Armageddon convention; Day 1

After looking foward to this convention basically all year, the day finally arrived. The one weekend each year when I can be surrounded by hundreds of people as geeky as me. Armed with a ton of cash, and a full 2-page want-list of comics (in 10 point font, 2 columns per page), I made the trek in to the city. Doors opened at 9am, I got there at around 8:25. I pretty much timed it spot on, as there was only a few dozen people in front of me.

About 10 minutes later the line had grown a fair bit

Then it grew some more...

...and with 5 minutes to go before opening, well, it would've sucked to be at the back
This year saw the introduction of wrist bands to let you come and go from the event, and they were handed out before the doors opened. This was an excellent idea, meaning we could all just walk in, rather than waiting for all the people in front of you to have their tickets processed, which in the past had been sloooooow.

Inside, I had a casual walk around to see what was on offer, before striking. The comic stalls were actually a bit disappointing. There's usually an Australian comic store attending, which I have spent many hundreds of dollars at in the past, but they were absent. There were 2 mid-sized comic stalls, and another 2 or 3 small ones, but most of the stock on offer were in $3 bargain bins or the like. It was actually kinda fun trawling through them looking for gems, and I bought a bunch of stuff I wouldn't have otherwise looked for, but my want-list didn't take as big a hit as I was hoping. Anyway, I still came away with:
2 issues of Extreme Justice
4 issues of Defenders
20 issues of 2000AD (containing most of Nemesis book 6)
5 issues of Alien Legion (an impulse buy)
18 issues of Cloak & Dagger/ Strange Tales (another thing I wasn't looking for, but found me)
28 various things from my list (mostly Firestorm/ Surfer appearances)

All up, $250 spent on the above, down about $200 on what I spent last year. Anyway, on to the panels:

First up was Brian K Vaughn and Jimmy Cheung. Jimmy opted out (he went straight to the sketching table), apparently not liking talking to big crowds, so it was left to Brian to hold the fort. I'm not overly familiar with his work, but he spoke well and it was an interesting 40 minutes or so, covering his comics work, and his recent involvment with Lost.

Aaron Douglas from Battlestar Galactica was on at noon, and was really cool. A funny guy and good at telling stories. He somehow got on to some rant about unwatchable tv shows, which included Lost (I tend to agree, though I still sit through it each week), his reasoning being that he can't suspend his disbelief enough to accept that nobody on the outside could figure out where the plane had crashed, what with all the satellites and what not. I kinda hoped Brian Vaughn could hear him, he was only a few feet away, seperated by a curtain ;)

I got autographs from Aaron (who complimented my Silver Surfer shirt, go me), and Doug Jones, the Silver Surfer in the upcoming Fantastic 4 movie. That was really cool. He told me of his frustration at trying to get the Surfer's catch-phrase of "to me, my board" into a scene where the Surfer summons his surfboard, but the director wouldn't go for it. He seemed like he really cared that fans should get the little things like that thrown in for their benefit, which gives me a lot of hope for a movie that I'm half dying to see, and half dreading. I enjoyed talking to him, and look foward to his panel tomorrow.

Don Davis from Stargate hit the stage at 2pm. I missed the start since I was getting the autographs, but caught most of it. Don was really enjoyable to listen to. I don't think he actualy properly answered more than a couple of questions haha. He'd start to, but then go off on a tangent and spend 5 minutes telling a story about whatever. I found it really endeering, and could've listened to him a lot longer. A shame he's not doing a 2nd panel tomorrow. It was quite touching to see him get a bit choked up talking about the military, and Richard Dean Anderson, two subjects he appears very passionate about. Plus he's really quite funny.

I got my Green Lantern: Circle Of Fire miniseries signed by Brian Vaughn, it's the one thing of his I've read, much less actually own. I mentioned a couple of things in it I liked, but he wasn't really forthcoming with conversation, so I left it at that.

I managed to pluck up the courage to submit the drawing I did for the Art contest. I'm in no way good enough to win, but since the art contest was in danger of not even happening this year, I felt I should support it, since I think it's loss would be a shame. It's probably the first serious drawing I've done in over 10 years. Pin-ups have never been my strong point, but I'm actually reasonably proud of the piece I submitted, I shall post it tomorrow in part 2.

I'm not a fan of the contests such as Pizza Eating, or the Dragonball Z Kamehameha, since they tend to decend into all the little kids yelling and screaming to get selected, and it's more painful than fun to watch (for me atleast, though I'd quite happily label myself a grouch when it comes to little kids screaming). I left at 4:30pm, also not wanting to stay around for the hip hop show at 5pm.

Sunday won't be so much of a rush for me, I plan to watch 3 of the panels, take some pics, and hit up a few of the artists for some drawings. Thoughts on day 2 to follow, after, y'know, it actually happens ;)