At AdventureCon, fathers become superheroes

At AdventureCon, fathers become superheroes
KNOXVILLE (WVLT) – Fathers Day was Sunday, and for many, their dad was a hero all weekend. In downtown Knoxville, a convention of superheroes proved to be the perfect spot for dads to celebrate fatherhood with their sons and daughters.

"Why not wear purple spandex on a Saturday?" asked Joe Reinwald, who attended the Great Smoky Mountain's AdventureCon Show at the Knoxville Conventional Center with his young son. "There are other people here who are just as freaky as we are!"

During a trip through the large exhibition hall, you could run into Storm Troopers from Star Wars and even the Ghostbusters. Nearly 70 vendors took up residence in the shows booths and sold various sci-fi and superhero collectibles.

For the father-son, superhero-sidekick duo of Reinwald and son, it was a love for comics that brought them downtown.

"I'm dressed as Zan from the Wonder Twins, my son is my faithful sidekick Gleek and we're from the comic books," said Reinwald, before taking pride in his son following in his own footsteps. "He's just now starting to collect the Iron Man series, mainly because I was tired of him tearing up my own."

Another father and son duo included Andy Lane's and his boy, who was dressed in a homemade Storm Trooper uniform.

"It took a lot of trimming, sanding, and gluing stuff together," he said, mentioning he passed up wearing his own homemade uniform. "It's a little hard to dress up with a three year and follow him along."

According to Lane, sharing his passion for Star Wars is what made the weekend so special.

"Just having fun with him is better than actually getting a gift," he said.

Organizers admitted that they had heard similar stories from many people attending AdventureCon.

"I was watching the ticket booth, and all these dads and sons and dads and little girls were coming in," said JP Parks, an organizer. "It was very special."

AdventureCon warped up on Sunday, June 15th, 2008. Tickets cost $12.

Source - http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/19949534.html