Comic Con ’11: A Fangirl’s Dream

Comic Con 2011 has come and gone. Fans are home now, caught up on missed sleep and dreaming of next year. A full week later, I’m almost caught up on work… For me, I can’t help but reminisce about some of the most memorable moments from the event. I witnessed the good, bad, ugly, and crazy this year. Some celebrities aren’t at all how you pictured them – some of them are full of themselves while other ones truly appreciate their fans and love what they do. I won’t speak of the bad, because well, if you don’t have anything nice to say….

Here’s my breakdown of my Comic Con 2011 experience!

My dear friend and assistant for Con, Jenn, flew out to San Diego with me this year. Our plane left Atlanta full of Con-goers. What most would deem nerds, we simply deemed as our instant friends. Expectations and schedules for the Con were exchanged among us as we geeked out about Big Bang Theory and Doctor Who. When we arrived in San Diego, eyes were wide and spirits were high – it was going to be an epic 4 days.

Comic Con

Preview Night

We picked up our press passes on Wednesday night, so we’d be ready to go for the first panel of Thursday morning – Twilight. Preview night is notorious for free stuff. Getting the jump on some of the better swag of the conference is something that everyone has in mind when those doors open at 6pm. Unfortunately, we got there at 7:45. I got a snap bracelet. Seriously, that’s all I walked out of preview night with. :-/

Grabbed dinner with some LA friends that night, and then hit the sack early to get ready for Day 1!

Day 1

After entering the Comic Con bubble the day before, I didn’t even realize my piece on Twi-hards had gone live on CNN.com. But it was up, and I was headed to interview the stars of the film! Twilight was absent from Comic Con last year – but in 2009 it created complete madness among fans trying to get into Hall H. This year though, the crowds were a bit more tame – Still a TON of people though!

I took my seat for the Twilight press panel, and they kicked it off with Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Julia Jones, and Booboo Stewart out. Summit carefully placed 3 of their other panels after this one before giving the press Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner. Smart move. 🙂

Following Twilight, I had interviews set up for Ringer, In Time, Prometheus, Archer (My favorite interview from Con with Adam Reed and Judy Greer – which I had to duck out of early to run half a mile to get to my one-on-one with Bruce Campbell, and then I finished the day off with Wilfred – where I had a total fangirl moment. Just as we had asked Elijah Wood whether or not he was homesick for New Zealand, Dominic Monaghan walked into the room. I discreetly started hitting Jen who was sitting next to me, as she was just as big of a Lord Of The Rings fan as I was. Everyone gasped with smiles as Elijah and Dominic zoned in on each other and embraced.

We hit up the IGN party after grabbing dinner at a local burger bar, and then, promptly crashed from exhaustion. Day 1 – Done.

Day 2

Comic Con

Friday was my easiest day. I started off with a spa-like experience at the Wired Cafe. A True Blood makeover featuring the new makeup collection from Tarte. I’m going to have a full post and review on this collection later, but let me just say – this stuff rocks! Comic Con is the perfect test for makeup, and my makeup stayed on perfectly for the entire afternoon – and the entire night of parties. No eye shadow or eyeliner creasing up in my eyelids – it was perfect. And it’s True Blood branded. It’s seriously incredible.

I enjoyed a “Death On The Beach” afternoon drink at Fangtasia, which was to die for! 😉 And then headed off to my first panel of the day, ABC Family’s The Nine Lives Of Chloe King. Grabbed a great one-on-one interview with Skylar Samuels that will be online soon, and then headed off to interview Rider Strong. Boy Meets World was the show that I identify my childhood with, so getting the chance to sit down with Rider and chat about not only his work with that show, but also his new work with writing and directing short films – was an absolute fangirl moment for me.

Last panel of the day for me was The Walking Dead. I’m a huge fan of this show not only because it films here in Atlanta, but also because it’s incredibly well done. And that’s saying a lot coming from me, a person who is not a fan of the zombie genre. If they can attract people who aren’t normally fans of the genre – then that says something. My coverage from this panel will be online here soon!

I grabbed dinner over the course of the night at a couple different parties with my dear friend Aaron Sagers. Got the chance to have drinks while chatting with some of my favorite celebrities including: Ken Marino, Jorge Garcia, Breckin Meyers, Johnny Galecki, and Chris Daughtry.

Day 3
There seemed to be more people at Con on Saturday than Thursday and Friday. I honestly don’t know how people do it – stand in line all day to get a chance to get into a panel for their favorite shows and movies. I have great respect for the patience that it takes, but I would die.

Terra Nova was my first panel of the day, which was an interesting one considering none of the press in the room had seen the screener for the pilot. But we still managed to quiz series star Stephen Lang a little bit about what we can expect from the series and also with his character. You can check out the full interview here: Stephen Lang Talks ‘Terra Nova’ At Comic Con

Comic Con

Next was Chuck, which was a bittersweet panel. Zachary Levi admitted he was a little teary-eyed after seeing the fans response and knowing that this was the last time the series would attend Con.

Next up was The Vampire Diaries (Check out my interviews with Ian Somerhalder, Kevin Williamson, and Candice Accola), Alcatraz, and Once Upon A Time.

Saturday night was the NBC digital press party. After getting stuck in a traffic mess in downtown, we finally made it to the party – late though we were. The first person I saw once we got inside was Ryan McPartlin (Captain Awesome on Chuck) who is nothing but smiles. I’ve met and interviewed Ryan a number of times, and he really is “awesome.” You can’t help but smile when you’re around him – he’s just a great guy!

Next up, we ran into Chevy Chase, who we learned wasn’t familiar with IMDB – in fact, he said he’d never heard of the site before. Jen pulled the site up on her phone and walked him through what all the site had to offer. It was pretty cute and funny to watch.

Anthony Stewart Head was also present, making my Buffy bingo nearly complete after having met David Borenaz and Seth Green last year and Sarah Michelle Gellar this year… And we also got the chance to chat with Adam Baldwin (Firefly bingo is almost complete now as well), Mark Christopher Lawrence, and Yvette Nicole Brown.

After the party, we grabbed dinner at Cafe Diem, the Syfy re-branded Hard Rock Cafe, and then went back to the hotel where we crashed.

Day 4

I was completely exhausted, but it was a good exhausted. Sunday, I only had 2 panels left – Supernatural and Castle. As I tweeted live during the Supernatural panel, I gained over 150 new Twitter followers who shared my passion and enthusiasm for the series!

Sera Gamble, Ben Edlund, Mark Sheppard, and Jared Padalecki gave us a brief look at what we could expect for Season 7 of the series. You can check out those videos here:

Comic Con

Supernatural has been a series I’ve loved since the pilot. I get a little extra giddy in this press room, because I truly consider myself to be one of the die-hard fans of this series. My friend Jen didn’t realize that this press room would make her giddy too – until Mark Sheppard sat down. Our interview with Mark was one of my favorites from Con, he’s absolutely uproarious to chat with – and one could easily spend the entire panel talking with him.

Castle was our last panel of the day, and a perfect way to finish off the convention. I think the highlight of this panel for everyone was Molly Quinn’s costume. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Firefly, Molly was dressed up as Nathan Fillion’s iconic character from the series.

After we wrapped with Castle, I met up with some FanBolters who where at the convention including Joy and Leslie. It was so incredible to finally meet them in person after chatting with them on our forums for so long! Even though I was completely exhausted and sleep deprived – meeting them was definitely the cherry on top for Comic Con 2011! 🙂

Thanks to the PR firms, the studios, the stars, and my new and old friends for an amazing 4 days of memories! Can’t wait to reunite with you all in San Diego next year!

To see more pictures – check out my Facebook page here!

Article By: Emma Loggins

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Responses

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  1. Wow! Looks like you had an awesome time. I’m so jealous; especially about meeting Bruce Campbell and Chevy Chase (as you know Burn Notice and SNL are things I love)!

  2. They were just as cool as last year! Though I have to say the Chevy Chase not knowing what IMBD was… probably the funniest moment of the entire convention 🙂