Monday September 7th, 2015:
Checked out of our hotel at 9AM after packing the car. The Marta rides were free today, a Labor Day treat!
Got in line by 9:30 for our only panel for the day: “Karen Gillan”! The panel wasn’t until 11:30, but after seeing the line for her the day before we knew to be there early. About 11:15 a couple of early 20s girls got in line behind us with their friends and said that they’d just come from the photo session with Miss Gillan. Said she was running behind due to showing up a half hour late from getting lost at the hotel!
This didn’t seem like a good sign.
11:20 they began seating. A little after 11:30 they announced the panel room was full and were ready to get started…and Karen leapt from back stage out to the platform. It was a very happy room to be in!
She sat down in a swivel style office chair, which I found to be both funny and a bit sad a panelist had been reduced to sitting in basic office furniture. Questions started immediately.
We learned:
- She was working on a screenplay.
- Had just finished directing a short film starring Rose McIver from “iZOMBIE“.
- Was in an upcoming Western with John Travolta and directed by Ti West!
She answered some funny Doctor Who questions, ranging from on set stories, to making up a new episode to entertain a young child who asked her to. All in all, it was a very good hour.
Once over, we decided to get an autographed picture of her for our nephews who all have big crushes on Amy Pond. We knew she’d only be signing autographs for an hour, but once seeing the line we decided to come back closer to the end.
So we headed for the Artist Alley. For Beka is was to kill time, for me it was a mission. As I said, I’m a big Power Girl fan and knowing my favorite PG creative team were there I had to get my Issue #1 signed! Getting to their booth I found Jimmy Palmiotti talking to a web comic creator who’d been at their own booth across from them. They were both waiting for Amanda Conner to return from the potty. They were chatted about Jimmy’s run on Aquaman, which from their talking sounded like a good run. Jimmy didn’t understand why DC replaced him, because the book was doing well.
Amanda returned, I presented my Power Girl comic and got two signatures for free! During the signing I told them their run had made her my favorite character DC published. Amanda said they missed working on her so much, which is why their version of PG made it into the current Harley run!
Before I left there was one question from their panel I had to ask about: STAR WARS 22 TIMES IN THEATERS?!?!
According to Amanda she saved all her babysitting money, allowance and side job money to afford it and spent every dime. However, it was to her, the best summer ever; and it’s hard to disagree with that.
Went back to the autograph section and Karen Gillan’s line had only grown. There was no chance half the people still in line were getting things signed with her remaining time. So we abandoned the Gillan idea. It was fine, we attended her panel and being this close gave us a good look at the Scottish hottie so we were satisfied.
We took a stroll around the other celebrities there.
- Saw Barry Bostwick {aka the definitive FDR} packing up to leave.
- Peter Mayhew looking depressingly old and feeble.
- And Nichelle Nichols looking infinitely better in person than in recent videos and pictures.
After stepping back out into Atlanta we heading back to the Marta station, returned to our car and searched for a pre-drive home lunch. This lunch consisted of Zaxby’s. Made the drive home slow and easy, arriving home that night after a two hour stop to visit the in-laws.
Thus concluded our 2015 DragonCon experience. We, like our geeky brethren would return to our “normal” disguises for another year…or the next Con on our schedule, which ever came first!
~_M.H._~
Follow Me on Twitter: @MHSmith22
The Pork-Chop Express 