8/01/06
San Diego Con Special
Welcome to a special edition of "The Bottom Line" aptly titled:(Barely) Surviving San Diego ComicCon
I have been to ComicCon International at San Diego quite a few times, but this time around was a little different. For starters, I hadn’t gone to ComicCon since the one held in 2003. I couldn’t go in 2004 because it happened to coincide with my honeymoon, and I voluntarily opted out of going last year due to the combination of my financial situation and the fact that I hate crowds more than I like ComicCon.
So what made me get over my disdain of crowds this time around? A few things, actually. For starters, this convention would be the first one I have ever attended as a member of the press, so I could attend ComicCon for free for the paltry cost of doing an article on what it is like to attend ComicCon on its busiest day. But the clincher was that an old friend from my previous job got a hotel room at the Hyatt Hotel two buildings down from the San Diego Convention Center. That way, not only would I be avoiding an extra trip from San Diego to Long Beach, but I didn’t have to sweat long drives to and from the convention. With those assets at my disposal, I figured that would minimalize any potential problems I have had in the past, so I decided to give it a shot.
This is the first ComicCon I have been to where I have actually had my day planned out before I even left for San Diego, which is very unusual for me. I wanted to try attending more panels at this convention, as I usually only go to Kevin Smith’ s panel. Since I wrote about his panel at Wizard World on this site and didn’t want to be redundant in my coverage, I thought that would be the way to go. So, I had my day scheduled out and I was going to stick with the schedule to the best of my abilities. I was able to accomplish about half of what I had planned, which is a bit more than I expected given the unexpected obstacles I came across. But I’ll elaborate on these later. For now, I’ll just go into what I had on my schedule and what I ended up doing:
5:00 a.m. – “Woke up…got out of bed…dragged a comb across my head…” A Beatles lyric for a mind-numbingly self- explanatory statement.
5:45 a.m. – “On the road again…I can’t wait to get on the road again…” Well, actually I could, but I had to get there somehow and since I don’t have the bankroll to rent a helicopter, driving was the only way to get there. Luckily, it was smooth sailing on the freeways getting to San Diego.
7:30 a.m. – I meet up with my friend Sean at the Hyatt to drop my stuff in the room we are sharing with his friends. It was on the 39th floor and had an awesome view of the naval base.
8:00 a.m. – Waited next to the line for industry professionals and spoke with some fellow journalists for E! Online, Fangoria Magazine and BlueTights.net, an online fansite for the Superman Returns movie.
8:45 – After being told the first of many conflicting statements about let-in time for the press by the event people in the red polo shirts, I get in line with the industry professionals just as they are letting people in. This line is blessedly short next to the one that public attendees have to stand in. I get in and exchange my official letter of registration confirmation for a press badge.
9:30 a.m. – After getting the runaround from a multitude of red-shirts (who I began to wish were the ill-fated red-shirts from the original Star Trek series), I finally get a straight answer from an intelligent life-form in a red shirt by the name of Colton. From there I head over to Room 20 for the Lost panel at 10:30 a.m.
9:35 a.m. – I arrive at Room 20. In a rare stroke of good fortune, I am able to bypass the line for the panel and get a decent seat in the 10th row. This press thing definitely has its advantages.
10:00 a.m. – While I am passing the time reading my Twisted Toyfare Theater collection I am overhearing a woman’s voice repeatedly telling people not to run. That has got to be an annoying job to have, but she was having some fun with it. She delighted in her omniscience, gleefully pointing out to everyone in the room who exactly is flaunting the rules.
10:30 a.m. – The Lost panel gets underway on schedule. Here are some of the highlights:
- Before the panel began: video clips were shown of extra features on the upcoming Lost Season 2 DVD collection
- The panelists were introduced. The group consisted of actors Jorge Garcia (Hurley) and Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), co- creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof and executive producers Carlton Cuse and Bryan Burk.
- The panelists fielded a wide variety of questions, including the reason for the long layoff between new shows during the 2nd season, the perceived decline in quality of the newer shows and whether a scientific explanation for Locke regaining the use of his legs on the island will be explored.
- In the middle of the Q & A session, a woman identifying herself as “Rachel” starts to badger the panelists with accusations that the Hanso Foundation on the show is actually real. One of the people sitting in front of me explained this was just a publicity stunt for the website www.experience-lost.com, which is an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) created to augment the mythology of Lost, and he explained that “Rachel” is based on a character from the game.
12:00 noon – The Lost panel concludes, and I head over to Hall H to see if
I can get into the Kevin Smith panel. My hopes are dashed (as I pretty much expected
they would be) as I saw an exceedingly long line. I check with the event staff
there, and they confirm what I suspected: the press pass probably won’t get me
into this panel like it did the Lost panel. Disappointed, I decide to check out the
exhibit hall for a little bit.
Ironically, the “lucky” folks that did make it into the panel were
disappointed when the news came that Kevin Smith was stuck in traffic on the way to
the ComicCon. He didn’t cancel the panel, but I heard it didn’t end up
starting until around 6: 30 p.m.
1:30 p.m. – I head back to the hotel to get my own keycard for the hotel room. On my way I observe that there is still a very long line of people registering to get day passes for Saturday. It was very hot and very humid, and as I walked past them only one thought entered my mind: “There but for the grace of God go I…” Once I get to the room I decided to enjoy the wonderful air-conditioning and take a well deserved rest. The next panel I wanted to go to, the spotlight on Brad Meltzer, didn’t start until 3:30 p.m. (or so I thought).
2:30 p.m. – I get back to the convention center just in time to find out that the panel is at 3:00 p.m., not at 3:30 as it was posted on the website. I see another old friend who until recently worked at RVD’s 5-Star Comics. He was also attending the Brad Meltzer panel, and we talked about the store closing down and the wrestling star’s recent arrest for possession of marijuana.
3:00 p.m. – The Brad Meltzer panel begins. For my detailed recap of the panel, check out www.bluetights.net. Among the topics discussed were his plans for the re-launch of Justice League of America, his new novel The Book of Fate and the differences between writing comics and novels.
4:00 p.m. – After the Meltzer Panel ended I wanted to get into the Sony Pictures panel, featuring information on upcoming Marvel Comics films as well as Q & A with Nicholas Cage, Mark Steven Johnson and Sam Raimi. Unfortunately it seemed like everyone else at the ComicCon had the same idea. So, through a combination of wanting to get away from the crowds and the profound lack of desire to see the Masquerade later, I ended up calling it a day and going out to dinner with my friend.
That concludes my San Diego ComicCon 2006 experience. I was going to try and attend one more panel on Sunday, but I just couldn’t find the courage to face the crowd and the heat again, so I checked out and went home.
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