least Favorite Wizard World Chicago 2014 Souvenirs

Jesse and James fire Meowth, welcome new sidekick Ash. Meet the all-new, all-different Team Rocket!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

This weekend was that time again: our annual excursion to Rosemont, IL, for Wizard World Chicago. My wife and I took plenty of photos as usual, many of them usable. We’ll be sharing those over the next several entries, but I’m still too fatigued from the experience to figure out how many entries these will take.

I’ve been dealing with con crud all week long and struggling to reactivate all portions of my brain, but the math finally came together for me: we’re looking at seven entries in all for the WWC 2014 photo parade. Part four of those, then: characters from cartoons and anime. Enjoy!

Another Team Rocket duo chooses Joker. Good luck stuffing him inside a Pokeball.

Captain Planet would like to have a word with the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center about how much energy they’re using. Cap may also be annoyed that upon sighting him I shouted without thinking, “CAPTAIN POWER!” because I’m old and I’m more ’80s than I care to admit.

Afro Samurai! Facing off against kung-fu Joker.

Monarch henchmen from The Venture Bros.

The cast of Sailor Moon. Not my thing, but some of you will know the characters better than I do.

Shredder, who hopes someday to parlay his big film roles into serious Oscar fare.

Vanellope von Schweetz and Taffyta Muttonfudge from Wreck-It Ralph. It was nice to see different cars at a convention besides the Mystery Machine and the ECTO-1 for a change.

Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece teams up with Soul Eater and Death the Kid from Soul Eater.

Rapunzel from Tangled! And li’l Pascal the chameleon wins Best Accessory of the Day.

Kyoshi Warriors from Avatar: the Last Airbender. Special thanks to my son and his connections for spotting this one and a few others in this entry.

Jazz, Soundwave, and Bumblebee represent for the Transformers old school.

Optimus Prime, not yet ready to roll out.

Every single movie, it’s the same old villain: Megatron, Megatron, Megatron! Someday another Decepticon will shine when the studio greenlights Transformers Origins: Starscream.

To be continued!

* * * * *

Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

* Part One: Costumes! (Movies, Games, Doctor Who)
* Part Two: DC Comics Costumes!
* Part Three: Marvel and Dark Horse Costumes!
* Part Five: Last Call for Costumes
* Part Six: People We Met
* Part Seven: The Geek Stuff
* Our Least Favorite Wizard World Chicago 2014 Souvenirs

Who ya gonna call? GROOTBUSTERS!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

This weekend was that time again: our annual excursion to Rosemont, IL, for Wizard World Chicago. My wife and I took plenty of photos as usual, many of them usable. We’ll be sharing those over the next several entries, but I’m still too fatigued from the experience to figure out how many entries these will take.

Later we determined the correct number is seven entries in all. Part Five is two smaller subsets combined. Half of these photos are “pot luck” miscellaneous characters. The rest each contain at least one mystery character that defied my knowledge base and all research attempts, both personal and outsourced. The MCC standing plea of thumb as always is: if you recognize someone I don’t, pretty-please feel free to chime in and teach this old guy something new. (Prime example: at far right in the above photo is an original character named Kattosha. That was new learning for me. See the comments below for more of her story.)

Enjoy!

Chef Deadpool, Supergirl, a very distant Harley and Ivy, military video game guy, and…uh, a pair of dog soldiers?Amaterasu and an amazing friend?

Eruptor, official mascot at the Skylanders booth. My wallet is grateful this phenomenon arrived after my son’s time.

Someone blue. Blue’s a hero!

More blue: a Space Marine from Starcraft. I have no idea if this is one of the same suits we saw at Gen Con 2013.

Still more blue: the Blue Power Ranger! Mostly. Kindasorta. Maybe from an alt-universe episode.

Daft Punk! Or maybe they’re cosplayers.

My first thought was Marrow from the X-Men, which is a strange first thought to have.

My son’s sources pin these as Cassandra, Kilik, Seung Mi-na, and Mitsurugi from Soul Calibur.

At right: Morgan Freeman from 2013’s Oblivion. At left: uhhh, this one dude.

Zombie bride admires her dashing groom for his brains.

Leave it to my wife the WWII buff to recognize General Douglas MacArthur from sixty feet away without having to ask. To my credit, I recognized Rosie the Riveter before she did.

Beaker from The Muppet Show!

Just your average celebrity. I like to imagine this was David Boreanaz. I’m 70% certain it’s not Stan Lee.

To be continued!

* * * * *

Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

* Part One: Costumes! (Movies, Games, Doctor Who)
* Part Two: DC Comics Costumes!
* Part Three: Marvel and Dark Horse Costumes!
* Part Four: Animation Costumes!
* Part Six: People We Met
* Part Seven: The Geek Stuff
* Our Least Favorite Wizard World Chicago 2014 Souvenirs

Best Joker of the Year. Not just a fan creation, this getup was from a specific episode of the ’66 series that my wife remembers in detail. When the DVD boxed set comes out in November, her pain can be yours, too!

This weekend my wife and I attended the inaugural Awesome Con Indianapolis, the latest attempt to bring the geek convention life to our fair-sized city. The great and powerful Gen Con has had an established presence for years, but cons for other interests besides gaming have had mixed results. In March, the first Indiana Comic Con brought in actors from Game of Thrones and drew in a crowd of thousands that they were ill-equipped to handle, resulting in hundreds (at least) of angry citizens being locked out and turned away. At the end of May, the first Indy PopCon brought in a healthy mix of actors and comics creators, but attendance fell short of expectations. Awesome Con is our newest contestant, an expansion of a company whose previous efforts were in Washington, DC.

Like Indy PopCon, Awesome Con had no specific focus, mixing guests and dealers from the worlds of comics, gaming, TV, animation, and so on. We tried to keep our expectations modest after our previous experiences, but when the local news media kept boasting attendance expectations of 30,000+, particularly in light of the con’s numerous TV ads and interviews, we wondered if perhaps things would go differently this time.

More about that later. The important thing for now is, there were costumes! And photos of same!

Standard caveat for newcomers to MCC: This is something my wife and I enjoy doing, to show our appreciation and awe for those with the flair for this particular aspect of the scene. We apologize in advance for the costumes we missed, and for the non-professional results. Comments and especially corrections are always welcome and appreciated. She and I aren’t plugged directly into every single geek scene out there, so if you notice any wanton acts of mislabeling, please don’t hesitate to call me out. I enjoy learning about new worlds and universes, giving credit where it’s due, and dispelling my old man’s ignorance.

Onward:

One of my personal faves of the day, from one of my favorite comics of the year: Marvel’s latest version of Moon Knight.

At a con where the headlining guests were Adam West and Burt Ward, it was inevitable we’d see the Dynamic Duo roaming the show floor. With them are their old nemeses Two-Face and, uh, the Penguin of Earth-Happy-Feet.

Cosplaying as a cosplayer: meet Trevor Slattery as his original character “the Mandarin”.

BANE WILL BREAK YOU. Or argue political ideologies with you. Depends on his mood, and on whether or not Talia is watching.

Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, and Leia Organa, Agent of the Rebel Alliance.

Harley Quinn and friends from Homestuck.

Thor brings the Tesseract along for safekeeping. It’s probably safer here than at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ anyway.

Another Batman meets Heath Ledger’s Joker while a friend records the results.

Loki and a friend brought their own Tesseract, leading us to question if Thor might have been duped. Wouldn’t be the first time,

Scarecrow from the Arkham Asylum game The hypodermic Freddy Krueger hand rigs are always fascinating to see.

Rorschach from Watchmen. This con is afraid of him. He has seen its true face.

Scarlet Spider and Iron Spider, two among the dozens of Spider-Man variants we’ll be seeing in Marvel’s massive Spider-event coming later this year.

Catwoman! This time it’s purrsonal.

If you’re unfamiliar with the world of SHAZAM!, his arch-enemy Black Adam is the character that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be reportedly playing in the DC movie universe. Until and unless that happens, this guy gets it right.

Harley Quinn variant (steampunk?), Dr. Strange, and, the variant we’ve all been waiting for, Sith Lord Deadpool!

The perfect outfits to match that Indiana Convention Center 1970s carpet: Dazzler and Disco Deadpool! And they brought their own jams!

To be continued!

* * * * *

Other chapters in this special miniseries:

* Part 2: More Costumes!
* Part 3: What We Did and Who We Met

Louis Tully, a.k.a. Vince Glortho. Hobbies include Twister, Parcheesi, locking himself out, and warning us how we’ll all perish in flames.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

This weekend my wife and I attended the inaugural Awesome Con Indianapolis, the latest attempt to bring the geek convention life to our fair-sized city. [yadda yadda yadda] The important thing for now is, there were costumes! And photos of same!

Last time: half of our cosplayer photos. This time: the other half of our cosplayer photos. Regrettably, we didn’t attend the Saturday evening costume contest, but we like to think we saw our fair share. Otherwise, the same MCC disclaimers apply as last time.

Onward!

Mandatory Final Fantasy #1: Vivi and Garnet from FFIX.

Mandatory Final Fantasy #2: Yuna from FFX.

Queen Elsa from Once Upon a Time and the animated prequel Frozen.

I’m not sure if this is the same Gandalf we saw in this year’s Gen Con costume contest. Either way: Gandalf!

And now for someone without a robe: Ash from the Evil Dead trilogy, complete with handy evil Necronomicon.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto, because reviews and box office can’t stand in the way of justice.

Shredder, not letting bad reviews stand in the way of injustice.

I don’t know the Assassins Creed series too well, but I reckon this is one of ‘em.

Raiden from Metal Gear Solid: Revengeance, whom I’m pretty sure we saw at Gen Con (though this is a much better pic than our previous failed attempt). Funny thing about attending multiple cons within the same limited geographical area is you start encountering the same cosplayers more than once. We also saw the Hawkwoman from Gen Con on the Awesome Con show floor.

Not sure if this is Lord Canti from FLCL or a casual-Friday Prince Robot IV from Vaughan and Staples’ Saga. Since we later saw a child sporting similar headgear, I’m guessing the former.

Mandatory 501st Legion representation courtesy of this Sandtrooper.

Tiny Jawa, big blaster.

Padawan Barriss Offee representing for the Jedi.

Absorbent and yellow and porous is he!

There’s Waldo! Full disclosure: Waldo appeared on behalf of State Farm, helping sell insurance to young adults who might otherwise not bother looking into financial security and whatnot. When my wife threw her name in just to get us a free prize, Waldo’s helper took her info and, instead of asking her age, filed her under “25-29″. She appreciated the compliment, though it might throw a wrench in the underwriting works if we were seriously considering any of their services. (Ha. Uh, no.)

To be concluded!

* * * * *

Other chapters in this special miniseries:

* Part 1: Marvel and DC Costumes
* Part 3: What We Did and Who We Met

Maybe next year we can buy new Halloween decorations with voice chips that sing Christmas carols.

We knew tonight would be rough. Everyone around us has been talking about the ominous weather forecast for days and preparing for either disappointment or pneumonia. Last year’s event wasn’t freezing or flurrying; worse, it brought a severe thunderstorm that forced Indianapolis to take unprecedented drastic measures and postpone Halloween till November 1st. I didn’t blame them, but the rescheduling killed our turnout. If there were a cartoon nemesis actively trying to end Halloween as part of his master plan to take over the world, he probably spent that night cackling and proposing toasts to himself.

Tonight’s Halloween proceeded on schedule, despite some early light rain and sharp, gusty winds all throughout. I understand snowflakes showed up much earlier in other parts of Indiana, but ours came later. Regardless, the damage was done. We saw very few kids under age five, very few loners braving the harshness solo, and very few young Method actors opting out of winter gear in the name of costume integrity.

Each year since 2008 I’ve kept statistics on the number of trick-or-treaters who flocked to our doorstep during the Halloween celebration of neighborhood interconnectedness and benevolent snack donation. It’s partly for planning purposes, partly out of curiosity, and partly because it’s now a tradition and a long-term project for me. Like many bloggers there’s a stats junkie in me that fiends for taking head counts.

This year’s Halloween cemetery, starring our old friend Plastic Faceless Reaper as Guy Lurking in Cemetery Shadows. He’s not so menacing in broad daylight.

2008: 51
2009: 105
2010: 112
2011: 74
2012: 58
2013: 36

This year’s results, such as they were:

First TOTer arrival time: 5:52 p.m. (And after those first three kids, we didn’t see a second batch till 6:45.)
Final TOTer departure time: 7:37 p.m.
Total number of trick-or-treaters for 2014: 25
Gain/loss from Halloween 2013: -30.56%

Sadly, our numbers are still on the decline, but it’s not hard to figure out why. Those diehard twenty-five with the stamina of lions donned a variety of costumes, many of which I couldn’t see beneath their coats and non-Reaper-ish winter hoods. Some kids I couldn’t tell if they had a fully realized identity or if they were just sporting a single accessory. The few cosplayers whose raiment I could discern registered as follows:

murder victim
gas mask
dead ballerina
camo dude
3 brand-X princesses
giant spider
lizard
baby in footie PJs with large pacifier, age 12
only 1 Death
Batman
sports jersey
Darth Maul face paint
military Jason Voorhies

Best of Show: a kid dressed as a Sam’s Club-sized box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.

Some of them had parents tagging along. One stayed comfy inside their SUV while driving their diligent daughter from door to door. Two other parents each made a point of walking up to our porch and thanking me. Most parents hang back at the edge of the property and wave from afar, gab with other adults, or lose themselves in their phones. Those few families who hazarded tonight’s uncomfortable conditions together as a team were pretty appreciative of us tradition-minded enablers.

As usual, I did what I could to brighten up our normally hideous lawn for the occasion. I kept our display modest and concentrated in a few spots, instead of sprawling all over.

Jack Skellington Pumpkin, Fuzzy Spider Monster, and Glowy Jack-o-Lantern Reaper Head bid you welcome!

Regular MCC readers will recognize our temporary new item from a previous entry. Long story short: our team awarded me custody. I’m not eager to find out how much my pride will be damaged if/when we carve it open and negate the minutes spent on that paint job. I’m not even sure what we’d do with his guts. I suppose we could find a recipe that will make five pounds of pumpkin innards taste like anything but. We know a certain poor college student who’ll gladly take our leftover candy off our hands, but I’m not sure I can con him into taking the pumpkin with him. Maybe if we wrap it in tinfoil and try to pass it off as a monster-sized Hershey’s Kiss.

So…we’ll see everyone next year, I suppose, if trick-or-treating is still a thing by then, if our local radio stations and department stores don’t usher in the Christmas season in September. That jerk Jack Frost sure didn’t help our case tonight.

Darth Maul/Predator mash-up. Call him Maulator.

On this weekend in 1988, the inaugural Starbase Indy introduced Indianapolis to the amazing world of Star Trek conventions, though it later expanded its dominion into other sci-fi TV shows. Setting aside several years skipped during turbulent times, SBI is one of the most persistent fan-run geek conventions in Indianapolis. It’s a fraction the size of Gen Con, Wizard World, and our other regular cons, but we’ve attended SBI more times than we have any other con. The smaller scale allows for shorter lines and less suffocating crowds, while still attracting talented guests from shows and works we know rather well (and some we don’t). For local geeks such as my wife and myself, it’s a regular highlight of our average Thanksgiving weekend, more fun and with far fewer confirmed fatalities than Black Friday.

2014 marks SBI’s nineteenth iteration, and a more diversified guest list not only from Star Trek, but also from the worlds of Stargate and Battlestar Galactica. Before we cover the guest list, though: mandatory costume photos!

Master Chief and Ghost Rider. Halo and Hell, so to speak.

Stars of the upcoming reboot The Ghost and Mr. Chief.

Possibly a Mandalorian with shoulder cannons taken from the corpse of a defeated Predator.

Call him Fettator.

A Klingon, a Cardassian, and an Orion walk into a con…

…and killed the stupid jester before he could think of a punchline. The End.

Starfleet officer meets Biker Scout. They’re a buddy-cop team only JJ Abrams can make happen!

Who’s the good cop and who’s the bad cop? The answer will surprise you!

…and that’s just about all the usable cosplay pics we took. We were only on the premises Friday long enough to grab our registration packets and attend the opening ceremonies. We were around for six hours on Saturday, but foot traffic was slow the first couple hours. Business seemed to boom later in the day, when we saw many, many fans in Starfleet uniforms from various series and even the movies. In 2014 we attended six other conventions, and I feel confident enough to guess for the record that Starbase Indy attracted more Trek-uniform cosplayers than those other six cons combined. That’s encouraging to see for an IP that’s been around nearly fifty years, but it’s tough to decide which ones ought to be photographed.

* * * * *

In between photos and actor Q&As, we found a few other activities at our disposal. The dealers’ room was its usual size, but had a few new vendors I don’t recall seeing before. We picked up some sustenance to take home — Japanese snacks for my son, Trek-themed doggie treats for our Lucky, and one Blu-ray and a DVD set for me. Autographs for my wife would come later.

The con’s official Stargate prop underwent slight renovation and looks more stylish than ever.

Maybe the shows would’ve lasted even longer if they’d called it Surfgate.

Kids and crafty adults had the chance to build their own Tribbles and compete for prizes. The participants treated the rest of us to a Tribble parade around the show floor, led by Five Year Mission guitarist Patrick O’Connor.

“I knew you were Tribble when you walked in! Tribble! Tribble! Tribble!…”

For attendees who grow tired, hungry, thirsty, or cranky, the Dana Dougan Con Suite offers free refreshments, seats for resting a spell, meals at certain times throughout the day, and a stack of puzzles for the truly restless. During a morning lull when nothing on the schedule piqued our interests, my wife and I wiled away 20-30 minutes collaborating on this veritable masterpiece, which everyone has to like because it says “MARVEL” on it.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLED!

Since we’re on the subject of random inanimate objects, please enjoy this feisty B.A. Baracus action figure, who stood guard over one autograph table while its owner was busy elsewhere. Take heed of his words of wisdom, FOOL.

Mr. T had the time of his life, and he’s never felt like this before…

To be continued!

Extremely honorable mention: Captain America’s sidekick Bucky, comics old-school style.

As of last weekend my wife and I officially finished our 2014 convention schedule. We attended seven cons this year, our new all-time record. In addition to our annual Chicago trips, Indianapolis itself became the epicenter of a Midwest convention explosion and offered us more opportunities than ever to meet comics creators, greet actors old and young, buy cool stuff, and see lovingly crafted costumes drawn from across several decades and all available media. Some cons fared better than others; some will return in 2015 with lessons learned and bigger plans than ever; and at least one will be a mere footnote in local geek history. At least two more newcomers, Wizard World Indianapolis and Culture Shock, are also inviting themselves to the dance for 2015. Somehow our convention bubble is bursting and expanding at the same time.

We here at Midlife Crisis Crossover would like to thank the crew and guests of all the cons we attended this year, throw a shout-out to those people we met whose names we didn’t catch (and vice versa), and salute the scores of cosplayers we saw, photographed, and appreciated for their presence, their fandom, their inspired creativity, and their fortitude in the face of the physical rigors, the construction costs, the naysayers, the gatekeepers, and the gawkers like us who stop you every three feet because either (a) we don’t get you but we love what you did, or (b) we do get you and your brilliant character choice just made our day.

In particular, this entry goes out to fifteen of the standouts we captured from among that vast, maddeningly talented crowd. Thanks for helping make our 2014 an unprecedented, wondrous, far-out year of geekiness.

And now, on with the countdown!

15. ’90s Aquaman

The grim-‘n’-gritty, harpoon-handed version of the Atlantean ruler may have been deleted from DC’s history books, but some of us appreciated that era when we didn’t have to look at that orange fish-skin shirt for a while.

14. Strawberry Shortcake

Gender-swapping is such a not-new concept in the cosplay arena that I’ve stopped using the term in more recent entries. This one, I think, discovered a new level of bravery. I had to burrow through several layers of denial before I could accept exactly who this was.

13. Toothless

How to Train Your Dragon is my favorite DreamWorks Animated film to date, so I’m pretty tickled whenever someone brings more attention to it.

12. Morpheus, Lord of Dreams

The star of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman walked among us in the waking world, and he even brought the ruby, the helmet, and the pouch of sand. Unique accessories make the man.

11. Barriss Offee

Our local chapter of the 501st Legion ensures that no convention passes through town without Stormtroopers on duty, but Jedi have been a dwindling breed. (We’ll see an impact from The Force Awakens on the future cosplay scene, I’m sure.) The fine robes of Luminara Unduli’s padawan are a rare yet welcome choice for Star Wars representation.

10. Surfing Joker

As seen on the old Batman TV show! Yes, this Joker variant really was from an episode. If you think the Clown Prince of Crime looks odd with a surfboard, you should’ve seen Adam West trying to hang ten.

9. Hatsune Miku

Indy Pop Con had the best possible setup for fans who like taking pics of cosplayers: the long path to the stage wound through the audience like a series of connected runways, giving this fabulously dressed Japanese pop personality the perfect opportunity to strike well-timed poses up close instead of through pixelated zooming.

8. FrankenBerry and a 17-foot dragon

Two of this year’s largest costumes met at C2E2 and practically crowded away their opponents. We also caught FrankenBerry making encore appearances at Indy Pop Con and Starbase Indy, working the convention circuit and putting that slacker Count Chocula to shame.

7. Hawkeye and Nightwing

Not a convention photo! Every year for Free Comic Book Day in May, Indianapolis’ own Downtown Comics North has several cosplayers on hand to dazzle and/or wrangle the crowd while everyone waits their turn for freebies. Hawkeye’s suit here uses Jeremy Renner’s template, but adds those little touches like the hair and the sunglasses that remind me more of the comics than Renner’s just-okay rendition.

6. Rosie the Riveter and General Douglas MacArthur

Meet key figures from two fields woefully underrepresented at cons: history and advertising! My wife the history buff recognized MacArthur before I did, but I recognized Rosie before she did. Funny how that worked out.

5. 8-bit Sephiroth

Rather than populate the entire list with Final Fantasy characters, which was pretty tempting, I limited myself to the one that surprised me the most. It’s like ye olde FFVII emerged from my TV in all its glorious polygonal awkwardness.

4. Purple Bane

Prince meets pulverizer in this super-musical mash-up, whose Gen Con stage presentation naturally included a few reworked lyrics from the song. I still owe him an apology for delaying him several extra seconds while I struggled with clicking the button and laughing myself silly at the same time.

3. Ash and Team Rocket

Jessie! James!
Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!
Surrender now, or prepare to fight!
And me, ASH! That’s…wait, that’s not right.

…those priceless expressions win the photo.

2. Ms. Marvel

2014 brought us the redoubtable Kamala Khan, Marvel’s newest sensation and star of one of the year’s best series. I didn’t expect to meet her in person this soon, and yet there she was.

1. Dazzler and Disco Deadpool

You probably know Deadpool. You’ve probably seen other Deadpool cosplay variants. You may not know Dazzler, who was Marvel’s attempt at cashing in on the 1970s disco craze. It might’ve worked if her first appearance hadn’t been in 1980, pretty much when disco was dead and in the hands of its pallbearers. Here, Dazzler and Disco Deadpool brought the moves, the swagger, the fascinatin’ rhythm, and their own groovy boom box full of jams, and they got down.

…

For the casually curious or the cosplay aficionado, assembled below are links to all of MCC’s cosplay entries for 2014, comprising seven conventions and one special event. Enjoy!

Indiana Comic Con: [single entry]
C2E2: [Part One] [Part Two] [Part Three]
Free Comic Book Day 2014 : [single entry]
Indy Pop Con: [Part One] [Part Two] [Part Three] [Part Four] [Part Five] [Part Six]
Gen Con: [Part One] [Part Two] [Part Three] [Part Four] [Part Five]
Wizard World Chicago: [Part One] [Part Two] [Part Three] [Part Four] [Part Five]
Awesome Con Indianapolis: [Part One] [Part Two]
Starbase Indy: [single entry]

…

…and for those of you who follow current events in the world of comics and/or conventions and are wondering if this entry was at all inspired by the big, lamentable Pat Broderick ruckus…well, yes. Yes, this is an intentional show of support for the side we’ve chosen. My wife and I wrote to excess about all of this previously, the last time this conversation happened, and at the moment we’re out of new things to say. The short version for newcomers: if you’re an artist who’s struggling to turn a profit at comics conventions, targeting sartorially exuberant fans as your scapegoat will not solve your most crippling issues.

The Baroness welcomes you to Wizard World Indianapolis 2015! Unless you’re with that accursed GI Joe. Then you can go attend the dental networking seminar across the hall for all she cares. (Fun MCC trivia: we’ve actually met before! You can visit her Facebook page for more pics and future cosplay plans.)

As of this writing WWIndy still has one late evening and all of Sunday to go. My wife and I attended today and stuck it out until we ran out of energy and hit a programming snag I hadn’t expected and didn’t have the patience to endure. Derailed plans notwithstanding, today was a vast improvement — in terms of attendance and organization — over the issues we encountered with last year’s events.

Longtime MCC readers know we normally take dozens of costume photos, including the costume contest winners and good sports, and share them over the course of multiple MCC entries. With WWIndy, attending said contest came with a catch: if you weren’t a VIP ticketholder, the only way to reserve a seat was to attend the event preceding the contest in the same room — in this case, a concert by a World of Warcraft tribute band.

Some of you read that last clause and are now excitedly searching for free sample songs online. That’s understandable, and maybe they’re amazing at what they do, but I’ve never gotten into WoW. They could be the Weird Al of MMORPG filking for all I know, but I wasn’t really in the mood to spend nearly an hour listening to a set list whose contents and in-jokes would all be over my head. Unless, mind you, every aspect of WoW is a straight-up ripoff of Dungeons & Dragons, which I played in my youth and still retain a lot of (obsolete) working knowledge in my head. See, if they were a D&D tribute band calling themselves Band of Vecna, I might’ve given ’em a listen, except then my wife would still be left out. Sure, she’d abide by my decision and wait patiently and fall asleep on my shoulder, but she shouldn’t have to do that, even though she’s a big fan of napping.

Anyway. We missed the Costume Contest. Hopefully those who stuck around saw cool things. Here’s the complete rundown of all the costumes we ran across anyway at various times. Enjoy!

Barf from Spaceballs waits by the phone every night, hoping for that life-changing call to arms from JJ Abrams.

Barf, meet Borg. Borg, Barf.

Captain Kirk…STANDS…in an aisle…next to THE! tallest! Spock! we’ve…evermet.

Gandalf has thirteen really hungry friends he wants to invite over to your house, plus a dangerous mission for you to undertake even though you just met. That’s cool, right?

We counted at least four Tenth Doctors on site, but only this one had an inflatable Red Dalek defeated and tamed. He wins.

We only saw one Fourth Doctor, and he had Jelly Babies. He wins.

For you young folks in the audience, Elvis Presley was a famous musician who sold lots of records to your grandparents. He doesn’t get as much radio airplay as he used to now that most Top-40 oldies stations don’t like going back that far in history anymore.

Bat-Villains! Never attend a con without them.

Damian Wayne, the most recent Robin, feeling much better after recently coming back from the dead.

Rare Batman Beyond representation courtesy of Dee Dee from the Jokerz.

Black Cat and the Riddler defy the wishes of their isolationist corporate overlords. Just because Marvel and DC heroes can’t have crossovers shouldn’t mean the villains can’t either.

Emma Frost from the X-Men was reportedly seen hanging out at the con with the Allfather Odin. Queen Frigga could not be reached for comment.

Some people say the world will end in fire. This Pyro from Team Fortress 2 doesn’t get people who say it’ll end in ice.

Ciel Phantomhive carrying Alois Trancy, from the anime Black Butler.

Pokemon‘s Officer Jenny keeps the show floor safe for fans and for any kids who want to hold vicious magic animal fights.

Up‘s Carl Fredricksen, his death-defying flying house, and poor Russell, his noble accidental abductee.

Mandatory Star Wars, part 1: Boba and Jango Fett dress in style for their new gig as father/son bodyguards for the land-bound Princess Ariel.

Mandatory Star Wars, part 2: JEDI ACTION! Obi-Wan Kenobi Force-pummels three Assassin’s Creed assassins, who ventured from their respective centuries for one last job in a galaxy far, far away.

To be continued! Next time: people we met and stuff we did.

MIKE MIKE MIKE MIKE MIKE MIKE MIKE! GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS!

Last year my wife and I attended the inaugural Indiana Comic Con in our hometown of Indianapolis, a decent-sized Midwest city whose Indiana Convention Center went from merely one geek gathering every year (Gen Con, always a fave) to no less than five such shindigs in 2014. ICC was first up to bat that year but had issues, which I covered at length here and here. We figured it would take a lot of nerve for Imaginarium, ICC’s out-of-state showrunners, to return and try again.

We considered shunning ICC forever until they added a pair of irresistible names to this year’s guest list. Even then, our decision to forgive and relive wasn’t made lightly. To improve our chances of deriving some unblemished enjoyment from the experience, we took a different approach: instead of attending only on Saturday (the most crowded day of every con ever), we anted up for full weekend passes and burned through most of our to-do list today, Friday the 13th, in hopes that a Friday would be tough for any convention to screw up.

I have no idea what tomorrow will bring (other than much longer lines), but today for me was a winner.

I’ll admit to some early skepticism when we arrived and learned there was no official line where we were supposed to wait for the exhibit hall to open. Whether out of optimism or oversight, ICC let everyone hang out in the main concourse wherever they pleased. At a Wizard World show such anarchy would lead to a chaotic stampede and possibly gang fights between warring geek factions. Fortunately this was just Friday and everyone was cool.

We also overheard a conversation between a high-ranking showrunner type, some volunteers, and at least one manager-of-volunteers that sounded a little more tense than we’re used to seeing out in the open. And then you have more worrisome, literal signs like this…

ATTENDEES MUST REMAIN UPRIGHT AT ALL TIMES. APPLAUSE WILL BE PROSECUTED.

…which made more sense when my wife reminded me ICC is sharing the Convention Center with a cheerleader competition. The sign was meant to oppress their joie de vivre, not ours.

The rest of the day was — as the poet Wilson once put it — fun, fun, fun. Stuff we saw:

Balloonpool and the All-Balloons Squad rule at the Twisty Designs booth.

The cast of The LEGO Movie hanging out at the League of Little Legends Kids Zone at the far end of the exhibit hall.

Hailing from Elkart, IN, reps from the Hall of Heroes Superhero Museum brought along a display-items-only collection of vintage comics representing the classic first appearances of The Flash (Barry Allen version), Iron Man, Spider-Man, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, the Justice League of America, the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Fantastic Four, Supergirl (obscured by showcase reflection), the Hulk, and Ant-Man.

My wife Anne standing tall with one of the actual shields used in filming Captain America: the First Avenger (also courtesy of Hall of Heroes), with over a dozen cast autographs on the back. She confirms it’s all metal except for the straps, and very heavy.

HULK STATUE SMASH PUNY WRITER! THEN HULK WRITE OWN CAPTIONS AND WIN INTERNET!

Small children may be frightened by the perfectly preserved head of the Abominable Snowman (or “the Bumble”, as Yukon Cornelius called him), which the Hulk’s sculptor brought with him as a trophy.

Mark Waid has been in comics since I was a teenager, from his short beginning stint as an editor on the fanzine Amazing Heroes to his definitive run on The Flash to his current monthly magic on Daredevil and the new S.H.I.E.L.D. series, and plenty of cool stuff in between.

We had time to attend two panels back-to-back in the same room. First was “Social Issues Through Comic Books”, which was largely a great vehicle for special guest Denny O’Neil to talk about the classic Green Lantern/Green Arrow run in which he and artist Neal Adams brought topicality and relevance to the previously wacky ‘n’ whimsical world of DC super-heroes. Addiction was the primary focus, but other topics were brought up throughout the discussion such as racism, mental illness, personal information as 21st-century currency, and, for value-added context, Seduction of the Innocent and the 1950s War on Juvenile Delinquency.

Left to right: geek-news writer Amy Radcliffe, up-‘n’-coming comics writer Amy Chu, writer/professor Christy Blanch, Blanch’s husband Mark, and the Denny O’Neil.

(One disappointment from today, not the con’s fault: missing out on the chance to meet O’Neil at his Artists Alley table. On our first walk-by, we were a few seconds too slow and found ourselves in line behind a guy who’d brought over two dozen items to have signed. We decided to come back later, but over the course of three or four tries, O’Neil wasn’t there. I regret the timing problem.)

The other panel we attended: Gender and Diversity in Star Wars. I thought it might be an interesting topic, and not only for myself. My wife is a longtime, dedicated, encyclopedic fan of the Star Wars Expanded Universe and has been fuming at this week’s international sensationalist headline STAR WARS FINALLY ADDS GAY CHARACTER AND IT’S ABOUT TIME BECAUSE THAT’S TOTALLY NEVER EVER HAPPENED BEFORE when she can rattle off at least four or five names (besides the tired C3PO jokes) from various EU novels that this nation’s corporate media empires are pretending never existed. To weasel out of acknowledging their intentional oversight, the headline is technically footnoted “* IN CANON, WE MEAN”, which is a blasé dismissal of thirty-seven years’ worth of not-movie works that were supported by millions of fans even during Star Wars’ darkest times when no new movies or shows were being filmed or animated for the benefit of Star Wars fans who apparently hate reading.

So, um, attending a panel where the rejection of the Expanded Universe was upheld posed some problems. That wasn’t the only topic at hand — gender issues were at the forefront, all told. We had other thoughts on other things that came up throughout the hour, but those are off-topic essays better suited for other venues. Regardless: ’twas an interesting and engaging and largely peaceful talk, and there was a fine moment when the perfect question gave me an excuse to shout out in public, “ICE CREAM MAKER GUY!” as a reasonable, on-topic response and not just as a non sequitur to frighten or worry other people.

…

If you’re looking for costume photos, yep, we took some, but not a lot yet. We figured we’d concentrate on cosplay pics more on Saturday, Lord willing. But we snapped a few.

Speaking of Star Wars: mandatory Clonetrooper!

And in this corner: Star Trek!

Daredevil, Kidpool, Kid Star-Lord, Kid Flash, and probably not Solid Snake.

This is maybe a, uh, gnome wizard? Is that a thing?

Mandatory Bat-villains Harley Quinn, Joker, Poison Ivy, and Riddler, plus a surprise cameo from Luigi.

Freddy Krueger and Pyramid Head from Silent Hill wish they could rule a holiday like Jason Voorhees does. I think Arbor Day might not be taken. (But seriously, kudos to the guy for doing Pyramid Head on actual stilts.)

My favorite photo of the day: us with Roxy the Rancor, 700 pounds of ferocious Star Wars sculpture making her Indianapolis debut.

We’ve got a jazzy feeling about this.

In the realm of personal victories, our hunts through the dealers’ back-issue boxes yielded the greatest want-list results I’ve had at any con in years . With the assistance of my wife and one unusual dealer, I finally completed my runs of The Liberty Project and Grimjack, and made unbelievable progress in my quest to hoard more issues of Quasar, Steel, Alien Legion, and The Ray. All of these are obscure or unpopular series that dealers almost never bring to conventions because only weirdos like me would be interested. One dealer dared to be different, and for that bold move was rewarded with lots of my money.

We also met famed artist Bob McLeod, who co-created Marvel’s New Mutants but is best known as an inker whose style I recognized back in the day on classic ’80s Marvel stories such as “Kraven’s Last Hunt” and “The Death of Jean De Wolff”. We caught up with one of our friends working at one of the two competing Doctor Who booths. We bought a worthy gourmet lunch from Serendipity, one of several food trucks brave enough to disregard the all-day rains and hang around outside anyway.

That was our Friday. We haven’t meet any actors yet because the names we’re anticipating won’t be in town till Saturday. Much of the vast autograph area looked like this.

No slight intended against The Hound or the voice actors in the house. That’s their part of the autograph area in the distance.

We don’t expect Saturday to look this serene. At all.

To be continued! Be sure to check out the other chapters in this four-part MCC miniseries. Thanks for reading!

Part Two: The Alderaanian Glitter Bomber Strikes!
Part Three: Random Saturday Costumes
Part Four: Braving the Battle Lines

Superman’s murderer, Doomsday, still wearing his original “Death of Superman” spacesuit.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: my wife and I attended the second annual Indiana Comic Con despite our calamitous experience last year. Part One covered our Friday experience, a smooth and engaging experience. Part Two was our bewildering Carrie Fisher encounter.

This time around: our Saturday costume photo collection. The following subjects are a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the characters on who were in the house. Many, many thousands of attendees packed into the Indiana Convention Center, this time without inviting a fire marshal’s wrath, and an impressive number showed up dressed as their favorite heroes, villains, supporting characters, animals, antiheroes, murderers, and licensed merchandise. I’d hoped to bring back three or four times as many pics, but we’ll discuss why that didn’t happen in Part Four.

Onward!

Poison Ivy would like to talk to you about your lifestyle choices.

DC’s original Wildcat and The CW’s Arrow.

TITANS TOGETHER!

Zatanna + Loki. DC hero meets Marvel evil.

Iron Fist, stuck in comics while his longtime buddy Power Man gets his own Netflix series.

Ghost Rider wishes he’d said no to movies and waited for Netflix to call.

Spider-Woman in variant costume.

The Crimson Bolt and Boltie, from James Gunn’s Super.

Katniss Everdeen adapts to a world that still has phone service.

Armored guy stands guard over the free con programs.

Link hangs out with Stein and Shinigami from Soul Eater. [UPDATED 3/18/2015: Special thanks to my son for the IDs.]

Nicholas D. Wolfwood from Trigun.

One of several Homestuck fans representing.

From the cast of the webseries Spaceship Groggy.

The Wicked Witch of the West will GET YOU, MY PRETTY.

We had to get at least one Doctor. So we plead the Fifth.

Darth Vader’s master plan to capture Princess Leia involves standing in her photo-op line and biding his time. Little does he realize the Doctor and another Leia are right behind him.

Also in Carrie Fisher’s photo-op line: Ewoks! If Vader makes a move, they’re ready to defend her. They have sticks. It just might work.

Bender, clearly lost without beer and cigars.

Anna from Frozen. She and sister Elsa are popular costume choices at the moment.

Speaking of popular costumes: “Star-Lord and the Deadpools” would be an awesome band name.

To be concluded! Visit Part Four for the rest of our Saturday experience in all its victories and letdowns.

Even those dastardly Bat-Villains love Free Comic Book Day because it’s the one day of the year they can have nice new things without resorting to theft or deathtraps.

Happy Free Comic Book Day! The fourteenth annual celebration of graphic storytelling narratives and/or floppy funnybooks was a rousing success, far as we could tell from our single stop at Indianapolis’ own Downtown Comics North. In years past I’ve made road trips to visit multiple stores for the occasion, but our schedule was too packed with other obligations and joys. Regardless, ’twas a morning well spent, money well spent for a few items, and an experience fully enjoyed.

The shop opened at 11 a.m. EDT. We arrived at 9:45 to claim our place in the long line outside, where reps from geek-related endeavors hung out with us and added some valuable community spirit, not to mention free posters, prize drawings, and snacks.

See? Wasn’t kidding. One caveat: the donuts were from the Meijer bakery, not from Krispy Kreme. They were great anyway.

The doors opened two minutes early. Poison Ivy minded the front door for crowd management purposes, letting a few of us in at a time so we wouldn’t all stampede inside and crush each other. Reading is fundamental but difficult if you’ve been trampled.

As fans waited their turn on this lovely May morning, cosplayers stood by and provided entertainment, security, and inspirational opportunities for the many kids who showed up and brought their parents as guests. Special thanks are owed to the heroes and villains who brightened everyone’s day:

Spider-Woman and Dr. Strange represent for Marvel’s Avengers while waiting their turn to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Kid Flash lives! Take THAT, DC New 52.

The little kid inside me squealed a little at the sight of Plastic Man.

Cable is ready to headline an X-Men movie any day now, Fox.

Spider-Woman negotiated a cease-fire between Penguin ’66 and the Beast, thus closing the harsh divides between Marvel and DC, the Silver Age and the Modern Age, TV and movies, good and evil, and birds and mammals.

Just as I did last year, I kept my free acquisitions somewhat modest and grabbed copies of less than half the available titles. I was excited in advance about a few of these, but I also picked up a few untested items as random experiments because sometimes I like surprises. (I should have capsule reviews posted within the next day or two.)

Not pictured: the stuff I bought with money as a thank-you to my local comic shop owners, including collected volumes of The Sixth Gun and Kieron Gillen’s Uncanny X-Men run, plus an issue of Monster Motors I was missing.

And that’s the FCBD that was. See you next year! Time to dive into the reading pile.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

This year marked the fifth time my wife and I attended the Indy 500 Festival Parade in downtown Indianapolis. It’s an annual date-day tradition for us — partly to see the floats and high school marching bands, partly for the famous names (even if the rest of the audience loves them more than we do), and partly because I love the sight of a bustling downtown Indianapolis (which needs to happen every single weekend ever).

The next six entries (to be posted over the next few days as quickly as time and attention span permit) represent a fraction of the pics my wife and I snapped.

Each year our 500 Festival Parade pics always include a few shots of the Nationalities Council of Indiana, a local nonprofit that makes a strong showing every time with a scintillating array of members showcasing their heritage in costumes and clothing from dozens of nations. Their official Facebook page sums up their mission statement:

The Nationalities Council is a non-profit, all-volunteer educational foundation comprised of more than 50 ethnic or national affinity organizations plus other groups, corporations and individuals interested in celebrating Indy’s diversity. For more than 30 years, the Council has worked to increase the visibility of and participation by ethnic groups in the community life of central Indiana. The Council’s website includes links to hundreds of multicultural and international organizations in Indianapolis and Indiana, a comprehensive calendar of international events, and links to thousands more pages of information, including the only comprehensive directory of ethnic restaurants, markets and festivals in the Indianapolis area. The Ethnic Hoosier, a monthly newsletter, is sent free of charge to an electronic mailing list. Since 1976, the Nationalities Council’s annual International Festival, held each fall at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, has been a popular “Celebration of Diversity” that introduces thousands of schoolchildren and adults to the wide range of Indy’s culinary, historical, social, ethnic and linguistic heritage.

This year, rather than narrow down their parade appearance to one or two nominal shots, I’ve decided turn the spotlight in their direction for an entire entry and post every usable shot we have, because that’s how impressive I thought they were. Further information regarding what they do is available at either of those last two links.

(As always, photos are clickable for enlargement and resolution and such.)

…

…also, they brought dragons.

To be continued! Links to other chapters in this annual MCC miniseries are listed below. Thanks for stopping by, and please feel free to mention these to millions of your closest friends:

Part 1: Drivers!
Part 2: Marching Bands!
Part 3: This Year’s Guests
Part 4: Floats and Balloons
Part 6: Star Wars and Potpourri

(For fans of Indy 500 Festival Parade history, you can also click the following links for the MCC photo collections for 2012, 2013, and 2014. Enjoy!)

By the time this parade was over, Boba Fett, was gonna have someone put in the cargo hold.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

This year marked the fifth time my wife and I attended the Indy 500 Festival Parade in downtown Indianapolis. It’s an annual date-day tradition for us — partly to see the floats and high school marching bands, partly for the famous names (even if the rest of the audience loves them more than we do), and partly because I love the sight of a bustling downtown Indianapolis (which needs to happen every single weekend ever).

The next six entries (to be posted over the next few days as quickly as time and attention span permit) represent a fraction of the pics my wife and I snapped.

The miniseries finale, then: stuff set aside from Parts 1-5. Center of attention in this batch: Star Wars! A bevy of costumed citizens from George Lucas’ far, faraway galaxy marched alongside the Speedway 500 Regiment, courtesy of your friendly neighborhood 501st Legion. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an Indy 500/501st crossover, but anytime these two teams care to collaborate is fine by us.

(As always, photos are clickable for enlargement and resolution and such.)

In this corner: Lord Vader and the Empire. The parade was allowed on their authority only because it pleased the Emperor.

And in this corner: the Jedi Council, the Rebel Alliance, and all the good and just peoples of the galaxy.

The sacred MacGuffin that lay between both sides of the war: the Borg-Warner Trophy, to be awarded to the winner of the Indy 500. An inflatable replica appeared in Part 4 of this miniseries, but this was the real McCoy.

To back up that one Princess Leia in the lineup, the parade brought its own team of 500 Princesses.

The streets of Indianapolis had no room for X-Wings or TIE Fighters or even an awkward AT-ST. The Indianapolis 500 Shrine Club has no spaceships, but they brought their tiny racecars. They were much less likely to crash than the average Imperial vehicle.

Faster and better armed: LETTER COPS! IN COLOR! Their team’s assortment of letters spelled “INDIANAPOLIS 500″ when they rode in unison, but at other events and speaking engagements, some of them can band together and spell helpful words such as “DIAL SOAP” or “PIANO LAD” or “PANDA LION”.

Also representing for the long arm of the law: local mounted police, riding steeds far more majestic than those CG monitor lizards George Lucas insisted had to be inserted into the original trilogy for the sake of creative narrative integrity.

Also escorted by horses: the folks at Wells Fargo, who even brought their own stagecoach to help the Alliance run those pesky Imperial varmints outta town.

Here to save the day in their own inimitable style: representatives from local community group Ballet Folklorico Mosaicos. This is a smaller organization than the Nationalities Council we saw in Part 5, but with shared goals and parade approaches.

…and they weren’t alone. They brought their fiercest warriors, more than ready to take on any other cosplaying team in a no-holds-barred steel-cage parade match. Or lightsaber battle, maybe. Whatever they were better armed to do. Dealer’s choice.

At one point the parade came to a full stop for a long minute or two. The Speedway band and this royal Who’s Who in the Star Wars Universe was paused just beyond us, waiting for the delay to be resolved so that the show might go on. Some may have thought their day was over and were ready to throw in the towel. But not this hardy X-Wing Pilot, steeling his resolve and fully preparing to role-model patience and stoicism for us meek onlookers, proving we could get through this thing if we all just believed we could do it.

And then the parade moved on and the day was saved, thanks to the mighty 501st Legion! Basically.

Meanwhile around us, fans recorded the event for prosperity using every available device at their disposal — phones, real cameras, expensive cameras with professional settings, cumbersome iPads, tablets, laptops, personal satellites, whatever it took to record everything for their followers and family.

A few lone wolves sat back with nothing in hand and simply watched the parade with their human eyes. Weird, right?

Not that we’re faultless. My wife and I try to strike a healthy balance between experiencing the experience as it happens, and taking momentary souvenirs to bring home when our memories begin to fail us in future decades. And it’s not just for ourselves. It’s for any auto racing fans out there with a double-majorig interest in pageantry; for locals who love seeing hometown celebrities out-‘n’-about; for community organizations who benefit from any kind of public coverage; for any parent who has a young musician in one of this year’s marching bands and couldn’t travel to Indianapolis to watch their big moment in person; and for anyone who knows us personally and has some secret, silent curiosity about how we spend our free time as a couple.

We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

The End. See you next year!

* * * * *

Links to the other chapters in this annual MCC miniseries are listed below. Thanks for stopping by, and please feel free to mention these to millions of your closest friends:

Part 1: Drivers!
Part 2: Marching Bands!
Part 3: This Year’s Guests
Part 4: Floats and Balloons
Part 5: The Nationalities Council

Miles Morales, Ultimate Spider-Man, prepares to spring into action.

This weekend the second annual Indy PopCon once again overtook our Indiana Convention Center with a festive mix of comics, gaming, voice actors, established actors, animation, podcasting, and various other manifestations of pop and geek culture in general. This year’s guest list also encroached upon a new entertainment frontier: the rapidly expanding world of YouTube stars. My wife and I had never heard of any of those who were invited, but we were outnumbered several thousand to one in that regard.

We attended Saturday only for a limited time for a number of reasons with a short itinerary and modest expectations, but we took photos as usual for You, the Viewers at Home. The first two entries will be costumes, because that’s one of those things we like to see and share. In our first lineup: characters from the synergistic worlds of Marvel Comics, Walt Disney Animation, and that faraway Star Wars galaxy. Oddly, exactly half the viable cosplay pics we took comprised personalities from their corporate domain.

Also from Spider-Verse, Marvel’s newest, best-selling sensation: Spider-Gwen!

From the world of Spider-movies: Sandman! He performed on stilts and hefted a twenty-pound sand-hand for the part.

Also from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Agents of SHIELD! Agent Coulson, Agent Simmons, and SHIELD Security Guard #726. The shades obscure it a tad, but up close and in person, Coulson’s resemblance to the real Phil was remarkable.

Representing for the movie villains: Yondu from Guardians of the Galaxy, seen hanging out with a Cobra soldier and a variant Princess Peach. [Updated 6/29/2015: Special thanks to my son for labeling assistance that shouldn’t have been necessary. Old age is destroying my observational powers.]

From the comics of my youth: classic Hawkeye! In his civilian identity, sculptor John Marks also brought a few intimidating pieces with him that we’ll show off in Part Three.

Mandatory Deadpool! For newcomers to comics who haven’t yet met the Merc with a Mouth at a con.

But sometimes even Deadpool gets tense and needs a vacation. He kicks back, lets it all hang out, and flies down to whichever island resort sells the best chimichanga.

And sometimes Deadpool stays on vacation too long, gets carried away with his mixed drinks, and finds himself assimilated way too deeply into tropical party life.

Meanwhile over at Disney, here’s another fan of beach getaways: Frozen‘s Olaf!

Cosplay crossover! With distinctive makeup to accessorize her outfit and just the right expression, this hybrid villain’s official moniker was Grumpy Maleficent. (Full disclosure: she’s a friend of my wife’s.)

Mandatory Star Wars! Jedi vs. Mandalorians in a duel to the death for control of the Convention Center’s Georgia Street entrance. The winners get to stay in canon.

To be continued! We refer you to Part Two for the rest of our costume photos and Part Three for pics and horror stories from the show floor…

Vincent and Tifa from Final Fantasy VII. Longtime MCC readers know I brake for anyone from FF.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

This weekend the second annual Indy PopCon once again overtook our Indiana Convention Center with a festive mix of comics, gaming, voice actors, established actors, animation, podcasting, and various other manifestations of pop and geek culture in general. This year’s guest list also encroached upon a new entertainment frontier: the rapidly expanding world of YouTube stars. My wife and I had never heard of any of those who were invited, but we were outnumbered several thousand to one in that regard.

We attended Saturday only for a limited time for a number of reasons with a short itinerary and modest expectations, but we took photos as usual for You, the Viewers at Home.

Part One had costumes; Part Two has more costumes. Part Three doesn’t have costumes except as Easter eggs.

My gaming knowledge is kind of lacking, but I recognized a few faces from the medium. Auron, for example, from Final Fantasy X.

A Psycho from Borderlands.

Navi from The Legend of Zelda, complete with world-famous catchphrase.

Some of these may or may not be game characters. So far we’ve pinned down Mad Max, Oberyn Martell from Game of Thrones, Ash from Evil Dead, Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin, a variant Toad, Silk Spectre, Senator Padme, the Eleventh Doctor, and the cast of Top Gun featuring Iceman in full jumpsuit. By all means, let me know if you recognize one of the remaining strangers down in the comments, or else I’ll never learn and I’ll die ignorant. [UPDATED 6/29/2015: Special thanks to my son, and to loyal Facebook follower Robin Bennett, for their invaluable labeling assistance.]

(A second take meant happier times for some.)

Thingamabobs from Five Nights at Freddy’s, virtual strangers whom I’ve seen only in the “Honest Game Trailers” that mock them.

Dragons can be strangers, right? Or are all dragons automatically familiar on the basis of being a popular species?

Strange but not a stranger: Jared Leto Joker! We knew it was only a matter of time before he debuted at cons.

A true crossing of the generation gap, as Joker interviews Joker from the upcoming Oscar-nominated Joker/Joker.

Among the few Nickeloden animated characters I may ever recognize before I lose touch with their channel forever: Cosmo and Wanda from Fairly OddParents.

Representing for today’s cinema: Nux from Mad Max: Fury Road. WHAT A LOVELY COSPLAY!

To be concluded!