When last we left I had managed to make it through Preview Night and Day one of SDCC and had seen Shawn battle to the death with a Power Ranger. If you haven’t read Part I yet check it out here. That was only half the story though, I now bring you Part II of my journey through Comic-Con.
Day Two: One of my buddies lives in San Diego and he was gracious enough to let me crash on his couch for the duration of SDCC. This was great because it meant I didn’t have to spend money on a hotel room but it did have one major draw back. Since parking downtown can be a nightmare I decided that I would take the trolley and save myself the hassle (and some money) of finding parking. I parked at Qualcomm stadium, home to the San Diego Chargers and got on the trolley only to find it packed. Not only was it packed but it got worse with every stop. We were like sardines in a can. Personal space was non existent.
When I finally made it to the convention and made it off the massively over-crowded trolley I decided to go get in line for some panels. Being a huge fan of Community I wanted to see their panel which was scheduled for 10 am in Ballroom 20. Being that I’m a newbie to the whole thing I foolishly thought getting in line at 9 am would be plenty early to guarantee that I got in. Oh how I couldn’t be more wrong. The line weaved it’s way from the inside of the convention, outside and down some stairs and back up to some tents. After 30 minutes of waiting it was pretty apparent that I wouldn’t be seeing the Greendale gang that day so I abandoned my plans and headed back to the Geekscape booth to form a new battle strategy. It was during this time that my efforts to try and get a Court of Owls mask from the DC booth comes into play. It’s a long story in it’s own right, check out the story of that here.
After a quick lunch consisting of greasy pizza in the Gaslamp it was off to the Marvel: Ultimate Comics panel. It was a good panel, the panellists (Marvel EIC Axel Alonso, Editors Sana Amanat and CB Cebulski, writers Sam Humphries and Nathan Edmonson, and artist David Marquez) talked about some of the big things that are coming to the Ultimate universe in the form of the ‘Divided We Fall’ event that is spanning the books. They also announced a new mini series Ultimate Comics Iron Man: Demon In The Armor that will be debut in October and written by Nathan Edmonson with art by Matteo Buffagni. They also showed the cover to issue #1 of the series before opening the floor to questions. Most of the questions were fairly standard and forgettable but there was one question that stood out above the rest. A kid who looked to be maybe 17 and was your stereotypical nerd asked this question (this is almost verbatim), “I know you can’t confirm it but if you were going to how would you, even though I know you can’t confirm it, how would you do an ultimate version of Anti-Venom? How would you?” The panel tells him that they don’t have any plans for the character but don’t want to discuss their take on the character because it would then pigeon-hole them if they did. The fanboy did not like this answer and quickly fired back with “…well I’m JUST sayin’…” at which time Axel Alonso jumped in and asked him, “well if how would you write the ultimate version of Anti-Venom?” You could immediately hear a collective grown from the audience as soon as Alonso asked that question. Fanboy’s explanation was painful and went something like this, “well I think he should get hit by something like radioactive and then he’d have radioactive poison running through his body!” Yeah, the kid just basically described Venom, good job. Axel Alonso told him he deserved a free tshirt for his pitch and gave him one, I think they just wanted Anti-Venom boy to go away…and so did I.
Once that panel ended I hit the floor again to take in the sights. I actually ran into a guy I used to work with years ago, SDCC has that way of bringing people together. Spent the rest of the day wandering around and checking things out and just taking in all the sights. Earlier in the day I had managed to score a wrist band to see the new Marvel One-Shot: Item 47 at a theater in the Gaslamp at 7 pm. Not wanting to get shut out of yet another free event I made sure to get there early and get in line. Luckily since I had a wrist band this proved not to be a problem and was able to get in. Check out the Geekscape reveiw of it here to see what we thought of it. Getting out of the theater and getting our bags, which we had to check in prior to the screening proved more difficult than getting in. People were freaking out and loosing their minds trying to get their stuff back. As usual chaos rained supreme amongst the nerds. Once that was all said and done with it was time to call it a night and get a fresh start for Saturday.
Day Three: Saturday at SDCC is the craziest day out of all. Everyone know this but knowing it and seeing it are two different things. After once again dealing with a crammed trolley ride to the convention I met up with a friend and we went and sat in on the comiXology panel. It was an interesting panel. It’s crazy to think that digital comics have only been around for a few years and has come so far. I like the idea of digital comics and know that it will play a big part in the future of comics but my sticking point on them has always been the price. If I’m going to pay $3.99 for a comic I’d rather have a hard copy of it. If they lowered the price on digital versions I’d buy them in a heartbeat. I love the push that Marvel is doing by giving you a free digital copy with some of their books. That’s a cool cross promotion and a smart move.
After that panel we went across the street and checked out the Batmobiles that were on display. It was awesome! Then we ran into Wil Wheaton at Starbucks before meeting up with Eric, who was in line for Hall H. We spent the rest of the day hanging out in line and relaxing, while holding on to hope that we would get into Hall H to see the Marvel panel. Sadly we did not get to see that but we did get to see a bunch of those crazy bible-thumpers try and convert people that were in line. Can I just say that I absolutly hate those guys, super fucking annoying. On the plus side though, we did manage to get an awesome picture of the Jesus guy standing next to the booty ring toss van. Anal play and God together at last! Thus endeth my Saturday at SDCC.
Day Four: Waking up on the final day of SDCC was a sad event. I was exhausted but also was sad to know that it Comic-Con was coming to an end and I’d have to wait another year to do it all over again. The trolley ride proved to be far less stressful than the prior two days and I even managed to find a seat. My first stop once I got to the convention was the Marvel booth. I had finally caved and decided to pre-order the ‘Phase One’ 10-disc blu-ray set. Once that was purchased I met up with my buddy at the Oni Press booth where they were selling advanced copies of Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life in color! I bought a copy of the ‘Evil Edition’ which features Matthew Patel on the cover. I then got in line and was able to get Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley to sign it. After that I made a few more purchases and then decided to go check out the Marvel: Amazing Spider-Man panel. It was a mostly lackluster panel but they did briefly discuss Alpha, who is going to be Spider-Man’s new teenage sidekick and how he’s connected to Peter Parker. Look for Alpha to debut in issue #692.
The last panel of the day in Hall H was the Sons of Anarchy panel which I was lucky enough to get into. I’m a big SOA fan and can thank my brother for getting me hooked on that show. The entire cast was present and they showed fans the opening scene to the first episode of the upcoming season. During the panel, we found out that Ron Pearlman is the worst member of the cast when it comes to riding a motorcycle. Fans gave Pearlman a giant round of applause when his Make-a-Wish appearance as Hellboy was brought up. The entire panel was a fun time with the cast-members swearing like sailors…or to be more accurate, members of a motorcylce club. The ladies in the audience lost their minds a few times, especially over Charlie Hunnam (Jax) and Theo Rossi (Juice).
After that panel let out it was time to call it a day and make my way back to Qualcomm stadium to fetch my car and hit the road. All in all I had a blast at SDCC 2012 and it wouldn’t have been possible without Mr. Jonathan London and Geekscape. So a very big thank you to Jonathan and Geekscape for letting me experience the madness that is San Diego Comic-Con!!! Until next year….
