Liz Ohanesian

There are a lot of reasons that I keep going back to fan conventions. They're fun. There are lots of stories inside the convention halls, far more than can fit into one article. They are filled with creative people who are, by and large, friendly and willing to exchange ideas with...

Inside an executive suite at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott, a small group of people are cutting shapes out of large remnants of fabric and fitting them together. They swap tools and sewing tips as they wait for their turn to hunch over a sewing machine. They sew, rip and...

Back in 2011, Kit Quinn, the well-known cosplayer, went to San Francisco for WonderCon dressed as Superma'am. That's her genderbent version of Superman, a costume that helped land in L.A. Weekly's People Issue the following year. While at the convention, a photographer tried to take what Quinn calls "a flying......

In five years of covering fan conventions for L.A. Weekly, I've seen a lot of changes. Locally, there are a lot more conventions now, both general pop culture events like Stan Lee's Comikaze and specialized ones like LGBT event Bent-Con and retro sci-fi and fantasy event BlasterCON. The audience has......

There was a bidding war inside Julien's Auctions over an axe. Specifically, it was the axe used by actor John Rhys-Davies when he played Gimli in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's what is known in the movie prop collection world as a "hero prop." The axe is heavy,......

Paige Halsey Warren spent nearly a year writing and drawing about breasts. The cartoonist, who recently relocated from Massachusetts to Burbank, is the creator of Busty Girl Comics, a series of incisive anecdotes on life with an ample bosom. Divided into categories like "Busty Girl Problems" and "Busty Girl Perks,"......

Science and art converge in Trishana Prater's Torrance garage. Blocks of silicone and containers of resin sit next to goggles, aprons and tiny medical supplies, like disposable measuring cups and a hemostat. Binders filled with formulas and notes indicate the dates and times of various experiments. On a dusty table......