Con Report: Part The Third - Double The Fun
So, to begin the day. We learned our lesson from Friday about Ballroom 20, and as Hayley basically wanted to stay there all day, we decided to leave at 8 so we could get to the convention centre by about half past so she could get in the queue early.
On the way there I snapped a pic of the Hyundai Building. Partly because it's pretty, but mostly because it means I can mention the fact that on all the adverts around here they pronounce it Hunday. Which is weird.
So then we got to the con. The queue was still mad by the time we got there, but Hayley got in to the first panel and stayed there all day. As you might tell from that, I did not go to Ballroom 20, because for me, Saturday was Marvel Day!
All this getting there early meant I was in the queue two hours before my first panel - Marvel: Cup O' Joe - the panel that Editor In Chief Joe Quesada gives every year with a bunch of people to announce new stuff and take audicence questions. So, in the queue I got chatting to the girl next to me, and found someone even more hardcore than us - her and her brother had come from Australia! So they won the who's come the furthest competition. Was fun chatting about Neighbours and Merlin and Chris Hemsworth. Also, me and Hayley had both fallen asleep during the episode of Castle I mentioned the other day, and neither of us knew whodunit. Luckily, Elizabeth, for that was Australian Girl's name, had also watched it, and thus told me the solution. V random.
So then, twas time for the panel. We ended up four rows from the front, right in front of the table.
See?
Joining Joe for this panel were Jeph Loeb (who you may or may not know has recently become Head of Animation), Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction and a few other people who I forget. Including one guy who was wearing an Iron Fist mask/bandanna thing. From this panel I learnt several things - Jeph Loeb is awesome. Bendis is doubly awesome. Matt is pretty and awesome, and I kinda love Joe.
People arriving.
Joe.
Bendis and Matt.
The panel.
More of the panel.
They announced some new things that were going on with the comics, which I tweeted about.:
Avengers 3 next year. Iron man, cap and Thor. And it "doesn't all take place in the present"
Then there was audience Q and A with everyone who asked a question getting a signed copy of an Iron Man comic, and really good questions getting a Cup O' Joe Mug.
After this panel I zoomed to next room for Bendis' spotlight panel, which was even more cool and was moderated by John Suitress.
Then lots of audience questions. One of which was from Jeph Loeb, who asked if he would produce and write some of the new Spiderman cartoon they are doing. So that was an interesting announcement. And at the end we got a copy of the first issue of Scarlet; Bendis' new title. I've read it, and it's awesome.
A pretty bit of the convention centre.
Hayley spent the morning in Ballroom 20 with several Fox animation panels.
After that panel I nipped out for some lunch and went to get into the queue for Hall H. Because there was no way I was missing the Paul panel, and there was even less way I was missing Thor and Captain America. This was a shame, because it meant I had to miss the CBS panel about the Tech guys in TV shows that had Kirsten Vangsness and Pauley Paulette. Queue was actually rather short, but the hall was nearly at capacity, so we ended up sitting waiting for people to leave for a while. It was here we got chatting to two guys, John and Brian when they invited us to play cards with them. We played Go Fish and then taught them Chase The Ace. It was fun and John was kinda hot. We got in in time to see a bunch of trailers for upcoming films. Some of which were 3d. Almost all of which (except The Expendables, Scott Pilgrim and Voyage of the Dawn Treader) were pretty shit. Especially this film called Priest. About a Priest who hunts vampires. With crucifixes that fold out into throwing stars. Then we had to sit through a rather boring panel about the new Resident Evil film. Reminds me of Avatar in as much as they seem to have made a film to show how awesome 3D is, rather than telling a great story which is enhanced by being in 3D.
Then it was time about time for the Paul panel. Except before it could start, there was An Incident. There was a general kerfuffle as everyone went to the loo and tried to get better seats et cetera. I wasn’t aware that there was anything more to it than that until they announced there was nothing to see. Commotion was occurring on the opposite side of the hall and eventually a man in a bloodied Harry Potter tshirt was led out in handcuffs by cops. It transpires that Harry Potter guy stabbed someone else in the eye with a pen. This was either because of an argument over seating, because of what someone said about a panel, or because one person kicked the guy. Chinese whispers through 6,500 people is not especially accurate.
So whilst they sorted this, they showed the trailers again. *yawn*
Finally, late, was the Paul panel
Simon Pegg.
Seth Rogan.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Bill Hader
Sigourney Weaver
Jeffry Tambour
They showed some clips from the film, but the visual effect aren’t 100% complete. Looks excellent. Part of it is set in Comic Con, so that got a *huge* cheer. Then there were questions, and one guy had on this awesome Red Shirt costume:
Paul looks awesome.
Then was the Cowboys and Aliens panel. Hadn’t heard of the film. They’ve only been filming for a week. They showed a really long clip, must be the first complete sequence they’ve filmed. It’s brilliant. A proper full on Western. And then the aliens arrive. Basically, a guy rides into town, having been shot and starts to clean up. Then you realise he has on a Vortex Manipulator type thing. Then he gets arrested for murder, and as he is about to be transported somewhere, the aliens arrive. The wrist gauntlet folds out and is a projectile weapon of some kind and he shoots the aliens. It’s so very good.
Did I mention? It’s directed by John Faverau.
It has Olivia Wilde in it. And Daniel Craig.
And HARRISON MOTHERFUCKING FORD!!!!!!
My god, when he walked into the room, practically the entire room leapt to their feet and gave him a huge standing ovation.
And just when you thought that was enough awesome for one evening, more arrived in the form of the Captain America and Thor panels.
Hall H - you get some idea of the size.
So the panel was moderated by Joe Quesada, and we had the head of Marvel studios, and the director of the film.
And Hugo Weaving.
And Chris Evens. Who is Cap.
They showed a teaser of the film. Not even any actual footage in it. Just a shot of Chris in the Costume from the costume test. It sent shivers up my spine. It looked spectacular.
They’ve only been shooting for a week. Or at least, Chris has only been on the film for that long. But they showed a rough cut of last week’s footage. It still had the time stamps on. It was a scene with Hugo Weaving in. It was awesome.
It was very brief cos they had to get back to London (yes they are shooting in London) to continue shooting.
Next up was the Thor panel.
There was Kenneth Branagh,
Chris Hemsworth,
Natalie Portman,
Kat Dennings who is playing Darcy, and Tom Hiddleston who is Loki.
And Agent Caspar! (Clark Gregg. Who plays Agent Coulson).
They showed the Thor trailer. In 3D. And, woah. It looks good guys, it looks good. Asgard looks awesome. Especially in 3D. Very shiny and pretty.
There was a mass exodus after the trailer as The Incident had delayed all the panels somewhat. Those people will be kicking themselves.
They took some questions. One of which was bascially “Edward Norton. Whaaaat?” The response dodged around a bit and then said “the panel isn’t over yet” After the questions they said they would show the trailer again so the panellists could see it in full 3D. Another mass exodus. These people are probably kicking themselves even more.
They were all like could you stay another couple of minutes. I thought, dude, they’re obviously announcing Hulk.
They dimmed the lights. A dark screen with indistinct shape rotating. Voice over. You should have heard the cheer that went up when people realised that it was referring to The Avengers. And then the shape rotates to reveal the Avengers A.
And then Samuel L Jackson came onstage.
Nick Fury.
And he started reading names.
Chris Evans. Captain America.
Chris Hemsworth. Thor.
Scarlett Johansson. Black Widow.
Clark Gregg. Agent Coulson.
Jeremy Renner.
Hawkeye.
Robert Downey Junior.
Iron Man.
Mark Ruffalo.
Hulk.
And finally. Joss Whedon.
Directing.
Clark Gregg, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth.
Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson.
Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo.
The Avengers Assembled.
As you may imagine, I was riding pretty high after this. Spectacularly high. Until it came to paying for dinner. And I realised I didn’t have my wallet. With all my cards in (credit, debit and special foreign currency card). And my room key. And the key to our safe deposit box. Which has our plane tickets in. Realised that earlier, in Hall H, I had accidentally picked up my back upsidedown and a bunch of stuff had fallen out. In the dark I’d missed my wallet
Called the convention centre. It hadn’t been turned in. They hadn’t got any of that days stuff. Got a shuttle down there. (It was now about 10pm). Nothing. Came back. Phoned my mum. Calmed down a little. Decided that although there was a chance of getting it back in the morning, that was several hours away and someone could spend all my money in that time. So phoned up and cancelled all my cards. The cash passport (a mastercard that you load with foreign currency) was also cancelled, and they sent the money to me via Western Union. Which required me going to a Western Union to pick it up. Guy gave me several nearby ones. Slept. The next day. Work up. Went to ask about getting into the safe deposit box. Discovered that they only have 1 key for each box. The one they give you. So there is a $150 charge. Cos they have to call out a locksmith. Hopped on the shuttle cos one of the stops was really near one. Got there at 8.30. Thought it opened at 8. It opened at 10. Took 45 minutes to walk to the next one because I took the long way round. Their line was down and they couldn’t help me. Walked back to the first one. Waited 10 minutes for it to open. Their line was also down. Had absolutely no money on me. Cried down to the phone at my mum. Went to the con. Got my wallet back. With everything in it. A bit later found a Western Union and got my money. No more worries. Drama over. (Of course I later got back to the hotel to discover they’d already called out the locksmith. And it was more than $150. So I’m just calling this a $210 stupid tax I have to pay.)
So back to the fun things.
First of all, found this awesome license plate on a car parked outside our hotel.
Also saw one today that was ANIME 1.
My loot from Saturday
The San Diego River, view found on my epic walk today.
So then all this kerfuffle meant I missed the Castle Panel which was a shame, but there you go. Got into the room for the Merlin Panel. *grin*
Can’t remember who the moderator was, but she was wearing a Merlin neckerchief on purpose so her picture goes here.
Colin Morgan, Julian Murphy and Johnny Capps.
Anthony Head.
Most excellent panel. First of all they showed and interview that Bradley did with Warwick Davis. Very funny. They showed a trailer for Season 3. It looks awesome. Chickens coming home to roost a bit. And Morgause is definitely back. And Arthur gets turned into a donkey.
There were questions with the four best getting prizes at the end. Tony Head is a giggler. They showed a blooper reel, a large percentage of which was Tony cracking up when he forgets his line, or something odd happens or he just does. Very funny reel, and he was in actual tears of laughter watching it. He couldn’t speak for about a minute after the reel.
The Panel.
Anthony and Colin
Colin. As you can see, he looked a little sunburnt. Well who let him out in the sun without proper protection?
Anthony
Then met up with Hayley and we wandered the exhibition hall, ate some overpriced pizza and failed at getting the clothing we wanted. I wanted a hoody with The Big Bang Theory Friendship Algorithm on it, and Hayley wanted the same on a tshirt. But alas they only had them in sizes from gonna drown me to not going to find my way out for a week. I did get the second volume book of the new webcomic I mentioned the other day.
Lego Threepio and Artoo.
Kermit and Rizzo.
The other day they were handing out these really cool sunglases for paul - they are shaped like alien eyes. Hayley decided they were very Lady Ga Ga.
So, my Lady Ga Ga face.
Hayley’s Lady Ga Ga face.
Then we saw Wossy! He was sitting chatting with his family, so we didn’t go and say hi.
Got an awesome t-shirt from the Thor panel, then back to exhibition hall.
Marvel Mural
This was on a hoody.
Another hoody of awesome that would have drowned me.
I can’t believe they had Gonzo there. He is my favourite muppet!
Iron Man motorbike leathers.
Green Lantern’s Lantern.
A last look at the shuttle buses.
The final day’s booty.
And finally. My badge.
What a day. What a con. Its an absolutely amazing experience. I think the hardest thing to wrap your head around is the sheer size of it all. I can tell you one thing though. This will not be my last Comic Con.
I love you, SDCC <3