A year’s worth of planning and anticipation culminated in our recent experience of the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con! It was everything we had hoped and so much MORE! I can’t begin to describe the energy that lit the place up for the five glorious days of the convention. The extensive programming was way beyond impressive! How in the world can so many artists and celebrities be herded into one place at the same time!? There was SO much going on that I wanted my clones to be in about 5 places simultaneously throughout the entire convention! Though with an approximately 130,000 attendance, all competing for seats in the rooms, we had to carefully pick and choose which panels and events we really wanted to see. Even so, we did manage to see and do many memorable things while at the Con. Here are a few of my favorites:
1. I had a mission to meet one of the Special Guests that had been invited to this year’s Comic- Con. Jane Espenson is a gifted writer who has contributed to many of the TV shows Gail and I love. These include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse, Battlestar Galactica/Caprica, Firefly/Serenity, Once Upon a Time, and Game of Thrones. She has written for many more. She has also contributed to certain comics. Obviously, she has a direct line to Joss Whedon‘s creative mind, and how cool is that! She has had a writing career that any writer would envy, and she is still going strong, including the current production of her own web series, Husbands (Get a load of the cast!)
Fortunately for me, she was very active at the Comic-Con. She was on several panels, and she offered several signing opportunities. We got to see her at two of her panels and I managed to find her at one of the artist’s signing tables! She was very gracious, and I will remember these moments always! Thank you, Jane!
2. Anne Rice is a writer without equal! Interview with the Vampire redefined the original literary concept of the vampire, and I was hooked on her after that classic novel. Her rich and luscious descriptions of characters and locations bring her imaginary worlds to life. She is an extraordinary story teller. Countless authors have taken their cues from her work. And her work is voluminous, making vampires, witches, angels and wolf people seem real. She has also written erotica, and about Jesus! It is difficult to place her in any one genre!
Ms Rice is now 72 years young. You would be shocked by the peaceful beauty of her warm and patient smile. She looked at me and Gail in the eyes in a way that made me feel that that moment, and probably every moment, are important to her. I thanked her for the many hours of reading pleasure her books had brought me, and for the delicious memories that remain. She said, “And that’s why I will keep writing them.”
3. Game of Thrones is one of the most popular shows currently on TV. It is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, a series of novels written by George R.R. Martin. He is therefore one of the most successful and influential writers on today’s fantasy scene. It was fun seeing his gregarious self up close, and getting his autograph!
4. Cosplay (costumed role play) or at least “dressing up” is a tradition at comic conventions. I really enjoyed seeing so many people in costume at the #SDCC. Here is a YouTube video with a sampling:
I had a surprisingly great time participating in this. I never intended to have an elaborate costume like in the video. That is not my thing. But since I am such a Breaking Bad fan, am just a little older than Walter White/Heisenberg, and his outfit was easy to replicate, I decided to play along. It was interesting sort of slipping into a (W)alter ego!
5. Evangeline Lilly is famous for her role as Kate Austen in the TV series Lost. We saw her most recently as the woodland elf Tauriel in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, a role she will reprise in the upcoming The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Evangeline has written a children’s book, and she was at the #SDCC in part to promote it. We purchased one of the 1,000 numbered copies of a special Comic-Con edition of The Squickerwonkers. We were fortunate to have Evangeline herself sign the book for us!
6. We saw previews of several upcoming TV shows, and there are two that we are now really looking forward to: iZombie and Scorpion. Keep an eye out for these shows this fall!
These were among my favorite moments at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con. And there were many other moments I will long remember. Now it’s time to start thinking about #SDCC2015! 😀
(If you want to see our Facebook photos of the San Diego Comic-Con 2014, here they are.)