Greater Austin Comic Con

This is the second year of GACC.  Last year we cosplayed Flash Gordon to meet Sam Jones and Melody Anderson.  We also met the adorably huggable Doug Jones.  This year we cosplayed Justice League Dark, and our goal was to meet James C. Leary "Clem" from Buffy and see The Cybertronic Spree in concert.  We were not disappointed.  As a bonus, we got to meet Michael Biehn from Terminator and attend a Ray Park "Darth Maul" session and watch him teach Wushu fighting style to a bunch of super excited fans.  And, as always, there were lots of awesome cosplayers in attendance.

Buffy's "Clem" JAMES C. Leary

James C. Leary

The interesting thing about meeting James Leary is that we actually went to the same university (Gig 'Em Aggies), were in theatre there, and have lots of friends in common, we just weren't there at the same time.  I took two years off to teach high school in El Paso James' freshman year, and then came back to graduate while James was still taking Engineering courses and hadn't found the theatre deptartment yet.  I actually saw James at Comicpalooza five years ago with the other Buffy guests but had no idea at the time that he was an Aggie Player. I was so stoked to find out that I had so much in common with a guy who was on my favorite ever TV show. He was super nice and chatted with us for awhile. We were dressed as Justice League Dark and people kept coming up to us and asking for photos (a guy cosplaying Captain Marvel actually recognized my character--this is only the second time that someone has known who Nightmare Nurse was other than the DC artists at Fan Expo who drew the comic)  Long story short, I got so distracted posing for other people's photos, and didn't get a selfie with him or get a group photo of all of us.  Anyway, next time James, I'll  remember to ask for that photo.  Clem was my favorite of all the demons on that show.  

Michael Biehn

Rob is the biggest Michael Biehn fan, so of course we had to see him too.  Fortunately our good friend Jennifer Dunham was wrangling both him and his wife Jennifer.  They were so nice and we chatted for the longest time.  We got to hear all kinds of stories about their little boy and his exploits at school.  When it was finally time to take the picture I was so excited.  I told him that he was the best thing about Terminator and that I didn't like the others nearly as much because his character wasn't in them.

Face off's Matt Valentine

I watched all 13 seasons of Face Off and was sad when I learned that it was cancelled.  Matt Valentine is the third Face Off contestant that I have met on the con circuit.  He is teaching FX makeup courses in Austin.  Here's the link mattvalentinefx.com to sign up for them.  He was doing demos all day of three of the characters he'd created for Face Off.  I got to watch the "Ice Cream Clown" application and he signed a photo for me.

The Cybertronic Spree

The Cybertronic Spree

The Cybertronic Spree is a self-described rock band of former enemies who perform the soundtrack from their 1986 documentary, Transformers: The Movie.  It's the kind of show that will take you back to your childhood and you'll find you're singing along to all your favorite shows' theme songs.  They performed two original songs as well.  In my opinion,  their best song was "Immigrant Song" which will forever be associated with Thor Ragnorak (at least for me).  If nothing else, it's amazing to me that they can perform in their costumes at all, much less kick ass the way they did. Check out the video below to hear their awesomeness!

Cosplay

As usual, many awesome cosplayers were strutting their stuff.  I ran into my friend and former student Jordan, who was cosplaying Princess Bubblegum.  I also ran into my EGX friends Lauren and David who were in their usual Hawkgirl and Captain Jack Sparrow cosplays.  They both entered the costume contest here last year and won awards, and have been busy judging the Kids' Costume Contest at EGX (formerly Geekfest) for the second year in a row.

This year we had to pay for 4/5 of our tickets @ $23.00 each and $5.00 for parking.  Sarah's child ticket was comped, thanks Vo! Food was pretty expensive at the con, Sarah, Seth, and I got pizzas for $11 each.  After we left we ate supper at Chuy's right around the corner and got a super huge discount for having been to the con.  Our meal for 5 people was only $35.00.  We had the best waiter ever!  He loved our costumes and showed us photos of the Batcave he'd turned his daughter's bedroom into for her birthday.

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