Chris Collins
Thursday
So maybe there really is something that can defeat, or at least slow down, Madison's hordes of pop-cult fandom: Subzero temps on a Thursday night in February.
Wizard World's "Kick Off the Con" event, bouncing trivia, interviews and cosplay among the Brink Lounge, High Noon Saloon and Brass Ring, only draws the equivalent of a crowd for a midrange concert at the High Noon. The folks who are there are digging the scene, however: As Lou Ferrigno, the original Hulk from the 1980s TV show, fields questions from the audience on stage, fans on the main floor contort their bodies and their smartphones to line up a shot of the interview going on upstairs with Jason David Frank, the guy who played the Green Power Ranger in the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Like so many things '80s, the Rangers are poised to enjoy a comeback -- Lionsgate is teeing up a film that, at least to this point, doesn't include a cameo by Frank.
Frank qualifies as the Madison con's most ubiquitous celebrity presence -- or, if you're feeling a little more cynical, its resident media whore. In addition to tonight's event, Frank is part of a paid meet-and-greet event each of the event's three days, and he spends a lot of his time tonight talking up his karate training classes and new reality show -- that and showing off his tats. The vibe's a little breezier for William Kircher, the New Zealand actor who plays the jam-loving dwarf Bifur in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy. The man wins major style points for gamely warbling a line or two from "Misty Mountain Song."
But it's something Ferrigno says toward the end of his stage time that rings truest: Without that cheesy-ass, low-budget TV version of The Hulk -- and his menacing but campy performance in it -- we might not have Mark Ruffalo playing a CGI-ified version of Marvel's Jolly Green Giant today. And we definitely wouldn't be gathering to celebrate a mainstream pop culture universe where the Hulk is just one of a thousand points of superhero, and sci-fi, light.
The costume contest at the Brink is also a modest affair, although it does have at least one memorable and oh-so-Madison moment. When The Mix 105.1 morning DJ Jason Ryan introduces a woman cosplaying as Agent Peggy Carter, he IDs the character as "from the Captain America series." "How about from her OWN series," shouts a woman from the audience. Zing.
Friday
It's a pretty safe bet that Paul Soglin never expected his mayoral campaign to include sharing a stage with Groot, Lando Calrissian and Chad Vader, but there he is, sandwiched between a remarkably accurate cosplay version of Marvel's regenerating alien and Madison's favorite Sith Lord parody, helping to cut the ribbon on our city's inaugural ComicCon event.
"I told Groot my favorite superhero is Rocket Raccoon," Soglin confides after the smartphones have stopped flashing and the crowd has cornered Billy Dee Williams. "I didn't want him to take it personally."
Turns out Soglin was deeply affected by Rocket's "he called me a rodent" breakdown scene from Guardians of the Galaxy. It also turns out that Soglin was on-site 40 years ago at a local sci-fi con that featured Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. "These events are a great opportunity for expression for children." He pauses. "Children from 8 to 80."
In a sense, Friday is the con's sweet spot -- the celebs aren't quite as copious or A-list as the ones who'll appear tomorrow, but there's still plenty of clever cosplay (Ghostbusters, a kid dressed as Deadpool, a couple of knights from the videogame Castle Crashers, etc.) to soak up, and you can be amused by the sore-thumb booths hawking Lasik and the U.S. Armed Forces. Better still, you can actually stop to appreciate the artists peddling their various wares without being swept away by the thronging, elbow-throwing hordes.
You'll meet guys like Wisconsinite Jeff Balke, a comic-book colorist who's been plying his trade as an industry pro since hitting it big in 2007 at Wizard World's Chicago con. Balke, who hails from Elkhorn, is camped next to booths manned by a couple of former Marvel Comics editors, and his prints are doing a brisk business.
"Go ahead, pick it up," he encourages a couple who are tentatively looking at one of the superhero sketches he's colored. "I'm all touchy, touchy, feely feely." When they take his advice, he keeps the banter popping: "It's my fault it looks good."
He's not kidding. Balke's gig is to make black and white comic-book sketches by major comic-book artists -- and the ones employed by Zenescope, the publisher with whom he works most frequently -- pop with an array of splashy colors. He's even got a righteous origin story: When his mom took him to his first comic-book convention in 1991, he met Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee, who encouraged him to "keep on pushing, true believer."
The pushing's paid off for the jovial Blake, especially now that the things he's coloring are front and center in the pop-culture firmament. "People are now like, 'Who's that? I know that character' when they look at my stuff," he says. "New comic book geeks are being created all the time now."
Saturday
Given that he's essentially the face of the enterprise -- in both a capital-letter and lower-case sense -- it's fitting that William Shatner, Wizard World Madison's headlining celebrity guest, is the one who delivers the raison d'etre line for the first Madison Comic Con. He slips it in shortly after a joke about stage lighting effects actually working in a place like Madison, in answer to that age-old stumper: Why are we here?
"You're coming to see each other."
It's an insightful point, Captain Kirk, even if it's also true that a fair chunk of the thousands of peoples packing the Alliant Energy Center would much more readily cop to coming here to see you. But it's true. We're here to see people like us rocking amazing costumes -- and between squadrons of Spartan soldiers from Halo, an enormous Iron Patriot and a clever woman dressed as a four-legged version of Toothless from the How to Train Your Dragon movies, we have much to appreciate—but we're also here to remind ourselves that a ton of people geek out over the same suddenly cool pop-culture stuff we do. We're here to be surprised by that work colleague or old high school friend who's unexpectedly standing in line with us.
And yeah, there are a lot of lines. The line to listen to Ian Somehalder, the smoking undead malcontent from the CW's The Vampire Diaries, snakes the entire fricking length of the Alliant Energy Center. The rooms aren't cleared between celeb panels, but, unlike Shatner fans who had to watch him on a big-screen TV rather than share the air in the room, line-standers waiting to hear Somerhalder hold forth on his cat and his attitude toward impending mortality don't end up disappointed. Everybody gets a seat.
The lines and crowds don't stop there. Passersby in the sardine-packed main hall goggle at visitors dressed as characters from Street Fighter and a matching set of Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers trolling the center's entryway. They also hover around the vendors hawking custom Lego figures and an unsettling array of replica weaponry that runs from Kingdom Hearts key blades to Link's Master Sword –well, at least to those over the age of 18. There are lines for photo ops, refreshments, wristbands and celebrity autographs. Hell, there might even be lines just for the sake of lines.
The lines are annoying, sure, but they're also a good sign for anyone enjoying the fact that for once, they don't have to drive three-plus hours to Illinois to get their superhero and pop-cult celebrity fix. Wizard World seems only too happy to pencil Madison in as an annual stop on its ever-expanding city itinerary. And you have to believe that next year can only improve.
Update:
Looks like all those hints Wizard World Comic Con organizers were dropping this weekend at Madison's inaugural event weren't just another Star Lord-style misdirection: The word is out this morning that Wizard World's coming back to Mad City in 2016. No word yet on official dates or the lineup of celebrity guests, but apparently the local fan response was strong enough to cement our spot in the annual tour lineup.
