Superheroes, supervillains, science fiction stars, princesses, and local celebrities descended upon Philadelphia last weekend for Wizard World Philadelphia. Once again the four-day convention was held at the beautiful Pennsylvania Convention Center.

The main convention area filled a massive hall for vendors, comics guests, media guests, and professional photo ops. Panels were held in the upstairs halls where fans waited in long lines to catch a glimpse of media stars, learn more about cosplay, and explore social issues in comics.

Creators, artists, and writers from comics, animation, and novels included Billy Martin (TMNT New Animated Adventures), Bob Gale (co-creator Back to the Future), Dan Schoening (Back to the Future), Howard Chaykin (Avengers 1959), J.G. Jones (Wanted), Tracy Yardley (Sonic the Hedgehog), Julian Totino Tedesco (X-Treme X-Men), Joe Quinones (Howard the Duck), Salvador Larroca (Darth Vader), Glenn Fabry (Batman), Michael Klastorin (Back to the Future: The Ultimate Visual History), Gerhard (Cerebus), Bob Camp (Ren and Stimpy), Genese Davis (The Holder’s Dominion), Brad Guigar (Evil Inc), Andres Guinaldo (Convergence Harley Quinn), Dean Haspiel (Bored to Death), Dr. Travis Langley (Batman and Psychology), Phil Ortiz (The Simpsons), Chris 51 (tattoo artist), Tom Cook (He-Man), Pere Pérez (Birds of Prey), Ken Kelly (KISS album covers), Angel Unzueta (Titans), Arthur Suydam (Marvel Zombies), Jim Lawson (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Jordan Gibson (Where Is Jake Ellis?), and many others.

The impressive list of celebrity guests were led by big names in the Captain America and Thor franchises. Wizard World Philadelphia hosted two of the Avengers, Chris Evans (Captain America) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor), as well as Tom Hiddleston (Thor), Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Stanley Tucci, and Georges St-Pierre (Captain America), and Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper (Agent Carter).

Media guests also included a Back to the Future reunion with Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, and Lea Thompson, The X-Files stars David Duchovny, Mitch Pileggi, and William B. Davis, plus Stephen Amell (Arrow), Billy Boyd (The Lord of the Rings), Sean Patrick Flanery (Boondock Saints), James Remar (The Warriors), Jason David Frank (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers), and pro wrestlers John Cena, the Bella Twins, and Sheamus.

Fans excitedly waited to meet their favorite celebrities, which was mirrored on the faces of guests. When asked how the weekend was going, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers star Jason David Frank said, “It’s really good, really busy. As you can see, I’ve got an awesome fan base. It’s just great. I’m having a good time, I love coming to Philly. I’ve been here every year and every year it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger, which is great. I’m just meeting people and taking care of people and all that good stuff, you know. It’s going great. I like it.”

Boondock Saints star Sean Patrick Flanery entertained his fans by shouting jokes, quips, and telling stories not just to the person in front of him, but the entire line of people. Asked how his weekend was going Flanery’s answer was both comical and compelling.

“Oh, it’s horrible! I can’t stand people, I’m not a people person. I have agoraphobia, get away from me!” Flanery said with a smile. “I love it. I love this stuff. When you go in the green room – and for those of you who don’t know the green room is where the actors can rest in between whatever they have to do. You get a good sense of who likes to be here and who doesn’t. I actually like talking to people. In my opinion, there’s a long line of people that just want to take adoration, wad it up into a ball and smear it all over you. I can’t, for the life of me, think of anything negative about that. It feels great. It’s nourishment for the human condition. When you do theater, you get an immediate response. I tell a joke, somebody laughs. If I do something heavy, emotional, I get a response and I see it immediately. Film is not that way. For example, the camera operator is not watching you perform, he’s making sure a boom doesn’t come into the shot, he’s making sure the composition, the framing is right. So whenever the director says cut, everybody picks up their stuff and leaves. There’s no reciprocal current of energy, at all. So, to really get the feedback you have to come to these events. To see what people truly, really thought of your work. I adore it. I really do.”

Flanery also shared details of his busy schedule through the rest of 2016. “I’m retiring after this. I’m done, boom! Dropping the Sharpie and walking away. I just wrote a book – it came out April 5 – so I’m going on a book tour, nationwide at Barnes & Noble and boutique bookstores. I continue on after this, I think I’m going to Nashville in October. I had a film premiere at the South by Southwest film festival called Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word. That comes out this fall. Shortly after that I did a film called Trafficked about human trafficking with Ashley Judd and that’s in the near future. I’m keeping pretty busy. Then there’s the remainder of the book tour, press for those two, and I’m doing another film that I can’t mention the title – I don’t know why they tell you that – it’s not like if I told you, you’d go ‘Oooh!’ I work on that at the end of July for two weeks, consolidated and that should cover up to Christmas time and then Santa’s coming and he’s going to give me lots of cool stuff,” Flanery said.

Vendors sold a wide variety of memorabilia, favoring modern collectibles, pop culture jewelry and statues, vintage toys, comics and science fiction t-shirts, movie posters, buttons, and more. Comic book stands sold lots of Modern titles, graphic novels, and trades, plus sought after Golden, Silver, and Bronze Age books.

Artists from the comic book celebrities to the animators and local talents sold tons of artwork. They had comics, original pages, cool portraits, and colorful prints. Some of the guests even did original sketches at their tables for attendees.

While walking around the con floor, Scoop’s Amanda Sheriff met Iron Max, a little boy who became famous in January. Max has hemophilia and needed to have a metal disc put into his chest. His father told Max that he’d be like Iron Man and once Marvel heard the story, they added him into one of their Iron Man titles. He poised for photos in his Iron Max t-shirt accompanied by a copy of the Iron Man page in which he appears.

There was an extensive gaming area with demos, computer gaming, console gaming, and tabletop gaming.

Cosplayers were everywhere, showing off some impressive, creative costumes. There were lots of Captain America, Agent Carter, and Winter Soldier cosplayers as well as some Marty and Jennifer pairs and a few Doc Browns, along with some Mulder and Scully teams, and plenty of Harley Quinns wearing “Daddy’s Little Monster” t-shirts. There were also costume contests held for both adult and kids, with a stellar list of entries.

Another fun encounter for Sheriff was meeting a Rocky cosplayer that looked like, walked like, and talked like the Italian Stallion.

The cavalcade of Marvel stars participated in panels and Q&As, as did the cast of Back to the Future, Stephen Amell, Jason David Frank, James Remar, Sean Patrick Flanery, and the Bella Twins. Artists, including Steve Geiger, Chris “Rokku” Coates, Clinton T. Hobart, Rachel Korsen, Rob Prior, KOOLasHECK, Dan Dougherty, Joe Quinones, and Victor Dandridge provided live art demos for fans.

On Friday night they presented Grimes in concert with special guest HANA at the Electric Factory.

The list of panels covered a wide array of subjects from cosplay sewing, working with worbla, the power of fandom, civil rights and social issues in comics, villains vs. villains, psychology of The Walking Dead, comics in education, stereotypes in comic history, working with spandex and other difficult materials, writing science fiction, Marvel vs. DC, Israeli Defense comics, kids podcast, learn to draw demo, one on one with Howard Chaykin, video game creation, and comic startup.

The con was non-stop entertainment with a ton of activities for adults and kids, great opportunities to learn more about comics, cosplay, and media projects, and plenty of places to buy cool collectibles. Fans went home with lighter wallets, arms full of packages, and smiles on their faces.