So, this last Saturday I went to my first comic convention: WonderCon. It was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. If you've never been to a comic convention, it's like this: they have comic books by the hundreds, toys based on comic books, shirts based on comic books, games based on comic books, guest stars, panels of discussion...all manner of geekdom and nerddom to sate all manner of geeks and nerds. Now, I'm not really a comic book buyer, but I'll read one if somebody else owns it and they don't mind me getting my grubby hands on it. I was going mostly for two reasons: 1) To see what these conventions were all about, and 2) to meet some online friends who I had never actually met in real life.
So the day started out like this: I put on my kilt, got a breakfast burrito, and met up with several of the crew at my house and we caravanned into the city. We drove around several blocks several times before we found a parking garage. It sounds like it should be easier than that, but the driver is kinda stubborn about some things.
Finally we park, get into the convention center. There are overweight and under-hygienic people everywhere! We go down stairs and get into the registration line to get our badges. This is when the nerd-herding began. We got in one line where they packed us in, then once we acquired badges, we got in another line where they packed us in and waited for them to open the gates. Finally the gates open and the herd shuffled en mass towards this basement city of capitalism. We then spent the next 4 hours standing in lines, buying things, ogling the rare cute girl, and generally wallowing in our geekiness.
There were many guess stars on hand that day. Perhaps most notably were Mark Hamil and Carrie Fischer. The line to get their autographs wrapped around the building and was guarded by storm troopers and jedis. I skipped it. My friend Nate got autographs from Bret The Hammer Heart and The Honky Tonk Man. Nate also got his picture taken with Adam Baldwin (Jayne from Firefly). Nate was wearing a shirt with one of my drawings on it. Adam Baldwin complemented Nate on the shirt. The drawing is of a cute little bunny holding a huge bloody butcher knife. It was discovered that Adam Baldwin is in fact taller than Nate. And Nate is a big guy.
I stopped to talk to one guest star because he was actually somebody I had worked with: Jeffrey Weissman. He played Crispin Glover's part in Back to the Future III because Crispin Glover apparently was a tool and didn't want to wear old-man make-up and hang upside-down for all his scenes. I acted with Jeffrey in 12th Night a few years ago. Really nice guy. I think I offended him when he offered me an autograph and I declined on the basis that I was out of money. When he said he didn't expect payment, I eagerly acquiesced in an attempt to rectify my ass-hattery.
But here's the thing: I've never gotten anybody's autograph. I have never really cared that much. And plus, to get the autograph with somebody I have worked with and have infrequent correspondence with just seemed..I dunno. It's just not my thing.
There were many other stars there: Ray Park, the kid who played Bud on the Cosby show, Erin Grey from Buck Rogers (who went to highschool with my mom. I didn't feel like going up to her and saying "Hey my mom said you were a bitch.")
And there were two other people who I really wished I would have gone up to and said something. One was John Provost, of Lassy fame, and also a guest star on our beloved Break A Leg. It was just that having never met the man and then walking up and saying "Hi, I'm Jennifer" seemed like a silly thing to do at the time.
The other was Felicia Day. Remember that whole Yahoo Awards thing? Where Break A Leg did absolutely phenominal, but lost out to a show called The Guild? THAT Felicia Day. She was actually walking around the con picking up some comics before she had to sit for hours and do her signing. My friend Gail got her picture taken with Felicia. Again, I felt hesitant about walking up to her while she was signing autographs and say "Yes, please make it out to 'Jennifer, I'm sorry for killing Break A Leg. Best wishes, F."
But here's the stinger: I TOTALLY SHOULD HAVE! Just so that this blog wouldn't end in such failure.
But like I said: I am not a fanboy.
Happy Jenday!