This past weekend was Planet Comicon weekend here in Kansas City. The convention has been around for many years, and I've posted about previous experiences before. This year, it moved to the most prestigious venue in KC, the downtown Bartle Hall convention center. It easily lived up to the new venue, in guests and overall attendance. And, it included several Star Wars guests...as well as other big media guests.
First, getting in....next year, buying advance tickets of some sort is a must. We had an hour long line to get in Saturday afternoon. We missed most of Wil Wheaton's panel, but my wife managed to get in while I ducked into a bit of a Star Wars art panel. I caught a bit of Wil at the end. Very entertaining. Next up was George Takei (Sulu), who was jet lagged but put on a good show. The crowd was asked to greet him with his trademark "Oh, my!" which sounded way cooler than I thought it was going to. The crowd hit just the right tone and speed.
The staff of the KC game convention Kantcon (where I'm scheduled to be a guest later this year) hosted the gaming room. The highlight was the chance to win a seat at a Space Cadets game with Wil Wheaton. I didn't win, but it went over well.
Day two, we returned in to see the Adam Baldwin (Jayne on Firefly) panel. It was tremendously entertaining.
He tossed the Jason P Hunt aside sign later on....
My wife stayed for the Women of Sci-Fi panel that included Lee Meriwether (Catwoman), Julia Benson (Stargate: Universe) and Adrienne Wilikinson (Clone Wars, Force Unleashed, Xena), while I ran off to discuss a potential freelance gig. Afterwards was the Star Wars Showcase, which was intended to have about 5 guests, but most of them had to fly out early or were unable to attend. Fortunately, Tom Kane (Yoda) stepped in to join Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca). Tom and Adrienne were on an earlier voice acting panel I was unable to get to.
You can catch a video of it here:
One panel I should have attended, but was busy trying to win a spot in the Wil Wheaton game, was the Ray Park (Darth Maul) panel. Here's the part everyone is talking about:
And finally, I caught the end of a panel on crowd funding. I've heard this sort of advice for gaming, but it was interesting to hear it with a comic book slant to it.
All in all it was a good show, and looks to grow next year. Certainly all of the guests I heard gave the organizers and the city high marks, especially the BBQ. Good selling point there.