Comic-Con Saturday Roundup
I slept in. I sort of felt like today would be the craziest in the Convention Center, and it was pretty packed but the floor or the panels weren’t too insane.
11:30 Lunch at the Hard Rock Café. I have been to a Hard Rock in every city that I’ve gone to that’s had one, so why not San Diego? The fajitas were nummy. I ate too much, but this is important because con food sucks and there’s not a lot of it.
12:30 Went to the Fulfillment Room in the Marriott to cash in my ticket from the TOR panel. I now possess a pre-order spot for TOR. I must resist the urge to start gaming. I have an idea who’s going to get this…
On my way into the Marriott, I spotted Shane West (Nikita), and on the way out I saw both Shane and Maggie Q. I have to say he is very good-looking in person.
1:00 Hit the exhibit hall. Here are some of the things I did:
- Betsy Mitchell, Del Rey editor-in-chief, spoke at the Her Universe panel on Thursday, and she happened to be at the booth. So I took a few minutes to talk to her about how many Star Wars female fans feel like they aren’t getting the two things – relatable and accessible – from their female characters. These were the two main points discussed at the panel.
- At the Lionsgate booth I managed to snag a Hunger Games poster and a Mockingjay pin.
- I found some really nice art from Heather Theurer. She does fantasy and horses and angels. I picked up a Pegasus print, which she signed. www.heathertheurer.com
- Also got an Ahsoka bookmark from Grant Gould – you guys may recall he’s the fellow who did the artwork for the Celebration V badges.
- Dave Filoni was signing at the Hasbro booth, but I didn’t have a ticket. Still I snagged a Revenge of the Jedi poster and the Slave Leia action figure card back from the Revenge of the Jedi collectibles. (She looks badass.)
- Then I got in line for the Timothy Zahn signing. Got through that line pretty fast. They were giving out copies of Allegiance. He signed that, a HTTE 20th Anniversary bookplate, and a personal bookplate for me to pop into my book at home. (I guess I have to pick which one now since I own a lot of his books.)
3:00 I hadn’t planned on going to any big panels in Ballroom 20 or Hall H, but I thought what the heck and went up to get in line for Ballroom 20, hoping to get into the Fringe panel at 4:30. I scored!
3:30 Vampire Diaries panel – Yes, I am a fan of the CW show. Ian Somerhalder (Boone from Lost) is flat out hysterical, and gorgeous. The rest of the cast was great as well. I really liked how the show creators talked a bit out storytelling and character arcs as well.
4:30 Fringe panel – So here’s the thing, Joshua Jackson wasn’t listed as being on the panel, and he didn’t come out with the rest of the cast members. Peter doesn’t exist anymore, right?
So the cast came out after we watched an intro for next season, which did not include Peter. Then after the cast did some brief talking they ran a trailer of the auditions for Peter’s role. This included a strange assortment of the usual Abrams show suspects, who were hilarious. The guy who played the assistant on Undercovers kept reciting his lines like he was auditioning for Pacey on Dawson’s Creek. Others on the reel included Greg Grunberg, Michael Emerson, Jorge Garcia, and an actor from Community whose name eludes me. The last person on the reel looked like one of the Observers from the show and when he lifted his face it was Josh.
He came out then and the crowd went wild. He dubbed it PaceyCon 2011. Anyway, no real spoilers, except Astrid gets a gun (the actress sang that for us to the tune of Janie’s Got a Gun).
5:45 Back to the Fulfillment Room with my goodie ticket from the Fringe panel. Got a nice Fringe luggage tag.
6:45 Why not go see Captain America with a bunch of comic nerds? The movie was pretty good, but seeing the Avengers trailer at the end was awesome!
9:00 Return to hotel where I take a ride up in the elevator with Jacob-Lucifer-vampire boss. I felt a little scared, or lost, or supernatural, or maybe I was just being human? Did you guys guess who it was yet?
One more day, not sure if the Sunday Roundup will be tomorrow or Monday. Check out the tweets and also Facebook for pictures.
Tricia Barr's novel, Wynde, won the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Award Gold Medal for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Ebook. She was also part of Silence in the Library's successful all-female creator science fiction and fantasy anthology Athena's Daughters, which is available now. For excerpts and tales of her adventures in creating a fictional universe, hop over to TriciaBarr.com.
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We may have crossed paths on Saturday – if, when you got up to the booth of the Tim Zahn signing, there was a guy in a hat selling “Choices of One” for Del Rey, that was me. i was there for most of the signing, until i sold out of my stock of the hardcover.
You know it’s much easier at Celebration when everyone wears nametags with their online screennames. Everything becomes an overwhelming blur in the sea of people at SDCC. Glad you sold out of the books.