Dallas Sci-Fi Expo

This past weekend, my husband and I met up with some friends at the Dallas Sci-Fi Expo (actually in Irving). We really enjoyed the convention we went to last spring and agree that we very much want to continue going to them. As much fun as it was to make a big trip/vacation out of a bigger convention, we thought it would be nice to try some of the local offerings as well. It's not like we don't live smack dab in the middle of a big metroplex where these things do actually happen from time to time. The Sci-Fi Expo actually seemed perfect for us, since we also wanted to see how our daughter would do in such a setting: it was close by, less expensive, and smaller (a mini-con, as it were). If we had to leave early because of a cranky or misbehaving child, we wouldn't feel ripped off, but there was still plenty for us to see and do. It also seemed like a good fit for our friends, who had not been to a con before and wanted to give one a try.

So, we went, and we had a great time. It was a two-day event but we just went for Saturday. Still, lots of fun was had. Baby Girl behaved herself extremely well and enjoyed seeing all there was to see. Our friends also enjoyed themselves, commissioning portraits of their daughters as zombies from one of the booths and seeing all of the various cosplayers. There were some good media guests at the con, several cast members from Firefly (Jewel Staite, Ron Glass, Adam Baldwin, and Sean Maher) and Eliza Dushku being the two big draws of the weekend. Also in attendance was Alexis Cruz, who I am most familiar with as Skaara from Stargate the movie and then later on Stargate SG-1 as well, although he has actually been in a ton of stuff. I think the award for the most random guest goes to Noah Hathaway, who played Atreyu in The Never Ending Story (and also Boxey in the original Battlestar Galactica, which I did not realize until we saw the photos in his booth). Well, either him, or the dad from Teen Wolf.

We actually didn't get any photo ops or autographs, but it was a small enough space that we could see the various celebrities signing and talking with fans. That was pretty cool. I would have liked to have been able to go to the Firefly Q & A panel, but unfortunately it was full and we couldn't get in. So we enjoyed just wandering the exhibition floor, seeing all of the art, talking to a few vendors, drooling over the various toys and props, and admiring the cosplay. Of course, you know I had to stop and get photos with a few people!

Me with a Clone Trooper as Baby Girl looks on. His gun is named Vera! Especially apt with the random Jayne
walking by in the background.

These guys get bonus points for creativity. This wasn't the only Indiana Jones cosplayer, but it was the only
Professor Jones Sr. to be sure!

There was a trio dressed as Rainbow Dash, Derpy, and Spike from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, but by the time I thought to get a photo with them, they were all having lunch and I didn't want to bother them. Their costumes were really spiffy though. I did get a picture with Darth Vader as well, but it seems to have been accidentally deleted by me swallowed up in some sort of photo black hole, alas.

One really spiffy thing was that one of the writers for GeekMom was there. I had seen a post a day or two before that Brigid Ashwood would have a booth there, so I made note of her booth number and with my husband's help was able to find it so I could stop by and say hi. In addition to writing for one of my favorite blogs, she is also an amazing artist. Her style is beautifully ethereal and fantastical with some steampunk elements as well. You should check it out. She has also started making these absolutely gorgeous perfume lockets that I've been drooling over. I know that they will make a spectacular gift for someone I love dearly, I just have to find the perfect one for her. She was super nice and I enjoyed getting to talk to her for a few moments. It was actually one of my favorite moments of the convention.

Geek + Mom = Awesome! (Although Baby Girl doesn't seem to think so, the way she is trying to escape...)

Eventually the kiddo got squirmy and we had been by all of the booths twice (once to check everything out, and again to pick up the stuff we had scoped out that we wanted to buy) so we headed out. All in all it was a pretty fantastic way to spend a Saturday afternoon, I have to say. We are thinking maybe next year if the guests are relevant enough to our interests we will spring for the VIP passes (good for both days and gives priority access to panels and early access to the booths) and get a hotel in that part of town so we don't have to drive back and forth.

For the curious, here's the swag I ended up taking home:

Con badge, Doctor Who minifigs (Amy, a Cyberman, and Rory), Soft Kitty t-shirt (from The Big Bang Theory), a handful of spiffy twenty-sided dice, and a Stargate Atlantis staff badge for when I finally get my Stargate costume together.

Some handmade stickers by Kathryn Crenshaw of Galactic Dust Bunnies.

What's a comic expo without a few comic books? Got the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus volume five and a lovely illustrated companion to Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels.

My daughter also picked up a little swag of her own because, as my husband put it, "Mommy is a sucker."

Old school Bedtime Bear! She loves this little guy. I could barely get it away from her to take a picture.

And it had to go right back to her for nap time afterwards. Look at that satisfied face...

So there you have it, folks. A fun weekend adventure almost right in my own backyard (give or take forty miles). I look forward to checking out some of the other DFW area conventions in the future. If you are interested in checking out a convention but don't know where to start, I definitely recommend the Dallas Sci-Fi Expo, or look for expos in your own area if you're not local. There is lots of fun to be had for sure!

Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale (Comic Book Review)

Disclaimer:  The following review is largely free of spoilers for the comic book, but does have one HUGE spoiler for the movie Serenity if you have not seen it.  (And if you haven't, why the heck not?  Seriously, stop reading this and go watch it.  Chop, chop!  I'll wait.)

Those of you familiar with the television series Firefly and the consequent movie Serenity will be aware that the character of Shepherd Derrial Book (played so excellently by Ron Glass) was perhaps the singularly most mysterious character in that 'verse.

Okay, I know all of you River super-fans are screaming out in protest at this, but I stand behind that statement.  River is baffling, certainly, and often an unknown quantity, but once the movie had aired, there wasn't a whole lot of mystery left to her character.  Questions?  Sure.  Mystery?  Not so much.  We know exactly what happened to make her, well, her.  We even find out what a lot of her super secret skills are as the series and movie unfold.  While we know that we don't know all there is to know about River Tam, at this point I doubt any new revelations will actually be shocking, or even all that surprising.  She was trained to be a psychic super soldier.  Anything new and badass that she ends up doing can likely be traced back to that training.

But Book?  No one in the 'verse knew what was up with him.  We know he's a Shepherd, the equivalent of a priest or a pastor in the 'verse, but that's about it.  Throughout the series and movie he was a stalwart man of faith, exploring the 'verse for the sake of the journey itself.  But throughout there were always hints.  A line here, an action there, a counter-intuitive reaction somewhere else.  As the story unfolds it becomes clearer and clearer that Book was most definitely not always a Shepherd, and while he never reveals what he did before turning to God, the impression is pretty clear that it was rather ungodly work.  Then, Joss Whedon, in typical fashion, up and killed Book in Serenity.  Without revealing any of his back story.  Fans have been clamoring for years to find out what Book's deep, dark secrets were, pestering Joss at conventions, speculating about it online, etc., etc.  I myself speculated that perhaps he had at one time been an Operative.  (I'm not gonna tell you whether or not that guess was right.)

Finally, with the help of his brother Zack Whedon and artist Chris Samnee, Joss has deigned to give us that back story in Serenity:  The Shepherd's Tale.  This graphic novel (which comes in a lovely hardcover edition), is a little shorter than your standard trade paperback comic book, but definitely longer than a one-shot comic.  Let me be clear.  This is not the complete, unabridged, full-out origin story of Shepherd Book.  What it is, is a glimpse at the series of events that got our favorite preacher onto the crew of Serenity.

It is a very satisfying set of snapshots that show us not only where Derrial Book came from, but how he got from each stage of his life to the next--leading from his childhood to his death, although not in that order (more on that in a sec).  I don't think it will surprise any of the readers to learn that Book's life before becoming a Shepherd was a difficult one, or that he committed many sins for which he wished to atone.  We only get to see a few of those sins.  Some of them are monumental to shaping the Shepherd, but some are just stepping stones.  What I did find delightfully surprising was the array of allegiances he seems to have gone through in his life. 

My favorite part is that this story is told backwards.  It starts with the attack on Haven (which occurred during the course of the movie Serenity but was not shown onscreen) and works its way back through different points in his life--his days on the ship, leaving the church to go wandering, finding God in a bowl of soup, and so on--all the way to the defining moment of his youth when he took charge of his own life and set out on the path that led him to us in the first place.  If you are familiar with the Wheel of Time series at all, the manner in which this is told struck me as being very much like the trips the prospective clan chiefs and Wise Ones of the Aiel took through the glass columns in Rhuidean.  Not just because it started at the one end of the time line and worked its way backward, but also in the manner in which we see the different lives led by the man who came to be known as Shepherd Book.  It is one life, overall, but it may as well have been many separate lives.

All in all, I give this book a hearty thumbs up.  I, as a fan dying of curiosity to know more about Book, was completely satisfied by the answers this story provides.  Perhaps even more so because it does leave some of the mystery intact.  And who would Book be, without his mystery?

My only nitpick with this at all is the art.  Don't get me wrong, the book is gorgeously drawn and inked, but I didn't see any familiarity in the faces of the characters we knew.  I realize there is a certain freedom with comic book representation of established characters, and they can vary from artist to artist, and I accept that.  I just feel very strongly that in the case of established characters that were, in fact, established on a television or movie screen, rather than first on the written page, the artist should try to remain faithful to the faces of those characters that we know and love.  I read many comic books based on television series and believe me when I say that sometimes a poor representation of a character's appearance can be so jarring as to take a reader right out of the story.  Thankfully, the story in this case is wonderful enough that the incongruity can be overlooked.  But I would be remiss not to warn you of it, all the same.

Other than that though, quality stuff.  Christmas is just around the bend, folks.  If there's a Browncoat on your shopping list, this might make a right shiny gift (or perhaps Santa could bring you a copy, if you ask him nicely).