What is GalaxyCon?
GalaxyCon is a convention that celebrates pop culture and fandom. While there is a special focus on comics, anime, science fiction, and fantasy, many more facets of fandom are represented and recognized. Whether it’s superheroes or anime, books or tv/movies, older or newer franchises, live action or animated, there is a lot to appreciate for all kinds of pop culture fans. The convention invites numerous guests including writers, artists, actors, comedians, wrestlers, and entertainers of all sorts. Currently, GalaxyCon happens three times a year, traveling to Richmond, VA, Raleigh, NC, and Columbus, OH.
Admission to the weekend-long event allows attendees access to the exhibition hall and to a large number of panels and shows at no additional charge. The exhibition hall houses a large number of vendors and exhibitors, some from larger companies and names, but also local talent and artists. The panels range from Q&As with celebrities to presentations on specific fandom topics to shows purely intended for entertainment.
Attendees also have the chance to interact with the celebrities and special guests beyond just the panels. Usually for an additional price, GalaxyCon offers guests the opportunity to take part in photo-ops, meet-and-greets, and autograph signings. How far your dollar will go depends on the type of interaction and the individual celebrity.
While the makeup of GalaxyCon seems to change from year to year and site to site, other possible attractions include board game rooms, video game tournaments, wrestling matches, sing-alongs, and cosplay contests. For any possible attendees, we recommend you check out GalaxyCon’s website for a better idea of who and what your specific event might include.
Personal Note:
GalaxyCon Richmond 2020 was our last big event before the world shutdown due to Covid-19 in 2020. We were so happy we had one last chance to do something fun before the world changed so much. Now, two years later, it’s thrilling to get to go to GalaxyCon again. The world obviously isn’t completely back to normal, but it’s so nice to have an opportunity to get out and take part in a celebration of so many different things we love.
Panels/Guests:
This year had a lot of great names and guests to choose from. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to see and do it all. Our friends and family who attended panels separately from us, all seemed to greatly enjoy their experiences. This is a list of who we saw and brief thoughts on each:
Tara Strong: This was our first panel of the weekend and it started things off strongly. Tara Strong was a very entertaining listen and she had a lot of cool stories to share, both for her past work and about what she’s up to now.
* At one point during the convention, Tara Strong happened to run into us changing our son, Yeti’s diaper. She exclaimed: “That’s the cutest spider-baby!”
AEW Wrestlers: Leva Bates, Britt Baker, Ruby Soho, and Kris Statlander – Chaos is a big wrestling fan, so this was always on his to-do list. With four guests (though Leva Bates also acted as the moderator) they were always someone with something worth listening to. For some reason, wrestling panels, especially those involving women, often get a little cringey during the Q&A section. Thankfully, this one didn’t follow that trend and even the not-as-great questions were handled well and got good answers. The wrestlers did a job of letting their personalities shine through as they held the panel with a mix of in/out of character moments.
David Yost: Chaos’ original favorite Power Ranger was Billy, the Blue Ranger, so it was a blast to get to see the actor behind the character. David Yost came off as the most authentic of all the panels we saw and the most down to Earth. Hearing about his potential projects and that he seemed to be in a good place overall was great.
Evangeline Lilly and Rodrigo Bastos Didier – Surprisingly (to us at least) this Q&A panel focused a lot on the pair’s children’s book series The Squickerwonkers and the processes of writing and creating art for books. Of course, Lilly’s other work such as Lost, The Hobbit, and the MCU were touched on, but those were mostly secondary to her writing. It was very interesting to hear about the thought and creativity that went into her book series.
Giancarlo Esposito: Giancarlo Esposito, the person, is extremely different from many of the, often evil, characters he plays. The real Giancarlo is a very high-energy and emotion-full person. At times he couldn’t help but jump up from his seat as he delivered his messages and thoughts. At other times, he clearly was fighting back tears. He seemed very willing to open up about his life and experiences. While he spoke about his specific roles, he definitely also wanted to pass on his thoughts on life and the world. Giancarlos came off as a very nice and wonderful human being.
Bill Farmer and Jason Marsden: This panel markets itself as “A Goofy Movie” panel since the two men voiced Goofy and Max respectively. Overall, this panel provided the most laughs. The two men had great chemistry and humor. They shared a lot of interesting stories that made me interested in hearing a lot more. This panel flew by.
Bret Iwan: Iwan is the current voice of Mickey Mouse and the fourth person to officially take on the role. Unfortunately, due to an upset baby, we couldn’t stay for his entire presentation, but what we were there for was very interesting. Iwan discussed several topics such as getting his role as Mickey and how an aging voice affects voice actors.
Noise Complaint: This was a Disney-sing-along with improv mixed in. The group lead the singing from their stage (though they had no problems leaving it), while dancing and acting the songs out in hilarious fashion and really playing to the audience. This ended up being a lot of fun and we applaud the over-the-top energy and wackiness the entire ensemble brought to their performances.
Exhibition Hall:
There is no way to review each and every vendor and exhibitor present on the show floor. However, we can say that overall there was a great mix for a wide variety of interests. We had friends who bought comics, action figures, stickers, dice, books, pins, and artwork.
Here is a look at what we purchased:
TeeTurtle: “I have no idea what I’m doing“ Shirt
Copper Coast: Many flavors of fudge including: Orange Dreamsicle, Belgian Chocolate, Seasalt Caramel, Panther Chocolate, and Galaxy (Double Chocolate)
Jonathan Rosenbaum: The children’s book Itty Bitty Drum, a Felix the Cat print inspired by A Clockwork Orange, and a Felix the Cat woodcut
Two books “The Flying Woman” and “The Silver Stranger” books by Daniel Sherrier
Children’s books by Andrew J. Hall
Cosplay:
Our schedule never allowed us to take in any of the official cosplay contests, panels, or lip-sync battles, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t get to see a lot of cosplay. I’m sure we missed seeing plenty of great costumes, but by the end of the weekend, we had pictures of dozens of fantastic outfits, which is only a fraction of all the cosplay we saw.
Chaos especially loves seeing so many people dress up and couldn’t help getting in on the fun himself. On Friday, he attended as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’s Peter B. Parker. On Saturday, Chaos got dangerous and showed up as Darkwing Duck. Sunday, he went as his normal self. Meanwhile, Confetti dressed up all weekend as generic convention attendee.
Chaos & Confetti 