On Preview Night on Wednesday, there were several people browsing the exhibit hall. Not a whole lot, but some. After going to my first Preview Night, I have concluded that it is a mere 3 hour extension of what would be available the next four days.
On Thursday, I got there early to snag my tickets for next year's Con; the prices rose significantly and I planned to pick up Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for next year. The Con was going to sell pre-registration tickets Thursday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and raise the prices in order to ration everything; the remaining registration tickets would be sold to the general public at a later date. I got there about 7ish and ended up spending THREE HOURS in line to get my tickets. I barely got in by the skin of my teeth when they closed the doors to the remaining attendees in line at 9 a.m. One person standing behind me suggested that all registration tickets should be sold online only and that Comic-Con should get better servers to handle all the online registrants. I spent my morning meandering through the exhibit hall, surrounded by hundreds of people, at least 10 times the amount of folks at preview night. I managed to sneek autographs from the guys behind MST3K and Rifftrax as well as the guy who played Michelangelo in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live action movies from the 90s. In the early evening, I managed to get in to the star-studded Hall H to see film directors Jon Favreau (Cowboys and Aliens, Iron Man) and Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy II, Pan's Labyrinth) and listened to them discuss the mechanics of their friendship and their craft of movie-making but I got bored and left early.
On Friday and Saturday, I attended some panels and wandered aimlessly around the Con for some exercise and souvenir shopping. A college buddy of mine who was working at the Con as a security guard offered to take me home Saturday after trying to meet up with him in the various halls on the second floor. I even made a new friend who likes Doctor Who.
On Sunday, I ended up nearly nodding off during a panel that I attended with my new friend, went to a panel about Christian comics, and took myself out to dinner at Old Town to celebrate the last day of the Con.
In general, the Con fed my "muse" for writing and I hope to find someone to help me with my idea for a graphic novel. It's currently a fanfiction series that I put up on Fanfiction.net but I hope to find an artist who could illustrate Jane and Edward: Creature Killers of Thornfield. I am undecided on whether or not to add the Victorian steam punk element to it. I would like to get into reading steam punk literature but I'm not sure where to start (other than reading stuff from Jules Verne). I also had a lot of fun, learned a few things about myself, and totally looking forward to next year. Right now, I'm trying to "get back to normal" after four days of sensory overload.
I do remember one thing that I saw when standing in line for the pre-registration tickets on Thursday. Some lady was dragging her kid into the line for pre-registration and the kid didn't feel like standing in line. I remember the mom saying something to the effect of "Comic-Con happens once a year" while continually dragging her uninterested child to the end of the never-ending line.
Oh, what the heck, here's a sampler of some Con pictures for your viewing pleasure:
This was Preview Night and it's the only picture I have of Preview Night.
These two photos are pictures of the extremely long line for the 2012 pre-registration tickets. As I mentioned before, I stood in this line for THREE HOURS!
The guys behind MST3K and Rifftrax
Me with Phineas and Ferb
Hello Kitty dressed as slave Leia
An advertisement for Doctor Who
Hope you enjoyed these pictures. More will come soon!
