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\u201cIt feels like Oakland,\u201d he said, referring to the eclectic mix of ages, races and interests. \u201cIt feels all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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And, Bryant said, after all the sports teams leaving, \u201chaving something come back is meaningful for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearby, Tony Arieta was dressed as \u201cSpaceballs\u201d character Dark Helmet, while his wife, Ilia Arieta, as the movie spoof\u2019s Barf, wore a red jumpsuit with cat ears. It was their first Comic Con, lured by their kids.<\/p>\n
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Jose Guerra (as Darth Jorath), left, his brother Ramon Guerra (as the Mandalorian) and Jose\u2019s wife, Kaylia Guerra\u00a0(as Rey), meet admirers during opening day of Comic Con Oakland.<\/p>\n
Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Their teens had wandered off, but the couple didn\u2019t care. They\u2019d been bitten by the comic bug.<\/p>\n
Tony Arieta called the event \u201cpretty cool,\u201d which could only be described as effusive praise from the Sith dark lord from the \u201cStar Wars\u201d parody. His wife, meanwhile, was giddy about an artist who did a mash-up of the Cookie Monster and Godzilla.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI want to come every year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
While this was Oakland\u2019s first official Comic Con, the city hosted nine WonderCons between 1987 and 2002 highlighting comics, sci-fi and films.<\/p>\n
The convention center was lined with comic artists, several from Oakland and other local cities, as well as national notables, some with lengthy r\u00e9sum\u00e9s featuring Batman, Deadpool, Gargoyles and Pixar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The opening day of Oakland Comic Con drew hundreds of fans to the Oakland Convention Center on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jill Tucker\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
But at the back, the lines stretched the longest for the biggest names in the building \u2014, Giancarlo Esposito of \u201cBreaking Bad\u201d and Luci Christian, a veteran voice actor with notable credits including Nami from the anime series \u201cOne Piece.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Both attend multiple Comic Cons and similar events across the country every year.<\/p>\n
While Esposito might be best known for playing kingpin Gus Fring on \u201cBreaking Bad\u201d and \u201cBetter Call Saul,\u201d he has played villains in the \u201cStar Wars\u201d TV series \u201cThe Mandalorian\u201d and, this year, battled Captain America as the evil bad guy Sidewinder. He is also a voice actor for anime, gaming and animated series.<\/p>\n
At 68, Esposito has seen his fame stretch across generations, with some thinking of him as the voice of Harley Quinn\u2019s Lex Luther, others as Gus Fring or as characters in four Spike Lee films or, for the trivia buffs, as one of the kids singing the \u201cElectric Company\u201d theme from the 1970s.<\/p>\n
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\u201cBreaking Bad\u201d actor Giancarlo Esposito, left, takes a photo with fan Alan Todd of KeyComix during the first Comic Con Oakland.<\/p>\n
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Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Those lining up Saturday for his autograph ($80) or a selfie ($90), were oblivious to the cost to spend a bit of time with Esposito.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe\u2019s the greatest actor of all time,\u201d said one starstruck man who got a selfie. \u201cIt\u2019s worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Esposito also loves the Comic Con experiences. It\u2019s not about the fame, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His four daughters often tell him he has no idea how famous he is.<\/p>\n
During his Comic Con Q&A\u2019s, Esposito often tells fans that \u201cif you love what you do, truly love it, you don\u2019t stop doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s the part of it where I have gushing fans and people coming up to me all the time and, oh, I\u2019m a star and all that stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cYeah, but then I gotta go, right? Because that\u2019s lovely and I’m thankful and grateful, but I don\u2019t live there. There are people who do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next to Esposito, Christian signed autographs and took pictures with her fans, her line as long as her neighbor\u2019s.<\/p>\n
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Voice actor Luci Christian meets fans as she signs autographs during the first day of Comic Con Oakland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
She has been voicing anime characters for about 20 years, including Nami, a role she got in 2007. At the time, the industry was small in the U.S., with the shows hard to find on television and fans found only at smaller anime conventions.<\/p>\n
That has changed with the advent of streaming and conventions like Comic Con merging comics, anime and animation.<\/p>\n
While Christian and other voice actors perform their craft in isolation, their voices linger with those who watch the shows, becoming a part of their childhoods and remaining throughout their lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a very weird niche celebrity,\u201d she said, adding that the manga show \u201cOne Piece\u201d has long had a loyal following.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a cred to being a part of this fandom, and the fandom is wonderful. They are generous and fun,\u201d she said. \u201cI think the overarching ideas (are) of found family and sort of this loyal band to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
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An attendee looks at artwork by illustrator and vendor Eric Cabbell of Raleigh, N.C., during opening day of Comic Con Oakland.<\/p>\n
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Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
As the convention center started to fill up with more attendees Saturday afternoon and the lines got longer for the two celebrities, Esposito stepped away for a few minutes from the signings and selfies.<\/p>\n
There was no sign of the scary villain who stared down Walter White or who seethed as he said he\u2019d happily kill Captain America for free.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason I come to these cons is because I like to observe people being in wonder, enchantment, and joy,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t see a lot of it in the world, and I think a lot of us have let go of our inner child and that wondrous feeling of being vulnerable, open to any situation because of our whatever circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n
They get older, he said, less open, less goofy. And then, they walk through the Comic Con doors dressed as Darth Vader, Strawberry Shortcake or a hero\u2019s sidekick.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so I love cons,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause it allows people to redefine themselves in a childish way that allows them to be more comfortable with who they probably really are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ramon Guerra\u00a0as the Mandalorian, right, stares at a death trooper Saturday during the first Comic Con Oakland, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[329,184,7,332,839,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-308367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-east-bay","tag-festivals","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}