nepenthe | Brace Yourselves: Comic-Con PicSpam is Coming (Reply)

Comic-Con San Diego is the biggest Pop Culture convention in the world and was back in full force this year.

I you’re looking for a comprehensive account of all the panels and stuff to buy, this is not the place for you. If you want to see a shitton of photoof kickass costumes, chats about the awesome people you meet in line and the magic that can only happen at Comic-Con, you’ve come to the right place.

My drive out was uneventful, save for construction taking the treacherous, winding mountain road from two lanes down to one, at 10 mph. Save that, I made it in around 5:30. I feared what the badge pick-up line would be like, but as things turned out, it’d cleared up by then and as providence would have it, I got a Hobbit swag bag! It was then off to Horton Plaza to park for free (because I validated my ticket inside andstayed less than 3 hours).

Rassilon, it was good to be home.

For floor design winners, Weta Workshop won with these guys:

WOW.

Off to buy all the things!!!

Holy sh*t, crowds!

Knowing I'd be carrying around a call box later in the week, I chose to carry out my purchases early. I told myself if there was a soft, plushy adipose doll, I was buying it. Lo, there was such a doll, it was adorable, and I purchased the cuteness. The gentleman manning the booth offered to put it in a bag for me and I was all, 'what? hell to the no, I'm cuddling my adipose!'. That adipose got about half the attention of my call box, so.

Not so many costumes out on preview night, but that was to be expected:

Kickin' it at Artist's Alley:

That night I went to Kiki's sushi for dinner, then checked into my hotel. My non-smoking room reeked of cigarette smoke and to use the hair dryer, I had to hold down the 'on' button. I complained to the manager the next morning, in part because I knew they charged a $300 fine for smoking in a room, in part because FUCK, THAT SMELL, and, as informed the manager, blow drying a mass of hair such as I have is incredibly difficult without the use of both hands and it'd managed to burn some strands. I could see the fear of lawsuit burning in her eyes as I said 'burned' and 'hair' in the sane sentence, and by the time I got home Thursday night my room had been steam-cleaned, smelled of lavender, and the hairdryer worked.

ON TO THURSDAY!

I already knew Doctor Who would be huge this year and boy, the cosplayers didn't disappoint me:

My first panel was for writing, re: hero's journey. Was a nice refresher and I met a lovely woman named Barbara who told me that she'd suffered a brain aneurysm only a few hours in (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!) and was determined to enjoy this year. She was sweet, a fan of X-Files and eager to start writing fanfiction. She even asked and tolerated me discussing my idea for a Who/X-Files fanfic (which I need to finish, geez).

Anywho, after that, in that very same room, was the panel for Sociology of Cosplay! Wheeeee!'

I'd failed to read the description carefully enough because I was taken by surprise when Ya-Ya Han herself took the stage as a magnificent Wonder Woman to present what I thought was one of the best presented panels of the con. It was full of audience participation. It was happy! Joyful! Geeky!

Not to mention the other costumes in the room:

The Gryffindor lion!

Princess Leia!

There was much cheering for men who wanted to dress as female characters. The review of con etiquette was brilliant and I fell in love with Ya-Ya all over again with, "We're already at the fringes for cosplaying, let's be nice to each other". Because the costume bashing? I didn't realize it was so much a thing. Maybe because of how happy it makes me to see people in costume, laughing and have a time with their friends, it didn't occur to me that there'd be people who'd go up to someone and insult them to their face. I've only ever been annoyed by costume, once and that was because it was so. damn. lazy. (I'm a believer in the little touches, okay?) But it's true; I'd never ever ever walk up to someone and insult them for wearing a costume. I'd be shocked anyone would, being as this is Comic-Con and nerds in costumes are all part of the fun. But Ya-Ya was right in all regards. Not everyone can afford, nor has access to, materials or you might have a wardrobe malfunction. Or maybe you commissioned a piece but it wasn't made on time. Or maybe you spent months on your Iron Man armor and some asshat walked up to you and punched it, breaking your plastic (*collective audience gasp of horror*). And not everyone is going to make their costume the same way. Some people might add their own touches to a character and it's okay if it's not exact.

And by this point, I was so swept up in the moment I shouted, "But that's my favorite part! I love to see pieces of the person who made the costume! We all have this common reference of that character, that's the base, and it's the deviations that let you see the mind of this person who made it, see the way they solved a problem . . ." and then I realized everyone in a packed room of 500 was looking at me, including Ya-Ya and I went, "Shutting up now" and petered out with an apology for interrupting.

With no more interruptions from me, the presentation continued with an AMAZING photo of all the Captain America girls all gussied up at Dragon*Con 2012 and yeah. Awesome.

Photos!!!

Pinky Pie!

Look at the Harley Quinn! Brilliant!

I'm relieved to say that no one was mad at me for my outburst; I actually got a few hugs and thank yous.

Ya-Ya announced she'd be signing at the Gentle Giant booth in another costume later at 2. Well, ya'll know where I was going to be at 2! This also meant I had a few hour to kill before signing and RiffTrax, so that mean FLOOR WANDERING, YAY!!!!

Thursday floor wander!!!:

Awwwwww. Cutest little deadly dalek ever!

Double your River Songs!

Wait, wait. Hold on. Is that. . .? NO. No freaking way!!!! IT IS, IT'S RICHARD TAYLOR, OMG! I'M STANDING 3 FEET FROM RICHARD TAYLOR!!!!!!!!

At 2 I went over just as Ya-Ya was setting up for signing and as I passed by to get in line, she saw me and waved me over!

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Ya-Ya recognized me, you guys!!!!!!!

So I ended up cutting off like, everyone already in line and Ya-Ya got off her seat to take a photo with me (which was a trick in her costume, let me tell you) and she signed a card for me and let me rant at her about how awesome she is and how much I loved the online video because it pushed me into working on my IDRIS costume and how glad I am that I accomplished it and yeah. General had flapping.

Pic!!!!

After all that, Thursday couldn't possibly get any better, right?

RIGHT?

So I wandered more and saw what was my favorite costume of the con, hands down. Prepare to be amazed by the most perfect Effie Trinket you will ever lay eyes upon:

Waaaaaaaaaaaaait for it:

Why yes, those ARE 3D NAILS. All hail your cosplay queen!

Next up, RiffTrax! I knew there'd be a line, so I went straight away, calling effex to update her on the day's progress and to console her about her stupid job.

By whatever providence there is, I was in line next to the 10th Doctor, Dylan:

He came complete with Party Doctor accessories!

Also next to me were John and Victoria, so between the four of us, we held spirited conversations about really, really bad movies (which we all loved) and Doctor Who. And Victoria and I gushed ooozing about nail polish. Dylan was the master of all things Doctor Who, our hats had to come off to him. RiffTrax live was unspeakably amazing. I laughed so hard I cried. The panel was amazing, the show was amazing, I was with totally awesome people. Instead of taking questions, they held a contest where audience members had 30 seconds to pitch a movie idea to win terrible movies on DVD. Poor Dylan didn't make it to the front of the line, but a good time was had by all anyway.

After, Victoria went off to do her own thing. I announced I'd chosen a viewing of 'A Fan's New Hope' for my evening entertainment. Dylan suggested Wootstock. Wootstock sounded much better, so John, Dylan and I went off to Wootstock downtown, but it was sold out :(

Walking Downtown:

That was when Dylan was all, "There is Stan Lee's party."

And John and I were all, "Stan's who's what's he doing now?"

"Stan Lee's hosting a party at Spin. I was invited by a friend. It's a ways out of down town, in Seaport Village." We fiddled with John's phone to find out if it was invite-only, which it wasn't. Happily, we caught a cab out. There was an hour 'til things started, so we walked down the street to a taco shop and for snacks. About a half hour later our cabby showed up, recognizing Dylan's costume from the street and was all, "Did someone forget something?" and I was all, fuck, it was me, it's always me, and yeah. I'd forgotten my camera. The cabby knew it was ours because I'd taken photos of Dylan in costume.

You guys have no idea how horrible it would've been if I'd lost my camera; it wasn't cheep and nothing can replace my photos from the con!

We got to Spin on time and there was a classy, classy line interspersed with excellent costumes. We were relegated to the front of the line for people w/o prepurchased tickets. As they began checking IDs, Dylan became antsy. And then one of John's friends showed up, total coinkinydink. They shook hands, were all happy to see each other, said they'd see one another on the inside. And then John's friend went up to the door man and was all, "I'm on the list" and the dude totally was. Because John was friends with a Marvel guy. Fantastic!!!

Then it was our turn to show ID, buy our tickets, and go in.

Poor Dylan. Poor, poor Dylan. If he hadn't told us about the party, we'd never had known it was going down, never have been there. At first he was all, 'I forgot my ID at my hotel' and when John and I all but threw our money at him and ran into the street to hail a taxi (you guys, you've never seen a kicked puppy like this pitiful, kicked puppy) he admitted that he was only 18. He hadn't thought through that because it was at a nightclub, he wouldn't be permitted in, and whomever invited him was probably like John and I; assumed he was young, but over 18.

Were there anyone in need of psychic paper to proclaim him over 18, it was Dylan.

John and I had a moment where we wondered whether or not to go on in without him. Because we WANTED to go in, so very, very much, but it's hard to abandon your friend. We then discussed going for breakfast the next morning, together, (John and I independently resolved to buy it for him to help make up for the crappy disappointing night). Dylan made the choice for us, insisting we go on inside.

If anyone can feel terrible and elated at the same time, it was me.

I can't say I'm sorry I went inside.

You guys, YOU GUYS. It was all Marvel themed, with a Devo cover band playing 80's music. Got some great costumes!

And then, AND THEN:

I was in the same room drinking alcohol with Stan Lee. I think this qualifies as The Night I Went Drinking with Stan Lee.

We drank, we chatted with Marvel execs about their days in shitty theater production companies, and because these were guys and I love Top Gear, we chatted classic cars. Was told to keep my eyes out for later in the week if I liked cars. (a;dsfklajs;dl WAIT FOR IT, YOU GUYS)

It was an amazing night.

John and I decided never, ever to tell Dylan. OFFICIALLY, NOTHING HAPPENED AT STAN LEE'S PARTY. NOTHING AT ALL.

I went home for sleep, happy as a lark. The next morning I called John to see if he was still up for breakfast, which he was. I then called Dylan, who declined due to waiting in line for Hall H's Firefly Reunion panel. He still sounded miserable; am not sure if it was from the night before or due to the shitty conditions in Hall H's line (I'll elucidate on that when I was in Hall H's line). John and I had pancakes, french toast, and amazing fresh fruit and parted to our respective panels.

I spent my day going to Adult Swin panels and hell, yes, that was rewarding.

FRIDAY PHOTOS!!!!

Their money bags!!!!!! <3

The Venture Bros panel was awesome and hilarious, as was the kickass Robot Chicken Panel and Black Dynamite. This was a day for laughing.

Venture Bros. I've fallen behind this program and I've never been more disappointed to fall behind than I was at this panel. So. Freaking. Hilarious. They had amazing previews of their new season. Robot Chicken was even better, with Seth Green and Co riffing at each other, at the audience. The best parts were when the guy who does the voice for The Geek periodically gave his 'twitter updates' about how much Robot Chicken sucks. Best question was when a guy got up to the mic and was all, "My girlfriend has a question, but she was too embarrassed to come up and ask it" and the guys on the panel had her stand up. And then proceeded to be all, "Heeeello, there. You're looking lovely this afternoon. I hear you have a question for me" and her boyfriend actually started getting annoyed, as every time he started to ask his question, the guys would pay complements to his girlfriend and jokingly sign for her to call them.

Then Seth realized there was a sign language interpreter and began saying the most ridiculous things he could think of just to see them signed. Then had the people filming the panel show the interpreter on camera so everyone could see, and for putting her through the embarrassment, then made everyone in the audience stand up and give her a round of applause, then applaud in sign language, and then make her sign that "Seth Green is a fucking dick". One of the guys noted she was using her middle finger an awful lot.

It was AMAZING.

Then, Kate Beaton!

Oh, God, she had a slide show of her comics and did voices for them and it was THE GREATEST THING EVAR. I'm not kidding when I say I laughed ALL DAY LONG. It was wonderful to sit through the presentation and hear about her life. And great to hear that even though her parents were all, WTF? about her interest in comics, they always supported her. :) <3

I FOUND THE DARTH VADER CHEF!!!!!!

Yes, that is a tiny stuffed wookie on the top of the AT-AT.

I went home early on Friday (6 PM) so I could go back to the hotel to make my solar pannel because Saturday was:

COSPLAYING IDRIS AND DOCTOR WHO TUMBLR PARTY YA'LL!

First things first: all props to effex for creating my signs and getting them to me with all haste. I'd walk around a little w/o my sign. Meh. No one cared. Me with my sign? Literally, everyone's face lit up with delight. Even the most severe, jaded Blue Shirt cracked a smile at the sight of me.

Leaving that morning, I was concerned. Would anyone get it? At the Phoenix con, I was often mistaken for just another Steam Punk Player. Would I merely be very a creative call box? For certain, many a person thought I was given how many ass hats asked to make a call or shouted their car had broken down.

But as I boarded the train that morning, a gentleman almost knocked into me and his girl chided him, saying, "Don't crush this beautiful TARDIS".

I had nothing to fear: I was among my people.

If there was a downside to the Con this year, it was the fucking Jesus protesters. Fuck you you fucking fucks. We are all trying to HAVE FUN with our ONE LIFE and you were there, fucking it up.

At least no one was taking your shit, least of all me.

IDRIS, trolling the Jesus asshats:

I didn't really start getting creative until I had 3 hours with these dicks screaming at us over a loud speaker on the way into Hall H.

But that was Saturday.

If you were wondering whether or not I could walk 10 feet w/o being stopped for a photo, the answer is no, no I could not. The good news is, lots of them had great costumes too!

This wookie could growl and everything!!!!

NEVERMIND THE FLOOR, GET ON WITH THE DOCTOR WHO TUMBLR PARTY!!

It was a long ass walk to Basic in petticoats, a bustle, corset and heels, but oh was it worth it.

These ladies had been there since early, early, early morning. They waited 6 hours.

Helloooo Doctor. Call me.

A small fraction of the line.

TARDIS AND KEY! We finally got it! There was free pizza, free salads, free drinks, awesome free tote bags with loot inside, including awesome t-shirts! Grabbed an extra for effex, as she made my sign.

My pure joy at seeing she HAD THE EYES DRAWN ON HER HANDS, AMAZING!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!

Me n' Martha Jones for real!

The green drink? It was a lime Silurian mocktail. It was limey-wimey.

Toy Story's Barbie, ya'll! <3

Me an' my Thieves.

At this point, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and Arthur Darvill showed up. We all suspected they might, as the TV Guide panel was getting out about the time this party was getting started. Sadly, I was nowhere near the front and, as I'm incredibly short, no photos, so sorry, but if you fiddle on tumblr you'll find plenty. I didn't really hear much aside from their astonishment at how many of us there were; it was difficult to hear over the shreeking, although there was a moment when the isle parted just enough for me to catch sight of Matt Smith wearing the most ridiculous bowler hat in the history of bowler hats.

Then there was the costume contest! Categories were for best Doctor, best fem Doctor, best Amy, best TARDIS, best Whovian character who did not happen to be a Doctor, Amy, or TARDIS.

The Doctors and companions were all awesome. Everyone got asked their name and tumblr. Last category they called up was the TARDIS'. Best for last, ne? On my way up, I heard, "Give it to her already!", but the other TARDIS' were nice, too, and deserved a chance. I was #2 TARDIS.

When it was my turn, they put the microphone in my face and asked my name.

Me: "I'mmmmmmmmmm . . . what do you call me?"
300 Audience Members: "SEXY!"
I won socks!!!!!! DOCTOR WHO SOCKS!!!!!

You gave IDRIS socks! IDRIS IS FREE!

The party was totes awesome!!!!!

In the meantime, the retaliation against the Jesus asshat has begun:

"Yellow signs make God angry. You wouldn't like Him when he's angry"

Back to the Con for Mythbusters!!!!

In the line, I happened to be next to a nice girl who was also just at the tumblr party. We had a great time chatting Who. She had a time of it, as she'd bought a sonic screwdriver downstairs and needed a tiny screwdriver to open the casing to put in the batteries for it. I had fun declaring we were in need of a screwdriver for a screwdriver. Eventually, a tiny screwdriver was procured (this was the Mythbusters panel). We were also close enough that Catherine, my Who friend, was able to get up to the mic and ask her question, would they do more myths based on animations? Adam mentioned his temptation to get hold of a road runner to put it through its paces.

This year, Adam was an awesome Ringwraith and ran around in some classic costumes from years past again. It was an excellent panel, as it always is, funny, silly, joyful. The preview reel got me revved to go blow shit up!

After, Catherine said she'd hold a spot for me in Hall H. She was going to go line up at 4 AM. There's no way I could manage something like that--the trolley doesn't run until 7 AM. I sorta didn't take her seriously (oh, God, I should have; there are people in this universe too sweet for words).

SATURDAY

DOCTOR WHO

HALL H

I got up at the ungodly hour of 5:30 AM to put back on my dress and do my hair. On Day 2 of Cosplaying, I think I got a hold of my hair (and bought more bobby pins).

Rolled in at 7:45-ish. The con wasn't open, but my costume got the best look of confounded astonishment from the guys handing out the weapons tags.

Lining up for Hall H!

I ran into Kate from Lawther Hall back in college by total coinkinkydink, which was cool. The people in like next to me were nice and held my spot while I went to a Starbucks for coffee to use the bathroom and buy a snack. The bananas looked best, so I took one. It was later I realized that I was appropriately bringing a banana to the party, thus held off eating in 'til later.

By the time we got away from the harbor, across the street and into the corral, (two hours in) we not only had an hour to kill before getting in we also had to hold back from killing the Jesus asshat screaming at us through a loud speaker.

I might have screamed things back at him.
Asshat: "Sure, you'll have these four days, but when you go home you'll be miserable with nothing to look forward to."
IDRIS: "Except for the next season of Doctor Who!"
Crowd: Whoooooooo!

Asshat: "There's only one way, and that is Jesus, the Alpha and Omega. All others are Satan leading you astray!"
IDRIS: "Beware the Time War! Koschei leads you astray my Time Lords, praise Rassilon though you do! Listen to my Thief, my Theta. He is like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and fire at the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe and . . . he's wonderful."
Asshat: ???? WTF ????
Crowd: "Whoooooooooooo!"

Yeah. I can't remember a single Bible quote, but I NAILED Tim's description of the Doctor.

Asshat: "There are Satans among you, devils, demons, vampires . . ."
Crowd (CHANTING AND SHAKING OUR FISTS BACK): "VAM-PI-ERS! VAM-PI-ERS! VAM-PIERS!"

Dissing vampires in a crowd full of Supernatural fans and Whovians is ASKING for trouble.

Finally, FINALLY, we made it in about half way through the Supernatural panel. Miserably, I was nowhere near the front for the line to ask questions :( But then, during the Supernatural questions, there was Catherine, up asking a question on the big screen! She made it after all! But was it too much to hope she'd have a seat for moi, and even if she did, how was I to find here in a sea of 7,500 people?

The answer is, I was a tincy bit conspicuous as IDRIS, holding up a big call box sign and SHE SAVED ME A PERFECT ISLE SEAT. OMG, Catherine, you are awesome!

This year, they had everyone line up at the beginning of the panel. I didn't quite realize this until I noticed a line of people off to the side. Misery!!! It was already at least 40 people deep, but I went up anyway hoping against hope. I was stuck behind two squeeing teen girls whom I wouldn't've minded in the least, except they were taller than me and could not stand to the side so I could see too. They'd been told to do so at the start, but could not stop themselves from blocking the isle and jumping up and down, heedless of anyone else. At least they stepped back when I asked them and I did manage to seethe start of the panel.

Best line of the panel:

Random girl screams she wants to have Matt's baby.
Matt: "We have an hour, I'm sure we can squeeze something in."

Some really bad photos (I was SHAKING, OKAY):

Embarrassed as I might ever have been dressed as IDRIS and asking the cast and Moffat a question at the mic, nothing beat poor Chris Hardwick who was caught my Matt Smith cosplaying as the wrong Doctor:

Matt: And now I know where your allegiance truly lies.
About this point the Red Shirt (Blue shirts this year) caught sight of me, came over to ask what my question was going to be. I wanted to ask about costume designs that'd been cut, but they felt that was too 'complicated'. I relented to ask which was the casts' favorite costumes they've worn. Whatever. They then proceeded to move me towards the front of the line, thanks to my awesome costume.

Angry person I was moved in front of: How come she got moved up here? I waited in line eight hours this morning!
Blue Shirt, to me: How long did that costume take you to make?
Me: From start to finish? Six months.
Blue Shirt: Six months trumps your eight hours. She gets the front of the line.
Aw, snap Blue Shirt.

The Blue Shirt also refused to take shit from no one. I've played the Spot the Button Lady game every year, as I thought she was creative. No. No, she is a total bitch who tries to cut lines.

Here she is, trying to cut the Whovian question line. The Blue Shirt put her out on her ass. Those Blue Shirts were hard core on line cutters.

Sadly, I missed part of the opening of the panel due to all this goddamn drama bullshit.

Anyway, questions were fun! We had a fully functioning motorized Dalek, then an adorable little girl dalek. The little girl asked the best question, which was which bobble on the TARDIS was their favorite, which was EVERYTHING. Which led to them mentioning they steal bits and bobs off the TARDIS. Arthur did his impression of 'accidentally' breaking something and 'keeping the bit safe' in his coat pocket.

I asked my question whist clutching my Call Box in one hand and Banana in the other. Chris Hardwick had asked everyone else their name without fail, except me. It was not necessary, as Matt greeted me with, "Ah, Idris, hello."

I got to say, "The Neil Gaiman episode. That was nice, wasn't it?" as that gave me nice closure, and then I asked which costume was their favorite to wear, and for poor Matt which was his favorite color bow-tie.

Police woman kiss-o-gram, Roman, and tweed-bow-tie-fez were the answers (though Matt was so sad when River destroyed the fez a few pages later).

After I'd seated myself back beside Catherine and calmed the eff down (I'd hardly been able to eat that morning, could hardly hear the questions earlier) I realized the question I'd've really liked answered was to ask Moffat how much imput he had in the design of his terrifying creatures, like the Weeping Angels and Silence. Damn.

Maybe next year.

Arthur demonstrating their favorite prank to play on new people: the Uncomfortable touch game:

I was able to actually enjoy the rest of the panel. But nothing could top the reveal, which I'm sure most of you have heard by now:

DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP

I am sick and tired of these mother fucking dinosaurs off my mother fucking spaceship!

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You do not know the full awesome of this preview! The Doctor, Nefertiti, Amy and Rory Pond, plus, by accident, Rory's dad who is to be played by the same actor as Ron's dad from Harry Potter which is so perfect . . . my God, you guys, it was AMAZING.

Matt left us with a parting notice to anyone who happens to work for the TSA. It is not funny to go up to him and say, "Well, I guess you forgot your TARDIS, then" because, "If I had my TARDIS, I wouldn't be queuing up in this fucking line, would I?"

We got out and I was just, so . . . so happy! Let's wrap this up with more pics!

I found Carmen SanDiego!!!! In San Diego!