A FUSION OF FANS
Comic Fest attendees react to name change
Phoenix Comic Fest officially ended at 5:30 p.m., but the popular cosplay masquerade ball was heading into the evening hours after it was interrupted by Saturday night’s false alarm, which led to the evacuation of thousands of fans.
First-time contestant Alesther Asmundson of Tempe said less than half of the other entrants returned for the rescheduled final rounds of judging — and one of the missing was her sister, Sally Martinez, who had to drive back to her home in Show Low. So Asmundson re-
turned to the stage Sunday afternoon with a life-size poster of Martinez (as Romy to her sister’s Michelle).
“I made that this morning,” she said. “Thank goodness I’m a video producer, so I’d already taken some high-rez images.”
Even with fewer competitors on the stage, a thousand or so conventioneers returned to cheer them on. At the comic fest, cosplay is king.
Fans react to name change
There was a bit of eye-rolling to Sunday morning’s announcement that Phoenix Comic Fest will be getting its second new name in two years for 2019: Phoenix Fan Fusion.
Longtime event attendee Bryan Adamson was more adamantly negative. “OK. OK. No,” he said outside the Phoenix Convention Center on Sunday, shuddering visibly.
“I was kind of OK with Comic Fest,” he said, but “Fan Fusion” is just too far away from the familiar brand for this type of thing.
“My opinion is we should go back to the Comic Con moniker, and if we have to pay licensing fees to the San Diego Comic-Con, we should,” Adamson said.
Other eventgoers were more nonchalant.
“I was confused, but then I decided to roll with it,” said 23-year-old Annalise Amado of Tucson.
Why the change? “Because Phoenix Comic Fest doesn’t sound right,” said Kristin Rowan, spokesperson for Square Egg Entertainment, the organizers of the four-day annual convention.
“It’s just not the right name for what we do,” she said.
The name change will take effect with next year’s show, which is also scheduled for Memorial Day weekend.
‘Artoo is going to the beer garden’
A comic con by any other name remains the same: an unabashed celebration of the magic of pop culture.
If there was one moment that distilled the spirit of fandom, it was the look of startled delight on a young boy’s face when a full-size R2-D2 came to beep-beep-beeping-life in the food court.
The remote-control droid was controlled by Dan Johnson of the R2 Builders Club (astromech.net), who made the trip to Phoenix from Las Vegas. But it took a while to spot him and his golfball-size remotes as R2-D2 wandered through the convention center, taking time to face off against Darth Maul (aka Kenny Novero of Avondale).
After that, “It looks like Artoo is going to the beer garden,” someone in the gawking crowd shouted.
And that is also very much in the spirit of the con.
‘Super Mario Bros.’ to wrestling
Fan intensity is what drives the event (so maybe that latest name change isn’t so bad). But if you really want to understand comic con culture, you need to do some panel hopping. Many of these chat session attract only a handful of attendees, but the variety of topics is staggering. It all adds up.
In the year of “Black Panther,” it was no surprise to see an inquiry into “The History of Diversity in Superheroes.” (Best panelist quote: “Don’t get me started on ‘The Jetsons.’ ”) But what about “Why the Super Mario Bros. Movie Was So Awesome”?
More than a dozen people turned out to discuss, among other things, whether John Leguizamo should have had a mustache in the 1993 film that currently carries a 13 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (Favorite panelist quote: “I do have some trivia questions, but only a few, so we’re trying to fill more time.”)
There was even a panel on the state of independent wrestling, with a dais filled with the kind of bodies you see all the time at comic cons, but usually sculpted out of foam rubber.
That’s the thing about this fusion of fans: All fandoms are welcome. This diverse community should adopt “Don’t yuck my yum” as its motto. It’s almost enough to give you hope for democracy.