Comic-Con 2007!!! (Part 2 - "Everyone Hates Andrew" - With a Special Appearance by This Wall)

Welcome back!

Last time we left off, I was just getting ready for my second day at Comic-Con (no, this isn't a 1-post-per-day thing; it just happened to work that way). So now we'll take a look at my next set of 25 pictures. Hooray!

Again, we're going with my little "Everyone Hates Andrew" theme. This time, the agressors are Blade (who must be mistaking me for a vampire) and Bishop (who must be mistaking me for some time traveling...guy...). Is it geekish that I'm able to identify these guys without even thinking about it?

Remember what I was saying last time about how annoying it is for a picture to be not completely blurry, but still a little blurry. Perfect example. That faux-Princess Leia and Jaba the Hutt look pretty good together, but you'll never know for sure, because there's just the tiniest blur in it. However, there's also the possibility that that woman was actually very ugly, and the blur is the only thing standing between you and complete revulsion.

Speaking of revulsion, there was another potential picture that I could have taken, but didn't. It was at the booth of...I'm not sure, maybe Dimension Films? Anyhoo, they had a woman posing at a pole, in order to promote one of their movies, a Quentin Tarintino "movie" called Grindhouse. In that movie, there's a character, a woman who had a machine gun as a prosthetic leg. Now, at this booth, there was a fairly young woman who had the same thing; a machine gun as a prosthetic leg. But this wasn't added in with CGI; this was real - she was actually missing her leg!

There were plenty of people taking pictures, and I was going to, mainly because she was placed there as a photo op. But I just...couldn't. I think it was the small scar on her midriff. It really made me think, "You know, this isn't some glamor model, this is just a girl, not much older than me, who's been in some sort of accident. And now she's being paid because she's missing her leg. And all these fat slobs around me, they're not concerned with what happened to her. They just want to take the picture. 'Gather round the freak show, people!' She's smiling, but it's a faint, almost forced smile, one she's had to wear for hours. Why am I taking this picture? If she had a leg, would I even be considering this? Am I taking a picture of what she has, or what she doesn't have?"

...Yes, that did all go through my mind. And in the end, I didn't take the picture. It just made me feel too uneasy with myself. Although I was later told by one of my residents that "it's the pictures that make you feel uncomfortable that you have to take," I'm comfortable with my choice.


......What? That's all I had from Day 2? Really? Okay, then, onto Day 3!

Now, Day 3 was Saturday, and I knew Saturday was going to be sold out (it was the only day sold out last year, and since three of the four days were sold out this year, it was a pretty good chance that this was one of them). And, following our experiences with parking the previous day, we didn't want a repeat. So, my cousin suggests that we drive down to the trolley station, and take that into the Convention Center. We did that, and it was a good idea...at the time. You see, later on that day, one of my companions was giving blood - a charitable venture, to be sure. However, she didn't take too kindly to having a good portion of her blood taken out. So, she was feeling really faint, and in no condition to travel on a very, very shaky train.

Hence, I had to go back on the trolley - by myself and without my iPod - to Chula Vista, and then drive for the first time in 7 months, after sundown and in unfamiliar territory. (You know what? I still drove better than Squall did!) I then had to pick them up, and we drove back. So, taking the trolley actually turned out to be a bad idea...but there was no way we could have known that unless I had precognitive powers (and if I did, why would I be wasting my time going to comic book conventions. I would be the superhero!)

...Where was I? Oh, yes! So, we took the trolley in, which brought us to the trolley station area, where we saw something we wouldn't have seen otherwise:

What's that? Some sort of drawing? Yes! I'm not sure if you've ever heard of those sidewalk-perspective-art things, but this is one of them (though I'm not sure if it's the same guy, as this one has a beard. If you don't know how this kind of art works, look at that link. It's really fascinating. Anyway, I'm guessing this guy was paid to do something related to Beowulf. And so we get this. Here, you can see a bunch of dead soldier dudes on the ground.

And above, we see a (non-chalk) stand-up of the monster Grendel, holding yet another dead soldeir dude (it looks like he's actually holding two, but look again). That's probably one of the odder depictions of Grendel that I've seen; most pictures portray him as some sort of werewolf (or other lycanthrope), not some weird zombie-thing.

Here's a full-on view. Notice the "CAUTION" tape. I guarantee, if that were not there, there would be people stepping on that poor dude's drawing. The attendees of this convention were incredibly dumb. More than once (much more than once), I saw people running across the rails right before a trolley, or even it's big brother, the real train, zoomed by. How there wasn't any deaths on those tracks, I'll never know.

Here you can get a better view of the dead soldier dudes. It looks like one of them could use a hand!



...I'm sorry. I'm really, truly sorry.

Okay, final shot of this, I promise. You may notice that there's some sort of glass-like reflection on this shot. That, my intrepid reader, is because this shot was taken behind a little glass thing that essentially tells you where to look through for the correct perspective. Now, you may be thinking, "Wait, that doesn't look too 3D to me!" Well, consider that the picture is still incomplete, and also that I'm actually not taking the picture from the exact right angle. In real life, it looks much better than this.

Heh. Remember how I said I got a few pictures of this thing each time I went up the escalator. This was the second one, and I must say, I think it turned out the best out of all of them. It's crisp, clear, and shows just how frickin' huge this place was. I think I should send it in to the Comic-Con powers-that-be, so that they can use it as one of their "official" pictures. Hell, they may even pay me. In fact, I'll make them pay me! They'll have no choice, what with my obvious photographic talent. *Hides every other picture.*

I have no idea what I was taking a picture of here, but I obviously moved the camera during a long exposure. Why did I keep it in, then, since it is obviously a shot that didn't come out right? I dunno, I kinda like it. Plus, if you stare at it for a long time while listening to this Cirque du Solei music, it makes you nostalgic for a time you were never a part of (or Protonostalgic). That merits an inclusion in my book!

This was a great idea that just didn't work. In order to give an idea of the sheer magnitude of this event, I wanted to take a picture of the row number signs going down the main aisle. However, there were three problems:
1. It turned out way too dark (wide open spaces, I suppose).
2. I'm just a bit too low.
3. There's a freakin' support pole in my way. That kind of ruined that idea. Still, the thing was huge. Three stories, about 500 yards each, all full.

I took a big picture by this guy last year (his name's Alphonse, by the way) at the same booth, but back then he was in a different pose, and had his brother there, also cast in some sort of plaster-plastic hybrid. As for me, I've grown more frowny and less gay-looking, though I still cock my head to the right (well, your left, my right).

So, although I was trying to get as many people to pose hurting me, not everyone was in for it. This rabbit-woman is a perfect example. I tell her to whack me with that staff, and she just says, "Oh, I'm not going to hit you." I should have responded with something to the affect of "Goddammit, you long-eared skank! When I tell you to hit me, hit me!" That would have sprang her into motion pretty quickly. However, the gentleman in me took precedence, and I just stood there, head cocked to the right, looking like some lame guy who takes unexciting pictures with rabbit-women.

And here's me with a cospayer of Megaman (though, judging by the size and shape of the body, I'd say this character was more of the female persuasion). Again, they didn't want to take a picture hurting me, and would rather take a picture thrusting forward the blue head of Ebeneezer Scrooge. Fed up, I decided to take my aggression out on someone. Though it looks like my fist is heading towards Mega(wo)man's head, i actually sucker-punched that kid in the light blue shirt. Several applauded.

This is me trading fingers with a guy dressed up as Phoenix Wright. Now, for those unaware, Phoenix Wright is the eponymous character in the Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney series for the Nintendo DS (a great, great series). Now, one of his main quirks (and they even joke about this in the game) is the fact that when he's shouting "OBJECTION", as he is wont to do, he always points his finger out. See here for reference. So, I decided to do a point-off, which is about as close as that kind of character can get to "hurting" me. In the end, I think I look better, despite his pillow. I mean, he's smiling. Smiling!

Apparently, there's a movie coming out this December called The Golden Compass. I've never heard of it before, but it apparently has Nicole Kidman (who I don't really like anyway). Anyhoo, they had quite a presence here, including taking pictures with a bluescreen (you'll see that later). And right here, they had a stature of a large bear-like creature, most likely a bear. It was so big that I had to take two pictures of it, one from the side and one from the front...

...But which is which? Even though this is where you see the bears face straight-on, but you only see the side of his body. So who's to say what's the front and what's the side? We're through the looking glass here people...

This is one of my favorite shots, particularly of the "Let's Kill Andrew" collection. It's like, it doesn't matter if they're white or black, Jedi or Sith, Twi'lek or human - everyone has it out for me. I'm particularly concerned with how close to my groin that guy lowered his lightsaber. I guess that's part of the movie that Lucas decided to take out in the final cut.

Now, as I've explained multiple times before, this thing was huge. 30,000 people a day. I explained to people that it was a lot of "walking, standing in line, and pushing through crowds." So, I walk by this wall on Saturday, and it's totally empty. This wall was an anomaly. This wall was special. Never before, nor ever again, did I see this wall empty, but for a brief, shining moment, I was able to see the full scope of this wall. It was a photo opportunity I was not willing to pass up. So, I took a picture of this wall, and it made my day.

Note: that little bug-like thing in the middle of this wall? Not a bug. It was just some random symbol sticker thing. So there.

Now, here's the Batmobile from the original 1960s Batman TV show. It was being displayed at the Hot Wheels booth and, if you think about it, is damn ugly. I don't really know why I took this picture of it, nor the several pictures I took the next day (well, I obviously had forgotten that I took this one).

Also, please not that this is somewhat of a tilted-camera shot, a homage to the horrid camera-work of that show.

Here's me standing by a large Bender costumed-guy. I didn't even bother asking the guy to attack me in any way; he could barely walk around, let alone move his arms in any significant way. One thing I noticed, though: the corners of my mouth are both turned down, but its still pretty obvious that I have some sort of smile going on. Ah, the wonders of human facial expressions.

Okay, this is me trying to make up for the botched shot earlier on. However, even though this one does go all the way to the end (and you can see that there are a lot of signs), going from 2300 to 0 just doesn't have the same Oomph! as going from 5000 to 0.

Wow, it looks like our relationship broke down pretty quickly. Strip a guy's arm of all but its robotic components and rip off his helmet, and his mood's suddenly turned sour. Now, some may question why someone would dress as such a specific character aspect (that's only in the movies for what, three minutes?), but he pulls it off pretty well. And, no, there's not some giant flying waffle in the air that's caught my attention; Darth Vader's strangling me with his Dark Side powers. And that jackass in the back is just getting a kick out of my death.

Another one I like (I think this post has my favorite pictures of me getting hurt). Political? Perhaps (read: no). Fun? Yes. Seriously, if you saw someone like Boba Fett, you're not going to be particularly brave. You're going to surrender before he has a chance to speak (well...if he spoke).

Funny note: I was messing around with this on Photoshop, and even though I look fairly frightened and subservient in this picture, I was able to make my face look very...what I can only call defiant. I decided to make something of it, and I actually submitted on my deviantART profile (by the way, I have a deviantART profile, where I'll probably be putting some of my pieces as I make them). It's actually called "Defiance". Have a gander. I actually have a comment on it (which is pretty good for a nobody like me), in which they say (and I quote), "Beautiful... it's merely beautiful"....which doesn't sound that great, unless you consider that they person probably speaks another language. Replace "merely" with "simply" and it sounds a lot more like what I'm hoping they were trying to say.

I have no idea what the heck these are, or what they were for. But they took the time to dress up, so I decided to take the time to take a picture. Sweet deal, no?

And, for our last piece of Part 2, we have yet another of my favorite shots. This one, though, I like for the opposite reason as the one with all the different Jedi attacking me. That one had a lot of people coming from a lot of different places, with all sorts of weapons threatening me in all sorts of ways. This one, though...this is simple. To the point. Clean, crisp, and effective. A good way to end this session, which probably has more of these self-destructive shots than any other.

This week's going to be hellish for me, what with a final and a group presentation and Fall Training, but I'll still be plugging away every night, type-type-typing until I get this behemoth completed, hopefully before the week is out. I'll see you next time!