Joss Whedon, Zachary Levi, Yvone Strahovski, Joshua Gomez, Katey Sagal and Futurama Panel
If you have never been to Comic Con you really can’t imagine the energy of 100,000 geeks coming together to celebrate what they love. The great thing about Comic Con is that there is so much to do. The bad thing about Comic Con is that there is not enough time to do most of it. I am sure there are more things you miss out on than there are things you are able to see.
Friday
This was my 3rd Comic Con but my first without my sister Carol. The situation was iffy about getting in and she had other things that were conflicting so she went for the sure thing. I live on faith that good things will happen so off I went to San Diego Friday morning. I left around 7am which was later than I wanted to but I also needed to sleep a little more since I knew it would be a long day. I arrived around 9am and it took a while to find parking so by the time I walked up to the Convention Center it was 9:45am. The doors did not open until 10am. The con was SOLD OUT! This was the first time that has happened. However there was still a miracle I was hoping for in order to get in and then the backup plan of getting some volunteer badges. You volunteer for 3 hours and are able to get in to enjoy the rest of the day at the con. So we waited in that line. The lady at the volunteer table was a Browncoat. First I gave her a Big D@mn Trilogy button, then a Serenity button. Then I told Saxon to show her pictures of us on the set. Well in the end after much waiting we were able to get in due to a combination of her help and the miracle I was waiting for.
It was about Noon by the time we entered. The first people I saw I hugged since I had not seen them since December. It was Rayhill and Louise I don’t know her screen name but she’s and San Francisco Browncoat. James and Lynn, Arielle, Amy and a few California Browncoats I didn’t know were manning the booth which was well organized to say the least. We walked around the exhibit hall and then went to get in line for the first Chuck panel which started at 2:45pm. My brother requested an Ultimate BumbleBee and I saw someone with one in line so I went back to the floor to look for it. It was sold out but I least I didn’t have to keep looking for it. I stopped by Jason Palmer’s booth he has some great new artwork for Heroes as well as Firefly. As I was walking around I saw Stan Lee which was great. He was being escorted around the hall. I also saw John DeLancie and Levar Burton. Earlier we saw Marc Singer from V and Beast Master. He still looks fabulous, Saxon and I were giddy. Once I went back to the line we ended up getting in early and sat to watch the folks from 24. I do not watch 24 but I liked the writers and producers. David Fury was there and that was nice for me since he worked on Buffy. The idea of getting in to earlier panels, for those who do not know, is to move up seats as folks leave at the end before it fills again. Folks were leaving early and we moved up. Others who were standing sat down in our seats apparently Ando from Heroes, Hiro’s friend, sat next to Saxon!!! Can you believe that, just like a regular person, he’s one of us.
Talking about one of us, Zachary Levi who plays Chuck is just awesome. He is a gamer and a bit of a geek I am sure. He is also really handsome, has a great big smile and has great personality-laid back and fun. He is someone you really want to get to know. Adam was unable to be there for this panel and I almost left but decided to stay and hear more about the show. We saw the pilot and I didn’t realize we would and I hadn’t seen it before. I liked Jake 2.0 and the premise seems the same. Someone who is not an agent is suddenly an agent. I did not understand the difference. After seeing the pilot I see there is no comparison. Chuck is a whole new ball game. It is an action comedy with equal parts action and comedy. It is absolutely hi-larious and Adam of course is wonderful. Adam in a suit is always nice to see. The final shot of Adam is what stays with me. Zachary and Joshua Gomez are friends on screen and off. They re-enacted a special ninja scene. Both great sports and the girl Yvonne Strahovski is beautiful and seems like a good person. This is her first job in the states. She is from Australia.
I was hoping to go to see them sign afterwards but that did not happened. Ewok wanted to get Katey Sagal’s autograph. Then we went back to the Browncoat booth, ran into Jeremy and Brian from Done the Impossible and then we tried walking the Exhibit Hall floor once more. We ran into John Cassaday which was great since Saxon wanted to find him and then I ran into him. I was also lucky enough to get a call from JenskiJen while in the middle of the floor. Yay for Skype and Yay for Verizon Wireless.
Once we left we drove to Escondido and had a memorable dinner. My ankle was hurting a lot and we were all tired and euphoric. We ate at Chili’s our waiter was great. I ordered coffee and the guy said there was no more. I told him to ask someone and then I offered to make it myself. I neeeeeeddddeeed coffee and my brain was not working. He finally brought me some coffee so that was good.
And that in a really big nutshell was my Friday. May have missed some things but the important stuff was covered.
Saturday
We arrived around 9am but by the time I parked it was almost 10am as I arrived at the convention center. I found Saxon and Ewok and Gyngi and then made my way to the Browncoat table. I realized that I had not given Jeremy aka DVDGuy a hug yesterday and I did not give James a hug either. After that I walked around some more. Our hunt was for the free bags we missed the day before. There was a Ginormous Smallville bag that everyone seemed to be carrying and then the Harry Potter bags that were really cool. I tried getting free t-shirts but you needed to wait in line for a voucher and the line to get the voucher was closed! What is up with that? *shakes head* I did not have time to get in line.
I went back to Jason Palmer's booth and bought a lovely sketch of Malcolm Reynolds that just spoke to me. It feels like Mal's watching over me like a big brother, very nice. I talked to the Palmers for a while; they told me I had just missed Joss by 5 minutes. Depending on where Joss was going he could be anywhere. I decided to head to Ballroom 20 for whatever was happening there. The line was incredible. It was 11:45am and the Heroes panel was in an hour. I decided to get some food and coffee and get in line. Saxon and Ewok were at the Browncoat booth with Joss, Tim Minear and Mark Sheppard. I was too far away to go over. From what Saxon said on the phone it was bedlam.
Back to my line, think of a square, the entrance was in the middle on the bottom side and continues to the right then wraps around all the way to the opposite side. At this point it may be a rectangle and I am walking to the farthest part to the opposite end of the entrance. There I find a super obnoxious security guard saying the line is capped; basically telling folks not to get in line anymore. Hello, this is ComicCon, we come just to stand in long lines to get what we want. These folks have no clue. This guy for those who read about my first experience at Comic Con with the Cast of Serenity, is the same guard who gave me a hard time when I wanted to give Alan a gift and Adam first shouted my name. So I knew he was still clueless. I waited until a supervisor moved the line outside so that the length of the rectangle I had just walked was wrapping back to the beginning on the outside. None the less the line was not capped and I move to get in line. It was a really long line. I wanted to see Heroes but not enough to be disappointed for not getting in. I was able to get in to the Battlestar Galactica panel after that. As I was waiting for 2 hours I had to go to the restroom. I did not have anyone I was standing with but I asked the girls behind me if they'd hold my spot. They knew I was there for Serenity so that was nice. As I am entering the restroom this beautiful lady with a great friendly happy smile is walking out. Her beauty is striking and she is also seems like a warm person. After she walks out I am able to place her, it was Carter from Stargate, Amanda Tapping. How cool was that?!
The Battlestar Galactica Panel was about the women of Galactica and it was nice. Then came the Futurama Panel. I am just here for Joss which comes after Futurama. I felt bad for Ewok because she would have loved it but chose to see Summer instead and went to the Sarah Connors Chronicles panel. Not counting Joss whom I love, for those who don't know, The Futurama Panel was the best panel for several reasons. Futurama was killed by FOX just as Firefly was. It has been resurrected for 4 made for TV movies on Comedy Central and it is because of the fans. The whole cast was there, they showed an extended trailer and then did a live reading of a mini comic that bridges the gap from show to movie. This panel made me a fan of Futurama.
Joss Whedon was awesome. I love Joss. He said many things I love:
· “I am tired of not entertaining you.” I have missed Joss since he went off TV and finished Serenity. So I am glad he is tired.
· “I am announcing here to you first, it will get done I am in talks.”Of course I was hoping for an announcement for Serenity but he announced Ripper which I must say I have been waiting for since the concept was first introduced in the First Halloween episode of Buffy.
- “I thought you guys had forgotten about me.” The Ballroom was full about 5,000 people there just to hear what Joss had to say.
Afterwards I tried getting in touch with Saxon but she was in a panel. I dumped my stuff in the car and came back and she had already been to her car and was going to find food. I am talking to her on the phone as I am walking to her about a block away and she holds the phone up to Joss. I am fortunate to be able able to tell Joss how we are still holding and waiting for whatever he does. I tell him I was hoping for Serenity but was just as excited to hear about Ripper and I can't remember what else just more praise. Saxon says he was smiling and enjoying the praise and he let me say what I wanted before moving on. I joined Saxon and saw Joss crossing the street down a way. I LOVE JOSS WHEDON!!!
Then we ate and watched Once More with Feelings with so many Browncoats they had to open up a separate room to show it in 2 places. The security guard trying to close the line said he would wait for it to come on DVD. I told him it was already on DVD. We just want to watch it together. After that I think he realized we were all nuts so he just walked away. It was great watching it with so many fans.
It was a mighty fine con.
