Oz Comic-Con: Preview and Giveaway

Did you think the Convention Season had finished? Good grief, Penfold! We’re only getting started! And just to keep your geek-spirit high, we have four (4) family tickets to the next big event: Oz Comic-Con (Sydney and Brisbane).

Oz Comic-Con is one of the big five convention organizers in Australia, along with Supanova, EB Games, SMASH!, and PAX Australia. I like to dream about attending them all, but there is only so much time in the year and so little money in the EG Coffers. Priority goes to whichever appeals to the family as a whole: If the kids aren’t happy, your day is going to suck.

The best part about Oz Comic-Con is how it travels across the land, bringing geek to all the geeks in all the geeky corners. Not all shows are the same; for example, I am kicking myself for missing John Barrowman in Melbourne earlier this year. However, Karl Urban is coming to Sydney and Brisbane, so I think we’re still good to go.

The next offering is the Sydney/Brisbane combo. Sydney hosts Oz Comic-Con at the Sydney Exhibition Center @ Glebe on 10-11 September. Brisbane has its turn the following weekend, at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on 17-18 September. And they are both sharing a lovely array of delights for us:

• A plethora of TV and movie guests, including Karl Urban, Aaron Ashmore, Keisha Castle-Hughes, and Ksenia Solo;
• A broad collection of comic and publishing guests, starting with Chewie Chan, Queenie Chan, Tristan Jones, and Isobelle Carmody;
• And of course: Cosplay, cosplay, cosplay! I’m hoping to have a chat with Miss Sinister Cosplay about her make-up skills and video game influences.

Oz Comic-Con always has a lot to offer with workshops and vendors and stuff. But the thing I really look forward to?

The Family Room

Yeah, it sounds kind of lame at first, but I’m being absolutely brutally honest with you here. I love my geek. And I have some very important geek kept far away from little spawnling hands.

However, I also gain a HUGE MASSIVE enjoyment kick when I share my geek with my spawnlings. And then double it when they have the opportunity to share their geek with me. No matter how much a Con may claim to be family friendly, putting up posters, and sprucing up the media, you will never know whether they are family friendly until you either go or hear it from someone else.

So you are hearing it from me: I love taking my kids to Oz Comic-Con. I love how they have multiple levels of cosplay, including a kids section. I love how they have a games table to just sit back and chill for a few minutes when it gets busy. And I love how they have a Family Room for the kids to take a step back and show off their geek.

Of course, they have all the other geek stuff too (like After Hour events that I am never able to stay awake for). Let me know how you grown-ups go with all that other fun.

Oz Comic-Con has offered GeekMom four (4) family tickets to give away in the lead up to their Sydney and Brisbane shows. We have two (2) Family Tickets for Sydney AND two (2) Family Tickets for Brisbane (one per entrant).

Entry is through Rafflecopter, but it is open for AUSTRALIAN RESIDENTS ONLY. GeekMom is an international blog, so it is pretty darn awesome when we can share the love with our readers in various countries outside the United States too.

COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED! Congratulations to the following winners:

• Roxy Starcrusher
• Brett Slavin
• Gayle Richardson
• Laura Stewart

I’m heading to the Sydney event and will be tweeting and Instagramming and all the stuff. If you want to live vicariously through me, the hashtag will be #OzComicCon. I’ll also have a run-down on the event and the cosplay soon after, including any photos you share with GeekMom and myself.

Tickets are available here at a distinct financial advantage if you purchase online. Bonus for families: Kids under 12 are free when a general admission ticket is purchased.

So, what are you looking forward to the most at Oz Comic-Con this year?

BIG UPDATE: Katee Sackhoff has JUST been announced as a guest for Sydney Oz Comic-Con only. That’s right, Sydney only!! I think I need to reorganize my schedule…