Watching The CW

It’s Sunday, the day of the Dollhouse panel at NY Comic Con. Anne was in line by 9:20 am and still ended up in the third row. The panel wasn’t starting until 12:45 pm. The people next to us had gotten in the line to get autograph tickets at 5:30 am and they still didn’t get any. It validated my decision to just get a good night’s sleep. I got there just before 10 am and had to cut in line. No one seemed to mind, thank goodness. Lots of people commented on my “Joss is my Hero” shirt. It really did look amazingly awesome. Someone looked at me and said, “He really is, isn’t he?”

I have to thank some people who were in line with us, because they had a plan to get good seats and it worked. As soon as the doors opened, we weaved to the left and ran up the aisle. If not for the guy who was with them running ahead of us with his long legs and then throwing his body over the five seats we needed, we probably wouldn’t be as far up front as we were. Thank you, guy who’s name I never thought to ask. I do know that one of the girls was named Tracy and that she reads stuff over at Whedonesque. So maybe they will read this, too. Here’s a video of the room before the start of the panel. I know they let us in around noon and I took this just after we got settled in our seats. You can’t really tell, but the balcony is also full.

I’m not really even going to try to give a play-by-play of what was discussed at the panel. For one thing, I was so busy hanging on to Joss’s every word, that I’m not exactly clear what he was talking about anyway. Besides, Buffyfest did a great review of the panel, including videos you can actually see and hear, quite unlike the videos I took. So go check it out here.

I will make mention of one of the things Joss said that I can actually remember him saying. Joss speaking about the character of Topher, said, “You won’t be surprised to find a little bit of me in him, he creates characters and has no morals.” He also said something about someday making a period piece, in Elizabethan dress. Could I love this man more?

Oh, and one final note. Something that is just as annoying as people calling Joss Whedon “Josh” is people calling Tahmoh Penikett “Toma.”

Reminder: If you care, you should check out my other blog at Watching Sitcoms, where I’m also blogging about different Comic Con stuff.

Anne and I were walking around the floor at NY Comic Con, and as we walked towards the Sega booth, I saw Mark Sheppard (the lovely, lovely Badger from Firefly). He was standing talking to another guy by one of the games. Turns out that Mark is the lead character in a new Wii game called The Conduit. He saw us standing there, me in my Serenity hoodie, and he said to me, “great jacket.” Which it is. Then he told the guy with him something about how there’s this whole universe that he’s a part of and how “she’s in it, too!” Yes, that is true. We stood and chatted for a bit and he told us about the new Sega game. Then I asked about his dad and he told me that his dad was still over in the booth. I think he was going for lunch when we ran into him, cause as I was leaving to go talk to his dad, he said they would be back and we should come over to the booth later. Sadly, I didn’t get back there, cause I would have liked to have gotten his autograph or a picture.

But I did get to see Mark’s dad, William Morgan Sheppard. For me he is and will always and forever be Blank Reg from Max Headroom, but he has actually been in a gazillion different shows and movies. Most recently, he is in the new Star Trek movie. He was completely adorable. I was really syked to meet him, cause I’m just geeky that way. Morgan was so genuinely nice and friendly. He keept holding my hand and he even kissed my hand at one point. He signed my autograph book, “Toni - Best wishes and thank you for all those evenings - Morgan Sheppard.” Awesome!

Reminder: If you care, you should check out my other blog at Watching Sitcoms, where I’m also blogging about different Comic Con stuff.

On our first trip around the floor at NY Comic Con, Anne and I fought our way through the crowds, trying to find stuff. We sort of knew what we wanted to see, but we didn’t really know where those things were, and we also wanted to take it all in. So we wandered at random. We came to the area called Artist Alley. I had a vague recollection from reviewing the information that there was something in there that I wanted to see.

We came around a corner and along the wall were tables where people were meeting fans and signing autographs. At the end closest to us I saw William Katt. I loved that show, The Greatest American Hero was I was younger. As a matter of fact, a few months ago, my husband and I were in a grocery store when the theme song came on and I was unconsciously singing along. My husband turned to me and said, “I can’t believe you know every word of that song.” And it occured to me that I did. So when we met Mr. Katt, I told him that story. He said he didn’t know if he should be happy or scared for me.

He was a really wonderful guy, very normal, natural and friendly. I mentioned that I had just seen the episode of House where he starred with Thomas Dekker (Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles). We then chatted for a bit about his friendship with Thomas Dekker. He also mentioned that Thomas was a musician, which I already knew, since I have the CD. (It’s available at iTunes, so you should check it out.)

It was great to meet William Katt . He had a sort of self-deprecating manner, putting himself in the past, and so I hope that he understood that I really was excited to meet him and it was an honor.

Reminder: If you care, you should check out my other blog at Watching Sitcoms, where I’m also blogging about different Comic Con stuff.

One of the fun things I got to do at NY Comic Con was attend the Torchwood panel. At first I didn’t think I was getting in, even though I got in the line about an hour before the event started. At that point, we were told that only the people in the first loop of the line against the wall would make it in. We were in the third loop and the line was growing. I think it eventually got to be five loops back. (What I mean by loops is that they had to keep bending the line back on itself, back and forth, down the hallway in order to fit everyone in.) I’m not even sure how many people got in, but if I had to guess, I’d say the room fit about 1000 people. I think if the Con organizers had realized how big a deal Torchwood was going to be they would have put them in the big IGN Theatre that seats over 3000.

I got lucky (more…)

The first panel I attended at NY Comic Con was the Watchmen, Friday the 13th and Terminator Salvation panel. It was in the big IGN Theater and was well attended.

I really hadn’t read anything about Watchmen so I didn’t know what to expect. We were treated to a long movie clip. Maybe 15 minutes. It was really good. I definitely want to see it. My nephew told me later that he’ll get me the comic books to read first, which is probably a good idea. I was happy to see so many people I like in the movie, like Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earl Haley (who was amazingly terrifying in a great way in the clip), and Matt Frewer. I’m sure there were others, too, but those are the ones I remember.

We then saw a longish clip of the new Friday the 13th movie. I hated it. Well, see, I don’t mind scary or even terrifying, but I draw the line at icky. I just saw some stuff I can’t erase and I’ll have nightmares for a long time. After the first gory part I witnessed, I closed my eyes and (more…)

So, do you?

OK, OK, I know this is like my fifth NY Comic Con post and I haven’t even left home yet to go there. So I promise. This will absolutely, positively (alomst probably) be my very last ever NY Comic Con post. Until I get back from Comic Con. (Unless, of course, something amazing happens that I have to blog about immediately while I’m there, which I will do from my phone. So don’t expect good spelling or punctuation if that happens.)

Anyway, my friend made some amazing shirts and a hoodie for me to wear, so I can show my geeky colors and, hopefully, attract others of my kind. I mean it, that’s really a goal. There must be others like me out there, right?

So, the first shirt says, “BuffyGroupie.” That’s me, BuffyGroupie. Like, I’m a superhero for stalkers. Or a stalking superhero. You get the point.

The next shirt, the one I plan to wear to the Dollhouse panel, says “Joss is my Hero.” Well, he is. Hopefully, he sees it and it makes him happy. The fact that the word “hero” stretches in an interesting way when the shirt is on is in no way a play to get his attention.

The final pic is from my Serenity hoodie. I’ll pretty much be wearing that the entire time I’m in New York City. Possibly even every day for the entire rest of my life.

So, what do you think? Aren’t they shiny? I spent like two seconds telling my friend what I wanted and two days later, here are my amazingly shiny shirts for Comic Con.

Now you can recognize me.

So I posted on my other blog, watchingsitcoms, about NY Comic Con (since I can’t really focus on anything other than the fact that I am leaving to go there tomorrow) and I expressed some concern about how I’m going to react when faced with a real life celebrity.

I admit it, I get star struck. I actually have a funny story about that. One time I went to a concert with some friends. I’m not telling you which concert, or who we saw, cause I don’t want to. I really just don’t want to.

Anyway, we were down the street from the venue (I think it was in Syracuse, NY) at a restaurant with a bunch of people grabbing something to eat before the show. Someone calls someone else in the crowd to say that the band members, and in particular, the lead singer, were out in back of the venue signing autographs and taking pics. It was like a stampede. Dozens of old ladies and tweenie girls running down the road like cattle.

I’m old, so I was slow and I get there just behind the crowd. Even so, I’m only about 15 feet away from this guy, who is smiling and signing.

I’m dumbfounded. Like I can’t believe he’s real and I’m staring at him, with my mouth wide open. Then I pull myself together (marginally) and decide to take a picture. I fumble around in my purse trying to get at my camera, pretty much dumping the contents into the street, and watch while my extra batteries and possibly my keys roll away out of sight under a bus. I’m so cool and polished.

All that being said, if I was that excited about someone who’s really not that interesting, how will I act if I have an opportunity to be face to face with (or in the vicinity of) Joss Whedon?

It won’t be pretty.