Planet Comicon 2015
Planet Comicon returned to Kansas City for their largest event yet recently. The event, held once again in Downtown Kansas City’s Bartle Hall took place the weekend of March 13-15. With their most diverse lineup yet, Planet Comicon is ready to announce themselves as a rising player on the burgeoning convention scene.
A diverse lineup of media guests were featured with The Princess Bride‘s Cary Elwes headlining. Not to be outdone was Arrow‘s star Stephen Amell who appeared Sunday in front of a standing room only panel and stayed into the night to accomodate the waiting fans. Sam Witwer and Laura Vandervoort impressed many in attendance with their humor and easygoing conversation. This year’s celebrity scene stealer award might go to Guardians Of The Galaxy co-stars Michael Rooker and Missouri native Sean Gunn. The banter and friendly ribbing suggested a friendship that extended past the Guardians shoot.
Cosplay was in full effect over the weekend with many participants walking the show floor wowing guests. This culminated in Saturday’s costume contest and parade with the festivities presided over by cosplay luminary, Chloe Dykstra. Eva Birch took home the $500 top prize as Alchemist Poison Ivy while Calen Hoffman’s Groot took the honors in the men’s division.
Comics fans were not left out as Artist’s Alley was bigger than ever and many creators made the trip to Bartle Hall. Kansas City based writers Dennis Hopeless and Jason Aaron shared billing with other notables in the industry like Cullen Bunn, Kevin Mellon, Ryan Browne and Sam Humphries. Aaron’s Southern Bastards co-creator Jason Latour was also there signing copies of his new hit Spider-Gwen. The longest lines seemed to belong to Rocket Raccoon‘s Skottie Young who was forced to schedule signing times to handle demand. The man is officially an A-lister now.
If there was one drawback to this year’s show it was the timing. The Big 12 collegiate basketball tournament was taking place at nearby Sprint Center which inflated hotel rates and made downtown much trickier to navigate. On the plus side, the basketball fans seemed to regard con attendees with curious bemusement and friendly greetings even if it did make the Chipotle line a bit long. Next year’s show is scheduled for May 20-22, 2016 which should make things a bit easier for out of town visitors.
For more information on this year’s show and news regarding next year’s event visit https://www.facebook.com/planetcomiconkc or www.planetcomicon.com and hopefully I’ll see you next year.
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