Weekend at a Glance

We had a wonderful time at this years Wizard World New Orleans. The Nola Nerd Baby was fascinated by everything and everyone at the comic con. We enjoyed watching our little one interact with other people. Lines, for us, weren’t a hassle. The celebrities we met were engaging. It was a very successful con.

Celebrities at Wizard World New Orleans

We only planned on meeting two celebrities at Wizard World New Orleans. The first one, Patricia Summersett, we met on the Friday. However, Mrs. Nola Nerd had such a great time meeting her, she decided to have her sign her special edition Breath of the Wild box and her Zelda amiibo. Ms. Summersett was more than happy to oblige. These pieces will take center stage in Mrs. Nola Nerd’s Zelda Shrine.

The only other celebrity we wanted to meet was Mads Mikkelsen. We have both been fans of his since Casino Royale. Bond needs a great villain, and he supplied that for Daniel Craig’s Bond. I believe this is a significant reason why Daniel Craig has had a successful run. While we wanted a Bond signature, we have already started a Rogue One poster. This poster features autographs by Felicity Jones and Forest Whittaker. It was a no-brainer to have him sign it since he portrays Galen Orso, the designer of the Death Star. Meeting him did not disappoint. He was engaging and even spoke a little to the Nola Nerd Baby. Judging by social media, he was a great guest all weekend and made lots of people happy.

While we were walking along the back wall of the convention center we passed right next to Jason Mamoa. The Mrs. was understandably speechless. I tried to get the Nola Nerd Baby to wave at him, but she was the only woman (or man actually) that wasn’t interested in him.

Panels at Wizard World New Orleans

Going to panels with a little one can be a challenge. Our baby wasn’t bad in the crying sort of way. She was cute in the I want to talk as much as the speakers kind of way. For this reason, we didn’t attend too many panels.

We did go to one about comic artists making professional looking comics on a shoestring budget. This was extremely interesting because they not only talked about the artistic side, but the business side as well. The questions were fantastic and the three artists – Chris Marino, Vernon Smith, and Tedd Walley – did a great job explaining the joys and struggles of making a living from their craft.

Another panel that we attended was the voice actor panel featuring Scott Innes and Patricia Summersett. Both had fascinating stories of how they got their jobs they are famous for and how they approach their work. Mr. Innes, a radio personality in Baton Rouge, told us how he beat our Dave Coulier from Full House fame for the role on Scooby Doo. Ms. Summersett explained how awkward it was to keep her work a secret for nearly a year due to Nintendo’s privacy policy.

We also attended the Mads Mikkelson panel. Dave Schrader hosted this Q&A and did a fantastic job. He was funny and charming but made sure all of the attention was on Mads. He asked great follow-up questions and didn’t get in the way of the panel. Mr. Mikkelson gave very thoughtful answers to every question. He knew how to work the crowd, and the crowd returned the favor by giving him interesting questions. I’m not sure I’ve been to a better panel as far as audience questions are concerned.

Art work at the Comic Con

Every year we say we are going to take it easy on buying artwork at Wizard World, and every year we fail miserably at that goal. It may be worse now that we have the baby. We tried to give all our money to Michelle Hirstius, a local artist and children’s book author. Her series, JuJu The Good Voodoo, is some of the best children’s books that help reinforce our culture.

We also enjoyed LitSilouette cubes and nightlights. The artist, Ryan Gianelloni, makes up light up art. Check out his Instagram to see more of his work! We walked away with a small Batman nightlight to match our girls Batgirl outfit.

We also purchased a piece for the nursery of Moana meeting Ariel. Also, making an appearance is Nemo, Marlin and Dori. The artist, Alex Worden, is from Florida and does great work.

We will post more about each artist with the work we bought in a separate post later this week!

Even Better Ifs…

Of course no con is perfect. Sometimes the venue poses problems. Every bathroom we went into lacked a changing table. This is not Wizard World’s problem, but New Orleans Convention Center. Not only should they have changing tables for infants, they should also have a least a few bathrooms with adult changing tables. As far as the con itself, a lot of the smaller issues we had the last couple of years have been rectified. The only complaint we have is that they staggered the times of some panels. We had to leave one panel to attend another. The crowds were huge on Saturday, but that is the nature of a con. Personally, the way my anxiety has been lately I was expecting a much worse reaction to the crowds, but I never felt uncomfortable.

Verdict

While the fandoms that we belong to were not represented by the celebrity guests, we may have enjoyed this con as much as any other. Not wanting to meet tons of people freed us up to explore and enjoy. And did we enjoy! We loved dressing up our little one. Watching her interact with other people made us so happy. We were amazed at all the cosplay, including our former student, INeedSugar who was a featured cosplay guest. We love that the 501st raised over $1000 for the Make-a-Wish foundation.

We have attended plenty of Wizard World conventions in the past. This was a great comic con and we can’t wait to see what Wizard World has in store for New Orleans next year.

Stay tuned for more pictures and video from Wizard World New Orleans!

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