Friday, July 18, 2014

Upper East Coast Walking Dead Fans here you go Walker Stalker Convention!!

Walker Stalker convention is a fan run convention created around The Walking Dead show. This convention is not just located in one place, it is located across America to give everybody a chance to meet their favorite cast members from the show. If you live on the east coast near major cities such as New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia or Baltimore, this convention is up your alley. Held at Meadowlands Exposition Center NJ, purchase your tickets right away through Ticketleap. Hotel information will be announced soon. 

For more information on Walker Stalker in New York/New Jersey please Click Here.

Walker Stalker Convention is December 13-14, 2014.

This will be a last minute decision to attend this convention. It all depends how my money situation will be because I will be attending HowlerCon, a Teen Wolf convention, in November. If I do attend Walker Stalker, I will keep you guys informed.

Make sure you follow Fort Fandom on twitterfacebook, and youtube.

~Artemis   

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Stephen Amell coming to NYCC!!


Stephen Amell is coming to NYCC only Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Amell plays the popular DC comic superhero The Green Arrow on the CW show called Arrow. Arrow has been CW most popular show for the past two years and continue to grow in fanbase each year. Comic congoers will love this treat, as many hope in a ripple effect The Flash actors will make an appearance at NYCC as well, since Berry Allen (The Flash) was featured on Arrow in season 2. Here is hoping for more Arrow cast members to join Stephen Amell at NYCC.

New York Comic Con is October 9-12th at the Javits Convention Center in NYC. If you are trying to buy tickets to this convention, the only tickets available are Thursday on their website. Unfortunately, many guests mostly attend conventions on Saturday and Sunday. However, NYCC will soon announce comic stores who will be selling weekend and day tickets.

Stay tune for that information. 

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Official full length TV launch trailer - Doctor Who Series 8 

And here we go. Can't bloody wait. Doctor Who season 8 starts August 23rd. 

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con Review

Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con has come and gone once again as this year was my first time attending this convention. Yes, I do live in Philly but I was more of an anime convention congoer before I branched out last year into comic conventions. For the many conventions I have been too, I really had an fantastic time at Philly Con. I had a specific agenda for this con, no photoops or autographs. This method allowed me to have more time to take pictures of cosplayers, buying items from vendors and attending panels.

Pros
I was surprised I attended many of the panels I had planned. I think largely of that have to do with the size of the Pennsylvania convention center. Unlike Javits Convention center rooms for New York Comic Con which are really small for the amount of crowd that con attracts, Philly Con rooms were bigger. The grandball room was gigantic that probably could fit over a thousand congoers. Also, the best part about the grandball room, they didn't care if you recorded or took pictures. Some cons frown on that behavior, which is ridiculous at times.

Majority of the panels I attended, I recorded and already uploaded on Fort Fandom Youtube page. Karen Gillan, Christopher Lloyd, Ralph Macchio, Martin Kove, Eddie McClintock, Dave Batista and Eliza Dushku panels was extremely fun to attend as they talked about there movie projects, career and answered the fans questions.

The waiting in line was very surprising for panels. Each panel I attended I waited 45 minutes or less. That has to be a record for a big con. Also what contributed to that, the staff was not clearing out every panel. Luckily the room I was in had the best line up so I didn't have to leave the room period. Normally I would frown on people camping out in panels for one celebrity 4 panels down the road, but I knew all the guests that was in those panels, so I didn't feel guilty that much.

The cosplayers was the main attraction at Philly Con. The creativity, design and humorous cosplayers, was all fantastic. The children dressed up as my favorite characters, was extremely adorable. I congratulated on some parents saying keep up the great work. I love encouraging the parents to keep bringing their children to conventions and get them into cosplay. It's fun, a positive atmosphere, and the children can dress up awesome besides Halloween. If you want to see any cosplays photos I have taken at Philly Con, check out our facebook page.

Cons
Although I didn't experience it at the con, however my friend who attended the con with me said the photoops and autograph lines was not managed properly. She was frustrated along with many others as I witnessed it when I kept checking on her while doing other activities. This was one of the main reasons why I didn't forgo photoops and autographs for Philly Con. I predicted the lines for these celebrities was going to be ludicrous and I didn't want to spend my entire time at a convention grueling through those lines. At conventions, you have to choose your battle on what you want to do. If you want photoops and autographs, be prepared to wait in extremely large lines.

Philadelphia Comic Con 2015
In no doubt in my mind I will be attending Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con next year. The date is May 7-10 2015 which is cutting it close with my other conventions like BookCon or Awesome Con. If you are coming to Philly Comic Con, buy your 4-day tickets as soon as possible. I heard many people had no choice but to buy the downgraded less expensive VIP passes when 4-day passes was gone along with Saturday tickets. To avoid that headache, purchase your tickets early and you won't have that problem.

Make sure you follow Fort Fandom on twitter, facebook, and youtube.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Whovians Doctor Who Tour Date for NYC!!

Okay, we finally have a date for Doctor Who: World Tour in New York. It is Thursday August 14, 2014. We don't have the time or place yet but we will keep you guys posted. So excited!!

Doctor Who NYC Tour

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Howler Con Tickets are on Sale!!


If you don't know or forgotten, Howler Con tickets went on sale July 1st. If you are going, I recommend buying your tickets now. New Moon package is the cheaper package out of the four packages. Blood Moon is already sold out, so three packages are remaining to purchase. If you are waiting for single day tickets when they become available closer to the con, I have that funny feeling single day tickets will be close to $70+.

If you want to do Meet & Greets there is only 25 tickets per guest. They will be gone really soon. If you are trying to figure out a method to buy everything and have the money to do it all before tickets are sold out, follow this method.

Howler Con Formula
Buy package> Book Hotel> M&G> Photoops> Autographs

For a convention like this, I would strongly recommend doing the entire weekend to space your time to attend panels and meet other congoers who are also Teen Wolf lovers.

I will be attending this convention and I can't wait to cosplay a Beacon Hill lacrosse player. Maybe we can put together a Teen Wolf Cosplay gathering so people can take pictures and all that good stuff.

I will keep you updated when tickets are sold out. If you follow me on twitter it will be posted there faster.

Howler Con Tickets

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

BookCon Review 

BookCon Saturday May 31, 2014
Happening the same week as the awesome BookExpo America (BEA), BookCon established itself becoming a very successful first year con. It was exciting, many different genre of authors attended, free books, and always a hoot to meet other book lovers such as myself.


Pros
Always the highlight at conventions for me is going to the panels. The ones that I could attend, I already recorded and posted them on Fort Fandom Youtube Channel. Please check those out when you can.

I had a fantastic time meeting Cassandra Clare twice in one week. I met Cassandra at West Chester Philadelphia for her City of Heavenly Fire book tour on Friday May 30th and Saturday at BookCon. It was just a fantastic TMI weekend, and I got the famous Shadowhunter Tarot Cards done by Cassandra Jean at Cassandra Book tour (screams!!).

Cassandra Clare, Holly Black and Maggie Stiefvator
The Epic Storytelling panel with Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles), Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments Series) and Maggie Stiefvator (Shiver Series) was hilarious. All these lovely ladies was sharing funny stories together, discussing their books, future projects and answering the audience questions. At the end of the panel, all of the fans walked out with a signed copy of The Magisterium Series: The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black, and also Sinner by Maggie Stiefvator. I have read The Iron Trial and wrote a non spoiler review on the blog. Just click here and it will direct you to that blog page.

Veronica Roth, Danielle Paige, Marie Lu, and Alaya Johnson
Another panel I attended was Dystopian future panel with Veronica Roth (Divergent Series), Alaya Dawn Johnson (The Summer Prince), Danielle Paige(Dorothy Must Die) and Marie Lu (Legend Series) as they talked about there books in the Dystopian world fandom. Although I have only read the Divergent series which was amazing, after this panel I'm definitely going to pick up all the other authors books in the future. The more they kept describing the different aspect of their books, the more I needed these book like yesterday.

Cons
BookCon had it's fair share of hiccups dealing with lines, staff and overcrowding. With my con experience, I already knew I had to get in line two hours in advance to acquire good seats at these panels. Many new comers attending this convention were getting frustrated over the panel line issues. It was understandable, but at the same time, this is what happens at conventions.

Another issue I had at BookCon was staff understanding the convention rules. On the website they stated that they wasn't going to clear out every panel. When I asked to confirm this information just to be on the safe side, the staff members had no clue. One staff member said they was going to clear the panels after every guests and then another said they was not. That frustrated many of us congoers waiting in line for two hours wanting to get good seats.

In addition, I had an issue with staff handling crowd control. There needs to be a better way to control the lines then being pushed around like cattle in a pen. Also, the staff need to be more vocal on what line people are standing in. Some people didn't know they was waiting in line for Cassandra Clare panel thinking they was waiting in line for Stan Lee. I know this is a first year con, but I hope staff become more vocal, maintains the lines better and follow rules as a collective group for next year.

Furthermore, the autograph section was the biggest issue at BookCon that seriously needs to be addressed next year. The lines was ridiculously long and it overcrowded the show floor area of being unable to walk around comfortably. I really hope BookCon move the autograph section off the show floor area completely. The two suggestions I hope BookCon take into consideration, is move the autograph section either downstairs where New York Comic Con (NYCC) had their autograph section or where the Artist alley was for NYCC as well. The autograph section can not be on the show floor area next year or overcrowding will continue to be an issue.

Next Year BookCon 2015
BookCon will expand into a two day event in 2015. BEA will run from Wednesday May 27th to Friday 29th and BookCon will run Saturday May 30th to Sunday May 31st 2015. Since 10,000 attendees showed up for BookCon this year, I think this was a wise decision. However, I wonder how the layout is going to work on a short time frame to dismantle BEA section since that had the biggest area at the convention. Or, will they keep it up and transition BookCon over into BEA territory. It would be interesting to see how they figure this out when the time comes next year.

With all the negatives from BookCon, I will attend next year convention again. I love books, NYC is close to Philly, and I want to see the improvements they do with this convention. I hope BookCon is around for many years in the future because it is very rare to gather many of my favorite book authors in one place.

BookCon will be May-30-31 2015.

BookCon Website