A Day at Long Beach Comic Expo 2017

Even with one of Southern California’s most powerful storms in a number of years, the show went on. For those arriving Friday, the trip in was a bit of a challenge as the rain and wind made the roads hazardous. With high humidity but even higher spirits the brave souls that made the trek in started Saturday with an overcast sky and threats of more rain. Once within the convention center though thoughts of gloomy skies and flooding streets were left behind. Instead the focus turned to all things Geek.

Long Beach Comic Expo, and the related fall Long Beach Comic Con, have an added twist, they don’t just bring you comics, video games, they bring you science with a Space Expo. This ends up being a draw for kids every time with everything from slime to robotics and even Meade Instruments with their telescopes.

This year, Saturday saw Jason Mamoa, (Game of Thrones, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), as the celebrity with the longest lines of fans queued up for a chance to get Jason’s autograph.

A few tables over from Jason was Gigi Edgley, (Farscape, Hashtag). Gigi has to be one of the nicest people to chat with at one of these shows. Her face lights up as she chats with her fans, and I have to say she is a fun, warm and talented woman.

For fans of the original Battlestar Galactica there was Herbert Jefferson Jr., “Boomer”.

Around the floor you could find a wide variety of writers and artists including Matt Haley, Michael Golden, Keron Grant, Zack Kaplan, David Mack, Matt Hawkins and many more. There pretty much is somebody/something for everybody. Though I did almost miss David Mack who was signing at the Golden Apple booth, but after a heads up over dinner with friends I was able to make up for this Saturday miss by making it the highlight of my Sunday instead.

Whether you are a collector of comics, art, toys or games, Long Beach Comic Expo was the place to be this past Saturday. Though I questioned my sanity of Friday driving up during the storm, Saturday I was definitely happy I had made the trek. If you are in Southern California this is one show you should consider adding to your list of ones to check out.

Just realized, I totally forgot to mention cosplay… as with any show the cosplay runs the gamut of “OMG what did I just look at” to “WOW! That is amazing”.  Fortunately, this year I saw more of the WOW! than the OMG versions. Well done to all the cosplayers.