Pop-culture conventions are great places for collecting and having Squees. The blotting out of geographical barriers between well-known personalities and their fans (and sometimes press folks) creates many giddy celebrity moments.
From the planned to the serendipitous, here's a list of Red Dot Diva's Top 5 Squee-tastic Moments at Comic-Con 2014 (not in order of highest to lowest Squees):
1. TODD McFARLANE
Red Dot Diva received a surprise media invite to cover the launch of Todd McFarlane's latest toy just before Preview Night. And her first reaction was, hell yeah! The handsome and silver foxy artist/creator/entrepreneur has been on her list of "people she would love to meet" for some time.
Red Dot Diva could not pass the chance for an autograph and a photo with the legend himself and when she mentioned she was from Red Dot Island, he got a little more animated and said that he has been there before (he was here back in late 1990's?) and would love to come back again.
It was a Very Squeesome encounter indeed.
2. GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
The fates of the Seven Kingdoms must have favoured Red Dot Diva on the very last day of Comic-Con because that was when she managed to meet the esteemed best-selling creator/ writer of "Game of Thrones" - George R.R. Martin (GRRM).
He was scheduled to make a signing appearance at the Comixology booth for the graphic novel "The Hedge Knight" - a prequel to the book series that was released by Jet Comics. The day before, Comixology had tweeted to say that folks could head to the booth first thing on Sunday to get wristbands, which was limited to the number of 200.
Diva wondered if it was worth the shot getting the wristbands since GRRM is extremely popular. By the time late Saturday came around, she was still a little half-hearted - not by lack of wanting to meet GRRM, but by being slightly afraid of having her hopes dashed for not getting a wristband.
She even woke up later than expected on Sunday morning, and by the time she got decently dressed and headed out to the convention centre, the showfloor had already been opened for about 10 minutes. Eeks. Quick! To the Comixology booth! When she arrived there breathless, and asked if there were wristbands available, the cute guy at the booth said "yes, there are quite a few left!".
OMG. SCORE!!!!! Wristband secured, Red Dot Diva hurriedly texted to roomies Sara and Ashley that they should come collect theirs ASAP. Sara decided to skip the signing, but Ashley who arrived at the booth 20 minutes later, managed to get a wristband too.
Both were told that the lines would begin at noon, and boy did those lines snake around from the Comixology booth to the middle of one of the alleyways across. The GRRM signing started quite punctually at about 1230PM, and while Diva and Ashley waited, there were many puzzled passers-by who asked what the lines were for. "It's for George R.R. Martin," Ashley would say several times while waiting in line, and many of them just shrugged, "Oh." Quite obviously, they knew nuthin'.
As the line moved in a steady stream, and both Diva and Ashley turned round toward the side of the Comixology booth, there sat the bespectacled and bearded writer, who was in a very good mood. He shook hands with fans and made small chit-chat with them. Red Dot Diva was even surprised to see that candid pics were allowed.
When it was her turn, this was what happened:
Diva: Hi, I'm from Singapore. (shaking hands with the dear sir)
GRRM: OHhhhh! Singapore. I hear it's a very nice place!
Diva, smiling: I just want to say ... (pause) Thank you for "so many beautiful deaths"
And GRRM erupted in loud gleeful laughter that was so infectious, he made his minders and the staff at the Comixology booth laugh/ smile too
It was a truly epic moment.
Too bad the posed photo with GRRM did not turn out nicely as he was scratching his nose, but still, Red Dot Diva will remember this incident for life.
3. THOSE GUYZ FROM "SUPERNATURAL"
Wonderful things always happen at SlamCon - a party that is hosted by actors Todd Stashwick and Brea Grant, artist Dennis Calero and writer Deric A. Hughes on Saturday night of Comic-Con.
This year's SlamCon was held at the Odysea Lounge, Hilton Bayfront. As the night progressed, the party got pretty happening. Suddenly, Red Dot Diva noticed a couple of tense security dudes walk by, and in strolled the tall lanky star of "Supernatural", Jared Padalecki, his right arm in a sling.
Even though Red Dot Diva watches "Supernatural" quite religiously, she was very hesitant to approach the celebrity because she is - in most instances - not the kind of fan to intrude someone's personal space. While she and her friends sat at their table and nursed their drinks, Ashley commented that her friend loves the series and would kill to have a photo taken with Jared.
Later on, Erik said that not only was Jared at the party, he was together with Misha Collins! OH MY. Now, that puts a different spin on things because Misha is known to be pretty much fan-friendly. Diva needed some courage though, so together with willing participants Ashley and Sara, the ladies trooped toward the private group at the back of the Odysea Lounge.
Misha was sitting casually on top of the armrest of a sofa, and did not mind when being approached at all. He looked tired (or tipsy) and the bar was extremely noisy, so most of the encounter was done through body language. Haha.
Trying not to die prematurely from squees, Diva then mouthed "How are you doing?" to Misha. He nodded his head slowly and mouthed back, "I'm OK." Thumbs up.
She turned around and saw that Jared was just standing there, still happily taking photos with fans who approached him. He seemed more amiable than Diva expected. She reached out to shake hands with him, having forgotten about his injured arm. He didn't seem to mind, but she changed and shook his left hand instead. Jared then made a fake grimace and pretended to be in great pain. Haha.
Both Ashley and Sara also had awesome pics taken with both Misha and Jared. And Diva is sure Ashley scored major envy points with her friend that night.
4. MARC ZICREE
Red Dot Diva had the chance to speak to writer-producer-director Marc Zicree in length about his current scifi movie project "Space Command" during Friday morning of Comic-Con. (More details from that interview in a separate article to be posted later.)
The industry veteran has spent thousands of hours working on various works with several studios and is best known for his work in "Star Trek", "Twilight Zone" and "Sliders" amongst many other notable pilots and projects.
Yakking about scifi with the gentlemanly and knowledgeable Marc Zicree was a very illuminating experience for Red Dot Diva. She feels most honoured to have had the chance to trade brain waves with the man.
5. BILL SIENKIEWICZ
Having another of Bill Sienkiewicz's visually inspiring and captivating artwork appear on her Facebook timeline never fails to make Red Dot Diva's day feel extra special.
She has met Bill (whose appearance is as handsome as his art) once before at last year's NYCC exhibition hall, but there as a small line waiting for his attention and she only managed to say a quick hi and have a photo taken with him.
This time, the crowd had yet to form when she visit Bill at his Comic-Con booth so she had a chance to have a brief chat with him. Bill was already hard at work painting for a commission - one of Groot. Diva couldn't help but exclaim, "Guardians of the Galaxy!" Bill chuckled and said that "This is probably going to be the theme of the weekend." (True enough, when she came back to see him again on Saturday, he was drawing Gamora.)
He thought that Diva was from Texas (no, she's not ;) ), asked her about how long her flight to USA was and enquired if she had "gone to see" David Mack yet, adding that he will be doing a collaboration with David that is currently in the works.
It was hypnotic watching Bill do his brushwork but Diva did not want to get too creepy and outstay her welcome, so she purchased Bill's latest artbook (it's so pretty; highly recommended) and said that she would be contacting him again about the "Temple of Art" documentary Kickstarter project in the near future.
There were many other well-known personalities whom Red Dot Diva met at Comic-Con 2014: the ever-friendly and bicepstuous David Mack, the always warm and lovely "Devil Inside" webcomic partners Todd Stashwick and Dennis Calero, uber-friendly Zachary Levi during breakfast at Broken Yolk Cafe, former DC president and publisher Paul Levitz, writer Joe Harris, Brea Grant, a bubbly Anna Martemucci, Mark Brooks, VampyBitMe, JRYU, Simone Legno, Orlando Jones, Stephen Christy, Mel Caylo, artist Pascal Campion and even a rather reluctant Mira Furlan. Each of these encounters as memorable and Squeeworthy as any other.
Viva la Fanlove!
Wow! You were busy!
ReplyDeleteI was expecting to be busier! In fact, I had a couple of evening/ nights where Sara and I had a lot of downtown and were just resting/ chillin' in our hotel room
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