After an extremely long day on Friday, I decided to rest my weary feet and sleep in on Saturday. There wasn’t really anything I felt like seeing until 1:30pm, so I took it easy and got to Comicon around noon…
…That’s when I realized this was the big day. Despite all the activities the day before, this was the day that drew the biggest crowd. People who had paid a reduced price for a single day’s admission had clearly chosen this to be that day. And why?
Celebrities! C-list, mildly-bored celebrities! For most of the famous folks this was the first day of appearances, so people had come out in droves to make awkward banter with (1) Spike, (2) Darth Maul, (3) Boba Fett (sort of), and (4) The Hulk. A lot of celebrities were charging for just about anything they could. Headshots, autographs, photos with fans; if Lou Ferrigno could find a way to breathe into jars and sell them for 20 bucks I have no doubt that he would. Fearing the righteous wrath of the cast of Buffy I only took a couple quick candid shots of the celeb tables before wandering around to check out what else was going on.
This guy did a great job on his W.C. Fields costume.
The Star Wars pavilion was always fun. If there was any time during the weekend when I was tempted to grab something off a table and bolt for the exit, it was while looking at these helmets.
The guy inside this costume would hold perfectly still until someone tried to pose with him, then he’d put his arm around them. Watching Star Wars fans crap themselves in fright should be a TV show.
These guys were painting in the middle of the exhibitor’s hall. I don’t know if they had decided on the theme “Jailbait Robin” ahead of time or if it was a moment of artistic synergy, but either way it was well rendered.
A convention goer desperately tries to find the Phoenix Convention Center’s mythical free wifi.
On the other side of the hall I found this living example of elder abuse, in the form of an old woman abandoned by a her grandkids for Will Wheaton autographs and overpriced resin figurines.
….Ok, maybe scratch the “living” part.
I stopped by the Dragon Ball panel solely to take this photo. Anime kids never disappoint.
Will Wheaton and Felicia Day hosted the first of the day’s many celebrity symposiums, this one talking about The Guild which, from what I could gather, is an energy drink or some kind of candy bar or something?
I like steampunk, I really do. I even have my own steampunk persona:
But I have a hard time with other people who are into steampunk. There’s something about guys who are willing to actually grow and wear period accurate facial hair every day to make their characters "authentic" that wierds me out.
...I also can’t grow a proper mustache so I’m kind of jealous.
Outside the Steampunk Fashion Show people were taking tons of photos of these sweet Dr. Who costumes.
Back in the celebrity symposium ballroom the guy who played Bo Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard was still talking about what it was like to play Bo Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard.
In Star Wars news, the Jedi Council is less impressive in person…
…And I got a photo of these two adorable Sith cheerleaders. “Go Evil!” I heard them exclaim before they Force pushed their way through the crowd, skipping and giggling the whole time.
James Marsters was a big draw at this year’s convention. Several of my (female) friends were jealous I got to be in the same room as him, and some even considered going to Comicon solely to see him. Anytime I see that kind of devotion to an actor known for geek-centric work I take my enthusiasm down several notches and plan on them being nothing special, but I was pleasantly surprised with Marsters, he’s actually a really entertaining speaker. I was previously aware of him, I knew he played Spike on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, but I’d never really watched either of those shows. Still, I found his whole talk really interesting. Anyone who casually relates acting to the process of stealing a car tends to hold my attention pretty well. He also shares my deep appreciation for the casual elegance of the V-neck tee.
The Secret Life of a Cosplayer panel was filled with pretty much the exact kind of nightmare fuel you might imagine.
The Star Trek: The Next Generation reunion symposium featured Will Wheaton, LeVar Burton, and Jonathan Frakes making jokes about pedophilia for two hours. Seriously, it was that awesome. I grew up watching Star Trek: TNG every night in syndication as a kid and getting to see three of the recurring actors goofing off and ribbing each other was really enjoyable. Burton and Frakes had a good laugh at Wheaton’s attempt to grow a beard, together the whole group agreed that when Patrick Stewart twirls it is very “mincy,” and I teared up a little when Burton sang the theme to Reading Rainbow. The whole thing was especially impressive considering that with the lives of heavy convention rotation these guys live they probably have these “reunions” in some form or other at least a couple of times per year. Even so, nothing felt stilted or forced, they genuinely seemed to be having fun, and that made watching them fun.
When I came back from dinner I checked out the Masquerade Costume Contest. I’d screwed up my scheduling and had missed the first half, but like all ballroom events the Masquerade proved god awful impossible to photograph anyway…
…Still I managed to get this photo of the Blue Man Group’s gritty new reboot…
…These Teen Titan cosplayers performed to music and highlighted the difficulties of dancing in latex short pants…
…This trio performed the weirdest rendition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer I’d ever seen…
…And this guy showed off a costume consisting of, as far as I could tell, tiny cowbells rigged into the shape of a crescent moon. It was very…windchimey. He actually won a prize for the costume. I believe it was for originality, but only because there was no prize for being batshit insane.
While the contest judges tabulated their votes, entertainment was provided by the Bad Cactus Brass Band, who performed famous science fiction theme songs as interpreted by John Philip Sousa…
…And I discovered that apparently the eldest Jonas brother has fallen on hard times.
I kid the band, but they were actually quite good and kept the audience’s attention for the ten minutes they were booked. Unfortunately the judges deliberation on which furry was the least creepy took close to half an hour. In the ensuing awkward silence left by the band’s departure most of the audience slipped out and my bladder almost burst from trying to hold my multiple glasses of dinner wine.
The judges made up for the delay by giving out some pretty sweet prizes in the form of pricey SFX light sabers. This made for a lot of contestants looking like the living incarnation of cross-genre fan-fiction, except for this one who I swear had a speaking role in Episode 3.
I thought this Wonder Woman was going to punch me in the throat when I asked if I could take her picture. Even so, she still managed to pull a true to form pose before shuffling away, cursing quietly.
I ended my night with Anime Singled Out which featured the predictable amount of ball-crushing insanity and horror.
Pictured: Insanity. Also pictured: Horror.I rode back to my hotel weeping gently and steeling myself for one final day. I was almost out, but before Comicon would allow me to escape it's clammy grasp I would have to get past one man, the veritable king of comic book conventions: Stan Lee.
Coming Soon Phoenix Comicon Day 4: The Thrilling Conclusion
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