San Diego Comic Con 2009

Whoo Hoo- I Heart San Diego!
This was my first ever trip to the great (broke) state of California, and it was just as beautiful as I always thought it would be. I don't care how many times I have seen a palm tree- they still look completely bizarre to me. Our hotel was nice, but out on the freeway, but still had a nice view:



Friday we took a cab all the way to the Gaslamp district to the enormous convention center.
This convention center seemed much larger than New York's Javits Center, and another plus, the San Diego convention center was in a lovely downtown area right on the bay, and close to the beautiful downtown area. In NY you have to walk a distance to get to some restaurants, and those surrounding areas are not that exciting. Anyway, I was very impressed with the speed at which we entered the Con once we found out which hall to get into. The sheer size of the entire Con itself is impressive, the attendees is double that of New York, and so were some of the lines. But again, I thought the lines were more organized (the little plackards with names of what the line was for, and the end of the lines helped).
Friday I wore my casual Batgirl outfit. It's my recently produced Batgirl (yearone inspiration of course) complete with cowl, ears and "cape". I made a matching dress just so it could be a complete ensemble.
I'll have to get some additional close up pics of the details of the hoodie. I really like the way it came out, and it's comfortable enough to wear constantly (which I do, when it's not 80 degrees).
I met Andre Owens, creator of Force Galaxia, featuring Supergreen. He was a very nice guy, and I heart anything with superheroes. I wandered around most of the day taking in all the sights, and excellent costumes. Here are some of my favorties:

At the end of the day I attended the "Resin Casting and Silicone Mold Making" panel lead by Jeffrey Broz. I have zero experience with this, I've only read about it a little. His lecture was kind of starting at or above the intermediate level, so I did not understand fully everything he said. It was clear that Jeffrey was very enthused about his work, and that kind of passion is always appreciated. He also gave out handouts with lots of sources, and even included his email address for aid on projects, which I thought was just really nice, and I hope that I have an opportunity to ask for his help someday. In addition to all of his slides of projects he brought in some pieces of steampunk items he recently has been working on.
Just before leaving I stopped by the Masquerade booth to inquire about joining the show. The coordinator Martin got me set up. Just like that I was in!
Later that evening we met up with our pals and went to a True Blood hosted party at a basement club called Prohibition. We waited on line for a long time, and I was beginning to think we were going to be prohibited from going in.
Saturday: All costumes all the time!
My day costume was Dr. Girlfriend's mall outfit from episode 2, season 2 of The Venture Brothers. I figured my time as Dr. Girlfriend is running thin, but I was determined to save Queen Etherea for Masquerade because it's a crazy outfit. So during the day I wore the polka-dot dress, remember it?
I think that a lot of people that saw me did not quite know what I was, though, plently of people stopped me by character name. Sid Haig, of The Devil's Rejects asked if I was a stewardess.
So listen up airlines, here's your new uniforms! He actually seemed like a mostly pleasant guy, but I thought I should look freaked out, because he's so dam scary in the movie.
I met Paul Horn, creator of Cool Jerk, I purchased a nice signed collection of his earlier work. He was very friendly and funny, and I had some good reading material for the plane ride home. While he doesn't really dabble in superheroes, he does dabble in jerks, and that's something I can get behind. There's a photo of me at his booth somewhere.

I decided to check out the line for the Venture Brothers signing, and what I found was more than I had hoped for:
Tons of crazy Venture fans! There was also a Dr. O floating around somewhere, but I don't think he made it into very many of the pics. This was so great, the costumes were really outstanding, and such a wide variety (Girl Hitler!!!) these people, the ones I had a chance to meet, and I hope they find me on facebook. Friend meeeeeee- or at least find me more photos! Someone from Adult Swim definintly took a picture and had us sign releases, but looking over her shoulder I think I was cut off! So look for some sort of shot like this on one of the bumps.

I attended the packed costume panel featuring some freaking famous costumers from all my favorite comic book movies, including the woman who worked on the Catwoman suit from Batman Returns! Boy is she lucky I didn't get near her, I had a million questions about that costume alone. But then again everyone had a lot of questions, luckily other people asked similar things that I wanted to, so it was ok that I never got called on. I really wanted to meet some of them and you know- beg for a job.....but there was like 300 other people with the same idea. But, then again that's one of the great things about these Cons, instant friends- or at least, similar interests people crammed in the same room.

Next, I waited in line for the Venture panel- I couldn't resist. By that point my pointy boots were killing my feet, and I wanted to sit down anyway, so I did, for more than an hour online. The swimwear elastic I used to hold my hat to my head had snapped when I tried to tighten the fit, so I wasn't doing a very good job of being in costume by that time. So, I will not be using clear elastic in that regard again.
While waiting on line my old pal Michael Sinterniklaas was blowing past the line, and I reached out to wave. On his second pass he actually stopped to give me a hug, and asked the whereabouts of my hubby. What a guy. My hubby had been lost to me for several hours by this point, and I was not reunited with him until after the masqerade which he came to watch : ).
I entered the VB panel with standing room only in the middle of the season 4 teaser reel. Looks crazy and a little disturbing- I can't wait! I only stayed for like 30 minutes because I had to get my ass to Masquerade!
I got checked in, assigned a den mom, and entered a dressing room with very limited space full of half dressed superheroes, villains, and creatures. It was utter pandemonium and I was a little freaked and wanted to be ready asap.
I ran around in my nude suit for awhile while I did my make-up, and definitly got some strange looks, but that's the idea. One woman asked me if I was supposed to be Lady Godiva- so now I have a costume that can be used for that. With any sort of show there is a lot of waiting around. I was so nervous. Many of the people involved had been in this particular show before, but I had not. I spent a lot of time on stage as a child and even throughout college, but not lately. Besides facing a room of 4,000 people has always got to be strange. I mean the attendance of the Masquerade probably outnumbered the people in this entire small town where I currently live.
The entire time I was backstage I just kind of wanted to get the whole thing over with. I took a deep breath, and hoped that I wouldn't; vomit, fall down, break a heel, have a costume malfuction, or just fail miserably in some other way.
But it was all ok. The great thing about being on stage is that the lights are always so bright, you can barely see anyone out in the audience. I did not have any fancy routine planned, because, I didn't know if I was going to get into the show, and Queen Etherea doesn't exactly tap dance or anything. So little ol' faux-naked me went out there, showed of the costume, and got the hell off stage.
When the runner was leading me to the photographer ring I thought I was going to pass out. It was such a rush being out there, and it's all over so fast. The photographer ring was another crazy experience. You stand on the "x" on the platform, again super bright lights, but you can see everyone. They all look like camera monster faced people, and they're all yelling "over here, over here!" then they ask me to pose. It was strange, they asked me to kneel, to put my face on my hands, oh boy, I just hope the photos aren't shady looking......and I would like to see some of them! After the photographing came the interview, that felt a little more comfortable to me, but for all I know I could have been speaking backwards- didn't really help that there was some 6 1/2 foot handsome blonde man with a British accent doing the questioning.....swoon. (Yea, like a pleasant Constantine I guess)
Then backstage to watch the rest of the show, and wait for the judging. Here is my new friend Amanda as Dr. the Mrs. Monarch and me as Queen Etherea. Her skit was hysterical, she actually made moppets in the pupa twin costumes to include in her act. She actually had some do the voice and sing a song- it was completely hilarious- and the costume was awesome too. I still don't know how she managed not to trip over the wings.......Sadly I did not win anything : ( but it was a something just to get in. Besides, now I know what goes on, and the calibur of work, and skit that they like to see. I also was not aware that I could have made a little portfolio including swatches of materials, inspiration, work process, etc. ALL of that stuff is hanging on my bulletin board now! Ah well, I really did have a lot of fun (despite the nerves) and I met a lot of great and super talented people. Also- the icing on the cake- many people did think I was naked- which was my fiendish plan all along.......

Even my neighboring towns newspaper took an interest in the Con:
Directors, actors geek out with fans at Comic-Con: Rutland Herald Online

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