Confessions of a Comic Con Virgin, Pt 1.

I apologize for the delay in writing this article, and also for the fact that it is yet another “Comic Con Recap” article. The reason it was delayed is because I honestly have not managed more than 4 to 5 hours sleep since Comic Con due to various internships and other responsibilities. The reason you should read this despite its redundant topic is because prior to last Wednesday, I was a San Diego Comic Con virgin. Hell, I was a virgin to any kind of comic convention before this. Plus I’m awesome. So read up, nerds and Geekscapists!

My journey began in Los Angeles. I was a naïve girl, going to San Diego, thinking I could somehow manage to spend a minimal amount of money and maintain my sanity and sobriety over the course of the next four days. When I hopped on the Amtrak to make my journey to San Diego, little did I know that my hopes to be sober and save money would be crushed. As I began to play Angry Birds Rio on my Droid 3 for three hours, I knew my sanity was already waving goodbye and that I had morphed into Alice and that San Diego was the modern equivalent of Wonderland. The train, of course, playing the role of the rabbit hole as the scenes and people became less normal (that is, what you see and expect to see every day) and steadily increased in their variety of uniqueness. I was not disturbed, as I firmly believed I was among my people. We who have and understand passion greater than the standard being. We who love without necessarily being loved in return. The Eponines in a world of Cosettes. (I just came back from watching Les Mis. Deal with it.) It was great to feel like I was in the majority for once.

And then I landed in San Diego.

 Finding my fellow Geekscapists was easy enough. Merely a text or a phone call away. Thanks to my handy-dandy Droid, I was able to find our hotel with ease. As I waited for one Geekscapist to pick me up, I began to survey the lobby and discovered that nerds all dress he same. Either a Threadless or fandom related T-Shirt with long shorts and a look of awkwardness that shows we just aren’t fit for social interaction. Once Gilmore met me, I dropped off my bag in my room (which I shared with six fellow Geekscapists) and we met up with a few people for a drink.

Still believing I would maintain my sobriety, I did not partake in anything but water. One because I’m poor, two because I wanted to experience my first day of Con without the pains of a hangover or the murkiness of still being a bit drunk at 9AM in the morning. With my fellow geeks, nerds and Geekscapists, we discussed topics that could only be considered socially acceptable thanks to the internet. Topics like “What is it about furry porn that you find so disturbing?”, “Which Disney princess/character helped you discover your own sexuality?” and, of course, “Are there any panels your excited about?” After our little cocktail hour ended, the few of us staying in the same room went back to it.

I should note here, that even before coming to Comic Con I was sleep deprived. I hadn’t slept more than about 5 or so hours two or three nights building up to it. I had planned to take a nap on the train, but after a few minutes of dozing, when the guy asked to see my ticket, I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. So, when we went back to our room, which was shared with six others, we all chatted until about 2 or 3 in the morning. And then, thanks to the curtain being open, we all awoke at the ass crack of dawn as well. I didn’t mind this, since I had to get showered, dressed and wait in an hour or so long line to get my official Comic Con badge.

Wanting to experience my first Comic Con in full, I dressed up as Black Canary on the first day. I later learned that cosplay is more prevalent on the second and third days of Con, but I was not alone in my costume wearing, so all was well.

Holding my hand through my first day of Comic Con, was the lovely Lea (who somehow manages to put up with being Gilmore’s girlfriend). She waited with me in line and showed me how to go through the whole process (including turning my massive Con bag into a backpack for me!) and showed me through the floor to the Geekscape booth. I must say, no matter how much you think you can prepare for the convention floor, you can’t. It’s a complete assault on your senses. Colors, advertising, people, costumed characters, booth babes, vendors, promoters, everything you hate and love about living in a modern society is there, ready to pounce.

We found our way to the Geekscape booth, dropped off some major bits of baggage and bounced off to get an overpriced coffee at the convention center’s Starbucks. While in line, I saw a Usagi (or Serena, if you watched the dubbed) from Sailor Moon. She was my first cosplayer (aside from a few Doctor Whos, but I never watched that show, so I wasn’t half as excited). I wanted to take a picture, especially since she had managed to do the meatball hair with her own hair, but I decided against it. I’m a nerd. I’m socially awkward. Plus, she seemed to be enjoying her latte.

After that, Lea and I bounced back onto the Convention floor. We roamed around Artist’s Alley and the main floor, before breaking off. I was going to interview Paul Dini later that day, so I wanted to touch base with Walton and a few others, to see if they had any suggestions for questions or tips for not vomiting on someone who helped shaped your childhood mid-interview.  Not much help on the latter, but one fellow Geekscapist offered up a great question which—depending on how the video was cut—made the interview!

My interview with Paul Dini had my stomach in knots. Not just because he is Paul Dini, but because I had never done an on-camera interview before and I had a great fear of turning into a deer in headlights and just freezing. Luckily I did not and he was awesome. He also commented on my costume, which was cool. Especially since there was a “professional” interviewer who was not at all shy about her disgust for how I was attired. Ah, nothing like a little fashion cattiness at Comic Con. I like to think the interview went fairly well, although I mostly have it blacked out from my adrenaline and fear. If it makes the site, you can all tell me how much I sucked.

After my time with Dini, I scampered back on to the Convention floor. I did a little work at the Geekscape.net booth handing out flyers …

Before roaming around on my own.

Ass shots and mean girls aside, dressing up as Black Canary, I must admit, was probably the best decision of my Comic Con experience. Those who knew who I was player were really excited about it, and those who didn’t gave the best confused and awkward “trying not to stare, but what?” looks. The only time I was annoyed in costume was when a fistful of people asked me if I was Silk Spectre. Really? Did you not (at least) see the Watchman movie? Lea suggested I claim to be inverted-Silk Spectre, but Dinah Lance is too great of a character to diminish in that way. Oh, and a few “in the know” fans hailed me by “name” as Dinah, and that was pretty stellar.

I have two favorite moments in my life as a cosplayer, though. The first was while I was walking down artist’s alley late in the day, looking for some Black Canary art, and being hailed down by one of the vendors who was really excited by my costume. Pleased to have a fan, I bopped over to her booth to chat and look over here wares. While she was gushing over how awesome I was, I checked the names on the book. I recognized the artist and looked up with wonder. “Wait, are you Nicola Scott?” “I am!” “Oh my God. You are my favorite! I HAVE to have a picture!” So, now I have to pictures of me as Canary with Nicola Scott and this great story of mutual fangirling with a wonderful artist. She told me to track down Gail Simone—believing she’d love my costume—but I could not find her.

My second favorite moment, happened while I was on the search of Gail Simone. I went to the Comic Book section of the convention floor (that’s right, there’s a non-Comic section of COMIC Con. Don’t ask me. Ask the Hollywood people). In my search for Gail, I saw a camera crew interviewing some guy in costume. Since I am probably the vainest person you’ll ever meet (people don’t believe this, but that’s because I care a lot about other people, too), I stalked the waters of this camera crew. I circled around the nearby booths, keeping in obvious site of them, until lo and behold: I was stopped for an interview. Yeah, that’s right. Turns out it was with Entertainment Weekly and it was a section on whether or not you can find romance at Comic Con. I bring this up not just because it’s cool to be interviewed, but because it actually ended in me getting asked out.

Looks like you answered your own question, EW!

I didn’t manage to go to any of the panels, because I was still trying to find my equilibrium and recover from the culture shock that is Comic Con. I did glance upstairs once to see if I could make the Game of Thrones panel, but the line for that thing had begun at least four hours prior to the panel. I know we lovers of pop culture are known for waiting in lines, from Star Wars fans to Twihards, but I refused to spend my first day of Comic Con waiting in a line that wasn’t the one getting me into the convention. I did manage to catch a glimpse of Peter Dinklage at the Game of Thrones signing, however, and that was pretty exciting. Not gonna lie.

As the day turned to evening, I wandered back to the hotel to lay down for a minute before getting ready for the parties. Geekscape hosted a party with Stan Lee, so of course we all had to make an appearance. Regrettably, I did not stay long enough to meet him, as I bounced early with a few of my fellow Geekscapists to the Tucker and Dale vs. Evil party. There, they had free BBQ and an open bar. They also had Alan Tudyk who I was sure to make an ass out of myself in front of. You will see, as these little recollections are produced, how much I love to make an ass out of myself in front of celebs.

While at the bar with Lea, Lea gushes to Mr. Tudyk about how much she loves his work and thinks he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. When he turns to me, I tell him I loved him in A Knight’s Tale. His expression was priceless and encapsulates how embarrassing the moment was for both of us. When he later tweeted:

The Tucker and Dale party had a lot of geeks, several nerds, three dweebs, a hand full of celebrities, two silly bitches, and a douche. Nice.

I like to imagine that I was one of those silly bitches. But I may have very well been the douche. Hard to say. Afterward, I mumbled something about how he was great in Firefly, too, before drowning sorrow in another vodka cranberry.

Also at the party was my favorite little elfin character, Link, celebrating his 25th anniversary! Lea and I took this chance to take a picture with him.

It should be noted our poses are stolen from other characters posted around the room and that we aren’t, in fact, retarded. Though, if we were, there would be nothing wrong with that.

Once that party ended, my little group of Geekscapists headed to a party that was DJ’d by Jon Favreau. There, I managed to swindle a free beer from some guys at the bar. While dazzling them with my personality [you may call my personality “Edward Cullen” as it does, in fact, dazzle. (Please don’t kill me for that joke!)], one of them quipped “You are too cool to be hanging out with us.” Ever susceptible to suggestion and looking for a way out, I thanked them for the drink, found Gilmore and danced the night away.

We rolled back into the hotel a conservative guess of 3AM, with my feet hurting more than I could ever fathom. It was a beautiful day.