Comic-Con gallery links and pics
Okay had a good sleep and another nap, but been uploading photos as well. Most of my panel photos and the DW Cosplay meetup ones need some more adjusting, but all the rest of the days ones are now up on my flickr.
Right, where to start?
Preview Night
I should start with a scary photo of me! This is from the Falling Skies booth where you got 'harnessed' by the skitters and was told to pretend to be scared. I can do that!
The start of Preview Night was mostly wandering around the dealer floor etc and meeting up with dizilla and her lovely mum, which was great. Even sitting on the pavement waiting to get into the Dredd screening was fun with meeting new people. The downside is how Lionsgate can't organise anything to save their life and are very good at pissing off fans right royally. Only 50 people in the line got into the screening. We were along the first block and had been there for 4 hours. The guys we were chatting to who were from San Diego said that if they had it in the large cinema then we would get in, as it seats 450 people. It seemed they had only booked the small 250 theater instead. Whoops... All the screening spots were pretty much taken by press and competition winners. I was okay about the competition winners, but seeing as when I was chatting to Sam from Lionsgate she sounded surprised that there were 90 of them, um honey, they are your tickets you have allocated and you didn't know how many there were going to be? Btw 'press' pass at Comic Con is interesting. I think a lot of people who get a press pass have their own little blog and aren't part of what we would consider actual press. Needless to say this wasn't received well.
The second day, the Dredd signing proved once again how much Lionsgate can't organise a way to find their arse, even with two hands and a very simple map and also how they will flat out lie to fans. We asked if we could have a badge seeing as how we were missing out on the signing after being told we were guaranteed a spot becuase of the wristbands we had. We were told they didn't have any badges and they were waiting for a new delivery. Pity that right behind the guy telling me this Karl pulled a box out and started grabbing a large pile of badges... A few of us managed to get some from him and Olivia and later in the 35th Anniversary panel I got it signed by them both, even though the 'handler' didn't want them to do it, but they just ignored the handler.
Enough of the little grumble, back to the fun stuff.
The first two days were mostly organised around stalking the Dredd panels and signing. Mission was accomplished amongst both and Karl did tell me to 'give his love' to anntarot which I have passed on. Is it scary that he remembered me?
Day One
Day one involved a lot of sitting through other panels since 12:30 pm for the Masters of the Web Panel at 4:30 pm. Doing things like that opens your eyes to new parts of fandoms that you had never heard of before and also some you had and were confirmed that it wasn't for you *cough* Transformers *cough*. I have never seen so many adults so excited about toys before.
I didn't take too many photos around the Con on the first day as I was interested in just absorbing everything (yes, except the Karl panel, but that's given).
Day Two
The highlight of the morning of the second day was coming down to the hotel lobby and seeing police tape and a fan going on directed at the floor. I just thought they had some spilled liquid or something. I was right, but it was blood! After breakfast, a CS tech had turned up and was taking photos and things. It was Friday the 13th!
I also hade a great chat at the Qmx booth about the Academy ring, and letting them know that Chris Pine didn't wear the ring on screen, it was Simon and Karl. They said they will fix that asap. I did get to try on the Academy ring and it is a man's size, but will be able to be adjusted by a jeweler.
I want both!
At the Dredd 35th Anniversary Panel I met a guy who had come from New Zealand for the panel. He had a great costume that Karl proclaimed to be, "fucking awesome!" I also had a nice chat with Jock from 2000AD, who later signed the Dredd poster for me. I was told that the PR people from 2000AD are not happy with the lack of publicity and slackness from Lionsgate. A real pity because it seems like Dredd is going to be a great movie.
Evening on Day Two had us sitting in the Dark Matters panel. I was listening to John Noble speak and Pat was telling me that he is definitely Australian. he didn't have an east coast accent, which is what I expect to hear out of most aussie actor's mouths. There was a strong english tinge to his accent. I had my laptop so looked him up on imdb. He is from Adelaide! I just knew I wanted to ask a question then, and I did get to. He looked so pleased when he heard my accent and I said I was the only other person from South Australia in the room. I asked if Dark Matters is ever going to come to Australia. They took a poll in the room and pretty much everyone voted that it should be seen in Australia. John and I had a little chat in front of a couple of hundred people about how we probably would know someone that we both knew. Then I went back to my seat in the back corner, but John kept referring to Australia throughout the rest of the panel, which caused us to cheer and him to grin. The producer toward the end came out and told them to pass on the info that it is going to Australia. They also put it up on twitter about the polling of the room, which made me a little chuffed.
I was dressed as a 'homage' to Donna Noble in Fires of Pompeii, basically because I could get away with wearing clothes I had packed!
My hair did get sprayed red though!
Most people spend so much looking at the people cosplaying or their phones as they check twitter, their schedule for next where to be and their messages as they try and catch up with their group etc, because of this they miss some other views of San Diego.
Day Three
Day three started with the best cosplay I saw all weekend. There were some really great costumes and interpretations of ideas, but this Russell from Up was so good.
He had all the right badges and on his back is the house with the balloons. This was the line waiting to get into the Ballroom at the Hilton to see the TV Guide fan favourite panel (and a few others before it like Attack of the Show, Geek & Sundry and the Nerdist which featured the best quote of the con from Neil deGrasse Tyson).
The quote was in reference to the religious placard wavers who were standing by each line and 'preaching' to all con attendees. We were all going to die badly in hell according to them as Judgement Day is coming. Btw I do plan on letting you all in the Northern hemisphere know if the world is going to end on 21 Novemember as it should happen first to the Southern Hemisphere. Neil was given a lot of shit about Pluto's demotion during the panel, to much mirth, but in reference to the 'placard people' he pointed out that when he was in high school, the geeks got shoved into lockers etc byt he football players and then years later the players figured out that the geeks were the ones to fix their computers, so the bullying got less and now looking around the con at all the people attending he proclaimed that it really was that "the Geeks shall inherit the Earth!"
I was dressed up as Donna from the start of the Unicorn and the Wasp, using mostly clothes I already owned and found a few skinny boys in suits to order around and also was photographed by BBC America with Pat as River. There were some great kids costumes, including the little Flash who loved to pose, the lion Voltron who was more interested in playing with his Transformer car and the best TARDIS with his light on the top and which moved around as well. That evening Pat and I went to a great panel about prop making which included possibly two people who worked on the recent Star Trek movie. Funnily enough, there was no talking about those props, but Ken Palkow showed off something from another film that nobody else had seen. All cameras had to go down etc before he brought it out. It was amazing and unfortunately that is all I will say. Nick Robatto who is the prop master on Doctor Who was there and I got him to sign my TARDIS next to Ben Browder's signature. He seemed to chuffed to be thanked for the great props that he makes all old school on Doctor Who, unlike the 3D printing etc that goes on in most US movies and tv shows. I like the smaller panels and learned some things I never would otherwise that make me appreciate all the little roles that people do on shows and movies.
This made me giggle on Saturday as I hope that his phone is waterproof!
I got some more great night shots as I brought my tripod along on that day. Pat and I joined her friend Lil for dinner at the Hilton and while we were there, some fireworks started going off. At least these fireworks lasted longer than San Diegos 4th July fireworks, which were the most spectacular int he country but also the shortest of 2012 :D
Day Four
The final day started early, but not as early as a lot of others, including the fab wyntreaurora. Pat, Mike and I joined her in the line for Hall H. We did manage to recreate the Jack and Donna hug while being herded under the tents for Hall H.
Hall H was great fun, even though up the back. We got a Fringe Observer hat on the way in and surprisingly it fitted my teeny head. The Fringe panel was hilarious with Josh wetting his pants (really!), John taking a photo of it, Anna talking about coming and being clueless as to why everyone was pissing themselves laughing, some crying and a mighty ducks reference. Also Lance thought that putting a Breaking Bad hat on his head meant he could wander around the floor and not be recognised. He discovered very quickly how much that didn't work.
Supernatural panel... Ben Edlund loves to ramble, Jared and Jensen tried to act clueless, Misha was Misha and Mark and Jim got Doctor Who and Star Trek references in. I spent pretty much the whole panel laughing. Then the one panel we had been waiting for commenced and was great - Doctor Who. Arthur did his best Karen impression, Matt played with his hair a lot, Karen was adorable and Stephen was being a tease. Dinosaurs on a Space ship! Pretty close to being the best episode name ever!
After that panel was the Doctor Who meet up, which was placed strategically behind the signing area, so they could bring Matt, Arthur and Karen past us all. They stopped to take pictures of the whole group which included most of these people.
Before they arrived, there were lots of photos being taken of specific groupings and I got to be surrounded by Ten's which has appeared on BBC America.
The funniest part of this is that as I joined the group milling around someone yelled out "oh my god we have a donna!" I then was hugged a lot for being Donna. It was a different experience let me tell you. When the time came for me to have a pic with the Ten's, Alex who organises these shoots called out for all the Tens and none of them moved. So I channeled Donna herself, which didn't take much realistically, and walked out into the space and yelled out, "Don't just stand there you skinny boys in suits, get to wrk!" Needless to say, they got their butts where they needed to be quick smart and had everyone else laughing so much. I got many compliments for being such a great Donna and was asked if I was coming back for Gallifrey One in February and if not that I should. I may have to see if I can make my budget work as they were all so lovely and welcoming.
My red hair is now gone and this was supposed to be a little quick recap. :p Well, when do I ever writing anything short that isn't for work? I hope this wasn't my only Comic Con experience as I had such fun. It just costs a wee bit to do, but I think ultimately very worth it. If you haven't had a chance to do it, try and make the time to do so.
I tipped my hat farewell to Comic Con for 2012.
