There is nothing that tells you you’re out of shape like waking up to a ridiculous amount of pain the morning after you’ve been Catwoman all day.  All that crouching and prowling and prancing around on tiptoe in those heavy boots!  Didn’t used to be that way, so now I know.  Workouts commence come 5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.

That being said.  J and I are big convention goers, and big costumers to boot.  It was grand, then, yesterday, to at last walk again amongst our fellow geeks and attend Wizard World Comic Con 2014.

We suited up, of course.  Bat and Cat, out and about again.

I didn’t write about it, but after our car accident we replaced the fallen with a pretty good looking black Ford, and J tricked it out with Bat-symbols.  So it was pretty gratifying yesterday to roll out in the Batmobile in appropriate attire.

This was, despite our Con-going experience, our first-ever Comic Con in a convention center setting.  It was also the first con for either of us that we weren’t working at.  So after we hiked up to the building and got inside and hiked some more, we approached a line that was boggling to us.  To their credit, this line moved along at a very reasonable clip.

Before we knew it, we approached the gates to the kingdom.  It was really nice to be among the comic costumed again.  Most reporters talking about this event have spoken of how redundant this kind of event is for New Orleans.  And true dat, it is a costuming city…but this is different.  It really is.  You can throw a sequined dress and a wig on, when you wake up on Mardi Gras day and it’s GREAT but Con costuming is something else. It’s being who you want to be, who you wish you were, and you embody that the entire time you’re in it.  It’s hard to explain.

We walked through the gate.  And BAM.  The next two-and-a-half hours were spent posing for photos.  Truly.  We would be approached by one person, and once that was finished, there would be five or six folks lined up behind them to take pictures with us.  This was not our first rodeo – when we, along with our Super-Tribe, debuted our attire way back in the day at Starfest in Denver, it was similar.  Then J and I worked for a great comic shop in Boulder a month after that for Free Comic Book Day, where all we were there to do was pose in costume with people.  Take all of that, multiply it by 5, and that was our first 2.5 hours of the day, yesterday.  I always try to make every shot count for folks, regardless of the fact that we’re trying to shop or walk around or have a conversation.  But you REALLY make it count when you recognize a media badge.  Thanks to the Wizard World photographers for the next shot!

The crowds were intense.  I mean, dense.  Really dense.  It was fun spotting great costumage and interacting with people.  It was equally crazy trying to navigate and see stuff.

We caught a few moments to ourselves.  At one point, we visited a great booth that had all kinds of t-shirts and dresses and lingerie and the gal behind the booth kept trying to talk Catwoman into the purchase of some Bat undies.  Not a chance, Gothamite!

It was cute though.  I did go back later and purchase the Captain America dress you see on the left there.  If a DC girl has to go Marvel, Cap is my favorite, and it’ll be great to wear out and about on Memorial Day, Veterans’ Day, and 4th of July.  To me, in comic land, Captain America is the pure embodiment of what this country is about.  So, it goes.

Anyway, after 2.5 hours of posing and not having a second to ourselves, we ran away screaming, drove home, did a quick-change into street clothes, and went back.  We were there and back again in about 30 minutes.  Not too bad!  And, we finally FINALLY gained proof that the Theory of the Mask is true.  When we returned, we walked right past folks that we’d posed with half an hour before, and they had no idea who we were. The masks work. I’d always wondered.

Thus, we were able to spend the remainder of the day unfettered.  We shopped and strolled and had a good time.  And completely geeked out when we stepped outside in time to see Stan Lee.  We didn’t get to talk to him, but sharing open space with STAN LEE OMIGOD was enough for us.  In this photo, look at the two guys with their heads together.  The gentleman on the left is STAN LEE OMIGOD.   He is the man, the last of his particular kind.  So that was, indeed, a moment.

Being New Orleans, you can’t have an event without a second line or a parade of some sort happening.  I was getting into my shopping groove when suddenly, I heard brass.  Like any New Orleanian, I went a’running.  And caught the Krewe of Chewbacchus parading through the show floor.  I can’t wait to see them march in a couple of weeks!

We found a bunch of cool stuff.   Picked up a couple of Bat and Cat statues that were relatively new and that we hadn’t seen before, to add to the collection.  It was fun to browse through different booths and see different things.  Hurrah for geek shopping!  I had to laugh, though, at the sign posted at the weapons booth.  Do people really do this?!?!?!

At the end of our day, we treated ourselves to an adult beverage.  Whilst in line, I found myself parked behind Spiderman.

Not unusual in itself, what caught me, to my great amusement and delight, was that Spiderman was wearing Batman shoes.  Yes!

Oh, and the Whovians were out in full force, because Matt Smith was in the house that day.  I hate to admit it, but I just don’t get the craze.  Dr. Who scared the crap out of me when I was a kid, and I have yet to dive into all this modern mayhem.  Partially out of childhood terror (much like the fact that, to this very day, you can’t pay me to watch Poltergeist), and partially because once something gets THAT hyped by people and media,  I get so sick of hearing about it that I tend to get stubborn and refuse to figure it out.  Nevertheless, here’s a Dalek for all y’all Doc Who folks out there.  There’s a guy in there, and it talks.   Pretty nicely done.

On top of the Bat and Cat statuary we were delighted to discover and purchase, we found a couple of new things that fit into our universe quite nicely.  First, a new thing for our Batmobile…truly, we HAD to have it:

And a nice Arkham sign which fits nicely on top of the shelf where we display our cowls when they are not in use:

So!  All in all, an excellent day and a bit of a homecoming for us since cons are one of the big things that we’ve missed since moving down here.

I have to say, though, that it was missing something.  J and I were sitting outside at the end of our day, trying to pep-talk ourselves into walking back to our car, which was quite a number of blocks away since we’d left and come back to non-existent parking nearby, and he says, “Good stuff, but it ain’t Starfest.”  We launched into an analysis of the layout of the main floor, crowd flow, all that, then philosophized about the pros of having these things in hotels where you can actually stay on the grounds to change and do what you need to do. And then I said…

“And it’s different, when you don’t have your tribe.”

And that’s true, sho ’nuff.  We both realized then that this was our first Con without our tribe.  I’ve shouted out to them from here before, so I’m doing it again.  Here’s to you, gang!

Now we’re planning revamps of our suits.  I know I need an upgrade, to be sure.  After that, mayhap I’ll look into a little camaraderie with Krewe of Chewbacchus.  It’s time.