Letters From The Loft
Stuff From The Desk Of Chuck Thornton
DAY FOUR - PAGE 1
Sunday, the last day of CCI, is always kind of anticlimactic, much like my other adventures, jokes, and home-improvement projects. It's always designated by CCI as Kid's Day, with most of the activities geared toward a younger audience. Programs have titles like "Secret Origins of Good Readers" and "Lego Universe Building Creativity" and "Superman's Hints for Good Hygiene." Scooby-Doo and Spongebob were featured panel topics that I recognized, but other names popped up as well... like Yo Gabba Gabba! and Phineas and Ferb. In other words, properties I'm not familiar with because my kids haven't had kids.
Although much of the programming tries to cater to the pint-sizers, I didn't notice that much difference in the Exhibition Hall. Vendors there still have to deal with the same inventory they've been selling the previous three days, and unless they normally sell kid stuff, they're hard-pressed to contribute to the day's theme. You'd think that the booths selling broadswords and battleaxes, or full-sized posters of scantily-clad barbarian ladies, would be concerned about a lack of clientele on Kid's Day, but it soon becomes clear that there are still a lot of Con attendees who don't have kids, and will never have kids. Still, the video-gaming section of the Exhibition Hall tries to clean up its act by promoting such family fare as Grand Theft Hot-Wheels, Pandora's Juice-Box, and Sesame Street Fighter.
Usually, Sam and Ben and I are pretty burned out by Sunday, and unless we want to take one more spin around the Exhibition Hall, there's been some years where we've slept in, packed up and headed home without even swinging by the Convention Center. But since Ben hadn't arrived till Friday night, we decided to go back to the Con and give him some more time looking around. We packed up all our stuff in the car, and checked out of the room after leaving the maid a note to recycle all the soda cans and send us the proceeds.
Once we arrived at the Convention Center, I separated from Ben and Sam and went to the CW's Smallville/Supernatural panel. I wasn't that interested... I watch Smallville because it's about Superman (to claim the right to call yourself a comic book fan, you have to put your right hand on a copy of Action Comics #1 and swear to follow all media incarnations of the Man of Steel), but I'm not crazy about it. Smallville's Clark carries around a bit too much angst for my tastes. I'm sure there's a lot of pressure watching out for the world, but leaping tall buildings and humiliating speeding bullets would tend to keep my mood from getting too dark.
Still, the show deserves some credit for lasting ten years, and so I killed some time while the show's cast and creators did their best to tell everyone how awesome the tenth and final season will be without actually spilling the beans about what's going to happen. Then I stuck around for the Supernatural panel, which, like Smallville, is another CW network show. Many of you reading this may not be familiar with the CW. Don't worry... it only means that you're old and out of the loop. Most of the CW's audience communicates only through texting and sullen looks.
After that, I went back down to the Exhibition Hall, connected with Ben and Sam, and followed them around while Ben continued browsing. At this time of day, it did seem like there were more little kids walking around than we'd seen the other days. While we were looking at glass-cased merchandise, I noticed a little guy standing next to me dressed up like Captain Marvel, so I asked if I could take his picture:
Pretty impressive costume, if you ask me, and well worth a picture, but Sam was squirming behind me. Apparently, he wasn't comfortable with his 57-year father taking a picture of a little kid and posting it on the internet. I'm still not sure why.