Alamo City Comic Con

I was afraid there wouldn’t be much here since slot of the events I’ve seen in SA have been on the smaller side, but it seems like the scenes here in many areas are growing! Comic Con had a lot to see and a lot of stars there for autographs and pictures as well. We had a great time and there was something for everyone in the family, from a giant Minion for the baby to Star Wars for mom and superheroes for dad! Took lots of pictures! There weren’t as many good costumes as I’ve seen in other big cities, but we still saw a few like a very good Jack Sparrow look alike and some great couples costumes. We will be back next year.
My Unilocal rating system:
5 stars= Driving across town just for this!
4 stars= I would recommend visiting.
3 stars= Average, acceptable, positive.
2 stars= You might be able to drag me in.
1 star= I will definitely not be returning.

This was my first Comicon (ever) so just keep that in mind as you read my review.
I took the Primo downtown (epic win as far as saving $ on parking) but I was also not in costume. Next year I’m planning something that will probably not be bus-​friendly, so will have to make alternate travel plans. I heard people who didn’t buy tix ahead of time were waiting in epic lines, so I bought my ticket before ⁹⁄₄ (When prices went up) for Saturday and paid $ 37 with the discount. I got to the Convention Center around 1230p, and the line for non-​ticket holders was hundreds of people long. I heard later it was an hour + wait for those folks. I was in the center immediately, waited maybe 10 minutes to get my wristband and was set loose. From my perspective as a newcomer, I appreciated all the maps as to where things were. There was an area for kids activities, lots of great artists (I’m an illustrator by trade so it was great to speak with them about their work), and it was great to see so many artists in attendance. TONS of vendors… and such a variety of things for sale. toys, costume elements, everywhere I turned was something different.
The celebrity area was fun. I didn’t pay for any pics or autographs, but everything that I saw priced out seemed quite high. Some wanted $ 20+ for a selfie, $ 30+ for an autograph, and $ 40+ for the formal photo ops (Stan Lee of course being on the very high end of everything). If one wanted a few selfies and autographs, you’d go well over $ 100 FAST. A few of the celebs had almost no line for the entirety of the day, most of the SOA and TWD guys had huge lines. and I don’t think security really knew what to do with the lines once they spilled out into the main area. And no photo taking with your phone of a celeb if you didn’t pay for that picture. yet they let people take pics of Stan Lee from outside the main waiting area.
And speaking of lines: they had (understandably so) TONS of people waiting for some of the panels. they let those line spill into the artist row area. making a huge mess and allowing no space for people walking. So for that, they needed a much better plan. Aside from that I was able to move around fairly well until around 230, after the UTSA game let out at the Alamodome and all those folks came over. For as large as the center is, by that time it was packed and hard to move, everywhere. (I will say tho, when I bumped into someone, or they bumped into me, both of us immediately apologized and smiled. other giant conventions I’ve been too people just kept on going). I appreciated the few seating areas they had to rest a bit.
A paper wristband is fine for 1 day, but the people who paid for ²⁄₃ day passes should be given something else. who wants to keep that on for multiple days? I think for the cost of getting in they should give people something like a lanyard (I hear other CC’s give them when you go in) I would have loved that to take home. I didn’t buy any food but there were people walking around selling waters for $ 2. (Bags were not checked at entry, but I could only imagine the issues that would have caused with the already tremendous amount of people they had waiting). I heard from several folks that the VIP passes were not worth it one bit… they didn’t get priority seating for panels (Which they should have) and overall just not worth the expense.
I was seriously impressed with some of the costumes. I definitely will dress up next year. I was told ahead of time by friends to just ask someone in costume if you could take their picture. and most if not all agreed immediately. Would have loved to have stayed for the contest but with the amount of people there it became hard to really enjoy anything when you can’t move.
But all in all, it was a fun day. They need much improvement as far as crowd control (ticketing, lines, etc), but I was impressed with the artists/​vendors/​amount of celebs, and I’ll go back again. hopefully as this event grows they’ll improve each time.

If I could give a lower rating I would. I paid for the three day pass, what a fucking joke that was. A paper wrist band that I cant take off for all three days? Oh and it just gives you access to enter. Everything else? $ 20+ and thats on the cheap end. No swag bags. No lanyards. I felt unwelcomed and unwanted by nearly all staff there. And I felt so bad for the actors.$ 20 to take a picture with them. The actors/​actresses came all the way here just to sit in a booth with their name plastered all over it for hours. There was almost no one in line and I dont blame them. I have seen more people at the hole in the wall cons back in Sacramento where I can take pics/​get autographs from actors for free. Just fyi they will follow you around if you take a blurry picture from 50ft away and then they will threaten to kick you out if you dont delete it off your phone. The people running this thing are cheap and half assing it. Dont get me wrong the vendors and the people I met at the different booths were very nice and I would have loved to see them in a better environment but if I am going to pay that much for a 3 day pass at least make it worth my while. My problem was with the people running the show. Dont waste your money or your time. I’ve definitely learned my lesson and won’t be returning again.

What a disappointment. This year it’s a disaster. The organizers this year did a lousy job. We bought tickets nearly a year in advance, but this year they were so disorganized that prepaid ticket holders actually had to wait in line for an hour+ to get in. What’s the point of buying ahead if you still have to wait in line? They made everyone enter through an entrance with stairs, tough shit if you have a stroller or God forbid a wheelchair. The staff had no idea what to do, as if they had no more than a few minutes training. Then once you finally get to the counter, you find out they cheaped out again and didn’t do lanyards and just have a paper wristband. Lame. Most con nerds have a collection of awesome lanyard/​passes from all the cons, well not this time. What a joke. I may never return to this con again. Last year was smooth as can be. It was well organized. We have 3 day passes and left early the first day and won’t be returning. That’s unusual for us. We can go all day, everyday, and spend a small fortune. Sorry artists and vendors not this year.

Overall, each year this event seems to be getting better and better. Able to attract a decent number and variety of celebrity guests for photo/​autograph opportunities. Went this morning (Fri 11SEP15) and overall it was great, however did have to take off one star for poor planning on the check in process. I fully understand that I just did the regular pre-​pay online and didn’t shell out for the extra VIP express entrance, so that part was on me. But for those who arrived this morning and had done the pre-​pay we sat in line for about 45 mins to an hour whereas people coming in off the street who did not prepay and were doing cash or credit card were in line for 15 minutes or less (more often much less, I watched one come in and go thru the set up plastic white chain link maze, pay and go in in about 5 minutes, meanwhile I moved up one whole row). Its frustrating to try to speed up the process by doing this only to watch others zip on thru. Should have had more check in stations dedicated to the prepay check in, or after you saw how long the line was and had other stalls just sitting there with no customers (again the cash and credit card stations more often than not had one or two at a time with no one to assist) they could have helped speed up the process by taking one or two from our line. If I remember to post pictures later I will. After that everything was fine, will still continue to come back however don’t pus for advanced online ticket sales if we are going to be punished for it. The longer I sit in line the less money I am out there spending with the vendors, concessions, ect.

Not sure how a convention only in it’s second year managed to become so popular with such a large volume of awesome guests, but there you have it. ACCC manages to have a crapload of old school American horror guests, AAA video game voice actors (Troy Baker, David Hayter), Stan freaking Lee, Star Trek actors (hello, Uhara and Sulu!), and tons more – even people you wouldn’t expect to see there like Lou Diamond Phillips. Sure, purists will grumble that the con is not just about comics, but I’m glad that this brings a lot more different type of people to the convention scene who would not have gotten to experience it otherwise. Also, the cosplay scene here is big and talented, so bring plenty of space on your camera and of course, remember that these are people, too! So try not to touch us without asking or say rude/​creepy things to us just because we are in costume. Please.
I encourage everyone to cosplay if they can, it makes the con a lot funner! You don’t have to be decked out like Master Chief with LEDs and a gun with a speaker inside or Bayonetta with seven inch heels and a six foot long wig, but you should know that this is another time to dress up as whatever the heck you want and have it be pretty socially acceptable (check cosplay policies before you bring something like an actual gun or sword though).
Having gone to several other conventions before, ACCC runs pretty smoothly (events start and stop in time, lines are orderly, layout makes sense and doesn’t have ridiculous bottlenecks). I do wish they had more volunteers to help out on questions, as I’ve encountered none. For instance, I only learned from hearsay that the Takei panel was cancelled! Sadness. There was also an illogically long pre-​registration line. This line is meant for people who have already bought their ticket and need to pick it up, by the way. It was over an hour and a half long, and half of the line was outside. Luckily, con weekend in 2014 was cooler, or I’d be very unhappy in my cosplay. On the bright side, you can strike up a conversation with just about anyone or people watch, and everyone is just so darn friendly and non-​judgmental. But of course, this tends to be the case for any line at conventions.
Speaking of the con culture, each con tends to have its own «ambiance,» if you will. ACCC’s catering to such a large crowd loses some of that cozy, shared experience of being nerdy (hard to explain), and feels more like you’re going to the shopping mall, so you might want to dial back on the obscene meme shouting, if you’ve a tendency for that. This is also a very family friendly convention, so you shouldn’t do that anyways. I have never seen so many children and families at a convention before, so don’t be afraid to bring your little (or not-​so-​little) ones.
Buying a badge was easy online. It’s not cheaper if you buy it earlier than later, by the way, like with other cons, but you do have to worry whether the tickets will sell out or not. They also sell autograph and photograph spots with the guests, so budget accordingly.
As far as for parking, anybody who has gone downtown for anything know how terrible it is to find a lot, so I suggest carpooling if you can, because you’ll be paying around $ 15 for a day’s worth of parking. If you go all three days, that can really eat into your comic book buying money! There are also a great deal of good eating options in the area, but the closest ones are of course, tend to be overpriced with lackluster offerings (I’m looking at you, Rivercenter Food Court), so look around a bit unless you’re really, really hungry or pinched for time and need to catch that one panel.
There are really a ton of vendors (bring cash), artists, panels, signings, along with a table top gaming area where I like to go to relax, recharge, and be human again. It’s okay, no one will yell at you. I recommend going the entire day, if you can, to get your money’s worth. The convention mostly only uses the first (massive) floor, but there are like… four odd rooms used on the second floor, two being the «Cosplay Changing Area,» which are essentially empty rooms with doors that do not lock. I could see straight into the men’s changing area, but there was only one guy in it with half of his armor on, playing on his phone. I do not recommend changing in this place unless you have someone to guard the door, or do not mind changing in front of others. There are no mirrors or anything else to make cosplayers’ lives easier, so while I appreciate the sentiment, they could do more work in this.
They also have a large area full of photography sets, one in particular being a Star Wars 501^st Legion-​ran set! I highly recommend stopping by to see these gals and guys’ costumes, because they are darn impressive, even if you don’t like Star Wars (boo).
Despite my gripes, I look forward to going to Comic Con again next year, and hope to see that they expand into the second floor of the convention center!

I will be totally honest here. The size of the show was great. The diversity of celebrities was excellent. My gripes are as follows. First off the parking in San Antonio is usually always bad, but for this show it was absolutely terrible. Every parking lot I passed had a sign that said «Full»… I eventually found a hotel that was charging to allow you to park on their property. The price $ 30 plus tax. So before I even walked into the Convention Center, I spend $ 32.00 Next you had to pay $ 40 to enter for the one day. I go to a lot of Comicons and usually it’s about $ 30 to enter. My biggest complaint about this show and may have nothing to do with the promoters is the amount of money almost every celebrity was charging for their autograph or their picture. Example:
George Takei wanted $ 50 for his autograph or just a picture with him. I’m sorry, I like George but $ 50 just to take a picture with him is nuts. Most other shows I go to, the celebrities charge $ 30 to $ 40 for their autograph and then they take a pic with you for free. Or if you just want a picture it’s $ 10 to $ 20 bucks. I found that almost all the celebs at this show wanted $ 40 to take a pic with them. Oh and Stan Lee was charging $ 85 for his autograph. I mean really I got Michael Madsen, Danny Glover, Martin Landau’s autograph for $ 30 and they took a pic with you for free at other shows. So some shows like this show and Austin’s Wizard World are very expensive to get celebs autographs or pictures. It just doesn’t make sense to me that most of these celebs are worth millions of dollars so they obviously don’t need the money and do the shows because they like to interact with their fans. So why overcharge for your autograph or pic. I’m mean Linda Hamilton is worth about 70 million dollars and she only charges $ 40 for an autograph and then gives you a free pic. So sorry George, your not worth $ 50.00!!!
Anyway I won’t be returning to this show… This is why our nations economy is so bad. Greed…
This is my opinion…
Oh yes and God forbid if you try to take a pic of a celeb from 20 feet away or so. A volunteer will come up to you and tell you to stop because they want you to pay for the pic. So you spend $ 40 to get in but sorry no pics of celebs on your own…

Overall worst than last year’s for VIP’s. BAD THINGS: 1. Only Lila Cockrell panel volunteers and employees were doing VIP reserved seating. Other area panel volunteers and employees were letting people with 1 day passes sit in front and blew you off if you told them. Panels I went to were delayed by 20 min and I heard some were canceled. 2. At the main autograph area volunteers did not know answers to questions or who to refer you to and neither did employees if you found one. At lines for panels the volunteers and employees were giving bad info about what line to stand in. You had to ask like 3 times to find the correct line if there was one. 3. The volunteers were letting NON-​VIP people get autographs before VIP and they knew they were wrong as I overheard them talking about it. 4. The Showclix company that handles the tickets are very rude and unprofessional on the phone. 5. There were no raffles at most panels like last year’s. 6. This one was more disorganized than last years and that is really bad. 7. The VIP room nachos were old and hard and there was no streaming panels in the VIP room which was told was going to happen this year. 8. The security and police were pretty rude, I saw them stop exhibitors and VIP’s from entering and made them walk around the whole convention center. They also treated handicap people pretty bad. I saw that they made one person that was already in go around the whole area to get in and then overheard them laughing and joking about how they made a handicap person do it. 9. They gave better exclusives to VIP’s last year then this year. Some other VIP’s I talked to said they did not receive a comic or funko or poster with their VIP package so they did not get their exclusive. 10. Need to provide some reduced priced food and drinks in VIP lounge for those who do not want nachos. 11. Need to let VIPs in an hour early. 12. Need to actually make a VIP experience as it was almost non-​existent this year. I bought two VIP packages but got treated like I did not get any VIP packages. I did not get my moneys worth. 13. Some people did not get photo ops with celebrities because some canceled at last minute. I saw some children crying because of this. I heard from many people the photo ops were a disaster. 14. Need a special VIP Concierge booth separate from ticket booths that can fix anything. GOOD THINGS: 1. The actors were more friendly this year. 2. Having a VIP room was good. 3. The event was bigger and had more celebrities. 4. Had a VIP lounge. 5. Had food and drinks around the areas.

Even though I attended this con back in October I’d like to let anyone interested in attending in 2014 that it is totally worth it.
They actually had worthwhile celebrities, artists, and vendors. Having it in down town San Antonio was nice because of other attractions and restaurants nearby but parking is the worst and if mom/​dad/​grandparents can drop you off let them. I heard some places were charging $ 20+ for parking.
There were also lots of great cosplayers to take photos with and everyone was very friendly and generally a good mood filled the place.
I’d recommend getting there early though, because the place was at capacity around 1pm. They wouldn’t let anyone else in until others left.
I can’t wait for ACCC 2014. I’m dressing as Lady Punisher for any of you Unilocal friends attending, let’s take pictures!

This was my first ever Comic Con! I had an amazing time. Was a ton of fun to get dressed up and run around the city as a super hero for the day. Even at my age it was awesome to reach into the imagination and have a little fun. It was quite awesome seeing my generation and older with today’s generation there. It’s becoming unheard of for children to have an imagination. Of course the video games are today’s thing but seeing the younger folk getting a lesson on where a lot of it started was awesome. Can’t wait till next year!

This was a decent event for a first time con. There were some logistical issues that needed to be worked out around attendance numbers and building capacity but I think the folks who are in charge understand the issues and will be making changes to improve things for 2014. The celebrity guests were decent. I really enjoyed the panel with Danny Trejo.

Finally, San Antonio gets a proper Con filled with celebrities, exclusive merch and most importantly, comics! I just knew San Antonio nerds existed outside of Heroes & Fantasies!
Not only did Alamo City Comic Con score big name celebs like Adam West, Sean Astin (who will forever be Mikey from the Goonies to me) and Walking Dead stars but they made sure to include several comic book artists which is really what the con is all about. I’ve heard for years that SDCC has become more of a pop culture convention and less of a celebration of comic books and to see that creator Alfredo De La Fuente dedicated a huge portion of the ACCC convention space to comic book artists was such a welcome sight.
And how can I review ACCC without mentioning my fellow cosplayers? Wow, San Antonio, y’all made me SO proud. From classic costumes like Batman and Thor to newer ones from Borderlands and Silent Hill, these guys brought their A game with my personal favorite being Wreck-​It Ralph, that guy KILLED.
Oh, you guys, Alamo City Comic Con felt like home and although the growing pains were obvious (what are these, aisles for ants?!) I still had a stellar time and can’t wait for ACCC 2014!

So, what happens when you get Tetris, Mario, Danny Trejo, The Walking Dead, Ghostbusters, and the Joker all in one building? San Antonio’s first Comic Con! Hoards of excited kids, adults in their finest costumes, and the cool people trying to hide their sheer excitement at seeing the original De Lorean can congregate at the Henry B. Gonzalez convention center for the 3 day extravaganza. The organizers are walking zombies, but have done an amazing job bringing in vendors, Cosplay, actors, and sights. This is an awesome adventure, only to get better in the future years. The managed to take this secret nerd back to her childhood and have serious discussions about the difference between a nerd, a geek, and a dweeb.