After a bit on the sub we got back aboard the Ballyhoo to head back to land, once there we got on a bus for a tour around the island. I definitely wouldn’t want to live there, the drivers are crazy, plus people just walk out in the middle of the street without really looking. We stopped at Fort Fincastle for about 15 minutes to look around and take photos and then headed back to the pier where the cruise ships were docked.

The A-Team and Webster premiere

Once we arrived we decided to get in line to see Avery Brooks first since he had the longest line of the people I wanted to see. It was about a 20 minute wait but was worth it, he was very friendly.

Next got in line to see Joe Pantoliano and then Margot Kidder, both of which were also nice.

The next few had almost no line so went rather quickly. Saw Anthony Montgomery and Walter Koenig, I know I keep saying this but its almost amazing how friendly they are, you always hear stories of famous people being rude and aloof, none of these people were like that.

Next person I saw was Chase Masterson, who even after what I said about everyone else, is still I’d say in the top three for nicest, sweetest person I’ve met at these conventions. An absolute sweetheart.

After her autograph we went to where they were doing a screening of the first two parts of Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, after a slight detour getting lost. I really enjoyed it, it’s an underground fan film with a relatively small budget but I think they did a good job with what they had. It even stars a lot of actors from the actual Star Trek series. I’m definitely looking forward to part 3 sometime in June and good chance I’ll pick up the DVD in July

Also met up with some friends at the screening so showed them the pictures and autographs I’d gotten so far.

Afterwards went and got a print signed by Al Feldstein as well as a photograph with him. And yet another person who was extremely friendly.

After that did some walking around the dealer’s area and did buy a HeroClix single and then left and went to Mongolian Barbecue for lunch and then headed home.

And in a new personal record, I have photos posted within 24 hours! Huzzah!

They said they’ll be putting video from the concert on YouTube so when they do I’ll try and remember to post links.

Update: First videos are now on YouTube, yay!

First day in California I met up with some of the people who were attending the I-Manicon and had dinner at the Sizzler. Or tried to at least, food never came, not a good time. Then we started getting the goody bags ready for the con the next day.

The day of the actual I-Manicon was good. We played games, watched some fan made music videos based on the show as well as an episode of The Invisible Man. Sadly, none of the cast made it in person that day but Mike McCafferty did talk to us from Michigan via speaker phone.

On Sunday mom and I braved Los Angeles public transportation to go to Burbank to attend the live show of The Radio Adventures of Doctor Floyd. Had a great time at the show, the cast was awesome. And I got “volunteered” form the audience to be in the show, which if you’re interested you can download here.

When we got back to the hotel Sunday night the group ordered pizza and then later in the evening Mike McCafferty stopped by to visit with us for a bit on his way home from the airport.

Monday the group did some sightseeing and then went to an Italian restaurant called Buca de Beppo’s. we ate in the Pope room which not only had pictures of Pope’s all over but also had a bust of the Pope on a lazy susan that was on the table. The lazy susan was to pass the food since everything was served family style, which meant when you passed stuff the Pope would be looking at different people. Paul Ben Victor also met us there along with a couple of his friends to hang out with us for a bit.

Tuesday we drove from Los Angeles to San Diego, trip wasn’t too bad. We didn’t really run into any major traffic and we got to use the carpool lane.

Wednesday we took a ferry to Coronado island to do some “sight seeing” although that actually translated more to shopping.

Wednesday night we headed to preview night for the Comic Con. Saw some interesting stuff and got quite a few pictures of some of the more interesting booths and displays.

Thursday was the actual official first day of the con. There weren’t any panels I was really interested in until the afternoon so I spent some time wandering the dealer room, including picking up a raffle ticket for Fin Fang Foom from the WizKids booth, which ended up being a winner, yay!

The first panel I went to that day was a DC panel focusing on the Countdown event that’s currently going on. They revealed some interesting things, but for the most part they were cryptic, as were a lot of other panels. The coolest thing about this panel was afterwards I was able to get Paul Dini’s autograph as well as a picture with him.

Later I went to the Spotlight on Scott Kurtz panel, who is the creator of the web comic PVP. Most of the stuff they talked about was about the new web based animated series based on the comic strip. It was interesting, but I personally prefer the comic strip.

The last panel I went to on Thursday was a retrospective on Star Trek, looking back over the past 40 years and somewhat to the future. No one from the actual show was there, but was some interesting stuff.

Friday the first panel I wanted to see was earlier, it was on adapting comics to the screen. Nothing too earth-shattering, although did get to see Stan Lee. Also found out that there’s plans for a live action Teen Titans movie.

After that went to a spotlight on Paul Dini, who is currently working at DC, but before that he worked on the Bruce Timm DC animated cartoons, notably Batman: The Animated Series.

After that panel I met up with a friend I know from City of Heroes and walked around the dealer floor with them for a while and chatted for a few hours. Also met and chatted to Roger Chang for a bit, very nice guy.

The next thing I did was go to the Jim Henson panel, they were promoting a couple new projects, the first one didn’t interest me much but their other project The Skrumps looked like it could be interesting.

The last panel of the day was the DC Nation, which had a few cool reveals, but nothing offhand that I can really recall.

Saturday was really eventful. First thing was a panel on the Marvel Ultimate Universe. Some interesting things coming from there, and I have to say Marvel reveals slightly more in their panels then DC does.

Next panel that day was one of my faves, Cartoon Voices 1 (other fave was Cartoon Voices 2). Panel had various voice actors, including Joe Alaskey who voices the Looney Tunes now, Will Ryan who does voices for Disney as well as Adventures in Odyssey, Kathy Garver who voices Angelica Jones/Firestar on Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, Rob Paulsen who was the voice of Pinky on Pinky and the Brain among other voices as well as a few others. There were some questions and answers but the best part was when the moderator had them perform an extremely edited down version of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds. Each of them played multiple parts, and in one scene three characters were arguing, and were all played by the same actor. Also during the performance when the moderator said ‘Switch’ whoever had the last line had to redo it in a different voice. And afterwards Rob Paulsen sang “Yakko’s World” from memory (Video is from 2006, didn’t find one from this con). I was also able to get a photograph with Will Ryan and Joe Alaskey.

Next was another DC panel and then a Marvel panel on stuff happening with Spider-Man. The one thing I remember from the DC panel was they had two people on stage dressed up, one as Mary Marvel in her new black outfit and the other as Knockout. At one point someone dressed as Spider-Man got to the microphone to ask a question and Knockout ran over and “beat him up”. And speaking of Spidey… there’s some interesting stuff happening with the line up of the Spider-Man creative team. I’m definitely interested to see what they do to/with the webhead.

Nice thing about Saturday was all those panels were in the same room so I was able to get there find a great seat and just park there all day. I was also going to go to the Smallville panel but a few things changed my mind, one was the extremely loooong line to get into the room, it stretched down and around 3 or 4 hallways. Also I thought about it and decided I didn’t want to be spoiled on what was coming up next season. And lastly, I was busy running back to hotel room and then back to convention to get to the FedEx inside the con to mail something back home before they closed. That in itself was a harrowing adventure, one I hope never to have to repeat.

Sunday was the last day of the con, and while I had fun I was kind of glad too since I was getting conned out. First panel was another DC panel. Honestly I wish I had written this up sooner so I could remember more, but now most of their panels kind of blend together.

I then went to the other Cartoon Voices 2 panel, which was pretty much the same as Cartoon Voices 1 (including the War of the World’s performance), but with different actors. This one had among others, Michael Bell who did voices on the original Transformers, Gregg Berger who also did voices on Transformers, including Grimlock, and Maurice La Marche who was the Brain in Pinky and the Brain.

I then wandered around the dealer room one last time as well as said hello to Roger Chang one last time. I thought about going to a couple other panels, but since none of them were things I absolutely had to see, and I was getting uncomfortable with the sheer number of people, as well as being conned out, I left the con early and headed back to the hotel.

I definitely had a great time and I’m glad I went, but not sure yet if I want to plan on going next year. Something to think about.

Everyone was friendly, especially Robin Curtis, Ethan Phillips and Robert Picardo. I also bought Robert Picardo’s two cds that I didn’t already have. I could have bought them earlier off of his website but I was wanting to wait until he came to a convention so I could get them autographed as well.

Later in the afternoon went to a question and answer panel with Robert Picardo and Ethan Phillips. They’re quite hilarious and were joking with each other through pretty much the entire panel, oh and they answered questions too.

After the convention we stayed and watched an original play called Housecall that was written and performed by Ethan Phillips and Robert Picardo which reprised their roles from Star Trek: Voyager. Quite humorous, especially the ad libbed parts, if you ever get a chance to see these two at the same con and they’re doing the performance I highly recommend seeing it, well worth the $15

Update: Got it working, I think Twitter was having some issues.

I’ll definitely be doing my best to acquire one for my collection.