Wizard World Portland CC – Day 2

EDITORS NOTE: These are the voyages of a Wizard World newbie; a first hand recap of one of our nations most popular cons.

Today was the day that I was supposed to get an interview with one of my personal heroes, Chris Claremont. Unfortunately, things do not always go as planned. Claremont was swarmed (and rightly so) by hordes of fans and I was unable to make my approach (sad face). So instead, I decided to hit up some panels and see what the con had to offer on this Saturday, the busiest of its three days. Check out the full scoop after the jump.

Most of the panels I went to today involved learning a bit more about my chosen profession – fiction writing. I entered Storytelling with Michael Golden, Science Fiction Writers: Imagining Our Future and Developing Fantasy Worlds, w/D&D legend Keith Baker. All-in-all, not a bad set of panels, though most of them preferred to talk about what they were working on as opposed to offering up advice on how to make your own writing better.

In between the "educational" panels, I jumped quickly on the empty seats in the main room. I ended up having to sit through a Q&A with Amy and Matt Roloff, concerning their reality TV show Little People, Big World. Personally, I'd never heard of it (I don’t watch much TV), but they were actually two very entertaining guests, so it was worth the time.

The main reason I hit this one up, however, is because I wanted to get a good seat for the Stan Lee Q&A. I ended up in the 8^th row, so I was pretty pleased. But most everything Stan had to say I'd already heard in other interviews or documentaries. He answered dumb questions from predictable audience members about things like his favorite super hero, the most powerful super villain and what super power he'd have if he could (it was "super luck", btw). Still, it was good to see the guy in person. AND, the entire audience was awarded a complementary "No Prize", so suck it world.

My original plan was to jump into The Walking Dead Q&A, but man, that fucker was even more packed than the Stan Lee panel! I arrived 45 mins early to find a line that was easily twice the number of people that could even get into the main room. So, alas, I was left without.

On the floor, I found myself entering into some strange sort of zen-anger. People were thick and movement was difficult and I hate crowds already so it was made even worse. But I did learn a few things about the convention world today:

1) When navigating the floor, the acceptable movement pattern appears to be – stop without warning to block traffic, move in random directions to confuse the person behind you and, if someone is coming your direction, charge at them full speed without side-stepping.

2) Humans are willing to wait in line for crazy amounts of time and pay ridiculous amounts of money to get pictures with people that they have never met simply because those people are celebrities that they feel they know. As much as I like Stan Lee's work, there's no way I'd drop $80 and sit in line for three hours to get a picture with him. Do you know how much beer $80 will buy?

3) People in panels are much like people on the bus. They talk under their breath about the things that are going on around them, make strange noises over and over to disturb whoever happens to be near them and when forced to speak will ask some seriously dumb-ass questions.

4) Anyone with black and red cloth can make a Harley Quinn costume. And no two Harley Quinn costumes ever turn out alike

5) Anyone with the right jacket and a bow tie is instantly The Doctor (regardless of sex). Fez is optional.

6) Cosplay models now annoy me. Sitting in the lobby for the entire con posing for pictures seems a strange way to spend the day. These same professional cosplay models also tend to choose whatever costume shows the most butt-crack. Or, in the case of today's Vampirella (who I think was also yesterday's landing strip lady), proudly display their pubic five o'clock shadow.

One more day to the con and I don't know if my endurance is going to hold up. Between getting up hours before I'm used to, the bad coffee and the dense crowds, I may surely snap and start attacking people with my pixilated Minecraft sword.

Tune in tomorrow to see if I'm still alive! Oh, and check out the picture gallery below.

Thanks on the photos for today to Meeps of ‘Meeps' Opinion’. I seriously couldn't have done it without her. Check out her blog (including some LoTR cosplay advice) here.