How not to get laid in Los Angeles:Wizard World LA

by: bamf 1 year, 6 months, 1 week, 6 days, 5 hours, 7 minutes ago 2

Bamf here rematerializing from the void..

The call went out several months ago.  In exchange for a T-shirt and an almost free pass in, Uncle Wizard were asking for any able bodied fanboy to come give their time and help the comic family with some free labor.  It was to be my first con ever, and I decided why not seize the opportunity and take it all in from the operational side.  I arrived at 9 am at the LA convention center ready for work. Upon entering the massive structure at the foot of downtown Los Angeles my first observation was, damn, there are a lot of hot chicks here!  Seriously, blonde’s, brunettes, they were everywhere.  This floored my expectations of what a convention was traditionally known for.  They were by no means booth babes, as I met a few of those.  There was something different about these ladies.  The mystery of the hot women was solved soon enough when I came to the first sign of the day.

Yes a bridal convention right next to a comic convention.  Not exactly one stop shopping is it? I was half tempted to check out the expo, as I do love the married women (ahem!), I mean, I love their brides maids.  No I continued in and when escalators were reached you could see the army of Wizard volunteers that littered the threshold of the con.  An Orange shirt assembly of dedicated fans handing out programs and magazines.  A gentleman led me to the direction of the sign up booth and within minutes I was outfitted and awaiting assignment.

Now for the most part volunteers help with line management, keep thoroughfares clear and move products wherever they might be needed.  I was first sent to handle the Stone Cold Steve Austin line, where they were handing out 100 tix for him to do autographs for promoting his soup du jour “The most dangerous game” film adaptation.  Ever notice how certain stories are recycled every few years?  Anyways, the Stone Cold line was going just fine so I returned to home base waiting for the next call to arms.  This is where I met J.P., a recent transplant from Detroit.  The volunteer manager says aloud, “Who wants to work the Kristin Bell (Veronica Mars) booth?”

J.P. and I looked at each other, no one spoke, so we raised our hands.  I’ve never seen Veronica Mars but I do know all about Fanboys, a film to be released in August in which you can see her in the Leia slave outfit.  Looking forward to that one.  While waiting for that to come to pass J.P. and I walked around the floor taking in the costumes, booths and obligatory stars of yesteryear.

In the artist area we met Christina Strain, colorist for Runaways, World War Hulk and Spiderman loves Mary Jane.  She was exuberant and charming sporting her own custom “Molly Hat” from Runaways.  We talked about Joss Whedon taking over the next arch for Runaways and she shared a funny story about the staff feelings when it came to his (Whedons) first stint on the book.  Since Joss loves to kill off characters, they are most protective of not losing the spunky heroine.  A letter was written to Joss too make the feelings of the staff very clear on how exactly they feel Molly should be treated.  “Don’t Kill Molly!” she proclaimed with a wicked smile.  The letter was signed by the Runaway staff and sent away to Whedons care.  She signed some posters and thanked us for stopping by. A real cool girl and I cannot wait to see what she does in the future.

Kristin Bell was delayed as stars most often are.  So my next assignment was to go to the Top Cow booth and keep the rabble in line for Marc Silvestri’s signing.  Right next to the Top Cow booth was the drummer for System of a Downs drum set.  Very cool to see that artwork up close.  Marc Silvestri shows up late and J.P. goes back to check out the Bell line, there I was all by lonesome with a group of 50 people in line some with luggage racks full of books they would wish to get signed.  Silvestri was only doing sketches on a Witchblade cover that you could purchase for 5$, but he was signing anything that you wanted.  I watched him for a few hours drawing fantastic headshots of the women in his minds eye.  At the beginning of the signing his sketches were quite delicate, well thought out with attentive detail.  Towards the end they were being produced a bit more quickly, but brilliant just the same.  I watched him draw about 20 different headshots, with flowing hair and lavish eyelashes.  Wizard asks that you put four hours of volunteer time in before going off and doing your own thing. My shift was up, so I stepped up to Marc, the towering 6"5’ artist.  I introduced myself to him and he put out his hand for a hearty shake.  After some quick banter about the line, drawing and signing, he asked if I had to take anyone down yet.  I replied no, just had to spray a little Soma in the air, and they were docile as kittens.  We had a laugh at that; he asked if I had anything for him to sign.  Sadly I did not as I was a unprepared for what the day would become and didn’t even think about the fact I might actually would be meeting these accessible proprietors of geekdom.  But I thanked him just the same.

Now I was on my time and it was my chance to take in the Con without obligation to service in the back of my mind.  J.P. was still waiting for Ms. Bell to show, so I was off on my own.  On the floor I met, Lou Ferigno, Blair Morgan (AOTS), Marv Wolfman, and the Iron Eagle himself Louis Gosset Jr.  With Gosset I was a bit star struck.  He had a beaming smile and was warm as well as gracious.  Michael Turner was signing at the Marvel booth, Sony had about 10 PS3s and PSPs set up for trial, and the minimates booth was loaded to the gills with small collectibles, show only exclusives ready to be sucked up in a vacuum.  Now there’s an idea you wish you had thought of.  Paint your Lego miniman as Spiderman then throw him in a box and sell him to the masses.  Brilliant.

After taking in the shows offerings, Kiss costumes, Blade impersonators, Transformer replicas and con specific booths I was good and tired.  I made my way back to see if Kristin Bell had arrived yet and saw that she had not.  But I did get to meet Doug Jones, you know Doug from Hellboy (Abe Sapien) and now you will see him in the next FF4 as the Silver Surfer.  I asked him one question with one word.  “Galactus?” A broad smile came across his face and he gave a one gesture response….he shrugged his shoulders.  I’m sure it was the millionth time that was asked, but I appreciated the answer just the same.

With my day winding down and feet sufficiently barking I made my way to the door.  I saw Blair Morgan doing a bit about the Daredevil trade paper back collection that is coming out, watched Rockys coach Tony Burton cross my path and observed Superman arguing with Wolverine about what was better, X3 or Returns.  Classic.  The classic part being the beer bellies shaking.  This leads to the most unexpected chance meeting of the day.  I was looking backwards at a booth taking the scenery in one more time before I exited when I came face to face with a cute, short, big-eyed blond.  Kristin Bell.  I nearly ran into her and the trailing entourage.  I saw her bodyguard make an uneasy adjustment to see if he needed to get between us but I showed no threat.  We exchanged smiles; I moved to the side and let the group of followers pass by to her booth.  She was sweet, and didn’t even have me pepper sprayed.  Think I might have to pick up that Veronica Mars DVD after all.

All and all the Wizard World experience was a treat.  It was my first venture into this side of fandom and it was fun to be in a place full of people with similar interests.  Big thanks to Wizard, J.P., and the stripper who stopped talking to me when I told her I didn’t want to buy a drawing of her.  Now my sights are set on San Diego where the largest convention of the year will take place. There we will with any luck see some test footage of a blue man in front of flashbulbs, or a masked detective picking up a smiley face with bean juice on it.  Comicon, I’m sooooo ready..

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