Comic-Con
I'd never really considered attending Comic-Con before, but this year wynterwolf47 invited me to tag along with her and stay in her hotel. I jumped on her generosity, so here I am!
Thursday
My flight was supposed to arrive in San Diego at 12:30, but delays times three got me here nearly four hours late. I dropped my stuff at the hotel, and we zipped off to the convention center to check in and just made the end of Lynn Flewelling's book signing. She'd just run out of the free copies of Luck in the Shadows she was signing, but we'd brought our own books to be signed, so it worked out.
Friday
We wandered the floor, where I picked up my prized "Vote Petrelli" pins and the stick-on helix symbol tattoos. Hooray! And then we went to the Stargate panels. That whole thing was a truly entertaining event. The SGA panel video is available on the web, and has been recapped plenty, so I won't say much about it. Except that David Hewlett was a little more reserved than he often is at panels like these, but Joe took up his slack. Both of them were beautiful, but Joe really took the cake in that slutty, fabulous linen shirt unbuttoned down to there. **guh**
Joe Mallozzi struck me as vaguely smarmy and something of an agitator, but we'll see. I know it's a totally subjective impression. I was probably predisposed to dislike him.
And the photo that has eaten fandom, for such good reason:
It's taken them more than three years to give us something really good, but they've finally truly delivered. Thanks, guys!!!
After those panels, we wandered over to the room that was going to hold the Eureka panel. American Dad went on first, and was a lot of fun. I've never really been attracted to animation, so I wasn't familiar with the show. The cast did a table reading of an episode, though, and it was a lot of fun.
And then came Eureka. The entire cast was lovely, and very happy to be there. They seemed to be somewhat surprised by and appreciative of the success of the show.
Ed Quinn is both funny and gorgeous.
As is Colin Ferguson.
I didn't get any not-horrible photos of Joe Morton, but he seems like a very bright, interesting man. Oh, and the women were there, too, and were also lovely and personable. My focus may have been biased here toward the testosterone crew. Oops.
Saturday
Saturday was a big day. I followed the advice of seasoned CCers and arrived before 9am to get a seat in the room that was holding the Heroes at 12:15. People had apparently started camping out at 6am, so my 9am arrival put me in the back half of the room for the 10am panel for Bionic Woman. Guess I'll know to show up earlier if I come back next year.
I enjoyed Bionic Woman. A lot of the character introduction and exposition was terribly clunky, and Michelle Ryan really, really lost me during some of her early scenes. It's hard to tell if the problems I had with her are caused by weaknesses in her acting, though, or with her having to focus too hard on maintaining an American accent, distracting her from her emotional delivery. Only time will tell, assuming the show sticks around for a bit. In any case, I was sold on the pilot by the whole premise, but especially by Katee Sackhoff as a kickass renegade bionic woman. I like her fine as Starbuck, but I felt the real beginnings of a girlcrush starting yesterday. I'm hoping her recurring role gets bigger, especially since S4 will be the last season of BSG.
Somebody asked David Eick during the panel what makes this show different from Alias and Dark Angel, with their strong female operatives. And I know this is going to be discussed over and over and over again. But the thing is, that's more or less irrelevant. The fact that there have been five or six kickass female characters that carried their respective shows over the past ten years does not mean that each new show with a female protagonist should have to prove how unique it is in order to justify its existence. Do we really need to start making lists of ALL the shows with similar premises that have male protagonists? Some are good, some are bad, some are more alike than others. I don't know whether or not I'll love this show, but it won't be similarities to those other shows that decide me one way or another. And right now I'm optimistic about it. (To me, the premise was more like Alias and La Femme Nikita, with a little Buffy thrown in for the family responsibilities, for what it's worth. But see, what is that worth, really? It doesn't actually tell you anything about the story.)
Anyway. Next was the Heroes panel, which was fun and friendly as most of their group interviews have been. Again, most of it has been recapped, etc., elsewhere, so I won't repeat it. My favorite moment, though, was probably when Masi and Adrian crawled under the table to look at the sound system to see if they could fix it. Oh, and when Adrian "translated" Masi's Japanese-language response by saying that Masi/Hiro likes to go commando.
Overall it was a fabulous weekend. I'll definitely consider coming back again. Part of me is feeling like I'd rather do a slash-friendly and social fangirl con if I'm going to spend the money on something else. But seeing all of these panels definitely energized me fannishly.
In other news, I assume these photos have been making the rounds? In any case, they do, indeed, prove Adrian to be absolutely gorgeous. I am as enamored as ever. I cannot wait for the end of September. NATHAN!!!
Look at those lips, seriously. And I love his new hair SO DAMN MUCH. **guh** to infinity
Thursday
My flight was supposed to arrive in San Diego at 12:30, but delays times three got me here nearly four hours late. I dropped my stuff at the hotel, and we zipped off to the convention center to check in and just made the end of Lynn Flewelling's book signing. She'd just run out of the free copies of Luck in the Shadows she was signing, but we'd brought our own books to be signed, so it worked out.
Friday
We wandered the floor, where I picked up my prized "Vote Petrelli" pins and the stick-on helix symbol tattoos. Hooray! And then we went to the Stargate panels. That whole thing was a truly entertaining event. The SGA panel video is available on the web, and has been recapped plenty, so I won't say much about it. Except that David Hewlett was a little more reserved than he often is at panels like these, but Joe took up his slack. Both of them were beautiful, but Joe really took the cake in that slutty, fabulous linen shirt unbuttoned down to there. **guh**
Joe Mallozzi struck me as vaguely smarmy and something of an agitator, but we'll see. I know it's a totally subjective impression. I was probably predisposed to dislike him.
And the photo that has eaten fandom, for such good reason:
It's taken them more than three years to give us something really good, but they've finally truly delivered. Thanks, guys!!!
After those panels, we wandered over to the room that was going to hold the Eureka panel. American Dad went on first, and was a lot of fun. I've never really been attracted to animation, so I wasn't familiar with the show. The cast did a table reading of an episode, though, and it was a lot of fun.
And then came Eureka. The entire cast was lovely, and very happy to be there. They seemed to be somewhat surprised by and appreciative of the success of the show.
Ed Quinn is both funny and gorgeous.
As is Colin Ferguson.
I didn't get any not-horrible photos of Joe Morton, but he seems like a very bright, interesting man. Oh, and the women were there, too, and were also lovely and personable. My focus may have been biased here toward the testosterone crew. Oops.
Saturday
Saturday was a big day. I followed the advice of seasoned CCers and arrived before 9am to get a seat in the room that was holding the Heroes at 12:15. People had apparently started camping out at 6am, so my 9am arrival put me in the back half of the room for the 10am panel for Bionic Woman. Guess I'll know to show up earlier if I come back next year.
I enjoyed Bionic Woman. A lot of the character introduction and exposition was terribly clunky, and Michelle Ryan really, really lost me during some of her early scenes. It's hard to tell if the problems I had with her are caused by weaknesses in her acting, though, or with her having to focus too hard on maintaining an American accent, distracting her from her emotional delivery. Only time will tell, assuming the show sticks around for a bit. In any case, I was sold on the pilot by the whole premise, but especially by Katee Sackhoff as a kickass renegade bionic woman. I like her fine as Starbuck, but I felt the real beginnings of a girlcrush starting yesterday. I'm hoping her recurring role gets bigger, especially since S4 will be the last season of BSG.
Somebody asked David Eick during the panel what makes this show different from Alias and Dark Angel, with their strong female operatives. And I know this is going to be discussed over and over and over again. But the thing is, that's more or less irrelevant. The fact that there have been five or six kickass female characters that carried their respective shows over the past ten years does not mean that each new show with a female protagonist should have to prove how unique it is in order to justify its existence. Do we really need to start making lists of ALL the shows with similar premises that have male protagonists? Some are good, some are bad, some are more alike than others. I don't know whether or not I'll love this show, but it won't be similarities to those other shows that decide me one way or another. And right now I'm optimistic about it. (To me, the premise was more like Alias and La Femme Nikita, with a little Buffy thrown in for the family responsibilities, for what it's worth. But see, what is that worth, really? It doesn't actually tell you anything about the story.)
Anyway. Next was the Heroes panel, which was fun and friendly as most of their group interviews have been. Again, most of it has been recapped, etc., elsewhere, so I won't repeat it. My favorite moment, though, was probably when Masi and Adrian crawled under the table to look at the sound system to see if they could fix it. Oh, and when Adrian "translated" Masi's Japanese-language response by saying that Masi/Hiro likes to go commando.
Overall it was a fabulous weekend. I'll definitely consider coming back again. Part of me is feeling like I'd rather do a slash-friendly and social fangirl con if I'm going to spend the money on something else. But seeing all of these panels definitely energized me fannishly.
In other news, I assume these photos have been making the rounds? In any case, they do, indeed, prove Adrian to be absolutely gorgeous. I am as enamored as ever. I cannot wait for the end of September. NATHAN!!!
Look at those lips, seriously. And I love his new hair SO DAMN MUCH. **guh** to infinity