Last month Conflux committee member Cathryn Nagle escaped to Melbourne for Oz Comic Con where she spent the weekend taking care of 12 year old actress Willow Shields (“Primrose”, The Hunger Games) .
Here is Cathryn’s report on Oz Comic Con.
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Cathryn and Willow
On Friday, July 29th, I jumped on a plane and headed for Melbourne to help out at Oz Comic Con for the weekend. After heading straight to the venue I spent the afternoon assisting with “Bump-In” and set-up, then it was off to the Oaks on Market Street to check in and get ready for Friday night’s festivities.
Friday evening was spent attending the VIP Function where attendees with Platinum Passes were able to rub shoulders with actors such as Patrick Stewart, Armin Shimmerman and Jason Momoa as well as comic artists and writers, and Anime voice artists. In fact Canberra’s very own K J Taylor was an Oz Comic Con guest author.
As my main task for the weekend was looking after 12 year old actress Willow Shields (“Primrose”, The Hunger Games) who did not attend the function, I was able to relax and enjoy myself, catching up with friends and chatting with attendees.
The weekend started bright and early at 6.30am with a walk to the venue. We were amazed at the number of fans already lined up when we arrived. The doors opened at 9am to an unprecedented and unexpected influx of people. The organisers were overwhelmed by the support shown for the event with almost 40,000 attendees over the two days.
The weekend was a whirlwind of onstage appearances, photograph and autograph sessions. There were plenty of merchandise stalls for attendees to part with their hard earned cash, as well as an amazing artists alley where comic artists were displaying and selling their artwork. Youngsters, or those young at heart, could play laser tag, or compete in LAN- and card-gaming.
There were some amazing costumes worn by hundreds of attendees, with the line for the Cosplay Competition snaking out of the staging area. The 501st Legion were in attendance which meant that we had plenty of Storm Troopers and Imperial Guards keeping an eye on the proceedings.
I think most will agree that the highlight of the weekend was the appearance of Stan Lee, best known as the co-creator of Spider-Man, The Hulk, The X-Men and many other fictional characters. Stan will be turning 90 in December but you wouldn’t know it, the man was a dynamo, signing over 1000 autographs each day, attending his own photo sessions as well as “Marvel Duo” sessions with Patrick Stewart, and appearing onstage each day. He even attended a special dinner with fans on Saturday night.
Even though I spent most of the weekend working, I had a blast and spoke to many people with the same experience. Willow was a delight and it was such a pleasure to meet spend time with her, her mother and publicist. I’m now looking forward to February next year when I’ll be jetting off to Perth and Adelaide for the next Oz Comic Con events.
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