Comic-Con 2012: The Post Mortem
Another Comic-Con has come and gone, the swag gloated over, the pictures ogled, the lessons learned.
This year, I had gotten passes for Friday and Saturday, and decided to burn some of my Amtrak Guest Rewards points for an upgrade to Business Class on my trains to and from San Diego. I am so going to cough up the extra money for the upgrade next year; between the priority boarding in San Diego, WiFi in the BC car, and free snackage galore, I’m sold.
I didn’t get to do everything I’d hoped on Friday, but it was still pretty darn good. After I’d gotten an alert from krisrussel about the crazy-long line to get into Ballroom 20 for the Firefly 10th anniversary panel, I decided to forgo it and take an early quick spin around the exhibit hall. At 9:45 in the morning, the hall was already nuts. Even Artists’ Alley and the small press areas were more congested at that time of day than I’ve ever seen in previous years. I decided to bail out earlier than I’d thought due to the crowds, but before I did, I slogged my way to the Marvel booth to preorder the MCU Avengers Assembled 10-disc Blu-ray set and pick up the LE poster (of the artwork for the Avengers disc folder) that they were giving out as a pre-order bonus (I got #291 out of 500). Then I headed upstairs to get in line for the Tron: Uprising panel. Got into the room about partway through the first of two Cartoon Network panels that were running before TR; a good thing, too, as a lot of people were also getting in early for a writers’ panel after TR, and seats were going quickly. After the second CN panel cleared out, I moved up and closer to the front to get a couple of better seats. Kris barely squeaked into the room and claimed her seat; apparently the line had gotten crazy outside and she hadn’t been sure she’d get in. It seems Friday the 13th was lucky for us, because we had a great time!
Anyway, the panel was awesome; Bruce Boxleitner was, as always, a hoot, Elijah Wood was adorkable and Tricia Helfer was lovely. We got to see some new footage in an extended preview of a deliciously evil plotline coming up (namely, more details on how Tron was corrupted into Rinzler, as we had gotten a brief hint of in Tron: Legacy). Speaking of TL, we also got some hints from a couple of the producers that they are working on a story for a sequel! Yay! There was a drawing for several autographed identity discs (neither of us won one, booo!), and everyone got tickets to redeem for a couple of double-sided posters, one featuring two different images for Tron: Uprising, the other featuring a couple of other shows on Disney XD. After picking up our posters, Kris headed off to try for some more autographs, and I was off to search in vain for the newest bit of viral promotion for Prometheus (but the info's now online, so I'm not too crushed). Then it was back to the exhibit hall for a last look around before heading off to dinner and the train ride home. All in all, a pretty good day.
On the flip side, Saturday was a detour into the Bermuda Triangle bracketed by a couple of nice train rides. Upon arriving at the convention center at about 9:30, I went straight to the line for Hall H. Now let's be clear, I am well aware that H has gotten batshit crazy in the last few years. But I hoped that surely with over 8 hours of lead time, I'd make it in for the Iron Man 3 panel at 6. Well, I was almost right. The fire marshal closed the room with about 40 people still ahead of me in line. And that was at about 6:20 or so, after the panel had already started. So close, yet so damn far. Just to add insult to injury, I still managed to get sunburned despite slathering on a lot of sunblock, and wearing my hat, light jacket and my sun gloves in the sunny spots throughout the line. *sighs*
I felt kinda bad for the staff working the line; they were definitely busting their asses to squeeze in as many as they could because they knew there were A LOT of people trying for IM3. So major props to the guys and gals working the line. The same cannot be said for the Comic-Con organizers themselves. The lines, especially for the biggest rooms, Hall H and Ballroom 20, have gotten ridiculous over the last five years or so; people have even resorted to camping out at 4 in the morning or earlier, to get in. This year hit a new low with a Twilight fan actually getting hit by a car and killed while running across the street to get to her spot in line; apparently she’d been in an unofficial line since Sunday to get in. Comic-Con had posted on their website that people weren’t going to be allowed into Plaza Park outside Hall H until Tuesday morning after all the tents had been set up to accommodate the line. But for the past few years, people have been doing it anyway and no one, not Comic-Con, San Diego convention center security, or the police, have really tried to crack down on it. They’ve let this problem grow into a monster, and given how long they’ve let it go on unchecked, I have serious doubts as to whether or not they have the brains (much less the guts) to implement a new system to cut down on the lines and get people into the rooms in a fair and timely fashion, all while keeping everyone safe.
Will I go next year? Probably, yes. But I'm staying the frak away from Hall H and Ballroom 20 until they get their shit together.
This year, I had gotten passes for Friday and Saturday, and decided to burn some of my Amtrak Guest Rewards points for an upgrade to Business Class on my trains to and from San Diego. I am so going to cough up the extra money for the upgrade next year; between the priority boarding in San Diego, WiFi in the BC car, and free snackage galore, I’m sold.
I didn’t get to do everything I’d hoped on Friday, but it was still pretty darn good. After I’d gotten an alert from krisrussel about the crazy-long line to get into Ballroom 20 for the Firefly 10th anniversary panel, I decided to forgo it and take an early quick spin around the exhibit hall. At 9:45 in the morning, the hall was already nuts. Even Artists’ Alley and the small press areas were more congested at that time of day than I’ve ever seen in previous years. I decided to bail out earlier than I’d thought due to the crowds, but before I did, I slogged my way to the Marvel booth to preorder the MCU Avengers Assembled 10-disc Blu-ray set and pick up the LE poster (of the artwork for the Avengers disc folder) that they were giving out as a pre-order bonus (I got #291 out of 500). Then I headed upstairs to get in line for the Tron: Uprising panel. Got into the room about partway through the first of two Cartoon Network panels that were running before TR; a good thing, too, as a lot of people were also getting in early for a writers’ panel after TR, and seats were going quickly. After the second CN panel cleared out, I moved up and closer to the front to get a couple of better seats. Kris barely squeaked into the room and claimed her seat; apparently the line had gotten crazy outside and she hadn’t been sure she’d get in. It seems Friday the 13th was lucky for us, because we had a great time!
Anyway, the panel was awesome; Bruce Boxleitner was, as always, a hoot, Elijah Wood was adorkable and Tricia Helfer was lovely. We got to see some new footage in an extended preview of a deliciously evil plotline coming up (namely, more details on how Tron was corrupted into Rinzler, as we had gotten a brief hint of in Tron: Legacy). Speaking of TL, we also got some hints from a couple of the producers that they are working on a story for a sequel! Yay! There was a drawing for several autographed identity discs (neither of us won one, booo!), and everyone got tickets to redeem for a couple of double-sided posters, one featuring two different images for Tron: Uprising, the other featuring a couple of other shows on Disney XD. After picking up our posters, Kris headed off to try for some more autographs, and I was off to search in vain for the newest bit of viral promotion for Prometheus (but the info's now online, so I'm not too crushed). Then it was back to the exhibit hall for a last look around before heading off to dinner and the train ride home. All in all, a pretty good day.
On the flip side, Saturday was a detour into the Bermuda Triangle bracketed by a couple of nice train rides. Upon arriving at the convention center at about 9:30, I went straight to the line for Hall H. Now let's be clear, I am well aware that H has gotten batshit crazy in the last few years. But I hoped that surely with over 8 hours of lead time, I'd make it in for the Iron Man 3 panel at 6. Well, I was almost right. The fire marshal closed the room with about 40 people still ahead of me in line. And that was at about 6:20 or so, after the panel had already started. So close, yet so damn far. Just to add insult to injury, I still managed to get sunburned despite slathering on a lot of sunblock, and wearing my hat, light jacket and my sun gloves in the sunny spots throughout the line. *sighs*
I felt kinda bad for the staff working the line; they were definitely busting their asses to squeeze in as many as they could because they knew there were A LOT of people trying for IM3. So major props to the guys and gals working the line. The same cannot be said for the Comic-Con organizers themselves. The lines, especially for the biggest rooms, Hall H and Ballroom 20, have gotten ridiculous over the last five years or so; people have even resorted to camping out at 4 in the morning or earlier, to get in. This year hit a new low with a Twilight fan actually getting hit by a car and killed while running across the street to get to her spot in line; apparently she’d been in an unofficial line since Sunday to get in. Comic-Con had posted on their website that people weren’t going to be allowed into Plaza Park outside Hall H until Tuesday morning after all the tents had been set up to accommodate the line. But for the past few years, people have been doing it anyway and no one, not Comic-Con, San Diego convention center security, or the police, have really tried to crack down on it. They’ve let this problem grow into a monster, and given how long they’ve let it go on unchecked, I have serious doubts as to whether or not they have the brains (much less the guts) to implement a new system to cut down on the lines and get people into the rooms in a fair and timely fashion, all while keeping everyone safe.
Will I go next year? Probably, yes. But I'm staying the frak away from Hall H and Ballroom 20 until they get their shit together.