First off I want to say hello and thank you for taking the time to find this blog and read this. This is my first time doing a blog so I apologize in advance if this tends to ramble on or lack some detail but I am just writing this during my lunch break and trying to remember all that was Comic Con 2011, mostly because I still cannot get it out of my head. Yes I am so happy and thankful that I get to attend (and have for the past 18 years) but right now my body is glad to have had one long good nights rest and to take a lot of weight of off my feel. I will post something separate describing my experience with the Comic Con and what truly got my wanting to create a blog about one of my favorite times of the year.
Wow first night of Comic Con and I could feel the excitement in the air. I gathered my backpack and poster tube and was ready for my ritual luncheon/early dinner that the group of people that I attend with do every year. This year we hit up Hodad's and the burger and beer really hit the spot. Then the walk to the convention center to pick up the badges began and nothing feels sweeter than seeing the Gaslamp District of San Diego being transformed into the pop-culture, entertainment mecca that is the San Diego Comic Convention. I just love seeing bars and restaurants being transformed into themed places of everything comic and pop-culture related.
I had my schedule ready for the weekend. I had an idea of which panels I would attend, which autographs I would try to get, which giveaway/exclusives I would want, and which parties I would be attending in the evenings. Definitely had each day booked with things to do, but preview night is all about finding out about the last minute additions companies do with their packed schedule of events. So off into the convention hall I go.
Well I finally get to the convention center and I get that feeling of going to a summer camp (or as I call it Nerd/Geek Camp, seeing old friends again, reminisce about previous cons and discuss our plans and expectations for this year's con). Of course we also get to gripe about the changes that were made to this year's con as well. Surprisingly enough the badge pickup was quick and simple. I decided to get my badge at 5:00pm and was out of there at 5:15pm. It felt great.
So now the thing at Comic con that I will be spending the most energy and time doing begins.... WAITING IN LINE. Yes, the lovely dance of standing on my heels, then toes, then outside of foot, taking 5-10 steps forward, stop and repeat. This was the first day, or as I call it Day 0 of comic con, and my feet, legs, knees, ankles, and back were feeling fine and I had no complaints about it.
Inside the Convention hall my first move was to do the Pan-Am flight to try and get that sweet vintage Pan-Am flight bag. Well they weren't starting flights until 6:40 and I decided to roam around the hall (bad decision as I will tell you later) and visit some familiar booths (Lionsgate, CBS, WB, Fox, Marvel, DC, etc) to inquire about their booth autograph schedule, freebee giveaways, and other exclusive things that would be good to know. Other than Marvel and DC, most of the booths were close together but still hard to get too as there still seemed to be quite a lot of people, given that this preview night was suppose to be limited to certain badge holders but that's another story.
I get the info I was looking for and head back to the Pan-Am booth and realized all the "flights" had been booked, but just like a true airline and the great character acting of the booth babes, "there will be a standby line for anyone looking to get on a flight". Well I waited for a little but wasn't able to get on a flight and had to give up my chance that day to catch a "flight" and snag a sweet Pan-Am bag.
I spent the rest of my evening just scouring the floor and realizing that so many booths have contest that are either twitter, facebook, qr scans, or microsoft snap tags and I had all the hashtags and messages ready to go for each contest. For example, Cowboys and aliens was offering a chance for the comic con fans to attend the world premiere of the movie by texting 'cowboys' to 834567. Unfortunately for me this service did not work for Sprint (ugh! Boo Sprint, but I still love the truly unlimited plans you do offer =D) but I did have a friend who was able to get that service and gold bricks would be handed out at various locations throughout the Gaslamp District (I'll comment more on that scavenger hunt in my next post). WB had microsoft snap tags, which again did not seem to work for my Sprint Samsung Epic, that were to be scanned. For some reason my phone could not scan image well and never sent the image. Anyway more griping about my phone later.
Wednesday preview night done and I already feel overwhelmed and my proposed schedule just got significantly tighter. Now the trouble is deciding which things I can live with not getting and which things are a must. For example on Thursday morning I had the captain america screening at Horton Plaza United theatre (which is about 8-10 blocks from the convention center), do the Real Steel presentation at Petco Park parking lot (again away from convention center but only 2 blocks away. Oh yeah this was something I had just heard about today and wanted to squeeze into my Thursday schedule) or go to the convention hall to get in on the Game of Thrones autograph raffle by WB. Not to mention lining up for ballroom 20 for the tv show panels.
Let's just say Wednesday night let to some difficult time sleeping. I also realize that after doing this blog (which is my first by the way, so sorry for the real bareboned look to it) I should have taken more pictures of the stuff I was doing so I can post them. Anyway I hope you all enjoyed my first post on Comic con 2011. I'll get my Thursday - Sunday reviews hopefully by the end of the week.
Until next time...
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