Wizard World San Jose Wrap-up

San Jose, California was host to Wizard World last weekend. This is the first time the convention has hit the Bay Area and even though I was only able to attend on Friday, they definitely made a big splash. Ever since WonderCon moved down south, the Bay Area's only comics convention has been Big WOW!, which also takes place in San Jose in May. There is a huge community of comic book fans, so for us, the more the merrier.

Since I was only able to attend Friday, I wasn't able to catch many cosplayers or panels. What I was able to do was wander around the floor and artists alley. There were so many vendors with so many great options. My main focus, being that it was Force Friday, was Star Wars and also Funko POP!'s.  Unfortunately, the markup on most of the Star Wars items was double what one would pay in stores (obviously), so I didn't end up acquiring much. I was able to snag a few (some would say too many) of the POP!'s I had been searching for. One of the ones I had to have was the Fugitive Toys exclusive "Island Scarred" Oliver Queen. The handful of cosplayers that were out and about were pretty spectacular. There were a few Star Wars characters roaming the hall as well as quite a few DC characters. By far the winner of the day was a little Rocket Raccoon that I saw walking around the floor.

Signed by James Marsters!

The highlight of the day was getting my Funko POP! signed by none other than James "Spike" Marsters. He was a very gracious guy, really taking the time to talk to those who had come to have their items signed or have a selfie taken with him. When it came time for me to have my Funko figure signed, we talked a bit about Buffy and Angel, but mostly about our love of Torchwood. I saw how much he loved talking to people, but I was trying to be mindful of the people that were in line behind me, so I tried to keep it as short as possible. If I didn't, I'd have stood there for hours talking to him about anything and everything.

My cousin, who attended Friday and Saturday, says that the attendance was much higher the second day. I'm hoping they pulled in the numbers they were hoping for so we'll see a return next year. In November, San Jose will get 'Heroes and Villains Fan Fest,' which will see the cast of CW's Arrow visiting the Bay Area. It looks as though conventions are starting to realize that there's an almost untapped market here. Let's hope things just get bigger and better from here. The loss of WonderCon was a blow to the Bay Area and having so many options this year has definitely been great for those of us who love conventions, but don't have the free time to travel to many of the big ones.

Friday's haul

Best cosplay or BEST COSPLAY?

Feeding the addiction