Invasion of the nerds

David Sneed //May 28, 2013//

Invasion of the nerds

David Sneed //May 28, 2013//

Do you still want to dress up as Catwoman, maybe help out some kids?  Who doesn’t, right? Well you can do both next weekend at Denver Comic Con. 

Comic Con, in case you’re not in the loop, is a three-day fan-fest featuring the best in popular TV, gaming, movies, and comic books.

Last year, the inaugural event lured 30,000 nerds out of their basements and onto the streets of downtown.  This year, with Stan Lee as the featured guest, you can expect 15th and California to be absolutely wheezing with asthmatic superheroes and portly sidekicks.

From Aqua Man to Zelda, you’ll see costumes galore—our very own Midwest Mardi gras. And the writers and artists of the most famous fiction on earth will be here to talk about the wonderful worlds they’ve created.

Honestly, I can’t wait.

I’ve never been much into comics (I remember reading an Archie once, and those awful Chick tracts when I should have been watching the sermon) but I still like going to these things. People who take a hobby so seriously are interesting characters, and I‘m genuinely impressed by the energy they bring to the show.

Nerds.

But you’d be surprised at how many of them don’t live in their mom’s rumpus room. In fact I’ll wager that most of them don’t. Comic Con-goers are (mostly) regular Jills and Jacks who spend their time not hating other races or religions, and they even work alongside us during the week.

While we have a great convention facility here in Denver, most of the time it’s some doctor or engineer group that doesn’t invite the public. But this one weekend is dedicated to normal people and superpowers—and it’s the most egalitarian event we’ve ever hosted.

Sure, there’ll be fights over whether Superman’s ‘costume’ is the blue tights or the black-framed eye glasses, but at the end of the day both sides will drift off in their Tron® beds happy they got to debate it.

And whether you like Batman or My Little Pony (Mr. Mayor?) you’ll be welcomed as part of the community.  Belonging is nice after what seems like the past nine years of cursing the other party for ruining America.

Good going for the Mile-High City, too. Quite a few of the Spidermen and women will come from neighboring states with their Dorito-dusted folding money to trade for hotel rooms and…and I’m not sure what they eat, grilled cheeses and ketchup or something, but they’ll buy food with it.

And carriage rides on the Mall, and magic bracelets, and candy corn probably.  Point is they’ll spend cash money here in Denver, and we all win.

Ticket sales go to a pretty decent cause, too: Comic Book Classroom, a charity that helps kids in poor communities learn to read using comic books and graphic novels. This effort to improve the lives of the next generation really is effective; and you, dear reader, know the value of literacy.

So if you find yourself with nothing to do next weekend, even if you can’t cobble together a Squirrel Girl costume by then, consider bringing the family downtown for the day. The kids will think it’s hilarious and you may realize that these geeks are pretty cool cats after all.