We were glad to have had living legends, industry icons, creative geniuses, space cowboys, and scientific marvels. From May 25-27, the pop culture festival opened its doors once again at the George R. Brown Convention Center welcoming celebrity guests like Tom Holland, famous for being Spider-Man in the current Marvel Cinematic Universe; John Cusack, who held up the stereo in Say Anything, made us think about the importance of music in life during High Fidelity, and entertained us in so many other movie staples; the charming Krysten Ritter from Jessica Jones and Daredevil’s real alter-ego Charlie Cox; along with Walton Goggins whose performances have dominated both big and small screens in comedies, dramas, and action adventures, he’s often the bad guy you love to hate or hate to love; and then there were household names like LeVar Burton, or well-known characters like Peter Mayhew, the original Chewbacca, and behind-the-scene magic makers like the elegant Ruth Carter, the costume designer for Black Panther whose incredible 30+ year career is unrivaled.

Comicpalooza started in a theater during the movie premier of The Dark Knight and to commemorate our 10th anniversary, Discovery Green, across the Avenida from the George R. Brown Convention Center, showed the movie opening night of the show. New this year for gamers was a watch party for the Houston Outlaws where the Overwatch team battled the San Francisco Shock on the night of May 25th. Saturday night, we partied on the plaza at the After Party on the Avenida with special guests Ghostland Observatory, while inside guests wandered through a Live Art auction as artists created original pieces before our eyes.

Returning events included the Crossplay competition on Friday night, the popular Cosplay competition on Saturday night, and the adorable Kid’s Cosplay competition on Sunday afternoon. A literature festival filled with authors, workshops, and round table discussions; comic book guests, publishers, and retailers; a film festival that featured underground films as well as the drive-in classic, Night of the Living Dead; entertainment that included ice sculpting with power tools, dance, songs, and laughs. And, there was so much more.

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