Denver Comic Con Returned To The Mile High City For Another Amazing Weekend

Denver Comic Con arrived back in Denver with a slew of characters. (Photo: Jason Pendleton)

The comic con scene is alive and well in Denver nowadays. Denver Comic Con continues to grow exponentially year after year with bigger crowds and more importantly bigger guest celebrities. This year was no exception.

This year boasted the likes of childhood heroes of mine such as Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy of Sixteen Candles fame. Val Kilmer was in attendance, Mr. Iceman himself. A who's who of current television stars such as Jason Momoa (Justice League and Game of Thrones), David Harbour of recent Stranger Things fame and Ron Perlman (Sons of Anarchy). The list goes on and on.

This year's crowds seemed on par with last years  in terms of numbers. Vendors still maintained their strong threshold with a vast opportunity to get your collectables. With 3 Main Events stages, 25 session rooms, and almost 750 hours of celebrity Q&As, panels, workshops and demos there wasn't a dull moment at this years con. There was something to keep you busy all three days.

Lot's of time and dedication went into this years cosplays. (Photo: Jason Pendleton)

The amount of hours people put into their cosplays this year did not go unnoticed, vast amounts of different array of costumes adorned the convention hall, from your usual Star Wars and Dr. Who to more intricate costumes from the world of anime and comic books.

Photo Gallery: Jason Pendleton

This years attractions such as Opening Night, Celebrity Summit, Artist Valley and Booktopia provided guest unique and one of a kind experiences. It is these experiences that people love to come to and participate in.

The Riverdale panel with KJ Apa, Skeet Ulrich and Molly Ringwald. (Photo: Austin Voldseth)

This years panels were a big hit. (Photo: Austin Voldseth)

Photo Gallery: Austin Voldseth

The Best Images From Day One Of Comic Con San Diego

Our good friend and cosplay extraordinaire photographer Jason Pendleton is coming to us live all weekend from San Diego from Comic Con. One of the most respected photographers in the game  Jason will be chiming in all weekend with the best images from each day.

Denver Comic Con Continues To Grow | Review and Photos

Wonder Woman cosplay was a big hit this year. Photo by Jason Pendleton

Mike Colter and Finn Jones. Photo by Jason Pendleton

Another year, another Denver Comic Con in the books. The three day festival took over the Colorado Convention Center this past weekend much to the delight of over thousands of eager fans. The con which continues to grow year after year had it's usual exhibitors, vendors, celebrity guests, and fans dressed in their finest cosplay. Highlights included the celebrity kids of the hit show Stranger Things. Millie Bobby Brown (see below) had a separate panel from her costars Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McGlaughlin. Other notable panels included Jon Heder and Micheal Rosenbaum, as well as Nathan Fillion and the cast of Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Iron Fist (Finn Jones). Most of the panels were well attended during all three days. Kids had a chance to participate in many of the on-site activations (labs) ranging from Lego building to drawing, after all the con was setup from its initial beginning to promote and support Pop Culture Classroom.

The setup at this years con was a bit confusing to many of the attendees as evident across many message boards and those in attendance. In the past years the front of the convention center (Blue Bear) lobby has always been open to those attending. It made for a great meet up spot and easy navigation to the main hall. This year due to booking another event the main area was closed off and attendees had to walk around the building in order to enter. Aside from that the convention went off without a flaw. Exhibitors and artist from all over the country setup shop in the main hall slanging everything from one of a kind art to Superman t-shirts to posters. Our good friends at Breckenridge Brewery once again had their traditional beer on hand with plenty of pint glasses this year to go around. The after party scene got things started off Friday night with Planet Cosplay at Summit Music Hall, Breck Brew had their hand in two parties both Friday (at The Paramount) and Saturday (at The Hard Rock Cafe).  Kudos to the amazing staff and hundreds of volunteers that make this event happen each year. Always one of our favorite events to cover we hope to continue to see the con grow in the future.

-Robert Castro

Photo by Robert Castro

Photo by Jason Pendleton

Photo by Jason Pendleton

Photos courtesy of Jason Pendleton contributing photographer to Ultra5280 and Robert Castro Editor-in-Chief. All images are reserved do not use without permission.

Denver Comic Con Set To Invade Denver This Weekend: We have All The Info You Need

It's that time of year once again, Denver Comic Con is ready to take over The Mile High City. The 3-day, family-friendly pop culture fan extravaganza, featuring the best in pop culture entertainment is set to embark at the Colorado Convention Center June 30-July 2. DCC is a program of the Colorado nonprofit Pop Culture Classroom, whose mission is to inspire a love of learning, to increase literacy, celebrate diversity and build community through pop culture education.

The proceeds from this annual event benefit Pop Culture Classroom’s overall education endeavors.

This will be our fourth year covering this amazing event and like every year we are looking forward to some amazing panels, cosplay, speakers, celebrities and more.

Highlights for this year would have to include some members of the hit show Stranger Things. Set to appear are Millie Bobby Brown (Saturday 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM), Caleb McGalughlin (Friday 1:30 PM, Saturday 5:30 PM, Sunday 11:15 AM) and Gaten Matarazzo (Friday 1:00 PM, Saturday 6:00 PM, Sunday 11:45 PM)

If you have never been to Denver Comic Con (or any Comic Con for that matter), let us break it down for you. The main area consists of vendors shelling out everything from comic books to one of a kind hard to find toys, to anything you can plaster a superhero on. With that being said, be ready to spend some serious coin. The other part of Comic Con is Celebrity Summit, this is where you get to meet and get items signed by the guests of the con. Past guests have included everybody from the cast of The Karate Kid to Mr. Stan Lee himself. This year we look forward to meeting last minute surprise guest John Cusak.

Panels give guests an opportunity to hear casts talk about certain aspects of thier specific shows and other notable topics in thier respected industries. Check out the Events Guide Here.

Another part of Comic Con is the participation by our friends at Breckenridge Brewery and their "Official Beer" of the con. Every year they hold a contest to name the beer and put together a limited pint glass for the event. This years winning entry was "I Am Brewt", a take on the successful Guardians of The Galaxy franchise. We had a chance earlier this year to head out to the brewery to take some amazing photos of the characters in cosplay brewing the beer.

This may all seem a little overwhelming but remember you have three days to get all of this in. Pace yourself, schedule your panels accordingly, bring a camera for some amazing cosplay costumes and last but not least make sure you make it out to one of the amazing after parties and grab yourself a beer to celebrate.

The Best Images of San Diego Comic Con

Our good friend Jason Pendleton recently came back from the San Diego International Comic Con a few weeks ago. We asked him to send in a few photos for us to share with you. This comic con is the worlds largest and plays host to many studio panels. industry insiders, gamers, cosplay, and hobbyist of the industry. Armed with his camera and smile Jason sent us some amazing photos and we want to share them with you. (All images are copyrighted)

Jason Pendleton is photographer based in Wyoming and has an impressive portfolio. We consider him one of the best concert/event photographers around. Check out his site HERE.

Check Out More Photos from The San Diego International Comic Con Here

The Best of Denver Comic Con 2016

One of the lucky things we get to do around here is let our guard down from time to time, in other words reach into our inner geek sanctum. Let's all face it we all have a bit of nerd inside us all. Our fair city played host (to among what seemed 300 other events) the Denver Comic Con on Father's Day weekend. With record breaking numbers upwards of 110,000+ it was the place to be. Three days full of panels, vendors, cosplay, sci-fi and fantasy and more. In fact Denver's version of comic con although still in it's infancy has become one of the biggest in the country trailing only cons in San Diego and New York.

Record attendance of upward of 110,000+ at this years Denver Comic Con

Denver Comic Con as mentioned has only been around for five years but has already made its mark amongst the youth in our city by promoting Pop Culture Classroom. This initiative aims to provide kids an outlet at con to attend and participate in panels, workshops, and use the abundance of resources provided by some of the industry's most beloved professionals in the field. Everything from storytelling to drawing are part of this event and seeing kids use their creativity is something we loved seeing as we witnessed it for three days.

Toys, Toys, and more Toys!!!

Another part of Denver Comic Con is the massive showroom that takes residency at the convention center. This is full of vendors hawking everything from posters to exclusive toys to one of a kind comic books. In fact if you have never attended a comic con set aside some funds as you will spend money one way or another. We found ourselves geeking out over toys all over the place, and yes we did overspend our budget, but hey that's part of attending an event like this. One of our favorite things is getting to sample the official beer of Comic Con every year by Breckenridge Brewery. This year they unveiled their Snape-ricot Ale which also came with an awesome collectors pint. 

Heeelllooo Harley!

The War Boys were in the building!

On elf the other highlights of every comic con is people dressed in cosplay every year. This isn't your typical Halloween party get up either. We are talking crazy, over the top, insane costumes. Some so good you would think they were straight from the movie studio. As with every year we notice trends of popular characters every year, for example last year you couldn't turn left or right without seeing somebody dressed as Deadpool. This year we managed to see our fair amount of Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a few from Mad Max: Fury Road, but probably the most popular would be Harley Quinn from the upcoming Suicide Squad movie. They were everywhere, we even managed to see a male Harley Quinn (we are still trying to unsee that as we speak). Aside from cosplay one of the other awesome opportunities is getting to see some of tv and movies best in the celebrity area. This year the main attraction was none other than the legendary Stan Lee. He had lines wrapped around the convention all three days with most people waiting hours just to meet and have their photo taken with the main responsible for introducing us to all of our childhood (and adult) superheroes. Other notables were casts from Game of Thrones, Gotham, The Karate Kid, and more. Walking around and seeing Ralph Macchio, it was hard not to think about the importance of "the crane" technique and how it has revolutionized the modern art of kung-fu. Anyways, this was by far the best Denver Comic Con that we have covered and we expect it to keep growing and growing. We will be at San Diego Comic Con in a few weeks and cannot wait to report back from San Diego stay tuned. Check out our slideshow of some of the best images we captured!