Salt Lake ComicCon offers opportunities for fans and celebrities to come together

EDITOR’S NOTE – <em>Logan radio personality and comic book aficionado Dave Denton went to the Salt Lake ComicCon last week and came back with pictures and interviews. Dave was able to interview the voices behind Animaniacs, the creative brainchild behind Mystery Science Theater 3000, a Preston teacher who is working on his own comic book series and others. Visit Dave’s blog at <a href=”http://kool1039.com/comic-con-salt-lake-city-2015/” target=”_blank”>kool103.9.com</a> to hear the interviews and see his pictures from the convention.</em>

SALT LAKE CITY – Salt Lake City played host to its fifth consecutive Comic Convention this weekend. The Salt Lake ComicCon has slowly grown over its past five years to become one of the largest Comic Cons in all of the United States, only maybe behind the likes of the New York Con and the big, bad original San Diego ComicCon.

The growing popularity of this event can be seen through Twitter where the hashtag #SLCC15 was the number one used tag in the world over the course of the three-day event.

Saturday started off with two headliners taking the stage as Captain America (Chris Evans), and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) took to the stage in front of a packed crowd of loving fans. While spending time at the Con, I learned that photo opportunities with Chris Evans cost $250 and needed to be scheduled in advance.

Anyone who wanted to try and schedule a picture at the convention was out of luck because those photo opportunities had been sold out days in advance before the Con even began.

That panel was followed by the star of The Vampire Diaries, Ian Somerhalder. For reasons unknown, though, that Q&amp;A started a half hour late and then didn’t even go the full time. Best guess is that Ian was somehow held up in regard to his travel arrangements. During his Q&amp;A, he pointed out that he had flown in from Georgia at 4 a.m. that morning. Unfortunately, that was probably the lowest point of Saturday’s events.

I then had the opportunity to sit in on the actor Robbie Amell panel. Robbie is best known for his roles in The Duff, The Tomorrow People, Flash and this fall will take on a role in the upcoming revival of X-Files. Robbie right now is known most notably for his role as Firestorm on the Flash.

His cousin Stephen Amell, is the lead in Arrow and plays the role of Oliver Queen. These two have been making a push the past few years to see the likes of Batman on their shows.

For the first time, though, Robbie made a different pitch regarding Batman. He said that he feels he could star in a live action adaptation of the cartoon, Batman Beyond, playing the role of Terry McGinnis. Unfortunately though, this seems unlikely with Warner Brothers now being all in on Ben Affleck taking over the role of Batman this spring in the new Batman V Superman which will lead into three subsequent solo films.

I finished out my day of big-name stars with the man who has to be the brightest, most outgoing and just down-right pleasant celebrity I’ve ever had the opportunity to meet. For the second year in a row, John Barrowman graced Salt Lake City with his presence. Best known for his roles as Captain Jack on Doctor Who and currently portrays Malcolm Merlyn on the Arrow.

John, for the second year in a row, played to a packed room. His wacky demeanor and playful antics made for 50 minutes of pure joy.

Other notable appearances at the Con came when a wonderful, working R2-D2 droid worked his way around the main floor of the convention taking pictures with anyone who was interested. Another fun activity people could participate in was the chance to sit in the iron thrown from the popular Game of Thrones on HBO.

Finally, two popular television cars were on display as well as the Batman 1966 Batmobile and Supernaturals Impala were available for photo opportunities.

Overall I’d say this Con was another incredible success and has raised the bar for future Cons in Salt Lake City.

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