This past Sunday, August 28, was the 2nd annual international Read Comics in Public Day (RCPD). I created a Facebook event for my hometown of San Diego, inviting sequential art lovers in the general area to come hang out in the shade outside a Starbucks in the Clairemont neighborhood.

We pulled some of the best out for cosplay, gaming, and other events at San Diego Comic-Con 2011. Here’s the full collection of slideshows.

The convention was much more crowded than I recall it being last time I went 3 years ago. This is something I’ve noticed about conventions as a whole, and something Stacey (another contributor to this blog) and I mentioned on our coverage of the New York Comic Con. I chalk it up to Hollywood and the recent success of comic book movies. Finally, after all these years, it’s cool to be a geek. We’re geek chic now!

This past weekend we sent intrepid Convention Fans Blog photographer Joey DeMarco to Wizard World Philly, Philadelphia’s largest fandom convention. He took hundreds of photos while he was at the convention, and we’re happy to present some of our favorites to you here!

Contagion: Outbreak! is a new pop culture convention that took place in Omaha from June 10 – 12. Contagion: Outbreak! was held at the beautiful Qwest Center in downtown Omaha. It did not fill the entire convention center (in fact, there was a gem and jewelry show just next door), but convention staff made excellent use of the space they had.

After nearly two months spent procrastinating, dealing with personal stuff, and looking for the flash drive with this file on it, I finally bring you my report on Gem City Comic Con. GCCC was on April 3 at the Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

Last year, one of my favorite conventions ended up being The Steampunk World’s Fair (SWF). It was brand new, and the first steampunk convention in my area of the northeast, so I knew I just had to attend. I ended up going with fellow Convention Fans Blog contributor Dan Fowler, and we had an absolute blast. We started looking forward to SWF 2011 almost as soon as 2010′s had ended.

This Saturday we were out at The Steampunk World’s Fair in New Jersey. We had attended last year and had so much fun that we started looking forward to the 2011 con as soon as 2010′s was over. Here are some of our favorite pictures from this weekend. You can view all 134 of them over at The Convention Fans Blog flickr account. Expect a full convention report later this week!

This past Sunday I headed out to TooManyGames in Oaks, Pennsylvania. TooManyGames is a gaming convention that caters to several types of games, including classic and modern video games, collectible card games, and even gaming music. It was held May 6 – 8, 2011 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center.

The National Halloween Convention never fails to entertain convention attendees. This convention functions as a trade show–and it’s open to the public. Such a dynamic allows for a variety of vendors. Attendees can shop for discount Halloween decorations to professionally created haunt props costing thousands. The show also features talent, local groups, contests, and a popular costume ball.

Gaslight Gathering, a new steampunk & Victoriana convention here in San Diego, was last weekend. And it was fun, yes sirree.

How does one describe the Oklahoma Steampunk Exposition? It was fast paced, confused, hectic, but a whole lot of fun!

I spent the weekend of March 18-20 in Cincinnati, Ohio at two different cons. One was Millennicon, a long running sci-fi literary con. The other was A & G Ohio, a con that promotes animation, video gaming, and music.

Madicon is one of those small and close knit cons. There were plenty of activities to keep you busy, but still with time to just sit back and hang out with friends new and I’m looking forward to next year to see what they come up with. They have already got the dates set for next year, March 9-11. If you are in the area and want to attend a friendly, con this is it.

Ramon Fagan gives a detailed recap of All-Con 2011 (which had a steampunk theme this year). The report also includes several photos of cosplayers and the bands that performed during the convention.

This past weekend was Megacon, a long-running Orlando convention. Held in the sprawling Orange County Convention Center, it has an estimated attendance of 20,000. Programing spans many different entertainment genres, with gaming, anime screenings, speed dating, live performances and panels.

This past weekend was Zenkaikon 2011, a Pennsylvania anime convention that just completed its fifth year. On the guest list for Zenkaikon 2011 was Vic Mignogna, along with Todd Haberkorn, comedian Uncle Yo, writer CJ Henderson, and Japanese band Rose Noire (making their US debut). Read on for all the details and to see photos!

Check out Ramon’s belated Ikkicon 2010 convention report! He attended Ikkicon in 2010 for the first time due to its location (Austin is one of his favorite towns) and the fact that they agreed to present the new award winning short film, Nickel Children, that his performance art troupe agreed to promote at various anime festivals due to its high quality use of Steampunk as art, and its underlying message intended to raise awareness of critical social problems.

This is a convention report from Mysticon, which returned in 2011 after being dormant for 30 years. Highlights include great guests, an awesome con suite, good hotel, and a special cake for the con shaped like Captain Kirk’s chair with Tribbles on it.

Ah, ConDor Con – my favorite sci-fi/fantasy convention; your engaging and informative panelists, your literary focus, your fun themes, your all ages programing, your tastiness-filled con suite, your cozy atmosphere.

Farpoint is a fantastic convention, with everything you want in a weekend trip to Baltimore. I’ll definitely be attending every February, and I hope to see you there next year too. You won’t be sorry.

This past weekend I headed out to KotoriCon, a small anime convention held at Gloucester County College in New Jersey. It was my first time at the convention, but I was very psyched to know that cosplay singer Reni Mimura would be performing there. Read on for the review and to see pictures!

Excitement and anticipation for my first MAGFest has been building ever since I experienced the chiptunes concert put on by their organizers at PAX East 2010. The idea of a weekend-long videogame-centric orgy of music and entertainment seemed like such a fantastic idea in my head.

Yulecon was a three day Anime Convention event here in the Dallas Fort Worth area from November 12th to 14th and included a great number of voice actors/actresses, Arc Attack, One Eyed Doll, Mega Ran, Brental Floss, Airship Isabella and Airship Neo Dulcimer, Anime Hell, the Renai Rangers, Anime Midstream, Repo Shadowcast, Axis Powers Hetalia, Sleeping Samurai,The Covenant of the Kraken Players (Kali’s Hourglass is the local group), Circus Freaks, Saraswati Bodhisatva, Jennifer Hurley (from Blaming Grace), Greg Ayres, and a host of other performers too numerous to identify individually.

The con keeps growing in good ways and even though they are bringing in non gaming related stuff they still maintain a good gaming base and aren’t forgetting how they started. This is a good con for gamers and those who like meeting new people. There is a very friendly atmosphere; people open doors for each other, if they see you drop something they’ll get it for you, always willing to teach new games, or just start up a conversation with someone.

Necronomicon 2010 was excellent. Well…what I saw of it anyway. Sadly I was only able to make it on Sunday, which is usually not the best day to get the full convention experience. I can still say with sincerity that it was worth the two hour drive.

In case you weren’t aware, the New York Comic Con was this past weekend, Friday, October 8th to Sunday, October 10th. It was an awesome time, even if the event was really disorganized. It was a weekend packed with panels, signings, special guests, and lots of costumes. Despite the event being rather (or super) disorganized, the weekend was a good time anyway, especially if you enjoy pop culture. Luckily, Joey and I do!

This was my first year attending PhauxCon, a small but significant and introspective convention centered in Philadelphia. The ‘faux’ is a nod to the convention’s small size, which initially deterred me. However, the size of the convention provides a classroom or lecture-style feeling to the convention.

The other day we posted the official Dragon*Con 2010 convention report, which featured just a few of the 500+ photos I took over the course of the weekend. Now that they are all posted, cropped, edited, tagged, etc., I’d like to share a few of personal favorites with our loyal readers. The entire set of 500+ pictures can be found on the blog’s flickr account. I got a Nikon D60 DSLR just a week and a half before the convention, so I’m still learning how to use it to its full potential, but I think these turned out okay! (Warning: photo heavy, may take a while to load)

Every year we eagerly await Dragon*Con. It’s one of our favorite conventions, as well as a great opportunity to spend time with friends. And although we always have fun at the convention, it is far from perfect. Below is a recap of our experiences at Dragon*Con 2010, including the good, the disappointing, and the ugly. At the end is a link to The Convention Fans Blog flickr gallery, which includes hundreds of photos from the convention.

This past Saturday I headed out to Inochicon, a brand new anime convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a friend and fellow con reporter. I had heard about Inochicon courtesy of Geekadelphia, and decided it would be the perfect opportunity to test out my new DSLR camera. After all, anime conventions tend to have a lot of great cosplayers who are more than willing to give a photographer some of their time.

This past Saturday I headed out to Inochicon, a brand new anime convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a friend and fellow con reporter. I had heard about Inochicon courtesy of Geekadelphia, and decided it would be the perfect opportunity to test out my new DSLR camera. After all, anime conventions tend to have a lot of great cosplayers who are more than willing to give a photographer some of their time.

This past weekend I headed out to Inochicon in Philadelphia with my friend Dan from Geekadelphia. He was kind enough to record some great video during the convention, including the entirety of Reni Mimura’s concert. His videos are below. Under them are thumbnails of some of my favorite pictures that I took, along with a link to the entire album on flickr. The full convention report will be posted on Tuesday. For now, enjoy the videos and pictures from the first annual Inochicon!

Star Wars Celebration V: A 4-day Jedipalooza in Orlando Florida, with enough Storm Troopers and Slave Leias to fill a star cruiser. Take a gander at this convention report from a volunteer’s point of view.

This past weekend Creation Entertainment hosted the Official East Coast Star Trek Convention in Parisppany, New Jersey. On the guest list was George Takei, Jeri Ryan, Casey Biggs, Jeffrey Combs, Armin Shimerman, Max Grodenchik, Vaughn Armstrong, Nana Visitor, Ethan Phillips, and J.G. Hertzler (who was a last minute replacement for Jennifer Lien, who canceled). And for the record, J.G. Hertzler is the man. If you are a DS9 fan, you should absolutely try to attend a convention with him. You will not be disappointed. J.G. Hertzler is pretty much a Klingon in real life.

This past weekend Creation Entertainment hosted the Official East Coast Star Trek Convention in Parisppany, New Jersey. On the guest list was George Takei, Jeri Ryan, Casey Biggs, Jeffrey Combs, Armin Shimerman, Max Grodenchik, Vaughn Armstrong, Nana Visitor, Ethan Phillips, and J.G. Hertzler (who was a last minute replacement for Jennifer Lien, who canceled).

“The future is upon us, bleeding into the now; and if we don’t pay attention we’ll be left behind.” At Star Wars Celebration V, it’s all about enthusiasm for actors, astronauts, backyard filmmakers and garage roboticists. Star Wars Celebration V is an epic-level convention. It’s expensive, the venue is bigger than several shopping malls stuck together, and the expected 30,0000 attendees have come from all over the world to be there.

For three days every summer, the citizens of Baltimore share the streets with an army of costumed nerds who flock to the city for Otakon. A festival of anime and Japanese nerd-culture where even the strangest costume can find a home. Otakon is a great convention with an excellent atmosphere and enough fun to cure any situation that ails you.

Sitting at home or work wishing you were at San Diego Comic-Con 2010? Yeah, we are too. That’s why we’re watching the Twitter updates for the official hashtag #SDCC and living vicariously through the attendees. It’s definitely not like being there, but at least we get to see some funny pictures, read all the big announcements, and feel bad for those sitting in line for the next 10 hours just to get a glimpse at the latest from the new Tron movie. With Tweets coming in fast and furious, it’s a bit hard to keep up, so we’ve decided to cull through them and pluck out some great highlights for you. (UPDATING LIVE)

I have a confession: I have never been to a science fiction convention before. For most of my life, I was a general and distant admirer of the genre. I appreciated all the different shows, books, comics, and movies, but I never really understood all the hoopla. But then I met my boyfriend, Joey. To say he likes Star Wars is a gross understatement. So when Kelly asked me if Joey and I would be interested in going to Shore Leave, we jumped at the chance.

Despite having attended fandom conventions for over a decade now, I’ve never actually been to an “official” after party. Sure, I’ve been to the unofficial ones, but never something like what I experienced this weekend. On Friday and Saturday nights, I headed over to The Trocadero, which is a really fun theater venue just a two minute walk from the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Even though I moved to Philadelphia from Orlando just over two years ago, I had never gotten around to attending the Philadelphia Comic Con (typically referred to as “Wizard World Philly”). I had heard from those who had attended the convention for many years that it was on a bit of a downward spiral, and that attendance was dwindling. Perhaps

This past weekend, the Alltern8 / Convention Fans Blog team went out to The Steampunk World’s Fair in Piscataway, New Jersey (USA). Billed as “the first East Coast event to welcome Steampunks, Neo-Victorians, Retro-futurists, Gas Lamp Fantasists, and any and all others who consider themselves part of steampunk into a weekend long festival celebrating all things steamy,” I am happy

This past weekend I ventured out to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania (USA) for the 2010 National Halloween and Haunters Convention. It was held April 29 – May 2, 2010 at the Valley Forge Convention Center. This event aimed to strike a balance between industry only expo shows, and fandom conventions geared towards the public. Did it succeed? Well, for the most

There is no doubt that PAX East 2010 was the convention to be at this past weekend if you are a gamer on the East coast. Those of us who haven’t been able to make it out to the original Seattle based Penny Arcade Expo, known as  PAX, have been eager for an East coast iteration. But did PAX East

The Convention Fans Blog/Alltern8 team rolled back into Philly late last night, after enjoying the final day of PAX East 2010. We’re all pretty tired, and two of us are sick, but the general consensus seems to be that it was all worth it. Day three of PAX started pretty early. Us members of the press had been invited to

Well, day two of PAX is over for us, and we’ve retreated back to the hotel to get packed up and play a little Magic the Gathering. Day two was pretty action packed, and we’re totally beat. The morning started out with the team splitting ways. Zack and Dan headed to the Chip Tunes panel, while I chatted with the

It’s relatively early on Day 2 of PAX East here in Boston, and I wanted to go ahead and jot down some initial thoughts about our Day 1 experience. Please forgive the typos. I’m writing this quickly before starting a myriad of meetings with game developers this morning, and I won’t have time to do as careful of a check

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the annual Monster-Mania Convention (an event focusing on horror) at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. I attended the event as a vendor, but had ample time to explore the convention as a fan while my colleagues worked at our vendor table.

My Twitter and Facebook accounts were filled with thoughts, feedback, and comments on three conventions this weekend: MegaCon, Emerald City ComiCon, and Monster Mania Horror Con. MegaCon was held in Florida, Emerald City ComiCon was held in Washington, and Monster Mania Horror Con was held in New Jersey. Each boasted some pretty amazing celebrity guests and events. Below are some

This past weekend I attended Farpoint, a fan-run science fiction and fantasy convention. It was held February 12th-14th, 2010 at the Crowne Plaza Baltimore North in Maryland (USA). I had a really great time at this con, and I’m already looking forward to 2011! This convention did so many things well, and I hope that by reading this con report

This past Saturday, Convention Fans ventured out to King of Prussia, PA to attend Zenkaikon 2009. While we did have fun and got to hang out with some cool people, the convention was experiencing some severe overcrowding issues. I don’t think anyone expected that the turnout would be as big as it was, nor do I think the staff anticipated

This weekend I headed to Oaks, Pennsylvania to check out GameX, a video game expo and media convention. While I did have a good time overall, GameX does have some areas that need improvement. As with most of my reviews, I’m going to break this convention report down into the good and the not-so-good, and offer some constructive criticism for

PhauxCon 2009 was unlike any convention I’ve ever attended, namely because it doesn’t want to be like all of the other sci-fi and fantasy cons out there (hence the name “Phaux” con). What started as a small gathering of friends in a living room seven years ago has evolved into a slightly larger small gathering of fans at a hotel.

On Saturday, Dan and I ventured out to Oaks, PA to attend Game Core Con, a one-day gaming convention. Although it was a small con, it was a breath of fresh air considering we had just recently returned from the mammoth sized Dragon*con. We had an enjoyable time, and got to connect up with a lot of well known members

Dragon*con 2009 should have been the most epic and awesome convention event ever. It had the best guest list of any convention I’ve ever attended. I had friends from all around the country coming in to attend. There was talk of improvements to the pre-registration process. The programming looked interesting. There was going to be a World Record attempt on

Nothing was more talked about at Dragon*con 2009 than the William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy panel. While Nimoy had been on the guest list for a number of months, Shatner had been a late addition. So late in fact, that many programming directors had already submitted their schedules. With so many big name guests already taking up the largest ballroom

This weekend, me and my intrepid photographer headed down to Baltimore to attend Shore Leave 31! Shore Leave is a well established science fiction convention that has a lot to offer fans. We bought some great items, laughed a lot, met cool new people, saw some old friends, and overall had a really enjoyable time. Below is a break down

This weekend, my photographer and I attended Costume-Con 27 at the Crowne Plaza Baltimore-North hotel in Maryland. Even though this was a small convention (attendance was around 500), we had a really wonderful time! The Costume-Con 27 organizers made a lot of great decisions during the planning and organization process, and that paid off when it was time to actually

Chiller Theatre Expo is a New Jersey convention suffering from an identity crises and a growth problem. I attended Chiller Theatre Expo 2009 this past Saturday with my boyfriend, and a friend of mine from Orlando, and our general consensus was a resounding: “ehhh.” Chiller Theate Expo was held at the Hilton Parsippany, in Parsippany, New Jersey April 17 –