Fan Expo Dallas 2024
Kay Baily Hutchinson Convention Center
Jun 7-9
Well, another trip is in the books, and as I sit here in the quaint little Dallas-Love Field terminal, waiting for my flight (which is hours away, at this point, due to the incoherent nature of airline scheduling in this day and age of aircraft falling apart mid-flight, regardless of the airline…), I must reminisce about those events which I experienced in just the last 72 hours.
I love coming to Dallas events. I love the general attitude in Texas, from the people’s generally helpful attitude paired with their oh-so-sweet way of reminding you when you’ve done something dumb (bless your heart), you simply know you’re in Texas.
When it comes to convention time, folks are generally well-behaved, though even here, the occasional, self-entitled idiot slips through the cracks.
But let’s not talk about them, okay? Let’s concentrate of the good stuff (for the most part).
The guest list, which if you pay attention to these events year-over-year, becomes predictable; not in a bad way, but in an “oh, that person is at Fan Expo XXX, so there’s a better than even chance they’ll be at Fan Expo YYY,” kind of way. It’s nice, especially when you travel, to be able to guess ahead of time who you might see before they’re even announced.
I mean, nothing is guaranteed, of course, but it’s always good when you can suppose with a higher-than-average degree of certainty. It makes the expense of planning a bit more palatable, especially for those of us who have to travel for any particular event (airfare, hotel, etc.).
So, in terms of guests, this year’s Fan Expo Dallas did pretty stinking well, with TWO Doctors (Tennant and Whitaker), along with a couple companions (Tate and Gill), and a wife (Kingston).
An up-and-coming Ghostbuster (and Hollywood powerhouse): McKenna Grace, a couple of Strange Kids (Matarazzo and McLaughlin), some sci-fi legends (Shatner, Tudyk, and the perpetually-great Keith David), some horror folk (Mikkelsen and Panetierre), a couple of Charmed Sisters (McGowan and Combs), a legendary director (Don Bluth) to go with a legendary composer (Elfman), and you haven’t even scratched the surface of the show. Over a dozen voice actor, TV legends, and other Star Wars guests (Morrison, Esposito, Ming-Na Wen, and Bordizzo) made this show’s line-up one for the books.
Hell, this line-up featured two Oscar winners I haven’t even mentioned yet: Helen Hunt and Richard Dreyfuss.
Understanding that fly-by interviews by this outlet would be out-of-bounds, let me just give you an overview of the weekend as I navigated the Vendor floor, Artists’ Alley, and the Celebrity signing area and Photo Ops.
The Vendor floor was expansive, with a wide assortment of folks hawking their wares. Yes, we partook of some, mostly small, though I did acquire a prop for my Captain Malcolm Reynolds cosplay in the form of his pistol… which necessitated a shipment home because screw explaining that to TSA or checking a bag just because of a toy!
[Video of the Vendor floor is coming once I can get it converted. Apologies for the delay.]
Umm… but I digress.
A couple other small tchotchkes later, nothing major, and we would up pretty satisfied with that experience.
Artists’ Alley is always interesting, as there is usually a hot style or subject that seems to run through them like wildfire, but this years’ crop of artists seemed pretty well-curated to provide something for everyone. We also picked up one or two pieces from there, more an indication of what we have room for than the overall quality of those artists.
In terms of Autographs, the plan coming to Dallas had been to get two folks we’d pre-buy for (Helen Hunt and McKenna Grace), since future availability would be difficult if not impossible. Little did I realize that McKenna would be announced for the Mothership event, FanX Salt Lake, just days after purchasing that Autograph, lol.
“Que sera, sera,” n’est pas?.
My lovely wife managed to get those two autographs in around 90 minutes while I was occupied as outline below.
I hoped to also acquire an autograph from Keith David, because Duh. I thought I’d hit him in the nostalgia, and whereas most people were there to see him for his voice work or the incredible horror masterpiece that is The Thing, I went a bit out of left field and had him sign the DVD sleeve for a TV series he did called The Cape. An early superhero show from before superhero shows were cool, he was surprised to see it, to say the least, asking “where did you even get this?” I told him of my penchant for shows that maybe seemed a bit ahead of their time or unjustly shortened/cancelled.
Folks need to realize that the Golden Age of superhero media, or sci-fi media, or any genre of media didn’t just emerge from the ether; they are the result of all the early stuff, the “failures” that didn’t quite find the audience studios want, or whose concepts were just a bit different than the norm. These projects all helped bring about the stuff we love (or, for some folks, Love to Hate) that garners so much praise today.
Anyway, I consider that 90 minutes in his line well-spent.
I would like, at this time, to reiterate once again my objection to the way Fan Expo handles its VIP pass holders in terms of autographs.
If a VIP pass holder wants to get a Guest autograph, they don’t go to the Guest’s table; they go to a cen9tral “VIP concierge” and tell them who they want, then they are escorted directly over to that table and placed unceremoniously at the table.
Yes, I realize this has no net effect on how hast GA pass holders get to the Guest for an autograph, but it feels terribly rude, as there is no way for GA folks to have a way to gauge how many VIPs are ahead of them. Instead, they simply pray to the Con Gods that none magically appear as they creep closer and closer to the guest they’ve been dreaming of meeting.
I know… First World problems.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I can add that we did add three additional autographs which we picked up, as you do, on an ad hoc, they’re not too busy basis. I got a moment with Hayden Panetierre (who was feeling a bit stuffy and under the weather, so feel better, Hayden!) and Natalie Liu Bordizzo, while my wife somehow found the rare moment when Jim Cummings’ line wasn’t 2+ hours long and got his signature on the cover of the Fan Expo exclusive comic “Doctor Pooh.”
In terms of photos, we had originally had six scheduled for the weekend, but Shannen Doherty had to cancel last-minute, so we hope all is well with her. That left us with Sophia Boutella and the aforementioned Hayden Panetierre on Saturday (which went remarkably smooth),
and Marisa “Aunt May” Tomei, Mads “Hannibal/Galen Erso/Kaiselius” Mikkelsen, and the legendary Geena “Holy crap! Another Oscar winner!” Davis on Sunday.
Epic Photo Ops has their stuff together, and despite our photos with Marisa and Mads being only 20 minutes apart, we made Mads’ time easily.
Thumbs up from us.
Which made Geena’s time, 2+ hours later, a relatively sedate affair.
At the end of which, we made one more, quick pass across the Vendor floor before strolling back to our hotel to pick up our bags (and repack them for the airport, lol), before summoning an Uber to whisk us away to wait to fly home very late tonight.
All in all, this has been a very good (and productive, from a fandom standpoint) weekend.
“Plus ca change, plus c’est le meme chose,” non?
I look forward to having more excuses to visit Dallas, either for this, the flagship Fan Expo event of the city, or their smaller, fall time-frame event, Dallas Fan Fest.
As always, if you’ve never been to a comic con/pop-culture type event but have wanted to, let me encourage you to do so. Buy a ticket for a single (opening) day to get a feel for how things will work, then jump in with both feet.
There’s one near you somewhere, I promise.
It’s well worth it.
Have a great day, everyone, and we’ll talk to you soon.