Emerald City Comic Con: belated con report
Good morning, folks! This weekend is the weekend I staff a table at the local rockhound show, which means that this weekend is the weekend I catch up on e-mails (9 days behind at the moment…I've been worse), write and make posts I've been meaning to make for ages, and play games when I get tired of those two things (this weekend I'll be levelling my hunter to 20 so I can get my second pet slot and start collecting pets).
This particular post is my Emerald City Comic Con report. I suspect this will be shorted than most of my con reports, but we'll see.
If you only want to see how Red Lantern Guy turned out, you can go straight to the picture links, which I've left outside the cut.
Thursday Night: The Drive Down
As
maiea is in possession of a car, we were able to drive down to Seattle. We decided to head down on Thursday night after work instead of Friday morning so that we could check into our hotel room, chill out, and get settled before the con. The drive down went smoothly. We stopped at McDonald's for "dinner", the first time I'd eaten there in at least a year, and miracle of miracles, it didn't give me bad guts. \o/ We also stopped at a Target, where I bought Super Hero Squad (as usual), a pool noodle to be a GL weapon (I ended up not carrying it) and lime green duct tape (which I hoped to use for boot repairs).
We arrived, checked in, and joined
webbgirl in the room. It was an uneventful night, except for me tearing up duct tape to cover up the mess of my boots, realizing it was too light in color, and having to paint it to match. I was very glad I brought my paint and bruises.
Friday
Friday morning there was Starbucks. On the way there, I spotted a curious sign and was informed (I forget by who) that it was a pretty big arcade. Hope flared. Maybe they'd have Tetris! God, I miss arcade Tetris. Anyway, I resolved that I must drop in sometime and check.
But first, we went to check out the Science-Fiction Museum. I went to the opening, and I returned awhile later, and both times I was there I was able to see displays on the history of SF, fandom, big video displays, and tons of SF artifacts. This time, there was…a Battlestar Galactica exhibit wedged into one of the music galleries. Oh, and an ad for a big Avatar display. I was extremely disappointed, especially since I was the one to suggest the visit. Not remotely worth the $15 admission. :-( :-( :-(
We had lunch after that, and then
maiea went back to the room to change and
webbgirl and
tartary_lamb humoured my search for Tetris. Alas, although the arcade had many classic games, there was no Tetris. Super disappointed again.
But there was still a con to attend! We returned to the room, but ended up going downstairs to kill a little time while we waited for a guy friend of
maiea's to finish changing in the room (he was done pretty fast, but we didn't know that). Then I got changed into my GL Guy Gardner costume (the boot fix came out pretty well, for what it was) and we were off to the con.
There was almost no waiting for registration, which was nice. I got impatient and didn't wait for
maiea and her friend, who were both also in costume, so I didn't get stopped as much as a group would, but there were still a fair number of pictures and even more comments of, "Hey, Guy Gardner!" as I went by, which is always awesome.
I only went to one panel on Friday, which was Wil Wheaton's panel. He's a good speaker, and I love his stories about being a gamer, being a geek, being a dad, all of them. I really need to buy one of his books.
Other than that it was wandering around the dealer's room (Friday I bought a Super Hero Squad which it turned out I already had, plus a light up version of the GL ring, a Blue Beetle III action figure, and a baby tee with the GL symbol on it) and having my picture taken--way more of the second once I met up with
maiea and friend after Wil Wheaton's panel.
The five of us went for dinner at The Cheesecake factory, which was my first visit there. It was quite good, although I didn't go into ecstasies over either food or cheesecake (key lime pie cheesecake).
And then back to the room for chat, showing off of purchases, internet, and (for me) WoW.
What, you thought I'd take a break from the WoW? Not likely. *g*
Saturday
After a Starbucks run (of course), I kitted myself out in my Red Lantern Guy Gardner costume, joined
maiea who was dressed as Guardian (Heather Hudson), and off we went again. When we got to the convention centre we decided that since we wanted to get pictures with Bruce Boxleitner, we'd better check out the line, especially since we'd heard that you had to get in a line for the photo ticket and then get in a line for the photo.
When we got down there, the line was huge. Fortunately, or so we thought at the time, it was divided into a Shatner line and a non-Shatner line. We thought this was great, since the non-Shatner line was so much shorter. We were soon proved wrong--there were three people serving the Shatner line and only one serving everyone else. On top of that, they started jumping people needing tickets for the next photo session (Frakes and Spiner; Shatner wasn't until 5:15pm) over the line…and feeding them to the single non-Shatner cashier. Which meant those of us not there for Frakes, Spiner, or Shatner ceased to move. Complaints ensued--neither the Frakes & Spiner people nor the other non-Shatner people could understand why they couldn't take ONE of the three people serving the Shatner folks who didn't need a ticket for another 5 hours and have THEM serve the Frakes & Spiner people instead of taking over the only person serving everyone else, all of whom had earlier photo times.
But we did get our photo tickets, and although they ran us through the photo area like an assembly line--if they took more than 3 seconds for each photo I'd be surprised--we got our photos. I actually got two, because the photographer decided he needed to retake it, but they printed both! Also, hilariously, when you compare all the photos laid out on the table for pick up, Boxlietner looks like a cardboard standee. Each photo individual is nice, but he's so identical in all of them, despite the different people, that it was super funny.
Then we hurried off the Frakes & Spiner panel, which was cool but mostly a series of jokes.
After that we walked around the exhibit hall for a bit, but the shoulder armour on my costume wasn't fitting very comfortably (for reasons that I'll save for another post) and my shoulders were really sore, so I decided to take off the costume.
To be honest, I'd have suffered the discomfort if people had recognized it, but no one did. :-( Well, only one person. I was sad about that, but not too surprised. A little surprised--I thought Blackest Night had reached more people--but not really surprised.
Anyway, after I took off the costume I mostly hung out with
webbgirl and trawled the dealer's room. There was also the DC Nation panel, but no significant announcements there.
The big thing on Saturday was my impulse purchase just before the exhibit hall closed.
tartary_lamb had told me she had spotted a Guy Gardner statue, so I went searching for it. I found it, and it turned out to be one part of the three part DC legacies Green Lantern statue. I asked to look at Guy and Kyle, and they reminded me that it was a three part statue, and I hemmed and hawed, and then they told me they'd sell me all three parts for $410…and I totally caved. I bought all three, and it's the first time I've ever bought a statue (rather than an action figure) for one of my fandoms. Oh, Guy, you make me weak.
Having completely blown my budget, I decided I better get out of dodge before I did something else unwise. LOL. Another typical
crimsonquills-at-a-con evening ensued.
Sunday
Sunday morning was dominated by the craziness that was checking out (
tartary_lamb spent an amazing amount of time with the bookings agent while he tried to figure out how to split our bill properly), loading up the car (the valet line up was so long that they let
maiea and I walk down into the parking area and load the car ourselves), and hurrying to Bruce Boxleitner's panel.
We arrived just a little late, but still got good seats because the room was huge. I must say, Boxleitner was a fascinating speaker, primarily because he was willing to be MUCH more frank and open about how things work in the tv/film industry and the politics of it and the practical realities than any other tv personality type speaker I've seen. I really enjoyed his talk.
I decided not to go in cosplay Sunday, so
webbgirl and I spent most of the time trying to find artists to do sketches in Artist's Alley. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring references and no one knew the characters I wanted (Steph!Batgirl and Jaime!Blue Beetle) well enough to do a sketch without them. The Mini Marvels guy sure gave Steph a good shot, though, and he didn't charge me for it.
Sadly, the con wound down and it was time to head home. We had an uneventful drive and arrived back in Vancouver in pretty good time. Of course, I couldn't resist unpacking my statue and playing some WoW, so I was up late and tired the next day anyway.
Overall Reactions
It was a good con, especially for a regional convention, but I confess to some disappointment. Not because there was anything wrong with it--there wasn't--or because it was too small--it was three times the size of any of the SF cons I go to--but because my expectations were…off base. I wanted it to be more a comic con, but given that SDCC is the first and only other comic con I've been to, I was expecting a variety of comics-focused panels that wasn't there.
But I still had a good time, especially on Friday, and I obviously found some excellent swag to bring home with me. :-)
Pictures
I didn't take any pictures (except one of a Kosh cosplayer), but pictures were taken of me, and
maiea scoured flickr and was kind enough to pass the links she found along.
I'm making an angry face in most of the Red Lantern costume pics because Red are the Rage Lanterns. :-)
I wasn't able to save any of the pictures to my hard drive, and it seemed unfair to the photographers to screen capture and re-upload them, so I'm afraid you'll have to click the links to see my costumes.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/secretbean/5512293177/sizes/l/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/reisobrien/5502075495/in/pool-720980@N24
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ljinto/5509264209/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelldar/5512932727/sizes/l/in/set-72157626108252073/ (I quite like this one)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelldar/5513527458/in/set-72157626108252073/ (this one, too)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/majorconfusion/5507126969/ (I think this is my favourite, though)
[This entry was originally posted at DreamWidth (http://crimsonquills.dreamwidth.org/703727.html). Please comment there using OpenID or anonymous commenting. (
comments at DreamWidth.)]
This particular post is my Emerald City Comic Con report. I suspect this will be shorted than most of my con reports, but we'll see.
If you only want to see how Red Lantern Guy turned out, you can go straight to the picture links, which I've left outside the cut.
Thursday Night: The Drive Down
As
maiea is in possession of a car, we were able to drive down to Seattle. We decided to head down on Thursday night after work instead of Friday morning so that we could check into our hotel room, chill out, and get settled before the con. The drive down went smoothly. We stopped at McDonald's for "dinner", the first time I'd eaten there in at least a year, and miracle of miracles, it didn't give me bad guts. \o/ We also stopped at a Target, where I bought Super Hero Squad (as usual), a pool noodle to be a GL weapon (I ended up not carrying it) and lime green duct tape (which I hoped to use for boot repairs).
We arrived, checked in, and joined
webbgirl in the room. It was an uneventful night, except for me tearing up duct tape to cover up the mess of my boots, realizing it was too light in color, and having to paint it to match. I was very glad I brought my paint and bruises.
Friday
Friday morning there was Starbucks. On the way there, I spotted a curious sign and was informed (I forget by who) that it was a pretty big arcade. Hope flared. Maybe they'd have Tetris! God, I miss arcade Tetris. Anyway, I resolved that I must drop in sometime and check.
But first, we went to check out the Science-Fiction Museum. I went to the opening, and I returned awhile later, and both times I was there I was able to see displays on the history of SF, fandom, big video displays, and tons of SF artifacts. This time, there was…a Battlestar Galactica exhibit wedged into one of the music galleries. Oh, and an ad for a big Avatar display. I was extremely disappointed, especially since I was the one to suggest the visit. Not remotely worth the $15 admission. :-( :-( :-(
We had lunch after that, and then
maiea went back to the room to change and
webbgirl and
tartary_lamb humoured my search for Tetris. Alas, although the arcade had many classic games, there was no Tetris. Super disappointed again.
But there was still a con to attend! We returned to the room, but ended up going downstairs to kill a little time while we waited for a guy friend of
maiea's to finish changing in the room (he was done pretty fast, but we didn't know that). Then I got changed into my GL Guy Gardner costume (the boot fix came out pretty well, for what it was) and we were off to the con.
There was almost no waiting for registration, which was nice. I got impatient and didn't wait for
maiea and her friend, who were both also in costume, so I didn't get stopped as much as a group would, but there were still a fair number of pictures and even more comments of, "Hey, Guy Gardner!" as I went by, which is always awesome.
I only went to one panel on Friday, which was Wil Wheaton's panel. He's a good speaker, and I love his stories about being a gamer, being a geek, being a dad, all of them. I really need to buy one of his books.
Other than that it was wandering around the dealer's room (Friday I bought a Super Hero Squad which it turned out I already had, plus a light up version of the GL ring, a Blue Beetle III action figure, and a baby tee with the GL symbol on it) and having my picture taken--way more of the second once I met up with
maiea and friend after Wil Wheaton's panel.
The five of us went for dinner at The Cheesecake factory, which was my first visit there. It was quite good, although I didn't go into ecstasies over either food or cheesecake (key lime pie cheesecake).
And then back to the room for chat, showing off of purchases, internet, and (for me) WoW.
What, you thought I'd take a break from the WoW? Not likely. *g*
Saturday
After a Starbucks run (of course), I kitted myself out in my Red Lantern Guy Gardner costume, joined
maiea who was dressed as Guardian (Heather Hudson), and off we went again. When we got to the convention centre we decided that since we wanted to get pictures with Bruce Boxleitner, we'd better check out the line, especially since we'd heard that you had to get in a line for the photo ticket and then get in a line for the photo.
When we got down there, the line was huge. Fortunately, or so we thought at the time, it was divided into a Shatner line and a non-Shatner line. We thought this was great, since the non-Shatner line was so much shorter. We were soon proved wrong--there were three people serving the Shatner line and only one serving everyone else. On top of that, they started jumping people needing tickets for the next photo session (Frakes and Spiner; Shatner wasn't until 5:15pm) over the line…and feeding them to the single non-Shatner cashier. Which meant those of us not there for Frakes, Spiner, or Shatner ceased to move. Complaints ensued--neither the Frakes & Spiner people nor the other non-Shatner people could understand why they couldn't take ONE of the three people serving the Shatner folks who didn't need a ticket for another 5 hours and have THEM serve the Frakes & Spiner people instead of taking over the only person serving everyone else, all of whom had earlier photo times.
But we did get our photo tickets, and although they ran us through the photo area like an assembly line--if they took more than 3 seconds for each photo I'd be surprised--we got our photos. I actually got two, because the photographer decided he needed to retake it, but they printed both! Also, hilariously, when you compare all the photos laid out on the table for pick up, Boxlietner looks like a cardboard standee. Each photo individual is nice, but he's so identical in all of them, despite the different people, that it was super funny.
Then we hurried off the Frakes & Spiner panel, which was cool but mostly a series of jokes.
After that we walked around the exhibit hall for a bit, but the shoulder armour on my costume wasn't fitting very comfortably (for reasons that I'll save for another post) and my shoulders were really sore, so I decided to take off the costume.
To be honest, I'd have suffered the discomfort if people had recognized it, but no one did. :-( Well, only one person. I was sad about that, but not too surprised. A little surprised--I thought Blackest Night had reached more people--but not really surprised.
Anyway, after I took off the costume I mostly hung out with
webbgirl and trawled the dealer's room. There was also the DC Nation panel, but no significant announcements there.
The big thing on Saturday was my impulse purchase just before the exhibit hall closed.
tartary_lamb had told me she had spotted a Guy Gardner statue, so I went searching for it. I found it, and it turned out to be one part of the three part DC legacies Green Lantern statue. I asked to look at Guy and Kyle, and they reminded me that it was a three part statue, and I hemmed and hawed, and then they told me they'd sell me all three parts for $410…and I totally caved. I bought all three, and it's the first time I've ever bought a statue (rather than an action figure) for one of my fandoms. Oh, Guy, you make me weak.
Having completely blown my budget, I decided I better get out of dodge before I did something else unwise. LOL. Another typical
crimsonquills-at-a-con evening ensued.
Sunday
Sunday morning was dominated by the craziness that was checking out (
tartary_lamb spent an amazing amount of time with the bookings agent while he tried to figure out how to split our bill properly), loading up the car (the valet line up was so long that they let
maiea and I walk down into the parking area and load the car ourselves), and hurrying to Bruce Boxleitner's panel.
We arrived just a little late, but still got good seats because the room was huge. I must say, Boxleitner was a fascinating speaker, primarily because he was willing to be MUCH more frank and open about how things work in the tv/film industry and the politics of it and the practical realities than any other tv personality type speaker I've seen. I really enjoyed his talk.
I decided not to go in cosplay Sunday, so
webbgirl and I spent most of the time trying to find artists to do sketches in Artist's Alley. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring references and no one knew the characters I wanted (Steph!Batgirl and Jaime!Blue Beetle) well enough to do a sketch without them. The Mini Marvels guy sure gave Steph a good shot, though, and he didn't charge me for it.
Sadly, the con wound down and it was time to head home. We had an uneventful drive and arrived back in Vancouver in pretty good time. Of course, I couldn't resist unpacking my statue and playing some WoW, so I was up late and tired the next day anyway.
Overall Reactions
It was a good con, especially for a regional convention, but I confess to some disappointment. Not because there was anything wrong with it--there wasn't--or because it was too small--it was three times the size of any of the SF cons I go to--but because my expectations were…off base. I wanted it to be more a comic con, but given that SDCC is the first and only other comic con I've been to, I was expecting a variety of comics-focused panels that wasn't there.
But I still had a good time, especially on Friday, and I obviously found some excellent swag to bring home with me. :-)
Pictures
I didn't take any pictures (except one of a Kosh cosplayer), but pictures were taken of me, and
maiea scoured flickr and was kind enough to pass the links she found along.
I'm making an angry face in most of the Red Lantern costume pics because Red are the Rage Lanterns. :-)
I wasn't able to save any of the pictures to my hard drive, and it seemed unfair to the photographers to screen capture and re-upload them, so I'm afraid you'll have to click the links to see my costumes.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/secretbean/5512293177/sizes/l/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/reisobrien/5502075495/in/pool-720980@N24
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ljinto/5509264209/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelldar/5512932727/sizes/l/in/set-72157626108252073/ (I quite like this one)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelldar/5513527458/in/set-72157626108252073/ (this one, too)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/majorconfusion/5507126969/ (I think this is my favourite, though)
[This entry was originally posted at DreamWidth (http://crimsonquills.dreamwidth.org/703727.html). Please comment there using OpenID or anonymous commenting. (
comments at DreamWidth.)]