Day 0 of Comic Con Honolulu was supposed to have a simple schedule for your friendly neighborhood otaku blogger: Check in to the hotel, finish up writing a quick preview of what’s happening this weekend, fetch the Otaku Ohana Anonymous Director of Forced Social Interaction, have a nice dinner back at the hotel, fall asleep in bed while completing Tsum Tsum missions.
Naturally, my car decided that now would be a lovely time to take a vacation as well, promptly melting its radiator in neighboring mall stop-and-go traffic and sending its owner into FLAIL SCALE OVER 9,000! mode.
And so my schedule was radically reworked, I ended up falling asleep in bed working on this quick preview, and I’m probably the most discombobulated going into a convention since a few years ago, when I attended Kawaii Kon a few weeks after being hospitalized with pneumonia. Whee!
But the main thing is that I’m here, safely ensconced in the con hotel with this lovely view, ready to cover the con!
… well, OK, I’m ready to cover the con, at least.
Comic Con Honolulu does rekindle the flame of Con-athon 2018, after all, with four major geek culture cons happening on three different islands over the next three months. It can, admittedly, be hard to keep everything straight. And that’s where I come in.
First, a disclaimer: This is only one person’s opinion on what he thinks are the highlights of a particular convention, so you’re going to want to check the show’s website and social media accounts to get a fuller picture of what’s going on.
OK, enough with the introductions. Let’s roll.
Comic Con Honolulu
Today-Sunday, Hawai’i Convention Center
$65 for 3-day pass; $40 Friday; $55 Saturday; $40 Sunday; children 10 and under free with paying adult
It’s the one with: Jeremy Shada, the voice of Finn in Adventure Time; Felicia Day, Internet darling who’s starred in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, The Guild, and the recent revival of Mystery Science Theater 3000; kamaaina actress and Miss Hawaii USA 1993 Kelly Hu; Jason Isaacs, Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies; and Kevin Sussman, best known as Stuart the comic store owner in the love-it-or-loathe-it geeky sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
Helping put the comics in this comic con: Captain Marvel and Wolverine creator Roy Thomas; Strangers in Paradise creator Terry Moore; Stan Sakai, kamaaina creator of rabbit ronin Usagi Yojimbo; and current Deadpool artist Scott Koblish, who apparently likes drawing many different ways of killing himself.
Your Overwatch voice actor squad: Junkrat (Chris Parson), Zenyatta (Feodor Chin), Mei (Elise Zhang), Hanzo (Paul Nakauchi), and Roadhog (Josh Petersdorf). Writer Michael Chu will be there, too! And they’ll all be part of what’s being billed as “Blizzard’s Official Overwatch Panel” at 11:30 a.m. Saturday in the Main Events room. The live art auction on Sunday (starting at 10:15 a.m., Panel Room 314) will offer a unique opportunity: The winning bidder will get to play on an Overwatch team with the voice actors against six runner-up bidders. And the auction proceeds go toward supporting Pu’uhonua o Puna, a group set up to help Puna residents displaced by Kilauea’s ongoing activity, so everybody wins!
Notes of note: Event programming has been one of Comic Con Honolulu’s strengths over the past few years, which is to be expected from an offshoot of Kawaii Kon, the anime con that remains the local standard for activities crammed into every day. Here are some highlights:
- Traditional favorites include Iron Cosplay, in which contestants cobble together costumes from a random assortment of materials (1:15 p.m. today, Room 312); Comic Jam Hawaii’s Art Improv panel, with artists drawing audience suggestions on the fly (1 p.m. Saturday, Room 314); the cosplay contest (6 p.m. Saturday, Main Events); a pair of cosplay sketching sessions (1:30 p.m. today and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, both in Room 314); and the aforementioned live art auction (10:15 a.m. Sunday).
- Main Events room concerts include the orchestral stylings of Hitbox Music Ensemble, bringing a program with the theme “Music of the Elements I: Water” at 8:15 p.m. Friday, and the rock ‘n’ rollin’ Otakus at 8:15 p.m. Saturday.
- Sci-fi fan group The Last Outpost Hawaii is presenting five panels throughout the weekend: “How to Catch an Alien” at 6:30 p.m. today in Room 315; “Build Your Own Superhero” at 4:15 p.m. and “Mad-Lib Theater” at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, both in Room 312; and “Whovian Trivia” at 10 a.m. and “Starship Smackdown!” at 1 p.m. Sunday, also both in Room 312.
Otaku Ohana 