Albert Art

San Diego Comic-Con 09

SDCC = The BEST fan convention, EVAR.

My second San Diego Comic-Con was a SUCCESS!!! Despite being sore after the ridiculously fun, but exhausting convention experience, I came away with some really cool shit, a healthy amount of free schwag, and inspiration from being in the same room as the incredibly talented artists/filmmakers/idols/icons in attendance in San Diego. My trip was a BLAST!

I had planned on arriving in San Diego on Thursday for the official opening of the show, but because of other plans, I had to delay until Friday. I was actually a bit worried, that my entire SDCC trip would have to be canceled at the time, but luckily, I was able to get out of LA.

We caught the morning train from downtown Friday morning and rode it all the way to San Diego. Estimated trip time: two and a half - 3 hours. The train cars were packed with con-goers, without enough seats for everyone, so we ended up sitting in the cafe train car, which was meant for 'business' travelers. Free snacks! Immediately I could see that we were surrounded by industry people, and artists. Some dude was storyboarding an episode of the animated Avengers series, and I couldn't help but observe his art skills. While a couple of collaborating writers, were busy typing away at their laptops, looking over and editing some sort of screenplay. Next to them were two marketing ladies, talking about their experiences with organizing conventions. It was a neat group of passengers. Eavesdropping was fun. We played some DS games on this scenic ride to pass the time.

Arriving in SD at around 12:30, it was already too late to lineup for certain 'HALL H' panels, but because there was so much more to do in the day, (and in the coming days), I didn't feel so bad for not seeing the Miyazaki panel. The fun was just beginning.

My first priority at SDCC was to visit the NCsoft booth in the exhibit hall, with the intention of securing a Beta code for AION. Because I wasn't able to get one from my pre-order with Gamestop in Vancouver, I felt like I had to go directly to the source, all the way in San Diego. In fact, I managed to get two beta keys. SUCK IT GAMESTOP!

I then went to the Capcom booth directly across, to play some Tatsunoko for the Wii, but they had run out of Capcom Towels. Lame.

After taking a quick look at the exhibit hall, it was time to head over to the lineup for Hall H, for the District 9 panel. (Any panel in Hall H, becomes the worst lineup of the entire SDCC). With no shade, fans wait in the hot burning sun, for hours just to get inside. They should call it HALL HELL, because you literally get cooked, waiting in line.

The lineup was so long that we missed practically the entire panel, and only caught the tail-end of it. Peter Jackson introduced his Apprentice Neil Blomkamp, the director behind District 9, and showed the audience a 7 minute preview, or was it 10 minutes? I forgot.

After District 9, we sat through a Star Wars Spectacular presentation, which was boring, but immediately after that was a panel with Peter Jackson, and James Cameron, two incredibly influential filmmakers, with different ways of working. Their talk way AMAZING.

The rest of the weekend at SDCC, involved more panels, more free stuff, and more spending $. Saw some actors, and artists doing signings, and some really great booth presentations.