nepenthe | Comic Con 2009: Thursday (Reply)

Chrissy, Natalie Dru, and myself arrived at the trolley station in Old Town early in the morning to take the train to the Convention Center. The excitement was overflowing from the throngs standing outside—or maybe that was the sidewalks. I’d wanted to get there early—was trying to get one of the Draco Malfoy bags. That was one thing I wanted, but was not to be that weekend. We waited at the wrong doors to get in. Even after I grew suspicious as to whether the doors would ever be opened at this local and wandered further down to find another open door, then gestured wildly at the crowd on the other side of the glass to say they could get in further down THE IDIOTS AT THE FRONT REFUSED TO MOVE. After all, THEY WERE FIRST to get nowhere. Chrissy and I tried for a bag, but they shut the operation down before we got to the front of the line.

The first panel we attended was The Middleman: The Lost 13^th Episode. Since Natalie intermittently threw herself into hysterics, Chrissy missed out on most of it. However, it was awesome good fun: more fun than most panels are. Best part was when instead of calling Natalie Morales a workaholic, Brendan Hines had a Freudian slip and called her an alcoholic. Which was played up and full of hijinks. And we found out the Middleman’s real name is Clarence Colton. No shit.

Next up was Avatars, Icons, and Antiheros with Holly Black, among others. Had to sit through an unveiling of next year’s Transformer action figures for this, so felt it needed to be worth it: and it was. Chrissy actually got to sit through this one, as Natalie was happily nomming on her bottle. The conversation meandered around the topic, covering why authors like to write their heros as a little less than squeaky clean. Here are some fun quotes:

“Jesus had some behavioral problems.” –Richard Kadrey

Kevin J. Anderson felt that the difference between heroes and villains is that villains are active, and heroes are reactive, as par for the course.

Holly Black just likes characters who make mistakes (and don’t we all, as it is humanity’s defining characteristic).

Holly Black talking in fun to SJ Day, regarding what makes her hero’s ‘anti’ traits interesting: “Isn’t your hero Satan? Just putting your comments into context.”

and

“You’re admitting Satan talks to you, and you listen.”

Richard, on Dick Cheney’s personal assassination squad: “It didn’t change my mind (about humanity and real world villains), it confirmed my worst fears.”

Richard: “God is like a drunk dad: drowns the world, but gives you a puppy at the end.”

“Charming, funny, dappier,” Holly Black, on the Devil.

Richard likes him villains the moment they find out they have limits.

So, that was fun! Chrissy said this was the panel she liked most, as it was filled with real authors talking about their real books on a fascinating topic. She’d wanted to ask them how they felt about reincorporating characters from other works, setting them to new purpose, as one of the authors, Brom, had just finished a new book called The Child Thief utilizing the characterization and world of Peter Pan.

Right after we went to the book signing, where everyone who was up front got a proof copy of The Child Thief (and we had it signed, yay!), Chrissy got to ask Holly her question while I got all three of my modern tales of faerie signed. Holly was gracious, saying that as a matter of morals, she agree that repurposing characters and worlds to make new art (such as is done in fanfiction) she had to agree, but as the legal systems stands, the state of things is at ‘no’ (obviously). I walked away a very happy girl.

Twilight was going on down below: we steered clear, heading for the Psych panel instead. It was a close call getting in (we were let in half way through). What was more interesting than the panel was the line. This year, the Ballroom 20 line was set up outside on the balcony. From that view, we could see that the Twilight line switchbacked across the entire green, then extended the entire length of the Convention Center (at the back of the building; there was no room at the front, I’m sure) and was on its way to wrapping back towards the green. Insane.

Psych was Psych. Found out that the comic book convention Shawn and Gus solve crime at was modeled on their dream of being at Comic Con—had been a little terrified to find out they were in Ballroom 20, since they feared no one would show up.

Silly, silly boys.

After we got our free Psych loot, Chrissy was pooped, as was I. I sort of wanted to stay late and attend the Dr. Horrible Sing Along hosted by the Browncoats, but passed.

It was a beautiful, beautiful day.