Four-Color Coverage

26 September 2018 It’s been a busy past few weeks, but I finally have a chance to do a more complete write-up about the weekend of this year’s FanX event. The event was held 06-08 September and I was scheduled to be on four^* panels across the three days:

• Thursday
  • Tell Me a Story: How Black Panther Reflects Real Life
• Friday
  • Star Trek – Deep Space Nine 25th Anniversary Panel
• Saturday
  • Getting Started with Toy Photography
  • What Are THOSE?! : A Closer Look at the Black Panther Characters

I had a late addition to my panel schedule: Teen Titans GO! for KidCon on Saturday, I’d be talking with Beast Boy actor Greg Cipes. I also asked to see if they could get John DiMaggio, who voiced villain Brother Blood on the show, to also sit in on the panel.

Panel Number One, “Tell Me a Story: How Black Panther Reflects Real Life” panel –  with Kiki Furia, Jay Whittaker, Stephan Watson, Ashley Finley, Jeremy Franklin (not pictured), and moderated by Dr. Paul White  – went really well. It was a good – and occasionally emotional – look at how parts of the movie reflected situations in the world today. We received great feedback from the audience during and after the panel.

Post-panel, I spent time wandering the Con with my friends, Denise and Josh. I also ran into a number of friends, including some former coworkers that I hadn’t seen in a long time. Soon, it was time to wrap up Day One and head home.

After that was done, while checking out other vendor booths, I was approached by a member of the Media Team, who was dressed as a SHIELD agent. He addressed me as “Director Fury” and asked if I was headed somewhere important. I told him “Not at the moment,” to which he replied: “You need to come with me, Sir.” He led me out to the Grand Staircase, where they were setting up for the Marvel Cosplay picture. There was a lot of standing around, waiting for the official picture to be taken, but there was a lot of good-natured conversation and joking around going on among the cosplayers.

There was going to be a Marvel vs. DC picture, but I couldn’t hang around because…

…I had to get to the room for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – 25th Anniversary Panel. I was on this panel with Shannon Barnson (from the Geekshow Podcast), Julie Andelin, Chase Masterson (who portrayed Leeta on the series), M. Brooke Wilkins,  @tanaquill1558, and Eric Browning. As a DS9 fan, this was a literal ton of fun. It was interesting to hear the panelists talk about what DS9 meant to them. Ms. Masterson told funny and touching behind-the-scenes stories about a show that she obviously loves. She even mentioned that while we may never get a Deep Space Nine movie, that the show – and some of its characters – lives on in Star Trek: Online, an MMO based in the Star Trek universe. (Truth be told, this actually got me back into the game after a multi-year hiatus.)

After the panel – and pictures and autographs – I roamed the floor until it was time for me to call it a day. (As noted above, it was Kid #1’s birthday and there was birthday dinner and cake to be eaten!)

Greg Cipes arrived as I was leaving the KidCon area. It turned out that his assigned Volunteer had the wrong time, despite having a schedule that clearly showed when he was supposed to be there. I chatted with him for a minute, explaining that I would love to moderate a panel for him, but that I had another panel to moderate, starting in a few minutes. He laughed and said that it wasn’t a problem.

He called out to the audience and invited them to join him at the PopLife booth, where he did an unmoderated panel. And there was much rejoicing.

• A camera
• A toy
• A place to set up your toy
• A bit of imagination

After the panel, I headed back to Denys Cowan’s booth, picked up a Black Panther print, got another photo with him (and #Deathlok!), a few autographs and chatted with him briefly. (Hey, FanX… I would love to do a panel with him next year and chat with him about comics, art, and the creation of Milestone. Just putting that out there.) I also found Bob McLeod’s booth and had him sign my copy of The New Mutants #1, which he co-created.

After that, my con experience was pretty much over, as it was Kid 2’s birthday and it was approaching time for dinner and birthday cake redux. In all, I had a fantastic con experience. In the words of Headlong Flight: