WonderCon starts tomorrow in San Francisco, and I’m going to be there! Hooray!
I hope it turns out to be very cool in its own right, given that it’s not the Comic Con. It’s smaller, in the off-season, and with far fewer big names in the geek industry and pop culture. I’m sure I’ll still have fun. More fun, perhaps, because there won’t be as many people there.
Assuming that I have internet access the whole time that I’m there, I will be blogging with at least the highlights of each day. And of course I’ll be twittering the moment-by-moment excitement (you know, things like “Lou Ferrigno is eating a pretzel dog for lunch, and he seems to like mustard!”) I’ll have only one-way Twitter access, though, because I still don’t have a smartphone. My LG enV2 phone still works very well despite being dropped hundreds of times, and I appreciate not having to pay for the extra internet data plan… so I probably won’t get an iPhone or Droid or even Blackberry anytime soon. I’ll have to get my internet the old-fashioned way: wi-fi in the hotel. Heh.
It’s already December. Are you planning your July trip to San Diego for the 2009 Comic Con yet?
If you are, you should check out the new Schmap!! guide to San Diego, where you might come across one of my photos from last year’s con! Go to the Services – Business area, mouse over “San Diego Convention Center” and wait for the magical moment when my name appears below a photo in the loop.
At least is was a little magical for me, okay?
The truth is, I didn’t think it was a really great photo… but I guess it does capture the sheer mass of people who were flooding into the convention center with me from the trolley.
This iPhone mock-up was presented to me by Schmap!! to help me visualize what my photo within their guide would look like to someone who has a much cooler phone than I do. They have guides for a couple hundred cities around the world, clearly designed with the internet-enabled mobile phone user in mind. Old-fashioned PC users like myself can download their little program and view the desktop version of their guide.
Schmap!! found my photo on my Flickr stream and contacted me through Flickr to request permission to use the photo in their guide.
I didn’t see a reason not to comply – I’m not using the photo for anything else, and now I get the return benefit of being Totally Famous. At least in the eyes of my mother, who will always think that I’m the greatest thing since sliced, gluten-free and flax seed fortified bread. (Thanks, Mom.)
After the Dollhouse panel, I came down with a serious case of the jitters. Battlestar Galactica, I thought. From the eighth frakkin row!
Kevin Smith was the moderator and he said some obscenely funny things. Every other panel member during the con tried to abide by the request to keep things somewhat clean because “there could be children in the audience.” Kevin Smith has no ability to censor himself, however, so he was dropping F-bombs like crazy. It was great!
He introduced each member of the panel as they came on stage, and it was clear from the audience noise level that nearly everybody was a rabid fan. The panel consisted of Jamie Bamber (Lee Adama), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Katee Sackhoff (Kara Thrace), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), James Callis (Gaius Baltar), and executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick. Tahmoh Penikett (Helo) also came on stage as a “surprise”a little later in the panel. Richard Hatch was apparently not invited to the panel even though he was upstairs signing autographs. No love for the former terrorist/VP of the colonies/holdover from the original BSG series!
They opened with a preview of the upcoming second half of Season 4, which looks bitchin’ to say the least.
Kevin congratulated the panel on getting past censors with the word “frak,” but he did ask “Will we ever hear the Caprican equivalent of cocksucker?” The producers basically said no. And they just finished filming the 4th season a few weeks ago, so I would believe them (sorry, Kevin). But they did mention something about the possibility on their new prequel Battlestar Galactica spin-off series, “Caprica,” for which they screened this preview:
Exciting! It will hopefully help BSG fans to not suffer too much from withdrawal after the series ends in the spring. (*sadface*)
Back to the panel… There were a lot of funny moments and interesting tidbits about the actors and the show. Katee Sackhoff didn’t know how to respond to Kevin’s question about how she felt to follow in Xena’s footsteps as a major lesbian icon. She did enjoy telling a story about how, during the shoot for the stand-off on Caprica between Starbuck/Helo and Sam Anders & company, the director told Helo to stop shooting like a girl. Tahmoh Penikett came on stage later and rebuffed, but I believe Katee’s side of the story.
Oh, also: James Callis = hot. I dislike his Baltar character most of the time because he’s a frakked up nutter, but as an actor, Mr. Callis gets my vote. I’m soooooo jealous of Liz and Josh, who ran into him on the street later in the day and took pictures with him! His son was also there, wearing a storm trooper mask I believe, but he understandably didn’t want a photo taken of his son.
The Scifi channel actually has a video of the BSG panel on scifi.com (with spotty audio when panel members didn’t speak directly into the mic) so you can see all the moments yourself if you have 50 minutes. Well, all the moments except the preview for the second half of BSG Season 4, which I’m sorry to report that I can’t find a video of anywhere online. How far away is January? Very much looking forward to it!
The next panel received a more excited response than was elicited for Dean Koontz (sorry, Dean). The fangirls and fanboys in the audience basically went wild when Joss Whedon, Eliza Dushku, and Tahmoh Penikett walked onstage to talk about their new TV series, Dollhouse, and to show clips from the upcoming mid-season FOX hour long drama. Tahmoh (aka Helo from Battlestar Galactica) was so excited himself that he took a couple photos of the crowd before sitting down.
Here’s the show description according to FOX:
Echo (Eliza Dushku) is a young woman who is literally everybody’s fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo’s burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.
Sort of Quantum Leap meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I’m looking forward to it, despite my desire to smack Eliza throughout the panel because of her “everybody look at me, I’m the most beautiful and talented woman ever to walk the face of this earth and I know that all you geeks want me, but you’ll never have me…” attitude. Gagariffic, to say the least. I mean, take a look at this gratuitous hair flip:
Okay, she has dimples that don’t stop, I’ll give you that. But she was waaaay too touchy-feely on stage with Joss and Tahmoh for a Comic Con panel. At one point, she was talking about how she’d like to have Nathan Fillion (from Dr. Horrible) on the show, and then commented “I’d love to have a Nathan-Tahmoh sandwich…” To which Tahmoh responded “Helloooooo, Eliza!” and moved his chair closer to her. Joss looked pathetically at the crowd and said, “I’ll just be here.” (Everyone loves Joss.)
Also of note: during the Q&A, someone asked Tahmoh if Eliza’s spine glowed. The crowd, many of whom were surely prepping for the next-up Battlestar Galactica panel, roared with scandalous laughter. Everyone laughed except Eliza, and Tahmoh said to the crowd, “She won’t get that. But the answer is, I DON’T KNOW.” Then he leaned over and started whispering into Eliza’s ear… and she made a shocked “Oh my!” face when Tahmoh presumably explained the circumstances (read: sex with a cylon) that would allow him to discover whether or not her spine glowed.
Overall, I’m glad I attended that panel. It most certainly helped to know that I was guaranteed a really good seat for the frakkin’ Battlestar Galactica panel!
Saturday morning continued in Ballroom 20 with Matt Groening and a bunch of producers on The Simpsons panel. They showed a rough cut of this fall’s Treehouse of Horror XIX, part of which is an homage to Peanuts with It’s a Great Pumpkin, Milhouse.
They answered a few audience questions, and a kid asked them where they got their ideas. A good question in the kid’s mind, I’m sure, but how exactly could they answer a generic question like that after 20 years on the air? After a couple “durrrrr…” moments, Matt Groening said with all seriousness, “Family Guy.” The audience definitely liked that answer.
After the Simpsons panel ended (10:45am), I started gathering my things to leave because there was a lot I wanted to do before the Battlestar Galactica panel at 2:15. The guy sitting to my right, who had actually fallen asleep during the Simpsons panel, told me I was crazy to give up my awesome seat. “You probably won’t even be able to get into the ballroom again,” he said.
I glanced at the stage, where people in Simpsons costumes were dancing only 7 rows away from me.
“Damn, he’s right,” I thought. And then I realized that dedicated con attendees not only get in line at 6am (like the woman sitting to my left), but basically camp out in seats all day to make sure that they have close-up view of the couple panels they might actually be interested in. Which would explain why the guy to my right fell asleep during the Simpsons panel… he was really just squatting for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse panel and then the sneak preview of FOX’s new TV show, Fringe.
So I decided to stick it out in the dark, huge ballroom through next two panels. At least the chairs were comfortable! I chatted with the woman sitting to my left, Devony, a San Diego native who tried to go to the con every year, and happily held her seat for her when she left to grab a snack and a bathroom break. She returned the favor during the Q&A half of the Dean Koontz panel.
Well, it wasn’t technically a panel – Dean Koontz took the podium and spoke about comic elements in his life and about the graphic novelization of his Odd Thomas character in “In Odd We Trust.” His nervous delivery was charming, and though I’ve never actually read any of his novels (I know, I know… but I’m just not naturally drawn to suspense novels just because they’re on the bestseller list… does anyone have a recommendation of which book of his I should start with?), his anecdotes and commentary on his life as an author were more universally interesting than I expected. This was his first comic con appearance.
(I showed that photo later in the evening to Ben, Liz and Josh. Their initial reaction was “Whoa! Check out the hair!” and then Josh made us laugh. “Look at him – he looks angry. You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.” Then Josh made a funny face and said “DEAN KOONTZ SMASH!” and waved angry Hulk fists about. Tee hee!)
As I said, I skipped out during the Q&A session for a bathroom break, to eat a protein bar, and to pay the concessions stand far too much for a freakin’ Coke. While in line for my caffeinated beverage, I struck up a conversation with a small group chilling on the floor near me after one of the women told me she liked my “Geeks <3 Me” purse. (I love that it’s totally not weird to talk to strangers at the con… everyone’s there for their own geeked out reason, and chances are that you have at least one thing in common with most people.)
I asked them what time they’d acquired their purple Big Frakkin Bags from the SciFi Channel’s booth, since I’d unsuccessfully tried several times to get one for myself. (The SciFi Channel booth employees were basically mobbed every time they emerged from their futuristic enclosed sculpture/booth thingy, and I think were a few trampling deaths among the mobbers.) One of the guys sitting on the floor said they just got lucky that morning with their timing, and we chatted about something-or-other for a minute. Then one of the women in the group pulled out an extra Big Frakkin Bag from her bag… and gave it to me!
… !
Thank you again, Linda, for that awesome random act of kindness. It made my day as a fangirl and as a person, gave me hope for the future of society, etc.
Next up: two more (very satisfying) panels in Ballroom 20.
I waited in my first seriously longass, snaky line at Comic Con on Saturday for about an hour, starting before the exhibit hall even opened. The Futurama panel started at 10, immediately followed by The Simpsons panel. I chatted with the middle-aged guys in line behind me who were from San Diego and learned that in a couple years, the Comic Con might move to L.A. or Vegas because it’s really become too big for San Diego.
(Vegas would be great for me… that’s a very easy drive from Utah! Though if it’s the middle of July, the weather could be quite miserable even with less humidity. San Diego weather this past weekend was in the seventies but definitely uncomfortable at times because of the high humidity; I realized how spoiled I’ve become with Utah’s delightful average 20% humidity.)
When I finally filed into the huge ballroom, the front section was already filled (with people who had been waiting in line since 6am or so). I could see a few seats open, but wasn’t sure if maybe people were just milling around… so I asked one of the ushers (who, incidentally, was a young Scotsman whom I recognized because he’d stood near me on Friday’s trolley ride into town) if there was a single seat available closer to the front. Indeed there was: 8th row, just right of center. Holy crap! (Thanks, Mom, for embarrassing me at a young age but ultimately teaching me that the “squeaky wheel gets the grease.”)
Before I was fully settled in my new seat, the ballroom lights dimmed and four huge projector screens (two in front, two in the middle) showed the audience a preview of the upcoming 3rd Futurama straight-to-DVD movie, Bender’s Game. If you like D&D or anything to do with fantasy genres, this will be a Futurama movie for you!
The lights came back up and the Futurama panel assembled on stage: Matt Groening, David X. Cohen (Executive producer), Eric Kaplan (head writer), Katey Segal (voice of Leela), Billy West (voice of Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Zoidberg, etc.), John DiMaggio (voice of Bender), Maurice LaMarche (Kif, Morbo, Lrr, etc.), and another guy whose name I don’t remember.
They talked about the future of the show and in response to the question “Will it ever come back on TV,” Matt Groening informed the crowd that this was the first Comic Con attended by studio execs at FOX, and if we cheered loud enough they might listen… so of course everyone cheered very loudly.
Someone else asked if Leela and Fry were ever going to get together, and while there was no Official Statement, Katey Segal informed the crowd that there was definitely some kissing in the 4th DVD. Billy West started making kissy noises and then Katey turned to him and they shared a tiny kiss on stage… to which Billy remarked in Fry’s voice, “I finally got lip!”
The panel discussed how well-educated the writers and staff were, and a ton of people have master’s degrees and three even have PhDs in various math and science fields. No wonder I love that show! The panel was over too soon… but then again, I’m definitely a Futurama fan and might have been happy to spend the whole day just watching episodes in the huge room with a bunch of other fans. At the end of the panel, while everyone else left, Matt Groening took the mike for a brief interlude between the Futurama and Simpsons panels.
While I’m busy catching up on things at home and furiously recalling in the written word every single little thing I did during my last two days at Comic Con, I thought I’d share a little video with you that I wish I’d seen before Comic Con. Because I would have visited Booth #1435 with a RedBull if I had.
What a gloriously clever and well-done promo! This past weekend, Liz told me that I needed to start reading the Looking for Group webcomic immediately. You should, too! (Their site is a little slow today, but I’m guessing that’s because of post-Comic Con traffic.)
My computer wasn’t cooperating with me last night, and I was more tired than the horde of people dressed as zombies walking up and down Fifth Avenue yesterday afternoon/evening, so I zonked out very quickly without blogging. And now it’s the last day of the con and I need to get going, so…
I spent 5 hours in the main Ballroom yesterday, not including wait time, and saw 5 panels from the 8th row: Futurama, Simpsons, Dean Koontz. Joss Whedon’s new Dollhouse, and Battlestar Galactica.
Liz and Josh didn’t make it there early enough to get in for Futurama or Simpsons, so they saw The Office panel where they scored 4 passes to a 7:30 sneak peak of Rainn Wilson’s new movie, The Rocker. We tagged along and saw the movie, which was introduced by Rainn Wilson who then did a Q&A after the movie and signed my seriously-I-know-it’s-dorky autograph book.
Lots of other people signed my autograph book the last couple days, well several anyway, and I’m heading to the con now to try to get some more. Except not Richard Dreyfuss because why the hell was he charging $20 for an autograph? Does he really need the frakking money?
After meeting Wil Wheaton, I relaxed a little but was still high on endorphins. I headed to my last panel of the day, “What’s Up with Penguin,” where publishing editors shared synopses and cover art for upcoming Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels. I was reminded how cheesy some of the cover art for fantasy novels can look… there’s just something about a girl or woman in a semi-realistic pose (except for the unrealistic body proportions, of course) can remind me of the covers on YA books I used to read. (I always loved the Z for Zachariah cover, though). From the description, I thought that they were going to be giving away free advance reading copies to everyone in the panel, but only a few people received them from the drawing they held. I’m not a huge fantasy genre reader, but I was still bummed about not getting any free books from the panel after basically listening to an hour of advertising.
I met up again with Ben after the panel and we walked over to one of the Marriott hotel’s ballrooms where they have movie screenings until the wee hours of the morning. We caught the last half of The Gamers: Dorkness Rising which was good and funny in a cheesy way, especially if you’ve ever roleplayed. We finished the evening off by walking to the Horton Plaza with our friends Liz and Josh and having a delicious Mandarin Chinese late-night dinner at Panda Inn. The Plaza is like a big mall, but it’s open-air. Weird and cool. Outdoor escalators would never work in the seasonal climates that I prefer.
And now I’ve stayed up WAY too late writing to get anywhere close to a good night’s sleep. Will I make it to the 10:00am Futurama panel tomorrow? Who knows! Will I make it the Battlestar Galactica panel tomorrow afternoon, or will I choose the Fables panel instead, knowing that Bill Willingham has related swag to hand out?
Oh, I forgot to mention that while Ben and I were walking around, we passed through the autograph area and got Richard Hatch’s autograph in my Moleskine notebook. I’ve never had an autograph book before and I’m really not sure what to do with it. It seems really dorky to have an autograph book as an adult. Or maybe cosplay as an adult is dorkier? I’m sure that’s a matter of opinion.
From there, I went to the Dumbrella booth where Wil Wheaton was supposed to be signing autographs. I got there about 5:40, in plenty of time for his 5:30-6:30 signing, except I didn’t remember his Twitter post correctly because it was really 4:30-5:30. Crap! I got lucky, though, because around the back of the booth I spotted him (squee!) being interviewed. Not knowing how quickly he was going to run off afterwards, I stood back and took a photo.
As I waited like a real geek in my bold black and yellow Star Wars tee, I realized that the woman interviewing him was Leah from Mahalo Daily. Cool! The interview kept going, so I meandered around the adjacent booths pretending to be looking at their stuff when really I was just waiting in the wings to pounce on Wil when the taping stopped. I found an inconspicuous spot behind him so at least I wouldn’t look like a stalker. And then suddenly I realized that I may have been in the line of vision of the freakin’ Mahalo Daily camera… I bolted out of that as quickly as possible when I realized it. I was in no condition to have my disheveled and sweaty geek self recorded for all eternity on the internet, staring intently at the celebrity giving an interview I couldn’t even hear. Gah. Hopefully I didn’t actually make it into the footage.
[Edit: I'm in the shot from minute 6:28 until you see a brief look of terror and my quick departure at 6:49. I'm semi-fuzzy in the background, so thankfully I'm not as horrified after the fact.]
Anyway. The interview finally ended and they chatted off camera for a little while longer. Then, when the Mahalo Daily people turned away, two fanboys pounced on Wil before I could from my slightly more inconspicuous (really this time) spot. One guy invited Wil to his film screening, and the other just wanted to say hi after comfirming that he was the kid from Stand By Me.
“I’m a bigger fan,” I thought to myself, imagining scenarios in which I could shove the guys aside cartoon violence-style. “After all, I’ve read his books and I subscribe to his Twitter feed and his blog and I’m a fan of his writing, and he would appreciate that.” I thumbed my Moleskine notebook while talking to myself and then suddenly realized that the second guy was leaving. I started sweating nervous buckets when he glanced at me, possibly wondering if I was just going to follow him around all night being a creepy fangirl in the shadows.
“Hi,” I blurted in his direction. “I know you were signing autographs earlier, and I missed it…”
He interrupted me and caught me completely off guard by saying “Well, I’m still here, so it looks like you didn’t miss me.”
So I stammered out an autograph request that sounded so completely retarded out loud I thought he might just laugh nervously and run away. What exactly I said, I don’t remember, but he responded warmly and put me more at ease because he was just so approachable, which somehow turned right back around and made me nervous as hell.
I told him that I read his blog and he expressed surprising gratitude that made me just want to hug him. I had wanted to say how much I took from his journey to becoming a writer in Just a Geek, but it came out more generic. “You really inspire me as a writer,” or something. *facepalm* I told him that I was tickled that he was also inspired by David Sedaris (as he wrote about on his blog a few weeks ago).
The whole time that I blabbered on about this or that, he maintained a very engaged, steady eye contact. I was a little too nervous to maintain steady eye contact myself (which normally is no problem for me). He was really listening to me, which speaks volumes. I wish I’d dabbed off my sweaty glow before approaching him!
And then came the part that is still making my face flush. I had been holding my geeky business card while walking, and finally held it out to him. “Well, this is me, and I just want you to know that if I ever become a writer you should know that you inspired me.”
Wil graciously took the card from me and I thanked him again. I wanted to just reach out and hug him, but didn’t want to go that far and completely invade his personal space, so I just held out my hand for him to shake. He shook it with both hands, which surprised and delighted me. He expressed thanks with more sincerity than I think I did. I grinned and we parted ways, though I turned back after a couple steps and watched him walk away, not wanting to lose the moment but at the same time wanting to relax and return to my normal non-fangirl self.
Now I not only want to be a writer like Wil Wheaton. If I ever reach a celebrity position of any level, I also want to be gracious fan-friendly celebrity like Wil Wheaton.
It’s already December. Are you planning your July trip to San Diego for the 
Kevin Smith was the moderator and he said some obscenely funny things. Every other panel member during the con tried to abide by the request to keep things somewhat clean because “there could be children in the audience.” Kevin Smith has no ability to censor himself, however, so he was dropping F-bombs like crazy. It was great!
.” His nervous delivery was charming, and though I’ve never actually read any of his novels (I know, I know… but I’m just not naturally drawn to suspense novels just because they’re on the bestseller list… does anyone have a recommendation of which book of his I should start with?), his anecdotes and commentary on his life as an author were more universally interesting than I expected. This was his first comic con appearance.
