Comic Con 2008 Report: Wednesday & Thursday
PHOTOS : PART II
PLEASE DO NOT USE PHOTOS WITHOUT PERMISSION AND CREDIT!
I never believed that Comic Con could get better last year. Somehow, I was wrong.
This year's San Diego Comic Con International was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. There were people there who I have been dying to meet, panels that were so awesome I was blown away, and enough love of my favorite fandoms that I was entirely absorbed.
To be honest and plain, this year's Comic Con, for me, was all about Torchwood and Doctor Who. There was a small portion dedicated to Battlestar Galactica and some other fandom interests, but for the most part, I was so immersed in love of Torchwood and Doctor Who that I didn't have much time for other stuff.
Without further adieu, on to Wednesday!
Wednesday
Day 0
Con truly began on Wednesday for me this year. I had spent all weekend sewing Gwen's wedding dress, my greatcoat, Tosh's dress, and putting together my BSG costume, and by Wednesday morning, I had to be out of the house. My house was fumigated while we were gone to SDCC and they were starting Wednesday morning. scifichicx, lady_entropy17, and xanmuse and I all left from my house at near 10 and got on our way to San Diego.
The drive was moderately smooth and we made good time down there. We checked into our hotel at the Best Western Hacienda Old Town (which was fabulous) and got over to the convention center to pick up our badges. Once we played a little game of pickup/drop off at the con center to avoid having to pay for parking, we the turned around for our return trip to LA.
... yes, our return trip to LA.
Wednesday evening, Mr. John Barrowman was doing a signing of his book Anything Goes on Sunset Blvd. I wasn't about to miss this opportunity. I needed to be in San Diego, however, to check in to the hotel as we had other people staying with us as well as grab our badges because we needed to get in as early as possible on Thursday morning. So, burning all the gas in the world, we turned around in my CR-V and drove into the heart of LA for the book signing.
After a bit of squeeing and a lot of singing, we made it into LA and parked. When we got there at around 6:20 or so, there was already a moderately sized line for the signing that started at 7. I had brought my copy that I had read off and on over the last few months since I've had it and the rest of us (all four of us who were in the car went to the signing) had to buy it. They got lucky as they bought some of the last copies that the store had and he was only signing the book. We eventually caught up with the head of the Time Meddlers, bluejeans23, hystericblue42 also at the signing.
We got into the store where the signing was going on (Book Soup) and got to hear the Q&A with John and his sister Carol who co-authored the book with him. They were both brilliant and quite silly. We couldn’t see them during the Q&A in any way, but we were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of his partner Scott and his manager Gavin.
Highlights of the Q&A:
- John and Carol speaking in their Scottish accents while nagging each other
- Info on "The Making of Me"
- Talk about "Torchwood" including some highlights about playing Captain Jack and the future of the show
After the Q&A we all slowly wound our way around the book store in line to get our books autographed. I had worn my beloved RAF coat over my vintage Doctor Who shirt, so I was showing my true nerd stripes. When I first really got a glimpse of him, I honestly started hyperventilating. I have a huge amount of respect for John and all he has done in his life, both personal and professional, and he has become one of my role models.
scifichicx, xanmuse, and lady_entropy17 were busily laughing at me while I freaked out before getting to him. When I finally got up there, I momentarily lost the ability to speak when he smiled at me and said "Great smile." He autographed my book and I finally remembered to speak and thanked him for coming. I also told him that we’d see him at Comic Con the next morning. He told me that he not only had to finish up at the book signing first, but he had a car full of 7 family members to take with him to SD. Turned out, right behind us at the signing table was his mother and father. O.o
I then moved down the table to his sister who was also autographing the book and I chatted with her for a moment, talking to her about the big trip they had to make to get to LA as she and her family live in the mid-west. I then promptly walked away from the table when we were done and melted into a puddle of goo.
We re-grouped after we were all done at the book signing, hopped back in the SUV, and hurried back to SD.
We got in at about 11:30, freaked out for a moment, prepped for Thursday, then slept.
Thursday
Day 1
COSTUMES:
"SOMETHING BORROWED"
CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS (ME); IANTO JONES (SCIFICHICX); GWEN COOPER (HYSTERICBLUE42);
TOSHIKO SATO (XANMUSE); OWEN HARPER (LADY_ENTROPY17)
I was woken up at 5:00 AM by my alarm on my phone. This, of course, had been on purpose as we had to all get dressed, get on the trolley, and get to the convention center to line up for the Doctor Who/Torchwood panels. This doesn’t sound so insane until I say that the Doctor Who panel didn’t start until 12 noon. scifichicx had gotten up an hour beforehand and gone ahead to scout out what was happening. So xanmuse, hystericblue42 (who was only staying with us to prep for Thursday), and lady_entropy17 (I think in that order) woke up with me to prep for the big day.
Nearly everyone showered and got rolling on getting dressed, but come 6, no one was ready to roll out the door. Gwen (hystericblue42) had a lot of work to be done on her hair and needed assistance, which was generously given by Tosh (xanmuse). By 6:15, Owen (lady_entropy17) and I decided to head over to meet up with Ianto (scifichicx) and catch up with the girls later.
The trolleys were surprisingly simple and got us everywhere we needed to be quickly and efficiently. We popped off and began the epic quest to find the easiest access point to the line once the convention center opened. We wandered around to the back of the convention center, just outside of ballroom 20, where we were blocked by a pair of Elites from entering. Moments later, we glimpsed a heard of people rounding the corner coming towards the line markers. Thankfully, we asked the Elite in a bit of a panic if we could hop inside. After she glanced at our badges that had the brilliant "PROFESSIONAL" mark across the middle, she decided that we could go in. We hopped in line just behind a four reporters to be the first fans in line.
Moments later, Ianto popped around the corner and hopped in line with us.
It was only about 7 or so, and the line had amassed at least 50 people, nearly all clamoring about Doctor Who and Torchwood despite the fact that the panel before had two very huge comic book names, Stan Lee and Grant Morrison. The trick was that they don’t clear out panel rooms between panels, thus making it possible to camp out over large amounts of panels to get a good seat. This is of course, messed up to people in the panels before the one you’re looking to go to, but there was no way we weren’t going to have the best seats possible.
Moral ambiguities aside (after all, we are team Torchwood), we sat in line until they opened the doors to the ballroom, at which point us and the 50 or so other people that were in line rushed in. Thankfully, scifichicx had brilliantly gotten a great bearing on where to sit and we managed to actually get all five of us in front-and-center, unlike last year. Not too long after, we were up and down, on and off our feet taking group photos and chatting. This was great fun as I love hanging out with fellow fans and of course, I'm a huge ham so photos were always fun.
Eventually, after many rounds of dealing with the even more so than last year obnoxious 'Elites' and hearing the loud announcer voice saying "Please do not rush the stage for photos", the Stan Lee & Grant Morrison panel started.
STAN LEE & GRANT MORRISON
THURSDAY 7/24 11AM : BALLROOM 20
PHOTOS
These are two of the greatest minds ever to be in comics. Have I always agreed with what they do/make/say? No. But I can appreciate that they have both in their own way revolutionized the comics industry and pop culture itself. The actual panel featured a new digital animation piece by Mr. Morrison being put out by Virgin Comics about the hindu mythology. Very pretty.
What was more fascinating to me, and probably most of the people in the room, were the two titans of comics themselves. Stan Lee is getting up there in his age and knows how big he is and is quite funny about it. Grant Morrison was alarmingly good looking and (to my great surprise) had a very thick Scottish accent. There were lots of jokes about how Stan Lee couldn't understand him, but the audience (being full of fans of a BBC show with Scottish actors in it) understood him very well. Also, he looked like Lex Luthor.
As that panel wore down, you could feel the tension in the room building. At the end of the panel, very few people left, only further proving the sheer number of people there for the Doctor Who and Torchwood panels.
More photos ensued between the panels as we were joined by a few Doctors and a few other companions, including Ms. Martha Jones and Donna Noble and a few Roses (including our own gaelic_bohemian briefly).
When it was finally time for the Doctor Who panel to begin, the room was packed.
DOCTOR WHO
THURSDAY 7/24 12PM : BALLROOM 20
PHOTOS
The Doctor Who panel began with a moderately disconcerting rendition of the BBC America trailer for the new shows. Disconcerting because it had been sped up so all the dialog sounded like it was being read by chipmunks on speed. After a good laugh, the moderator came out and introduced the lovely Julie Gardner and the one and only Steven Moffatt.
The panel itself was rather uninformative for the most part, consisting primarily of old news, jokes from Steven Moffatt, and Julie Gardner being red in the face from embarrassment. I will say, however, that I did enjoy it greatly and there were some new things that were shared.
Highlights:
+ Russel T. Davies (who was absent) is writing for
the Torchwood 5 part mini series currently
+ The show promises to reflect the scary mind of
its new lead, Mr. Moffatt.
+ They are being tight lipped about the future of
the show, and for good reason.
The biggest highlight of all, though, was the full trailer for the 2008 Christmas episode featuring Dickinsonian Cybermen. The trailer was quite good, and unlike the one that kicked off the panel, was at the proper speed. We saw it twice!
TORCHWOOD
THURSDAY 7/24 1PM : BALLROOM 20
PHOTOS
They then bid adeu to Mr. Moffatt and the Torchwood panel began. With all the gusto you would expect, John Barrowman bounded onto the stage, hopping onto the chair and saluting the immense audience before taking his seat. He was followed out by Gareth David-Lloyd, who in his true fashion came out looking like the Welsh rocker that he is. He was then accosted by John with an almost kiss and some inappropriate looking touching. Last, but certainly not least, was Naoko Mori, who looked adorable as always.
This panel was a laugh-a-minute (except a few) celebration of Torchwood. This was the largest primary cast panel I think that has ever been at a convention, and I know for a fact the first time that John & Gareth have been at a con together.
After a few quick introductions, they rolled a series of clips from the show, exhibiting how stunning the actors, writers, and creators all around of the show are. The clips were: the bar fight from "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" (beginning of the fight to John calling the team out... I think); Jack & Ianto from "Fragments" chasing the pterodactyl (from Ianto jumping in front of the SUV through to them inside w/ the pterodactyl); and a set of two scenes from "Exit Wounds" that stole the wind out of everyone in the room as they were when Gray shoots Tosh and Tosh's death scene. I watched the actors for most of the clips, as their reactions were priceless, and found myself crying along with many people in the room by the end (including the actors).
They talked about the end of Series 2, and the what and why of the new 5-parter series (Spring 2009). Much of the conversation centered around the friendship and antics that have come from working on the show and how much they will be missing Naoko and Burn Gorman come this new series.
Along with all the behind the scenes stories we heard, there were also many wonderful comments from the actors with insight to their characters and where they might go in the future.
Highlights:
John: (pointing off into space) Who's that?
Gareth: Lisa!?
JOHN & NAOKO SINGING (look it up on YouTube)
Many sex jokes, as they are the cast of
Torchwood
At the end of the panel, when the actor's were starting to walk off stage, Naoko looked down at us from up on the stage and pointed and cheered, then Gareth did the same. It was really freaking awesome.
After the back to back panels were done, we (along with the couple of thousand other people) all escaped. We took a few pictures on the way out. We then went over and said hi to our friends over at BBCA before running downstairs to go get in line for John & Gareth's autographs down at the Holzhimer's booth.
We got there and were yelled at a good few times, but we got it figured eventually on where we needed to be to get in line. Eventually we got up there and I nearly melted (again) on sight of John, who commented on how the photo I chose had good detail of the coat (that I was wearing once again). Gareth was quite the sweetheart and very amused by the lot of us, I thought. Though the experience at Holzhimer's left a lot to be desired, it was a pleasure seeing John again and Gareth for the first time. They were both very very nice but busy and I was tired of being yelled at by the people at the booth so we scuttled away as quickly as we could manage.
We then went over to get in line at the BBCA booth for Naoko's signing. This time, things went quite well. After a few line shuffles, we got it all figured out and were waiting in line in the back of the hall, tired and sweaty when I busted the back seam of my pants *facepalm*. Thankfully, my coat was covering the foot-long hole that lead straight to my bottom and leg. XP
We finally got up to the BBCA booth where Naoko was and we sent xanmuse at the head, as she is our beloved Tosh. I thought Naoko was going to trip over the table when she saw her. She immediately hopped out from behind the table and was gushing about how amazing she looked. This included the comment about scifichicx's beautiful work on the necklace that she was wearing that apparently, is a very good replica of a 'one of a kind designer piece'. She then saw the rest of us and was bubbling with joy. She stopped the line then and there. She looked over all of us, exploding here and there about things like Owen's shirt (also by scifichicx) and buttons (by lady_entropy17) as well as other bits and bobs. She hopped over to us and stapped a photo with us before running away behind the table apologizing profusely to the people at the booth because she wasn't supposed to do exactly that. She then signed our autographs, but before we could all run off, she snapped one more picture of the lot of us on her phone!
After all of that, we were all quite winded and just without words. We got out of the hall for a while, where some of us dressed down (mainly hystericblue42) and hung out for a bit. We then split up and scifichicx and I made a pass through the dealers hall one last time before we headed back to the room, utterly pleased and exhausted.
PLEASE DO NOT USE PHOTOS WITHOUT PERMISSION AND CREDIT!
I never believed that Comic Con could get better last year. Somehow, I was wrong.
This year's San Diego Comic Con International was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. There were people there who I have been dying to meet, panels that were so awesome I was blown away, and enough love of my favorite fandoms that I was entirely absorbed.
To be honest and plain, this year's Comic Con, for me, was all about Torchwood and Doctor Who. There was a small portion dedicated to Battlestar Galactica and some other fandom interests, but for the most part, I was so immersed in love of Torchwood and Doctor Who that I didn't have much time for other stuff.
Without further adieu, on to Wednesday!
Wednesday
Day 0
Con truly began on Wednesday for me this year. I had spent all weekend sewing Gwen's wedding dress, my greatcoat, Tosh's dress, and putting together my BSG costume, and by Wednesday morning, I had to be out of the house. My house was fumigated while we were gone to SDCC and they were starting Wednesday morning. scifichicx, lady_entropy17, and xanmuse and I all left from my house at near 10 and got on our way to San Diego.
The drive was moderately smooth and we made good time down there. We checked into our hotel at the Best Western Hacienda Old Town (which was fabulous) and got over to the convention center to pick up our badges. Once we played a little game of pickup/drop off at the con center to avoid having to pay for parking, we the turned around for our return trip to LA.
... yes, our return trip to LA.
Wednesday evening, Mr. John Barrowman was doing a signing of his book Anything Goes on Sunset Blvd. I wasn't about to miss this opportunity. I needed to be in San Diego, however, to check in to the hotel as we had other people staying with us as well as grab our badges because we needed to get in as early as possible on Thursday morning. So, burning all the gas in the world, we turned around in my CR-V and drove into the heart of LA for the book signing.
After a bit of squeeing and a lot of singing, we made it into LA and parked. When we got there at around 6:20 or so, there was already a moderately sized line for the signing that started at 7. I had brought my copy that I had read off and on over the last few months since I've had it and the rest of us (all four of us who were in the car went to the signing) had to buy it. They got lucky as they bought some of the last copies that the store had and he was only signing the book. We eventually caught up with the head of the Time Meddlers, bluejeans23, hystericblue42 also at the signing.
We got into the store where the signing was going on (Book Soup) and got to hear the Q&A with John and his sister Carol who co-authored the book with him. They were both brilliant and quite silly. We couldn’t see them during the Q&A in any way, but we were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of his partner Scott and his manager Gavin.
Highlights of the Q&A:
- John and Carol speaking in their Scottish accents while nagging each other
- Info on "The Making of Me"
- Talk about "Torchwood" including some highlights about playing Captain Jack and the future of the show
After the Q&A we all slowly wound our way around the book store in line to get our books autographed. I had worn my beloved RAF coat over my vintage Doctor Who shirt, so I was showing my true nerd stripes. When I first really got a glimpse of him, I honestly started hyperventilating. I have a huge amount of respect for John and all he has done in his life, both personal and professional, and he has become one of my role models.
scifichicx, xanmuse, and lady_entropy17 were busily laughing at me while I freaked out before getting to him. When I finally got up there, I momentarily lost the ability to speak when he smiled at me and said "Great smile." He autographed my book and I finally remembered to speak and thanked him for coming. I also told him that we’d see him at Comic Con the next morning. He told me that he not only had to finish up at the book signing first, but he had a car full of 7 family members to take with him to SD. Turned out, right behind us at the signing table was his mother and father. O.o
I then moved down the table to his sister who was also autographing the book and I chatted with her for a moment, talking to her about the big trip they had to make to get to LA as she and her family live in the mid-west. I then promptly walked away from the table when we were done and melted into a puddle of goo.
We re-grouped after we were all done at the book signing, hopped back in the SUV, and hurried back to SD.
We got in at about 11:30, freaked out for a moment, prepped for Thursday, then slept.
Thursday
Day 1
COSTUMES:
"SOMETHING BORROWED"
CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS (ME); IANTO JONES (SCIFICHICX); GWEN COOPER (HYSTERICBLUE42);
TOSHIKO SATO (XANMUSE); OWEN HARPER (LADY_ENTROPY17)
I was woken up at 5:00 AM by my alarm on my phone. This, of course, had been on purpose as we had to all get dressed, get on the trolley, and get to the convention center to line up for the Doctor Who/Torchwood panels. This doesn’t sound so insane until I say that the Doctor Who panel didn’t start until 12 noon. scifichicx had gotten up an hour beforehand and gone ahead to scout out what was happening. So xanmuse, hystericblue42 (who was only staying with us to prep for Thursday), and lady_entropy17 (I think in that order) woke up with me to prep for the big day.
Nearly everyone showered and got rolling on getting dressed, but come 6, no one was ready to roll out the door. Gwen (hystericblue42) had a lot of work to be done on her hair and needed assistance, which was generously given by Tosh (xanmuse). By 6:15, Owen (lady_entropy17) and I decided to head over to meet up with Ianto (scifichicx) and catch up with the girls later.
The trolleys were surprisingly simple and got us everywhere we needed to be quickly and efficiently. We popped off and began the epic quest to find the easiest access point to the line once the convention center opened. We wandered around to the back of the convention center, just outside of ballroom 20, where we were blocked by a pair of Elites from entering. Moments later, we glimpsed a heard of people rounding the corner coming towards the line markers. Thankfully, we asked the Elite in a bit of a panic if we could hop inside. After she glanced at our badges that had the brilliant "PROFESSIONAL" mark across the middle, she decided that we could go in. We hopped in line just behind a four reporters to be the first fans in line.
Moments later, Ianto popped around the corner and hopped in line with us.
It was only about 7 or so, and the line had amassed at least 50 people, nearly all clamoring about Doctor Who and Torchwood despite the fact that the panel before had two very huge comic book names, Stan Lee and Grant Morrison. The trick was that they don’t clear out panel rooms between panels, thus making it possible to camp out over large amounts of panels to get a good seat. This is of course, messed up to people in the panels before the one you’re looking to go to, but there was no way we weren’t going to have the best seats possible.
Moral ambiguities aside (after all, we are team Torchwood), we sat in line until they opened the doors to the ballroom, at which point us and the 50 or so other people that were in line rushed in. Thankfully, scifichicx had brilliantly gotten a great bearing on where to sit and we managed to actually get all five of us in front-and-center, unlike last year. Not too long after, we were up and down, on and off our feet taking group photos and chatting. This was great fun as I love hanging out with fellow fans and of course, I'm a huge ham so photos were always fun.
Eventually, after many rounds of dealing with the even more so than last year obnoxious 'Elites' and hearing the loud announcer voice saying "Please do not rush the stage for photos", the Stan Lee & Grant Morrison panel started.
STAN LEE & GRANT MORRISON
THURSDAY 7/24 11AM : BALLROOM 20
PHOTOS
These are two of the greatest minds ever to be in comics. Have I always agreed with what they do/make/say? No. But I can appreciate that they have both in their own way revolutionized the comics industry and pop culture itself. The actual panel featured a new digital animation piece by Mr. Morrison being put out by Virgin Comics about the hindu mythology. Very pretty.
What was more fascinating to me, and probably most of the people in the room, were the two titans of comics themselves. Stan Lee is getting up there in his age and knows how big he is and is quite funny about it. Grant Morrison was alarmingly good looking and (to my great surprise) had a very thick Scottish accent. There were lots of jokes about how Stan Lee couldn't understand him, but the audience (being full of fans of a BBC show with Scottish actors in it) understood him very well. Also, he looked like Lex Luthor.
As that panel wore down, you could feel the tension in the room building. At the end of the panel, very few people left, only further proving the sheer number of people there for the Doctor Who and Torchwood panels.
More photos ensued between the panels as we were joined by a few Doctors and a few other companions, including Ms. Martha Jones and Donna Noble and a few Roses (including our own gaelic_bohemian briefly).
When it was finally time for the Doctor Who panel to begin, the room was packed.
DOCTOR WHO
THURSDAY 7/24 12PM : BALLROOM 20
PHOTOS
The Doctor Who panel began with a moderately disconcerting rendition of the BBC America trailer for the new shows. Disconcerting because it had been sped up so all the dialog sounded like it was being read by chipmunks on speed. After a good laugh, the moderator came out and introduced the lovely Julie Gardner and the one and only Steven Moffatt.
The panel itself was rather uninformative for the most part, consisting primarily of old news, jokes from Steven Moffatt, and Julie Gardner being red in the face from embarrassment. I will say, however, that I did enjoy it greatly and there were some new things that were shared.
Highlights:
+ Russel T. Davies (who was absent) is writing for
the Torchwood 5 part mini series currently
+ The show promises to reflect the scary mind of
its new lead, Mr. Moffatt.
+ They are being tight lipped about the future of
the show, and for good reason.
The biggest highlight of all, though, was the full trailer for the 2008 Christmas episode featuring Dickinsonian Cybermen. The trailer was quite good, and unlike the one that kicked off the panel, was at the proper speed. We saw it twice!
TORCHWOOD
THURSDAY 7/24 1PM : BALLROOM 20
PHOTOS
They then bid adeu to Mr. Moffatt and the Torchwood panel began. With all the gusto you would expect, John Barrowman bounded onto the stage, hopping onto the chair and saluting the immense audience before taking his seat. He was followed out by Gareth David-Lloyd, who in his true fashion came out looking like the Welsh rocker that he is. He was then accosted by John with an almost kiss and some inappropriate looking touching. Last, but certainly not least, was Naoko Mori, who looked adorable as always.
This panel was a laugh-a-minute (except a few) celebration of Torchwood. This was the largest primary cast panel I think that has ever been at a convention, and I know for a fact the first time that John & Gareth have been at a con together.
After a few quick introductions, they rolled a series of clips from the show, exhibiting how stunning the actors, writers, and creators all around of the show are. The clips were: the bar fight from "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" (beginning of the fight to John calling the team out... I think); Jack & Ianto from "Fragments" chasing the pterodactyl (from Ianto jumping in front of the SUV through to them inside w/ the pterodactyl); and a set of two scenes from "Exit Wounds" that stole the wind out of everyone in the room as they were when Gray shoots Tosh and Tosh's death scene. I watched the actors for most of the clips, as their reactions were priceless, and found myself crying along with many people in the room by the end (including the actors).
They talked about the end of Series 2, and the what and why of the new 5-parter series (Spring 2009). Much of the conversation centered around the friendship and antics that have come from working on the show and how much they will be missing Naoko and Burn Gorman come this new series.
Along with all the behind the scenes stories we heard, there were also many wonderful comments from the actors with insight to their characters and where they might go in the future.
Highlights:
John: (pointing off into space) Who's that?
Gareth: Lisa!?
JOHN & NAOKO SINGING (look it up on YouTube)
Many sex jokes, as they are the cast of
Torchwood
At the end of the panel, when the actor's were starting to walk off stage, Naoko looked down at us from up on the stage and pointed and cheered, then Gareth did the same. It was really freaking awesome.
After the back to back panels were done, we (along with the couple of thousand other people) all escaped. We took a few pictures on the way out. We then went over and said hi to our friends over at BBCA before running downstairs to go get in line for John & Gareth's autographs down at the Holzhimer's booth.
We got there and were yelled at a good few times, but we got it figured eventually on where we needed to be to get in line. Eventually we got up there and I nearly melted (again) on sight of John, who commented on how the photo I chose had good detail of the coat (that I was wearing once again). Gareth was quite the sweetheart and very amused by the lot of us, I thought. Though the experience at Holzhimer's left a lot to be desired, it was a pleasure seeing John again and Gareth for the first time. They were both very very nice but busy and I was tired of being yelled at by the people at the booth so we scuttled away as quickly as we could manage.
We then went over to get in line at the BBCA booth for Naoko's signing. This time, things went quite well. After a few line shuffles, we got it all figured out and were waiting in line in the back of the hall, tired and sweaty when I busted the back seam of my pants *facepalm*. Thankfully, my coat was covering the foot-long hole that lead straight to my bottom and leg. XP
We finally got up to the BBCA booth where Naoko was and we sent xanmuse at the head, as she is our beloved Tosh. I thought Naoko was going to trip over the table when she saw her. She immediately hopped out from behind the table and was gushing about how amazing she looked. This included the comment about scifichicx's beautiful work on the necklace that she was wearing that apparently, is a very good replica of a 'one of a kind designer piece'. She then saw the rest of us and was bubbling with joy. She stopped the line then and there. She looked over all of us, exploding here and there about things like Owen's shirt (also by scifichicx) and buttons (by lady_entropy17) as well as other bits and bobs. She hopped over to us and stapped a photo with us before running away behind the table apologizing profusely to the people at the booth because she wasn't supposed to do exactly that. She then signed our autographs, but before we could all run off, she snapped one more picture of the lot of us on her phone!
After all of that, we were all quite winded and just without words. We got out of the hall for a while, where some of us dressed down (mainly hystericblue42) and hung out for a bit. We then split up and scifichicx and I made a pass through the dealers hall one last time before we headed back to the room, utterly pleased and exhausted.