MISHA COLLINS' SMILE COMMANDS YOU
COMIC CON: DAY 4
The shortest day of Comic Con ended up being the longest for me. That's what you get when you have an all-night line campout and an 11:00PM flight on the same day. And you're running on almost no sleep to begin with. BRING IT ON.
Lines are a fact of life at Comic Con. There's lines to get your passes. There's lines for panels. There's lines for signings. There's lines for events. There's lines to get into other lines. Some people see lines as the bane of their con experience. I mostly saw them as a chance to sit down for a while after walking around all day, chat with people, and catch up on my notes about what I've been doing. Show up a bit early, avoid Hall H and anything even remotely Twilight-related, and you're usually good.
The all-night lines are a different beast entirely. You're really just sitting outside, holding your place to get inside the building the next day, so you're in it for the long haul.
cookie_simone, ibroketuesday, and barkinmad were first in line again for their all-nighter, and I joined them around midnight. Being first in line means you get someone walking by everyone five minutes asking "HEY, WHAT'S THIS LINEUP FOR?" (I guess the LINE FOR DOCTOR WHO AND SUPERNATURAL sign that ibroketuesday made was too subtle.) Being first in line means defending your place against people who try to settle in and jump ahead of you. Being lined up outside the building also means dealing with the occasional weirdo and jerkass who wanders by. A drunk guy and his douchebag friend showed up at one point, and spent a good fifteen or twenty minutes ranting about BDSM, handing out skeezy newsletters, and generally being extra-creepy until someone finally got con security to make them leave. (I've seen people online ragging on con security, but I had nothing but good experiences with them all weekend. It's definitely good to have them around when you're outside all night and the extra-douchey douchebags are making their douchebag rounds.)
Camping out isn't without its good points, though. Most people try to get at least a few hours sleep, but there's usually someone to chat with. I brought some random Supernatural doujinshi that I bought in Japan, and we amused ourselves with those for a while. The Masquerade let out around 1:30 A.M., so there were people around the convention centre until the wee hours of the morning. And as always, some awesome costumes. We just about died when we saw Pedobear walk by.
He had a bag that said "FREE CANDY". I SALUTE YOU, GOOD SIR.
Around 4 A.M., I headed back to my hotel for a while to pack my suitcase, shower, and check out. By the time I got back, it was still pre-dawn.
By the time 8:00 A.M. rolled around, the line had grown quite a bit.
I've used the word "clusterfuck" a lot, but pretty apt for the rush to get inside when the doors finally opened. There were a lot of SPN, Smallville, and Doctor Who fans hell-bent on getting a front row seat for their panels, so everyone was rushing to get to the area outside their panel rooms and line up first. It also wasn't exactly clear where the lines began, so in the madness, we got bumped back a few places even though we'd been first in the doors. When we finally got to go into the panel room and sat down (3 or 4 rows back, unfortunately, but still good seats), I was practically falling asleep on levitatethis while we waited for the panel to start.
We had to sit through the Smallville panel to get to the SPN one. Smallville was slightly more interesting than I thought it would be, considering I haven't seen more than five episodes of the show. But...well, let's just say that in my notes, I summed up the audience Q&A as "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK." People asking for signatures, baaaaawing about pairings, and one guy who was practically your stereotypical Comic Book Guy and seemed to think everything that had ever happened on the show was his idea. At least the cast was entertaining. It takes a lot to be a good sport when no one would blame you for taking out a restraining order against your entire fandom.
KNEEL BEFORE ZOD.
After the Smallville panel, I was dreading that the SPN panel would be just as embarrassing. The SPN fandom brings out the drama and batshit more than most, and a wank-free panel seemed like too much to hope for.
Turns out I shouldn't have worried. The panel turned out to be one of the best ones I went to all weekend.
Eric Kripke, Sera Gamble, Ben Edlund, Misha Collins, and Jim Beaver were there, and they were all completely fucking amazing. You always hear about how close the SPN cast and crew are, but I didn't really get it until I saw them at the panel. They're all so comfortable with each other, so easy-going, and so willing to joke and laugh along with their fans. The panel started with a standard "The Road Until Now" summary of the series, followed by...a fake Ghostfacers intro for season 5 (LULZ) and a five minute clip from the first episode. Misha and Jim were an absolute riot during the Q&A, joking about how Castiel and Bobby were the real stars of the show and how they appreciated Jenson and Jared being their "supporting cast". I think I laughed the hardest when someone asked about religious themes on SPN, Misha said that Kripke should make his own religion out of SPN's mythology, and Kripke replied, "I am going to L. Ron Hubbard this shit."
After saying goodbye to ibroketuesday and cookie_simone, I headed to the exhibit hall with levitatethis for a while. I met mabetini briefly, but exhaustion had me so out-of-it that I don't remember a whole lot about it. (Just to give you an idea of how tired I was by the end: when I went to Extraordinary Desserts for dinner that evening, I had to get up and walk around the restaurant until my food came, because if I even sat down I'd immediately start to fall asleep.)
It was easier to forget how tired I was if I kept moving. So it was off into the exhibit hall for one more go at the booths. And a few more pictures.
You never run out of things to discover in the hall. The highlight this time was the Cartoon Art Museum booth. They had artists doing sketches in exchange for donations to the museum, and the guys are the booth were all incredibly friendly and awesome. I ended up talking about horror movies with them while one of them did my sketch (major bonus points for knowing Ginger Snaps).
With the last few drawings tucked safely in my sketchbook, I said goodbye to the exhibit hall and headed upstairs for the last hurrah of Comic Con: a sing-along showing of the Buffy musical episode. There's just something about a ballroom full of people singing "Walk Through the Fire".
And then, it was over...
...the end of the line...
...the last of the crowd headed out of the convention centre...
...and off into the San Diego sunset.
I've seen a lot of people online shouting "WORST COMIC CON EVAR!!1", but you know what? Fuck those people. I had fun.
Not because it was perfect. There were things I didn't get to do. The crowds were insane. I wish I'd had a better camera. It's impossible to be in the midst of so much craziness for four days without a few bad experiences and bitchy people along the way. There were things that annoyed me. By the time Sunday rolled around I was definitely ready for it to be over, and I was more exhausted than I've ever been in my life.
Still, that's part of what made it fun. Throwing yourself into the madness, keep going non-stop, and taking in the entire whirlwind of experiences. Between the comics, panels, and random encounters, my geekiness was fully sated by the end. I had so many fantastic experiences along the way, and even the bad moments tended to be crazy enough to laugh about in hindsight (or at least, made for a good "WTF COMIC CON" story). I met so many awesome people, from all you lovely LJ folks, to artists and actors and writers I admire, to random strangers who made the panel waits and lineups a more interesting place.
I got to have four days where everything was an adventure. I can't imagine having more fun than I did in those four days, and I loved every minute of it.
So...who's going next year?
The shortest day of Comic Con ended up being the longest for me. That's what you get when you have an all-night line campout and an 11:00PM flight on the same day. And you're running on almost no sleep to begin with. BRING IT ON.
Lines are a fact of life at Comic Con. There's lines to get your passes. There's lines for panels. There's lines for signings. There's lines for events. There's lines to get into other lines. Some people see lines as the bane of their con experience. I mostly saw them as a chance to sit down for a while after walking around all day, chat with people, and catch up on my notes about what I've been doing. Show up a bit early, avoid Hall H and anything even remotely Twilight-related, and you're usually good.
The all-night lines are a different beast entirely. You're really just sitting outside, holding your place to get inside the building the next day, so you're in it for the long haul.
cookie_simone, ibroketuesday, and barkinmad were first in line again for their all-nighter, and I joined them around midnight. Being first in line means you get someone walking by everyone five minutes asking "HEY, WHAT'S THIS LINEUP FOR?" (I guess the LINE FOR DOCTOR WHO AND SUPERNATURAL sign that ibroketuesday made was too subtle.) Being first in line means defending your place against people who try to settle in and jump ahead of you. Being lined up outside the building also means dealing with the occasional weirdo and jerkass who wanders by. A drunk guy and his douchebag friend showed up at one point, and spent a good fifteen or twenty minutes ranting about BDSM, handing out skeezy newsletters, and generally being extra-creepy until someone finally got con security to make them leave. (I've seen people online ragging on con security, but I had nothing but good experiences with them all weekend. It's definitely good to have them around when you're outside all night and the extra-douchey douchebags are making their douchebag rounds.)
Camping out isn't without its good points, though. Most people try to get at least a few hours sleep, but there's usually someone to chat with. I brought some random Supernatural doujinshi that I bought in Japan, and we amused ourselves with those for a while. The Masquerade let out around 1:30 A.M., so there were people around the convention centre until the wee hours of the morning. And as always, some awesome costumes. We just about died when we saw Pedobear walk by.
He had a bag that said "FREE CANDY". I SALUTE YOU, GOOD SIR.
Around 4 A.M., I headed back to my hotel for a while to pack my suitcase, shower, and check out. By the time I got back, it was still pre-dawn.
By the time 8:00 A.M. rolled around, the line had grown quite a bit.
I've used the word "clusterfuck" a lot, but pretty apt for the rush to get inside when the doors finally opened. There were a lot of SPN, Smallville, and Doctor Who fans hell-bent on getting a front row seat for their panels, so everyone was rushing to get to the area outside their panel rooms and line up first. It also wasn't exactly clear where the lines began, so in the madness, we got bumped back a few places even though we'd been first in the doors. When we finally got to go into the panel room and sat down (3 or 4 rows back, unfortunately, but still good seats), I was practically falling asleep on levitatethis while we waited for the panel to start.
We had to sit through the Smallville panel to get to the SPN one. Smallville was slightly more interesting than I thought it would be, considering I haven't seen more than five episodes of the show. But...well, let's just say that in my notes, I summed up the audience Q&A as "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK." People asking for signatures, baaaaawing about pairings, and one guy who was practically your stereotypical Comic Book Guy and seemed to think everything that had ever happened on the show was his idea. At least the cast was entertaining. It takes a lot to be a good sport when no one would blame you for taking out a restraining order against your entire fandom.
KNEEL BEFORE ZOD.
After the Smallville panel, I was dreading that the SPN panel would be just as embarrassing. The SPN fandom brings out the drama and batshit more than most, and a wank-free panel seemed like too much to hope for.
Turns out I shouldn't have worried. The panel turned out to be one of the best ones I went to all weekend.
Eric Kripke, Sera Gamble, Ben Edlund, Misha Collins, and Jim Beaver were there, and they were all completely fucking amazing. You always hear about how close the SPN cast and crew are, but I didn't really get it until I saw them at the panel. They're all so comfortable with each other, so easy-going, and so willing to joke and laugh along with their fans. The panel started with a standard "The Road Until Now" summary of the series, followed by...a fake Ghostfacers intro for season 5 (LULZ) and a five minute clip from the first episode. Misha and Jim were an absolute riot during the Q&A, joking about how Castiel and Bobby were the real stars of the show and how they appreciated Jenson and Jared being their "supporting cast". I think I laughed the hardest when someone asked about religious themes on SPN, Misha said that Kripke should make his own religion out of SPN's mythology, and Kripke replied, "I am going to L. Ron Hubbard this shit."
After saying goodbye to ibroketuesday and cookie_simone, I headed to the exhibit hall with levitatethis for a while. I met mabetini briefly, but exhaustion had me so out-of-it that I don't remember a whole lot about it. (Just to give you an idea of how tired I was by the end: when I went to Extraordinary Desserts for dinner that evening, I had to get up and walk around the restaurant until my food came, because if I even sat down I'd immediately start to fall asleep.)
It was easier to forget how tired I was if I kept moving. So it was off into the exhibit hall for one more go at the booths. And a few more pictures.
You never run out of things to discover in the hall. The highlight this time was the Cartoon Art Museum booth. They had artists doing sketches in exchange for donations to the museum, and the guys are the booth were all incredibly friendly and awesome. I ended up talking about horror movies with them while one of them did my sketch (major bonus points for knowing Ginger Snaps).
With the last few drawings tucked safely in my sketchbook, I said goodbye to the exhibit hall and headed upstairs for the last hurrah of Comic Con: a sing-along showing of the Buffy musical episode. There's just something about a ballroom full of people singing "Walk Through the Fire".
And then, it was over...
...the end of the line...
...the last of the crowd headed out of the convention centre...
...and off into the San Diego sunset.
I've seen a lot of people online shouting "WORST COMIC CON EVAR!!1", but you know what? Fuck those people. I had fun.
Not because it was perfect. There were things I didn't get to do. The crowds were insane. I wish I'd had a better camera. It's impossible to be in the midst of so much craziness for four days without a few bad experiences and bitchy people along the way. There were things that annoyed me. By the time Sunday rolled around I was definitely ready for it to be over, and I was more exhausted than I've ever been in my life.
Still, that's part of what made it fun. Throwing yourself into the madness, keep going non-stop, and taking in the entire whirlwind of experiences. Between the comics, panels, and random encounters, my geekiness was fully sated by the end. I had so many fantastic experiences along the way, and even the bad moments tended to be crazy enough to laugh about in hindsight (or at least, made for a good "WTF COMIC CON" story). I met so many awesome people, from all you lovely LJ folks, to artists and actors and writers I admire, to random strangers who made the panel waits and lineups a more interesting place.
I got to have four days where everything was an adventure. I can't imagine having more fun than I did in those four days, and I loved every minute of it.
So...who's going next year?