I wanted to start the first official day of Dragon*Con in a different way from previous years by attending to an event with more substance. So, after having breakfast I walked to the Hilton Atlanta to attend the panel offered by the Science Track called “Everything Stem Cells” presented by Michael Gilkey. It was both refreshing and revealing and I enjoyed it very much, still I left early in order to catch the last minutes of the “Welcome Panel” offered by the Comics and Pop Art Track at the Hyatt. I got there just in time to catch the last minutes of Kelly Sue DeConnick’s speech. She’s the writer of such comic books as, Captain Marvel (the Carol Danvers version) and Avengers Assemble, wonderful woman.

Afterwards I found myself walking into a Marvel Mutants Photoshoot where I didn’t waste any time taking some photos. One of my favorite cosplayers the beautiful Gillykins was there in her classic Scarlett Witch cosplay. There was also this most excellent X-Force (1990’s version) cosplay group. Around midday I found my friend Freya Fólkvangr whom I met last year. This time she was wearing her Warrior Woman (from The Road Warrior movie) cosplay.

Early in the evening I headed to the Artist Alley where I was able to achieve a long time goal of mine. I met the legendary Mike Grell, a comic book artist who is well known for his work in titles like Superboy and The Legion of Superheroes, Warlord, Green Lantern/Green Arrow (DC Comics) to name a few. He has to his credit creating Jon Sable, Freelance (First Comics). He is also one of the two artists (the other being Curt Swan who died on June 17, 1996) who worked on the very first Superman comic that I ever read in my life, Action Comics #450. I read this comic first in a Spanish translated version and in 2004 I found and bought a copy of the original version which I took to Dragon*Con for him to sign which he did.

I also had the good luck of meeting another famous comic book artist, Tim Sale. He is famous for his collaborations with writer Jeph Loeb among them I can mention from the top of my head such classics as; Batman: The Long Halloween, Superman For All Seasons & Batman: Dark Victory. He signed my copy of Captain America: White #0.

Later in the evening I managed to snuck inside the Cult Classics of the 80’s with Cary Elwes (Princess Bride, Robin Hood: Men in Tights) and C. Thomas Howell (The Outsiders). It was quite fun seeing them in action. There was even a guy from the audience (cosplaying Elwes’s character from Robin Hood) who got onstage to help Cary sing the lyrics of “Men in Tights”.

Around 3:20 PM I went back to my hotel to rest a bit and put on my Clark Kent cosplay. This would be the first and only time that I did cosplay at Dragon*Con this year. I simply couldn’t stand the heat. That costume was making me sweat a lot. Once I was ready I went back to The Marriot and saw part of the Friday Night Costuming Contest. This particular contest had an emphasis on workmanship. I left the contest early and headed to the Marriot’s Atrium Level which during Dragon*Con is pretty much the main spot to see the costumers show off their creations. Around 10:00 PM I called it a night and returned to my room at the Omni to get a good night sleep in order of getting ready for the parade on Saturday morning.