The Aftermath
I just got in. Oh my Jesus. That was WONDERFUL. I have so much to report, and I want to do it while it's still fresh in my mind. Pictures tomorrow.
So, I wake up at 5:30 and Pete picks me up at 6:15, we go to grab Jared and wait fifteen minutes while he unsuccessfully attempts to locate his DS. There's a lot of Pete shouting FUCKK and JARREEEDD GET IN THE CAARRRR and me pretending to be an old woman with smoker's voice and a brooklyn accent. We picked up some munchies at Wawa( APPLE SLICES ) and then boogied over to the train station. We grabbed the train and made friends with some guys dressed as Solid Snake and a random Team Rocket member, and we spent the whole ride chatting with them and talking shit about movies.
So we get into the city and walk over to the Javits center. Jared and Pete already had tickets, but I had planned to buy one at the door, like I had in 2008, but apparently that was not the case this year, as they weren't selling at the door. Unsure of what to do, I told Pete and Jared to go on and I called my mom.
I'm sitting on the steps, crying because I'm stuck in NYC alone and can't get in with my friends, and this guy tells me he has an extra ticket. I give him 40 dollars and hug him and thank him over and over and bolt after Pete and Jared. (Also, shortly after running off, I heard someone yell 'THAT WAS KELLY'S TICKET' and well. I shelled out 40 bucks, I dunno if it had anything to do with the fellow who gave me his extra, but I wasn't about to find out. Call me selfish, but dammit, I wanted Con.
So I wait in many many lines without Pete and Jared because they melted into the hoard of geeks and eventually I get out onto the Show Floor. I stop by the Blind Ferret booth to give Sohmer a Red Bull and he gave me a Keychain, then I tell Lar that I love his art and I read it every day and he lets me pick out a random pin from a bag. (The pin is a chibi richard, it's adorable. I put it on my hat.)
After that I locate Pete and Jared and we wander around, bullshitting with the people at the booths and taking pictures with various costumed folk. I decide that I need to go see Bruce Campbell, so we go our separate ways and I ask like ten people before I'm directed to the Autograph Alley. (Javits center is really weirdly set up, and with all the booths, it's hard to tell where things are.)
So there's a lot of wandering and finally I get in line for Bruce, except I find out I need a ticket to see him, so I spend FOR FUCKING EVER trying to find the Show Store, and when I do I get a ticket for Bruce Campbell and, for some reason, with every ticket, you got a choice of a free T-Shirt, Poster, or... Xander action figure.
Clearly I chose Xander, so, yeah. IDK, I bought a ticket for BRUCE MOTHAFUCKIN CAMPBELL and I got Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Meh. I ain't gonna complain.
So apparently Bruce is out... doing stuff. So I hop in line for the far cheaper James Marsters! The line goes quick, and I make friends with the couple behind me in line, and we wait for a while when he poofs off to do a Photo Op thing, but he's back soon and the line goes quick. I shake his hand and we exchange pleasantries, and he signs my season 5 box set of Angel. And I gush about Spike and how delicious he is and he laughs and then I go in for the kill, in the way I do. Being silly.
'So uh, hey, hey, you know. I wonder. You think that Spike and Fred coulda... coulda had something?'
'Yes. Definitely. In fact... they were supposed to, buut...' and he kind of made a 'bleeeh' motion with his hand.
I shook his hand again, told him he was awesome, and skipped away to make it into the Bruce Campbell line. Where I proceeded to loiter around and pretend to not really be in line. They weren't supposed to be lining up until 1:45, so I pretended to be looking for a friend right where the line would start and then leapt into the front when it started to form. It was weird, because this line was like... mega efficient. They gave us all post-it notes with our names on them and made us stick them to the pictures/items we wanted to get signed, and like, they had a staff guy taking pictures. It was super bizarre because nobody else had that, and like... Bruce Campbell may be a big name, but he's not THAT big of a name. Hell, that black dude from BSG was a booth over and he was chatting and hanging with people. idk it was just weird.
I got up there and handed him the picture Opal Lynn wanted me to give him, but before he could really look at it, some staffer took it to add it to apparently like, a pile or something? IDK she took it to put it with his stuff or something. Sooo it's in his possession, and I put both the link and a little note on the back explaining so, yeah. I told him he looked very suave today, and TBH, he looked tired. Like he'd much rather have been in bed, and it showed. I kept it short, he signed the picture of him I had, told him I loved his work and that I hoped he had a good weekend and then left to go find Pete and Jared again.
I spent the rest of the day meandering around buyin stuff, I popped in on Lar and Sohmer again, if just to annoy them, got a poster of the Avengers, got it signed by Brian Michael Bendis and continued wandering around.
COMIC CON SWAG-
1 Xander Action Figure
1 Eleventh Doctor sonic Screwdriver
2 pins, one with Richard, one with the phrase 'I AIM TO MISBEHAVE' (Firefly!)
1 pair of earrings, Firefly themed
multitude of free comic books, postcards, business cards, and maps of javits center.
1 goodie bag with comics, Power Rangers DVD, and toothpaste. (IDK)
1 commisioned sketch of myself on the red carpet. (I HAVE SO LITTLE PRIDE, I DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING PURELY ME)
1 Panda plush toy
1 signed Poster of the Avengers
1 signed picture of BRUCE CAMPBELL
1 signed DVD box of Angel by JAMES MARSTERS
1 Ironman knickknack with removeabe helmet.
2 hypodermic needle shaped pens with blood inside. (fake)
1 Sketch Book
and like a bunch of other tiny, insignificant papers and such because when you go to Comic Con, half the shit you get is like, postcards.
Sooo yeah, after Bruce I wandered around and bought toys because I am five years old. Made friends with various fellow geeks, got bodyslammed by some bitch in a Storm costume, cringed at the many furries, blinked at several crossdressers, and complimented the one Cesar Romero joker I saw. Along with the like, GAZILLION Deadpools.
Soooo finally everything is shutting down, until the only thing left open is the Anime floor. I have a love/hate relationship with Anime. On one hand, it's a very rich and interesting style and culture, on the other, everything fucking looks the same and the fans are creepy as all hell. This is the floor I commisioned a sketch of me on the red carpet on, because out of all the people, this guy's art was actually, like... good. Like there were good artists, but the majority of their big pieces all had the EXACT same face. This guy's art was diverse and beautifully done.
Then we left. We trudged our way back to the train station, grabbed the Train and almost passed out when-
There I am on the train, doodling while I wait for it to get moving.
'S'cuse me, are you an artist? will you draw me a hero?'
'Sorry?'
A little blond haired boy, five or six, seven tops.
'will you draw me a hero?'
'Oh, uhm. I'm not really... I mean I just doodle, I'm not an arti-'
This little boy gave me this look of... of... I can't even describe it. But I could not say no. I could not fail this little boy.
'... I mean, sure, you know what, I'll do my very best! Who would you like me to draw? Who's your favorite?'
'Can you draw me like, like, a mountain? Like the Hulk.'
'Sure thing, kiddo.'
So I did my best. His mother kept watching me draw and use an Avengers comic as a reference, and this group of pecky women kept peering over and muttering. I swear, I did my damnedest to make that Hulk look as good as I could, and it didn't come out half bad, especially after I outlined it in sharpie. It looked... It looked okay.
There was a moment, halfway through, where the boy sort of looked away and the mom was chuckling and thanking me and I just shrugged.
'I'm not an artist. I just doodle for fun. I just couldn't say no to him.'
And they all- the people watching- just kind of were like 'Huh? Some random teen just... accepted that this kid wanted a drawing so she went with it?'
I dunno.
So right as I finish up- though I never got to draw in the right hand, I tear out the page and hand the little boy that and the Avengers comic I grabbed and tell him to take that too. He tried to give me like, two dollars or something, but I made him keep and told him it was no trouble, no big deal. As he was walking off the train-
'I have a comic collection!'
'Good! You keep that up, okay? Somedy it'll be you drawing!'
And that was it. I never put my name on the drawing, and we never exchanged names. It was just this sweet, genuine little moment.
Made me feel nice.
PICTURES TOMORROW, SLEEP TONIGHT.