Comic-Con
Written by Sprink
5 days and only 10
hours of sleep and I’m already wishing it were July 2010 so I can
do all over again. I met twitter friends (some form last years, other
for the first time ever), stood within 5 feet of Felicia Day, met a
vlogger I subscribe to on youtube (and I might have scared him with
my fangirl response to seeing him- sorry!). Found out the sccop on
some of my favorite tv shows and movies, got to see a Wizard Rock
band play live, got excellent swag, stayed up almost all night each
night, and generally ran around San Diego like a the fangirl I’m
proud to be. I didn’t even lose my voice or catch a convention flu.
Unfortunately I missed some things I wanted to see but that’s
comic-con for you. You can’t live by the clock in there, you’ll
just be disappointed.
My favorite moments
were:
I got to my favorite Harry Potter
themed podcast, Pottercast, live; participate in a duel (2nd
place!), and rock out to some awesome music!
The 2nd annual
Starkville’s House of El (Smallville)/10th Wonder
(Heroes)/Skynet (The Sarah Connor Chronicles) tweet-up meet-up where
I hung out with all the fans of these 3 great podcasts. (Not to
mention that basically every night I was hanging out with some of
these people somewhere in San Diego)
At the Chuck panel we got to see a
live show of “Jeffster” which was too amazing for words
The Smallville panel: Tom Welling
was there for the first time ever, I got to ask him an (intelligent)
question which flustered him into giving the best non answer ever
(proof is on youtube thanks to a firend with an iphone) , and
outside the restrooms I spotted the gorgeous Erica Durance and got a
quick pic of her!
The swag- Thank you WB booth for
the fantastically awesome bags you gave out! Got my Chuck, Watchman,
HP bags to tote around with pride! To say nothing of Heroes, Dark
Horse, True Blood, Eureka, SyFy, Mythbusters, and all the other
goodies given out to the fans.
On the other hand
the lowpoints had to be:
The wifi that google was “proud
to sponsor” barely worked and apparently all those iphones in
just one area caused a 3G freakout that sucked the life out of my
battery two times faster then normal- then finally caused it to die
just moments before the Smallville Panel started so I didn’t get
even one picture of Tom, Justin, or Allison…
Having to pick and chose between
fandoms… “Sorry Heroes, but Harry Potter Wins this round”
“Peace out Muppet Show comics, I’m off to Smallville” and so
on and so forth….
Missing out on the screening of
District 9… I’ve been looking forward to this movie since last
years Comic-Con why couldn’t I see it early!
Being so close to Felicia Day and
not scoring an autograph (though I did manage to score a photo-
loved her shoes!)
I didn’t go as
just a fan- I went as a volunteer, its my second time going as a
volunteer and I enjoy my time at it. Its only 3 hrs and you get in
free on the day you volunteer. My favorite job is programming which
is basically standing in a panel room guarding the exits or
entrances. The best part is that after they know you’ve done a
programming shift before you’re more likely to get to choose what
room you want to volunteer in, which is how I found myself in
Ballroom 20 (the second largest room) guarding exits during the
Chuck panel without having to wait hours before hand to get inside.
So I didn’t go to
the Masquerade cause the Tweet-up Meet-up seemed so much more
appealing and after the craziness of Heroes having a panel in another
hotel in a (much) smaller room I decided to skip it in favor of some
Harry Potter craziness that didn’t disappoint. I didn’t make it
to any movie screenings and shopped very little (but scored some fan
based art by the amazingly talented Lord Mesa who had Artwork
featured in the souvenir book, and a couple of backstock comics I
missed out on). But despite the stuff I missed I left Sunday evening
feeling like I missed out on nothing.
I got to bust out
my Slytherin costume, walked around the exhibit hall like a zombie
and bask in the geeky goodness surrounding me. And learned some new
things too:
The Free Comic-Con shuttles are
your friends. They may not be so fantastic on Wednesday but during
the nights at 2am when you’re ready to crash they are terrific.
Especially if you pick a hotel room 2 miles away and decide to walk
instead of drive.
Get your Hotel Early- Like Now.
The amount of money I paid could have gotten me a closer and bigger
hotel room had I not waited till the last minute. Most hotels in the
area give you a good amount of time to cancel the reservation
without facing unwanted charges.
Heading to a panel 2 hrs before it
starts may not be enough. The Smallville panel started at 10:30 am,
by 8am they were no longer letting people get in line cause it was
too full. Us fans are getting crazier every year, who knows, next
year the Twilight fans may start lining up the Monday before the Con
even starts…
Eat breakfast and dinner in your
Hotel room and bring a large bag of chips to snack on while on the
convention floor to save you cash.
There’s a reason
SDCC is THE con for me. And its not just the information you get or
the celebrities you may meet (have I mentioned how much of a crush I
have on Felicia Day? Let me put it in context: if I were a boy, I’d
hit that.) It’s also the friends I meet and make and the fact that
all sorts of amazing/crazy things can and do happen. Johnny Depp’s
surprise visit, a secret screening of District 9, a zombiewalk. Every
year the surprises get bigger, and I’m here to tell you: Go. If you
can, go.
