This weekend a couple thousand of South Floridians came together to celebrate their favorite science fiction and comic book characters at the Miami Airport Convention Center for the first-ever Wizard World Miami Comic Con.
The two day event featured classic fan favorites including ‘Star Wars’, ‘Star Trek’, ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Buffy’ as well as newer favorites such as ‘Battlestar Galactica’ and ‘Firefly’. The Con also featured a parade of characters, numerous panels, costume contests for both kids and adults, a cosplay improv elimination event, ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ gaming tournaments (Saturday only) and two days of ‘Magic The Gathering’ where players could compete for $5,000 in cash prizes.
For comic book fans, the panels included such luminaries as Filipe Andrade (‘X-Men: Unleashed’), Bill Sienkiewicz (‘The New Mutants’, ‘Elektra:Assassin’), David Mack (‘Kabuki’, ‘Daredevil’), J. David Spurlock (‘The Life and Death of Wally Wood’), Mark Texeira (‘X-Men’, ‘Spider-Man’), Ale Garza (‘Fathom’, ‘Superman/Batman’), Phil Jimenez (‘Spider-Man’, ‘X-Men’), Mike Grell (‘Warlord’, ‘Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes’), Michael Golden (‘Batman’, ‘Star Wars’) and Jim Starlin (‘Thanos’, ‘Captain Marvel’). Speaking of Jim Starlin, stay tuned this coming week for an exclusive interview with the superstar writer/artist about his upcoming projects.
Excited fans were treated to panels with many of their favorite stars including: ‘Star Wars’ Billy Dee Williams, ‘Ghostbusters’ Ernie Hudson, television’s campy ‘Batman & Robin’ with Adam West and Burt Ward, Ray Park from ‘X-Men’ and ‘Star Wars’, ‘Star Trek: The Next Generations’ Denise Crosby and ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayers’ Nicholas Brendon, Clare Kramer and Mercedes McNab. This week, we’ll also be posting an interview with Mercedes.
There was also an impromptu panel with ‘Battlestar Galactica’s Aaron Douglas and Bodie Olmos. We had the pleasure of talking with Aaron and Bodie after the panel, where they continued their tales of being part of the BSG Universe. Douglas told us about the casts excitement of just finding out what was going to happen each week on ‘BSG’ when their scripts were delivered. This included everyone guessing or trying to figure out which human characters would be revealed to actually be Cylons. Douglas also revealed that he inadvertantly found out his character “Chief Galen Tyrol” was one of the final five Cylons three months before he was supposed to know. After accidently seeing a show outline, he was sworn to secrecy and couldn’t let on that he knew the truth.
The next Wizard World Comic Con is scheduled for March 18-20 in Toronto Canada. With over a dozen shows scheduled for this year alone in just as many locations it is a sure bet you will be able to find one to fit your schedule.
