By Mike Lera
First introduced to us as “Comikaze Expo” in 2011 (then later “Stan Lee’s Comikaze”), L.A. Comic Con had entered its 12th year at the illustrious L.A. Convention Center Dec. 1-3, a buffet of assorted genres, comic book icons and cosplay that undoubtedly ended 2023 with a BANG (and with a few Pows, Zips and Waps!) for superhero junkies, fantasy fans, sci-fi nerds, horror groupies and all things geek!
Aside from its myriad of merchandise, art booths and T-shirt tables, L.A.C.C. also stands as one of the few pop culture cons that cleverly displays celebrity panels on its main stage for all to join!
The Boys, an Amazon Prime superhero series, lent two of its stars Karen Fukuhara (“Kimiko Miyashiro/The Female”) and Erin Moriarty (“Annie January/Starlight”) to be featured on L.A.C.C.’s main stage, sharing their excitement about TB’s much anticipated season 4 (2024), laughing over their song and dance video episodes and discussing their Gen V spinoff and Supernatural crossover.
“The Boys is so much fun to make and there’s so much humor, but [all the actors] are in the trenches together and we work hard, so there’s no space for anyone on the set to feel excluded or to be treated like anything less than family,” Moriarty said when asked about the challenges on working with fellow cast members. “At the same time, [creator/executive producer] Eric Kripke is amazing and has a “No [Butt]-Hole” policy; he can usually sense when a person is not the right fit for us on set.”
Asked about her feelings on the development of her character “Kimiko”, Fukuhara replied, “When we started the show, Eric made an effort to make the comic book character ‘The Female’ more human, and to give her a backstory and a real name. I’m so grateful for that, because Asian characters on camera are often just seen as these silent assassins and killers. But with Kimiko, she has an objective and a big vulnerable human side to her.”
The Lord of the Rings Hobbits Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan also took the main stage, goofing on each other and reminiscing over their LOTR behind-the-scenes “excursions”.
“I remember somehow developing an intense allergic reaction to horses while filming,” Astin confessed, followed by jaw dropping Awww’s from the massive audience. “The level of snot from my nose and puffiness of my eyes was terrible! And this was 1999 B.C. – before Claritin!”
As it has been two decades since the film series had ended, the four were asked, “Will there ever be some sort of “reunion special”?
“We would love that!” replied Wood, shortly after being ripped by the moderator for never having read a single LOTR book. “Because these twentieth anniversaries of the films have been happening over the last three years, we have been talking about trying to organize something; it just hasn’t been able to come together.”
Asked about working with the great Ian McKellen (“Gandalf”), Monaghan replied, “He’s just the coolest! He’s friendly to everyone, has a lovely group of friends around him, he’s still an incredible actor… and he has these extraordinary massive hands!”
(see my YouTube channel @MikeLera for short videos on these two presentations).
Fangoria magazine held an insightful round table panel with directors Danny Philippou (Talk To Me), Rob Savage (The Boogeyman/Host) and Tyler MacIntyre (It’s A Wonderful Knife), discussing the present state of the horror genre and sharing their own journeys as young filmmakers (see my YouTube channel @MikeLera for a short video on this presentation).
Horror fans were also delighted to attend a Women In Horror panel, featuring various filmmakers working in the industry who offered advice to novice directors and screenwriters in breaking into “indie” horror filmmaking.
Of course, a con wouldn’t be complete without a mini horror film fest, L.A.C.C. and GeekFest housing a block of three terrifying short indie films, including The Pixiestick Incident (dir. Michael Henry), Surprise (dir. Elizabeth Yoder) and The Shed. (dir. The Mooncats).