Comics

Wizard World St. Louis Recap

Wizard World has come and gone in St. Louis for the year, and it was an enjoyable time as ever. While a few of the bigger guests weren’t able to attend (Stan Lee, Michael Rosenbaum), there was still plenty to see and do.

I got a brief minute to talk with Jon Heder about the cultural impact and staying power of Napoleon Dynamite (the audio didn’t come out); he said that they made the movie with hopes of family enjoying it on holidays when it was finished. They didn’t know it was something special until after the release of the movie. He enjoys hearing about it being passed down to the next generation of movie viewers (like my 10 year old daughter).

They brought in stuff for the family. There were bands playing at the front of the convention center, along with a magician and a painter, at various points of the show. They also had booths for replica cars, wildlife, kids events, a rock climbing wall/mechanical bull, and sketch artist. The St. Louis R2 Builders had various functional astromech droids scooting around the show.

There was also a good amount of merchandise to purchase; artist had their prints available and shops from all over the country set up shop.

I only made it to 2 panels. The Lord of the Rings panel, where Sean Astin, Sean Bean, and Billy Boyd talked about the movie, was very entertaining. They discussed the movies, their interaction with fans, and more. Astin had a story about meeting Bean after Elijah Woods and him were playing Goldeneye on N64, where they would switch between playing 007 and 006. Bean talked about being type-casted as a villain or a character to be killed, and touched on his enjoyment of memes featuring his characters.

The other panel was YouTube 101 hosted by RealBreakingNate, a YouTube channel owner and a partner with Wizard. He went over the basics of running a channel and took questions from the audience, which was a little on the younger side.

The most enjoyable part of walking around was seeing the costumes. People worked long and hard on the costumes. The Dr. Octopus costume (pictured in the gallery below) took over a year to create and was made specifically for the show. Zombie enthusiast Scary Gary wandered the floor; he’s an actor at the Darkness Haunted House in St. Louis. Other favorites of mine included the Spaceballs characters, Chef, and the Blues Brothers. Click on the thumbnails below for full pictures.

Photo Gallery

The Show
Opening the Event
People entering
Hulk Statue
The RetroNerds
The RetroNerds
The RetroNerds
Front Stage Cosplay
Front Stage Cosplay
Front Stage Cosplay
James Morris
H.E.R.O. Puppet Show for kids
Wildlife Command Center snakes
Wildlife Command Center owls
St. Louis R2 Builders Group
A Batman Astromech
Ace Combat 7 VR
Ace Combat 7 VR
Sketchers, creating comic book versions of fans
A zombie survival car
Jurassic Park jeep
Supernatural Impala
The TARDIS
The Guests
Lucy Davis
James Frain
Jon Heder
Bonnie Wright
Anime Pavilion with signings
Tony Fleecs
Clinton Hobart
Phil Ortiz
Panels
The Lord of the Rings Panel – Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Billy Boyd, Moderator (seated L to R)
YouTube 101 panel with RealBreakingNate
Cosplay
Merman and Barnacle Boy
Creepy Clown
Cable and Domino
Black Panther and the Punisher
Wonder Woman
Negan
The Emperor and Shredder
A Jawa and a Stormtrooper
Elsa
Hellgirl? A gender-switched Hellboy.
Darth Maul
Iron Patriot
The Winter Soldier
Batman Beyond
A blinged out Deadpool – complete with Hello Kitty backpack
Moon Knight
A Steampunk Mandalorian
Beetlejuice
Professor Moody
Black Lightning and Deadpool
A Mandalorian with Medieval Phasma and Kylo Ren
Gender-switched Gambit
A Mandalorian
Jessica Rabbit
A non-Asshole Spaceball with Lord Helmet
Cable
Storm
“Macho Man” Randy Savage
DC Superheroes
Thor
An Ewok
Pennywise
Black Cat
Jango Fett
A Jedi
Dr. Strange
Harley Quinn
Granny with Tweety Bird
Spider-Man with a thief
Little Darryl Dixon
Revan
Superman, Captain America, and Belle
Dragonball Crew
Deathstroke
Billy the Puppet
A Couple of T-Rexes
The Guardians of the Galaxy
Dr. Octopus
The Punisher
Chef
The Blues Brothers
A Stormtrooper
A Blue Lion
Darth Vader
Forbush Man
Random characters
Deadpools
Jacob and Newt Scamander
Wolverine
Silph Co guy
Scary Gary
Napoleon Dynamite
Spider-Man
Scooby’s Crew
Bane
Wario, Mario, and Luigi
Barf
Classic Harley Quinn

2 thoughts on “Wizard World St. Louis Recap

  • Irene Pyatt

    You should have shown Jon Heder the photo of your uncle, his doppelgänger! Hahaha

    • Eugene Tierney

      I thought about it, but didn’t have enough time to pull up the picture.

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