Cave Con Experience (1 of 2)

A week has passed since the inaugural Cave Con comic book convention, and my household is still buzzing from the excitement of browsing through thousands of comics, meeting industry celebrities and dozens of creators, watching amazing sketches being drawn, collecting signatures, learning new games, interacting with fellow fans and more. From our perspective as fans the weekend could not have gone better.

This was a remarkably special event for my family for a number of reasons: first and foremost, it was cosponsored by The Comic Cave, our “home store” of almost two years, and we’ve had fun watching it unfold from a Twitter announcement to the event it became. Second, this was my first true comic book convention in over twenty years, and both of my sons’ first ever. After it was announced we started saving a little here and there, and while we were still strategically careful with our money (buying discounted general admission tickets early, for example), we were able purchase a decent variety of comics, prints, and other items, including souvenir t-shirts and pins.

My oldest son and I arrived just before the doors opened to GA ticket holders at 10am (VIP pass holders were allowed a 30-minute head start) and before we knew it we were in the convention center just a few feet away from Ming Chen, Brian Quinn, And Bryan Johnston. There were several people in line, so we bypassed that and started in on the dollar boxes at our host’s booth. We ended up returning there several times throughout the weekend because 1) we found a lot of great books in those boxes and 2) it was literally the coolest place in the building. I estimated that it was anywhere between ten and twenty degrees cooler than the rest of the floor.

From there we made our way around the rest of the vendor booths, which took up a little over 50% of the floor space. A majority of the booths had comics, while a few had toys and collectibles (new and/or used), two were selling tabletop games, and one selling wood carvings. The variety was perfect!

One thing that caught me off-guard at first was that people appeared to be texting while digging through boxes. I’d see people pull out a comic or two, add it to their stacks, then check their phones. I initially dismissed it as a sign of the times, but after seeing this a few times I realized they were actually checking their want lists. Silly me…I had our lists on a good old-fashioned piece of paper folded into quarters in my back pocket.

Once we made a full lap around the vendor area I stopped by the Little Shop of Comics booth and asked co-writer of the latest Tick series Jimmy Z. Johnston to sign my copies of the (sadly only) four issue series, then rushed to Artist’s Alley and asked Cave Con cosponsor and Tick co-writer Cullen Bunn to sign them. That was one goal marked off my checklist!

We took our purchases and signed books to my car and when we returned the line for Chen, Quinn, and Johnston was much shorter. My son’s main goal for the show was to meet “Q” so, despite him being a bit starstruck, we took advantage of the opportunity. Within seconds they were chatting about comics as if they were old buddies who had simply missed seeing each other for a few Wednesdays in a row at their local comic shop.

The rest of Saturday and most Sunday are a blur – especially the timeframe. My younger son joined me for a couple of hours Sunday morning, and by the time he was worn out my wife arrived with my oldest. We wandered through Artist’s Alley (more on that in my next – much shorter - blog installment) and the vendor area multiple times, and discovered new treasures each time. The subsequent trips through the vendor area were a lot of fun, as it was impossible NOT to eavesdrop on a number of excited “what did you get?” conversations.

One of the best parts? Other than a few moments of “Andy” (see previous blog entry) tapping my on my shoulder and whispering “this person couldn’t care less about anything you have to say,” an embarrassing moment when I misidentified one creator as another of the same name, and BOTH times I went completely blank when asked what titles I was currently reading, I didn't have any major moments where I felt like running away and sticking my head in the sand.

Overall Cave Con was everything we had hoped it would be and more, and we’re already saving up for VIP passes for next year!

Next post – what did I get?

(This is what happens when a friend offers to let you borrow their parking pass for the weekend.)