The first impression I had of the Oz Comic Con was ‘oh wow that is the longest line I have ever seen’. The event was clearly in huge demand, and seemed to be somewhat over capacity, given that they could have comfortably fit everyone in a sporting arena. It is no surprise that the turn out was that massive though, with Stan Lee’s appearance, as well as Patrick Stewart, and just the simple fact that it had the name ‘Comic Con’ attached to it. Unfortunately, due to a lack of planning, this meant that a lot of the people waiting out in the Melbourne cold would not get to come into the event. Clearly in terms of numbers the event could have been better organized, but one can only hope that this is catered for in the future.
Once inside, the floor wasn’t terribly large, probably because the amount of interest was underestimated a fair bit, and had a lot of stalls that are also present at other events such as Supanova. There was the variety of fandom merchandise, as well as robot builders, comic book stalls, anime stalls, and of course weapons stalls. There were also video games set up on the floor, with arcade sticks available to play with, as well as an inflatable laser tag tent. All in all, it was passable but could have been improved by expanding the floor, having more stalls, and allowing more people to be able to stand comfortably inside. But, as the first Comic Con, there were always bound to be kinks in the plan.
There were a whole bunch of cosplayers, with more comic book costumes than the usually anime dominated state of these types of events. Some went from simple, to very complex, while others wandered in fandom packs (yes, there was an Avengers group, obviously). As always, it was interesting to see what people had come up with, and there were quite a few people who would stop cosplayers to get photos with them, which is always a good sign.
The panels were quite well done, with some interesting talks by people and insights into their work and revealing some stories that people weren’t necessarily aware of. The absolute highlight was, of course, Stan Lee’s panel. Not just because he was Stan Lee, but because he was just a complete delight to listen to. Read about the Stan Lee panel HERE. This was closely followed by Patrick Stewart and his son Daniel Stewart’s panel, which was extremely entertaining and a wonderful panel to sit on, which you can read HERE.
Overall, it was a decent day, and not a bad way to start what will hopefully be a long-standing event with many guests (although the possibility of getting another guest that is as eminent as Stan Lee is quite low) to come. Did you go to Melbourne’s first Oz Comic Con? What did you think? Let us know in the comment section below!
Check out the rest of our Oz Comic Con coverage on the rest of the site, including panels, and interviews!
