How to navigate your child’s first comic con

I was priming my wife with all manner of questions about how to describe it.  Some of her friends said coo, while other said have fun.  Regardless, I knew that she was going with me to be with the boys, which was fine with me. Our child’s first comic con happened when they were 4 and 2, so I knew that they wouldn’t remember much, but I certainly wanted them to have fun.  Here are some tips that we learned during our child’s first comic con.

Oh, even though ours was a comic con, the same basic tips can be carried over to a baseball card show or any other fan conference.

It’s fun, but pay attention

Especially if you’re taking young children to a comic con, pay attention to the vendors for several reasons.

1.  The horror genre.  Some of those masks, books or cosplayers might be too scary or sexy for children.  Just look a couple of booths ahead at all times and avoid the ones that might scare the kids.   Also, be sure to talk to them before going that all of this is pretend.  If you’re in doubt about how your child will perceive anyone in costume then you might want to wait a year to take your child.
2. Some of those items are valuable.  Be it a baseball card, comic book, figurine or toy- that item could be worth hundreds of dollars.  Our kids reached out to a couple of expensive comics that were in their grasp and touched them.  I stopped them, but just as the vendor politely said not to touch anything.   Push did not come to shove, but I suspect that those vendors have a you break it you bought it policy.

To cosplay or not to cosplay

Cosplay of course, especially if they’re children!  Having them wear their favorite jersey or wearing a superhero costume makes for awesome photos and lets the others know that they’re here to play and have fun.

Even if they don’t opt to wear a costume the folks who are in costume are more than willing to stop for photos.  For the record, my Hanson shirt received many sincere compliments 🙂

½ price autographs on the last day

We went on the first day and were tempted by some of the artists signing autographs.  On the last day we went back with a Batman comic for Neal Adams to sign.  To our surprise every artist and author that we saw was doing the first autograph for free!  I don’t know if this is the same at every event, but at our Wizard World Comic Con that is what was happening.

Bring money

I knew that there would be thousands upon thousands of comics for sale.  Some of them let me into the fact that I have more valuable comics than I thought.  What was surprising was that there were many graphic novels for sale at 25% of their retail.  A big thick Hulk or Thor graphic novel was only $5.  Figure that each one has 4 to 6 normal comic stories and that is one heck of a deal.

 

Research in advance

Find out who is attending so that you know if there is anyone that you want to sign something.  Had I researched in advance and saw that Neal Adams was signing I would’ve brought more Batman comics.  There were also lots of cool companies including some folks from Action Lab Comics who let us into some great new kid’s releases coming out.  Just a little bit of homework in advance or your trip will make it more fun and productive, regardless of why you’re going.

What have I missed?  If there are any con tips that you have we’d love to hear them as we’ll start doing more of these in the future.