I’ve been struggling to figure out how best to showcase my Comic Con shenanigans because I have over a thousand pictures taken over the course of 3 days. I did a post dedicated to the Panels and thought I might do posts dedicated to Costumes, Celebs, Exhibition Floor, etc. but no matter how I worked it, it just wasn’t coming out right. So I decided to showcase each day individually starting with Friday.<\/p>\n
Holy craparoni there was a ton of people. I knew there would be, and yet, nothing can prepare you for the experience the first time you go. I used to celebrate\u00a0Halloween\u00a0in the Castro, I know what it’s like to be surrounded by a shit ton of humans dressed in crazy costumes, but I’m also used to smaller conventions where it takes less than 45 minutes to walk from one end of the Exhibition Floor to the other.<\/p>\n Craziness both outside…\n …and inside.\n
In the past I’ve discussed my extreme shyness and social awkwardness. They go hand in hand and it’s something that I’m constantly fighting with, especially as the blog grows. This trait o’ mine can be particularly frustrating to my family and friends when they’re with me at conventions and events and are promoting me. I have a tendency to panic and retreat\u00a0whenever\u00a0I hear my name mentioned so by the time they turn to introduce me to someone I’m nowhere to be found. For Comic Con it was decided that they were going to liquor me up.<\/p>\n
I’m dead serious.<\/p>\n
And they came prepared. My sister-in-law, Troi, brought disposable flasks. My NBFF (Nerd Best Friend Forever), Geek Outlaw, made a delicious alcoholic\u00a0concoction\u00a0in his CamelBak each morning. I was ordered to sip from one of these two vessels throughout the day so that I would be less likely to panic and run. To be clear, I was never once intoxicated or even slightly buzzed, but I will admit that it took the edge off a little. A few people were even surprised when they were told how well I was doing at being social.<\/p>\n
Geez, I totally sound pathetic haha. The point is, it helped and I probably had my most socially\u00a0successfully\u00a0convention ever.<\/p>\n Sippin’ on gin and juice\n
I needed that little bit of liquid courage because I made buttons to hand out to the people I met. Lots and lots of gloriously nerdy buttons. Despite the liquor I was pretty shy about handing these out but there were a few times when they caught on like wildfire and I actually had a line of\u00a0people\u00a0waiting to dunk their hands in the giant bag of buttons. I made these in the 1.5 days between getting home from my Grandma’s funeral in Cincinnati and the first day of Comic Con so hopefully the next batch of buttons will be better.<\/p>\n
I was lucky enough to meet up with some friends throughout the day including one of my best buds Brett (he zombifies all my pictures for me), Aaron who I hadn’t seen in at least a couple of years, and Eddy who I hadn’t seen in 10 years.<\/p>\n Brett!\n Aaron!\n Eddy! (and a seriously awesome photobomb)\n
While on the Floor I headed over to the DC booth to visit Tre’ Ridings<\/a>, a fabulous photographer who I met at WonderCon and have kept in touch with. If you haven’t yet, check out DC’s We Can Be Heroes campaign. While there Eddy and I got our pictures taken.<\/p>\n Eddy got a bit saucy\n This made me LOL\n I stuck with good ol’ fashioned badassery\n Take THAT Lex Luther!\n I’m an insanely devoted Trekkie and have been collecting signatures in my TNG The Continuing Mission<\/em> book for about 15 years now starting with John de Lancie. So I was super excited to see Brent Spiner\u00a0and LeVar Burton\u00a0at Comic Con! But super sad that I didn’t have my book on me. I got their signatures and pictures with them anyways.<\/p>\n The next day I brought my\u00a0book but Brent was gone. So I’ve added LeVar’s signature to the book. Hopefully Brent’s won’t be far behind!<\/p>\n From top to bottom: Rod Roddenberry, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, John de Lancie, LeVar Burton\n My sister-in-law and I ran into Colin Ferguson\u00a0from Eureka<\/em> on our way to the Roddenberry After Party. He was super nice.<\/p>\n Lou Ferrigno\u00a0was huge! And also very nice.<\/p>\n Todd Stashwick\u00a0is officially my new favorite celebrity. I didn’t\u00a0recognize\u00a0him at first with his hat and glasses. He was there promoting the\u00a0printed trade paperback of his online comic book The Devil Inside<\/em> and we started chatting it up about all kinds of random stuff like Chicago and the Secret Service. It wasn’t until about 10 minutes into the conversation that it even came out that he was an actor (trust me, you know who he is). We ended up talking for quite a while and I left with a copy of his book and a promise that I’d return the next day to show him my Thor costume and get Dennis Calero’s<\/a> signature on my book.<\/p>\n Some other randomly awesome stuff from the Floor:<\/p>\n KITT…<\/p>\n \n And Michael from Knight Rider<\/em>.<\/p>\n Awesome Indiana Jones<\/em> booth complete with live snakes.<\/p>\n Optimus Prime is the shit.<\/p>\n Trolls!<\/p>\n Zombie mobile from The Walking Dead<\/em>.<\/p>\n I don’t know why but the Batpod looked kind of small to me in real life but looking at it in comparison with the people in the picture it looks like a decent size. Weird.<\/p>\n Troi is obsessed with zombies.<\/p>\n Who’s scruffy-looking??<\/p>\n The Captain’s chair was blocked off but they let this guy take a picture in it. Love the Roddenberry<\/a> folks!<\/p>\n Troi got the greatest LEGO set ever for my brother and my nephew. It has working electronics. Frak, I’m jealous.<\/p>\n Time for costumes!<\/p>\n We were behind some Avatar: The Last Airbender<\/em> fans in a panel line.<\/p>\n And also ran into some Legend of Korra<\/em> peeps.<\/p>\n My best guess is GI Joe<\/em>. Correct me if I’m wrong!<\/p>\n Saw a ton of Poison Ivy’s and Harley Quinn’s per usual.<\/p>\n This guy was a big hit with Troi.<\/p>\n Alicia Hunt?<\/p>\n A\u00a0towering inferno of physical perfection.<\/p>\n Awesome AT-AT.<\/p>\n Remember this girl?<\/p>\n Her name is Jennifer Landa and she’s super sweet and she put together another spectacular Star Wars<\/em> costume, this time of the\u00a0Millennium\u00a0Falcon.<\/p>\n Everyone needs a little bit of Tusken Raider in their life to keep them on their toes.<\/p>\n This Prometheus<\/em> promotion calmly and silently walked through the Exhibition Hall while his lovely ladies passed crap out.<\/p>\n Best. Penguin. Ever.<\/p>\n What’s up Doc?<\/p>\n And a couple after my own heart.<\/p>\n It’s Picard and a female Geordi! How awesome is she?!?\n At the end of the day we headed over to Fluxx for the Roddenberry Trek Nation<\/em><\/a> Party. (Friendly reminder that my interview with Rod Roddenberry will be coming to you soon!) On the way there we ran into the zombie walk. Depending on how long you’ve been reading you may or may not know that zombies are my biggest fear<\/a>. Needless to say, I snapped this picture and then walked very briskly to the next street over.<\/p>\n Me and Mom waiting to be let in to Fluxx. Apparently I was supposed to go through the Media\/VIP line. Oops. I’m still getting used to being considered Media :\/<\/p>\n At the club we met up with friends Joy and Darcy (yes, he’s really that tall).<\/p>\n And watched a circus performer lady.<\/p>\n