Review

HeroesCon 2012 Report

Three representatives from Stack Exchange (Abby, Katey and myself (Brett)) traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina this past weekend to participate in HeroesCon. HeroesCon has a reputation for being one of the friendliest and most fun comic conventions in the United States. We were pleased to find out that the reputation was an understatement! The creators in attendance were all super psyched to be there and the floor was gently packed with enthusiastic and outgoing fans of all ages and fandoms. Even Saturday, usually the biggest day of any convention, managed to feel vibrant, crowded and alive without approaching the mosh-pit levels of closeness that the bigger conventions lean towards.

People line up to spin the wheel at Spandex City

Stack Exchange’s adventure in Charlotte began on the Thursday night before the convention with a SciFi.SE-sponsored pre-party held at local comics shop, Spandex City. This event saw the debut of the now-infamous Stack Exchange Spinning Wheel. How infamous is it? I’ll be getting to that in a bit, but if you went to HeroesCon, odds are you saw (and probably spun) the wheel. While some of the store’s regulars enjoyed some righteous barbecue (from Charlotte’s own Lancaster’s BBQ), the Stack crew asked people questions from our site about their favorite science fiction and fantasy franchises. Game of Thrones? Harry Potter? Legend of Korra? Batman? Questions about all of these and many more were asked that night and throughout the weekend. An answer (note that we did not say right answer) allowed the participant to spin the wheel and win a prize. There was a healthy assortment of SciFi.SE bags, shirts and stickers there for all the winners; some lucky people even won 3-day passes to HeroesCon and comics. Spandex City was super generous with their time and space and we were incredibly thankful for that. The pre-party event went over well thanks to Spandex City’s great environment. If you’re in the Charlotte area, do yourself a favor and check them out! You can watch a video about the event here.

Katey watches the wheel spin

The big event itself started on Friday and lasted until Sunday. We expected that our table, located at the far end of the convention center floor on the edge of the artists’ space, would get some foot traffic. We really expected to spend the entire weekend shooting video content for our YouTube channel (StackHQ) with one person left behind to work the spinning wheel. That…didn’t exactly happen. Little did we know, but people love spinning wheels. And I don’t mean a passive love, I mean an all-consuming and incredibly active love. The kind of love that leads to repeat visits and waiting in long lines. Because we had long lines. For the better part of two days.

The line grows

HeroesCon was our test run into exhibiting at a convention, so we didn’t quite prepare for the massive crowds we received. We had to ration our t-shirts and bags so as to not run out on Friday, although by Sunday all the t-shirts were gone. The same was true for the stock of comics we brought to give out alongside our stickers. Three trips had to be made to the show floor to find more comics for the prize wheel. Thankfully that wasn’t a big problem, although getting receipts from vendors at a comic convention proved more entertaining than I could have predicted. We did learn a few things from working the wheel nonstop for two days:

  • People love spinning wheels (this cannot be reiterated enough)
  • Regardless of the answer given, the spinning wheel is a fun introduction to our site that leads to many smiles and much swag
  • Give away most of the bags and shirts on Friday so that people will be using them all weekend long; by Sunday we became known as the “bag people” because of the high number of our bags on the show floor
  • It takes 3 people to man the booth; 2 to ask questions and 1 to wrangle the wheel’s line
  • People care way more about trivia than swag, although swag is super awesome too; people came back multiple times JUST to be asked more questions
  • Ask kids softball questions and be super awesome to them; they have parents attached to them who will probably like the site if the site’s representatives make their kids happy
  • We need some banners: one that clearly states that the table is a SciFi.SE jam, and another that features a call to action about the spinning wheel (“Can you answer our questions?!” or something)

Since we didn’t get a chance to leave the table for the first two days of the con, we decided to shut down the spinning wheel and make video content our main priority for Sunday. My main goal with HeroesCon was to create video content that could live on the internet forever and reach a wider audience due to having informative content with creators that people care about. The success of the spinning wheel got a bit in the way of that, and led us to learn a few facts about creating video content at a convention:

Best-Dressed
  • Try to bring enough people to a convention so that 2-3 can work the table and another 2-3 can hit the floor to get video content. If only 2-3 people can go to a con, set up a spinning wheel schedule so that all 3 days are relatively equal parts table-sitting and video production.
  • Schedule interviews ahead of time! I had gotten permission from a few comic creators before the con to interview them, but the fluidity of our agreed-upon time led us to spinning a wheel for two days straight. Approaching all your people on Sunday? Not the best idea.
  • Don’t bank on Sunday. Creators are tired by the last day of the con!
All that being said, we did secure some really great interviews. The first three of them are up now and I think they are solid, first attempts at the kind of videos we aim to create at future conventions.
  • Joe Quinones & Maris Wicks: In this interview, we asked the interviewees what their favorite sci-fi or fantasy property was and then centered the interview around discussing that question.
  • Question in Conference Room B with Dean Trippe: This is pretty much the same as what we did with Maris and Joe, except with all of the fun dressings of our web series. Plus the more conversational nature of QiCRB allows the conversation to go in different places. This isn’t just a question-answer interview, it’s a discussion.
  • Kelly Sue DeConnick: This is the main type of interview I want to do. I want to find the writers and ask them questions about the work they have created. Kelly Sue DeConnick is about to take over writing Ms. Marvel (now Captain Marvel), so who better to ask the one Ms. Marvel question on the site? Stack Exchange prides itself on getting expert-level answers, and in sci-fi and fantasy it doesn’t get more expert than the writers themselves.

By the end of the show we made a lot of new friends, came up with a lot of ideas to improve our future con presence, gave a few hundred people hands-on, in-depth experience with SciFi.SE, and created internet content that can be shared and enjoyed until the internet cracks in half. It was a lot of fun! For more photos from HeroesCon, visit the SciFi.SE Facebook page, or keep an eye on our Flickr.

Thanks to Dean Trippe, The Nerdy Show and Flame On! podcasts, Scott C., Kelly Sue DeConnick, Joe Quinones, Maris Wicks, Spandex City, Whitney Cogar and HeroesCon for a great weekend. See you next year!

Harry Potter Movie Marathon Highlights

When you sit down and watch all 8 Harry Potter films in rapid succession a number of things may stand out. Don’t worry you are not alone (well maybe you are, you DID just watch 1180 minutes of Harry Potter).  But even the most astute viewer might have missed some of the more choice observations. Here is a list of clever things to say the next time you are having a Harry Potter marathon. Saying these things will make you appear clever, and witty, and funny, and ingenious.

All the movies:

  • Magically gifted children age at an extremely inconsistent rate. (They aged 6 magic years in 10 human years).
  • All the students immediately outgrew their wizarding robes after the second year, the robes will rarely be seen again.
  • Harry Potter is the only one who gets into trouble for using magic outside of Hogwarts.
  • 16-year-old Voldemort looks nothing like 17-year-old Voldemort (or 11-year-old Voldemort for that matter). If George Lucas had been involved this would have been fixed by the third release of the DVDs.
  • Most of Gryffindor (a house based on bravery) is comprised of students too afraid of their own shadows to be of much use half of the time.
  • The “good enough” mentality is just as strong in the magical community.
Composite images of Tom Riddle throughout the Harry Potter films
Yeah, these are all definitely the same person.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:

  • The Sorting is not conducted in alphabetical order — what kind of system is that? Oh, and you’ll never see another Sorting.
  • It is okay for teachers to play favorites, particularly Heads of Households.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:

  • Children get injured constantly at Hogwarts and no one raises an eyebrow, but as soon as a few students get temporarily petrified, the future of this 1000-year-old institution is in jeopardy.
  • Sometimes the students age in reverse order.
  • Hagrid’s home (and really all of Hogwarts) is ridiculously overrun with spiders, at least until it no longer serves as a plot device.
Malfoy's miraculous ability to becoming younger as the movie progresses.
Beginning of movie, middle of movie, end of movie.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:

  • I don’t know what Dumbledore was doing during Harry’s second summer break, but he must have been hitting the gym or something. He started the third year looking like an entirely new man.
  • Malfoy is the only student to get injured for which there appears to be consequences to the staff and other involved parties.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:

  • For some reason everyone decided that 70s long hair was cool. The girls, the guys, everyone.
  • Harry only uses magic four times (in a movie about wizards).
Goblet of Fire Poster
You can tell Harry is the chosen one by the way his hair flows in the wind.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

  • Despite the looming threat of Voldemort’s return, everyone managed to find a barber shop over the fourth year summer break.
  • Harry is a rage-oholic who likes his rage-ohol shouted at, not stirred.

Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince:

  • Harry has apparently become homeless and now lives in a dirty subway tunnel.
  • All of Harry Potter’s problems from the previous movie would have been solved if they just looked in his memories.
  • The Slug Club sounds even worse when spoken aloud.
  • Any fool could look at 11-year-old Voldemort and know he was going to grow up to be a mass murderer.
  • They should be brewing gallons of “Liquid Luck.”
Tom Riddle at the orphanage
That is the look of a well balanced kid.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 & 2:

  • Harry doesn’t like other people taking risks for his sake. He’d rather let Voldemort just win already.
  • Despite being free for 5 years, Dobby continues to wear the same tattered rags. His only addition is a pair of shoes. Yeah, that’s all you needed Dobby.
  • The Weasley’s rebuilt The Burrow to look exactly like the old one did. That means their shabby house is by choice and not by circumstance.
  • Every wizard’s house is apparently located in the middle of some huge empty field (except Snape’s).
  • Even though people Disapparate together (holding hands) they rarely Apparate near each other.
  • Harry is a wizard who never seems to think of magic as a solution to a problem. He’d rather jump into a freezing pool of ice water than cast a spell to warm the water first.
  • Everyone is from Godric’s Hollow (which Harry didn’t know). It is apparently the source of all wizarding families.
  • Gringott’s is probably not where you want to bank anymore, because they lost roughly 100% of their staff as a result of Harry’s break-in.
  • Based on the number of people who died on that bridge, there can’t be all that many wizards left.

This post made possible by a grant from SciFi.StackExchange. That isn’t just a plug at the end of a PBS show, it’s the truth. Something like a ba-jillion years ago (Nov 15th 2011) I was one of the recipients of the Complete Collection of Harry Potter on DVD. I chose DVD because a) I didn’t have a BluRay, and b) I am not forward looking.  I received this grant on the promise to help promote Harry Potter questions and answers on the site.  Thanks to my contributions (and maybe others, I’m not keeping track) as of the writing of this post Harry Potter is the #1 tag on SciFi.StackExchange.

 

 

A month of comic exploration

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New Mid-season Sci-fi & Fantasy TV

Banner image from the TV show "Awake"

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