Salt Lake ComiCon 2013

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to bring my geekdom to a whole new level.

For the first time, in the history of the universe, Salt Lake City hosted a ComiCon.  For years, San Diego has been the Mecca where geeks gather together to commune and celebrate their mutual interests.  I've never been a Con going person, and therefore haven't made the pilgrimage to San Diego to partake of the annual event there, in fact I wasn't even going to attend in Salt Lake, even though it was only 30 miles from my house.

Luckily, one of Robyn's friends was inspired.  They had 2 tickets that they weren't using for Saturday.  I had never even met this friend, but apparently Robyn has said enough about me to make it clear that I am nerdy enough to go to something like this.  She called Robyn, and when Robyn asked if I wanted the tickets the answer was an emphatic, "Yes!"

I gave the second ticket to my little brother, Zack, and we were off.

When we first stepped into the Salt Palace, I looked around and saw so many great people.  Among them were Spider Man, Pikachu, and most importantly, Dr. Who.  Best of all, it wasn't just any Dr. Who, but my favorite Dr. Who, the one played by Tom Baker that always wore the hat and scarf.  That was the Dr. Who of my childhood.

I turned to Zack and said, "These are my people."

We only had a few hours at the Con, since we arrived late afternoon on the last day, but we sure packed it with some awesome stuff.

Here are just a few of the experiences we had.

Captain America let me hold his shield.  Or, more accurately, that nice girl behind me let me hold Captain America's shield.

Some estimates say there were as many as 50,000 people there.  It was fun to look down on them all from the second floor.

I met Darth Maul.  Nicest Sith you'll ever meet.

I met Saruman and Gandalf the Grey.

If someone asks if you're a god, you say, "Yes!"

Who's creepier, Zack or Gollum?

We met Lego Batman!

Yes, that Orc is murdering my brother.  Yes, I'm smiling about it.

This is Zack's good friend Sue.  Her Shy Guy costume was awesome.

I met R2D2.  Turns out she's a girl, and she looks way different in person.

We even got to see Stan Lee.  He made up some garbage about how his characters are fictional.

When we went into the auditorium, it was already full so they were ushering people into a second auditorium where they could still see Stan Lee on the big screen.  However, just as we were about to enter the second auditorium one of the workers stepped in front of us and said, "There are a few seats in the front."  He then proceeded to walk us to about 10 rows from the stage.  It was crazy!  I don't know how that happened, but I appreciated that they knew we were VIPs when they saw us.

I met Ursela the sea witch.

I even hung out with zombies, but I never got bitten.

It was a super fun experience.  I'm totally going next year.  Maybe next year I'll even pay for my own ticket.