NOVA CON 2017 : Part 2 : Photos

Before you see the photos, I have to give another shout out to my friend Kristin. For her first time at a con, she truly captured her look and I am still impressed. DC Bombshell Catwoman

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Disclaimer: If you see your photo and want to use it for any social media, please credit Sup, Nerds! use the hashtag #supnerds, like our Facebook page and follow our blog. I know that is a huge request but we greatly appreciate it.

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Harley Quinn & Selina Kyle take on NOVA CON

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Artist Alley & Stranger Things Panel

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Cosplay Saturday & Sunday

Suicide Squad Harley Quinn

Crocheted BB-8

Brian of Tarth

Princess Ariel

Superman/Clark Kent

Dustin from Stranger Things

Poison Ivy

DC Bombshell Harley Quinn

Princess Belle

Gambit

Star Wars

Vera’s amazing shell boots

Diana of Themyscira

Medieval Catwoman

Eleven Eggo’s

Star Wars Joker

Ursula

Admiral Akbar & R2D2

DC Bombshell Catwoman

Mera

Crocheted Doctor Strange

Pez dispenser Princess Leia

Till next year NOVA CON!

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For some reason the edited photos would not upload, so if you see your photo and would like the full resolution copy, send us a message and we will get it to you.  Gracias.

Nova Con 2017 : Part 1 : Review

Nova Cons inaugural event started Friday July 28th. I was unable to attend due to work, so part 1 to this is a review for both Saturday and Sunday. I was pretty excited for this con for several reasons:

1. Near my house
2. Another weekend to cosplay and get Harley Quinn right
3. My friend Kristin was attending a con for the first time and planned on cosplaying. She was DC Bombshell Catwoman and rocked the hell out of her look!
4. Pricing was PERFECT.

I will break down my review on all fields of the con along with any “improvements” needed but there won’t be many.

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Location/Parking:  The location was perfect. It was local and provided more than enough parking. The parking garages were near the hotel lobby, and as a cosplayer it is much appreciated, since you won’t be walking far or getting caught in the rain. The actual payment for parking was a bit confusing though. If you followed NOVA CON on Facebook they stated parking was free, which was AWESOME! But if a volunteer forgot to tell you to get the pass validated, you might have had to pay. I spoke to a few people who ended up having to pay. Just lack of communication, not a huge biggie in my book. The validation scanner was near the “down” elevator but the sign and scanner could have easily been missed. For next year, if it is held in this same location, I would suggest putting a bigger sign, adding the validation on social media for people to locate and/or putting that information on the badges. 

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Food: With all of the excitement I tend to forget to eat. But at some point my stomach reached a point of “feed me Seymour”. The only quick bite I saw was an a la cart section with fries, chicken tenders and a wrap. The pricing was a bit high for French fries ($6) but that is normal for a con (not shocked at all). I noticed a restaurant on the lobby level but I just like a quick bite. For next year I would just suggest adding another a la cart station with sweets or more of a quick bite type of food.

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Cosplay Contest: There was some serious talent that entered the contest. The prize was $600. Not bad for an inaugural con. The judges were supposed to have the list narrowed down from 100 to 10 but it ended up being 16. It was pretty funny. But honestly all of the 16 chosen were amazing. I had a top 5 and I’m not sure how I would have chosen just 1 winner.

Saturday Top 5: Crocheted Dr. Strange- Gambit- Mera- Ursula- Belle

The winner had a pretty cool costume on and large prop. I wouldn’t be able to tell you the character but I think it was gaming related. Cosplay etiquette was on point. No one was rude, people asked for photos and no one was inappropriate.

Stranger Sunday Cosplay: We arrived after the Stranger Things Sunday cosplay contest event took place. I was pretty bummed about this, but luckily we arrived in time for the Stranger Things panel with Catherine Dyer, Randy Havens, and Shannon Purser (we found Barb!). 

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Artist Alley: The artists, like always, were great. You’ll never catch me saying something negative about someone’s work. People have different variations of art, and the art displayed here was nothing short of great. My only suggestion would be to have the lighting inside of the main room be brighter for the artists who are working on commissioned work.

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Gaming Section: I was expecting an arcade type of gaming area, not as big, but kind of like Awesome con. To my surprise, it more computer\board game, which is cool for those that like them. It’s just not my thing.

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Volunteers:  Each and every single Nova Corps volunteer was extremely nice, engaged well with customers in a respectful manner and knew exactly how to help each person, from locating the parking validation area to help guide us on where everything is located. Great job Nova Corps!

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At times, the DJ would spin a great track and people would start dancing, Kevin and Michael would toss out gifts to the crowd and everyone would be having a great time.

NOVA CON is my first small con. I’ve been to 4 large cons and I’ve never had as much fun as I did on Saturday. The Nova Con crew made this experience very family friendly but also made you feel like you were a part of their family. Everyone was having a great time laughing, cosplaying and dancing. This was an experience for fans. It wasn’t about which A list celebrity you were going to spend $500 on, wait in line for 3 hours only to say you saw…. for 5 milliseconds. Trust me, I’ve been there and moments like those can make your con experience go from amazing to super shitty rather quickly.

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Stay tuned for Part 2- Photos!

#NOVACON

Awesome Con Part 2

The Stan Lee Collection

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Artist Alley

 BlackeM-art: Megan Hutchison : Facebook/itcamefromgalifry

BLUU DREAMS : Anderson Bluu : Instagram/ANDERSON_BLUU

:(SuperEmoFriends): JSalvador : Facebook/Super Emo Friends

MIXTAPE Massacre : Facebook/Mixtape Massacre Board Game

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Disclaimer: If you see your photo and want to use it for any social media, please credit Sup, Nerds! use the hashtag #supnerds, like our Facebook page and follow our blog. I know that is a huge request but we greatly appreciate it.

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Cosplay

Star Wars Squad

Coraline

The Man in the High Castle

Baymax

Joker & Harley

Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker & Mon Mothma

Logan, Laura & Quicksilver

Ghost Rider

Spice Girls

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Gamora

The Avengers

The Magic School Bus

Adult Swim

Yondu

Sonya Blade

Scarlet Witch, Winter Soldier and Black Panther

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B.S Adventures at Awesome Con 2017

Awesome Con 2017 Washington D.C: Review

June 16-18, 2017

Our first year at Awesome Con, Washington D.C was a slight change than our usual Philadelphia drive to Wizard World.  The last 3 years have been the best in Philly, from meeting new people (who are now friends), exploring the city and most importantly, eating at WAWA for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Don’t judge.

Since we live in the D.C area, we thought we should give Awesome Con a chance and they did not disappoint. Unlike most comic cons, Awesome Con did not have a preview day (typically a Wednesday or Thursday) but I was fine with that, especially since we did not have to travel far. Like always, the first thing we do on the very first day is scope out the Artist Alley. We saw a few familiar faces from Philly but a lot of new talent.

For Artist Alley & Cosplay coverage, stay tuned for Part 2 Awesome-Con Coverage. 

Cosplayers were in full effect from Sonya Blade to an amazing Princess Leia. Side Note: The woman that cosplayed as Princess Leia looked exactly like a young Carrie Fisher. Brendan and I were both stunned. As I expected, there was an abundance of Wonder Woman variation’s, and surprisingly, a good amount of Steven Universe. This year I only cosplayed on Sunday as DC Bombshell Harley Quinn. Taking an hour long Metro ride was quite interesting while in makeup. I received many confused looks on our way into Washington D.C and I enjoyed it. It’s fun to see people’s reactions.

Next up, Panels & Food. We did not have a chance to attend any of the panels, so, we cannot offer our review on that side of the con. We really wanted to check out the crowds and have enough time to walk thru and see each artists table.  The food options were not basic. They had the regular food stands that had fries, burgers, etc. but they also had stations with Caribbean food, which we totally appreciated. The curry chicken & rice was delicious.

Complaints that I’ve read and heard: “Long lines for celebrities, Stan Lee sitting in his photo-op, long food lines” and so on. What I can say to that is, as a customer, it should be expected. I’ve waited for photo ops in the past and it sucks to wait forever for a few milliseconds but, that is how it is at cons. Sometimes, they oversell tickets. Is it fair? Nope. But it is to be expected. I will say, the times we’ve attending a comic con and did not meet any celebrities, t ’was probably the calmest experiences we’ve had.

To end, Awesome Con was worth it and we will attend next year. The volunteers were polite, the artist alley was diverse and it was near our home. It appears that Awesome Con will be held earlier in the year, which might allow us to attend Wizard World Philly. If you are in the area, or close enough like Philly, New York, Maryland, or Virginia, you should give them a try.

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Disclaimer: If you see your photo and want to use it for any social media, please credit Sup, Nerds! use the hashtag #supnerds, like our Facebook page and follow our blog. I know that is a huge request but we greatly appreciate it.

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Cosplay

Wizard World Philadelphia 2016: Day 4

Occurred on Sunday, June 5, 2016.

The main event… meeting Chris Evans & Hayley Attwell.

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Clearly this is a very late post, about 7 months late. To be honest, I was not motivated to write about our last day at WW Philly 2016, but with the comic con season approaching, I figured I should write this, especially since something pretty awesome came out if it.

Sunday was the last day of Wizard World and what I had called THE MAIN EVENT. It was the only event we had planned and it was to meet my man (no longer my man) Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell. Sadly, our experience meeting them was far from what I expected.

I will explain what happened and then get to the best part.

The line to wait for Chris was insane and was ran like an animal house. The WW Philly employees (not volunteers) were extremely rude to everyone (adults & children). With us, the consumers, we had no idea where to wait, where to go and the employees had no interest in helping anyone out. Instead, they resulted in yelling at us, cursing and threatening to do harm. Mind you, all of us paid a lot of money to see our favorite celebrity. After a few hours in line, chatting with all the ladies, rumors started going around that Chris Evans was “not in the mood” and was going to leave early because apparently a crazed fan attempted to kiss him. Chris took to Twitter after the weekend and stated that rumor was false, but I am not too sure about that. His demeanor leading up to my photo was stand off-ish. Chris and Hayley were sitting in the photos prior to mine and there was ZERO fan interaction. I’ve been there before, I know it’s crazy busy and you only have a split second, I understand that celebrities are human beings, but he was very cold and not personable. I barely even noticed that Hayley was there. No words were exchanged and not even a glanced look. Just like that the photo was taken. We wait hours for a millisecond.

Brendan was pissed off at how they were with the fans. The majority of the people traveled far and spent so much money to feel unappreciated and that wasn’t fair. After that, Chris Evans is no longer my man. It was such a disappointment meeting him. In interviews he seemed like a super cool person and that was not received on Sunday. I have my photo with him, which I will post below, but it wasn’t until recently that I hung the photo. For me, it was beyond the photo it was the experience.

Now for the awesomeness that came out of Sunday. (Photos below) I got to meet a couple of awesome ladies. While I was in line trying to figure where I should be, someone in Tony Stark makeup asked if they could stand with me and I said sure. I noticed that the line was getting ready to move so I grabbed Tiny Tony’s hand aka Morgan and said lets go, you’re coming with me. I had to make sure that she got in line and was not trampled over. It was THAT crazy. Luckily, I was able to get us thru the line and we were about 10^th in place to meet Chris and Hayley. After the line fiasco was settled, Morgan and I started to talk and get to know each other. Her makeup as Tony Stark was phenomenal. After waiting for some time, I ran into my new friend Shannon and met Morgan’s friend Katelyn. Talk about a talented person. Katelyn is an art teacher and she is artistically talented beyond words. She can draw, make cosplay costumes and clothes. With social media, we were all able to keep in touch. For me, the best part of attending any comic con is meeting people that you would have never met, and making new friends all over the world. For that, I am grateful to WW Philly.

To end, we are not attending Wizard World Philly 2017. Instead, we are going to Awesome Con D.C. We’re trying out a new place and hopefully get to meet new nerds just like us.

Captain American puppy

Tiny Tony, Lady Loki & American Lady

Tom Hiddleston

Tiny Tony aka Morgan

Kathleen and her amazing art work

Comic Con

Not what I expected

Wizard World Philadelphia 2016: Day 3

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Plan of attack for today, get noticed by either Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston or Stephen Amell in my pop art zombie makeup. Did I succeed? Why yes I did, and it was AWESOME. Keep reading to see how it all unfolds.

I decided to cosplay as a “Pop Art Zombie”. I did this same look for Halloween and it took me two and a half hours. I was on a serious time crunch, since the Captain America Panel line started at 9:00 am. I managed to do my look in one hour and 45 minutes. Because I was rushing, I missed a few details here and there, I didn’t get to paint my entire body like I wanted, but the face was 90% completed. Now, it was time to take a cab (if we had walked to the convention my face would have melted off) and run to the front section of the Cap panel.

The room was packed, but thanks to my new friend, Shannon, we were able to get seats in the front. If you know me, you know that I was going to take my happy ass to the very front of the stage, make sure to take some photos/videos of the panel, and to make sure I succeed in getting noticed in my makeup. You would never know that I am 29 years old. The panel had lots of laughs and funny moments.

• Anthony Mackie with the cute baby in the 3rd row
• Sebastian Stan finally getting his plums
• Chris Evans telling Anthony Mackie who Harley Quinn is (Suicide Squad. Duh!)

(Photo Credit: Stephanie O’Shea)

The panel ended and all 3 men went towards the front of stage where I was waiting. Here was my chance to get noticed. Sebastian Stan turned towards my direction, once I put my gigantic camera down from my face, he saw my makeup and said “Oh shit! Your make up is great”. I was expecting a wave or something, but not a compliment like that. I was surprisingly shocked and so happy that I was really fangirling.

(Photo Credit: Stephanie O’Shea)

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If you are still reading this, we thank you and please bare with us, Saturday was a very long day and we want to share it all with you. The Captain America panel took up most of our morning.

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In the afternoon, Brendan and I attended a panel for a short film titled “DINNER”. If you haven’t heard of this short film, we encourage you to check out the  links below. You wont be disappointed.

The panel begins with the short film. Very Buffy the Vampire Slayer esque mixed with The Walking Dead and throw in some Judd Apatow humor and that is DINNER. Seems great right?! To top it all off, the short film was made on a ZERO budget.

The writer/producer/director, Aleksandra Svetlichnaya, is also the leading lady. Her entire DINNER: Movie crew was really nice about answering all of the questions and giving you some very helpful tips, not just about filming but about acting as well. This panel was very informative for Brendan and me and we learning a lot.

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/cjj8uLBuapA(Photo Credit: DINNER: Movie)

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Next panel was the Screen Junkies Movie Fights. Brendan and I looked forward to this, since we watch Movie Fights on YouTube. Towards the end of the panel, Andy Signor asked if any fans wanted to fight. Without any hesitation, I jumped up and walked to the microphone. I picked from a list of topics on the sheet Andy had, and I chose to fight Dan Murrell. The question I selected to fight was “Who would win in a fight between John Wick and Jason Bourne?” . I picked John Wick and Dan had Jason. I did loose, BUT, I also don’t play Movie Fights for a living so I am not that quick. My points were still there but Dan was quicker. I still think John Wick would beat Jason Bourne. Wanna fight me? lets go.

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After the panels, I found out that Sebastian Stan would be making his way towards the autograph section and I figured, why not try and see if hell recognize me again. While I was waiting for Sebastian, Stephen Amell aka Arrow, walked right by me, saw my makeup, and said “What’s up”. My mind was saying “Oh Shit, Stephen Amell just looked at me and said what’s up to me”.  Today was full of great surprises.

Back to Mr. Stan. He was walking towards his autograph area and I very politely tapped his shoulder and asked if I could  take a photo with him and he said sure. He was extremely nice and very welcoming to is fans. I amuser grateful that he not only complimented my hard work (my makeup) but he also took a photo with me. So thank you Sebastian Stan for being a stand up guy!

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Disclaimer: If you see your business/photo and would like the original high resolution photo, please contact us and I will be happy to email it to you. We just ask that if you use this photo on any social media sites to please use the hashtag #supnerds, credit Sup, Nerds! and like our Facebook page.

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Cosplay

After the panels, we walked around the con floor, saw some new cosplay looks, and even saw a Gizmonic worker aka Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Brendan wore the same costume last year. After another long but exciting day, we still had one more day, the last day, Day 4. Stay tuned…

Joel from the Gizmonic Institute

Slave Loki & Jessica Rabbit

Sparta Deadpool

T-Rex

Maleficent

Daphne & Velma

 

Wizard World Philadelphia 2016: Day 2

Friday, June 3, 2016

Today was an exciting day for a couple reasons. One, I decided to cosplay as Harley Quinn but with my own spin. I knew everyone and their mother was going to be Harley from Suicide Squad (and there is nothing wrong with that) but I wanted to do something a little different. I decided to go as Dr. Harleen Quinzel transitioning into crazy Harley Quinn. With the help of my amazing husband, Brendan, he outlined the lips and teeth while I colored it in. For some weird reason, I am able to do my pop art zombie with no assistance and yet with my Harley lips, I just couldn’t do it. Good thing my husband and I are  team awesome.

After putting on my regular makeup and then adding the crazy lips it was time to be Harley.

Crazy Harley Quinn on one side

Dr. Harleen Quinzell on the other side

 

The second reason why I was excited was because I was meeting my new friend, Shannon. Thanks to Chris Evans, a lot of people became friends thru Wizard World’s Facebook page. He brought a lot of people together, who probably would have never met. And that’s were Shannon comes in. I was looking for panel tickets for Captain America and Shannon offered her extra ticket to me. We chatted a few times before the con, and today was the day I was meeting this very generous person. After meeting up for a few minutes, I got my tickets and I gave her a thank you gift. Captain America themed of course.

After Shannon and I parted ways, it was time to hit up some of the panels and meet some new people.

We attended a Game of Thrones panel and a Screen Junkies honest trailers panel. While Brendan and I were taking our seats, at the exact time I sat down, without looking at the person next to us, a Joker sits next to me, which was hilarious. I had no Joker and he had no Harley, but now we had each other for this panel. His costume was pretty spot on.

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Disclaimer: If you see your business/photo and would like the original high resolution photo, please contact us and I will be happy to email it to you.  We just ask that if you use this photo on any social media sites to please use the hashtag #supnerds, credit Sup, Nerds! and like our Facebook page.

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Artists Alley

Chroma Coma: Artist W. Andrew Sheppard has a talent that we have not seen at comic con before. He creates these portraits of characters on a chalk base using cray-pas (oil pastels). We kept going back throughout the day and we finally decided to purchase 4 portraits. We bought a Michael Meyers, Captain America Chris Evans, Thor Chris Hemsworth and a Batman comic portrait. Mr. Sheppard was the highlight of the Artist Alley on Saturday.

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We are not sure if this gentlemen was an artists or just supporting an artist, but his shirt was a major highlight for Brendan, who is a huge Philadelphia Flyers and a Misfits fan.

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Cosplay

On Friday, cosplayers took traditional characters and created a new look, while others stayed true to the character they were portraying. Either way, it was equally awesome. What Brendan and I truly love seeing are parents getting involved and the entire family dressing up. What an awesome way to bond with you kids and have a great time.

Twinsies

Lady Loki, Lady Thor, Lady Cap, Lady Winter

Mary Poppins (cutest couple)

This family was killing it with the costumes all weekend

Kimmy Schmidt & Cinderella

Silent Bob

Winter Soldier

TMNT

Stormtrooper

Steve Rogers

 

Batman & Robin: We’ve never seen a Robin costume so well made! My baby brother, Dominick, is a huge Robin collector and I know he would have liked to see this in person. The attention to detail as awesome.

 

Borderlands Couple: WOW was the first thing we said when we saw them. The way they made themselves look as though they were straight out of a graphic novel or game was so damn cool. Even the mask lit up. Head on over to their social media page and check out their other outfits from the weekend.

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After a long day of cosplaying, walking around and meeting new people, it was time to walk back to our hotel (15 blocks away). Since we were in Philly after all, and sometimes can be unsafe, it was time to change my clothes, take off my makeup (so that I won’t draw any extra attention to myself) and make our way back to our room. Another successful Wizard World day.

 

Wizard World Philadelphia 2016: Day 1

Thursday, June 2, 2016

The weekend that we’ve been planning was here.  We checked into our hotel, walked 15 blocks to the convention center and we finally made it.  I ended up not cosplaying like I had planned since we were running later than expected, but it worked out since it was hot as hell outside.

Preview day is our favorite day since the attendance is lower and it gives us time to just relax, get the lay of the land and check out some really talented artists at the Artists Alley.  We also got meet some cool cosplayers and we can’t wait to show you all the awesome looks that these cosplayers created.

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Disclaimer: If you see your photo and want to use it for any social media, please credit Sup, Nerds! use the hashtag #supnerds, like our Facebook page and follow our blog. I know that is a huge request but we greatly appreciate it.

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Cosplay

Rey

Harley Quinn & Joker

Princess Ariel

Renaissance Lady Captain America

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Artists Alley

RIPT Apparel: It was hard walking away from these awesome shirts! So original and all created by this awesome team.

Also check out Chase aka THOM2MARO at all of this social media sites. He is one of the designers for the company above, RIPT Apparel, and has his own site with his shirt designs.

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Terrell Jefferson

Danielle Sanders

2 Artists: What grabbed my attention was this Black Panther canvas (art work with artist Terrell Jefferson). The drawing and the precise coloring is phenomenal. Yes, the canvas is just black in color but it still takes skill to paint this well. The second artist, Danielle Sanders, was just as talented. Her canvas of Joker with the detail to the drawing and paintings was captivating. This was not a print to canvas, this was an actual painting. How she managed to paint this the way she did was pure magic.

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The Art of Bianca Roman-Stumpff: What attracted me to her booth was her Disney Storybook prints. It was different and captured everything from that specific Disney Princess. She also has other cool prints.

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Period Panties: Pretty much self-explanatory. I’ve only seen these online and usually are costly, but they had them at a discounted price, so I purchased a pair. Hilarity with a side of TMI ensues.

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HEROFIED Art By Rob Taylor: We were extremely tempted to purchase one of these. We did not because we knew we would have bought more than one. All of them were equally amazing and the way the light is capture on them brings out the colors beautifully. My favorite (not picture) was the Zoom/ Flash in an all darkish blue color.

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Unfortunately, the artwork below did not have business cards but the work is hilarious and in such a great way. Our favorite canvas is the top far right.

Let me know if you get “it” right away.

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Overall, a great preview day. We met and mingled with new people and saw some awesome artwork. Stay tuned for Day 2.

 

 

Free Comic Book Day 2016

As most of you know, Free Comic Book Day was held on Saturday May 7^th at comic book stores around the States.

For me, free comic book day is not only about the comics but about meeting other people who love comics, exploring different comic book stores and dressing up (what a shock right? I know). Since I live in northern Virginia now, I only know of a couple comic book stores, but this year I decided to try a new store that recently celebrated their first anniversary, Comic Logic.

Doors opened at 11 am and I was there at 12:30pm. Of course there was a line, but it actually moved pretty quickly. It was nice to see parents bring their children and adults bringing themselves, acting just as excitedly as kids. A few adults, including myself, were dressed up.  It appeared as though the owner of Comic Logic was dressed up, since he literally looked like he could be Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s slimmer twin brother. (FYI if you don’t know who that is IMDB him, he’s in everything). The best dressed of the FCBD goes to the couple below. The detail to their looks were amazing.

The Rocketeer couple

I went as Jessica Jones, the Netflix Krysten Ritter version not comic book version

While I was waiting in line, the comic book store did such a great job keeping the line moving. Customers were able to select 5 comics (I only took 3 so that it left more for the kiddies). They also had activities for kids from face painting to Jedi training and even surprise gift giveaways.

I will say that I do miss TATES Comic Book store in South Florida. Their store is amazing! Not only do they have a HUGE selection of comics and books but they have a huge selection of collectible items as well, along with a local artist section. For my south Floridian nerds, if you have never been to TATES you need to go. It’s the best! I have been to many comic book stores and none of them compare to TATES.

Thanks to Comic Logic for being my neighborhood comic book store and allowing me to be myself, a nerd, on Free Comic Book Day.

See you next year FCBD

-Stephanie

 

Cosplay + Hot Topic = Interestingly Captivating

cos·play
ˈkäzˌplā,ˈkäsˌplā/
The practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game, especially one from the Japanese genres of manga and anime.

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Cosplay is such a fun experience, whether it’s for Halloween, Comic Con or just for everyday life. Halloween is my favorite holiday and ever since I could remember I’ve always dressed up as my favorite character from pink Power Ranger Kimberly (the originals, duh!), a pirate, Disney princess and even Jean Grey from X-Men to name a few. In the last few years, I’ve heard about this Cosplay Community, where people just like me love to dress up and attended events. When I heard of this, the first thing I thought was “Halloween all year round WAHOOOOOO”. The last 3 years or so I’ve not only dressed up for Halloween but I cosplay at comic cons. With that said, I wanted to share some of the tips I’ve learned along the way.

Cosplaying, depending on the character, or how creative you want to get, can become very costly. I am all about being creative and making things your own but sometimes you need a “base”. What I mean by that, is that I, for one cannot sew or do anything to create clothes of any kind, therefore I need a base, something to start with and build from there and make it my own. Stores like Hot Topic are great for bases. Sure, Hot Topic is hipster central BUT they do have a decent selection of clothes and accessories to build an idea on. I’ve noticed that people like to sway away from Hot Topic and I am not sure why. Yes, they sell the same stuff that other people can wear, but you can buy the same thing and turn it into your own style. They have great online deals and you can easily create a look under $60 and then you can let the creativity flow and make it your own or you can wear the outfit as is. The thing about cosplaying is that there is no right or wrong. Some people might say differently but I say they’re wrong.

My first time cosplaying I was nervous, on a time frame and on a budget. So I decided to go by Hot Topic to see what they had to offer. What I ended up finding was a dress I could wear to be Wednesday Addams. I already had black hair so this was perfect. My outfit was in my budget ($25) and it was simple. I did my own hair and makeup and it ended up being a hit. A lot of people gave me compliments on my look and it helped me realize that people should give Hot Topic a chance.

(Dress: Hot Topic / Leggings & Flats: Target / Makeup: I used what I already owned)

I went by the store recently to check out their DC Bombshells line and it’s not that bad. I already have my comic con outfits but I wanted to try on the Wonder Woman outfit and I loved it. My recommendation is that if you’re curious about cosplaying, on a budget or even a cosplaying pro, just check out Hot Topic. You’ll be very surprised at what you’ll find.Other budget friendly places to check out are your local stores like Ross, Forever 21, Joann’s and Michaels. Another place you can almost find everything is Amazon. I went as Black Widow for Halloween a few years ago and I bought a men’s black diving suit for only $17.99 and created my look from there.

 Black Widow and Hawkeye

🔸If you have any questions on cosplaying send me a message and I’ll help any way I can.

🔸If you’ve ever dressed up I’d love to see what you’ve gone as. Post photos below or on our Facebook page.

✌🏽️-Stephanie