After a few months of health related chaos, I am back and happy that my first adventure of the year is Planet Comicon 2023 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Planet Comicon is one of my favorite cons, and became a yearly tradition starting in 2018. There’s something fun about a 4 hour road trip with friends to a different place for nerdy shenanigans and trying restaurants you don’t have back home.

As usual, we left on Friday morning, got to our hotel, readied ourselves and went over to the con floor to start our first day of geeking out.

One of my top missions of day one was to spot my friend Blake, of Blake’s Buzz, to give him a Pochita (Chainsaw Man) plushie and actually meet in person finally. If you aren’t subscribed to his Substack, YouTube, or Twitter/Instagram – check him out. He’s putting in amazing work to promote independent comics and spread the love in the community.

One of my main Friday goals at every con is to get as much done from my To Do list as I can before the con gets busier over the weekend, so I can browse nerdy stuff to buy or step out if the crowd overwhelms me Saturday. So we met the English voice actors for my most recent anime obsession: Chainsaw Man. The voices of Pochita, Denji, and Power. They were all absolutely wonderful.

My only main additional purchase for myself on day one was a print from one of my recent favorite games: Hades. I love my boy Zagreus.

That night, we went to a pop up bar and a delicious dinner – but I’ll post about those in the coming days! For now, let’s stay focused on the con.

Day two was probably the day I was most excited for. I am a huge fan of the character Art the Clown, and the work of Damien Leone. So I was over the moon with excitement when it was announced Damien would be at the con with the Terrifier and Terrifier 2 embodiment of Art the Clown: David Howard Thornton. Which meant I immediately obtained the in-costume photo op and planned my clowntastic outfit.

Along with the photo op, I had the two sign a Terrifier print I had ordered before the con. Hands down, I’d meet them again. I’d pay for that photo op again. Two of the sweetest dudes.

We also waited in line for Elvira for my boyfriend and my niece – I was lucky enough to meet her a few years ago, but she’s always a delight to see.

Also grabbed an autograph from Conor Leslie, aka Donna Troy / Wonder Girl in Titans. She was so very sweet and I passed along how heartbroken I am over the cancelation of Titans.

After dropping off some of the haul and taking a quick breather at the hotel. We returned for me to get a pile of goodies signed by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti for myself and my other niece.

Then we called it a day, grabbed dinner at an amazing restaurant, then went back to the hotel bar for cheese and drinks. Everyone else had cheesecake but I wanted mac and cheese. I may have an addiction.

The final day of con was one of my least favorite final days of a con for a few reasons:

– A very late guest we waited almost 2 and a half hours for and wasted most of our time to get an autograph from.

– Things we wanted to buy that were sold out and kinda bummed me out.

– a general lack of Harley Quinn merch, which is surprising given I expected more vendors to have Harley stuff with Amanda and Jimmy there.

– annnnd my trigeminal neuralgia had flared a little all weekend, but decided the 4 hour drive home was the best time to get super unpleasant.

Over all, though, I’m glad we went. My favorite parts were definitely the Terrifier guys and Chainsaw Man voice actors. They were delightful. Worst part: too many guests not at their tables when they were supposed to be (not the above mentioned two groups, I should note), and probably the most crowded Friday and Saturday of Planet Comicon I’ve ever seen. To the point of having to put off purchases until Sunday, when things were then unfortunately sold out.

Either way. Can’t wait for next year!

-Angel