A Summer Day At Really Cool Comic Con

TV & Film

Jul 27

My son and I enjoyed another outing to the Really Cool Comic Con in Flint, Michigan, this past Sunday. Taking place once again at the Dort Financial Center, this is a very cozy con - the venue is just the right size where there are quite a few vendors, but they are not spread out so much that you have to walk for miles within the center that your feet are killing you at the end of the day.

The cozy feeling envelopes you when you first arrive at the Dort Financial Center - people lined up in their cosplay outfits to enter the building are polite and everyone is nice to everyone else as we patiently wait. There are volunteers to help with your wristbands and to direct you to where you want to go as soon as you come in, and there is very clear signage. The nice lady at the will call table is the organizer’s, Mike Blagborne, mom, so you are really getting the “everyone is part of the family” treatment.

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My son wanted to hit the vendors as soon as we got in the door. For those of you who have read my previous con articles, you might remember that my youngest is a Pokemon card collector. He can haggle with the best of them. In the past year or so, he has expanded his card collecting to include sports cards as well. I was a bit surprised to see how many vendors also had sports cards to go along with the usual Pokemon and Magic cards.

There was a wide variety from which to choose! The vendors were also very nice and friendly to the two of us. They really took their time with my son and didn’t rush him when he wanted to look through their binders. Muhammad “Mo” was especially nice to us, and he had a large selection of sports and Pokemon cards. Scott Barnum of “Cash for Comic Books” had a very nice selection of comic books that I enjoyed perusing and was able to buy a few for my other sons who were not in attendance.

there was also the nice vendor who gave me a key chain with the name of his company, Pokemon Prince Pop. He, too, was very nice and kind while my son looked through his wares, and he and I chit-chatted about the autism spectrum, new drivers, and other such small talk based on a couple of bumper stickers that I saw he had.

As we were looking around, my son wanted to see which celebrity guests were there. Unlike other comic cons, there are not so many guests that it is hard to catch a glimpse of them, and you can walk right up to who you would like to see without very long lines. My son was very happy to see Jay Goede as he has seen the Pokemon movie and was excited to meet the person who voiced Mewtwo! As with everyone else in the con, Mr. Goede was very gracious to us and talked to my son. It was nice to meet a fellow Midwesterner!

Rounding out our time there was the Kids’ Cosplay Contest. We enjoyed seeing how the kids, and, in quite a few instances, their parents, too! - were dressed in rather elaborate costumes showing which fandoms they liked. It was a lot of fun to see these brave youngsters show out on stage in front of over a hundred people who were all very encouraging! I also got to talk to the contest judges after the competition. There was Jaz, who dresses up as Wonder Woman, Orion was Princess Peach, and Azura and Yuriio were the personifications of My Little Ponies - so cute! I asked them how they were able to do this, and they all had the same theme: they started doing cosplay when they were teenagers, and they had been at it for over a decade at this point. Not only did they perform at parties and the such for a fee, but they also volunteered as well. All four ladies were very enthusiastic in describing to me how they loved to share their love of cosplay with others.

All in all, we had a very good time at the Really Cool Comic Con! It is easy to see how this has become a summer staple in mid-Michigan. There is to be a follow-up, MIAnime, in Novi August 2-3.

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