Dressed as Darth Vader and other characters from the movie 'Star Wars,' members of The Rebel Legion and Vader’s 501st took photos with fans for charity. | Travis Hensley/The Daily Cougar
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On the other side of the tables at Comicpalooza, held this weekend at George R. Brown Convention Center, there were both workers and volunteers.
That includes hard-working individuals who are trying to sell their comic books and T-shirts, or promote a Web site or independent movie. They ranged from first-timers at a comic book collectors’ event to the veterans who were the driving force of the whole convention.
One of this year’s main attractions was the members of the Rebel Legion and 501st Legion, with members dressed up in full Star Wars attire complete with light saber instructionals.
“For Houston actually to have an event of this magnitude has been very nice,” said Chris Smith, a representative of the Legions.
Some members of their group spent wandered around the convention center, posing for photos.
“Everything that we do event wise, we always find a way to do it for charity to Texas Children’s Hospital and American Cancer Society,” Smith said.
The movie promoters included Kerry Beyer, a local director who made the movie Spirit Camp. Beyer attended Comicpalooza with Denise Williamson, one of the stars of Spirit Camp. They showed a trailer preview of their movie and sold underwear signed by the cast.
“It is a lot of fun,” Beyer said of the convention. “We have had a great time meeting all the fans and getting a positive response. … We are getting fans that we normally wouldn’t get.”
Williamson spent most of her time dressed as a cheerleader and chatting with the people who stopped to visit the Spirit Camp booth.
“We have had a pretty good turnout. We sold some DVDs and have had a great time,” Williamson said. “We always look forward to meeting new fans.”
Also in attendance was 29-95.com, a local Houston blog that contains comics and reports on local events, restaurants, bars and artists. One of the Web site’s writers and artists, Joe Mathlete, worked the booth all three days.
“I was here for about eight hours, and after awhile, it got hard to tell if it’s a hallucination or not,” said Mathlete, referring to the costumed customers and fans strolling around the convention center.
Comic vendors are at the heart of Comicpalooza. But some of them do not work at a store, but simple sell their supplies at several conventions held throughout the year.
“It is something we did as a hobby and then we just kept doing it more and more,” said Ben Burger, who sells comics at 10 conventions sprinkled throughout the year.
Even UH students were hoping to make a few bucks.
“The coolest thing has been the community,” creative writing senior Jill Hogno said. “Our tape got misplaced the first day and people from other booths were nice and let us use theirs.”
