Comic Relief
As the door opened, the murmur of a small crowd filled the air. Then the intercom came on the crowd went silent.
“The Sheraton would like to welcome you all to the first Vermont Comic-Con! You may now enter,” said the voice through the intercom speaker.
The crowd quickly moved into the exposition room of The Sheraton Hotel in Burlington on Oct. 25 to find it filled with tables of comic books, comic artists, collector toys and nerd culture clothing and drinking glasses.
One of the big attractions was Marvel Comic artist Nick Bradshaw. When asked why he chose to attend Vermont Comic he happy replied.
“Well, one because I’m friends with the event organizer, Bob Shaw, and I prefer small cons over the large ones also,” he said with a big smile as he finished a sketch.
Bradshaw’s girlfriend, Danica “Karibu” Brine, also attended and had a stand set up of her own. She said she was happy to be at the convention and said she is a freelance artist who specializes in magna.
Vermont artist Matthew Sylvester talked about his inspiration for becoming a comic artist.
“Stephen Bissette, a Vermont artist who worked on DC Comics “Swamp Thing” and seeing the original Star Wars movies in the theater as kids. My folks bought me the “Art of Star Wars” for Christmas.”
As the day progressed, more and more people stated to show up. The number of participant wearing costumes outnumbered those who didn’t. Almost all the event goers where happy and friendly and also very happy to give interviews – but only under their character’s name to remain anonymous.
“I’m super excited. This is my first type of convention ever,” said Black Widow from the “Marvel Universe” with a happy grin on her face.
“It’s a nice turn out. More people than I thought there would be,” replied The Tardis of “Doctor Who.”
“I’m really excited, actually. Especially when I saw online that it was going to be in Vermont,” cheered a female Castiel from “Supernatural.”