Indy PopCon Convention Diary

Indy PopCon has quickly become a go-to summer destination for conventiongoers, focusing on all of pop culture rather than simply a "comic con." Held June 17-19, it doesn't have a sexy group of big-name headlining guests like perhaps the Wizard World Comic Cons do, but it has a solid group of guests, panels and events, especially this year. Our adventure began on Saturday morning. As usual, my kids were in tow, eager to take in the sights and sounds of unbridled geekery on full display.

We hit the convention floor at about 11:30 a.m., and while the crowd was large it wasn't unmanageable. Vendors were plentiful and seemed ready to bargain, including one of many who approached me from behind a table full of action figures, proclaiming, "I'll make you a deal on these." My 7-year-old son Mason was interested in the Leatherface figure. Yes, Leatherface. From "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." He got $10 chopped off the price in seconds before I could even choke out my refusal of purchase. "You mother would not allow that in the house," I reasoned.

We moved on.

Our first big celebrity sighting was the legendary wrestling manager Jimmy Hart, "The Mouth of the South." We caught him at the Wrestling Theology Fellowship booth. He was there with a cool guy named Zane Pasley, who used to be a co-worker of my wife's and is now, among other things, involved in the local pro-wrestling scene. Jimmy had a full crowd of people, so rather than try to engage with him, we said hi to Zane and moved along. It was very cool to see the "Mouth of the South," though, but we knew more fun was to come with him at his panel.

We wandered around, and came upon the booth of Indy native Drew Powell, an actor who currently plays Butch, the right-hand man of crime bosses like Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett-Smith) and the Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) on Fox's "Gotham." I have interviewed Powell twice in the past and wanted to say hi and introduce myself. I was very impressed with him: he engaged my kids in conversation and spent almost 10 minutes talking to us despite obvious paying customers approaching behind us.I told him I'd love to get in touch with him in the near future to check in and potentially do another interview with him, and he cheerfully agreed.

Cosplayers were in full force, and we saw some really terrific ones. A full complement of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a highlight, appearing in costumes reminiscent of the 1990 classic. I later found out they were part of a professional group of cosplayers, but it was still pretty fun. Other highlights include a cool Kylo Ren (interacting with a much smaller, and presumably younger, version of the angsty wanna-be Sith Lord), and of course he took some time out to pose with my own Jedi.

Our next encounter was Sammy Terry, the legendary host of "Sammy Terry's Nightmare Theater," a late-night horror movie program that ran for decades in Indianapolis. This ghoul wears a red cape and hood, neatly framing his garish green face, and has been scaring Hoosier children since the 1960s. The original Sammy, Bob Carter, passed away several years back, but his son Mark has taken up the mantle, keeping Sammy alive through personal appearances and the occasional television appearance. I've shown my kids YouTube video clips of his show, and they were excited to meet him. My daughter even bought one of his DVDs. And of course, there was still shopping to be done. My daughter Jenna hit the Legos, buying a couple of individual superhero Lego figures (Supergirl and Batgirl), while my older son Riley found a rather dangerous replica of the "Assassin's Creed" wrist-gauntlet blade that was made of plastic, but with a pretty powerful spring-loaded blade made of softer plastic. We filed the blade down to dull the point, but stay tuned for information on possible hospital visits.

Mason found a plastic "training knife," a large vinyl / resin dagger that looks the part but is comparatively safe. All of its edges are dull and smooth, and he gleefully plunked down $15 for the right to take it home.

I am a big pro-wrestling fan, so we made it a point to attend the panel hosted by Hart. He had a few stories to tell about his time in the business, glossing over tales about Memphis wrestling and luminaries like Jerry "The King" Lawler, Andy Kaufman, the Honky Tonk Man and the Hart Foundation, but there was a bit of a detachment in his panel. It felt less like he was answering the questions he was asked and simply telling stories about a given topic. But still, the time was interesting, and it was really cool seeing such a loved / hated icon from my youth telling stories, including one really great one about the time he got carjacked at a gas station with the Ultimate Warrior.

I was gearing up for the main event — Kevin Smith bringing his new movie "Yoga Hosers" to PopCon. Film Yapper Sam Watermeier and I were able to get in thanks to Indy PopCon's Bill Dever (Thanks, Bill!). Smith arrived a little late but was in fine form, spending a good hour on the film's intro and another hour-plus after conducting the Q&A. Sam did an interview with Smith for his gig at Nuvo Newsweekly, so check that story out! Our buddy and colleague Evan Dossey was not so lucky, though, and was turned away, unable to buy a ticket to the sold-out show (and spent most of our time there heckling us via text).

The film, just gonna say it, was terrible. The flick is a sort of tribute to midnight movies, a self-proclaimed "Clueless" meets "Gremlins" (though Smith corrected himself to "Ghoulies" during his intro), about two teen girls (Lilly Rose Depp and Harley Quinn Smith — yes, the daughters of Smith and Johnny Depp, who are real-life best friends) who find their convenience store invaded by Nazi sausage monsters. Depp has a secondary role in the film, and it's pretty uneven and uninspiring.

The story behind it is that Smith wanted to make a movie for his daughter and all little girls that were like the movies he loved as a kid — midnight movies, so to speak. He spoke at length about "Tusk," and told the story of bringing Depp onboard. Turns out he knows Depp in passing since their children have been good friends for years, having sleepovers at each others' houses, and having school functions together.

Still, he demurred at the idea of asking him to be in a movie, thinking it would be in bad taste. When Smith's original choice for the role of Guy Lapointe (Quentin Tarantino) turned down the role, he was left scrambling to find some kind of name actor to take it. He decided to ask Depp, and he was into it. He developed an accent and Lapointe's signature nose prosthetic and brought it into the production. Smith claims Depp took the role almost solely because he loved the accent he developed, and the two became friends because Smith loved when he did the accent.

He wrote one scene in "Tusk" for Harley, and since Depp's daughter was also going to be on set that day, Smith rewrote the scene to include her, too — two teen girls working a convenience store, sort of the female answer to "Clerks." It was his favorite scene in the movie, and soon got him thinking about the idea of doing a movie featuring these characters. Thus, "Yoga Hosers."

The father / daughter interplay worked really well given the Father's Day weekend, and Harley opened the screening with a short tribute to her dad. That theme elevates the movie significantly, and even if I can't recommend the movie on the strength of its overall quality: If you have a daughter and long to show her horror movies, you might give this a shot. A warning, though: Despite several high-quality geeky cameos, it's not good.

Our night ended after midnight, and Smith still had a podcast to record. I was exhausted, though, after a day full of fun and frivolity and more than a little chaos.