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As we announced the other day, ScareTissue is proud to once again be able to provide coverage of the Wizard World Comic Con in Cleveland at the Cleveland Convention Center. (Trapjaw went last year as well).
As I said last week, there were a slew of great guests, artists and activities planned and I’m thrilled to say that it was an absolutely outstanding show. I’m even more excited to say that Wizard World has already confirmed that it will return to FirstMerit Convention Center next year, February 24th through the 26th, 2017! Mark your calendars Cleveland!!!
The weekend started off on Thursday evening with an exclusive Q & A session at the Hard Rock Cafe to “Kick Off The Con”. Celebrity guest in attendance included Larry Wilcox (CHiPs), Cas Anvar (Assassin’s Creed: Revelations), Jason David Frank (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) and Jason Mewes (Clerks). I was lucky enough to spend a few minutes with Larry Wilcox, Cas Anvar and with Jason Mewes that night chatting about projects they’d worked on in the past as well as things they were currently working on and upcoming projects. Being a child of the 80’s CHiPs has a special place in my heart and I’ve got to say that chatting with Larry was a bucket list moment for me. Jason Mewes was candid and open about some upcoming projects that he’s ready to work on, some collaborating with Kevin Smith and others where he’s not. Cas Anvar cued me in to just how much work voice acting and motion capture really is!
After that event was over, I took in a late showing of Deadpool. You can check out my review here, but suffice to say I enjoyed it quite a bit. If you’re a hardcore horror fan and you’ve been staying away simply because it’s a “comic book movie” I’d suggest you reconsider. It’s a bloody good time.
The next day it was on to the main event. I’ve seen pictures of last year’s event but I didn’t personally attend and I’d never even stepped foot into the Cleveland Convention center. Honestly I wasn’t quite sure what to expect and I was absolutely blown away! The floor was packed with artists, authors, celebrities, cosplayers and fans all who were having an absolute blast.
Toys, comic books, movies. Props, celebs, cosplayers. Pop culture, horror, action, adventure and comedy. Quite literally everything was covered and you’d have to really go out of your way to not have a good time. The biggest name in horror that was there was Robert Englund and while I love seeing him every chance I get I wanted to take in some other parts of the con while it was in my home town. I had another opportunity to chat with Cas Anvar and had a great conversation with Henry Winkler and Corbin Bernsen. Being from Cleveland I’ve got a special place in my heart for Corbin and his portrayal of the high priced Roger Dorn in Major League.
I had an opportunity to catch up with the Ghostbusters: Cleveland Chapter and sit in their custom Ecto Mini. One of their members I went to high school with so it was cool to catch up with him for a few minutes. I rounded another corner of artist alley and ran into yet another high school classmate, Marvel Comics own Marc Sumerak.
If you can’t tell by now I had an absolute blast at the show. There were quite a few late celebrity cancellations, a few of which I was REALLY looking forward to (Chandler Riggs and James O’Barr canceled due to illness. Tara Reid, Brett Dalton & Brian J. Smith canceled due to filming. Rusev & Lana, Erik Estrada canceled due to scheduling conflict), but the lineup they did have on hand more than made up for any disappointment I may have had.
Special thanks to Jerry from Wizard World for being so awesome before and up through the event. This was my first time covering this particular show and I was absolutely floored by how smoothly things ran and how well it was put together. I’ve been scouring FB and the rest of the web reading about Wizard World Cleveland and have yet to find anything negative.
Did you attend this year’s Wizard World Comic Con in Cleveland? Leave us a comment with your thoughts!
