Day 0 of Comic-Con
Day 1: Thursday
Thursday was the first official day of Comic-Con. We had decided to wake up around 7:30 and get out around 8:30. The Hard Rock Hotel is literally across the street from the convention center, so it's not like we had to account for travel time. My dad wanted to hit the expo hall and my sister and I wanted to see the Psych panel. Psych was in Ballroom 20, the second biggest room in the convention center (the first being Hall H). So we divided up amongst the lines and waited.
The wait to get into Ballroom 20 wasn't long, perhaps an hour at most. Psych was the third panel in Ballroom 20, but we'd gotten there just in time for the first panel, which happened to be Burn Notice. The goal is always to get in the room at least a panel ahead of the one you really want to see. We were two ahead.
Now, I don't watch Burn Notice, but last year when I attended the panel Bruce Campbell was there and he made it all worth it. This year was no different. He and creator Matt Nix made a panel about a show I don't care about a joy to watch. It was a lot of fun, which is only to be expected with Bruce Campbell on your panel.
The next panel was Covert Affairs, yet another USA show I don't watch. This panel wasn't nearly as exciting as the Burn Notice, but Bruce Campbell is a hard act to follow. I did my best to not pay attention during this panel and instead passed the time by playing Cut the Rope on my iPhone.
Finally, after two hours of waiting, the Psych panel was here. They opened with a video with Shawn and Gus wondering how they could top their act from last year. So naturally, they got William Shatner to be in their video (he's guest starring this season as well). The video was decent and then they had the band come out and play the theme song. Then the cast rolled out and the panel started for real. They showed a sizzle reel of next season which looks pretty cool, then a clip from the first episode of the new season. This season looks to be much better than last year's, which I felt was tired and overplayed. Overall the Psych panel was decent. It wasn't nearly as good as last year's though, which had Kurt Smith and a tap dance off between Gus and his dance instructor.
After the Psych panel we moved into the expo hall. This is where they have booths set up across a building the size of two football fields. It literally takes about 25 minutes to get from one end to the other without any people in front of you. It's crazy. That said, there's also a lot of really cool stuff. The first booth I stumbled upon was the Konami booth, which brought Silent Hill Downpour with them. Naturally, I had to play it. My opinions on the game will be in a separate post later in the week though. The same goes for Capcom's games such as Street Fighter X Tekken, Ultimate MvC3, and Street Fighter III Online Edition. They had their other non-fighting games there as well (like Operation Raccoon City, Asura's Wrath, etc), but I never got a chance to play those.
While roaming the expo hall I found the booth of my artist friend Jason Palmer. I met Jason Palmer back in 2005 at Celebration 3. Somehow he remembered us two years later when I attended my first Comic-Con. He makes really cool art based on a lot of my favorite Sci-Fi shows. The only problem is that this year he didn't draw anything new, so I never bought anything.
Before leaving the expo hall for the day there was at least one thing I needed to accomplish, and that was getting Felicia Day's autograph. Sure, the rest of the Guild cast is there too and they're awesome, but let's be honest here. On my way to their booth though, I ran into one Casey Hudson. Yes, THE Casey Hudson who makes those Mass Effect games everyone loves so much. Usually this would be an awesome thing for me, since you know... I kind of like those games. The problem though, was that Casey Hudson was a bit of a jerk. I saw him passing by and I was like, "hey Casey Hudson." and so on right? Well he just completely bypasses me and keeps going. So I was like "No? Really?", and then he turns around. So I know he totally heard me.
Look, I don't mind if people don't want to take pictures or whatever. Just do me the favor of telling me you're busy or on your way to another panel, or something. Don't just blow me off, 'cause then you come off a bit like a douche. This happened plenty of other times throughout the day where people were on their way to something and couldn't stop. That's totally cool.
Anyways, back to the story at hand. So I finally get on line for the Felicia Day thing and get the autograph and picture (below). Done for the day, I decide to head back to drop off my swag bag and rest my feet for a bit before dinner. On my way back to the hotel, I ran into Allison Scagliotti from Warehouse 13. So that was really cool for me.
After heading back to the hotel, we went and grabbed dinner. Before leaving I had learned there was an IGN party happening at the Hard Rock Hotel. The one and only Walter Lopez was working community for IGN and had helped coordinated this party (I apologize if some of the facts here are wrong, my memory is a tad fuzzy). Alas, this was mostly a corporate party, so there was no getting in.
Thankfully, that didn't matter! As it turned out, people had to actually get to the party through one of two entrances. I happened to be right in the middle of them. In total I met and took pictures with over 13 different celebrities which include most of the Game of Thrones cast, Dominic Monaghan, Mikey Tuttle, Jon Favreau, Piper Perabo, Jewel Staite, and Justin Timberlake. I also ran into Adam Sessler from G4 and Hideo Kojima of MGS fame. (the other girl in the photos is my sister)
These people were so nice and awesome, meeting them was so cool. Stay tuned for Day 2 where I miss a panel and somehow watch three more than I planned. I also meet more celebrities.
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