Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover, we began sharing cosplay pics from Wizard World Chicago 2013, albeit limited to subjects we ran across on Saturday, August 10th, because current family events negated sticking around for any additional days.

One of the more unusual Marvel options: Steampunk Iron Man! And possibly his assistant, Victorian Pepper Potts or Bethany Cabe.

The mighty Thor has no use for standing in our puny mortal lines.

Black Widow commands the spotlight in this excerpt from the upcoming children’s classic, Where’s Joker?

We saw quite a few Deadpools at the con (none of them quite as off-kilter as this one), but only one Lara Croft with sensible archaeologist hat.

Ant-Man, soon to star in his own major motion picture star. Behind him, a blurry Silk Spectre misses out on the limelight.

A true rarity these days: a Marvel/DC crossover! Odin willingly grants an audience to Loki (slightly transformed yet again), Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn (forgoing makeup in order to appear more trustworthy), little suspecting the fiendish plans they have in store for him.

Marvel/DC villains united! Or arguably antiheroes! Whatever! Beware the wrath of Atrocitus, animated Catwoman, Red Lantern Mera from Blackest Night, and Marvel’s Executioner.

A more traditional Harley Quinn betrays her puddin’ and hangs out with a new beau on the side. Because he’s Batman.

Green Arrow accompanied by a more recent version of his sidekick Speedy, who’s been wiped from existence thanks to the New 52.

Robert Louis Stevenson totally missed out by never writing a story called The Strange Case of Doctor Who and Mr. Freeze.

Possibly the world’s only DC/Disney/Star Wars crossover: Academy Award Winner Marlon Brando IS Jor-El of Krypton, accompanied by his new consultants Cruella de Vil and Hanna Solo.

Fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe can rejoice in being represented at WWC by Darth Revan.

At last, a Stormtrooper who’s found the drug he’s looking for.

I’m not sure whether to title this one “The Residents Go to Alderaan”, “Daft Punk on a Double Date”, or “OPPAN EMPIRE STYLE”.

To be concluded! In the next chapter: actors and other things that aren’t costumes.

This weekend our starstruck hometown of Indianapolis hosted the 46th edition of GenCon, one of America’s oldest and largest gaming conventions. Be it RPGs, tabletop games, TCGs, dice games, family board games, or (a smattering of) video games, your gaming preferences are tended to at GenCon. Try a new game, pick up supplies for your current campaigns, spar with gamers from other lands, or just wander the premises and soak in as much as you can.

Attendance in 2012 exceeded 40,000 — not quite DragonCon numbers and a far cry from the San Diego Comic Con, but it’s certainly one of Indy’s largest annual downtown events (GenCon is gunning for your title, FFA Expo), consuming not only the entirety of our Indiana Convention Center but conference rooms and miscellaneous spaces in several nearby hotels and other unused commercial structures. For four days every year, GenCon is everywhere downtown.

This was my fourth GenCon and my wife’s third, even though we’re not certified pro gamers. Some of our personal geek interests intersect with enough of the available exhibits, dealers, and special events that we’re rarely bored except in the occasional line, but those come with the territory. For extra family fun, this year was our first time escorting our nephew into the fray, letting the overwhelming sights and sounds puncture new holes in his mindset, pausing every so often to give him time to shop for new Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and accessories to augment his existing arsenal.

We begin our retrospective with (most of) the winners from GenCon’s 28th annual costume contest. Caveat for newcomers to MCC: some of our photos aren’t the greatest ever. The 500 Ballroom is always poorly lit before and after the contest, even moreso during. Flash photography was forbidden, largely to ruin the day for us well-meaning amateurs. I’m trying to content myself with the surprise fact that more of our shots succeeded than usual, as will be seen over the course of this miniseries. This is something we enjoy doing, to show our appreciation and awe for those with the flair for this particular aspect of the scene. We apologize in advance for the costumes we missed, and for the opportunities we blew because of our numerous limitations.

Comments and especially corrections are always welcome and appreciated. I’m not plugged directly into every single geek scene out there. Very few geeks are, even the famous ones with their own YouTube channels. If you notice any wanton acts of mislabeling, please don’t hesitate to call me out. I enjoy learning about new worlds and universes, giving credit where it’s due, and dispelling my old man’s ignorance.

Onward, then: this year’s Audience Favorite: Sarah Kerrigan and two Space Marines from StarCraft. They also won first place in the Professional Division. I have no idea how they moved or survived in those things.

Professional division, second place: steampunk Ghostbusters, several of whom we’re certain have graced this stage before, but now featuring Steampunk Zuul, Steampunk Possessed Dana, and Steampunk Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man. Yes, that’s a costume with a live human inside, not a stuffed carnival prize. Hacking into it to make s’mores was strictly forbidden in most cultures.

Pot luck, second place: Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer — one of two caught on the premises that day.

Pot luck, first place: the tenth Doctor Who and Captain Jack Harkness, quite the couple. (First in a series of our pics I’d like to subtitle, “I just assumed your version would come out fine!”)

In the Group Division, second place winners were an ensemble of steampunk characters starring steampunk robot.

Group Division, first place: an Inquisitor and his acolytes from Warhammer 40,000. At far right, Doctor Who #10 doffs his trenchcoat and peeks in for some much-needed focus.

Anime Division, first place: Vash the Stampede from Trigun.

Fantasy/Historical Division, second place: Steampunk Mary Poppins. In the background, Vash the Stampede waits patiently in line for his cash prize.

Fantasy/Historical Division, first place: Red Sonja. And all the Gail Simone fans in the world rejoiced.

Winners of the Golden Needle Award for excellence in fashion design: four members of the cast of Rurouni Kenshin, who also performed a Jerry Springer parody sketch.

Winners of the Staff Favorite award were the three wizards from Lord of the Rings. In reviewing our files, Saruman won Most Photogenic of the three.

Games/Media Division, first place: Deathstroke the Terminator (the Arkham Origins version, I think) in perpetual motion.

Kids Division, second place: the Wreck-It Ralph spoiler version of Princess Vanellope von Schweetz. Neat trick with this one: the Princess regalia was removable, revealing Vanellope’s plain-Jane attire she wore in the rest of the film.

Kids Division, first place: Flame Princess from Adventure Time.

Sci-Fi and Super-Heroes Division, second place: this living TARDIS, along with a large Dalek manned by a surprisingly young lad of age five or six. (Bonus costume for this entry at far left: a Fringe Observer!)

Sci-Fi and Super-Heroes Division, first place: Godzilla versus Gorghadra from the game Monsterpocalypse.

Listed for the sake of completeness are the other winners in these categories who successfully evaded our cameras. MCC management sincerely regrets the following omissions:

* Games/Media Division, second place: Daryl Dixon from The Walking Dead.
* Anime Division, second place: Temari of the Sand, from Naruto.
* GenCon “Best Backstory” Award: an actual couple dressed as Indiana Jones and Lara Croft.

To be continued!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: we commenced with the first installment of our photo collection from this year’s GenCon Indy. For parts Two and Three we’ll continue spotlighting the annual Costume Contest, but moving on from the winners to the other entrants, a most worthy and crowded field.

Part Two, then: characters from games of all types. Same rules apply as last time, especially the part about correcting me when I’m wrong. if you’d like to set the record straight, I solemnly vow I won’t cry.

As always, Final Fantasy receives preferential treatment here because I’ve actually played most of those. Forthwith: Fang, the dragoon L’Cie who shows up late in FFXIII and makes some of our older party members look sick. Here she’s questing for her lost teammate Hope. Lightning and Vanille also shared the stage, but Fang won our Most Decent Pic Award of that random moment.

From the same realm, more or less: Terra, our main character from FFVI.

Altair from the Assassin’s Creed series. Our MC had a devil of a time pronouncing his name despite the corrections shouted from the rows behind us.

Amaterasu from Okami. We’ve seen at least one of these at a previous GenCon, which helped me get the spelling down pat.

A Dark Brotherhood Assassin from Skyrim.

Sera Eldwyn from the board game Summoner Wars.

Lady Aiyana from the tabletop game Warmachine. No relation to Jim Rhodes, whose super-hero name is spelled differently.

A Pyro with a Lollichop. That may be one of the silliest sentence fragments I’ve typed in quite a while. Blame Team Fortress 2.

Skull Kid from Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.

Proto Man, from the Mega Man series, armed with laser Gatling gun. Because sometimes a normal Gatling gun with ordinary bullets just isn’t hurtful enough.

Rathalos soul armor from Monster Hunter. Or something to that effect. This armor is comprised of over 900 scales, 250 of those in the helmet alone. This might’ve won the Professional Division in a less crowded year, but that division had more entrants this time around than I’ve personally ever witnessed in my limited experience.

The samurai Nakayama Hayato from Pathfinder, also up against a tough crowd in the star-studded Professional Division.

Avacyn, Angel of Hope, from Magic: the Gathering.

Also from Magic: the Gathering, the team supreme of Garruk Wildspeaker, Liliana Vess, Jace Beleren, and Gideon Jura.

To be continued!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: GENCON GENCON GENCON GENCON GENCON. My wife and I average four conventions a year, and GenCon consistently has the broadest, most impressive assortment of cosplayers and handicrafts of them all. Sure, we could leave this work up to the professionals with better cameras…but why?

In Part One we listed all the Costume Contest winners. In Part Two we celebrated several other entrants, all game-themed. This time around is the last of the contest photos, what we have left that’s as close to usable as possible. We would’ve taken more and better photos if circumstances had permitted. Traditionally we’ve been able to do so after the contest ends, when many of the contestants usually hang around the ballroom and/or the adjacent staging room for a while. Unfortunately this year’s contest ran much longer than usual. By the time the house lights came up and all the prizes had been claimed, the majority of the cosplayers had long since fled the vicinity for parts unknown.

Nonetheless, we’d like our opportunity to salute the variety and imagination that fans boldly put forth that day. Random example: steampunk Disney Princesses — Snow White, Ariel, Rapunzel, Jasmine, and Belle.

More princesses, you say? Say hello to Azula from Avatar: the Last Airbender, before her breakdown. I think.

Not uncommon enough? Try Princess Nuala from Hellboy 2: the Golden Army.

Game of Thrones is not my thing, so I’m unclear if Daenerys Targaryen is a princess, a queen, or just someone whose dragons you’re not supposed to take.

Rogue isn’t quite the princess type, not even so much as a stereotypical Southern belle.

Also not a princess: Janice Rand, the longest-lived redshirt in Starfleet history.

On the opposite end of the superhuman spectrum in every conceivable way: Scarecrow from the Arkham Asylum game.

Even more mysterious: this armored representative whose name sounded to my poor hearing like “Mate the Defender”. I’m 80% certain this is incorrect. Can I get a little help from the Viewers at Home?

UPDATED 8/19/2013, 10:15 p.m.: Special thanks to my son for ID’ing this one: Magna Defender from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, originally known as BullBlack in the Super Sentai series Seijuu Sentai Gingaman.

Much simpler to identify for us near-elderly fans: Captain America and Thor.

Also from the Department of Characters I Know: the fairytale-realm version of Rumpelstiltskin from Once Upon a Time. Obviously he could’ve used his powers to win the contest unfairly, but wisely declined because, of course, magic always comes with a price.

I read several chapters of the One Piece manga years ago when I collected Shonen Jump for a short time, but it took a good, long while before I remembered the irritating Usopp.

Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, one of my son’s all-time favorite anime.

Once more, with feeling: one more living TARDIS.

To be continued! Next time: costumes from around the show floor, nearly all of them in focus. Be there!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: our weekend-long GenCon 2013 photo marathon! On a normal weekend, posting at this pace would destroy my nervous system and upset my family, but I’d rather share these with attendees as quickly as possible and then collapse for a day or two.

If you’re joining us at random some months down the road, here’s where we’re at so far:

* Part One: this year’s Costume Contest winners.
* Part Two: other Costume Contest entrants, a talented lot in their own right, trapped in a wide field in which some folks regrettably had to be chosen as not-winners.
* Part Three: the last of the not-winners. If anyone’s desperate for outtakes of themselves that weren’t already posted, we have a select few photos that appear to have been taken under earthquake conditions. If I shrink them down to 50×50, they might be useful as tiny avatars, but not for showing off to your family. (Seriously, if anyone has a desperate tiny-avatar request, I’ll be happy to add it to Part 6.)

Parts four and five will be other costumed entities we spotted roaming the Indiana Convention Center of their own free will. One of my personal favorites of this bunch: an uncanny Mr. Incredible.

Deadpool has been popping up at a lot of cons lately. He’s an acceptable change of pace from all the Captain Jack Sparrows and Heath Ledger Jokers we used to see in droves.

Sharp-eyed followers take note: this is a different Rocketeer from the Rocketeer who appeared in Part One. I saw both minus helmets — very different gents, two great minds thinking alike. I like to think Dave Stevens would’ve approved.

Roger and Jessica Rabbit, one of many happy couples enjoying the con.

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. Because Adult Swim will never die!

Spy vs. Spy, from ye olden days of MAD Magazine. Your parents surely remember them.

For younger readers: the Avengers! Except they’re versions you won’t see in the movies. Left to right: Thor Girl, Dark Reign Loki, She-Hulk, and the Yelena Belova version of Black Widow. All of these are actual comics characters, I promise.

Lara Croft, Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Hellboy. Three characters from three different media.

Lego Superman! The best part of the job in his alternate Earth is that even if Lego Zod levels several square miles of real estate, all the properties and casualties are really easy to rebuild.

Wonder Woman and Batgirl, representing for classic DC Comics.

Same goes here for Zatanna and Harley Quinn, whose rebooted versions in DC Comics’ New 52 don’t look much like this anymore.

A creative Harley variant accompanies her puddin’, plus Catwoman and Rorschach, even though he’s from a different Earth.

Even older-than-old-school: the Star-Spangled Kid, Troia (formerly Wonder Girl), and the original Firestorm the Nuclear Man. TAKE THAT, NEW 52.

Another personal favorite: Booster Gold and a member of his fan club, which counts as a costume in itself because the shirt appeared on a Booster Gold cover a few years ago. So yeah, sincere high-fives to these two.

To be continued!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: GenCon costumes! In our last astonishing chapters:

* Part One: this year’s Costume Contest winners.
* Part Two: more Costume Contest entrants.
* Part Three: still more Costume Contest entrants.
* Part Four: Super-hero and animation-themed costumes discovered around the Convention Center but out of competition.

Part Five, as promised, is much like Part Four, but with different themes. Pot luck, as it were. This represents our last batch of non-terrible costume photos from any genre. I can scrounge up a few more terrible ones if there’s a surge in demand. Once again, a plea from me: any comments and especially corrections are welcome, especially since this entry has a few more mystery characters lined up.

Once again Final Fantasy favoritism wins out as we lead with Auron from FFX and Kingdom Hearts 2, both winners in my book.

Not quite the same Magic: the Gathering party we saw in Part Two. These versions of Garruk Wildspeaker, Jace Beleren, Elspeth Tirel, and Liliana Vess find themselves vexed by a new enemy, who may or may not be a wayward outcast from Sharknado.

Our old friends Godzilla and Gorghadra return from Part One, now accompanied by a candy-themed princess that I couldn’t quite identify. Unless I’m way off-base, she’s not Princess Frostine from Candy Land, Princess Vanellope from Wreck-It Ralph, or Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time. Thoughts, anyone?

Codex (far right) hangs out with three party members who are clearly not her teammates from The Guild. Wait’ll Vork hears about this.

When anti-Talos protestors emerge from the world of Skyrim and begin disturbing the peace, innocent bystanders can’t flee the scene quickly enough.

Alice out of Wonderland with the Cheshire Cat and…this one guy?

From the people who brought you Rizzoli and Isles, Franklin and Bash, and King and Maxwell, it’s the stars of the new buddy-adventurer series Satyr and Dryad, only on TNT!

Not every participant needs to be labeled. Sometimes a nice costume is just a nice costume.

Mysterious armored sentinel stands guard over GenCon signage. At far left is the cover art from this year’s program. The style reminds me of Joe Madureira, but the program failed to credit the artist.

Observe an observing Observer from Fringe.

Mandatory Star Wars costumes, #1 of three: obligatory Stormtrooper.

#2: Expanded Universe denizen Darth Revan, though a different Revan from other Revans we previously encountered at this year’s Wizard World Chicago and last year’s GenCon. More than a few Knights of the Old Republic fans out there.

#3: Darth Nihilus from Knights of the Old Republic II. Out with the old Darth, in with the new Darths.

One final envoy from the steampunk subgenre: Steampunk Santa Claus!

For anyone who wanted to join in the costuming free-for-all but showed up unprepared and skeptical, the generous folks at Paizo Publishing were handing out free Pathfinder goblin masks, as my wife is modeling here.

The moral of the story, here and in these five entries collectively: given the resources, the courage, and a spark of imagination, anyone can cosplay. The results may not always be ready for strutting down a Hollywood catwalk, but who cares?

To be concluded! Next time: pics of things besides costumes.

My wife has always been a big fan of the 1983 TV miniseries V and its 1984 sequel, V: the Final Battle. She could take or leave the short-lived series that followed, and she had no interest in sampling the recent failed reboot.

Veterans of V are an extreme rarity at local geek conventions. Until tonight she’d only met its star, Marc Singer, several years ago at a Trek con that was generous enough to incorporate other sci-fi universes. While it was interesting for us to see the original Beastmaster up close, he was never her favorite V character. Whenever she waxes nostalgic about the show, her narrative sooner or later turns to the subplot of Willie, the humble alien Visitor who would betray his race, join the human resistance, provide comic relief, and lend the show some much-appreciated heart. He may not have been a he-man like Singer, but I’ll admit he stood out in every episode I saw when she introduced me to their world.

This weekend that particular actor is in town, headlining a convention that’s been around for a few years. We’ve never attended it before because its primary focus really isn’t our thing. After weeks of hemming and hawing over whether or not this was a suitable idea for us, ultimately we had to ask ourselves: how many other chances will she have to meet him?

It’s in that spirit, after no small amount of deliberation, that we endured wretched construction traffic and the world’s ickiest dealer booths to grant her not-dying wish of meeting the man who brought Willie to life.

Many of you know him better for his movie work, including one specific character ten thousand times more well-known than Willie.

So yeah, that’s us with Robert Englund, in my new favorite convention photo of the year.

Attendees had the chance to pay money for a photo op with Englund, who was clearly having a blast and open to whatever posing suggestions each fan brought to the table. His line was a few hundred strong, but moved quickly. 99 out of every 100 photos struck the same pose: Englund grinning like a ghoul and threatening the fan(s) with his trademark Freddy Krueger ginsu glove. Imaginative prudes that we are, we were hoping for something a little different.

As is sometimes the case, inspiration struck her first. As we approached for our turn, she immediately greeted him with the V-for-victory hand sign. Englund stopped in his tracks, thought for a split-second, realized what she was referencing, immediately shifted gears, doffed the glove, and…presto! A photo op to call our own.

This was our primary objective and our biggest expenditure at HorrorHound Weekend Indianapolis 2013. Again: not something we normally attend. Horror was never part of my wife’s pop-culture diet by choice, only when others foisted it on her. For me it was all but intrinsic to my disgruntled teen and bitter young-adult years. Nowadays, not remotely so much. (That’s a long story in itself. Another time, perhaps?) But, y’know, this was Willie. He still pops up here and there in random TV guest spots. And I saw plenty of his films in my youth, including all seven films in his one big series, which means the event might or might not qualify for being grandfathered on a temporary free pass. Or something.

It’s kind of a complicated subject, for which I refuse to pretend I have every answer. I have no doubt that sharing our weekend plans with one of our pastors would spark a fascinating conversation. Events like this certainly aren’t for everyone, but we’d like to think we emerged from the experience intact, albeit a wee reviled by things we cannot unsee. We knew the job was dangerous when we took it.

Besides, it’s worth noting that “horror” spans an undeniably broad spectrum. Representing for the defense are life-size models of old-school scarers Nosferatu and Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein, relatively benign members of the community.

Not every square inch was devoted to blood ‘n’ brains. Ballyhoo Pictures, the company that’s produced featurettes for the last several Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD sets, was on hand with genuine MST3K props, such as Mike Nelson’s first jumpsuit (including a handmade Wisconsin patch on one shoulder) and the miniature Door #5 from one of the “MOVIE SIGN!” transition sequences. Joel, Mike, and the ‘Bots survived more than a few horrid horror flicks back in their day, so the’re hardly off-topic.

My wife was understandably perplexed at the sight of a giant Green Goblin head. I had to explain this was a prop from Maximum Overdrive, a movie about a small town plagued by evil, sentient trucks. Emilio Estevez, The Simpsons‘ Yeardley Smith, and The Wire‘s Frankie Faison are among the few living actors who can say they once worked with director Stephen King. This Goblin head was mounted on one of the really sinister trucks. I have no idea why because I never finished watching it. Perhaps it was explained in a scene after the end credits.

No convention is complete without cosplay, even on Friday night. Behold the natural stars of the show floor.

Movie maniac copycats abounded for each of the big names in the biz. Not usually in identical pairs, though. Points for creativity.

I’m not sure this was meant to be Pumpkinhead, but he was equipped with a creepy voice filter for value-added disturbance. I like to think of him as the malevolent avatar of pumpkin-flavored everything. And soon he will be overtaking all our restaurants once more. CURSE YOU, PUMPKIN FLAVOR DEMON.

Most of the other acting guests were murderers or murder victims from assorted slasher flicks, including the likes of Jamie Kennedy (whom I’ll someday forgive for Son of the Mask), Vivica A. Fox (Independence Day), Larry Drake (Darkman), Christopher Marquette (Fanboys), Danielle Harris (Bruce Willis’ li’l daughter in The Last Boy Scout), Gerrit Graham (the underrated Now and Again), Brendan Fletcher (the Parasite on Smallville), and — pictured here — Zack Ward from two winning episodes of Dollhouse and, in his youth, A Christmas Story.

I would’ve been stoked to meet Chad Coleman from The Wire (Cutty!), but filming schedules precluded any of the three Walking Dead guests from appearing Friday. My loss.

The atmosphere was convivial. The gatekeeping was minimal. The photo op line kept us in great company with fellow fans close to our ages. The overcrowded dealers’ room was par for the course. The wretched concessions haven’t made me ill yet. All told, not too shabby an experience for a three-hour tour. A couple of the Saturday panels sound intriguing (especially Ballyhoo’s premiering of their new, feature-length MST3K documentary), but our schedule, budget, and other preferences got in the way and limited us to tonight only. As far as we’re concerned, that photo is quite the grand consolation prize.

Fortunately for our uncommon family, J. K. Rowling created characters for every imaginable somatotype.

Most of the accessories were thrift-shop finds. My son’s Weasley hair was simulated using an entire can of orange hair spray. We spent the evening accompanying her sister’s family and had a total blast. And then we never did it again.

Costuming was fun while it lasted for us in that moment, but I realized tonight that this Halloween will be the tenth anniversary of the last time I wore a costume. It’s not that I’m against costumes or feeling too dignified and self-important. I just can never think of any viable options to suit my fussy qualifications.

When I was a kid, it was easy — usually a matter of finding the right box at the nearest department store to suit whatever characters I was into at the time. The childhood costumes I remember best include:

* Spider-Man: at age 5, it was my very first costume and trick-or-treating experience. I went to exactly one (1) door, received a couple of Pixy Stix, then became too frightened to continue because strangers. Mom wasn’t happy because we weren’t rich and costumes weren’t that cheap.

* Godzilla: The working uniform for my first winning foray into candy solicitation. Perhaps the persona bolstered my confidence, or the fact that this time I went door-to-door with other kids. Strength in numbers, and all that.

* Great Mazinga from the Shogun Warriors: Like Spider-Man, this was one of those classic Ben Cooper get-ups, which consisted of a flimsy front-only mask with an elastic string, and a plastic smock that ripped at the slightest movement. But it was Shogun Warriors and therefore spectacular by definition.

* A mime: My last childhood costume was both desperate and lazy — black T-shirt and one tube of white face paint. By the following year my friends had moved away and the occasion felt outgrown.

At my first job we were allowed to dress up if we were stuck working Halloween, as long as it didn’t interfere with serving the customers. By then I’d lightened up once more and found myself inspired a few times, for better or worse. Some of my best-remembered costumes:

* Generic slasher guy: On the premise that one could assemble a costume merely by buying random items from a fly-by-night Halloween store, I was decked out in a black hooded robe, plastic hockey mask, ball-’n'-chain on my ankle, and fake butcher knife tucked into my belt. As someone who prided himself on speed of service, I adapted quickly to the ball-’n'-chain but fought all night long with the robe as it interfered with my stride, straining to maneuver normally around the grill area with limited success.

* Disgruntled postal worker: Older readers may faintly recall when these were a recurring headline villain. They can’t all be tasteful winners. Blue dress shirt with fake blood splatters; baseball cap with a hand-drawn USPS logo taped to the front; and a toy gun. As a young adult male, I considered it my holiday duty to ensure a disturbing, tacky Halloween for one and all. Kind of regretting typing this one just now.

* Two-Face: Face painted half-purple; hair and dress shirt half-dyed; one shoe markered up to match. It was the most elaborate costume I ever created myself.

* Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit: Speaking of tasteful winners. I drew “tattoos” on both forearms with markers that took days to fade; wore a backwards cap; bought a shirt from Hobby Lobby and wrote across it, “LIMP BIZKIT IS BETTER THAN EVERYONE”, as seen on actual shirts. Because I wanted the kind of costume that would make people scream, “Nooooooooo!”

Those were, as they say, the days. My current job’s dress code remains in effect even on Halloween, though I’ve sometimes worn themed ties for the occasion. I’ve run out of offspring to take trick-or-treating, and adult Halloween parties tend to be soaked in liquor and therefore not my thing. I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to light convention cosplay if I could muster up an identity that didn’t require a massive budget, full headgear that kills my peripheral vision, or shaving off my mandatory beard. Offhand the only suitable characters that come anywhere near to mind are Aaron from Revolution, maybe George Lucas once the aging process renders my hair fully grey, or I could join the thousands-strong legion of Silent Bob impersonators.

Until and unless some future purveyor of otherworldly fiction tailors a new character specifically for me and the millions of other geeks that rolled off the same assembly line as me…well, at least I’ll always have Hagrid.

On this weekend in 1988, the inaugural Starbase Indy introduced Indianapolis to the amazing world of Star Trek conventions. Though it later expanded its purview to include other sci-fi TV shows, and was in limbo for a few years during a dark era (long story), its current owners and staffers have spent the last ten years valiantly returning to its glory days and rebalancing the original confluence of actor appearances, hobbyist events, and fan participation/interaction. For local geeks such as my wife and myself, it’s a regular highlight of our average Thanksgiving weekend, more fun and with far fewer confirmed fatalities than Black Friday.

2013 marks SBI’s eighteenth iteration and its twenty-fifth anniversary (for the asynchronous discrepancy I again point you to “long story”), but shows no signs of deterioration. If anything, this was the most efficient SBI yet — speedy photo op lines, gregarious guests all happy to be here, multiple events requiring more room space than usual, wider snack selection in the Con Suite. Best of all: two of the headliners were main cast members from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the greatest Trek series of all time in our household.

Naturally there were also costumes. Apropos of our ongoing TV marathon (as previously mentioned), we had to mark the occasion by meeting a Doctor.

For the past few years we’ve been attending four conventions each year: SBI, C2E2, GenCon, and Wizard World Chicago. Even though SBI is the smallest by a wide margin, it understandably features more Trek costumes than all the rest. Testifying here are Vulcan and Trill crew members alongside stately Admiral Sulu.

Always appearing in uniform are members of local geek-rock band Five Year Mission, holding court here with Q and other crew. Once they arrived, their crowd held steady and their most recent album disappeared from the table before I could buy a copy. Rats.

First time we’ve ever seen an Enterprise uniform at any convention. Points for originality!

Proof positive that there’s more than one fashion option on Orion. (And you can check out her site here.)

Also on the premises as expected: Star Wars! The 501st Legion represents with a Snowtrooper, Sandtrooper, and custom Mandalorian.

I’m even happier to see comic books receive their due. Special guest star: Zatanna!

Other special guest star: Black Canary! For new readers who’ve only been introduced to DC Comics within the last two years, please note both are in classic regalia, not their current New 52 suits, whatever those even look like, because who cares.

For fans wanting their own photos in otherworldly settings, you had the option of a green-screen photographer on the premises, or a pair of life-size props. Here, my wife emerges from a Stargate. To be honest, we thought this was a Deep Space Nine doorway until I noticed the hieroglyphs.

For a simple donation to an autism charity, attendees could also take over the Captain’s Chair and pretend to open fire on some passing enemy cruiser. Or surrender to it, whichever suits your captaining style. In my mind, I watched as my helpless opponents burned.

To be continued!

Indianapolis hosted Star Wars Celebrations II and III in 2002 and 2005, which each attracted over 20,000 fans. Every year since 2003 we’ve hosted Gen Con, which keeps climbing in attendance and turned out 49,000 strong in 2013. We’ve hosted Super Bowl LXVI, the Big 10 college basketball conference, the Indianapolis 500, the Pan Am Games, and other large-scale sporting events. Indianapolis is centrally located in the Midwest and easily accessible from four different interstates in four different directions. The Indiana Convention Center is conveniently located in downtown Indianapolis, where visitors have easy access to countless restaurants, hotels, and tourist attractions they can visit in their off-hours or when either hunger or alcoholism strike.

But no one’s ever thought we were worth blessing with a comic book convention to call our own. Apparently word on the streets was that we suck. Or something. When the Indiana Comic Con was announced, that was kind of a major deal. Finally someone scrimped together enough sense to realize Indianapolis might be ready for the kind of geek conference that Louisville, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Columbus, and other Midwest cities have had for years. Chicago even has two of them. This, we reasoned, might be our chance to join the big boys and show all of fandom that Indianapolis is, in fact, a real, live city.

Well…they tried.

The scene as we exited the exhibit hall around 12:30. Before it got worse.

When I went through our pre-planning this week and noticed the con only had two exhibit halls, I foresaw trouble a mile away. That’s why stopped in and picked up our tickets the day before, why we arrived today nearly an hour before open, and why we insisted on doing our rounds through the hall before everyone else showed up. When we finished and left for lunch at 12:30 the hall was already elbow-to-elbow. When we came back at 1:30, the line to hypothetically “get in” was one of the worst we’ve ever seen in all our years of convention-going. Around 3:00 it’s our understanding they officially, finally closed ticket sales and began confessing that all those thousands who didn’t already have tickets needed to go away.

This was the line of people still waiting at 1:30 p.m. to enter the con. At far right is a sign for Hall A. The con began in hall D, three halls down. It was long and wide and motionless and seething and bitter and deserved better.

The Indiana Convention Center recently expanded its space to over 749,000 square feet, but this weekend it was split three ways: (1) a librarian conference took up roughly half the entire center; (2) some insurance convention had three exhibit halls reserved in their name, even though they weren’t even there today; and (3) the Indiana Comic Con, which was left with two exhibit halls and a few meeting rooms.

Of those two halls, one was divided up between box office, the line to the box office, and actor autograph lines. Of the sole remaining hall, a big chunk was set aside as a theater for actor Q&As and the costume contest.

What was left over after all of those deductions…that is what they tried to cram thousands of attendees into. On Sunday morning the showrunners revealed their estimate that at least 15,000 were on the premises. I saw complaints from many, many people who were eventually turned away after driving for hours up to Indy, waiting for hours in line, and then finding out all their efforts and accommodations were a complete waste of time.

For those of us who arrived early and had no reason to stay late…sure, there was fun to be had. We made the most of it, though I regret giving up on the 4:30 costume contest. Longtime MCC readers know my wife and I love costume contests, but we didn’t want to be around when the scene got even uglier, and I wanted to escape before the oxygen ran out.

We won’t be attending Sunday, but we send our best wishes to anyone planning to be there, and strongly recommend you arrive no later than 8 a.m. to get in line. The Indiana Convention Center is surprisingly cool about, and used to, letting people hang around at weird hours.

…

These, then, were very nearly all the photos we took in our half-day experience — the costumes we saw, the talents I got to meet, and the happier sights to see during those moments when all was well and the experience felt pleasant. Enjoy!

My local shop, Downtown Comics, had the best assortment of discounted, organized back issues and helped me eliminate the most names on my want list. They basically rock and you should shop there every time you’re in town.

Maleficent and Shredder, dastardly villains united in the upcoming animated series Aurora and the Turtles.

Batgirl unmasked! At last, we know her secret identity! Whoever she is!

Jedi and steampunk are common, welcome sights at any convention, especially when you know one of them from elsewhere. Nine years had passed since we last encountered our colleague on the right, but it was great running into her again.

In all honesty, it’s a little refreshing to see steampunk fans outnumbering Captain Jack Sparrows, Heath Ledger Jokers, Ghostbusters, Deadpools, and Trek officers.

Kind of afraid to hazard a guess here.

The mandatory Star Wars representation continues with a Tusken Raider, hanging out by the 501st Legion table with assorted Stormtroopers and such.

BALLOONS! Balloons are fun and pretty and pleasing to look at when you’re sick and tired at the backs of people’s heads as you wait to shuffle through the overcrowded hall inch by inch by inch by inch by literal inch. That bitterness cure, one more time: BALLOONS! Ask for them by name at your local greeting card store. Brought to you by the Balloon Council. Please inflate responsibly.

Balloons also signal intermission as we digress for pics of three of the many comics professionals on hand:

George Perez, one of the biggest names in the house. If you know comics, you know him. I’ve met him twice, so this time I deferred to others who hadn’t yet had that pleasure. He had the longest line of all the creators in the house.

Writer/artist Bob Layton, whose longtime milestone work on Iron Man helped transform Tony Stark into the hero we know and throw money at today. Seeing someone from Indiana have that kind of impact in the medium was inspiring to me as a kid.

Jeremy Dale, writer/artist of the all-ages adventure-fantasy series Skyward. When we arrived home after our extremely long day and seriously needed to cool down, I read all of Volume 1 in one sitting. It’s one of the best-drawn, most exciting books I’ve ever bought at a convention sight-unseen. Dale said Volume 2 will be out in a few weeks, so I may have to pester the guys at Downtown Comics about that.

And now, more Indiana Comic Con 2014 costume photos: the grand finale.

Lego Darth Maul, bitter that his role in The Lego Movie was written out of the script and recast with Green Lantern instead.

Personal favorite: gender-bending Nightwing with two-piece staff. Fans have feared that DC’s been wanting Dick Grayson’s Nightwing persona dead for years. Many of us have a problem with that.

Batman, Joker, and Harley Quinn, just hanging out away from the crowds, where no one can see that they’re really best buds and the who “mortal enemies” thing is a put-on.

Cloud from Final Fantasy VII; a costume I don’t quite recognize because I’m terrible at distinguishing between dresses and/or anime/manga; and a challenging but innovative Pokeball unitard.

Once again the day is saved by BATKID!

…and that’s what we saw of the first annual Indiana Comic Con. Not nearly as many as I’d envisioned us taking.

If the showrunners are allowed to leave town alive, perhaps we’ll see everyone again next year, maybe even attend a panel or buy an autograph if they bring in a guest from a show we watch. Frankly, after today’s wildly mishandled experience, I’d rather see Wizard World make them an offer and take over.

And to anyone who thought holding a comic book convention in our centralized metropolis was a money-losing proposition; to those who assumed Indianapolis would have no taste for comics in particular or pop culture in general; to those short-sighted coastal elitists who thought we weren’t worth the consideration or effort:

WE TOLD YOU SO.

[UPDATED 3/16/2014, 2:00 p.m. EDT: Corrected two figures that had been misstated above. The management regrets the errors.]

As I type this, the fifth annual Chicago Comic and Entertainment Exposition (“C2E2″) is wrapping up this year’s three-day run, April 25-27, 2014. Each year C2E2 keeps expanding, attracting more attention, inching ever closer to its goal of becoming the Midwest’s answer to the legendary San Diego Comic Con and its other coastal ilk. My wife and I missed the first year, but have attended every year since 2011 as a team.

Over the next four entries, which I’m hoping to crank out as quickly as possible without forming a symbiotic attachment to our PC, I’ll be sharing memories and photos from our C2E2 experience. The first three entries will be costume pics; the fourth, a sampling of the creators, actors, and curios we encountered. Several attendees may find themselves strolling through backgrounds as living, walking, oblivious Easter Eggs.

Caveats for first-time visitors to Midlife Crisis Crossover:

1. My wife and I are not professional photographers, nor do we believe ourselves worthy of press passes. These were taken as best as possible with the intent to share with fellow fans out of a sincere appreciation for the works inspired by the heroes, hobbies, artistic expressions, and/or intellectual properties that brought us geeks together under one vaulted roof for the weekend. We all do what we can with the tools and circumstances at hand.

2. It’s impossible for any human or organization to capture every costume on hand. What’s presented here will be a fraction of the sum total costume experience. That being said, please note MCC refutes the popular notion that everyone attends in costume. We appreciate those who do, but the general public believes it’s a mandatory masquerade and I’m kind of burnt out on confronting that cute but inaccurate perception.

3. We didn’t attend Sunday. Sincere apologies to anyone we missed as a result.

4. Corrections and comments are always welcome, especially for Parts 2 and 3, where You, the Viewers at Home, will have the opportunity to step up and name some anime and/or fantasy characters we old fogies didn’t recognize. I like learning new things, especially when I’m trying to write about characters and series that are beyond my particular geek foci.

5. Enjoy!

Booster Gold (in his short-lived armor), Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes edition), Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), and Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) represent for the DC Universe. Many DC cosplayers in the house; very, very few from the New 52.

Deathstroke, the Joker, Harley Quinn and Gambit prove inter-company crossovers don’t hurt.

Another Gambit, teamed up with the Green Power Ranger. Gambit just can’t pick a side.

If Warner Brothers had said yes, Christopher Nolan’s fourth Batman film would’ve seen our hero, Catwoman, and Bane rebuilding Gotham City with the help of the Jedi Order.

X-Men united! The later Charles Xavier summons to his side Jean Grey, Cyclops, Jubilee, Magneto, and, uh, the Penguin.

Variant heroes in action: “Wings of Redemption” Spawn vs. the protagonist from Mark Millar’s Superman: Red Son. Hiding in the background: Effie Trinket in one of her dozens of outfits.

Wolverine variant #1: “Weapon X” Wolverine and his worst pal Cyclops, with special guest Green Lantern John Stewart.

Wolverine variant #2: Cobra Kai Wolverine vs. Deadpool. On a related note, I’d love to see Deadpool pop up in the next Karate Kid remake.

Wolverine variant #3: Oompa-Loompa Wolverine is the best he is at what he does…and what he does is pure imagination.

Another Deadpool hangs out with a soldier from the Resident Evil Umbrella Corporation, both mercenaries protesting their corporate employers. You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, guys.

Cosplayers frequented pretty much every room, nook, cranny, and wide open space in the con, turning every panorama into a “Where’s Waldo?” puzzle. See if you can spot Wonder Woman, a Biker Scout, and Patriot from the Young Avengers!

The mighty Thor wields the power of the Tesseract. Or the Cosmic Cube, if you’re old-school like me.

J’Onn J’Onzz, the Martian Manhunter, in one of his final costumes before the New 52 swept his old life away.

Wonder Woman, that beloved, inspirational Amazon heroine who vexes villains and filmmakers alike.

A Poison Ivy far superior to the one that thought Mr. Freeze would make an awesome teammate.

Green Arrow! Or Arrow. Whichever you kids call him today.

Scarlet Spider, circa Ben Reilly’s early days on the run.

The Beast, preparing to school someone.

Props to Zatanna for complete old-school accuracy, including those heels.

Yes, an actual hero: Color Kid, from the Legion of Substitute Heroes. One of the two most original choices of the day in my book.

Another Harley Quinn, this one realizing explosives are much more reliable and less volatile than her beloved Mistah J.

Captain America’s sidekick Bucky was originally much younger and consequently made different costume choices than the movie version. It’s cool to see this one brought to life again.

My other favorite of the day, and the only Vertigo character I saw: Morpheus a.k.a. Dream from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, complete with helmet, ruby, and sand pouch.

To be continued! Coming up in our next installments:

Part 2: Costumes on the Show Floor, Not-Comics Division
Part 3: Costume Contest Entrants
Part 4: Creators, Actors, One Panel, and More!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: photos from the fifth annual C2E2 convention in Chicago. In this installment: more photos from around the exhibit hall and other convention areas, but with fewer super-heroes than last time. If you recognize any of the unlabeled characters, pretty-please-with-sugar-on-top feel free to chime in so proper credit can be given. Thanks very much in advance!

One of my two favorites from this batch: Sharknado!

Dr. Clayton Forrester and Joel Robinson from the amazing colossal Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Minion working the con. Somebody’s gotta do it, and I’m sure Minions can use the work until Despicable Me 3 starts filming.

BMO from Adventure Time.

Rigby from Regular Show. Doesn’t seem right without Mordecai.

Sesame Street Yip-yip appears to be emerging from the McCormick Place mandatory eyesore carpet.

Sauron in repose. Even a Witch King can’t cut in line without a VIP pass.

Maybe a Medieval Times booth doesn’t count as true con cosplay, but it’s a fun experience. I went several years ago as a chaperone on my son’s sixth-grade field trip. He was mortified, but I had a blast.

My best guess is gender-swapped Strawberry Shortcake, being photographed by Poison Ivy.

This happy maze ghost thing was someone’s mascot, but I didn’t take notes because this was taken seconds after walking into the show floor at 10 a.m. with several thousand other fans who weren’t willing to stop stampeding.

Until my wife and I started watching Doctor Who last December, all the Doctors we saw at cons didn’t mean quite so much. Now we can’t get enough of them.

A gold Dalek who stands to benefit greatly from the New Dalek Paradigm, which for us constitutes spoilers because we’re still trying to finish season 5. We’re working on it, I swear!

Gamorrean Guard and Kid Deathstroke. They’d make a great buddy-cop film.

A Death Star walks the earth, and we’re DOOMED. And her giant evil genocidal superlaser lights up, too.

Cortana, HALO troopers, and applicant.

Transformers reunion! Left to right: a Constructicon, this one guy, Soundwave, Bumblebee, Arcee, Starscream, this other Autobot, and an Insecticon. Behold the remnants of my childhood toy memories.

Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece snaps a pic of Eren (in Titan form) and Mikasa from Attack on Titan. [Updated 4/28/2014 -- special thanks to @viachristinaa!]

Special section #1: characters that stumped me, probably anime or video games. Heed this lesson well: someday you’ll be old and have gaps in your geek culture knowledge just like me, your friendly Ghost of Internet Yet to Come.

Explosive anime duel! This is how some people passed the time during the long, uninvolving parts of the Costume Contest.

Furry graffiti artist, leaving a mark on one of several oversize whiteboards. Markers were provided; you just had to bring your imagination.

Link and…another Link? Or maybe a New 52 Green Lantern I haven’t seen? Meanwhile, lurking in the back is Ensign Ro, the only Star Trek costume on the premises, and I didn’t even know she was there until I uploaded this photo.

I took the photo, told myself I’d remember names from somewhere later, but a thorough search of my memory indicates I only imagined I recognized them. If that makes any sense.

Special section #2: Final Fantasy characters, always a personal favorite.

Cloud from FFVII. Pretty sure his companion is neither Vincent nor Auron. It’s not Edward Elric, is it? I’m at a loss once again.

Vanille from FFXIII, with special guest Desmond from Assassin’s Creed II.

Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series technically counts as FF family, far as I’m concerned. Surprise Easter egg: background Catwoman.

My other favorite costume from this entry: Yuna from Final Fantasy X.

To be continued! In our other installments:

Part 1: Costumes on the Show Floor, Comics Division
Part 3: the Costume Contest
Part 4: Creators, Actors, One Panel, and More!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: photos from the fifth annual C2E2 convention in Chicago. In this installment: photos from this year’s Costume Contest!

This didn’t quite go as well as we’d hoped. We arrived in line at 6:30 p.m., an hour before start time, hoping to have seats slightly less terrible than our last GenCon experience. We were wrong, and unaware that VIP ticket holders received first dibs on seats. On the upside, the room had better lighting than GenCon’s contest normally provides, and it was equipped with a massive HD screen that gave the audience a much better view of each contestant.

On the downside, the contest started fifteen minutes late and the judges needed extensive time for deliberation after all finalists had been allowed on stage. On the side of compromise, the judges vetted all contestants first and apparently allowed only the best ones onstage — meaning the presentation was ostensibly shorter, but that we’d see fewer costumes than expected.

On the downside, deliberating ran until sometime after 9 p.m. We had a three-hour drive ahead of us and Sunday morning responsibilities we refused to shirk. The DJs who entertained the crowd to cover the judges’ deliberations weren’t enough to keep us in our seats. Consequently, we had to leave before they announced who won in each of the four categories. Thanks to the magic of social media I did find out who won the whole shebang:

Subject Delta from BioShock 2 won against some ridiculously fierce competition.

Beyond that…we did what we could:

The Hawkgirl at left was one contestant we found on the show floor before the contest. Hanging out with her were Batgirl, another Hawkgirl (Hawkwoman? the various versions of the two characters are tough to distinguish), Catwoman, and Green Lantern Kyle Rayner.

Also in the contest but caught earlier: Two-Face, flanked here by Poison Ivy and Catwoman, two of this year’s three most popular women’s costumes. (The most popular by a wide margin, from my anecdotal experience: Black Widow. I saw a veritable army of Romanoffs out and about.)

The youngest onstage contestant was the 11-year-old pilot of Nigel the Purple Dalek. You can check out Nigel’s home page for more photos and a behind-the-scenes how-to section.

Marvel’s Squirrel Girl! Yes, she’s a real super-hero. Stop looking at her funny.

Iron Man, Mark IV armor. Not the “em-kay-4″ as the judge read it aloud.

Iron Man’s pal the Iron Patriot. Or his worst enemy, if you’re a Marvel fan who’s still stinging from the time Norman Osborn wore the suit.

Ming the Merciless stops by from planet Mongo to crush the fans of his arch nemesis, Flash Gordon. Both of them.

Introduced as an original character called “Ryder Hood, the Werewolf Hunter”. Original characters are tricky to pull off in cosplay because there’s technically no standard against which you can be judged for accuracy. Originals can be fun to see, but it’s tougher for them to win a contest.

I’ve only seen a little anime, but one of my contest faves was Fai D. Flourite from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, complete with hand-crafted staff.

Daenerys Targaryn from Game of Thrones. The dress was entirely handmade.

Daft Punk!

Queen Amidala, or possibly one of her decoys for all we know.

Anna from Frozen, now fighting the movie backlash from internet guys who are all like, “I don’t get it.”

Flash Sentry, posssibly the first My Little Pony cosplay I’ve ever knowingly witnessed. Who knows how many others have flown under my radar.

Predator. Always a complicated choice, but we see one or more of them at every con.

I honestly thought this was Medieval Witchblade, but then they introduced her as Demon Hunter from Diablo III.

A Volus from Mass Effect, one of several armored contestants who struggled to navigate the steps up to the stage. I don’t know why costume contests don’t have ramps set up for big-footed suits like this.

Riven the Exile from League of Legends. She displayed some nice footwork onstage, but the more contestants move around, the less likely w can capture them well on camera. If you know someone who was in this year’s contest who appears nowhere in this entry, it’s because several of them refused to stand still, either because of performing or because they were just nervous. Understandable, but we old primitives have a hard time compensating.

Fierce Deity Link from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, one of thousands of games I’ve missed because I never upgraded from the 8-bit NES I bought in high school.

Little Sister from BioShock. I trust this makes sense to fans.

A Terran Marine from Starcraft, who didn’t even bother with the stage stairs. Can’t blame her at all.

This 17-foot-tall Fire-Breathing Dragon is the tallest costume we’ve ever, ever seen. I’m not even sure how they got this upstairs in one piece. The judges were allowed to see footage of it actually breathing fire before the show, but Draconian convention center fire codes deprived the general audience of this surely impressive sight.

World’s scariest FrankenBerry poses for selfies with fans while the Fire-Breathing Dragon turns and sulks.

The Fire-Breathing Dragon faces off against one of this tallest competitors, an astoundingly complex Bumblebee.

Once their little face-off was done, Bumblebee turned and advanced toward the stage and I had to jump to my right a split-second after snapping this so he wouldn’t crush me. Being steamrolled by an Autobot would’ve made a memorable con anecdote, but I wasn’t in the mood for filling out hospital paperwork.

To be concluded! In our other installments:

Part 1: Costumes on the Show Floor, Comics Division
Part 2: Costumes on the Show Floor, Not-Comics Division
Part 4: Creators, Actors, One Panel, and More!

Happy Free Comic Book Day! The thirteenth annual celebration of graphic storytelling narratives and/or floppy funnybooks was a rousing success, judging by the sights my wife and I saw at the three Indianapolis stores we visited. This year’s intent rightly wasn’t to reward the adults for sticking with the hobby through thick and thin. As you can tell by the above photo, including and entertaining today’s children was a major priority. Sure, many of them were based on beloved properties from other media, but those who looked carefully could find some original creations seeking their attention as well.

At our first stop, Downtown Comics North, a second table housed the not-necessarily-all-ages comics. Whatever your tastes or sensibilities, both tables had plenty to offer. We kept our wants modest and did not take one copy of everything. I have no justifiable need to hoard sixty new comics in one shopping trip. Many free comics, perhaps, but not five dozen. As you age and your home overflows with stuff and things, you’ll find that at some point “freebies” and “mandatory acquisition” cease to be synonyms.

I passed over items for a variety of reasons. I felt too guilty to take one of the Archaia hardcovers. The Valiant Comics sampler was just excerpts from upcoming comics which I already know whether or not I’ll be collecting. The Archie Digest was a generous serving of more Archie than I’ll ever need all at once. And I dismissed a few free titles that starred breasts, with women attached to them as an afterthought. All told, I picked up less than half the available books, but that still added up to a hefty reading pile.

Exactly as I planned, I purchased something at every store we visited. I picked up a few trades I’d been considering (this year’s focus: Miles Morales), I decided to try a few new series I hadn’t been following (Captain Marvel, Lumberjanes, Amazing Spider-Man), I caught up on the last three months’ worth of Deadpool, and I picked up the new issue of Furious (see previous capsule mention), which I’d missed on Wednesday.

(My one disappointment: three shops and not one of them had a single copy of Evan Dorkin’s Eltingville Club #1, which Dark Horse released April 23rd. My usual shop didn’t order it, didn’t recognize it, and refused to pay attention to me when I spelled the name for them. I’m guessing I’ll have to order a copy online and try not to grouse too bitterly about shipping costs or being ignored.)

The line was sizable by the time the doors opened at 11 a.m. but moved quickly. The folks from Indy Pop Con brought donuts, coffee, and free swag. Reps from the Indiana Toy and Comic Expo were handing out flyers and a few free tickets. Downtown Comics offered merchandise discounts and a Twitter-based prize drawing for which I still have my fingers crossed.

Special guest heroes and villains were on hand to usher fans inside, stand tall, and be awesome. Exhibit A: Hawkguy and Nightwing!

Representing for DC Comics before the New 52: Poison Ivy, Dawnstar from the Legion of Super-Heroes, and Firestorm the Nuclear Man.

Wonder Woman was in charge of determining which fans were worthy of entering and partaking of today’s featured literature.

WW’s teammates, Ms. Marvel and Veronica Lodge.

New arrival as we were leaving: hard-workin’ Harley Quinn.

Stop #2: Comic Carnival, our city’s oldest comics retailer, still plugging away after nearly four decades. We’re not in the vicinity very often, but I do like to check in from time to time. Their store is smaller in comparison but more tightly packed with literal wall-to-wall back issues as well as trades and new stuff.

On hand to welcome us: She-Ra! Yes, the renowned Princess of Power is much more accessible to her fans than that distant, standoffish He-Man, who probably hates reading. Forget that guy and I hope he never gets to be in a movie.

Stop #3: Downtown Comics West for our grand finale. Like their north-side counterpart they had a line before the doors opened, but the party was well inside by the time we arrived. Inside were many bedazzled children, eyes wide and hands grabby. My wife assured a few tiny doubters that yes, everything on the special table really was free; yes, they could take whatever they wanted; and okay, yeah, this strange free Marvel comic called Guardians of the Galaxy is gonna be a movie pretty soon, so eventually they’re gonna be somebody! They trusted her, looked up to her, and assumed she worked there because she’s awesome that way, and probably also because we were wearing the Free Comic Book Day 2014 T-shirts that Diamond Comic Distributors was giving away at their C2E2 booth last weekend.

Our hosts at this soiree: a Dalek of sorts, a different Wonder Woman, and Robin (pre-New 52 Tim Drake version).

Wonder Woman! Robin! Dalek!

Another nice touch: musical guests the Orchard Keepers regaling the crowd. The store’s relocation to the Ben Davis High School area a couple years ago has created more opportunities for community interaction, arts-based encouragement, and conveniently located trading-card tournaments.

In conclusion: literacy, heroism, representation, inclusiveness, adventure, community, and yeah, Someone Thinking of the Children. That was our fantabulous Free Comic Book Day 2014 here in the Circle City.

See you next year! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have way too much reading to do.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

This weekend the inaugural Indy PopCon will paint our fair downtown red with a healthy mix of comics, gaming, actors, LARPing, and various other manifestations of pop and geek culture in general. My wife and I will be attending Saturday only, partly as a budgetary measure (by which I mean, the longer I’m there, the less money we’ll have for vacation in July, or for utilities) and partly because we’re still feeling a bit burnt after last March’s the inaugural Indiana Comic Con went, um, not according to plan.

We’re pleased to report we worried for nothing. Today was one of the smoothest convention experiences we’ve had in ages. All the high-profile guests showed up. We never waited in a line with more than ten people ahead of us. The exhibit hall aisles were spacious and never in danger of fire marshall intervention. The comics dealers had some sweet bargains. And those in charge of the costume contest came up with a brilliant new strategy that allowed the crowd to get much better looks at the contestants. Perhaps everything went well because 100,000 fans didn’t converge on the scene at the same time, but it’s clear that a lot of people put a lot of thought into this shindig.

Over the next entries, we’ll be sharing our photos and anecdotes from the experience. I don’t know how many entries yet because it’s late and I’m exhausted and the power-level indicator on my brain went from green to yellow hours ago. We’ll figure that part out later. Caveats for first-time visitors to Midlife Crisis Crossover:

1. My wife and I are not professional photographers, as is obvious if some pics are viewed through any gadget larger than an amulet. These were taken as best as possible with the intent to share with fellow fans out of a sincere appreciation for the works inspired by the heroes, hobbies, artistic expressions, and/or intellectual properties that brought us geeks together under one vaulted roof for the weekend. We all do what we can with the tools and circumstances at hand.

2. It’s impossible for any human or organization to capture every costume on hand. Although we captured all of this year’s winners to one degree or another, we didn’t catch every costumed entity on the premises.

3. Sincere apologies to anyone we’ll miss due to being absent on Friday and Sunday.

4. Corrections and comments are always welcome, especially when I beg for them with certain shots. You, the Viewers at Home, will have opportunities to step up and name some anime and/or fantasy characters we old fogies didn’t recognize. I like learning new things, especially when I’m trying to write about characters and series that are beyond my particular geek foci.

5. Enjoy!

Part One: winners of the first annual Indy PopCon 2014 Costume Contest. Three hundred submissions were winnowed down to 77 finalists, from which were chosen three amateur winners, three professional winners, and one overall Best of Show winner who’ll have the opportunity to represent as the Face of Indy PopCon 2015.

Just to show you I wasn’t kidding above: here’s my favorite of the winners — second place, amateur division. Her Japanese name landed on my ears as “Kohaku Kirin”. If you recognize the character and/or source anime, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. Feel free to plug your site while you’re here, even.

– UPDATED 6/1/2013: we have identity! The correct name is Kohakuren from the game Kamidori Alchemy Meister. Check the Comments section below for explanation from the cosplayer herself, along with a link to her official page!

(Admittedly, there’s some red-eye that should’ve been edited, but it amplifies the character’s otherworldly nature and it goes with the outfit.)

The most unusual aspect of the Costume Contest: instead of hiding the contestants in the back room and simply shuffling them across the faraway stage, the showrunners set up a system whereby they each followed a preset path all around the seating sections (in the back, along the sides, near all us chumps who didn’t pay for VIP frint-row privileges), paused at each checkpoint for fifteen seconds to three minutes (depending on the speed of the line in front of them), and then moved forward until they passed all checkpoints and faced the judges and the entire crowd onstage. We applaud this creative approach.

Anyway, on with the photos. The Best of Show winner: Smaug! A gender-bent Smaug at that, for those who insist on such modifiers.

Yeah, caught her blinking at the wrong moment. For reference, here’s the detail on the back of her costume as well. The announcer, entertainer Johnny Dellarocca, didn’t provide us with details about characters, works, or the designer’s specific materials and techniques. Regardless, she suitably impressed the five judges — four professional cosplayers plus actor Keahu Kahuanui from MTV’s Teen Wolf. We’re cool with their decision.

As for the others: third place, amateur division, was a pair of brothers. Behold: Mario from Super Mario Sunshine! His working Turbo Nozzle squirts water.

Mario shared the trophy with Luigi, wielding the Poltergust from Luigi’s Mansion. Not in this pic, mind you.

First place, amateur division: the Hound from Game of Thrones. Between him and Smaug, it was a good year for pointy-toothed evildoers.

Third place, professional division: the Witch-King of Angmar from Lord of the Rings, whom we met earlier in the exhibit hall.

Second place, professional division: steampunk Chuck Norris. So that was different.

First place, professional division: Big Sister from Bioshock 2. This costume required a tremendous level of commitment because the helmet narrowed her field of vision to practically a pinpoint and rendered her effectively deaf. A family member (mom? sis?) had to serve as her guide through the crowd and as her interpreter when the judges had questions for her.

And these were just a fraction of the fine talents on display today. To be continued!

[Links to other entries will be in the right sidebar this week, then inserted into each entry upon completion. Thanks for visiting!]

The marathon continues! As promised in our first installment, please enjoy more photos from the first annual Indy PopCon convention. Same guidelines apply: we’re fans, not pros; corrections and comments welcome; hope they’re enjoyable.

Part Two: characters from big, big, recognizable movies. Exhibit A: representatives from the 501st Legion — one of the Emperor’s Royal Guard, your standard-issue Stormtrooper, an Imperial Officer, and R4-M6, Mace Windu’s astromech droid. The new character in the middle is my wife, a notorious Jedi sympathizer.

This super-sized Bumblebee from Michael Bay’s Transformers series was one of the most popular on the show floor. He spent most of his time hanging around a booth that was trying to recruit insurance clients., because part of the Autobots’ plan to save the world is to ensure that you’ve thought about your long-term financial future. Or something.

Catwoman lurks near the autograph booths, possibly tempted to rob them because of how some of them were catapulted to fame.

Bane from The Dark Knight Rises hangs out with the DC New 52 version of Harley Quinn.

A second Bane from the costume contest, with tattoos in place of jacket.

Also in the costume contest: Lady Bane! She and the other Bane briefly faced off onstage. Then they vowed to team up and see if Batman could handle twice the super-mumbling.

Also from Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy: history’s darkest Batmobile, a.k.a. the Tumbler! First time we’ve seen one at a convention. No, it’s not a costume. Consider it your intermission.

From the opposite side of the Marvel/DC divide: Captain America, star of one of the year’s best films.

His pal Iron Man, in a suit fully constructed by the wearer himself. Much like the original in that sense.

Their nemesis Loki brings his own Tesseract and a quiet dignity to the role.

A different Loki roughhouses with Thor, who refuses to behave.

Moving away from comics-based movies: a reinterpretation of Bellatrix Lestrange from the Harry Potter series.

Strictly speaking, Predators only had a budget of $40 million, making it the weakest film represented here. Since it was the second-best Predator film to date, I felt empowered to stretch the definition of “big-budget” to suit my whims.

Ending on a pair of nods to Johnny Depp: Captain Jack Sparrow stumbled in character from checkpoint to checkpoint, lolled around the stage a bit, and performed a nice pratfall off the stage in lieu of a painless exit. In this case the red-eye befits a stylish drunkard.

On the other end of the Depp respectability scale: rebooted Tonto, possibly conceived while the actor was drunk on star power. But the costume’s a sharp, eye-catching recreation.

To be continued!

[Links to other entries will be in the right sidebar this week, then inserted into each entry after the series is finished. Thanks for visiting!]

The marathon continues! As promised in our first installment, please enjoy more photos from the first annual Indy PopCon convention. Same guidelines apply: we’re fans, not pros; corrections and comments welcome; hope they’re enjoyable.

Part Three: characters from comic books past and present, with a few special guests here and there from other media. Exhibit A: Wolverine as Weapon-X, hanging out with Vanellope von Schweetz from Wreck-It Ralph, Tinker Bell, and…uh, the winged one at far right was introduced at the costume contest as “Space Fairy”. Maybe that’s a thing?

Weapon X appeared in that photo, he appeared in the costume contest, and he guest-starred here alongside Poison Ivy and Pixie from the X-Men. In life and in comics, Wolverine is everywhere.

Also generally everywhere in comics and conventions: Deadpool! This one took the contest stage and sang. I’d expect nothing less from the Merc with a Mouth.

If one Deadpool isn’t enough, how about three? And two of them are Lady Deadpool, so that’s extra credit.

Looking for a change of pace? Snazzy lounge-lizard Deadpool is your man.

If you’d prefer some DC Comics scalawags instead, here’s classic Harley Quinn.

…and her puddin’, who onstage gave a brief standup monologue that did proper (in)justice to whomever used to be in charge of Cesar Romero’s groaners.

If you’d prefer them together, and in variants, meet Flapper Harley and Zoot Suit Joker. Meanwhile back at the Batcave, honorary Untouchable Batman is furiously using his BatCard Catalog to determine where they’ve stashed all their illegal liquor.

Or you can follow the adventures of his other, more recently revealed rendition: Batkid! Two guys had to carry his tiny Batmobile around the cosplayer’s walk and up onstage, where of course he was carefully raised to shout into open microphones, “I’M BATMAN!”

Differently diminutive among the Batman family: young Damian Wayne, son of Batman and Talia al-Ghul (literally a very long story), and a rather temperamental Robin until recently. If there’s one Robin you don’t mess with, it’s the one whose mom’s minions taught him how to slay an opponent with a sword.

Also from Batman’s world: Catwoman! One of several envoys from the cosplayers at CosAwesome Studios.

Also from CosAwesome: Ant-Man! Soon to be a major motion picture starring Paul Rudd and some unnamed director who’ll be one-tenth as inspired as Edgar Wright was. Maybe we could leave some of the heartbreak behind if they just upconvert it to a Giant-Man movie instead?

One more Marvel character: Rogue! More of a comics version than a movie version.

Traversing the gap between comics and movies in a different way: Princess Ariel and Aquaman, king of the seven seas. Perhaps this happy couple stands a better chance of earning Triton’s approval. Shame about Mera getting kicked to the curb, though.

Same hero, different decade: the late’90s harpoon-handed version of Aquaman.

Another face from comics past: Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern. He patrolled the show floor alongside Dawnstar from the Legion of Super-Heroes, whom we last saw at Free Comic Book Day 2014.

Fellow ring bearers from the wrong side of the tracks: two members of the Sinestro Corps.

If they weren’t enough DC evil for you, here’s Lobo! Unlike Wolverine, he did not immediately go cross over into five other photos to boost sales. That doesn’t work too well for the Main Man anymore. Especially not for the New 52 version.

I was surprised to see so few heroes from Western Hempisphere comics companies besides Marvel or DC. The only other delegate I could find from the entire medium was Britain’s own Tank Girl. Yes, before the movie everyone forgot came the British comic everyone forgot. Joining her on the front lines is the Heavy from Team Fortress 2. Any cosplayer who brings their own sci-fi Gatling gun is okay by me.

To be continued!

[Links to other entries will be in the right sidebar this week, then inserted into each entry after the series is finished. Thanks for visiting!]

The marathon continues! As promised in our first installment, please enjoy more photos from the first annual Indy PopCon convention. Same guidelines apply: we’re fans, not pros; corrections and comments welcome; hope they’re enjoyable.

Part Four: people and things related to the world of Doctor Who. After years of avoiding his corner of universe, my wife and I finally relented and began watching the show last winter. We’re now partway through season six and hoping that major events such as Indy PopCon stop sucking up our precious TV-watching time so that we might stand a chance of catching up with the rest of the world before season eight arrives in August. If Netflix would hurry up and add season seven to their roster, that’d be outstandingly helpful to us as well.

Anyway: what once flew over our heads and outside our camera range in previous cons is newly fascinating to us. We’re naturally obligated to commence here with the Ninth Doctor because he’s our “first Doctor”. It’s also the first time I’ve spotted anyone as him at a convention. Accompanying him in the costume contest was an adorable li’l Seventh Doctor.

Between them in the timeline is the Eighth Doctor, who also invites onlookers to his Facebook page. By his side are Captain Riker in dress uniform and a Mandalorian soldier working for Resident Evil‘s Umbrella Corporation. Look, if Disney won’t let them function correctly in the Star Wars Expanded Universe anymore, they gotta work somewhere.

The Tenth Doctor remembered to bring his psychic paper. Well, it’s either that or a card that says he’s the sole founder of Indy PopCon and consequently entitled to all access, privileges, and rights granted thereto. I’m looking straight at it but I can’t tell which it is.

The Eleventh Doctor naturally wore a fez because fezzes are cool. I’m not acquainted with his purple companion, but I’ll trust her if he does.

Among the contest participants were gender-bent Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. The latter eluded our cameras as the duo were prone to running and galavanting much like the real McCoy.

I meant “the real McCoy” colloquially above, of course. Neither of them is the real McCoy, which in this instance was special guest Sylvester McCoy, the Seventh Doctor himself.

We attended McCoy’s Saturday Q&A, about which we ought to tell you more in a future entry, and can verify that at least one fake Doctor met the real McCoy. His hour began with another pair of guests: the li’l Seventh Doctor seen above, and an equally undertall co-conspirator inhabiting McCoy’s most recent big-screen role, the loopy Radagast the Brown from The Hobbit trilogy. Mini-Seven even played the spoons, just like the real McCoy.

We’re told all the Doctor Who stuff at Indy PopCon, including McCoy’s appearance, was made possible by Who North America, billed as the largest US-based Doctor Who website of them all. MCC readers may recall them as our refuge of choice after the Indiana Comic Con crowd threatened to incite Indianapolis’ very first large-scale riot.

(Full disclosure: one of their employees was an acquaintance of ours years before we knew he worked there.)

(Also full disclosure: yes, we’re still bitter about the Indiana Comic Con. We have several months to get over it. It’ll be nice to see that time come around.)

Who North America had rooms set up outside the exhibit hall with other Doctor-related activities for the fans, including but limited to silly cardboard stand-ups that let you playact cheaply as your favorite characters. The other two companions in the first McCoy photo couldn’t resist the urge to goof around. Thus you get a somewhat unconvincing Amy Pond…

…and a rather more disturbing Weeping Angel.

The easiest Doctor to overlook at the con hid in plain sight on a large Lego table, teetering on the No Man’s Land between Lego Hoth and Lego Walking Dead prison. He seemed undecided which scenario could better use his assistance, and instead devoted his time to trying to prove that Lego fezzes are cool.

To be continued!

[Links to other entries will be in the right sidebar this week, then inserted into each entry after the series is finished. Thanks for visiting!]

The marathon continues! As promised in our first installment, please enjoy more photos from the first annual Indy PopCon convention. Same guidelines apply: we’re fans, not pros; corrections and comments welcome; hope they’re enjoyable.

Part Five: at last, anime and gaming! This is always the section where I can use the most assistance from You, the Viewers at Home. If you recognize a character I didn’t, please feel free to speak up so that others might learn and possibly discover a new universe to explore. Better still, help this old man become fractionally less ignorant of stuff you like. If some of these are original characters, introductions are always welcome.

Longtime MCC readers are aware of my soft spot for Final Fantasy, so it’s a logical starting point. Behold: Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII plus follow-ups, and Genesis from Crisis Core.

From the great Kingdom Hearts 2, not too far removed from Final Fantasy, it’s Axel from Organization XIII.

Among the costume contest participants: Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII and its spinoffs.

Ada Wong from the Resident Evil series. I once played partway through the fourth one till I got sidetracked indefinitely when we moved.

Amaterasu from Okami. And friend?

A pair of Pyramid Heads from Silent Hill.

Going back to my young teenage arcade years: Chun Li from Street Fighter. Too bad I was terrible at it.

Moving back to more recent years: the Traveller from Journey.

A look in passing at Jade Harley from “Homestuck”, fourth story from the online MS Paint Adventures.

Mad Moxxi from Borderlands.

This one looks like a Red Queen or a Queen of Hearts to me, but the introduction sounded like “Lady Sidonia” or “Lady Zedonia” or someone in between. Either way, here we’ll transition awkwardly from gaming to anime. Fair deal?

The eponymous star of Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke.

Chii from Chobits.

Sailor Chibi Moon. Not the same as simple Sailor Moon.

An anime duo whose intro I totally failed to hear because I was fussing over something else in my seat at the time. Knowing me, it was probably my camera. Mea culpa.

Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail.

Wrapping up this installment: she was introduced as Twilight Elven Princess, possibly an original character. Wings are always a bold, complicated cosplay choice.

To be continued!

[Links to other entries will be in the right sidebar this week, then inserted into each entry after the series is finished. Thanks for visiting!]

The marathon continues! As promised in our first installment, please enjoy more photos from the first annual Indy PopCon convention. Same guidelines apply: we’re fans, not pros; corrections and comments welcome; hope they’re enjoyable.

Part Six: our last remaining costume photos from other categories that didn’t receive separate entries — characters from movies, TV, American animation, the time-honored “potpourri” division, and ensemble setups. After disqualifying several photos that were either blurry or missing key portions of anatomy, what’s here is what’s left of our costume pics. That’s not to say the Indy PopCon marathon ends here. Two more entries should be following this week, and then MCC returns to its regularly random programming of whatever and stuff.

Japanese virtual pop star Hatsune Miku bids you welcome.

Also from the world of music, but differently fabricated: Lady Gaga!

From a singer who wears meat to a mascot who sells meat: it’s Big Boy! Appearing on behalf of the online T-shirt store One Man Surf Party.

A very different product ambassador: Franken-Berry! Still hot off his April appearance at C2E2 in Chicago.

A very different movie monster: Alien! Now with wings.

From one monster to another, it’s…I, uh, have no idea.

A much more recognizable face: Kaylie from Firefly! She was officially introduced as “Steampunk Kaylie”, but the differences are minor.

A more obscure name: Susan Sto Helit, granddaughter of Death, from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. I’ve only read four of those, none of which she was in, so I have some catching up to do.

Going ultra-secret-double-obscure: the Red Bandit and Nurse Evelyn from Tarsem Singh’s The Fall.

A slightly more well-known duo: TV’s Green Arrow and Black Canary.

A bit more famous: Belle and her dad Maurice from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. The enchanted rose is a nice touch.

Also from the Department of Old Man Cosplay: the Ice King from Adventure Time.

His former neighbor on Cartoon Network: Cheetara from Thundercats.

Appearing on a rival network: the eponymous star of Nickelodeon’s The Legend of Korra.

From another channel altogether and refracted through a different prism: quoth the MC, “gender-bending Princess Kenny from South Park.” Her moment on stage was, of course, a death scene.

From super-short winter kids to super-high winter monsters: the Russian Yeti was the tallest competitor in the costume contest and took several minutes to lumber up and down the dinky stage steps. I’d be curious to see how he stacks up against the fire-breathing dragon we saw at C2E2.

Two-part grand finale:

My wife and I went home in the late afternoon for a while for housekeeping and recharging purposes. (That’s one of the perks of attending conventions in your hometown. I’ve learned this now that Indianapolis has any conventions to its name.) When we returned to the Convention Center, we ran into a photo shoot for several dozen cosplayers and snapped a couple of group pics just as they were finishing up.

Previously unseen faces in photo #1 include a couple of Minecraft guys, Arkham Asylum Harley Quinn, Arkham Asylum Scarecrow, Batman, Deadmau5, Corvo from Dishonored, three or four protagonists from Assassin’s Creed, a much better look at Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII, and Link from The Legend of Zelda.

The final new faces in photo #2: another Thor and Loki; the Riddler; another Joker and two more Harleys; Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece; and Temari from Naruto. Once again my broad gaps in anime knowledge are telling here and I won’t pretend otherwise, but you get the idea. This was a fantastic weekend for anyone who wanted to see or feel their favorite characters living out loud.

…

For MCC, this is it for Indy PopCon costumes…but the best is yet to come!

To be continued!

[Links to other entries will be in the right sidebar this week, then inserted into each entry after the series is finished. Thanks for visiting!]