Note to self (and blog): Do not attempt Comic-Con in one day. Sure you can just hit the Show Floor running and find all sorts of amazing things, but the amount missed is monumental. This year I went to Comic-Con with my lovely Fiance Leeanne, my best friends Jeremy and Jessica and their cousin Travis. We were a rag tag team to be sure, with two NooBs among us (Lee and Travis).
Now to give you some background, I am a huge fan of conventions and expos. I've been to so many I honestly lost track. I just love the feeling of being around so many people with the same odd hobbies and social disorders. I didn't make it to Anime Expo this year, which was a bummer, but Comic-Con more than made up for it.
Everywhere you look there is something awesome: Independent artists and comics, figurines, games, cosplayers. So here are some highlights:
The most awesome starstruck moment was by far running into Sean Patrick Flannery. Thats right, Mr. Young Indiana Jones and my patron saint. As we were walking by an autograph booth, bummed beyond belief that Adam Baldwin (Casey on Chuck, Jayne on Firefly) had canceled his appearance we noticed that Sean Patrick Flannery was supposed to be there. We collectively noticed his absence and commented, wondering where he was. Then from behind us we heard "he had to go to the bathroom". We glanced back to see who our informant was ( I figured it was a rep) and lo and behold there stood the man himself! He was incredibly gracious and let us take several pictures with him! Awesome guy.
Some other starstruck moments included: Seeing (Read as: Walking past) the cast from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Guild. Leeanne and I also got some "face time" (pun intended) with the original Faceman himself Dirk Benedict. He was quite charming and told us several stories from the set of the A-Team.
Another "Geekgasm" moment I had was watching the trailer for the new Walking Dead series on AMC. This show looks fantastic! There were numerous lines of dialogue and set pieces ripped straight from the source material. This makes me wonder how close they will be able to get to the book however. It is on cable… but still… The book has some incredibly gory scenes, specifically one incident where a character is raped several times and then later is able to exact revenge. The entire issue was over the top with gore, perhaps I'll write a running review of Walking Dead some time soon. I absolutely love the series, but the arch around issue 7-8 is maddeningly stupid at points.
So yeah, back to Comic-Con. In the Video Game department there was the usual slew a top notch developers showing off their new stuff. Capcom had a dozen different games going, Harmonix had a full stage set up for Rock Band 3 (no keyboard though… disappointing to say the least), and THQ was pushing Red Faction: Armageddon. I'm a huge RF fan, I loved the first one, the sequel was a bit lackluster, but at least RF: Guerilla brought it back to mars. The THQ booth was awesome, and I got a picture in a giant robot, which was really fun. I'm looking forward to the new RF, at worst, it'll be like Guerilla meets Dead Space. I can think of worse combinations. Ultimately, though, I wish they would just put you back in the boots a miner on mars going up against the man in a first person shooter.
One thing thats always humorous (and sad to notice) are the Comic sections of the floor. Comic-Con used to be a comic book convention. There would be hundreds of comic book venders selling primarily comic books to nerds who greatly appreciated them. Now a days, however, the bulk of the crowd drawn to CC is generally that of modern media whores. This makes CC incredibly crowded, which is a point of contention for many true nerds in attendance. In the end though it is just people coming together to celebrate certain things nerdy. And one mans trash may be another mans treasure.
My Costume Identification was at an all time high this year I am proud to report! I had about a 95% success rate at knowing exactly who the Cosplayers were, including anime (at Anime Expo its generally around 50%…). Also the Sunday Swag was phenomenal. People were literally giving us fistfuls of free merch just to get rid of it! While early attendees (Thursday, Friday) generally get the better swag, Sunday folks get treated to the most!
That was my Comic-Con experience in a nutshell this year. No panels, no huge lines, no (live) shock announcements (because we didn't go to any panels). It was just pure show floor. Next year we are planning on getting at least a 3 day pass and a hotel room. The best part about CC is also its biggest weakness, its so big. Even if you have a 4 day pass with the preview night you will still have to make tough decisions, panels running at the same time, or leaving one early so you can go wait in line for 3 hours for the next one. Then on top of that squeezing in the show floor (which is always my favorite part of Cons). CC is a test of endurance, and one that should not be attempted in just one day.
Here's hoping that next year will be as epic as 2010. Marvel absolutely brought down the house.
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