Looming just around the corner is another convention for Texans to attend! Located at the Irving Convention Center, Dallas Comic Con’s Fan Days presented by FAN EXPO is an all fandom inclusive comic, sci-fi, horror, anime, and gaming event featuring exciting family-friendly activities.
This year’s celebrity guests include Elijah Wood and Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings), Adam West and Burt Ward (Batman), Alex Kingston and Paul McGann (Doctor Who), James and Oliver Phelps (Harry Potter), and more!
Among the celebrity guests is renowned actor Clive Revill, known to Comic-Con attendees as Emperor Palpatine from The Empire Strikes Back. Our editor, Kimmie Britt, had a chance to chat with Clive, who is every bit as charming as his iconic character was not and thrilled to be attending his first convention as a guest.
Kimmie Britt: When did you know that you wanted to get into acting as a career?
Clive Revill: I was born in New Zealand in 1930. You are sitting down, aren’t you?
KB: *laughs* Yes sir, I am!
CR: I’m now 84, but at that time I was in New Zealand. It was only four years after the second world war, and I had become fascinated with the theater. I did amateur dramatics in high school, and they loved it. Then, I auditioned for The Old Vic Theater School in London, and I was accepted on scholarship when I was twenty years old. So I went to London, and studied at The Old Vic, which was probably the best classic, and totally unique drama school that has ever been. Stayed there for two years, and went out to my first job, which was on Broadway, curiously enough. In 1952, I made my debut on Broadway in a Charles Dickens play as Mr. Pickwick. After that, I went back to England and went into repertory in Ipswich, and I was there for two and a half years working on a different play every two weeks, which is where you really find yourself. How did I start? How does anyone start? It’s like anything else, really. And when I saw the possibilities open up, I took them. And that’s what happened.
KB: Were you a fan of Star Wars before being cast as one of it’s most iconic characters?
CR: Well, the director was an old friend of mine. He called me up one day and said, “Hey look, I want you to come down and do something.” And I said, “What is it?” And he said, “I’ve got this thing I’ve been working on. Can you come and help me out?” So I agreed and went out to this recording studio and I looked around and I said, “Is this it?” And he says yes, yes, yes. When I told him I knew nothing about it, he gave me a run down about the character and the situation, because these were still early days for Star Wars. And I asked him how he wanted me to do it and he just said to try it out. So I get in close and try a few different things and he whispers, “That’s it. That’s what I want! Do it again.” And that’s the story of how I came to be the Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back. It’s a very small role, only about four or five lines, but because he is the fulcrum of the whole plot, the master, he ties it together.
KB: Did you have any idea that the Star Wars franchise would become as large as it did?
CR: Oh, no! No! I’m not exactly sure that anybody did! It took hold of the audience’s imagination. Imagination is in everyone and the moment you don’t see something, that’s when your imagination goes wild with possibility. That’s what made Star Wars one of the most, maybe even THE most, opulent and successful franchises in the history of motion pictures.
KB: Of all the characters you have portrayed, which has been your favorite?
CR: As a matter of fact, because I had a classic training, you always went to the truth of the situation and the character. But favorite? I was in “Irma La Douce” in Las Vegas at one point, or when I was being stabbed to death by Glenda Jackson in “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade” with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Or standing on the stage with the Sadler’s Wells Opera House doing CoCo. I don’t think anyone else has ever done that! I’ve had a wide, wide career but I never went out and rattled the bushes. I was well represented but I saw that the whole industry had changed and did not seem to include me and what I was doing. It had changed. And I look at television these days and very little is left to the imagination.
K: Do you have any interesting fan experiences from the conventions that you have attended previously?
CR: I’ve never done anything like the convention in Dallas! I’m sort of tickled pink.
K: Are you excited to experience your first fan convention?
CR: I wouldn’t say I’m excited, I’ve been around too long, nothing much excites me anymore! *laughs* I’m moreso intrigued by it. I feel as if I’m being given a treat. I’ve never experienced this kind of event, but I get mail all the time from people who live for these kinds of moments and I respect that. They live for the “Once upon a time…” and the fairy tales, and Star Wars is a fairy tale as well. ‘There is a great disturbance in the Force.’
K: I’m sure you’re going to be saying that quote all weekend!
CR: No, I’m not! *laughs* We’ll see.
With so many different franchises to choose from, attendees are guaranteed to find something that tickles their specific fandom fancy. Dallas Comic-Con Fan Days is a three-day pop culture extravaganza October 17-19, 2014 at the Irving Convention Center, Irving, Texas, USA, where Clive Revill, and many other celebrity guests from all your favorite franchises, will be signing autographs! Tickets are available in one day and three day and can be purchased on the Dallas Comic-Con website at http://dallascomiccon.com/tickets. Be sure to check back here at Sub Cultured and on our Facebook page for all your fandom needs!
Daku Con 2018 Photo Gallery
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Nan Desu Kan 2018 Photo Gallery
Stan Lee. Patrick Stewart. Summer Glau. George Perez. Kevin Conroy.
DALLAS COMIC CON!
This star studded event demolished Ben Steven’s previously anticipated “hopeful” goal of 15,000 with around 20,000 – 25,000 comic fans lining the walls and prompting the convention itself to apologize for nearly doubling the capacity of the Irving Convention Center! Though we here at IHOGeek, especially our Dallas natives ladyvader99 and killerrqueen, are no stranger to the chaotic nature of cons in general, pulling up to the convention center an hour after their scheduled opening time of 11am was extremely surprising. Luckily, being shoulder to shoulder with our cosplaying bretheren was distracting enough that time flew by and, before we knew it, our autographs were collected and we squished our way to various stands.
There was the usual convention fare: dealers specializing in rare figures, gorgeous prints to be signed by Captain Picard or art legend Perez, comics by the long box, artists pimping their particular brand of crack (i.e. prints we must buy), and on the fourth floor, a company called Big Freeze had set up a platform that took fucking amazing 3D action photos of cosplayers and con-goers. Click here to see an example of their craftmanship featuring local cosplayer, Lhars Ebersold. Hint: She was the amazing Catwoman!
Not to be put out by the damper that was Friday, one shining moment of DCC Round Two was meeting Stan Lee on Saturday, something every geek dreams about! In a wonderful moment of connections forged and favors being asked, we were able to spend ten glorious minutes in the presence of Stan Lee. Energetic and with a flair leaning toward theatrical, Stan charmed the figurative pants off of us. With one leg swung over the arm of the chair, he regaled us with the tale of how he ended up co-running Comikaze Expo (yep, the same one we interviewed Regina Carpinelli about!). As our mini-interview came to a close, we turned our attentions to capturing photos of our fellow geeks in colorful costumes, but due to the utter mass of people crowding each and every hallway, finding an empty spot was nearly impossible. We decided to reconvene the next day in hopes of getting better coverage.
On Sunday, the lines were thankfully lessened and we felt less sardine-like as @ladyvader99 made her way to the Kevin Conroy (or as some may know, Bruce Wayne from Batman: The Animated Series) side of the convention in the hopes of acquiring an autograph and hearing a raspy rendition of “I am the night!” Unfortunately, this quest sadly failed as Conroy’s line was capped 20 people ahead of her after two hours of waiting. The absence of thousands allowed us to easily explore the rest of the convention and take many as many photos of wandering cosplayers as we could capture. Our discovery of the fourth floor photo exhibit, The Big Freeze, left us captivated. The Big Freeze exhibit consisted of a raised platform with well over a hundred mounted cameras that when triggered create a bullet time special effect, sometimes called the Matrix camera or 360 camera. The effect left us stopped in our tracks for a good half hour as many, many extraordinary photos were taken (our favorite being a fight scene between Deadpool and Dark Phoenix) Luckily, this is when we were also privy to an adorable chase scene between a tiny Robin cosplayer and an adult Joker cosplayer, another highlight of the day.
As the afternoon began to wane, we decided to try our luck with Firefly and Serenity actress, Summer Glau. While we were denied the time for an interview due to the multitude of people and Glau’s quickly approaching flight to catch, we were allowed to shadow the last half of her private autograph session. Summer Glau is as absolutely stunning in person as she is on film, a petite beauty with locks that fell in perfect waves. Someone make a tutorial on Summer Glau’s hair, STAT! As her session ended, we expected to be ushered out with the other media but surprisingly were allowed to linger and witnessed Laura Vandervoot coming in to meet and fangirl over Summer almost as much as we were doing ourselves! All too soon though, we decided to head out and ran into several of the gamer models for Charisma+2, including owner and founder, Yvonna Lynn (who was representing the warrior princesses dressed as Xena!) before heading out for the day.
Unfortunately, the moment that the convention was over, fans took to the Interweb/Facebook/Youtube to vent their personal frustrations on waiting 3+ hours for autographs and swag in a packed Dealer’s Room. Listening to fellow fans around us definitely shed some light on their experiences and expectations, though Con-goes need to expect the unexpected at times and remember that not every issue can be blamed on someone else. Stan Lee and Patrick Stewart, both previously scheduled for the entire weekend, ended up having to cut their visits short as their schedules changed which prompted a lot of attendees to shift the days they planned to attend to make sure they saw who they paid for. The conclusion of the convention saw numerous fans lodging complaints with the convention organizers, most notably a one hour long diatribe from YouTube user escottish140 personally directed to Ben Stevens, to the point where NBC sought out Dallas personality, cosplayer and long time Convention fiend, Taffeta Darling, to get her thoughts on the whole thing based on her initial response video to escottish140. You can also read the full article via Aggressive Comix HERE.
Despite the small slice of negativity, most fans realize that the mishaps, mistakes and mayhem of conventions is part of the excitement that leads us geeks to go there in the first place! If you attended DCC, what were the highlights of your experience? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to check out our photos on FB!
Daku Con 2018 Photo Gallery
Daku Con 2018 Convention Recap!
PAX South 2019: Splitgate Arena Warfare, World of Horror, JackQuest, and Disjunction
PAX South 2019: Jump Force, Skellboy, A Fold Apart
PAX South 2019: Devil May Cry 5, Young Souls, Magequit
Nan Desu Kan 2018 Photo Gallery
Coming to Dallas, TX and our next convention of 2012, is Dallas Comic Con. Check out my video below as I run through some highlights that are especially appealing to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY3bn99fbgQ&feature=share
Daku Con 2018 Photo Gallery
Daku Con 2018 Convention Recap!
PAX South 2019: Splitgate Arena Warfare, World of Horror, JackQuest, and Disjunction
PAX South 2019: Jump Force, Skellboy, A Fold Apart
PAX South 2019: Devil May Cry 5, Young Souls, Magequit
