Denver Comic-Con 2013: Big Damn Heroes Always Shoot First
Day One of my adventures at DCC
This was the 8th geek related convention I've attended in my life (not counting the math conference), and I think I can safely say that it was also the best. It may be the best one I ever attend in the history of ever. I don't know that I can even justify how fun this was in words, but here goes something.
The con ran from May 31st to June 2nd, which wouldn't have been a problem except that this year, my school decided to run a week longer than usual. Punks. That meant I took the last day of school off to go geek out for Wil and Felicia. My moral quandary lasted until my principal reassigned my position, grade level, and teammate without so much as a how de do. I get early summer compensation for that.
So instead, on Friday, I put all of my crap into the giant suitcase (I have a lot of costume pieces, okay?) and headed out bright and early with Shells to rule the world. We stopped at Starbucks, had a small panic attack when the car wouldn't start, realized Shelly was trying to start the engine in Reverse, and then made it to the hotel getting lost trying to find the parking garage for about 15 minutes. This was honestly the worst thing that happened all convention. Despite the cosplay, things went ... smooth.
This year, we stayed at the Sheraton, which is a 5 minute walk from the hotel. This doesn't sound like a lot, but in full cosplay, it can be a challenge. The hotel was absolutely beautiful though, so I didn't care too much abou it. Huge room. Huge bathroom. Two closets. Essentially, a cosplayer's dream. We'll most likely set up there again next year because it was so nice and quiet. After picking up some Quizno's that I would live to regret, I changed into my Death cosplay for the reg line.
Death is an outfit I've done a number of times, but I add or subtract every time. This year, the main addition was a new wig. I worked really hard cutting and stying it, and I was quite proud of the results. I also went with nail polish instead of gloves to ease money handling. I normally don't white out my skin as I'm so pasty, but I mixed my foundation with white face paint to give it a bit more of a ghostly pallor. In all the pictures, I'm pretty much a ghost without makeup. The ending effect was pretty darn good, though I seriously need better pants. I've never found jeans that both look like her pants and look okay on me. Ah well.
So reg line. We got there about one o'clock with the exhibit all opening at two for VIP's and three for P's. The line looked pretty hideous, but we were guided through it to the VIP line and let straight in. Inside, we had to wait about ten minutes to get our badges during which we met Jason. Jason was trying to get his Shatner bands, though he was mortally depressed about Stan Lee canceling. Jason owns Avengers #1, and it was his life dream to get it signed by Stan. We consoled him and talked Avengers for a while. Then we picked up our badges (this year VIP's featured the Mandarin), and headed up to wait for the exhibit hall to open. Jason was there, so we chatted more and watched Katie Cook set up her booth. Katie Cook is still amazing.
They let us in at two, and we went straight to her booth. She and her booth babe/husband weren't actually ready yet, but we presented them with our glitter Gronk Diet Coke box. She said it was the first time she'd ever been given one of those before... They weren't doing commissions yet (Katie does them at night and wouldn't have time to do them with the 8pm closing time), but I did buy the new Gronk book and the trade paperback of My Little Pony. Yes, I know who I am. Andy Price was there, and I needed him to sign it too. We left them to set up while Shelly went to pick up the missing pieces of her costume from the Star Wars booth.
Our initial sweep of the dealer's room earned me a physical copy of Saga and an Archer key fobb. I bought the latter because it was sold by my favorite barista at Starbucks. Shells and I go there every week and she makes us our frappucinos. I felt obligated. The Saga, I took immediately over to Fiona Staples to have her sign it. She is an absolute doll, and another one of those people who just seem confused as to why anyone would want her autograph. Later, we went back to Katie and got our pet sketches (she drew Sen amongst the shards of my shattered cosplay) , and a Twilight Sparkle saying "I love books!" It's for my classroom. I swear.
When they let the Ps in, we vacated to queue up for Peter Mayhew and watch our respective facebook and twitter
feeds. Outside was chaos. DCC had way oversold, and the line wrapped twice around the building. The fire marshalls turned away 6,000 people. Nightmare. We, on the other hand were comfortably seated in the front row for Peter Mayhew's panel. Executive fangirls.
Peter is a giant of a man (obviously). His original audition was George walking into a room, looking up at him, and saying "yes." His health has deteriorated in recent years and he gets around with a wheelchair and a cane. The cane is Luke's lightsaber though, so really the most badass way possible to deal with aging. He still wears his hair wookie long, and he speaks with the most charming British drawl. He's seems quite shy and introverted, but very affectionate towards the fanbase.
The first question asked was how Chewbacca really felt about Han. He answered that Han was a demanding person to be partners with. His favorite scenes to film were on Hoth because it was cold in Norway. This despite the fact that there were markers to point out where the cliffs ended so none of them fell into ravines. Also, Hoth turned the Chewie suit into a drowned cat. His least favorite scene was the trash compactor, though he managed to stay dry by standing on a four inch ledge.
Peter talked about some of the other actors and characters on set in response to questions. While Harrison was his favorite to work with, he had the most respect and admiration for Alec Guiness, who never needed more than two takes to do anything. A professional through and through and a gentleman at that. As far as Chewie goes, he said that by the second movie (his favorite as well as ... well, everyone's) everyone could pretty much understand what Chewie was saying. One little girl asked what Chewie thought of Princess Leia. His response was *snort* "Female." I loved it.
My favorite story he told was his Chewbacca ring. He got it while promoting Jedi in Japan, doing signings at a toy store. His wife saw it in a case and tried to buy it for him, but the store owner wouldn't allow it and demanded it be given to Peter as a gift. Peter thought that was very sweet until he found out the toy store was a yakuza front shop. Actually, he said it was a jacuzzi front shop, but he has a great accent so I'll forgive him.
As far as episode 7 goes, he says he's all up for doing it if they send him a fax, which they haven't yet. He'd tell us what he knows, but then he'd have to rip our arms off. We all agreed that death by wookie was a pretty fine way to go.
They cleared the room, and we made some friends at a nearby table and watched the blue ranger get in a light saber battle with Darth Vader. I'm serious. This happened.
Then it was time for the first Guild panel featuring Robin Thorsen and Sandeep Parikh. There was a moderator at this panel. He sat down and drank some water. Sandeep Parikh is not a moderatable human being. He repeatedly heckled both his fellow panelist and the audience.
Example:
Guy: starts trying to ask question
Sandeep: What's your name?
Guy: Zach
Sandeep: With a K or an H?
Guy: H
Sandeep: WRONG! Next Question!
Robin, on the other hand, is exceedingly humble and rather confused about why people would line up to see her at all. She gave all credit for anything funny Clara has ever done to Felicia and smacked down Sandeep every time he tried to mock her or her alleged affairs with Colin Ferguson and Wil Wheaton. Robin may be the only person with a leash on Sandeep.
Sandeep, meanwhile, was using the panel as a test audience for two of his new shows. The first was called Code 5 and is about the worst stakeout ever. It was one of the funniest things I'd seen all month. The second is called Alien E.R. and Sandeep first apologized to the audience and then told any small children they should leave. I tend to either love Sandeep's work or need to leave the room too. I really needed to leave the room during that one.
There were a couple of fun questions from the audience. One girl asked if Sandeep every accidentally started add 'd to his words. "God no," he said, "You should get that checked out." He then apologized for having made her slip into the habit. Robin's favorite season was 5 because she got to wear all that Steampunk and hang out with Doug Jones. Sandeep's favorite guest star was Seth Green on Save the Supers. I really hope we get more Save the Supers.
Some not funny questions were also asked, most by Sailor Moon. She was clearly dressed as Sailor Moon although when Sandeep called on her, she shouted, "I'm not Sailor Moon, I'm my own character. I'm Sailor Pluto." Yeah, honey, that's a Sailor Moon wig and a Sailor Moon outfit and I may not be the world's biggest Sailor Senshi expert, but I know who Sailor Pluto is. Sailor Moon was maybe 13, and her parents had bought her a VIP pass so she was in line with us all the time and thought she could out Nathan Fillion trivia Shelly. Nathan Fillion's mother can't out-trivia Shelly.
After the panel, we went to the autograph lines to meet them. Robin was just as sweet as the panel, and I don't think she's ever played Munchkin before, but she signed my card anyway. Sandeep ...uhm... started talking. I'll try to paraphrase:
Sandeep: *sees Munchkin card* Oh, you know I have permission to alter this card anyway I want. Seriously. Steve Jackson told me I could."
Me: Go right ahead
Sandeep: Okay... so +10... if you take your pants off. *thinks* I'm gonna add 'and keep them off' because you know somebody's just going to whip em down and back up for the ten points so 'aaaaand keeeep theeeem off."
He's also hoping to make more Save the Supers which would make me a happy nerd. He offered to give me one of his photos, and I said sure, my name's Valerie. He wrote "Vale--" then looked at me to finish. I should mention that Felicia Day was one booth away from me and I had to think way too long for how to finish my own name. I said I might need to call my mom to check the birth certificate. I'm the smoooooooooooooooooooth.
Shells was pretty tired at that point, but there was an 8pm concert that looked exactly like my thing, so I went alone. Sadly, I had to sit behind a creepy Brony who had never heard of the convention deodorent mandate. It's an important mandate, dude. The band was called "The Doubleclicks," a sister cello/guitar duo from Portland. I knew they were my people pretty quick because the first song was called "Will They or Won't They" and featured such lines as "You and I are kind of like Mulder and Scully, in that you're paranoid and even when you're right, I look like the smart one." They also sang odes to the apostrophe, condemnations of Mr. Darcy, and songs of encouragement to the Velociraptor. Seriously, check them out on Youtube.
They talked about how much they love cosplay too and were scanning the audience for people.
Them: "We've got, Mario and Tomb Raider and... is that, Death?"
Me: Yes!
Them: Yay!... uhm.. yay Death!
When they sang their Jane Austen song, they asked if there were any English majors in the audience. I clapped and got a "Really? The person dressed as a Neil Gaiman character is an English Major. Who'da thought."
So yes, they're my current favorite and I encourage everyone who loves nerd rock to check them out. They're touring and hitting Minnesota soon. Megs, I'm looking at you.
At that point, I was pretty much out of it, so I went back to the hotel and Shells and I wandered amidst the buskers of downtown Denver for a sandwich. Halfway to Jimmy Johns, we ran into Jason again. Conventions are weird like that.
That's about it for Day one. At this point my wallet and my feet were both in pretty good condition. The only casualty was my forehead which had a giant red welt across it from the wig cap. Don't wear those for 10 hours,
I guess. It's still there. It's Wednesday as I write this. Go cosplay.
This entry is long, so I'll write up the next day tomorrow. Stay tuned for me freaking out over Wil and Felicia.
This was the 8th geek related convention I've attended in my life (not counting the math conference), and I think I can safely say that it was also the best. It may be the best one I ever attend in the history of ever. I don't know that I can even justify how fun this was in words, but here goes something.
The con ran from May 31st to June 2nd, which wouldn't have been a problem except that this year, my school decided to run a week longer than usual. Punks. That meant I took the last day of school off to go geek out for Wil and Felicia. My moral quandary lasted until my principal reassigned my position, grade level, and teammate without so much as a how de do. I get early summer compensation for that.
So instead, on Friday, I put all of my crap into the giant suitcase (I have a lot of costume pieces, okay?) and headed out bright and early with Shells to rule the world. We stopped at Starbucks, had a small panic attack when the car wouldn't start, realized Shelly was trying to start the engine in Reverse, and then made it to the hotel getting lost trying to find the parking garage for about 15 minutes. This was honestly the worst thing that happened all convention. Despite the cosplay, things went ... smooth.
This year, we stayed at the Sheraton, which is a 5 minute walk from the hotel. This doesn't sound like a lot, but in full cosplay, it can be a challenge. The hotel was absolutely beautiful though, so I didn't care too much abou it. Huge room. Huge bathroom. Two closets. Essentially, a cosplayer's dream. We'll most likely set up there again next year because it was so nice and quiet. After picking up some Quizno's that I would live to regret, I changed into my Death cosplay for the reg line.
Death is an outfit I've done a number of times, but I add or subtract every time. This year, the main addition was a new wig. I worked really hard cutting and stying it, and I was quite proud of the results. I also went with nail polish instead of gloves to ease money handling. I normally don't white out my skin as I'm so pasty, but I mixed my foundation with white face paint to give it a bit more of a ghostly pallor. In all the pictures, I'm pretty much a ghost without makeup. The ending effect was pretty darn good, though I seriously need better pants. I've never found jeans that both look like her pants and look okay on me. Ah well.
So reg line. We got there about one o'clock with the exhibit all opening at two for VIP's and three for P's. The line looked pretty hideous, but we were guided through it to the VIP line and let straight in. Inside, we had to wait about ten minutes to get our badges during which we met Jason. Jason was trying to get his Shatner bands, though he was mortally depressed about Stan Lee canceling. Jason owns Avengers #1, and it was his life dream to get it signed by Stan. We consoled him and talked Avengers for a while. Then we picked up our badges (this year VIP's featured the Mandarin), and headed up to wait for the exhibit hall to open. Jason was there, so we chatted more and watched Katie Cook set up her booth. Katie Cook is still amazing.
They let us in at two, and we went straight to her booth. She and her booth babe/husband weren't actually ready yet, but we presented them with our glitter Gronk Diet Coke box. She said it was the first time she'd ever been given one of those before... They weren't doing commissions yet (Katie does them at night and wouldn't have time to do them with the 8pm closing time), but I did buy the new Gronk book and the trade paperback of My Little Pony. Yes, I know who I am. Andy Price was there, and I needed him to sign it too. We left them to set up while Shelly went to pick up the missing pieces of her costume from the Star Wars booth.
Our initial sweep of the dealer's room earned me a physical copy of Saga and an Archer key fobb. I bought the latter because it was sold by my favorite barista at Starbucks. Shells and I go there every week and she makes us our frappucinos. I felt obligated. The Saga, I took immediately over to Fiona Staples to have her sign it. She is an absolute doll, and another one of those people who just seem confused as to why anyone would want her autograph. Later, we went back to Katie and got our pet sketches (she drew Sen amongst the shards of my shattered cosplay) , and a Twilight Sparkle saying "I love books!" It's for my classroom. I swear.
When they let the Ps in, we vacated to queue up for Peter Mayhew and watch our respective facebook and twitter
feeds. Outside was chaos. DCC had way oversold, and the line wrapped twice around the building. The fire marshalls turned away 6,000 people. Nightmare. We, on the other hand were comfortably seated in the front row for Peter Mayhew's panel. Executive fangirls.
Peter is a giant of a man (obviously). His original audition was George walking into a room, looking up at him, and saying "yes." His health has deteriorated in recent years and he gets around with a wheelchair and a cane. The cane is Luke's lightsaber though, so really the most badass way possible to deal with aging. He still wears his hair wookie long, and he speaks with the most charming British drawl. He's seems quite shy and introverted, but very affectionate towards the fanbase.
The first question asked was how Chewbacca really felt about Han. He answered that Han was a demanding person to be partners with. His favorite scenes to film were on Hoth because it was cold in Norway. This despite the fact that there were markers to point out where the cliffs ended so none of them fell into ravines. Also, Hoth turned the Chewie suit into a drowned cat. His least favorite scene was the trash compactor, though he managed to stay dry by standing on a four inch ledge.
Peter talked about some of the other actors and characters on set in response to questions. While Harrison was his favorite to work with, he had the most respect and admiration for Alec Guiness, who never needed more than two takes to do anything. A professional through and through and a gentleman at that. As far as Chewie goes, he said that by the second movie (his favorite as well as ... well, everyone's) everyone could pretty much understand what Chewie was saying. One little girl asked what Chewie thought of Princess Leia. His response was *snort* "Female." I loved it.
My favorite story he told was his Chewbacca ring. He got it while promoting Jedi in Japan, doing signings at a toy store. His wife saw it in a case and tried to buy it for him, but the store owner wouldn't allow it and demanded it be given to Peter as a gift. Peter thought that was very sweet until he found out the toy store was a yakuza front shop. Actually, he said it was a jacuzzi front shop, but he has a great accent so I'll forgive him.
As far as episode 7 goes, he says he's all up for doing it if they send him a fax, which they haven't yet. He'd tell us what he knows, but then he'd have to rip our arms off. We all agreed that death by wookie was a pretty fine way to go.
They cleared the room, and we made some friends at a nearby table and watched the blue ranger get in a light saber battle with Darth Vader. I'm serious. This happened.
Then it was time for the first Guild panel featuring Robin Thorsen and Sandeep Parikh. There was a moderator at this panel. He sat down and drank some water. Sandeep Parikh is not a moderatable human being. He repeatedly heckled both his fellow panelist and the audience.
Example:
Guy: starts trying to ask question
Sandeep: What's your name?
Guy: Zach
Sandeep: With a K or an H?
Guy: H
Sandeep: WRONG! Next Question!
Robin, on the other hand, is exceedingly humble and rather confused about why people would line up to see her at all. She gave all credit for anything funny Clara has ever done to Felicia and smacked down Sandeep every time he tried to mock her or her alleged affairs with Colin Ferguson and Wil Wheaton. Robin may be the only person with a leash on Sandeep.
Sandeep, meanwhile, was using the panel as a test audience for two of his new shows. The first was called Code 5 and is about the worst stakeout ever. It was one of the funniest things I'd seen all month. The second is called Alien E.R. and Sandeep first apologized to the audience and then told any small children they should leave. I tend to either love Sandeep's work or need to leave the room too. I really needed to leave the room during that one.
There were a couple of fun questions from the audience. One girl asked if Sandeep every accidentally started add 'd to his words. "God no," he said, "You should get that checked out." He then apologized for having made her slip into the habit. Robin's favorite season was 5 because she got to wear all that Steampunk and hang out with Doug Jones. Sandeep's favorite guest star was Seth Green on Save the Supers. I really hope we get more Save the Supers.
Some not funny questions were also asked, most by Sailor Moon. She was clearly dressed as Sailor Moon although when Sandeep called on her, she shouted, "I'm not Sailor Moon, I'm my own character. I'm Sailor Pluto." Yeah, honey, that's a Sailor Moon wig and a Sailor Moon outfit and I may not be the world's biggest Sailor Senshi expert, but I know who Sailor Pluto is. Sailor Moon was maybe 13, and her parents had bought her a VIP pass so she was in line with us all the time and thought she could out Nathan Fillion trivia Shelly. Nathan Fillion's mother can't out-trivia Shelly.
After the panel, we went to the autograph lines to meet them. Robin was just as sweet as the panel, and I don't think she's ever played Munchkin before, but she signed my card anyway. Sandeep ...uhm... started talking. I'll try to paraphrase:
Sandeep: *sees Munchkin card* Oh, you know I have permission to alter this card anyway I want. Seriously. Steve Jackson told me I could."
Me: Go right ahead
Sandeep: Okay... so +10... if you take your pants off. *thinks* I'm gonna add 'and keep them off' because you know somebody's just going to whip em down and back up for the ten points so 'aaaaand keeeep theeeem off."
He's also hoping to make more Save the Supers which would make me a happy nerd. He offered to give me one of his photos, and I said sure, my name's Valerie. He wrote "Vale--" then looked at me to finish. I should mention that Felicia Day was one booth away from me and I had to think way too long for how to finish my own name. I said I might need to call my mom to check the birth certificate. I'm the smoooooooooooooooooooth.
Shells was pretty tired at that point, but there was an 8pm concert that looked exactly like my thing, so I went alone. Sadly, I had to sit behind a creepy Brony who had never heard of the convention deodorent mandate. It's an important mandate, dude. The band was called "The Doubleclicks," a sister cello/guitar duo from Portland. I knew they were my people pretty quick because the first song was called "Will They or Won't They" and featured such lines as "You and I are kind of like Mulder and Scully, in that you're paranoid and even when you're right, I look like the smart one." They also sang odes to the apostrophe, condemnations of Mr. Darcy, and songs of encouragement to the Velociraptor. Seriously, check them out on Youtube.
Click to viewThey talked about how much they love cosplay too and were scanning the audience for people.
Them: "We've got, Mario and Tomb Raider and... is that, Death?"
Me: Yes!
Them: Yay!... uhm.. yay Death!
When they sang their Jane Austen song, they asked if there were any English majors in the audience. I clapped and got a "Really? The person dressed as a Neil Gaiman character is an English Major. Who'da thought."
So yes, they're my current favorite and I encourage everyone who loves nerd rock to check them out. They're touring and hitting Minnesota soon. Megs, I'm looking at you.
At that point, I was pretty much out of it, so I went back to the hotel and Shells and I wandered amidst the buskers of downtown Denver for a sandwich. Halfway to Jimmy Johns, we ran into Jason again. Conventions are weird like that.
That's about it for Day one. At this point my wallet and my feet were both in pretty good condition. The only casualty was my forehead which had a giant red welt across it from the wig cap. Don't wear those for 10 hours,
I guess. It's still there. It's Wednesday as I write this. Go cosplay.
This entry is long, so I'll write up the next day tomorrow. Stay tuned for me freaking out over Wil and Felicia.