I was fortunate enough to go to the Albuquerque Comic Con this year with my friend Stephen, a cartoon artist here in town. I expected the con to be completely lame judging by the website which was entirely oldschool 90's HTML with one long front page like Myspace. All of the guest celebrities weren't that well known, but were framed in red on the front page and some of the images changed as you scrolled over them! Celebrities like the former hulk, the guy that played all the oompa loompas in the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the guy who played the young Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones, and the guy that played the wookie in Star Wars. What bothered me about the celebrity room was that all of these people were treated and were almost treating themselves like museum pieces that could speak, answer questions, and have their pictures taken.
The con was complete with local artists, superheroes, and villains. At comic con you could be anybody you liked. If you dressed up like Darth Vader and looked authentic enough. You were Darth Vader. People were asking each other, "Did you see Darth Vader?" They never said the words, "Did you get to talk to the guy (or girl) dressed up as Darth Vader?" Because that's not who they were. Batman, Iron man, princess leia, and many others were at this comic con. Because at a comic con, you can be anybody you like.
