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Firefly stars and Kevin Conroy headline Long Beach Comic-Con

Long Beach had a chance to geek out for cosplayers, comics and celebrities at the eighth annual Comic Con over the weekend.

The scene at the Long Beach Convention Center was one from a comic book. Wonder Womans were in line for food trucks, Deadpools held doors open for customers at restaurants and Supermans casually waited in line for bathrooms.

The main exhibition hall was separated in sections geared toward every congoer’s interest.  Cosplay Corner, Artists’ Alley, Animation Land, Celebrity Corner and Space Expo were some of the popular options that were filled with veteran congoers and curious first-timers.

“There are plenty of other things to do here at Comic Con [if you aren’t an expert congoer]. There are shows, movies, writing art and merchandise people can get into here,” said Alex Morris, a Wonder Woman cosplayer.

One of the most anticipated events was the Saturday “Firefly” reunion panel, with a special character appearance by cast members Summer Glau, Sean Maher, Adam Baldwin and Jewel Staite.

Headlining the Long Beach con this year were Kevin Conroy and Loren Lester, voice actors from “Batman: The Animated Series.” The pair, who portray Batman and Robin respectively, also made an appearance over the summer at San Diego Comic-Con.

Nathan Fillion of “Con Man,” the television comedy series, made a special guest appearance for the show’s panel, surprising attendees on Saturday.

With so much happening at the Long Beach Comic Con, there were some events held outside of the actual convention center. There was a Wonder Woman after-party for ages 21 and older to help celebrate 25 years of Wonder Woman. Fans who attended were able to sip a drink and learn the art style behind the Wonder Woman character at the Hyatt Regency hotel.

Cosplayers and artists came from all over the country to celebrate this year’s convention. Texas native Rita Yeung has attended conventions before and said there is a sense of community, since she has seen familiar faces at all of them. This was her first convention where she had a booth set up for her artwork and was thrilled to get great feedback from artists.

“It’s cool to see how other people showcase their work … when I was little I saw other artists do it and I never had the guts to do it,” Yeung said. “The community is pretty welcoming and they offer great advice.”

Terrence Will Johnson, cosplaying as Dusu from the “Dusu” comics, said minority representation in comic books is vital in the cosplaying community to make people feel like they have options in the characters they can represent.

“I specifically cosplay any black character from Marvel or DC … I like to push for representation in books or media. I only cosplay characters I can relate to. Fans need to make sure you’re representing something that represents you … if [characters] look more like their readers, [comics industries] would only get more readers.”

According to professional cosplayer going by the name Maid of Might, who was cosplaying Spider-Gwen, the convention is a place to feel safe and free to express her love for comics.

“As a female who is into comics I feel like I always have to be defending my nerdism,” Might said. “If I’m wearing a Batgirl shirt I don’t want to be quizzed about what I love. I don’t always have to prove I have over 400 comic books.”

Maid of Might hopes by cosplaying her favorite characters she can encourage other females to embrace their inner “nerdism” and feel welcomed into the comic community.

Female representation at the Long Beach Comic Con was well encouraged by a partnership with the Girl Scouts of the Greater Los Angeles area, who attended not only to cosplay and have a great time, but also to collect badges and learn about the comic book universe.

Over 500 Girl Scouts had a chance to attend panels about careers in comics, design their own superhero costumes and test their artistic skills.

Long Beach also continued an existing partnership with the Columbia Memorial Space Center and had a corner dedicated to science: Space Expo 2016, helping to promote STEM programming and encouraging science with a build-your-own-R2D2 section.

The next highly anticipated convention for comic book lovers to head to is Stan Lee’s Comickaze, which will be held Oct. 28-30 in Los Angeles.

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