shirebound | Entries tagged with comic con

I've been enjoying a visit from

primula_baggins! What a sweetie. I'll post a picture soon of the adorable dragon she brought me. Pippin took to Prim instantly, and even spent some time snuggled in her bed. Prim came to attend some public Comic Con events -- Elijah DJ-ing at a club and a Onering.net luau. The weather has been hot and humid, which always makes me sympathetic for the folks wandering around in elaborate costumes. Yesterday we drove downtown so Prim could marvel at the tens of thousands of people -- I think the registration this year is 130,000 -- milling about outside the Convention Center. We also stopped by an outdoor mall for a snack where I snapped a pic...

( A fearsome beastie )

Before I run around doing Saturday errands and putterings, here are a few more pics I took recently.

( extraordinary desserts and a certain Pip-pup )

I attended San Diego's famous "Comic Con" in 2003 and 2004, and although the crowds in the Convention Center were beyond belief (70,000 people over a weekend), I revelled in all the LOTR news, panels, goodies, fans, friends, and hobbit-actor sightings. This weekend they're expecting 125,000 people!! (And since admission tickets are pre-sold, it's probably an accurate count.) I'm afraid I won't be braving crowds like that until LOTR is center-stage once again (hopefully in the next couple of years).

If anyone wants to re-relive the excitement from 2003 (when we were gobbling up any ROTK spoilers we could get) or 2004 (when the Comic Con attendees got to see clips from the ROTK EE DVD before anyone else in the world), here are my deliriously excited posts:

2003: http://shirebound.livejournal.com/22805.html

2004: http://shirebound.livejournal.com/169471.html

Good times, good times...

I'm glad I'm not fighting the crowds at Comic Con this year. Remember in 2004, when there were 70,000 people at the Convention Center? This year they expect 120,000. *shivers* But I would have endured it if they had scheduled any hobbits, or if there was still a LOTR focus. Maybe someday, if "The Hobbit" ever gets underway...

It's strange not to be attending the San Diego Comic Con today (which is only 15-20 minutes away), but without any LOTR workshops or big news this year, 100,000 people expected to be milling around the Convention Center, and the fact that I'd have to be walking there and back in 90+ degrees... Well, it just doesn't have the appeal this year as it did in previous years! I hope everyone on my f'list who *is* attending is having a marvelous time!

Lofty Saturday goals:

1. Get rid of this headache
2. Eat a big breakfast to fortify me for...
3. Starting chapter 9 of my story
4. Ponder why the landlord hasn't come to fix the leak under my sink when I called him about it on MONDAY
5. See if those new Breyers "all fruit" popsicles in the freezer will help keep me from melting away in the heat
6. Send hugs to all of you

I actually went to bed at midnight last night, which is HOURS after my usual bedtime. Why? Some friends took me to see the stage show "Fellowship!", which is playing at a downtown theater in conjunction with the Comic Con this weekend. If this hilarious musical parody of FOTR ever comes to your town, don't miss it! I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard, or so long. I wouldn't even know where to start describing this brilliant parody. Nine wonderful actors with gorgeous voices -- who were having the time of their lives -- played multiple parts in a 2-hour sendup of Book 1. Frodo was cute, Sam was... attentive, and Aragorn definitely had "issues" about not being King yet. And an unexpected delight was running into

cellibella,

kelbebop, and

scendan! I hadn't seen any of them since last year's Con. What a lovely reward for the week I had at work.

I'm kinda bummed out that I won't be part of the Comic Con frenzy this year, but I did talk a lady last night into selling me two homemade buttons she had pinned to her cloak: One is a red, white and blue political button stating, "Baggins/Gamgee: For a Better Middle-earth (paid for by Brandybuck/Took}". The other proudly declares, "The Lord of the Rings: That's One of my Favourite Stories".

How do you folks stay up so late? *is a groggy mystery to me*

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend, and I'll get some writing done if I can ever stop yawning.

*goes off in search of a healthy breakfast ~~and maybe some of the yummy chocolate gentlehobbit sent me~~*

I love you guys so much. Without LOTR and LJ, I can't imagine how blah my life would be.

The San Diego papers are full of Comic Con news this week, and one of them printed a long, fascinating article by a local college professor named Chris Baron. Here are a few excerpts (paraphrased in places):

...that is the magic of Tolkien's work: he created a world so complex in its mythology and history, so stark in its clarity and purposes, that we are drawn to it, not just as fans who appreciate good literature or epic tales, but as citizens of a world where things are full of nature and supernature and yet, it all makes more sense. ... In the pages of Lewis and then Tolkien, I found a hope, a truth, and a faith that I couldn't understand, like waking up on a bright morning and just having that sense of knowing anything actually is possible. In the books I found a sense of joining in, that by reading, I was actually doing something, helping, transforming the world somehow. I imagine discussions breaking out over Gandalf's words in one of the last debates ... the going over of the nature of Evil in the world and what are good people supposed to do about it. Tolkien's desire to surface the ennoblement of the weak in the hobbits is an important thematic issue. There are so many others.

So while some of us go on to write our own stories and create our own worlds, others learn about faith and life and their lives are transformed, and some of us find a cape in our favorite color and learn every dialect of Elvish... just in case. Through joining in these adventures, all of us have a chance to be something in Tolkien's world other than what we are here and now, and through this journey we might find out more about who we really are in this world. Can we go too far in? Yes. But it is important to remember that Fantasy itself is not apart from reality. Tolkien writes in his essay, "On Fairy Stories," 'Fantasy does not blur the sharp outlines of the real world, for it depends on them.'

I realize that I'm not alone in Middle-earth. There are millions of others, and now through the movies, there are millions more whose lives are changed through the seasons of Tolkien's world. Just as we walk through this world in our own distinct way, Tolkien created a world that is big enough for us to walk through as citizens, as free peoples.

Tolkien's story speaks to all of us as individuals. That is its power.

For anyone who 'friended' me over the past two years solely for my ComicCon posts in 2003 and 2004, I apologize that there may not be one this year. Because of the huge crowds (70,000 people last year) and the incredibly long lines... and especially since New Line Cinema isn't hosting a "Lord of the Rings" presentation this year, I'm not sure I want to put my sore knee through the ordeal two weeks from now. (If I *do* find the inspiration to go and wander around the Convention Center, even for a few hours, I'll certainly report back!)

Eeee, a vacation day! Important goals for today:

1. Eat some yummy 3rd of July picnic leftovers
2. Finally finally finally work on Chapter 8 of "Force of Nature"
3. Figure out what clothes to pack for blisteringly hot, humid Houston next weekend
4. Eat more yummy leftovers

:D

First, a huge "thank you" to everyone who enjoyed my Comic Con post. Comic Con is a real commitment of time, money, and energies, made totally worth it by knowing there are folks out there who want to hear about it. It was a true pleasure to share this with all of you.

Second, I won't have any computer access from Tuesday through Thursday this week. I'll be in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a work-related conference, and look forward to meeting up with

rakshi,

baylorsr,

liptonrm, and

gershwhen while I'm there. I'll try to catch up with posts, updates, and fics next weekend!

Third, hugs and love to

llinos (see Marigold's post).

Fourth, an early birthday hug to

annwyn55! I'll be in Michigan on your birthday and won't be able to get online to say hello.

Now I'm off to burn some toast. Yum. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

The local San Diego news reported last year that Comic Con attracts somewhere around 70,000 people over a 4-day period, and believe me, it’s nearly overwhelming to be amidst so many people. This has been a long, LONG day, but totally worth it.

To zip right to the LOTR presentation, look for The Return of the King heading. I’ll warn you before the ROTK EE spoilers, in case you don’t want to read them. I’ve also put a Faramir and Pippin heading down there, in case you want to skip to that part.

( Comic Con 2004 )

Whew! I’ve been typing this for an hour, and I’m tired, starving, and happy. Off to bed... Oh, how I wish you all could have been there. What a wonderful day.

Just a note to say that I won't be online tomorrow. The LOTR presentation at Comic Con isn't until 5:30 p.m., but if you read my report from last year, you'll know that I'm crazy enough to spend all day tomorrow in that huge room trying to get the best seat possible. (I understand that for the LOTR presentation, last year's room (which holds 4,500 people) has been replaced by a hall that holds 6,000 people. LOTR fans rule!) The presentation ends at 7:30 p.m., and I probably won't be home until late, so my report may have to wait until Saturday morning. If I'm conscious and coherent tomorrow night, however, I'll post when I get home.

I hope to see hobbits! I hope to see (or hear about) clips of the ROTK EE DVD and tell you about it (under an LJ-cut)! I hope to ~~buy LOTR pretties I've only heard about from most of you~~ be very careful with my money and exercise admirable restraint! I hope to meet

cellibella,

kidders63, and others!

:)

I just saw on the morning local news that I was wrong about the attendance estimate in my report yesterday (taken from what I remembered from a few years ago). I said 20,000 people, and the news said 70,000. OMG. Let's hear it for my foresight in pre-registering, parking far away and walking, and foregoing food, bathroom, and other frivolous activities and just working hard all day to get a good seat. Once a year, I get to be very clever.

I forgot to mention that we got to see a brief trailer from "Troy". The trailer was 99% Brad Pitt and 1% Orlando Bloom, but they both looked quite lovely. I think that movie will rock.

( another tiny ROTK trailer bit )

Still sleepy.

Okay, now I know why I live in a city I can’t afford to live in. There are hobbits here. I have to warn you, though, that I’m starving, hot, tired, and can hardly see straight. I’m not going to proofread this report, just post it and go EAT something! I’m too exhausted to detail the presentations I sat through before the LOTR presentation, so if anyone wants more details about Halle Berry or Angelina Jolie, just ask.

To zip right to the LOTR stuff, look for the Lord of the Rings heading. I’ll warn you before the ROTK spoilers, in case you don’t want to read them. I’ve also put a hobbits heading down there, in case you want to skip right to that part.

There will be misspelled names in this report, since I didn’t know who some of these people were. Oh well.

( ComiCon )

I'll be spending all day tomorrow at the ComiCon, on hobbit alert. I'll try to write a looong post about it tomorrow night when I get home. That will be fun.

However, I will spend part of tomorrow on my (always fruitless) quest to find a LOTR t-shirt that I would actually wear. When you're 4'11", believe me, all those XL and XXL t-shirts just aren't that compelling. Does anyone know a source of either child- or small-adult size LOTR t-shirts?

On a less important note, whatever was left of Hurricane Claudette seems to be hovering over San Diego. We haven't seen the sun in days.

I'm awfully gabby today, sorry! I just realized that the San Diego ComiCon is next weekend (July 17-20), a beyond-huge event held at the Convention Center 15 minutes from my apartment. Last year, during the 2-hour WETA/LOTR presentation, who should walk onstage but Elijah, Dom, and Billy! (I'm into hobbits, not actors, but even I was squealing at such an unexpectedly delightful thing.)

I go to the ComiCon every year. It's a 4-day event, but I go on Saturday only. I usually get to the room where there's going to be a LOTR presentation (this year it's Saturday at 2 p.m.) sometime in the morning, and sit through every blasted presentation for HOURS until the LOTR one begins. This way, I'm sure to have a seat up front when it starts. I bring books and food and distractables, and just sit and sit and wait. Every time a presentation ends and seats vacate, I move up closer, until I'm as close to the stage as possible. Last year, for the LOTR presentation, there were 4,000 people in the audience, and anyone who got there even 2 hours before couldn't even find a seat. This year, Andy Sirkus, Sean Astin, and "other surprise guests" are scheduled. Hmmmm.

I'll post a report after the Con is over. Hopefully there will be lovely ROTK spoilers a-plenty to talk about!

Shirebound's LiveJournal

Comfort, Chuckles, and Cuddles. And Hobbits.

Saturday update

Re-living the ROTK love

Tooooo many people!

(no subject)

Fellowship!

In praise of Tolkien

Prepares for mass unfriending

A few loose ends...

Comic Con! Faramir and Pippin live! ROTK Extended DVD Spoilers!

Pre-Comic Con Post

A few more tiny bits of ComiCon

ComiCon report! Hobbits in person! ROTK spoilers!

LOTR t-shirts question

It's time for the San Diego ComiCon!

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May 2026

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