I've lived in St. Louis my entire life. In doing that I have experienced first hand what this city has come to be known for. Both in it's culture and it's community. The main few things that people talk about the most are our baseball history and our brewing community. We also have historic ties to music, food, and sports like hockey, football, or bowling. You learn to notice that when it comes to tradition we St. Louisans are a very proud people. Traditions don't usually come likely when its something we have to get used to all of a sudden. However, one thing caught all of St. Louis off guard. Of all the people that were excited and shocked, it was a small little genre of pop culture fans that the city forgot it had. When this fanbase did hear the annoucement, everyone thought one small little thing. Finally!

I'm talking about Wizard World Comic Con. St. Louis landed a spot in the Wizard World tour for their 2013 run. When the comic book community heard, they we're ecstatic! This was our chance to prove to the country that the St. Louis Area has a respectable fanbase of its own. With Wizard World providing that chance, the people ran with it. The hype for this convention was bigger than I've seen in a long time. Now don't get me wrong, there are some great conventions like Archon, Anime STL, there's also Project Comic Con. Wizard World has hosted conventions in some of the biggest cities around. Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago to name a few. This was the wake up St Louis needed, something so big that its gets the community's attention.

When hearing about the con, I contacted Wizard World asking to volunteer and help. I was fortunate enough to hear back quickly and get a spot as a local guest. I also brought the Gateway Superfriends, a local costuming fan group, with me to help. Everyday and hour we had something going on and got a front row seat with every promotional and convention based event. Here is a little day by day summary of what happened and what stood out.

Friday - March, 22nd

Early friday morning while people are sleeping in, at home finishing there costumes, or packing the van for a roadtrip half the convention floor is packed full of workers, vendors, and media alike. They asked us to show up bright and early to help film for some promotion news footage. Most of us were there from 7am helping past 1pm. Tim Ezell from Fox2 and Show me St Louis came to talk to Lou Ferrigno and we had an appearance from Billy Dee Williams towards the end of the morning. As early as noon fans were lining up to get in and from then to about 2:30 we were out there keeping the fans busy and patient with photo-ops and high fives. Upon opening fans upon fans poured in from every direction. Some of us we're setup at the entrance to the convention. For about 2 hours straight we had a nonstop line of people. A great sign for Day 1.

Most larger events for us were on Saturday and Sunday however Friday is always a good day. Its perfect to come and just scope things out to ready yourself for saturday. Honestly that's exactly what it was. Everyone was exploring. For the Gateway Superfriends, we were set up at the Cosplay Stage. Basically a stage for fans and cosplayers to take pictures as much as they want. Artist Alley had early shoppers while the artists were finishing things for the big day on saturday. Throughout the day were some good panels about filmmaking, Steampunk, and Comic Book Art. Towards the evening a story about Doctor Who also followed. Capping off the end of friday was a paid event for a Meet and Greet with Stan Lee and a Drink & Draw party at Flamingo Bowl. Day 1 turned out fairly well with some great events to fill a half day of Comic Con but also showing a preview of later events in the weekend, your typical Friday at a comic book convention. Saturday was expected to be great, hearing that passes for tomorrow were also Sold Out.

Saturday - March, 23rd

Every convention or festival has it's big day. Saturday was definetly that day. The first part of our day was bright and early. The first thing after we walked in they had us working the line and large crowds. We couldnt have agreed more. An attendance of tens of thousands packed in the Americas Center. The line to get in started small and kept going and going. Wrapping through 3 rooms and finally ending across the convention center at another giant empty space meant for hosting a convention. With a line this long we all were dreading the reaction to the crowd and the people. Not one angry fan in sight. We covered the line forwards and backwards but found nothing except extremely happy fans who jumped with joy and screamed with excitement. "Stay patient! Thank you for waiting!" some of us yelled with a high five. Suprisingly we were greeted with a giant roar, every single time. Thank goodness the line moved so quickly, but it was rather funny when a guy is trying to snap a picture of Batman or Spiderman while being dragged backwards by family.

Saturday usually is the BIG day for most convention fans. This day focused on special appearances from celebrities and major guests. Keeping the fan interested with some featured events with local guests and cosplay activities. Not to mention all the Q&A's and Photo Ops. Starting off from the afternoon I was featured as St Louis Superman with Keith Howard and Krissy Weise, members of the Gateway Superfriends, in a cosplay panel. This was a great event to get the community interested in comic books and costumes. Following the panel was a rare and special event featuring a Q&A with guests Dean Cain and John Shea from "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman". Dean and John walked in together as if they weren't even enemies. Walking and talking as friends. It was great to see them get along. During questions, John Shea would get into character and theatrically gave his answers. However Dean stayed mild mannered, of course. They gave each other set ups and told stories. Even making some jokes in character. It was quite a rare occasion and an event that hopes to happen again soon. Including Dean Cain and John Shea were a plethera of celebrities with panels. Stan Lee had another meet and greet with a Q&A later that day. Jason David Frank had a Meet and Greet with a Q&A later on as well. The Fonz, James Hong, and Neal Adams were some of the guests with a Q&A along with an appearance from St Louis hometown hero, Voltron. Photo Ops also took over most of the day, each celebrity had their own Photo Op schedule and there were also constant pictures to be taken at the cosplay stage.

From early until late, we had fans and cosplayers come hang out at the cosplay stage. Photos were being set up, kids were coming up to meet a favorite, fellow people in costume would find someone that matches their character and take a few action shots. To support the city, I wore my St Louis Superman outfit all day. Also to help was Keith Howard who dressed as Stan "The Man" Musial. Local families immediately noticed us, the same goes for the fans as we encountered a lot of people wearing their cardinal gear from the cosplay stage. During the day that stage was so crowded some of us had to alternate and take breaks. Aside from being busy we did get a rare opportunity to take a Gateway Superfriends group picture with Stan Lee. Many thanks to fellow Superfriend Ken Sills, close friend and former manager to Gary Friedrich, for helping with the photo opportunity.

The cosplayer and costumer in everyone came out saturday. Which brought great material for the late night scheldule. The famous Zombie Squad had a late night appearance and as always there was a costume contest. The contest was a huge hit with a giant turnout of competitors waiting to compete and once again lining the hallways. Jack Sparrow took best in show with Link, Voltron, and Predators as some of the winners. The turnout for this contest was definitely one of the biggest they had. So much so that they also announced Honorable Mentions to other competitors. After a well deserved celebration everyone hurried back to their respective rooms and changed for the afterparty at Copia while the rest got sleep and completely forgot how early they had to wake up for sunday. Day 2 is official and done with. Unless someone is staying up through breakfast

Sunday - March, 24th

Sunday was the day everyone either dreaded or looked forward to. Most of everyone either didnt want the con to end, or they decided to get all the important and fun stuff (autographs and shopping) done on Sunday. Jason David Frank had a Meet and Greet to open the day with a later event in the afternoon. He also likes to take a poll with his fans where he would hold up 2 favorite Power Ranger helmets from his variation of being 5 different Rangers and ask the fans to cheer for the favorite. Suprisingly enough, the White helmet beat the Green Helmet this time. Jason was very surprised being that the green is the favored color but still happy none the less. During our time at the Cosplay Stage we had a surprise photobomb from Jason David Frank in a group picture. Unfortunately he was in a rush as Jason was hosting a Green Ranger Power Hour at 3.

As fans and convention helpers ran for autographs by people who were paneling yesterday, other celebrities traded off and had their panels today. Billy Dee Williams, Laurie Holden, James Marsters, and Juliet Landau were featured in Q&A's. As some celebrities from yesterday were not staying for sunday for all off sunday, other guests had a lot more table time. I had an chance to talk to Dean Cain and John Shea (Superman/Clark Kent and Lex Luthor) with my girlfriend Colleen Egan this weekend. Meeting Dean was very calming and easy going. He is very easy to talk to and open minded towards his fans. Dean is a big fan of costumes and loves to see people dress up. Colleen and I were dressed as Superman and Lana with a St Louis theme when meeting him and Dean was quick to point out the outfits and his appreciation. He also seemed very gracious of the city and all the support in our community. Right next to Dean's table was a very familiar neighbor, John Shea. Talking with John was just as fun, he is very lively and enjoys a great story. John mentioned so much during talking to him and in his panel that the writers on Lois and Clark were so good and well put together. When asked about his work the role, John explained that he wanted to take out the obvious Supervillan aspect of Lex Luthor and get deeper into his character.

Taking up much of Sunday was Kids Day, with special appearances from Rampage and the St Louis Rams as well as Joe The Balloon Man at the Kids table who was giving out Balloon Animals. The Cosplay Stage was especially crowded with kids and families. Even more so than saturday. More excited little kids in costume and more crying toddlers who are afraid of Joker or Harley didn't dissapoint the parents. One event that was for the kids but mainly for the parents was the Kids Costume Contest. Myself as Superman and Colleen as Superwoman were helping out. The contest had some great costumes and some very proud parents. Everyone from Spiderman, Darth Vader, Dr Who, The Penguin, Power Rangers and Batman were the chosen costumes of a toddler or child. Of course for the kids contest everyone is a winner, seeing 40-50 something kids run up and attack the prize table was well worth it for parents and for the kids because Mom or Dad made them pose. Finishing up with the last day was your typical last minute crowd. You had artists bribing with friends so they can take a break and go grab some shopping. Vendors were slashing prices so that they could drive home with an empty stock. Some celebrities took time to do some looking around and exploring of their own. The good news is that sunday still was just as exciting as friday and saturday. For certain people that only came on sunday, they didn't miss out and had plenty to do and see.

Overall the convention was a hit in my opinion. Wizard World was impressed by the response of the crowd and the community. So impressed that wizard world has already booked the convention for next year and started opening online for tickets. That goes to show you how a community can react to such a big chance and a big event. With practice from playoff games, parades, festivals and NCAA tournaments, St Louis was ready and proud to host Wizard World Comic Con. Because of the great cooperation with Wizard World and the support from comic book fans locally, its a big success and we'll be ready for next year's St Louis Comic Con in 2014. April 4th - 6th, see ya there!

Stand Up, Dream Big, Fly High!
Charlee Chartrand
St Louis Superman