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Comic-Con Report: Wed, Thu, Fri
I started typing up my reports for the Cons, and quickly realized that doing them all at once might kill me. So,
Wednesday
Costume: none
Rogue and I arrive midday, bearing horrendous amounts of luggage (seven bags for the two of us) and catch a shuttle to the convention center, where we stash bags at the Marriott’s bell desk. Meet up with Dan at the convention center, and then get ahold of Mary, who comes out and loans us exhibitor’s passes. Woohoo! We enter the con floor.
It.
Is.
BIG.
No, not big. HUGE. Frigging frelling ginormous. You stand at one end and can’t see the other. After greeting Cindi, Shane, Brian, Vic, and Lisa, we set off exploring. It takes awhile and continues through Preview Night, when the crazed masses enter. After the line dies down, we go and pick up our badges (hurray for pre-registration) and return the exhibitor passes to Mary. Eventually Aaron arrives too, and there is hugging and Emperor-worship. We pack Dan, Aaron, Aaron’s luggage, ourselves, and our luggage into Debby’s car. It’s a tight fit. We get back to Dan and Debby’s and Wayne makes us enchiladas. They are gooooooood. I eat two.
Thursday
Costume: Hogwarts student (Gryffindor)
After issues with traffic and public transportation, we arrive. I make a beeline for the Masquerade Desk, since I didn’t preregister. They’ve hit the entry limit, but they put me on standby and tell me to bring my costume tomorrow. The implication is that if my costume is good enough, I’ll get in. We wander around the floor some more. There are lots of fun things to see, like the Sideshow/Weta booth at the LOTR pavilion and the Save Farscape booth. There are lots of scary things, too, and all sorts of people in all sorts of costumes. I get my picture taken a lot. My feet start to hurt and I decide that some of those gel-pad thingies might be a wise investment for future cons.
At 3:30 I go to my first panel, Masquerade 101, where I discover that we’re expected to have music and some sort of presentation. I have neither. Oops. I start brainstorming ideas, which continues through the next event, a TORN panel. After the panel, we head back to the Paizo booth to meet up with people for dinner. I have my picture taken with a Slytherin Quidditch player and a (male) Quidditch referee; their Gryffindor friend has already gone back to the hotel. We CJ folks go to dinner at 5th Quarter, a cool restaurant with cheap happy-hour food and drinks that make us all very happy indeed. There is live music, which is nice but loud, since we are seated right next to the band.
After dinner, it’s back to the convention center for the Fan Film Awards. Lisa and Vic use their mad skillz to get us seats right near the front. We see lots of films, including the winner, Pink Five, which is a scream. Then we are treated to Star Wars in 30 Minutes, which is the funniest thing I have seen in a long long long long time. Have not laughed so hard since seeing Forbidden Broadway many years ago. Finally, back to Dan and Debby’s, where Sean has also arrived, for sleeeeep.
Friday
Costume: Arwen’s chase dress
Today is theoretically Star Wars day at Comic-con, but I’m dressed for LOTR and most looking forward to the Farscape panel. I bring in my rainbow dress to the Masquerade desk. The girls at the desk take one look at it and say, “Yeah, you’re in.” Great, now I just have to come up with a presentation. We wander the floor a bit before going up early for the Farscape panel, which is at 1. We quickly learn how to get good seats in the big ballrooms: come in during the panel before, sit as close to the front as you can, and when that panel ends and everyone leaves, RUN LIKE HELL for the front seats. We end up about four rows back, right in the center. Too bad my nice digital camera is broken and we’re stuck with the old point-and-shoot.
The ballroom is packed with Scapers; there’s an amazing energy in the air. The Farscape crew arrives. Bedlam ensues. Ben Browder is possibly more gorgeous in person than on the show. Hellooooo, Ben. Present at the panel are Virginia, Ricky Manning (writer), Ben, Jonathan Hardy, Fran, David Franklin (Braca), Lani, and Wayne. Virginia is spacey, Ricky is insightful, Ben is positively bouncing, Jonathan is hilarious, Fran is sweet, David is adorable, Lani is dashing, and Wayne is just delightful; and for an hour and a half, they very patiently answer fan questions and let us know how much they love the show and want it back. Someone asks them to let Claudia, Anth, Gigi, and the others know that we missed them, and Ben whips out his cell phone. Unfortunately Claudia doesn’t answer, but we leave her one hell of a voicemail.
After the panel, I buy a poster at the Save Farscape booth (well technically, I donated $5 to the cause and they gave me a poster) and have it signed by all the Farscape folks, minus Ben, who’s not signing, and Virginia, who for some strange reason is charging $20, even though they aren’t supposed to be charging in the autograph area. I also catch the tail end of the Star Wars Fiction Continuity panel, where Aaron is a panelist. There’s nothing very exciting in the evening program, so we head back to D&D’s. Rogue is desperate for Carl’s Jr, though, so we stop for dinner on the way back. Later that night, still having nothing presentation-wise for the masquerade, I ask Aaron to write me “something funny,” possibly along the lines of Padme wearing revealing outfits yet rebuffing Anakin’s advances. Twenty minutes later, he hands me a sheet of paper with a riotously funny monologue on it. Aaron saves the day!
Next up: Saturday and Sunday!
Wednesday
Costume: none
Rogue and I arrive midday, bearing horrendous amounts of luggage (seven bags for the two of us) and catch a shuttle to the convention center, where we stash bags at the Marriott’s bell desk. Meet up with Dan at the convention center, and then get ahold of Mary, who comes out and loans us exhibitor’s passes. Woohoo! We enter the con floor.
It.
Is.
BIG.
No, not big. HUGE. Frigging frelling ginormous. You stand at one end and can’t see the other. After greeting Cindi, Shane, Brian, Vic, and Lisa, we set off exploring. It takes awhile and continues through Preview Night, when the crazed masses enter. After the line dies down, we go and pick up our badges (hurray for pre-registration) and return the exhibitor passes to Mary. Eventually Aaron arrives too, and there is hugging and Emperor-worship. We pack Dan, Aaron, Aaron’s luggage, ourselves, and our luggage into Debby’s car. It’s a tight fit. We get back to Dan and Debby’s and Wayne makes us enchiladas. They are gooooooood. I eat two.
Thursday
Costume: Hogwarts student (Gryffindor)
After issues with traffic and public transportation, we arrive. I make a beeline for the Masquerade Desk, since I didn’t preregister. They’ve hit the entry limit, but they put me on standby and tell me to bring my costume tomorrow. The implication is that if my costume is good enough, I’ll get in. We wander around the floor some more. There are lots of fun things to see, like the Sideshow/Weta booth at the LOTR pavilion and the Save Farscape booth. There are lots of scary things, too, and all sorts of people in all sorts of costumes. I get my picture taken a lot. My feet start to hurt and I decide that some of those gel-pad thingies might be a wise investment for future cons.
At 3:30 I go to my first panel, Masquerade 101, where I discover that we’re expected to have music and some sort of presentation. I have neither. Oops. I start brainstorming ideas, which continues through the next event, a TORN panel. After the panel, we head back to the Paizo booth to meet up with people for dinner. I have my picture taken with a Slytherin Quidditch player and a (male) Quidditch referee; their Gryffindor friend has already gone back to the hotel. We CJ folks go to dinner at 5th Quarter, a cool restaurant with cheap happy-hour food and drinks that make us all very happy indeed. There is live music, which is nice but loud, since we are seated right next to the band.
After dinner, it’s back to the convention center for the Fan Film Awards. Lisa and Vic use their mad skillz to get us seats right near the front. We see lots of films, including the winner, Pink Five, which is a scream. Then we are treated to Star Wars in 30 Minutes, which is the funniest thing I have seen in a long long long long time. Have not laughed so hard since seeing Forbidden Broadway many years ago. Finally, back to Dan and Debby’s, where Sean has also arrived, for sleeeeep.
Friday
Costume: Arwen’s chase dress
Today is theoretically Star Wars day at Comic-con, but I’m dressed for LOTR and most looking forward to the Farscape panel. I bring in my rainbow dress to the Masquerade desk. The girls at the desk take one look at it and say, “Yeah, you’re in.” Great, now I just have to come up with a presentation. We wander the floor a bit before going up early for the Farscape panel, which is at 1. We quickly learn how to get good seats in the big ballrooms: come in during the panel before, sit as close to the front as you can, and when that panel ends and everyone leaves, RUN LIKE HELL for the front seats. We end up about four rows back, right in the center. Too bad my nice digital camera is broken and we’re stuck with the old point-and-shoot.
The ballroom is packed with Scapers; there’s an amazing energy in the air. The Farscape crew arrives. Bedlam ensues. Ben Browder is possibly more gorgeous in person than on the show. Hellooooo, Ben. Present at the panel are Virginia, Ricky Manning (writer), Ben, Jonathan Hardy, Fran, David Franklin (Braca), Lani, and Wayne. Virginia is spacey, Ricky is insightful, Ben is positively bouncing, Jonathan is hilarious, Fran is sweet, David is adorable, Lani is dashing, and Wayne is just delightful; and for an hour and a half, they very patiently answer fan questions and let us know how much they love the show and want it back. Someone asks them to let Claudia, Anth, Gigi, and the others know that we missed them, and Ben whips out his cell phone. Unfortunately Claudia doesn’t answer, but we leave her one hell of a voicemail.
After the panel, I buy a poster at the Save Farscape booth (well technically, I donated $5 to the cause and they gave me a poster) and have it signed by all the Farscape folks, minus Ben, who’s not signing, and Virginia, who for some strange reason is charging $20, even though they aren’t supposed to be charging in the autograph area. I also catch the tail end of the Star Wars Fiction Continuity panel, where Aaron is a panelist. There’s nothing very exciting in the evening program, so we head back to D&D’s. Rogue is desperate for Carl’s Jr, though, so we stop for dinner on the way back. Later that night, still having nothing presentation-wise for the masquerade, I ask Aaron to write me “something funny,” possibly along the lines of Padme wearing revealing outfits yet rebuffing Anakin’s advances. Twenty minutes later, he hands me a sheet of paper with a riotously funny monologue on it. Aaron saves the day!
Next up: Saturday and Sunday!