Comicon 2007
After approximately 100 hours of driving yesterday we finally made it back to LA from Comicon. I now finally have internet again (seriously, though, what did we ever do without it?) and am slowly making my way through emails and crap, trying to get through it all at the same time as planning the next month and trying to catch up on TAB stuff. August will not be my favorite month this year.
Anyway! I digress. I will do my best to recall the amazingness of this year's con. As a postscript, I realized halfway through writing this that those of you obsessed with all this stuff who weren't there have probably read about all of this online. So.. I have nothing to say to you then, you know everything... except you don't get Annick's amazingly awesome spin. Pity.
Thursday
We got up extra early in order to "beat traffic". This meant, after picking up two people, getting out onto the open road at approximately 7:20ish. We ran into a bit of traffic in places, and those were the instances when I wanted to kill myself, but we ended up making fairly good time until we hit the comicon traffic, and then my suicidal tendencies intensified. But we eventually found parking, and made it to the convention center by, like 11-ish. Then we encountered possibly one of the longest lines I've ever been in, at least since Disneyworld when I was, like 14. It snaked all the way around the convention center (no small feat) and into the marina (not literally, but you know) and, counting the time it took to FIND THE END of the line, plus waiting, it took us 1.5-2 hours to get our badges and get into the con (I don't know if that time counts the stupid mistake my check-in person made while checking me in, which caused me to wait in another line for another 20 minutes). Thinking that we would spend all weekend indoors, we were all very sunburned and miserable by the time we got into the building. Well, at least I was miserable, because it combined three of my least favorite things: waiting, direct sunlight on non-sunblock lathered skin, and being in the hot. Bleh. Anyway, we got in just in time to go back outside and wait in another long line for the Paramount panel. This panel spoiled us all because we got the most awesome free shit in existence. It set an amazingly high bar for everything else, and very little came close to the truly awesome freebies we received: 3 t-shirts (Iron Man, Star Trek -the new one! - and a JJ Abrams reference I didn't get and had to have it explained to me), an Indiana Jones HUGE full color thingie that has original art and sketches from either the new movie or the past 3... I can't remember, and, most importantly, a ticket (one each, for all 6500 people that could fit into that hall!) for limited edition posters only available to comicon attendees. These posters are the following: Limited Edition Sweeney Todd poster complete with Johnny Depp all smoldery on it (sorry, Becky, my sister has greedily grabbed this up), for those people who have seen the new trailer for the as-yet-untitled JJ Abrams monster movie, we got an amazingly NICE (and laminated) poster for that movie. Complete with the statue of liberty headless in front of the NYC skyline, this was very exciting for me. We also got an iron man poster and a really nice Star Trek poster. It's a little standard, but exciting nonetheless. We saw JJ Abrams give pretty much nothing away about his new monster movie (other than the fact that it's what he would like to think of as a new, purely American, monster/disaster movie), we saw footage "live" from the set of Indiana Jones 4 (complete with Indy, Shia LaBeuf--or however it's spelled--, another guy, and Marion all dressed up in costume, with Steven Spielberg talking about how he's really making this movie for the fans. We'll see), JJ Abrams talked about his new Star Trek and re-announced how they've cast Sylar from Heroes as Spock. Then he said he wanted to announce more casting, but the studio wouldn't let him, so he said they've cast another Spock and we can bring him out right now.... Leonard Nimoy! The crowd went crazy and it was pretty awesome to see Spock there onstage. They did Iron Man last and Jon Favreau had filmed a little video to apologize for not being at the con, and he said he could show some footage as an apology. So the camera zooms in on his computer and it's, like, Iron Man cartoon footage from like the 1950s. Then the lights go up and Jon Favreau, who I love (and who's lost like 50 pounds!) came out and talked for awhile, and showed us this great extended trailer and said that as of that moment pretty much all of the special effects were done practically and in-camera. If that is true, the movie was spectacular. There were more things... the guys who made Hot Rod did a thing, and while I don't necessarily want to see the film, the guys themselves were well-spoken and funny. There was a preview of the Spiderwick Chronicles, which I'd never heard of before, but it looks like a great dark children's movie. I have never read Stardust, but Neil Gaiman was there talking about it and presented a totally awesome looking clip. Roger Avary (director of Rules of Attraction) presented footage from Beowulf (which looks like the Final Fantasy movie in its video game-lookingness). I really wanted to go to the Lionsgate panel so I could see Dane Cook, but it conflicted with the LOST panel, which was a must for me. However, I did take the escalator with Dane Cook, so that pretty much made up for not seeing him at the panel (FYI Dane=HOT). LOST panel was alright, Michael (Harold Perrineau) was there and they re-iterated the previous announcement that he would be re-joining the cast this season. They gave a few things away and then showed a very exciting 3-5 minutes of "recently discovered" Dharma footage that was very exciting even though it just left us wanting more. We ran from LOST to the Fanboys panel, and I got to see Kristen Bell again, who I would 100% make out with if given the chance. The director of the movie is so anxious for people to see it finally (after 5 years of working on it) that he pretty much showed us as many clips as he could, basically showing at least 1/4 of the film, if not half. But, as a fan I vote yay, as his producer I would have beat him in the face. We then attempted to pick Marianna up at the airport, which proved a much more complicated and stupid task than you would think. First obstacle: find a way out of the labyrinthine parking lot. Not as easy as we all thought.
Friday
After fitting 6 people in one hotel room (which, by the way, I am not doing again), we woke up early (after some thorough drinking) and got to the con in time for the Warner Bros panel, which showed a preview of the (horribly adapted, says someone who hasn't seen the original) most recent japanese-into-hollywood horror remake, One Missed Call, starring Edward Burns and Shannyn Sossamon. Arguably one of the more boring panels at the con, Shannyn was obviously on some sort of drug and Ed Burns was horribly stale, like a bagel chip. We also saws Kate Beckensale promoting her new movie, Whiteout, and I never really liked Kate before, and now, I must admit, with her British wit and charm, I like her slightly more. But only because she was dryly funny, and I appreciate that. Because I waited in line with Marianna to get her registration, we missed the first 15 minutes of the Get Smart panel, but we got there in time to see Steve Carrell being amazing, and Masi Oka being the cutest Japanese man ever. Zack Snyder (director of 300) then gave the most boring talk ever about his adaptation of Watchmen, so I read Harry Potter until that ended. Later, we saw a panel on the new Clive Owen, Shoot 'Em Up, with the cutest first-time director/writer ever, Michael Davis. We also saw Clive Owen, and I must say that Clive Owen onscreen=unbelievably hot, and Clive Owen in real life= puddle. So that was awesome. The movie is a great mix of funny/blood/action, and seems very fresh. There was also an extended trailer for Golden Compass (they had an awesome booth with costumes and a giant Iorek Byrneson bear) which made me really upset and I know I will be first in line to see the film when it's released, but I think that I will finally relate to what the disappointed LOTR fans experienced when Peter Jackson came out with those films. I skipped the next few panels because I was itching to get to the exhibitor floor and fill my bag with free stuff, and that was when Matt and I discovered Mr. Toast. There are no words for his awesomeness. I have never liked comics before and I have found a comic that I love. I just wish I had more money to buy all of the amazing merchandise at the booth. See http://theimaginaryworld.com/page3.html for more. On Thursday Rachel had picked up free passes to a screening of SuperBad at a nearby theatre (with a Q&A afterwards with Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow, Michael Cera, Johan Hill, etc) and so we were all planning on going to the theatre extra early to wait in line. While Matt and I were wandering the floor, I kept having this odd feeling that I was going to see Seth Rogen. Now, as a big fan of Apatow's (Freaks and Geeks is not necessarily my preference over Undeclared, and I loved Knocked Up so very much), I have a huge crush on Seth Rogen because not only is he hilarious and awesome, but he and Nate have some physical similarities and I love Nate, so... it was a little inevitable. Anyway, I'm like looking around constantly to see Seth Rogen, and finally, there he was, standing there with Michael Cera (from Arrested Development) and the genius kid who plays McLovin in the movie. I flipped out, took some really bad pictures, was a little stalker-ish for awhile, but then calmed down and moved on. The movie was pretty awesome, and Michael Cera is perhaps the master of the awkward comeback/pause. And, for those of you who know him, he also reminds me very strongly of Dan Myers. It is uncanny. Also, while wandering the floor, I heard my name being called. Turns out my old friend Cody from Columbia's new job in LA had led him to the con (his job is at a comicbook company) so I got to see him (we've been trying to have lunch for like months) and talk a little bit. He looks the same, and didn't seem to believe me when i said I would call him so we could hang out. That bugs me a little, if I didn't want to see him I wouldn't make as much effort to do so as I have been. But it was very interesting nonetheless.
Saturday
Most crowded day, since the entire place was sold out, for like the first time ever. That means there were about 250,000 people there and the lines reflected it. We got up, started to wait in line for this TV Guide panel of new shows but didn't end up getting in. The same hall was having the Heroes panel afterwards, and so we waited in the same line for another hour or so and still didn't get into the hall. We left Nicole so she could wait in the SAME line for the Battlestar panel and apparently she actually did get in (3.5 hours later), but barely. Meanwhile, fed up with the crowds and the lines, and also having the presence of 5 other people around me a lot of the time, plus the anger I was feeling towards the masses, and needing to regain some sanity, I decided to catch up on Harry Potter. I read about 300 pages in 3ish hours, and felt much better, albeit desperate to read the rest. I took a small break, then read some more, and was raised out of my HP-induced stupor by a man who had sat across from me and was talking loudly into his cell phone.
BOB, BOB, it's RALPH. Can you hear me? BOB, it's RALPH. Hello? BOB, it's RALPH EGGLESTON. Right. Ralph Eggleston from Pixar. BOB! We're meeting outside in 5 minutes. OK?
I looked at his badge and sure enough, it was the same Ralph Eggleston whose Toy Stories 1&2 are two of the best movies ever made. I had felt a little twinge of sadness at missing that day's Pixar panel, so this was awesome. He was also wearing the single greatest "Mine! Mine!" seagull hat ever. I smiled at him and he smiled back. That night, we had a quick dinner then ran back to the con for the 10th anniversary Buffy celebration, which was, of course, celebrated by screening the musical episode of Buffy. This was amazing and nobody really had to read the words and everybody was singing along and during the ballads, people took out their cellphones instead of lighters and some people knew the dances, and it was pretty much the best time ever. We all had a great high afterwards and were going to go out to karaoke, but the trip back to the hotel to drop off our stuff pre-karaoke drained us of that high. So we stayed in, drank a little (and in some cases, all of the alcohol in the world), went to bed way too late (and in some cases, way too not at all) and got up too early.
Sunday
Checkout, frustration with some of the still-drunk members of our party. Heading to the con for last minute sales (like Mr. Toast! And a really cute pair of shorts from a dealer that sold awesome kitty things), last minute freebies, and a last sweep around the floor. We dropped off the one of us who needed to go to the airport, and I drove very sleepily back to LA. We drove for about 1.5 hours until we were too hungry to not eat any more, stopped in a really nice oceanside town called San Clemente and ate at a delicious 50's diner. We then drove another 2 hours to LA, dropped Matt and Nicole off, then drove home. I think I passed out as soon as Nate and I were a big spoon and then had to wake up this morning to drop Marianna off at the Flyaway.
For those of you who don't want to read the whole thing, the summary is that the Once More with Feeling screening was probably the most fun I had, but the Paramount panel gave out the most and BEST free stuff. I don't think it's wise to fit 6 people in one hotel room, especially when you're running on caffeine, carbs, and alcohol. But overall, it was WAY better than last year, and although I crashed on Saturday, still a really good idea to go to all 4 days. Hopefully next year we'll be able to get a condo. WOOOOO comicon!
Anyway! I digress. I will do my best to recall the amazingness of this year's con. As a postscript, I realized halfway through writing this that those of you obsessed with all this stuff who weren't there have probably read about all of this online. So.. I have nothing to say to you then, you know everything... except you don't get Annick's amazingly awesome spin. Pity.
Thursday
We got up extra early in order to "beat traffic". This meant, after picking up two people, getting out onto the open road at approximately 7:20ish. We ran into a bit of traffic in places, and those were the instances when I wanted to kill myself, but we ended up making fairly good time until we hit the comicon traffic, and then my suicidal tendencies intensified. But we eventually found parking, and made it to the convention center by, like 11-ish. Then we encountered possibly one of the longest lines I've ever been in, at least since Disneyworld when I was, like 14. It snaked all the way around the convention center (no small feat) and into the marina (not literally, but you know) and, counting the time it took to FIND THE END of the line, plus waiting, it took us 1.5-2 hours to get our badges and get into the con (I don't know if that time counts the stupid mistake my check-in person made while checking me in, which caused me to wait in another line for another 20 minutes). Thinking that we would spend all weekend indoors, we were all very sunburned and miserable by the time we got into the building. Well, at least I was miserable, because it combined three of my least favorite things: waiting, direct sunlight on non-sunblock lathered skin, and being in the hot. Bleh. Anyway, we got in just in time to go back outside and wait in another long line for the Paramount panel. This panel spoiled us all because we got the most awesome free shit in existence. It set an amazingly high bar for everything else, and very little came close to the truly awesome freebies we received: 3 t-shirts (Iron Man, Star Trek -the new one! - and a JJ Abrams reference I didn't get and had to have it explained to me), an Indiana Jones HUGE full color thingie that has original art and sketches from either the new movie or the past 3... I can't remember, and, most importantly, a ticket (one each, for all 6500 people that could fit into that hall!) for limited edition posters only available to comicon attendees. These posters are the following: Limited Edition Sweeney Todd poster complete with Johnny Depp all smoldery on it (sorry, Becky, my sister has greedily grabbed this up), for those people who have seen the new trailer for the as-yet-untitled JJ Abrams monster movie, we got an amazingly NICE (and laminated) poster for that movie. Complete with the statue of liberty headless in front of the NYC skyline, this was very exciting for me. We also got an iron man poster and a really nice Star Trek poster. It's a little standard, but exciting nonetheless. We saw JJ Abrams give pretty much nothing away about his new monster movie (other than the fact that it's what he would like to think of as a new, purely American, monster/disaster movie), we saw footage "live" from the set of Indiana Jones 4 (complete with Indy, Shia LaBeuf--or however it's spelled--, another guy, and Marion all dressed up in costume, with Steven Spielberg talking about how he's really making this movie for the fans. We'll see), JJ Abrams talked about his new Star Trek and re-announced how they've cast Sylar from Heroes as Spock. Then he said he wanted to announce more casting, but the studio wouldn't let him, so he said they've cast another Spock and we can bring him out right now.... Leonard Nimoy! The crowd went crazy and it was pretty awesome to see Spock there onstage. They did Iron Man last and Jon Favreau had filmed a little video to apologize for not being at the con, and he said he could show some footage as an apology. So the camera zooms in on his computer and it's, like, Iron Man cartoon footage from like the 1950s. Then the lights go up and Jon Favreau, who I love (and who's lost like 50 pounds!) came out and talked for awhile, and showed us this great extended trailer and said that as of that moment pretty much all of the special effects were done practically and in-camera. If that is true, the movie was spectacular. There were more things... the guys who made Hot Rod did a thing, and while I don't necessarily want to see the film, the guys themselves were well-spoken and funny. There was a preview of the Spiderwick Chronicles, which I'd never heard of before, but it looks like a great dark children's movie. I have never read Stardust, but Neil Gaiman was there talking about it and presented a totally awesome looking clip. Roger Avary (director of Rules of Attraction) presented footage from Beowulf (which looks like the Final Fantasy movie in its video game-lookingness). I really wanted to go to the Lionsgate panel so I could see Dane Cook, but it conflicted with the LOST panel, which was a must for me. However, I did take the escalator with Dane Cook, so that pretty much made up for not seeing him at the panel (FYI Dane=HOT). LOST panel was alright, Michael (Harold Perrineau) was there and they re-iterated the previous announcement that he would be re-joining the cast this season. They gave a few things away and then showed a very exciting 3-5 minutes of "recently discovered" Dharma footage that was very exciting even though it just left us wanting more. We ran from LOST to the Fanboys panel, and I got to see Kristen Bell again, who I would 100% make out with if given the chance. The director of the movie is so anxious for people to see it finally (after 5 years of working on it) that he pretty much showed us as many clips as he could, basically showing at least 1/4 of the film, if not half. But, as a fan I vote yay, as his producer I would have beat him in the face. We then attempted to pick Marianna up at the airport, which proved a much more complicated and stupid task than you would think. First obstacle: find a way out of the labyrinthine parking lot. Not as easy as we all thought.
Friday
After fitting 6 people in one hotel room (which, by the way, I am not doing again), we woke up early (after some thorough drinking) and got to the con in time for the Warner Bros panel, which showed a preview of the (horribly adapted, says someone who hasn't seen the original) most recent japanese-into-hollywood horror remake, One Missed Call, starring Edward Burns and Shannyn Sossamon. Arguably one of the more boring panels at the con, Shannyn was obviously on some sort of drug and Ed Burns was horribly stale, like a bagel chip. We also saws Kate Beckensale promoting her new movie, Whiteout, and I never really liked Kate before, and now, I must admit, with her British wit and charm, I like her slightly more. But only because she was dryly funny, and I appreciate that. Because I waited in line with Marianna to get her registration, we missed the first 15 minutes of the Get Smart panel, but we got there in time to see Steve Carrell being amazing, and Masi Oka being the cutest Japanese man ever. Zack Snyder (director of 300) then gave the most boring talk ever about his adaptation of Watchmen, so I read Harry Potter until that ended. Later, we saw a panel on the new Clive Owen, Shoot 'Em Up, with the cutest first-time director/writer ever, Michael Davis. We also saw Clive Owen, and I must say that Clive Owen onscreen=unbelievably hot, and Clive Owen in real life= puddle. So that was awesome. The movie is a great mix of funny/blood/action, and seems very fresh. There was also an extended trailer for Golden Compass (they had an awesome booth with costumes and a giant Iorek Byrneson bear) which made me really upset and I know I will be first in line to see the film when it's released, but I think that I will finally relate to what the disappointed LOTR fans experienced when Peter Jackson came out with those films. I skipped the next few panels because I was itching to get to the exhibitor floor and fill my bag with free stuff, and that was when Matt and I discovered Mr. Toast. There are no words for his awesomeness. I have never liked comics before and I have found a comic that I love. I just wish I had more money to buy all of the amazing merchandise at the booth. See http://theimaginaryworld.com/page3.html for more. On Thursday Rachel had picked up free passes to a screening of SuperBad at a nearby theatre (with a Q&A afterwards with Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow, Michael Cera, Johan Hill, etc) and so we were all planning on going to the theatre extra early to wait in line. While Matt and I were wandering the floor, I kept having this odd feeling that I was going to see Seth Rogen. Now, as a big fan of Apatow's (Freaks and Geeks is not necessarily my preference over Undeclared, and I loved Knocked Up so very much), I have a huge crush on Seth Rogen because not only is he hilarious and awesome, but he and Nate have some physical similarities and I love Nate, so... it was a little inevitable. Anyway, I'm like looking around constantly to see Seth Rogen, and finally, there he was, standing there with Michael Cera (from Arrested Development) and the genius kid who plays McLovin in the movie. I flipped out, took some really bad pictures, was a little stalker-ish for awhile, but then calmed down and moved on. The movie was pretty awesome, and Michael Cera is perhaps the master of the awkward comeback/pause. And, for those of you who know him, he also reminds me very strongly of Dan Myers. It is uncanny. Also, while wandering the floor, I heard my name being called. Turns out my old friend Cody from Columbia's new job in LA had led him to the con (his job is at a comicbook company) so I got to see him (we've been trying to have lunch for like months) and talk a little bit. He looks the same, and didn't seem to believe me when i said I would call him so we could hang out. That bugs me a little, if I didn't want to see him I wouldn't make as much effort to do so as I have been. But it was very interesting nonetheless.
Saturday
Most crowded day, since the entire place was sold out, for like the first time ever. That means there were about 250,000 people there and the lines reflected it. We got up, started to wait in line for this TV Guide panel of new shows but didn't end up getting in. The same hall was having the Heroes panel afterwards, and so we waited in the same line for another hour or so and still didn't get into the hall. We left Nicole so she could wait in the SAME line for the Battlestar panel and apparently she actually did get in (3.5 hours later), but barely. Meanwhile, fed up with the crowds and the lines, and also having the presence of 5 other people around me a lot of the time, plus the anger I was feeling towards the masses, and needing to regain some sanity, I decided to catch up on Harry Potter. I read about 300 pages in 3ish hours, and felt much better, albeit desperate to read the rest. I took a small break, then read some more, and was raised out of my HP-induced stupor by a man who had sat across from me and was talking loudly into his cell phone.
BOB, BOB, it's RALPH. Can you hear me? BOB, it's RALPH. Hello? BOB, it's RALPH EGGLESTON. Right. Ralph Eggleston from Pixar. BOB! We're meeting outside in 5 minutes. OK?
I looked at his badge and sure enough, it was the same Ralph Eggleston whose Toy Stories 1&2 are two of the best movies ever made. I had felt a little twinge of sadness at missing that day's Pixar panel, so this was awesome. He was also wearing the single greatest "Mine! Mine!" seagull hat ever. I smiled at him and he smiled back. That night, we had a quick dinner then ran back to the con for the 10th anniversary Buffy celebration, which was, of course, celebrated by screening the musical episode of Buffy. This was amazing and nobody really had to read the words and everybody was singing along and during the ballads, people took out their cellphones instead of lighters and some people knew the dances, and it was pretty much the best time ever. We all had a great high afterwards and were going to go out to karaoke, but the trip back to the hotel to drop off our stuff pre-karaoke drained us of that high. So we stayed in, drank a little (and in some cases, all of the alcohol in the world), went to bed way too late (and in some cases, way too not at all) and got up too early.
Sunday
Checkout, frustration with some of the still-drunk members of our party. Heading to the con for last minute sales (like Mr. Toast! And a really cute pair of shorts from a dealer that sold awesome kitty things), last minute freebies, and a last sweep around the floor. We dropped off the one of us who needed to go to the airport, and I drove very sleepily back to LA. We drove for about 1.5 hours until we were too hungry to not eat any more, stopped in a really nice oceanside town called San Clemente and ate at a delicious 50's diner. We then drove another 2 hours to LA, dropped Matt and Nicole off, then drove home. I think I passed out as soon as Nate and I were a big spoon and then had to wake up this morning to drop Marianna off at the Flyaway.
For those of you who don't want to read the whole thing, the summary is that the Once More with Feeling screening was probably the most fun I had, but the Paramount panel gave out the most and BEST free stuff. I don't think it's wise to fit 6 people in one hotel room, especially when you're running on caffeine, carbs, and alcohol. But overall, it was WAY better than last year, and although I crashed on Saturday, still a really good idea to go to all 4 days. Hopefully next year we'll be able to get a condo. WOOOOO comicon!