Stan Lee’s Comikaze in L.A. and How I intro’d the fella to Cons.

This past Saturday and Sunday I braved the record 100+ (coastal, so weird) heat to drive to L.A. and enter into the marvelous world of a Con masterminded by Stan the Man himself.

Comikaze.

It was, in a word, bitchin’.

A massive hall with vendors, stages, gaming areas, a Stan Lee and Elvira (co-organizer) museums and even a separate hall that was a zombie apocalypse obstacle course (yes. scary, loud and filled with crazy blow up thingys.)

I saw a baby in an R2D2. I saw Elvira’s real hair. I saw way too much Visible Panty Line. And no one, NO ONE, can pull off a body suit like Julie Newmar.

Day one highlights:

Compared hand sized with The Hulk, from the TV series, Lou Ferrigno. My fingertips came up to the start of his fingers. I took some photos for him and in return . . . he winked at me. Odd.

Stopped by Julie Newmar’s booth and told her she is beautiful. So awesome. I mean really, she’s got class and poise by the boatload and is super sweet.

Stan the &#@ing man Lee gave Todd McFarlane hell for kicks in front of everyone on their panel.

Lee, “Why are you still talking? Can’t you see I’m trying to impart some wisdom here?”

When asked as to why The Avengers made so much money, Lee replied, “it was because of my cameo. It was so short, so small, that if you blinked, you missed it. And then some people blinked and they ran out, bought more tickets and watched it again. Just for my cameo. ”

Don’t worry folks, he was laughing his ass off the whole time. I hope I have that good of a sense of humor when I’m that age.

“Can you imagine the amount of money that the next DC (comics) movie would make if they had one of my cameos?”

Also: “All I can say, for  Thor 3 (plans ahead), Brad Pitt would love to have this role. In fact, they thought I was Brad Pitt, you know, because we look so much alike. HA!”

Lee wants to make his Con, Comikaze, bigger than SDCC because 1. It’s centrally located and the location itself is large and 2. He said his name will pull more people to it.

Fun fact: The Marvel heroes have double letter names (Bruce Banner, Peter Parker etc.) because Stan said that, “I know I look perfect, but I really have the worst memory in the world.”

He’s also not ashamed to be a “Hack” which means that he would churn out work page after page.

“Nothing wrong with Hack-dom. I think there should be an award, for being the greatest Hack (writer) . . .  and for having the best cameo.”

Next, I ran upstairs to The Boondock Saints panel with Norman Reedus, Sean Patrick Flannery (who has a lovely wife and adorbs baby) and David Della Rocco.

Fun Facts: Revvis is apparently always getting hurt on set. Had dislocated his shoulder on BS 1 and had to compensate a lot for it. Flannery is a ham, funny funny guy, talks a lot and laughs a lot. Rocco, doesn’t talk much, but makes is count when he does.

“Hey Rocco, did you tip her?”

“I’ll tip you.”

The guy say that a third Boondock movie is most likely not going to happen, although they would love to do one.

“In Hollywood  there is not a lot of times that you meet really great people to work with.”

So, how was the prayer developed?

“It was  a little bit of Ecclesiastes 3:14 and a little bit of . . . George Bush . . . ”

So far as what they say to do if you’re going to direct? Learn how to be a leader and how to do everything.

Weird Boondock Saints fact:

According to Flannery, when Willem Dafoe was in the dress and on the floor all, “Aaaaggggh! aaaaagh!” Apparently the director turned to the fellas and said, “Yeah, I chubbed up a bit.”

Awkward . . . .

Day Two:

The Fella was able to take time off work and come be my Sherpa for the day. This was also his first time at a Con of any kind. It was adorable.

He’s tall. From the right angle, he looks like Nathan Fillion. And I’m pretty sure everytime he saw something he liked, you could hear him exclaiming across the convention hall.

Fun fact about him: He knows more about obscure actors, movies and TV than I could ever understand. Which translates to us walking down the “Meet and Greet” aisles and him picking out the lonely looking booths and then most likely making their day. He’s good like that.

I digress though.

Walk fella in and he is instantly in sensory overload. This is a big guy, who should be immune to all kinds of action going on around him, and he’s not sure where to put his arms while he listens to a PA and then sees the X-men cartoon Cosplayers.

“I don’t know what to do. Where do I go?”

I take him to the Tardis. He doesn’t fit in the door. Too damn big.

Yup. That’s him. Too big for the Tardis.

Le Sigh.

I had such hopes for him.

Anyways.

Took him by Kevin Brown’s booth (Dotcom on 30 Rock) and he almost screamed like a tiny child in excitement.

Rules for 1st time Con folk: No Shrieking. No Screaming (unless for a Character). No flopping all over the talent either.

He did none of these. I’m so proud.
Break for Lunch:

Brought in my own food (Rule 2: don’t by the con food. It will be overpriced. I promise) Banh Mi (Vietnamese pork sammies on baguette covered in yum)

Went back out into the big hall to look at more stuff we wanted and couldn’t buy/carry/truly need.

Another thing: Visible Panty Line. Not OK in Cosplay. If you’re doing the costume, it’s skintight and a little sheer, well, there are ways around the VPL.

I saw one unfortunate case of a Harley Quinn who was wearing high waist, black with white dots undies, size medium.

Yes. I could tell that all through her costume. No, I should not know that kind of detail.

Ladies: seamless, skin colored undies. Voila. No more VPL. Guys: same goes for boxers briefs. There are seamless and again, skin colored man-undies. No more bum-seam of shame.

All in all though, the weekend was awesome. I had a blast, met some great people. Doing it again next year.

Rolled back to Dotcom’s booth at the end of the day:

“You know it’s just work for us, we don’t think that anyone will be paying attention or notice. So to have you guys come and talk to us, quote our lines and a tell us how great we make your day, it’s awesome. It makes me feel good about the work.”