It’s that time of the year when my wife and I prepare for our annual July pilgrimage to San Diego (an hour and 20 minutes south of us) for Comic Con. She and I have been going to SDCC every year since 2004, with the lone exception of 2007 (and both of us regretted it, of course).
And, as usual, the week before the pilgrimage is fraught with going over schedules (as soon as they’re released) to decide what events to attend, coordinating with our friends who are attending as well (and, in the case of our longtime convention partner-in-crime, Ali, shared accommodations), and of course, last minute costume-making.
So far, I’ve barely glanced at the schedule for this year; save for a few events. A friend of mine has a new book release at SDCC, and I want to attend some of his panels/events to show my support both as a fan and as a friend. Nick is a talented writer (his Doctor Who comic books for Titan, as well as his Eisner-award winning “Laika,”) and he’s just a terrific guy. We met a few years ago, and I’m proud to call him a friend.
To all SDCC attendees… Check this book OUT:
And if you want it autographed or would just like to meet the author(s) and get a copy? Here’s a bit of help for you:
Nick Abadzis’ blog: Comic Con 2017 Schedule.
A quick round of applause for my pal.
Anyway, I intend to go over the whole schedule with a fine-tooth comb this week, even though the chances of attending ALL of the events I would like to attend are pretty much nonexistent.
One thing you quickly learn at Comic Con San Diego is that while you may jot down a whole list of events you’d like to attend? You soon factor in the crowds (overall, 130,000 people), and the long wait times for event lines (usually a few hours/all-day for the bigger events; sometimes overnight for Hall H events). Inevitably, you scale it back to only a handful of events that you may have a chance to attend (if you time it juuuuust right).
There’ve been a few Comic Cons where I was only been able to attend a few (or nearly none) of the ‘wish-list’ events I’d scheduled for myself; and I’ve still had a wonderful time just cosplaying and soaking in the geeky carnival atmosphere.
Not to mention the amazing random encounters you with both cosplayers and celebrities in the autograph areas and in the dealer hall. Or even at your hotel sometimes! It’s a blast, whether you attend your ‘wish list’ events or not; I can vouch for that.
But I digress; thanks to my wife I have a new cosplay for this year!!
Since 2009, I’ve cosplayed as Fred Flintstone at Comic Con and other conventions, but I’d never done a mashup cosplay before…
Last year in Las Vegas at the 50th annual Star Trek convention, I saw a brilliant Star Trek/Munsters cosplay mashup and I got the insane idea to do a Flintstones/Star Trek mashup.
So on Sunday of last week, my wife and I trekked on down to our local JoAnn Crafts and loaded up. We bought a ton of flannel, styrofoam bits (for props), paint, thread, etc. Thank GOODNESS for JoAnn Crafts’ online coupons (and my wife has their app)! Saved us quite a bit of coin on the grand total.
So we took it all home.
My wife pulled out my old faithful Fred Flintstone costume as a template to make the new costume. She also made another Fred costume for Comic Con, so I can have two Fred suits and the Flintstone/Star Trek costume for more cosplaying days at the convention.
Have I mentioned that my wife is completely WONDERFUL? Yeah? Well, I’ll say it yet again… she’s wonderful).
So in one day, she knocked out two costumes; a 2nd Fred suit and a new Star Trek/Flintstones mashup. The Trek-stone costume is bright red to look like the classic ‘redshirts’ on Star Trek; you know, the guys who weren’t regular cast members who usually didn’t survive the landing party mission? Yeah, those guys.
My reasons for choosing red were two-fold; red is close to Fred’s original orange suit, and secondly, my wife saw a brilliant booth (“ObscureBrandComix”) at WonderCon last April which had a “Walking Fred” mashup comic series (Walking Dead/Flintstones) that inspired my choice. The booth owners gave me a nice red button with a zombified Fred on it and a cover of their book.
And yes, I’m wearing that button for my cosplay too.
While my wife brought out the sewing machine and slaved away, my job was making a prop; a Flintstones’ looking phaser pistol which consisted of two pieces of sculpted styrofoam painted rock-gray with seashells as controls and as an emitter dish. I already had a really nice original series’ communicator (with Bluetooth, no less!) which I got as a birthday gift from a friend last year. No, the communicator is not Stone Age-looking… chalk it up to poetic license. I also made a bunch of oversize Starfleet arrowhead emblems; black ones to emulate the spots on Fred’s Flintstone suit, and an oversized gray one to act as Fred’s actual Starfleet insignia. I exaggerated the size of it, and my wife exaggerated the collar size to give the whole thing more of a cartoonish-look.
It came out looking EXACTLY as I’d envisioned it. Very happy with it, and proud of the way my wife just knocked it out of the ball park. Amazing work, baby!
Anyway, it’s a week away from Comic Con and still I need to cut my hair (roughly Fred-length) and trim my facial hair (no, I don’t fully shave it off and I never will; poetic license again…). I also need to study the hell out of that SDCC 2017 schedule (I think I’ve only read Thursday’s schedule so far), and I need to study the route; our hotel is kinda far from the convention center this year. Usually we get lucky and are able to score a hotel within walking distance; this year, our luck ran a little short, and while we got a nice hotel (a Marriott)? It’s a few miles from downtown and the convention.
Luckily there are both shuttles and trolleys that run to the convention center, so we should be okay.
And to my loyal 3-4 readers (and yes, I love every one of you!), I will try to blog from the convention off and on, and as often as I can. I will have my trusty iPad and iPhone, so I will, at the very least, be able to send text-commentary entries. But the pics will probably have to wait till after we’re back on Monday the 24th. If you’re a regular follower of this blog, I’ll probably file the entires similar to my WonderCon Recaps. And that last entry will be filed after we’re home, but it will be fully loaded with all of my photos (and I take a LOT of pics; usually about 150 or more).
So, one more week till the annual Nerd-vana that is San Diego Comic Con with coverage on this blog. Stay tuned!