This year, I decided to come to Atlanta a day early, figuring to get my pass then and be able to see stuff earlier in the day on Friday. I met my roomie, Valkyrie of ComiX-Fan fame, at the Hyatt at around 1 PM. We discovered we couldn’t get our press badges until 5 that evening, so we hung out in our room and chatted. We were supposed to be rooming with another gal - the three of us had met back in 2000, when we’d joined the Official X-Men Fanclub. Alas, our third roomie wasn’t able to make it. Actually, I know several people who were supposed to come but ended up not being able to make it for one reason or another. When discussing the con with her, we had all decided to spend most of the con together; Val and I had each pretty much done our own thing in previous years. And even though our friend was now absent, Val and I decided to pal around together anyway and spent those hours discussing what panels to attend.

When we were finally able to get our badges, Star Roberts, the media liason, had a special surprise waiting for us - passes to the Green Room, where the con’s special guests hang out! It was a stroke of luck that we both got one. Star didn’t know we roomed together, and only ten or so are given out to press people a year (this year, only nine!)

After we got our badges and programmes, I decided to head to the Buffy Track room and see if the track director, Tricia, had arrived there yet. She hadn’t, but I found others who were looking for her as well (I had that happened all over the con, really, all these chance, fortuitous meetings), and with the help of their cell phone, we eventually tracked her down. I spent the next few hours helping her and her roomies, Elizabeth and Peter, get organized and fold track programmes. Then we went to dinner in the hotel’s lobby restaurant. It was a tad pricey, but good. It was really nice to just sit down and chat with everyone without the hustle and bustle of the con having started yet.

I met Tricia in the track room the next morning as well to help her set up. She had me hold the hall door for her while she went up to get more stuff, with the directive that I wasn’t to let anyone but a track director in until she got back. So as I waited, a fellow came up with a white ribbon - I thought he was press, because the press ribbon is white. As he approached, I told him, "I’m sorry, but I can’t let you in yet." To which he said that was fine, he didn’t want in yet. He sat down across from me. I thought that was mighty odd. Was this guy going to wait four and a half hours at the door?? So I squinted at his badge. His ribbon didn’t say "Press," it said "Guest," and his name sticker said "Todd McCaffrey." Doh!!! Mortified, I apologised and told him he could certainly go in, but he insisted on waiting out there with me, and we chatted. When Tricia arrived, she headed to the tack room door, and I asked her if I should close the door. She said yeah, and I asked Mr. McCaffrey if he didn’t want to come in with us. Tricia started to say he couldn’t, and I quickly explained who he was. Her reaction was much like mine. He was quite nice about it, though, and did come in and talk to us for a bit while we set up.

If there’s a track you really like, find out what you can do to help. The track directors put a lot of time and effort (and often money from their own pocket!) into making sure there’s a lot of great programming and that everything runs smoothly (and safely) for the con-goers. Not only will you be helping good people to make sure everyone has a good time, you’ll also make great friends! More than one person on the Buffy Track has told me that they come to Dragon as much to meet up with friends they’ve met there the years before as to see celebrities or talk on panels - if not more. It’s like a giant family reunion, and though it may have been a year since you’ve seen these people, once you’re on "con time", it’s like the last con was only a month (or less) ago! So get involved, and I bet you’ll have an even better time!

At about ten, I met up with Valkyrie, and we headed over to the Marriott to see how things were shaping up. Alas, the Exhibition Hall, Dealer’s Room, and Art Show weren’t opening any earlier, but we did check out the tables that were being set up outside them, including the Firefly table, Rebel Alliance recruiting table, the Tribe table, and the Farscape table, which was a godsend for handing out these cool hand-fans (it was broiling in that room) that doubles as both advertisements and small picket signs. We also took some pictures of the cosplayers. That’s another part of the con I love, really - seeing people go all out to make such fabulous costumes!

At 12:15 - 12:30, we headed back on over to the Hyatt for our first panel, which was on the Star Wars comics. To be honest, this wasn’t a panel I would have attended on my own. Val needed to cover it for ComiX-Fan, and we were trying to stick together. But it was still interesting, and it was nice to put a face and personality to Michael Stackpole. Also attending were Aaron Allston and San Jolley. At the very least, I got a question answered that had been bugging me for ages: how do the Marvel Star Wars comics fit into the continuity? Apparently, while Dark Horse may have reprinted them, they are no longer really considered canon, if they indeed ever were. Maybe on a low scale they are, but the current comics, as well as the novels, greatly supercede them. In fact, there is a "canon hierarchy": the movies are at the top, the radio shows next, and then the (new) comics and novels and RPG modules are all on sort of the same level. But basically what it boils down to is this: my favorite characters from the Marvel days, the telepathic bunny-like creatures called "the Hoojib," are very unlikely to ever be brought into the new material. [cries] Anyway, they also talked about the various comic scriptwriting processes, in particular the approval process in dealing with Lucasfilm, and how they interact with the artists, which, as both a writer and an artist, were very interesting to me.

After that track, we booked it over to the X-Files track to see Dean Haglund, aka Langley, of both The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen fame. He was hilarious!!! Which only makes sense, since it turns out that he went to college with Ryan Stiles and Colin Mackery (Who’s Line is it Anyway?). We were shocked to find him shorn of his long blond locks, and he told us the story behind that: he needed to cut it for a part, and his comedy buddies sort of bullied him into doing it on stage, in a skit about aversion therapy, which he did with Rick Overton. He told us about his invention, "Chill Pak," which is basically an ice pack for notebooks to keep them form overheating. He told us that Chris Carter is at work on the new X-Files movie script, which will be a stand-alone story that takes place a few years before the show ended, and will be very! very! gory! He told us the only X-Files props he had were twelve pairs of Langley’s glasses from the movie, which the prop guy had given him. He told us a very humorous anecdote that I can’t repeat here, or men in black may come and take me away. He told us that there was a fantastic script for an episode that didn’t get made, which would have been the season-opener for the second season, and now the script is lost forever. He talked a little about the episode that they’d filmed about the World Trade Center getting hit by planes - before the real event actually happened! But the biggest news of his panel was that the The Lone Gunmen is going to DVD, and the set will also include that Trade Center episode as well as the episodes that were about the Lone Gunmen in The X-Files! And he says that he’s glad that Langley got a heroic death - but points out that all of the coffins for the Lone Gunmen were full-sized, and apparently when you die of a class 5 disease, you must be buried in a "to size" coffin. So since Frohike was much smaller than average height, Dean speculates that the Gunmen might still alive ... By the end of the panel, I was looking for an oxygen tank, I’d been laughing so hard!

At four, we were supposed to go see Christopher Golden’s panel. He’s an acquaintance of mine, and Val wanted to meet him. Along the way, I stopped in the Young Adult Track to talk to the director about the book I’d written and just published. She invited me to talk at the next panel, which she had said was basically a panel for people to promote their work. I explained that I was already on my way to a panel with my friend, but thought maybe I could talk for a few minutes at the beginning of this panel and meet Val at Chris’s. So I told Val to go on ahead, but then the director said, "Well, the panel doesn’t start till four," basically suggesting to me that I was not welcome to wait in the room. I went over to the room for Chris and waited with Val, hoping I might just say hi and introduce Val to him before his panel started and then run back over to the other room. Chris was a tad late, so I had to leave, and I told the track director there to tell him I would be along at the end of his panel, if he could wait a minute for me. I got back to the other room about four minutes late, but there was room at the front. I was in clear view of the director and had my book in my lap. The panel was more about how to write for young adults and how to get published, so I decided to just sit it out and not interrupt, figuring the director would cue me when it was time to talk. There was nothing said during the panel that I didn’t already know, and even some things I didn’t quite agree with, but it was interesting enough, even if I had only vaguely heard of one person on it and never heard at all of the others - and I worked in a bookstore for seven years, specifically in the children’s section for the last two years of that run. And the director never invited me to speak about my own book. Part of me understood that’s just how these things go - maybe she forgot, or maybe she just expected me to take the initiative - but another part was horrendously irritated at having been blown off like that, and I did not bother to return to the track for any of the Harry Potter-related events I had previously considered attending. Thankfully, when I returned to Chris’ event, he was still there, so I was able to snag a few seconds of conversation and introduce Val to him, as I’d promised. I should have just stayed to see his panel to begin with.

Next up, we went to Carmine Infantino’s panel, where he was talking about his autobiography, with assistance from his editor. I consider it a stroke of luck that Val needed to cover it. I hadn’t noticed the listing for it myself but consider myself blessed to have gotten to see this man, a living history of comics. Okay, so maybe I was never really into DC, but I love history, and there’s no denying the impact this man had on the industry. He entered into it as a teen, starting at the bottom, and eventually became, for all intents and purposes, the president of DC! I loved hearing his anecdotes about "the old days," the stories about his contemporaries: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Neal Adams, and Julie Schwartz. He created Black Canary and Batgirl, as well as the designs for the Batman television series. He created the Barry Allen Flash, as well as many of his villains, like my fave, The Trickster. For the Flash series, he would do a cover and then Schwartz would write the story based on it. Carmine would try to make covers that Scwhartz couldn’t write an explanation too, making it a great challenge and much fun for them both. He co-wrote the first two Superman movies with Mario Puzo (it was all actually one script, and filmed as one movie). The list of characters Carmine created or influenced goes on and on. By the end of his run at DC, he was doing the jobs of five people! After leaving, he eventually came to work for Marvel, where he did the art for Star Wars. Which is made all the more interesting when you know that Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, also played The Trickster in the live-action Flash series a few years back! Talk about coming full circle! Anyway, the panel was both fun and informative, and I’m glad Mr. Infantino’s editor talked him into doing the convention circuit. Sir, if you’re reading this, it was an honor and privilege to have met you!

After that, we booked it over to the Firefly cast panel. Though we had arrived very late, we were lucky enough to be offered two seats a reasonable distance from the front, so I could still get decent photos. Nathan Fillion (Captain Mal), Jewel Staite (Kaylee), and Adam Baldwin (Jayne) were on hand to talk about the show and their upcoming movie, Serenity. I’ve been a fan of Fillion’s since his run on the soap One life to Live years ago, so I was thrilled to see him in person. And yes, I was keen to see Staite and Baldwin since I’m a Firefly fan, too. It’s so refreshing to see actors that are really passionate about their work instead of moaning about being tired of it or about being typecast. The trio could not thank the fans enough for giving them a chance to work on the story again, something they seemed willing and eager to do for the rest of their lives if they could, and remarked on how they feel that the work they’ve done so far with it is the best they’ve ever done and the best time working they’d ever had. Fillion said that the DVD sales did much to convince Universal to pick up the rights to the film (boy, am I glad I opted to get that for Yule, instead of Buffy Season 5, which was my favorite season, and I still haven’t managed to get.) Baldwin added that "the suits" didn’t visit the set hardly at all during the shooting of the movie, instead leaving Joss to his own devices - something that’s well-nigh unheard of. He added that while he and the rest of the cast are contracted to do two more films, whether or not there actually are any future installments depends on the first two weekends of Serenity’s release. So show your support on April 22, 2005, people! The trio also told little anecdotes, of course. Jewel convinced Nathan to perform what apparently has been a running gag in the crew: saying all the cast’s name wrong in an announcer’s voice, except Alan Tudyk’s (Wash), which sounds dirty in it’s own right. Apparently this routine was started when Tudyk’s name was actually mispronounced at a convention. And Adam Baldwin serenaded us with a deafening rendition of Jayne’s song. I could barely breathe by the end of the panel, I was laughing so hard.

Val and I went up to our room for a bit, so she could get her report for the day in. After that, we headed up to the Green Room. We snacked and chatted with people, including Dean Haglund, Chris Golden (looks like I didn’t have to worry about trying to meet up with him after all), and the keyboardist of the Crüxshadows, Chris Brantley (what a sweetheart! ^_^). And one of the staffers kept running around with shots of his own special recipes. It was very amusing. There’s something surreal about downing shots when you have no idea what you’re drinking and don’t know the person giving them to you. After staying in the Green Room for about an hour and a half, we headed out to the Fantasm party, but it was in a tiny room that was packed tighter than a can of sardines, so we left pretty quick.

I headed down to the Regency V ballroom for the "Buffy Horror Picture Show", where the musical episode, "Once More With Feeling", is shown on a medium-sized digital screen and a group acts out the episode on a stage next to it. I couldn’t see the stage too well, but what I could see of it was fun. For me, though, the best part is just singing along with the crowd (which, surprisingly, sounded really, really good: Buffy fans seem to be fine singers by nature) and chatting with people in line while waiting. Many thanks to the guy who was offering up the last of his pizza to the line, as the food in the Green Room had been mostly hors d’oeuvres and fondue. Anyway, I went up to the room soon after to retire for the night.

I was on the "Future of Fanfic in the Buffyverse" panel at 10 am Saturday morning. It was nice, leisurely discussion, with a somewhat smaller audience (well, the parade was going on, after all, and other people were probably sleeping in), and I saw a lot of familiar faces. Many thanks to my fellow panelists, Knightie and Feen, and several of the more vocal audience members for helping to keep it lively even though I think we were all a bit groggy that morning.

After that, Val and I headed down to the dealers’ room for a while, starting at the "Walk of Fame". We saw Dean again, and I gave my card to Fillion and Baldwin. I’ll probably never hear from them, but at least it gave me an excuse to say hello, since I was too broke for any autos ... There were a number of other celebs as well, many of the "same old crowd," but there were a few faces I hadn’t seen before, like Margot Kidder (Lois Lane), Ray Park (Darth Maul, Toad), and Peter Davison (the fifth Doctor in Dr. Who.)

We stopped so Val could get an auto from Craig Parker (Haldir, The Lord of the Rings). He stood out in front of his booth so he could pose with the fans more easily, and we were delighted with how nice he was! I don’t think I’ve ever been more impressed with an actor’s behavior towards his fans on a one-on-one level, and only a very, very small handful I’ve met have been as friendly or as genuine. He’s a gem! (And his agent/assistant was very sweet as well!) And things got all the more amusing when an elfin regiment stepped up after we stepped away. Wish I’d gotten a picture of that!

We browsed more of the dealers’ room. It was mouth watering as usual as I gazed longingly at all the lovely trinkets, beautiful art, and cool toys that I could only browse and not buy. If it weren’t for the press pass, I wouldn’t have been able to come at all, so I’m very grateful, but it can be a bit of a torment .... Ah, well, at least I made some good business contacts along the way. Cons are very good for that sort of thing, don’tcha know?

I had to scurry back over to the Buffy Track for my "Watching Wesley" panel, which had a sizable turnout. Again, the discussion was engaging, and I was happy to see a lot of familiar faces. My thanks again to my fellow panelists (I’m terrible with names, alas) as well as the vocal members of the audience.

I went to the exhibitor’s hall for a goodly while, to browse and to pimp my portfolio, which has gotten a much more positive reaction this time than previous years. Yay! This time I had people saying "please contact us!!!" instead of "Don’t call us, we’ll call you." ^_ Lots of cool stuff, as always, and some great deals for those that actually have money.

After that, lunch at McDonalds. By lucky chance, I met up with a group of Furs, though Dragon is not generally a fur-oriented con, by any means. They had a bag that was breaking, and I had an extra. They told me about a con, Furry Weekend Atlanta, that’s coming up in February, and I told them about my novel, which involves waerwolves and anthropomorphic beasts. It was a nice lunch. ^_^

I then headed back to the room, deciding to lighten my load a bit and check the weather. I watched the news for like an hour, trying to find out if Hurricane Frances was going to hit my home or not, but the news wouldn’t say where the damn thing was going, only where it was. Finally, I found the Weather Channel, which told me a little more. It looked like it was heading straight for home and my family. I broke down and called home collect, which you still have to pay the hotel a dollar for each call. Grrr. I talked to my folks and made them promise to call me and say how they were the next evening. Basically, I was fretting about it the whole time, from leaving them on Thursday to when I finally heard from them on Sunday, after the hurricane was past. But talking to them Saturday, I was able to relax a little, at least.

I went down to the Buffym Track’s "Wicca and Television" panel at 8:30. We’d been waiting a long time to have that discussion; the panel having been preempted for one reason or another in previous years. It went even better than I expected, really. Yay for open-minded crowds! And I actually feel a little better about the representation of it in the show, now that I’ve seen a few differing perspectives on it. Once again, thank-you to my fellow panelist, and the active members of the audience for keeping the discussion thoughtful and lively.

After the panel, Val and I went to the "Firefly: the Lost Episodes" panel. I wasn’t originally going to go. I have the DVDs, so I’d seen them already. But Val doesn’t have them and asked me to keep her company. I’m so glad I did! Adam Baldwin showed up with some special treats: a slideshow of photographs from the shooting of Serenity that Nathan Fillion had put to music (it was really lovely); the trailer that was shown at the San Diego Comic-Con, which he showed it twice; and the piece de resistance, a gag real from Serenity that was actually funny. So often those things are not! There was a cute little in-joke at the end of the reel, too: the screen said "For Jewel" and then showed a puppet of Caleb (the evil preacher Fillion played in Buffy) with devil’s horns, flipping the bird with both hands. Apparently there is some sort of contest between Staite and Fillion as two who can flip the other off more. As I understand it, Fillion got the audience at one of the panels to flip her off en masse. Anyway, it was nice to get to see Baldwin again since he was leaving early the next morning and missing the rest of his panels (to make sure he didn’t get stranded by the hurricane, probably). The "Browncoats" (the official Firefly fan club) that were running the event told us about how they got to be extras on Serenity and showed us a few photos. Lucky dogs.

After the panel, which was quite long, between all those extras and watching two episodes and some technical problems that were had, Val went to bed and I went to the Buffy Track room. There were still a number of people hanging out from the "Buffy Prom," and the room was decorated with Tiki-luau stuff. Quite swank. We did a little karaoke (sans music or teleprompter) and had drinks and snacks. Jewel Staite stopped by for a few minutes, but alas, everyone sort of boxed her in at the doorway so she couldn’t have come in and relax even if she’d wanted to. After she left, we watched a film Tricia had made, a funny little silent horror film parody shot in high-contrast black and white. After she left, I tagged along with some of the others and partied with them for a while on the outside balcony of the 20th floor with a most excellent view before dragging my tail into bed at about 4:30. It was a good night. ^_^

On Sunday, there were panels I would have liked to have gone to in retrospect, but I was just too groggy to get a move on. Val had a panel she had to go to in the morning, so I waited for her to get back. She came back early. Apparently whoever she was supposed to see hadn’t shown up. We went down to see Chris Golden for a minute so she could get something signed and then went to the Marriott to see the art show.

We parted, and I went to see Warren Ellis at the behest of my fellow Tarts. I’d always meant to get around to reading Transmetropolitan when I worked at a bookstore, but I never seemed to manage it. So I felt a little funny - I didn’t really know anything about him, going in there. I had a good time, though. He’s a very, very funny man! He strikes me as the type that one can easily agree to disagree with because he doesn’t seem to really care what anybody else thinks, nor does he seem to care if anyone else cares what he thinks. He had some great anecdotes about his fellow Brits, in particular Mark Millar, Tom Baker, and Patrick Stewart. He says that all actors of Stewart and Baker’s generation are basically mad as a hatter. And he says Stewart really, really wants to play Spider. Hell, I want him to play Spider, and I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the work! Ellis says he’s working on a novel that he doesn’t even really want to do. His agent asked him to, so he wrote a dew thousand words of what he thought was rubbish, including "Godzilla porn", in an attempt to discourage her, and she got the book sold to a publisher almost immediately. Writers everywhere are champing their teeth in great aggravation right now, I’m sure. Wouldn’t it be ducky to be in such high demand that even works of yours you think is crap are still sold with ease? Anyway, it seems several of his creations are in production right now, but he couldn’t tell us anything at all about one of them other than that it’s based on a graphic novel he did a while back. The other is a series based on Global Frequency. He says he never wants to write for animation again; he hated doing the script he did for the new Justice League series. He said he loves doing research, that he hardly ever reads fiction, mostly only non. He told us about something he’d been researching for his book: the practice of injecting one’s testicles with saline. He noticed my look of disbelief and disgust at the mention of it, and we had a fun bit of back and forth, trying to figure out why someone would come up with the idea in the first place. Overall, I’m sure we have very little in common, and we’d probably disagree on just about everything, but I find myself liking the chap anyway. Again, I was practically breathless with laughter by the end of the panel.

I was going to see Craig Parker after that panel, but it was well nigh full up by the time I got in there. And I was right next door! I knew there was no way Val would be able to get in, so I left to meet her in the hall and let someone else have my spot. We decided to split up for a bit, though, so I went to get lunch. When I was done, I actually ran into her on my way to the Marriott. We went to the dealer’s room, artist’s alley, and exhibition hall to see anything that we might have missed. And then we just sat and people-watched for a long while, taking photos of cosplayers, chatting, and overall just enjoying ourselves.

We went to the 7:00 Hulk panel, which was hosted by Peter David, Bruce Jones, and Paul Jenkins. I’m not really a Hulk fan, but it was informative an interesting from a writing standpoint. And it was a pleasure to meet Jenkins, whom we chatted with a little while before the panel started. For the curious, he’s been doing a lot of videogame writing of late, including Hulk 2 (he’s currently writing Hulk 3), Twisted Metal Black (he’s also doing Twisted Metal Black 2), and Soul Reaver. He seems to be enjoying the challenges of it immensely and says you have to basically learn how the things are programmed before you can start writing them. They were asked about each of their approaches to their runs on The Hulk. David said he was his own continuity, seeing as he had done it for twelve years. He said the main challenge was trying to find new ways to approach it, especially since the suits seemed to think whenever sales were good was the time to start telling him what to do and basically kill whatever he had going. But he tried to spin the series in a new direction about every four years, which is what he feels the audience called for. And he says the heart of the story is basically two men in a room in opposition: it’s about conflict and drama. Jenkins was only on the title for a year and a half and, since it was a failing book at the time, was basically told to do whatever he wanted. So he tried to iron out the continuity, which had gotten a bit tangled by the people after David, and tie up loose ends. His favorite version of the "Hulk" is actually Bruce Banner, which is why he gave the character Lou Gehrig’s disease. It would make it even more difficult for him to fight off the Hulk. The book had started to pick up sales at the end of his run. Jones wasn’t really sure what to do with the book when he got it and felt a bit out of his element, having been more involved with the horror genre than superheroes. He didn’t really know anything about the book before being put on it. He, too, was more interested in Banner due to his not really being able to relate to the character of the Hulk. And if you saw what a soft-spoken, restrained fellow he is, it’s easy to see why. ^_^ He decided to approach Banner’s situation as a man going through the five psychological stages of disease and is still on the fourth stage, Anger. He also says Banner is a man with a monkey on his back. When asked about the film, David said he liked how it was shot, but it was overcomplicated. He didn’t care much for it. Jenkins liked it but didn’t like how it was shot. Jones hasn’t even seen it. Neither have I, and since I didn’t care much for the other two Ang Lee movies I’ve seen and I’m not really a Hulk fan, I doubt I will.

After that panel, we hightailed it over to Regency V for Dean Haglund’s "Improve X-Files", the pre-show to the "Celebrity Whose Line Is It Anyway?" "ROFLMAOPIMP" does not even begin to describe it. He took elements from "Whose Line" with suggestions and volunteers from the audience to act out an "episode" of The X-Files. The poor guy had "con croup", so he sounded like his voice was going to give out at any time! For the first skit, he pretended to be a victim getting ready for work and subsequently getting killed by the monster-of-the-week at the beginning of the episode before the show intro runs. He had an audience member do the sound effects, and in true Whose Line spirit, his character reacted to sounds that didn’t sound as they should. Next, he was a scientist giving a press conference about the attack. Another audience member helped out, this time being his arms for him (she stood behond him and put her arms through the arms of his jacket), waving about and pointing and being expressive, and taking his glasses off, putting them on, etc. People in the audience pretended to be members of the press and asked leading questions to give body to the plot. Next, he had an audience member pretend to be Mulder, while he was Langley, and they had an argument. Haglund had handed out slips of paper to the audience at the beginning of the show and told them to write down one line. At this point, he had those lines in a pile and would alternate between himself and "Mulder", each of them inserting a line now and then into the argument. It made for some insane dialogue! And for the last skit, someone had to treat him like an action figure and move him about for the final battle. If you ever get a chance to see this man do standup, do it.

Val and I left right after his show instead of staying for the "actual" show. We went up to the room for a bit to eat and relax, then headed down to the lobby to take pictures. We had a blast, staying there till about 2:30. There was one guy Val knew dressed up as Kingpin - and reeeeaaaally looked the part! He and another guy dressed as Spidey did all sorts of great fight poses for the crowd, really acrobatic stuff, with Kingpin lifting Spidey over his head and stuff. Many kudos to them for going out of their way to give the crowd some great entertainment! And of course there were many superheroes. At one memorable point, a guy dressed as Batman and another dressed as a Predator did a stand-off. There were several cosplayer groups over the course of the weekend. Some were planned, but others had started out separately and banded together over the course of the night, exhibiting the true spirit of the con - fans coming together to celebrate what they love. There was a huge Kill Bill group, a fantastic Fifth Element group, and a Rocketeer group, wherein the man dressed as the Rocketeer had welded a theatrical-quality helmet himself and an awesome gal was dressed as Rosie the Riveter. There was a wacky Stormtrooper group with them dressed as Pimps, Elvis, Austen Powers, and more. There were pirates galore, including several Jack Sparrows, one of whom did a stunning impersonation and stayed "in character" the whole con; another was "Jack with Treasure", bedecked in jewels, and yet another was teemed up with guys playing Barbaras and Will. There was a literal army of elves in armor who looked amazing. There were tonnes of Hogwarts students, as well as Professors Snape, Sprout, McGonagall, and Hagrid, and even a gal dressed in a gorgeous Fawkes costume - I was obsessed with collecting pics of all those for my Harry Potter fansite. And the winners of the costume contest were dressed in fantastic Muppet costumes as the band. Alas, I couldn’t get close enough for pictures, but Val managed tp get some and showed me later. It was great fun to hear the whole lobby roar "A-NI-MAL! A-NI-MAL! A-NI-MAL!" when he walked in.

There were only two real dampeners on the weekend - literal, at that, but thankfully only the two. At one point, when we were walking into the elevator area, someone on an upper level dumped water on us. (At least, I think it was water.) I took it in good stride, but I was carrying a copy of my novel at the time, a gift for someone, and it got wet. So did my camera. Thankfully, neither seemed to suffer any lasting damage. And then Sunday night, when we were in the lobby and the crowd had cleared out a good bit, someone above the lobby, on another level, dropped a beer bottle. It missed a girl by less than two feet. If it had hit her .... Well, I hope it was just a really stupid accident, and that people will be more careful in the future, and that it wasn’t a deliberate attempt by someone to cause injury. I hope whoever did it was found. Even if it was an accident, they shouldn’t have been holding objects near the railing in ways where they could fall or get knocked down. Isn’t it a felony to drop things from great heights? At any rate, may this serve as a warning to everyone to be more mindful when they are on balconies.

Monday morning, Val and I packed, checked out, dumped her luggage at the bag check (I opted to keep my small suitcase with me), and then took one last turn around the Marriott before going our separate ways.

I caught the last twenty minutes or so of the "Buffy Philosophy" panel, which was great fun, while waiting for the Julie Benz (Darla, Angel) panel to start. I was pleased to have gotten a seat towards the front, so I had a good view for photos. Benz was a riot. Are all actors comedians at heart? She said she loved working with David Boreanaz (Angel) and would welcome the chance to do so again, and she was in awe of James Marsters (Spike) and Vincent Kartheiser’s (Connor) acting talent. She also says Christian Kane (Lindsay) is the next Brad Pitt. She got along very well with Juliet Landau (Drucilla) because they came from very similar acting backgrounds, so they "understood" each other. She told us that she was allergic to the prosthetics used for the vampire makeup, that removing them was very painful, and that she hated wearing contacts. She said that the period costumes were real and heavy and a bit smelly, but she enjoyed wearing them; she loves period work. She said every time they killed off Darla, she got all weepy, to the point that when Darla died to save Connor, the rest of the crew was rather unsympathetic, laughing and saying "Awww, you’ll be back." Which she was, after a fashion. She’s lived in Florida and is glad to not be there now with all the hurricane weather we’ve been having.

About halfway through the panel, her husband, John Kassir (The Cryptkeeper, Shemp in the docudrama about The Three Stooges) joined in. He too, was quite the cut-up. Apparently they met in an acting class. You always hear horrible things about Hollywood couples, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a happier pair, in or out of L.A! It was a joy to see, a real inspiration.

Kassir told us about how he’d tried out for the part of Larry for the Stooges movie. He really looks the part! But while he did a good Larry, there were a lot of other good Larrys too, and the casting director saw in him the potential for a better Shemp than anyone else they had lined up. He’s very grateful that the casting director was willing and able to consider him for the other role. He and Benz talked a bit about how it goes sometimes with auditions: sometimes you’ll be asked to read for parts you don’t want, and sometimes you’ll be given roles you didn’t read for, and other times they won’t look past the part they have you reading for, won’t remember that, as an actor, you can do other things. Benz added that as a method actor, there’s always a problem with getting stuck in the emotional state of the character you’re playing. She said that she even got sick once with a cold after some scenes of Darla’s had left her so emotionally drained. All in all, it was a fascinating panel, and I’m glad I got the chance to meet her.

I met up with Elizabeth, said some goodbyes in the hall, and together we made our way to the airport, hanging out for a bit in the food court and shops before going on to our separate gates. There had been some concern that I might not be able to go home that night if the Orlando airport was closed because of the hurricane, but it was thankfully open by then, and my flight was only delayed an hour. That flight home is always the worst, when your stuck in that plane alone with nothing to do but think about how much fun you had ... and how long it will be until the next Dragon*Con.