Cosplays, comics, and Hodor, oh my!! Shuffle Online has anxiously been holding on to their capes waiting to attend Alamo City Comic Con in San Antonio, Texas this weekend. Especially our Social Media Manager Hymi, who will happily be waiting in line for her photo op with Manu Bennett (he starred in “Spartacus” and “The Hobbit”) on Saturday.
In only its third year running, Alamo City Comic Con is expecting record numbers ranging from 90,000 to 100,000 participants. San Antonio’s first comic con has grown in attendance from its 2013 inaugural year of 35,000 participants and doubled to 73,000 last year.
ACCC is the brainchild of event founder and director Apple de la Fuente who envisioned and convinced SA city councilman and current State Representative Diego Bernal to become a major backer of the con. With these numbers, ACCC is now the 7th largest con in the US and growth is expected to continue with major stars and exhibitors coming to the event each year.
We are so excited to bring you the highlights of the con throughout the weekend and bring you along for the ride!
Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit Trilogy panel
Who knew our first panel at ACCC would be amazingly entertaining and inspiring? A great start to our con experience! “Lord of the Rings”’ Billy Boyd (Peregrin “Pippin” Took), John Noble (Denethor) and The Hobbit’s Manu Bennett (Azog) attended and did not disappoint!
Manu Bennett stole the show with his over the top antics that included shaking his butt and acting out his green screen experience as Azog. Billy Boyd avoided singing for fans, sang Happy Birthday to a fan and John Noble was gracious enough to stay around and take selfies with fans…ChinLin and I shook his hand!
Game of Thrones’ Hodor panel
Kristian Nairn not only stars as “Game of Thrones”’ fan favorite Hodor, but is also a successful DJ of twenty years and will host “Rave of Thrones” on Saturday, along with other gigs. His newest single “4 Love” is a collaboration with Salt Ashes and was released today. He will have an album release next spring.
He discussed his love of Warcraft, his embarrassing encounter with Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister) and hopes Jon Snow is dead because he is “too emo” for his taste. Oh and by the way, he gave us a spoiler of Hodor’s fate in Season 6: he will be joining a boy band and touring on a ship through Westeros.
Catherine grew up watching action flicks at a very young age which led to her love of film. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelors in Radio-TV-Film in 2012. Always the adventurer, Catherine traveled and lived in Sydney, Australia for a year where she took a selfie with Brad Pitt. She runs Shuffle with passion, lots of caffeine and tacos. When she’s not editing or writing you can find her crafting and planning her next adventure.