​Our feet are bruised and blistered from walking the floor, our eyes are watery from the wash of original art and colorful cosplay that danced across them, and our wallets slump, allowing a lone moth to flutter its way to freedom as we blew our overly optimistic budget within 10 minutes of hitting Merchant Mesa. Now we’re back at work, back to being mild-mannered desk assistants, mail carriers, and policy makers, back to our secret identities and it's hard to believe we got to be ourselves so completely for the 3 days now past.
 
It’s hard to make casual chit chat with Fred from accounting over coffee about how your weekend was when you met the Flash, and you got to be Jyn Erso, and you got to shake the hand of an artist whose comics you’ve been reading since you were old enough to read. How do you translate all of that into Monday morning small talk? How do you explain that over the weekend you were home? Truly home. And now you have to wait a whole year to feel that accepted, comfortable, and seen again.
 
I don’t know if I can speak to how to cope with the Post-Con Blues, but I can say that I’m comforted by the fact that my Instagram feed is full of new artists I met in Artists Valley, the signatures I got from Tom King, Mitch Gerads, David Finch, and Jeff Smith are shining up at me from the stack of comics I haven’t had the heart to file away into their long boxes, and the sweet clay figures from Timid Monsters that I couldn’t get out of my head all weekend are settling into their new homes on my desk at work. Actually, its Post-Con Blues that led to my writing for Nerds That Geek in the first place, which in turn led to my getting to know 3 of my very best friends in the world, the Movie Mumble Podcast, and my typing this out to you right this minute.
 
Tim Girard, composer, podcaster, and friend was somebody I saw every day at work, somebody I’d only ever had passing casual small talk with, but I had seen him at Denver Comic Con and when the dreaded Post-Con Monday came as it has to every year, when I saw him I asked, ‘You feeling the post Denver Comic Con Blues?’ How rare is it that you remember the first words you ever said to one of your best friends? Denver Comic Con gave me that. Commiserating over the demise of the nerd’s paradise weekend cemented a friendship that led to hour long discussions of fandom, of movies, and the in-depth comic book analysis that I’d always wanted in my friendships but hadn’t thought possible. But I found another one of my people, and through that friendship and the ones that followed now I get to interact with my people almost every day.
 
My point is this, we’re at a point in popular culture where nerds aren’t hard to find. They may dress in plain clothes and mark time in their jobs the same way you do, but you can find them, and that means that the way Denver Comic Con makes us feel inside, that acceptance, freedom, and community isn’t something that has to come just once a year. So hang your commemorative prints, Instagram your hard-won signatures, and curl up with that new tentacle kitty plushy because while Denver Comic Con ‘18 is now over, Denver Comic Con ‘19 will be here before you know it. Until Next Time, Geek On!

As I continue to attend Denver Comic Con year after year, and especially as I have been lucky enough to attend as a media guest as a part of the NTG staff, I believe I’m finally zeroing in on the genre of panel discussion that I get the most of out of [from a content standpoint]. Panels are tricky beasts in that it can be difficult to suss out the panel’s desired audience either from vague or too specific titling, too broad, or too specific content, or from too vague or specific specialization in the panel participants. 101 panels, or those concerned with fostering diversity, inclusivity, and positive fandom environments are often filled with an audience to whom the information presented is not new, and the desired audience, those that would be swayed or galvanized by the panel’s presentation of acceptance, are not in attendance. It’s these kind of panels that force me to ask myself, Is Comic Con for adults, or is it for children? In no way do I mean this question to cheapen the community fostered by Comic Conventions, but rather to sharpen in my own mind, what the greater purpose of the Con is or, perhaps what it should be. If these panel discussions of the basics of inclusivity are aimed at children, at generating in the youth of fandom an informed and nuanced understanding of concepts like body-shaming, bullying, gate-keeping, and fostering diversity then they are not reaching that audience. The same is true if these panels are aimed at aging fans with backwards and damaging views of inclusivity. Now look, we all enjoy the celebrity panels, and screaming our heads off as David Tennant regales us with tales from the set of Doctor Who, or when Kevin Conroy says ‘I am the night!’ for the millionth time on stage, it’s fun and it stokes that fire of fantasy and imagination in us all as we are made to feel a part of these stories, these pop culture staples that we’ve come to build who we are around. It’s why I light up at those flashy big panels that put me in the same room as Batman, or Weird Al, but if I’m honest with myself, those panels, and their impact on this art we love, these stories we fill our wells from, don’t hold a candle to the potential of some of these smaller discussions.

Honest, candid discussions of representation in popular culture, rooms full of the bullied, the quiet, and the hopeful letting each other and especially kids know that it's okay to be a nerd, that it's okay to have a new perspective, that their voice is important, that their voice is necessary to our community; this is the potential impact of the smaller panels. I don’t think we’re going to shout down the belligerent fanboys, it makes me sad to think that’s the case but it's true. They won’t come to our panels. They’ll avoid them by their very titles. So who do we focus on? Who do we target these panels for? Kids. Young ignorant entitled people grow into old ignorant entitled people, but Comic Con provides a perfect venue for shaping young, enthusiastic, and impressionable minds. They’re already in the door, for lack of a better phrase, lured by the massive spectacle of guests, cosplay, fun, and community.

We’ve all experienced the awkward silence of the uncool teacher attempting to relate to their students through pop culture. It feels cheap, condescending, and disingenuous because it’s a tool, it’s a flimsy facade meant to engage you in material that you don’t find particularly interesting. But the Comic Con panel as a vehicle for education is impervious to that sense of falsehood we recognize in the classroom. Here be Nerds! And the beauty is that their passion, their expertise, and their critical analyses have their origin on the fan side of the dividing line, and are not some dubious strategy with a thin connection to common curriculum.
 
All of this is to say that the important work, the crucial impact that the Comic Con panel discussion can contribute is in the vein of education, and to that end it is necessary that panels accurately represent themselves and their intended audience in how they’re named, the content they cover, and the panelists they’ve assembled. Now I did mention that I believe the important target group for these discussions ought to be kids, however that is not to say that there is no value in the panel discussion for adults. I think there ought to be very clear distinctions between introductory, 101, and overview discussion panels (targeted specifically towards kids and young adults) and deeper, more nuanced presentations of how the fandom community can foster inclusivity and suss out themes, commentaries, and nuances of their respective fandoms. This is an area where I see the need for improvement. These more nuanced discussions, and DCC definitely provides a multitude of them, suffer from a number of hobbling factors leaving this intermediate or advanced level panel attendee group frustrated and unsatisfied.

In order for these more nuanced discussions to be effective they have to be just that: nuanced. Oftentimes these discussions dedicate huge chunks of their truncated time to overviews of the topics being discussed, leaving less time for the desired discussion to take place, and even less time for questions from the audience. These panels feel as though they see the need to catch up the audience on the topic being discussed rather than focusing on the specifics of the discussion that they’ve advertised through their panel descriptions and titles.

I believe that a clearer sense of panel progression might be a way of combating this trend, designing panels as components of a larger study if you will. Using DCC’s three-day format as a guide, panels could progress from overview foundations the first day, to intermediate the second, and finally advanced on the third day. This would be a clear cut format indicating to panelist and attendee alike that those discussions on later days would skip the foundation component and start right into discussion with the assumption that those in attendance are familiar with the material. This concept of panel titles indicating parts of a series are currently in place but they exist only in order to distinguish between panels on the same subject with difference panelists such as Batman in Comics I & II, or panels/demonstrations on the same subject tailored to different age groups like Creating Fantastical Creatures Workshop I (ages 3-12), and II (ages 13+). The idea of a three-part panel course over the length of the convention, broken up by expertise would indicate clearly to attendees and panelists how far into the weeds a discussion can lead, alleviating the need to rehash the basics, and freeing up the more knowledgeable panel seeker to skip the primer panels.

Time constraints are another major issue. Obviously, shorter panel runtimes mean that you can provide more panels, and though that is a hard point to argue, an hour (which is the average panel length) can fly by in the depths of an engaging discussion, or creep along at a snail's pace if the content is not interesting. One minor adjustment that would allow in depth discussions to breathe without being cut short, would be a longer buffer period between panels. DCC currently allows for 10 minutes between panels, which is great for quick turnover from panel to panel and jam packing the weekend with as many discussions as possible, but it doesn’t allow for much wiggle room. This can be frustrating as the distance between panels increases for both panelist and attendee, and instead of a thoughtful leisurely stroll to the next discussion as both groups dash from meeting room to meeting room, panting into microphones and hastily testing computer hookups.

Guaranteeing the quality and expertise of panelists is another component critical to how effective these smaller panels are. For example, a panel on diversity composed entirely of middle-aged white men is from the jump lacking the perspective and experience necessary to give their discussion any credibility, the same way that a panel of exclusively comic book artists would have no credible expertise sitting on a novel-writing panel. Ensuring that the panel participants can speak with authority about the content of their panel is crucial to the credibility of the panel, and to a certain extent, the Convention as a whole. Unprepared moderators and misinformed or inappropriate (in terms of area of study or expertise) panelists can be especially detrimental to the introductory or 101 style discussions as they present to an impressionable audience who have sought out such panels for a foundation in a new subject. These first impressions are important and it is critical that with topics like inclusivity and diversity that the foundation is clear, informed, and coming from panelists whose research or anecdotal experience is relevant to the discussion.

Now I spend a lot of time on the merchant side of Comic Con, as my growing Moon Knight collection and comically empty wallet can attest, but panels make or break my experience every year. A poorly presented panel can sour your whole day as you consider how much time you wasted there, the panel you decided not to go to instead, and the mad dash you made to make it there in time while an especially stimulating panel puts a renewed spring in your step. These are effective teaching venues and great forums for interacting with the community of fandom when executed with care and I sincerely cannot wait until next year’s Denver Comic Con and the new panels that’ll come along with it! Until Next Time, Geek On!

​Sunday at Denver Comic Con, or any convention for that matter, is often times a sobering and somber affair. After all, if you’ve attended all three days of the show, your knees and your feet hurt. You’ve gone to bed late and you’re tired and to add proverbial insult to injury, you now have to say farewell to all of your awesome friends and extended family and the convention itself, an event that you not only saved up for but treated like a giant nerdy Christmas by counting down the days and minutes until its arrival.    
 
Which is why you often see some sad faces in the crowd on that all important final day, because the clock is racing for the fun to come to an end. It’s also why you see the Sunday crowd push themselves a little harder to get their respective goals accomplished on this day, since they are in fact fighting father time in order to see those final panels or grab that perfect collectible and say farewell to the all the fun in proper fashion and truth be told, I too have suffered from that sense of sadness when it comes to the final day of DCC.
 
There’s just something incredibly spectacular and uplifting when it comes to walking the halls of the Colorado Convention Center, and seeing the sights of this amazing con one last time before heading home and the sense of wonder and belonging that comes with attending DCC is something we all work to hang on to and that’s why I’ve tried for so many years to capture every last sight and sound in my memories before leaving the con, but once again, this year was different was for me, thanks in large part to the epiphany I had on Saturday. 
 
Because really, the book end to my excitement on Friday and my self-discovery on Saturday is that in many ways, I never quite leave this con. The wonderful souvenirs that I pick up at DCC are awesome reminders of my experiences that allow for me to reminisce whenever I walk by them or see them on a shelf and my awesome friends/extended family, well we speak of our fondest Denver Comic Con memories often and it’s just magnificent to know that I can in essence, visit the con on a moment’s notice simply by reflecting upon it.
 
Which is why this year, there was no sadness in my heart or my mind as I walked around the convention, taking in the sights and the sounds one more time. There was only joy to be found. Because I’ve been fortunate and blessed enough to cover and attend this con every single year, and there’s no need to be sad about stepping outside those doors when in essence, Denver Comic Con is always with me. So, this year, I left DCC with my head held high and a smile in my face, content in the knowledge that I will be back next year to indulge in the wonder of this con and all the joy it has brought into my life. Until next year. 

​If there’s one thing I’ve always thoroughly enjoyed when it comes to day two of Denver Comic Con, it’s the massive crowd and the incredible energy that comes with it. Granted, it probably seems a little wild that I would be a fan of having to navigate through a sea of humans but hear me out for a moment because there really is something special to such a sight, specifically…you’ll never see people work with a greater purpose than they do at Saturday at DCC.
 
Because some people don’t have the luxury of attending all three days of the convention, and this is the only day they can make it, so they head into the Colorado Convention Center with a list of goals in mind and watching them work is incredible to say the least and really, since Saturday is the best day for me to get stills, people watching is quite frankly a must on this day and I really do revel in seeing the joy that washes over everyone’s faces as they work to take in the sights and enjoy themselves at the con.
 
But, I made mention of this crowd bringing forth an energy, and honestly, that comes from the joy upon their faces because those smiles are downright infectious and it’s something that is further enhanced by watching everyone reunite with old friends and share in the wonder of the con together and I saw a lot more of that this year than I have in past years, in large part due to the fact that I was focusing upon such a thing this year and well…it hit me later on in the day why my brain was continuing to keep an eye on all of that, because it related to my little conundrum from Friday.
 
Yes, that’s right, it only seemed like I had forgotten to talk about the exuberant joy I experienced during my first day of the con, but I promised you a story, and this is where some of that all comes together. Because as the day rolled on, and after one of my closest friends and fellow writer on this site, Shae, swung by the con, it hit me why I was so excited to be at DCC this year…because it more or less serves as a nerdy family reunion. After all, everyone here shares many of the same interests that I do, and so many of the people I’ve met here, I keep in touch with and know about their lives and the joy and the excitement surging through me on Friday, was all related to seeing my extended/surrogate family once again.
 
That revelation was what made Denver Comic Con 2018 the best year yet for me personally, because any event that brings together people that care about one another, and work to lift each other up, is a special event indeed and Saturday’s realization allowed for me to see DCC in a whole new light, and appreciate it on a whole new level and wouldn’t you know it? It changed my perspective on Sunday and how I normally feel about that day as well and that’s something we will discuss in tomorrow’s blog as I wrap up my thoughts and experiences when it comes to this outright incredible weekend…

Sometimes heading to the same convention year after year creates a bit of a conundrum for nerds and geeks in that, con fatigue begins to settle in, and you know what I’m talking about. It’s that moment when you feel like you’re going through the motions when you attend a convention, to the point where you have a good time, but the con simply doesn’t thrill you anymore. Some consider that bad, some consider it time to move on, some consider it to be nothing more than a sign that one belongs there, but what’s strange for me, is that after attending Denver Comic Con every single year that it’s been in existence, I’ve yet to find a sense of fatigue when the time rolls around to enjoy it once again.
 
If anything, I found myself more excited than usual to attend the con this year, and that’s something that stuck in my mind, simply because that kind of wonder and joy and outright anticipation is usually reserved for something new in our lives, not the norm. But rather than focus on that, I chose instead to focus on the matter on hand, attending the con, because the moment had arrived at last and well, it’s always an incredible rush to walk through those doors and see the con laid out before me and of course, I went through my own routine related moments as I wandered the floor on day one because hey, that’s what you do.
 
For me, this involved getting the lay of the land, checking out Merchant Mesa and Artist Valley, and wandering the rest of the convention floor to know precisely where to find all of the things and of course, catch up with all of my artist friends and fellow media buddies that I haven’t seen in forever. Yet while that was in fact, merely going through the motions in many ways, I still found that the excitement that I attempted to cast to the wayside was growing stronger and well, I found that to be supremely fascinating, and part of me thought that this seemingly newfound joy could be attributed to the fact that NTG had a first time con goer coming along to help us cover the convention this year.
 
Which made sense at first, because my friend Emily was wide eyed thanks to the wonders this con had to offer. She had never seen crowds like this, or this level of outright nerdiness before and while seeing her in awe when it comes to everything DCC has to offer was joyous in its own right I still could not shake the anticipation that was surging through my mind and my veins. I was simply giddy, as if I was a young kid all over again seeing this convention for the first time and I couldn’t get enough of walking the floor on this first day and taking in sights the and well, this was simply magnificent and befuddling and despite my best efforts to put my finger upon why I was THIS happy to attend DCC this year, I went home at the end of day one without a single answer.
 
Now I’m sure that’s disappointing for you to read, dear reader, because a snap shot of the con should in fact have a logical conclusion to the day in question. But honestly, this is precisely what I experienced and well, it was the only story of the day that came to mind and really, this little surprise on my end, gives me an opportunity to do something different with this year’s recaps of the con. Instead of the usual, I saw this or that, I can tell a far more personal story than I’m used to telling when it comes to DCC, and I think that’s a good thing, because this turned out to be a supremely personal and special year for me when it comes to this convention. So, bear with me over the next couple of days as I tell a different kind of con story, one that I was extremely happy to experience. 

​The summer of 2012 was a special one for me to say the least. It was of course Denver Comic Con's inaugural year and as a writer new to the blogosphere I was anxious and excited to cover something so unique. After all, Denver was brand new to this game and the phrase 'Comic Con' held with it an image of massive and crazed crowds hungry to explore everything they could about their favorite fandoms. 

Obviously when all was said and done, that first year of Denver Comic Con was a touch more low key than all of that, but it didn't take long for this homegrown convention to deliver that kind of powerful experience because years later, we here in the Mile High City get to boast and gloat over the fact our con is one of the biggest in the nation, complete with big time guests and big time crowds. But since DCC 2018 is finally upon us, I got to thinking, exactly what is it about this convention that makes it such an incredible draw? Well the answer to that is simple, this is a convention that goes beyond making money...it's about the experience and giving back to the community that supports it. 

After all, I don't know of any other convention out there where the proceeds go beyond operating costs and profits, since DCC sinks a ton of their money into Pop Culture Classroom and in a way it makes attending this convention quite the honor, because there's a sense of satisfaction in knowing that all the badges that I see clipped onto us in various fashion serve as a symbol to the fact...we've helped someone learn how to read. We have helped ignite someone's imagination and opened their eyes to a world of new possibilities, just from buying a ticket to celebrate our love of a particular fandom and that alone makes this con a wonderful experience...but it goes beyond that as well.

Because when you walk through those doors for DCC, there's a sense of comfort, a sense of home, really. I can't even remotely count how many times I see friends instantly greeting one another with a hug. How many cosplayers I see grouping up to compliment one another on their work and it's wonderful to have that feeling that you truly belong when you arrive here and considering how much work DCC has put in to continue to make this an all inclusive con, because diversity is a fundamental focus for both Pop Culture Classroom and DCC; that sense of unity is only going to continue as Denver Comic Con continues to grow and believe me it will continue to flourish because it has simply become a Mile High Tradition. 

Every single year, I see families making the voyage to the Colorado Convention Center to simply see the sights or meet one of the incredible guests that DCC lines up every single year, which means this convention is setting up generations of fans for years to come. But perhaps what truly makes this con so special, is the sense of awe that it brings out in all of us. Take a moment this weekend and see if you notice the same thing I did from this past year. You'll see children walking about, with their eyes agape with wild wonder at the sights before them, then take a look at their parents, or anyone else around them...they'll be doing the same thing. Denver Comic Con simply knows how to bring out the awe and wonder of being a geek, celebrating the things that brought us into a particular fandom in the first place and when you combine that with how this con gives back to its fans, in many ways...it brings out the best in us and I can't wait to walk through those doors  and experience the wonder and awe of it one more time. Until then.

​There really was a time, not that long ago in the world of Nerdom, where screen legends more or less avoided Conventions. It sounds weird to say that, since I, and so many of you out there have had the opportunity to meet the talented actors that bring our favorite characters to life at a con, but such an oddity was in fact, a strange reality. Because back in the day, if a star wasn’t attached to some kind of ‘nerdy’ television or film series, they were nowhere to be found at a local convention.
 
But the times have changed, and pop culture is now such an important part of our lives that bigger names keep finding their way to our favorite conventions and well, it’s a good thing. After all, people come from miles around to shake the hand of their cinematic and television heroes, and/or take a photograph with them for their own nerdy posterity and one such actor that I would have never to have expected to see at a convention but has started to work that circuit in the past few years, will be in attendance at Denver Comic Con 2018; Val Kilmer.
 
Yes, you read that right. Val Kilmer, THE Val Kilmer is going to be at DCC and already, I can hear a couple of eye rolls out there from folks reading this as they say quietly or aloud, ‘uh John, he was in Batman Forever so of course he makes sense at a convention like this’ and while you’re right because he was awesome as Bruce Wayne, and I think he was robbed by only getting one film, I digress and stand by my point because his résumé is stupid impressive since the man has been a part of some the most iconic films of the past forty years.  
 
I mean come on, he was Iceman in Top Gun, Chris Knight in Real Genius and who can forget his incredible turn as Doc Holliday in Tombstone and really, my personal favorite performance of his came about in 1995’s Heat because he was downright brilliant as Chris Shiherlis in that film and really…Val’s appearance this year speaks to two things. First and foremost, how the convention world continues to evolve since he and his representatives understand the value of seeing his fans face to face in a setting such as this and also, it serves as a solid reminder of the fact that Denver Comic Con has truly become a premier destination for big name guests because Val is another epic addition to an already impressive roster.
 
Which means that I cannot emphasize it enough, you have to get your tickets today, because they are going fast. In fact, three days passes are nearly sold out, and if you’re a big fan of Mister Kilmer, don’t miss out on your chance to shake his hand and thank him for every single moment of Top Secret! So, head over to the DCC website, and snag your tickets today and I’ll see all of you this weekend at Denver Comic Con 2018.