Yesterday I visited my very first Comic Con!!! The Salt Lake Comic Con. Yay!
* And There Was Much Rejoicing *
Last October was the very first, drawing 75,000 attendees, making it the highest attended first year Comic Con, ever, which is amazing. This year they're anticipating 100,000. There's going to be ANOTHER comic con in September.
Yeah, we're a bunch of nerds.
True story: The TV show Psych had a University/College competition a few years ago, with the school who submitted the most votes getting a mention. Brigham Young University, BYU for short, naturally won. The "mention" we got was a couple of girls in a bar ordering drinks while wearing a "Y" shirt, which, to someone not in the know, could easily be confused with Yale. I'm fine with that.
We got there around 1:00, and the line was crazy! Then someone recommended a couple of us go to the other side of the building, the other entrance, where the line was next to nothing. Several blocks later and we were practically at the front of the line.
It didn't take long for people to figure out the secret.
The curtained off Photo Op area.
The first panel my Mom and I went to was Ioan Gruffudd of Horatio Hornblower fame, Fantastic Four, Amazing Grace, etc. He was absolutely delightful, respectful, and down to Earth. My respect points for him went way up.
Then my Mom and I went to a panel featuring Sean Patrick Flanery, who was Indiana Jones in the Young Indiana Jones series. Apparently he was in this movie called The Boondock Saints, which he is now known. His vulgarity, F-bombs, immoral stories were so disgusting, my Mom and I got up within in the first 5 minutes and walked out.
I don't know if I can watch the Young Indiana Jones now without thinking of his awful speech. It's going to be hard separating the real man from the character. Feels like the curtain rising in Wizard of Oz. Makes me sad, but it was absolutely horrid.
I heard Evermore Park, a soon to be Victorian Theme park in Pleasant Grove Utah in Summer 2015, had a booth, but I didn't know they were going to have a full scale model. I'm so excited!!! Charles Dickens at Christmas, Jack the Ripper during Halloween, fairy festival, pirate ship, caves, 3 high end restaurants, Victorian shopping square, beautiful gardens, etc. If they can pull this off Evermore is going to be amazing. And everyone working there is going to be expected to act and be in character at all times.
Makes me think of a real life Austenland, but cooler.
And I love the advertisements posed as vintage postcards.
My Dad got a photo of himself with Adam Baldwin.
One of my Dad's friend gave him a Photo Op $30 voucher, and he tried to pass it off to one of us kids. I'm introverted, perfectly fine watching panels, so the idea of getting a photo with a celebrity doesn't interest me. Goodness, I went to a few performances of Alien Voices in L.A. with members of Star Trek, and even then I didn't autographs after the show. I sat in the middle of an emptying theater, and my Mom grabbed my Midsummer Night's Dream scrip, getting me autographs from John D. Lancie, Leonard Nimoy, Roxann Dawson, and Ethan Phillips. She said I would thank her later, and I do, but I'm just kinda like that.
And my Dad's like that, too. I get it from him.
(My Mom still loves to tell the story of a photography convention in L.A. back in the 90's, and Leonard Nimoy was sitting at a booth by himself, showing his photography. My Mom and Dad were walking in that direction. My Mom stopped and had a solid, quality 15 minute conversation him him; my Dad, seeing what she was about to do, kept on walking, watching with worry from the distance.)
When we finally made it to the photo op location, around 5:00, it was too late to get a photo op with any of the TNG cast. But Adam Baldwin, from Firefly and Chuck, was starting at 6:15. My Dad really respects him. Because the Star Trek TNG panel was at 6:30, in which all but my Dad paid $25 above entry fee to see, we couldn't do the photo op. We talked my Dad into it.
You can have up to 4 people per photo, and my brothers REALLY wanted to join my Dad, Michael particularly, but we wanted to make the panel.
Turns out the conference was running late!!! At 6:45 my Dad finds us in line and shows us the photo, beaming, Michael bummed, and then showed the photo to another Baldwin fan in the Muppet panel line who really wanted a photo, but couldn't afford it. So she quickly asked her friend to take a picture with my Dad holding the photo. It was pretty funny, and my Dad was having a great time.
And then the Star Trek TNG panel!!!!!! What we were looking forward to the whole time.
William Shatner, a huge supporter of the SLC Comic Con, hosted the event. And from the TNG cast Jonathan Frakes, Denise Crosby, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner were there. LeVar Burton canceled at the last minute for a film shoot, or something.
And it was announced last night that Patrick Stewart is coming on Saturday!! I'm not going to be there, but that's cool. Sad he wasn't there last night, but better late then never. He's coming because of the fan outreach.
"Riker" in the captains chair.
It was a lot of fun! I'm glad I went to Comic Con :0)
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