The Novel Strumpet does Comic Con 2014! Starz’s Outlander, Cosplay, Books, Panels and More!

So this is my version of “Throwback Thursday” since it was two weeks ago that another San Diego Comic Con came and went.  As I settle back into real life again (*sniff, sniff*) I want to keep the warm fuzziness that is Comic Con aflame.  So here is my recap of the entire weekend!

And we’re off!

As usual I set out with Mike (of Mikethefanboy himself) and Susan (of Suddenly Susan infamy fame).

Mike, Susan and Myself on the road to Comic Con 2014!

I’d had a little drama prior to leaving since I’ve been sick on and off the month of July but just before we were set to leave my doc gave me the “ok” so it was partay time!

This year we were staying at a swanky hotel right next to the convention center.  Hilton San Diego Bayfront.

Our swanky hotel

This was our view

Our awesome view from the Hotel. #PocketJaime is enjoying it 🙂

are we posh or what?  Oh…of course #PocketJaime was along for the fun!  After checking in and dumping our stuff we headed over to the convention center to get our badges and then stand in line to hit the exhibit hall floor.  Once on the floor I hit the book areas to grab all the signing and giveaway info for the convention, then I went in search of the Starz booth to see what “Outlander” swag they had.  But I’ll get to that later…

Let’s Talk Books:

Of course all the publishers were there

Penguin and Haper Collins booths

Hachette booth

Mysterious Galaxies is always on hand so you can purchase that great book you just heard about

MAGNUS BANE! Simon & Schuster booth

All smiles at the HarperCollins booth!

so that meant plenty of opportunities to get books and meet authors:

Joe Abercrombie signs his book “Half a King” at the Del Rey booth

Raymond Feist signing at the HarperCollins booth

And this is a signed ARC of James Frey’s “Endgame: The Calling” which is a new interactive experience.  According the HarperCollins website:

About the Book

Twelve ancient cultures were chosen millennia ago to represent humanity in Endgame, a global game that will decide the fate of 
humankind. Endgame has always been a possibility, but never a reality…until now. Twelve meteorites have just struck Earth, each 
meteorite containing a message for a Player who has been trained for this moment. At stake for the Players: saving their bloodline, 
as well as the fate of the world. And only one can win.

Endgame is real. Endgame is now. Endgame has begun.

Google Niantic is building a mobile location-based augmented reality videogame inextricably tied to the books and mythology, 
a major prize will be tied to a puzzle in each book, and Twentieth Century Fox has bought the movie rights.

Read the Books. Find the Clues. Solve the Puzzle. Who will Win?

In fact this copy is from the Fox booth at Comic Con where Frey was doing the signing…

You’ll definitely want to keep an eye out for when this book is published in October 2014.  I’ve heard the grand prize will be epic!

On Sunday I got to do a recording at the Random House Audio booth:

Ready to record my audio book…

And I won some great stuff at the Harper Collins booth from their “Spin the Wheel” game.  I also got some great stuff at the Simon & Schuster panel.  They brought along Chrissy Noh (associate marketing director), Matt Pantoliano (digital marketing), Liesa Abrams (marketing manager), Hayley Gonnason (publicist) and Christian Trimmer (publicity manager), to give us a taste of what they have in the pipeline for upcoming releases:

Folks lining up outside just to get down…to a book panel!!!

Simon & Schuster Panel

Christian Trimmer showing off a book at the Simon & Schuster panel

The Harper Voyager/Harper Teen panel had David Pomerico (executive editor from Harper Voyager US) along with Christina Colangelo and Lauren Flower (both from Harper’s Teen Division).  They brought author Nick Cole to talk about his upcoming book:

Harper Voyager panel

Nick Cole talking about his upcoming release at the Harper Voyager panel

And Del Rey had author Robin Hobb sit on their panel with Del Rey’s executive editor Anne Groell:

Robin Hobb and at the Del Rey panel

I was sad to miss my annual favorite, which is the Penguin Panel, but there was a little matter of attending a TV series premier called Outlander so I had to skip 😉  Erica and I did a recap about the premiere, which you can read about here.

It seems every year it’s harder and harder to get books or they just don’t bring as many, but my shoulders were thankful that I didn’t wind up carrying around bags and bags of them all five days.

The one author I brought a book to get signed by was Deborah Harkness since the last book in her trilogy just came out:

Deborah Harkness signing my book and admiring my costume 🙂

Yes, that is me in my one costume this year.  I was going for Marie Antoinette “Gambit” –Remy LaBelle anyone? – but there’s some definite tweaks that need to happen to it, one of which is fixing the size since I lost quite a bit of weight before we went.  Yay and booooo….

Definitely needs some fixing…

Let’s Talk Outside the Con:

There were several activities set up outside the convention center.  I’m tempted some year to just spend the day doing all the outside events vs. going inside the convention center.  However, that would mean missing panels, signings, giveaways, etc. hmm…this will take thought.  But here’s a few that I did see and some I even participated in:

The Simpsons had a small little carnival set up right next to our hotel:

Simpsons carnival from the hotel window

Gotham had a zipline which Erica, her sister Linda, #PocketJaime and myself rode on Outlander Day – otherwise known as Friday:

Linda, Erica, #PocketJaime and myself waiting on the Gotham zipline

“Gotham” zipline

You can see a gif of me and #PocketJaime zip lining here: http://img.sbth.net/674

Across the way there was a whole area at Petco Park with activities from Sleepy Hollow, Sin City 2, Adult Swim, etc.  There was also a Game of Thrones experience, an Assasins Creed obstacle course a la American Ninja Warrior…

And the “On the Set with Vikings” experience.  Which you can read about here.  Among others.

Let’s Talk DeviantArt:

For the fourth year in a row DeviantArt (my day job) hosted Artist’s Alley and this year they brought a live Fella:

DeviantArt Artist’s Alley poster

DeviantArt’s Fella and myself

Two of my friends from work also hosted their first panel this year about Fandom – specifically ‘shipping’.  It was an awesome time, and they played games with the audience and really educated everyone about what fandoms are and how they can lead to other great things in your artistic career.

Juli and Kay before their panel

“We Are Fandom” panel

“We Are Fandom” Panel

Kay and Juli are all smiles after their “We The Fandom” panel

You can find them on DeviantArt here and here.

Damphyr also cosplayed as Blink this con and entered the costume contest over at the Marvel booth:

My friend showing off her Blink at the Marvel booth

A better shot of Blink cosplay

Wish I’d gotten some better pics, but I’m short and tall people kept standing in front.  I need to learn how to walk on stilts.

Let’s Talk Booths:

I spent quite a bit of time in the TV/Movie booth area this year than I normally do – for reasons I’m sure you’ve figured out or will verra soon 😉

The best/worst was the BBC booth where you could get pics made in the style of the Orphan Black poster.  This is mine:

The most frightening pic ever! Thanks Orphan Black :-/

Dear heavens is that a frightening picture.  I look like a cross between Rachel Dracht and a muppet.  Then again, that’s not really too far from what I normally look like….

The Walking Dead had some sort of zombie experience which I skipped because I do not like zombies:

“The Walking Dead” booth

I saw a lot of the Nickelodeon booth because it was right in front of the Outlander booth.  Very handy marker if you ask me:

Nickelodeon booth

There was a Bates Motel booth where they took some awesome creepy photos:

Norman Bates Taxidermy Workshop at Comic-Con 2014

There was a Cerebro experience booth which Erica got to do:

Erica experiencing Cerebro

and tons more…

Looking back I really didn’t do that many panels…hmm.  I think that may be because I was too busy stalking visiting the “Outlander” booth.  HAHAHAHAHA…no really.

So let’s talk OUTLANDER!:

As I mentioned earlier Starz had created an entire booth.  Low and behold, this is what they did!

“Outlander” booth!

#PocketJaime and myself at the “Outlander” booth

OHMYFREAKINGGOODNESS!  It’s an entire “Outlander” castle complete with men in kilts!  I met up with Erica that first night to go through the line.  They let you draw tickets from a basket, and on that was the swag you could get: Bandana, shot glass, tote, t-shirt, iPhone decal, etc.  They had stones that vibrated, an apothecary area, desk…oh heck here are some pics:

#PocketJaime risking the stones at the Outlander booth

#PocketJaime surveying the apothecary at the Outlander booth

#PocketJaime approves of the new clansmen. And so do I 😉

#PocketJaime may have an idea of where she is…

#PocketJaime welcoming the lasses at the Outlander booth

#PocketJaime relaxing on the picnic blanket at the Outlander booth

#PocketJaime contemplating a letter at the Outlander booth

I think this says it all….

Erica getting her ticket at the Outlander booth

Kilted men are all smiles at the “Outlander” booth

A Lad and Lass pose for the cameras at the “Outlander” booth

Starz ROCKED IT!  This is by far my most favorite booth ever, of all time at Comic Con.  And I’m not just saying that because I’m biased 😉  No, seriously, I mean it.  This was brilliant.  Not to mention that everyone they had working the booth was super awesome and nice.  They were calm, upbeat, friendly and even when the lines got too long and they had to cap they stayed cool.  I never caught them being rude, even at 4:45pm on Sunday (Comic Con ends at 5pm on Sunday) when they all graciously posed for this picture with us:

Erica, Linda, myself and #PocketJaime with the wonderful actors and crew at the “Outlander” booth

That’s why you wanted to keep going back.  Not just for the swag, but for the awesome people working the booth.  And the street team they had was fabulous.  It was an experience unto itself.  I mean…men in kilts…what else do you need?

Friday was Outlander day since that was the day Outlander had a panel, signing and the World Premiere Screening of the first episode.  Erica and I didn’t attend the panel but we were definitely there for the signing:

Setting up for the “Outlander” signing

Who’s that I spy through the stones….

The cast and crew of “Outlander” signing for the fans

Caitriona Balfe (Claire Randall) and Sam Heughan (Jaime Fraser) at the “Outlander” signing

My signed “Outlander” poster 😀

 and my highlight of the day came as I was leaving the hotel and low and behold who should get on the elevator with me but….

Sam Heughan (Jaime Fraser) and myself!

Sam Heughan – Jamie Fraser hisself!  He was very gracious about me asking for a picture with him.

It’s Over 🙁

My schwag!

So that’s pretty much an overview of my Comic Con experience this year.  There was just so much I can’t even comprehend all the things I saw and did.  As I mentioned there are a couple of posts that expand on certain aspects so follow the links to those and I’ll leave you with more pics from around the Con and the cosplay I caught:

Even Stormtroopers are excited for Outlander!

That Arya Stark is AMAZING! And I love the Sansa as well…

VIKINGS!

Red is awesome! Some “Blacklist” love outside the con

I don’t know…I mean the film was so bad it was good…

A bookseller at Mysterious Galaxies is ready for “Outlander”! #PocketJaime approves

“Sharknado” cosplay

Awesome gender bent Han Solo and Prince Leia cosplay

X-Men cosplay

Disney’s “Up” cosplay

“Black Butler” Mey-Rin cosplay

Ciel Phantomhive and Alois Traney in a rare moment of unity. Where are their butlers?

Grell Sutcliffe cosplay

The Doctor showing off his swagger while the Tardis follows

One of my coworkers in an awesome Link cosplay

Mystique taking a stroll outside the Con

“Legend of Korra” actors at the Nickelodeon booth

I have no idea….

Smaug….shhhhhhhh

Awesome Steampunk chair

Steampunk chair from the back

An awesome Khaleesi and Khal Drogo cosplay

Mother of Dragons!

King’s Landing

Look…The Hound brought chicken!

Fencing!?!? I have to do this next year!

Vanellope Von Schweetz

Katniss Everdeen catching fire 😉

??? but it’s awesome!

Care Bear