A comic-con grows in Baltimore

If you're amazed there's not a T-shirt
in my haul from the Baltimore con,
I am too. (Credit: Me)

Yesterday I went to the Baltimore Comic-Con -- a first for me, which is weird since I live just an hour away and it's relatively easy to get to, even without a car. You'd think I would've gone years ago as a primer, building up to the mega-huge one in San Diego and the biggish one in New York. But true to my nature, if I really like something, I'm not one to dip my toe in, so I jumped into the deep end first and am only just now going to the smaller shows.

Now in Baltimore I did see Stan Lee, heretofore known as my nerd grandpa, when he passed us on the floor, with a lone guard as his escort. But there was no crowd chasing him. And besides him, there were no A-list celebrities. No must-see TV/movie panels or exclusive clips or previews or screenings. There were no corporate publicity stunts or huge booths, such as Marvel's, with all the different Iron Man suits or Odin's throne. There was no flashy swag.

But I could stand on the convention floor, stretch my arms out wide and not hit anyone. I didn't have to get there at dawn to fall in line to just get in the building. No opening multiple browsers on my computer  -- months before the actual con -- and waiting breathlessly and praying to the Comic-Con gods to get passes. I bought my ticket for the Baltimore con on Thursday night for $20. My friend just walked up to the window when we got there and bought hers.

Heck, we didn't even have actual badges, although I saw a Stan Lee VIP passholder who had a badge (for $200, you should get a badge). No, we got a blue paper wristband -- not even branded! *clutches pearls* -- which I promptly tore. Can you imagine what would happen in San Diego if people just had easily breakable wristbands? Chaos would reign. Thousands would wangle their way inside with a bracelet they found lying in the street. (It's a good thing we didn't have a badge anyway, because I didn't bring a supercool lanyard to go with it.)

Sometimes in San Diego you walk by the comics vendors and there aren't that many people there, which makes me feel guilty. At this one it was sometimes hard (relatively speaking) to get through people to browse through boxes of comics. Yay! I always tend to go to the trade paperbacks instead of individual issues, so I bagged "The Walking Dead" vols 1 and 2. Discount copies of "Locke & Key" -- a series I enjoy lots -- eluded me again.

Closer look at my treasures. The pins, from left: K-9;
a deer head that says "Expecto patronum";
a gas mask says "Are you my Mummy?"
(Credit: Me)

I also got a bracelet made from a comic book page, (at a museum before the con, I got a pendant with comics in it: one side says "Zoink!"; the other, "Voo-vroom!"), fun decals and buttons. And NO T-shirts. That in itself is a major milestone for me. Now there were many, many shirts I wanted, but I restrained myself. A "Eureka"-themed one called out to me like a siren, but alas, it was made for tiny people.

Anyway, the vibe was just as cool and accepting as at San Diego -- without all the hassles of lines or jostling for space or the exorbitant travel costs. People weren't shy about asking to stop a Dalek cosplayer to take a photo or where you got your cool shirt or just how many times an artist watched "Doctor Who" (the Ten years) to make that awesome pixel art poster showing every character who appeared in those seasons -- in chronological episode order. Basically, you're just free to be a geek without judgment, which is the best thing about any convention.

Washington is getting its own con in April. You can bet I'll be going.