Long Beach Comic-Con 2010 Scares Up a Geeky Good Halloween Weekend

Long Beach Comic-Con returned to the Long Beach Convention Center from October 29th to the 31st, for it’s 2nd year, effectively taking over my Halloween weekend. The event had pretty much everything you’d expect from a Comic-Con, except not as intense as some (and that’s alright by me). Between the scores of vendors booths hawking rare collectibles, a variety of publishers were out in full force, including Boom!, Aspen, IDW, Avatar, and Image, which was there to hype the new AMC The Walking Dead series, premiering that Halloween Sunday night after the convention. Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures showed off props from the final Saw film, Saw 3D. The ever-present comic book icon Stan Lee greeted fans, posed for pictures, and signed autographs for hours (this was definitely the best place to meet The Man at any convention this year). Classic cars from pop culture lined the front of the convention center, including K.I.T.T from Knight Rider, the Delorean time machine from Back to the Future II, Bumblebee from the Transformers movie, and lots more. Actor/director Thomas Jane was on hand to promote his film, Dark Country, in 3D one night and then spoof it Mystery Science Theater style the next. Off in the corner, you could hear and feel the floor shudder each time the professional wrestlers stepped into the ring to beat each other mercilessly each day. And no convention would be complete without Artists Alley, chock full of the best independent/freelance and big name creators in the business. Of the fan favorites, Arthur Suydam showed off stacks of zombie flavored art while J Scott Campbell signed the Long Beach Comic-Con variant cover exclusive Ultimate Thor #1 comic along with its talented colorist Nei Ruffino.

After the panels focusing on creators (Mike Mignola! Marv Wolfman! Mark Waid!) and their creations ended each day, along with the exhibition hall floor, parties sprung up around the city of Long Beach, including the Hero Initiative Booze and Banter gathering at Gladstones on Friday and the other Hero Initiative hosted event: LBCC Official Costume Party at the Rock Bottom Brewery the following night.

Of course, what would a comic convention during Halloween weekend be without scores of geeks in costumes! Zombies were an obvious favorite, but there was no limit to the variety of cosplay aficionados found wandering the floor of the show all 3 days. Check out the popculturegeek Flickr for all of our pictures from the show.

Hope to see everyone there next year for Long Beach Comic-Con 2011!