It's that magical time of year...

Like the summer solstice, it's that special time in the summer. Heroes Con in Charlotte! Oh, I'm sorry, with a lead in like that you thought I would say something thought provoking? You should know me better than that.

Anyways, this is that special time of  year for me where I catch up on a few years of comic books on the cheap. However, I want everyone to know it's more than that for me. Well, not really, but let's just pretend it is.

Not everyone has been to a convention with me, so I thought I would use this post to reveal what I am typically like at a con. I've been to many cons (mostly repeats of this particular one), but I have developed a pattern that has me performing my tasks with a laser like efficiency that could probably put me in a more serious light than people are used to.

So here I am, baring my soul.

• I have a list. Yes, every year I go to Heroes Con, I have a list of books that I'm looking for. When I first started, I had slips of paper. Then I upgraded to an html table I used from my comic database. Then spreadsheets. Now, it's using an excel spreadsheet on Google Drive. What I've found is that by using the Google Drive, my friend and I can split up and mark off what I need on the sheet. No more clunky paper copies and marking things off with pens like we did in the past. Like I said, it's gotten EFFICIENT.
• I am notoriously cheap. Years ago, my friend called me "the Black Vulture". This is because I only pick off the cheap comics from the vendors. My mission is to get what I want at as cheap a price as I can get. A piece of me dies when I pay more than $5 for an issue of anything. So I usually hit the one dollar and two dollar bins hard.
• When looking for comics I have the following pattern: On Friday, I look for the books that I need the most. I will pay the most per an issue during this time. Saturday I do recon to see which vendors I want to hit on Sunday when everything is the cheapest.
• I detest unsorted long boxes. My biggest pet peeve at any convention is when someone is selling comic books and they are not sorted in any discernible order. Look, I'm thirty-five. I don't have time to spend an hour looking through boxes on my hands and knees. If a box is not sorted, I move on. Show some professionalism guys!
• I've become numb to cosplayers. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing cosplay. I've just seen so much that you have to have a really good costume to register with me at this point. Or in other words, I've seen enough Deadpools to last me five lifetimes.
• I love getting the chance to meet some of my favorite artists and buy pieces of art from them. The past few years I've spent just as much time looking around artist alley. It's always a treat.
• Since they've expanded the dealer's room, I love the vast openness this convention has. I don't have to be shoulder to shoulder with people when walking around. Personal space is pretty easy to come by.
• This convention is very laid back. Everyone is super nice, there's no rush to anything and all of the guests are very friendly. It is kid friendly and I hope to bring my kids here one day.
• Sometimes there are fun panels to go to. Unfortunately, due to the laid back nature, the rooms are rarely full and that emboldens people to ask the dreaded, "Con Questions".

To summarize it, I really enjoy this convention. It always makes me happy. This will be my eleventh straight year going to this and I have not got tired of it yet.

I will end on one fun fact: Years ago a TV crew was there filming a story about the con and I ended up in a segment that would show on the news. It was for something called Carolina Camera or something. The link has been since pulled down, otherwise I'd share it right now.