As someone who A, grew up in a small town at least a 30 minute drive from anywhere interesting and B, doesn’t like long drives, I haven’t been to many conventions. It’s not that I don’t like them; on the contrary, I relish an opportunity to mingle with those who share my enthusiasms in art, storytelling, and awesome special effects.
But unless a convention is right in my backyard, I just don’t like all the planning I have to do to get myself over there for one weekend. Luckily, as fate would have it, there was a convention this past weekend right in my backyard of West Palm Beach, Florida. An eight minute drive from home brought me to the Palm Beach County Convention Center for Comic Con Revolution 2019.
After parking in the center’s new parking garage (it’s so new, you can’t even see it on Google Maps) and greeting the friendly staff, I made my way onto the convention floor. It’s been a good few years since my last convention outing, but the moment I entered that big ol’ room, I felt right at home.
Being a comic convention, I immediately noticed a prevalence of comic-based vendors. Single issues new and old, trade paperbacks, and even framed collector’s issues were all on sale. I’m not much of a collector, but I knew I couldn’t leave without at least a bit of reading material, so I grabbed volume one of the Rick and Morty comic series. I’ll find an omnibus of Booster Gold someday, I swear.
The festivities weren’t limited only to comics, of course. Many booths sold memorabilia from classic movies and TV shows, as well as anime and video games. One booth sold vintage action figures that I’d swear were dug up from my ten-year-old self’s toy chest. And of course, the Funko Pops.
Good gravy, there were a lot of Funko Pop figures. Wall-to-wall on several booths. I own exactly one of those things, and one is all I ever want to own.
The artists were out in force, with the Artist’s Alley taking up most of the middle of the floor space. There were walls of homemade art prints, many of truly breathtaking quality.
The only reason I didn’t buy one is that I’m a little bereft of wall real estate at the moment. There were some big names in the industry as well. Two of particular note were Mister Don Rosa, writer and illustrator of the classic Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck series of comics, and Mister Fabian Nicieza, co-creator of everyone’s favorite Merc with a Mouth, Deadpool.
But of course, the true heart and soul of a convention is the people. There were so many great cosplayers out and about (with a particular abundance of My Hero Academia characters), with costumes ranging from modest to mildly terrifying in scale.
I’d like to give a special shout-out to that one guy dressed as Mugatu from Zoolander. You, my friend, rocked the heck out of that white wig and sweater. I also poked my head into a couple of the panels, and saw a workshop on lightsaber battle choreography (something we really ought to be teaching in schools) and a round table discussion on the states of the Marvel and DC cinematic universes. Of special note was a heartfelt tribute by several special guests to late, great Stan Lee. Excelsior, Mister Marvel.
While Comic Con Revolution isn’t the biggest, ritziest convention out there, it’s got more than enough heart to make any enthusiast feel right at home. Just wandering through the booths for hours on end and soaking up the culture put a big, dumb smile on my face, and life permitting, I have every intention of returning next year.
