Colorado Springs Comic Con 2018 Recap

Written by Zeke Perez Jr.

Nestled in the Chapel Hills Mall and Event Center, the third annual Colorado Springs Comic Con returned stronger than ever in 2018. The Con was the biggest draw of the weekend down in the Springs, bringing in substantial crowds across all three days. Southern Colorado’s finest Batmaniacs, Whovians, Thronies, Potterheads, Trekkies, and fans all turned out for a smorgasbord of nerdy fare.
 
The new space, the aforementioned Chapel Hills Mall, proved to be a good venue for CSCC, albeit sometimes awkward. The event space was roomier than the Colorado Springs Event Center had been in past years, and the division of celebrities and panels downstairs and the showroom floor upstairs made for a neat and easy to navigate convention. Parking was exponentially easier here than at other conventions I’ve been to. Being in a functioning, operating mall did have its quirks. Cosplayers turned a few more heads than normal, strolling through the food court and walking amongst average Joe’s running errands. The panel room was down the hallway from the celebrity floor, past the Charlotte Russe and tucked in an abandoned storefront (if you’ve hit the T-Mobile shop, you’ve gone too far).
 
One excellent use of space was the outdoor eating area. If guests didn’t want to trek up to the food court or didn’t want the hassle of going in and out of the convention through security, they could simply step right outside of the showroom floor into the food area, where CSCC brought in several local food trucks to serve up a variety of good eats. Food trucks make any event better and they absolutely spiced up the convention experience.
 
Filing into the convention was occasionally quite difficult, especially on Saturday when long lines wrapped around the inside and outside of the mall while convention-goers inched through security. That’s hardly the fault of CSCC or the venue. It’s pretty much the norm for every convention’s Saturday. And even with the large Saturday crowds, I have to tip my cap to the CSCC volunteers and the Altered Reality Entertainment folks who worked through the kinks and made the event smoother as the weekend went on. Staff were friendly and did their best to allow fans to have the best time possible.
 
It wasn’t difficult to have a blast at CSCC either. In my primer for the event, I talked about my plans to focus on celebrity guests and cosplay, a change from how I had spent other conventions. Lucky for me, the celebs and cosplay at CSCC were pretty great. And so were the panels, artists, and the showroom floor itself.
 
If I had to use two words to describe CSCC, I might choose intimate and personal. This applies to a number of aspects of the convention, each of which made it so enjoyable. First, to the celebs, you could truly get up-close and personal with each of the celebrity guests. Unlike at bigger conventions, where celebrity tables are placed 20 feet back behind a barricade and a handler, fans could graze literally right next to celebrity tables. Some celebrities even encouraged fans to just stop by and chat, regardless of whether they had paid for a meet-and-greet. I paid for a picture to finally get the chance to meet Lou Ferrigno (and it was wonderful), but it was just as easy for me to get an autograph and a chat from Carl Weathers or to shoot the breeze with WWE legends Trish Stratus and Amy ‘Lita’ Dumas or to tell Kevin Conroy what he meant to my childhood. CSCC is a great place to go to interact with celebrity guests.
 
The intimacy carried over to the showroom floor, a place usually crowded to the point of claustrophobia. While the aisles were a little less spaced out, you never felt like you couldn’t get through them, even when the crowds poured in. You also never truly felt turned around, thanks to the smaller space and how things were organized. I was able to spend more time looking at vendors and artists tables without feeling rushed. All in all, smaller conventions do pack some perks.
 
I’ll write about the cosplay experience in more detail in future articles, but I enjoyed what CSCC had to offer in that department too. Cosplayers had their own section of tables and booths on the celebrity floor. There was also a sizeable percentage of attendees who cosplayed. I went around hanging out with and taking pictures for my friend Steven, who was in costume as artist Dexter Soy’s rendition of Red Hood, Red Ronin. CSCC provided him with a comfortable environment to take pictures with whoever wanted one. He and I had a blast interacting with other people in costume. I did hear some rumblings about how different security interpreted rules on cosplay weapons, but overall Colorado Springs hit the mark on fostering a good space for cosplay.
 
Colorado Springs Comic Con is still in its infancy, but its third year was likely its best yet. There are some kinks that will be ironed out as it grows, but in the process, it is establishing itself as a wonderful annual event for the region and the state. CSCC 2018 had something to offer for everyone, while still maintaining a smaller size and offering more opportunity for personal interaction. This was my first year going to CSCC but there is no way it will be my last. I’m already looking forward to Colorado Springs Comic Con 2019 and I hope to see you there!

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