Comic-Con Report, volume 1

I'd just begun to think this Na'Vi upskirt shot was the only Na'Vi imagery I was going to be able to bring back from Comic-Con, but I finally ran into these two on Friday;



I have to admit they were pretty cute, even if they didn't have nipples. I was expecting a flood of Na'Vi at Comic-Con this year, but it turned out these were the only three I saw.

Overall, my Comic-Con experience wasn't quite as exciting as last year--I never bothered trying to get into Hall H, none of the panels in there struck me as interesting. I was kind of sorry I missed Harrison Ford's appearance on a panel for Jon Favreau's upcoming film until I heard one guy got stabbed over a seat to see the panel. On reflection, I'm kind of glad to have not been part of that scene, especially since it was probably just to hear Ford drawl out something like, "Yes . . . it's a good film . . . I liked working with Jon Favreau very much, he gives a lot to the actors . . . he was incredible to work with . . ." and so on. Though I might like to see the movie.

I did, however, speak to Chewbacca again, Peter Mayhew. My project on Sunday was to find a celebrity to read my twitter sonnet, but Mayhew gave me a flat "no" that completely communicated to me layers of reasons why an actor of any prominence wouldn't agree to be on camera for some random guy. But that didn't stop me from asking Battlestar Galactica's Richard Hatch, who was kind enough to actually read the sonnet over before telling me that he couldn't do it because he couldn't connect to it emotionally as an actor. I came close to asking Lindsey Wagner, since she was another one who never seemed to have a crowd around her. But it felt sort of wrong asking her, since the only work I've actually seen of hers had been Sleep Therapy mattress commercials.

I thought I'd have a good chance getting LeVar "Reading Rainbow" Burton to do it, but I think the look on his face clearly tells you what kind of luck I had with that;



A lady in front of the table was loudly telling anyone who didn't want an autograph to step back. I could tell not many people were talking to Mr. Burton. Amee, who's been staying with me, pointed out I'm amassing quite a collection of photos of depressed celebrities from Comic-Con. I think any B-List celebrity ought to be advised not to attend Comic-Con unless they want a harsh confrontation with reality.

On the other hand, Richard Hatch, who was there all four days this year and last year, and who I saw wandering around a few times, seemed irrepressibly chipper. I guess it's all in your perspective.

I picked up Amee from the airport on Thursday morning. So I was happy this year, for the first time, attendees were allowed to pick up Thursday's badge on Wednesday from a smaller convention centre in another part of town;



There I was given badge, schedule, and bag. Every year, the bag's gotten larger with more prominent advertisements. This year's was practically a billboard, heavy and full colour, modelled here by Amee;



I said to her the thing was so big that someone could make a dress out of it. On Sunday, I met this girl who'd made a dress out of it;



Though I guess she probably used at least two. I doubt the ads made much impression on anyone, though, any more than the one SyFy used a whole building to show off;



Just thinking of all the other ways SyFy could've spent what must have surely been a ridiculous amount of money reminds me again of why I hate SyFy so much.

Here's the main floor of the Con on Thursday;



I guess the coolest thing I saw on the floor that day was the Ecto-1, which was hard to get good pictures of because of the large crowd around it;





There was also this guy in a coffin at the Warner Brothers booth that had something to do with Green Lantern;



He did not appear to have junk, in case you're wondering, but the towel made me feel morally secure. Speaking of morality, here are some folks Amee and I spent some time talking to that day;



They weren't the infamous "God Hates Fags" group, but they were still pretty obnoxious. The girl we spoke the most to seemed more willing to engage with Amee who demonstrated a far better knowledge of the bible than theirs, as theirs didn't seem to extend far beyond what could be contained by a few note cards. Beginning a spiel on how a good judge wouldn't allow a murderer to go free and therefore God wouldn't allow sinners to, the girl was stumped when Amee brought up the story of Abraham being told by God to kill his son.

My argument was a bit different. When the girl informed me a judge who took bribes was a corrupt judge, I said, "Say a guy goes to jail even though he didn't do anything wrong, say he just lived in a nice neighbourhood and he decided to offer a service to the businesses of the neighbourhood, protection, for a price. If a smart judge was paid off, and he let this nice guy go, can you really call that corrupt?" I also told her I'd met God at Comic-Con and that He agreed with me. I think if I'd been willing to put in the time, I could've gotten them to admit protection rackets were okay. Though it's probably best I not give them any ideas.



That's about all the time I have for Con stories to-day. I'll have more to-morrow.