Comic-Con Adventures, Vol. 1: The Uncanny Comic-Con

The Uncanny Comic-Con

In the last installment, I'd accomplished the seemingly impossible: I'd scored a 2-day pass to San Diego Comic-Con. Now a bigger task awaited me: actually getting prepared to attend the darn thing. First and foremost, I had to make sure someone would be around to take care of the kids while I was away. Thankfully, Nathan was able to take a couple of days off of work that weekend; he and the girls were even able to take a day trip to Phoenix and have lots of fun together (maybe I will even make him write a blog about that sometime!).

My lovely badge arrived in the mail about three weeks before the convention

The first item of business was to find a hotel room. This turned into quite an ordeal and was the cause of several sleepless nights in a row. There are many hotels in downtown San Diego that hold reservations on many of their rooms for Comic-Con weekend, only to release those reservations on a predetermined "Hotel-pocalypse" day, when they are all offered at a "discount" (read: less than $300/night). I briefly considered waiting for the "Hotel-pocalypse," but quickly discarded it; besides these rooms being quite expensive, I was too worried I wouldn't be able to book a room at all that day (these reservations are, unsurprisingly, hotly contested prizes). I decided to play it safer and book a room elsewhere as soon as possible (while recognizing my booking would probably be at a lower quality hotel, and most likely outside of downtown San Diego). I also considered booking a privately owned residence via Airbnb, a person-to-person booking site. Part of me thought it would be fun to crash at some random person's house...and it was an undeniably cheaper option!

But the uncertainties of Airbnb (I actually booked a room through the service, only to be told by the owner that he was about to sell the house, and I couldn't stay there after all!) finally persuaded me to go with Priceline, an old standby for my family. I offered a couple of low bids before my terms were finally accepted; I would be paying $140/night for a small Rodeway Inn deep in Mission Valley (several miles from downtown, but luckily close to the trolley line which would carry me directly to the convention center). Believe me, that was the cheapest room available; San Diego is scary expensive on Comic-Con weekend! Luckily for me, my parents were kind enough to split the cost with me, since we'd be sharing the room for a couple of nights! After all the hotel arrangements were made, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. It was a huge load off my mind!

Most of the other preparations I made were smaller-scale. Having spent so much on housing, I determined to keep my dining expenses to a minimum. I would buy a cheap lunch when on the road to and from San Diego; once in town, however, I planned to eat out as little as possible. To support this, I bought a bunch of easily transportable snacks (fruits, chips, crackers, cheeses, beef jerky, etc.), and carried it around in my backpack throughout the convention. There was precious little food available for sale in the convention center, and it was all overpriced and generic ($2.50 for a Mrs. Fields oatmeal cookie?!? No thank you). So while my meals may have been a bit same-y, and not the most nutritionally complete, they were plenty sufficient for my needs.

Besides a few other minor preparations, I also decided to get "glammed up," Comic-Con style, before my trip!

To answer the question I'm sure many of you have: No, I do not cosplay. Never have, probably never will. I know the stereotype is that convention-goers all show up in costume, but that just isn't true. There are lots of people that do dress up, to be sure, but they've always been in the minority (maybe about 25-30% of the attendees at most). I can't see myself ever joining the cosplay ranks, mostly because I don't have the time or talent to create a really awesome costume that would be worthy of showing off at a convention. Most cosplayers put a lot of work into their costumes, and I am a notoriously "non-crafty" person and a terrible seamstress. That said, one of my favorite parts of going to conventions is people-watching, and cosplayers are a big reason why. It is so cool to see the passion and skill and creativity of so many people, put on display for like-minded souls to admire. That's why I took lots and lots of pictures of all the cosplayers at Comic-Con, and I'm planning on posting most of them right here in the blog!

But you don't have to cosplay to "get into character" at Comic-Con. For lots of people, it's a fun time to put on their nerd clothes that aren't cool/appropriate enough for other venues. T-shirts, vest, buttons, badges, pants...anything different is a-okay at the convention. This year, I saw a man in a tailored suit, which was entirely embroidered to look like a maze from the arcade game Pac-Man (complete with power pellets, ghosts, and Pac-Men(?). I stood in line with this guy for half an hour, and one of my biggest regrets of Comic-Con is not getting a picture of his awesome suit). Another fun pastime is for people to mess with their appearance in some way, such as unique make-up and hairstyles.

And, I thought, why not dye my hair to get into the spirit of things? I've never dyed my hair in my life; I actually like my hair color and I'm a big chicken about going too "extreme" with it, but for some reason I decided to throw caution to the wind this summer, and just go all-out. I bought several different colors of hair dye, went over to my friend Jasmine's house (this is the same talented woman who dyed my daughters' hair this last summer), handed her the dye, and told her to go nuts!

I didn't have too many specific plans on how my hair should look; I knew I wanted mostly green, with several streaks of other colors. Overall, I'm quite happy with how it turned out. It was definitely shocking to see, but so fun to play with once I got used to it!

 

Early the next morning after my dye job, I kissed my beloved family goodbye, hopped into the car, and headed out to San Diego! The drive was uneventful and quiet...that is probably the longest distance I've driven by myself in a long, long time. It was weird at first, then pretty peaceful and relaxing. I got to listen to whatever music I wanted to, and I could let my mind wander and relax and not answer to anyone. It felt great.

I arrived in the San Diego area after about six and a half hours of driving. But before heading to my hotel, I took a small detour...

 

I wanted a little spiritual fulfillment before stuffing my life with pop-culture "junk food." Sure, it's delicious, but there are other things in life more meaningful and beneficial. So, I decided to do a quick endowment session at the LDS Church's San Diego Temple. My family and I have seen this gorgeous building several times, but I have never been able to see it from the inside. Its interior turned out to be just as breathtaking as its exterior! It looked like a Disney princess castle, but in a very tasteful, mature way. Seeing it was such a wonderful privilege.

 

At first, I was nervous to go inside this quiet, reverent building with my loud, loud hair. Thankfully, no one made any comments, and everyone inside acted like it was no big deal. Perhaps they are used to crazy hair colors in California? Either way, I appreciated their understanding. Overall, it was a needed, wonderful experience to be able to serve the Lord by doing work in one of His houses on earth. I was so grateful for a little spiritual nourishment to go along with all the goofy fun that weekend.

After leaving the temple, the next order of business was finding my hotel. After quite a bit of driving around (it was rush hour at the time), I found it. As I had suspected, it was a low-frills establishment; the bed was comfortable, but the room itself was pretty narrow; I was pretty worried about getting my air mattress set up for when my parents arrived the following day. Luckily, there was just enough room; however, it was a tight fit. Its location was a mixed blessing. True, it was relatively close to a trolley station (just a short drive or walk away). However, it was also very close to the noisy freeway. Here's the view from my hotel window:

At times, it felt we were sitting right on the edge of the freeway. However, these were minor inconveniences that I was ready to deal with; I'd gotten a decent deal on the room and couldn't complain. On the plus side, the hotel staff were very patient, courteous and understanding, and I was made to feel welcome there.

After getting all my stuff settled, I loaded up my backpack and headed to the trolley station (it was about a three-quarter mile walk from my hotel). Even though my Comic-Con passes were for Thursday & Friday, the convention officially kicked off on Wednesday night, so I knew there would be stuff going on downtown. More importantly, this trip on the trolley was to be my "dry run"; I wanted to calculate my travel times to and from the convention for the next couple of days, as well as figure out the locations of all the significant spots downtown.

The Power Puff girls were there to greet me! Yay!

This huge ad was on the side of PetCo Park, the MLB park that's across the street from the convention center

A creepy poster covered up the whole side of this hotel

I found the Batmobile outside the convention center!

Also, this weird Superman statue

Lastly, I thought it might be fun to have a look around downtown; I'd heard that the Comic-Con celebration is not confined to the convention center alone. The entire region becomes festooned with all sorts of unique advertising and promotional materials for a variety of movies & television shows of interest to the Comic-Con crowd. Some of these promotional materials include interactive games, tours, and previews. It was really fascinating to see the many different ways in which the studios marketed their product to the crowds...because even for a Wednesday night, it was quite crowded downtown.

These banners (mostly with Dr. Strange on them) were everywhere

This was the entrance to an interactive exhibit in a nearby hotel; it was being converted into a maximum-security prison like the one seen in the movie Suicide Squad. I didn't make it to any of the interactive exhibits, but this one looked pretty cool!

 

Another building-sized advertisement, this one for the upcoming TV show Incorporated. This one was animated; the human figures moved around on the building and interacted with each other!

I don't watch South Park, but I still enjoyed this "full-scale" mock-up of that town.

Besides checking out all the crazy bling decorating downtown, I also got an up-close look at the convention center itself.

 

I'd expected it to be big, but it was still a little overwhelming to look at the sheer mass of the place and realize I'd have to walk the length of it multiple times each day. Just one trip up and down the length of it on this night wore me out! But it was still thrilling to see the crowds moving in and out of the building, and peek inside to the tantalizing stuff I'd be checking out the following morning.

 

At one end of the convention center lies the massive Hall H, legendary among convention-goers. Hall H is the largest of the many, many rooms in the convention center; it sits more than 6,000 people. It's also where the major film studios come to make their presentations. This means that big-name actors, directors, producers, etc. are regular fixtures on that stage, and Hall H regularly screens exclusive footage of upcoming film and television projects, many of which are big-budget Hollywood projects.

It is unsurprising, then, that Hall H seats are considered the hottest properties of the convention. It's a perfect storm that combines the American obsession with celebrities and pop culture, dovetailed with the obsessive fixations of nerd culture. It's very, very hard to get inside this room. The days where a convention-goer could walk up to the door of Hall H and step inside are long gone. These days, if you want to get into Hall H on a Friday afternoon, you've gotta get in line...

...specifically, a line outdoors. More specifically, a line outside the convention center, on a Thursday afternoon. That's right; if you want to see the Game Of Thrones actors at 3 pm on Friday, you'd better be in this Hall H line no later than 5 pm on Thursday. And you'd better bring a sleeping bag and book, because you're camping out.

 

For the record, this was an actual scenario; I did consider trying to make that Game of Thrones Friday panel; after all, the line was on grass; that's comfortable to sleep on, right? It's southern California, it will be lovely outside! (For the record: it was in the mid-90s the whole time I was there, with 80% humidity. Miserably hot and sticky.) I'd get to hang out with other fun nerds while I waited! I'd get to see Benedict Cumberbatch up close! (He was indeed at Comic-Con this year, promoting Dr. Strange. My mother said he was the only celebrity she hasn't seen yet at a convention that she really wants to see! I'd be carrying out her wishes!) And finally, by making it into Hall H, I'd be one of the elite nerds...the "true believers" who are so single-mindedly devoted to their cause that they'll sacrifice time and comfort just for the chance to get the first look at all the shiny people and pretty trailers.

Downtown San Diego at dusk; pretty nice!

These were my thoughts as I examined that long, long line...but thankfully, those thoughts didn't last too long. I had a weird respect for all the Hall H hopefuls camped out there under those canopies, but I did not have a desire to join them. I was at Comic-Con for the first (and maybe last) time ever! I wasn't going to spend half that time waiting around for a single presentation! I wanted to explore and stretch my legs and see everything the convention had to offer. So I wished those patient souls in line good luck, and continued on my sight-seeing journey for a little while longer.

One hotel actually set off full-sized fireworks that night. They exploded pretty close to the ground, and it was shockingly loud. It sounded as if the neighborhood was under attack.

After getting my bearings, and ensuring a basic understanding of the layout of downtown, I hopped on the next trolley back to my hotel. I'd done a lot of walking, and my legs were very tired by the time I crashed in my hotel room. But I was very excited all the same. Tomorrow was the first of two busy days at Comic-Con; I couldn't wait for the fun to begin the next morning!

Next Issue: The Spectacular Comic-Con--Includes LOTS and LOTS of full-color pictures!