Houston Comic Con came and went this weekend, and hopefully everyone that intended to go braved the fog. If not, you totally missed out. For those of you that like to set trends, or like to say “I was there”, Houston ComicCon was the place to be.

Relatively small in size, Comic Con seemed to be the gateway to the future here in Houston. To me, it was a very ballsy experimental run, as it was put on by a single person and very quickly.

When I talked to Rober Quijano about what to expect, he said the only complaint would be the size. He wasn’t kidding. The size thing wasn’t that much of an issue though. I stayed both days of the convention and the constant flow of geeks coming and going was beautiful. The dealer tables more than made up for the size; you could get lost for hours digging through so many back issues.

I scored a ton of early Wolverine, Avengers, and Maxx issues that are of the hard-to-find variety. Aside from boxes and boxes of fifty-cent comics, so many golden and silver age key issues lined the walls at the dealer’s table, including Midnight Comic’s copy of the first appearance of Iron Man priced at a cool $950.

As far as guests go, Comic Con brought out the local big guns. Sure Rob Liefeld and Mike McKone were there, but to me the beautiful part was realizing how much of a hand Houston has in the comic industry.

For example, Frank D’armata is the colorist behind The Invincible Iron Man. Red 5 comics, from Cypress, has many titles that are being optioned for movies. And that's just naming a couple.

As mentioned earlier, Rob Liefeld was there. Totally a cool guy, and I love the fact that he really doesn’t give a damn what people think about him and the bajilliion pockets he once drew.

One of the most awesome sights was how many different types of people came in. Yeah sure, you still got the nerd in a Green Lantern shirt and a wizard cape, but I saw people that I would typically think would rather be shopping at the mall or clubbing downtown.

Another thing I noticed were the large amount of families. Last weekend I had the pleasure of going to the greatest gathering of showmen - the KISS concert. In earlier days, you’d never think to see families coming in droves to watch KISS, yet the seating was lined with babies and youngsters dressed in KISS attire. (Fun Fact Time: Gene Simmons’ costume has a lot of inspiration from Marvel’s Black Bolt. During the banter, the band noted that as well and at Comic Con, I noticed it.)

I really hope things like comic book conventions start becoming a family tradition, and I have to give thumbs up to the parents that dressed their kids in DeadPool and Moon Knight costumes.

With that last note, I’d normally have a picture ready, but through the excitement of so many comics, I seemed to have misplaced my camera. If anyone attended Comic Con and found a camera, please remember it's the season of "giving", not "keeping".