Rhode Island Comic Con 2014 took place on November 1-2, 2014 at the Rhode Island Convention Center in downtown Providence. Only an hour trip from Boston, the con was pretty easy to get to via commuter rail. Only a hop, skip, and a jump from the train station, it was easy access for anyone traveling into Providence; we actually met a few conventioneers on the train. One Star Trek cosplayer mentioned it was her first time. She asked us how long the lines were. Naively, we responded that we had no problem last year getting in and out the con. None of us were ready for what was to come.

After crossing through the mall, we made it to the convention center. Lines circled the building. However, people were funneling through the lobby rather quickly. Con staff was checking people's ticket purchases and handing out badges. We had no idea that this con grew! One by one, geeks were having their bags checked by con security. Our team brought some homemade sanwiches to the con to avoid any lunch rushes. Unfortunately, we could not bring outside food into the convention center. We then decided to just nom our food before going on.

As we travelled around the tiny convention center, it was wall to wall crowds. You were sardined in with wall to wall people. We made it to the 5th floor to find the costume contest sign ups. Even then, there was already a huge crowd for the William Shatner photo op. There was a line for cosplay contest craftsmanship judging; Abby Fellows, Belle Chere, Johnny Ruckus, and Destiny were the cosplayers judging the entrants. Cosplayers had about 5 minutes of judging time. The nice thing was each cosplayer was photographed by professionals after being judged.

We decided to roam around the exhibit hall. Most comic cons are known for their huge shopping and autograph space. There’s very few fan panels; most of which were Q&A’s with the stars of television series. You also needed an entire day to go through the exhibit hall. I liked that the exhibit hall had a mash up of different things. It’s very rare that we cover a comic con; it’s nice to see variety and flavor. One section had comic artists; we had a chance to interact and chit chat with Bob Camp of Ren and Stimpy fame. We also chit chatted with special effects artists from Star Wars and Gremlins in the autograph alley. Perhaps my highlight was talking to Samantha Newark, the singing voice of Jem. She was super friendly and we had a great time talking about the show and the upcoming movie. She has a mystery part in it!

Another highlight of the exhibit hall was the mass amount of merchandise. Our copy editor enjoyed looking through toys from the 90s; some figures were going between $30 to $100 a piece! I liked looking at booths that sold books on the paranormal and looking through what independent merchants was selling. My biggest disappointment was that we spotted a booth that sold bootleg DVDs; one booth had pre-recorded Broadway shows. I would much rather see a legitimate seller of nerdy things than seeing bootleg merchandise being promoted and sold.
Other highlights were the car collections in the convention space. The Mystery Machine, a Star Wars land speeder, the Back to the Future delorean, KITT, etc made special appearances at Rhode Island Comic Con. By the time it was 1PM, I was receiving text messages from colleagues advising not to leave the con premises; people were being locked out of the con center because of fire marshall orders. We had a hunch that Rhode Island Comic Con grew in attendees, but we had no idea they the con oversold tickets.

The costume contest took place in the early evening. About 100 cosplayers entered, however, it was unfortunate that there were a handful of contestants that were still locked outside. There were three divisions for this show – novice, journeyman, and masters. A majority entered in the novice division; even so, there were a ton of impressive entries from all over the place. Most of the entries were from comic book media; you had a few Poison Ivy’s and Harley Quinn’s in the show. There were even a few Elsa’s from Frozen. The show was hosted by the hilarious Boston Deadpool.

The cosplay contest is different from anime con masquerades; contestants go up on stage. They are interviewed by the host – they are asked a few questions and must answer in character. I ended up entering Super Sailor Moon. Deadpool asked how I felt about the “new cartoon.” I simply answered, “I’m a 90s kid and the only crystal I like is Crystal Pepsi!” The contest was followed by a series of walk-ons; there were some really great entries in the walk on division that I would have loved to have seen in the contest, but due to the long lines outside the con center, they missed the cut off for the contest. However, it was still impressive seeing everyone’s hard work. Top honors went to a 16 year old kid who made a full sized space marine from War Hammer. The winner took home at $2,000 cash prize.

By the time the cosplay contest let out, the con center was fairly empty. Most people had left after the exhibit hall closed. My friends from various press organizations decided to grab some dinner before heading back into Boston. The nice thing about the location is that the con center is connected to the mall. There’s a food court where you can grab a quick bite. We settled on one of our con traditions – Johnny Rocket’s. It was a fairly crazy day and it was nice to sit down and let everything sink in.

On one hand, I had a great time for what it was worth at Rhode Island Comic Con; I did like meeting celebrities I grew up with and I liked meeting new people. I’m always impressed by new cosplayers who have some great potential. However, I can’t help but feel bad for the people who got screwed over outside the convention walls. When you read about missing children, families being separated, people passing out and people being denied entry after spending tons of money just to be around the things the love, you can’t help but feel their pain. Not even celebrity guests were allowed back in to make it in time for their photo ops and autograph sessions. I’m not sure if I can recommend Rhode Island Comic Con after this incident. It’s not a good sign when the con encourages ticket sales after the fact the fire marshal deemed the venue over capacity. While I do believe cons are what you make of them, it does not help that paying attendees cannot get their money’s worth while risking health and the safety of others.

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