Comic Con: Day 1!
Thursday, July 24th, 2008 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retsukoI want to say this right up front: don't go to Comic Con when you're sick. It's so draining, and there's all this amazing and fun stuff around you, and you can't do any of it because you're too tired... That said, even though we left early because I felt tired and sick, I still had a WONDERFUL time!
We got up early enough to park down at Fashion Valley, only to find that everyone else had the same idea and the train was crowded--almost Tokyo subway crowded, but not quite. The convention center was packed, too--lines of people waiting for the doors to the Exhibit Hall to open, lines of people waiting to pick up their passes. (Pictures are here, and of course I'll keep adding to it as I go along.) As usual, the staff moved us through very quickly and we barely had to stand in line at all. From there, it was straight to Ballroom 20!
I should pause and say here that I have/had two "missions" to accomplish during this Con: 1) to attend the Who/Torchwood panels and 2) to hear Lynda Barry. The first has been majorly accomplished, as is evidenced below; the second will be accomplished tomorrow. :) (Add onto these two a "semi-mission" involving the Con exclusive My Little Pony for sale at the Hasbro booth, one of which I have already seen on eBay for $25! I shall endeavor to purchase two tomorrow, one for me, and one for Shanghai Vixen... wish me luck!)
Ballroom 20 holds about 2,000 people, and I'm pretty sure that during the first panel (Stan Lee and Grant Morrison) that it was at 75% capacity, and during the second two panels (Who/Torchwood), it was at 99% capacity.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yebisu9 and I were quick to grab seats around the tenth row, left-hand side, and we stayed there the entire time--something which we sort of regretted later, as hunger and dehydration threatened. While we were waiting for the first panel to start, I chatted with the cool people behind me, notably ratchet and her friend S., and the woman next to me, who had a fabulous camera and was (I suspect) getting far better pictures than I was.
The Stan Lee/Grant Morrison panel was fantastic. Every time I see Stan Lee, I get all happy to be included in the "club" that he's in--OK, not really, but he's always got this great vibe about him that makes me happy to love the stuff he's written and to hear him talk about it. (Also, every time I see him, I think to myself, You're so awesome that I forgive you for 'Stripperella'.) He kept ribbing Grant Morrison for making him (Stan Lee) look bad, first by wearing a suit, then by giving complicated answers, and then by being a better writer. He also joked about his hearing aid being a translation device for Grant Morrison's Scottish accent. Grant Morrison was very good-natured about the whole thing and kept pace. I'm really curious now as to what their collaboration turns up, work-wise. I have, in all honesty, never heard of Virgin Comics and wondered if it was the same millionaire guy who owns Virgin Records, Virgin Air, etc. Not sure what it will look like, but it should be interesting at the very least!
But then... the Who/Torchwood panels! The Who panel consisted of Julie Gardener, producer, and Steven Moffat, writer. Russell T. Davies was supposed to be in attendance, but was reportedly back in Cardiff, writing the Torchwood Season 3 script. There was a brief promo video for the next Who Christmas special, which features the Doctor landing in London, 1859, and then being confronted by the Cybermen and a creepy lady in a red dress. There also appeared to be some Cybermen in Chewbacca suits, but I couldn't quite make out what the context was. There were no other major spoilers from the panel itself, but some of the best details were:
~ Steven Moffat says that he writes his episodes the way that he remembers Who being when he was a kid--he liked the scary episodes then, so he writes scary episodes now. When pressed if he got scared by his own work, he said no, but remarked that other writer's work scared him very much!
~ There are no concrete plans to bring back past doctors, or companions, a la Sarah Jane Smith or Doctor #5, but they're very open to ideas.
~ He thinks that the when the Doctor uses up all his re-generations, something wholly unexpected will occur, and that the Doctor has very little use for rules anyway.
~ Airport Security hassled him for no discernible reason and he wonders why Americans hate Brits. This got a huge laugh, as did the question later about the fact that there never a joke that was "too British" to be included.
So, this was all great and good and the audience was having a fine time. Then the panel switched to Torchwood and the screams when John Barrowman came on stage were ear-splitting, followed by much screaming for Gareth David-Lloyd, which intensified when John Barrowman KISSED him, and then intensified again when Naoko Mori came out, and engaged in a passionate embrace with John Barrowman. I think this is as close to a Beatles concert as I will ever get in my life. Much leftover squealing occurred, but then the audience settled down a bit and the panel got underway. And there were spoilers. I had had no clue Tosh and Owen died, but I know now, and apparently, the scene was very tough to shoot. The vibe that I got from the cast, though, as they sat onstage, was that they were genuinely good friends who enjoy working together. John Barrowman is a great showman and made it clear that he was beyond excited to be at Comic-Con and involved with Who and Torchwood. At one point, describing how he felt when he learned that Torchwood was getting its own spinoff, he screamed, OH MY GOD I LOVE DR WHO I LOVE THIS JOB I LOVE SCIENCE FICTION! Much laughter and applause followed and his compatriots cracked up along with the audience.
The best part of the Torchwood panel was when John and Naoko sang "Last Night of the World" from "Miss Saigon" together! *dies of happy* (That was how they first met, when she was just 17 years old!) I was especially pleased because I was really curious to hear her singing voice, after learning that she was in the London production of "Avenue Q" and she sounded great!
After the awesome trio of panels, Yebisu and I took a brief spin around the Exhibit Hall. I attempted to get in line at the Hasbro booth to buy the Con Exclusive My Little Pony, only to discover that I had to have a ticket, and that they had run out for the day. This was a little disappointing, but nothing too terrible. There was a giant model of Castle Greyskull from 'He-Man' that I really, really need to get a photo of. I was tempted by the Yotsuba action figure, but decided to hold off and see if I was still tempted in the next few days. Dark Horse, as usual, had a very con-friendly booth that was easy to walk around in and buy all their cool stuff. :)
And at about this point, total fatigue set in, for both Yebisu and I, and we decided to head home for the day. A short trip to Trader Joe's later, we were happily at home, hurriedly rehydrating.
Tomorrow! Lynda Barry! Meeting up withpsychoe! (And jtaylor2? ashearstone?) Yebisu will binge on all the Star Wars-related stuff! My wallet and I will likely have a fight! Can't wait! XD
We got up early enough to park down at Fashion Valley, only to find that everyone else had the same idea and the train was crowded--almost Tokyo subway crowded, but not quite. The convention center was packed, too--lines of people waiting for the doors to the Exhibit Hall to open, lines of people waiting to pick up their passes. (Pictures are here, and of course I'll keep adding to it as I go along.) As usual, the staff moved us through very quickly and we barely had to stand in line at all. From there, it was straight to Ballroom 20!
I should pause and say here that I have/had two "missions" to accomplish during this Con: 1) to attend the Who/Torchwood panels and 2) to hear Lynda Barry. The first has been majorly accomplished, as is evidenced below; the second will be accomplished tomorrow. :) (Add onto these two a "semi-mission" involving the Con exclusive My Little Pony for sale at the Hasbro booth, one of which I have already seen on eBay for $25! I shall endeavor to purchase two tomorrow, one for me, and one for Shanghai Vixen... wish me luck!)
Ballroom 20 holds about 2,000 people, and I'm pretty sure that during the first panel (Stan Lee and Grant Morrison) that it was at 75% capacity, and during the second two panels (Who/Torchwood), it was at 99% capacity.
yebisu9 and I were quick to grab seats around the tenth row, left-hand side, and we stayed there the entire time--something which we sort of regretted later, as hunger and dehydration threatened. While we were waiting for the first panel to start, I chatted with the cool people behind me, notably ratchet and her friend S., and the woman next to me, who had a fabulous camera and was (I suspect) getting far better pictures than I was.The Stan Lee/Grant Morrison panel was fantastic. Every time I see Stan Lee, I get all happy to be included in the "club" that he's in--OK, not really, but he's always got this great vibe about him that makes me happy to love the stuff he's written and to hear him talk about it. (Also, every time I see him, I think to myself, You're so awesome that I forgive you for 'Stripperella'.) He kept ribbing Grant Morrison for making him (Stan Lee) look bad, first by wearing a suit, then by giving complicated answers, and then by being a better writer. He also joked about his hearing aid being a translation device for Grant Morrison's Scottish accent. Grant Morrison was very good-natured about the whole thing and kept pace. I'm really curious now as to what their collaboration turns up, work-wise. I have, in all honesty, never heard of Virgin Comics and wondered if it was the same millionaire guy who owns Virgin Records, Virgin Air, etc. Not sure what it will look like, but it should be interesting at the very least!
But then... the Who/Torchwood panels! The Who panel consisted of Julie Gardener, producer, and Steven Moffat, writer. Russell T. Davies was supposed to be in attendance, but was reportedly back in Cardiff, writing the Torchwood Season 3 script. There was a brief promo video for the next Who Christmas special, which features the Doctor landing in London, 1859, and then being confronted by the Cybermen and a creepy lady in a red dress. There also appeared to be some Cybermen in Chewbacca suits, but I couldn't quite make out what the context was. There were no other major spoilers from the panel itself, but some of the best details were:
~ Steven Moffat says that he writes his episodes the way that he remembers Who being when he was a kid--he liked the scary episodes then, so he writes scary episodes now. When pressed if he got scared by his own work, he said no, but remarked that other writer's work scared him very much!
~ There are no concrete plans to bring back past doctors, or companions, a la Sarah Jane Smith or Doctor #5, but they're very open to ideas.
~ He thinks that the when the Doctor uses up all his re-generations, something wholly unexpected will occur, and that the Doctor has very little use for rules anyway.
~ Airport Security hassled him for no discernible reason and he wonders why Americans hate Brits. This got a huge laugh, as did the question later about the fact that there never a joke that was "too British" to be included.
So, this was all great and good and the audience was having a fine time. Then the panel switched to Torchwood and the screams when John Barrowman came on stage were ear-splitting, followed by much screaming for Gareth David-Lloyd, which intensified when John Barrowman KISSED him, and then intensified again when Naoko Mori came out, and engaged in a passionate embrace with John Barrowman. I think this is as close to a Beatles concert as I will ever get in my life. Much leftover squealing occurred, but then the audience settled down a bit and the panel got underway. And there were spoilers. I had had no clue Tosh and Owen died, but I know now, and apparently, the scene was very tough to shoot. The vibe that I got from the cast, though, as they sat onstage, was that they were genuinely good friends who enjoy working together. John Barrowman is a great showman and made it clear that he was beyond excited to be at Comic-Con and involved with Who and Torchwood. At one point, describing how he felt when he learned that Torchwood was getting its own spinoff, he screamed, OH MY GOD I LOVE DR WHO I LOVE THIS JOB I LOVE SCIENCE FICTION! Much laughter and applause followed and his compatriots cracked up along with the audience.
The best part of the Torchwood panel was when John and Naoko sang "Last Night of the World" from "Miss Saigon" together! *dies of happy* (That was how they first met, when she was just 17 years old!) I was especially pleased because I was really curious to hear her singing voice, after learning that she was in the London production of "Avenue Q" and she sounded great!
After the awesome trio of panels, Yebisu and I took a brief spin around the Exhibit Hall. I attempted to get in line at the Hasbro booth to buy the Con Exclusive My Little Pony, only to discover that I had to have a ticket, and that they had run out for the day. This was a little disappointing, but nothing too terrible. There was a giant model of Castle Greyskull from 'He-Man' that I really, really need to get a photo of. I was tempted by the Yotsuba action figure, but decided to hold off and see if I was still tempted in the next few days. Dark Horse, as usual, had a very con-friendly booth that was easy to walk around in and buy all their cool stuff. :)
And at about this point, total fatigue set in, for both Yebisu and I, and we decided to head home for the day. A short trip to Trader Joe's later, we were happily at home, hurriedly rehydrating.
Tomorrow! Lynda Barry! Meeting up with
psychoe! (And jtaylor2? ashearstone?) Yebisu will binge on all the Star Wars-related stuff! My wallet and I will likely have a fight! Can't wait! XD
