Father’s Day, a day dedicated to the emphasis of the men who nurture a child’s growth to become more than they themselves try to become. From Thomas Wayne, to Jonathan Kent, to even surrogate fathers like Uncle Ben and Professor Xavier, they all teach, guide, and protect their children to the best of their abilities and beyond.
Today was Kids Day at the 1st annual Amazing Las Vegas Comic-Com, and more importantly Fathers Day. Jimmy Jay and the production staff of the convention made it a point to revolve this day around a family experience. From the morning Kid’s Day cartoon kickoff, to the Sketch off interactive game show, and the Call of Duty: Black Ops tournament and Phineas & Ferb artist Matt Nastos was doing free sketches for the kids! Many activities were going on during on the last day of the convention.
When I made my approach into the South Point Hotel and Casino I noticed the abundance of families and their kids frolicking though out the convention hall, it put a smirk on my face to see so many parents introducing their children to pretty much their first nerd activity! As I walked through the aisles little supermen, wonder women, and even doctor who’s were scurrying around pulling their parents by the arms as they saw their dream toys from across the way, as their laughter and smiles filled the walk ways.
From the kids to their parents, many cosplayers were out and about showing off their hard work as they pieced together their costumes, they took pictures with the googlely eyed kids in awe of their favorite superheroes and heroines. Even The 501st Legion, one of the biggest Star Wars cosplaying communities in the country were in attendance to take pictures with families who waited patiently to met everyone from Boba Fett, Storm Troopers and even the Emperor!
But just because this was Kids Day didn’t mean there wasn’t excitement for the adults! Iconic comic book artist Jim Lee decided to stick around from his con appearance on Saturday to meet fans, sign some autographs and even partake in checking out the convention himself. Great times were had as artists from Humberto Ramos, Rick Remender, Ryan Stegman and Scott Lobdell were on hand to sign and even sketch out some drawings for fans who waited eagerly to meet their favorite superhero artist!
One of the highlights of the day was the special Extreme Conversation with Rob Liefeld. Rob more famously known as the creator of Marvel Comics Deadpool and one of the founding fathers of Image Comics did a special panel as he discussed how he created the Merc with a Mouth, what inspired him on his creation, and even cleared a lot of rumors up on his departure from Marvel Comics on how it was a mutual and civil agreement.
Even though the panel was more on Liefeld’s overall legacy, it quickly moved on being a panel on one of his more infamous characters, Deadpool. As Rob went into his Q. and A. session, the first question that was asked was how he felt about Deadpool’s ill fated portrayal in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie.
His response was that the more he emphasized on Deadpool’s part in the film prior to its 2009 release, an executive for 20th Century Fox Film was really pushing on how great the Wolverine movie was going to be with Gambit’s cameo. Liefeld jokingly explained in his conversation with the executive: “But what about the look on Deadpool?” and the executive replied: “BUT WE HAVE GAMBIT!!”, Liefeld looked into the crowed and said, he’s old, he just doesn’t get it!
Another question that was asked was the rumor of Deadpool being a blatant rip off from DC Comic’s Death Stroke? “Absolutely not!” He replied and laughed. As a coincidence as people felt it was, the inspiration of Deadpool’s origins was a 100% Todd McFarlane! He continued by explaining on how he was envious on how McFarlane drew Spiderman and wanted somewhat of villainous counterpart to what Spiderman was. Hmmm, what’s the opposite of Spiderman? Liefeld belted out loud: “SWORDS AND GUNS! PERFECT!!” The audience laughed.
Rob’s panel was very animated, and he gave a more fun and real approach to the questions asked by the attendees, he referenced comparisons to old 70’s television series and songs and how majority of the audience wouldn’t know what he was talking about because he was old as he used a lot of hand gestures to describe his visions with his comic books. He told everyone on how Deadpool was more of the Bobba Fett of comic book characters on how instantaneous his popularity skyrocketed much like the Star Wars bounty hunter, and he also admitted to being a huge fan of the galactic franchise as a kid. He even answered a small child’s question of how Deadpool’s regenerative healing factor came to be. “100% Wolverine ripoff!”
The icing off the cake was how Liefeld ended the panel as he explained in detail the test footage he saw regarding the anticipated delayed Deadpool movie! We’re waiting on the studio to give it a go, but that’s all we can do is wait. It’s all on them. Ryan Reynolds is ready and the Deadpool’s costume looks great! If the movie happens as he finished the panel he said “Trust me, this is not ‘Wolverine Origins.'”, “This is Deadpool.” And the crowd went nuts!
With the convention slowly came to a close, I proceeded to walk around the convention to look for bargains and deals. A secret of convention goers is to wait close to the end of the convention as vendors tend to sell novelties for cheap due to the high cost of shipping rate of their items back to their store. So like much of the conventioneers, I went to take full advantage of it!
Much like the previous days of the convention, the overall feel of Kids Day co existing with Fathers Day was exactly how it was suppose to be, fun for all ages with a lot of memorable experiences for the family! With the Amazing Las Vegas Comic-Con coming to an end, we’re all see it go but excited to see it’s return in the foreseeable future. Until then we can only imagine what’s in store for us Las Vegas nerds for the rest of 2013.
For more information on the Amazing Las Vegas Comic-Con, visit: http://amazinglasvegascomiccon.com
