Comic Con Honolulu

Once upon a time, Hawaii had no comic conventions. Back before cellphones, tablets and Apple watches the closest comic book fans came to an organized get together was at the "Hawaii State Comic Collector's Club". Meetings were held at the Moiliili Public Library on a semi-regular basis. Fans of comics, horror and syfy movies had a place to gather, share and compare thoughts and experiences of the latest news in the world of fantasy. Mind you that this was a time when back and forth instantaneous communication was only in the form of telephone, telegraph and shouting over your neighbor's fence. This was the 1970s. Fast forward to 2019. Hawaii has now hosted many entertainment conventions, one of which is the Comic Con Honolulu, a home grown produced annual event which gives fans a chance to match up with like fans and meet people involved in this segment of the entertainment industry. Some thoughts regarding this Con: Smaller than the Amazing Comic Con, they feature a large area devoted gaming in the main hall. They take elements of both the Amazing and Kawaii Kon (celebrity photo ops, artist alley, cosplay contests, panel discussions, etc.) They have the usual assortment of dealers selling related merchandise but seemingly, not as many as the other Cons. Just sort of less of everything but still pretty enjoyable. There were some vendors that seemed out of place for this con: T-mobile, ATT and vacation time shares, really!? Enjoyed seeing the King of Tokyo, Godzilla game play. A fan made oversized game which looked like fun. It's always fun to see the cosplay and this Con was no exception. The time and creativity put in by the cosplayers is something to behold. Less cosplayers than Kawaii Kon but still enjoyable. The con even had cars detailed with anime themes. Servco even had new Toyota corollas on display detailed with their newly created super hero theme- a fun campaign to market their latest offering. Definitely a smaller crowd but it, in some ways has a more local "feel". Was sort of a spin-off of the Kawaii Kon which focuses more on anime. 3.5 stars for this con, enjoyable without a wow factor. Will say that this con gave me more of a reminiscing type feeling like when friends would get together back in the day at the comic collector's club. Mahalos to Emi and Yelp for the free pass to attend the Saturday event. A nice way to spend a warm and muggy summer day.

First time visiting Comic Con Honolulu. We came fairly early to check it out. Plenty on offer--artist alley had vendors, artists, and celebrity autograph and photo ops. We spent most of our time here, just hanging around the booths and talking story with the artists. I wish there had been more local comic vendors, but it was great to pick up some original work from local comic artists. In terms of the panels, a good assortment, although more anime and video game oriented. I wish there had been more TV, but Hawaii is more oriented toward the anime set. Cool cosplayers and plenty of fun to be had. However, the prices are certainly high, especially considering the parking cost and the cost for autographs and photographs. At least make the parking free.

So much fun! We had a great time walkingg through the vendor village, listening to panel discussions, and watching all the things at ComiCon. We got to meet, take pictures of and get books signed with Stan Sakai. Pictures of different Cos Players, seeing upcoming events, this was a fun, chill Con. It wasn't crazy packed and we were able to spend hours there without feeling overwhelmed.

Here on a Yelp invite plus 1. Sat for a panel discussion / lecture on Spidey Senses. Comic Con organizers FAILED to provide a HOST for the room therefore it was very awkward for the 1 man speaker in the beginning as he had to just work the room without a lead in. I go to many conventions, and personally, I was embarrassed that Hawai'i failed to show our Aloha to this special guest. Luckily, Alex Saviuk, is a GREAT storyteller and I actually was very entertained and really liked his talk story session. His bio is amazing and by listening to him, you become inspired that perseverance and doing what you love to do makes life more meaningful and enjoyable in the the roller coaster of life.Wasn't about Spidey Senses but pertained to Alex Slaviuk's career story at DC, and MARVEL. He actually used his Spidey senses of common sense and intuition.

3.5 stars, great location setting at Hawaii convention center. Hoping to see greAt deal of people dressed up in cosplay but sadly not nearly as much compared to kawaiikon. Arrived on a Saturday evening around 630 and surprised to find lots of parking. Visited the cosplay contest and some were really elaborate. Yay! Across the hall they had several stations set up for gamers competition. Nice ac room.Along the wall were several water coolers and very much needed on a hot muggy day like this!Went to a large room with vendors selling so many character theme things to buy. One of the vendors said it was much busier for her in the daytime. I guess night crowd is smaller?Had a very enjoyable time tonight.

Comic Con Honolulu July 29th to July 31st, 2016In the last few years, the comic and pop culture convention scene has exploded in the islands. As wonderful as this is for fans and attendees, it means there's more competition for who gets our hard earned money. This convention is simply not up to the quality of other similar ones in Honolulu. That being said, I did have fun.The main problem this convention has is that it used to be known as Hoku Con, which was an extension of Kawaii Kon, both of which focus more on anime than comics. These genres are very separate, which was great that they had distinct events. The rebranding of Comic Con Honolulu implies a focus on "comics" which had a very sparse offering at this convention. There were few booths selling exclusively comics, very few artists, and almost no panels about its namesake subject. This is a general pop culture convention, so the name just does not fit. It's hard to tell what the focus of the convention is, almost like it is trying to find a niche that has already been filled by other conventions.Arriving early, I was surprised at how few people were there. The pre-registration line was almost completely empty, and we only had to wait about five minutes in line to pick our passes. The nearby "pay at the door" line was very full, but did not take long to empty. Looking at the lines throughout the day, I noticed there was never a wait after the initial registration, which is always a nice benefit of small convention. Autograph tickets were also on pre-sale in the lobby for people to save time. Information booths and a weapons-check were also in the lobby, none with lines.As people registered, they waited at the main doors until the convention opened for the day. Throughout the day, there was a nice buzz and amount of people, but it was never too crowded. The convention is very small. The main floor consisted of the exhibitors area, artists area, autograph section, and the Convention Center-run concessions. Prices for the latter were high, so we never went here for food. The vendor selection was another complaint. We saw our usual toy and collectible dealers including Other Realms. There were a few comic booths that had great issue selections. My main complaint here were the completely unrelated vendor booths: T-Mobile, weapons, essential oils, and other junk. These booths had no place at this event except to pad the organizers earnings and help fill the room. I don't know why anyone would stop at these booths.The artists were some of my favorites. It was great to see Mel B., Mog Park's work including the piece in the silent auction, and Katie Cook of ABC-3PO fame. I had Katie sign my copy of the book, her and her husband were super friendly and one of the highlights of my day.I really enjoyed the tactile art pieces, of which I bought a few. I loved the clay custom game pieces by Epicycle Designs (I bought a set of Settlers of Catan resources), and the yarn art by The Little Outcrop (I bought a Wicket the Ewok). There were quite a few creative booths here and it was fun to peruse the art. Throughout the convention, they had a silent art auction with nice pieces as well. I liked seeing the Ghostbusters' car and two Jurassic Park Jeeps.The autograph area was well organized and spacious both for the celebrities and fan lines. John Barrowman, Sean Astin, Phil Lamarr, Summer Glau, and the great George Takei were some of the highlights. It's great they got some well known people to come. I felt the prices were too high, which makes sense for the distance of the convention, but usually the smaller the event, the lower the ticket prices. I heard some of the celebrities thought the selfie fee was ridiculous, so I assume they didn't set their own prices.Upstairs were the panel rooms. The temperature was so cool and comfortable in these rooms. I enjoyed the Star Trek 50th Anniversary Panel put on by the Last Outpost local club. The video game room had a stage for Rock Band, Super Smash Bros., and PC games going on all weekend including tournaments. It was fun to watch people playing. We spent more time in the table top room, where we played Carcassone and 7 Wonders. It was a relaxing break from the heat to sit and quietly play a game. I found many of the volunteers in this room to be rude, there's no other way to put that. It seemed they didn't want to help people learn games, especially kids. It made the group games unappealing. It was a highlight to just play Carcassone with Kristine. C.! I enjoyed how you simply give an ID in exchange for borrowing a game, then you can try it or learn with new friends!Entry prices are too high. There were things about this convention that are 5-stars, others are 1-stars. Overall I had to give it a 3. I would return in the hopes they make improvements going forward. If you only want to go to one convention in the area, go to Amazing Hawaii Comic Con!

The convention center has many different comic con events throughout the year. At the last minute we decided to attend this event and had to buy tickets at the door. For Saturday tickets it was $55 per adult and children 10 years and younger were free with paid adult. You could also purchase a one of a kind lanyard at the door for $5.00.The amount of vendors that were there compared to other events that I've gone to were less. The ballroom itself was not even filled to its maximum capacity and there was a lot of open space. There were a couple aisles of vendors and a cluster of them towards the front. However, the rest was just artist autographs and the line to pay for artist autographs. I was sadly disappointed in the amount of vendors there. However, I did buy snacks from some local food vendors and was able to buy some apparel. It was also very slow with not many attendees. I liked that because who wants to walk in a crowd of people?!Definitely not worth the $55 at the door nor going 3 days in a row if you bought the 3 day pass. Waiting for more comic con events to attend!

So first off, I'm really grateful as a yelp elite to be invited to the convention. I've only been to a few conventions in my lifetime, so I'll base my past experiences on this one. First off, was a bit surprised there weren't as many attendants as I expected. When I went to Kawaii Kon recently, I remember the main hall was jam packed with people in cosplay. This Saturday, not that many people. The line wasn't too long. Getting into the vendor room, I also noticed that the amount of vendors were a bit less compared to other conventions. There was a good amount, but mostly art and Asian stuff like anime and K-pop. There weren't too many comic booths. I was expecting more booths from the various comic stores on island. The guest list was also impressive, but personally I wasn't interested. I feel like for Oahu, we're more about anime and video games. Less on comics. It definitely showed during the convention. I did meet some nice people and bought some nice art prints, but I don't know if I'd attend another comic convention on island. Maybe the next anime convention.

This con is put on by the same people who produce the Kawaii Kon event targeting cosplay, anime, manga, cosplay and japanese related culture. Comic Con Honolulu was suppose to target comics, sci-fi, tv and movies I believe. However, It felt more like an extension of Kawaii Kon. Also, this con just kind of popped out. Because this is it's first one there are definite growing pains.Let me just say they have learned some. For next year has already announced the dynamic duo behind the revival of Marvel's Ghost Rider character in the 90s, Davic Mackie (writer) and Mark Texeira (artist) will be featured guest for 2016.Upon entering, as artist to setup, we noticed the dealer\artist alley room was barely half filled. Not a good sign. However, we weren't there to make money. Checking in wasn't too bad. A little bit of confusion who we were but got straighten fairly quickly and we could now set up. Got our map for table assignment. I was pleased to see we were against the wall. Good for us then we didn't have to worry about our back drop falling on anyone.Friday was slow and that's the usual. It gave us a chance to check out other artists and vendors there. Everyone was very nice and welcoming. That made it easier for M who had to do 2 panels the next day and was very nervous never having to do public speaking before. I checked out the room for games. It was happening but I didn't feel the buzz or excitement that I normally do. That area needs to be worked on to make it a big event offering substantial prizes with the support of related, local businesses. Have a sanctioned Magic tournament supported by Wizards of the Coast or something.Saturday was much busier giving us the chance to talk to many fans. The panel we provided came out well with a much larger attendance than expected. M was okay and actually thrived after 5 min. into the panel. I knew that. We surprisingly sold a handful of original pieces which we did not expect. Remember, we weren't here to make money. We did though.People loved the free sketches we were giving out by M and T who generously accepted our invite to man the table the whole weekend. Love her. The free long stem lollipops worked to our favor as I knew they would from past experiences doing many other cons before.Sunday was like Friday, maybe a little better.Now that they got their feet wet I am hoping for a much better show in the following years that will grow the attendance accordingly. I believe they can do that and they have my support.

Over the years, Comic Con has created a name and a reputation for itself of being one of (if not) the premier comic convention type events for the year. They normally offer a smorgasbord of vendors of varying offerings. From shirts to artwork to popcorn, even Geico has a booth inside. It's one of the few events and places that you can go to in Hawaii dressed as Finn or Rey, Ash or Misty, Sora or Link and not be afraid of being ridiculed for your affection for each character. Heck, you may even be featured in a Instagram or a Facebook post should your costume be worthwhile enough. This year's "Con" was pretty good. It tussled in a tug of war with the Honolulu Collectors Expo for crowd size but it benefited from its past fame. Not to mention it featured some pretty cool panels and autograph opportunities. From Amy Jo Johnson (the Pink Ranger) to Daniel Logan (the young actor that portrayed Boba Fett in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones) they did a good job of bringing in the actors you never thought you'd love to chit chat with as an adult. One of the best parts for me is to see the neat things that local business owners come up with. From ono Kettle pop corn, to lightsaber training classes or Hawaiian Manga, there's always something new and exciting down every aisle way. As a huge kid, my favorite part is being swallowed up by a crowd of characters that I know and love. To see Deadpool having a conversation with Boba Fett and Rapunzel or see the Defenders sharing a laugh with Nightwing and Sailor Moon. It's the most immersive experience that you can enjoy while still being physically present on island. You see the coolest, most weird, fantastic, horrifying, confusing, awesomest, newest, oldest, most popular, most obscure things that you could imagine here. And the best part is: Everyday the cast of this crazy symphony changes. So you literally never know what to expect when you attend. Best way to figure out exactly what I'm talking about is to try it out. You won't be disappointed but you will more than likely be pleasantly surprised. At the very least