Life Lessons from Phoenix COMICON

I attended my first COMICON tonight with my husband, excuse me, let me start again.

I'm Lois.

Clark Kent took me on a date tonight to the Phoenix Comicon.  Clark happens to be pretty super.  He saved my life from Zombies - I didn't get one scratch or bite...or picture of them, either.  (I did happen to scream in the zombie tunnel, but who wouldn't? And proceeds benefited the Wounded Warrior Project, so it was worth it.)

He guided me safely through other kinds of tunnels, too.

He made sure that the Green Goblin was well behaved....















He took care of Greedo for me....



...and let me touch Toothless, but only after determining he was already tame.


Clark and I became personal friends with the Wii Fit.  We clearly are able to count the evening for our daily exercise.

We visited Lego tables.  

 Hung out with GI JOE bad guys...

 Had our ears talked off at the medieval table, apparently the groupies meet in locations across the world, so if we were to move, we could find them and they could dent our cars with these crazy weapons...yaddy, yaddy, yadda....

We met only one Elsa (unlike the night of Halloween last year, when I had 3 at the doorstep at once).

Clark wasn't afraid of Darth Maul and his "Joyful Expressions" business.  True story - DARTH MAUL'S BUSINESS CARD has a picture of his amazing face with the words "Joyful Expressions"....  A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

Clarkie knew who this Barf guy was, but I didn't.

All in all, the night was pretty wack.  Like wiggity wack? You may wonder. For some Comicon Nerds perhaps what we faced was "just the regular".  But for me, I realized this event took me to a much deeper place.  

First of all, this date was the only one of it's kind that Clark and I have ever had.  It was an entirely new and interesting experience for me.  It was like Halloween on steroids, but in the Summer, and there were classes to attend on various topics - it was like educational, but not like what you'd expect at school.

1)  By being there, I learned in an entirely new way just exactly 

WHO I AM, and WHO I AM NOT.  

2) I learned that we are pop-cultured far less than I thought were.  In many ways I am 10 to 20 years behind the times, because I only really resonated with all the classic characters (Superman, Batman, Star Wars, etc.), and I didn't know anything about the modern Anime groupies.  But what's cool is that it's okay, and that leads me to my next point.

3)  At Comicon - at least for me - there is no pressure to fit in, because you just do.  No matter who you are or what you like, there will be someone there who likes what you do, and plenty of people who like their own other things that you might not care for, but that's okay.  It's okay for them to be them and for you to be you.

4)  You have to have a certain type of personality to enjoy yourself at an event like Comicon.  If you are insecure about what others might think of you, then you will not like it.  As my father would say, you must "be secure in your weirdness."  :)  If you are a boring person or a whiner, you will not like it.  If you go to the Mythological Creatures 102 panel, you might think all the classes are like that, but they're not.  I did learn something in that class, though - like the origin of the character Lilith-mon.

5)  All in all, it was actually healthy for our relationship to do something other than go to dinner and a movie.  I suppose it was healthy for us to stare and gawk at people in costumes around us, and to play NBA Arcade games, and to walk a mile for food, and to learn about mythological creatures, and to laugh about it after.  

6) At Comicon, you actually risk your life.  By walking in the doors, you pretty much sign your life away for the evening - wearing the badge is not for the faint of heart:

"Badge holder assumes all risk and danger of personal injury, damage to property, including death, and all other hazards arising from, or related in any way to, the event for which the badge is issued, caused by negligence, gross negligence, or otherwise, and the holder releases Phoenix Comicon, the Phoenix Convention Center, Hyatt Regency, Sheraton, Renaissance and its employees, volunteers, and its agents from any and all liabilities/claims resulting from such risk, danger, damage, injury or death."

7)  I learned that Comicon is pronounced with a short i sound, and I also learned a new word, called "Cosplay" - it's a hybrid of the words "Costume", and "Play".  It's basically dressing up for grown ups.  Maybe I am becoming more and more pop-cultured by the minute. :)

One thing is for sure - next time, we're going to attend Jonathan's PUGS panel.  I wish I knew he was guiding it before we went.  But now we know. :)

Thanks Clarkie (and Uncle Warren for hooking us up with the tickets).

That was a "Super" date!