Cincinnati Comic Expo 2018
My brother talked me into going to the Cincinnati Comic Expo this year. Had never gone to a "Con" before and wasn't sure. He told me LeVar Burton and Summer Glau were going to be there doing autographs and photo ops so I said, I'm definitely in! I did not play dress up...
Spent about 6 hours there seeing everything. Did autographs and pro photo ops with both LeVar and Summer. Was definitely an experience! No fucking hoverhand with Summer here, bitches!
The only thing that sucked is when I redeemed my online QR code for the photo op tickets, they printed them all out at once and my dumb ass managed to lose the Summer photo op one. Naturally they can't cancel out the old ticket and re-issue one so instead of just $50 for a photo with her, I got to pay $100. Still salty about that. Hope someone enjoyed their free photo op on me.
I was a bit surprised about the photo ops and how they were run. They were literally doing a pic every 30 seconds or less, that's how fast they run through the lines. I'd have liked to have gotten video to show how fast paced it is but, no photography outside of theirs.
The place where you really get to meet the celebs is the autograph area where you pay to get the autograph and can do a non-pro selfie with them for a fee.
Some of the other celebs there included Peter Mayhew (the original Chewbaca), Benedict Wong (Wong from the Dr. Strange series), Katrina Law (from Spartacus, Arrow), and Cary Elwes (Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Saw).
LeVar was cool with meeting people but wasn't overly personable and outgoing. Told him I grew up with him watching Reading Rainbow and then Star Trek, and it was very cool to get to meet him in person. He thanked me for being a fan. Got him to sign my Geordi LaForge Funko Pop Vinyl figure.His autograph was on the higher end of ones there at $50.
Summer on the other hand was super outgoing and friendly with everyone and, took lots of time with everyone that came through her line. She was chatting with the chick in front of me about nail finishes. I didn't have anything nail related to chat about so my time up there was a little shorter.She is every bit as attractive in person, without the overly done Hollywood makeup, as on screen. I contemplated marriage proposal...
I think the thing that surprised me most was how small LeVar and Summer were physically meeting them in person. We're so used to seeing them on screen thinking they're 1000' tall. At 6'1" I had a good 4-5" on LeVar and 6-7" on Summer.
My brother went up to get Peter Mayhew's autograph for his wife and said he wasn't really talking to anyone or personalizing autographs. He's 74 and apparently had back surgery in July so maybe he was just high as hell on pain meds.
Standing in line for Summer's autograph, her table was next to Katrina Law's and Benedict Wong's so I got to see what was going on there.
Benedict Wong's line was unbelievably light and his table area was huge. I guess they expected way more people in line for him since he was just in Avengers: Infinity War. He was also charging the most of anyone for autographs at $60/each. On the other hand, because of the light line, he was out from behind the table talking with fans, doing some Q&A and being very personable.
I actually felt a bit bad for Katrina Law. There wasn't hardly anyone in her line for autographs or photo ops and she was right next to Summer's massive line. The biggest photo op she had was a duo photo op with Summer since I guess both of them were on a CW show called Arrow. Never seen it. She seemed pretty nice with the fans that did come through her line though and she is definitely good looking so go figure...
Cary Elwes was a bit strange. His table was behind a privacy curtain you had to wait in line to go through just to get his autograph. But he was strangely, really popular. I'm wondering if part of that is because he's supposed to be in the upcoming season 3 of Stranger Things. No idea.
Other guests were Manu Bennett (also in Spartacus and Arrow), Clark Gregg (from Agents of SHIELD), and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister from GoT). Clark Gregg was apparently there for Friday only. Nikolaj and Manu were nowhere I saw.
Also got a pic in the driver's seat of an Ecto-1 replica that was there. Really cool car a lot of detail and care had gone into. Had to make a $5 donation to some charity to get the in car pic but at $5, it was probably the cheapest thing next to the $3.50 bottle of water I bought today.
Naturally since it was a "Con" there were a lot of great costumes that were on point and a lot that people had no business wearing.LOTS of Star Wars costumes. Only a handful of Star Trek ones which pretty much amounted to people just wearing a uniform.
Waiting for my buddy to email me all of the pics he took and my digital photo op pics to be uploaded to the photo company's site. I'll make another post with all of those, probably tomorrow. The photo op pics were cool in that you got your full size physical photo literally as soon as you walked out but it was dumb they charge $10 extra for the digital download. I mean, it's not like they have to digitize it...
Wouldn't mind going again next year if there are some guests I'd like to see.
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