With 2020 feeling like Thanos snapping his fingers and dusting almost everything out of existence, 2021 feels like the second snap that brought everyone back, somewhat. Conventions are slowly but surely coming back and one of those conventions that have decided to make a comeback is Big Texas Comic Con. Yes, after taking 2020 off due to Covid, is back for their second- albeit- smaller year, taking place between October 8 and running through October 10. Here are my observations and review of the con.
Like I’ve mentioned in my San Japan 12.5 Observations and Review write up, conventions in 2021 have slowly started to open back up, with Big Texas Comic Con being one of those conventions. And just like San Japan, BTCC was severely downsized due to vendors, artists and guests exercising safety precautions, which is understandable since their health is a priority. This led to having BTCC housing everything together in one hall. Even with the reduced number of vendors and artists, there were still a ton of things to see and buy, though a minor nitpick for me is that there were only a few booths that focused primarily on comics. For me, the best part of any comic con is going to the various comic booths and going through the boxing, looking for hidden gems and getting some great deals. Again that’s just me and my minor nitpick. As for guests it seems (or at least from what I have researched/looked up from 2019) that they have increased the number of guests, this is counting movies/TV, artists/writers and cosplayers. The range of guests was pretty varied with some big stars like Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian, Far Cry 6) voice actor giants Tara Strong (Batman The Animated Series, Teen Titans, My Little Pony) and Sean Schemmel (Dragon Ball Z/Super) and WWE legends Kurt Angle and Amy ‘Lita’ Dumas.
A thing that I noticed at most Comic Cons that I have attended is that once you have bought the things you wanted and met the guest you always wanted to see, there isn’t much else to do. Sure there are panels to attend but those are mostly headlined by the guests, there are no community led panels. Most anime and video game conventions allow local communities/fandoms to hold panels which gives the conventions more variety. It would be nice to see BTCC incorporate more fan/community led panels once Covid starts to die down. I also have mentioned numerous times before, be it at an anime or comic con, but video games are a bit part of both cultures. In regards to comics, it was common to see kids hanging out at the arcade or wherever there was an arcade machine either playing or off to the side waiting for their turn reading a comic. Though the technology and medium has change, comics and video games have and will always go hand in hand with each other.
Overall Big Texas Comic Con, despite the decrease in size due to Covid, was pretty much a success. To me comic cons are pretty much giant nerd flea markets that you are able to buy and see things that you normally won’t be able to with your local comic shops and BTCC keeps that alive. BTCC has already announced the date for next year’s convention and it seems to be spooky as the date land on Halloween weekend, October 28th to 30th. Let’s hope that BTCC continues to grow steadily and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for San Antonio nerds next year.
