ComicCon 2011 - My Chemical Romance Edition
This post is going to be full of stuff about my encounters with MCR members and anyone else tangentially connected to the Ways such as comic writers or artists, wives, and the long suffering staff members of Dark Horse. So, if Umbrella Academy or My Chemical Romance arent your bag, feel free to skip this. Other SDCC stuff will be in other posts :D
Okay, the way signings work with the big names at Comic-Con (for example, the Cast of True Blood, Gerard Way, Guillermo Del Toro, etc) is that you have to take a raffle ticket and hope they pull your ticket number. Over the course of Thursday and Friday I managed to get about 15 tickets for Gerard's panel because the statistical likelihood of it working? Not high, but I got it! Yay!
So, the crowd is mulling around for the signing and hi there Gerard! He's very...Gerard like, lol, which is no surprise. He once he comes out, Mikey and Alicia slip out of the Dark Horse cubicle/backstage/booth thing and off to the size. I recognize them and see them first, of course, because I am a dork and a stalker and leave the line - which is a hundred people thick, literally - and dart over there because, Mikey's wearing the governess hat yall. I have to go say hi when he's in that hat.
Alicia took that picture for me, because she's amazing. Seriously. She's my favorite of the bandom wives because - probably because for some reason, I find her the easiest to interact with. Also Mikey gets easier to speak to when she's around as well. My. Favorite. Couple. ♥ She handed my camera back to me to check the picture and because I lack impulse control and because Mikey is always so...I dont know, happy around her, smiling and stuff I asked "Hey, can I ask - do you make that face on purpose in pictures?" Mikey blinked at me all confused and goes "What face?" So I handed him the camera and pointed at the picture. "That one You never smile. I mean, you're smiling now but you've been doing pictures for like ten years but you're pretty much always doing that expression. Is that on purpose?" Yeah. I know. WTF was I doing? In my defense? I'd been up since 2am and was a bit slap happy at that point. But Mikey just sort of laughed and said "Oh, I don't know. I think it's that I'm not really comfortable in front of cameras." "They'll steal your soul," Alicia agreed but it was kind of mocking? And he laughed and then added "Plus, I dont really like my teeth." Which, what? Which is what I said. "What's wrong with your teeth?" Mikey said, "They're crooked. I don't really feel comfortable showing them in pictures." At which point I opened my mouth again and said "Seriously? I think they're fine." And Alicia was said something along the lines of "Yes, they are. See?" like this is clearly a conversation they've had more than once. Though it should be noted, Alicia's teeth and mine are both very, very straight so I dont know, maybe straight teethed people dont have room to talk :P But she and I both had a little side conversation about how there was nothing wrong with crooked teeth, they totally worked soand Mikey felt compelled to explain that "They tried to make me get braces when I was a kid but I said no." How fucking precious is that? So precious. Also? Wise. I was like "Smart move - I was in braces for eight years plus surgery." And he was like "Yeah, I'll just not smile in pictures." So, mystery solved because he really does actually smile and emote rather a lot when he's talking so - its just the soul gathering devices. Oh, and he TOTALLY remembered me from the sound check. More so - Alicia remembered me from LAST year at ComicCon which I find kind cool actually. Other people started to cluster and so I thanked them for their time and said it was nice to see them (which it really was - seriously, I want to be half of a MikeyAndAlicia-like couple when I grow up) and darted off to get in line for the signing.
AND NOW FOR THE GERARD SPAM! So not dial up friendly. No, seriously, there's dozens and dozens. I wish I were kidding. /o\
I got back in the line which was crazy and proceeded to take a METRIC FUCK TON of pictures of Gerard up signing stuff. I didnt mean to except he kept WAVING HIS HANDS and having FACIAL expressions. I'm powerless okay? /o\
Right, so the one beneath this text? It's possibly my favorite from the sign. I kind of lucked out with someone else's flash, his shadow, his expression and all of it. But that's just me. :D
Right so, in my imagination? His entire conversation with this girl with the green hair? It's a conversation with Ramona Flowers on how best to battle Evil Exes. DONT JUDGE ME! I blame their competing technocolor hair.
While I was standing in line? One of the Dark Horse employees told me and the girl standing behind me this story about how last year? "This girl walked up and didn't say a word. She just bam, started bleeding from the nose." At which point I held up my hand, index finger up and said "Okay, 1) that was me and 2) I totally managed some words before I started bleeding." Poor Dark Horse employee boy. He was HORRIFIED. It was kind of funny. I've never been told a story about me by someone who doesnt know it's me before. It's a novel experience. He was like "I kind of remember you. I was in the green room having a meeting when you were brought back there." I replied, "I remember that. Hey, um, that meeting, it wasn't with Dave Gibbons[artist of the Watchmen] was it?" Dark Horse guy:"Do you really want me to answer that?" Me: "Oh god, it was wasn't it?" Dark Horse guy: "Yeah. Sorry." Me: ///////////o\\\\\\\\\\\\
Apparently the whole Nose Bleed Girl incident is fucking LEGEND around Dark Horse because EVERYONE there remembered me. *sigh* I told Gerard about it when I got up there because *he* remembered me from the soundcheck back in May and was like "We're going to get through this one blood free this time right?" "Right" "Awesome." Only I come back around later, just sort of hanging out, exchanging info with the pink haired girl in the photos so I could email her the pictures to hear Gerard relating the story back to them about how they didn't know it was me the story was about as it was told at which point I was like "And it's just happened again." About half of the assembled - Gerard, Medi, and Dark Horse Guy from the Line laughed and the other three were like "OMG SORRY." which was way funnier. Hey. It's just nice to me nominated or whatever :D
I posted this picture already but AH! GRANT MORRISON AND LYN-Z WAY! In ONE PLACE! AT ONE TIME! WITH ME! Lyn-z also remembered me /o\ and was very cool with me getting all a twitter at her. Grant just sort of blinked at me but was very friendly about everything all the same. The entire encounter is kind of a blur but WHATEVER. IT HAPPENED! IN REAL LIFE!
And that was My Chemical Romance people and tangents I ran into on Friday. Except for the part where I came downstairs at my hotel to look for food around midnight, failed to find any and ended up on the same elevator as Mikey (same hat but singificantly more rock-star looking in a leather jacket), Alicia, and Medi. I didnt say anything that time because WTF. THEY WERE IN MY HOTEL. I didnt want them to think I was stalking them okay? /o\ I know what floor they got off on. I noticed because I couldnt help it but I'm not going to say which because REALLY! NOT A STALKER!
Only. Saturday morrning, I came downstairs with my roommate Carol at around 9am - dressed in the cut to shit, extra long Ghostbusters t-shirt I'd slept in, a pair of shorts, flip flops and no makeup or anything and walk into the restaurant and come face to face with Gerard Way, standing by a table, having coffee. He spotted me, lifted a hand and fucking WAVED at me and said "Hey. Morning!" Nothing will wake your ass up like that kind of adrenaline rush, I promise. I waved back and then walked past him because oh, hey, my freaking waitress had grabbed the table RIGHT BEHIND HIS and Carol was like "oh lovely". WTF CAROL AND TREACHEROUS WAITRESS! DONT DO THIS TO ME. /o\ Gah. Yeah. Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon and a couple of the other Brazilian comic talent joined him. I quietly had a stroke. Especially when I glanced over my fucking shoulder and saw the cast of Spartacus. IT WAS MORNING! I HADNT JUST WOKEN UP! MY FRAGILE HEART COULDNT TAKE IT!
But I did the "play it cool" thing - even though I was so not cool. I was spazzing out like a spazz thing - and I ate like a bird at a feeder all peckish and picking because oh, there's fucking ALL OF TORCHWOOD too. And I'm trying to eat my eggs but its like, WHERE THE HELL AM I!?!?!
Eventually I eat some and Gerard walks past our table and outside - because the restaurant was right on this really patio space. Alone. To have a smoke. So. Look, I don't know you guys. How many chances do you get to really talk to a hero one on one? Right? Right. So, I went out there to talk to him.
The conversation started with me asking if it was okay for me to be there - because I guess alone time is, you know, its sacred famous or not and I didn't want to bother him. I told him I didnt want to disturb him at his table because he was eating. Plus it looked like it was clearly a creative meeting and Gerard was like "No, we just wanted to get together. We havent seen each other since last year. We(we = I'm assuming him and Lyn-Z and Bandit/MCR/other Dark Horse peeps) haven't been able to make it to Brazil." I was a little stunned at that - which I guess I shouldnt have been but I was really impressed at how they all made time for each other, even if it was just a breakfast. Anyway, he said it was fine and he didn't really mind - he needed a cigarette anyway. I told him that the whole thing kind of freaked me out which made him give a little head tilt thing and ask me why. I told him that it didn't really matter how many times I saw him in person, it was a weird disconnect in my head because, and you guys I said this out loud, to his face /o\ - "you're one of my heroes and its always a little crazy when your hero shows up and is a real person you know? I know thats weird and I'm not trying to be creepy or anything but you've done so much for me without even knowing me and it's just weird."
And he was Gerard so of course he was really cool about it and was like, yeah I can totally see that so dont sweat it etc etc. In fact, if anything he seemed kind of amused by it. Then I asked him if it was okay to ask him a creative question - if not I would totally go away, no problem. He shook his head and was all "Sure, go ahead." Naturally, I asked him about killjoys. The conversation went like this to the very best of my recollection (in that I wrote as much as I could remember down when I got back to the room).
Me: "Okay - why 2019? I mean, for something that catastrophic and radical a change to happen, it seems like it'd take a little longer than just under ten years to institute that kind of change."
Gerard: "Really? You think so?"
"Well, yeah. Look at New Orleans. Katrina happened 6 years ago and they're barely back on their feet. If there was such a dramatic catastrophy, would there be anyone there to do it?"
Gerard: "Depends on if there was something like BL/I waiting to step in on the opportunity to create their perfect city."
Me: "So they were just waiting for it? Was it like...a globally orchestrated disaster?"
Gerard: "Orchestrated?"
Me: "Yeah. I mean, after that sort of disaster, where the entire world order's changed, would there be enough people to pull it together. I mean, was it global?"
Gerard: "No, it's just California."
Me: Really? I assumed with the Japanese woman from SING that it was international.
Gerard: Well, BL/I definitely is. If we'd expanded it into a larger universe you'd've seen execs who were like...Russian and German and Spanish and stuff too.
Me: So, wait. How big an event was it?"
Gerard: "You know, I never really thought about it."
Me: "Oh. I just sort of figured that since it was a comic-based situation, there was some sort of background event."
Gerard: "Oh, the comic Killjoys is completely different from the album Killjoys. I start writing it on Monday(7/25/11), actually. It's not going to be as futuristic. They're more dealing with something closer to our current time."
Me: "Oh awesome. I just sort of figured because I've seen the art Becky Clooney put up on her twitter and am super excited about it and it's all in the album vein. Her stuff is amazing."
Gerard: "Totally. Yeah, I dont know. It wasn't really relevant to what we were doing at the time with the album and the comic isn't connected so I didn't really think about that."
Me:"Oh. Well, I just wondered, you know, as a fan of the story side of it."
Gerard: "No, that's cool. It just didnt come up. "
And then someone from the line for Hall H spotted him and started coming towards him and he was like "Okay, I've got to go," And darted back inside. The girl from the line actually drew up short and looked at me and was like "Was that him?" and I nodded. She looked crestfallen and I really wanted to say something to cheer her up so I was like "He's got people waiting inside, he had to go" rather than "He was running from you because 1 fangirl is one thing 2 will turn to 4 will turn to 8 like tribbles." And she nodded and smiled and got back in line. I just hope her panel was awesome.
Sunday morning I managed to grab a picture with him because I came down for breakfast again and *waves a hand* There he was. Again. ITS WEIRD AS HELL to have members of your favorite band (who you also write fanfic about sometimes, okay a lot of the time) to be SLEEPING AND EATING in the same building as you. But I actually didn't look like utter shit that morning and he was waiting for a car - and I'm assuming the rest of his family because they were no where to be found - and so I popped my head out - since he seemed to just be standing around waiting and asked for a quick picture if he didn't mind. Which, he didn't and I thanked him for all the time he spared for me that weekend. He waved it off because, I dont know, he's just awesome? And then someone, I think it was Medi, took this picture for me.
Yeah. It's totally my phone wallpaper at this point in time. I showed it to my mom this morning and her response? "Wow Rachael! You could be brother and sister or cousins! Coloring and the way you both have round faces and such." Yeah. Okay mom *laughs*. Please note - I managed to get in a picture with one of Gerard in the presence of one of his great loves: coffee.
Anyway, that is it for the bandom section of this year's con. Twas awesome. Sorry for any typos - Long post got REALLY long on me /o\
Okay, the way signings work with the big names at Comic-Con (for example, the Cast of True Blood, Gerard Way, Guillermo Del Toro, etc) is that you have to take a raffle ticket and hope they pull your ticket number. Over the course of Thursday and Friday I managed to get about 15 tickets for Gerard's panel because the statistical likelihood of it working? Not high, but I got it! Yay!
So, the crowd is mulling around for the signing and hi there Gerard! He's very...Gerard like, lol, which is no surprise. He once he comes out, Mikey and Alicia slip out of the Dark Horse cubicle/backstage/booth thing and off to the size. I recognize them and see them first, of course, because I am a dork and a stalker and leave the line - which is a hundred people thick, literally - and dart over there because, Mikey's wearing the governess hat yall. I have to go say hi when he's in that hat.
Alicia took that picture for me, because she's amazing. Seriously. She's my favorite of the bandom wives because - probably because for some reason, I find her the easiest to interact with. Also Mikey gets easier to speak to when she's around as well. My. Favorite. Couple. ♥ She handed my camera back to me to check the picture and because I lack impulse control and because Mikey is always so...I dont know, happy around her, smiling and stuff I asked "Hey, can I ask - do you make that face on purpose in pictures?" Mikey blinked at me all confused and goes "What face?" So I handed him the camera and pointed at the picture. "That one You never smile. I mean, you're smiling now but you've been doing pictures for like ten years but you're pretty much always doing that expression. Is that on purpose?" Yeah. I know. WTF was I doing? In my defense? I'd been up since 2am and was a bit slap happy at that point. But Mikey just sort of laughed and said "Oh, I don't know. I think it's that I'm not really comfortable in front of cameras." "They'll steal your soul," Alicia agreed but it was kind of mocking? And he laughed and then added "Plus, I dont really like my teeth." Which, what? Which is what I said. "What's wrong with your teeth?" Mikey said, "They're crooked. I don't really feel comfortable showing them in pictures." At which point I opened my mouth again and said "Seriously? I think they're fine." And Alicia was said something along the lines of "Yes, they are. See?" like this is clearly a conversation they've had more than once. Though it should be noted, Alicia's teeth and mine are both very, very straight so I dont know, maybe straight teethed people dont have room to talk :P But she and I both had a little side conversation about how there was nothing wrong with crooked teeth, they totally worked soand Mikey felt compelled to explain that "They tried to make me get braces when I was a kid but I said no." How fucking precious is that? So precious. Also? Wise. I was like "Smart move - I was in braces for eight years plus surgery." And he was like "Yeah, I'll just not smile in pictures." So, mystery solved because he really does actually smile and emote rather a lot when he's talking so - its just the soul gathering devices. Oh, and he TOTALLY remembered me from the sound check. More so - Alicia remembered me from LAST year at ComicCon which I find kind cool actually. Other people started to cluster and so I thanked them for their time and said it was nice to see them (which it really was - seriously, I want to be half of a MikeyAndAlicia-like couple when I grow up) and darted off to get in line for the signing.
AND NOW FOR THE GERARD SPAM! So not dial up friendly. No, seriously, there's dozens and dozens. I wish I were kidding. /o\
I got back in the line which was crazy and proceeded to take a METRIC FUCK TON of pictures of Gerard up signing stuff. I didnt mean to except he kept WAVING HIS HANDS and having FACIAL expressions. I'm powerless okay? /o\
Right, so the one beneath this text? It's possibly my favorite from the sign. I kind of lucked out with someone else's flash, his shadow, his expression and all of it. But that's just me. :D
Right so, in my imagination? His entire conversation with this girl with the green hair? It's a conversation with Ramona Flowers on how best to battle Evil Exes. DONT JUDGE ME! I blame their competing technocolor hair.
While I was standing in line? One of the Dark Horse employees told me and the girl standing behind me this story about how last year? "This girl walked up and didn't say a word. She just bam, started bleeding from the nose." At which point I held up my hand, index finger up and said "Okay, 1) that was me and 2) I totally managed some words before I started bleeding." Poor Dark Horse employee boy. He was HORRIFIED. It was kind of funny. I've never been told a story about me by someone who doesnt know it's me before. It's a novel experience. He was like "I kind of remember you. I was in the green room having a meeting when you were brought back there." I replied, "I remember that. Hey, um, that meeting, it wasn't with Dave Gibbons[artist of the Watchmen] was it?" Dark Horse guy:"Do you really want me to answer that?" Me: "Oh god, it was wasn't it?" Dark Horse guy: "Yeah. Sorry." Me: ///////////o\\\\\\\\\\\\
Apparently the whole Nose Bleed Girl incident is fucking LEGEND around Dark Horse because EVERYONE there remembered me. *sigh* I told Gerard about it when I got up there because *he* remembered me from the soundcheck back in May and was like "We're going to get through this one blood free this time right?" "Right" "Awesome." Only I come back around later, just sort of hanging out, exchanging info with the pink haired girl in the photos so I could email her the pictures to hear Gerard relating the story back to them about how they didn't know it was me the story was about as it was told at which point I was like "And it's just happened again." About half of the assembled - Gerard, Medi, and Dark Horse Guy from the Line laughed and the other three were like "OMG SORRY." which was way funnier. Hey. It's just nice to me nominated or whatever :D
I posted this picture already but AH! GRANT MORRISON AND LYN-Z WAY! In ONE PLACE! AT ONE TIME! WITH ME! Lyn-z also remembered me /o\ and was very cool with me getting all a twitter at her. Grant just sort of blinked at me but was very friendly about everything all the same. The entire encounter is kind of a blur but WHATEVER. IT HAPPENED! IN REAL LIFE!
And that was My Chemical Romance people and tangents I ran into on Friday. Except for the part where I came downstairs at my hotel to look for food around midnight, failed to find any and ended up on the same elevator as Mikey (same hat but singificantly more rock-star looking in a leather jacket), Alicia, and Medi. I didnt say anything that time because WTF. THEY WERE IN MY HOTEL. I didnt want them to think I was stalking them okay? /o\ I know what floor they got off on. I noticed because I couldnt help it but I'm not going to say which because REALLY! NOT A STALKER!
Only. Saturday morrning, I came downstairs with my roommate Carol at around 9am - dressed in the cut to shit, extra long Ghostbusters t-shirt I'd slept in, a pair of shorts, flip flops and no makeup or anything and walk into the restaurant and come face to face with Gerard Way, standing by a table, having coffee. He spotted me, lifted a hand and fucking WAVED at me and said "Hey. Morning!" Nothing will wake your ass up like that kind of adrenaline rush, I promise. I waved back and then walked past him because oh, hey, my freaking waitress had grabbed the table RIGHT BEHIND HIS and Carol was like "oh lovely". WTF CAROL AND TREACHEROUS WAITRESS! DONT DO THIS TO ME. /o\ Gah. Yeah. Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon and a couple of the other Brazilian comic talent joined him. I quietly had a stroke. Especially when I glanced over my fucking shoulder and saw the cast of Spartacus. IT WAS MORNING! I HADNT JUST WOKEN UP! MY FRAGILE HEART COULDNT TAKE IT!
But I did the "play it cool" thing - even though I was so not cool. I was spazzing out like a spazz thing - and I ate like a bird at a feeder all peckish and picking because oh, there's fucking ALL OF TORCHWOOD too. And I'm trying to eat my eggs but its like, WHERE THE HELL AM I!?!?!
Eventually I eat some and Gerard walks past our table and outside - because the restaurant was right on this really patio space. Alone. To have a smoke. So. Look, I don't know you guys. How many chances do you get to really talk to a hero one on one? Right? Right. So, I went out there to talk to him.
The conversation started with me asking if it was okay for me to be there - because I guess alone time is, you know, its sacred famous or not and I didn't want to bother him. I told him I didnt want to disturb him at his table because he was eating. Plus it looked like it was clearly a creative meeting and Gerard was like "No, we just wanted to get together. We havent seen each other since last year. We(we = I'm assuming him and Lyn-Z and Bandit/MCR/other Dark Horse peeps) haven't been able to make it to Brazil." I was a little stunned at that - which I guess I shouldnt have been but I was really impressed at how they all made time for each other, even if it was just a breakfast. Anyway, he said it was fine and he didn't really mind - he needed a cigarette anyway. I told him that the whole thing kind of freaked me out which made him give a little head tilt thing and ask me why. I told him that it didn't really matter how many times I saw him in person, it was a weird disconnect in my head because, and you guys I said this out loud, to his face /o\ - "you're one of my heroes and its always a little crazy when your hero shows up and is a real person you know? I know thats weird and I'm not trying to be creepy or anything but you've done so much for me without even knowing me and it's just weird."
And he was Gerard so of course he was really cool about it and was like, yeah I can totally see that so dont sweat it etc etc. In fact, if anything he seemed kind of amused by it. Then I asked him if it was okay to ask him a creative question - if not I would totally go away, no problem. He shook his head and was all "Sure, go ahead." Naturally, I asked him about killjoys. The conversation went like this to the very best of my recollection (in that I wrote as much as I could remember down when I got back to the room).
Me: "Okay - why 2019? I mean, for something that catastrophic and radical a change to happen, it seems like it'd take a little longer than just under ten years to institute that kind of change."
Gerard: "Really? You think so?"
"Well, yeah. Look at New Orleans. Katrina happened 6 years ago and they're barely back on their feet. If there was such a dramatic catastrophy, would there be anyone there to do it?"
Gerard: "Depends on if there was something like BL/I waiting to step in on the opportunity to create their perfect city."
Me: "So they were just waiting for it? Was it like...a globally orchestrated disaster?"
Gerard: "Orchestrated?"
Me: "Yeah. I mean, after that sort of disaster, where the entire world order's changed, would there be enough people to pull it together. I mean, was it global?"
Gerard: "No, it's just California."
Me: Really? I assumed with the Japanese woman from SING that it was international.
Gerard: Well, BL/I definitely is. If we'd expanded it into a larger universe you'd've seen execs who were like...Russian and German and Spanish and stuff too.
Me: So, wait. How big an event was it?"
Gerard: "You know, I never really thought about it."
Me: "Oh. I just sort of figured that since it was a comic-based situation, there was some sort of background event."
Gerard: "Oh, the comic Killjoys is completely different from the album Killjoys. I start writing it on Monday(7/25/11), actually. It's not going to be as futuristic. They're more dealing with something closer to our current time."
Me: "Oh awesome. I just sort of figured because I've seen the art Becky Clooney put up on her twitter and am super excited about it and it's all in the album vein. Her stuff is amazing."
Gerard: "Totally. Yeah, I dont know. It wasn't really relevant to what we were doing at the time with the album and the comic isn't connected so I didn't really think about that."
Me:"Oh. Well, I just wondered, you know, as a fan of the story side of it."
Gerard: "No, that's cool. It just didnt come up. "
And then someone from the line for Hall H spotted him and started coming towards him and he was like "Okay, I've got to go," And darted back inside. The girl from the line actually drew up short and looked at me and was like "Was that him?" and I nodded. She looked crestfallen and I really wanted to say something to cheer her up so I was like "He's got people waiting inside, he had to go" rather than "He was running from you because 1 fangirl is one thing 2 will turn to 4 will turn to 8 like tribbles." And she nodded and smiled and got back in line. I just hope her panel was awesome.
Sunday morning I managed to grab a picture with him because I came down for breakfast again and *waves a hand* There he was. Again. ITS WEIRD AS HELL to have members of your favorite band (who you also write fanfic about sometimes, okay a lot of the time) to be SLEEPING AND EATING in the same building as you. But I actually didn't look like utter shit that morning and he was waiting for a car - and I'm assuming the rest of his family because they were no where to be found - and so I popped my head out - since he seemed to just be standing around waiting and asked for a quick picture if he didn't mind. Which, he didn't and I thanked him for all the time he spared for me that weekend. He waved it off because, I dont know, he's just awesome? And then someone, I think it was Medi, took this picture for me.
Yeah. It's totally my phone wallpaper at this point in time. I showed it to my mom this morning and her response? "Wow Rachael! You could be brother and sister or cousins! Coloring and the way you both have round faces and such." Yeah. Okay mom *laughs*. Please note - I managed to get in a picture with one of Gerard in the presence of one of his great loves: coffee.
Anyway, that is it for the bandom section of this year's con. Twas awesome. Sorry for any typos - Long post got REALLY long on me /o\