Saturday, September 13, 2014

Pictures from the 2014 Comic-Con International, part 4 (Felicia Day, Rob Corddry, TMNT Pizza, Game of Thrones and more!)

More pictures from Comic-Con? Celebrity pictures from Comic-Con? Why yes! 

This batch is the first from Thursday, 7/24...the first "official" day of the show.


Just as I did in 2013, my first stop on Thursday morning was to Geek & Sundry, Felicia Day's gaming-themed event space.  Unlike last year, the place was incredibly crowded, packed from front to back, for as long as I stuck around.  This was a troubling theme for much of the show, one about which a solution is not readily apparent.  Many of the expansion events - places outside of the convention hall - did not require visitors to have Comic-Con badges to enter and attend.  At first this sounds like a great idea, one that spreads the wealth and allows more people to enjoy the events, especially if, say, they were able to get Comic-Con proper tickets on some days but not all of them.

The result, though, was just an incredible crush of humanity.  It was appreciably more crowded outside of the convention hall than the previous year and it was impossible to see many of the outside events.  As a result, many attendees with tickets stayed inside, making the convention floor, especially on Friday and Saturday, more unbearable than usual.

I'm not sure what the perfect answer is to this problem.  I'm not even sure there is an answer to make everyone happy or at least satisfied.  But having thousands more trying to fit into a relatively small space is not ideal by any means.  I see no reason that Comic-Con can't continue to grow and admit more people to all of the great attractions, but there needs to be a tenable plan as opposed to trying to squeeze more into the same space.  Who knows how this will all play out?


But back to the point at hand.  I really enjoy the idea behind Geek & Sundry and I'm always sad that I don't spend more time just hanging out.  Comic-Con is all about prioritizing as there's always something to do, and crowds often make it difficult to even get to outside events, but this small space is well worth it and I'm going to try to give some more time to this particular location in years to come.  Even though it was packed inside this year, it's still a low key event with appearances by none other than Felicia Day, she of Dr. Horrible fame.


Here's a nice picture of the two of us.  Here's me after I said "okay, we're gonna point at each other", and after Day probably said, to herself, "whatever, dude."  But it's a fun picture nevertheless with a lovely and talented actress and gamer.


After leaving Geek & Sundry, I made my way back to the interactive zone with one goal in mind: to score a slice of Pizza Hut's TMNT Pizza.  The concept of free food has not lost its appeal and I was lucky enough to get some pizza before the line got too long or the exhibit ran out of food.  The pizza, which was actually pretty good, came in this well designed box.  I managed to grab some of the promotional posters for the Ninja Turtles movie as well.


After I ate, it was time to get back to the convention center.  Here's BMO from Adventure Time.


And a pretty good Homer Simpson costume!


The Red Woman texts during this Game of Thrones picture, but my favorite was, of course, King Robert's beard.


Lady Shredder.  Great costume.  I wonder if she had to get the weapons on her arms approved before she got in...they were very realistic.


I'm not quite sure why Captain America's shield is missing its red stripes.  But this was a pretty decent Marvel ensemble, with '90s Cyclops, Cap, Jean Grey, Black Widow and Star-Lord.


Pirate dog.  Must have been a service dog of some sort to get in, or perhaps his costume fooled the convention floor workers.


I probably enjoyed this new Captain Marvel costume more than any other at the convention.  It's very book-specific and part of the comic book zeitgeist.


He's probably gonna wreck it.


Oh, it's the obligatory Comic-Con photo op from the escalator.  I get one every year.


While I was on said escalator, I saw these great Sherman and Mr. Peabody costumes.  I suppose these were on display because of the recent movie, but it was fun to see these old time cartoon characters represented in 2014.


See?  I told you the eyes opened.  I wonder what they do with this huge prop after the show ends.


Yes, the eyes of this White Walker lit up.  A very impressive prop in the media section of the convention floor.


And let's end with a shot of Children's Hospital star/Daily Show alumni Rob Corddry.  As I walked past and took this picture, I noticed that there were about two people waiting in line to get this actor's autograph.  I looked around and said, "uh...is there a line for this?" and a security guard looked at me as if I was the biggest idiot at the convention.  Okay, so it was a stupid question and I knew what the answer would be, but it never hurts to ask.  OH WELL.  Lots more to come.  Please hold your anticipation in check.

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