I had hyped InvaderCon up for months, ever since I bought my tickets last year. The convention took place in Atlanta, GA on March 26-27, 2011. It was the 10 year anniversary of the television show Invader Zim. The guests included Andy Berman, Melissa Fahn, Richard Horvitz, Rikki Simons and Eric Trueheart from the show. I have not been a fan of the show for 10 years like most of the die-hard fans that attended the convention, and you could say I have not even been a fan of it for a whole year before the convention.
I caught the show on Netflix sometime towards middle of last year and basically I was drawn into it because of the character "Gir" which is voiced by Rikki Simons.
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| Alissa with Andy Berman |
Some of the shows are very cleverly written and the coloring is amazing but all in all it is not something I could see myself watching on regular basis as a fan. I think the character "Gir" had a lot of potential for a show of its own in fact, which is something I could see myself watching. Gir is not a complicated character but more so just a comedic side kick with a few funny one-liners. Before the convention was set to happen I could tell I just wasn't going to be in the mood for it and I almost didn't go.
The initial plan was for me to go and attend the panels, talk with the guests and attend the "I'm Making Waffles" and "Dinner of Doom" events with
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| Seth & Alissa Worley with Richard Horvitz |
the guests over the time span of the weekend. I ended up not doing this but instead taking my kids for about an hour and leaving. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there and another 2 1/2 hours to return home and so all together it was not the trip I had imagined. When we got to the event, we automatically got in line for the kids to meet their favorite characters from the show which was Zim (Richard Horvitz) and Dib (Andy Berman). I had wanted to meet Gir (Rikki Simons) but we did not make it in time. We stood in line about an hour (the entire amount of time allotted to get signatures at that time) and the kids was the last people in line to meet Zim. If we arrived only 60 seconds later then we had, the kids would have not gotten a chance to meet their favorite characters. The show would be what you would expect for a cartoon which was a lot of kids running around acting silly and a few immature teens and adults. I say this since some adults and teens was literally pushing children out of the way to get in the autograph line and such. I can understand being passionate about something such as a television show or characters but some take it to the extreme. At the convention, the way it was set-up, it in no way felt like one to me. Maybe I have been to so many horror conventions I have become prejudice against others, who knows. It was set up at the Marriot Hotel and it basically just felt like you was hanging out in a hotel and bunch of people was running around in costumes. Just not my kind of show really. The guests was super great and sweet to their fans which I found to be amazing.
And my little BGG team members did get to ask one question they had been dying to ask, "Zim and Dib, do you really hate each other?
Zim and Dib replied, "Not at all, lot of love here."
So the Zim wanting to destroy Dib, and vice-versa, is all a show. It turns out they get along great and I guess the whole back and forth between the two is just how they show a greater admiration for each other.
Long Live GIR!
