(EXPERIENCE MAGAZINE) — Los Angeles, CA — The 12th annual Los Angeles Comic Con came to the LA Convention Center for three incredible days. One of the largest pop culture events in the world, LA ComicCon was from December 1st to the 3rd. L.A. Comic Con goers enjoyed an amazing convention. L.A. Comic Con is Los Angeles’ biggest pop culture convention. It is humongous with 122,300 people attending. Once thought of as a convention for geeks and nerds, L.A. Comic Con is an event for the entire family. There were incredible cosplay costumes, gaming tables and model makers. There were all kinds of merchants and good food. There were more than a thousand different artists and vendors. There were so many genres at this convention. There were over 250 panels with experts talking about all kinds of things. Tons of Star Wars, lots of Sci Fi, but also lots of one offs. There were Legos, people building models. An entire Japanese Gundam installment that was super exclusive and had a long line. There was one section that had tons of props from the movie Oppenheimer. I also saw all of their keys used in Locke and Key which is a cool horror series on Netflix.
The Main Stage Panels & Programming Featured: The Lord of the Rings with Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan & Billy Boyd. Harry Potter with Bonnie Wright, James Phelps & Oliver Phelps.Spotlight on Matt Smith (Doctor Who, The Crown, House of Dragon). The Office with Rainn Wilson and Paul Lieberstein. Ahsoka with Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Ivanna Sakhno, Eman Esfandi & Diana Lee Inosanto. The Boys with Erin Moriarty & Karen Fukuhara. Spotlight on Jamie Campbell Bower. MARVEL’s Amazing Spider-Man–Gang War Symposium. Spotlight on Amy Jo Johnson (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers). SpongeBob SquarePants with Tom Kenny & Roger Bumpass and Napoleon Dynamite with Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez. The panels were great. I sat through several. Lots of fun to hear experts.
The famous Cosplayers are really one of the main attractions at LA Comic Con. Some people had eloborate costumes that had multiple layers and weapons. The featured Cosplay guests included; Michael Ray from Legion of Cosplay @legionofcosplayers, Lucky Grim @LuckyGrim, Puma Does Cosplay @PumaDoesCosplay, Scuba Steph @ScubaSteph, Tara Cosplay @tara.cosplay, The Girl with a great Smile @thegirlwithagreatsmile, Jessie Pridemore @jessie.pridemore, Jimmy Shefy @Jimmysherfy, Joanie Brosas @Joaniebrosas, DR. Costumes @rye_n_cosplay and @dkathall, Face by Rachie @facebyrachie, Jaqueline Goehner @JaquelineGoehner, DJ Croft @djcroft, Dare Taylor @Daretaylorofficial, Chrissy Lynn @misschrissylyn, Azura Cosplay @azuracosplayofficial, Anrew Mclean @webheadedhero and Amber Arden @amberarden.
The main stage panels were a huge attraction. The Lord of the Rings panel with Ellijah Wood and Sean Astin had something like 10,000 people attend. We couldn’t even get close. The Autograph and Phots areas were super busy and very popular. For me, the convention is about the little guy and not the celebrities. Its cool that the celebs come to the convention, but they are here for work.
I met Angel Chan who had am amazing display of hand made light sabers. Wearangelscharituy.com is an organisation that builds amazing light savers that are designed after the famous light savers of Star Wars. We had a light saver battle and I donned Darth Maul’s red double bladed lightsaber. Angel wielded two light savers, one was the green lightsaber of Luke Skywalker and the other was a white lightsaber of Ashoka Tano. Angel is obviously skilled as a Jedi. I was quickly defeated.
The West Hall had all of the gamers playing the latest releases and fighting one another. The Japanese Mobile Suit Gundam display was next to the gaming tables and the line was very long. People were so excited to get into the Gundam Base Mobile USA Tour. Also by the gammers were right next to the model makers. They were building the latest exclusive Gundam robots that could only be purchased at L.A. Comic Con. It’s great to see the gaming hall and the model builders. This hall also features anime. There was a special feature that many people were excited to experience. The Fighting Game Community (FGC) had some of its top legends at the convention. People like Justin Wong, Punk and Jebailey who are known for their Mortal Combat and Street Fighter expertise allowed all comers to challenge them in a fight. This hall has only been a part of LA Comic Con for two years. It’ll be exciting to see what next year brings.
It was such an amazing experience at L.A. Comic Con 2024! The L.A. Convention Center was packed with over 122,000 people! This event was an amazing three days of Geeks, Nerds and Super Fans of all genres. We look forward to next year’s event.
