How to Be A Comic Con-ner

Bonjour bloggers!

It's about that time of the year again when we put on our nerd hats and do the thing that all fangirls dream of: Comic Con! Today I am going to show you my tips to prepare for the day and make the best of the event.

1. Find a Comic Convention in your area.

I was fortunate to hear of a comic con near where I vacation, so the Tampa Bay Comic Con was where I had my first experience. You can go to Eventbrite.com to search local conventions. Once I knew where I was going, I purchased tickets from Eventbrite and began looking at the details.

2. Determine which celebrity guests you are interested in seeing.

Tbh, I was most excited to go to comic con because I could not wait to see actors/actresses from shows I watch and get a picture or autograph. At the time, Doctor Who's Jenna Coleman (Clara) was one of the visiting guests, along with LOTR's Sean Astin and many other people I'm not familiar with. I stood in line for about 30-45 min. to get a picture with Jenna and was excited when I saw the results.

3. The Cosplay Dilemma

Perhaps the toughest part of the comic con experience is choosing a character to cosplay as. When choosing my character, I took into account someone who I could relate to or could resemble, a costume that would be fairly simple to put together, and something that would be comfortable and easy to sit/stand/walk in for long periods of time. Be sure to plan your costume a few weeks in advance in case you need to do some shopping (shipping times could take a couple weeks). If your costume requires heels, wear them only when necessary (e.g. for pictures or when meeting celebrities) and bring flats for the long waits in line or the walking you will no doubt be doing from your parking space to the convention location. A bag is also a good thing to keep in mind, since you may want to pick up some souvenirs while you are there. Keep money in a safe place (no outside pockets), remember your ticket if that con requires it, and I suggest bringing a camera or phone that you can take pictures on.

For more details on the Who-What-Wear, visit my other Comic Con post.

4. The Day of the Con

Have your costume ready to go, know how you are going to style hair/accessories/etc. in advance.

Depending on the opening time of the individual convention, you may want to plan to get there ahead of the crowd. Check-in may take a bit depending on the popularity of the comic con, the day of the week you are going, and the time you arrive. Research these things in advance to determine when the best time might be to go.

Because there is a lot going on, you may want to tour the stalls between celebrity meet-and-greets and shows. Or, if you are going in a group, arrange for one person to save your spot in a meet-and-greet line while you take a run of the wares, then switch. Also, if other Con-ners like your costume, they may ask to take a picture of you, so be prepared for that as well.



(With bloggers Heidi Dee @ Legally Elegant and Abby @ _)

Meet-and-Greets (in a nutshell):

Stand in a long line for what seems like a long period of time, gush about how excited you are to finally meet him/her while they either A. look at you blankly and hope you shut up soon or B. smile at you and genuinely seem like they are excited to be there (depends on the actor/actress and their mood at that moment), stand with the celebrity guest for what seems like 2 seconds as the photographer clicks away and the next people in line watch, leave the photo area and walk around the booths until the pictures are finished and set out, browse through others' photos and make judgments while you look for your own (and hope that others love yours more than you do).
You can also choose to pay $10 extra to get a digital copy of the picture.

(I briefly considered going as Clara because we share some similar features, but decided to stick with Agent Carter in the end)

And that's the gist of the Comic Con process! Some details vary from Con to Con, but overall it's a great event to experience and that's coming from someone who does not consider herself to be largely invested within the fandom empire. :)

Have you ever been to a comic convention? What tips do you have for first-time Con-ners?

xoxo,
Sara