Day two began just like day one, waking up before dawn. We hopped in the convention line super early, where we got herded into the hall and quickly walked to get in the Ballroom 20 line. From there we sat on our butts for an hour and watched the line stretch over half a mile…literally.
We got great seats for the first panel, Torchwood. The humorous banter and innuendo of the flamboyant John Barrowman and Eve Myles stole the show as I learned that Torchwood is a spin-off of Doctor Who – a show I’ve been meaning to start watching, but am ashamed to say I know very little about aside from “The Doctor” and a time-machine police box.
Next up was one of our favorites, The Walking Dead. Fearful that season two would focus more on the interpersonal drama rather than zombies, I was glad to see the season two teaser had lots of awesome zombie action. I was surprised to learn that Frank Darabont created a zombie school for all the extras in The Walking Dead to go through before getting on screen. The school teaches the precise walk and mannerisms that Darabont envisions for his zombies. Putting so much effort into even the smallest details like that is part of what makes the show so great, and how they nabbed three Emmy nominations.
The Big Bang Theory panel came on stage with a humorous introduction from Howard’s mother. They showed the gag reel from the previous season and had a Howard’s-mother-impersonation contest before delving into audience questions. Thankfully they hinted that the events that transpired in the season finale (Raj and Penny) will not continue next season.
Deciding not to stick around for further panels we didn’t have much interest in, we decided to walk around and see the convention floor. If there were any question if this was a geek convention, they were answered as soon as we saw cosplay chess, with the guy from Assassin’s Creed, and Link, facing off against a TIE fighter pilot, Psylocke and a guy in steampunk.
While walking around the convention floor I had my first celebrity encounter – just perusing the aisles was Gabe (Mike Krahulik), the gaming icon behind Penny Arcade, founder of Child’s Play, and creator of PAX, the convention for gamers. Having been to several PAXes, I was surprised to see him without a swarm of gamers hounding him for pictures or autographs. Not wanting to be one of “those people” I simply said hi, expressed my love of his work, asked where the Penny Arcade booth was, shook his hand, and went on my way.
Shortly after, I passed the PvP booth with Scott Kurtz just sitting there chatting it up with some fans. Another guy that would have been swarmed at PAX, but not so much at Comic-Con.
The grandiose of Comic-Con finally hit me when the guy working the Penny Arcade booth was none other than Robert Khoo. The guy in charge of organizing all of PAX was selling t-shirts at the Penny Arcade booth at Comic-Con, clearly this convention was on a whole other level.
The convention floor was absolutely enormous – only halfway through, Chrystie and I needed a break, so we sat in the hallway. At this point my brain starting seeing celebrities everywhere, and I was convinced the guy sitting across from me was Tim Robbins in costume. People kept coming up to him to take pictures and I overheard him telling someone about a band on tour with Nickelback. I knew Robbins had a band, so in my mind it had to be him. Sadly, when Chrystie had me bring up a photo of him on my phone I realized I was wrong, perhaps the guy looked like a young Tim Robbins in Bull Durham, but not even close to what he looks like now. Also, his band is not, and has never toured with Nickelback.
We made our way back into the convention hall just in time to see the costume contest at the Marvel area. I wiggled my way through a sea of people trying to get close enough to get some good shots, but most of my pictures were bombed by people craning necks to see or flashes from the hundred other cameras. See if you can find me:
Costumes of note were Epic Sax Deadpool,
Miss Captain America (I think),
Venom (if you don’t mind the head in the way),
Iron Man,
and of course Stan The Man Lee.
After the contest I walked across the main aisle to the Simpsons booth and stumbled upon Matt Groening having a conversation with Homer.
Lego had an area with life-sized characters, Batman, Boba Fett, Spongebob, and Captain Jack Sparrow – all quite impressive.
The sheer size of the convention floor and the amount of people packed into it was truly amazing. You could easily spend an entire day walking the convention floor and not see everything.
After the convention we decided to head to get some fish and chips at Tin Fish Gaslamp. As we ate, there was a big commotion outside and I looked out the window to see Conan O’Briens head floating above a sea of people. Chants of “Co-Co” ensued as he walked past, presumably his way to check out the Museum of Conan Art, a fan art exhibit for Conan and his Young Justice character, The Flaming C.
Soon after another hubbub began as Kevin Smith exited his limo to greet fans.
We realized this just might be celebrity central and decided to just plop down on the sidewalk after dinner and see who showed up. Chrystie soon spotted Robert Kirkman, creator and artist of one of her favorite comics, and one of our favorite shows, The Walking Dead.
Later on I noticed a guy smoking out in back of Tin Fish. Once in a while someone would walk up to him and take a photo, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out who he was. It wasn’t until the next day when we saw a panel he was in did I find out that it was John Noble from the show Fringe and Denethor in Lord of the Rings.
A while later a large gathering moved down the street, barely visible was a woman I overheard was Kate Beckinsale, but her guards rushed her through the hungry autograph seekers so quickly I didn’t get a good look.
We started getting cold and decided to head back to the hotel, but I felt there were still some celebrity sightings to be seen, so I sat in the lobby for a while, where I had my last sighting of the night. I wouldn’t have known who she was if not for her sitting on a panel I saw the next day, Nina Dobrev from the Vampire Diaries got rushed through the lobby to her limo.
After an long day of panels, walking the convention floor, and celebrity sightings, I headed to bed to get up bright and early again to do it all over again.
See my Comic-Con Day 1 post here.
As if there weren’t enough links in this article, you can view all my photos from Comic-Con here.