Family Fun At Motor City Comic Con

Conventions

Jul 6

Motor City Comic Con poster — Image Source: Motor City Comic Con 2023

The weekend before Memorial Day, May 19-21, was when the Motor City Comic Con took place in metro Detroit at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, Michigan. Even though I attended the last day of the con, it was going as strong as ever, as the building was packed to almost capacity with attendees. Among those attendees were my three sons, so I had the pleasure of experiencing the day from their perspective. It was the second time we had all gone together, and they were excited to go again!

As soon as I checked in, I saw there was a kids’ scavenger hunt, which I thought would be engaging for my boys and would get us to see more of the con. The kids were very excited at the idea of completing the scavenger hunt and getting a prize at the end!

Our first question was, “There’s something strange in your neighborhood - who you gonna call?” Detroit Ghostbusters, of course! We went winding through the floor until we got to the Ghostbusters booth. There is a Ghostbusters Detroit group that is focused on community outreach and helping at charitable events. Here at MCCC, members of this group went around the event and hosted a slime making event in the kids’ room. My children were interested in the costumes and gear!

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Our second directive was, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the Jedi battled the Empire. Find a Star Wars character from the 501st.” The boys fondly remembered this group from two years ago and eagerly sped through the crowd to find the characters. For those not familiar with the 501st Legion, this is a group of worldwide volunteers who make their own Imperial costumes and, like Ghostbusters Detroit, volunteer at charitable events. They even have their own trading cards! Michigan is lucky enough to have our own Great Lakes Garrison, and their very friendly members took a lot of time to talk with my children. It was a father and son team, and they talked about making their costumes, how they decided which characters they wanted to portray, and how the dad got his son, and even his daughter, into the 501st (his daughter wasn’t able to come). It was nice to see how a family could use their mutual fandom and bring it to the next level to help the community.

Next, we were to find the representatives from the Kubert School, which we did in the Artist Alley section. This is an organization dedicated to teaching aspiring artists how to draw cartoons and other graphic arts. Their artists not only had a booth but were also offering drawing classes in the kids’ room later that afternoon.

After we talked to the gentlemen from the Kubert School, our next instruction was that if we wanted to go “Back to the Future,” we would need a special time-traveling car. Could we find it? Of course we could! My middle child was especially excited about this, as he has seen the movies. We made our way through the crowd, and we finally found the mock-up of the famous Delorian. We got the required signatures, and my kids were happy.

We then took a break from scavenger hunting to go upstairs to the conference rooms. My middle child has seen the Back to the Future movies, and he wanted to watch the Back to the Future trivia game that was scheduled to start. When we got there, we were disappointed to find out that he couldn’t just sit and watch the game. Though he was somewhat discouraged, I told him that we would be able to get good seats for The Clone Wars voice actors panel.

And it worked out! If we had gotten there too much later, the seats for the panel would have been filled. The panel featured Ashley Eckstein, Matt Lanter, and James Arnold Taylor, the voices of Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, respectively. The boys did the maze and looked over the kids’ activities that were in their scavenger hunt booklet, and it was worth the wait! All four of us are Star Wars fans (they must take after their mother), and the look of excitement they got when the actors came into the room warmed my heart. When the moderator said that audience members could line up to ask the panel questions, my youngest child got right up to take his place, saying he had five questions to ask, and no, he did not want his big brother to stand in line with him.

As I could just see his head through the crowd in the center aisle, I settled back and listened to the back and forth between the actors, the moderator, and the audience. We got to listen to the actors explain how they came to their roles, what they learned from George Lucas and Dave Filoni, their favorite moments of The Clone Wars, Star Wars, and Disney movies in general, and, to top it off, their favorite sandwiches (more on all of this in an upcoming article). It was very enlightening to hear the trio’s views on their characters and the pride they had in shaping the Star Wars legacy.

Finally, it was my son’s turn to ask his questions. My eldest and I looked at each other, wondering what the “five questions” were going to be. My little one beamed at the panel, the microphone just over his head. Matt Lanter said, “Wow, I didn’t see you there!” James Arnold Taylor put on his best Obi-Wan voice and greeted him with, “Hello there, youngling.” Ashley very sweetly asked him what his question was as the moderator hurried to take the mike off the stand and let him hold it. My son smiled sweetly and informed the actors that he thought the saddest moment of The Clone Wars was when Ahsoka left the Jedi Order. Ashley agreed with him and said that was her saddest moment, too. She let us all know that she sobbed over that episode and asked my son if he cried too. To which he replied, “No. I just wanted to tell you that”. The moderator gently asked if he had any questions, as she had just said that there was time for one more question. He told the moderator, ”No,” made his way back to our seats, and said that he wanted to go. My middle child said he was ready, too, and as they were wrapping up, we made our way out of the conference room and back down to the main floor.

We went back to the scavenger hunt. This time, we were headed to the t-shirt stand. The people working there were very nice and made conversation with me and the boys. I indulged and got myself and my middle son a t-shirt, and then we were done! We made our way back out of the main floor and up to the Kids’ Den, where we saw a Ghostbuster and met up with a lady in charge, who was more than happy to show the kids the treasure chest where they could pick their prize for completing the scavenger hunt. The two younger ones were thrilled, while my teenager respectfully declined. The boys were told they could enter the costume contest, but since they weren’t wearing costumes, they said they would feel silly. It was very nice to see so many people in cosplay, and there were families and groups of friends in themes ranging from manga, Star Wars, and even Miraculous Ladybug and Cat Noir.

And then we were done! As it was very crowded and noisy, my boys did reach the limits of their sensory processing and told me that they were ready to go. We had been there for going on four hours, and the time really flew! Hats off to the production team at Motor City Comic Con for making it a fun and engaging experience for the whole family!

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