This past weekend was the world's most popular convention, San Diego Comic Con. What started out as a tiny comic book convention many years ago is now a giant cluster-fluck of pop culture madness. This convention draws in over 100,000 people from around the globe and this year, Evan, his sister, Megan, and I were part of it. So here is my Comic Con wrap-up.The Facts
Comic Con started last Wednesday night and went through Sunday evening. We arrived on Thursday morning and we had tickets for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (we left Sunday evening). We stayed at the Hotel Salomar in downtown San Diego which was about 4 blocks away from the convention center.
Thursday
Once we arrived in San Diego, we headed down to the convention center to scope out the crowd and to figure out where we needed to go to pick up our badges the next day. The crowds weren't too bad around the convention center so we got around pretty easily. The next thing we did was go look at the Batmobile exhibit outside the convention center. All the Batmobiles from every movie were on display. It was pretty awesome! After that, we took the ferry across to Coronado Island and had lunch...then we came right back. There wasn't much to do there, but it was pretty I suppose.We killed some time hanging in our hotel room, getting groceries for breakfast, and just relaxing until my friend, Erin, picked us up for dinner. We went to Old Town and ate some great Mexican food. It was so awesome to see her since she moved to San Diego in December.
Friday
Ta DA! Comic Con day! Badges were available for pick-up at 830am, so we got there early and surprisingly got right in. That process was smooth and breezy and pretty soon we were officially Comic Con attendees! Too bad we didn't know that the exhibit hall didn't open till 930am and the Comic Con staff were (needlessly) blocking off other main areas of the hall so we couldn't even wait in line. So we were quickly engulfed in people that were swarming in to the convention center at alarming rates with no where to go. Finally we got in to a room to watch our first panel. Oh! I forgot to mention, we had intentions of getting in line for the huge Hall H to see some popular panels like the Big Bang Theory, but the line was so freaking long we said the hell with it. Here is what we DID see though:
-How to break into TV writing
-Marvel: Ultimate Comics
-DC Comics: Justice League and Green Lantern
-DC Comics: The New 52
-The Making of Kaijudo (totally on accident waiting for another panel)
-The Totally Rad Show (My pick for best panel!!)
In between some of these panels, we ventured down to the TOTALLY INSANE exhibitor floor. It is astoundingly large and completely full of people. It was a mad house, but some of the stuff was cool to see - like the Lego Hulk.
Saturday
Since we knew that things didn't open till 930, we took our time in the morning and didn't get to the convention center till around 10. Here are the panels we saw on Saturday:
-Marvel Television Presents
-Quick Draw! (My pick for second best panel!)
-Alphas
-Being Human (My pick for most entertaining celebrities!)
-Shameless
-Glee
After the Glee panel, we all headed down to the exhibit hall once
again. Ok so, we did NOT go to the True Blood panel because 1)
Alexander Skarsgard (Eric Northman) wasn't slated to attend according to
the program and 2) I just started watching the show and didn't want it
to get spoiled. However, as we are traipsing through the floor, we see
on a big screen that the True Blood cast will be doing a signing at the
Warner Brothers Booth. So we head over there...and lo and
behold...there is Alexander in all his excruciatingly handsome glory!
Yeah, Megan and I were pissed we missed the panel where we could have
stared at him for a whole hour, but there he was on the second level of
the WB booth. Of course a giant crowd was gathering. Then a bunch of
girls yelled "Alex!" and he turned around and we totally locked eyes,
fell in love, and had 100 babies. Ok well, at least the first thing
happened. This poor picture doesn't do him justice at all. He is
startlingly good looking in real life. 
After my brief, but magical encounter with Alex Skarsgard, we left the
floor and headed to dinner. So I should back up...across the street from
our hotel, people were setting up something that looked like a concert
for two days. Well on Saturday, we walked by and discovered that they
were setting up for a fancy hollywood party...the True Blood/Playboy
Party!!! Of course, after dinner we went to the roof top patio/pool area
to watch the party from across the street. Unfortunately, nobody
showed up for hours so we stared at normal people getting drunk for a
long time. Finally, at about 1145pm, the beautiful Alex showed up to
his party. We watched him walk the red carpet (hastily) and then enter
the party and take lots of pictures with people. It was at this point I
recognized what a big stalker I was, but I think I'm ok with it.Sunday
We didn't have any plans to see any panels this day, instead we planned on roaming the exhibitor floor to shop the Sunday deals. Unfortunately, 98, 234 other people had the same plan. Ugh, at this point I couldn't handle the crowds anymore and was totally over it. There were so many people that you could barely move and you certainly couldn't take time to look at things and actually shop. It sucked. Evan left Comic Con without buying a single comic book. Pretty depressing. After the floor debacle, we decided to go upstairs and wander into a panel. We went to:
-Star Wars Galaxies
-DC Nation with guest moderator, Kevin Smith
Then we went to lunch and headed to the airport. And so ended our first (and probably my last) Comic Con experience. We all decided that a smaller convention would probably be far more enjoyable. They simply sell way too many tickets because that many people should never be in the same place at once. Ugh! But I'm glad I got to experience it because it truly is an experience like no other. Oh and Alex Skarsgard is now my boyfriend. Don't tell Evan.
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| This photoshop masterpiece is what was waiting at my desk when I got back to work! |
