If you were driving past the Irving Convention Center On May 19th-20th you may have thought that it had been invaded.; there was nothing to fear it was just the countless hordes of Geeks from around T
exas and the country for Dallas Comic Con 2012!
The area outside the center was an endless mass of Jedi’s, Storm Troopers, Iron Man Masks, Captain America’s, Batmen, Bat Girl’s. all things leather, and latex!!
The crowds of this Comic Con exceeded the expectations of everyone with 20,000 visitors. A diverse and famous lineup of guests, many vendors, lots of cool cosplayers at an organized and popular event guaranteed large crowds.
The guests for this May convention included Stan Lee, Patrick Stewart, Summer Glau, Laura Vandervoort, James Marsters, John DeLancie, Tim Taylor and Anne Lockhart. The Star Wars universe was represented by Dave Prowse (the body of Darth Vader), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett).
Marvel Founder and Legend Stan Lee was unable to appear on Sunday as originally announced. So a special Friday night meet and autograph opportunity was added for the fans who expected to see him on Sunday
Fans of Batman were not disappointed. The original Batman and Robin, Adam West and Burt Ward were present. As well as Kevin Conroy, who is the voice of the animated Batman, the many spinoffs and video games.
The convention center was a sight on Saturday morning. Crowds massed outside the center doors. Lines formed 
and went around the building.. up outside stairways,. and circled around the outside patios.
The lines were long due to the unexpected crowds but the Dallas Comic Con staff did a remarkable job in keeping the lines inside and outside the convention center moving. The veteran convention goers were used to such things and even talked to those new comers about how the show had grown and they could expect a memorable day.
Dallas Comic Con featured many celebrities from Batman, having Adam West, Burt Ward, V and Kevin Conroy in attendance brought out all sorts of Bat-Fans, Robins, Nightwings, Batgirls and even a couple of Catwomen!
One of the most photographed of all was Catwoman portrayed by Lhars Ebersold.
If you have been to a Dallas Comic Con or SciFi Con you most likely have seen Lhars. She is a North Texas artist and famous cosplayer. She has portrayed Catwoman, Dark Phoenix, Princess Leia, Leelu of The Third Element and Rikku from Final Fantasy X.
Lhars is a self described comic book geek. When asked what her favorite character to portray she says,
“Definitely Catwoman, I’ve read those comic books and been fascinated with the character since I was a child.
As a kid I would pretend to be her. Love, love, love her sassiness, flirtiness, and her dark side screams my personality.”
“I think the reaction to me wasn’t just from wearing the costume, but more playing the part. Everyone had a lot of fun. I did scare a couple of kids though and caught a few guys taking pics of 
mybackside!”
Lhars makes “every single one of her costumes” and has some special ones planned from horror films and says
“I think my next and very challenging one is Hawkgirl.”
Lhars’ goal for the Con was to have Catwoman ”photo-bomb” every Batman she could find. Many photos have a serious fan, a serious Batman and a pouncing Catwoman in the background.
Lhars is a convention favorite and one of the most photographed people at the con. She is always in character and interacts with the convention visitors very well.
Another regular face at the Dallas Comic Con, Fan Days or SciFi Con is Krystle Starr.
Having over 50 costumes and 6,000 comics, being a diverse and well known Cosplayer should not be a surprise. Krystle says, with comics,
“I can thumb through them and read a few pages here and there but I’m super ADD! A lot of times with comic book heroes, I start putting myself in their place. I’ve had this kind of alter ego “Super Kriss” my whole life.”
“One time we had a substitute, when she left the room to go get something, I had been working on my Super Kriss logo. I realized it looked really cool!”
“I went up to the projector at the front of the classroom, took off the notes from class and put up my logo! Kind of like Batman in Gothom City except it was Super Kriss in junior high! All the kids thought it was great!”
With 50 costumes does Krystle have a favorite? She says,
“There’re so many superheroes out there and each have their own amazing qualities; that it’s really hard for someone who is around the material as often as I am to have just one favorite. I really feel like it’s a mix of all of them.”
“The first thing that draws me to a character is their costume. That’s what first soaks into my brain is a poster, or cover of a comic book. Then I would have to know who they are, good guy, bad guy. Where are they from? I tend to connect more with superheroes that are either from Earth, like Batman, not really a superhero he’s just a super rich guy with all these amazing gadgets.”
“Spider-Man he gets bitten by spider then he totally transforms into Spider-Man.”
“I can relate with Hulk because everybody gets kind of angry at times. He explodes into this awesome fighting machine and that’s super cool! I can probably talk about this for hours.”
“I went to Comicpalooza in Houston and met Kevin Sorbo who did a personal interview with Adam Samaz and I and an intro for our website Samaze.com; we also got pictures with Peter Mayhew aka Chewbacca for his Official Fan Page.
Adam was dressed as Chewbacca!
She selected her costumed character because, “Batgirl is an average girl who you know gets to spend time with Batman! Again just your average girl with the technology, tools and gadgets so she can live out her fantasy and be a Hero!
The daughter of Captain America is an interesting character because she is born with the blood of Captain America. Who himself actually had to have a procedure done to become that way.
“I feel like his daughter is slightly stronger because the cells are already adapted.”
“The reaction from fans is always different depending on the costume and the convention. I have showed up at conventions and my costume didn’t get any attention. I’ve also been to conventions and couldn’t walk two feet because someone was there wanting take more photos.”
“A lot of kids love my costumes, especially the ones that they can identify with.“
“When kids go dressed up to places they’re the only ones dressed up. At these conventions everyone is free to dress up. I feel like kids get excited when they see their superheroes dressed up next to them.
“Especially costumes that are movie quality (or at least to the children) a lot of children come up to me and ask me for Wonder Woman’s autograph or Batgirls autograph. I’ve signed tons of con schedules.”
As an area art teacher, Krystle makes many of her own costumes but also buys online and raids thrift stores and yard sales. She ends with,
“Yes I love to dress up!”
At the Dallas Comic Con Krystle was very busy appearing as Batgirl and Captain America.
But also representing and promoting the Samaze website and Comic Book Divas publishing and their list of upcoming titles; including the super hero mystery comic book entitled “Donor” in which she will portray one of the primary character’s “Pamela Strong”
Reporter and Photo Journalist Bob Sanders
Reporter Anjanette Clewis
