We return for the final installment of Cosplay for Charity! This time we’ll focus on the guest appearances and the store itself. This place was amazing to just walk through and look at. I’ll also include some more of the fun cosplay group pics.
The first two guests I saw were Maria Olsen, who has appeared in such films as Percy Jackson and Paranormal Activity 3, alongside Aaron Smolinski, who was baby Kal-El in Superman: The Movie.
Marilyn Ghigliotti, whom I immediately recognized as Veronica from Clerks, was there, and this was my instant recognition that rarely ever shows up.
Isaac Singleton Jr. was on hand, and a friend of mine even got his autograph on a photo of him from Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl!
Rick Balsada was there drawing for most of the time he was at the event.
Tom Pinchuk drew Deadpool, and I realize as I write this that I should have paid to get this drawing.
Vincent Caso, Bladezz of The Guild, showed up in the final hour of the event with other Guildmates to sign and take pictures, as well. Vincent helped me collect the other pictures of the group; thanks again. The next four pictures are all Guild-related.
Jeff Lewis, who plays Vork, was there and nice enough to pause a conversation to take a few pictures for me.
Robin Thorsen, Clara, was there to sign pictures and take pictures, as well. Take as in appear in, not steal.
Sandeep Parikh was the most difficult to take a picture of due to my own incompetence, my camera is filled with blurred and overexposed shots of him. Sorry about that, man.
Here we have a group shot of them all together; they were setting up just as I was leaving. Now to go back and look at all that gaming I missed out on while I was taking pictures.
This game right here? This game of 4th Edition D&D? It was being played by not only customers, but voice actors as well. We had Matthew Mercer as Dungeon Master, do you know how that is? He is Tygra on the new Thundercats cartoon! Among other voices, like Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil 6! I could have been playing a game of D&D run by Tygra, I’m somewhat bitter. Then, to make my envy higher, I’d have been playing alongside Taliesin Jaffe, voice of the Flash in Mortal Kombat Vs. DC and Blanka in Street Fighter IV (not like those are two of my favorite characters ever or anything). Zach Hanks, the voice of Cyclops in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, a game I played non-stop for a month practically, was there. And to round out the celebrities of the group, Marisha Ray of Super Power Beat Down (which also has Comic Attack’s own Andy Liegel!) was also playing, and she’s going to star in Batgirl: Spoiled, which if that’s Stephanie Brown Batgirl, I want to watch (IT IS). So you could have played D&D with some cool people, I’m not jealous, wait…there’s a chance you weren’t even there. That somehow makes me feel better, schadenfreude.
The Star Wars RPG Saga Edition was being played, too. The screen was set up so a custom intro scroll would give a run down of the game’s premise. An all clone-trooper team were to work together. This seemed like a really fun game and I got to watch the movies while they played.
This was taken from the second story of the shop. You could be playing games upstairs and not be in the way of customers below. Look at all that stuff they have, this is only a small section of the store, there was row after row of comics, boards games, card games, t-shirts, toys, and all kinds of good stuff. Go check out Emerald Knights, they seem like a cool place; if I was anywhere near Burbank, it’d be my shop to go to.
And let’s end on what this event was about. Kids, both the ones who need the Shriners Hospitals for Children and the ones who wanted to take pictures with cool characters to help out. So with that, thanks to Emerald Knights and all the wonderful people who helped out that day.
Alexander Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
