photo by Chad Michael Ward, snapped at the Bloodfire booth
I don’t think anyone can deny that SDCC is getting bigger and bigger every year. Last year, I went down with a plan and failed and being able to keep up with half of it. I thought that this year, I had outsmarted the system… however, things went a little more chaotic than I had anticipated.
First of all, before anyone puts words in my mouth and jumps down my throat, let me just state for the record that I have done my fair share of “research” on Twilight. I own and have read the first four books. I read the first one before I originally saw the movie. I saw the movie five times, and I even own it. I am far from a “Twihard,” but I’m not an absolute hater, either. I walked into all of it knowing exactly what I was getting into. These books were written to cater to young teens and the idea of romanticism. I get that part. I really do. However, I don’t get the absolute hype of it all. The movie, to me, was just okay, and that is my honest opinion. Did I expect crazed Twilight fans at this year’s convention? Sure I did. I expected about the same amount that were there last year. Did I expect it to be 10x as worse as last year? No. No I did not. Was I slightly annoyed? Yes. Yes I was.
The last time I checked, it was COMIC Con, not Twilight Con… and that was, as it has been in the past, the reason for my attendance. Although yes, I can respect and do appreciate the film portions that get bigger and bigger every year, but the diehard artist in me goes mostly for the comic and graphic art aspect of it all. Anyway… instead of giving a play-by-play of each day, I suppose I’ll just point out my highlights.
Ridiculously giant Alice ad outside of the convention
First of all, I get really excited when I see creative marketing. It’s one of the things I love about living in Los Angeles.. it’s not always just plain ol’ words on a billboard. So I was really stoked when I read all sorts of Comic Con tweets about helicopters air dropping crates of deodorant to promote the upcoming movie 2012… or how there were MNU trucks driving around as a promotion for District 9. Speaking of D9, I managed to catch one of these giant banners in the halls one day:
Some other cool advertising includes:
In the Omni. The elevator buttons are where the bitemarks are.
The panels seem to have gotten crazier this year. I had a list of a small handful.. and only successfully made it to ONE panel this year. Fortunately, it was the one that meant the most to me: the Coraline panel with Henry Selick and Neil Gaiman. They showed some behind-the-scenes footage, as well as concept art. Henry mentioned how he was interested in trying to turn Sandman into stop-motion. Hello, YES PLEASE. This needs to happen.
Neil Gaiman with Coraline puppet
Henry Selick and one of the Other Mothers
Teri Hatcher with Bobinsky and another Other Mother
I decided next year I am making sure I am all taken care of when it comes to panel passes.
On the bright side of not making it into most of the panels I had planned, this gave me some more time to shop and visit my friends who had booths! I picked up a couple of comics and toys for myself, then did a whole lot of shopping for my friends. I was also given more time to look around and all of the cool stuff on the floor, and notice some rather entertaining costumes.
Coraline puppets at the NECA booth
Lightsaber chopsticks at the Kotobukiya booth
Master... CHEF!
Rad Michaelangelo costume
Pocky bags
Alicia and I with our good ol' friend Amie Nicole
Disney's Stitch tour. These are some of the ones that stuck out the most.
Limited edition hand-crafted doll by Toffee. I bought this for Karri as a late bridal gift and she loved it!
Last, but not least… the PARTIES, dinners, and events with a handful of good friends!
Let’s see… Wednesday, we hit up the Activision party at Stingaree. Free food and drinks plus videogame testing? Why, yes, thank you!! “Singularity” was fun. Reminded me of “Bioshock”… but I was definitely more into “Marvel Universe 2.”
GWAR onstage
Thursday was the GWAR show! My very first time seeing them live. I already knew what to expect from seeing other peoples footage from the past, but yeah. Really cool stuff for a gore-lover such as myself.. plus a handful of my L.A. friends came down for the show, as well. Blood and slime everywhere… and for the record, I just want to say that it’s really scary when one of your friends is introducing you to one of the guys (who is in full costume) as, “This is my really good friend, Sarah. She works for Disney.” I just kind of imagined the “monster” grabbing an ace and decapitating me in the dressing room.
Friday, before we headed off to the convention center, we checked out a Bandslam screening… and honestly, it was really good! It’s a funny, cute, feel-good movie.. which is something I need from time to time so my life isn’t 100% gore and horror. It’s movies like that that are probably preventing me from becoming a serial killer, haha. Oh, and speaking of, follow BugAndOmar on Twitter– the REAL stars of the flick! 
Friday night was a little chatoic. It started off with dinner with Jim Lee, Dan Didio, and a rather large handful of our mutual friends. Somehow, this is what it looked like in front of me:
Straight up DANGEROUS.. especially for a small gal like me who hardly ever drinks anymore. Needless to say, I ended up wasted.. and somehow, we all ended up at the Daughtry party instead of Planet Illogica…?
Onto Saturday night: stopped by the True Blood party (w/ Joel Madden spinning) and Image/Mayhem party. Never made it to Radical Comics/Gene Simmons… or Suicide Girls… or Adult Swim…
During the daytime of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, we spent some time at Wired Cafe in the Omni, enjoying the free lunches and drinks. The boys got some rad free stuff during gifting… and I enjoyed checking out the NVIDIA 3D TVs! I kind of need one for all of my gaming… no, really. To read up on them, visit www.nvidia.com.
Although I was made aware of the Tru:Blood drink bar parties, I never made it to any of them. Bummer. If only I could clone myself…
Let’s see… what else, what else. Sunday we spent a few hours shopping on the floor before finally heading back to L.A. Wanna see what our car ended up looking like?
First the trunk was stuffed as much as possible... literally.
...then the backseat, leaving little space for me and Angie to sit!
Insane, insane, insane. I’ll have some more SDCC related stuff coming soon when I have more time… but that’s about it as far as personal matters go!
