Photo: The entrance for this year's Comic Con in Providence, Rhode Island.
Photos: Hundreds of people, if not more, stood in line outside the Convention Center, in howling wind and rain, and never got in. These were amongst them. I took the shot of these cold, disgruntled people as I left the Con and went to my car. The line started in the lobbies, went downstairs, then started again at the doors outside, snaked around the building, and ended past these people, in front of the garage I parked in. Poor souls.
I had a great Saturday at Comic Con, though it apparently turned into a horror show for everyone who arrived after 12 p.m. or so. Ticketmaster or the Convention Center (they're playing tennis with the blame) never stopped selling tickets, so that thousands of people past the max showed up. When I left at about 3:30 p.m. (I got there at 8:30 a.m., waited with hundreds of others in The Dunk--as opposed to many hundred who waited outside in the cold, wind and rain--until the doors opened at 10:00 a.m.). But when I walked out at 3:30 p.m., there were hundreds of people waiting in the lobbies, another hundred or so downstairs, and many hundreds of others outside in a long line, in a pouring rain. Most of those outside never got in at all!
But I did. Got there early, despite the protests of my friends, who said I was crazy, that it wouldn't be crowded. (Though driving there was a breeze; took about 20 minutes.)
I spoke to, got pictures of (and with), and got autographs from:
1. Anthony Michael Hall (Very nice and humble. Different than I'd heard, and he'd lost a lot of weight since The Dark Knight. I was his first fan of the day--he was about a half-hour late, as were most of the other celebs.)
2. Karen Allen (Still very pretty and funny-feisty. Same exact smile and laugh.)
3. Michael Biehn (He's had a stroke, or he has MS or MD or something similar. Looked really, really bad, more of a walking dead than Scott Wilson or Seth Gilliam. Really too bad; one of my favorite 80s actors.)
4. William Katt (The Greatest American Hero, though I still prefer him in the original Carrie. Looks about the same; very fit and looking good for his age.)
5. John Rhys-Davies (His last name is pronounced like Davis; didn't know that. I prefer him as Sallah from Raiders of the Lost Ark, with Karen Allen, though he's very good, of course, as Gimli in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I got his autograph and Karen Allen's on the same Raiders picture.)
6. Seth Gilliam (Father Gabriel from The Walking Dead. Extremely fit and lean and athletic-looking. Very energetic, positive, pumped kind of guy.)
7. Took a break from autograph-hunting to sit in the audience for a panel discussion with Karen Allen and John Rhys-Davies speaking of Raiders. I went to the mike and asked a question to them about being directed by Steven Spielberg, as I had also been "directed" by him as an extra in Amistad. A friend took a video of me asking my question, and their 5+-minute answer.
8. Scott Wilson (Hershel from The Walking Dead.) He had by far the longest lines of any celebrity there that day--much longer than William Shatner and the other Trekkers.
9. Eliza Dushku. I've only seen her in True Lies, long before she was in Buffy, and Angel, and other things I never saw. Had a couple of bags stolen from her by a guy Channel 10 said was wearing "an Egyptian costume." Maybe Sallah? Incredibly, unbelievably beautiful, far more than the "supermodels" and "models" there.
Not a bad day, despite being packed in like sardines (since the Con violated fire safety laws and went way over the limit), and despite, once again (as at Terror Con in the same building), dealing with a staff who didn't know anything about anything. At both Cons combined, I asked the staff about ten questions--mind-boggling things, like "Where's the nearest exit?" or "Where's the ATM?"--and each time I was told, "I don't know." Literally, each and every single time.
So there's a lot of stuff for a lot of blog entries. I'll cover one at a time, in the order I got their autographs, or their picture. The list above is the exact order.
There'll be lots of pictures of the celebs and of their autographs, plus a bit on what they were in and how those movies or shows effected me. Hope you like 'em.
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