July 28, 2009
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Reflecting on the San Diego Comic-Con International, July 22-26, 2009
Links of note…
- Recap of Comic-Con Day 1 (preview night)
- Recap of Comic-Con Day 2 (the line game, cosplayers, Tru Blood Happy Hour)
- Recap of Comic-Con Day 3 (Warner Bros, Disney 3D, Sony, Star Wars)
- Recap of Comic-Con Day 4 (LOST, Extract, Sony, Iron Man 2, Kevin Smith, Masquerade)
- Recap of Comic-Con Day 5 (exhibit hall day, Kevin Smith shoutout)- the videos I took at Comic-Con
- the photos I took at Comic-ConBefore Comic-Con 2009 began for me, I did say that I expected this to be a very special year, probably more so than before. It’s true, it was a pretty special and memorable event for me, with the positives vastly out weighing the negatives. The San Diego Comic-Con just felt “bigger” than it’s ever been, and despite things being a little too crowded at times, or the amount of time you had to wait in line for the popular panels, the four days event (plus preview night) was full of win. I guess to alleviate some of the crowd at the Convention Center, this year’s Comic-Con took advantage of Downtown San Diego itself and actually had events relocated to places in the city. I never did get to take too much advantage of those however, but next year I’ll definitely keep an eye on those.
Roaming the exhibit hall with a friend who also liked taking photos of cosplayers really let me get a lot more creative in some of the shots. Being at Comic-Con with my wife for the last two days was also something I never thought would happen, although the event may have been too exhausting for her. Comic-Con after all is somewhat of an endurance test to see how far you can walk, how long you can wait, how tolerant can you be, how long can you go without eating/drinking, and how long you can stay awake. There’s a reason why I usually take the day after Comic-Con off from work, as it is my day of rest.
Most common things said over the five days…
- What is this line for?
- Where did you get that from?
- Hey, did you see/go… (fill in blank with celebrity, panel, video)?
- Can I take a picture?
- This is my first time in Comic-Con.
- I’m from the Bay Area. (somehow, I met many people from San Francisco)Memorable moments…
Wednesday night was cool, in the sense that since me and my friends were “veterans” of this event, finding our way around the San Diego Convention Center was not a hassle. Playing “hide from security” and getting in the exhibit hall before the tens of thousands of people in line was pretty fun. One of the first things we did notice about Comic-Con this year, was how much more organized the staff were (still wasn’t perfect, but still). Besides roaming the exhibit hall, buying as much as I want, and getting as many free stuff as I can, I did try a few note worthy things. I tried the “mind flex” thing which was pretty cool, and I did play Lego Rock Band for the first time as well.
Thursday was the day that seemed to be against us. First off the Twilight fans really took over Hall H, which prevented us from getting into a single panel there that day. Sure, having Twilight present meant that there were even more females attending Comic-Con; probably more so than it’s ever been, but still… We tried for “Avatar,” waited in line for almost two hours under the heat of the sun and failed to get in (I heard they showed 25 minutes of the movie too, in 3D!). Then later that night, while we were able to get free passes for an early movie screening of “District 9,” we still weren’t able to get in because the one theater showing it was full. If we were in line 15 minutes earlier, we probably could have made it, but the bus driver did not drop us off at the stop we were expecting, which pretty much wasted our time. However, to balance those bad lucks, I did get to meet G4TV’s Alison Haislip and Adam Sessler. Had more fun roaming the exhibit hall, where I got to see “that gorgeous girl working the JayCompanyComics booth” which is definitely a highlight for me (never got a photo of her, and never did see her again). We also had tons of fun having free drinks and food at the “Rock Bottom” for the True Blood Happy Hour party. Met some cool people from the San Francisco Bay Area, and just partied.
Friday became a “Hall H day” for me, which is huge contrast to the previous days. The Warner Bros and the Disney Panel were all sorts of win. Seeing stars from Denzel Washington, Megan Fox, Robert Downey Jr, to Hayao Miyazaki on stage was pretty exciting (plus Ralph Garman from the Kevin & Bean show too!). Using those 3D glasses in Hall H’s new HD screens was incredible, although I heard from one of the coordinators that because a ton of people did not return those 3D glasses afterward, they might not be able to do something like this again in the future. Seeing the G4 cast and crew for the Star Wars Spectacular panel was cool, although the panel content itself was kinda just “meh.” Then to top off the day, I got to shake hands with the brains behind the TV show LOST (Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse).
Saturday was the day my wife came over to join me here at Comic-Con. I’ve warned her that the whole extravaganza is going to be exhausting for her, and it was (she’s not coming back next year). The final comic-con panel for LOST was incredible, and really was like a celebration to such a great show. The scenes shown for the movie “Extract” was all sorts of win. The Iron Man 2 panel was just such an extravaganza. Kevin Smith’s Q&A was as entertaining as it always is. Then I once again took tons of photos from the Masquerade show, with a particularly hot Pikachu probably winning my heart as best costume (since I’m a guy). Saturday was also the day I found out that I can be seen on TV in G4′s coverage of the Star Wars panel, and apparently you can’t miss me. What made the day complete for me, was that I got to continue doing the annual tradition of taking a photo of and with “Comic-Con Lisa” (those of you who follow my yearly comic-con coverage should know who I’m talking about).
Sunday became my exhibit hall only day, but this time I have my wife and some friends to tag along with me. As long as that lasted at least. It turns out that my habit of just suddenly zigzagging through the crowd to get a photo of a cosplayer, was a bit of a hindrance to my party. Eventually we just went our separate ways, and I once again became a lone wolf at Comic-Con. I did meet actors Tony Todd and Peter Wingfield, which was really cool. The absolute highlight of the day however has to have a paragraph on it’s own…
Roughly around noon time, I find out that Director/Writer Kevin Smith (Silent Bob himself) posted a link on his twitter, about my uploaded youtube videos from his Saturday night’s Q&A. From that point on, I started getting tons of subscriptions and comments for those videos. It was unbelievable at the amount of e-mail notifications that I was receiving on my BlackBerry. Besides Twitter, my videos has also been linked to Kevin Smith’s websites (newsaskew.com and viewaskew.com), which only helps bring more traffic to my youtube. By the end of Monday July 27, my youtube channel was “#44 – Most Viewed (Today)” with something like a total of 61,151 views. That was the peak of my “five seconds of internet fame,” as the traffic to my site has finally settled down to normal. Still it was a very surreal experience to have that much attention put on something I did. Wow indeed.
Comic-Con 2009 is definitely going to be one that I will refer to in the future. It’s also a testament to why I’ve been going to this event since… 1993 was it? I don’t even remember the first time I went. I did skip it one year (1998), but that was when I vowed never to skip another Comic-Con again.
So mark your calendars for next year’s San Diego Comic-Con. July 21-25, 2010.
P.S. With the “mainstream-ifcation” of Comic-Con, due to Hollywood taking over the event, should we feel a bit sorry or ashamed about the lack of actual significant presence and attention to comic-books themselves? hhhmmm
Lots of related links below to check out…
- Natalie Tran at Comic-Con (video)
- Natalie Tran visiting the Alice In Wonderland tour at Comic-Con (video)
- Kassem G at Comic-Con (video)
- hot chicks at Comic-Con (video)
- Tron Legacy ARG and Flynn’s real life Arcade in San Diego (video)
- G4′s comic-con costume parade (video)
- Dana Vinson investigates Comic-Con Cosplayers (video)
- Attack Of The Show panel (video)
- the Popcorn Mafia at Comic-Con (video)
- the art of love at comic-con (video)- another write up on Tron’s real life Flynn’s Arcade in Downtown San Diego (link)
- Brutal Legend’s Metal Meltdown at Comic-Con, with GWAR as headliner (link)
- Comic-Con pics ‘n’ reflections: Why I loved ’09, but it still wasn’t perfect (link)
- Chris Gore’s write up : The Geeks Takeover and Then Take Off (link)
- 4 Reasons to hate Comic-Con (link)
- 3 other cities fight it out for the con (link)- 10 Green Screen Photos from Comic-Con (pics)
- The Comic-Con 2009 Cosplay Gallery — 600 Amazing Costumes (pics)
- Comic-Con Leftovers : Photos and Videos Unfit to print (video, link, pics)- The /Filmcast SDCC2009 wrap up podcast (audio)
- Totally Rad Show live at Comic-Con (audio)
- The Popcorn Mafia recording at Comic-Con (audio)
- more from the Popcorn Mafia at Comic-Con (audio)
- Extra Life Radio #222 (audio)
