Motor City Comic Con [2017]

With Twiztid announcing that they are joining the convention circuit with their own pop culture event, it’s best to remind ourselves about other flagship events of the same genre. This is actually the biggest one of the year in the state of Michigan. It’s the first of what the Detroit Free Press calls “The Big 4 Events of Detroit” which also includes Hallowicked. But that’s not what this review is about, my friends. This is about this past weekend’s convention filled with comic books, sci fi, horror, video games, anime, wrestling, and celebrities galore. It’s the infamous Motor City Comic Con!

This review starts off with Thursday. It was a long ass drive from US-131 South to M-32 East to I-75 South to US 23 South to I-96 East from Petoskey, Michigan to Novi, Michigan. The hotel that I booked was the Hilton Garden Inn, described by many as pretty much a “big baller status, party all the time, you’s a fucking big shot” hotel establishment. The room was fine except for the bathroom sink having a slow drain. The staff was great and nice and stuff, but when it stormed outside the TV and internet would stop working. They would always run out of coffee, and the worst part about this place was the fact that they charged 13 fucking dollars for breakfast. Normally hotels and motels do complementary breakfasts. Sometimes it’s a breakfast with toast, cereal, bacon, eggs, etc. Sometimes it’s just donuts and coffee. But still…I wasn’t gonna let my mom’s pay for another breakfast there. So before day one even began, I went to the nearest Wal-Mart and picked up microwaveable breakfast sandwiches and stuffed hash browns.  (I also snagged me a bottle of coffee creamer cause I ain’t paying 1.00 for a tiny little packet of creamer.) Your staff might be nice, the beds were comfy and the rooms were super clean, but I’m not gonna recommend your hotel for anybody I know that’s doing business in that area. The Hilton Garden Inn in Novi, Michigan gets a rating of 2.9 outta 5.

Okay now to day 1. A pretty fucking long line started our experience at Motor City Comic Con, which is held every year at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi. A little tidbit about the Suburban Collection Showplace, it used to be known as the Novi Expo Center. Yes that’s right fam, this was the birthplace of the Gathering Of The Fucking Juggalos 17 years ago! After waiting an hour to get in, I pretty much embraced the inner geeky nerdy fuck that I am and just got flat out lost in the culture. I checked out every vendor, every artist in the artists’ corner, all the celebrities including:

  • Michael Rooker of The Walking Dead/Guardians of the Galaxy
  • WWE’s Lita
  • Rob Schneider of SNL
  • Anthony Michael Hall of Weird Science and The Dead Zone
  • Tony Todd aka the horror icon CandyMan
  • Shannon Elizabeth of American Pie

I made Friday the day to buy a bunch of crap. I won’t go into detail, but I added some keys to my comic collection, a funny beer coozie for my aunt’s collection, and basically checked out all the hot chicks in their cosplay costumes…yeah. The day ended with me scratching something off my bucket list which is meeting one of my musical heroes. I paid 45 dollars for a photo op with the legendary Grammy award winning, and Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame drummer Marky Ramone of The Ramones. It was awesome!  I had a mangasm [yeah it’s a real thing] when he told me that the 2nd to last song I named out of the 3 Ramones songs that are my personal favorites [“I Just Wanna Have Something To Do”, “Poison Heart”, and “I Believe in Miracles”] was his 2nd favorite song of all time.  After a long day of walking around the venue, it was back to the hotel where I took off my shoes, popped open a cold one, and relaxed the night away doing my own thing.

Day 2’s line wasn’t all that short either, but I was able to get in a half hour before the rest. I got my custom comic finished and I began collecting signatures. The best part about the signatures was a slew of the artists there were taking donations for a great charity called “The Heroes Initiative” which does alot of work for disaster relief efforts, and other really great things such as working to end poverty.  After that, I paid 80 bucks to get a rare “in costume” photo op with the legendary WWE/TNA Hall Of Famer and former TNA, NWA, and WCW world champion: Sting! That was probably the highlight of the entire weekend for me! I went up to shake his hand and said “it’s an honor to meet you” and he replies with a warm smile “no. the pleasure is all mine”. From there, I began checking out all of the panels.  First was a Q&A panel with LaVarr Burton. You might know him from the TV mini series Roots, the PBS and now iTunes show Reading Rainbow, and Star Trek The Next Generation. I spent an hour just hearing great stories about Roots, Reading Rainbow, and most importantly: Star Trek. Then it was back to just checking out the venue itself. I linked up with my fellow Horrorflik Musick brother, Koffincreep, who was cosplaying as Ben Afleck’s Batman. Then it was time for the 2nd panel of the day for me. It was an hour of hearing voice impressions, jokes, stories, and egomaniac fueled insanity from Rob Schneider! He told a few jokes, gave out some insider info on what it’s like to be cast unknowingly at the last second in your friend’s pictures, and why he thinks Netflix originals are gonna be the wave of the future for how we watch TV. He even revealed that he, Adam Sandler, David Spade, and Nick Swordson are going to be embarking on a comedy tour this summer that may be filmed for an upcoming Netflix special! That was cool.  After seeing more hotties in dressed up, as well as a few more autographs, it was a great taxi cab ride back to the hotel where day 2 came to an end. I was invited to the big party the con was having that night, but I decided not to go.

Finally it was time for Day 3! This time it was a tad bit different. Instead of waiting outside in a line, all of us who had weekend passes were sent to a room where we had to wait at least 15-20 minutes before being allowed inside the venue. After that, I continued to get signatures for my custom comic including a 20 dollar signature from a true living legend in comics: Allen Bellmen. He worked alongside Jack Kirby back when Marvel Comics was known as Atlas Comics/Timley Comics back in the 1940’s. He worked on the Captain America Comics and The Invaders comics back in those days. He had no problem airing out dirty laundry and secrets about how comics were back in those days. The superhero genre was just beginning, and its only big rival was horror comics. It was definitely worth 20 bucks. I also got signatures from guys like Frank Cho who mainly draws for Wonder Woman at DC, and Ed McGuinness who draws for Spider-man/Deadpool over at Marvel. After that, it was time for Panel 1 for the day.  It was a rather interesting one for me because as a kid growing up in the 1990’s, Amy Jo Johnson was pretty much one of my first crushes [alongside Chili of TLC]. She and her former onscreen love interest Jason David Frank was just filled with a lot of stories and tons of laughs. If you were a fan of the Power Rangers growing up, then this was a panel for you. They even went as far as calling David Yost [Billy from Power Rangers] which surprised the crowd to a great ovation. That panel ended with them attempting the world’s biggest selfie thing that Ellen invented. Find it online somewhere. You might find my fat arm sticking up in the air doing the “Kliq” signal. I bought a couple more books that morning before I went to the very last thing I was going to do at the con: The Wil Wheaton panel. You guys might remember him from movies like Stand By Me and Toy Soldiers, as well as TV shows like Star Trek the Next Generation and The Big Bang Theory. Will’s panel was almost like a stand up routine. He didn’t sit down like everybody else. He was on his feet telling all sorts of stories including how he by mistake called Sean Astin “Bae” before coming up on the stage and even told a few stories about Star Trek TNG, his love for board games like D&D, and just the whole nerd culture. He even admitted he didn’t know how to talk right when he met Lita earlier that day. He also talked about how lucky he was to not get caught up in the curse of being a child star and his own battle with anxiety and depression. It was a great panel and a great ending for my trip to Motor City Comic Con. He ended his panel with telling everybody to try to stride to be a better human in your life, to be more kind to others, and to take time to tell yourself that you’re better than what anybody else says you are. If you believe hard enough, you can do anything. It was really cool! After I left the venue, I made my post-comic con stop at Buffalo Wild Wings where my mom bought something for herself for a change. It was one of those big jugs of beer B Dubs sells for a deposit of 8 dollars.  Then it was back to the hotel where I spent the rest of day 3 on the PS4. Then the next morning, I packed up and went back north towards home.

All in all this was a really great experience! I would love to do it again in the future! The highlight of the whole weekend was the amount of kindness and class Marky Ramone, Sting, Jason David Frank, and Wil Wheaton showed. You could just tell the amount of love, respect, and admiration from vendors, artists, staff, guests and even convention goers like myself all there in one big positive ball of freshness. You can’t get any higher than that cloud! Well maybe the Gathering and Hallowicked but nothing else really in my eyes. And yes fam, there were quite a few Juggalos there as both staff members, artists, and even convention goers. My big positive is all the pictures I got with some certified hotties in cosplay as well as being hit on by a hottie at Buffalo Wild Wings. So yeah, that was cool. Is this something I would recommend for you all? Absolutely. A weekend pass [even VIP] is affordable.  You can buy stuff for as cheap as 50 cents, and you’re gonna be able to meet new people and exchange great stories and all sorts of stuff. I give the Motor City Comic Con 2017 a 5 outta 5. There were no problems whatsoever. And again, there’s always something awesome going down there whenever you go. I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to go back down there again, but when I do,best believe I’ll make it a time to remember!

All photos were taken by yours truly using both my cell phone, as well as a camera except for the photo of myself and Koffincreep dressed as Batman. That pic was taken by David “Koffincreep” Johnstone on his iPhone.  The photos of myself with Marky Ramone and Sting were taken by Wolf Studios Photography [www.wolfstudiosphotography.com]

More photos from Motor City Comic Con:



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