Comic Con: Day 3/4!

[retsuko]

IT'S OVER AND IT WAS GREAT!

My legs may never speak to me again. My wallet and I had a small falling out but then reconciled over thrifty-ness of buying Xmas presents in July. I got all my missions accomplished, and so did yebisu9. And I had the BEST time! I think this year was even better than last year!

But, in chronological order:

We woke up bright and early and hurried down to catch the trolley. When we got to the Convention Center, I had a ticket in my hand that guaranteed me a #3 spot in line to get Lynda Barry's autograph, but when I arrived at the Drawn & Quarterly booth, there was no one else there from the day before, and they let me go right ahead.

LYNDA BARRY WAS SO SWEET! When she heard it was my birthday, she drew me a little cake next to her autograph and when I asked her piece in Tricycle Magazine and if she was Buddhist, she laughed and said she and her husband were "Buddhamish" because they live near an Amish community and practice some of those tenants as well as the Buddhist ones, too. Then she told me about her favorite Buddhist text, the book that helped her learn to meditate and drew me another picture of a meditating monkey (like the bit in the magazine). And she shook my hand twice and I didn't babble inanely! When I left the booth, I felt so happy that I had met her and like I was walking on clouds. I mean, seriously, I admire this woman very much and I was so pleased that she turned out to give me many more reasons to admire her. I had this huge grin on my face for the rest of the morning because of it.

After that, I headed up to the Room where "Quick Draw" was going to take place later in order to get a good side and caught two episodes of the animated "Iron Man: Automated Adventures!" This is a show aimed at 10-year-olds, and man oh man, did it ever show. I remember these sorts of cartoons from when I was a kid: there's a hero, who does heroic things because he Should, and there are bad guys who are, utterly, irredeemably bad for no apparent reason other than they need to be Bad, and there are Moral Ideas. I have to give the writers credit: they managed to strip all the objectionable stuff (drinking, womanizing, jerkitude, etc.) from Tony Stark by making him a teenager who's trying to find out who killed his father (one guess as to who.) Pepper Potts is a Veronica Mars-like character who knows all about Tony because she read her Dad's FBI file on Obadaiah Stane and Stark Industries. Semi-involving conflict ensues. I rolled my eyes a little bit during the two episodes shown, but didn't say anything because I figured I wasn't the target audience. Well. Apparently, I wasn't the only member of my audience who had doubts. After the episodes were over, the producer and director came on stage and the questions were not nice. For example:

Guy From Audience: Hi, I'm X Guy from X Comics Website and my question is, will this show get any better? Because what I just saw was really unsophisticated.
Producer: Well, I'm here to tell you that the episodes get better and better--
Guy: Well, I didn't see a lot of character development there.
Producer: There is a lot of character development coming up.
Guy: Oh, OK.

And:

Woman from Audience: Yeah, I like that concept art of the villains, but are you going to put any more effort into the female characters? Because they look really weak.
Director: I assure you, the female villains are super cool!
Woman: What I saw looked kind of lame.
Random Guy in the Back of the Room: MADAM MASQUE RULES!
Director: What 'til you see her! I promise she's awesome!
Woman: Huh, OK. Well, she'd better be.

This was a completely different experience from any other panel at the Con; I never saw any other people express outright rude thoughts to directors and producers. In some ways, it was really amusing, and a nice break. The Iron Man show really did look pretty lame. :|

But then, next, what I had been waiting for finally happened: Quick Draw! This panel was a little like "Whose Line is it Anyway?!" but with three cartoonists drawing the silly prompts. The three cartoonists were Sergio Aragones (Mad magazine), Scott Shaw! (innumerable Hanna Baberra characters), and Mike Peters (political cartoonist of Mother Goose and Grimm). Much of this panel was fun in a "you sort of had to be there" way, but I will say that there is a great, great pleasure in watching such accomplished artists enjoying themselves and concocting all sorts of witty drawings. The biggest laugh came from the prompt "Obama's Worst Running Mate" and Scott Shaw!'s drawing of a Klansman with a lit torch. In terrible, terrible taste, but incredibly funny.

After this panel, I had planned to meet yebisu9 at the Dollhouse panel in the larger room, but one look at the line to get in told me that I needed to stay away. (Yebisu informs me that the promo for Dollhouse looks amazing, Joss Whedon is made of awesome, and he (Yebisu) is now nursing a crush on Eliza Dushku.) I phoned ashearstone and we hung out in a quiet spot until Yebisu could meet us (after leaving what was thought to be a quiet spot, but turned out to have a guy yelling about worshipping false idols and accepting Jesus Christ into your life directly behind it.) The three of us headed down to Seaport Village where DELICIOUS CHEESE FRIES were consumed and over-priced ice cream was purchased.

After this, Yebisu and I were pretty tired and decided to head home a little early. Then, because it was my birthday, we decided to see "The X-Files: I Want to Believe". And I was pleasantly surprised. Without any great spoilers, I will say that the central conflict of the plot (i.e. the monster of the week) was a little wimpy, scare-wise, but the central idea of the film--faith, and its consequences--was executed in fine fashion. I was thrilled to see Mulder and Scully again. I was also thrilled they were filming in Vancouver again! A pivotal chase scene takes place on a darkened Granville Avenue! All in all, not a completely definitive ending for the series, but a fairly satisfying film. And then we drove home, and fell asleep, exhausted.

This morning, we got up OK and headed down to the Convention Center one last time. First up, we bought our tickets for next year. I couldn't help noticing that the price had gone up $5 from last year, but compared to the prices later, or the selling out of tickets, it's cheap at the price. We went down to Exhibit Hall to try and see if Yebisu could get a signed Jim Butcher book at Mysterious Galaxy's booth, only to find out they had sold every copy the day before. (Fortunately, Jim Butcher will be back in November.)

While Yebisu was getting this rather disappointing news, I was at the booth directly opposite, Yen Press, where I got my first cool freebie of the day: a snap bracelet proclaiming me a member of Suzumiya Haruhi's S.O.S. Brigade and a free issue of Yen Press' new manga publication, which contains Svetlana Chmakova's latest work, Nightschool. And although I'm not sure what the overall plot is yet, I have to say that I whole-heatedly recommend this new venture. She has a nice mix of new characters, and while there is some of the same sweet undertones from her previous work, there's a lot of gray in the plot thus far. Very excited to see what she comes up with!

ashearstone met us about this point, and we split up from Yebisu (girls shop more slowly than guys.) And from there, we got lots of cool freebies: the HUGE bags that Warner Brothers was giving out (Supernatural, baby!), little bracelets that say WWNPHD? (What Would Neil Patrick Harris Do?), and innumerable flyers, cards, and freebie comics, which I am slowly filtering through--more recs as I get 'em read! ;)

Both of us were tempted by, and I bought this.

After this, we headed out for lunch, which was when we got the best freebie of the Con: FREE ICE CREAM from the 'Eureka' show. We found a little farmer's market where there was a family selling the most delicious Jamaican chicken and red rice, and that was great. Heading back to the Con we stopped to see the installation for "The Mummy", pictures of which are here.

And after Angi went to meet another friend of hers, and around about 1:00, Yebisu and I got up and left. We wanted to leave on a high note and not when we were tired or had to fight a lot of people to get on the trolley. And I think, all things considered, it was the best decision.


Best Con yet! We had a great time!

... And now I will deal with the inevitable let-down of looking around and wondering, "Why aren't more of these people in costume?"

Comments

[ladybird97.livejournal.com]

Eeeeeee, Comicon! And birthday!!

Hey, gee_tar and I were wondering - did you make it to Octagon Recruiting? Any more Lost tidbits?

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

I saw the Dharma Initiative Booth, but it looked somewhat disappointing. You had to sign up for an appointment with them where you went into a sealed booth and listened to something on headphones. I couldn't figure out what it was, or if it was worth it, so I passed it up. :S

And even if I had wanted to go to the Lost panel, I didn't line up early enough. Hall H was CRAZY this year. I'm sure that all possible spoilers will be filtered into various fan groups quickly enough, though.

EDIT for grammar. I'm so exhausted right now! x_x

[gee-tar.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the report. It's been fun living vicariously through you.

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

My pleasure!

[lady-of-mists.livejournal.com]

I'm so thinking that I should make a special trip there some year. It always looks like fun. :D

Glad you had a great time!