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Bad Astronomy
« Is the LHC colder than space?
Creationists can’t take the heat »

ComiCon, Day 0

So, how to describe today?

Wow! Holy Haleakala! Crap! Interspersed with "hubba hubba", and "how does she walk in those things?"

The first two are obvious enough. San Diego is a great town, and it’s even better when a good friend like A is there to help (my live video chatters know her as the Op, ARealGirl). She took me around and made sure things went well.

And that included getting to the hotel where I INTERVIEWED STEVEN MOFFAT, JULIE GARDNER, AND NAOKO MORI!

Sorry. Lost myself there for a sec. For those of you hopelessly non-Doctor Whoish, Moffat is the writer of some of the best Who episodes, and will be taking over the show next year. Gardner is the executive producer of Doctor Who and Torchwood, and Mori is the actor who played Tosh in Torchwood.


I don’t have time to give a rundown of the interviews right now (I will when I can), but all three of them were funny, charming, witty, and smart. It was a terrific hour, and I was totally squeeing the whole time. More details later.

Oh — the "crap" above is because I could not get myself set up to do the interviews on the live chat, and for that I offer my biggest apologies. However, I had the video running the whole time, so I’ll edit it when I get back and post it.

After that A and I went to the con to register, as did everyone else in San Diego. ComiCon is frakkin’ HUGE. There were thousands of people there, and the con doesn’t even really start until tomorrow! Evidentally, the number of attendees is over 100,000.

Yeah, you heard me.

We went to the pre-show, where they let some people in to the exhibit hall. You either have to have paid for a four day pass, or bought a special ticket, or be an internationally beloved blogger (and his friend). The hal is vast, and it was packed. Yet A saw an old friend of hers, and I ran into an astronomer friend of mine (hi Whitney!) and her husband.

There was every kind of trinket, doodad, and gizmo for sale. Books, comics, sculptures, paintings, drawings, dice, electronics, shirts, and toys toys toys. We made our way immediately to the BBC booth, and A bought a few things, and (shhh, don’t tell her!) I got The Little Astronomer a Doctor Who figure that she’ll love. It was hard to hold back. They had a remote control Dalek! And a bunch of smaller Daleks! And Cybermen! And and and!

Breathe. Breathe.


OK, better now. But this place defines nerdgasm, and it hasn’t even started yet. Tomorrow I’m hoping to go to many panels and talks, and I am also hoping to be live blogging them as well as posting to Twitter.

Sorry I got so behind today, but such is ComiCon. I just hope I can keep up on Thursday…

But I’ll upload images when I can to my Flickr account. Just check the ComiCon folder.

Share

July 24th, 2008 1:26 AM by Phil Plait in Cool stuff, Humor, SciFi | 13 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

13 Responses to “ComiCon, Day 0”

  1. 1.   madge Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 1:46 am

    WOW! Your joy and enthusiasm (both completely justified by the sound of it) just bound off the screen. Naoko Mori and Julie Gardner are just beautiful and all that DW merchandise. I am hugging my remote control darlek in envy as I write this. ENJOY! :)

  2. 2.   David Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 2:25 am

    Sounds cool, I’ll be there in the morning. And, yes, San Diego is a great place (I live here). I hope I don’t spend much of the day registering.

  3. 3.   Yoshi_3up Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 5:41 am

    One hundred thousand? That makes TAM look small.

    Well, enjoy ComiCon! And get an oxygen tent ready if something nerdgasmic occurs ;)

  4. 4.   Shane Killian Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 6:08 am

    Steven Moffat also made the excellent mini-series Jekyll, which they still show on BBC America from time to time. Check it out–it’s awesome!

  5. 5.   Pop Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 7:49 am

    Easy now, breathe deep, take a step back. It’s all just make-believe, so don’t let the grey matter turn to gell. Spend lots of money and have a good time, but DON’T faint.

  6. 6.   Ed Minchau Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 8:16 am

    The other day you mentioned Dr. Horrible… Felicia Day is at comicon too, along with the rest of her compatriots from The Guild (which all should watch, search for The Guild on youtube).

  7. 7.   Jeff G Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 8:50 am

    Yeah.. so just how hot is Naoko Mori in person?

  8. 8.   Michael L Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 10:23 am

    @Yoshi:
    Or wear a comiConDom

  9. 9.   Subtire Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 10:44 am

    Iron Man, cool!

  10. 10.   Cusp Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 2:36 pm

    Hi Phil –

    I was in school with Julie (Llangatwg Comprehensive in Cadoxton, Neath) and remember going to the Barbican in London with her on a school outing to see Julius Ceasar and visit St Pauls. We also went to the same Uni (Queen Mary’s on the Mile End Rd) – but I did Physics and Astronomy and she did English.

    If you see her again, say hello from me :)

  11. 11.   Mitch Miller Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 4:39 pm

    Am I the only one who has no idea what the hell he is talking about?

  12. 12.   Ed Minchau Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 5:48 pm

    Mitch: yes.

  13. 13.   Naomi Says:
    July 25th, 2008 at 6:23 am

    *sob* I SO wish I had been there! *has such a crush on Naoko Mori >.> *

Leave a Reply





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