Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Philadelphia report: Wizard World and more

My intention was to be in and out of Wizard World Saturday as quickly as possible. But I would arrive the night before in Philly. To make the most out of my stay in Philly I would try for the band Black Star Riders. The main reason I went for them was for Scott Gorham, guitarist of Thin Lizzy. They are best known for this song




The venue had a front door and a back door, and we weren't sure which door was the one. But the other band members were coming out the front door so we took our chances there. Many of the other band members came out and were happy to do combos with everyone who wanted. But I only had photos for Scott to sign so the others were photo op only for me. I guess I can see one reason why goes for so many lower tier music names. At least they are happy to pose for photo ops. One good score for me was Jimmy DeGrasso who played with Megadeth in the album Risk, which featured the song Crush Em. This song would be used for Bill Goldberg's theme song and he would perform that song on an episode of WCW Monday Nitro. 

Finally, the tour bus parks on the front door and we're finally sure where we will see Scott Gorham. My reaction was this face  

When he finally comes out a bunch of fans show up out of nowhere which made me go  I'm used to seeing that from some Master combo hunters who show up at the right time out of the blue, but average regular joe fans? Really? 

Thankfully Scott was nice as can be. Got a photo op and my two 8x10s signed. 

After this total success, we head to the convention center and find a nice free parking spot that's a 5-10 minute walk to Wizard World. 

Wake up in the morning and I mooch some good breakfast. I then head to the con. There was a long line to get in but I manage to mooch about 75% of the line. I get in and meet up with Joresky. We were both splitting Karen Gillian and had nothing to do till then. So we went looking for He-Man/She-Ra animator Tom Cook. 

While looking we see James O’Barr, creator of The Crow. I get a photo op with him. We finally find Tom Cook and he is nice as can be. I got him to sign the DVD inserts of my He-Man and She-Ra DVDs, 8 total! And I got the photo op. Wow here you are at somebody's table at a major con and you are getting a combo and 7 extras for free! What a nice feeling that was. 

On the way back to the photo op area I see Brian Tochi who voiced Leonoardo in the first 3 TMNT movies. I got a combo from him. Next to him was voice actor Rob Paulsen who I got for free at NYCC but I got an upgraded photo op with him for free 

I also stand in line for John Carpenter to get Max's They Live poster and laserdisc signed. I tried to get an upgraded photo op for free but they weren't allowing that. 

At the photo op area me and Joresky get our Karen Gillian photo op. Then I go wait for my Daniel Cudmore photo op but they say it was bushed back to 5pm. I manage to go to his booth and get a photo op with him by saying that I bought the ticket but it was pushed back and I can't stay that long. Cudmore was nice about it and did the photo op with me. One less pro to worry about! 

Joresky went for poster artist Boris Vallejo. I was just there for the ride and got a photo op. Didn't realize his wife got into the photo op until after I saw it on my camera. Then me and Joresky both got the Evan Peters photo op. 

I am waiting in line for my final pro op, and that's Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie dual shot. I chose to get the dual shot cause it was cheaper than the two singles. And I figure I could crop the other one out and have two singles. While waiting I see  and . CMshowstopper actually asked me if I had the VIP for them and I replied that he should know me better cause I would never pay these VIP prices. 

When I got up to them they both shook my hand but they kinda unintentionally screwed me over. Both put their arm around me, so if I crop Sebastian it shows a Black hand in the picture, if I crap Anthony it shows a White hand thankfully with some Photoshop I manage to rectify that. 

While waiting in line I also found the booth location of Bob Camp via twitter. He played a major role in the development/creation of Ren and Stimpy. So after this dual photo op I went to the booth and got a free photo op and him and his wife even went "happy happy joy joy" which I marked out for. 

Via the Wizard World thread on markedout.com I got the booth number of Science Channel’s Oddities which Joresky was obsessed with getting. Again I was there for the ride and got a photo op. 

With Wizard World coming to an end, I decided to pick up a Michael Rooker photo op. While waiting for him to return I got the Guardians of the Galaxy photo op via green screen, which came with a free poster. So that was a nice bonus. Michael Rooker finally arrives and I get my final photo op. 

With all the cluster fuck regarding prints taking long to come out, they announced all Saturday jpegs were free so I got my money back there which was such a wonderful feeling. 


After Wizard World it was off to NYC. It was a nice feeling to be out of there. 


Full list of band member photo ops

Scott Gorham photo op

Full list of Wizard World photo ops

Karen Gillian (Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy)

Evan Peters (Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past)

Sebastian Stan (James Barnes/Winter Soldier in Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

Anthony Mackie (Falcon in Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

The Guardians of the Galaxy

Photos I got signed in Philly (two Scott Gorham and a TMNT shot signed by Brian Tochi)

He-Man and She-Ran DVD inserts signed by Tom Cook

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