Comic Con 2019 Adventures, while Chasing Kevin Smith
Got back from Comic Con 2019 (the event’s 50th anniversary), over a week ago. With my travel mates, Bo! Campbell & April, Sonam (it’s her first time!), and my co-producer on #MEMCast, Anthony Rivera, we embarked on the annual quest to nerd mecca in San Diego, and encountered strange things like the reveal of the enormous transformable Unicron figure, how the shelves for Funko booth quickly empty once the Con opened their doors, and getting Lloyd Kaufman to sign a copy of Toxic Avengers for me… and me constantly bumping into (or chasing) Kevin Smith near and afar.
Most of my adventure involved getting my hands on exclusives… or losing the opportunity to do so. With the five days straight we attended, I barely scratched the surface of all things I could have wanted to do at the Con. But, I have learned, throughout my Con experiences, that that is impossible, to do everything you want that is scheduled. I didn’t even get to see a lot of my favorite booths in-depth, esp. my favorite, Sideshow Collectibles.
Highlights for me included:
- Meeting the cast of It 2, esp. Jessica Chastain… I mumbled,”I loved you in all your movies, but… sorry, I’m going blank with the titles of your movies… but… uhm… sorry, nerves!”
- Got my hands on a limited, exclusive Ghostbusters Optimus Prime figure at Hasbro Pulse, and met the author of the Transformers/Ghostbusters crossover series, Erik Burham, and have him tell me that even he hasn’t gotten the figure yet.
- Got Martin Kove of Karate Kid & Cobra Kai fame to sign his Barbie doll for me.
- My buddy, Eric Bruce, who’s a professor at Western Oregon University, giving a presentation on zombie survival in society… and then made him happy by giving him the exclusive Lego Batman set.
- Saw Billy Dee Williams signing at a booth from afar, but no pics and videos were allowed, so I snuck one while pretending to be snacking. You can find the “illegal” act in my overview video below.
We attended the nightclub Fluxx in the Gaslamp on that Friday night, and watched DMC (of Run DMC fame) perform “It’s Tricky” and “Walk this Way” with the Flux Capacitors, and, also, Gigi Edgley, of Farscape, doing a cover of “Sweet Dreams”. Check out the Optimus Prime cosplay on the far left in those performances.
Anthony and I bumped into DMC back at the exhibition hall at the convention center the next morning. Hella nice dude… he talked to us for like 5 min about Run DMC’s influence on hip-hop during the rise of the MTV era, how today’s hip-hop news like Forbes cover of Jay-Z starting out as a drug dealer turned rap star is misleading (you stop being a drug dealer before you become famous, it’s not congruent), and how Run doesn’t perform with him anymore, as Run prefers to be a reality show star.
Below is my 12 min overview video. A bit longer then my previous Con edits, as half of it involves chasing Kevin Smith (yeah, you saw what I did there). Long story short, I’ve met most of Kevin Smith’s crew – bumped into Jay on the streets outside SDCC2013, met all the Comic Book Men, but always seem to barely get close to Kevin before he disappears within my grasp.
Exclusives I snagged besides the GB Optimus were the Zombicide TMNT extension packs by IDW, ReAction Robot “Maria” figure from Fritz Lang’s 1927 Metropolis from Super7, the limited Mini Epic Xenomorph by Weta Workshop, and the exclusive Con cover of the final The Walking Dead comic issue #193 (couldn’t ever find the opportunity to get Robert Kirkham to sign it, tho)… but I was sad the Hot Wheels Star Wars mouse droid was completely sold out. And, I want the Ultimate Annabelle from NECA that was revealed at the Con, coming later this year. Maybe I will do an unboxing video of all this stuff some times soon…
When I got back from the Con, Anthony and I recorded a quick overview of our experiences at the event on #MEMCast on ITunes. Give it a listen at the following url. Until next time!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m-e-mcast-ep-051-comic-khaaaaannnnnn-2019/id1008918290
