I'm Too Old for This! Part 1

We got up at 5 am on Saturday morning, and were on the road to the airport by 6. Our flight out was at 7:35, and arrived in San Diego at 9. Got to the convention center a short time after that, and quickly got our badges at registration. That part didn't take long at all, which was nice.

We quickly headed over to the line for Ballroom 20 (one of the big halls at the convention center), and it was already HUGE. It started inside the building, but snaked around the outside, went down some stairs, snaked around a large patio, then went back up some stairs, down more stairs, and then back up another set of stairs, which was the point at which we finally got in the line.

The end of the line - we went down the stairs on the left, then up, then back down, then way back beyond the trees, then back around along the railing, then up more stairs.

After we went up - more line. It goes all the way to the end of the building.

The last part of the line - outside, that is. There was more once we got inside.

It felt like we were in line forever, but the first panel in the hall started at 10, and we actually managed to squeek in. Marc and I ended up in the last few rows, but we were there, and we ended up staying there ALL DAY. That's the sucky thing we discovered about Comic Con - there's so many people there, that when there's a panel you want to see, you have to show up hours ahead of time to be sure to get in. Each hall hosts multiple panels throughout the day, but they don't clear the rooms in between, so they only let people in as other people leave. Our panel didn't start until 2:45pm, but we wanted good seats, so we had to get there early.

While we were in line, we were able to see the line for the "Lost" panel (which started at 11) down below us outside, and that was even more ridiculous than ours. People had apparently started lining up at midnight the night before. Crazy.

Believe it or not, this is just the end of the line, around the back of the building. It snaked multiple times at the front of the building, wrapped around the side of the building, then went around the sidewalk all the way to the harbor.

So Marc and I sat through a bunch of panels - "Chuck," "Family Guy," "The Cleveland Show," "Futurama," and the "Simpsons" - before the "V" panel started, which is the one I wanted to see. The fortunate thing was that we were given passes for re-entry so that we could leave to go to the bathroom and stuff. Marc and I brought snacks too (I baked cookies), so we were actually fairly comfortable in the hall. The only unfortunate thing was the odor coming off of some of the people sitting near us.

In between panels, Marc and I would tag-team to try to get better seats as people left. One of us would stay behind to hold our current seats while the other person would go and try to find better ones. We moved a couple times before finally finding some seats in the center, about 20 rows back. I'm not sure how many people the hall held, but it was in the thousands.

Part of the crowd behind us.

Some of the panels we sat through were kind of entertaining - most consisted of Q&A sessions with the fans, and those for the most part went smoothly. The "Family Guy" panel seemed to attract some of the more douchebag fans though - there was one guy who came up to supposedly ask a question (and they do try to screen them beforehand), but just started blabbing some nonsense in a cartoon voice. Seth McFarland (the creator of "Family Guy") said to the guy, "Dude, this isn't an audition." The guy was quickly ushered off.

Then a second guy came up and started seemingly asking a legitimate question, but then halfway through also broke out some stupid cartoon voice. McFarland then said to that guy, "Dude, what did I just fucking tell the guy before you?" Very annoying. I don't know why fans would want to irritate the producers/actors they've come to see and waste their time. It would only discourage them from making future appearances.

During "The Simpsons" panel, Matt Groening gave out free gifts to each questioner (and there were no assholes in this group, thankfully). When that panel ended, Marc attempted to try to get us closer seats, but to no avail. He did, however, snag a Duff beer t-shirt, as it turned out they were handing out leftover goodies. He came thisclose to getting an actual can of Duff beer.

Finally, FINALLY, it was time for the "V" panel. They showed the 45-minute pilot in full, which was pretty cool to see on a big screen. It was pretty awesome. Marc even liked it, and this isn't usually his cup of tea ("V" is a reboot of the alien invasion miniseries that aired in the '80s). I only had a few quibbles, mostly with the fact that it felt like they probably could've filled it out to 2 hours, but I guess ABC probably wanted just a 1 hour pilot. As it was, things seemed to happen rather quickly.

The cast and producers then came out for a quick Q&A session - what was funny was that the two women in the cast were the geekiest, as they seemed to be the only ones that were familiar with the original miniseries. Turns out the show is going to premiere in November, which is awesome, because that'll help make the wait for "Lost" easier.

Elizabeth Mitchell

Scott Wolf, Morena Baccarin, Joel Gretsch

After the panel was over, we went and walked on the exhibit floor for a little bit. There were even lines for swag! Ridiculous. I managed to get myself a Ben Linus bobblehead that was exclusive to Comic Con (I'll have to take a picture), and also got a very blurry picture of Leonard Nimoy, who was there signing autographs.

Then we were off to the airport again! Our flight out was at 6 pm, which put us in Oakland at about 7:35 pm, exactly 12 hours after we'd left.

The rest of the Comic Con photos are here on Flickr. I'm still uploading them as I go, so there's more to come.

Duff beer for anyone who got this far! I'll post Part 2 shortly, and then I'll make a separate post with all the "Lost" and other news out of Comic Con.