Photo is taken with Josh Harrway.

Long Beach Comic Con is clearly getting better and better every year. I tend to prefer the moderate sized comic book themed conventions that go back to their roots. Normally, I leave another team to cover San Diego Comic Con because as I wrote back in 2008, it is no longer about true nerdom, but rather commercialism and whatever flies in Hollywood. While I appreciate any form of nerdom, Long Beach Comic Con captures the spirit of nerd pride.

I actually liked that Long Beach Comic Con was condensed to two days. However, it seemed that Saturday drew in more people. Wheras, Sunday's crowd was only a third of Saturday (or so it felt). This made Sunday a good day to browse along artist alley because of the lack of crowds. I appreciated the wide aisle space because it made it easier to naviagte and take photos of the sights.

Several cosplayers have asked me if this is a cosplay friendly conventions. Without hesitation, I will say it is a great place to dress up as your favorite characters. Comic book and Western media tend to get recognized first. However, anime and video game themed cosplay is always appreciated. Even so, I spotted a few Lolita fashionistas and Steampunkers. Marvel and DC comics were represented well as there were plenty of 10th and 11th Doctors running around. We did not make it to Masquerade Ball (costume contest), but knowing that a costume competition exists, shows appreciation for the costuming demographic.

I was also happy to find food trucks on Saturday. They were only there for a few hours in the afternoon. By the time I wanted to pick up some delicious cupcakes from Sprinkes, they were already packing up and getting ready to go. I would like to see the food trucks return. From what I saw, the prices were reasonable and I do appreciate variety rather than relying on convention center food for a quick bite.

I enjoyed the variety of exhibitors in the dealer's hall. I was happy to find a few comics that I have been meaning to track down; specifically from my favorite independant artists (19xx). If you are an indepedant artist, you can definately get some love and appreciation at this venue. I was able to peruse through the artist alley and find a few things I ended up liking and investing in. Support your local artists!

Overall, I had a pleasant time at Long Beach COmic and Horror Con. I did not get to see much of the horror part of the convention, but I did love watching the zombie walk while waiting to be seated at Islands. This is a promising convention that captures what true comic book fans miss about Comic Con International years ago.

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