Let me start by answering the most commonly asked question. Why?? Why do you want to go to comicon? And the answer is the same as the response I give to a lot of the questions I get about the things I do.
Why not?
There are so many things going on outside my little bubble. It's always fun to get out there and see what other people are doing. And let me tell you...my eyes have been opened. I have discovered that there are all these little niches in society that carry on in the periphery. Away from the mainstream. You don't often see them but they are there. They may seem odd and obscure but really they are just people doing what interests them.
So along with my trusty companion Michelle we set off for seattle. Getting up a o' dark thirty to catch a plane. We made it to the airport and plied ourselves with copious amounts of coffee while we waited for our short 45 minute hop across to the coast.
The light rail train took us straight from the airport into downtown Seattle and from there we headed through the usual Seattle drizzle down to Pike Place Market to grab something to eat and wait for the conference center to open.
We headed back to the convention center and got there a little before opening time. We thought we would spend our time wizely and get a t shirt but the t shirt line was closed...( it had about 100 people in it) because the officials told us that any more than that represented a fire hazard. Instead we were herded into what Michelle called cattle yards waiting for the doors to open. Apparently 4000 people all stuffed into a cattle yard represents less of a fire hazard than 100 people standing in a t shirt line. Go figure.
Once we finally got in it was really like stepping into another world. Hundreds of stalls filled with comics, gaming paraphernalia, costumes, weaponry, art and Japanese anime related stuff. Honestly I had no idea what most of it was.
We found the floor where all the celebrities were but we didn't get to see any as they were all hiding behind curtains. You had to pay to see them....between $40 and $80 for a photo op or signature so there was no freebie celeb sightings.
There were however plenty of other people watching to be done. Most comicon attendees got into the spirit and dressed up. One of my favourite places was the kids area where you could shoot a storm trooper with a dart gun.
Apparently this guy is a character from some video game.
Star Wars droids. You can see Leia in the background with a carbonite Han Solo.
Two versions of Princess Leia. One with clothes on and one almost with clothes on.
Darth
Some Pokemon guy jack was telling me about
Another video game soldier character...( you can see how well versed I am in this genre)
Xena warrior princess
So Worf and Q were there from StarTrek Next Generation. We didn't see them. MacGyver was there. We didn't see him. But we did see this lady.
She played Uhuru on the original StarTrek series. She must be about 80 but still going strong regaling stories about her time on Star Trek and being the first black women on a TV series.
During all this my trusty companion was doing a lot of this.
Yes, she is knitting. We decided not to fight the fact that we were outsiders who didn't really belong at comicon so we approached it more like scientific research to observe and study and try to come to an understanding of this strange species.
It was a fun, interesting day that totally got me outside my comfort zone. And I can check that off my list. Comicon - been there, done that.
