No Cons To Cape Comic Con

Special cover by Greg Land
cape-con.com

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter
My 1-2-3 Cents Podcast (pro wrestling)
Nerds United Podcast  (comic books & more)

Growing up,  I was never a comic book kid.  I had a few, but never collected them.  I read the comics in the newspaper everyday and loved the Sunday full color spread. I also had a collection of Family Circus and Garfield books.  But Superman, Spiderman and Green Lantern never appealed to me.  I've recently taken note of this form of entertainment, thanks to the Nerds United Show on the Jittery Monkey Podcasting Network.

When I got word that Cape Comic Con was celebrating its 10 year anniversary and wrestler "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton would be on hand, I quickly got on board with visiting this event.  I had never been to any sort of comic-con.  I'd seen pictures that Chad had from the big one in San Diego and always thought it looked cool.  After all, I'm one of the biggest geeks/nerds that I know, so these events should be right up my alley.

My daughter and I made the 70 minute drive to Cape Girardeau for our first comic-con.  The price of admission was just five bucks.  I've been to plenty of other wrestle-con events where you spend at least four times that just to get in the door.  Then there's all the fees for photos and autographs.  There was plenty of talent on hand in "little ol' Cape Girardeau".  The Flash and "Henry Allen" John Wesley Shipp was one of the featured guests.  

Recording My 1-2-3 Cents the podcast with Bobby Eaton

Marvel artist Greg Land created a special cover exclusive to Cape Comic Con.  He was also on hand for the weekend, along with local TV host Misty Brew and a handful of other artists.  As I mentioned, "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton of the Midnight Express (one of my favorite wrestling tag teams) was there too.  We talked for about 10 minutes in episode 21 of the podcast.  I've read about Eaton and how nice he is behind the scenes.  That was certainly the case at Cape Comic Con.  He was soft spoken and humble.  He even invited my daughter to take a picture and he signed my copy of the Midnight Express scrapbook by Jim Cornette.  I appreciate his time.  You can hear it all right here.

Author Jay Noel
jaynoel.com

There were plenty of vendors, selling their vintage comic books, toys and tee shirts.  We mostly browsed, but my daughter did ask for a pair of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle earrings, which I was happy to buy for her.  I picked up a copy of the book Dragonfly Warrior for my teenage son.  The book is written by a good friend and fraternity brother of mine, Jay Noel.  

The experience was great.  This year marked the best ever for Cape Comic Con as more than 2,800 people rolled through over the course of three days.  This is great news for fans around the region and I'm already looking forward to the 2016 version of the show.  Maybe next year I'll get involved in the costume contest.