With all the frustration that comes along with pushing through crowds or being pushed through crowds, waiting in lines to meet creators and celebrities, and to get con exclusives, it’s easy to forget that Comic Con is a place of fun, flash, and rare opportunities to meet people you admire.
Saturday morning is usually thought of as the spectacle day. It’s when the biggest things at Comic Con usually happen. Comic book creators do signings at booths (tip: if the artist or writer you’re lining up for has a table at Artist’s Alley then you can probably get things signed by them at their table without having to wait two hours). The main exhibition floor is packed full of cosplayers, collectors, and curious newcomers while fans wait for hours sometimes to see the stars of their favorite TV shows and movies at panels in Halls 1-D and 1-E.
Anyone’s who ever attended a main hall panel at a con knows that people aren’t kicked out after each panel, so those who really want to see high profile panels know that they need to arrive early so that they can have a good seat when the panel they really want to attend starts. In past years, attendees had to arrive three or four panels ahead of time to have any hope of seeing the show they wanted to. People waiting in the queue hall wait with bated breath as each subsequent panel drew to a close and a few people trickled out of the hall.
Though the major comic book studios were noticeably absent from the line-up this year, fans did still pack the queue hall for things like Archer, Superman’s 75th Anniversary, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and, of course, AMC’s the Walking Dead.
The Archer panel screened the first full episode of the new season and then followed with a hilarious Q&A panel. Superman’s 75th celebration unveiled Bruce Timm’s new Superman animated short that’s been making it’s way around the internet. Teen Wolf screened the opener for next season’s premiere and gave away some minor character spoilers. The CW’s Reign and Beauty and the Beast both screened very captivating premiere episodes (stay tuned for my coverage of the press conference), but the crowd was very noticeably anticipating Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which actually was fairly lukewarm (perhaps because only two members of the cast were present).
The night culminated in the Walking Dead panel, which is always a fan favorite. The audience felt like it hung on every moment of the screening and on the responses of the cast members, which is what you would want from a successful panel. However, the night was not without its low moments. After the panel, fans rushed the stage almost violently and began to push and shove each. Though I didn’t personally see it, fellow attendees noted that fans pushed wheelchair-bound attendees out of the way in order to get autographs from the stars. Additionally, my friends who entered the crowd reported being stomped on and elbowed. The group got so bad that security had to pull the stars off stage in order to try to keep order.
