San Diego Comicon 2010

Finally! (Though I think I'm getting this one done a lot quicker than last year...) As you can see, we had Odin's throne at the Marvel booth this year. (If you don't know who Odin is, you need to brush up on your Norse mythology!! He's Thor's dad and in case you didn't know, Thor — the movie — is coming out next May, directed by KENNETH BRANAGH!!!!!) So that's me up there, wearing the InuYasha ears I picked up this year. (I buy some type of ears at nearly every con I go to. I need to stop.)

So, I was in LA for a few days prior to this (and I may post some pics from that portion of my trip as well). I drove down to San Diego in turned out to be a very fun "road trip" (I use the term loosely...it was under 3 hours...) with my friends Zane & Brea Grant (I met them LAST year at Comicon!) as well as new friend Vera!

We rushed over to the con for Zane & Brea's signing (they write a cool comic called We Will Bury You for IDW — check it out!). And THIS was the first thing I see as I near the convention center:


(I added the little titles. :-P) Really?! REALLY?! We need this at Comicon!? There was supposedly a big group of West Baptist asshats protesting on Friday — apparently we worship our comic book heroes as gods, when we should be worshipping god (cuz I'm sure all these fanboys think Superman created the WORLD) — but after I saw this, I figured that was enough for me. Those kids were just a few feet away from her. While I actually think "Fuck God" isn't the BEST way to go about showing how awful this woman is, they're hearts were in the right place and they had the balls and patience to stand there while awesomeness was just through the doors behind them!

Anyway, the NEXT thing I see is THIS and my spirits were immediately perked up! Go Optimus!!!


Here's Zane & Brea signing at the IDW booth, less than 30 minutes after we arrived in San Diego...
And one with my Hipstamatic app on my iPhone! Man I love that app, too bad my 3G is so frakkin' slow and can't handle it (oh man, I can't wait for my iPhone 4!!! My 30th birthday present!), so this is the only pic I took with it.


While at the IDW booth, I learned that The Last Unicorn, one of my favourite animated movies of all time (it's really good, watch it!) is being adapted into a comic! AND the guy who wrote the original novel, Peter S. Beagle, was based on was there signing!!!


He was SOOO sweet!! Talked to him for a little bit, got him to sign the first issue AND I picked up another novel he wrote and had him sign it. It's called Tamsin. I just started it and it's about a girl named Jennifer who lives in New York City and has a black cat!!! WHAT?!?!?! Too weird! AND she moves to England. Granted she doesn't WANT to, but I LOVE England! Coincidences freak me out. :-P

Anyway, the other really cool things that we had at the Marvel booth. Firstly...THESE:


Yep, that's Thor's, Odin's & Loki's helmets. I love how Odin's sorta combines the other two. Loki's looks crazy cool.

Then on Sunday they traded them out for the Captain America shield, which I missed (but I'm sure the internet has pics of it), then swapped that out even later for the Infinity Gauntlet!! So cool! And from a certain angle it caught the light and looked like it glowed!!


Also, at some point, they opened the doors behind the throne to show off the Destroyer!!!



But the best thing I think we had were the actors themselves!!! Here's Loki & Thor:


And Red Skull (ELROND!!) & Captain America!!


The guy playing Thor is Kirk's dad from the new Star Trek movie. He is a giant. And he is beautiful. O_o haha

So aside from Marvel, here's some other random cool things I came across:

This was outside the hotel across from the convention center. They usually have some crazy thing going on. I think last year it was a Heroes carnival thing. I have no idea what this was for, but it was cool.


Another thing outside that I don't know what it was for. Just on some lawn. haha I just liked it.


Technically Marvel, but not at OUR booth...I really rather like the Armored Adventures cartoon!


People dressed as Katamari!!!! Awesome! This was at a demonstration of this dance game. All weekend I walked past new costume people trying to dance. haha


Legos and Harry Potter! What's not to like! As soon as the Lego Harry Potter game is available cheap/used, I'll be playing that (unless it coincides with Fable III, nothing will keep me from Fable III).


A cool Star Wars toy set up over at the Hasbro booth...


Luke's in there!!


I think this was also at the Hasbro booth...sweet.


The Green Hornet car (which I later learned was called Black Beauty) with some hot chicks.


On Sunday night I saw them packing up the Ecto-1!!!!!! This was arguably the coolest thing I saw this weekend! Black Beauty is also in the truck. This drew quite a crowd so the crew put the lights and sounds on for us and it played the Ghostbusters music!!! So cool.


Stopped by Christina Strain & Adrian Alphona's table! One of my favourite colourists and one of my favourite artists! And awesome people! Christina put me & Adrian up in LA before the con this year! She rules!


The last day of the con I saw a ton of these AWESOME fox hat/tail sets. I eventually asked someone where they got them and apparently it was a raffle or something, then she told me where I could buy them online and I forgot. So if you know, PLEASE TELL ME. (Or better yet, buy me one! haha :-P) That dude looks suspicious of my picture-taking...


The other super cool thing at the con was the Walking Dead booth where they had a set up to take pictures in. VERY cool. I can't wait for this show, the comic is so awesome. (Don't tell Kirkman I said that!)


They had like movie screens behind the windows showing zombies walking up. Creepy!


So here are my pics on this set. I'm not sure my photo-acting skills came through, so I added balloons. hehe (I love working in comics!!!)


(Interesting fact, I heard they had "God Forgive Us" written there for preview night but were "compelled" to change it after that. Ridiculous, but not surprising.)

Buffy fans should remember the line in the balloon I added here:


And a pretty famous horror line...


The girl taking the picture told me to lean in to get a close up with this guy. I had to do SOMETHING. ;-)


Outside at Tin Fish, a zombie waits for her lunch...


I think my favourite night at the con was Friday night at the Marvel party. I had such a good time with some of my favourite people in comics. Also, we had a visit from this cutie pie:


The sweetheart that he is, he offered to call my mom (who is a huge Heroes fan) and leave her a message (it was like 3 in the morning in NYC). Needless to say, my mom was thrilled. Better than any silly souvenir I could've gotten!

After the party we made a pit stop at the Subway near there, the only place open 24 hours! Clearly this was also a lot of fun! I tried to take the picture myself...


Then someone offered to do it for me! ;-) That's Lee Douhig in the bag and someone I can't remember, Gerry Duggan & CB Cebulski with me in the front! All great dudes!!!


Had to get a 2010 pic with Brea. We swapped hair lengths from last year!! haha (And we both changed our colours!)


I semi-stalked Steve Niles. If you follow us on twitter you may have seen me threatening to run him off the road as we were both driving to LA at the same time. I'd assumed at that time that I'd actually be able to hang out with him, but this right here is the only time I ended up seeing him at the convention. And he didn't see me. I sent him this picture and stood there waiting to get it for a minute or two before giving up and walking away. I didn't wanna skip all the people waiting in line to meet him and I figured I'd run into him later. Oh well. There's always New York Comicon!!


Gotta get a pic wearing Lee's hat every year now! :-P


I didn't spend the entire time at the con, I walked around a little bit (at one point going on my own private scavenger hunt for Space Invader pieces which I will blog about later). Here's some stuff around town I liked:

I love old run down building signs like this!


And I also like new, modern, cool signs like this! I saw this and wondered what this store could be for:


Then I saw this on the door. How silly of me! Of COURSE it is!


This mural was on the way between my hotel and the con. Cool, huh?


View from the hall window at my hotel.


Some really pretty walkway near my hotel!


Anyway, back to the con. On the last day this chick came by to take pics on the throne. I thought her Imperial Forces costume was SO COOL (and she's VERY pretty), so I took these pics. My co-worker emails me a few days after I get back telling me this is Adrianne Curry, first "Next Top Model" winner and wife of Peter Brady! She also posted pics of herself at this con! I didn't even know who she was. I like that she's a geek!


Then there was the breakdown. I always love watching this. It's kinda sad, but in a cool way...if that makes sense...


I'm sure I missed some cool parts, but without photographic evidence, I probably forgot. Thanks for sticking with this post if you got the whole way through. If you made it this far, here's a treat for you!

On Sunday night, I walked behind these INCREDIBLY drunk ladies on the way to meet up with Marvel peeps. I couldn't help but take a picture. YOU would have to, don't lie. ;-)

Soon I'll post about Space Invaders and possibly some LA pics too! (Then I have to go back and post about some other things I'm still pissed I never posted! ARRGHH!

Later, peeps!


The End.

An Epic Epic of Epicness It Was!

SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD!!!!


Seriously YES! If you haven't read the books, YOU MUST! Go! Go get them NOW! YOU WILL LOVE SCOTT PILGRIM!


But whether you have or not, you will enjoy this movie if you are a fan of fun (and DEFINITELY if you are — or ever were — a fan of video games.) I had a GREAT time with this movie! It's got laughs, loves & action! And definitely managed to capture the heart of this comic (unlike SOME adaptations I know...sigh...) There's awesome comic and video game type effects throughout! All the kids do an excellent job! I was a little worried Michael Cera would just be Michael Cera, but he actually did a great Scott! (Still hate his hair though...haha) Young Neil & Wallace were my favourites (I've always been a fan of Keiran Culkin!). Knives kicked ass and so did our Todd (played by SUPERMAN) & Lucas Lee (our very own, CAPTAIN AMERICA)! I also really loved Roxy! The chick from Parenthood (Mae Whitman) was PERFECT in that role! (::sigh:: I LOVE Parenthood...) So yeah, this movie comes HIGHLY recommended. I can't wait to see it again!!!!

Oh and here's how I went to see the midnight screening. Dressed in full nerd gear. Ramona t-shirt, a replica of Ramona's bag (thanks Etsy!) & the Ramona & Scott rubber bracelets I got from Comicon (excellent idea Oni!)!



The End.

I Am Lucky

To have a very loving and supportive family. While I know none of them are HAPPY I'm atheist, I never have to deal with this...well...just DISGUSTING behaviour. I fell bad for this girl and others like her. While I did have a tiny bit of brainwashing to break through, I'm pretty lucky that religion didn't...TAKE OVER in my life. It's kind of a background thing. My family still loves me just the same and for that I will be forever grateful.

If you don't know what some atheist go through when "coming out" please read this. And THIS is actually NOTHING compared to some other people around the world! It's sad.

http://atheistexperience.blogspot.com/2010/08/coming-out.html

Oh, that reminds me of this video. I can't even IMAGINE someone in my family acting this way.

hahaha Like Christmas gifts will make you believe in god! And if god were real, he'd be able to tell that the only reason this kid SAYS he believes is because he wants gifts!! I'd think god would be even MORE pissed about that!! haha

The End.

It Was a Good Night

Quick post about last night: It was good.

haha No, that's not all, I just want to plug a few places I frequented last night!

Had a DELICIOUS (but kinda expensive for a little bit, but mine was a birthday gift! hehe) lobster roll from Luke's Lobster. I went to the one on 7th St., but there's one uptown too. I suppose it IS lobster & that's like the go-to rich person's food, so it being expensive makes sense. It was REALLY good, though.

Had a nice pitcher of Brooklyn Lager over at Grassroots Tavern on St. Marks. (No, not by myself!) I really like this place, not too crowded & fairly cheap. Cash only though! Annoying! Be prepared!

Then on the way back to the train I passed the best thing ever! (Actually I passed it GOING to Luke's and thought it smelled delicious, and was just what I needed after lobster & beer...) It's a food truck called Wafels & Dinges! They serve waffles with dinges. haha ("Dinges" is Belgian for "toppings" apparently.) SO DELICIOUS. I got like a waffle ice cream sandwich. (I can't see it on the menu on the website...) It was two crispy waffles (like a cone, but better) with vanilla ice cream in between. And you can pick your dinge to go on it. I had the Spekuloos spread that was recommended. It's like a gingerbread flavour. REALLY good.

Seriously, this shit was amazing. I just had to share. I tell you what, New York City frakkin' RULES!

The End.

I Am Thirty

I keep saying it, hoping it will stop being scary. It doesn't.

haha I guess it's not so much that I feel OLD as that I'm that much closer to it being over! I know, I know, I have plenty of time (barring a terrible accident, which I like to avoid), but still. THIRTY YEARS HAVE PASSED. And it's not like it FELT like thirty years! I'm not like at this stage thinking, "Whoa, that took FOREVER, man, I got so many more of these years to get through!" That shit FLEW! It's crazy!

I know I'm not the only person in the world to think like this, I'm sure pretty much EVERYONE does. But that doesn't change the scariness for ME. ::sigh::

And yes, part of the scariness is that when it's over, THERE'S NOTHING. It's scary! It's impossible to imaging non-existence, which freaks me out! And before any of you religious-types says some dumbass thing about being right or whatever, here's this: Just because I'd LIKE there to be an after life (though, even that I'm not sure I want, all possible outcomes are kinda scary), that doesn't mean there IS one.

I think that's what's going on with a lot of religious people (I'm saying most or anything, but I know they're out there). They WANT there to be an afterlife, religion COMFORTS them, so they refuse to REALLY think about it for fear of convincing themselves it's not true. But I can't TRICK myself. I can't FORCE myself to believe something I don't. It's literally impossible! And if there WAS a god, wouldn't he be able to TELL that I was faking anyway??

So I guess that's kinda more why I'm scared of being 30. That's thirty years of a relatively short existence GONE. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty happy where I've gotten myself in those thirty years. I don't think I've not done something by now that I should have. (Luckily I have ZERO desire for children, otherwise I'd be freaking out about THAT too.) I mean, I'd like to have more money and have been able to see more places in the world, but I've still got time for that.

I think this is also why I pack my days full of stuff to the point of exhaustion. I just don't want to waste what little time I have! I don't want to miss out on anything! I don't want to miss out on meeting amazing people and making new friends and doing fun things with all of them. Sure I'm tired all the time, but it's worth it. Though I'd really like some more time to just go home and play video games!! Too bad I have to work! ;-) But I am lucky to enjoy that as well. I'm relatively happy and that's a good thing. But...THIRTY! I seriously can't believe it!

Ah well...that ends THAT rant. Stay tuned for my SDCC post coming soon!


The End.