My trip to Comic Con

It's been a while since my last update, so why not update on a personal note.

My family and I went to Comic Con yesterday. Not the real Comic Con, mind you, that's not until Summer, it's in San Diego, and we're not sure if it's in our budget. It was Portland's Comic Con at the Convention Center. The lines were, as you might expect, insanely long. I can't even imagine how long the lines at the real Comic Con would be.

My Dad and I actually to get on line twice. The first line was in the lobby. After that, we got on line to get our bracelets to get into the actual show. Although the first hour didn't go so well for me (I don't like big crowds), it turned out to have been worth it.

The downstairs area was full of merchandize from all sorts of comics and tv shows. One of the biggest was Doctor Who. I didn't buy anything since I'm not a merchandize sort of person. My sister's a big fan of Doctor Who, but I don't think she bought any shirts from that franchise. She bought the Sunnydale High School t-shirt from the Buffy franchise. There was quite a bit of merchandise from Harry Potter as well, including the Deathly Hallows symbol.

We had initially been planning on getting a photo OP with Nicholas Brendan, one of the celebrities who was attending the Comic Con. We didn't get there in time, but we were able to go to a Q/A with him later on in the afternoon. Most of the questions were Buffy related (since Xander Harris is his most recognizable character), but there were a few that involved his recurring character on Criminal Minds. The biggest question was how he ended up getting the part of Xander. I say this because Mr. Brendan had a interesting story about that. He was originally the second choice for the part and was initially called over to the studio in order to compete with the then primary choice for Xander. That guy was an actor named Daniel Cerny, the lead for Children of the Corn III. (Nicholas Brendan also appeared in that movie in a bit part as a basketball player). Brendan ended up nailing the part so well that when Cerny came on later he couldn't compete. A week later, Nicholas Brendan gets a call from the studio informing him that he got the part. I think it's fitting that no one actually knew the name of the actor in Children of the Corn III, just that he was the lead actor (I actually had to look him up for this blog post.)

I asked a question of my own. "What do you think was the most difficult scene for you to film on Buffy?" This actually stumped him! Me, the guy who has trouble speaking up loudly enough for my parents to hear when they're sitting on the couch five feet away, managed to stump a professional actor with my question! Nicholas Brendan had to think about it for a bit, and he said that it was the chase scene in "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" that was the hardest. I'm pretty proud of that question.

A funny moment happened earlier on in the Q/A when the two people sitting in front of us left in the middle of Nicholas Brendan's speech. Right after they left the exit door, Brendan called after them with a very terse, "Bye, guys!" The whole room was cracking up right then.

It was a very fun day. I was going to blog about it as soon as I got home, but I had homework to do and that comes first. I'm glad I've gotten it done now. I've been wanting to update this blog for a while.