Grand Rapids Comic Con

 In the spring Ledger and I attended the Kalamazoo Comic Con and had a blast! Keep in mind, Ledge has absolutely no interest at all in comic books, he is only there to wear a costume, see others, and be seen. Just like his love for Halloween, he loves a good dress-up! After that con, I told him that there was a much bigger convention in the fall in Grand Rapids. He said that he was definitely interested in going to it and I could see the gears in his head already turning as he was plotting and planning on what character he wanted to dress up as for that one! As we got closer and closer the date, he settled on what he wanted to go as: Chris, one of the characters from Deltarune. It was a pretty straight forward costume, brown pants, a green shirt with one stripe, hair covering his face, and a red heart. Easy enough. So we began gathering up all the parts we needed and found a great shirt that was exactly what he wanted!

The day of the convention we drove up to Grand Rapids, just the two of us, found a parking spot and walked to the convention center. Already, before we even made it there, Ledger was getting so excited seeing all the different people dressed up in the streets on their way to the con. Initially he was a little bit concerned that there wouldn't be many people who would recognize his costume or other costumes that he would know. That was quickly alleviated as soon as we stepped into the comic con! There were dozens and dozens of people dressed up as characters from some of his favorite games and shows, everywhere we turned he would grab my arm and say 'Dad- check out that one!' and explain to me who they were dressed up as. Most of our day was filled with people stopping Ledge to take a picture, or Ledge stopping others to get their picture! He kept getting people smiling at him and complimenting him on his look- he was in heaven!

As we made our way up and down the many aisles of nerdy stuff, it became very clear to me that this is no longer the comic book conventions of my youth. Back in my day, the rows were filled with comic books and toys based on those characters. It used to be made up of about 80% comic book stuff, 19% nerdy tv shows and cartoons, and maybe 1% anime. Well, dear reader, that is no longer the case. Now it is about 60% anime, 35% video game stuff, and maybe 5% comic book stuff. What a change! I wore my ol' standard Captain America hoodie, but I was in a very small minority of comic book characters. Other than Spider-Man (who's popularity will probably never wain), I think I counted 3 other people in that whole sea of nerdom who were dressed like superhero characters: one Deadpool, one Batman, and one Wolverine. That was it. But there were about 15 Hollow Knights from Elden Ring... I guess even nerdy things can become outdated. Kids these days aren't as thrilled with X-Men and Spawn like we were. I think that's probably a good thing. Let my interests age with me and let the younger generation create their own interests. I don't always get the things he loves, but that's ok because he doesn't always get the things I love either.

Check out the rest of our fun at the convention here: prep, the venue, and costumes!