I was told it was going to be overwhelming. I was told it was going to be action-packed. I was told it was going to be awesome. I was told right. Excited and nervous, I waited these last few months for the day when all my nerd dreams would come try. I can say that it was pretty awesome. I got to meet Mark Duplass (Pete from The League) who was very nice,even though his publicist wanted him to stop signing autographs 15 minutes in--I was not having that crap; she must have seen my face and changed her mind. I also got to see the cast of The League who were hysterical, of course.
We hit the floor in full force the moment we got there and were overwhelmed with the crowds of people. It was hard getting through the aisles and hard to see everything that we passed so we had to loop around a few times. And even though Comic Con states it's kid friendly, don't bring your kids!! All we were doing was tripping over little toddlers who were lagging behind and baby carriage wheels! It's too small of a space already. I think there should be an age limit, like 8. 8 is a good year. Plus they'll appreciate it more.
It was interesting to see the big name celebrities who were there signing autographs (Patrick Stewart, William Shatner, David Duchovny...) who also charged a ridiculous amount of money to get that signature. Not only did people have to wait on line for 1-2 hours, but then they had to pay $40-90 for that autograph. And extra if they wanted a picture! I think that's insane. I know these celebrities have to make money somehow (and believe me, they're probably getting paid a lot of that money for just waking up in the morning) and charging a fee is a sort of crowd control but these are your fans. These are the people who put, and keep, you in business. $90 for your signature is pretty extreme, Sir Patrick Stewart, especially since that doesn't come with a latte and a discussion about politics at the local Starbucks.
It was also interesting to see the people who dress up. I feel like Sunday is the low-key day, so I'm probably going to try to get Saturday tickets next time when there are more costume competitions. Some people are career cosplayers and do this all the time and some were just dressed up for fun. I'm all for expressing yourself and being what you want to be, but I feel that when you're dressing up to imitate someone or something, you should try to actually embody that thing. It has to be somewhat realistic or else you're just you in a costume. And that makes you a bit weird. Of course there were those girls who dressed up in unnecessarily sexy costumes: sexy batman, sexy transformer. I saw so many ass cheeks and boobs it was like a club on a Friday night. And the super high heels were ridiculous! You look ridiculous hobbling around at the 5th hour hanging onto your boyfriend. No one thought that was cute. No one. Also, again, I'm all about being comfortable with who you are and you're body, but when you squeeze into a costume with cutouts and your rolls are hanging out, you don't look comfortable and, in turn, you make ME UN-comfortable. Play to your strengths, not to your weaknesses, people. Aside from that one sexy problem, it was nice to see people be original with their costumes. There were some repeats but they all had a twist to them which I liked.
Now that I know what to expect, I'm definitely going next year. In a costume. And it will be the best costume ever. And I may even go two days, who knows. It was definitely overwhelming but worth it and we were thankful to have Columbus Day off to recover from the nerdgasm. Until next year, Comic Con!
