Comic Con 2012: Saturday
OMG, Saturday: This morning started out early with the arrival of 
figgy_newton and our awesome babysitter. With Figgy's help, I was able to get the wig squared away and even drove us down to the trolley station (although I was honestly a little worried that other motorists, seeing a bright pink-haired woman driving the car next to them, might have an accident.
We hurried to get in line for the Adventure Time panel, and we were lucky that we did, because we almost didn't get a seat. The room was packed! One of the security guards said that people had slept overnight to get a good seat for AT, which I honestly find a little hard to believe... but this is Comic Con and nothing is too hard to believe.
The panel before Adventure Time was... well, it was a about a movie, After Earth. Here's a movie from a major studio that's coming out next June, but neither the director (M. Night Shamaylan) nor the stars (Will Smith and his son) showed up, and the studio spent no money to promote it, other than having the panel itself and giving away a free tie-in comic. It's as if the studio either expects the movie to fail (badly?), or hopes that via secret stealth buzz, it will do really well. And it would be nice if it did well, because the writers, designers, and other creative people involved in it clearly cared about what they were doing, and had put a great amount of beautiful and complicated work into the work already. On the other hand, it sounded... kind of preachy, and a little bit like a movie I'd seen before. Dunno. Anyway, the people on the panel tried very hard, despite the realization that I think they all came to that 90% of the people in there were just waiting for the Adventure Time panel up next.
But then it was the Adventure Time panel and it was AWESOMELY ALGEBRAIC! Pendleton Ward's voice at times sounds exactly like Lumpy Space Princess's, even when he's not "doing" the voice, and it's rather endearing. Also, his mother was in the audience, further endearing!* The panelists were equally awesome: artist/musical talent Rebecca Sugar (whose singing voice is sweet and confident), and voice talent Tom Kenny, John DiMaggio, and Jeremy Shada (the Ice King, Jake, and Finn, respectively.) They performed a little "radio play" which featured sound effects by the Ice King, a running joke about the mispronunciation of the word detective as "detect-ative", and LSP getting mad at the Ice King (for the millionth time.) There were also two clips from the show (one hilarious send-up of Magic: The Gathering that warmed my old-school, anti-card-game gamer heart), a promo for the video game, and general merriment and hilarity. Notes from the Q&A time included:
*Princess Bubblegum and the Flame Princess will meet in an upcoming episode.
*Princess Bubblegum isn't evil; she's a scientist with absolute devotion to what's logically right. (Further evidence of her coolness!)
*New Fionna & Cake episode!
*The best question came from a little boy who started off asking when an old character would reappear and wound up pitching a two-episode arc, much as kids are wont to do when they're really into a story.
*The nicest lead-in to a question came from a Mom who thanked the panel for the Finn hat and said that because of the hat, her autistic son had made more friends at school.
So, all things considered, it was pretty sweet. :D
After that, there was a flurry during which I met up and had lunch with my cousins, briefly reconnected with Mith, and then hung out on the Exhibit Hall Floor with Yebisu. We grabbed dinner at an overpriced pub downtown and headed back into procure an Ugly Doll for R.'s birthday present and observe more chaos. Then we headed home, tired and thoroughly sated for the day.
* Side note: this is the second time this con where I've met/seen Moms supporting their geeky sons and geeky endeavors, and it's quite sweet.
My thoughts on cosplay, let me share them : So, overall, I really, really liked the whole cosplay experience. To briefly get the troubling things out of the way, however, I must say that I did not enjoy wearing the wig the whole time. Combined with the hot weather, and the fact that the hair kept going places I didn't necessarily want it to, it was a relief to get it off around 4:00 in the afternoon. I did keep it on all day until that point, though, so I'm super proud of my first effort!
But annoyances with the wig aside, cosplaying was just plain FUN. I made small children smile when I smiled or waved at them; people recognized me and complimented on the candy corn mouse I had worked really hard on; and several people asked for pictures, which I took as a compliment. It was also really cool seeking out other people cosplaying from Adventure Time and posing with them. The other factor that really brightened the experience for me was that besides my cousin, no one else was doing what I was doing. I did see other Princess Bubblegums, but I was the only one in a lab coat and with the candy corn mouse.
In the end, I'm still sorting out what impelled me to do a costume this year. The first few years I went, I was way too shy and intimidated by the really amazing costumes that I saw to even think about trying. But in the last few years, I started wishing I was doing something, and last year, I wore the Starfleet medical uniform, which was pretty fun. I think this year was the perfect storm of finding a character I'm really passionate about, realizing that the costume would not be that difficult to make, and taking the final leap. I'm so glad I did. I will try and do something else next year (if there is a next year), although I may shy away from anything wig-wise. ;)
As usual, if you're only interested in the pictures, they're here.
Tomorrow: The Children's Museum Adventure Time installation! Nothing else specific! Likely Xmas/birthday shopping! And the inevitable event horizon of I've Had Enough Con Thank You.
figgy_newton and our awesome babysitter. With Figgy's help, I was able to get the wig squared away and even drove us down to the trolley station (although I was honestly a little worried that other motorists, seeing a bright pink-haired woman driving the car next to them, might have an accident.
We hurried to get in line for the Adventure Time panel, and we were lucky that we did, because we almost didn't get a seat. The room was packed! One of the security guards said that people had slept overnight to get a good seat for AT, which I honestly find a little hard to believe... but this is Comic Con and nothing is too hard to believe.
The panel before Adventure Time was... well, it was a about a movie, After Earth. Here's a movie from a major studio that's coming out next June, but neither the director (M. Night Shamaylan) nor the stars (Will Smith and his son) showed up, and the studio spent no money to promote it, other than having the panel itself and giving away a free tie-in comic. It's as if the studio either expects the movie to fail (badly?), or hopes that via secret stealth buzz, it will do really well. And it would be nice if it did well, because the writers, designers, and other creative people involved in it clearly cared about what they were doing, and had put a great amount of beautiful and complicated work into the work already. On the other hand, it sounded... kind of preachy, and a little bit like a movie I'd seen before. Dunno. Anyway, the people on the panel tried very hard, despite the realization that I think they all came to that 90% of the people in there were just waiting for the Adventure Time panel up next.
But then it was the Adventure Time panel and it was AWESOMELY ALGEBRAIC! Pendleton Ward's voice at times sounds exactly like Lumpy Space Princess's, even when he's not "doing" the voice, and it's rather endearing. Also, his mother was in the audience, further endearing!* The panelists were equally awesome: artist/musical talent Rebecca Sugar (whose singing voice is sweet and confident), and voice talent Tom Kenny, John DiMaggio, and Jeremy Shada (the Ice King, Jake, and Finn, respectively.) They performed a little "radio play" which featured sound effects by the Ice King, a running joke about the mispronunciation of the word detective as "detect-ative", and LSP getting mad at the Ice King (for the millionth time.) There were also two clips from the show (one hilarious send-up of Magic: The Gathering that warmed my old-school, anti-card-game gamer heart), a promo for the video game, and general merriment and hilarity. Notes from the Q&A time included:
*Princess Bubblegum and the Flame Princess will meet in an upcoming episode.
*Princess Bubblegum isn't evil; she's a scientist with absolute devotion to what's logically right. (Further evidence of her coolness!)
*New Fionna & Cake episode!
*The best question came from a little boy who started off asking when an old character would reappear and wound up pitching a two-episode arc, much as kids are wont to do when they're really into a story.
*The nicest lead-in to a question came from a Mom who thanked the panel for the Finn hat and said that because of the hat, her autistic son had made more friends at school.
So, all things considered, it was pretty sweet. :D
After that, there was a flurry during which I met up and had lunch with my cousins, briefly reconnected with Mith, and then hung out on the Exhibit Hall Floor with Yebisu. We grabbed dinner at an overpriced pub downtown and headed back into procure an Ugly Doll for R.'s birthday present and observe more chaos. Then we headed home, tired and thoroughly sated for the day.
* Side note: this is the second time this con where I've met/seen Moms supporting their geeky sons and geeky endeavors, and it's quite sweet.
My thoughts on cosplay, let me share them : So, overall, I really, really liked the whole cosplay experience. To briefly get the troubling things out of the way, however, I must say that I did not enjoy wearing the wig the whole time. Combined with the hot weather, and the fact that the hair kept going places I didn't necessarily want it to, it was a relief to get it off around 4:00 in the afternoon. I did keep it on all day until that point, though, so I'm super proud of my first effort!
But annoyances with the wig aside, cosplaying was just plain FUN. I made small children smile when I smiled or waved at them; people recognized me and complimented on the candy corn mouse I had worked really hard on; and several people asked for pictures, which I took as a compliment. It was also really cool seeking out other people cosplaying from Adventure Time and posing with them. The other factor that really brightened the experience for me was that besides my cousin, no one else was doing what I was doing. I did see other Princess Bubblegums, but I was the only one in a lab coat and with the candy corn mouse.
In the end, I'm still sorting out what impelled me to do a costume this year. The first few years I went, I was way too shy and intimidated by the really amazing costumes that I saw to even think about trying. But in the last few years, I started wishing I was doing something, and last year, I wore the Starfleet medical uniform, which was pretty fun. I think this year was the perfect storm of finding a character I'm really passionate about, realizing that the costume would not be that difficult to make, and taking the final leap. I'm so glad I did. I will try and do something else next year (if there is a next year), although I may shy away from anything wig-wise. ;)
As usual, if you're only interested in the pictures, they're here.
Tomorrow: The Children's Museum Adventure Time installation! Nothing else specific! Likely Xmas/birthday shopping! And the inevitable event horizon of I've Had Enough Con Thank You.