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It’s Friday, and to SDCC it means it’s a jam packed day full of TONS of panels, activities, parties and more! Oh, and this is where it gets more and more crowded.

5:15am – Woke up, brushed my teeth, combed my hair, got dressed and snuck out of our room without waking up my friend to head to the Convention Center uber early, to grab a spot in line for The Big Bang Theory panel. Having missed out on the Ringer panel yesterday, I didn’t want to take a chance and do the same for BBT, cause I can imagine how popular this panel could be. And of course, when I get there around 7am, there are already a thousand people in line, and keep in mind, the panel didn’t start until 11am.

Attempting to get a cast autograph for my friends
Also keep in mind, this is my first time attending a panel for BBT. I didn’t get into show until after my first Con in 2008. I knew they were also signing autographs at the WB Booth at the exhibit hall later in the afternoon. Since I already have my Chuck cast autograph from my first Con back in 2008, I wanted to give my two awesome friends back home @KristinStecyk and @TomTomHRGuy a chance to get a signed photo of the BBT cast. Unfortunately, it would not be possible this year, as the WB booth issues wristbands to secure an autograph, and in order to get one, you have to go enter a raffle in another room by selecting a number. If you’re number gets selected, you get a wristband. The WB was trying this out for this out for the first time, as they had numerous problems of people jamming the booth trying to fight for a spot for autographs, which then got chaotic last year I heard.

Anywho, before The Big Bang Theory panel came on, I had to sit through two show panels beforehand: Torchwood and The Walking Dead, respectively. Now, I have never seen either show, but I’ve got many friends who are fans of the shows and tried to get me into them.

My buddy Ryne’s a big fan of Torchwood, and sitting through this panel, watching the cast, I bet he wishes he was there with me. I was unaware who the cast members were, but I’ll tell ya, they put on a really good panel, as they funny, engaging and entertaining, and just having plain fun.

The Walking Dead panel was an intersting one. Going into this, I had no idea what the show was about. I do know that the first season only had about 6-8 episodes, and the show had become such as massive hit for AMC. They brought the cast and crew to the panel to celebrate the success of the first season, and talking about the upcoming second season. It was announced first at the panel that the new season would start in mid-October on AMC. They even showed a trailer too. Overall, despite not seeing the show, it looks pretty interesting, and I think I may have to get my hands on season 1 to watch.

Now, for the main event… The Big Bang Theory panel was awesome! They brought the cast and creators out, as they discussed the last season and what to expect to see this upcoming season. Again, this was my first time attending a BBT panel, and so far I was enjoying it. They also showed a blooper reel of the outtakes from last season as well. The panel lasted about an hour, but overall, fun panel. Too bad I never got a chance to get their signatures.

Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Jim Parsons at The Big Bang Theory panel, SDCC 2011

Turning to Facebook & Twitter

Before the panels started, I had a tough decision to make – what panel should I go to this afternoon? True Blood or The Amazing Spider-Man?  I couldn’t do both, as they scheduled both panels around the same time, but in different rooms - True Blood in Ballroom 20 or The Amazing Spider-Man in Hall H. I was not pleased with the way they scheduled these panels this year, and to top that off, I absolutely could not decide which one to go to, so I turned to Twitter and Facebook. I held a voting process on what panel I should see, and had some great responses, but in the end the score was True Blood 10-8. Thank you to all those that voted!

Anna Paquin & Stepehn Moyer at the True Blood panel, SDCC 2011

Now, the True Blood panel was pretty cool with the cast showing up, talking about what to expect in the current season, as well as they showed a 5 minute preview of what’s to come. Everyone who attended received a True Blood bag that included inside a t-shirt, notebook and a novel. The cast also got to talk a bit about themselves in how they got to where they are now. It was awesome to finally see Anna Paquin live. It was also one of the Con’s most popular panels this year, probably more than Twilight, as the room was packed with every seat in the house filled. Man, I’ve gone too many Vampire panels this year… lol

Everyone who attended the True Blood panel at Comic-Con received this bag of swag!

If I had gone to The Amazing Spider-Man panel….

A part of me wished I did go see The Amazing Spider-Man panel, as from what I saw on YouTube, at the beginning of the panel, before the moderator could introduce the panel, some guy dressed in a Spider-Man costume went up to the fan Q&A microphone and interrupted him by saying how much he loves Spider-Man. The moderator looked annoyed and told him to sit down, but Spidey just kept talking and talking, then took his mask off to reveal that it was Andrew Garfield himself! Wow, great way to start a panel off.

Emma Stone was also there, and boy, she not only looked stunning as always, but was pretty damn funny up there: two rare qualities I like in a woman! Apparently, they showed the trailer, plus another Comic-Con exclusive trailer which showed way more footage from the film, including a look at The Lizard, which pretty much confirms he is the villain of the new rebooted film. Honestly, I’ve always been a fan of Spidey, and I loved the Sam Raimi version (except #3), but was against the new rebooted film for a while, but after watching this panel, I am now sold and looking forward to seeing this new version next summer.

Anywho, after these panels ended, I was wiped from going to all these panels today, so I left the Convention Center and walked around the Gaslamp District to check out some of the offsite events, then went back to my room and meet up with my friend, who was glowing and bragging how he got to meet the creators and the voice cast of the upcoming Batman: Arkham City video game at the WB Booth. I shouted out “Shut the Smurf up! You got in on a WB signing!?!” He showed me his wristband and the signed poster and even told me he was interviewed briefly by the theWB.com. Man, howcome most of my friends have been interviewed by someone at the Con but me?

Oh well, that didn’t matter. I went to bed early because Saturday was a HUGE day for me, the Chuck panel, the very last panel they’ll ever be at, with the showing ending and all.

I know I’m one week late with this post, due to the fact that my internet connection down there during the con was minimal, as I believe almost EVERYONE in San Diego attending the Con were likely using the internet the same reason I was. Another reason was that there was so much happening around the Con that I became way too busy to post, that by the time I got back to my room, I was too tired to type, plus it was late at night, like past 1-2am, and I had to get up at 5am to lineup for panels as well.

I originally had planned to blog about my experience as it happens. Luckily, the memories are still resh in my mind. So, here’s how the next few posts will turn out:

There will be about 5-6 posts about my days at the Con, plus my “Final Thoughts” posts, followed by a post about the Markeitng/PR aspect about Comic-Con.

But to start, this blog will get a little personal as I’m blogging about my personal experience at the San Diego Comic-Con from planning stages to arriving at the Con. So, here it is…

These flags were everywhere across the streets of San Diego.

This is my third time attending the ever popular (and growing) San Diego Comic-Con in 4 years, the first was in July 2008, then July 2009. I missed it in 2010 due to the fact I was working a summer job, plus I had previously went to the Vancouver Winter Olympics 5 months earlier that year, where money didn’t allow me to attend SDCC 2010. Nevertheless, after seeing and hearing what happened at the 2010 Con through the newspapers, online, Twitter and even shows such as Access Hollywood and E-Talk, I vowed to attend in 2011. But I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, considering how popular the Con has become. And yes, I did mention Access Hollywood and E-Talk, SDCC is THAT big. For those who have never been or heard of it, SDCC has been around for 42 years, but has evolved in the last decade. It’s no longer your typical place for “nerds”, heck even many women are attending too (more on that later).

It took three attempts to purchase the passes, as the first two attempts were in Fall 2010, but their servers crashed. I just barely got mine when they reopened in February 2011. I originally bought 3 passes, one for myself and two for my dear best friends. And since then, the countdown to my return to the Con had begun…

I slept over at my friend Monika’s place, because she lived only less than 10 minutes away from the airport, where I lived an hour away, so it was more convenient for her to drive me. I could not sleep at all. I mean, I think the most I slept was 2 hours. I have had sleeping problems lately, but I knew this wasn’t the case this time: I was filled with excitement. She put on the movie Just Go With It for me, and that helped me sleep.

I got up at 4:30am, and was driven to the airport by 5am. As soon as I arrived, the first person I run into unexpectedly was my old classmate from my diploma years and friend Trista and her boyfriend Aaron. It was so awesome seeing her again, and despite us going in different destinations, our departure times were pretty close. So, we spent the time catching up and reminising the good old days of our college diploma years. I miss those days I tell her.

I arrived my stop in Calgary and since it was going to be a long wait, I surprisingly run into Rick Lee from Sonic Radio here in YEG. It was really cool. It was his first time going to Comic-Con, so I gave him some advice and helped guided him, by making his first experience a memorable one. So, we rode the plane together.

When I arrive at my place I was staying, I met up with my friends, checked into my room, and boy it was a tiny room. But that didn’t matter, we were only 10-15min walk to the Con, and we were barely going to be in our room anyways, as we’d be out and about a lot, as shown in the two previous Cons.

The San Diego Convention Center for Comic-Con 2011

As I walking towards the Convention Center, the streets, the shops and the buildings surrounding me all started to come back to my memory again. It felt like I was here just yesterday. When we arrived at the Convention Center, a big smile appeared on my face. Even with three trips, I’m still amazed at how big of a place the Convention Center is.

We went inside to register and picked up our badges. Now, for those who have never been to SDCC, when you pick up your badge, you receive a goodie bag featuring a program guide, a souvenir book and other fine swag provided by sponsors. For us, we received the famous Comic-Con bags from Warner Bros. These bags are extremely popular, as they used to hand them out at their booth in the previous cons, but this time, they handed them out to all attendees, which I guess is to prevent their booth from being so crowded. Each bag has a show/movie/game on featured on it. The ones we got were from The Big Bang Theory, which is perfect, because they didn’t have a Chuck one like in previous years.

Now, tonight was Preview Night, meaning you get to go inside the main exhibit hall and check out the booths before the con opened on Thursday. There were also screenings of TV pilots of new shows set to air in the fall as well. For myself, I just checked out the booths for a couple hours, left, ate dinner and went to bed early, cause I know that I won’t be getting much sleep in the nights to come.

a free courtesy WB Comic-Con bag for all SDCC attendees