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If you're riding Salt Lake's TRAX in late September, you might find yourself sharing a bench with The Joker. Try to act natural.
A few stops later, if Princess Jasmine boards, keep reading your book. Public transit is important, and it's about time Disney royalty joined the effort. But if a life-size Pooh bear gets on at Main Street, you have my permission to ask what in Brigham's name is going on.
Turns out, you did not fall asleep and you are not having a bizarre dream. As Pooh will surely explain, you are in the midst of Salt Lake's Comic Con, an annual revenge-of-the-nerds-style gathering that unites fantasy freaks, sci-fi fiends, and anime aficionados under one roof for three days of seriously serious fun.
"Like what kind of fun?" You ask incredulously, pretending you're not planning your Maleficent debut in your head.
All kinds. Paint-your-face-to-look-like-Bain kind of fun. Get-Jean-Luc-Picard's- autograph-on-your-belly type fun. Buy-a-pointillist-Hello-Kitty-quilt sort of fun. Discover- the-hottest-apocalyptic-comic-before-it's-cool, go-to-panels-about-Leonard-Nimoy-and- the-space-time-continuum, and dress-up-like-a-wrathful-Dark-Phoenix all-around kind of fun.
The dress-up party has a name. It's called Cosplay, a beguiling portmanteau for "costume play," which is really just the beguiling idea that adults can dress up as princess-avengers without working at Disneyland.
Cosplay connoisseurs will tell you it's not a Halloween thing; it's about taking on a character, embodying it and adding your own personal flair to the concept. Really, if you have a bizzaro bucket list, why not add "join a throng of fantastically painted human creatures" to the list? Nothing is quite as fun as sweating on 120,000 friendly escapists.
Or maybe you'd prefer Diagon--I mean, Artist's Alley. This land of both the aforementioned Hello Kitty quilt and about a trillion other booths selling everything from heating pads shaped like dragons to 3-D sculptures of Ash Ketchum (collect them all!). So pick up a knit-your-own-hobbit-scarf kit and use it to pass the time in line as you wait for photo-ops with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Hobbit note: Hand-knit scarves take time, so why not finish it watching one of the plethora of panels that are the hallmark of each year's Comic Con?
Luckily for you, Salt Lake has one of the biggest Cons in the nation, second only in size to the San Diego Con that started it all. This means more vendors, more movie stars and more nerding out. It also means it's perfect for newbs. Don't have a costume? Just walk really closely behind that lady dressed as Storm and steal all her thunder (pardon the pun).
There are as many reasons to go to Salt Lake's Comic Con as there are participants. Go for the magic. Go because you have an octopus mask and you don't know where to use it. Go to say you went. Go to join the so-called Borg (resistance is futile!). Go to see your male Mormon boss dressed up like Superwoman. But no matter what, go and shake a wicked, costumed leg. Check out the KSL Deal for 20 percent off a three-day pass.
