Los Angeles Comic Con is a three day convention that took place from Oct 26 to Oct 28. The event is for fans of various genres of comic books, TV shows, movies, and video games. I saw fans dressed in cosplay as their favorite characters, fans who came looking for specific types of special edition comics, toys and games that are only sold at Comic Con.

I want to start off by saying that I have never been to Comic Con; as a result I didn’t recognize many fandoms or topics at Comic Con, for example: steampunk, comic bugs, Pop Funko toys and Nerdlesque, these were just some of the many things I was unfamiliar with.

I saw and bought handcrafted truffles from a booth who sold chocolates to fans, I saw such as a pink truffle shaped to look like a brain from the Walking Dead comics and TV series. The truffle had strawberry flavored jelly along with raspberry chocolate filling and was delicious.

Jenny Hails, a truffle chocolatier traveled from Utah came to LA Comic Con with her family to sell her specialized truffles, she tells me the background of her business.

“I started out with just regular truffles and a girlfriend asked me if I would like to do Salt Lake city Comic Con and I said absolutely,” Hails said. “Then I had to google what is a Comic Con, so from that point on we are the nerdiest chocloate company out there with every kind of fandom.”

I saw two people at a booth who had Australian accents, their booth was colorful and had small wooden figures, stuffed toys and comic books and I went there with a curiosity in wooden figures. The booth was called Pecan Pals, a name I recognized from the advertisement on Comic Con guide pamphlet that was passed out to attendees.

Writer for Pecan Pals, Nick James, discusses the main focus for Pecan Pals and his interpretation of his comics.

“Pecan Pals is the first of a comic series; it’s about a group of characters who are just experiencing life, ups and downs, learning things and making mistakes,” James said, “They are trying to find what they are special at. Everyone has special talents and Pecan Pals are no different, they are trying to explore that.”

Candy James, the illustrator for Pecan Pals, explains why she and her husband got inspired to begin Pecan Pals as a comic book.

“Our ten year old daughter Poppy is also involved, she was really the inspiration for us creating comics. We created Pecan Pals about 14 years ago, we had wooden figures, plushies, art and paintings, we stopped for a while because we had Poppy,” James said, “and now she’s ten and she loves to read. She reads these big thick books then she finishes them and never touches them again, but she always does with comics.  She always comes back to them ten times over, so we started to write comics.”

Both Candy and Nick are residents of Australia, they came to LA to Comic Con to showcase their comic. To me, seeing a comic created from a family wanting to entertain their daughter was heartwarming and it brought a different side of Comic Con that I wasn’t expecting to experience, it just furthers to show in every big event there are underlying stories to be told.

I saw a long row of booths which was titled Witchsy, this interested me to come over and talk to some of the vendors because I know there is an online store called etsy and I wondered if Witchsy was more of an exclusive etsy for witches.

Karina Ahum, a vendor sitting at one of the Witchsy booths, which sold prints and clothing along with toys and cards, explains the Witchsy website.

“Witchsy is an e-commerce site, it’s a curated kind of store that represents different kinds of artist, there’s a screening process which my boss Penelope and her partner Kate do for everyone involved,” Ahum said “It’s for everything, [they] sell clothes, ceramics, prints, original artwork, and it’s not just for witches it’s just a name.”

Comic Con was definitely more expressive than I expected – people attended panel sessions that were outside the main floor. One session was about figuring out how to pose shush called “Posing like a Pro” and another was “Yes YOU can Direct an Indie Sci-Fi Film” which taught young fans that they too can become a successful director.

At the end of Comic Con I even saw strangers connect through fandoms and common interest, share phone numbers and having conversations.

There was food trucks stationed outside the LA convention center and a cafeteria located inside; there were famous writers, voice actors and show creators were there to take pictures and sign autographs, vendors sold one of a kind fandom products like custom Pop Funko toys, special edition Dungeons and Dragons dice, handmade kilts, satanic jewelry and accessories, fairy wands and clothing, and even customized Marvel massage chairs.

Everything at Comic Con wowed me and it was a wonderful experience, it was like going into a whole new world and discovering so many things I had never seen or heard of.