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Tampa Bay Comic Con lands three grande dames of geek

 
[ CAMERON COTTRILL | Times ]
[ CAMERON COTTRILL | Times ]
Published July 29, 2015

What's better than one queen? Tampa Bay Comic Con is hedging bets on three.

Organizers got lucky this year by landing Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia in Star Wars), Lea Thompson (Lorraine Baines in Back to the Future) and Linda Hamilton (Sarah Connor in The Terminator) as the top-billed celebrity guests for the three-day convention celebrating comics and all things geeky that kicks off Friday.

All three come from revered franchises still churning out movies or memorabilia and raking in fan dollars decades after their creation. Fisher is set to reprise her iconic role this winter in the first of three new Star Wars movies being produced by Disney.

Actors of this caliber usually frequent the big deal cons — San Diego and New York — but the visit to our burg shows the power of the growing comic convention culture to connect major stars to fans everywhere.

"I really love the people that go to comic cons because they're really into celebrating having a good time," Thompson said during a phone interview with the Times. She started attending comic conventions eight years ago.

She was honored to be appearing alongside Fisher and Hamilton this weekend because of their dynamic work and their easygoing nature with the fans, she said. They'll all have their own panel discussions — Fisher and Thompson on Saturday, and Hamilton on Sunday.

In between, attendees can enjoy comic con events such as zombie walks, cosplay contests and, for the first time ever, a Tampa Bay Comic Con film festival.

Last year, the top celebrity guest was Richard Madden (Cinderella, Game of Thrones) and the crowd swelled to 30,000 on a Saturday.

Imagine what the crowds will be like as people travel from around the state to get a load of this girl power trifecta. In fact, the entire lineup of celebrity guests is woman-centric — nine of the 15 featured are female.

After only five years in the market, Tampa Bay Comic Con has grown from 550 attendees to possibly 50,000 fans this weekend, said Kailee Baylor, a spokeswoman for the organizers.

The early and the prepared will be the victors who get to see all their favorite stars and possibly grab an autograph or photo. But while celebrities are a great bonus, never forget the purpose of these cons: giant nerd parties.