Wizard World @ Los Angeles Convention Center (March 17-19)
Wizard World Los Angeles took place on March 17-19 (Fri-Sun). The preparations and wait for this event were definitely worth it. I got myself a 3-day ticket, but I only went on Friday and Saturday. I saved $5 from buying those two days individually (single day=$25 and 3 day=$45). I had reservations made at the Holiday Inn near the convention center. It was reasonable walking distance, which was good.
March 17th (Friday): Ended up packing my stuff up in the morning before heading out. I was still recovering my stomach from not eating anything at all on Thursday thanks to my "now I know" not have alcohol and dairy (ice cream) together from Wednesday's dinner -.- I leave at about 1:30-1:40pm from my house and on my way to L.A. Rain started to fall (no surprise) and traffic reports mentioned that the 10 before the 605 was jammed. So I took the 210 to the 605 to the 10 from there and it was reasonable smooth sailing until I reached the 101 & 110 area. Once again, mapquest fucks me up with directions (wasn't specific enough -_-) so I end up going the wrong way for a good 10 minutes. When I got back in the right direction, I get all confused with the one way streets. Reminds me of San Diego last summer, but L.A. was just ugh -.- Finally found the hotel where Jill and Krystal were waiting for me to get them a guest parking permit. I quickly check-in so that they can fill out the form and have the car parked. We went up to the room and dropped off our stuff. Krystal changed into her Zatanna cosplay, which was awesome, and off we go to the convention center.
We all went inside and had our badges scanned as a check-in. We got our bag full of goodies for 3 day pass holders and thank god they had badge holders. The first destination was to go to the DC panel (already in progress at the time). Before heading inside, that is where we met for the first time some people from the Comic Bloc Forums: Darin, Chris, and Tad. We all headed inside and at that time, the DC panel was just finishing off previewing some stuff then it went into questions from the audience. After the DC panel concluded, we went inside the main hall where all the exhibitors and booths were. We met up with another member of the Comic Bloc Forums (Scott). I finally got my hands on Infinite Crisis #1-5. Checked many other various booths. At one point, this random lady dressed as the Canary noticed Krystal's Zatanna cosplay and told her to come to this booth where a guy was selling some clothing accessory (forgot the name >_<). After the guy measured Krystal's size and placed the accessory on her, it actually looked good and made the Zatanna cosplay much better than before. She went ahead and bought it.
That pretty much ended the first day of the convention. We all met back up with the Comic Bloc people and were deciding on where to have dinner. Everyone agreed with my suggestion of the Korean BBQ/Sushi restaurant I know of. We all headed over there. The food came out great although it took a little longer than expected. The only thing I wasn't satisfied about was either my Korean speaking just sucked for the night or the Koreans working there are fuckin assholes whenever I say certain words close enough and they respond back saying: huh?? -.-;;; After dinner, we all head back to our hotels to rest up a little. Around 10-11pm is when the Comic Bloc people come to our hotel room with booze (beer, scotch, rum, etc.). I still wasn't 100% from the previous days, so I ended up passing. Everyone else enjoyed their time with the drinks. I ended up reading Infinite Crisis #1-4 and man, it is so good. At one point, Jill dozed off and Darin brought up the idea to briefly take advantage of her. Little by little without waking her up, empty beer bottles along with a full scotch bottle were placed on her. We were hoping to take as many pictures as possible of her, but unfortunately two of the three cameras weren't functioning properly. So the only picture taken of her was with her camera (^^;; sorry Jill, it was just tempting) and in the picture Krystal has her finger placed near Jill's mouth. God I couldn't stop laughing XD When Jill did wake up, she was all: "What the nigga??". :LOL: Wow, what a night. The Comic Bloc crew left at about 2am and we went to sleep.
March 18th (Saturday): I woke up around 8:45am right before Krystal's alarm setting of 9am. I wasn't sleepy to go back to sleep some more, so I ended up reading Infinite Crisis #5. I also read some of Project O.M.A.C. and that was also good too. We all showered up and got ready to head out for Day 2 of the convention. Pretty much we went inside to see more booths and buy merchandise. I ended up doing most of the shopping this day and boy did I buy a lot. I bought myself a few more comics along with 3 shirts and some other goodies. Jill mentioned about former Wrestling superstar of WCW: Vergil being at the autograph booth area. Jill and I got ourselves autographs (pay for one, 2nd autograph is free). Sadly the price was well bleh =x At least the photo opportunity was worth it XD. Krystal and Jill were looking forward to get autographs for their comics by Bendis (don't remember full name). He was scheduled for 12:30pm and wasn't even there for at least 30 minutes. That's when Krystal and Jill said forget it. Supposedly the lunch plan was for the Comic Bloc crew, our group, and Geoff Johns to have lunch together some place. Well we found out that Geoff had to get back by 2pm for a panel he had to be at and the lunch selection wasn't that great at all =x Lunch ended up being more like a quick snack break. There was another DC panel during the day, so we went to that as well. As usual, the panel previews what is soon to be releasing as well as some brief info on them. Afterwards questions are taken from the audience. After the DC panel concluded, we stayed for the Marvel Panel. Not as large of a audience for this panel, but still some interesting stuff shown. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel where on our way it started to rain. At the same time, random people on the street were passing out "Spearmint Rhino" free topless lap-dance cards to us >_>
Alright, so we're back in the hotel room just resting up briefly and deciding whether to have room service or just dine at the restaurant in the hotel. We chose the restaurant. The waiting time was not cool at all, especially for the fact that they must be short on staff for the night. Then some random old guy asked us if we were waiting to be seated, then asked if we were attendees of the convention. When we replied yes, he said he was an exhibitor of the convention. He then asked if he could join us so that he can be seated right away. We agreed to have him join us, but boy that was the biggest mistake for us. When we were seated and proceeded to have conversations, we find out that this guy draws Yaoi O_o No wonder this guy sounded gay from the first place -.-;;; When he asked about what I'm majoring in and I said Hotel & Restaurant Mgmt. (aka Hospitality), he replies by saying: "ah, the major that's full of Mexicans, huh? Krystal, Jill, and especially me were like =O Man, I just wanted to throw my chair at him. ugh, just talking about this guy doesn't want me to finish off this part of the story. To finish this part off, we just went with finishing dinner as fast as we could so we could bail out ASAP from this fucker. We all headed back to the room. Supposedly some drama occurred for the day with the Comic Bloc crew, but that was all taken care of. The Comic Bloc crew did come over once more to have some more drinking. Prior to their arrival, I did taste the rum they brought over from Friday night and it was some really good rum =D Jill once again dozed off at some point. Didn't take advantage of her this time, but when a discussion about how Scott would be hanging off the window naked, Jill woke up from that comment and replied: "What the O_o" lol Jill is the greatest at waking up randomly with random comments XD The Comic Bloc crew left at 2am once again and we went to sleep.
March 19th (Sunday): The day of the L.A. marathon. I don't know how many times I must've woken up since the start of the marathon. I kept on hearing the same fuckin drum beat over and over again. It was so fuckin annoying. Pretty much we all got up, showered up and proceeded to check-out of the hotel. I was done for the day while Jill and Krystal were going to go inside for the last day of the convention. The route for getting out of the hotel and into the streets I need to get on to go to the 110 were weird and full of people. I managed to find my way and proceed to get on the 110. Surely enough, I encountered traffic (no surprise). But the moment I got on the 10, it was smooth sailing from there. Hell I actually got back home within 40 minutes O_o 40 frickin minutes when it's usually about 50-55 minutes. Too good ^^;;
Overall, good times. Although Wizard World wasn't as big as Comic Con, it was still a good convention and I enjoyed it. Sadly, (comic book conventions > Anime Expo) hands down. Wizard World should be moved to Long Beach next year.
March 17th (Friday): Ended up packing my stuff up in the morning before heading out. I was still recovering my stomach from not eating anything at all on Thursday thanks to my "now I know" not have alcohol and dairy (ice cream) together from Wednesday's dinner -.- I leave at about 1:30-1:40pm from my house and on my way to L.A. Rain started to fall (no surprise) and traffic reports mentioned that the 10 before the 605 was jammed. So I took the 210 to the 605 to the 10 from there and it was reasonable smooth sailing until I reached the 101 & 110 area. Once again, mapquest fucks me up with directions (wasn't specific enough -_-) so I end up going the wrong way for a good 10 minutes. When I got back in the right direction, I get all confused with the one way streets. Reminds me of San Diego last summer, but L.A. was just ugh -.- Finally found the hotel where Jill and Krystal were waiting for me to get them a guest parking permit. I quickly check-in so that they can fill out the form and have the car parked. We went up to the room and dropped off our stuff. Krystal changed into her Zatanna cosplay, which was awesome, and off we go to the convention center.
We all went inside and had our badges scanned as a check-in. We got our bag full of goodies for 3 day pass holders and thank god they had badge holders. The first destination was to go to the DC panel (already in progress at the time). Before heading inside, that is where we met for the first time some people from the Comic Bloc Forums: Darin, Chris, and Tad. We all headed inside and at that time, the DC panel was just finishing off previewing some stuff then it went into questions from the audience. After the DC panel concluded, we went inside the main hall where all the exhibitors and booths were. We met up with another member of the Comic Bloc Forums (Scott). I finally got my hands on Infinite Crisis #1-5. Checked many other various booths. At one point, this random lady dressed as the Canary noticed Krystal's Zatanna cosplay and told her to come to this booth where a guy was selling some clothing accessory (forgot the name >_<). After the guy measured Krystal's size and placed the accessory on her, it actually looked good and made the Zatanna cosplay much better than before. She went ahead and bought it.
That pretty much ended the first day of the convention. We all met back up with the Comic Bloc people and were deciding on where to have dinner. Everyone agreed with my suggestion of the Korean BBQ/Sushi restaurant I know of. We all headed over there. The food came out great although it took a little longer than expected. The only thing I wasn't satisfied about was either my Korean speaking just sucked for the night or the Koreans working there are fuckin assholes whenever I say certain words close enough and they respond back saying: huh?? -.-;;; After dinner, we all head back to our hotels to rest up a little. Around 10-11pm is when the Comic Bloc people come to our hotel room with booze (beer, scotch, rum, etc.). I still wasn't 100% from the previous days, so I ended up passing. Everyone else enjoyed their time with the drinks. I ended up reading Infinite Crisis #1-4 and man, it is so good. At one point, Jill dozed off and Darin brought up the idea to briefly take advantage of her. Little by little without waking her up, empty beer bottles along with a full scotch bottle were placed on her. We were hoping to take as many pictures as possible of her, but unfortunately two of the three cameras weren't functioning properly. So the only picture taken of her was with her camera (^^;; sorry Jill, it was just tempting) and in the picture Krystal has her finger placed near Jill's mouth. God I couldn't stop laughing XD When Jill did wake up, she was all: "What the nigga??". :LOL: Wow, what a night. The Comic Bloc crew left at about 2am and we went to sleep.
March 18th (Saturday): I woke up around 8:45am right before Krystal's alarm setting of 9am. I wasn't sleepy to go back to sleep some more, so I ended up reading Infinite Crisis #5. I also read some of Project O.M.A.C. and that was also good too. We all showered up and got ready to head out for Day 2 of the convention. Pretty much we went inside to see more booths and buy merchandise. I ended up doing most of the shopping this day and boy did I buy a lot. I bought myself a few more comics along with 3 shirts and some other goodies. Jill mentioned about former Wrestling superstar of WCW: Vergil being at the autograph booth area. Jill and I got ourselves autographs (pay for one, 2nd autograph is free). Sadly the price was well bleh =x At least the photo opportunity was worth it XD. Krystal and Jill were looking forward to get autographs for their comics by Bendis (don't remember full name). He was scheduled for 12:30pm and wasn't even there for at least 30 minutes. That's when Krystal and Jill said forget it. Supposedly the lunch plan was for the Comic Bloc crew, our group, and Geoff Johns to have lunch together some place. Well we found out that Geoff had to get back by 2pm for a panel he had to be at and the lunch selection wasn't that great at all =x Lunch ended up being more like a quick snack break. There was another DC panel during the day, so we went to that as well. As usual, the panel previews what is soon to be releasing as well as some brief info on them. Afterwards questions are taken from the audience. After the DC panel concluded, we stayed for the Marvel Panel. Not as large of a audience for this panel, but still some interesting stuff shown. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel where on our way it started to rain. At the same time, random people on the street were passing out "Spearmint Rhino" free topless lap-dance cards to us >_>
Alright, so we're back in the hotel room just resting up briefly and deciding whether to have room service or just dine at the restaurant in the hotel. We chose the restaurant. The waiting time was not cool at all, especially for the fact that they must be short on staff for the night. Then some random old guy asked us if we were waiting to be seated, then asked if we were attendees of the convention. When we replied yes, he said he was an exhibitor of the convention. He then asked if he could join us so that he can be seated right away. We agreed to have him join us, but boy that was the biggest mistake for us. When we were seated and proceeded to have conversations, we find out that this guy draws Yaoi O_o No wonder this guy sounded gay from the first place -.-;;; When he asked about what I'm majoring in and I said Hotel & Restaurant Mgmt. (aka Hospitality), he replies by saying: "ah, the major that's full of Mexicans, huh? Krystal, Jill, and especially me were like =O Man, I just wanted to throw my chair at him. ugh, just talking about this guy doesn't want me to finish off this part of the story. To finish this part off, we just went with finishing dinner as fast as we could so we could bail out ASAP from this fucker. We all headed back to the room. Supposedly some drama occurred for the day with the Comic Bloc crew, but that was all taken care of. The Comic Bloc crew did come over once more to have some more drinking. Prior to their arrival, I did taste the rum they brought over from Friday night and it was some really good rum =D Jill once again dozed off at some point. Didn't take advantage of her this time, but when a discussion about how Scott would be hanging off the window naked, Jill woke up from that comment and replied: "What the O_o" lol Jill is the greatest at waking up randomly with random comments XD The Comic Bloc crew left at 2am once again and we went to sleep.
March 19th (Sunday): The day of the L.A. marathon. I don't know how many times I must've woken up since the start of the marathon. I kept on hearing the same fuckin drum beat over and over again. It was so fuckin annoying. Pretty much we all got up, showered up and proceeded to check-out of the hotel. I was done for the day while Jill and Krystal were going to go inside for the last day of the convention. The route for getting out of the hotel and into the streets I need to get on to go to the 110 were weird and full of people. I managed to find my way and proceed to get on the 110. Surely enough, I encountered traffic (no surprise). But the moment I got on the 10, it was smooth sailing from there. Hell I actually got back home within 40 minutes O_o 40 frickin minutes when it's usually about 50-55 minutes. Too good ^^;;
Overall, good times. Although Wizard World wasn't as big as Comic Con, it was still a good convention and I enjoyed it. Sadly, (comic book conventions > Anime Expo) hands down. Wizard World should be moved to Long Beach next year.