captain_slinky | ECCC 2010 Part 1: The Beginning

I don't even know where to start... there's a lot to go over! Think I'll do it in parts, avoid the "ONE GIANT WALL OF STUFF FOR YOU TO READ" syndrome...

The night before the convention I made all of us watch "The Gamers: Dorkness Rising" t get in the mood. You can watch it streaming on Netflix, and it's awesome and I highly recommend it as a PG-Rated (some mild swear words, comedic sexual innuendo) fun for all :)

I threatened all The Ladies (Crystal, Brittany and Haley) that I would be waking us all up at 3:30am and expect to be out the door no later than 4am. I did indeed get up at 3:30, but I let everybody else sleep till 4:30 because I'm such a softy. This gave me time to make coffee, pack a lunch, get fully dressed, make sure I had everything packed... and just wait.

The Girls did remarkably well; we were out the door before 5am, and parking the car at the Convention Center no later than 5:30.

There were only 7 people ahead of us in line :)

The guy directly in front of us, name of "Joe" or "Josh" from Stanwood, had gotten there at 3:30 and was escorted out of the building with a stern "Try coming back at like 6 or so". He became concerned when he saw our merry band marching in to the building at 5:30 in all our nerdy apparel and decided to follow us. No idea how those 6 guys ahead of us in line got there :(

The line got larger and larger. They herded us over to the Ticket Exchange Area where we got our badges and mini-swag bags (Program, a few fliers and a deck of Magic: The Gathering cards), and then we were once again herded in to the giant "Skyway" holding pen at the main doors to the convention.

We were *right there* on the rope, poised to be the FIRST in the door :)

This location gave me the perfect opportunity to say a cheerful "Good morning" to all the retailers and guests as they came in the door... I like to think that I brightened their day just a little bit :)

I started a conversation with this one guy who was part of artist Clayton Craine's entourage, and he was getting a little bit frantic because he had grabbed the wrong cell phone and couldn't get hold of anybody. Eventually the rest of his crew showed up and he was very happy, so that was good. Then he came back out and said to me "Hey, you wanna get in there early?" and I said "YAH I WUD LIKE 2 GO IN PLEEZ!" so he gave me an exhibitors badge and I got in to the convention about a half-hour early!

I went and got all the BEST swag (a bunch of random comics, buttons, trade paperbacks etc) and took the bag out to my wife and nieces still waiting in line so they could share in my good luck :) Then I went back in, got my Stan Lee autograph ticket, gt Lou Ferrigno to sign a picture for me, and then the convention began...