I feel as if I had an extraordinarily well-rounded Comic-Con this time around.  I got to do pretty much everything I really wanted to do, and I got to see some fantastic not-yet-released footage.  I also got to meet two favorite authors and listen to a bunch of actors and directors talk about shows I love. It was a good year.

It's taken all week for me to write this while trying to recover from con and do a halfway decent job teaching, but here it is:  Corri's 2008 Comic-Con report.


This was probably the calmest Wednesday I have ever experienced.  I drove home after teaching class in the morning and helped gaelic_bohemian and lynxgriffin load our stuff into lynxgriffin's car.  Then, it was off to the Panera Bread (addicted to that place now...) that's just around the corner before getting on the freeway headed for San Diego.  We got to San Diego around two and had a very easy time finding our hotel.  estelofimladris had gotten us a room in Old Town San Diego, which was considerably farther away from the con center than I have ever been before.  However, it ended up being a good situation for us.  Our room was a decent size, the hotel wasn't crowded or loud, it was about three blocks from a trolley stop, and a pass that covered unlimited rides on the trolley system for the duration of the con was only $15. Old Town was a neat little place, too.  There were lots of cute little shops and restaurants.  Our hotel was next to a very old house that had an archaeological dig going on in the backyard, and I found out later that it's rumored to be one of the most haunted places in Southern California, which would explain all the people with cameras hanging around it after dark and taking annoying flash pictures every thirty seconds.  Anyway, Rei, Megan, and I quickly unloaded our stuff into the room (no rush for the elevator! hurrah!), purchased trolley tickets, and found our way to con. 

Every year I have attended Comic-con, I have been fortunate enough to have a professional guest badge, which means a much shorter line to get our badges. There wasn't much to do after picking them up, though, so we got in line for the dealers hall with everyone else in the universe.  We ran into quinn_merrick and xxdreamwaterxx along the way, and waited with them in line. 

Once we actually got into the exhibition hall (many years of AX have me calling it the dealer's hall), it was a three-ring circus.  There were a lot of people trying to get the freebies, and getting anything decent required either waiting in a very long line or risking life and limb.  I did end up with two really cool things, though.  Rei put herself in harm's way at the Paramount booth and got me a Zoe-as-Uhura poster, and I got a nice poster tube with a carrying strap from the Fox booth (and a neat Bones cast shot poster, too).  It was nice to know that my posters weren't going to get wrinkled this year.  Last year, we had learned about the mounds of free books that publishers give away, and we had learned that they even gave away different books on different days.  So, needless to say, we hit the book tables and came away with a good-sized bag of reading material.

We had dinner in Seaport Village with Megan, and on the way back, we ran into sarumann and chatted for a bit.  It's amazing... 125,000 people at the con, and we managed to randomly run into people we knew all the time without even trying to.  Con is magic like that.

After returning to the hotel, we discovered we had no milk for tea.  This was a very serious error in con-food preparation on our part.  A decent cup of tea in the morning is essential to having a good day when one is getting up ridiculously early and coming in ridiculously late, so Rei and I ended up exploring Old Town as we looked for a store that was open at 11 o'clock at night.  Eventually, we found one.  Somewhere in here, scifichicx, estelofimladris, xanmuse, lady_entropy17 and hystericblue42 got back from the John Barrowman book signing they'd been to.  We were all pretty tired, and the Torchwood crew was planning to get up ridiculously early to get into costume and get a good spot in line, so we all drifted off to sleep fairly quickly.



We were woken up at 5 AM on Thursday by the most horrid used-car jingle imaginable, courtesy of the clock radio.  It was apparently a place called Frank's Honda, and consisted of what sounded like a bunch of duck-like creatures screeching "FRANK FRANK FRANK" over and over again.  Jessica said it best when she rolled over and mumbled, "Who is Frank... and can I kill him and everyone he knows?"  As those who know me in real life probably already know, I fall back asleep pretty easily, and I didn't even hear the Torchwood team getting dressed and ready or hystericblue42 getting ready to wear Gwen's wedding dress from "Something Borrowed."  I was out.  Megan, Rei, and I woke up a few hours later.  I made tea and instant oatmeal, which wasn't a bad breakfast if I do say so myself. 

We found the special events trolley, which took us straight to con.  From there, we got into the line for Ballroom 20 where the Doctor Who and Torchwood panels were going to be held.  I hadn't been terribly concerned about getting seats near the front.  As long as we got into the room and could see the screens, I was fine.  So, I was perfectly content with our seats in the back of the room when chobit001 was awesome and found us and took us with her to the seats she'd saved for us in the very front section.  To tell you how close we were, we were sitting about four rows behind John Barrowman's family.  Before the DW/TW panels, though, we had to sit through the panel before that.  It was Stan Lee and Grant Morrison, which turned out to be pretty darn cool.  I'm not a huge comic book geek, but... how often does one get to sit in the room with the guy who came up with Spiderman and the X-Men and listen to him talk about his creative process? 

The Doctor Who panel consisted of Steven Moffat and Julie Gardner telling stories about the actors and the production process, talking about the future of the show in a very general way, and taking questions.  Steven Moffat is hilarious.  He answered some of the idiotic questions he got with an extremely snarky "Thanks for asking stupid questions, Sir, but kindly shut up" kind attitude, and did it with a great deal of wit and cleverness. When someone asked if with him heading up the show, every episode would be hide-behind-the-couch scary, (with a healthy dose of "too scary for my precious small child") he said something to the tune of, "Of course!  You're supposed to be watching it from behind the couch!" At the end of the panel, he showed an extended preview of the upcoming Christmas special.  It's apparently London, 1851, and the lady in the red dress knows exactly what cybermen are. There's also a lovely black lady with curly hair who appears to be a new (one-episode?) companion.  We got to see the clip twice, which was pretty darn awesome.

Then... the Torchwood panel.  Wow.  I'm not quite as Torchwood-obsessed as some people on my flist, but it was FUN.  John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd, and Naoko Mori were the actors who came, and they were all marvelous.  John is a HUGE ham.  (Surprised? Me? Nah...) He came out onto stage and immediately fake-snogged Gareth, which set the fangirls to screaming.  He then proceeded to basically take over the panel... he talked about learning that Jack is the Face of Bo... and did a David Tenant impression somewhere in there, which was great. At one point, one of the fans asked John and Naoko, who had been in Miss Saigon in the leading roles together once, to sing one of the duets that their characters had, and after a couple of false starts, they did it.  It was one of those really cool, can't be repeated fan moments, and I feel privileged to have been there to see them having fun and showing off their lovely singing voices that we don't get to hear very often.  (Someone mentioned the prospect of a Torchwood musical ep... PLEASE, Universe... let it happen.)  Other hilarity included John making fun of Gareth about Lisa being dead, and Gareth Ianto going, "Lisa?" in this pathetically hopeful, overdone voice... priceless.  When they showed some clips from the show, Tosh's death scene was one of the things they showed, and when the clip finished playing, all three of them were wiping tears out of their eyes. It was really touching.  Afterwards, I took some pictures of everyone from my room who was in Torchwood costume.  They were getting a LOT of attention.  Gwen's pregnant bride outfit tended to stick out just a bit. I followed them over to the signing in the hall, mostly to help carry stuff and help Amy manage the dress. I got some decent pictures of various of "my" team members with John and Gareth, then Rei and I decided to go off on our own.

We snagged a few more free books before going upstairs to get in line for the panel Naomi Novik was going to be on, which focused on fantasy authors who use either historical settings or settings heavily influenced by a certain period in history. Peter David, Connie Willis, and Jacqueline Carey were three other authors on the panel I was interested to see because I'd heard good things about them.  We were worried for a while that we wouldn't get into the panel, but in the end we did, and while I was waiting in line I chased down a gentleman in an Aerial Corps costume.  First Temeraire cosplayer I'd ever seen... very exciting.  Book cosplayers are awesome. He was in Napoleonic men's clothing with a long brown cloak/coat and some pretty cool flying goggles.  The panel itself was very neat.  The authors talked about their research processes, and the balance between staying "true" to the period and tweaking events and other things to suit their purposes.  At one point, Naomi talked about letting Nelson live through Trafalgar because she was writing an AU, gosh darn it, and if she wanted him to survive, he could.

After the panel, I waiting in line for the signing.  I'd brought my copy of Empire of Ivory with me, and I made my first purchase of the con right before I got it signed.  Victory of Eagles is out in hardback, and I knew I'd end up buying it eventually, and what better time to buy it then when the author is sitting right there doing a signing?  Naomi is very nice in person.  I asked her about the influence that the Patrick O'Brian novels had on her work, and she told me that she'd seen the Master and Commander movie, gotten a hold of the books and read all of them in a very short time, and started writing the series a few months later.  So... I asked her what Temeraire and Stephen Maturin would talk about if they were to have an intellectual conversation... and she smiled and said, "Freedom and dragon rights, probably..." it was exactly the kind of answer I had hoped for.  She also told me to watch out for a cameo in the new book... haven't read it yet, so I can't wait to find out who it is.  She signed my books and drew little stick-figure dragons in each of them (Iskierka and Temeraire), and I got a picture with her in which we look startlingly alike. (Short, dark, wavy hair, glasses, thin faces, big smiles.  I'll post it soon.)  Finally, I thanked her for being so very supportive of fans, fandom, and fanworks.  I think it's awesome that she's so open about her history as a fanfic writer. In short... it was a lovely interaction, and meeting her pretty much made my day.

We had our obligatory (and very tasty) dinner at Tin Fish with a bunch of different people before heading over to the Star Wars Fan Film showing.  My favorite thing they showed was called "Ryan Versus Dorkman II," and it was in the "Two Guys with Lightsabers, Fighting" category.  However, it was an extremely well-choreographed, well-done example of the genre.  They had obviously spent a lot of time figuring out cool moves and putting together special effects.  The one with the Darth Maul and other Sith in it was pretty impressive too, from a costuming perspective. 



On Friday morning, Rei and I had intended to go to the theonering.net panel on the Hobbit movie, but when we got there, it was already full.  It was a fortuitous happening, however, because that meant that we decided to go to the SG-1 Continuum panel.  I hadn't wanted to go because I had wanted to avoid spoilers (I'm only to the end of season 4), but I'm SO glad we went anyway.  Almost the entire cast was there.  Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Michael Shanks, Ben Browder, Brad Wright, and one of the other producers were all in attendance.  They were promoting the release of Continuum, but I didn't was pleasantly surprised that I didn't get terribly spoiled.  That is, until the Q&A when a fan asked the actors what their most emotionally difficult moments were, and Amanda tapping said something about Dr. Fraser dying.  NOT looking forward to that episode now. I didn't know about that particular character death. And speaking of emotionally difficult... they showed a really nice tribute to Don S. Davis that gave me a huge lump in my throat.

The cast was... amazing. It was such a joy to see how they interacted with each other and teased each other and acted like... well... family.  RDA is very much calm and blase, much like Jack.  Amanda Tapping is sweet and beautiful, and had long brown wavy hair, which threw me a little.  Michael Shanks is very quietly snarky and hilarious, and Christopher Judge... wow.  Him, I wasn't ready for.  I'd never seen any interviews with him, so the sight of the person I most associate with the very straight-laced, very serious Teal'c running on stage and slapping a couple of his fellow cast members on the butt... nearly killed me.  He continued the rest of the panel as if in competition for the "Comic-Con class clown" award.

After a brief panel about the new online Stargate game that's coming out, we got the SGA panel.  In attendance were Jewel Staite, Robert Piccardo, and Joe Flanigan. It turned out that I had somehow missed the first episode of SGA that had aired the week before, so I was very behind.  Since when did WOOLSEY get to be in charge of Atlantis? What happened to Sam? (Still haven't seen it...) However, it was fun to hear the actors talk about their characters and their experiences on set.  (I love Jewel forever for saying "I miss my Shiny" when someone asked her about the difference between playing Kaylee and playing the doctor.) She also talked about getting kidnapped in the woods a LOT and Jason Momoa's stuff spilling over into her trailer, which was pretty funny.  Robert Picardo is... dry-witted hilarity.  I loved him on Voyager, and I'm glad that he's getting a chance to play a larger part on SGA.  I just wish it didn't come at the cost of losing Sam. Joe's insight into Sheppard was pretty interesting.  He pointed out that John has evolved into much more of a team player over the course of the series, which I think is definitely true. (There is nothing I love more on that show than the relationship dynamic that team has with each other.)  There was also a bit of talk about another possible series in the works called Stargate: Universe, but there weren't any details.

I stuck around Ballroom 20 for the Joss Whedon panel, which was a lot about Doctor Horrible.  This might have been because Nathan Fillion, Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, and the other writers were all there... I dunno. (NPH walking on stage with the Freeze Ray? Hilarious.) Nathan and Neil were slipping in and out of character the whole time (with Nathan mostly in... of course).  They talked about possibly having a DVD release, and the possibility of more to the story, which I was glad to hear.

After the Joss panel, I ran downstairs to get in line at the Bantam publishing booth because I'd found out the day before that Lynn Flewelling, who wrote the Nightrunner novels and the Tamir trilogy, was going to be giving away signed copies of her new book. I had discovered that a new Nightrunner book was out three days before con, and flailed a LOT.  Glad I held out on buying it... Anyway, I talked to some other book fiends while I waited in line, and got to be one of the first twenty or so people who got books.  Lynn is... such a lovely person.  She's sweet and funny and very kind and generous.  I told her how much I loved her books and how much they'd broadened my horizons, and I got a picture with her.  Actually, it's me, her, and an attack bunny from Monty Python and the Holy Grail that she happened to have with her.  See, I told you she was awesome...  And now I have a copy of Shadow's Return signed to me!

I got back into the Ballroom with very little fuss and sat through the tail end of the Family Guy panel.  We got to see part of an episode in which Peter gets obsessed with that "Bird's the Word" song from the 60's, and I got to see Seth Green for the first time... not shockingly, he was laconic. ;-) 

Then... the Bones Panel.  *flails*  David Boreanaz, Michaela Conlin (Angela), Tamara Taylor (Cam), and John Frances Daley (Sweets) were all there, and so was Hart Hanson.  Emily Deschanel was supposed to be there, but she couldn't come. :-( However, the people who WERE there were fantastic.  I'm still enough of a Buffy/Angel fan that I was pretty excited about just being in the room with David.  And... he was great. A total attention whore, but great. I think that some year they should have a panel with David, John Barrowman, Nathan Fillion, and Christopher Judge called "Who's the Biggest Ham?" I guarantee you that unchecked, one of them would end up naked, or at least pants-less, after a series of escalating dares.

It turns out that they had recently filmed an episode in London, and they talked a little about their trip there.  This is when I discovered that David has NO separation whatsoever between him and his characters, and they slip in and out of his voice in a most confusing way.  (I only caught it because I've had a lot of experience distinguishing character voices from real voices... otherwise I'd have no idea whether I was talking to estelofimladris or Jack, scifichicx or Ianto... you get the picture.)   Anyway, BOOTH, not David, was going on about how boring London was and how all of the scientists were all excited and he was exceedingly not impressed with all of the historical stuff.  Then, when an English fan got up and jokingly asked him why he hated England so much, he looked confused, and said something to the tune of, "Oh, that was my character, not me... I loved England!  Wasn't that obvious?" No, David.  It wasn't.  Not to most people, at least.

Micheala Conlin is just as adorable in person as she is in real life, and Tamara Taylor is actually a very quiet, shy person, which is a far cry from Cam. You could tell that they were all pretty happy that the network was treating them so well and that so many people had showed up to the panel. They also showed the first couple acts of one of the new episodes which involved... I kid you not... an exploding outhouse and a murder victim who hosted a TV show that catches men in adultery. This caused a discussion between Booth and Brennan about fidelity that only got more heated when Booth found out that Brennan was seeing two different guys and having WAY too much fun interrupting her dates, by the way.  Jerk. ;-)  It also involved a new REALLY ANNOYING girl trying out for Zack's spot.  They were obviously writing her with the intention of making the audience hate her and miss Zack, because that's sure what happened to me.  Hart Hanson dropped a couple of hints that Zack might be back on the show, and Michaela said some things that had me worrying for the future of Angela and Hodgins' relationship. Finally, Hart Hanson talked about how the strike affected the show, and how he wished he'd had some more time to close up the Gormagon arc and the Zack thing.  It was good to hear him say that, because that whole thing felt SO rushed to me, and it was nice to know that someone in charge thought so too.

We had dinner at a wonderful Mexican seafood place.  I don't remember what it was called... I just remember the lobster in the sombrero that it had as a mascot. I had some of the most amazing garlic shrimp scampi I've ever had in my life.  After dinner, we met up with cooling1018 and her mom for the MST3K panel.  Fitting, seeing as how she was the one who introduced me to it back in eighth grade. I'd never seen Joel or Mike in person before, so it was a real treat.  They're both still very witty and clever.  For instance, when someone asked if they had a back story for why Gizmonic was so mean, Joel replied with that perfect innocent voice of his, "I don't know... all I ever knew about them that they had a big G for a building..." I also learned that Tom Servo was supposed to be a "young" robot at first, but when that didn't work, he morphed into the Tom we know and love.

After MST, we stayed for the Sci-Fi Friday showing of Eureka and SGA.  Haven't watched Eureka before, but I enjoyed the episode decently enough.  What I was really excited for was SGA. And... it was good. I love Ronon, and I love stories that focus on him. So, seeing the return of one of his fellow Satedans, and seeing Ronon brainwashed into serving the wraith was amazing and heart-wrenching all at the same time.  I also love that the first thing he said when he woke up was, "Sheppard?" I love love love the friendship that he and John have.  Not so sure what I think about Teyla's significant other.  I'm calling that he's not going to make it past the end of the season.  Woolsey was decent... a bit of a pain in the rear, but obviously trying to be a human being and a leader instead of a bureaucrat.  And... I know they played it for laughs, but why don't the doors open for him?  I understand that some devices have to be activated for the first time by people with the Ancient gene, but the doors? They open for everyone else... has everyone on the station had the gene therapy except for Woolsey?  Maybe it's like Rei said and the city just doesn't like him much.  

We were going to stay for the Doctor Horrible showing, but we were so tired that we went back to the hotel instead.  I'd seen it already, and I'd seen the cast earlier in the day, so I figured I'd rather sleep well and let someone who hadn't seen it have my seat.



On Saturday morning, xanmuse and I got up early-ish and headed for Hall H and the Heroes panel.  I had given us a little more than an hour to get in line and get a seat.  I knew there were going to be a ton of people in line, but I didn't care how far back I was as long as I could see a screen. Now, I've been in line for Hall H before.  I know how long it can be.  Saturday morning blew every other Comic-con line I've ever seen out of the water. Imagine the San Diego Convention Center as a huge rectangle.  The entrance to Hall H is on the bottom left side.   It wrapped around the lawn on the short end of the Con center several times, went all the way down the left side to the long back side that faces the water, and all the way along the back until we were practically standing in Seaport Village, which is a cute little group of shops on the back right side.  I was worried that we weren't going to even get into the Hall, but since staff people weren't turning us back, we kept walking until we reached the end of the line, only to start walking back the direction we came about thirty seconds later when the line started moving.

We got into the hall.  It was packed with Heroes fans, and when they brought out the cast (too many to even list!) the noise was deafening. Tim Kring came out with a silver briefcase handcuffed to his wrist and thanked people for coming and filling up the hall.  I guess this was the first time that a TV show had ever been allowed to use the biggest space in the convention, but after what happened at the Heroes panel last year (I was trying to get in that line when they closed it!) I guess they decided that it would be worth it to make sure that everyone who wanted to see the Heroes presentation could.  Also, it was Saturday, the busiest, most-attended day of con. Smart move, Comic-Con. Anyway, Tim Kring opens up his briefcase and pulls out a single DVD in a plastic cover that has "Volume III episode 1" written on it. (He was holding it upside down, but we could all read it anyway.) He then proceeds to show the whole thing to us. I kept waiting for him to stop it, like they'd done at the Bones panel, but he didn't.  We got to see the whole first episode of the third season. There are not enough italics in the world. Short version? Lots of stuff going on, but generally, I like where it's going.

Lots.

Of.

Heroes.

Spoilers.

Ahead.

Things I remember:
- Peter from the future shot Nathan!  The first scene featured him and a very hardcore latex(?)-wearing Claire.  They were fighting, and Peter was trying to convince her that he had to go back, that he could make things better if he stopped people from finding out about them.
- Nathan found God.  He either had a religious experience, or he knows who shot him and why.  I'd need to see the scene where he comes back and the scene in the hospital chapel where he makes his speech again before I made any statements about that.
- Linderman was the one healed Nathan. 
- Nikki/Jessica is in bed (literally) with some governor who has plans for Nathan.
- Angela Petrelli has visions.  And she knew immediately that Peter wasn't the right Peter, and she was very upset with him.
- The real Peter appears to be trapped with someone else's face in the Company's holding cells.
-Sylar found Claire.  He opened her brain, took something from it, and yet she lived.  But he got what he needed to absorb her powers. (There was a scene where she was hiding in a closet where I had to resist the urge to make the "We know you're heeeeere, Poppet..." crack so hard that it hurt.)
- Frank Bennet is apparently in the Company's cell doing his best Steve McQueen from the Great Escape impression.
- Mohinder figured out how to activate the genes that allow people to get abilities.  All the while, Maya just wants to learn how to control hers, and is very angry at him for working to GIVE abilities rather than take them away. Mohinder wants to have an ability because right now, from his point of view, the wrong people have them.  He injects himself, promptly gets mugged, and sends his attackers flying with his bare hands. Awesome, but really STUPID of him.
- Hiro got a message from his dad telling him to never open the safe in his dad's office. He opened it, of course, only to find more the the message from his dad saying, "I told you not to open it! But now that you have, protect the formula with your life." All that's in the safe is a ripped sheet of paper with half of a chemical formula on it. Of course, the formula promptly gets stolen by a girl who is super-fast, so Hiro's stopping time only slows her down to normal speed. She still gets away with the formula.
- Hiro has decided not to go into the past again, but he goes into the future to see what it is he's trying to prevent.  He sees himself and Ando standing on that exact same place, but Ando is obviously opposing him.  Future!Hiro is trying to convince Ando to stop, but he won't, and Hiro gets to see the end of the world. Again. This time, caused by his best friend. Back in the present, Ando asks what he saw, and Hiro says, "We have to get that formula back" with his usual Hiro-like resolve.

It was marvelous fun to watch it with everyone in the Hall. We all gasped and screeched and laughed at the appropriate moments, and we all knew that we were darn lucky to be seeing what we were seeing. We only had time for a few questions, but there was one adorable kid who called Zachary Qunito "Silo" and said he was the most awesome thing on the shows. There was also a very cool "who would you trade powers with" question, but I can't remember the answers for the life of me.  All of the cast were very sweet (Adrian Pasdar was excitedly taking pictures of the cast and the audience the whole time), and they were very vocally grateful to their fans, which I always think is nice of them.

After the Heroes panel, I went over to the dealer's hall and dropped the most money I spent all weekend on two objects. The first is right here. It's a pendant of the Avendesora leaf that the Tinkers take as their symbol in the Wheel of Time, and it's pretty sacred to the Aiel as well.  It's also just plain pretty. I'd gone back and forth about whether I really wanted it that much, but in the end, I decided that I really did like it and think I would wear it enough to justify the expense.  The fact that it's connected to a series that profoundly touched my life is a nice bonus.  I also bought a ring from another jewelery place nearby.  For the past several years, I have been looking for a ring that only existed in my head.  It belongs to an original character of mine, and I always saw it as a small, dark blue oval stone set in a very simple, spare, antiqued setting. I looked at Ren Faires, I looked at jewelery stores, I looked in other odd places, and I found nothing.  Then, I looked at this booth at Comic Con, and I saw it. It's perfect. A bit big for the finger I would usually wear it on, but I can always have it sized. Having purchased my ring and resolved to spend nothing else for the rest of the day, I met up with Rei, picked up a few more free books, and headed back over to Hall H for the Mummy panel.

On the way there, we caught some wonderful cosplayers.  The ones who excited me most were a fantastic PotC group.  I fangirled a bit (I was wearing my "Never Trust a Pirate" Jack shirt, my PotC ride sweatshirt, and a ship necklace at the time...) and I made sure to tell the Norrington how good I thought his costume was. (The fact that he was quite dashing helped, too.) I know from experience how it is when one is dressed as a navyboy in a group with the... ah... flashier members of the cast.  Anyway, he was really nice about it and thanked me in this cute British accent. The Barbossa commented on my shirt, and I grinned and told him it was a warning to all who might have dealings with Jack.  That made him laugh a bit, and he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of replica coins and gave them too me.  "Pirates giving away treasure?  Most irregular!" I said.  "We had a good haul," he said.  That little bit of piratical goodness made me absurdly happy.

We arrived at Hall H in time to see a bit of Disney's presentation on Bolt and Up, which both look pretty cool. Up looks especially interesting... different and unclassifiable, even for Pixar.

And then the Mummy panel... I felt some trepidation going in because I knew that Rachel Weisz wasn't going to be back as Evie, and I'm not a fan of the "switching actors" bit.  However, I love the franchise enough to give it a chance.  I'm glad I went, too. All of the stars showed up: Brendan Fraser, John Hannah (with his marvelous Scottish accent... I'll always remember how surprised I was the first time I heard him talk as himself on the extras), Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Luke Ford (who's going to play Alex and is really cute), Maria Bello (the new Evie), and Isabella Leong (Alex's love interest? Dunno... she's lovely, though.)

They showed a short fight scene that involved Yeti, a lot of snow, and a great deal of awesomeness on Michelle Yeoh's part. There wasn't much of the new Evie in the trailer, but what I saw of her in the panel made me cautiously optimistic.  She seemed really happy and enthusiastic about working on the movie, and I found it hard to be grumpy about her. When someone asked Michelle why she had consented to work on a big, American action flick, she pointed at Brendan and said something to the tune of, "Have you seen him?"  I had this image of her as this classy, slightly aloof lady, so hearing her say that was pretty fun.  Also quite funny was the response that Brendan gave to the question: "Who's more intimidating: The Rock, or Jet Li?" Brendan said that as he'd had almost no interaction with The Rock (he was reacting to a blue "X" on a stick most of the time), so Jet Li was a lot more intimidating. It was cute.  Also, Jet Li said it was kind of fun to be the bad guy for a change, and Michelle said she'd had fun having a character on the opposite side from his, since they're usually both on the Good Guys' team. Seeing the panel and writing all of this up has made me much more excited about the movie than I was before con.  I'm definitely willing to give it a shot and enjoy it for what it is - a fun, witty monster movie with good-looking people and awesome CGI creatures.

We left Hall H and went upstairs again for the fantasy writers' panel on creating mythology and world-building.  I'd mainly come for Lynn Flewelling, but I was also excited to see that Jim Butcher was there as well. It was interesting to hear them talk about how they decided just how much religion and the divine was going to play into their stories, and someone brought up the fact that not only are they creating a mythology and a religion, they have to come up with a history of the development of that religion because, like language, religious belief is not static.

We dropped by the Doctor Who cosplay meetup for a short while after the panel was over.  There was a fantastic Eight, a whole slew of Tens, a couple of Donnas, at least one each of all of the other Doctors, and several other companions.  As usual, the Torchwood crew was there in full force as well.  We took a few pictures before hunger won out over Doctor-love.

We checked the restaurant list at the back of the con guide and found a cheap little Mexican place that made delicious burritos to order, just the way you wanted them. It was a bit of a walk from the Convention center, but it was worth it.  Not crowded at all, cheap, and very tasty.  Also, it was down the street from a little independent coffee shop called Cafe Noir, and we stopped there, too.  They had a great sign by the register that said, "Coffee is not a matter of life and death.  It is much more important." I had a delicious Mexican Cafe Mocha to get some caffeine into my bloodstream.  Yum. Delicious and effective.

We were intending to watch Masquerade in one of the screening rooms, but when we walked by Ballroom 20 where it was being held, they were letting people straight in.  So, we found some seats in the back.  Masquerade was... decent this year.  As for crowd rudeness, on a scale of 1 to 10 with a 1 being "perfect angels" and a 10 being "I wanted to kill everyone in the room with my bare hands," I give it a 5. (That's a considerable improvement on last year, by the way.)

One of my favorite sketches was the "Hairspray" one they did.  It consisted of a couple of people in costume from Hairspray "singing" the song... and then, various characters from sci-fi shows who NEED lots of hairspray started coming out: A Centauri from Babylon 5, Syndrome from The Incredibles, a random Star Trek girl with fabulous 60's hair, and the Bride of Frankenstein.  It was cute, and they sold it really well. I enjoyed the Avatar does Westside story sketch because it was funny to me even though I've never even seen an episode of the show.   Also, there were couple of girls who had done really good  Glinda and Elphaba (which the presenter couldn't pronounce... I was irked for Beth's sake) costumes and did a bit from "Popular." The other Wizard of Oz entry that was amazingly good was the people who dressed up at citizens of the Emerald city, complete with the green doors, and did a dance to "One Short Day." Those were impressive costumes. chobit001 was in the Flash Gordon skit at the end, and I cheered for her a lot even though I couldn't see her face.

I liked Masquerade well enough, but I have some completely unsolicited advice for the camera operator/director in future years:

1. Some skits involve groups.  And plots/action that require the entire group to be seen in order to be understood.  I'd like to see everyone rather than a closeup on one person who isn't doing much, thanks.

2. No one looks good when their face is taking up an entire screen.  Close-ups that go in closer than from the waist up are not flattering.  They are especially not flattering if the person being filmed has anything at all wrong with his or her appearance.  Going in too tight only encourages the rude, mean jerks in the audience to make fun of the performers' flaws.

3. Make sure that everyone's dialogue/music can be clearly heard in rehearsal.  I don't see how some of these groups thought that anyone could hear a darn thing they were saying.  How did someone not realize this was a problem before the performance?

We left after the last act and didn't stick around for awards, which always take forever. As I usually do when I stand up, I did a pin check.  (I'd brought my Inuyasha bag that's practically covered in Disney and anime pins.)  I was a little ticked off to discover that my Black Pearl pin, which I'd scoured Disneyland for over a long period of time, had fallen off.  I have never lost a pin at con before, but I supposed that there was a first time for everything and went back to the hotel to do a thorough search of my bags and pockets.



I couldn't be too disappointed about my poor pin because I needed the sleep.  Jessica and I were going to be getting up at 5 AM to get in line for the Supernatural panel.  They were holding it in a room that was... decently big (maybe... third largest space at the con?), but not nearly big enough considering the fact that Jensen and Jared were both going to be there. I just knew that it was going to be overflowing.  I woke up a little groggy, but quite determined.  Jessica and I made it over to the line around 7 or 7:30, and it was already snaking through the hallways of the upper level of the convention center.  We read, sat in groggy stupors, and talked to people in line around us for a while, and they finally let us in.  We got really good seats.  Second block, front row. No one in front of us for a few feet.  We had a good view of the actual table the actors were at, but we could also see the screen really well. All I have to say about that is,  Go us.

I know that the Supernatural fandom has a reputation for crazy, but I really enjoyed the panel.  Jared and Jensen are the exact opposite of their characters.  Jared is the loud, outgoing, goofy one, and Jensen is a little more shy and soft-spoken. One of the funnier parts of the panel is when the Ghost Facers crew came out acting like they were actually filming an episode.  They were like, "Hey Dean... Sam... What are you doing here?" And one of the boys said, "You do know that it's just a show... right? That Dean and Sam aren't real?" The main Ghost Facer guy laughed and said, "Yeah right... Jared... Padalecki?  Where'd you come up with that name? A roleplay name generator?" It was pretty hysterical.  Especially when Jensen "chased" them off stage and waved a chair around threateningly.  (I need to watch the Youtube of the panel, but I think I could pinpoint the moment when it stopped being Jensen and started being Dean.)  After all of that, Eric Kripke laughed a little nervously and said, "I'm glad you guys liked that... because we knew it was going to be really cool, or really lame."  It was cool, guys. I'm laughing even harder about it now that I've actually seen the Ghost Facers episode. (Finished the season right after we came back... *FLAILS*)

In casting news, they announced that Mary Winchester's past was going to be very important in the next season, and in a flashback, we're going to get to see her dad. Who's going to be played by Mitch Pileggi. *brain explodes a little* I swear, the number of people who have been in X-Files, Stargate, AND Supernatural just keeps getting higher. Can't wait to see him.

Eric Kripke is a pretty cool guy.  He's forthright about things he thought he did well, and doesn't mind admitting mistakes. He talked about wishing that Bella had been more tied into the main mythology of the show instead of being a side character who just happened to show up and bother Dean and Sam.  I agreed with him.  I thought the whole "Bella made a deal for the murder of her abusive parents" bit was ok, and it made sense considering what we'd seen of her so far, but it needed to be built up to a whole lot more.  (Sounds familiar, hm? Writers' strike will do that to a show.)

As a treat, they showed us the first five or ten minutes of the season 4 opener.  Dean starts it out in a wooden box.  He wakes up, lights his lighter, and panics.  Next, we see him claw his way out of a grave marked only by a simple wooden cross.  It's in the middle of nowhere.  Dry, flat, scrubby desert as far as the eye can see. Eventually, he finds a dumpy closed gas station, breaks in, and drinks half a bottle of water in one gulp.  In the very next shot, we see him munching on a half-eaten Snickers bar as he dumps other food into a bag.  Typical Dean for you. (This made me happy... he's still himself... probably.) Then, the TV and radio behind the counter start going on and off, and there's a high-pitched whining noise.  Dean dives for the salt and starts pouring it at all the windows, but the noise gets louder, and every window in the store shatters.  Dean walks outside, and... that was all we saw. I want it to be September right now.

After the panel, I went down to the dealer's hall one last time.  I bought a Barbossa figurine as a last minute purchase.  He was only six bucks, and he looks good. He and my James figurine can duel, and I can point and say, "See? THAT should have happened!" (Norrington/Barbossa swordfight FTW.)

I walked out to the trolley area only to discover I'd just missed the one I needed.  So, on a whim, I thought I might retrace Rei and my steps to the restaurant we'd eaten at the night before, just in case I'd dropped my pin and no one had picked it up.  I'd already been to lost and found to no avail.  You have to understand... there are more people who come to Comic-Con than live in my parents' hometown.  It was like looking for a needle in a haystack after a flood, and I knew it.  But I'm kind of obsessive about my fandom stuff, so I had to try.  Then, as I was crossing a driveway into a public parking lot, there it was.  A little worse for the wear, but it was definitely my Black Pearl pin.  One of the metal links that holds the skull and crossbones was cracked off, and it had obviously been stepped on or run over, so the sharp part was bent flat against the metal, but that's nothing that a little super-glue and some pliers won't fix.  The point is, I found it. It just goes to show that a little persistence and some maniacal fannishness occasionally pays off.

I took the trolley back to Old Town and had some of Rei's leftovers.  Then, we walked around some of the shops for a while, and I finally caved and bought some wonderful smelling soap at the shop down the street from the hotel. Finally, I had to see the awesome Will Turner blade that estelofimladris had bought before saying goodbye to everyone and heading home.

So long, San Diego.  I'll see you in 2009.