Here is part two of two that I promised you in my Comic Con saga.

I was called the “cool girl at the party” by my friend Tim. At first I thought he was serious but when we got to Comic Con and he kept ripping on me for trying to talk to the nerds, I realized he was going to give me a hard time all day. He lived up to his potential.

Seriously though, it’s because of Tim that I was willing to give Comic Con a second try.

Pete and I went to Comic Con last year. Pete had a blast. I had a miserable experience. I spent part of my day in a hotel lobby with magazines and a cup of coffee that I bought from a coffee shop and paid way too much money. The second part of the day showed some promise by getting to see Christopher Lloyd’s panel discussion. After that, the day’s flame of fun dwindled down to candle wax on the holder as I was left in a large warehouse-type room while Pete went walking around the comic distributor room looking for comics. That room was so crowded that it gave my anxiety a serious run for its money. And since I was marathon training at the time, I had no interest in running so I found a spot on the floor in this huge cement room, laid down and text messaged my friend Shawn who was nice enough to respond back because she knew how bored I was. Would you want to go back to anything if you’d had an experience like I had? I think not!

Tim encouraged me to give it another try and told me how cool it could be even though I’m not a nerdy girl. Tim said I’d be the cool at the party amongst a group of nerds. He was right! I was the cool girl at the party that had absolutely no clue what she was talking about so in some respects I was the dork amongst everyone around me.

Going to Comic Con last year gave me a chance to get over the shock of people wearing strange and revealing and interesting outfits of characters that I didn’t recognize. This year, they were just part of the crowd. I never felt the need to stop and stare. Instead I appreciated how much time and creativity people put into their costumes because this is what they’re really in to and it’s neat to see them support such an amazing event.

Tim told me that I would not get ditched this year either. This was partially true. Tim ditched us. However I was with Pete all day so I was never alone.

After seeing the panel last year it gave me a clue as to what I would really like to see this year. Pete and I saw a lot of panels. The panels were the most interesting part of my day. James Marsters was very intelligent and had a very quick wit about him. Bruce Campbell turned out to be quite the sarcastic a$$hole, in my opinion, however I later learned that is how his panels tend to go and his audience expects a roasting. Tom Felton was very gracious (and cute with a British accent too)! Tom Sorbo from “Hercules” was also interesting. I was fascinated with how much time he had to spend training in the gym for his role as Hercules.

Stan Lee, an artist for …was signing autographs. There was a fee of $500.00 per person for a meet-and-greet with Stan Lee during Comic Con. There was also a chance to have him sign something for $55.00. At those prices, we decided to pass. Tim made an interesting post on his Facebook page: “Fun math problem… If it takes Stan Lee 10 seconds to sign each item and he makes $55 a signature, how much will he make in one hour? I figure he is making $19,800 an hour!! Wow!”. To me that seemed like a lot of money and not worth it at the time. I do understand that it will add some value to whatever comic you have signed (assuming that’s what you have signed) and will make it even more valuable especially if it’s a rare or collectible item.

Tim said to get there early so we left our house at 7:00am to get there at 7:30am. We were even on time because I told a white lie to Pete that we had to be there at 7:15am. When Pete was getting out of the shower at 6:50am I’m really glad that I told Pete a little white lie! Sorry Pete but it had to be done. I despise being late. Tim was right. We left early and stayed until the end and it didn’t take us an hour to get from the expressway to the convention center.

The only thing Tim didn’t deliver on was a vegan meetup. Tim said that it would be a Vegan Comic Con trip and the only thing vegan about it was the Chicago-style vegan dog and vegan chocolate shake I had at Whole Foods afterwards which Tim was NOT present for! And no, I don’t consider a baked potato and salad in the cafeteria much of a vegan meal. Meet a vegan that doesn’t really enjoy a good salad. The lesson I learned is next year I will pack my own food in a cooler and go back to my car an eat it in the parking lot.

A note to Rosemont parking garage: you need alternative fuel car parking spots in your lot. That’ll be something to work on for next year. What fun is it to drive your Prius up to Illinois and not have a fun place to park it. I guesss I can’t have it all!

Thank you Tim Fealy for forcing my stubborn self to look at Comic Con in a different way and for getting me to go again even though there was nothing vegan about it and we probably spent a total of an hour with you the entire time we were there!

Pete Sawochka I hope you had a fabulous birthday.

As for me, I’m very much looking forward to going back to Comic Con next year. With two years under my belt, I feel I have a lot of the kinks worked out and will have an even smoother ride Back to the Future next year! Haha bad geek joke!

Sara Sawochka