If you’ve been around for a while, you may remember when I went to Wizard World St. Louis every single year. It was my biggest local con.

You may also remember, if you’ve been around a while, that in 2017 I made a solo trip to Fan Expo Canada and absolutely loved that con.

So imagine my joy when Wizard World was taken over…. by Fan Expo. My mind was blown.

There was quite a line up of celebrity guests this year, but I had my heart set on two particular missions: add the voice actors for Deku and Froppy from My Hero Academia to my poster, and see Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes again.

If you don’t know about my story of originally meeting Kevin and Jason, and how amazing they were: read here.

Anyway, day one was mostly focused on my mom and I picking up our premium passes/goodie bags, and showing our friend around for her first con. I had Deku and Froppy sign my poster so I had one less thing to deal with Saturday, and made my little nerdy heart happy.

I also realized last minute before the con that Travis Langley was going to be there. So I finally got to grab The Joker Psychology from him and had it signed. My mom grabbed Wonder Woman Psychology as well – which I’m absolutely going to borrow and read.

Also: we bought fudge.

I did see Jason Mewes a moment when he wasn’t busy and reminded him about what happened in 2015, and thanked him profusely for his kindness. He was super sweet and told me he’d see me Saturday for our photo op and autograph session.

Day two was the day of chaos. I was a bit afraid that somehow, something would overlap poorly and we’d miss out on something. Little did I know my day would be better than I imagined.

First of all: I hadn’t planned to meet Ron Perlman. Did I want to? Absolutely. Did I think I’d have the funds? Nope. But somehow it worked out, I got a sweet Hellboy autograph, and we all got a picture and hugs. He was so nice. And my nieces got to have their own autographs, too. So that was a plus.

The main agenda the children had was meeting their two favorite characters: Deku and Todoroki.

Both were absolutely wonderful to the girls. I also took them up to the booth to meet the voice actors for Froppy and Uraraka, and they were so sweet to the girls as well. I sent the girls with my brother to watch the MHA voice actor panel while I juggled my mom’s autographs and photo ops, before jumping in line for our photo op with Kevin and Jay.

Kevin immediately gave us both hugs and was super nice. He gave me another hug on my way out.

My mom and I grabbed a quick lunch, then got into the autograph line. Due to a scheduling conflict, they moved us into the VIP line so we could get in to see them a little faster and make my mom’s photo op with Mark Sheppard after.

It was wonderful. Kevin actually remembered me from Reno, and I started to get emotional and he held my hand while I was being a big blubbering mess. I thanked him profusely for his kindness.

I laughed so hard at what he wrote that I probably looked insane to anyone around us.

But it was seriously the highlight of my weekend.

I also met Kira Buckland, who voices my favorite hashira in Demon Slayer.

We finished up some purchases (which included signed prints from Harley Quinn artist Chad Hardin), and made our way home.

Day three was a short one, because I was broke and exhausted haha.

I decided pretty last minute to start getting my character poster for The Suicide Squad signed since Michael Rooker was there. As always, he was hilarious.

We also decided to meet Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson from Clerks, since I had just enough money leftover to get their autographs.

They were both absolutely lovely humans. They took time to chat, and I really appreciated Brian listening to me explain my Kevin Smith story. I can’t wait to see them all again in the future. The, hopefully, near future. *this may be a hint to something cool coming in the future hint hint*

Overall, the weekend was incredible. More celebrity themed than I’ve done in quite a long time. But it was a lot of fun, and we all had a blast.

See you in June 2023, Fan Expo St Louis!

-Angel