By: Justin Pomerville & Jenny Robinson
Long Beach Comic Expo was this past weekend (Feb. 16th & 17th). I only went on Saturday and it was a fun time, but a very quick kind of convention. I was in and out in about three hours. Overall, it was a good experience, but they could have used the space a little more effectively. The layout felt too spaced out for what they had, but they kept the majority of the artist/celebrity signings closer towards the center of the convention, surrounding a boxed off area for bigger name celebrities, which in this case were former WWE superstars Rikishi & Victoria, Martin Klebba (who was in 4 Pirates of the Caribbean films, and Robert Broski (plays the Woodsman on Twin Peaks).
But the biggest name they brought in was Joe Keery, who plays Steve Harrington on "Stranger Things" which he was only there on Saturday, so it was the biggest draw of the con for that day. You had to get tickets in advance in order to do a meet & greet, but even if you don't have tickets, the set up for the area was still pretty lax because of other celebrities occupying the same space that don't charge tickets for meet & greets. I got pretty close to him and was able to make some eye contact with him, but beyond that, security surrounding him was pretty tight and I couldn't take photos up close without having them telling me that if I wanted to take a photo, I would have to stand far enough back, that my phone would not take a clear photo.
My money was mainly spent on getting art from artists that were spread out among the con, as well as starting great conversations with about their art. So, here are the pieces I bought and want to show some love to the artists and you should search them out if you are interested in their style.
These cartoon pieces were done by Aaron Hazouri (Instagram: @cartoonistaaron).
These Marvel pieces were done by Andy Cerreon (Website: https://www.andycarreon.com).
Overall, I had a great time, but in terms of cons (especially if you go by yourself) it was fast and beyond the meet & greet of Joe Keery, I there didn't seem like there were too many events happening. Most of the events seemed to have been on Sunday, but unfortunately I was only able to attend Saturday.
Here is a great video montage that Patrick Nagy (@patrick_nagy1) and Jenny Robinson (@robiart) took when they went on Sunday.