The exhibition halls are on the fourth floor. The retail space is three floors down, a nice group of escalator rides away. Each level of the North lobby was filled with tired fans sitting against walls. There was not enough seating within the halls for people to find a place to rest. It was, in fact, not a friendly convention for people who can't remain on their feet all day. In past years, the organizers seem to have made a special effort to make sure there was plenty of spaces where fans could sit and rest. This particular layout didn't really allow for it, so people were sitting where they could in the lobbies and even the restroom.
As I got off the last escalator and stepped into the retail space, I spotted a Kinko's and a couple of restaurants. I headed for the Kinko's, and sure enough found some batteries inside. They weren't cheap, but were close to what I figured I'd be paying for them, so I wasn't disappointed. I ripped open the package right there and replaced the batteries in the camera to make sure they worked. All was good! I thanked the Kinko's guy and headed back up to the convention. Whew! Disaster averted. Thank you, Brian!
Entering the lobby I spied a giant slice of bacon walking around. Well, naturally... have to Troll the Bacon! The thing that really really amuses me about BaconSalt is not the name, the concept, or even the giant walking slice of bacon. It's the fact that the stuff is Kosher.
Ahem. Moving on, I stopped briefly at the Dark Horse booth to Troll Lisa Petrucci, then back to the Heroes Initiative booth where I got Brian Pulido's attention again (he was in the booth next door) and finally got the cool shot of him! Yay!
I headed back to Artist Alley and stopped a Cthuloid with wings long enough to Troll her. Then I noticed that Mike Mignola's line was missing, so I wandered toward his corner to see if he was out. He was just leaving, sort of. He was still talking with a woman, and when he turned away for a moment I asked her if it would be rude of me to ask him for a troll picture. She was enthusiastic, Mike was ok with it, and so I managed to Troll Mike Mignola, who had lines half a mile long the entire convention.
An aside. Saturday morning as I skimmed Facebook, I came across a message from Kurt Busiek that said "Kurt Busiek slept like The Thing That Does Not Sleep But Badly Needs It. Bah. This will be a long day." I determined from this post that he needed a hug once we got to the con. Thus early in the con, Lisa and I went and offered him hugs at his table. He growled menacingly at us. We feared him and fled. Later we spotted him on the floor and I offered hugs again. He growled menacingly at me. I feared him. After Trolling Mike Mignola, I headed up to his table. He was eating lunch and MUCH more mellow. He did not growl, but then, I did not offer further hugs.
Another Kurt incident happened some time during that day. Kurt was sitting next to Gail Simone, and every once in awhile Gail's gorgeous husband was at the table. At one point I was standing there "making them look more popular" when Gail's husband suddenly said to me, "I just realized you always wear an Aquaman t-shirt!" Kurt and Gail both laughed, and I think I tried to explain that I'm the Aquaman fan, so yeah, I always wear an Aquaman shirt at cons.
After Mignola, the next five Trollings were all costumes, and most of them took place along section L. I trolled The Comedian, The Wonder Twins, Batgirl, a Warrior who I seem to recognize but cannot quite place, and Poison Ivy and Jade hanging out together.
I went back to troll the Middle School students again, and got a couple who weren't terribly enthusiastic about the troll. The young gentleman was fond of his Wonder Woman tiara, however, which was a very popular piece of memorabilia that I saw all over the convention floor on various heads of both genders. It wasn't until Sunday that I figured out where they were coming from and got one for myself.
I went down the line and visited Tony Harris, who did a lovely Aquaman cover that still makes me happy to think about years later. I told him so, and Trolled him.
Back at the Heroes booth I Trolled Daniel Way, who seemed more bemused than most and seemed to think the whole Trolling thing was some sort of exhaustion induced illusion. I then Trolled a Nightcrawler who happened to walk by. Heidi decided that she needed to learn how to use her iPhone to post images to her blog, so we headed over to Jimmy Palmiotti's table because Jimmy had helped her out before. When she got there, Jimmy had no idea, but suggested that the guy sitting next to/behind him was the guy to ask. I think it was Brandon Peterson. He and Heidi huddled over her iPhone and eventually figured it out, as you can see on her blog. She even posted a picture of me. For information's sake, the app that she installed is called Blogpress and worked well.
While they worked on the phone, I wandered to Siya Oum, who drew an Aquaman sketch for me but hadn't been Trolled yet. As I stood at her table, an INCREDIBLE double-costume came along, of Hellboy and Abe. The detail was amazing, and the girl in the Abe Sapien costume was clearly suffering but MAN it was a fantastic costume. The parents said it was the girl's idea, and that she'd had to convince her brother to be Hellboy. But they got a lot of attention.
Then I Trolled Mouse Guard creator David Peterson, and moved down the line to Jeremy Bastian. I'm not entirely sure who the next couple I Trolled are, but they made for a great picture. Then I headed over to the Girl Genius booth to troll Experiment #1 again. Experiment #1 is one of the first ever Trolled people. He's also probably in more Troll pics than anyone else. In any case, I decided to continue documenting his growth in the true spirit of a Mad Scientist. I swear he looks more like his father every year.
I stopped a Bat Family to Troll them, and headed over to the Heroes booth to Troll Brian Denham. While still near the booth, I also Trolled Nightwing and Huntress, then Clayton Crain... who just happened by. Got to be careful where you walk at a con, somebody might just shove a Troll in your hand and take a picture!
I decided to make one more effort at the three media guests I hadn't yet Trolled, so Lisa and I headed back to that area of the con. We spotted a battle royale between Captain America and an Anime-dressed guy that I swear I nearly recognized, but couldn't name if I tried. Even a Google search didn't help me much. I Trolled them both.
The lines for Jewel and Ray were overwhelming, but there was almost no line for Michael Hogan. I learned why when I got up to there, as he was about to leave for the day. The line keeper let me in when I said I just wanted a quick photo. The people in front of me had a baby in a stroller, and Michael shamelessly flirted with baby and ignored all the adults nearby, much to the adults' amusement. Finally, baby or Michael got tired of the flirting, and he signed the photos that the proud parents had gotten... of Michael and the same baby! The father suggested that Michael do a USO tour, which surprised Michael. The father admitted he was shipping out to Iraq in a few weeks. Michael said he'd see what he could do. He said that he and "Eddie" (Adama) could do a mean stand-up if they tried.
When I got my turn Michael got the best expression ever on his face for the photo. Then I handed him his "You've Been Trolled!" card and he decided to go a little over-the-top, shouting, "I've been trolled!? Why didn't anyone tell me I was gonna get Trolled!" Helo, sitting in the next booth, looked up and grinned, and I made my escape.
Lisa and I wandered back to the Middle School table, but the students had scattered to the winds. I got a picture of their artwork instead of them. Then I noticed that Bruce Timm had no crowd for once, and immediately went over and Trolled him.
We had about an hour left in the convention for the day, but both Lisa and I were completely wiped. So we headed out, slowly. We stopped by the Halfpixel booth on the way out, and also found the DC booth (far too late to get any of the GL buttons). The parking was way too expensive ($14 for the day, ouch) and we went the wrong way when we headed out, but we eventually got to Hotel Mom&Dad and got a nice comfort food meal (thank you again, Mom!). A nice night helped me to recover, and I planned for a new day with hubby-Eric along. Before I did anything else, though, I made and printed a list of everyone that I was sure had already been trolled. Armed with that precious knowledge, I was able to target my paTrolling a little better on Sunday.
0 comments:
Post a Comment