Comic-Con 2010

It was a rollercoaster of a RIDE!! This is a long, long, BLOG!
 
It was our 10th year going to Comic-Con, the biggest and baddest of all conventions this side of the Mississippi (wow! I spelled it correctly!) There were lots to see, from Will Farrell to the Predator creatures; from Twilight fan fiction to Seth Rogan as the new Green Hornet; from freebie jumbo sized bags to Harrison Ford – who I did not get to see, by the way!!
 
My two grown children and I were looking forward to having an awesome time for our tenth anniversary going to Comic-Con in San Diego. Our preparation and excitement started after we left Comic-Con 2009. By November however, things turned a little sour. My son who just happened to be looking up the website (www.comic-con.org) said the four day passes (along with a preview night) were SOLD OUT!
 
I didn’t believe him, I had to look myself but lo and behold, it was true. In December, we decided to get the day passes for both Friday and Saturday - and in the process, silly me accidentally got a pass for my daughter for Thursday. We figured it was okay; she could get our passes for 2011, and then roam the floor for all the ‘swag’ (free junk).
 
For every good, we had bad. Our hotel was in Chula Vista, in an area we have frequented before (this experience is a WHOLE different blog, and suffice to say, we will not be going to the same one again!). As scheduled, my daughter got to see Angelina Jolie, Will Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, Steve Austin and Sly Stallone, but she had a bad knee (she had just had knee surgery 10 days before and by the time she got back, she was exhausted and her knee was slightly swollen). She did get to see one of her favorite movie actors, Sean Patrick Flannery – but he charged to get an autograph! At the hotel, my son and I languished, waiting for Friday. Since I am still in school, I had my laptop handy, but we had to pay for Internet at the hotel, so instead, I went to McDonald’s 100 yards away (free WiFi there, woot). And naturally, you cannot go to McD’s without eating.
 
Friday (Star Wars Day) finally arrived we wound up getting there around 8 am. We picked up our passes in a hurried fashion and got into the line for Hall H, the place where true magic happens. Inside was more organized than previous years; we sat right up the middle, one row behind the “Reserved” seating for the movie big wigs (saw no one really famous though). From out vantage point however, we got to see in different panels throughout the day: Will Farrell (funny!), Christoph Waltz, Guillermo del Toro, Mark Walberg, Seth Rogan, Eva Mendes, and Nicolas Cage. No we didn’t get their autographs (they weren’t signing, are you kidding??), but I got plenty of pictures to share (look up my Facebook next week).
 
Saturday was the worst day in terms of being in Hall H. We did not get to be in it!! We did the usual routine (me and my daughter going to get our day pass while my son held our place in line) but it was all for naught. Just 200 people short of the entrance, we were not allowed in! We were going to miss the preview of the “Green Lantern” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” (with Tom Felton, “Draco Malfoy”) because it filled to capacity! Argh!  We were discouraged but then again not. It meant we could spend the whole day on the vendor floor, gathering posters, bags and freebies for my teens and other libraries.
 
And once on the vendor floor, we saw that same guy, Sean Patrick Flannery, TWICE! The second time we found him, he was with his buddy, David Rocco – and they weren’t charging for getting his autograph! Sadly, my daughter didn’t have the poster she wanted him to sign (See? A roller coaster of a day!) and refused to get in line (she’s already met the guy at his dojo, have no fear).  I still managed a few pictures. We saw Guillermo del Toro and LL Cool J signing and we picked up our yearly VizMedia bag (black this year), an Iron Man industrial strength bag, another 5 large bags (some we got when we got our badges), tons of posters and media cards. There weren’t very many trinkets as in past years (I blame the economy), but we made do with A LOT of comic books – something they hardly ever gave away (how ironic is that?).
 
When we finally made it back to the hotel, we were exhausted but we stayed up for the news to see who had been in the HP panel. Instead, we were greeted by the news of someone getting their eyelid/eye/next to the eye stabbed with a pen over a seat! The next day, we drove home after checking out, wishing we could take the cool weather with us (sadly, none of it fit in the car with all the swag we had).
 
Monday night I happen to look up the top 10 things that went on at Comic-Con, and found the greatest one (for me) was that HARRISON FORD was there! MY SCREEN IDOL was part of the “Cowboys and Aliens” panel that we chose to MISS after being discouraged over HP *SCREAMS*. They brought him out in handcuffs (a joke that he didn’t want to be there, or what?), and I couldn’t bear to watch the video because I had ‘roller coaster’d’ over wanting to go to it, and chose instead to miss it *SCREAMS AGAIN*.
 
 Needless to say, as quick as it went, it was a lot of fun. Where else can you see people dressed as their favorite character? Where else can you walk by Roy Stark, Superman and the Joker (my personal fave)? I drooled over two Gladiators from “Spartacus” and shuddered when I saw the Predators, but… I smile thinking that in no other place on Earth can you find more fun, more excitement and more comic books than at Comic-Con!!
 
Until next time,
 
~Miss Sue