On Saturday Sept. 23, I attended the Cincinnati Comic Expo with my mom. She had two main goals in mind. She was there to get autographs from Jason Isaacs and Ralph Macchio. I usually attend comic conventions for several reasons. Needless to say it was a much needed mother/daughter even though we went for different reasons.

First thing we did as soon as we got into the convention was get in line to meet Jason Isaacs and get his autograph because we knew his line would be the longest of all. Most people will recognize him from Peter Pan or Harry Potter, we were more interested in his more obscure roles. We weren’t able to get a picture, but we he did shake hands and converse with each person in line as he was signing.

The next person on my list was Daphne Zuniga. For those that don’t know, she was Princess Vespa in Spaceballs. There were three main draws for this convention: the Harry Potter theme the Cincinnati Comic Expo is famous for, the 30th Anniversary of Spaceballs (hence Daphne Zuniga) and the 30th Anniversary of The Princess Bride which I will discuss later. When I went to meet Daphne, there was no one. I was a bit surprised there wasn’t more of a draw to her table due to the Spaceballs Anniversary. Now, with Daphne I was able to get a selfie taken with her a well as my copy of Spaceball signed.

The next stop, Ralph Macchio for my mom. I’m not a huge fan of The Karate Kid and didn’t care for The Outsiders, so i waited off to the side while my mom was in line. While she was in line I happened to be standing by a Fox television vendor who had a makeshift Plinko. They asked if I wanted a shot at getting the puck in the 100 slot. I thought what the heck. I came close, but no dice. I still got a complimentary cup out of it. By this time my mom comes out with her signed picture that she was exited about and I also thought was pretty cool.

At this point, we start wandering around looking at the different vendors. I found some neat Christmas presents from one vendor. That’s when we found the other celebrities everyone was looking for on the other side. My mom had to stop for one more, Pom Klementieff. She went to get an autograph from her for my dad since he doesn’t really participate in the autograph signings at comic cons.

Now we needed sleeves for the photos to keep them nice while we were walking around the rest of the day. After we found a vendor with sleeves we sat to put all our photos in sleeves and began walking again. We were getting kind of hungry at this point and stopped to get chocolate covered pretzels to snack on as we walked.

There was one more celebrity I had to see before we left. I had to see Wallace Shawn from The Princess Bride. He’s done several roles over the years and many voice acting gigs. But The Princess Bride may be his most popular, ‘inconceivable’ role. He’s an interesting character and great with fans of all ages.

After this, we decided to hit the center section of the convention that we had totally missed. I found some jewelry that was very interesting. We also decided to participate in mystery bags from one vendor. That was interesting. As we were walking through the center section we also ran into what I always refer to as ‘author alley’. You guessed it! Authors everywhere. Most of them are independent authors, others are Amazon best sellers, I had the opportunity once to meet a New York Times Best selling author. Here’s where I really get into trouble at comic cons. I stop and chat with the authors, bounce ideas, get business cards and sometimes even exchange information. I look to these people as mentors in my field. Oh, and I usually end up adding to my already too large library.

The day was a blast and we really enjoyed all that we got see and do. I always enjoy going to comic cons. I like to go to get the most out of the experience. I dress up, see all the other costumes, talk to some of the other people dressed up, bump shoulders with the celebrities, meet some authors and make some connections and so much more. I hope to take my mom to the next one as well for another fun day.