A Blues Brother and a Ghostbuster having a casual conversation while smoking a cigarette along the promenade in Long Beach, surrounded by iconic cars from “Jurassic Park,” “Back to the Future,” and “Speed Racer” can only mean one thing.
The Long Beach Comic Book Expo returned on May 31 and June 1 to the Long Beach Convention Center, and it was swarmed with fictional characters, comic book fans and artists alike.
The event brought together an array of panels, vendors, publishers and a sense of geeky comradery that was in the air throughout the event.
Attendees like Ernie Flores were decked out in their best costumes. Flores is a member of 501st Legion, a worldwide costuming club in which members dress up as villains from the Star Wars series.
His costume in particular was a clone trooper named Comet from “Star Wars: The Clone Wars Animated Series” — similar to the iconic Stormtrooper from “Star Wars,” but with a grey design outlining the mask and armor.
“It’s fun to get out and let your inner dork come out,” Flores said. “[You] have fun with your friends, meet a lot of people, share your interests with others and have fun with it.”
Married couple Gary and Shannon Howe also displayed their best Star Wars attire at the expo. Gary was wearing the Snowspeeder costume from “The Empire Strikes Back,” and his wife, Shannon, was dressed as an X-Wing Pilot.
“We make and sell everything you see here today,” Gary Howe said. “We try to go to as many of these things as we can, with time permitting of real lives and such.”
They attended Comic-Con San Diego back in 1999 and are always ecstatic to attend and dress up at conventions.
Conventions like this offer fans a taste of the industry they have grown to love, and are also a portal into the minds of the creators.
Among the dozens of invited guests was Gerry Conway, co-creator of “The Punisher,” and he is also the man responsible for scripting the death of Gwen Stacy in “The Amazing Spider-Man” comic book series.
He began writing for “The Amazing Spider-Man” series when he was 19. “Peter Parker and I were the same age, so I tried to use my experiences when writing,” Conway said.
“When [Parker] was trying to find an apartment so was I, [when Parker was] getting an ulcer that was
my experience as well, [his] relationships with women were similar to mine, although my girlfriend
didn’t fall off a bridge.”
Conway is also credited for writing the crossover between Marvel and DC Comics in “Superman vs. The
Amazing Spider-Man.”
Avid comic book reader and high school teacher Ricardo Aburto said Conway was his reason for
attending the expo and was ecstatic to have a couple of comics signed by him.
What Aburto enjoys most about this expo in Long Beach is the intimacy and convenience.
“I went to San Diego Comic-Con and that was more movies and video games,” Aburto said. “I didn’t
really like it; I like these kinds of cons better…It’s small, you can get to the bathroom easy, you can get
food easy and parking is easy, too.”
The scheduled program featured fun activities like tutorials on how to draw characters from “My Little
Pony” with Tony Flores who is an artist on the show.
Attendees also had the opportunity to learn how to draw characters from “The Simpsons” and
“Futurama” with the help of Tone Rodriguez of Bongo Comics, which was co-created by Matt Groening,
creator of “The Simpsons.”
The event included a room solely dedicated for laser tag and it wasn’t surprising to see masked comic
book heroes and villains alike joining in on the fun.
A panel titled “Cosplay Does Not Equal Consent” featured four professional cosplayers such as
Constantine in Tokyo, Miss Pirate Savvy, Vegas Power Girl, and Ana-Mia.
The panel discussed the difficulties and repercussions of being a professional cosplayer.
They all agreed that larger cons like San Diego Comic-Con can be problematic for their profession
because it brings in geeks but also mainstream attention, which doesn’t always understand the
subculture.
Ana-Mia was dressed up as Psylocke from “X-Men” encouraged and praised every one who came out to
embrace their inner geek.
“Everyone is a geek for something. Some people dress up with letters on their face and go to games with
a foam finger, guys go out and ride bulls, I think that’s kind of crazy,” Ani-Mia said. “So we all have things
that we like that other people might think are strange but if you are open minded and accepting you’ll
be amazed how much you can learn from other people.”