I am sorry this post is a bit late and that I may have to rush through it. I always seem to forget how close Comic-Con is to Pennsic and I am scrambling to get costuming, supplies, and my pavilion together. So I may have to type out this blog post while I sew and get ready for work. Yay.
There were many overall improvements to this year's Con. One being the lines.
Much...much...much better.
Not great...but better. I suppose long gone are the days where one could show up 5 minutes late to a panel and still get a seat. But at least it wasn't the hell it was last year. For starters, it only took us maybe 15 minutes to walk down to the convention center and pick up our badges.
Compared to the 2-3 hours it took last year and the previous year.....15 minutes was certainly a marked improvement. Now, let it be known, the Con said that only preview night attendees would be able to get their badges on Wednesday. We did not have Preview night badges and not only were we still able to pick ours up, we were actually able to get into the hall area for Preview night. Hmmmmm.....a bit unfair to those who actually had Preview night badges. But don't worry, the nice people that we are, we decided to get food instead of trying to push through the crowd in the exhibit hall. So we did not really take full advantage of the Con's error.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Moving on...
Without the Suicide Girls booth present this year, I had a lot more free time to explore and go to panels.
And, boy, did I go to panels!
Magic the Gathering had its very first panel this year:
Here I am waiting in line for it:
Missy also spoke at the IDW panel and announced an upcoming Suicide Girls comic book series. She was unable to reveal too many details but believes that IDW will be a good fit for an on-going SG comic book title. Very exciting!
The first of the series is set to be released in February, so add it to your pull list!
Marvel also announced a TON of awesome upcoming series to be released in the next few months. You can check out some of those titles here: Marvel - October releases. Guess we'll have to wait till they post the later months. I know there was some awesome Captain America and Avengers stuff coming out in 2011. Personally, I am very excited for Uncanny X-Force (friggin love every single character in that series!).
I am really happy that Marvel is moving many of their titles into the "Heroic Age" now. X-Men, Avengers, SpiderMan....it has all been so dark and depressing as of late. I am anxious to see the heroes I love actually become heroes again....instead of renegades and criminals on the run.
I also noticed a vast improvement in the attitudes and composure of the entire Marvel staff. In previous years, I always left Marvel panels with a bad taste in my mouth. The writers, editors, and artists would berate fans, make cocky comments about "how they don't give a crap if we aren't happy as long as we're still paying", make unnecessary jokes about competitive companies, and even mock the questions the fans would ask. I actually started picking up DC comics for awhile after I witnessed the behavior of the Marvel staff last year.
But, for the first time in many years, the Marvel staff actually came off as likeable! They were a great deal more friendly and approachable. Of course, there is still no way in hell I'm ever going up to the mic to ask a question....I still fear being deprecated by a favorite writer or artist and bursting into tears in front of a room full of people. But I like them better now....from a safe distance of course.
And so I must retract my previous statement that Marvel is a company hell-bent on profit and making fans upset and could only be run by the devil himself...and change it to....
Oh! And I almost forgot! Since we are already on the subject of image-changing events....
Rob Liefeld had a panel this year. And guess what?? He was actually quite funny and good-natured. He made a lot of cracks about his own artistic failings and talked about the characters and people who influenced the design of his own characters. He totally won me over!
Guess I'm going to have to change my "makes me sad" category in my profile section.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Although SG did not have a booth this year, I still managed to spend time with some of them at the Con and during the TweetHouse party. I haven't seen Missy in quite awhile and it was good to catch up with her a bit. I also got to see Rambo and Reagan!
Here we are:
They all looked so cute and I was wearing my regular clothes. Oooops! I got the e-mail about dress attire for that party only after I got back from California. *blush*
The TweetHouse party was fun though! It was a bit overwhelming at first. I didn't really know what to expect. When I got there, I was rushed onto the red carpet area and had like a million people taking my picture and voice recorders shoved toward me for comments and interviews. I probably look terrified in half the pics! hahah!
My boyfriend was able to snap a shot from amongst the crowd of cameras:
I watched the filmed interview of William Shatner, Brent Spiner, and LeVar Burton that night from behind the scenes:
Once things calmed down, we were able to use the red carpet area for our own fun. Bob and I made Timmy a star! hehehhe
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Speaking of Bob...
I got to see her and hang out with her a couple of days!
I have to admit that spending time with her out there only made me want to enact on my devious plan to somehow shift the tectonic plates of the Earth to bring California closer to Pennsylvania. Of course, this shift could have catastrophic effects on the planet....but!...trust me, Bob is worth it.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
*ahem*
Due to time constraints and the fact that this blog may well indeed test the limits of this site's blog entry capacity...I shall now use a "post picture - brief description format".
Here is Sixsixty with a giraffe:
(he looks so proud!)
I actually got to meet and talk with my favorite Frag Doll, Brookelyn. Isn't she friggin adorable?
She was showing off Just Dance 2....which I am very excited about! I play the first one pretty much every other day and it isn't even that great.
I spent a lot of time stopping by the Wizards of the Coast booth and feigning interest in the computer game (which I don't know if I'll ever get into. I could never give up the actual cards!), and participating in the drawings. I ended up winning a lot of Magic stuff:
Walked around the exhibit hall a lot....found a hot friggin figure of Alan Rickman as Snape:
<3
Also found General Duck Duck:
My sister is absolutely obsessed with all things related to General Grievous. She has shirts, she has stuffed toys, she has stickers, she has action figures....etc.. I don't know why but every time I see his face....I think of a duck. This annoys her to no end. So of course....I just keep running with it!
So Allie, this pic is dedicated to you!
I made the boys eat at my favorite restaurant three nights in a row:
The Gaslamp Strip Club. *sigh* (I miss it already)
They make you grill your own steak:
(or in my case, warm it up a bit)
Here's the boys and me:
Metaverse joined up with us that week after a conversation that we had in the SG Comic's group. I told him I would kick his ass at Magic.
And kick his ass I did.
I suspect he will have nightmare's about my Relentless Rats for weeks to come.
My best friend Michael (Murnau) and I:
Oh! And here is a rare picture of John (my boyfriend of 7 years now):
He doesn't let me take his picture often and getting it at the Con proved most difficult. He slept in till about 2pm each day and then spent an hour or so finding coffee. Kind of an odd way to spend one's first Comic-Con but he is of a very delicate nature and gets over-whelmed easily...so I suppose it is for the best that he only sample the Convention in very small doses. Comic-Con might actually be too "cool" for him. I noticed that he is actually more rambunctious and adventurous at Actuarial Conventions....where he can be with his own kind.
Annnnnnd.....I think that is it for now. I pretty much posted all the pics I had to show you guys.
I am sure I had more things I wanted to rant about....but I'll save it for another time....another entry.
