Zombie win, vampire fail
COMIC CON: DAY 3
Another early morning at the convention centre. Or more accurately, the line for the Indigo Ballroom in the hotel next to the convention centre. ibroketuesday, cookie_simone, and barkinmad camped out that night for the Heroes and Glee panels, so they were at the front of the line. DEDICATION.
I hung out with them for a while, and I seriously considered going in with them when the doors opened so I could have a front row seat for the Heroes panel. If it had been during the morning, I would have jumped on the chance. But the panel wasn't until the afternoon, I was only interested in one of the half-dozen panels before it, and I would have been kicking myself if I didn't get back to Artist Alley. So it was back to the convention centre for the morning.
Hall H was on the way. That entire mass of people is one giant line. Which crossed the street, and continued on to God-only-knows where. I'm SO glad I didn't have any panels in there, because...DAMN.
If you're going to beg for a Comic Con pass, at least you can be in the spirit of things.
You can't go ten feet at Comic Con without seeing a Storm Trooper.
Blood Rayne, maybe?
Doctor Venture. I saw The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend around somewhere, too.
Riding in style. There's an incredible variety of people who show up for Comic Con. I saw everything from five-year-old kids flocking around the Pokemon table, to married couples cosplaying, to an 80-year-old guy in a wheelchair with an oxygen tube and a pile of comics on his lap.
Speaking of getting around the exhibit hall... Parents? It's great that you want to indoctrinate your kids into geekdom early. But if you're using your kid as an excuse to push around an SUV-sized baby stroller that doubles as your personal shopping cart, when the exhibit hall crowd looks like this? Don't be surprised if people get pissed off. Just saying.
The family that cosplays together, stays together.
Y SO SRS?
I also saw Ron Jeremy standing around texting. OH COMIC CON.
It was a shame that I didn't get to be up front with ibroketuesday and co. for the Heroes panel (considering I talked you guys into it and all, LOL). Still, after spending most of the morning at Artist Alley, I had no regrets about passing on a front row seat. The people I met in Artist Alley absolutely made my day. I jumped at any chance to get a sketch or chat with the artists, whether they were pros I recognised or people I'd never heard of who didn't have much more than a DeviantArt page to their name. They were also incredibly good sports about the fact that my sketch request was usually "Zombies, Deadpool, or zombie-Deadpool." But then, it's Comic Con, so a request for zombie-Deadpool's severed head isn't even close to topping the weirdness scale.
Best moment: meeting Reilly Brown, the guy who drew and co-wrote the latter part of Cable & Deadpool. It was great to talk with him, and hear about some of the "behind the scenes" stuff for a series I had so much fun reading. Those were some of my favourite moments of the whole Con: meeting someone I recognised from their comics or acting or whatever, chatting with them a bit, and getting to tell them how much I love their work.
I was worried I wasn't going to get into the Heroes panel when I finally headed back to the ballroom, but the lineup wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be. I even managed to get into a panel before it, which turned out to be a screening of the premiere for Glee. Not really my thing, but I wasn't feeling well then anyway, so it was nice to have an hour to sit down and rest.
So. The Heroes panel.
I'm sure the spoilers (such as they are) are all over the place already, so I don't need to do a play-by-play of the whole thing. But I'm not going to gloss over things either. So...
HEROES SPOILERS START HERE
Basically: the panel was Tim Kring, Jack Coleman, Masi, Hayden, Adrien, ZQ, Milo, and a bunch of people playing the new characters. Most of them were playing the carnies from the group of circus folk, one of them was Claire's new ratings-boosting lesbian love interest collage roommate. They showed an extra-long promo trailer for season 4, which had some cool scenes of Sylar appearing to Matt and demanding his body back, and crawling out of a grave. Very Kill Bill.
After the promo, they opened the floor to questions. The cast was so funny and engaging. I'm already liking most of the new actors quite a bit, and they seem to get on well with the regulars. Tim Kring kind of pissed me off when he talked about wanting to simplify the show to improve it. ("Simplify"? SERIOUSLY? With all the problems this show has had in the last two seasons, complexity has NOT been one of them.) I miss Bryan Fuller already.
Did I mention that the cast is hilarious? Because they are. Jack kept making jokes all throughout ("My superpower is bad eyesight!"). Adrien apparently has a clip of Sylar's "I'm special!" speech on his iPod. Jack and Masi were tossing Hersheys' Kisses to Zach, and Adrien was intercepting them. Zach tried to make a paper plane out of his name card. I remember their antics more than I remember the discussion about the show, LOL.
Even after seeing the trailer and panel, I'm still in "wait and see" mode about the new season. (I think I'm one of the few people who actually LIKES the potential of the carnival and the new storylines, though with Bryan Fuller gone again... Who knows.) But I absolutely loved getting to see the cast in person, so I'm glad I went.
I think I'm one of the few people who didn't know who Ray Park was, but he seems cool.
Zach makes a paper plane.
Whatever Adrien said, I'M SURE IT WAS HILARIOUS.
/HEROES SPOILERS END HERE
After Heroes, I pretty much headed straight over to where the Mythbusters panel was being held. The line for the evening's Masquerade was already forming in the ballroom area, and a lot of people were killing time by making signs. Lots of "Free hugs" signs, and a few more creative ones. My favourites were the "Free bro-fists" sign, and a guy in a ninja costume with an "Ask a ninja anything!" sign.
I got to the Mythbusters room two panels early. That was enough to beat the rush, and I was able to walk right in, grab a seat, and relax for a while. Which wasn't a problem, since neither of the pre-Mythbusters panels were very memorable. I got there in the middle of the pilot screening of Human Target, which was mostly forgettable besides the fact that Emerson Cod and Rorschach were in it.
Chi McBride is hilarious in real life. Which made the panel pretty entertaining, even if I didn't care about the show.
The panel after that was a pilot screening for a show called Vampire Diaries. It's a teen vampire romance show that's extremely vaguely reminiscent of Twilight, based on a teen vampire romance book series that came out a few years BEFORE Twilight, which the people on the panel kept trying to emphasise was NOT Twilight, starring the guy who played Boone on Lost. So, uh...yeah. It's about what you'd expect.
I felt kind of bad for the people on the panel. Most of the audience was laughing during the episode, which probably isn't how you want your VRY SRS TEEN VAMPIRE DRAMA to be received. But when you keep saying "OUR VAMPIRES TOTALLY DON'T SPARKLE, GUYZ!", yet your first episode is practically a play-by-play of the Twilight movie with a hint of Forever Knight and Bridget Jones' Diary... You're not helping your own case. You don't have to be Twilighting all over the place for people to laugh at you. Your teen vampire schlock can suck just fine on its own merit.
Anyway. By the time the Mythbusters panel started, I'd managed to move up to a seat in the first block of chairs. Not front row centre, but pretty damn close. And the panel was fantastic. Kari was off on baby leave, but the rest of the guys were there.
It was pretty standard panel format. They showed a trailer for the upcoming season, and talked about some of the upcoming myths (Gorn cannon, a duct tape episode, and the return of the infamous rocket sled for another myth revisit). They showed some context-less clips from next season that involved Adam and Jamie doing stunt jumps off a building. The audience Q&A was a mixed bag; some terrible questions (one guy kept going on about Bigfoot until Adam laid down the law and said they don't do "oogie boogie" myths), some interesting questions ("What's the weirdest thing you've ever gotten from a fan?" got some interesting replies, LOL).
I know I keep saying that it's great just to be able to see people in person and be in the same room with them for a while, but I mean it. It's a real joy to sit though an interesting, engaging panel with people you admire, especially when they seem as enthusiastic about their work and their fans as the Mythbusters do.
Adam demonstrates something.
The Mythbusters (minus one).
Grant wants YOU.
Adam and Jamie.
I could have stayed in the room afterwards for a viewing of the extended cut of Watchmen, or tried to get into the Masquerade for a while. In the end, I decided to head back to my hotel for a few hours before starting the last leg of the Comic Con adventure: an all-night line campout for the Supernatural panel.
NEXT: Once more, with exhaustion feeling
Another early morning at the convention centre. Or more accurately, the line for the Indigo Ballroom in the hotel next to the convention centre. ibroketuesday, cookie_simone, and barkinmad camped out that night for the Heroes and Glee panels, so they were at the front of the line. DEDICATION.
I hung out with them for a while, and I seriously considered going in with them when the doors opened so I could have a front row seat for the Heroes panel. If it had been during the morning, I would have jumped on the chance. But the panel wasn't until the afternoon, I was only interested in one of the half-dozen panels before it, and I would have been kicking myself if I didn't get back to Artist Alley. So it was back to the convention centre for the morning.
Hall H was on the way. That entire mass of people is one giant line. Which crossed the street, and continued on to God-only-knows where. I'm SO glad I didn't have any panels in there, because...DAMN.
If you're going to beg for a Comic Con pass, at least you can be in the spirit of things.
You can't go ten feet at Comic Con without seeing a Storm Trooper.
Blood Rayne, maybe?
Doctor Venture. I saw The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend around somewhere, too.
Riding in style. There's an incredible variety of people who show up for Comic Con. I saw everything from five-year-old kids flocking around the Pokemon table, to married couples cosplaying, to an 80-year-old guy in a wheelchair with an oxygen tube and a pile of comics on his lap.
Speaking of getting around the exhibit hall... Parents? It's great that you want to indoctrinate your kids into geekdom early. But if you're using your kid as an excuse to push around an SUV-sized baby stroller that doubles as your personal shopping cart, when the exhibit hall crowd looks like this? Don't be surprised if people get pissed off. Just saying.
The family that cosplays together, stays together.
Y SO SRS?
I also saw Ron Jeremy standing around texting. OH COMIC CON.
It was a shame that I didn't get to be up front with ibroketuesday and co. for the Heroes panel (considering I talked you guys into it and all, LOL). Still, after spending most of the morning at Artist Alley, I had no regrets about passing on a front row seat. The people I met in Artist Alley absolutely made my day. I jumped at any chance to get a sketch or chat with the artists, whether they were pros I recognised or people I'd never heard of who didn't have much more than a DeviantArt page to their name. They were also incredibly good sports about the fact that my sketch request was usually "Zombies, Deadpool, or zombie-Deadpool." But then, it's Comic Con, so a request for zombie-Deadpool's severed head isn't even close to topping the weirdness scale.
Best moment: meeting Reilly Brown, the guy who drew and co-wrote the latter part of Cable & Deadpool. It was great to talk with him, and hear about some of the "behind the scenes" stuff for a series I had so much fun reading. Those were some of my favourite moments of the whole Con: meeting someone I recognised from their comics or acting or whatever, chatting with them a bit, and getting to tell them how much I love their work.
I was worried I wasn't going to get into the Heroes panel when I finally headed back to the ballroom, but the lineup wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be. I even managed to get into a panel before it, which turned out to be a screening of the premiere for Glee. Not really my thing, but I wasn't feeling well then anyway, so it was nice to have an hour to sit down and rest.
So. The Heroes panel.
I'm sure the spoilers (such as they are) are all over the place already, so I don't need to do a play-by-play of the whole thing. But I'm not going to gloss over things either. So...
HEROES SPOILERS START HERE
Basically: the panel was Tim Kring, Jack Coleman, Masi, Hayden, Adrien, ZQ, Milo, and a bunch of people playing the new characters. Most of them were playing the carnies from the group of circus folk, one of them was Claire's new ratings-boosting lesbian love interest collage roommate. They showed an extra-long promo trailer for season 4, which had some cool scenes of Sylar appearing to Matt and demanding his body back, and crawling out of a grave. Very Kill Bill.
After the promo, they opened the floor to questions. The cast was so funny and engaging. I'm already liking most of the new actors quite a bit, and they seem to get on well with the regulars. Tim Kring kind of pissed me off when he talked about wanting to simplify the show to improve it. ("Simplify"? SERIOUSLY? With all the problems this show has had in the last two seasons, complexity has NOT been one of them.) I miss Bryan Fuller already.
Did I mention that the cast is hilarious? Because they are. Jack kept making jokes all throughout ("My superpower is bad eyesight!"). Adrien apparently has a clip of Sylar's "I'm special!" speech on his iPod. Jack and Masi were tossing Hersheys' Kisses to Zach, and Adrien was intercepting them. Zach tried to make a paper plane out of his name card. I remember their antics more than I remember the discussion about the show, LOL.
Even after seeing the trailer and panel, I'm still in "wait and see" mode about the new season. (I think I'm one of the few people who actually LIKES the potential of the carnival and the new storylines, though with Bryan Fuller gone again... Who knows.) But I absolutely loved getting to see the cast in person, so I'm glad I went.
I think I'm one of the few people who didn't know who Ray Park was, but he seems cool.
Zach makes a paper plane.
Whatever Adrien said, I'M SURE IT WAS HILARIOUS.
/HEROES SPOILERS END HERE
After Heroes, I pretty much headed straight over to where the Mythbusters panel was being held. The line for the evening's Masquerade was already forming in the ballroom area, and a lot of people were killing time by making signs. Lots of "Free hugs" signs, and a few more creative ones. My favourites were the "Free bro-fists" sign, and a guy in a ninja costume with an "Ask a ninja anything!" sign.
I got to the Mythbusters room two panels early. That was enough to beat the rush, and I was able to walk right in, grab a seat, and relax for a while. Which wasn't a problem, since neither of the pre-Mythbusters panels were very memorable. I got there in the middle of the pilot screening of Human Target, which was mostly forgettable besides the fact that Emerson Cod and Rorschach were in it.
Chi McBride is hilarious in real life. Which made the panel pretty entertaining, even if I didn't care about the show.
The panel after that was a pilot screening for a show called Vampire Diaries. It's a teen vampire romance show that's extremely vaguely reminiscent of Twilight, based on a teen vampire romance book series that came out a few years BEFORE Twilight, which the people on the panel kept trying to emphasise was NOT Twilight, starring the guy who played Boone on Lost. So, uh...yeah. It's about what you'd expect.
I felt kind of bad for the people on the panel. Most of the audience was laughing during the episode, which probably isn't how you want your VRY SRS TEEN VAMPIRE DRAMA to be received. But when you keep saying "OUR VAMPIRES TOTALLY DON'T SPARKLE, GUYZ!", yet your first episode is practically a play-by-play of the Twilight movie with a hint of Forever Knight and Bridget Jones' Diary... You're not helping your own case. You don't have to be Twilighting all over the place for people to laugh at you. Your teen vampire schlock can suck just fine on its own merit.
Anyway. By the time the Mythbusters panel started, I'd managed to move up to a seat in the first block of chairs. Not front row centre, but pretty damn close. And the panel was fantastic. Kari was off on baby leave, but the rest of the guys were there.
It was pretty standard panel format. They showed a trailer for the upcoming season, and talked about some of the upcoming myths (Gorn cannon, a duct tape episode, and the return of the infamous rocket sled for another myth revisit). They showed some context-less clips from next season that involved Adam and Jamie doing stunt jumps off a building. The audience Q&A was a mixed bag; some terrible questions (one guy kept going on about Bigfoot until Adam laid down the law and said they don't do "oogie boogie" myths), some interesting questions ("What's the weirdest thing you've ever gotten from a fan?" got some interesting replies, LOL).
I know I keep saying that it's great just to be able to see people in person and be in the same room with them for a while, but I mean it. It's a real joy to sit though an interesting, engaging panel with people you admire, especially when they seem as enthusiastic about their work and their fans as the Mythbusters do.
Adam demonstrates something.
The Mythbusters (minus one).
Grant wants YOU.
Adam and Jamie.
I could have stayed in the room afterwards for a viewing of the extended cut of Watchmen, or tried to get into the Masquerade for a while. In the end, I decided to head back to my hotel for a few hours before starting the last leg of the Comic Con adventure: an all-night line campout for the Supernatural panel.
NEXT: Once more, with exhaustion feeling