COMIC-CON part 1 -- WOW

We have survived yet another Baltimore Comic-con. For the uninitiated comic-con is slang for Comic Book Convention. I'm totally in the know by saying comic-con.

I finally got Brad for the most part to actually let me actually work at the thing. I've been spending this weekend with him running around doing things for 3 or 4 years now, but I think he's been so happy that I 'let' him indulge in his comic book passion this way that he's just happy I'm there and has always wanted to reward me by trying to make it like a mini-vacation for me. He'd say "Cam, you should sleep in, come over whenever you feel like it..." and for lots of the time I'd stand around waiting for that one moment where he'd have something to give me to do.... help an elderly guest out and hail a cab for them or something equally as challenging.

This year, I put my foot down as he was running around all stressed again because he didn't have the resources he needed to get everything done. 'Hey buddy, look right here in front of you. I'm a very smart person, more than capable of doing whatever you need done, including stupid mundane things like comparing names on a list....' Mostly this year it took (though not without a lot of reminders). I kept reminding him I was here to work. I told him I wouldn't come in future years if I was just going to be a decoration on his arm at the awards dinner. I've got better things to do than hang out with a bunch of crazy comic book fanatics for a weekend. But work we all did and the convention seemed to be another rousing success.

There were big storms coming through Baltimore for most of the weekend, but it didn't seem to dampen the mood at all. The hall opened at 7am on Saturday morning for artists and dealers to begin to set up their booths. At 6:45, still dark outside, a group of us trudged through the light rain over to the convention center to get it all going. The hall was set and ready and after some 'issues' dealing with security everything got going. By the time 10am (when the doors opened up) rolled around, the line for people with tickets was wrapped back and forth on itself all the way up to the third floor (the convention was on the first floor). I asked the woman who was first in line what time they got there that morning and she said "4:30am". Did I mention it was raining. "It's my birthday and yet here I was learning that I could survive as a homeless person who had to sleep on the concrete in the rain, all for the love of a man.... The things we do for love." I said "yeah, that's why I'm here too" We must both love those men of ours.

When the doors opened, the people started filing in in an relatively orderly fashion. I think it took 15 or 20 minutes for the whole line to make its way into the hall. I was positioned at the bottom of the escalator on the first floor and it was my job to make sure people on the first floor who were just arriving didn't try to cut into line ahead of the thousands who had been slowly winding their way down from the floors above. It was a bit tough to keep track of all those people and get it right until Brad sent me a bit of help.

This lovely gentleman made chaotic crowd control a thing of the past. He had no problem keeping in character (whatever that was) and the fans who had just purchased their tickets didn't bat an eye when he told them exactly where they needed to go; up, up, up, to get to the end of the line. You can only barely see it but he has peas, yes I said peas attached to the side of his face on his right (it's the left side of the picture). It was this thing attached to his face; I'm sure it was really amazing makeup, but for me I couldn't see past the peas. It was supposed to look like a bit of his face had been peeled back to reveal what was underneath it. It would have made sense to me if what I saw 'revealed' was computer chip-y looking things; as if his character was really a machine. But peas. Really the were green and looked good enough to... ok, I'm not going there, but you get the idea. There is probably a sci-fi reference that made sense to the rest of the people who saw it, but to me it was just part of dinner and someone needed to clean him up.


And then there was the box office line. OMG. I had to leave to run an errand at about 12:30; two and a half hours after we'd opened, and the line to buy tickets was still winding back and forth inside and up the stairs and through the lobby and out the door and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. I'm sure there were still at least 1,500 people in line at that time. I was told that the line contined without break until 3:30; and the hall closed at 6pm. - WOW.

Though I was running around, in fact out of the building much of the day, people watching was still the best part. I've attached pictures of just a few of the interesting people I saw on Day 1.

I have no idea who she's supposed to be, but I thought she was cute as a button, and as soon as I lifted my camera to get the shot, she straitened up and gave me a big smile. Do you think she likes the attention?

Well I'm sure you can all recognize your friendly neighborhood spiderman. I'm not sure what he was getting ready to pounce on, but apparantly just his presence stopped whatever danger his spidy-senses sensed.

And these two, spent a great deal of time in the lobby on the first day, waiting for the opportunity to brighten someone's day with a photo op. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the Storm Trooper Garrison (apparantly that's what a group of Storm Troopers is called) that was out on the streets of Baltimore directing people to the correct Convention Center entrance. I've seen them in past years and it's quite a sight to come around a corner to be met with a life sized Storm Trooper, complete with weaponry telling you where you need to go. I assure you the only proper response is 'yes sir'. WOW.

Overall, things ran very smoothly. Lots of people having lots of fun. All the crew was running around, working hard to make it look easy and I think we were almost completely successful.