Did I mention we’re already the 4th largest Comic Con in the nation? Because we are! Woot! But onto business.
Like smart people, my geek gals and I registered for the Con early. They even encouraged this with QR codes you could take and scan. And the first 1000 people supposedly got a figurine, but I wasn’t about to fight that crowd. I was just happy to have my registration out of the way. Because every day during the Con the lines to get your wristband went clear out the door and around the block. In this case the early bird does get the geeky worm.
DAY ONE
They said it started at 4 p.m. but apparently they scheduled panels for much earlier. I still had to work, so I missed out on the Buffy panel with Nicholas Brendon (Xander). 😦 But I did make it in time to see David Prowse and Peter Mayhew (Darth Vader and Chewbacca).
Peter Mayhew has had a surgery to fix his knees so he can walk well again. Hopefully that goes well. They were doing a documentary on it, featuring our Con as the last one before his surgery.
One of the most interesting parts of the panel was hearing David Prowse talk about being Darth Vader. He said they kept darkening the eyes of the helmet because they didn’t want to see light reflecting in his eyes through it. Also he delivered all of his lines through the helmet and he kept asking George about what they were going to do about his lines for sound and George promised they’d fix it in the studio.
And they did. With James Earl Jones.
Then David had another surprise in Return of the Jedi upon viewing it. They finally take the mask off of Darth Vader, when whose face should appear but Sebastian Shaw. Say what?! Poor David. But as he said, Star Wars, it bought me a car, it paid the mortgage. And now he can run the Con circuit regaling tales of Star Wars shenanigans. 😉
DAY TWO
Day One was pretty chill considering. Not everyone was there yet. Some of the booths weren’t set up in the exhibit hall. Things were just getting rolling. But Day Two brought a bigger crowd and lots of fun costumes. Like a cool weeping angel, an AT-ST, and even Gozer the Gozerian.
Don’t blink!
Being original = winning.
If we think of J. Edgar Hoover…
We showed up early to see Adrian Paul (Duncan MacLeod on Highlander). If you haven’t seen the show, I highly recommend it. One thing we really respected about Mr. Paul was his commitment to the story and the show. He constantly kept on producers to keep things consistent and to keep the show about the relationships, especially when it came to flashbacks. He said he believed that’s why the show worked so well.
He also briefly touched on his charity PEACE (Protect, Educate and Aid Children Everywhere). All in all he seemed like a really decent fellow and didn’t have that disdain for fans you unfortunately see a lot with celebrities. He said multiple times he knew the success of Highlander was due to the fans.
Yup. He still works out.
Then it was Go, Go, Power Rangers! time. I used to watch the original MMPR with my little brother back in the day. Let’s be honest, I watched it for Tommy. I was studying martial arts at the time and he’s a big martial artist practitioner, so it was a match made in heaven.
But Tommy wasn’t there. 😦 However, Zack and Billy were. And Zack is still looking real good! 😉
I have no idea who the girl is. She’s from a later iteration of Power Rangers. And unfortunately, either on medication or a few bricks short of a full load. I was like, “Come on, don’t be the ditzy blonde!” Nothing doing, peeps. She barely remembered her name, let alone why she was there in the first place. But at least Zack was entertaining. He even got up and showed us some of his “Hip Hop Kung Fu.” 😉
I already told you about my experience with Dean Cain. 😉 The end of Day Two concluded with a premiere showing of a movie called Orc Wars.
Okay, it’s not the most brilliant thing you’ll ever see, but it is a lot of fun. It’s basically Die Hard meets Lord of the Rings with a tank. And ladies, the protagonist may rival Taylor Lautner’s abs, just sayin’.
DAY THREE
Saturday we began with a Q&A panel with Kevin Sorbo of Hercules fame. He brought a DVD of some clips from Hercules, but mostly took questions from the audience. His patience level for questions was about 3 seconds. So he wasn’t a jerk exactly, maybe just on the border of disdain for the fans. I guess after seeing how Dean Cain and Adrian Paul interacted with fans, it was a starker comparison.
But he at least made concessions to one fan whose father had suffered a stroke. I guess Kevin went through the same thing during Hercules. He wrote a book about it called True Strength. I might check it out if it goes under the $5 Kindle mark or it’s available at my library.
Then it was time to go listen to the Captain—Captain Kirk that is. The line an hour before was already ridiculous amounts of long. But that’s to be expected for Shatner, isn’t it?
Our local Utah Jazz Bear came to most of the larger events, throwing around confetti and some Jazz swag. (And at this Con, swag was nearly an extinct species. Nobody was handing out nothing!) He’s just trying to promote the team. Yes, it’s a little lame, but hey, not like anyone else is handing out swag. And Shatner not only wouldn’t play along and toss stuff out into the audience that the bear handed him, he had to berate how stupid he thought the whole thing was. *sigh*
At least he’s funny. It’s not like I didn’t know he was kind of a jerk. Again, with the contrast of other celebs who weren’t acting like total doofs, well… But once the attention was all back on him, he at least turned on the funny. He told stories of how he was out in Utah when he got the call for Star Trek.
A fan asked him who he’d want to play him in a movie about his life. His answer: Chris Pine. 😉 He also said he used to prank Leonard Nimoy while filming Star Trek—a lot. Nimoy had a bike he’d ride to where they had lunch, and Shatner wanted to be first to lunch so he chained it up. Then had the grips put it on the ceiling and light it. And a bunch of other pranks. I’m betting Nimoy wished the Vulcan nerve pinch was for reals.
Crowd for Shatner from the middle of the room.
After Shatner we were allowed to stay in the room for Stan Lee, but we had Dean Cain pics scheduled at 4:50 and Stan Lee at 5. Well, we knew if we left the room that would be the end of our chances to see Stan Lee. The things a girl does for Superman. I’d seen him once before at SDCC, so it wasn’t as big a disappointment as it could have been.
And apparently because he had so many people who’d signed up to meet with and take pics with him, he decided to cut the panel short and keep his commitments for the meet and greet. So at the end of the day, it wasn’t the worst thing ever. Right? Right?
THE END
Since I sit at a desk all day for work, three days of walking on concrete floors had taken its toll on me. The remaining panels weren’t all that appealing to me, so even though the Con would go on for another few hours, I headed home.
But what a weekend! But fear not, friends, that isn’t the end of Jae’s Con posts. Tomorrow I’m going to be at a writing conference, so I thought I’d leave you with a post on displays, including one of the coolest Lego displays you’ve ever seen! Lots and lots of photos! See you tomorrow.
If you’d been at SLCC, which panel(s) would you have wanted to attend? Which celebs have you seen in person you thought were total jerks or really nice? Who’s the one celeb you’d want to meet and why?
Lit and Scribbles with Jae 