Registration for ComiKaze was held in the main lobby of south hall. The line was so long that people had to wait outside the convention center. This was problematic as it was already in the 90s at ten in the morning and there was very little cover outside. On the good side everything seemed to be flowing smoothly allowing the line to move at a good pace. Press and Industry registration was very quick and well handled.

The majority of the sights and sounds of ComiKaze took place in the dealer hall, which was in the main section of south hall. This included the main stage, which was very reminiscent of Stage Zero at Fanime. The main stage was in the back of the dealer hall, it featured a large screen and a raised stage. It would be the primary setting for guest of honor panels and interactive panels.

One of the first main stage panels was the Batgirl: Spoiled Stunt Show. The cast and crew of Batgirl: Spoiled taught convention participants how to do different stunts and allowed the attendees to have mock fights with the actors. This was fun for both the participants and the audience. The cast and crew of Batgirl: Spoiled were very friendly and had fun in their show. By the end of the show it was clear that many people in the audience, me included, were interested in this web series.

Another interactive event of ComiKaze was Pro Quidditch. A section of the dealer hall was set up as a small Quidditch pitch. The area was being run by students from the USC and UCLA Quidditch teams. They were teaching attendees how to play and even let them join in the exhibition matches. The game is played with brooms and similar balls to the Quidditch balls used in the magical version of the game; with the exception of the golden snitch which is an actual player. It was amazing to learn that there were over 700 Quidditch teams in the US and there was even an international tournament held in England during the Olympics.

ComiKaze also played host to a zombie apocalypse. A large section of the dealer hall was set up with a huge maze themed around a zombie apocalypse. People were lined up to make a run against the zombie to see if they could survive. The zombies wandered around the convention center drawing attention to this unique attraction. While neither member of Scarlet Rhapsody took the run we heard it was fun and that the chase could be pretty wild.

For those who play card games there was a massive Magic: The Gathering tournament held during ComiKaze. It was divided into several different groups and brackets. There were plenty of players and the competition seemed pretty good. In addition to the tournament there were also booths selling cards from several different games. Not too far from the Magic tournament was a section of the hall dedicated to Warhammer games. They had several games set up and booths selling everything you would need to set up your own game.

One of the best parts of the ComiKaze dealer hall is that it has plenty of independent comic and production team booths. The Fonco booth stood out on Saturday. They were promoting their graphic novel MORAV, a near future war story featuring “walking tank” stylized mechs. The artwork looked cool and the guys at Fonco were very friendly. Not too far from their booth was the Liberator booth. This booth was promoting Lou Ferrigno’s new pilot movie. The story follows a washed up superhero trying to put his life together. We were also told that Lou Ferrigno would be there to promote the movie during the convention.

In addition, Top Cow had a booth showing off their hit titles The Darkness, Witchblade, and Artifacts. In addition to their comic line up Top Cow was also promoting their talent search contest. This is a talent search for aspiring unpublished comic writers and artists. The prize allows two artists and two writers to work on a future Top Cow project. The only problem with the booth is that it was in an odd position being off toward a corner near the front.

The dealer hall also featured the booths of several celebrates from TV stars to comic artists to voice actors. One of the biggest draws in the autograph area was Adam West, Bert Ward, and Julie Numar from the 1960s Batman series. It was nice being able to meet childhood heroes at the convention. While the autograph area was crowded most of the lines were only made up of four to five people so it did not take too long to meet a guest, as long as you can handle the crowd.

Beyond the dealer hall there were several panel rooms set up to cover everything from web series to creator spotlights. One of the panels that caught our eye on Saturday was the Icons panel. The Icons panel featured Zak Penn (Behind Enemy Lines, X-Men 2, Last Action Hero), Marv Wolfman (Blade, New Teen Titans, Amazing Spider-Man), and Matt Hawkins (Think Tank, Cyber Force, COO Top Cow). They talked about the adaption of comics into movies. They also talked about the issues that come up with creator rights. They even brought up some of their failures and how they dealt with them. It was interesting hearing their stories about dealing with the challenges of being a comic book or movie writer.

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