Last year I attended my first ever Comic Con, the first ever
Berlin Comic Con at that! It was definitely an unique experience and I will most definitely go again, but my review will also have a bit of criticism. Especially it being the first event taking place in Berlin there were a few organizational flaws. But let's start in the beginning.
Just a few days before the Con I finished my
upcycled Star Wars skirt, which was perfect for my first Comic Con outfit.
We didn't have a plan for the first day. Since it was a Saturday we slept in and didn't really study the program before heading to the convention hall. We just wanted to get an overview, so we could focus on the things we really wanted to see on the next day.
I was actually pretty glad that we didn't get there right when it opened, because I hate waiting in line with a bunch of people and when we got there around noon the lines were gone and it took us no time to get in. The first hall we went into (there were only two halls) had the panel stage, the signing tables and the photo shoot area in it, as well as a bunch of shopping stalls. Making our round we ran straight into this happy fellow at the signing tables:
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| Sylvester McCoy |
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| Natalia Tena |
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| Devon Murray |
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| Christopher Lloyd |
These were only a couple of the star guests that were signing for their fans. I still find the whole stars sitting in a row signing autographs for money thing a bit weird, but I guess this is the way it's done at all the conventions. It was just really sad to see all of the less popular celebreties who barely had any people coming up to them next to the handfull of super popular one like Christpher Lloyd and Sylvester McCoy.
There were also some guest cars ;)
They also had a Delorean, but I forgot to take a picture of it.
We spent most of the day just walking around and taking everything in, but we found this one shop in the other main hall that had some amazing T-Shirts with handsketched comic designs. When we found the booth there were barely any people stopping to look at the shirts, so we stuck around a while to pick out a shirt for each of us and the more we stuck around the more people were checking out the shirts :D
The shop is called
Chapter #1 Shirts, I got this super cute
wind fox shirt and the husband got this
red panda shirt. I was also very tempted to buy this purple wig, which I ended up buying the next day after asking my internet friends on istagram if I should get it or not.
We also watched a bit of this Star Wars panel with Greg Grunberg (Lost, Heroes & Star Wars; JJ Abrams best pal, basically) and Ray Park (Darth Maul/Star Wars). I have no idea what they were talking about, but it looks entertaining ;)
The best part of the Comic Con Saturday was definitely all the Cosplay. There were some pretty cool people with amazing costumes around.
That was our first day! Not bad for the first Comic Con in Berlin.
For the next day we had scheduled some fixed appointments, the first was my date with James Marsters (Spike/Buffy & Angel) at his Panel. Here's a bit of a picture spam from the Panel:
James was incredibly likeable and funny during his panel. He talked about new projects and of course the reason why most people came to see him: his performance of Spike in Buffy and later the spin-off series Angel. He told us a few anecdotes from that time. For example that he always felt about Sarah Michell Gellar like she was his little sister and was not too excited about playing her lover. He also took his time to answer numerous audience questions, mostly about Buffy, but also about Torchwood and other projects. Too bad he only got 45 minutes to talk, I could have stayed and listened for a couple more hours. Such a nice chap!
Here's some more impressions from the Con on Sunday:
The husband is already wearing his
Chapter One T-Shirt.
Our next stop was another highlight: Don Rosa, the comic book author and illustrator known for his stories about Scrooge McDuck was at the Con to sign his artwork and books. I wanted to get his book "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" for my dad a while ago and when I found out he would be at the Con I figured a signed copy would be an even better present!
I also had him sign one of his autobiography flyers for me as a keepsake. If you're confused about the chilis next to him in the picture, so were we! Apparently he is a huge chili fan, grows his own and brings it to give to his fans at every convention. What a weirdo ;)
Got to meet the professional Spock Look-Alike impersonator
Spock Vegas who was available for pictures for a donation to a charity. Many people did not get this and were put off when, after asking for a picture with him, were informed about the compulsary donation. Other people just took photos without even asking, even though he had posters next to his stand saying "Cosplay does not mean consent!". His stand was also placed in the most awkward spot possible, pretty much in the middle of the walkway between the comic artists and their panel stage (which was hidden in the corner of the very back of the hall and accordingly very sparely visited).
For some reason they had a Zombie head shelf inspired by the Governor's Zombie head aquarium set up from The Walking Dead.
Our last stop was the living celebrity zoo at the signing table. I had contemplated about getting James Marsters autograph all day and finally decided that I would get one.
The husband demanded to take a picture of Ray Park, so here it is.
Look at that smile! Isn't he a sweetheart? The way he took his time for every fan to get his autograph. Swoon ;) I even brought my Buffy script of the musical episode "Once more with Feeling" to have signed. And I also got a signed picture (even though I only paid for one autograph).
We actually had a little chat while he was signing my picture and script about being married to a German, because I thanked him for coming to Germany and he said that he was here very often because he is actually married to a German. And I was like, nuh uh, I also got myself an american husband. And then the husband and him exchanged a bit of banter about America and James joked about coming to live in Germany if Trump won the election. Ummm... yeah.
Sadly my memory is crap, but I do remember walking out of the Con blissfully after that meeting and it was definitely my highlight of the weekend.
All in all I would say it was a successful event with a little bit of an organizational problem. For this year I am hoping that they will get that settled and maybe print some maps and schedules to get around more easily. Well, that's all I got for now. Here's our Con Loot:
