Well, after a nice little breakfast at the Village Cafe, I spent a bit of time this morning queuing up to get my Con badge, and just took a long walk around the whole exhibit hall, far too much stuff to even begin to mention, really.
I tried to get to the signing session for "The Big Bang Theory", but due to security being totally inept at designating a queue, and the fact that there was no mention that you needed to get a green dot stamped on your badge to be able to get into the signing, and that the booth was insanely crowded, I completely failed. Oh well, can't win them all.
I did check out the BOOM! Studios booth though, and bought a copy of their take on "Monsters Inc".
Aside from the Con, I had a look out to Balboa Park, very picturesque.

I too am registered for 2011!:bloogrin:

Every year, I say I'm getting too old for this ... and yet, I've pre-regged for 2011. Just a FYI, parking is horrible this year (not that it was great prior years, but it is especially bad this year). I lucked out yesterday afternoon - FREE spot right at 1st and Island (equivalent to being just 2 blocks away).

Otherwise, my Thursday was spent ... not doing much. 8D Did my typical "wholesome meal for <$5 at Ralph's". Then I wasted 30 minutes of my life at the 'New Generation of Spike and Mike". But isn't it an hour long? Exactly.

This morning ... $30 just for parking at an open lot. Ouch.

Mark Evanier says that very few of the protestors from Westboro Baptist Church showed up and were pretty much shouted down by counter-protestors.

Howard and I saw them briefly while driving by, and there weren't very many of them, nor were they overly active. They just stood there, holding their hate signs for oncoming traffic to see. I flipped off one of them but I don't think he noticed.

They've prolly seen too many already ...

Still, I have my Foamy [the Squirrel] 'fingers' shirt with me ... so if push came to shove. :bloogrin:

I'm in a decent mood right now, though; I'm wearing the FHIF all-over print shirt right now.

Oh yeah, I knew there was something...if somebody could snag me a copy of the Worst Cartoons dvd if there is one this year I'd be grateful. I can get it online too but I'd rather not. I want the Monsters Inc comic too but that I should be able to find in town.

I'll be on the lookout, Sparky - I still have your magnet from ... ummm, 2 years ago.

Cass and I took a drive today. I am really starting to know my way around again. Unfortunately when we drove out to Mera Mesa, our Frankie's Italian Deli had gone out of business. We managed to relieve the tears with a Popeyes fried chicken up the road. We are currently planning our next move.:bloocross:

GM just informed me that iceberg earlier offered to pick us up a copy of Worst Cartoons, so no one else needs to worry about it. Thanks anyways. :terrsmile:

Well, I still owe you the magnet, then.

Right now, I'm just waiting for the Worst Cartoons to start ... this is the FIRST panel today that I was able to get into. CN - room filled. Peanuts 60th - room filled. Adult Swim - across the hall, down the wall, outside, and wrapped around the mezzanine an hour ahead of time already. Needless to say, my day hasn't gone on as well as I hoped; the shirt I'm wearing right now represents that mood ...

I hope I don't violate forum rules by posting here since I can't go to Comic Con, but Cass, if you haven't been to the Tron Legacy panel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBgFoac0M8s

Last night, I ran into Penn Jillette from Penn & Teller twice. I went to meet up with several FB friends to eat. I made a brief stop a Ralphs and tried mint-flavored water. It's what it says...it's water with a minty flavor. It wasn't bad.

I got out of bed early, I walked around the floor, I saw a Batman: The Brave and the Bold panel. I wasn't expecting much, but it was really good. Then, I got to see the Cartoon Network Comedy panel, which included Adventure Time, and previews of Regular Show and another series I forgot. I had almost a dozen people say "Adventure Time" when they see my AT shirt. I did meet with some of the cast and creators from the CNC panel: Pendleton Ward, Jeremy Shada, Tom Kenny, and J.G. Quintel. I met with t, the friends from FB I ate with last night, and a young woman from Florida that I met in 2006 at Comic-Con. Dang, I have a lot of contacts! lol I also got a photo of myself with Tom Kane at Sails Pavilion. I also got to see Phil LaMarr at a SoulGeek booth inside the exhibit hall. My FL friend found out what the tix are for that we received from the CNC panel, and it was one of those hats to resemble what Finn wears in Adventure Time. We had to go to the Marriott Hotel & Marina to get them. Later in the evening, I met up with t during the Wost Cartoons Panel. Great stuff there, they had an Oz cartoon that was included in the WCE event, probably the best one from this year. Jerry Beck did not have anymore of the discs, when we tried to purchase one. I think Beck said that later on, we should be able to purchase them via cartoonresearch.com (correct me, if I'm wrong, iceberg). After the panel, we talked and I met three people that iceberg knew. After that, it was back to the hotel room. The second full day was really good, and I look forward to day three. :bloogrin:

I'm afraid my hotel's internet service isn't too good, so YT is currently more of a hassle than it's worth. Besides, the site is currently on my Hate list and will remain there until their incompetent and lazy staff get off their collective worthless asses and addresses the issue of the SOB who stole my videos and copied my username. :frankiemad: As for posting in this thread, it is not only allowed but encouraged. :frankiesmile:

Hell of a day today. As Howard mentioned, we drove a long distance to Frankie's Italian Deli, only to discover that it had gone out of business. We had a similar disappointment at dinnertime; we were planning on eating at La Strata, where we had the annual Forum dinner last year, only to find out that they'd suffered a kitchen fire on Thursday and wouldn't be reopening until next Friday. The glorious meal we had at Croce's, a block up the street, more than made up for it, though. Seriously, that was one heck of a meal; pan-fried black cod on a bed of green soba noodles, covered with assorted vegetables and a fine miso sauce, along with an equally amazing soup and/or salad course... wow. We got nothing done that was actually Con-oriented but managed to have a good time nonetheless, except for the part where I fell asleep in the car with my hand hanging out the window and got windburn. Ow. :bloocross:

Anyway, here's another pic. This one was taken yesterday in the Exhibition Hall:

http://vejur.deviantart.com/#/d2upep9

My Little Pony reborn, under the care and guidance of Lauren Faust. New episodes of the old children's series will begin airing sometime in October. :frankiesmile:

Pretty much tagged along with ORD today, so today was more or less ditto what he did. I hadn't seen either Batman: Brave and the Bold or Adventure Time prior to both panels, and they were definitely both pleasant surprises.
Got autographs from the Adventure Time crew, and also got a free Finn hat thanks to the ticket I got during the panel.
Had the honour of meeting Phil LaMarr for the first time too, a legend in every sense of the word, he even commented on the shirt I was wearing (it has my characters Bob & Flyer on it). Really, really cool. :D
Met with one of ORD's friends, and went to the Worst Cartoons Ever panel, and now I really wish I'd gone to that the last time I was here, because it was just hilarious. For me, it was between "The Magic of Oz" and the pelican cartoon (I forgot his name) for the best worst toon. Also met up with iceberg for the first time, plus some of his friends (one being a fellow Brit, I should add).
Definitely a good day, without a doubt.

I may as well tell you what the link was anyway. It's the new Comic Con trailer for Tron Legacy. I don't know if it was shown at the panel, if you went to that panel.

What else did Jerry show this year in the Worst Cartoons? (The pelican's name was Paddy, BTW.)

Paddy, that was it, lol. They started with Mr Titan, there was also Johnny Sypher, Sam Bassett, Harry Happy, Bat Beagle (I think I heard that right), some "experimental film" with a really creepy looking stop-motion animated monkey, and the afore-mentioned two. Not sure if I missed any, I think that about covers it.

That sounds about right.

Stuck around for half of Spike and Mike's. It was meh. I started fading, so I bailed just after HTF.

Thus so far today, I've spent 90 minutes (8:30 to 10:00 am) in line to get into room 20. It's at least a 3+ hour wait now, and with very little hope for anyone even thinking of getting into Futurama.

Heading out to hunt autographs shortly. My sister-in-law wants signed pics of the guys on some ghost/vampire/whatever show that airs on the Travel Channel. :herrsleep: After that, I'm off o the Exhibition Hall, and then the line for Masquerade tickets. :bloogrin:

Survived a half-day of room #20 (Chuck/Family Guy/The Cleveland Show/Futurama/The Simpsons), and then downstairs, ran into Maurice LaMarche (or vice versa, actually). A quick reminisce of the 15 years ... he's still got it.

I'll try for [Adult Swim] a little later, then Mythbusters ...

No Spunky & Tadpole, eh? Jerry would have screened episode six of "Message To Marcia."

Nope, didn't show that. Would've liked to see it myself.

Howard and I looked at the line for tickets to the Masquerade, wisely said the hell with it, and wandered off to find lunch. Much to our surprise, we found that La Strata had reopened. Still one of the city's best restaurants. :bloogrin: Afterwards we poked around in the Exhibition Hall for awhile, at least until the noise and my dislike of crowds finally caught up to me and I had to get out. Not a happy moment. :P On the bright side I got the autographs my sister-in-law wanted and took a lot of pics, one of which really blew me away. ;D Eventually we had dinner at a Mexican place and decided to call it a day. I've got a bit of a headache but on balance it was a pretty good day. :)

Random request for a friend: any photos of Adam Savage in Batman armor. Just throwing that out there.

Now I can say that I waited in a queue for almost the best part of an hour for no reason at all...that's what myself and ORD did, we were in the massive line for the Futurama panel, but I changed my mind and went off to do my own thing instead. Yesterday, I saw there was a booth selling the comic series "Bone", which I'd heard about but never read, so I decided to buy a big book of the whole Bone comic, plus a separate new one. $51, but hopefully it'll be worth it.
It turned out that Bone's creator, Jeff Smith, was there doing autographs, so I went for it, and he signed both the books I'd bought and my autograph book, very cool indeed.
Popped out to Hot Topic to buy myself a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt. The inner geek in me pretty much took over me today, lol.
After that, met up with ORD again for the Cartoon Voices I panel, which featured a group of well-known voice actors, including April Winchell, Gregg Berger and Chuck McCann. I remember the Cartoon Voices panels in '08, and they were brilliant. This one was too, they did a cold reading of a Cinderella script, and the voices they were letting rip with were just priceless. There were also special guest appearances by Bill Farmer (best known as the voice of Goofy) and Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, the duo behind the Ruby-Spears animation company. After the panel I got Gregg Berger's autograph, too.
Last time I was in SD, ORD cosplayed as Bloo from "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends", and he brought the costume this year, too, so for a good hour or so we both hung around the Convention Centre, with loads of people taking pictures and posing with "Bloo". I sort of cosplayed as well, with the Adventure Time hat I got, but ORD was way better at it. :nod: Also, we both ran into Maurice LaMarche and Billy West, brief but very cool.
Having so much fun here, I really don't want it to end.

Anyway, Saturday, I ran into Maurice LaMarche when I was getting some stuff from Starbucks at the Marriott Hotel & Marina. It was a brief visit. I did get in line to see Futurama. Later on, I changed my mind and tried to search for a few friends I haven't seen yet at the Con. Later on, I went to the Cartoon Voices I event, which included Gregg Berger, James Marsden, Candi Milo, Tom Kane, April Winchell, Chuck McCann, and others. Joe Ruby and Ken Spears made late appearances at the end. I was not successful at getting a photo with Candi at that panel, so I ended up catching the last bit of the Fanboy and Chum Chum panel and I did succeed in getting a pic with her (didn't do that the last time I met her). Around 5:30, I wore the Bloo costume. It was still a hit. I went through Hall B through E, and then I went up to Sails Pavilion. Once I was heading back to my hotel room, I saw Maurice again, and I finally met Billy West. :) For the first time in four years, I received a ticket to the masquerade (I didn't even have to wait in line to get it, I guess the line died down quickly). So I did that, even though there were not quite as many entries this year, I thought the costumes were better this year for a good part. I went to eat pizza at Ciro's on Market St. Over there, the store location has Cartoon Network on the signs with the current logo and some of it's current characters, mostly Finn and Jake from Adventure time and clips of CN programming. It was kinda neat. The pizza is actually not bad; at least I didn't think so. Not a bad Saturday.

Overall, I was 5 for 6 yesterday. #6 was MB ... so sorry, Sparky - no pics.

I'm at Cartoon Voices II right now ... and then, who knows.

Darth Vader:

http://vejur.deviantart.com/#/d2ut4yy

You cannot have a Comic-Con without a Darth Vader cosplayer. 8-)

No immediate plans for today, other than dinner. :)

I don't suppose its possible for anyone to pick up the Darkwing Duck comics for GM and I? (Just one set for us to share, there should be two issues.) I didn't know they were there until last night, I think they are at BOOM.

They have sold out of DW comics. :( I went to that booth earlier.

We were able to get issue #2 at a comic shop today, but it seems Monsters Inc isn't actually released publicly yet so no luck there. :P

Well, most of the con went smoothly. Got into the Tron: Legacy panel though I got in line just two hours in advance of Megamind, and it was sweet. Met most of my favorite VAs, including Yuri Lowenthal, Tara Platt, Steve Blum, Tara Strong, Tom Kenny (he confirmed he was the "p@nis whisper bandit" guy from Mission Hill, and of Futurama, Lauren Tom (told her I was high school friends with a one time fellow cast member of hers; she ran into her last weekend!), Billy West, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMaurche, and Phil LaMarr. Passed by Grey Delisle a moment before realizing it was her, and I was all, "DOH!", because I have never been able to meet her once in my life. I did also meet Mindy Sterling, longtime Groundling member and Frau from Austin Powers. Fantastic in person, and she also remembers a high school friend of mine who was once part of the Groundlings' Sunday company. Encouraged me to go with it and take classes there as part of my VA training. She did confirm that Chowder was cancelled. I also ran into Patton Oswalt as he was right about to leave the Marriott, which was awesome since I'm a huge fan of his (he's also been covering the big Disney panels, including this year's Tron, and will be in one of the new episodes of Futurama).

Saturday was sort of hit/miss. I did get into Ballroom 20 because I camped out rather early in the morning, as I was interested in both Chuck and Futurama. Glad I didn't bother ditching my spot there after the former for the signing, since it filled up at 9:50, even though the panel began 10 minutes later and the signing itself wasn't until noon! Really, what is it with those WB staffers? Anyways, Futurama panel: totally worth it, especially since Lauren Tom and Phil LaMarr dropped by in addition to the regular four: Katey, Billy, John, and Maurice. Wish I could have asked David what kind of mathematical/linguistic/etc. geek nuggets we could expect in the future. Missed the Guild panel, but I did get to see the Legend of Neil, which was ridiculously funny. Just missed the chance to meet Felicia Day though, as she had to take off right before I had the chance. (Eerie part: last person who talked to her asked her what she thought of working with Sarah Michelle Gellar, with whom I share the exact same date of birth. Oh, that and my brother has also worked with her in the past.) Missed the last train back due to the LoN panel, so I had to stay until this morning.

2010 San Diego Comic-Con International is completed. It was certainly a blast. The final day was the usual with me going to Starbucks and getting a few things for breakfast. I forgot to mention that yesterday, I ran into Lori from CN while she was doing portfolio stuff. She wanted me to tell anyone that has talked to her in the past that she said "hi" to you guys. Well, this morning, I saw Lori again, this time, it was while I was getting Starbucks inside the Marriott Hotel & Marina. I met up with a few friends in the Artists Gallery area. Next, I went to see Cartoon Voices II. This panel consisted of Phil LaMarr, Tom Kenny, Janet Waldo (Judy Jetson, Penelope Pitstop, etc), and a few others. Briefly, I ran into Matt (CG's ex-boyfriend), after he got out of another panel. I also ran into Melody (one of Keith's closest friends, AKA Hygena from Who Wants to be A Superhero?, Season 2) briefly. I went to one more panel, called Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil. I ran into Khaki Jones over there. She now is, at least for now, working at Disney (she said that her position right now isn't long-termed, but there's a possibility that it may change.). After that, it was one last walk at the exhibit hall, and I did briefly say hello to Doug TenNapel. As I was exiting the convention, I briefly met a friend of mine from Mexico that does comic work (click here for his stuff). Finally, I ate at an Italian restaurant. Most of us were there, except for cartman (who left SD this morning) and iceberg (not sure if he's still in SD at the time of this post. Great day, sad to see the convention end. I look forward to 2011! :bloogrin:

Final day of Comic Con, kicked it off with myself and ORD heading to the Cartoon Voices II panel, which featured another group of famous voice actors including Phil LaMarr, Tom Kenny and the original voice of Judy Jetson, Janet Waldo. It was great, and just like the first panel, they too did a cold reading of a Cinderella script, with some more hilarious results. Ran into Tom Kenny again after the panel, to say goodbye, he commented on the Bob & Flyer t-shirt I was wearing, and with words to the effect, he said if it were ever made into an animated show, he'd do an audition. I have to admit, that kind of blew me away, having the voice of Spongebob SquarePants say that about my creations. :smed:
After that, I met up with two DA buddies, Kaaziel and MSPainterman, for the second time (we met back in '08 as well), they were done up as Leela and Zap from Futurama, and they sure looked the part. Kaaziel also made a couple of sketches for me and I also made a little sketch for her in return. We then just had a long look around the exhibit hall, just taking in the sights. I bought a little comic called "The Winged Tiger and The Dragons of Hawaii", a little stab in the dark, its cover caught my eye. I also got an autograph from its creator, Phil Yeh, really cool dude.
After the Con, myself and ORD met up with the rest of the Never Forgotten group, including Cassini and Howard, to have a meal, we ended up going to an Italian restaurant called La Bocca. We all had something different, I went for a spaghetti based dish, which was spaghetti plus fresh tomato sauce and basil (forgot the name of it). It was different to normal canned spaghetti, and while it was just a little spicy, it was really tasty, and it certainly filled me up. It was great talking to the group too, even if I didn't say that much. I gave ORD, Howard and Cassini sketches that I did on the spot, as well (To taranchula and narfcake, sorry I didn't do the same for you, I didn't know what to sketch). A nice way to end the week.:)

Well, today, it was a day that I had to be up and get ready to leave San Diego, not exactly my kind of day. I had to get the Bloo costume shipped and I had to ship something else. I had to board on the train by 3pm. Before I did that, however, Cass and I did agree to meet one more time to have lunch, we ended up going to the Grand Central Cafe, only a few blocks from Santa Fe Depot. Food wasn't bad at all. Once it was 25 min before going, I had to say farewell to Cass. I hate goodbyes. Thanks for joining me earlier, Cass. :) It made my afternoon better. Since almost 6pm, I've been hanging around friends that live near L.A. I definitely miss the city and those that I've seen at the con, but I will be back! It is nice to get a little break from all the walking, though.

Always a pleasure, dude. :bloogrin:

After ORD and I parted company I wandered around for awhile, eventually stopping at a 7-Eleven before calling the hotel for a shuttle ride back home. This evening I went out again, walking all the way to the Gaslamp Quarter and back, which is roughly a 3-mile round trip. Actually, it was closer to 3.5 miles; on the return walk I overshot my hotel by a considerable distance and had to stop at a bar for directions (and a badly-needed restroom break). Got a bunch of new pics along the way, and some exercise, so I'd say it was worth the effort. :)

Well what can I say? Pretty much what the other NF members (who were there) said. Cass and I enjoyed the next four days of San Diego mayhem. Actually we drove outside the city and paid a visit down to where I used to live while stationed here - Imperial Beach. I showed him some other places of photographic interest (we all know what a shutterbug he is). The Con itself was wonderful with the exception of two incidents (which did not have any affect on us). The Western Baptist hatemongers were protesting near the Convention Center. They were outshouted by the counter protesters, who sent them home with their tails tucked between their legs. The other inceident was two attendees who got in a fight over a seat in Ballroom H, and one of the two was stabbed in the eye with a ballpoint pen. The other part of our wonderful adventure was the eating...and eating. We caught up with ORD, BBF, Tarantula, and Narfcake and we had a wonderful NF member dinner. I do have some pics, which I will post here and on dA. I left Sunday night at about ten pm, and got back to AZ at 4 am. I slept and relexed the rest of the day. I went back to work today. Uhhhh...I guess that is about it. I want to thank BBF for his wonderful sketch of Frankie he presented me.:frankiesmile:

I was going to post about my con going experiences last night but I was so exhausted after 15 hours of traveling, the only words I could manage were ugh and Uh. Which would not be an enjoyable read in the least, unless someone on the forums is fluent in :"Cave-Man"

Anyways to sum it all up I think that this year was no doubt the best overall experience I've ever had at the Con.

The hotel was nice, a little out of the way but very comfortable on the whole.

The food was fantastic, even the fast food. Man I wish we had In & Out Burgers up here where I live.

The panels I went to were all great, my overall favorites are a seven way tie between: Capcom 2010 and Beyond, Penn and Teller. (I am now in the small percentage of the total population of the world who know what Teller sounds like.) Batman: Brave and The Bold, CN Comedy (I too got a free Finn hat and made a lot of Con Goers jealous), F/X's Archer, Worst Cartoon's Ever, Cartoon Voices 1 and last but not least the Yoshitaka Amano panel.

And of course it was great to once again hang out and meet with my friends from the forum, sorry to those of you whom I missed, I was busy through most of the con and didn't have much in formal lines of communication. (Save for the hotel computer)

All in all Comic Con 2010 was a great experience and an experience that everyone who have love all things Comic's, Cartoons, Movies and Video Games should try and take at least once in their life.

BTW for those who want to make for next year better start planning now because every year this event sends out faster and faster, they sold out of 4 Day (With Preview Night) passes even before this years show ended.

:o Are you serious? The 4-day passes with Preview night for the 2011 Con are gone already?? :o