So I had a neat experience on Saturday. I got to go to Comic Con! Evidently this years con was one of the biggest outside of California and it felt like it. It was packed to the brim with all kinds of people in cosplay (costumes for the non-con folks) and there is no shortage of treats for all kinds of fandoms.
One thing that was cool this year is there was more free booths then I had noticed last year. You could get your picture taken with Superman, Batman or these friends from a favorite comic book movie of mine- Guardians of the Galaxy.
Comic Con is expensive enough that I thought it was nice to have a some things for free. This year I decided to not do any of the paid photo ops even though I was tempted with Chris Evans (Captain America!) there. Last year I did several and the long lines were tough for me (more on that later on).
The real treat of Comic Con is the panels and forums. If I go next year I may just go to panels because that’s much easier on my body and the fun part. The highlight for me was getting to hear from longtime Disney animator Floyd Norman who spoke about his experience working with Walt Disney on Jungle Book and his time working with the famous 9 Old Men who were the Disney animation masters in the early days. He was funny and insightful. I particularly liked how he said he was an animator first and African American second. He did not feel looked down on or disrespected by the Disney family as long as he did good work. That was cool to hear.
Here is some of his address. It’s not the best audio quality but thought you might enjoy it anyway.
Then the other highlight was the Twisted Toonz panel. This is a panel where very talented voice actors read Harry Potter scripts in different voices. It is so funny and amazing to hear them alternate between the voices. What masters of their crafts are these voice actors. The panel this year included Dee Bradley Baker, Rob Paulsen, Maurice LeMarche, Tress MacNeille and Jess Harnell. They were so funny!
I didn’t take this video because I was pretty far back but I found it on youtube.
I also went to a panel on The Muppets which was very interesting.
So all of that was fun, but there was some stuff that wasn’t fun. First of all, the organization of the event needs improvement. It is so hard to find out where things are and there aren’t enough signs or people to help with directions. There are also not enough food vendors so they all have long lines. I tried to bring sandwiches but they ended up getting all smashed. Even bottled water is a pain to procure. Everything is a long line and lines are tough for me.
I also don’t know how you solve this but it is so jam packed. I’m sure Saturday is the busiest day so perhaps next year I will take a day off and go on Thursday which I am sure is less crowded. You get bumped around and it is so hard to do anything with the lines and waiting.
I wish they had more signs to get to parking because I exited a different place than I entered and got all turned around and ended up walking around for about an hour trying to find the parking lot and find my car. You can see my frustration by the time I found the stupid car:
I was especially frustrated because I had a screen printed t-shirt I had inked at Comic Con and in the madness looking for the car I set it down and didn’t realize it, thought it was in my bag and left it somewhere 😦
One thing I learned at Comic Con is I realized I have a limit on such events. I knew around 4 pm I had reached my limit but I pushed myself further doing things till 6. By then I was tired and my feet were very sore. Then the additional hour looking for my car was too much. If I had left at 4 I would have left Comic Con with a smile on my face and been happy but I had to push my limits. No more! This is something which is supposed to be fun (it’d be one thing if it was pushing myself for work or volunteering but this is for fun). So I am going to work on stopping when I reach that limit. I think if I ever go to Disneyland again this will be key for me having a good time.
It’s so easy to say ‘I want to get my money’s worth’ but at what cost? It seriously almost ruined my experience at Comic Con because I was so exhausted by the end of it. It’s not worth it to push past my limits if it is going to ruin the fun. My poor feet ended up blistered and sore after (and still are).
I guess I want to be able to do more but I can’t and that’s the breaks.
But overall I did have fun and learned a lot so I am happy with my Comic Con experience.
Did any of you go? What did you think?
Rachel's Musings 
Wow, I’m jealous. You look totally in your element hanging with the Guardians of the Galaxy…
That was a real treat!
Glad you had mostly fun! I feel like the event is extremely well organized for how huge it is. They do an amazing job. Amazing. I loved every minute I was there and I spent all three days there, all day long! Anyway, I just wrote a massive post about my experience and it will go up tomorrow. Be sure to come read it! 🙂
Oh I will. I just feel like the signage to things could be better and it is hard to find people to help. Trying to find the parking was particularly frustrating. It would have been nice to have a sign saying ‘south lot this way’, ‘west lot this way’. It’d be nice if there were more people passing out schedules because it was hard to find and the internet was down so I couldn’t look it up online. I also don’t think there are near enough food vendors for that many people so you have to wait in long lines which is hard for me. Anyway, I didn’t mean to be overly critical. I was probably mostly frustrated with my own limitations. I stayed too long and then had the mess up with the car and so it kind of ended on a sour note and all the blisters. It may just not be my event. Oh well. I look forward to your thoughts.
But it is true that I don’t go to many or any other events this size (the closest would be Storymakers and I know that doesn’t compare) but if they asked for my feedback I’d say more info on the panels because sometimes hard to know from just the title, better signage to things especially parking (inside and out), more food vendors and make photo ops smaller time windows so you don’t have to wait 2 hours like I did last year.
But that said, just because I saw room for improvement doesn’t mean it was an organizational disaster. I can see they did many things right like booking great guests and having a variety of panels/activities. Anyway, that was just my experience.