Convention Report: Amazing! Hawaii Comic Con (10/8-10/9)

[MrAloha]

Dear Gang,

I attended the Amazing! Hawaii Comic Con Special Edition on Saturday, 10/8, and Sunday, 10/9, 2016.

The convention was held at the Hawaii Convention Center. (A block away from the Ala Moana Shopping Center and a couple of blocks from Ala Moana beach)

This was Amazing's third, and smaller, convention in Hawaii. It was only a two day convention. The first Amazing convention was held last August and the second one was held this past May. Those were three day convention.


This two day convention focused on comics and anime.

Comic book creators
On the comics side: Brian Michael Bendis, Chad Hardin, Eddie Nunez (artist for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and Hawaii's own Mat Nastos (writer of Phineas & Ferb).
There were local artist; such as, Jon Murakami, Roy Chang, and Jeff Langcaon to name a few.

Anime voice actors
On the anime side: Veronica Taylor (voice actress of Pokemon’s Ash), Ray Chase (voice actor of One Punch Man’s Dr. Genus), Max Mittelman (voice actor of One Punch Man’s Saitama) and Robbie Daymond (voice actor of Sailor Moon’s Tuxedo Mask).

This report will focus more on the comics side. I never got into anime and that is why I’m not a huge anime fan.


Overall, to me, I enjoyed the convention and huge part of it was due to Brian Michael Bendis.


The convention lay out
The convention was held in one of the center’s main hall on the ground floor. It’s about 56,000 square feet. (The closest comparison google could give me was about the size of a foot ball field.)

I’ll try to give an idea of the layout. As soon as you walk into the doors, you vending area. Mostly all of the vendors were local shops; such as, Other Realms (local comic shop), Animation Magic (local pop culture shop), and Dragon’s Lair (I have to give a shoutout to my LCS.) to name a few.

After that was artist alley where Chad Hardin, Eddie Nunez, and Jon Murakami were.

There were curtain dividers that separated the main stage (where they held panels) from the rest of convention.

And of course, there was a concession stand.

I went to both days of the convention. This was my first comic book convention I went to. I have been to the Star Trek conventions that were held in Hawaii back in the late eighties early nineties.


One issue:
To me, I think, the biggest issue I had with the convention was the main stage set up. The acoustic were not good. I really had to concentrate during Bendis’ IN:PICTURES panel (I caught the last half hour) because, my hearing is not good as it use to be, it was competing with noise from the vendors and artist alley.

The set up: The main stage was divided by curtains and it was like an open room. The curtain was behind the panelists, on the right and the left side of the audience, and behind was open.


The cool things I liked about this convention were:

1) Making connections:

Enjoy Comics
I met and interviewed Mike Sado, co-owner of Enjoy Comics. Enjoy Comics opened up this past January in Hilo, Hawaii (or The Big Island). You can checkout the mini interview on the Previews Spotlight Episode #108. That is cool that the Big Island has a comic book shop. Check out Enjoy Comics’ links below.

http://www.enjoycomicshilo.com

https://www.facebook.com/EnjoyComicsHilo/

And if you guys visiting Hilo, please check out Mike’s store.

Mike’s a cool guy. And he knows his comics.

Aloha Comics
I met and interviewed Jed Adan. He sells comics from his instagram site (please check out the link below.). My interview with Jed will be on the next Previews Spotlight Episode #109.

https://www.instagram.com/alohacomics/

Jed’s a cool guy. If you get a chance, check out his instagram photos. He’s been to Xanadu Comics and Golden Age Comics, thee oldest comic shop in the US, in Seattle. I’ve visited both of those shops and it’s really nice.

2) Talking to other comic book fans.

I met Ian, who is originally from Maui, who told me about the first annual Maui Comic Con that will be held on November 5 & 6 at the Lahaina Cannery Mall. (This weekend)

3) Chad Hardin

I met Chad Hardin. Really nice guy. He drew a Harley Quinn doing the shaka sign.


4) Brian Michael Bendis

Bendis was awesome for three reasons.

a) He chose to come to the Amazing Hawaii Comic Con instead of going to the New York Comic Con to promote the new Jessica Jones series. Both conventions were held the same weekend (October 8 and 9) and Jessica Jones was release that Wednesday, October 5.

Note: He was a last minute replacement. David Jason Frank, the original Green Ranger, was suppose to be the top headliner. He was announced, I think, back in the beginning of July. Then he dropped out and none of the fans knew why until it was announced that he would play Bloodshot for, I think, Bat In The Sun productions and was going to the New York Comic Con to sign autographs.

Bendis was announced as the top headliner for Amazing! on Friday, September 16.

b) He told everybody waiting in line for his autograph, the first day of the convention, that no one was going home without his autograph. There was no cap on comics/posters/items he would sign. There were about 150 people in line that first day.
On the final day of the convention, again there were no caps on comics/posters/items he would sign. And there were about 150 people in line that final day as well.

c) And lastly, Bendis took his time to talk to everybody who waited for his autograph. And he also took the time, for those who asked, to take a picture with him.


Again, overall, I enjoyed the convention and it was mostly due to Brian Michael Bendis.


I hope Amazing! organizers continue to grow the comic book convention by bring down legendary and current comic book creators to Hawaii.


John, again, thank you for letting me do the interview clips, and for posting this convention report. (John, thank you for your patience. I told him I was suppose to have this posted two weeks ago.)


Future Hawaii conventions for 2016/2017

2016
Maui Comic Con-November 5-6, 2016
Headliner: Legendary artist Steve Leialoha
Disney’s Darkwing Duck 25th anniversary panel with the creative team

2017
Kawaii Kon (Anime convention that has been going 10 years strong in Hawaii)
April 7-9, 2017

Comic Con Honolulu
July 28-30, 2017

Amazing! Hawaii Comic Con
August 25-27, 2017

To everyone, thank you for taking the time to read this convention report.

Aloha!

[JohnMayo]

David Jason Frank, the original Green Ranger, was suppose to be the top headliner. He was announced, I think, back in the beginning of July. Then he dropped out and none of the fans knew why until it was announced that he would play Bloodshot for, I think, Bat In The Sun productions and was going to the New York Comic Con to sign autographs.

Skipping out on one convention to go to another is not a great way to treat your fans. Is it really that big of a deal he is playing Bloodshot for Bat in the Sun? If he was going to be Bloodshot in the movies then it would seem like a big deal. It still wouldn't excuse the last minute cancellation of the Hawaii Comic Con appearance.

[MrAloha]

David Jason Frank, the original Green Ranger, was suppose to be the top headliner. He was announced, I think, back in the beginning of July. Then he dropped out and none of the fans knew why until it was announced that he would play Bloodshot for, I think, Bat In The Sun productions and was going to the New York Comic Con to sign autographs.

Skipping out on one convention to go to another is not a great way to treat your fans.

Dear John,

Thank you for responding to my post.

I agree with you. And I'm sure it made some vendors nervous when David Jason Frank dropped out.

To add to the story, he dropped out, I think, at the end of July. And for about a month and a half (August to Sept. 15), there was no hint of who (big headliner) could be coming to the con.

At this point, I was only considering to go to the convention for one day.

But it was awesome (I'm sure someone was waiting for an "amazing" pun) that the Amazing! organizers and Brian Michael Bendis worked something out to bring him down here.

For me, I'm really glad Bendis came down and I got his autograph, a picture with him, and to have a brief moment to talk to him on both days of the convention. That's AWESOME!

To everyone, thank you for reading my post.

Aloha!