What You Wanted For Christmas Vs What You Got

Christmas is one of my favourite times of year, with all the food, family and fun its hard not to enjoy the festive season. But despite what the Whos from Whoville tell you one of the best parts of Christmas is the presents and anybody who says otherwise is a liar. While of course its always the thought that counts when it comes to presents sometimes for nerds it can be a bit of a struggle to get what you ask for from family members that just don't get it.

What you asked for:

Punisher comics

You've been watching Dare Devil and its reminded you that The Punisher is pretty cool and it sounds like something you'd really like to get into and bring a little violent diversity into your reading library.

What you got:

Classic The Phantom

You're not really sure how Grandma messed this one up but rather than the violent and frightening Punisher you get a man running around in purple spandex through the jungle. Maybe Grandma read this when she was young but it's best to just say thank you and read it anyway.

What you asked for:

DC Animated movies

Despite DC's inability to make a decent live action movie they are absolutely killing it with their animated stuff with Batman Assault on Arkham (a.k.a. The good Suicide Squad movie) and Batman Under the Red Hood being some of their finest work.

What you got:

Suicide Squad the extended cut

You need to forgive this one because your aunty probably thought that the animated stuff was for kids so she got you that "fun colourful looking movie with the Joker in it". We all saw it and it was fine but even the extended cut with an extra 11 minutes of footage doesn't come anywhere close to how good the animated ones are.


What you asked for:

The Avengers

Everybody loves the Avengers, we all saw it at the cinema, we all loved it and it introduced so many people to the Marvel Cinematic universe and by extension the comics.

What you got:

The Avengers

Your younger brother is a jerk and you know he did this on purpose, his birthday is coming up so start plotting your revenge.

What you asked for:

A Squirrel Girl Doll/action figure

You started reading the new series this year and there is nothing like the cherry optimism of Squirrel Girl to brighten your Christmas day.

What you got:

A squirrel doll

..... Thanks Mum..... it's great....

What you asked for:

Comics, movies, toys and all things nerdy:

Everybody has their preferences whether its Marvel, DC, Dr. Who, animation or video games, you like what you like and that's okay.

What you got:

The love and support of your family and friends

Think less of what you wanted and more about the effort and thought that everybody put into getting you gifts, it is very hard to buy the correct thing when you don't really understand what you are looking for. My brother loves sport and I know if he asked for something for Christmas that I would either need him to show it to me or I would probably get the wrong thing. So Just remember they tried, they love you and are trying hard to support your hobby.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas full of love and joy.

I'm heading to Japan

Hey everybody! It's been a dream of mine for a very long time to spend some time in Japan and now after months of planning it's finally happening.

I'll be gone for three weeks so it'll be a little quiet here on my blog but if you want to keep up with my progress and see all the things I'm getting up to in the land of the rising sun you can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

Love you guys 

Mama Jane xoxo

1 year old today!

One year ago today I decided that I would start a blog for myself to write about all the comicbooks and all things geeky that I loved. I've made some great friends, had many memorable experiences and had the opportunity to meet some amazingly creative and wonderful local creators and I want to say a big thank you to anybody who has read my blog or liked my Facebook page because it really means the world to me.

A special thank you to the local creators who let me review their work and thanks to my mum for proof reading all of my articles.

Thanks mum!

Looking forward to next year.

Love Mama Jane Xoxo

Oz Comic-Con 2015

This year I attended Oz Comic-Con held at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre and cosplayed as Princess Ulga of the Princess Ugg series. While I had a wonderful time enjoying the atmosphere, the exhibits, the stalls and all the fantastic people, I felt that there was a little bit of the Oz missing from Oz Comic-Con.

On the Saturday the line for the entrance moved fairly quickly with plenty of volunteers to scan tickets and pass out wrist bands but only a few windows open to sell tickets for the day so as I always say pre-purchase your tickets if possible because it will save you a staggering amount of time. As always when I walked through the entrance doors the excitement of the day is overwhelming and it took all my strength not to begin running around squealing like an excited 4 year old but its best to stick to a system and go aisle by aisle so you don't miss anything as you can always come back to any stall that looks interesting.

By far my favourite costume of the weekend

OCC had all kinds of stalls ranging from the usual comic book stores, figurines and costumes, the crafty home made jewellery, sketches, art and art supplies, to the unusual special effects make up, prosthesis and even 3d Modelling. While there were some fantastic local comics on display including From Above, That Bullet Proof Kid, Franken Comics, The Soldier Legacy and others it really felt to me that the convention was a little lacking in the amount of local comics in a convention called OZ Comic-Con I did however get a brilliant sketch by Craig Bruyne creator of From Above. Fortunately All Star Comics had an event on with the local comic creators that couldn't make it to OCC doing free sketches and selling their comics which gave me my local fix.

The only instructions I gave was "dinosaur making pancakes"

There was always something to do at and see including the Adam West Batmobile, Captain America's shield, Thor's hammer, the Hulk Buster and the Iron Throne. By far the most entertaining thing to watch was the stage with the Wii game Just Dance as it was hilarious watching people flail their arms and legs around trying to match the instructed movements as the crowd good naturedly cheered and laughed along.

Worthy!

On the Sunday I had my photo session with Jason Momoa at 9:30am and considering that OCC only opened at 9am I knew I would have to be there right on time or be stuck at the very back of the line, even though I arrived at 9:06am there were still people lined up ahead of me not including the people with priority passes. Now I am torn between how efficiently the line moved through and how you only had a few seconds for the photo then were shuffled out where as at previous photo opportunities at different conventions the line moved slower but you were given a few seconds to say thank you to the guest, but overall I'm going to say that meeting Jason Momoa was pretty exciting and was run rather well and ensuring both the guest and attendees did not spend their entire day waiting. I hear it was a very different story for meeting Bruce Campbell with incredibly long lines but I hear they were handled well.

Fangirl grin!

Overall the weekend went very well, was enjoyable all around and my cosplay was even filmed by the folks at It's Japan Man!.  I would have liked a little more local talent to be on display but couldn't complain about the great ones that were there.
I give Oz Comic-Con 2015 3.5 out of 5 Captain America Shields

Check out more photos from the day here,

My Top 10 Convention Tips

With Oz Comic Con coming up this weekend I'm getting really excited and after a my first few conventions I came up with a bit of a guide to make the convention experience run a little smoother.

1) Buy a two day ticket: I find that going both days is the best way to enjoy a convention allowing you to spend the first day looking around at the stalls, going to panels and enjoying the cosplay.

2) Take your money with you: There are always long lines at ATMs so it is much easier to stop on the way there to grab your cash but don't worry you can always line up for the ATM if you forget or run out of money.

3) Set a budget: It is easy to get a little overwhelmed and spend all your money in the first 15 minutes so to prevent this set yourself a budget and stick to it, remember you need to eat for the rest of the week.

Remember you need food to live

4) Appropriate behaviour: I've spoken about the dos and don'ts before but the basic rule is "if you wouldn't like it done to you, don't do it to others".

5) Have a plan: Have a rough idea of what you'd like to do each day.

6) Be flexible: Sometimes plans just don't work out so be flexible and don't get too upset if it doesn't run like clockwork.

Let's wing it

7) Token Purchase: If you decide you want to get a photo with or an autograph of one of the guests at the convention you will need to purchase a token. If you can purchase the tokens earlier online then that is the best way to go but if not then your next best option is to purchase your tokens at the end of the first day to use on the second day. Unfortunately some conventions have a purchase on the day only and if that's the case you'll just need to line up.

8) Check guest/panel times: If there is a panel you want to attend or a photo/autograph session with a guest make sure you check your times. The last thing you want to do is purchase a guest token and then miss the time completely.

9) Be patient: The lines will be long, everybody has to wait, be patient and your turn will come. If you really don't want to wait you can purchase a priority ticket that gets you first access to photo and autograph sessions.

I know it feels like this but I promise it isn't,

10)  Take a water bottle: I can't stress this enough, you're going to get thirsty, it will happen faster than you think and I don't want to pay $5 for a bottle of water.

This is usually after just the first 2 hours

Free Comic Book Day 2015

Free Comic Book Day 2015 - It's Nerd Christmas

One of the greatest days of the year that comic fans all over the world look forward to is Free Comic Book Day which I like to refer to as Nerd Christmas. Free Comic Book Day falls on the first Saturday of May every year and participating comic book stores around the world  give out free comics. OMG! FREE COMICS!! I'M GONNA GET THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM AND THE SPECIAL EDITION SAGA VOLUME 1!!! Woah, woah, woah back up there comic lovers unfortunately you can't just run into the store and start grabbing comics off the shelves, companies bring out comics especially for Free Comic Book Day and each store will have a limit on the amount of comics that you can take but at the end of the day you will still get your hands on some sweet, sweet free comics. The comics available will often be a reprint of  an issue #1, issue #0, previews of up coming series, one shots and compilations and these aren't obscure series you have never heard of there are many popular titles such as The Avengers, Batman, The Walking Dead, Bob's Burgers, The Simpsons, The Flash and many more of your favourite characters.

My free comics haul

There are always lines for the free comics but you can usually still go in and purchase your regular pull list and purchase off the shelves like normal but be prepared the store will be very busy. I lined up for about an hour and a half at All Star Comics for my free issues but as I have mentioned before there is just something about lining up with other people in the geek community that just makes it fun. Fortunately when I went around to Classic Comics later in the day the lines had died down for the comics and I was able to walk straight in and grab my second haul.

Totally worth the wait

There were many cosplayers and as always I love cosplayers and their enthusiasm so really any excuse to pull out the old costume box is a good one.

The folks at All Star Comics looking awesome as always

Free Comic Book Day will often come with special events at the stores which can range from cosplay competitions, raffles, charity bags but my all time favourite special events are artists doing sketches for people. All Star Comics organised an artist alley that throughout the day had over 40 artists, this year I was lucky enough that this included some of my favourites Chris McQuinlan & Matty Taylor. Classic Comics had artists doing sketches including Darren Close, & Kat Young. The artists will often move from one event to another so don't worry if you miss them at the first one you can probably catch them somewhere else so keep an eye on their Facebook pages.

Classic Comics had the DeLorean!!

I got a hilarious sketch of a T-Rex wearing a sun hat done by Andrew Fitzgerald

A Triceratops wearing an apron done by Chris McQinlan

And a werewolf by Kat Young

Free Comic Book Day is always so much fun with a great combination of excited fans, special events, free comics and meeting unique people you share interests with. The only thing I would suggest is don't make plans for later in the day because part of the fun is going from shop to shop and you will be exhausted and have lots of comics to read when you get home.

Supanova 2015

This year I attended Supanova for the first time and while I have attended other conventions before I have never had as much fun as I did traversing the colourful jungle that was Supanova Pop Culture Expo. The first piece of advice I can give you is if it is a two day event try and go both days because you will just not be able to do it all in one day.

You can always tell your on the correct train when heading to a convention but the number of cosplayers you see on the train with you. Everybody was excited and chatting amongst themselves and to complete strangers, talking about costumes, tv shows, movies, comics and the celebrities that would be attending. One of the greatest things about attending conventions is getting to meet the wonderful people and share the things you love with them because tomorrow the person standing next to you will be a strangers but today they are family.

Also I got to ride on the train with Jesus

My favourite part of any convention or event are the cosplays, I just love them! I love seeing people work so hard to put their costumes together, I love seeing people take photos with their favourite characters and I even love seeing people in hastily thrown together costumes because even though they may not be able to sew or afford to buy a costume they still join want to join in the fun. I saw cosplayers ranging from a Tiny Super baby to an older lady dressed as Professor Umbridge.

This lovely lady snapped into character every time a camera was pointed at her

The amount of stalls and shops available is just unbelievable and can be overwhelming the first time you enter. The best advice I can give you is not to get to excited and spend all your money at the first stall you see, make sure you keep an eye out for smaller, independent stalls because it's a great opportunity to pick up local comic books, art, clothing, jewellery and out of the ordinary things but don't ignore the larger stalls completely as it's also a great chance to collect that elusive figurine you've been searching for.

Everybody needs a giant Hulk

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Supanova was to meet some local comic book creators especially Mike Speakman & Matty Taylor creators of Carmen and Chris Mcquinlan creator of How To Make A Friend as I am a big fan of both of these comics. Meeting these local creators was a big deal for me and all three were absolutely lovely and really just made my whole weekend.

Not only did I meet creators that I already knew of I got to meet some other creators of some really cool books, my favourite new pick up would probably be Fly The Colour Fantastica a comic anthology put together by an all female team of 12 Australian artists. I got to meet a few of the artist and had a fantastic conversation with one of the creators, Alisha Jade, about their influences and the comic industry in general.

Alisha was a cool chick

Conventions also give you the occasional opportunity to meet some of your favourite celebrities from tv and movies. This year I got to meet Manu Bennett who plays Crixus on Spartacus and George Takei who plays Sulu from the original Star Trek series. Both were absolutely lovely and were seemingly unbothered by my weird fangirl grin face. Last year when I attended Oz Comicon I lined for hours to get my photo tokens and then again for the photo session, and while it was worth the wait, the amount of time just standing around ate into the day and enjoyment of the Comicon experience. This year I wanted to avoid spending such a large amount of time lined up so I decided to purchase my photo tokens at the end of the first day and get my photos on the second day which worked much better as I found that I could walk straight up to the counter to obtain the photo tokens and only spent about 20 minutes lining up for photo sessions. The organisers were very successful in having the crowd stay in an orderly line and ensured that the photo sessions were kept moving without feeling like it was rushed through.

Manu Bennett hugged me ^_^

George Takei said I looked like I was having fun

I picked up many fun things at Supanova this year including comic books, stickers, badges, brooches (I love badges & brooches), figurines, jewellery, art, sketches and caricatures and as much fun as all these things are the experience of meeting people I look up to in the comic world, meeting new creators, getting to spend time with like minded people, meeting celebrities I admire, the random things that happened and getting to show my mother around her first convention (that's right Mama Jane's Mama attended) were worth more than all of those things put together.

I' don't know why Death and horse head guy were facing off but they stood like this for 10 minutes

I had a marvelous time at Supanova this year and I would highly recommend going if you ever get the chance. I give my Supanova experience a 5 out of 5 Giant Iron Man suits
If you'd like to see more photos from Supanova check them out on my Facebook