This past weekend, September 19th and 20th, Hartford Comic Con returned to the Constitution State for its second year. This edition featured two days of vendors selling their pop culture goodies, celebrities of various levels of stardom signing autographs and Cosplayers dressed like Deadpool, and maybe a few other characters, including but almost not limited to Harley Quinn. Oh, I almost forgot, there were comic books and comic creators too, so often overlooked in today’s (comic) conventions.

 

Started last year in May, Hartford Con moved to a late Summer slot, a few weeks after Connecticut’s other big convention, the newly christened TerrifiCon. Unfortunately, the proximity in time did not flatter Hartford’s show in comparison with its competition. The XL Center, former home to the NHL’s favorite ex punching bag, The Hartford Whalers, hosted again, and although spacious and fairly common in terms of con settings, it simply can’t live up to TerrifiCon’s new home as of this year. The spacious ballroom at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, CT added a level of carpeted comfort and aesthetic difference to the usual low lighted concrete room vibe cons tend to have. The lighting was quite dim, which is not conducive when shuffling through a fifty cent box looking for that much-needed copy of Thunderbolts #23. Several of the bigger name comic creators dropped out of the show as well, such as Ed McGuiness and Ben Templesmith, which didn’t help the shows reputation any.

 

Negatives aside, it is nice to have another large con in the second smallest state. Many bigger named creators did show, and were easily accessible to talk to. Mark Texeira, Paul Ryan, John Tyler Christopher and Braden Lamb all proved to be friendly and engaging with their fans. On the television and film side, Eric Roberts and Ernie Hudson highlighted the bigger names, and B.J. Britt of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Kelly Hu of Arrow kept busy throughout the day conversing with fans. Another great feature I hadn’t seen at a show until this was a designated area for Cosplayers and photo ops with them. The costumed fans could go anywhere on the floor, but had somewhere to reconvene and talk shop.

Hartford Comic Con is still in the infancy stages, so any of the issues it may have currently can easily be solved. A venue change could definitely be a push in the right direction, and as the show grows, gaining and keeping bigger named creators and celebrities will be easier. I wholly recommend giving this show a chance next time it comes around, as it is a fun show moving in the right direction.