Okay, maybe not a newbie but the last time I went you could just walk up and buy a ticket. Then make your leisurely way to Ballroom 20 to see everything. I haven’t been since it became this massive media blitz. It’s so crazy it’s hard to describe. So I will give you a run down by days.

Thursday July 12

Arrive at the airport already to go, except there is a small glitch. Storms in Texas have delayed my friend for 2 hours. I wasn’t too upset considering there really wasn’t anything I had to see on Thursday. So she finally arrives and we’re off. Went to pick up my pass and I have to say there is way more press then regular people. Almost every badge I saw was either vendors, professionals or press. Got my badge and randomly picked my swag bag from Warner Brothers. The comic con people are pretty smart. They fold the bags so you don’t know which one you get until you open it. I had my fingers crossed for Supernatural, which is the one I got. The choices were Arrow, Man of Steel, Big Bang Theory, Pacific Rim, The Hobbit, Fringe, Justice League cartoon and the hardest to get Dark Knight Rises.

My friend, Chris, really wanted to see the Psych panel but we were too late. We spent the day walking the exhibit hall. This place is huge! It would take you at least 2 days to see every booth. Not just because it’s so big but because of the crowds. It’s really hard to move in there. Doesn’t help when you are trying to look at things and security keeps yelling at you to movie along. The studios don’t want you to movie along or they wouldn’t show endless videos to entice you to stay. The first booth I hit was the one from Weta. They had the coolest stuff. Life size statues of Gandalf, Thorin and Gollum but the biggest draw were the 3 trolls from The Hobbit. They were incredible. My favorite had to be the prop swords of Sting, Glamdring and Orcrists, except it was pretty hard to get good pictures.

 

Next stop was the 50^th anniversary of Bond. They were doing something really cool. You had to register through facebook and they gave you a bracelet. You came back everyday and had a picture taken with the vehicles from the movies. It was instantly uploaded to your page. I missed the Aston Martin, which I really wanted to see.

Another cool display was for the release of Indiana Jones on blu-ray. They recreated the scene with all the snakes. Not that the snakes in the glass box were all that scary since they were only albino corn snakes but they were still cool. Walking around the booth were people dressed as Indiana and his dad, Dr. Jones

After battling our way to the Warner Brothers booth we finally got some swag. I had heard so much about the swag that’s given out but we didn’t see too much that first day. At the WB they were handing out TV guides and Hobbit buttons. I asked for a supernatural cover and the guy was like they’re all the same. I said no they weren’t and looked through his pile until I found one. Yeah I know it’s free stuff but I wanted the Supernatural one, so sue me. The booth also had 3D poster for the Hobbit. These were the coolest things! I wanted to take them all home with me.

After spending 3 hours getting pushed and shoved in the exhibit room we decided to walk over to the Hard Rock. We thought the restaurant was inside the hotel but it wasn’t. So we had to walk a few blocks to the restaurant. We got there before the crowds and had a leisurely dinner. The wait staff was all dressed as zombies. The reason for that was at Petco Park you could participate in a zombie run. You could either be a zombie or someone trying to avoid them. It went on for 3 days and wasn’t cheap.  After dinner Chris headed back to the convention center to watch the re-telecast of the panels for the day. I headed over for the Entertainment One celebration for the SyFy show Haven. It was a small read carpet event that they invited me to take pictures. Check for my coverage in a separate post. When that was over I headed back to the con to join my friend to watch the Psych panel. I’ve never watched the show by the actors were all very funny. By the time that was over it was pretty late and we headed for the buses that would take us to the hotel. Just have to say this is a very efficient way to get guests to and from the con. As we were walking to the buses people were out on the sidewalks lining up for the Firefly panel the next day. Seriously, people lined up with sleeping bags and camped out.

So ends day 1 at Comic Con. Watch for Day 2, the line from hell.

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