Black Friday

Stories of how consumerism and chaos collide in this holiday shopping tradition.

Long lines curving through the store, massive crowds pushing up against the walls and piles of clothes strewn about the tables and floor. That’s what millions of people will be leaving their Thanksgiving celebrations for when malls open their doors at 6 p.m. For years, Black Friday has been extending itself well beyond one day of bargain prices and doorbuster deals.

Consumers are all too happy to whip their credit cards out for lower prices on Thanksgiving night, and you can bet there will be dozens of people waiting in lines for the doors to open so they can get their hands on the best discounted products.

But from the perspective of the employees, Black Friday means long hours, large messes and cutting short or forgoing Thanksgiving altogether. It means preparing larger inventories, hiring more staff and spending days, or even weeks, cleaning up the aftermath. Black Friday has become far more than just the largest shopping day of the year.

An innocent beginningThere are differing tales of how Black Friday came to be and how it earned its name, but the most common one didn’t even have anything to do with shopping.

The term “Black Friday” was coined by Philadelphia police officers in the 1960s. Law enforcement disliked the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving because of the major crowds that caused congested streets filled with motorists and pedestrians during the weekend after Thanksgiving. So they coined the term “Black Friday” in the hopes of giving visitors a negative impression of the day so they would avoid it.

It didn’t work.

One story puts the cause of those traffic jams squarely on the annual Army-Navy football game that was regularly played in Philadelphia that weekend, while others simply point the blame at an increased shopping population over the first holiday weekend. Other fingers point toward the retail industry. In retail, being “in the black” means being profitable, which generally happens during the holiday season.

If Black Friday’s origin was indeed meant to be something negative, that ploy obviously backfired. Black Friday has grown to a multibillion-dollar shopping day that is almost perceived as a holiday in itself.

Black Friday has morphed into a behemoth of a day, which now begins on Thanksgiving and continues with Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. Not only that, companies such as Amazon have started launching massive mid-year sales comparable to Black Friday to spark even more spending.

Even so, the holiday season (November to December) still marks the busiest time of the year for retail. Statistic Brain Research Institute reported the total consumer retail spending from Nov. 1 – Dec. 16 to be $52 billion.

A numbers-driven gameThere’s a reason retailers put their “We’re hiring” signs out in the fall. It takes a large staff to serve the hundreds of thousands of consumers who will descend on malls and stores on the weekend following Thanksgiving.

“Currently on staff I’ve got 36 — looking for probably 20 more — for Black Friday,” said Adam Limkemann, a six-year retail veteran and an assistant manager of the Express store in Jordan Creek Town Center.

According to Statistic Brain, consumers plan to spend more than $800 on gifts this year. This sort of spending — and overspending — has become so commonplace that banks now advertise “holiday loans” to ensure borrowers “are covered for all their gift-giving needs.”

Online spending on Black Friday has increased steadily each year since 2010, but in-store spending had its first drop in five years in 2014, from $57.4 billion in 2013 to $50.9 billion.

Thanksgiving Day sales, however, have increased every year in the same period. Last year was the biggest jump, surpassing $1 billion, up from $766 million in 2013.

Earning the name “Gray Thursday,” Thanksgiving has become another one of the top shopping days for retailers, as more and more stores begin to open earlier each year.

This encroachment of Thanksgiving has been criticized by many, but numbers show that critique doesn’t stop them from firing up the computer to cash in on that buy-two-get-one-free sale.

Limkemann says those early shopping hours on Thanksgiving are some of the busiest.

“That 6 p.m. to 10 or 11 is pretty busy, because it’s people coming in after dinner,” he explained. “Then usually the overnight is when it starts to slow down, and then right in the morning, like 6 a.m.-ish, it gets busy again.”

The numbers are staggering. But with billions of dollars at stake, what business is going to turn away a customer with an open wallet?

But retail is more than consumers. There’s another side — the employees. These are the people who are ringing up $300 worth of half-price sweaters and must-have toys, the sales associates who are trying their best to keep more products on the tables than customers can push to the floor.

And while shoppers contemplate pushing Thanksgiving dinner up a little earlier to be there when the mall opens at 6 p.m., those same employees have already been there for two hours.

After spending his last six Black Fridays on the other side of the counter, Limkemann has a split opinion on opening early.

“My personal life says, ‘I really wish we would do 6 a.m.’ (on Black Friday),” he said. “I think it would be so awesome, because my family is three hours away, so I could go home, and I could have a Thanksgiving. And I’m fine with driving in the middle of the night.

“But my professional life says, ‘6 p.m.! 6 p.m.! Let’s do this!’ I’m ready to make some money. I mean, it’s a great time to grab volume, (so) I’m really on the fence.”

While Limkemann would love to join his family for Thanksgiving, he realizes that’s not an option for those who work in retail. This year, he is expecting to be scheduled to work 12 hours, but says he will likely end up working 16 or 18 of the 28 consecutive hours the store will be open.

The unexpected maniaThe Black Friday madness we know today began fairly recently, with “Gray Thursday” starting within the last few years. Michael Jay, a Des Moines resident who began in retail in 1982, was working at a children’s store in Jordan Creek Town Center the first year it opened at midnight.

The mall had only been open for about two or three years at the time, and Jay said no one really knew what to expect when they decided to open early for Black Friday.

“We weren’t scheduled heavily because we didn’t really think it was going to be that big of a deal — none of us did,” said Jay. “Then it was absolutely pure insanity.”

Jay said he wasn’t scheduled to come in to the store until 6 a.m. on Black Friday, but he was called in at 4 a.m.

The assistant manager at the time “called the store manager probably about 2 (a.m.) just in tears because the store was just packed with people,” Jay explained. “They were lined up out the door to try to get in, and then there was a line back to the store to check out. By the time I got in there, clothing was just in piles on tables, clothing was lying on the floor. There was literally no way to really get to the back room because the store was just packed with people. And we had an off-site storage unit upstairs in the mall, and I remember just bringing stuff down for our doorbuster sale, and we didn’t even bother to make it look presentable. We just opened up the boxes and dumped stuff on tables.

“It was just amazing. I think we planned to do $50,000 for the day, and I think by 4 (a.m.) we had already gotten in like $25,000.”

The shopping frenzy is similar at Jordan Creek’s Express store, which Limkemann says is one of the chain’s top 100 stores in the country.

Limkemann started working for Express in Cedar Falls and was moved to Valley West before starting his current position at Jordan Creek, which he says is a completely different experience.

“Jordan Creek is a very different beast as far as Black Friday,” he said. “It’s a destination mall, so people who’ve driven here are ready to shop. It’s funny to watch the strategies, where the mom will get in line, and the daughter will run around the store and grab things and hand them off to the mom; she’s just (got) armfuls of things. It gets pretty aggressive.”

Limkemann says his first Black Friday is his most memorable one, as he remembers one customer who needed medical attention.

“I was at my registers, and I hear this commotion over in my denim area,” said Limkemann. “And I look over and people have formed a circle around what’s happening. And this poor woman had passed out — I don’t know whether it was from exhaustion or excitement, but she was on the ground, and we had to stop what we were doing and call the paramedics.”

The woman was fine in the end, but it was one of the few instances where shoppers experienced dead silence on the busiest shopping days of the year.

Shoppers: naughty or nice?Between raging crowds, piles of products and general craziness that ensues at malls and stores on Black Friday, why do people keep doing it? Sales, promotions and coupons are available throughout the whole year and sometimes even equate to better deals than those offered on Black Friday. Why deal with the midnight madness and crowds to save a couple bucks?

Many shoppers will tell you: It’s all about the experience.

“When I shopped Black Friday before I worked in retail, it was more like the camaraderie, the fun — like hanging out with people in line and talking,” said Limkemann. “So you have people who are there, and they totally understand what it’s all about. They’re excited about the deal, they’re down to wait. You have those really great people.”

And then there are the not-so-great people.

“My favorite thing on Black Friday is reminding people where they are,” said Limkemann, smiling at the thought of some of the crazed customers he’s seen. “I’m very big on reality checks. When they’re really upset they have to wait in line, I tell them, ‘You are in the largest mall in Iowa and one of the best retailers in the mall, and it’s 7 a.m. — can we talk about this?”

While that works to remind some people where they are, others aren’t so easily calmed.

“Sometimes they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, OK.’ And other times they really don’t get it. They just don’t want to wait in line,” Limkemann continued. “I just find that amusing.”

Getting yelled at is such a normal occurrence for retail workers that they hardly scoff at the idea. For Jay, who’s worked in retail for more than 30 years, dealing with customers in that environment has done much to change his perceptions of people.

“The years in retail have just changed how I feel about humanity and nature,” he said. “I just, you know, I think people are unreasonable. To be honest, I would say 80 percent of them (customers) have forgotten what the season is all about. Twenty percent of the people are pleasant, will wish you a merry Christmas and are understanding if they have to wait in line.

“But the majority of the people today, I think, are just — they’re too into the material aspect of the holiday season. And then you have the people who get upset because you’re out of something that they wanted. They just expect you to be able to produce this size of clothing or this size in a shoe or whatever for them.”

In some places, the shopping holiday has become a battle for the best bargains, with fights breaking out over TVs and crowds trampling other shoppers. A simple Google search for “Black Friday fights” brings up thousands of results with videos to document the madness.

There are also customers who use the crowds and craziness to their advantage.

“People like to hide things, try to squirrel things away in different corners of the store and come back,” said Limkemann, adding that he believes stealing might actually be less of an issue on Black Friday.

Opting out

“(Stealing is) something you always deal with in retail, but I feel like on Black Friday it’s probably less, just because the promo is so awesome, and we have a lot of coverage,” he said.

But not everyone is ready and willing to cut their holiday short for a bargain. Whether for religious views, anti-consumerism ideals or just a hatred of shopping and crowds, many people will be staying at home and forgoing the sales altogether.

And this year, a few stores will join them in opting out.

REI, a national outdoor retailer that opened its first Iowa location earlier this month in West Des Moines, made headlines when the company announced it would be giving its employees a paid holiday on Black Friday and closing all of its stores.

“For 76 years, our co-op has been dedicated to one thing and one thing only: a life outdoors. We believe that being outside makes our lives better. And Black Friday is the perfect time to remind ourselves of this essential truth,” read the statement from Jerry Stritzke, chief executive and president of REI.

It is an almost-unprecedented move — one that’s causing a conversation to start among both retailers and consumers. Some say REI will take a major financial loss, while others applaud the company for taking its employees’ personal lives into consideration.

“They were the first to do it, so they absolutely got way more than it will ever cost them to be closed,” said Bob Phibbs, a New York-based author and consultant known as “The Retail Doctor.”

To further the mission, REI launched a campaign asking people to “opt outside” and use the hashtag #optoutside to share their Black Friday activities other than shopping. More than 866,400 people had taken the pledge to opt outside on REI’s website as of Nov. 12.

REI is currently the only retailer confirmed to stay closed on Black Friday, but several others have taken the cue and will remain closed on Thanksgiving, including Staples, Costco, Nordstrom, Home Goods, DSW, Barnes and Noble, Home Depot, Von Maur, H&M and Sam’s Club.

Opting out of the shopping frenzy has an earlier history, though. Buy Nothing Day, which is held on Black Friday in America but the Saturday following it in other countries, is a day created to protest consumerism.

The first one was organized by artist Ted Dave in Vancouver, Canada, in September 1992. It began as a day to examine the issue of over-consumption in society, and in 1997 it was moved to fall on Black Friday.

Critics claim, however, that it only causes people to buy items on other days.

So while some will point fingers at the retailers for opening their doors to consumerism, many retail workers say it’s not all bad.

“I’m a very excitable human,” Limkemann said with a smile. “I’m the type of person that I get really excited about things, and I just think that’s part of my job as well — to get others excited about it.

“And for every rude person, there are two people who are super stoked about Black Friday and who are really down to wait in line. There are people who are there for the experience, which is great.” CV

*This content was originally created for and published in Cityview magazine.

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What We Fear

A psychological understanding of fear: how it affects us, and why some people enjoy it.

Horror movies and ghost stories were once virtually exclusive to Halloween, the day in which thrill seekers indulge in haunted houses with chainsaw-wielding, masked serial killers who invoke blood-curdling screams.

But not anymore.

Society’s lust for a good scare now stretches well beyond a single day of the year. For some, being scared — aka “in fear of” — is a virtual constant, controlling their every move. For others, fear resides somewhere between an uncomfortable, eye-shifting caution to an outright paralyzing nightmare. The smallest minority takes it even one step further and turns fear on its heels from a negative, unpleasant emotion to a sought-after adrenaline rush.
Regardless, they are all forms of fear. So what exactly is fear?

The psychology of fear
Fear is one of the basic emotions common in many species, most notably humans. Although it may be a feeling many of us never want to experience willingly, it is a necessary survival tactic that helps us avoid dangerous or life-threatening situations. Psychologists who have studied it have learned that fear has evolved as humans have over the years.

“Our current understanding is that our brains have this fear module that is really evolved over time,” explained Zlatan Krizan, an associate professor of Psychology at Iowa State University. “It helps us deal with a variety of dangers that were important evolutionarily. These could be flood, predators, attacks from other people…anything that could come around the corner.”

It makes sense that fear would have started as a basic instinct of self-preservation. Krizan explains that these original fears were evolutionarily relevant because of their evident dangers. For example, falling from a high distance could kill you, so a fear of heights is logical.

Since many common fears have roots from hundreds, even thousands of years ago, Krizan says humans today have “evolutionary baggage” with fears that were relevant back then but aren’t so much today.

It’s the same for two of the most common phobias today, spiders and snakes, which can be poisonous — although Krizan is quick to point out that those are far less harmful than many other stimuli that we do not fear, such as guns.

“The idea is our brain has evolved to be especially sensitive to those kinds of stimuli,” he said. “And we can see that even today, even though there are other things that are much more dangerous for us — (like) guns, but we don’t have gun phobias the way we have snake phobias. And that speaks to the evolutionary path of the evolved fear response.”

“My biggest fear would be snakes,” said Patricia Gutierrez, who is originally from Mexico but now lives in Des Moines. “I can’t even see them when I go to the zoo or anything — even if there’s glass. I don’t want to get close to them at all.”Spiders and snakes are still the No. 1 and No. 2 (respectively) most common phobias in 2015, according to Fearof.net, as one Des Moines resident can attest to.

Gutierrez explains that her fear likely stems from a time in grade school when a fellow student terrorized the girls in her class with a snake.

“I’m originally from Mexico, so the schools there are outdoors. So this kid found (a snake), and they decided to chase the girls with it. So ever since then…I’ve been afraid of them.”

The idea of running into any kind of snake — poisonous or not — is panic inducing for Gutierrez and many others, even though the chances of being hurt by a snake is extremely rare in most places. In fact, according to “Animal-Related Fatalities in the United States,” more people die from bee and wasp stings than from venomous spiders. The Polk County Conservation website reports that only four poisonous snakes reside in Iowa, out of the 27 total species found in the state.

And, as Krizan noted, many of the things that were dangerous and threatening to the human species hundreds of years ago when their bodies were evolving are not problems anymore.

Still, the fear remains.

Emotions over logic
Fear does not leave much room for logic in the landscape of our minds. As Krizan explains, people are usually aware that there is no real threat of danger associated with a particular fear — but that doesn’t stop them from reacting to it.

“A lot of these fear reactions are very automatic and non-conscious,” he said. “For example, in these studies you can show people certain kind of fearful stimuli so briefly that they cannot consciously identify or remember them. Yet, their bodies — for example, the sweat on their palms — will show a fear response.”

Logically, most people who fear spiders or other creatures know that there is no imminent danger in, say, finding one in the shower. Yet they still might have an emotional response to it, such as waiting for someone else to come and kill it.

Gutierrez says she hasn’t had much experience with snakes since her traumatic experience in school — mostly because she actively tries to stay away from them — but on the off chance she does encounter one, her fear takes over.

“There was this one time that I was walking (on a sidewalk, and a snake) just came out from the grass. It was like that close,” Gutierrez said, measuring about a foot of distance between her foot and the imaginary snake. “It was just like a regular snake, like those garden snakes. So I know that they’re not bad or anything, but just by seeing them — I just got super scared, and I (had a panic) attack. I was crying.”

While much of Gutierrez’s fear can be blamed on the negative experience from her youth, it should also be noted that much of this “evolutionary baggage” humans carry is brought on by social learning, such as children seeing their parents being afraid of something. While it may not be instinctual or logical for a child to be afraid of water, seeing the look of panic on a parent or peer can teach them to fear it.

One of the most common emotional responses brought on by fear is the fight-or-flight mechanism. When this happens, the heart rate increases, and the body experiences a rush of adrenaline.

“Your body’s in this state of readiness to deal with whatever,” explained Krizan. “Either to run away or to fight, if needed. Often, being afraid is a part of this wider physiological bodily response that happens when we need to face threats.”

He adds that it’s this response that gets people riled up in a threatening situation — a feeling of butterflies in the stomach and time standing still.

There is also another element to fear’s emotional response in the body, and that is the freeze response.

“Think about if fighting would definitely get you killed, and escaping is impossible, a lot of times animals may freeze. So they play dead,” Krizan said.

But, while fear may result in shock for many people, there is still the one main reaction most people have to dangerous scenarios.These are the three responses that come into play in about every threatening situation. The choice depends on the person being threatened, the threat itself and the likelihood of escaping. And while people have to choose between fight or flight, they may not always have a choice in the “freeze” response, which is where the phrase “paralyzed with fear” comes from. People may be in a state of shock, feeling so overwhelmed by the situation that they just don’t know what to do next. Krizan said this type of reaction is most common in moments of real physical danger.

“If you’re really afraid,” Krizan adds, “you’re gonna get the hell out of there.”

Rational vs. irrational
If we really think hard about it, many of us could probably come up with at least a couple of irrational fears that we’re harboring without real cause. Getting lost in space despite never having even seen a rocket, checking for monsters in the closet or murderers behind closed shower curtains.

Of course we know there is very little chance of a serial killer with an ax lurking in the shower and waiting to pounce — but that doesn’t stop us from thinking it. We might not act on the fear, and our bodies typically won’t have the same physiological response, but the thought is still there.

Another aspect of fear that toes the line between rational and irrational and plays into this idea of what might be hiding in the shadows is anxiety, which Krizan says is more of an “undefined fear.”

“It’s not a matter of danger out there, but there may be a problem in the future,” he added. “And then you just have this sense of uncertainty and anxiety.”

So while it can’t exactly be classified as fear because there is no real threat involved, anxiety is essentially the feeling of worry involved with the unknown, and it has become more of a problem for our society in the 21st century as people allow their minds to be consumed by questions of what could happen.

“A lot of us live relatively safe lives, right?” Krizan said. “So the chances we’re going to get attacked by a bear or mugged on the street are very low for us here in Iowa. But…the fact that you may lose your job, or that your close one might die — all these kind of uniquely human worries — tend to generate a kind of bodily response similar to fear, and those can wear on us over time.”

The human mind is highly impressionable. Imaginations run wild with unlikely scenarios for many reasons, such as what we see on TV.

In general, studies have found that the more TV a person watches, the more fearful he or she tends to be. Krizan reasons that this is because the media often plays on the human response to fear but turns it into a pleasurable experience by wrapping it up nicely by the end of the show or movie.

“This back and forth is such a key part, for example, of the pleasure in fear that we find,” continued Krizan. “But the only reason we find it (fun) is because that initial fear reaction is right away replaced by our sense that it is only fictional.”“When you think about how most Halloween stuff works — haunted houses, horror movies — the key thing is (how) they abuse our innate fear response by doing (something scary or fearful) in a safe situation,” he explained. “So we have this automatic fear response — we get this fear when Freddy Kruger comes out, but we immediately realize that he’s not real, he’s not going to get us. So we go to giggling and laughing and having fun.

Craving the fear
Halloween is the time of the year when fear is not just expected — it’s desired. Movie theaters and TV channels are saturated with gory films. People spend money to let zombies and ghosts jump out at them in haunted houses or to spend a night in the home where a massacre took place. Why would anyone pay to be scared?

The same reason people pay to jump out of planes — they crave the rush.

This category of people who genuinely enjoy the thrill of being scared tend to embrace and enjoy the fight-or-flight response and the adrenaline rush that comes along with it. The same can be said for athletes who do extreme sports or even kids who love roller coasters.

In an article published by Medical Daily in 2013, the author wrote that this need for arousal is “typically caused by two things: testosterone and the body’s response to the neurotransmitter dopamine.”

Yes, the same chemical that’s at play in situations of sex and addictions is at work in our bodies when we feel scared, too. Dopamine helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers, but it also helps to regulate emotional responses. There is a certain kind of dopamine receptor that is associated with sensation-seeking people. The heightened stimulation — a culmination of increased heart rate, higher blood pressure and respiration process — tends to linger for a while after the event, even if it’s just from watching a horror movie. Its effects can also result in making other, more normal, experiences seem just as intense.

The key to enjoying a scary situation, though, is knowledge that a safe outcome is ahead.Thrilling activities can cause hormones to release more dopamine in some people than in others, which explains why some people truly enjoy feeling scared and others do not.

“We like thrills and fears, but only if the circumstances are (that) pretty quickly we can learn that they’re not real dangers,” explained Krizan. “Nobody’s come up with a haunted house where you start, then they scare you and touch you and then you’re really lost and don’t know where the exit is. Nobody’s doing that; that would make people really afraid.

“You know that you’re not really going to get hurt when you go to the haunted house.”

When people know a safe outcome is ahead, they are free to experience all the fear in a fun way, and, as a result, they might even end up feeling more alive from the exhilaration.

Haunted houses, horror movies and other classic Halloween activities are all about testing their audience’s limits. And for those thrill-seekers who crave that experience, fear is just another mental limit to challenge.

“Sometimes, being in the presence of potential threat or danger is another way to kind of get your rocks off, be it skydiving or base jumping or even being scared,” Krizan said.

“A lot of people say that if you get close to (snakes), you start to overcome your fear, then you’re fine with them,” she said. “But I don’t think I can do that.As for Gutierrez ever feeling that exhilarating high from facing her fear, she says there’s no chance of that happening.

“I’m OK with just staying away from them.” CV

*This content was originally created for and published in Cityview magazine.

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Up, Up and Away!

How Indianola's National Balloon Classic came to be one of the top hot air ballooning events in the United States. 

Approximately 15,000 people reside in the city of Indianola, which is roughly 30 miles south of Des Moines. But when the National Balloon Classic sets up camp for nine days every summer, anywhere from 75,000 to 95,000 people travel from across the country to watch and fly hot air balloons.

So what makes Indianola such a popular destination for ballooning? Read on to find out. But in order to really understand what makes the National Balloon Classic so special, you’ll have to see it for yourself when it hits town this Friday, July 24, through Aug. 1.

Indianola’s National Balloon Classic is the second-largest ballooning event in the United States, yet many people right here in Des Moines don’t even know it exists. Staci Scheurenbrand has been executive director of the Classic for two years and has lived in Indianola since she was a kid. Since working for the Classic, she’s realized that the event, while it’s known as a premier ballooning event throughout the country, is not quite as well known near its own home.

A hot air balloon hotspot

“I just could not believe the number of people that said, ‘I didn’t know Indianola had a balloon event’ — and they live right here in Des Moines,” Scheurenbrand said.

Few people know that the modern hot air balloon was actually created by an Iowan. Paule Edward (Ed) Yost of Bristow, Iowa, developed the modern propane burner system that allows pilots to carry their fuel on board with them. He also had several other related patents, including the teardrop design of the balloon envelope. He made the first flight in his new invention on Oct. 22, 1960, and has been known as the “Father of the Modern Day Hot Air Balloon” ever since.

In 1970, the Balloon Federation of America (BFA) was looking for a site to host the National Hot Air Balloon Championship. The BFA president, Don Kersten of Fort Dodge, led them to the Iowa State Fairgrounds, but it was decided that the site didn’t have enough space for the preliminary events. For that reason, the BFA chose to have only the 10 finalists of the competition do a final mass ascension in front of the grandstand, while the preliminary events, which narrowed the competitors from 18 to the final 10, were held in Indianola at Simpson College’s athletic fields.

The first event was so successful that it led the U.S. National Championships to return to Indianola for the next 18 years. At that point, it was decided that the championships would travel to other locations throughout the U.S., being hosted by one community for three years before moving on to another location.

But Indianola wouldn’t be without its own balloon event. In 1989, the National Balloon Classic was born.

“Indianola has always been near and dear to many pilots and to the community, and they weren’t ready to not have an annual balloon event,” said Scheurenbrand. “That’s when the National Balloon Classic formed, and that’s what it’s been ever since.”

The event has grown to become one of the largest — and longest — of its kind in the country, second only to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in New Mexico. Indianola caps its registration at 100 balloons, while Albuquerque has about 700. Both festivals are nine days long, whereas many other festivals throughout the country are only two or three days.

“We’re definitely a premier balloon event,” said Al Appenzeller, a hot air balloon pilot from Indianola who sits on the Classic’s Board of Directors. Appenzeller — known as “Crazy Al” — has been flying at the Classic since 2004. “It’s a beautiful area. I mean, almost all the time we see deer, and we see wild turkey, and we see pheasant. It’s a view you that you cannot get from the ground.”

Smaller balloon festivals take place in several other Iowa towns, including Creston, Waterloo and one that started five years ago at Lake Red Rock in Marion County. Appenzeller is the race director for the Lake Red Rock Balloon Fest, which was held July 10-12.

Aside from the attractive scenery it offers, Iowa is a popular spot for hot air ballooning because of the weather.

“Iowa has incredible wind conditions,” Scheurenbrand explained. “We get morning stillness that we need, and the evening time is also good. And those are the two times that balloons can fly. Those are the times when winds are almost near perfect conditions.”

The art of flying

Hot air balloons are beautiful to watch from the ground, and, if you’re not scared of heights, they provide an experience unparalleled by other airborne activities. Though piloting one of those colorful balloons may seem like a free-and-easy sort of job, there’s much more involved than people know.

“Hot air balloon pilots have a saying, which is ‘Your first ride is free; your second ride is $30,000,” said Appenzeller, remembering the first time he rode in one 12 years ago. “That’s how most hot air balloon pilots get their start — they get a ride, and they get hooked.”

There is much more to consider than a fear of heights or a love of balloons when thinking of becoming a pilot. Those who are serious about it have to take courses, pass a written test, log hours of instructed flight time and pass a flying test. Certified pilots have to take a test every other year once they’ve earned their licenses.

There are three levels of piloting: a student pilot, for those 14 years and older; a private pilot, for those 16 and older; and a commercial pilot for those 18 and older.

“There’s not a lot of difference between the private pilot certificate and the commercial, other than the commercial gives you the ability to do rides for hire,” said Appenzeller, a commercial license holder, which also allows him to do instruction for new pilots and flight reviews for current pilots.

Appenzeller earned his license in 2004 after months of training. The requirements to earn his private license included passing a multiple choice Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulated exam with a score of 70 percent or higher, 10 hours of instructed flight with a commercially rated pilot, at least one solo flight, and, after being signed off on those, a check flight with an FAA certified flight examiner. At that point, in order to get his commercial license, Appenzeller logged at least 35 “pilot-in-command” hours, 10 more hours of training, a longer written exam with a score higher than 70 percent, a couple of solo flights and another check flight.

Appenzeller has flown in the National Balloon Classic each year since then. He owns two envelopes — the colorful piece known as the balloon — and one basket. One envelope is the standard teardrop shape known best, and it holds 90,000 cubic feet of air. The other is an oblong football shape that holds 69,000 cubic feet and is used for competitions.

Hot air ballooning as a competitive sport? Sort of.

“There is no racing involved,” Appenzeller said. “We all fly at the speed of air — whatever speed that is.”

Since pilots can’t really control how fast the balloon goes, the competitions take advantage of one thing they do control: height. At balloon events that hold competitions, race directors place multiple targets on the ground at various spots. Appenzeller says during a typical morning flight in Indianola, they’ll have anywhere from three to six targets, depending on the wind movement. Pilots have to start at least a mile back from the first target and fly over the field as they try to drop baggies as close to the targets as possible.

The oblong envelopes work best for this sort of activity because the shape allows pilots more control in changing the balloon’s altitude.

Appenzeller explained that there are different wind directions at different altitudes, so the quicker they can get up and down in between those different layers, the better opportunity they have to hit the target.

The Classic pays out prizes to the top 20 finishers in the competitions, and Appenzeller says it’s always exciting to place — especially considering how the game has changed with the help of technology over the years.

“I always enjoy talking to older pilots, because when they didn’t have some of these electronic tools that we do today, marker drops were, let’s say, 40-50 feet from the center of an X were considered pretty good drops,” he said. “Now, by today’s standards, that would be considered a very poor drop. Basically, most drops need to be within probably 10 feet or less of the center of the X to be a very good drop.”

The technology pilots use today can be anything from a GPS, laptop or tablet. Those devices allow them to use real-time maps that show current locations and plug in coordinates of the targets.

Each pilot is also required to have a barometer and an altimeter on board at all times. A barometer tells pilots whether they are ascending, descending or static, while an altimeter shows how high they are in the sky. They also carry a temperature gauge to measure the temperature inside the envelope.

“On average, it requires about 120-150 degree difference from the outside ambient air temperature to the air temperature inside the envelope to produce lift, so you can actually get a balloon lighter than the air so that it will rise,” said Appenzeller.

A premier event

The National Balloon Classic has grown to be one of the best-known balloon events in the country, and even around the world. It’s had pilots from Japan and at least one global sponsor.

Organizers aim to make the event better each year, offering entertainment and things to do daily. So even if the wind causes a flight delay or cancel one day, visitors won’t have made the trip for nothing.

The 2015 schedule is filled with live music, vendors, a parade and one special event that is returning for its second year: Dawn Patrol.

“Dawn Patrol is when balloons inflate on the field in the morning at 5:15 a.m., and they fly away,” Scheurenbrand explained. “And that’s very, very unique because balloons don’t fly in the dark — obviously, they don’t have headlights. But they do have special lanterns that fly from their balloons.

“When we’ve got balloons in the dark flying — they look like giant lanterns just lighting up the sky, because once they hit their burners, they light up and then they go dark again, and it’s really neat to see,” she continued.

Dawn Patrol is a particularly special addition to Indianola’s festival because it’s the first time it’s been done in the Midwest. It was suggested for last year’s event by an Omaha pilot who saw it at the Albuquerque balloon festival and thought it would be a good addition to the Classic.

“One of the things I think is awfully special (about the Classic) is that we have pilots from all over the country who are invested in this event,” said Scheurenbrand. “They’re not just providing a show, but they’re team members, too. They want to compete first and foremost, but they also want to make it a wonderful experience for all of the guests and visitors.”

In addition to Dawn Patrol, there’s also an evening event called Nite Glow that offers another unique experience.

For Nite Glow, the balloons inflate but remain grounded in the field. Pilots wait for it to get dark and then pull the burners so all the balloons glow. Scheurenbrand says they look like colorful light bulbs across the field.

Since all of the balloon activities take place in the early morning and evening, the Classic also offers several other options to keep visitors entertained.

A live music schedule has a different band performing on the stage every night, starting with The Nadas on Friday, July 24. Other acts include the Monday Mourners (July 27), Bonne Finken and the Collective (July 31), and Decoy (Aug. 1).

Food concessions and vendors will be open during both the morning and evening flights, offering everything from coffee — necessary for those watching Dawn Patrol — to ice cream and pizza.

The National Balloon Museum will be open during the day, and Scheurenbrand suggests visiting the Warren County Fair for those attending the Classic July 24-27.

“I think one of the best times to visit Indianola during this event is the first weekend, because the Warren County Fair is still going on,” she said. “(It’s) a very unique event in itself because there’s not a lot of county fairs like it that are out there anymore.”

Other special events in the Classic’s schedule are the Wacky Classic Parade on Saturday, July 25, that goes through the streets of Indianola and the city square; Iowa Wine Night on Saturday, Aug. 1, which offers wine tastings from various Iowa wineries; and the Balloon Challenge 5K Cross Country Race, which takes place at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 1. Run or walk the course as the balloons fill the sky above.

And, of course, there is the opportunity to purchase a balloon ride.

Group rides are provided by Galena On The Fly Inc., which brings three large balloons that can hold up to 14 people. Balloon rides are taken every morning and evening, weather permitting. Spots fill up quickly, so advance registration is encouraged, though Scheurenbrand says there is usually an opportunity to get a ride at the last minute or to be added to a wait list in case someone else misses his or her flight. To purchase a ride, call 815-777-2747 or email GalenaOnTheFly@yahoo.com.

The National Balloon Classic is the type of family-friendly event that aims to provide a one-of-a-kind experience for everyone involved, and it’s not just the spectators who look forward to it all year long.

“The flying is awesome,” said Appenzeller. “It’s quite a spectacular sight, even for us as pilots — up there with, you know, almost 100 other balloons. It’s just exhilarating.” CV

*This content was originally created for and published in Cityview magazine. 

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Comic Craze

From costumes to characters, there's something for everyone at Wizard World Comic Con Des Moines. 

Dajuan Kinney is not your average mother. Kinney loves to sew, but she doesn’t make quilts or simply repair the holes that inevitably appear in her 4-year-old kid’s jeans. Instead, Kinney spends her time sewing costumes for her family, friends and anyone else who asks for one through her Etsy shop. And while many moms will take their kids to the park or drop them off at a friend’s house for a slumber party this weekend, Kinney will be taking her son to meet some of his favorite comic book superheroes.

Kinney loves dressing up, and when she heard about comic conventions, she knew right away it would be something she’d enjoy. Her first convention was the Stars Wars Celebration in Indianapolis in 2005, where she met her husband. Now, comic cons are a family affair for Kinney, her husband Doug and their son Colin. Although Colin is only 4 years old, he’ll attend his third convention this weekend at Wizard World Comic Con, held at the Iowa Events Center June 12-14. 

Dress-up for all ages

When the first comic conventions were held in the 1970s, they mostly attracted adult men who shared a love for comics. The San Diego Comic-Con International, which is one of the largest comic cons in the world, was founded by five men, and it was largely considered a male-dominated event.

That has changed through the years as comic cons continue to grow and fans embrace their inner “nerd.” Shows like “The Big Bang Theory” have helped to put a positive spin on the term, and people now boast of “nerding out” on their favorite TV shows, movies and comic books.Those fans who attended cons were often deemed “nerds” or “geeks” in a derogatory sense, considered to be uncool for their intense interest in the world of comic books.

Comic cons have become a place for men and women of all ages, from small children to grandparents, and they all come for different reasons. For Kinney, an Ankeny resident, it began with her love of dressing up.

“Ever since I was a kid, I loved Halloween — just to play dress-up and be somebody else for a day,” she said. “Once ‘Star Wars’ — the new movies — came out, I was like, ‘I can do this costume and wear it for three days around Halloween!’ ”

Kinney learned of the conventions and costuming by talking to other fans online. She saw all the costumes they had and wondered where they wore them.

“I thought, ‘Oh, that’d be fun! More opportunities to pretend to be someone else for a day,’ ” Kinney said. “And so it kind of just grew out of that, because I wanted an excuse to be somebody else. Because it’s fun to dress up occasionally and just pretend you’re another character.”

Kinney created her first intricate costume after “Star Wars” in 1999, and in 2013 she started selling orders online. Most items she makes herself, manipulating patterns to get the design right for her vision. For other hardware items, such as fake weapons or helmets, she buys or trades with other sellers online.

She has made costumes for Colin and her friends. Kinney said her favorite costume to make was for a friend who wanted to be an Ewok.

“My friend is like 6-foot-5, give or take,” she said, explaining that Ewoks are about 2 to 3 feet tall. After a little creative thinking, she made the costume with one Ewok standing on the other’s shoulders.

The costumes and opportunities to meet other fans in person are Kinney’s favorite part of comic cons. There are many reasons to attend cons, but for most fans, meeting their favorite characters in person is the most exciting part.“We ended up winning the judge’s favorite in the costume contest,” she said.

The same goes for the many celebrities who appear at conventions every year — it’s an opportunity to shake the hands of the people who helped them get there.

Cassandra Peterson — Elvira

After spending many years on the comic con circuit, Cassandra Peterson, known to many as Elvira, has seen firsthand the growing number of women who attend the events.

When “Elvira’s Movie Macabre” gained popularity in the early 1980s, Peterson would appear at various car shows to sign autographs. “Why those went together, I have no idea,” she said, laughing at the thought.

Car shows eventually turned into comic cons when Peterson heard about the San Diego Comic-Con International.

Elvira’s fan base includes a wide variety of people, and after close to 30 years of playing the character and meeting fans, Peterson has seen it all.“When I first went to it — it was really funny — I think it was in the basement of a motel or hotel, and it was really small,” Peterson said. “And I swear to God, I think I was the only woman there; it was all guys. Nowadays, when I go to comic cons it’s at least 50 percent women, which is so great to see, because at one time, being a nerd was just a guy’s thing.”

“I sign as many autographs for females as for males,” she said. “I have a gigantic catalog of photos of people dressed as me, and also people with Elvira tattoos on them.”

Copying a costume is one thing, but adding a permanent photo of someone to your body? Now that is a compliment.

“The first time I saw somebody with Elvira’s face tattooed on them, I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ But now I have a collection of many, many hundreds — probably over 1,000 people — of photographs with Elvira tattoos on some part of their bodies,” Peterson said. “There’s never a convention that I don’t see anywhere from five to 10 Elvira tattoos. It’s really a trip. And they have to live with that every day! I always tell them it’s the sincerest form of flattery.”

Peterson has plenty of experience in that department, as fans still approach her, decades after the start of Elvira, to tell her how it impacted their lives and how beautiful she still looks when she portrays the character.

“A lot of people come up to me and start crying. They’ll say, ‘I always watched the show with my dad; it was the one thing we liked to do together, and now he’s gone, and I can’t believe I’m meeting you,’ ” Peterson said, adding that some people will even bring the ashes of their parents for her to autograph.

“All these people come up and tell me these stories, and they’re just so sweet and really emotional, and I love it. I get home and expect compliments from my daughter, and I don’t get it,” Peterson laughed. “Forget this coming home stuff — I get spoiled!”

Some actors get bored playing the same character for so long, but not Peterson. She has been Elvira since 1981, and the character has become a part of her. She still dons the costume and makeup for each convention, and she’s still putting out new content. One of her most recent projects was “13 Nights of Elvira” for Hulu, which Peterson produced, co-wrote and starred in.

She also has a live show in October each year at Knott’s Berry Farm in Los Angeles, which is transformed into Knott’s Halloween Haunt, one of the largest Halloween events in the world. Peterson performs two shows a night for thousands of guests and says it’s her favorite thing to do.

“You get this immediate feedback — it’s like a kind of buzz,” she explained of performing live. “TV is fun; you can kind of fool around and stuff, but nobody laughs unless you make the cameraman laugh.”

Even though she has been performing for years, Peterson says she still gets nervous before every live performance.

“Before I do a live performance, I’m kind of a nervous wreck. No matter how many years I do it, it still is really tense. You just don’t want to go out and be a big flop. [You’re] praying to God you’re going to be funny and they’re going to like it.”

Luckily, Peterson says she never gets nervous for her convention appearances. Instead, she is “totally relaxed and laid back.”

“I really like doing it, and the people are always, always nice and friendly,” she said. It’s all part of the job she loves, which is dressing up and playing the character she created.

Peterson explained that her mom and aunt ran a costume shop when she was a kid, and she would always dress up.

“I was always wearing costumes,” she remembered. “And I would wear them to school and stuff, and people would go ‘What is wrong with that girl?’ But I couldn’t help myself.”

Back then, Peterson liked to dress up as Ginger from “Gilligan’s Island,” Morticia Addams of “The Addams Family” or Jeannie from “I Dream of Jeannie.” Currently, if she wasn’t Elvira, Peterson says she would still be into the comic con scene, but she would dress up as Maleficent, the villain from “Sleeping Beauty.”

Still, she can’t really imagine being a character other than Elvira.

“In the very beginning, I kind of had this fantasy that I was going to branch out some way, somehow, which turned out to be ridiculous, because I own the character of Elvira, and a character is not so easy to create,” she said. “If you find one that connects with people, you better stick with it.

“People say to me: ‘Don’t you get tired of being Elvira?’ And I say, ‘Hell no!’ ”

Ernie Hudson — “Ghostbusters”

The desire to continue on as one character for a long time isn’t there for Ernie Hudson, who played Winston Zeddemore in the “Ghostbusters” film series from 1984. While Hudson loved — and still loves — the Winston character, he won’t be donning the “Ghostbuster” uniform for Wizard World this weekend.

“When I first started doing cons, the fans always loved when I put on the Ghostbusters outfit because a lot of them would show up in their ‘Ghostbusters’ outfits, and it was a lot of fun,” said Hudson. “Now…it’s just me. I’ve done a lot of different films other than ‘Ghostbusters.’”

Although “Ghostbusters” is undoubtedly Hudson’s biggest fan-favorite at comic cons, it isn’t the sole reason his fans show up to see him. One look at Hudson’s IMDB (Internet Movie Database) page, and you’ll find a long list of his filmography, including titles such as “Congo,” “Taxi” and appearances in TV shows like “Once Upon A Time.” Hudson said he sees fans that know him as many different characters.

Even his role as the hard-ass FBI agent in “Miss Congeniality” garners a specific audience, though Hudson admits he doesn’t like playing that type of character much.

“I hate being a hard-ass because it’s just not how I see myself,” said Hudson.

If there is a reasonable backstory to it though, he’ll listen.

“If the character’s well-rounded — it’s not that I mind being the hard-ass, I just need to know why I’m a hard-ass. I can be anything, I just need to know why I’m this [way].”

Hudson said he tries to choose his jobs based on the characters and what they have to offer. A character is better when it shows multiple human aspects.

“What you really want to do is be all of it, because we are all of it,” he said. “I think the best characters are the ones that we can see life expressed in them, and it’s real, and that has integrity. I want to do things that are fun, that I like, and I can bring humanity to it.”

All of those aspects came to life in some way with his role in “Ghostbusters,” which is why Hudson has always liked the Zeddemore character.

“I thought the character was very sincere. He was a little bit, sort of outside of the mix,” explained Hudson. “Some of that probably had to do with the feeling I was feeling — kind of coming into this group that had been very successful and had been together for a long time. I think that comes through in the character. I think that’s why a lot of people respond to that character.”

One thing Hudson loves about “Ghostbusters” is its appeal to people of all ages. Even though there is some adult humor, it still resonates with kids.

Hudson said he has met families that took their kids to see the movie when it came out, and now it’s become a shared interest for all of them. Meeting fans with stories like that is the reason he attends comic cons. This year, he has about 10 on his schedule, including three days in Des Moines for Wizard World.

He was first invited to attend a convention in the early 1990s but declined. He thought it would be a lot of autograph signing and standing, and the idea didn’t appeal to him.

Hudson was approached again in 2005 to appear at a con in Hollywood, and he decided to go and see what it was all about.

“It was a really good convention, and I just had a great time,” he said. “I saw a lot of friends. It was fun meeting new people.”

He’s done several similar events each year since then, and he says seeing the kids who come dressed up in “Ghostbusters” uniforms is always fun for him.

Hudson remembered how much fun he had filming the movie while he watched a 30th anniversary showing in Chicago last year.

“As an actor, I see scenes, and I remember the day we shot that. I remember all the little things that happened, and it’s sort of a time capsule,” he said. “And movies sort of do that. I mean, I look at movies and I see myself as 30 years younger. But it was fun.”

Lou Ferrigno — The Hulk

Think of the Incredible Hulk as it appears in movies today: green, muscular and more than twice the size of everyone else on the screen. Thanks to computer-generated imagery (CGI), it’s now possible to view the Hulk as the larger-than-life character he was always meant to be.

The answer came in the form of real muscle. Lou Ferrigno, the original Hulk, had spent years training as a professional body builder when he was chosen for the part. He was up against actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Kiel, but it was Ferrigno’s height and physique that made it clear he was meant to be the Hulk.But when “The Incredible Hulk” TV series premiered in 1978 — long before CGI was conceptualized — the question was, how were producers going to create such a monumental character?

Ferrigno began weight training at age 13, and he set a “Guinness World Records” mark when he won his first Mr. Universe title as a bodybuilder at 21. Though his life was dedicated to fitness and bodybuilding, Ferrigno had dreamed of becoming an actor one day.

“I did have thoughts, but I never told anyone because I thought they would make fun of me,” Ferrigno admitted. “Because back then I was a kid dealing with adversity, I was ashamed to talk about it.”

Ferrigno, now a motivational speaker and fitness trainer, lost 75 percent of his hearing after suffering a series of ear infections as an infant. Though it was a considerable challenge, he never let it hold him back.

“All of my dreams I’ve had — I followed my dreams, I took action,” he said. “I made it happen.”

It’s that drive that helped make Ferrigno the unforgettable muscled figure he’s still known to be. He spent five years working on “The Incredible Hulk,” but even when the series ended, he would still carry the green man with him.

In between dozens of other acting projects, Ferrigno has worked on numerous Hulk-related movies and TV shows since the original. Most recently he was the voice of the Hulk in “The Avengers” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”

“People connect more with the Hulk on the big screen and CGI,” Ferrigno said of the newer movies, adding that he thinks it’s cool that his voice is still a part of the contemporary versions.

“I know how (the Hulk) thinks and feels, so it’s great to get my voice at the movie theater,” said Ferrigno. “If it wasn’t for my voice, it wouldn’t be the same.”

Although his scripts weren’t lengthy in either of the “Avengers” movies, Ferrigno said his favorite was the second installment because he was able to show a little humor.

“When the Hulk punches Thor — the ‘puny god’ — I like that because it was a connection that shows the more powerful creature, which was very funny,” he said.

Unlike the Hulk, Ferrigno is not an angry man. He enjoys the experience of meeting his fans at comic conventions, attending his first one 15 or 16 years ago in Hollywood.

Just like Peterson, Ferrigno started out signing autographs at car shows. When comic conventions started to gain more popularity, he decided to give it a shot and found he really liked interacting with his fans.

“It’s very exciting when they get a chance to take a picture with the original Hulk,” he said. “They tell me how much they loved the show, how much it affected their life. I never get tired of it because I meet so many different fans; I get charged up, and I feel good because they walk away with a smile on their face.”

And some fans walk away with more than a smile or an autograph. There are always those people who go above and beyond dressing up as their favorite persona.

“One time a woman came to me, she had a Hulk picture on her leg — a tattoo — and she had me sign her leg,” Ferrigno said. “And she came back later, and she had my autograph tattooed on her leg with the Hulk tattoo, which I think is the greatest compliment you can get from a fan.”

He’s also experienced women crying and even fainting in front of him. He has now seen Hulk tattoos on just about every part of the body, and he’s autographed his fair share of body parts, too. Ferrigno said he never tires of traveling to conventions and meeting the people who love that quintessential green character.

“(The Hulk) kept me alive; it made me famous,” he said. “And I’ve always been connected with that character, because 40 years later the legacy’s bigger than ever.”

Billy Dee Williams — “Star Wars”

“The whole ‘Star Wars’ franchise is a whole phenomenon. It’s going to go on forever,” said actor Billy Dee Williams, who played Lando Calrissian for the first time in “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.”What would any comic convention be without the franchise that started it all? “Star Wars” made its debut in 1977, and the world of cinema was forever changed. Almost 40 years later, it remains one of the most popular (and financially successful) film series of all time, and it’s all thanks to its devoted fans.

Coming into the series some three years after “Star Wars” premiered, Williams knew he was entering something big, but he says no one could guess exactly how popular it would be.

For Williams, the job was more than just being a part of the “Star Wars” cast. His character holds a special place in his heart.

“Lando’s one of my favorite characters of all time,” he said. “I lived with him for a long time, and I actually created the whole persona. I’ve played a lot of characters in my career, but certainly Lando is one of my favorites.”

Like many great actors, Williams had significant creative freedom in forming his character.

“I would certainly say a lot of [Lando] is me, in many ways. Whenever I do the character — when I parody the character, when I do things like ‘Rebels’ or all the animation stuff — it’s pretty much my persona, my voice,” explained Williams. “I actually don’t like anybody else to do my voice. There’s something very unique about my voice, and I think that uniqueness comes from the way I’ve approached the character.”

There have been plenty of opportunities for Williams to take on the role of Lando since he was introduced in 1980. Since 2000, he has acted in, or voiced the character for, video games, TV shorts, movies and several TV series.

The work keeps him busy, but he still enjoys taking time away from it to appear at comic cons when he can.

Williams estimates he attended his first comic con more than 20 years ago, but it’s a distant memory among the dozens he has visited since then.

“These comic cons and conventions have grown tremendously,” he said. “I find myself traveling quite a bit during the year — at least maybe five.

“I always look forward to it. Just meeting everybody, and I think there’s something really gratifying about knowing that people have given you so much support throughout the years.”

A comic community

Though it started as a way to escape reality for a day and take on the identity of her favorite characters, Kinney says she attends the conventions because she loves the experience of being in a place filled with likeminded people.

“Meeting people like that, and then just seeing what other people do for costumes — things I wouldn’t have thought of — it’s inspiring. It makes you want to go home and make better things than you did.”“In the everyday world, people will nerd out and be all silly toward the fandom, and that’s fine, but you don’t necessarily know it,” she explained. “But when you’re at a convention, you have other people who are as into these things as you are. So it’s cool to have in-depth conversations about the characters and the movies.

Kinney takes pride in the costumes she makes, and she prefers to make costumes rather than buy them, especially when it comes to her son, who she has always included in her comic adventures.

Coincidentally, Colin was born on May 4, which is known as Star Wars Day. Kinney says she’s excited to take Colin to his third con here in Des Moines.

For Wizard World Comic Con, Colin will be Captain America and Kinney will go as Iron Man.

“He loves Batman and Marvel characters,” said Kinney, “so I’m hoping to introduce him to more of this craziness that we do.” CV

*This content was originally created for and published in Cityview magazine.

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