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The first official day of Comic-Con saw huge crowds gathered on what is traditionally the quietest day of the convention. But with queues still all round the block around 11.30am (with doors having opened somewhat late around 10.20am),together with constant complaints from denizens of previous conventions about how poor things were this year compared with previous years because of dramatically increased ticket sales, and appallingly long delays for shuttles that when they did show up were often full, I found myself emailing friends telling them they might be better off cancelling a planned Saturday attendance (always the busiest day of the convention, but probably made worse this year by the fact that big name guest appearances have been publicised ahead of time where last year most were surprises). As it turned out I needn't have worried - three hours later and the halls were suddenly quiet, entry registration time appeared to be about five minutes and the shuttles were as punctual and efficient as they have been in previous years. Go figure!
		The difference a few hours can make wasn't just restricted to queue timings. Walking past the Decipher stand revealed a very busy stand: what had yesterday been a very quiet area was packed with people playing the trading card game and the stall was doing brisk business with its new card set packages. You can now buy a nice box to hold your Decipher Lord of the Ring trading cards in with justification for the rather high price being that you also get 18 'new' cards with details in Tengwar rather than English! Role playing guide books (expensive but very nice with lots of colour pictures and a nice hardback format) also seemed to be flying off the shelves. Rumours were rife about the reason for no events for fan club members being listed. 'Contracts had been signed with two cast members but Orc Line had put the kabosh on the whole deal', said one source. 'No, Decipher were the problem because they insisted on exclusivity which was ridiculous given the fact New Line had a big stand and other major events planned', said another. Who knows where the truth lies? One thing is clear though - whoever's fault this hissy fit of politics is down to, it is (as ever) the fans and cast and crew who've suffered! The unusually large crowd for the convention's first day caused something of a crush when Richard Taylor appeared informally on the Sideshow Weta stand in the early part of the morning - it seems the Extended DVD of the first movie has meant that everyone now knows him on sight! I had a (very) brief chat with Richard where he did his best to feign recognition and be hospitable, but realistically the man meets tens of thousands of fans a year and had his mind on other distractions. Those readers who keep emailing me asking for help in 'meeting Orlando Bloom'/'getting a premiere ticket' or whatever (delete as applicable), assuming that these web logs and my articles in the Official Fan Club Magazine somehow confer special status, will no doubt be disappointed to hear that Richard, like all cast members I've met on more than one occasion, really didn't have a clue that we'd previously met (so please stop sending me ridiculous requests :-)) Regular readers know I am often critical of the terrible customer service from many companies associated with the movie franchise but, without going into too much detail, it was a pleasant surprise to see some excellent customer service from Sideshow Collectible's Managing Director, Greg Anzalone. He handled a difficult situation (my wanting to visit Weta while in New Zealand in late November) with tact, subtlety and excellent diplomacy. Visitors to my house know I am a huge fan of Weta collectibles (the truth is most visitors are in danger of falling over them there are so many!) and it was pleasing to see the company chosen to market and produce the collectibles giving such excellent service. Richard Taylor's popularity looked like becoming a problem and I suspect it was a last-minute decision that decided to have Richard do autograph signings at the New Line stand rather than have him just hang out on the Sideshow Weta stand, as he had done last year. He started signing autographs at 2.30pm and when I walked past the New Line stand again more than an hour and a quarter later he was still busy signing away with a long queue waiting in line. Of course long lines mean automatic interest, even those not quite sure what they're queueing for, and it was amusing to hear from my friend Amy Buckles that she'd had one fan ask after queueing for some time and gaining Richard's autograph: 'Which part did he play in the movie?'. This was almost as amusing as the fan who last year pointed at Dominic Monaghan and explained to his friend that Dominic was 'the guy who wrote The Lord of the Rings'!!! The Gollum sculpture alluded to in yesterday's report was in place today and is a stunning piece of work. A LOT of photographs were taken by visitors posing with the life-size figure. Elsewhere business was brisk. TheOneRing.net had quickly sold out of their t-shirts and were hastily trying to organise new deliveries before Comic-Con ends on Sunday (so check back there over the next few days if you want one). New Line had all sorts of free goodies: postcards, badges, limited edition 4000-copy only lithographs, wonderful wood-hewn promotional pens.. fans soon cottoned on to the fact that this was a stand worth checking out every hour on the hour. The staff were great throughout - a HUGE improvement on last year's mean-faced spoilsports! The main event of the day for most of those Lord of the Rings fans in attendance was TheOneRing.net panel scheduled for late afternoon. This was an informal session hosted by the volunteer group's Quickbeam, Tookish, Ostadan and ... erm.. Fletchie (? sorry didn't catch your name!). Commencing with a quick costume competition voted on by the filled-to-capacity room audience the panel discussed the influence of Tolkien over the years, with individual memories and favourite scenes discussed by panel members and members of the public. As tends to be the norm at these events when the floor is opened to questions one is subject to a lot of 'It's all about me!' "questions" where a long personal history masquerades as a 'question for the panel'. In this case, and arguably for the first time, it was warranted as the objective here was for individual audience members to share their thoughts as well as ask questions. Thankfully this was an intelligent audience and we weren't subject to any idiotic questions of the 'Are elves and hobbits real?' or 'Can you get Orlando Bloom to record an answerphone message for me?' variety although it must be said that the process of 'selling oneself' before actually asking a question seems unique to these American events and one that the Europeans in our party are dreading at future panels as the convention progresses. I wasn't taking notes and there was nothing major to report news-wise from this panel, although for this listener it was most interesting to hear what the panel thought would happen to TheOneRing.net after the third movie had lived out its natural cycle. Plans are for it to continue, as it covers the world of Tolkien rather than just the movies, but it was interesting to hear that plans are afoot to support the new Narnia movies in the pipeline - TheOneWardrobe.net, as one wag suggested! The panel ran for an hour that seemed to last barely five minutes - which I guess is one way of measuring how successful it was. Elsewhere there was much activity. One fan signing event I was witness to was that for the actor who plays Lorne (the green-skinned, red-horned demon who is a nightclub singer and bar manager in 'Angel') - this involved a long three hour queue owing to a bad road accident that delayed several convention attendees.
The most notable thing here, also in evidence throughout most of this convention, is that it was a wait that was tolerated with good humour and a sense of anticipation rather than the whingeing that one might expect at say a similar British event ;-). Although I wasn't part of this queue, only stopping to occasionally check on a friend who was waiting, it brought home to me that the best thing about Comic-Con is the behaviour of the fans. The attendees are an odd mix comprising a variety of B-list celebrities from years gone by, odd-looking dorky comic book geeks, seriously overweight men and women with large numbers of offspring in tow, and even odd members of the trendy surfer-dude crowd. One thing they all share in common though is general enthusiasm and a politeness and regard for their fellow attendees. It's what makes so many Comic-Con attendees, often persuaded to attend their first convention more by accident than design, so keen to keep coming back year after year. Check back for coverage on Day 2 later tomorrow, the highlight of which for me personally will be the FarScape panel. Click here to read next day's report (Day 2) Click here to read previous day's (Preview Night) report
Don't forget you can check out reports of lots of other Lord of the Rings -themed events in the Web Logs section

Email: ian@iansmith.co.uk