We arrived to San Diego Comic-Con in great spirits, hungry to see what fascinating sights were in store for us. Just as we had imagined, there were plenty of costumed people throughout the Convention Center. The phenomenon of comic books and popular science fiction culture has grown exponentially beyond anything my wildest dreams could ever imagine. This year, a staggering 150,000 people attended the event. The Con, for those of you who have never been, is a Mecca for all things related to science fiction, comic books, video games and popular movies.
A big part – and my personal favorite part – is seeing all the home made costumes that the attendees make. Last year, I could not believe the amount of detail normal folks put into making these outrageous costumes; and this year, I was not disappointed one bit. One especially popular costume this year was the Captain America. I saw Cap in many different forms and shapes. Some were completely cheeseball while others seemed so well-made that I became jealous of their creation (If I could only get my hands on a sweet-ass Captain America costume, I could wear it to work, sell cars during the day and fight crime at night in the hot, hot, hot heat of Palm Springs. Then I would wear my sweet costume to the Village Pub and dance with all the cougars and do knee spins on my shield, only to finish the night off breaking up fights between our beloved USMC boys and the local trash that never left town but still claim that one day they are moving to the beach or that they are from the beach, when in reality they only been to the beach a couple times in 1993 for a weekend… Yes, that’s exactly what I would do if I made a Captain America costume, but I didn’t make one and I don’t have that kind of time to spend making some silly ass costume that exposes my giant sized honker to the world. Hell no! I love the comics and I love the movies, but I just don’t have the kind of time. I’ve got bills to pay – but I do have time to write this silly article. Ah, the joy of being a hypocrite.).
At some point prior to the Con, I had scheduled an interview with Pauly Shore (The Weasel, or as I call him, Encino Man). Pauly’s management asked me if I was interested in interviewing Pauly Shore about his new DVD, “Adopted”. I began to do my homework on Pauly and got excited for my interview. I even bragged about the fact that I was going to interview and photograph PAULY SHORE! I did, however, notice that to most of the public, Pauly Shore is a washed-up celebrity, and that my interview with him was going to be pointless. I thought to myself, “Shit! Pauly’s like Rodney Dangerfield. HE GETS NO RESPECT!” For that reason alone, it made me even more excited to meet him. I’d seen Pauly Shore perform live at The Comedy Club in Ontario, California a few years back. My good friend Jeepers bought me and some friends tickets to catch Pauly’s stand up on my birthday. I must say that he was incredibly funny and he captivated the crowd for over an hour. Pauly had gained my respect.
I spent a great deal of time at Comic-Con with my eyes peeled for Pauly Shore. I even asked around for Pauly, but no one seemed to know where his booth was or had seen him all weekend. Close to the end of the day on Saturday, me and Saturn Guy found ourselves at an adult video company’s booth that had made a Batman-style parody. They had the villain from the movie on top of a table grabbing his cock like he was Michael Jackson in the “Black And White” video. I then proceeded to ask him, “Hey, have you seen Pauly Shore?” to which he replied, “Dude, Pauly Cancelled on everyone last minute. He pissed a bunch of people off, I guess.”
I was heartbroken. My number one mission at the Con was completely foiled. I was bruised, but I survived and continued to look for something or someone who could fill my great Pauly Shore-sized hole. I believe fate stepped in at this moment and made me bump into a lady with a big ass wearing a homemade Wonder Woman costume. I followed her ass, which led me to a tiny booth owned by the one and only TOM SIZEMORE (the junkie who had it all and snorted/shot it all away). Tom was autographing pictures and promoting some comic. I went up Tom and I had not realized that his eyes were glued on the giant ass that Wonder Woman was supporting, and I believe he for some reason thought that I was Wonder Woman’s personal photographer. He greeted her and even came out from behind his booth and asked her to take a photo with him, or he just assumed she wanted a photo.
Wonder Woman was attempting to move on to another booth and Tom, still mesmerized by this bottom end, followed her with a couple of footsteps and then with his eyes. I watched him smile and come to life. I have only seen him more recently on that god-awful show, Celebrity Rehab, so it was nice to see Tom somewhat cleaned up. He was kind of frail and had his hair dyed jet black. I went up to him and asked for a photo and he shook my hand, then he realized I had nothing to do with Wonder Woman, and asked, “Who the fuck are you?” I said, “I’m Orlando with Re:Generator Magazine. May I get a photograph?” Tom’s people then began to panic and attempted to pull Tom away from me, Tom looked at me rather strangely and then against his keeper’s wishes, Tom posed for a photo and even smiled and asked me again, “Who the fuck are you?” and I just said, “I’m just someone who thinks you’re a bad ass. Keep up the good work and good luck!” Tom smiled again and gave a confused look and sat back down on his chair as I slowly vanished into the massive crowd. Thank you Tom Siezmore for filling in for Pauly Shore.
Another one of my missions at The Con was to find Claudio Sanchez’ booth and possibly get a picture or even ask him a few questions for our readers. Unfortunately for us, Claudio was on his way back home so that he could continue his rock n’ roll career. I did however pick up a copy of his book the “Amory Wars: The Second Stage Turbine Blade”. I am very excited to read this. The artwork looks fantastic from what I have seen so far, so kudos and congrats to Claudio for having his books at The Con 2010.
I was more excited about the video games this year. One in particular that got my attention was the DC Universe Online. After watching a splendid mini movie introduction to the game, I became very excited. The story that leads to the game is great one, all the characters that I had long thought of as mundane (Batman, Joker, The Flash, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern, and the almighty Superman) were depicted differently, especially Superman, who was more menacing and human than I had ever seen. His red devil looking eyes were striking and yet vulnerable at the same time. I am most definitely going to borrow this game from my neighbor when he gets tired of playing it.
We were also able to get a sneak peak at the new Gears Of War game. Saturn Guy took the liberty of playing and testing out the new model, he said the controls were a bit smoother but the game moved too slow and had some glitches. That didn’t stop him from getting completely consumed by the game play while I took pictures of him doing what he does best.
I must say that I had a great weekend at Comic-con 2010 and that I am looking forward to 2011. The only gripe I do have is that it seemed a bit too crowed. I had a hard to time getting as many photos as I wanted because people would stand directly in front of shit and text message or talk on their phones. I found myself kindly asking for people to move out the way so that I could get a clean photo of some of the displays and attractions.
I didn’t have a problem getting people to pose for me, though. The average attendee of Comic-Con lives for this. It’s as if it’s their time to shine, where they become their favorite hero or their favorite video game character, whether it be an the alien from my favorite ALIENS movie, or the masked Rorschach from The Watchmen, or a very well endowed Wonder Woman, to even a black Captain America, Comic-Con is a place where you can live your wildest science fiction nerd dreams, where even the night life is catered for the nerds. Restaurants and bars where all the staff are dressed up as Batgirl, or Indiana Jones and Darth Vader – it’s all there for your visual intake and it’s no surprise why millions of people from around the planet wish to be there and possibly get on TV dressed as a skanky Princess Leia or a horny Riddler. Comic-Con is the place of dreams, even if your only dream is to interview Pauly Shore. See you next year, you nerds.
