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IMG_6995 by Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV

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Recap by RCR’s Producer and resident comic nerd, JD Piche, follow him on IG @Misadventur3r

As the world begins to open back up and in person events pick up, Albuquerque Comic-Con was held this weekend.

Normally a January show, it was held at the ABQ Convention Center. This was our first year attending, and when comparing it to a WonderCon or Star Wars Celebration, the only difference beyond location is scale. You’ve got your vendor booths, the celebrity signing area, comic vendors, cosplayers, and lines to get in, park and whathaveyou. It doesn’t matter where people are, as long as they have a love for Genre content, regional Comic Conventions bring people together.

Walking into the Albuquerque Convention Center’s main hall, Twin Suns Comics have the catbird seat. Comics, the first thing you see walking in. With one of the best selections of classic books at this year’s Con, Twin Suns had a great booth stacked high with Thanos and Captain America Standees on top of merchandise display, that could be seen from almost any point in the hall. Exploring the Con floor has become like visiting your local Etsy artisans, with groups like Krazy Krafters Abq, The Geeky Octopus, Ghost In The Machine Tech Repair, as well as artists for hire, like Jonathan Hallett from StitchToons, Hailey Patrick’s Digillama Art, KayyArkham a tattoo and logo designer, to Valerie DeCoy’s JellyCows Illustrations, whose booth was a personal favorite for Booth Design, her first year doing a table at a Convention, Valerie told me she had burnt out working retail and her art brought her joy and this was her first time renting a table for a Con and had spent the past week fine-tuning her booth, which she transformed into a wonderful little stall with some potted plants to give ambiance, and brings the artwork up close for attendees to see clearly presented, rather than strewn across the black tablecloth. The fairy lights in the garland around the top of her booth really worked for me, she was also in costume as Bulma from Dragon Ball, the stall design also shielded Valerie’s young baby from the Darth Vaders roaming the aisles.

One of the other vendors I wanted to spotlight was Comic Afterlife (IG @Comic.Afterlife) he creates decoupage 8.5×11 splash pages out of, older / less valued books. I had walked by not realizing what great work was actually done, thinking it was just someone selling returned comics. When books don’t sell, rather than returning the whole book stores will just return the cover and toss the book itself, but Comic Afterlife specializes in the kind of poses and dialog from your favorite characters, and he checks before cutting, that none of the books he sacrifices for his art are rare or ultra-valuable. Kind of ‘Best Of’ works, done with scissors and glue, just waiting to be framed.

With media guests, the likes of Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Michael Biehn, Jason O’Mara, & Kane Hodder next to Dot Marie Jones from Glee and Ming Chen from Comic Book Men, as well as the star of Disney’s Descendents, the Twilight Saga, and Warpath from X-Men Days of Future Past, BooBoo Stewart had fans lined up for meet and greets, autographs and photo opportunities. The Breaking Bad RV Tour was there with their Crystal Ship, next to a US Army Helicopter training simulator, Xfinity also had a booth for attendees to take a photo with several Mortal Kombat cosplayers, as well as a lovingly recreated A-Team Van, and Herbie the Lovebug.

Albuquerque Comic Con had a tent set up for Warrior Robotics, as the Convention is a supporter of the Socorro Consolidated School’s team in the FIRST Tech Challenge, where 7-12 grade students work on teams for creating mechanical solutions for a given task, a Science and Engineering focused after school league. For reference see the George Lopez movie “Spare Parts.”

While this marks 2 years without the juggernaut of San Diego Comic-Con, check out your regional Cons, they’re much more manageable.

Albuquerque Comic Con was limited to 7,500 attendees over this three-day run, and you could see every booth twice walking the floor for an hour, it’s nice to see people passionate about their crafts and costumes. The Cosplayers and other fans are reason enough to return for multiple days. Whether it’s The 501st / Mandolorian Mercs / Rebel Legion costume club showing off their movie-accurate Stromtrooper fare, wanting to haggle on a sword, or commission an anime-styled portrait of your pet, the people are the reason to return to the con for another day.

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IMG_7035 by Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV