stebo88
07-25-2009, 03:26 AM
For those who don't know what Comic-Con is, it's just about the biggest convention for comic, film, and gaming fan. I have attended/I am attending Comic-Con 09 this year and have gone today and yesterday (July 23rd-24th; I also go back again on Sunday July 26th). I've only had 23 hours of sleep in the past 3 days and I'm as hungry as a dry river. I just got home and before I get some rest and consume any food, I wish to tell you guys about my experience in a few paragraphs.
July 23, Thursday-
I leave the house with my older brother Chaz and I leave the house at 7am to drive 80 miles to San Diego. When we get to Comic-Con, we are stuck in traffic for about 30-45 minutes. While Chaz parked the car, I went in to the convention hall, surrounded with 150,000 nerds, to retrieve his and my ticket. Both of us crews the whole convention center, from back to front, at least 3 times. There were around 500-700 booths on the first floor of the convention hall. Food was hella expensive so I didn't bother wasting my money of $5 Dr. Pepper. Yeah, horseshit isn't it? $5 my ass.
So with lack of sleep and a starving stomach, Chaz and I, including some of Chaz's nerdy friends, wait outside in the hot sun for almost 2 hours waiting to get into a big staging hall to watch upcoming movie previews with Q&A of the movie's director and cast. I nearly collapse out on the side walk while waiting in line due to my lack of energy. We finally get in and sit down in comfy seats with air conditioning and about 10,000 other nerds sitting all around us.
The first movie preview we watch is from the upcoming film, Avatar (http://commforums.com/url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_%282009_film%29). The movie looks great, we saw a 30 minute preview of a lot of action scenes. Siggourney Weaver (Alien, Ghost Busters) and Sam Worthington were stared in the live Q&A on stage. It was cool to see them up close. ^^ oi
The next upcoming movie preview The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The movie looks dark and weird, but cool. The movie features Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain, The Dark Knight) as the main character of the film (The movie was a post-production due to his death), including Johnny Depp (Ed Wood, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Pirates of the Caribbean) and Tom Waits (singer and songwriter). The live Q&A booth on stage featured the director and Verne Troyer (Best known as Mini-Me as Austin Powers).
Got home around 10 and fell asleep at 12.
Day 2, Friday-
I didn't feel like going early this morning and neither did my brother, so we both decided to leave at 1pm today and we got there around 2pm. This time, I got information regarding Starcraft.
For those who don't read Starcraft novels, I am a HUGE fan of Starcraft: The Dark Templar Saga. Today at her very own booth, Christie Golden, the author of the Dark Templar Saga as well as many other Warcraft, Horror, and Star Wars novels, signed and met fans for 2 hours. I of course couldn't miss this, so I showed up, with all three books of the Dark Templar Saga. Her booth was in regards of her upcoming book, "Fate of the Jedi" (Starwars was a huge thing at Comic-Con), but she was happy to sign my 3 books and talk to me. I had butterflies in my stomach the whole time I was talking to her; shes one of my favorite writers so I was shipped up and nervous. While she signed my books, she asked my name and I told her I am Steven. Then all of a sudden, I found myself complimenting her books, telling her how great of a writer she is and how much her books satisfy me, blah blah blah. Christie smiled and looked at the BlizzCon 07 t-shirt I was wearing and she smiled and said, "You've been to BlizzCon? I've been there." I smiled and informed her that I work as a staff member for a Starcraft 2 fansite known only as the Armory and that I own and operate my own Diablo 3 fansite as well, CommunityDiablo.com. This grabbed her interest, a lot, so I moved in and started asking Christie questions regarding the Dark Templar Saga. Here is a small Q&A I was able to conjure up from Christie Golden:
NOTE: (My questions have been modified in the Q&A for accuracy; Christie's answers are word for word. The exact conversation I had with her regarding the Q&A was only 90 seconds tops.)
Stebo: "What inspired you to make a 3 book story dedicated to Starcraft and the Dark Templar?"
Christie: "My husband was a big fan of Starcraft. I envuatly started playing it and I became a fan to the game, Protoss being my favorite race. After doing related sci-fi novels in the past, I felt inspired to do so again with my favorite computer game."
Stebo: "Did you have an trouble coming up with ideas that could alter the story of Starcraft 2, such as where Zerutal has been all the 4 years or how Zamara's secret would effect the story?"
Christie: "Definitely. I had to sit down with Blizzard producers and all of their staff writers for a full month discussing what and what I couldn't feature in the books, especially for Twilight which features Zamara's big secret. In fact Twilight was postponed to be released because I had trouble organizing my thoughts and how I would fit everything into my story and Starcraft 2's story."
Stebo: "Any chance we might see any of your characters from the book, besides Zerutal and Selendis, who will be featured in Starcraft 2, featured into the camgain?"
Christie: "*Laughs* I don't know about that. It would be interesting to see though."
I thanked Christie for her time and answers. She said it was a pleasure talking to me. I spent the rest of the day wandering around and looking at gaming booths and trying out free games and upcoming demos for a few hours. I met the artist and writer of Spy vs Spy of Mad Magazine, which I'm a big fan of. I got him to sign my 500th Mad Magazine issue that I had brought along. I got in a 1 hour line and watched a Pokemon card tournament which was hilarious and amusing to watch. My brother and I eventually got tired so we left.
Stay tuned! I will be going on the final day to Comic-Con this sunday! I hope to meet Captain Chuck of YouTube's Clipcritics (http://www.youtube.com/user/clipcritics?blend=1&ob=4). I especially hope all of you enjoyed the Q&A batch I gathered from Christie Golden. ^^ oi
July 23, Thursday-
I leave the house with my older brother Chaz and I leave the house at 7am to drive 80 miles to San Diego. When we get to Comic-Con, we are stuck in traffic for about 30-45 minutes. While Chaz parked the car, I went in to the convention hall, surrounded with 150,000 nerds, to retrieve his and my ticket. Both of us crews the whole convention center, from back to front, at least 3 times. There were around 500-700 booths on the first floor of the convention hall. Food was hella expensive so I didn't bother wasting my money of $5 Dr. Pepper. Yeah, horseshit isn't it? $5 my ass.
So with lack of sleep and a starving stomach, Chaz and I, including some of Chaz's nerdy friends, wait outside in the hot sun for almost 2 hours waiting to get into a big staging hall to watch upcoming movie previews with Q&A of the movie's director and cast. I nearly collapse out on the side walk while waiting in line due to my lack of energy. We finally get in and sit down in comfy seats with air conditioning and about 10,000 other nerds sitting all around us.
The first movie preview we watch is from the upcoming film, Avatar (http://commforums.com/url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_%282009_film%29). The movie looks great, we saw a 30 minute preview of a lot of action scenes. Siggourney Weaver (Alien, Ghost Busters) and Sam Worthington were stared in the live Q&A on stage. It was cool to see them up close. ^^ oi
The next upcoming movie preview The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The movie looks dark and weird, but cool. The movie features Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain, The Dark Knight) as the main character of the film (The movie was a post-production due to his death), including Johnny Depp (Ed Wood, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Pirates of the Caribbean) and Tom Waits (singer and songwriter). The live Q&A booth on stage featured the director and Verne Troyer (Best known as Mini-Me as Austin Powers).
Got home around 10 and fell asleep at 12.
Day 2, Friday-
I didn't feel like going early this morning and neither did my brother, so we both decided to leave at 1pm today and we got there around 2pm. This time, I got information regarding Starcraft.
For those who don't read Starcraft novels, I am a HUGE fan of Starcraft: The Dark Templar Saga. Today at her very own booth, Christie Golden, the author of the Dark Templar Saga as well as many other Warcraft, Horror, and Star Wars novels, signed and met fans for 2 hours. I of course couldn't miss this, so I showed up, with all three books of the Dark Templar Saga. Her booth was in regards of her upcoming book, "Fate of the Jedi" (Starwars was a huge thing at Comic-Con), but she was happy to sign my 3 books and talk to me. I had butterflies in my stomach the whole time I was talking to her; shes one of my favorite writers so I was shipped up and nervous. While she signed my books, she asked my name and I told her I am Steven. Then all of a sudden, I found myself complimenting her books, telling her how great of a writer she is and how much her books satisfy me, blah blah blah. Christie smiled and looked at the BlizzCon 07 t-shirt I was wearing and she smiled and said, "You've been to BlizzCon? I've been there." I smiled and informed her that I work as a staff member for a Starcraft 2 fansite known only as the Armory and that I own and operate my own Diablo 3 fansite as well, CommunityDiablo.com. This grabbed her interest, a lot, so I moved in and started asking Christie questions regarding the Dark Templar Saga. Here is a small Q&A I was able to conjure up from Christie Golden:
NOTE: (My questions have been modified in the Q&A for accuracy; Christie's answers are word for word. The exact conversation I had with her regarding the Q&A was only 90 seconds tops.)
Stebo: "What inspired you to make a 3 book story dedicated to Starcraft and the Dark Templar?"
Christie: "My husband was a big fan of Starcraft. I envuatly started playing it and I became a fan to the game, Protoss being my favorite race. After doing related sci-fi novels in the past, I felt inspired to do so again with my favorite computer game."
Stebo: "Did you have an trouble coming up with ideas that could alter the story of Starcraft 2, such as where Zerutal has been all the 4 years or how Zamara's secret would effect the story?"
Christie: "Definitely. I had to sit down with Blizzard producers and all of their staff writers for a full month discussing what and what I couldn't feature in the books, especially for Twilight which features Zamara's big secret. In fact Twilight was postponed to be released because I had trouble organizing my thoughts and how I would fit everything into my story and Starcraft 2's story."
Stebo: "Any chance we might see any of your characters from the book, besides Zerutal and Selendis, who will be featured in Starcraft 2, featured into the camgain?"
Christie: "*Laughs* I don't know about that. It would be interesting to see though."
I thanked Christie for her time and answers. She said it was a pleasure talking to me. I spent the rest of the day wandering around and looking at gaming booths and trying out free games and upcoming demos for a few hours. I met the artist and writer of Spy vs Spy of Mad Magazine, which I'm a big fan of. I got him to sign my 500th Mad Magazine issue that I had brought along. I got in a 1 hour line and watched a Pokemon card tournament which was hilarious and amusing to watch. My brother and I eventually got tired so we left.
Stay tuned! I will be going on the final day to Comic-Con this sunday! I hope to meet Captain Chuck of YouTube's Clipcritics (http://www.youtube.com/user/clipcritics?blend=1&ob=4). I especially hope all of you enjoyed the Q&A batch I gathered from Christie Golden. ^^ oi