Now that Comic-Con begins today, hopefully we'll get lots & lots of reports.

Hey...we're living vicariously through those of you lucky enough to be there!

http://www.conventionscene.com...-international-2009/

Heh - the posted reports are already starting *lol*

Yes. They're already in line for Hall H for New Moon promos tomorrow.......

Jewel

My report:

I've made it to San Diego. Whoo hoo

Seriously, I just got here. They have Avatar flags on the light posts thus year. Bring on Preview Night!!

Have fun Harris.... Don't let all the Twilight fans scare you.....LOL

Jewel

quote:

Originally posted by hippiejewel:
Have fun Harris.... Don't let all the Twilight fans scare you.....LOL

Jewel

It's the New Moon fans you really want to be frightened of .

It's the Twilight Saga.... Same thing......

Jewel

Heading over to the breakfast in a few minutes, it's been crazy, had a great time Wednesday night at the Rock Bottom, and Hooters was fun yesterday, thanks for lunch, Graham!

Finally found the RA Spider-Man promo yesterday, after asking numerous times about it. Picked up 3 X-Men sketches by Kate Bradley, a great piece of Family Guy art from Mark Dos Santos, some X-Men boxes, the Dollhouse exclusive DVD, and quite a few freebies, including the Twilight card packs, and it's only Friday! The only thing I still need to do is to get in line at Mattel, that's a pain but I will try to get it done today.

quote:

Originally posted by Batman:
Hooters was fun yesterday, thanks for lunch, Graham!

Fancy that Graham & Hooters in the same sentence

Hooters? We were at the Hard Rock tonight with Harris and NL, and had a blast. Did a few "shorts", and we were sitting right next to Ladamian Tomlinson of the Chargers. Graham said if he's not David Beckham he does not know how he is!

quote:

Originally posted by Batman:
Hooters? We were at the Hard Rock tonight with Harris and NL, and had a blast. Did a few "shorts", and we were sitting right next to Ladamian Tomlinson of the Chargers. Graham said if he's not David Beckham he does not know how he is!

Where is my son's autograph of LT2?

Here's a recap of my week.

Monday
I watched the Yankees beat the Orioles at the new Yankee Stadium.

Tuesday
I arrived in San Diego. That night, I watched the Padres lose to the Marlins. Who can argue that watching two ball games on each coast on back-to-back nights before the start of Comic Con is a cool way to start a vacation?

Wednesday
On Preview night, I spent 1.5 hours waiting for the goody bag at the Artbox booth. The rest of the time was spent wandering around the exhibition floor.

Thursday
I started the morning by wandering the exhibition floor picking up stuff here and there. I headed up to the Wonder Women - Female Power Icons panel. There was no line so I was able to see the last 10 minutes of the Quantum Quest panel about the Cassini space program. The Wonder Women panel featured Sigourney Weaver, Elizabeth Mitchell, Zoe Saldana and Eliza Dushku.
I also attended a panel featuring Gene Yang, author of American Born Chinese and The Eternal Smile. It was moderated by Derek Kirk Kim, the artist for The Eternal Smile.
At that point, I left to attend the screening of District 9. During my morning wanderings, I was fortunate enough to pick up a pass for the movie. I spent almost 3 hours in line before I was seated. Peter Jackson, Neil Blomkamp and Sharlto Copley spoke before the movie started. Afterwards, I was able to get autographs from Neil Blomkamp and Sharlto Copley. I really enjoyed the movie and recommend it to others.

Friday
Once again, I started off by wandering the exhibition floor. At 1PM, I was able to get Gene Yang and Derek Kirk Kim's autographs at the First Second Books booth.
Afterwards, I waited about 1 hour to attend the Star Wars - Fate of the Jedi panel featuring the authors of the 9 book series: Aaron Allston, Christie Golden and Troy Denning.
Then I waited 1.5 hours to attend the Dollhouse screening of Episode 13 of Season 1 and the panel featuring Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku. They were later joined by Fran Kranz and Dichen Lachman.
I also attended the Star Wars Fan Film Awards. The winners can be viewed at: www.atom.com/spotlights/starwars/challenge/

Saturday
To start the day, I spent 2.5 hours waiting for the Lost panel. It was very entertaining. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse led the panel. Jorge Garcia, Michael Emerson, Nestor Carbonelli, Josh Holloway and Dominic Monaghan made appearances.
Then after waiting 1.5 hours, I saw the last 15 minutes of the Simpson's panel. Then I watched the V screening and panel featuring Jeffrey Bell, Scott Peters, Elizabeth Mitchell, Morris Chestnut, Joel Gretsch, Morena Baccarin, Scott Wolf, Stever Pearlman and Jace Hall.
Afterwards, I saw the Fringe panel featuring Jeff Pinkner, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, JH Wyman, Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble and Jasika Nicole.
After 45 more minutes of waiting at another location, I sat through the Vampire Diaries panel featuring Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder. It was worth sitting through as MythBusters was next - Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage, Grant Imahara and Tory Belleci were there. Kari Byron did not attend as she recently gave birth.
Following MythBusters was a panel for the upcoming video game Batman: Arkham Asylum featuring Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill (Luke!!!).
Then I saw the Watchmen panel featuring Zack Snyder, Jackie Earle Haley and Dave Gibbons. They played the director's cut with a live Q&A which was more entertaining than the movie. Afterwards, I got Zack Snyder's autograph - at 12:30 in the morning, he was extremely friendly and accommodating.

Sunday
I started the morning waiting to redeem my tickets for swag at the fulfillment room. When you attend a panel, sometime you're given a ticket that you can redeem for stuff. For Fringe, they gave out the fake newspaper featured in the season finale. For The Simpson's, they gave a pin.
Then I waited 1 hour to sit through the Supernatural panel featuring Misha Collins and Jim Beaver. My real goal was Ghost Whisperer which featured Kim Moses, Ian Sander, PK Simonds, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jamie Kennedy, Camryn Manheim and Cristoph Sanders.
The remainder of the convention was spent shopping.

Conclusion
Though I spent a lot of time waiting, I felt rewarded for the experience and for what I saw. I can elaborate on each of the panels that I attended in so much more detail. It was fun, tiring and I didn't spend as much as I feared as I would. When I get home, I'll upload pictures and list the swag and purchases.

I just got home, I'm going to bed! I will post a final detailed report later in the day. I will also offer up my extra promos after I sort through everything, but that may not be for a few days. Please, no requests until I post what is available.

Thanks for the report Chen. There is no way i would have waited in all those queue's for that amount of time.

quote:

Originally posted by Batman:
I just got home, I'm going to bed! I will post a final detailed report later in the day. I will also offer up my extra promos after I sort through everything, but that may not be for a few days. Please, no requests until I post what is available.

Glad you made it home safe and sound! It was great meeting you, Harris and Graham. You all are wonderful fellows on and off the NSU board.

Thanks for the report Chen12. Sounds like you had fun.
I found footage from most of the LOST panel on YouTube. Between that and watching the Star Wars broadcast on G4, I saw more Comic Con panels than the last 2 years I was there. Watching on tv/video is not the same as being there but... it's better than nothing.

Wednesday:
Picked up badges, ate at TGI Friday's, back to the hall for a look around, a preview of the wonders to come you could say.

Thursday: Picked up an Artbox Harry Potter "Goodie Bag" and then went straight to the mammoth "Hall H" line and though it was still early in the morning, we were WAY in back due to the massive horde of people already in line (apparently from the night before!) to get the best seats for the Twilight New Moon panel later that day.

As a result, we couldn't get in for the first panel ("3D" with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp among others I later learned), but we did get in half way through the second panel of the morning which was the "3D Trailer showcase" and were firmly entrenched in our seats for the next 2 presentations which included the hotly anticipated NEW MOON panel, and James Cameron's "Avatar" from which the famed director unspooled nearly a half hour's worth of footage. Neat stuff. Spent the rest of the day in the hall. Although vegetarian for many years, we dined at Black Angus and filled up on appetizers. We chose the venue for bonus airplane miles on our credit card.

On Friday: In the Hall H Line early but with much different result, the "New Moonies" having bene sated the day before. We got in just in time for the always fantastic Warner Brothers presentation and it just got better from there because next was the Disney Animation showcase (with Hayao Miyazaki, the all-time grand master Japanese animation, in attendance), and the finally the "9" panel, so I got to see Tim Burton after all. Back to the hall for fun and hi-jinx and then home (we live in a suburb of Riverside). Stopped off in in Temecula on the way home for a delightful veggie stromboli.

Saturday: Have a tradition of not attending that day and maintained it admirably.

Sunday: Back to San Diego for a day spent mostly in the exhibit hall, but did make it upstairs for the American Dad Table reading. Great episode performed by the gifted cast. It is to be the Christmas episode from the upcoming season and is perhaps the best the show has ever done.

Oh, and as an afterthougt, there is a tiny bit of the hall set aside for comics books now so I'll mention here, almost in passing, that the comic book artists I successfully sought out for autographs and sketches included Sergio Aragones, Mike Mignola, Steve Rude, Jill Thompson, Geoff Darrow. Missed my 2 favorites this year (Steranko and Arthur
Adams. Oh well...).

Some people don't like the movie studios being there (I got a kick out of the many people carrying hastily made cardboard signs on Sunday that said things like "Twilight" ruined Comic Con" and things to that effect. Even so, its a reality and its not going away any time soon, so I urge everyone to enjoy the free stuff the movies studios give out and partake in the ogling of the many celebirities they bring. Indeed, movie stars I looked on with mine own eyes included:
Denzel Washington, Mark Hammil, Robert Downey Jr, Megan Fox, Gary Oldman, those dreamy youngsters from "Twilight", Cameron Diaz, Josh Brolin, and on and on. Also saw 3 of my favoite directors, Cameron and Tim Burton as noted above and John Landis.

Visited all of the nonsports dealers but purchased mostly from Julio (my "local" dealer as much as that is possible) and was delighted to meet Tom Breyer of Breygent who was at Julio's booth for the show. Tom is my "online" go-to guy for cards and it's nice to report he is the same pleasant fellow in real life as he's always been in our Email exchanges.

So all in all, a fun Comic Con, but it is infinitely better when you've had previous experience in attending and you "know the drill", so to speak. I felt sorry for people unprepared to be jostled, bumped, stepped on, and stepped over, because that is simply par for the course, and is constant.

This thing has grown (and changed) dramatically over the 14 straight years I've attended. I can't imagine how those who have been coming for 25 years or more feel about it now. But, hey, things change. What're ya gonna do?

I don't know what it says exactly, but I can tell you I didn't buy the advance passes for next year for the first time in a LONG time. They're up to $100 now which is an an increase of at least $20 over last year, and even so, the advance ticket sales line was longer than ever. Parking is also about $20 per day pretty much everywhere in San Diego, and the hotels even on the outskirts of town (indeed, even in surrounding towns) have grown wise and adjusted their rates accordingly, so attending this show has become dramatically more expensive in recent years. Might just go for a day or two next year, have yet to decide, but I do think everyone should attend this thing at least once. It's an experience, difficult to describe fully in just a few words as I have proven with the post...

You sure could tell that most Trading Card Manufacturers were absent this year as the goodies were fairly sparse. No Topps, No Donruss, No Upper Deck and No Inkworks.. Rittenhouse did have promos at some dealers booths but to get the good ones you had to make purchases. The better the card, the bigger the purchase you had to make..Artbox had Promos for the asking...I bought a couple Goodie Bags and did really good on the 1st bag. a 25 Case Incentive from Memorable Moments with a serial number of 001....Also a Prop of Ron's Compass from Memorable Moments 2..Evanna Lynch Autograph...Along with all the other cool stuff in the bag..

My sister had a different perspective of the con. By the time she decided that she wanted to go, all passes had already sold out. So she volunteered for 3 hours per day in exchange for free admittance including preview night. There seemed to be quite a few things that volunteers could do and the organizers considered volunteer's requests and were flexible with start times.

On Thursday, she worked in the Gaming area where a Pokemon tournament was being held. She complained that the room was cold and that the other volunteer didn't show up. Part of her duties was to sign in the gamers and answer questions about start times of the various tournaments. They gave her a Pokemon promo when her shift was over.

On Friday, she worked at the Freebie table area. All items are screened by the Comic Con staff for content before it's placed on the table. Her responsibilites were to make sure that the area around the tables were cleaned, the stacks of stuff were neat and anything that required refilling was done. After walking and waiting the majority of the prior day, standing for three additional hours was tiring for her.

On Saturday, she worked in the greeting area. Her responsibilities were to direct people to the registration area, push wheelchairs, direct people to shuttle buses and general assistance. No one asked her for anything. After two hours of complete boredom, the staffer told her that she could walk around the exhibit floor and bring swag back for him. He got some decent stuff but she walked away with the all important Twilight cards.

On Sunday, she had the option of doing line management for the panels. The idea of waiting outside the panel rooms while the panel was going on did not appeal to her. So she signed up for the Freebie table again. From a volunteering perspective, this day was the most rewarding for her. At some point, someone delivered several boxes of True Blood stuff. It included a bag, Book 2, a notebook, a t-shirt and a promotional postcard. Then someone delivered boxes of Spartacus stuff which included a bag, a signed photo (forgot who but I can't tell if it's real), a poster, trading cards and a t-shirt. Of course, the staffer and the other volunteers got first dibs. There was also a cool Garfield/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles postcard. The Lost poster that was distributed during Saturday's panel was also there.

Her start times were between 8 and 9 as she wanted to get it out of the way. However, this meant that she missed the Twilight and Lost panels which she really wanted to go to. And she didn't stay for the Watchmen movie/Q&A cuz she had to wake up early on the following day.

For working four days, she got a special Comic Con t-shirt. But I don't think that's enough to compensate for working 12 hours and missing the few things she wanted to go to. If we go to Comic Con next year, I doubt she'll volunteer again. But the highlights of the con for her included the Female Power Icons panel, the District 9 screening, the MythBusters panel, the winner of the George Lucas Selects award and seeing and hearing Mark Hamill do the Joker during the Arkham Asylum panel.

Don't forget that she also got into the show too. I don't recall the exact cost of a 4-day ticket but I believe it was $75.00. If so, then her 12-hour shift amounted to $6.25/hour. And with first crack at some of the goodies at the Freebie table, it doesn't seem she did too badly.