Thousands of comics fans lined up last weekend for Denver Comic Con at the Colorado Convention Center, many of them there to show off their elaborate cosplay creations, which often require months of preparation. Behold the heroes and villains and weird characters of Denver Comic Con 2016, as documented by…
“We just decided to go for it,” says Ryan Schutz, a towering, genial, bearded guy — Hagrid in a service-station shirt. With him is Mike Decker, similarly attired, one arm in a sling but the other rocking a Mongo-size cup of coffee. Schutz is the executive director of Bikes Together, a…
Last Sunday’s senseless mass shooting at Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida, left an immediate and indelible scar on the global gay community, an injury made graver by the fact that it occurred in June, the month when gay pride is celebrated the world over. Here in Denver, we’re…
This is a big weekend for big events in Denver — PrideFest, Juneteenth and Denver Comic Con — and after the shootings in Orlando last weekend, you can anticipate higher security at all of them. Comic Con poses a particular challenge, since fantasy weapons are such an intrinsic part of…
Amy Silverman, managing editor at one of our partner papers, Phoenix New Times, will be at the Tattered Cover on Colfax tonight, June 17, to talk about a very publication: My Heart Can’t Even Believe It: A Story of Science, Love, and Down Syndrome, her book about her second daughter, Sophie, published…
In Diva Watch, we profile the passionate, diverse and fascinating performers who light up Denver’s drag community, expanding on our Diva Dozen list from 2015 and our new Freshest Faces list for 2016 by asking different queens — from established to ingénue — questions that take a peek beneath the…
Satan is a cylinder of swirly, glowing green goo. Mirrors part like mercury and lead to another dimension. Beetles erupt out of a man. Alice Cooper leads an army of homeless people in a siege against a church. This is not a dream. It’s not a recollection of an acid…
Denver Comic Con returns tomorrow through June 19, filling the Colorado Convention Center with so many panels and parties and cosplay events that we just offered a handy guide to ten things you don’t want to miss at this fifth annual con. But there’s more, so much more — and to help…
Many of you know my dear friend Piper Rose. She’s an active leader in the LGBTQ community here in Denver and far beyond, a larger-than-life, unconditionally loving person who works every day to create safer spaces for her fellow humans. A few months ago, she told me she was planning…
#77: Jaime Jennings Ten years ago, as crafting with a DIY ethic enjoyed a national resurgence, Jaime Jennings helped start a tiny, local revolution on Broadway, where she opened Fancy Tiger Crafts. Under the Fancy Tiger banner, Jennings has engaged and supported Denver’s crafting community, even instigating a fierce buy-local holiday craft…
There are few things in life better than watching giant robotic mechs battle it out to determine the fate of civilization, but taking control of one of those mechs yourself is definitely one of them. Unfortunately, that kind of technology is still a few years off — come on, DARPA,…
Everyone was a pinball wizard at the 2016 Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown, which featured industry celebrities and every game, old and new, that could possibly be crammed into the Denver Marriott South at Park Meadows. Photographer Aaron Thackeray captured these images beautiful machines and flipper-wielders at play. Now see the…
Plain and simple: Dad’s the best. When your “too-good-to-be-true” Denver apartment reaches 98 degrees before June 1 because it lacks central AC and a ceiling fan, your old man is ready with a YouTube video showing you how to make a DIY air conditioner out of a foam cooler for…
The annual Lit Fest is under way at Lighthouse Writers Workshop, founded almost twenty years ago by Andrew Dupree and Michael Henry, the subject of a recent 100 Colorado Creatives. The Lit Fest events will continue daily through June 17, with readings, movie screenings and salons. But Lighthouse is a beacon for the literary…
At the edge of downtown at 921 21st Street, where the city gets grittier and there’s always parking, you’ll find a unique new boutique: Whiskey/Grade. This shop opened up in late March with a goal of tying alternative Denver subcultures together through fashion. Those subcultures include the front-of-the-house The Shop Barber…
#78: Thomas Evans Thomas Evans, better known as Detour, paints his culture on large canvases, capturing portraits of modern pop stars in swirls of pure color, some of them interactive works that viewers can touch to release sounds. As an entrepreneur marketing his own work, Detour has generally bypassed galleries…
In this delightful late-stage capitalist utopia in which we live, the entertainment industry never fails to squeeze every last possible dime out of any creative endeavor. You can take this as a disheartening prioritization of commerce over art — it is, to be fair — or you can look at…
Permanent art, executed meticulously over a lifetime, that touches people and is literally touched by people. A piece of art that ages with you, shows your path and works as a scrapbook to your life. This can only be found in the art of tattooing. Denver has a beautiful and…
Fun-loving families have a lot of options for Colorado adventures this summer. Here are five of our favorite activities; kick off your summer by trying one. Or better yet, try them all! 1. Llama Treks Snow Mountain Ranch 1101 County Road 53 outside Granby 970-887-2152 If summer’s got you feeling…
#79: Matthew Brown It’s been ten years since Matthew Brown’s Fancy Tiger Clothing began its style revolution on Broadway. Back then, Brown shared space with Fancy Tiger’s crafters’ emporium; clothing portion later moved down the street to its own dedicated space. Today, the boutique quietly purveys Brown’s modern, street-level fashion…
Our pioneer ancestors loved animals, finding most of them delicious. Basically, the settlers divided critters into three categories – wild (dangerous, to be killed and/or eaten), domesticated (utilized, then killed and/or eaten) and pets. Today deer, elk, mountain lions and bears still encroach on Front Range neighborhoods. Denver is the…
This week you can kick back and meet some of this year’s Colorado Book Awards finalists in the Lighthouse Writers Workshop Lit Fest tent, have a laugh with a Colorado success story or — if you‘re a nine-to-twelve-year-old bookworm – dive into this summer’s Youth One Book, One Denver programming…
