The Con II : Passion of the Jerk
So where was I…? Oh yeah –After John and I partook of the (free) breakfast buffet, we got showered, dressed and on our way to the San Diego Convention Center where the Comic Con was being held. I was thankful John has AC in his car, cuz it was FREAKIN’ HOT and seriously humid the entire weekend. We found parking several blocks from the SDCC, in a lot we parked in last year, and (after a stupid mistake on my part where we had to pay for parking twice) hoofed it to the Con where there was a HUGE line along one side of the entire length of the Convention Center, for the people who hadn’t pre-registered. The heat and humidity that day was unbearable and to think these people were going to wait 2-3 hours in a slow-moving line, many wearing Jedi robes or wookie costumes or mithril armor was just astonishing. If John and I hadn’t pre-registered there’s no way I would’ve attempted that line. It would’ve been a great time at the nearby pub, at least until that line subsided.
Once in, we sniffed around to see if anything interesting was going on in the seminars, then made our way out onto the convention floor. This year was even more overwhelming than last year, with thousands of people swarming over hundreds of comic book, movie and videogame booths. We looked around a little then decided to check out Kevin Smith’s Q&A session going on in an auditorium at the other end of the convention area. After what seemed an eternity, we finally made it through the crowds, found the correct auditorium and sat down and just chilled out for a while. My roommate Michael Cornacchia was in town, brought there by Warner Bros. to promote Legion of Super Heroes, an upcoming cartoon for which he does a voice for, and he and his friend Brice hung out with us with while we waited... and waited. Finally, Rosario Dawson walked onstage with a, “Hi. I’m Kevin Smith,” and entertained us with some anecdotes about working with Kevin, being in Sin City, her comic book, and sang an a cappella rendition of “Sing… Sing a Song…” which was just plain weird. I mean, she was in Rent – pretty much any song from that would’ve been more of a showcase. She finally had people line up to a microphone for some Q&A, which was also weird and uncomfortable, with fanboys alternately fawning over her and sniping at her with questions like, “Can I have a kiss?” and “Were you afraid of the curse of being the female lead in a Kevin Smith film?” (eg Shannen Doherty, Joey Lauren Adams), until finally, after we’d sat through over an hour of stalling, some dude gets up to the mic and asks her, “Do you have Kevin Smith’s number?” Rosario: “Yeah. I used to call him when we were filming all the time.” Him: “Then why don’t you call him and find out when he’s going to get here.” Applause went up, and Rosario took out her cell phone (I think it was a Treo 650 or 700. Cool.) and called him.
I must say, Rosario was a great sport about the whole thing, and put Kevin on speakerphone so we could hear their conversation. Turns out he had already talked to the convention people and rescheduled his appearance to “Maybe 6:30.” It was now around 2:45. So… when were they going to tell us? Were they afraid we’d riot, with our lightsabers and +2 vorpal blades? (I’d be more afraid of all the girth and B.O. going on.) Or did they think we were just so distracted by Rosario’s hotness, we’d just kind of forget? Actually, her hotness almost worked. Almost.
After this non-event, John and I hit the convention floor again, checking out the booths and getting some people to check out 60. I was amazed (and somewhat dismayed) by just how much Comic-Con has changed over the past several years. It’s gotten so big, so bloated with movie studios and videogames that I think it just might just collapse under its own corpulence, much as the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) has done recently. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy the Square-Enix booth, showing off their upcoming Fullmetal Alchemist (Al and Ed, pictured) and Final Fantasy games, or The Behemoth’s booth, where I got to play (a slightly buggy, non-final build of) Castle Crashers on the XBOX 360, but a smaller, more comic book-centric experience wouldn’t be a bad thing. I did get to meet Dave McKean (smaller and more normal than I imagined) and Alex Robinson, from whom I purchased a hardcover of Tricked, based on the acclaim it’s received and a recommendation from John. Alex was very cool and signed the book and did a little sketch on the inside for me. I’m about half-way through the book now, and I’m loving it. I’ll be posting more thoughts about it once I’m done reading it.I saw Ray Bradbury (pictured) as we were walking around, a childhood hero and
favorite author of mine during my junior high school years. He’s one of the few authors I wrote to in my youth, and he wrote me back, along with a cool little piece of artwork he signed that I still have (not saying much, I never throw anything away). Unfortunately, it was during a time when I spelled my name “Geoffrey” – but I met him years later and had him sign some books and photos with the correct spelling of my name. Was a great treat to see him again.At around six or so, we left the convention and met up with John’s friend Jay. We ended up drinking and eating at Kansas City BBQ near the SDCC. Cool little place where they shot the bar scene for Top Gun, lo those many years ago. From there, we walked over to the bar of a hotel (the Hilton, I think) and had some more drinks. We did some walking and ended up in the lobby of the Marriott, where we had a couple more drinks and met some cool people including a bigwig from IDW Publishing, who was pretty cool. Jay and John had a Texas Hold ‘Em Poker game to attend in one of the rooms of the Hilton, hosted by artist extraordinaire Jim Lee and rumored to be stocked with many industry luminaries. We went up and I hung for a while but it got claustrophobic real fast in that little room and I wasn't seeing any luminaries nor Mr. Lee, so I bailed and hung out with Michael, who was with some friends at a restaurant near the hotel.
Wow, this is going on way too long again. I promise I'll wrap it up in the next post. Stay tuned for, you guessed it, The Con III.
1 Comments:
ray bradbury, wow, talk about hot!
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