Strange days, finally brought to you with Probot and brandy.

 My brother haggled with the fur trimmed merchant over the price of a shield. As I waited I hefted a blade forged in the far west. On closer inspection it was not what I thought. I returned it with a polite dismissal and wandered through the throng of people in that bizarre bazaar. 

And there it was staring at me. Some sort of white fox demon. It had the unblinking green eyes of a snake. We stared at each other for a moment taking each other in. It was humanoid, with the feminine curves of a woman, but an androgynous smooth body.  I stared at it for a moment before steeling myself to approach it.  I walked up to it  rubbed  its talons together eagerly .  I stood before it and it glance up at me with those cold yellow eyes.

"Excuse me, can I take a photograph please?"

Of course I am talking about Armageddon, New Zealands comic and pop culture convention. People come from all over the country to buy comics; DVDs, collectibles and to meet celebrities from film and TV.  New computer and console games are launched, as are comics and merchandise.

The last time I went was in Auckland, maybe eight years ago(?) with two friends and a young woman who was the date of one of the lads.  I went because my friends like comics, and I left because I accidentally walked into a room full of sweaty guys all desperate for the touch of a another human being waiting to watch some live wrestling. It was deeply disturbing, and I have Goth friends so take that on board. That ended my interest in comic expos and coincidentally enough that was also the beginning of the end of my friends relationship.

A few weeks ago my brother was coming down to pick up some stuff his partner bought on trade me. I had been storing it for him, and as a thank you he gave my girl and I free tickets to Armageddon. We went on Sunday and it was a crazy crowd of strange and wonderful creatures, and the people in costume were interesting as well.

So here is my account of my adventures there.

I decided to throw myself into the spirit of the thing and see if it was a sea of weirdos smelling like armpits and stale mountain dew or something fun. There were more stalls than I remembered and it had more of "expo" feel about it, more professional . Also the many people in costume added to the convention feel of it.

As I wandered about I discovered and swiftly purchased the entire set of the game of thrones series of books for $45. It was a fantastic bargain as they are over $20 each in store. That was at  the Mighty Ape stall. I also visited Trinity treasures which sold replica weapons from films ad TV. I spoke to Ben who worked the Trinity Treasures stall about business.
"It is a bit quieter today but it has been pretty steady. All our stock is made in Pakistan and we import it over to sell." I was surprised to hear him say it was quiet as the stall seemed to be constantly busy every time I walked by, but whether it was busy with customers or just the curious like myself I couldn't say.

There were collectibles; comics, DVDs, Games, and books. Any thing associated with pop culture was there. There were also a few makeup and digital art schools offering you the chance to be the next Peter Jackson, or maybe the next Uwe Boll.

One stall that took my interest was a writer promoting his first novel. Russell Meek has written The Madness of Hallen,  and he has also self published his work. He said it had been productive promoting his book at the expo, but he was really looking for the major opportunity to promote his work to the general public. Unfortunately Russell didn't have eftpos and I had spent all my cash so I couldn't get a copy of his novel. But it is at Arty Bees in Wellington, and I will pick up a copy to review. I would have liked to discuss the pros and cons of him self publishing his book, but he had interested readers so I left him to it.

Russell Meek

Another important element to these expos are the celebrities. Their fans can meet, get photographs and autographs by actors, artists and writers from their favourite comic or TV series. Of those on show I only recognised Julie McNiven from  Supernatural  and the cast from  The Almighty Johnsons. While it interesting to see them I wasn't that interested to wait in line to speak with them or to buy a photograph. Then while I was talking with my brother I did discover what the fuss was about. There at the end of the expo was this smiling man in a dark suit. For a moment I could not quite work out what he was there for. Then I noticed the large photograph of a soldier on the wall behind him, which seemed achingly familiar.

 Then it all clicked into place. The photograph was of Sergeant Benton from Doctor Who, and the man was the actor who played him, John Levene. I grew up watching Sgt Benton protecting the Doctor from all manner of monsters and aliens. So after a moment of indecision I asked John Levene (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0505244/) if I could have a photograph. Mr. Levene was exceptionally gracious and friendly and the experience was a great one. 

John L and John P

I then gave money to Boba Fett who was collecting for Ronald McDonald House, proving that bounty hunters have heart to, but then I guess he was an orphan so it made sense.

I ended my day by interviewing some cosplayers. I don't really understand this, as it seems to be more than just dressing up.

I spoke to three lovely ladies; Danielle, Rio and Paige, and asked them what it was about?

Rio, Danielle and Paige

"Cosplay is a chance to dress like a character from anime that you like." Danielle said. She was Tsukiyomi Ikuto from Shugo Chara an anime show from TV Tokyo.  "I like him because he is a mysterious character, I identify with him because I'm a bit mysterious."

Him? It does not seem to matter in cosplay what gender the character is as long as you identify with them. I am not a fan of anime myself, and there does seem to be a great deal of androgyny in the renderings of the characters, at least to me anyway. So gender is not so important to identity.


Paige was Haruhi Suzumiya from Melancholy.
"I love it. I would watch it all the time if I could. It puts me in such a good mood."
Each of the girls had imported their costumes from China at great expense. And they felt it was worth it. They enjoyed dressing up as their favourite characters and looking to see who had dressed up as which character. As we spoke another girl walked past as Haruhi Suzumiya.  I asked the girls if they thought that there was a market for anime in New Zealand? Whether this market was yet to be tapped by TV or Sky or the fledgling QuickFlicks. "Definitely!" Danielle said "we watch it on you tube or cartoon network, but TV Tokyo was the best way to watch it."

The girls seemed nice enough and were having fun. I asked them if they had any unwanted attention by dressing up, but they said everyone had been very friendly. It seems that there is no snobbishness between those who can afford to buy their costumes or make them at home. it is more about the attempt and the community then being 100% accurate to the character.


Rio was not a cosplayer, she was a Lolita. Now apparently this is a fashion form the rokoko period, and is based on the fashion inspired by the court of Marie Antionette. Rio was a Lolita doll. This means she was dressing to look like a living doll, doll eye contacts and all. All the girls were lovely and friendly, but I couldn't quite get my head around the Lolita thing. Mostly because I have read Nabokovs work and it kept popping into my head.

All in all it was a fun day out. We did it in too parts and I did have a couple of beers before part two which helped. My girl enjoyed it too, but after lunch she decided to remain in the sun with a glass of Rose. I had great fun and would certainly consider going again.