HeroesCon 2014 with Ramona Fradon

This weekend I went to HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC. I have skipped the last several years but this year I made the trip so I could meet Ramona Fradon, artist from the Silver Age Aquaman and Metamorpho.

This was her first visit to HeroesCon and she said she was very impressed by all the people who had come up to say hello to her and tell her how much they enjoyed her work. She said one guy said her Aquaman comics inspired him to become a Marine Biologist and another fan said Metamorpho inspired him to become a Chemical Engineer.

As I've mentioned in the past, a Ramona Fradon Aquaman collection was my very first comic and I've enjoyed her art ever since.

We also got a chance to see Don Rosa, a regular attendee at HeroesCon. There was quite a long line to see him, but my daughter Haigen was adamant about seeing him, so we waited to see him and it was well worth the wait. (Sorry this picture is so bad. Don is a rather animated speaker, so trying to get a good picture of him proved to be a challenge I couldn't meet.)

As always he entertained us with stories about Europe, Comics and fans he as met over the years while he drew a sketch for Haigen.

Overall the con was very well attended, with a much larger cosplayer turnout than I had ever seen before. The con photographer (who was taking this group Cosplay picture) told me that the cosplay turn out was 3 times what it had been last year.

While I'm not a Cosplayer myself, it really made the con for my daughter who went around getting pictures of her favories. (Below she is preparing to get a picture of Harley Quinn. There were a LOT of Harley Quinn's at this con, but this one with the giant mallet was a con favorite.)

...and posing with them for pictures as well. Here she is posing Esmerelda from Hunchback of Notre Dame. (Esmerelda is one of Haigen's favorite Disney characters.)

Haigen also got a chance to pose with the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine

And while she was less interested in the two characters below, I thought they looked awesome:

I wasn't sure how my daughter would like the con. She's gone to smaller local cons here in Columbia, but nothing near the size of HeroesCon. As it turned out, she had a great time at the con and is already planning her own cosplay costume for next year.

- Jim