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my son, little Vic, and i never got CLOSE to the IGN theater. It was a madhouse, a maaaaaadhouuuuuuuuse!
At other panels, we saw the morning screening of the new Green Lantern cartoon, presented with producer Bruce Timm, and that was very good. then we walked the showroom, but it was so crowded, it was hard to get close enough to booths to snag swag. They were tossing AVENGERS t-shirts into the crowd at the Marvel booth, but we couldn't get close without getting crushed.
we ate some pizza in the food court, sitting next to a snaking line that went off into a mysterious room. Upon inquiry, we learned that Stan Lee was in there, and they were charging $50 a head to get his autograph. 15 years ago, i got Stan's autograph and a picture with him at SD Comicon while he was just sitting at a booth, with virtually no line, and no FEE.
after lunch we went to the Marvel Video Games panel (not that interesting for me), then we tried the showroom again. This time we went to "artists alley" and we got Chris Claremont to sign our program (he never even looked up at us) and chatted with Peter David (with whom i have had a friendly relationship for years). We checked out the "tabletop gaming" and autograph area, to see if "little Vic" could find a group playing YUGIOH, but it was all "Magic:the gathering" and "D&D". The autograph lines were long and many were charging $20+ to sign things. My son would've wanted Mark Hamill's autograph but had no interest in that line. I wouldn't have minded stepping up to meet Felicia Day, but for $22 she better at least be giving out handjobs. We bought Con t-shirts instead.
On our way back from this room, we passed stan lee in the hall. My son said "hey, that's Stan Lee!" and i was proud that he (1) recognized him, and (2) cared enough to be excited by our proximity. But Stan was being whisked away by a large coterie, off to sell his autographs to the masses.
we went to the "BONE" panel, seeing Jeff Smith and various publishers and academics talking about the impact of the series and its future. we also got a tote bag. It was about 4:30 at this point, so we rushed over to the IGN theater to get in line for the 6:30 Avengers panel. Of course, the line had been long closed as many had done what DGW had done and just camped out with his family in the IGN for the day, leaving no room for those who didn't want to make a day of that 1 room. So we left about 5pm.
My son had a reasonably good time; got a shirt, some yugioh cards, got the autograph of the guy who invented Wolverine, shook hands with a guy who wrote the hulk, saw Stan Lee pass by, got an eyeful of many costumed geeks and interesting booths... some sensory overload is cool sometimes.
but i remember well the days i strolled through the Cons at the McAlpine hotel and the Commodore, too, with much less crush and stress, when you could just chat with artists and writers who were happy for the attention, and thumb through boxes of comics at your leisure, finding bargains all around. Now, if you want a bargain, go to eBay. As for the rest... geekdom has gone mainstream and it ain't going back. which is a 2-handed and double-edged sword, leading to HBO series like GAME OF THRONES and the mega LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, but also drowning us in new (and relatively less educated and less passionate) fans, squeezing out the hardcore. We are marginalized again now, even in the very places we had gone to escape mainstream marginalization in the first place.
I'd go back to my parents basement, but they're dead and i sold the house.
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