Ok, take a seat, relax and enjoy as I walk you through (with every boring detail) the wonderful world of the Con...
There's something you have to understand about Comic-Con, or any Con for that matter. There are basically two parts of a Con. One part consists of the panels. Basically, you stand in line for about 2 hours for one room (one BIG room), making sure to get into line at least 3-4 hours before the panel you want to see (just in case), then you make your way into the room and STAY there. Luckily, they do not empty a room after each panel, so essentially you could stay in one room all day long and just keep watching panel after panel. That's pretty much what we did.
The other part of a Con are the Exhibition halls. This is where all the artists, the studios, and all the miscellaneous sellers hawk their goods. It's like a medieval marketplace, only with so many shiny toys and trinkets, for a moment you know what it feels like to be a dragon (yes, only if dragons REALLY existed) and you want nothing more than to gather up all the shiny and horde it away forever and ever. But I digress, where was I? Oh yeah, the exhibition halls, shiny things. Anyway, there is just SO much to look at, you just end up running into people every five seconds because you are looking anywhere but right in front of you. It's pretty much what I envision when I think about the Mad Hatter having a very big yard-sale. It's a madhouse, seriously. Not only that, but if you could walk around for hours, you'd get bags and bags full of FREE stuff and there's nothing more we Americans love more than FREE stuff. But free stuff often comes with a price, even though, you know, it's supposed to be free! There were multiple "free stuff" riots happening all the time and in every corner of the hall. Besides the infamous "Megan Fox" riot, the "Free New Moon Poster" riot was the worst. Luckily, I threw some elbows and got me a nice big'un. What? I like free stuff too!
You could spend hours upon hours in these cavernous halls and never get the chance to see everything. If you tried, you'd probably get lost and never see the light of day again. Unfortunately, I had little to no time for that fun adventure. I came to the conclusion that you have to pick which part of the Con you want to see more because four days is just not enough time to do both, the panels and the exhibition halls. If I ever go again, I would attend far less panels and spend more of my time walking around the exhibition hall with all the cool people (ie: the Storm Troopers, the Dharma Initiative Recruits and Batman). Another aspect of the halls, which I missed out on, were the autograph signings. But more on that later.
We decided to make our second day (Friday) the "Sleep In and Miss All the Good Film Panels" day. Which means I missed the WB film panel, which included The Box (with James Marsden and Cameron Diaz), Jonah Hex (with Josh Brolin and Megan Fox), Sherlock Holmes (with Robert Downey) and many others. Not to mention the 9 panel. In retrospect, it was a bad decision, but you just can't see everything and our beds wouldn't be denied. We also missed The Guild panel, The Prisoner panel (Jim Caviezel, yum!) and the Battlestar Galactica panel. A bunch of ouchies there. The main panels we were shooting for on Friday were the Bones and Dollhouse/Joss panels. The Bones panel started at 3pm, so we got in line around 1pm-ish. As per usual, we were in the room a hour later and just in time for the 24 panel. For my part, I am not a 24 fan. I've never watched the series, but I have seen a couple episodes here and there. However, I was excited about this panel, due to the attendance of Katee Sackoff (Battlestar Galactica) and Freddie Prinze Jr, not to mention, how can you not love Kiefer? It turned out to be a great panel. Here are some tidbits:
Favorite Moment:
Freddie (answering a question): Well, my wife and I...
Whole room explodes in yells and clapping. It's like an ocean of sound all around you. Freddie chuckles.
Freddie: Oh yeah, I forgot she was big here...
Whole room explodes again.
Scoop/Spoilers:
- This seasons' theme is: "Peace...but don't worry, we'll still blow things up".
- Jack Bauer is in a rare happy place. This won't last long.
- Also, something about someone trying to assassinate the President of the U.N. I think.
- Freddie Prinze's character is Junior Jack. He is also engaged to Katee Sackoff's character.
- Katee Sackoff's character knows more about computers than Chloe. Apparently Chloe's reactions to this are very funny. *shrug*
- There's a new CTU. It's pretty and...new. *shrug*
Kiefer was a great panelist and Katee looked beautiful. Mary Lynn Rajskub did not look happy to be there, but I hear that's just the way she looks. Apparently she's very funny, but all I saw were frowns. *Shrug*
The Bones panel held a bad surprise, but one we were getting used to. David Boreanaz wasn't able to make it, but he did send in a very funny, very long, rambling video to his Comic-Con fans. It was pretty entertaining and as usual, he looked good enough to eat. This panel turned out to be the smallest one we attended during the Con. It was only Emily Deschanel and Hart Hanson, the creator. Funnily enough, it was one of the most entertaining panels we saw. Emily was absolutely adorable. She was so funny and charming, I almost fell in love with her myself.
Favorite Moment:
When Emily and Hart decided they should spread over the huge panel table and Hart went to the end and Emily to the middle, with the panel moderator on the other side. It was hilarious. Then they thought it was too awkward and moved back to their original positions.
Scoop/Spoilers:
- There MIGHT be a Booth/Bones kiss in the premiere episode. It was scripted, but they won't say whether it was actually shot.
- The premiere opens 2 weeks after Booth wakes up in the hospital and there is still awkwardness between the two. Bones has left the country, on a dig or something, in order to avoid Booth for awhile.
- Questions about the non-sex scene and it's impact upon Booth's psyche will be at least touched upon in the early episodes.
After Bones came one of the few panels I was REALLY looking forward to, Dollhouse and Joss Whedon. Joss just strolls out on stage, not announcing himself at all and with no panel moderator. Seriously, this man needs no moderator. He's good, just as he is. Anyway, he circles the stage a little, letting the crowd rile itself up and boy did it ever! After a couple moments, he welcomed us and set us up for the screening of the "lost" Dollhouse episode, "Epitaph One", that we were about to see. We watched it, and even though I often heard Katie beside me, whispering that she had no idea what was going on, it was a great episode and I really enjoyed it. After the screening, Joss came back out and introduced Eliza Dusku and she joined him on stage. What followed was a study on the charm and wit of one of mine most beloved show-creators. Eliza was nice and laid back but her presence was completely shadowed by Joss himself, who couldn't say one thing without the audience either laughing, clapping or hollering or all three. He was everything I believe he would be and more. He was entirely gracious toward us for being there and supporting him for all these years, completely humble and completely wonderful. He talked Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible and his projects with Dark Horse, including Buffy Season 8. Eventually, Eliza commented that she had Twittered (it's a verb now!) some of her friends and they wanted to come out on stage. A minute later, Fran Kranz and Dichen Lachman, two other Dollhouse cast members, walked onstage and finished up the panel with Joss and Eliza.
Favorite Moment:
When a fan came up to the microphone and said/asked: "You killed Penny, you bastard! Why do you keep killing my favorite characters"?! Joss just laughed and said evilly, "Because I love making you suffer"!
Scoop/Spoilers:
- "Epitaph One" is an futuristic episode. I forget the exact date, but basically, it's where our character MIGHT end up one day. Next season and any consecutive seasons, will all work towards that future, with our characters either following the path to that future, or changing the future that we saw in the episode. It's a mystery how they got there and its a mystery how it all ends too. Both sides are open-ended as of now.
The Dollhouse panel was the last for the day and ended around 7pm-ish. Here's where we get to the horror of the exhibition hall. For the first time, I dragged both the girls down to the hall, which closed at 8pm. We had an hour to walk around, which is equivalent to about one second, in Con World. It turned out, for Katie and Tina, even one second was too much. The crowds were horrible. You couldn't walk one foot without brushing up against someone else. I could tell immediately that Tina and Katie were not happy to be there. We could get nowhere near the WB or Fox booths (the WB booth was giving away free Chuck bags and the girls were NOT going to wait in that line). The thing about the hall is, you can't think straight. It's like being in a hurricane of colors, sounds, objects, people and I am not talking about the middle, calm part of a hurricane. I'm talking the windy, electric, flying side parts. So, I didn't even think that the reason people were standing around the Fox booth was that Joss and Eliza were expected there for autograph signing. Yeah, DUH! Smack myself on the forehead for that one! By the time we figured it out, there was a mass of people surrounding the booth and only 30 minutes before the hall closed. Tina and Katie dragged me out, much to my tearful dismay. If I regret anything from this trip (besides the Bryan Fuller incident), it was not getting to meet Joss Whedon when he was only 20 feet from me.
We left the Con and headed to dinner and there concluded our second day at Comic-Con.
Day 3 and 4, coming soon!
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