Geekscape Roundtable: Epic San Diego Tales!

Every year, the internet gorges itself like on post Comic Con panel recaps and celebrity events like a zombie in a nursery school. So for a change of pace, here’s a few personalized tales and thoughts from the Con from your Geekscape staff. 

Molly Mahan: Women be Shoppin’

In addition to some solid panels and run-ins with nerd celebs, I did the wise thing and actually bought some stuff this year, and not just squee over the free swag I would later toss out. I’m typically really conservative with my money, but this year I snagged an awesome Cliff Chiang signed print of some DC heroines dressed as 80s rockers
. How could I not? Canary and 80s karaoke are two of my favorite things. It is pure gold in my book. I commissioned an amazing sketch of a female Predator by Anthony Diecidue, managed to get Gail Simone to sign a copy of her first issue of Birds of Prey, #56 with Black canary on the cover, while dressed as Black Canary, AND I won a free Archie shirt by cosplaying as Betty Cooper on Sunday of Con- easiest cosplay ever AND I got to wear sneakers instead of boots. I also took some fun novelty pictures (such as sitting in the Captain’s chair at the Roddenberry booth, red carpets, etc). They’re simple, free, and a great souvenir. While the pins and things are fun at Con, having to figure out what to do with them post-SDCC is difficult. I definitely suggest buying some cool stuff instead.

Big improvement over Scott Summers

As always, I did learn a few things. As a neophyte cosplayer, I swear that next year I am bringing a pair of sandals and a possibly a change of loose, light clothing to change into mid-day. Walking around the convention floor and through the Gaslamp district takes its toll on you in sneakers, let alone in 5-inch heels. By 5PM on Friday, my feet were in so much pain I wanted to cry (I think I even did for a bit).  I also need to remember to get out of the Convention Center proper and spend more time running around outside. There’s so much other stuff going on in the Gaslamp district it’s insane.

Matt Blackwood: Emotions!

You never know who will read your writing or how it will affect them.

I went Thursday to a panel celebrating the legacy of Ray Bradbury. Shadow Show, a new anthology dedicated to the late legend, had just been released, and writer/editors Sam Weller and Mort Castle and writers Joe Hill and Margaret Atwood discussed their roles in making it. They talked about the magical quality of Bradbury’s writing, about how much he had inspired them and others they knew. They also spoke of their personal experiences with their friend Ray. Their remembrances were very moving.

The next day, I ran into the group in the hall and told them my story of bawling my eyes out in public while writing Geekscape’s Bradbury eulogy in a coffee shop. To my surprise, Sam Weller had read the piece on the day and loved it! With the universality and anonymity of the Internet, you never know who will read the things you put out there. But finding out my words had touched someone so close to Mr. Bradbury meant more to me than meeting any celebrity or hearing any nerd news tidbits.

Scott Alminiana: Geekscape Talon

The Court of Owls mask that DC was giving away was incredibly cool looking and proved to be something that I had to work my ass off to get a hold of. It took me two days to get my grubby little mitts on one. When I got onto the floor on Thursday I started seeing people with these awesome masks and immediately knew I had to have one but I had no idea just how difficult it would be to get one. Asking around, I found out that they were being handed out at the DC booth. I quickly (which really isn’t quick at all when one is at SDCC) made my way to the DC booth and started looking around for the masks. The few people handing out issues of ‘New 52’ books told me the same thing: “they just randomly hand them out so you’ve got to keep an eye out.” It was still early in the day so I decided to come back later.

Later turned out to be Friday and as I was prowling the DC booth like Batman prowling the streets of Gotham, I finally saw a lady with a stack of Owl masks. She was only about ten yards from me when I made a beeline for her but again, floor traffic. As I got closer the stack got smaller and smaller. By the time I was two feet from her there was a pack of wild nerds reaching for the masks like zombies reaching for fresh meat. The masks were gone and the pack dispersed.

Well earned creepiness

“God dammit,” I muttered to myself as I sulked my way back to my friends. As it turns out both of my friends had been busy flirting up a girl who was selling Entertainment Weekly subscriptions at the booth. They all looked at me and saw the sadness in my face- I was like a kid who hadn’t gotten picked for dodgeball. Knowing how bad I wanted the mask they asked the gorgeous EW girl if she could keep an eye out and snag us some. She gave me a wink and said “I’ll do my best, come back in a little while and hopefully I’ll have some for you.” After grabbing lunch in the Gaslamp district we came back to the DC booth and wouldn’t you know it, she had come through for us (and me specifically). I know have an awesome mask of my own thanks to @luxiboo! Lux, where ever you are you are my hero! Thank you!

Shawn Madden: Hall H Veteran

As covered on Saturday, my SDCC highlight was Saturday’s Hall H line-up. This was hands down the best Hall H presentation I have ever seen and can honestly say that I can’t stop thinking about Iron Man 3, Guardians Of The Galaxy, and Ant-Man. I am not a fan of Superman, and the fact that Man Of Steel has me excited is an impressive feat. It’s a Hall H miracle!

Shane O’Hare: Man in the Booth

This was the first year I primarily worked the Geekscape booth. I thought it was going to be a tad boring but then I saw who our neighbors were: Maddox, Legendary, Konami and ABC Family. I thought “Holy shit this is going to be busy”. OH and it was. I got to meet some of the greatest and nicest people working the booth. Getting people to sign up on our list in creative ways was so much fun. We had a mystery price box, full of prizes and giveaways. Some were REALLY good, like a Blu ray and a competitive PS3 controller and some… not so much. Like a couple Cesar Milan books. I had people compete in a three geek challenges. 1: Defend your favorite movie. 2: Prove Geek Cred and 3: Dance Off. We only had a few dance off’s but they were hilarious to watch. Seeing people trying to defend their favorite movies while me and Zack Haddad (AKA Mr. Terrorist) ripped them apart brought back memories of my Random Rants.

The morning where I opened the booth I had two hours of boredom to kill, so I got creative: I started “editing” some of the prizes. Soon we were handing out posters celebrating Geekscape’s 50th anniversary and the Geekscape Press best seller “Solving the Geekscape Enigma: How to Come”. I had some great times, meeting old friends and making new ones. That 8X10 box filled with friends, prizes, conversations and memories was my home for five days and I miss it. To the great guys at Maddox, ABC The Neighbors Booth, Legendary, The Mega64 Boyz and everyone else. I’ll miss you and I can’t wait to see you again next year.

Also at one point I was wearing my My Little Pony Rarity Cosplay and sat on my own tail. That was the most odd and uncomfortable sensation I have ever had in my entire life.

Stephen Prescott: Who?

Anytime I was near the Warner Brothers booth, it was quite apparent to me that Warner Brothers simply does not care about their fans. The first time I walked up to their booth I was excited to see the “Man of Steel” Superman costume on display. Unfortunately it was turned so that it could only be viewed straight on from inside the booth. I tried to view it from behind a rope but was quickly moved along. Once inside the booth I stopped for a better view and less than 30 seconds later I was once again moved along by WB staff. I guess they simply didn’t want me to see it. Each time during the weekend I was near that booth I was told either to keep moving or that the pathway was either one way or simply shut down. I understand they need to crowd control, but I didn’t run into militant security like this at any other booth. It felt as if the fans were simply cattle being herded through. And where were the Faora and Jor-El costumes that were on display at other conventions? WB needs to stop thinking about press and publicity and start thinking about the people.

The irony was that Tumblr was down when they walked in…

The BBC America Doctor Who Tumblr Meetup was my favorite moment. I’m not a major Tumblr user, but I was taking every opportunity possible to promote my podcast so of course attending a Doctor Who Tumblr meetup sounded like a good idea. Even though I felt like the oldest person there, all of the fans were so incredibly nice and sweet. I posed for and took so many pictures including one with a stuffed sheep wearing a fourth Doctor scarf. If all that wasn’t enough, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill showed up unannounced at one point to say hello and it was like Beatlemania all over again. The screams from the back of the audience were insane but wonderful. So much fun was had.

 Allison McKnight: Nightmare Before Hall H

As the sad lonely resident Goth kid abandoned by my brethren, one of the best things at Comic-Con for me was the Frankenweenie Exhibit down in the Gaslamp.  In a stroke of absolute genius, the exhibit was partially sponsored by the HGTV, which means that not only did we get a life-sized Tim Burtonesque cemetery to walk through (complete with lightening storm!) but we were treated to a garden full of deadly plants labeled with the ways in which they could kill you.  I absolutely melted.

Here lies an emotionally satisfied Goth girl…

While there isn’t much bad I can say about my Comic-Con experience (at least without getting slapped with some lawsuits), I really have to question how Hall H events are treated.  Some people choose to spend their entire con experience waiting in line for I can’t imagine how many hours for a brief block of time in which they are treated to a teaser and a viewing of some of their favorite celebrities a football field’s length away.  To those people, I have to say: get the fuck over it, go to the Gaslamp.