A lot of other stuff… Then, Gerry and Marty!
The “Ode to Nerds” panel was cool. Then, a lot of other stuff happened. I wandered the convention floor for a while, shopping and taking pictures of people in costumes.
Because 2013 was my first Comic Con since starting to watch Doctor Who, I put special effort into getting pictures of Doctor Who cosplay.
During my Thursday wandering, I ran into two fellas – Gerry and Marty – who had come in from out of the country to attend Comic Con. I took some photos of their Doctor outfits and then showed them the ropes of Comic Con.
They were two cool guys that will pop up in a later recap (as well as one or more of my upcoming contests). I’m 99% they are both originally from Ireland and that Gerry still lives there, but Marty now live in Australia. It’s only 99% because (as you will see when we get to Friday) we were running on no sleep.
Having been dubbed the “Mayor of Comic Con” by Justin, I felt duty-bound to show them the ropes. Helped them find a couple of booths. Got lost with them looking for the California Browncoats. Took photos side-by-side with other cosplayers. Then, we eventually said, “so long”, and split up. Maybe their TARDIS needed repairs. Who knows? But their mastery of time and space extends to Friday night, so stay tuned.
Lots of photos, wandering, shopping, and eating ensued. Finally, this year, there was more to eat than a half-frozen pretzel dog. Hooray Comic Con vendors with your fresh fruit and Chex mix!
Final Panel – Tournament of Nerds! – Live
This panel had to be the oddest, but funniest one I saw all weekend at Comic Con. By the end, all of us were in tears from laughing so hard.
The premise is simple. The hosts, Justin Donaldson (Reno 911!) and Hal Rudnick (Screen Junkies) moderate a debate between two guests to determine who would win in a fight between two fictional characters. It was set up in a bracket so that the winner of each debate would move on to the next round, representing the same character in each round until a winner was crowned.
The debaters were professional funny people, and they each had a ton of knowledge on the characters in the debates, so the insults were sharp and wickedly on target. The first round had the following battles:
- Doctor Who vs. Doctor Doom
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer vs. Wesley from the Princess Bride
- Godzilla vs. The Road Runner
- Jason vs. Strongbad
The final round came down to Doctor Doom vs. Godzilla. It was a close call, but at the end of the hour long tournament, Maddox (The Best Page in the Universe), representing Godzilla, defeated all comers.
You can watch the final bout here:
There are a ton more videos and competitions at the Tournament of Nerds website.
Late Night
The Tournament of Nerds panel ended about 8:30, and I headed out of the convention center. In my haste, I forgot my bag of merchandise which contained: An ACME exclusive print of the Simpson’s Comic Book Guy, an exclusive ACME character key of Boussh, and an Aardman Superman figure. That was the only thing that even remotely went wrong the whole weekend, but as you’ll see in Friday’s recap, even that loss turned out OK in the end.
Party in the Park
We ended up at Petco Park for the MTV2 “Party in the Park”. It was cool when we first showed up
Eventually a lot of the Comic Con crowd wandered off, as evidenced by the fact that when we left, Anthony had been handed well over a dozen drink tickets from people who had decided to bail out early. It was fun at first, but Comic Con people want to be around other Comic Con people, not the frat party crowd at “Party in the Park”.– live music on stage, a cheering crowd, and free food and drinks. I had never heard of Dillon Francis before, but he blew my mind when he was on stage.
Apparently, they disagree with my assessment of the relative lameness of the Party in the Park over at SDCCBlog. But that’s what’s great about Comic Con. Something for everybody.
Then, sleepy time finally around midnight in preparation for Friday and the imposing Hall H line.
– CCG
Casual Comics Guy 
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