Long Beach Comic Con has come and gone. I haven't been to Long Beach Comic Con in about four years. I'm happy to say I've been going since the beginning in 2009 when Stan Lee cut the ribbon to kick off the first ever Long Beach Comic Con. It was small back then; very few panels and a dealers hall that you can spend about an hour in and be done. Long Beach Comic Con is now an all weekend affair. While veteran anime fans are not fond of the Long Beach Convention Center, I do like it for this size and scope of fandom. No question that this con will only continue to grow as comic book movies make dollars at the box office. Long Beach Comic Con is not afraid to embrace this growth by bringing more and more programming to the little comic con that could.

My favorite part about Long Beach Comic Con was getting face time with voice actors and comic artists. I really liked talking to Samantha Newark and Jim Cummings. There was an entire section in the dealers hall dedicated to voice actors from cartoons from Gen X and Gen Y's childhood. It was well worth it to selfie with these people who made our childhoods awesome. I also liked the addition of space exploration to programming. It was nice to see people interested in aerospace technologies and seeing a variety of NASA / JPL veterans discuss past, present, and current projects.

The only issues I had with Long Beach Comic Con was that the panel room for most of the NASA themed panels filled up quickly - it's a good problem to have. It's great to see more people interested in space exploration; this is a great venue to discuss aerospace and to meet people involved in JPL. I think they just need a larger panel space for next time around. The other problem I had is with how the cosplay contest was organized. I wish there was an email before the con to tell me where to go to check in and that craftsmanship judging should be for anyone who asks to be judged. There were people lining up that got passed up because they did not have armor or large props,but still had amazing work nonetheless.

Overall, Long Beach Comic Con is worth checking out. If you're local and intend on going to both Long Beach Comic Expo and Long Beach Comic Con ever year, the lifetime pass is pretty worth it. People are friendly. The best part of the event was seeing little girls calling me Princess Serenity and Sailor Moon. I felt like a face character in Disneyland. There's a certain joy you get cosplaying as Sailor Moon that you don't get at an anime con versus a comic con. At anime cons, almost everyone has a Sailor Moon themed costume in their line up. At comic cons, Sailor Moon can be someone's childhood they passed onto their kids. I highly reccomend checking out Long Beach Comic Con for a day if you're curious. There's something for everyone!

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