From Ant-Man to Zelda and everything in between, fanatics and nerds alike descended on the Spa City for Saratoga Comic Con this weekend.
The Saratoga Springs convention center is jammed with comic fans on this Saturday. Among the cosplayers is Zachary Izzo, dressed in a handmade, paper mâché Bowser costume that took a lot of preparing to get con-ready.
“It probably took 4 to 5 weeks or so over the you know, nights and weekends. A piece here, a piece there,” explained Izzo
“What was the most difficult part about this to put together?”
“Probably getting all of it to match up correctly. Lots of folds, lots of tiny folds.”
The Koopa King saw a handful of Princess Peaches and Marios running around the castle, but failed to take any prisoners so far.
“Uh, they got away but I am persistent,” said Izzo.
Adam Mendoza and Carey Loudenberg showed up as Bob and Linda Belcher from the Emmy- winning animated show “Bob’s Burgers.”
“Well we’ve been coming here since 2015,” said Loudenberg.
“We just love Saratoga,” said Mendoza.
“Yeah, we love Saratoga. We come here for our anniversary every year and it just so happens that there’s an amazing convention. So, it keeps us coming back,” said Loudenberg.
“Two birds with one stone,” said Mendoza.
They say Saratoga Comic con has only improved since they started coming up from Albany.
“It’s just so great to see just the people that have discovered it and all the new vendors. And it’s just – there’s something new every year. And it’s just been really wonderful to see. We’re so happy for this small convention to suddenly be like – so much bigger, yeah,” said Loudenberg.
“You also don’t get that many pop culture conventions anymore. They tend to be very centric on a certain thing. Like, ‘oh this is an anime convention, this is a so-and-so,’ this is like a comic, sci-fi, everything comes together here. And that’s nice to see, you don’t see that around anymore,” said Mendoza.
Saratoga Comic Con boasts a reputation as the largest convention north of New York City, and it regularly attracts notable names from show and video game voice actors to comic artists.
Patricia Summersett, voice of Princess Zelda in Nintendo’s renowned Legend of Zelda series, says it’s great to meet fans face-to-face.
“It’s been amazing,” said Summersett. “I still pinch myself. It’s been kind of like a seven-year journey already, spanning three games, and honestly one of the best parts about it is coming to these things and meeting the amazing fans. There’s such a big community for this particular franchise all over the world. And, yeah, I ended up being the point of contact for it so I get to say hello to everybody hug everybody. It’s awesome.”
Tara Sobel and her husband founded the Hudson Valley Ghostbusters six years ago, and are on the convention floor raising money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and taking on new recruits.
“Being a Ghostbuster is actually my husband’s passion. He started this because he was a huge fan as a kid and then we found some like minded individuals. And we like that as Ghostbusters we do get to be ourselves as well as being in character. So, like stormtroopers, they’re always in the helmet and they’re a stormtrooper, we get to be us,” said Sobel.
Daniel Levine is manning a booth selling DVDs, Comics, and props. He enjoys the circus, but…
“I mean it’s a comic book convention, I think everybody knows the drill by now. It looks like a comic book convention. You know, I paid a decent amount of money to have a chair versus walking around. And if I make a profit that would be wonderful,” said Levine.
Levine says conventions have changed since he started going to them.
“I mean comic book conventions, when I was a kid, it was about like miserable people who didn’t want to leave their house doing it once a year for the sake of getting comic books,” explained Levine. “Clearly the world has changed since my forsaken youth. But I’m having fun, you know, I just like to complain”
Wearing a field cap, an oversized jacket, and a thick beard, Levine says no one had guessed his supposed cosplay.
“So, I have a cigar, I don’t have it in my mouth right now because I want to be a good role model for the youth to – you know, whatever I can salvage of that at this point,” said Levine. “He got into a big fight with the United States government over bananas.”
Che Guevara?
“Yeah, OK, yeah yeah I decided an hour ago it’s Fidel Castro but I think people think Che is sexier so I’ll take Che,” said Levine.
