Mission Report: Granite City Comic Con

The second event over the weekend was the Granite City Comic Con in Manchester, New Hampshire. It was really fun to do two events back to back. I took my friend Seth along. He's a photographer, and he had wanted to attend a convention and to see us in action. We left pretty early in the morning, at 6:30 am. We drove down, got somewhat lost. Despite that, we got down there by 9, and met up with the first people already there.

After arriving, we talked for a little while, then I got suited up, along with a couple of other guys, putting three TKs and Boba on the floor. From the people waiting in line, who I'm guessing were regular convention goers, I saw looks of astonishment and amusement. That never ceases to be thrilling. There was one kid who was there the whole time, which got old really fast. Seth started taking pictures of us with his spiffy camera.
After walking around for a little bit, I convinced one of the other TKs, Gordon, to do a walkabout outside, along one of the main streets. We posed for a couple pictures and some dramatic shots, using parts of the park for cover. After a while, we went back in the convention center, were a couple other guys were in costume. We did a couple more walkabouts outside, and some more dramatic shots, this time with all the TKs and Chris, who was dressed as Indiana Jones.

The rest of the day was basically spent hanging aorund the hotel, posing for pictures with kids and convention goers. We did a couple more funny shots - Darth Vader with a whip - I think we've got a sequence where he gets me a couple times. "Why are we doing this." "Ow!" "Oh wait, that's why." Indy vs. Vader, etc. The people there loved us, and we raised something like $80 for the Jimmy Fund with our Jabba puppet, which sounded fantastic with the people that we had inside.

After the convention, most of the group left, but eight of us, Brian, Jodi, Mark, Sean, Cy, myself, Seth and someone I can't remember went to the hotel resturaunt for dinner, which was quite a bit of fun. Seth enjoyed the entire time, and took something like 400 pictures. I can't wait to see the entire set. The couple pictures that I have seen, have looked absolutely fantastic.

(Both photos were taken by Seth Beebe - don't copy without crediting)

Upcoming Events

Wow, things just got busy all of a sudden. This weekend, on Sunday, I've been planning on attending the Granite City Comic Con, in Manchester New Hampshire. It's a pretty small event, with probably 10-15 troopers attending, along with our Jabba the Hutt puppet. Should be fun.

Last night, while flipping through channels, I stopped on the news, where they mentioned an upcoming event, the Burlington Kid's Day, which is in it's 23rd year. Even better, the theme this year was Kids In Outer Space, which practically screams 501st. Check with our guys, there's some interest, check with the organizers, they'd like us to come, so two events this weekend.

And after that, next week, I'm headed down to New York City, to see my brother Dan play in a concert at Carnegie Hall, but because we're getting there early in the day, I'm going to try and pack my armor along and troop with the Empire City Garrison as there's the Movie and TV World Convention that day! Woo!