(I Also Write Children's Books!)

Sunday, August 4, 2013

San Diego Comic Con Photoblog - Saturday

So, conventions cause something else besides exhaustion.  They cause the dreaded Con Crud.  I got home from SDCC, had just enough time to finish a writing project for my publisher, and immediately got sick.  I've only just recovered enough coherency to process images and resume posting.  So let's get to Saturday!

I mentioned the exhaustion repeatedly.  We did not spend a huge amount of time at the convention Saturday.  We started OUT pooped.  As a demonstration, here is Dana Simpson putting a bandage on her toe.  So much walking!


This photo was taken at Dana's request.  Look carefully.  We're in San Diego.  What do you not see?


 
SUNSHINE.  It was cloudy and often raining the whole con.  This baffled us both, and I used to live in Southern California.

Apparently every year outside SDCC there's a small protest by particularly strict Christians.  They hold up signs with biblical quotes and so forth.  They weren't exciting enough to photograph, but the counterprotests can be pretty funny.






We actually got up early.  Why?  Because Saturday morning had a 10am My Little Pony panel, complete with exclusive animatic clips from the fourth season!

We did not get in.  This photo of what appears to be a crowded hallway is the line.  Notice how it loops back upon itself multiple times.  Notice how it disappears off either end of the photo, because it filled the hallway and there was no room to get a coherent photo of the whole line.


No one showed here got to see the panel, including us.  The panel room was full by the time this photo was taken, the word just hadn't gotten back through the line.  Here is a photo of the panel room I snuck up later and took.  All you can see is the corner, but I think it makes the point about how badly the schedulers underestimated the popularity of My Little Pony.





We did not let ourselves be daunted!  Dana promised to introduce me to Peter S. Beagle, with whom she is Close Personal Friends.  This would be more impressive, except that now that I've met him I understand that he is Close Personal Friends with everyone.  He's just a really, really nice guy.  Still, she's done signings with him and stuff and as an author, he's one of my very few direct influences.

But before we could see him, we stopped by Dana's syndicate's booth, so she could add her sketch to a board their cartoonists were putting together.  Here, in an impulse-driven attempt to be meta, is a photograph of the artist photographing her art.





Here is the actual art (from a photograph Dana took when it was completed).





Off we went to see Beagle!  We got word of what booth he was in.  Finding it was another matter.  How big is the exhibition hall?  So big that when we tried to follow the direction, we found this - an entire half of the hall we had missed in previous explorations.





It included stuff like this puppet talking to a man in a prison yard with a bloody face.  I didn't ask what any of that was about.





We met the Man himself!  While I was waiting as he spoke to another fan, Dana shook hands with Beagle's marketing guy, who begged her to attend some of their events.  Seriously.  I was like 'Damn, girl!'  Beagle is the little man under their shaking hands.  He is sweet and accidentally took a copy of my books, and hey, he can have 'em.  I wish I'd gotten a better picture, because he has the most idiosyncratic expression.





LUUUUUNCH!  I think we got a hamburger.  No, that was the day at the pizza and beer place.  Not important!  What is important is that SDCC spreads out around the convention center itself, and we got more photos!

This is a terrible photo of Tetris cosplayers selling something.





This is a pirate band.  I don't think they're affiliated with anything but themselves.  They're just pirates who started playing music on the sidewalk.  If I understand their poster correctly, they at least knew each other first.  So you know, they're not PROMISCUOUS pirates.





I like Raven and Starfire.  Costumes of Raven and Starfire are a guaranteed photographing.





We plunged back into the con!  Everything left is kinda random.  Ah, here is the area where we found Beagle - the Artist's Alley.  We had no idea this place existed before we went looking for Beagle.





In that side of the hall there was a giant Ice King head.  Why?  I puzzled over this at length, until I spotted the photographer inside.  You can line up and get your photo taken in the Ice King's jail!  I just took my own photo OF the jail.





Okay, I may not be able to explain this photo, but I'll try.  Manga Studio had a big booth, where they were showing one of their programs being used on this photo screen.  I was not able to catch a photo in time, but the gentleman being shown was displayed full body and naked when we got there.  This was mainly funny because he was naked and visibly female below the waist.  I took this photo so I could at least explain the incident to my friends.


We will close up with the convention's final cosplay photo!  I like Avatar, too.





That's all for Saturday!

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