Pictures from the 2019 Comic-Con International, part 7 (Saturday, 7/20)

As afternoon turned into evening on Saturday at Comic-Con, I left the convention hall and walked a few blocks to the Horton Theatre, where Comic-Con holds some limited-seating, ticketed events at the show. Earlier in the day, I was able to get tickets to Thomas Lennon's panel, which was very weird and very fun.

Waiting in line to get in was a pink Darth Vader. I approve.

Moderating the panel was Robert Ben Garant-as-Ken Burns in full Civil War regalia.

Lennon himself didn't come on stage until probably halfway through the panel, instead sending out stand-ins to speak in his place. A good percentage of the audience members were plants with scripted lines, including Goon creator Eric Powell and Lennon's wife and son.

Finally, Tom Lennon himself came out (in a kilt to promote his new book) and talked about some of his characters, the writing process, and just his life in general. It was a very weird panel but I expected nothing less. It was a good time.

After the panel, I went back to the convention center to grab some of the things I left behind. Wait, is this the robot I saw in back of that truck a few times earlier??

It takes a certain level of dedication to paint the majority of your body and then walk around Comic-Con for 10 hours. I think this person is dressed up as the character Purgatory.

Every year, the Geeky Hooker leaves crocheted prizes at random spots at Comic-Con. I ALMOST got this one. I was about 15 seconds too late to get Goose, Captain Marvel's cat. SO CLOSE!

Somethin' I don't trust about this guy...

Here's a few Spider-Man adjacent folks.

In 2018, one of the best costumes I saw was a giant Megatron. I have to believe that these next few folks were responsible for that, as there was now a giant (and wonderful) Starscream. Look how great this thing is. Incredible.

Oh, and he brought some friends, too!

I appreciate the level of detail in all of these.

Okay, back to more bizarre fare.

Then I saw Stargirl!

And Captain Marvel!

The show had ended by this point, but there were panels that went on into the night. I went to one hosted by my friends Grae Drake and Matt Atchity. These folks were previously part of the Rotten Tomatoes crew, but they've since both moved on to play a big part with MovieFone, with Grae being the face of the franchise. She's dressed as a mashup character called "Tanker Bell".

The panel was another movie-themed discussion where we took movie endings and tried to make them better.

At the end of the program, some actors involved with the panel acted out one of the scenarios.

Saturday is the night of the Comic-Con Masquerade, which is so well attended that the Sails Pavilion serves as an overflow viewing area with lots of free food. I grabbed some popcorn on my way out.

This looks like a dangerous conspiracy waiting to happen.

I'd like to report a LEGO murder!!

That's it for Saturday. What a day! And there's still more to come.

Pictures from the 2019 Comic-Con International, part 3 (Thursday, 7/18)

Let's look at some pictures from Thursday at Comic-Con!

This may sound hard to believe, but I actually spent a decent amount of time at my booth this year - certainly more time than any previous year. This happened for various reasons (I'm responsible, maybe??), but because of this, I didn't get to see as much of the floor as I might usually see. I only ran past the LEGO booth a few times, but I'm glad I did - their displays were as impressive as ever. I really liked this Iron Man from Avengers: Endgame.

The backdrop for this Detective Comics #1000 Batman was even cooler than the life-size figure, I thought.

And here's a red Stormtrooper - I think they're calling it a Sith Trooper? They has an exclusive bust of this guy for sale.

Right before the doors opened in the morning, I passed by the Star Wars display.

By far the most popular costume choice at the convention was the Stranger Things "Scoops Ahoy" outfit. I had just finished watching the third season before flying out to California, so I especially appreciated this choice. I'll have a separate post with all of these costumes, back to back!

This is a video game reference. I'm fairly confident of that.

What a great Sabrina costume!

I also spent some time at the New England Comics booth this year, promoting and selling our new Comic-Con special edition Tick comic. It sold very well! Here I am with Ian Nichols, artist on this year's issue.

I absolutely loved "Into the Spider-Verse" and I'm thrilled to see every costume inspired by it. Now let's get Spidey 2099 in the mix!

Various Avengers, assemble!

Thursday seemed like a slower day than I was used to. It was still incredibly busy, and it picked up considerably at other times. It was nice to be able to walk the aisles at least for a little while.

DOOOOOOM

Around 1:00, I left the convention hall and went out the back exit. There I found some fencing going on, behind a rope, of course.

This Batman '66 boat was in the harbor directly behind the convention center.

What's this? Is the Taco Truck back? THE TACO TRUCK IS BACK! It returned for another year, and I couldn't be happier. Love the Taco Truck.

While in line, I met this gentleman, and we talked loudly about Star Trek for a solid 20 minutes. I had a great time!

TACO TRUCK SELFIE!

After eating, I took a stroll along the harbor, behind the convention center. Adult Swim had the only major display directly against the water. This site was just opening up for the first time of the show, and I was able to walk in without much of a wait - this was good timing and nothing else, as this was as busy as ever at later times. The Rickmobile was just getting set up!

Most of the activities were not up and running yet at this time. Here's a relatively empty shot of the main stage.

The one site that was open was the "Rickflector" a VR-like Rick and Morty experience. Once you got your face scanned (no chance that'll be used for marketing purposes), you entered one of these chambers, where you tried to dodge ray-gun fire.

It was an interesting experience, but I don't think all of the bugs were worked out quite yet. I'm glad I did it, but also glad I didn't wait too long to do it.

By this point, I had gotten as much sun as I could handle without bursting into flame, so I went back inside. I love this shot of the convention floor!

While at the booth, I saw some great costumes. People wear costumes each of the five days, but this was a good Thursday, I thought.

I told this guy to go chase a bike after I got his picture.

I'm not sure how the Joker fits in here, but I'll take it.

Later in the day, I walked to the other side of the main hall, into the gaming section. I don't know what these pictures were being taken for, but these guys were ready for it.

I got some trading cards at the Upper Deck booth, which had this Sam Raimi-era Spider-Man hanging above it.

Mid snap, even!

These are impressive. I don't know what they are. But they're impressive.

Daken, one of Wolverine's many, many children.

I saw a number of these statues around the floor.

At the end of the day, Ian and I met up with Zander Cannon briefly.

And then the convention closed for the day! After meeting up with my group, I had one more thing to see this evening...

...the stairs! (Not really.)

Around 8:30, I headed back to the Gaslamp district.

Okay, here's Harvey Birdman.

Finally! I made it to the Jean-Luc Picard: His First Duty offsite. I had been to the same location in previous years for other Star Trek-related displays, so apparently they've got a corner on this particular building. There were a lot of really cool props on display in anticipation of the new Picard series.

It's the flute from "The Inner Light"! Wow!

And here's a model of the movie Enterprise.

At the back of the room, they had a big "Captain Picard Day" banner draped just below the ceiling.

Was the bat'leth sharp? No, it was not. Dishonor!

And here's a formal uniform from the Insurrection movie.

Jessica Cruz also stopped by to check it all out.

And that was pretty much it - on the way back to the car, I saw this Watchmen banner; the display wasn't open yet.

And some old friends dropped by, too. Can you believe that I was able to make it through the entire convention without having the ending of Game of Thrones spoiled for me? Please, uh, don't take that as an invitation to spoil it in the comments. Larry, don't spoil it. Don't do it!

More pictures soon!