Thanks, Hydra Comic Con!

Sahtu Press and I had a chance to attend the inaugural Hydra Comic Con at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Palo Alto, California on June 17th-18th. They faced stiff competition from nearby Wizard World in Sacramento that seem weekend. You can see a full album of my pictures from the event at Flickr.

This was my last convention in California before I left the state back to the Midwest. This was produced by the same organizers who bring the popular Kraken Con to the region. For a first year it was very ambitious, and there were many positive things about the way it was organized and presented to make me hopeful for what they might bring to the community in the future.

One of the fun pieces I picked up was Archie vs. Sharknado on a whim. I do have to say, I found it surprisingly accurate for both mythos that have sprouted up around their respective storylines. Which should not be taken as an endorsement of the book as an epic to stand next to Beowulf or the Ramayana, but technically speaking, if you love Archie and/or you love Sharknado, this is certainly as close to an accurate depiction of how things would go in that setting as you can ask for. Why you would ask for it is none of my business.

I was impressed by the presence of the obstacle course, a rock climbing wall, space for video gaming and playing Rock Band, as well as a space for crafts, photoshoots of your cosplay, and other amenities that might well drive how we could design future events like the Lao American Writers Summit.

One of the interesting finds was a print of Filipina Super-heroine Darna by Danny Bulandi, facing her nemesis Valentina, a Medusa-like being who has fought her in film versions. I'll probably get into a bigger discussion about this character and implications for our approach to superheroes in the Laomagination project at a later point in time.