comiccon
At first I didn't really want to relay the events of my trip to Comic-con simply because it was all blurring together near the end, but I inevitably decided to push forward and do it anyways because well... it was blurring all together. Iit was -admittedly- very fun, and I suppose keeping the events in order will help me recall the trip for future references.
Wed: Preview Night
That night was only reserved only for 3 and 4 day purchasers for comic-con, but already, the exhibit hall floors were flooded with people, thus already giving everyone a taste of possible hell that would ensue for the next 4 days => where all the single day people would also be there. Waited frantically for the early screening of Stardust tickets because Hanna, Stephi, and DJ thought it would be a nice way to end the night tomorrow. Dinner at the mall and then chillaxing until the movie. Eventually, I was successful in attaining 4 tickets to the screening, although I was curious as to why they gave so many out, esp. since each ticket was a double ticket. Was the theatre the size of a football stadium or something? Oh well, mission accomplished tonight. Wandered over to the Penny Arcade booth and purchased a Armadeaddon poster + Birds are Weird book for mike and had them signed by Tycho and Gabe (Two very amusing guys who were competing to see how quickly they could roll a poster. Gabe won.). Meandered around the convention some more, taking all the sights and grandiose booths in. Already feeling very tired even though I had only been there for 4 hours, I decided to turn in early and handle whatever hell would be waiting for me for the next four days. Later.
___________________________________________________
Thursday
Arrive early (8:30ish) with Hanna, DJ, and Stephi... well, but not early enough. By the time we got there the line had just started to extend a little past the building's left corner. Even though I had already picked up my badge, I decide to be chivalrous and roast with my friends until they were near the escalator, before I retreated into the air conditioned convention hall. While waiting for them to register, I decided to do Square Enix's Puzzle game => a fruitless and time wasting endeavor. Witnessed Stephi hand over two of her precious hand made glass mugs to Tycho and Gabe. (I think she was hoping for a mention on their blog, since it was a very cool gift but alas, no such luck.). With no more things that we needed to attend to, we all agreed upon to go to the Paramount Pictures panel because it was the biggest one and it sounded like it had cool movie previews. And thus we waited in a long, seemingly endless snake-like line until we finally were shuffled in Hall H with goodie bags (swag). Somewhere along the way, DJ left to go help some random stranger buy transformer toys because he was going to get paid for it, but it was sold out barely minutes after it opened. So DJ was stuck outside the Paramount Pictures panel with nothing to do but wander the Exhibit Hall for 2 hours.
In the meantime...
They showed (I might not necessarily remember all of the movies):
Spiderwick Chronicles (worst panel, frighteningly boring, wanted to gouge out my own ears)
Beowulf and Stardust (Amusing, Gaiman has good anecdotes, movies looked promising)
Iron Man (We thought they were going to trick us and not show us the preview, but then the director relented and he showed it to us. It looked amazing and the guy that plays Stark seemed perfect for the role. While I don't like very many of Marvel's comic to movie adaptations, this one looks like it has potential)
Cloverfield (Not the actual name of the movie. Something about a monster... I think? Not sure what it is about, could be horror *shrug*)
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford is old.)
Star Trek (Leonard Nimoy!)
Hot Rod (From the guys who brought you 'Dick in a Box')
Whatever other movies I missed, I assure you they were not important and thus I have not committed them to memory. However for those of you who would like a full recall of the entire session. => http://www.cinematical.com/2007/07/26/comic-con-paramounts-massive-panel-indiana-jones-iv-star-tre/
Swag consisted of : Iron man t-shirt, Slusho t-shirt (wtf?), Star Trek (t-shirt), some pieces of paper and a roll of a bunch of posters. => most likely the t-shirts will go to mike since they're all too big for me.
After the panel, went back to the exhibit hall and realized that there wasn't much else for us to do, it was nearly 5ish, so we decided that because DJ was falling asleep on his feet (he was wandering around the exhibit hall for that last 2 hours remember?), and we were all a bit tired and had no interest in attending any other panels, it was best if we headed over to the Horton Plaza, where Stardust was going to be screened (at 9pm).
We went to the bookstore to find Stardust, because Hanna and Stephi wanted to read it so they could compare it with the movie.
The following was to prove that we were not fanatics, but simply really tired and didn't realize that we had managed to get into something that a lot of fanatics would have killed to get into:
We decided to have an early dinner in the food court and then went to the semi- small line congregating in front of the theater to nap because well... it was in the shade, relatively clean comfortable floor, there were available benches... so why not? When we woke up a few hours later an enormous line had extended behind us, some guy was handing out special white tickets because the people who had shown up exceeded what the theatre could accommodate. Nevertheless, even though the theatre had exceeded capacity, people were still showing up, so the man who no longer had magic white tickets, was now handing out consolation posters. (this was approximately around 7pm)
Went in, waited a while. They said they were going to scan us for metals and dangerous objects... but they didn't? Yeah the machine was never turned on at all. So I mean, during our wait time DJ and the girl behind us were comparing their vicious looking knives (for not very vicious purposes... the girl had it for protection, DJ used his to cut rope for rock climbing and clean his nails) and I kept darting my eyes around praying that a security guard wouldn't throw us out. They didn't. Theatre filled, lights went down...
The movie was great, I can't spoil it here because the only person who reads my lj hasn't seen the movie yet and most likely he would verbally pummel me for giving away the movie, so suffice to say, it was very good and worth a second watch.... possibly a third watch with drunk friends (note: this is a college novelty, esp. when you're going to a kids movie... like... say... Ratatouille)
Afterwards, there was a brief Q&A section with Gaiman, his first nervous words were, "Oh good, you liked it". Obviously he didn't see the number of people the theatre had to reject because they had all wanted to see his movie. (Why did the Paramount booth give away 2 tickets per red ticket? And thus giving away at least twice as many tickets as the theatre could accommodate? I'll never understand. Obviously they hadn't thought out their clever plan or they had horrendous math skills. I'm kind of leaning towards the latter. You don't give out nearly 3 times as many tickets as available seats, that's just... irresponsible.)
Anyways, Q&A session, wanted to ask something, but I was a bit of a chicken so I didn't. Missed opportunity for a pre-autographed poster, not sure I wanted one though... seemed a bit impersonal. It's too bad I didn't find out about Mr. Gaiman sooner (although the early years for him was when I was in diapers... so.. that logistically doesn't make sense), either way, I do feel sorry for him because he doesn't do well with crowds and he seemed very daunted by the large group of people that wanted to see him at Comic-con.
Having thought these thoughts during the Q&A, the four of us walked right in front of him as we left the theatre, DJ told me to get an autograph, but I saw some fans had already moved to corner him at the end of the hallway next to the theatre exit.
Instead, I decided to leave the poor man alone.
It could only get worse for him.
___________________________________________________
Friday
I didn’t do nearly as much on Friday because I was kind of depressed I was the only person there … I didn’t realize that I missed the absence of my friends until I was caught between panels with nothing to do (and there was no way I was going to brave the overcrowded Exhibit Hall.
I first went to the WB Panel.
The only thing there I thought that was even worth watching was GetSmart or was it GetSmarty? Anyways, lots of big named stars showed up. Steve Carrell looked kind of the mix between constipated and frightened -he actually wasn't very funny. The Rock was probably used to big crowds, so he seemed somewhat more natural. Either way, the panel reminded me of what Pajiba said about how the nature of Comic-con has changed from a safe haven for comic geeks to the cool kids taking over comic-con and then ‘letting’ the geeks watch the cool table from afar.
And I found that statement to be… quite accurate. Most likely, all these movie stars were all those people all of the geeks hated in high school, so why were the geeks welcoming them with such reverence anyways? They weren’t even one of the geeks! Oh the contrary nature of humans.
Left the WB panel without much to do… went to buy lunch at exorbitant prices, panel hopped a bit on the other side or the registration stuff -since I hadn’t been there- only to realize that I had managed to find my way into another panel with Mr. Gaiman. More amusing anecdotes, so I stayed until the end.
At some point Mr. Gaiman took off his leather jacket. Yes, the one that he ALWAYS wears like some sort of turtle shell, thus causing girls to catcall him. Which resulted in him to flustering and crying out, "What was that about?!"
In the end, I think they threw those free Neverwear t-shirts to distract the fans and keep them from following him.
Went around, saw that the Eisner Awards was going to be nearly 4 hours later. Too tired to deal with waiting for another 4 hours, I decided to go home to catch up on much rest. Tomorrow was going to be the most trying day at Comic-con.
_________________________________________
Saturday
I went extra early today so I could get my badge (I only had a 3 day badge, so I had to buy a separate single day one). It was just waiting in one line after another line… herded like sheep. I should remember to wear Mike’s ‘Sheep’ shirt next time.
I had prime seats in Ballroom 20 (which as the ballroom that was going to have Bionic Woman/Heroes/Battlestar/Futurama/Whedon, so everyone was going to camp in the room), nevertheless, I left at some point to catch the Disney/Pixar Panel.
Bionic Woman: Not too impressed, awkward dialog, over-dramatized reaction from the actress to her ‘situation’. Camera work reminded me of CSI too much.
So I left earlier than I thought and I ended up in the Simpsons Panel, heard the creators/cast sing ‘spider pig’, which was quite funny because everyone was off tune and unsure of the lyrics. Some girl asked if she could work for them, but they deterred her by telling her that some of them had to stay up for like… 2 whole days with no sleep. *sarcasm* Oh noo… 2 whole days, whatever will I do? Oh wait, I’ve pulled 70 hours before… che. WEAK.
And then it turns out I was really off because it was the Rogue/Focus Panel next…urg… Horror… horror…Coraline (only redeeming factor in this panel)… horror… boring…horror…
FINALLY: Disney/Pixar Panel
Prince Caspian: I guess the CGI isn’t bad… but story means a lot to me and well…I found the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to be mediocre (I really like the Silver Chair much more), so Prince Caspian didn’t do much for me either.
WALL-E: They showed us a lot of new preview stuff for this panel. The movie looks amazing. They brought in the sound guy who did the sounds for R2D2 and Indiana Jones to do the sounds for WALL-E, so he showed us a demonstration of sounds matched with animation. It was so much fun. And at the end they showed us about a 5 minute clip of the movie. I was ecstatic because… this movie practically had no dialog and yet they were so good at conveying non-speaking dialog with animation and blipping robot sounds that the no talking in the movie didn’t seems to matter much. I can’t wait until this move comes out.
Sarah Connor Chronicles: Basically it’s a new show and the story takes place between Terminator2 and Terminator3. They showed us the entire pilot during the panel. It was very impressive. Good dialog, true to the original movie, lots of action. People kept clapping in between every scene change. After the pilot, another Q&A session, Summer Glau was there, much to the happiness of a lot of fanboys. Out of all the actresses/actors I’ve seen so far, she was the nicest and most gracious and it was nice to see that she was comfortable with her fans (despite not so subtle drooling from the guys) and the cast. I think I will pick up this show during the fall, it looks like it’s worth watching.
Smallville: A LOAD OF ILLOGICAL UNREDEEMABLE GARBAGE.
_________________________________________________________
Sunday
I was considering… not going because Sunday is kids’ day, but I spent a lot of money and it seemed like a waste. So I went. After reading the schedule several times over… I decided that the Jack Kirby panel was the best one to go to. I had about Jack Kirby from various comic friends and mostly likely I had read a few comics by him, but was not aware of it.
I sat next to a couple of old guys (an avid fan and a comic book dealer) at the very front, true hardcore fans that could buy comics for 15 cents -comics never cost 15 cents when I existed, so they were a totally different generation (If comics were 15 cents when I was kid, I would have bought them too). I was perfectly willing to give up my seat to someone that was more of a fanatic if they wanted to get up closer. But there were still empty seats at the front even until the end. So I didn’t feel so bad about taking a front seat.
Learned a lot of things about Kirby’s role in the whole world of Marvel and what a douche Stan Lee was. But it makes sense because I always got that feeling from Stan Lee, but I couldn’t really reconcile that feeling with his public image, so I was kind of confused.
Swag: good stuff, very shiny… although the coloring is a bit… weird... I think one of the things that bothered me about old comics was the coloring, I recalled thinking whether the colorists were color blind and why did they tend to let the colors leak outside of the margins? It always seems really sloppy.
Either way, panel was good. I felt like I got my Sunday’s worth. Walked one last big circle around the Exhibit Hall and called it a day.
___________________________________________________
While I didn’t like the crowds, I think I was handling them better with DJ, Stephi, and Hanna, so maybe next year, when I come with Mike, Brandon, and Brian for all 4 days, it won’t be so bad either. Perhaps we’ll even stay a day afterwards and kayak.
Wed: Preview Night
That night was only reserved only for 3 and 4 day purchasers for comic-con, but already, the exhibit hall floors were flooded with people, thus already giving everyone a taste of possible hell that would ensue for the next 4 days => where all the single day people would also be there. Waited frantically for the early screening of Stardust tickets because Hanna, Stephi, and DJ thought it would be a nice way to end the night tomorrow. Dinner at the mall and then chillaxing until the movie. Eventually, I was successful in attaining 4 tickets to the screening, although I was curious as to why they gave so many out, esp. since each ticket was a double ticket. Was the theatre the size of a football stadium or something? Oh well, mission accomplished tonight. Wandered over to the Penny Arcade booth and purchased a Armadeaddon poster + Birds are Weird book for mike and had them signed by Tycho and Gabe (Two very amusing guys who were competing to see how quickly they could roll a poster. Gabe won.). Meandered around the convention some more, taking all the sights and grandiose booths in. Already feeling very tired even though I had only been there for 4 hours, I decided to turn in early and handle whatever hell would be waiting for me for the next four days. Later.
___________________________________________________
Thursday
Arrive early (8:30ish) with Hanna, DJ, and Stephi... well, but not early enough. By the time we got there the line had just started to extend a little past the building's left corner. Even though I had already picked up my badge, I decide to be chivalrous and roast with my friends until they were near the escalator, before I retreated into the air conditioned convention hall. While waiting for them to register, I decided to do Square Enix's Puzzle game => a fruitless and time wasting endeavor. Witnessed Stephi hand over two of her precious hand made glass mugs to Tycho and Gabe. (I think she was hoping for a mention on their blog, since it was a very cool gift but alas, no such luck.). With no more things that we needed to attend to, we all agreed upon to go to the Paramount Pictures panel because it was the biggest one and it sounded like it had cool movie previews. And thus we waited in a long, seemingly endless snake-like line until we finally were shuffled in Hall H with goodie bags (swag). Somewhere along the way, DJ left to go help some random stranger buy transformer toys because he was going to get paid for it, but it was sold out barely minutes after it opened. So DJ was stuck outside the Paramount Pictures panel with nothing to do but wander the Exhibit Hall for 2 hours.
In the meantime...
They showed (I might not necessarily remember all of the movies):
Spiderwick Chronicles (worst panel, frighteningly boring, wanted to gouge out my own ears)
Beowulf and Stardust (Amusing, Gaiman has good anecdotes, movies looked promising)
Iron Man (We thought they were going to trick us and not show us the preview, but then the director relented and he showed it to us. It looked amazing and the guy that plays Stark seemed perfect for the role. While I don't like very many of Marvel's comic to movie adaptations, this one looks like it has potential)
Cloverfield (Not the actual name of the movie. Something about a monster... I think? Not sure what it is about, could be horror *shrug*)
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford is old.)
Star Trek (Leonard Nimoy!)
Hot Rod (From the guys who brought you 'Dick in a Box')
Whatever other movies I missed, I assure you they were not important and thus I have not committed them to memory. However for those of you who would like a full recall of the entire session. => http://www.cinematical.com/2007/07/26/comic-con-paramounts-massive-panel-indiana-jones-iv-star-tre/
Swag consisted of : Iron man t-shirt, Slusho t-shirt (wtf?), Star Trek (t-shirt), some pieces of paper and a roll of a bunch of posters. => most likely the t-shirts will go to mike since they're all too big for me.
After the panel, went back to the exhibit hall and realized that there wasn't much else for us to do, it was nearly 5ish, so we decided that because DJ was falling asleep on his feet (he was wandering around the exhibit hall for that last 2 hours remember?), and we were all a bit tired and had no interest in attending any other panels, it was best if we headed over to the Horton Plaza, where Stardust was going to be screened (at 9pm).
We went to the bookstore to find Stardust, because Hanna and Stephi wanted to read it so they could compare it with the movie.
The following was to prove that we were not fanatics, but simply really tired and didn't realize that we had managed to get into something that a lot of fanatics would have killed to get into:
We decided to have an early dinner in the food court and then went to the semi- small line congregating in front of the theater to nap because well... it was in the shade, relatively clean comfortable floor, there were available benches... so why not? When we woke up a few hours later an enormous line had extended behind us, some guy was handing out special white tickets because the people who had shown up exceeded what the theatre could accommodate. Nevertheless, even though the theatre had exceeded capacity, people were still showing up, so the man who no longer had magic white tickets, was now handing out consolation posters. (this was approximately around 7pm)
Went in, waited a while. They said they were going to scan us for metals and dangerous objects... but they didn't? Yeah the machine was never turned on at all. So I mean, during our wait time DJ and the girl behind us were comparing their vicious looking knives (for not very vicious purposes... the girl had it for protection, DJ used his to cut rope for rock climbing and clean his nails) and I kept darting my eyes around praying that a security guard wouldn't throw us out. They didn't. Theatre filled, lights went down...
The movie was great, I can't spoil it here because the only person who reads my lj hasn't seen the movie yet and most likely he would verbally pummel me for giving away the movie, so suffice to say, it was very good and worth a second watch.... possibly a third watch with drunk friends (note: this is a college novelty, esp. when you're going to a kids movie... like... say... Ratatouille)
Afterwards, there was a brief Q&A section with Gaiman, his first nervous words were, "Oh good, you liked it". Obviously he didn't see the number of people the theatre had to reject because they had all wanted to see his movie. (Why did the Paramount booth give away 2 tickets per red ticket? And thus giving away at least twice as many tickets as the theatre could accommodate? I'll never understand. Obviously they hadn't thought out their clever plan or they had horrendous math skills. I'm kind of leaning towards the latter. You don't give out nearly 3 times as many tickets as available seats, that's just... irresponsible.)
Anyways, Q&A session, wanted to ask something, but I was a bit of a chicken so I didn't. Missed opportunity for a pre-autographed poster, not sure I wanted one though... seemed a bit impersonal. It's too bad I didn't find out about Mr. Gaiman sooner (although the early years for him was when I was in diapers... so.. that logistically doesn't make sense), either way, I do feel sorry for him because he doesn't do well with crowds and he seemed very daunted by the large group of people that wanted to see him at Comic-con.
Having thought these thoughts during the Q&A, the four of us walked right in front of him as we left the theatre, DJ told me to get an autograph, but I saw some fans had already moved to corner him at the end of the hallway next to the theatre exit.
Instead, I decided to leave the poor man alone.
It could only get worse for him.
___________________________________________________
Friday
I didn’t do nearly as much on Friday because I was kind of depressed I was the only person there … I didn’t realize that I missed the absence of my friends until I was caught between panels with nothing to do (and there was no way I was going to brave the overcrowded Exhibit Hall.
I first went to the WB Panel.
The only thing there I thought that was even worth watching was GetSmart or was it GetSmarty? Anyways, lots of big named stars showed up. Steve Carrell looked kind of the mix between constipated and frightened -he actually wasn't very funny. The Rock was probably used to big crowds, so he seemed somewhat more natural. Either way, the panel reminded me of what Pajiba said about how the nature of Comic-con has changed from a safe haven for comic geeks to the cool kids taking over comic-con and then ‘letting’ the geeks watch the cool table from afar.
And I found that statement to be… quite accurate. Most likely, all these movie stars were all those people all of the geeks hated in high school, so why were the geeks welcoming them with such reverence anyways? They weren’t even one of the geeks! Oh the contrary nature of humans.
Left the WB panel without much to do… went to buy lunch at exorbitant prices, panel hopped a bit on the other side or the registration stuff -since I hadn’t been there- only to realize that I had managed to find my way into another panel with Mr. Gaiman. More amusing anecdotes, so I stayed until the end.
At some point Mr. Gaiman took off his leather jacket. Yes, the one that he ALWAYS wears like some sort of turtle shell, thus causing girls to catcall him. Which resulted in him to flustering and crying out, "What was that about?!"
In the end, I think they threw those free Neverwear t-shirts to distract the fans and keep them from following him.
Went around, saw that the Eisner Awards was going to be nearly 4 hours later. Too tired to deal with waiting for another 4 hours, I decided to go home to catch up on much rest. Tomorrow was going to be the most trying day at Comic-con.
_________________________________________
Saturday
I went extra early today so I could get my badge (I only had a 3 day badge, so I had to buy a separate single day one). It was just waiting in one line after another line… herded like sheep. I should remember to wear Mike’s ‘Sheep’ shirt next time.
I had prime seats in Ballroom 20 (which as the ballroom that was going to have Bionic Woman/Heroes/Battlestar/Futurama/Whedon, so everyone was going to camp in the room), nevertheless, I left at some point to catch the Disney/Pixar Panel.
Bionic Woman: Not too impressed, awkward dialog, over-dramatized reaction from the actress to her ‘situation’. Camera work reminded me of CSI too much.
So I left earlier than I thought and I ended up in the Simpsons Panel, heard the creators/cast sing ‘spider pig’, which was quite funny because everyone was off tune and unsure of the lyrics. Some girl asked if she could work for them, but they deterred her by telling her that some of them had to stay up for like… 2 whole days with no sleep. *sarcasm* Oh noo… 2 whole days, whatever will I do? Oh wait, I’ve pulled 70 hours before… che. WEAK.
And then it turns out I was really off because it was the Rogue/Focus Panel next…urg… Horror… horror…Coraline (only redeeming factor in this panel)… horror… boring…horror…
FINALLY: Disney/Pixar Panel
Prince Caspian: I guess the CGI isn’t bad… but story means a lot to me and well…I found the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to be mediocre (I really like the Silver Chair much more), so Prince Caspian didn’t do much for me either.
WALL-E: They showed us a lot of new preview stuff for this panel. The movie looks amazing. They brought in the sound guy who did the sounds for R2D2 and Indiana Jones to do the sounds for WALL-E, so he showed us a demonstration of sounds matched with animation. It was so much fun. And at the end they showed us about a 5 minute clip of the movie. I was ecstatic because… this movie practically had no dialog and yet they were so good at conveying non-speaking dialog with animation and blipping robot sounds that the no talking in the movie didn’t seems to matter much. I can’t wait until this move comes out.
Sarah Connor Chronicles: Basically it’s a new show and the story takes place between Terminator2 and Terminator3. They showed us the entire pilot during the panel. It was very impressive. Good dialog, true to the original movie, lots of action. People kept clapping in between every scene change. After the pilot, another Q&A session, Summer Glau was there, much to the happiness of a lot of fanboys. Out of all the actresses/actors I’ve seen so far, she was the nicest and most gracious and it was nice to see that she was comfortable with her fans (despite not so subtle drooling from the guys) and the cast. I think I will pick up this show during the fall, it looks like it’s worth watching.
Smallville: A LOAD OF ILLOGICAL UNREDEEMABLE GARBAGE.
_________________________________________________________
Sunday
I was considering… not going because Sunday is kids’ day, but I spent a lot of money and it seemed like a waste. So I went. After reading the schedule several times over… I decided that the Jack Kirby panel was the best one to go to. I had about Jack Kirby from various comic friends and mostly likely I had read a few comics by him, but was not aware of it.
I sat next to a couple of old guys (an avid fan and a comic book dealer) at the very front, true hardcore fans that could buy comics for 15 cents -comics never cost 15 cents when I existed, so they were a totally different generation (If comics were 15 cents when I was kid, I would have bought them too). I was perfectly willing to give up my seat to someone that was more of a fanatic if they wanted to get up closer. But there were still empty seats at the front even until the end. So I didn’t feel so bad about taking a front seat.
Learned a lot of things about Kirby’s role in the whole world of Marvel and what a douche Stan Lee was. But it makes sense because I always got that feeling from Stan Lee, but I couldn’t really reconcile that feeling with his public image, so I was kind of confused.
Swag: good stuff, very shiny… although the coloring is a bit… weird... I think one of the things that bothered me about old comics was the coloring, I recalled thinking whether the colorists were color blind and why did they tend to let the colors leak outside of the margins? It always seems really sloppy.
Either way, panel was good. I felt like I got my Sunday’s worth. Walked one last big circle around the Exhibit Hall and called it a day.
___________________________________________________
While I didn’t like the crowds, I think I was handling them better with DJ, Stephi, and Hanna, so maybe next year, when I come with Mike, Brandon, and Brian for all 4 days, it won’t be so bad either. Perhaps we’ll even stay a day afterwards and kayak.