PopHorror Let's Get Scared
The East Coast is no stranger to comic conventions. However, it seems the biggest one is held in the smallest state. Rhode Island Comic Con hosts dozens of celebrity guests, usually one of the best lineups of the year. I started going when I was young, immediately making it a favorite of mine. Did that tradition carry over to this year as well though?
The con takes place at the Dunkin Donuts Convention Center. This, truly, is one of the best venues of all time. It’s filled to the brim with vendors and very rarely do you feel cramped.
Like every comic con I’ve been to, my main draw is the celebrity guests. Usually, I meet six to ten celebrities at RICC. However, I really felt the guest list this year was lacking. While there were a lot of guests, most of them were repeats from previous years or guests that do a lot of cons in general. It also didn’t help that about twenty nine guests canceled. This, of course, is not the con’s fault at all, just an unfortunate circumstance.
The only people I had interest in meeting were Michael J. Fox and Dean Norris. No matter the con, if Michael J. Fox is a guest, he dominates the area. Years ago, I wanted to meet him, but I recall his line being over seven hours long. To the then sixteen year old me, that was too much time.
This year, things were a little bit different. The process of getting an autograph was like an assembly line. He was signing for only two hours Saturday and one hour Sunday. No personalization, no character names, no quotes, no interaction. Just sign and onto the next. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because everyone has their preferences. However, I would personally rather wait longer to have a little more interaction than just barely getting to say hi. Fox did seem happy to be there and in good spirits, so that’s all you can ask for.
Dean Norris was the absolute best. He seemed like he was having the time of his life. I’m honestly just a really big fan of him as a person and his various cameos in different medias over the years. That’s coming from someone who has never watched Breaking Bad. He shook everyone’s hand and really had a blast with them. Amazing experience overall.
I managed to catch a few panels as well, something I do here and there. All the hosts were an absolute hoot, one of the highlights of the show. If I had to complain about one thing, it’s how basic the panels were. Many of the guests frequently do cons, which means they frequently do panels. I think this set of panels heavily lacked originality, but that’s not necessarily the con’s fault. They’re still a great time to be had.
Rhode Island Comic Con holds a very special place in my heart. While, yes, I personally was disappointed by the guest list this year, I still had a blast. I hope that next year’s show has a few more ‘rare opportunities’ to offer to attendees, but as long as a great time is guaranteed, I’ll continue to show up year after year. Rhode Island, you may be small, but damn you really know how to overcompensate.
