Comic-Con 2011 - Days 3 & 4

I’m going to lump the last two days of Comic-Con together. In part because not much happened on the fourth day, but also because this one is more about the con in general.

First off, the last panel I saw was Assassin’s Creed on Saturday. I had been to the panel two years prior (for AC2), but this one had a very different feel. The most noticeable different was in the crowd. The modern AC crowd is much more excitable, and (perhaps related?) much more female. Based on the cosplay and the cheering, it’s fair to say that the ladies love Ezio Auditore. The brand has clearly matured over the years, and the panel showed off a wealth of “trans-media” projects to prove it. I think of all the panels I attended, this one was the most intense. It was fascinating and exciting to see the fandom at a level few properties can achieve… and in my opinion it is well deserved.

I’ve never been a big comic geek, but every year Comic-Con throws me into a brief comic book phase. This year was no different, so my time on the floor Saturday was much more skewed towards the comic end of the hall. I even talked to some of the folks I saw at the Image Comics panel at their booth. The handful of creators I spoke with were all super friendly and interesting. They were certainly pleased and genuinely appreciative of someone taking interest in their work. It was great to see and participate in this other half of the convention. Even more shocking, for the first time ever, I actually purchased comics at Comic-Con. Crazy, I know.

Finally, something disturbing I noticed over my four days on the floor. I was totally prepared to take a bunch of photos and annoy my friends with an endless stream of cosplay. Typically, SDCC features some of the broadest and best cosplay in the business. However, something about this year’s con felt off. I noticed I wasn’t scrambling for my camera as often as before. The few photos I was snapping, upon reflection, didn’t feel worth posting. More often than not, the usual crowds were just ogling some booth babe, scantily clad cosplayer, or celebrity. The bad-ass cosplay I was expecting seemed absent. Maybe it was just my own bad luck, but others I know who attended reported the same phenomenon. It was certainly disappointing and left my photo-stream that much poorer.

While 2011 wasn’t the mind-blowing experience of my first Comic-Con, I’m still glad I didn’t miss it. I had fun, got some cool stories, and acquired some awesome toys. However, I hope to never eat another pretzel dog again… at least not until next year.

Comic-Con 2011 - Day 2

I didn’t get a chance to write my second day recap last night, so I finished most of it while waiting for panels.

Things were a little more crowded on the second day of Comic-Con, which is fairly normal. Unfortunately, the con staff’s response to that was new and unusual. In general, the security and volunteers have been much less friendly, and downright rude in many cases. They’re really cracking down on keeping aisles and exits clear, which I can understand. However, even a slight slowdown would result in a red-shirt immediately yelling at us. After just a few hours on the floor, we had already been berated by the con staff a dozen times. Not exactly the most pleasant experience.

We ended up retreating to panels to avoid the floor. We mainly wanted to see Uncharted and RiffTrax, and we sat through the Image Comics and American Vampire panels as a result. Both of these panels prominently featured writer Scott Snyder. He stood out in my mind because his passion for the work was obvious. Furthermore, his handling of the American Vampire panel was brilliant. Knowing that most of the crowd was waiting for RiffTrax, he gave a great overview of his series. He was so successful, a RiffTrax fan got up during Q&A to compliment the panel and got huge applause from the crowd.

Finally, during the RiffTrax panel, they did their usual movie suggestion contest. Last year, my fiancé suggested the 1974 Sean Connery classic Zardoz. Sadly, it didn’t win that year, but as a result a woman from the crowd foolishly watched it. Agreeing it was ripe for riffing, she got up and suggested Zardoz herself. This time it made it all the way to a runoff against Logan’s Run. While it again failed to win (and Mike thought “it was a little rapey”), the legend continues. Perhaps some poor soul will be curious enough to watch it and then suggest it again next year.

That’s it for day two. Day three was plenty of fun, so I’ll have a recap of that as well tomorrow.

Comic-Con 2011 - Day 1

I tweeted a bunch of random bits and pics throughout the day, but I wanted to capture some of the cool moments that didn’t fit into 140 characters and a twitpic.

I’m always amazed by how quickly and easily folks get along at Comic-Con. For a group that’s typically awkward, the safety blanket of geeking out together really brings out the social side of us nerds.

While waiting in line (shocking) to buy Comic-Con shirts I met a woman who was attending for the first time. Turns out the trip from New York was a present for her son’s 16th birthday. Furthermore, the kid is a huge Rooster Teeth fan (so much so that he’s beginning to write/create his own machinina AND brought them a red vs. blue themed cake). So, he gets to meet some personal idols, and experience a great con. Meanwhile, she has been wandering the floor checking out comics because she’s trying to find a new series to start reading. Best. Mom. Ever.

On the floor, a couple of devs from rocksteady were doing a live demo of the upcoming Batman: Arkham City. I joined a healthy little crowd of watchers. Aside from the game looking amazing, this was a really cool show. Most floor demos feel very stiff and canned, like a PR rep reading a script. Maybe these two were fantastic actors, but they seemed genuinely thrilled to be showing off their badass Batman game. Executing an awesome combo or a difficult takedown would get cheers from the crowd. It was great to watch, and they definitely sold some copies with it.

In the Old Republic panel, I sat behind a father/son pair of hardcore WoW raiders. A tiny bit of conversation revealed that eight of us across two rows were all WoW players and four of us had been to the same Blizzcon. Our 30 minute wait for the panel was filled with old war(craft) stories, Old Republic speculation (which I mostly observed), and a lively debate of Jedi or Sith. I found it interesting that all of the Horde players wanted to roll Jedi.

And those three were just the big moments. There was plenty I overheard and observed that reminded me while the show is entertaining, the gathering of this group of people makes the experience truly great.