I’m Off to Comic Con 2013

For the 11th year, I will be heading to San Diego to attend Comic Con 2013 along with a handful of other NiceGirlsTV staff members. I actually leave today (if you are reading this in the AM, I will be on the train heading to San Diego) and will be there for a full, solid week – the longest amount of time I have ever spent in that fair city for the big annual event.

This year will be a little different for all of us NiceGirlsTV staff, who were fortunate enough to snag the increasingly elusive press pass, allowing entry into the largest pop culture event of its kind. We will all be staying under the same roof rather than spread out at various hotels (and other accommodations) throughout the city. As we get settled today and tomorrow into our temporary but very nice new digs for the week, we’ll be thinking about a few of our members who could not make it this time around for an assortment of reasons; and long for the year when we can all be together for the big event to share in the insanity, excitement and thrills.

Once that short period of “settling in” is over, however, it will be onward and upward to get through each day of the massive programming that is planned for the huge fete that draws in overly 130,000 attendees every year.

The first day of the convention is actually registration day and preview night: simply put, everyone treks to the convention center to pick up their badges and then wait (patiently or not) for the doors of the Exhibition Hall to open so we can peruse all of the booths and set-ups by vendors, studios and oh so much more as well as for the doors of Ballroom 20 to be propped open so we can check out screenings for some of Warner Bros. new fall dramas, including Almost Human, The Originals, The Tomorrow People and The 100.

But it is on Thursday that the real action begins with the first panels starting all over the convention center (and beyond) at 10 AM with the last panels set to begin at 8:30 PM. Long days are a guarantee given all that the Comic Con International staff is able to pack into each day of the convention.

For me Thursday will (hopefully) consist of panels for the new fall series The Blacklist (NBC) and mid-season shows Intelligence (CBS) and Star-Crossed (The CW) as well as Beauty And the Beast (The CW) and Psych (USA Network). Those will be followed by three smaller panels focusing on new books being released by powerhouse book publisher Simon and Schuster, a focus on women of the pop culture world and a “how-to” panel on getting your written work published. All of that should make for a great first day of the convention.

As we move over to Friday, the schedule starts to get a little more difficult because some bigger panels are taking place in the afternoon, conflicting with other panels for which I would love to be in attendance. This is where the hard decisions come into play (more on that where the Saturday schedule is concerned coming shortly). If all goes well (fingers crossed!), I will be in panels for Defiance (Syfy), the final appearance by the cast and creative minds at Nikita (The CW), Falling Skies (TNT) and Orphan Black (BBC America) as well as the new shows The 100 (The CW) and Sleepy Hollow (FOX).

Then we get to Saturday, where the big “guns” are brought out with so many panels scheduled at the same time that it was hard to choose which ones to attend and which ones would have to be missed. Panels for Arrow, The Vampire Diaries and new shows The Originals and The Tomorrow People (all on The CW) as well as Revolution (NBC), Person of Interest (CBS) and Strike Back (Cinemax) – sadly – ended up on my “will have to miss” pile.

Once the dust settled (after spending countless hours laboring over that day’s schedule), I plan to be in the panels for the new series Wonderland and returning favorite Once Upon a Time (both on ABC), Grimm, which will include a sneak peek at this fall’s much anticipated TV series Dracula (both on NBC), the farewell appearance by the cast and creative minds of Warehouse 13 (Syfy) and Lost Girl (also on Syfy).

I will also be – for the first time – taking in the International Independent Film Festival where my friend Chris Lilly will screen his web series “Just Us Guys” in the convention’s annual festival that puts an accent on “genre-related entries, including action/adventure, animation, comics-oriented, documentary (related to pop culture topics), horror/suspense, humor, and science fiction/fantasy”.

As the convention draws to a close on Sunday, my schedule will immediately lessen to an extremely manageable level, taking in the awards ceremony for the Independent Film Festival (it’s always good to support a friend and their very cool and fun projects!) as well as, hopefully, a couple small panels featuring well-known book authors.

Now, considering that at the time I wrote this column the big event was one week away, my schedule could change or circumstances beyond my control may make it difficult for me to get into some of these panels, but hopefully (the Comic Con Gods willing), I’ll get into all of these panels, will make my writing deadlines and enjoy myself fully.

If you are going to Comic Con 2013, have a great time! But if you’re not, please check out the NiceGirlsTV Twitter feed @NiceGirlsTV as we will all be doing our best to post all the craziness as it rolls out. And, please check back here at the NiceGirlsTV website for our coverage on Comic Con 2013.