Saturday, July 25, 2009

Day 4 of ComicCon, and I'm exhausted!

Comic Con 2009


This year's ComicCon has been a wild rollercoaster ride. I got to meet my girlhood idol, Richard Hatch aka Apollo on the original Battlestar Galactica. (Yes, I'm old!!) And I got to meet the creator of Dr. Who and Torchwood, Russell T. Davies and the cast of the new BBC drama Being Human (cast photo to the left), and get all of their autographs. Yes, I'm a sci-fi nerd. I didn't to upstairs to the panel rooms. There were just WAAAAYY too many people there! This year's attendance topped 125,000 attendees, and I think at least half of them were trying to get into the ballrooms where the panels were being held. 

A lot of the vendors thought that this year's ComicCon was a lot more sedate that last year's convention. I think that due to the economy, people were spending a lot less money. Most of the lines were for the limited edition ComicCon exclusive merchandise. You know all of this stuff is already up on eBay!! One thing I did notice about this year compared to last, is that a lot of vendors set up shop outside of the convention hall. The majority of the freebies were being given out along 5th street, which is right across the street (across the trolley tracks). Heroes set up a mini-carnival, where you could win Heroes keychains and raffle tickets for autographed scripts and t-shirts. SyFy turned a small cafe in the Hard Rock Hotel into "CafĂ© Diem," the cafe on the show Eureka. They had their "Street Team" handing out SyFy bags, t-shirts and buttons all weekend long. EA games set up a Gamers Lounge in the Hilton Gaslamp Hotel right of 5th street. They were previewing 4 unreleased games: Dragon Age, Left 4 Dead 2, and 2 Battlefield games. I also got Mythbuster bags, True Blood t-shirts, Amp drinks, and "9" movie cards just by walking up and down the street. 


ComicCon is a lot less about comics, and more about movies, video games, and tv shows this year. Comic creators are taking a back seat to movie stars like Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. I heard rumors that the organizers of SDCC want to take the convention to Vegas, but that would make it a bigger circus that it already is. The SD convention center wants to keep the convention in San Diego, and are trying to purchase more land in order to expand the halls. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm finding that the bigger ComicCon gets, the less "fun" it is. You now have to pick and choose what you want to do. It's not longer possible to just walk into a panel. Now, you have to line up at least 4 hours before 
the doors open. SDCC has turned into another Disneyland ride, where you line up with the masses for just one attraction.
(Leonard Nemoy to the left).

The up side to this convention, however, is for me to see all the wonderful friends that I've made over the years. It's amazing that even though there are 125,000 people here, I'm managed to run into just about everyone I know! There's one last day of ComicCon, and I hope to grab a few more freebies before I leave. I'll post more pictures when I get back home. 

~Allie

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