San Diego Comicon 2010 - Day 1 - Thursday

@Legsarebroken here, What a difference some sleep can make. After almost 10 hours sleep I was recharged and ready for Con-mayhem. @Chrisfits and myself were excited to get back to the convention center and see all the glorious pop-culture vomit that was spewing everywhere. Matt and Melissa didn't have Thursday passes so they decided to wander the town and do a bit of exploration.


Thursdays are generally my favorite Comic-Con days for a few reasons:

1. Everyone is still in a great mood
   
2. You are still excited to be there and don't mind people wiping their FUPAs on you!
3. There are still three more days to correct your mistakes!
   

We planned for Thursday to be fairly relaxed with a few panels broken up by some time on the floor and hopefully ending with the amazing Scott Pilgrim panel in the dreaded Hall H (6,500 person capacity). Sadly things don't always go according to plan... (dramatic music)

Stop 1 was to check out the line for G4 TVs X-Play. I've been a fan of Adam and Morgan for nearly 10 years now. At one point I remember going to the studios in San Francisco with Mark and Cohen in a viscous attempt to kidnap Morgan Webb. For one fleeting moment in 2002 we saw her walk past us, but we lost our nerve and retreated to the shadows.

Why do I give a shit about this show? I love video games. I always have, and I always will. When I'm not playing video games, I love to read about video games, and watch other people talk about video games. It's a sickness that many of you probably don't understand, but it goes way beyond a "hobby" for me. It's a passion that I'm proud of.

After sitting through a few panels (Jeff Smith and Chris Gore), it was time for the X-play crew to take the stage.


<-----Notice Abbie Heppe giving me "eyes". Yep






What happened for the next hour was pure hilarity. Audience members were turned into "interns" and made to do some truly terrifying acts such as: Playing Crisis Core, making rancid ham sandwiches non stop for the entire duration of the panel , and grooming Blair's chest live in front of everyone in an awkward display of fandom and homo-eroticism.



It was great to see the cast and crew of a show I truly love interact and joke around, not more than 5 feet away. I instantly started hatching up a new kidnapping plan... with Morgan so close, I could easily complete the task that I had foolishly botched so many years ago. However, being a newlywed, I don't think my wife would appreciate our new roommate.



After about an hour, it was all over.

I had been a part of X-plays very first Comic-Con panel and I was in nerdy bliss. If only I could meet Morgan and tell her about my kidnapping plan... oh wait... I did! Please note: The face I am making in this picture is pure "nerd joy", you will probably see it a few more times... sorry?

After a few more hours of floor chaos, we attempted to get into Scott Pilgrim, and by attempted I simply mean we looked at the line (about 5 hours long), and said "nope". So the one massive panel I really wanted to see this year was out. Will I ever get into Hall-H again? Probably not.

We stalked the floor looking for swag and people of interest. And saw the usual mix of robots and slutty vampires. Thursday was turning out to be a great day!









We decided to try for the Children's Hospital panel featuring a ton of comedians I've been watching for years ( David Wain, Ken Marino, Rob Huebel, Rob Corrdry, Lake Bell, and Erinn Hayes). It was great to see these maniacs interact together. The first five minutes consisted of the cast sprinting around the floor like deranged rock stars while Van Halen's Panama blasted in the background. Ken Marino was teased for his early catch phrase "I'll dip my balls in it", which brought a nerdy smile to my face. The panel was nothing but controlled chaos and ended with the worst "blooper reel" I've ever seen. About five minutes of actual medical operation footage followed by a whopper of a grand finale... A large African American woman giving childbirth on a 20 foot screen... Placenta and all. wow....




The day was not even close to over. After shuffle walking the floor a bit more we decided to go outside and check out the line for Bioware and Dragon Age 2. Now the majority of the 10 people that read this blog probably won't care too much about what I'm going to say here, but after getting a hands on with the game, I can honestly say it's going to blow everyone away; Streamlined controls, improved voice acting, new graphical style, amazing looking spells and armor... I got to hang out for about 30 minutes with the producers of the franchise and just pick their brains. It was just fucking great.


"There's a dragon behind me again huh?"

Ended the very long Thursday at the Digg nation after-party at the House of Blues, which was pretty much a recreation of their Digg nation podcast live on stage. It was funny, but the number of assholes in attendance was purely astounding. -We are talking a new level of douchery here. Nerds are one thing (I am one), but nerds with a false sense of "cool" and self confidence? Now you're no longer a nerd, but some other beast entirely. See you tomorrow.