After two very packed days at the 2016 Denver Comic-Con, we decided that the last day would be more relaxing and we would spend it mostly walking the ‘Con floor. We had a couple photo-ops lined up, but we’d still have plenty of time before and after to enjoy everything.
We started with exploring the floor a bit, then headed over to the celebrity area. As I said last time, we were going to try and meet Cary Elwes at his table and hopefully do a photo with him. Fortunately, we got there a bit early, so we didn’t have to wait in line long. As a funny aside, Cary’s table was stationed next to John Barrowman’s table for the weekend, and John was just about to get started for the day as well. While in line, one of the volunteers working the event spotted us in line and jokingly asked if we were cheating on John.
You know it’s a good convention when even the volunteers remember you.
Anyway, we laughed for a moment and the volunteer offered to point us out to John if he got a chance, which we were more than fine with.
We still had a little bit of a wait until Cary showed up, and that’s when I noticed that Sean Pertwee, whose table was on the other side of John’s, had gotten set up and had no line to see him yet. For those that might not recognize the name, he currently plays Alfred Pennyworth on Fox’s Gotham, and he is also the son of the legendary Jon Pertwee, most famous for his ground-breaking role as the Third Doctor on Doctor Who. Jon is the first Doctor that I truly fell in love with (with no disrespect to William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, who were both amazing), so I really wanted to chat with him. My wife gave me the OK to go over by myself while she and Teagan held our place in Cary’s line, so I took it. I got my photo with him and chatted for a few minutes about his current career as well as his dad. Probably stuff he’s heard a thousand times, but he was still very friendly and candid. In fact, he really seems to like talking about his dad’s work as the Doctor, and we shared a few laughs before I headed back.
Back to Cary’s line, he showed up a few minutes later. Unlike the rest of the tables, he had a curtain in front of his table. We weren’t sure why, but we figured it was either a) to prevent people from taking photos of John Barrowman’s table or b) so Cary could give each person his undivided attention, as it turns out he’s very fan-friendly. Perhaps it was a bit of both. Anyway, we eventually got in to see him, and he was terrific. He talked to both Heather (my wife) and I for a moment before crouching down to give Teagan some attention. He just loved her and couldn’t stop talking about how cute she was.
I shook his hand while Heather got a quick hug. Before we left, however, he told Teagan how cute she was yet again, then proceeded to let her pick out an 8×10 for a free autograph, which was just awesome. Of course, she picked one of Westley from The Princess Bride, and of course he made sure to put “As you wish” as part of the signature. He then made her entire year by giving her a hug and two kisses on the cheek. She beamed the rest of the day.
After a little more walking around, we had to head over to get in line for our first (and what would turn out to be our only) professional photo-op of the day with Agent Coulson himself, Clark Gregg. Teagan decided to take her pose with Gregg very seriously, instead of smiling like she did with everyone else. I’m not sure why, but he got a big kick out of it. Great guy, that one.
Now, this is where the day takes a bit of a somber turn. We were originally scheduled for a photo-op with Karl Urban shortly after the last one, but it never came to pass. Earlier that day, Urban’s Star Trek co-star Anton Yelchin was tragically killed in a freak car accident at his home. Needless to say, Urban and several other celebrities who knew Yelchin almost immediately left the convention in a state of grief. I was disappointed, sure, but I don’t think anyone at the convention would blame Urban or any of the other guests for wanting to leave due to such a horrible tragedy. Heather, who is a big fan of the new movies, took Anton’s death pretty hard as well. We wound up getting a refund for the photo-op. I took a photo of his table as a kind of memento. I can’t imagine what Urban and everyone else are going through, and my thoughts are with them at this time.
Since we now had a little more cash than expected, we decided to head back to the celebrity tables so we could meet Ralph Macchio, who was there as part of the Karate Kid/The Outsiders reunion I mentioned in part 1. Heather had a big crush on Ralph growing up, so she was more nervous than normal. Fortunately, there wasn’t much to be nervous about, as he’s a very cool, down-to-earth guy. Understandably, he was very tired from the weekend (and you could tell), but still very pleasant and friendly.
Back to the main convention floor, where we spent most of the day browsing the tables and looking for things to buy. I also got the last artist signature I was looking for, one Peter David. David had been away from his table every time I had come to it all weekend, but I finally managed to get there while he was available and got him to sign my Castle book I mentioned in part 1.
And of course, what would a convention be without the cosplayers? We took Sunday to take the most cosplay photos, and there were some damn good ones. Now, some of these are from the other two days, because I honestly can’t remember which photos I took when.
We ended up not spending a bunch of money on souvenirs, but that’s okay. We got to meet just about everyone we wanted to, and enough memories to last a lifetime (Cliche’ or what?). However, we each did walk away with some good stuff. My big score was the Twelfth Doctor’s 2nd sonic screwdriver, one of the last available in the entire place.
We also hit the Comcast Xfinity booth, as they had a replica of the Iron Throne set up for free photos. Teagan and I have actually sat in the real one used in the show, as it was on tour through the US last year. Heather wasn’t with us, however, so I obliged on this. Not the real Throne, but still very cool looking.
Before leaving, as there were only a couple hours left in the day before the festivities ended, Heather decided she wanted to go back to the celebrity area one last time to see if there was anyone else she wanted to see or meet. Clare Kramer, who had been absent from her table most of the weekend due to all of her panel-hosting duties, was now at her table, so we decided to spend a few minutes there.
Clare has now attended Denver Comic-Con three times, and all three times, we’ve went to her table to say “hi”. She’s just that cool. She’s very approachable and one of those guests that is absolutely fine with fans who just want to chat and don’t necessarily want photos or autographs. Even though we had gotten a photo with her last year, we decided, what the hell, let’s get another one. We were a few bucks short on cash, and the card reader at her table wasn’t working very well, so we were going to hit an ATM to get the last bit of cash. When she found out we were only about $5.00 short, she said not to worry and just took what we had, which was pretty nice. I like our photo with her this year even better than last year’s.
We spent a few more minutes talking with her, and she promised she’d be back again next year, which is totally fine by me! She also autographed one of her Geek Nation stickers for us, which turns out looks really nice in a frame.
One last celebrity visit, and then off on our way. Can you guess whose table we went to?
Go ahead, I’ll give a you moment.
…….
Give up?
If you said “John Barrowman”, you’ve been paying attention. Good for you! Anyway, we decided we couldn’t leave without talking to him one more time. Turns out that ended up being a good, hilarious choice.
As we were waiting in line, I took my phone out to take a photo of my new sonic screwdriver (see above). All of a sudden, I feel hands on my shoulders. I look up, and of course it’s John. He proceeds to tell me, “Okay. Put down your bag and your water bottle and give your wife your phone, because we’re taking a picture.” I didn’t see him come up behind me, but according to Heather, he was looking at my butt with a sly smile. Because of course he was.
After handing my phone over, he first tells Teagan to turn around for a moment because kids shouldn’t see this. A nice lady in line helped us out with that as John told me, “Now. You’re going to flex those muscles, and I’m going to come in with one hand and grab your junk”, or something to that effect. As we started to get set up, John turned to the rest of the line and told them, “Now, for those of you that don’t follow my Twitter, this won’t make any sense. But, if you follow me on there, you know he and I have been trading tweets this weekend, and this is culmination of that.” We took the photo and John told me I had to tag him on Twitter and use the caption “This just happened.”
Right after that, he handed my phone back and told me to take another photo with Heather. He went behind her and got a big double handful of breast, then told me to follow up the last tweet with another one saying, “…And then this happened.” The results are the two photos below, which have been favorited, responded to or retweeted more than anything I’ve ever put on Twitter.
His husband Scott was off to the side all while this was going on. You gotta love the guy. He’s married to one of the biggest personalities in show business, and he just takes it all in stride. Scott’s a great guy, and we both had to go give him a hug.
After all that, it was finally time to leave, but not without a few more photos. There were a ton of cosplayers lingering around in the lobby of the convention center, some of which with fantastic costumes, so we snagged a few more.
And so ends another Denver Comic-Con! We had an incredible time, and this was by far the biggest and best year of the event. We’ve already started saving for next year, and if I’m still with Geek Pride by that point, I’ll do this all over again. Cheers!