Long Beach Comic Con - Last Day!

The Long Beach Comic Con finished last Sunday and it was an exhausting and fun day!  A feature of the Long Beach Comic Con is the appearance of Star Car Central.  It featured Herbie the Love Bug, the ECTO-1 from Ghostbusters, and the jeeps from Jurassic Park and Jurassic World.  Something to get interest in the con and it is outside of the convention center for everyone to take pictures.  The one of the highlights was meeting the Cosplay Parents, Steven and Millie Tani.  They attended D23 and other conventions.  I’ve gotten to know cosplayers over the years, but the Cosplay Parents are the best since they best embody the spirit of cosplay.  Their costumes for the day was Clark Kent and Lois Lane, but the retired couple dresses as Captain America and Agent Carter, Han Solo and General Leia, as well as Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor.  They have many social media pages including https://twitter.com/cosplayparents?lang=en. 

Cosplay Parents at Long Beach Comic Con! Photo by the author.

I also got a chance to catch up with Christian Gossett, who wrote/drew Red Star, which is a stunning sci fi epic.  Red Star covers Maya Antares thinking about her husband she lost in the Battle of Kar Dathra.  She is a sorceress who powers the skyfurnaces of the United Republics of the Red Star.  It is an incredible sci fi world mixed with magic and reflecting the “Mythic Russia” after World War II.  The series is collected in trade paperbacks.  Check out: https://theredstar.com.  He mentioned that he directed two episodes of the CW sci fi show, Pandora, the third episode, “Masters of War”, and the ninth episode, “Under the Red Sky.”  The series was created by Mark A. Altman and concerns the adventures of Jax (Priscilla Quintana) called Pandora, she attends Earth’s Space Training Academy.  

Part of the ticket offers was a Hero Initiative package; lanyard, pin, and sketchbook.  They are the organization that fulfills their motto “Helping comic creators in need.”  Their page is at: https://www.heroinitiative.org.  I decided to get some sketches to fill that sketch book.  One of the artists I got to sketch was Howard Chaykin.  He also contributed to the Hero Initative 100 Project.  Chaykin was the artist for Sword and Sorcery, a DC fantasy title with Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, the heroes created by Fritz Leiber.  He wrote the limited series Fafhrd and Gray Mouser for Marvel/Epic with art by Mike Mignola which Chaykin said was to make up for his art in Sword and Sorcery.  I attended his panel later in the day.  He is very frank with his discussion of comics.  The other artist I saw was Denys Cowan.  He has worked for Marvel and DC and I remember his work on The Question.  He created the Black Panther poster art for Mondo, but I noted that the regular theater posters for comic book movies should be by comic book artists.  

Christian Gossett sketching, Javier Hernandez is sitting behind him! Photo by the author. 

There was a section for voice actors and actors around the side and back of the hall.  I saw Keone Young who is known for his voice roles as Storm Shadow in the G.I. Joe animated series and also Commander Sato in Star Wars: Rebels.  He appeared on True Blood and many other series.  Young mentioned that the producers of Star Wars: Rebels was looking to cast an Asian character.  At the Women of Sci Fi and Horror area of the convention was Jackie Dallas.  She played Detective Harris in the thriller The Pining this year.  Dallas also plays Jen, the girlfriend of Mr. Clarke, in Stranger Things.  We had an interesting conversation about Asian films from Crazy Rich Asians and The Farewell.  You can check out her page at: https://www.jackiedallas.com.  Besides the panel on Howard Chaykin, I also attend the Attack of the Writer/Artist panel hosted by Barbara Kesel, writer and editor.  Christian Gossett was one of the speakers, as well as Gabriel Hardman who is the artist on Green Lantern: Earth One, Mike Kunkel, creator of Herobear and the Kid, and Javier Hernandez, creator of El Muerto, the Aztec Zombie.      

#LongBeachComicCon, #CosplayParents, #ChristianGossett, #HowardChaykin, #DenysCowan, #KeoneYoung, #JackieDallas,