Anyhoo, this was a weird year at Con for me. I didn't get a four day pass, I actually didn't get any passes in the first couple of sales. I got very lucky in that I have a great friend (Rey Guerrero, who is a mensch, a champ, and a lifesaver) who happened to be in possession of a guest pass that he was happy to give to me. Which, as I've said, makes him a mensch of the highest order.
So I went out to preview night with my good buddy Peter, and walking into the convention hall felt a lot like coming home. The dull roar of the convention floor, the sights of all the cosplayers and exhibits, it's a different combination every time, but it's still familiar. This was my sixth con, and each time I find more and more to discover. For the second time at Comic-Con, on Preview Night, I ran headlong into Mr. TJ Tallie, which mostly served to remind me that for an event with about a hundred thousand people in attendance, you can still just run into people you know.
On Thursday I went down to catch W00tstock 4.0 with my friends Dave and Katherine, which as ever was about the funniest five hours of my con. Featuring the usual cast of ne'er do-wells, it featured a couple new faces that I hadn't seen before, and who were ludicrously entertaining. One of these new faces was Joseph Scrimshaw, who made me laugh so hard my abs hurt the next day.
On Friday I milled about downtown for a while, checking out a lot of what I call 'con-adjacent' events. A particularly fun one was the exhibition of all the Batmobiles over by the Hilton. These ran the gamut from Adam West's jalopy to Christian Bale's tumbler, and it was pretty awesome.
Later that day, I wandered up the street and right into the middle of a zombie walk. A mile long parade of zombies, striding down 5th avenue. It literally did not end, I kept trying to go against the tide of made-up, blood smeared people. Some of them were very well done, some of them were, well, less so. It was still an impressively sized spectacle. And I was also struck by how in-character some people were. A little too convincing, sometimes.
I then proceeded to the Nerdist Podcast Live for the second year running, and got to watch my favorite podcast crew riff, drink, and be incredibly profane. As much as I love the usual cast of Chris Hardwick, Jonah Ray and Matt Mira, their guest, John Barrowman, really stole the show. Mostly by telling the dirtiest stories, drinking like a fish, and molesting the cast and several members of the audience. So, in essence, a great show, which you can hear the podcast of, if you're so inclined.
On Saturday, I headed downtown to soak in more con-adjacent stuff, one of which was the superhero art exhibit at Michael J. Wolf Fine Art Gallery. Every year they have some manner of superhero art up, but they had some pretty excellent art up this year, including this Batman portrait.
Later on I wound up linking up with my roommates Lucky and Debra to check out 'The Walking Dead: The Escape' event at Petco Park. Essentially an obstacle race through the park, but with ZOMBIES! It was a lot of fun to watch, the zombies were really committed to being scary, grotesque and didn't lumber too much, but picked some strategic 'choke points' and managed to tag almost everyone who went through.
Following that, I actually headed back to my house and then walked over to the Ruby Room, a local bar/venue to catch a nerdcore hip hop show featuring MC Frontalot. It was pretty excellent, for a couple of reasons. One, I've been a fan of his for about 5 years now and have never seen him live. Then, during an opening act I'm leaning against a pool table, having a beer, and glance back at the guy who just leaned against it a few feet away and it's MC FRONTALOT. DUDE. I mean, I didn't say anything to him or anything, 'cause I don't want to fanboy, but that was awesome. The music was awesome, it was great to see him perform live after listening to his albums so many times. The second reason it was exceedingly awesome was the interstitial performances between musicians being Star Wars themed burlesque dancers. Sexy Boba Fett, Sexy Stormtrooper, and of course, Sexy Slave Leia. So, you know, that was pretty excellent.
Sunday I went back to Comic-Con proper, the exhibit floor. I actually saw no panels this time around, I literally just walked around and tried to soak in as much of the cosplay and booth fun as possible. One of my favorite booth displays was Geek Chic's, as it featured fine, handcrafted wooden furniture & faux weapons, with an eye towards gaming tables and paraphernalia, which I would totally get if I had several thousand extra dollars lying around. The cosplay was also excellent, as you can see below. The lady Dr. Who cosplayers are really becoming a staple at Comic-Con!
All in all, it was a great con. It was my Nerd Christmas, and now I just have to wait and try to stay on the good list until next July.
