Raymond Tyler and The Furious Five…REASONS WIZARD WORLD PHILLY 2017 WAS HOT!
Editor’s Intro: In the 1980’s Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five made legendary hip hop music. Today Raymond Tyler pens a column for Black Sci-Fi that pays tribute to them and shares what he finds to be great, hot, worth talking about with Furious Five.
by Raymond Tyler
When I was about 11 years old my dear Aunt Hazel took me to my first Comic Book Convention. It was The Creation Comic Con and I met John Byrne (fresh off illustrating The X-Men with Terry Austin and doing award winning art and story telling on The Fantastic Four and Alpha Flight) and spent money on some great back issues and came home with some wonderful swag. Since then I have been hooked. The books and art I bought back then are some where in boxes in my garage however; the stories and experience of attending comic conventions inspire me every day.
Comic-Cons today are about more than just comics and other nerds/geeks. The 2017 Comic Con experience is a fun-thrilling adventurous celebration of every aspect of science fiction and fantasy that you could imagine and many things I’m sure you haven’t. So to be honest…this column could be a Furious One Hundred and Five. The bottom line is once you attend your first comic con you will want to go every year. “Submitted For Your Approval” Five Furious Reasons I enjoyed Wizard World Philly and why I will be there in 2018!
BlackSci-Fi.com exclusive. Credits Isiah Pierce
#5 Creators and Artists You Can Talk To– My favorite part of any con is ARTIST ALLEY. This is where comic book artists and writers hang out, do commission sketches and talk to fans and buyers.
Paris Cullins has worked on DC’s The Blue Devil and The Blue Beatle is a regular Artist Alley Celebrity at Wizard World. Mr. Cullins takes time from doing his commissioned art to review the art of young talented artists that stop by his booth. Cullins is a spring of insight and shares encouragement on their work. Cullins is just one of more than 50 professional artists, story tellers, and publishers you will meet at Wizard World, Philly! 2017 brought artists to Wizard World that showcased their talent with fresh eye popping art inspired by Marvel and DC. I also saw a wealth of pros sharing great new visions as indy publishers. Artist Alley at Wizard World is always a winning adventure!
#4The Gaming Lounge-Wizard World Philly brought a great video game lounge to the convention floor sponsored by Geico. For people that wanted the arcade experience there were Flat Screens where you could play the CPU or your friends or your enemies in fighting games like INJUSTICE 2 or the brand new Marvel Vs. Capcom. For those that wanted the “at home feel” there were several sofa set ups for video gaming as well. The good people from Geico really made the con worth coming to just for the smash mouth video game play.
BlackSci-Fi.com exclusive. Credits Isiah Pierce
#3 Cos-play-Every Con brings out people that dress up as their favorite super heroes or villains. If you ever wandered through New York City and really wished you could bump into Spider-Man? Then Wizard World, Philly did not disappoint! Once again Wizard World was one of the best conventions ever for innovative costume-play with people dressing as you can imagine Black Panther or Storm would had they leap from the pages of your comic book. This year brought out people dressed as the various versions of characters from the 60’s through today. I ran into an “Adam West Batman” and around the corner met a “Frank Miller Armored Batman.”
#2 Pearl Mackie-Ms. Mackie represents one of a crop of new fresh faces in Sci-Fi. What’s greater than all the people of color I know addicted to Dr. Who and his time traveling adventure? The answer is… actress Pearl Mackie who portrays Bill Potts and is a star of the Dr. Who series. What’s even greater than all of that is that Mackie made the trip from the United Kingdom to be in Philly for Wizard World 2017.
#1 Nichelle Nichols– Younger people of color may take for granted having an n African American actor playing Kid Flash, or Michonne slicing zombies on Walking Dead…fans of Star Trek know, that these doors are open today because of Nichelle Nichols. I truly hope that as many people as possible stopped by to show her love and respect even if they could not buy a photo op with her. With out Ms Nichol’s contribution to sci-fi there may not be a www.Blackscifi.com and I know I would not be the contributing writer/fan that I am today. There is a royal line in the history of Black Science Fiction; and Nichelle Nichols is our first and reigning queen.
Wizard World will continue touring America this summer and you can find out when Wizard World Comic Conventions will be coming near you at www.WizardWorld.com.
We came, we saw, we took pictures!
Check out our photo gallery of this month’s Wizard World Philadelphia, and take part in some convention goodness! Stay tuned for BlackSci-Fi.com to appear at your local area fandom convention!
All photo credits for these BlackSci-Fi.com exclusive credits go to Isiah Pierce.
