Boston Comic Con, an annual comic book convention, took place on Aug. 3-4, at the Seaport World Trade Center.
The event was comfortably crowded, even attracting fans from outside of Massachusetts, who wanted to see what Boston had to offer for fan culture.
One of these fans was Erin Mcshane, 28, who travelled from Virginia Beach, Va., for the event. Although she has been to other conventions, this was her first year attending Boston Comic Con. She was impressed with the “diversity in what’s available” to fans.
While the convention was strongly geared towards comic book fans — a large section of the main room was dedicated to artist signings — there were plenty of vendors and guests relevant to other areas of entertainment.
Vendors were ready to provide fans with anything from Gameboy magnets and Pikachu decorated belts to non-sport trading cards, board games; and stuffed animals. D’vyne Wrytes, a vendor, was there selling leather-bound notebooks featuring significant symbols and images from various television shows and video games, including the TARDIS from the BBC television series, “Doctor Who” and a replica of the “Book of Origin”, from the SyFy series “Stargate SG-1.”
An off-the-wall booth allowed con attendees to have a 3D image taken of themselves so that they could later order a miniature figurine of the image. Forge Studio, the company that offered this service, was busy all day with people waiting in line to pose for a minute for their 3D picture.
Other out-of-the-ordinary booths offered products such as customized prosthetics and masks, even one ferocious Incredible Hulk mask.
The convention also held autograph signings and photo opportunities with several film and television stars. Entertainment guests included Dean O’Gorman and Aidan Turner, known for their roles as Fili and Kili, respectively, in last year’s film “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.”
Also on the guest list were Laurie Holden, who plays Andrea in AMC’s hit television series “The Walking Dead” and Kristin Bauer van Straten, known for her role as Pam De Beaufort in the HBO series “True Blood.”
There were also many cosplayers — people dressed up as their favorite characters — present at the convention. While cosplayers appeared to be greatly outnumbered, many who did cosplay wore spectacular costumes. One cosplayer wore an elaborate “Transformers” Bumblebee costume, towering over fans with flashing lights and a voice changer. At any given moment, a Doc Oc, one of Spiderman’s enemies, or a female Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle would come around the corner. Even small children, who attended free if they were 10 years old or younger, came in a variety of costumes, from a simple cape to a full Green Lantern costume.
Dustin Clancy, 20, of Webster, Mass., attended the convention cosplaying as Ezio from the popular video game series “Assassin’s Creed.” Clancy said that he loves cosplaying because everyone is in their “own kind of element” and that conventions offer a “really accepting crowd” for cosplaying.
Panels and events were also available at the convention. “Magic: The Gathering” and “Yu-Gi-Oh” tournaments were held throughout the weekend, as well as a cosplay competition.
For those primarily interested in the artists guests, several artists also spoke about their work at scheduled panels.
Overall, the convention offered something for anyone who is a fan of anything comic book, scifi, or gaming related.

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Customers choose from a variety of available t-shirts