SDCC: Day 1 Report

My first day to Comic-Con started around 5am. I knew the drive down to San Diego would be cluttered with commuters and fellow nerds, so I was out of the house by 6:30. It took three hours to get there. I guess people usually travel a little further for their version of mecca, so I’ll take it.

After a quick stop by the hotel to see if I could bribe them they could do an early check-in (they couldn’t), I ran off like an overcaffeinated child to the convention center. The line to pick up badges was intimidating. They’ve got it down though, and despite the scary length, I was bedecked with a badge and giant bag within 15 minutes. Now, if only they would apply that sort of line control to the rest of the con.

I was itching to knock a few things of my exhibit hall list the first day before I got distracted. And it is very, very easy to be distracted at Comic-Con. I never fail to be overwhelmed and awed by the sheer size of the place. The exhibit hall is a monster. If you stand at one end, you can’t even see the whole length. It’s easy to miss vendors even with the aisle numbers clearly marked. I had made notes of booth numbers on a list (I know, no one is surprised by this). I buzzed through at a reasonable pace. I did get dazzled by Weta and Gentle Giant. I think a black hole sucked me in for a while. I drooled over the Star Wars pavilion – which by the way, was bigger than my house.

The first stop on my list was the Her Universe booth. I needed (yes, needed) a new Star Wars shirt. I’d also been in touch with Ashley about an interview. Ashley was present at the booth, and I was floored that she knew who I was. She is a delight to talk to and after grabbing up a shirt, I circled back to the booth half an hour later for an interview. Because of awesome timing, I also got to meet Steve Sansweet, the Head of Fan Relations for LucasFilms. Not bad for less than 60 minutes in the exhibit hall.

 
My next stops were visiting my friend Travis Hanson of Bean Leaf Press, detouring to Artists’ Alley to get mini prints and a hilarious cat book from Katie Cook, and to commission a Mara Jade sketch from Tom Hodges. Katie’s mini prints are beyond frakking adorable. I know people that went back again and again because besides having a selection for sale, she created custom ones for $5. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of that? Look her up at Celebration V.

Somewhere in there, I crossed paths with Stan Lee being escorted through the hall. I was too dumbfounded to ask for an autograph, but I did snap a pic while he was signing away for someone else.

With almost half of my list crossed off, I strode triumphantly back to the hotel (in my head anyways) and got settled in. By the way, the Horton Grand Hotel is about as charming as one can get before crossing the delicate line into puke-inducing cute. A standard room has a marble fireplace and a balcony. It’s also a very quiet place at night even though it is right next to the Gaslamp Quarter. The staff was great. Just saying. Wait – now you’re all going to go there next year, aren’t you? I take it all back. It’s a horrible place, you don’t want to stay there.

After appropriately throwing my costumes, snacks, and shoes about the room, I dashed back to the exhibit hall just in time for the Geek Girls Exist panel. That’s a whole other post, but I’ll just say – geek girls ruled Comic-Con this year. Period. The turn out was amazing. After that panel, I had to get to w00tstock. That’s also a separate post. It was my first w00tstock, but if I can help it, it won’t be my last.

I crawled sleepily to my bed around 1am.  I uploaded my photos from the day, and around 2am, mid-upload, I fell into a coma next to my laptop.

In addition to all that awesome, I met so many faces from Twitter for the first time on Thursday - @geekgirls @capsteverogers @csdaley @katiedoyle @nerdrage42 @doctorfeh @kyleelane @physicistlisa @joekinkopf