My First Comic-Con: Dallas 2013

When I present an education workshop, I break the ice by having my teacher participants share something about themselves that no one in the room would ever guess about them. I go first, and tell them what is engraved inside my wedding ring: "Live Long and Prosper." They are shocked. I take it a step further and confess, "I have Star Trek costumes, y'all. I go to conventions." "NOOOO," they say.

Taken 20 years ago at Universal Studios. Brent and LeVar got a kick out of it. "Nice working with you," LeVar said.

Yep. In fact, last month my husband Creed and I checked out the Dallas Comic-con. It was our first Comic-con, so we weren't quite sure what to expect. We had talked about going to the huge Con in San Diego someday, and thought this might be a good trainer Con for us, since it would be small. Wrong. This Con was huge. We arrived early on the first day and people were already parking in the grassy fields across from the convention center and hiking in.

Even the droids had to park in the grass

We had been advised by a friend with Con experience to get the VIP tickets, which we did, but they didn't help with the parking situation. We had to hike in from the field with everybody else. The pricey tickets also didn't prevent us from having to stand in line packed like sardines in the swelteringly-hot parking garage, either. But once the bell rang for opening, our VIP bracelets did get us in faster. Score.

We were the oldest people in line!

I was actually tempted by these

There was a t-shirt for everyone

My husband w/one of many Tardises we saw

Me w/one of many Doctors

Comic-cons originally were all about comics, so comic books and artists were a huge part of this one, but the con seemed to also be about every other geeky thing anybody might be into, from anime to vampires to Big Bang Theory to Doctor Who, to, of course, Star Trek and Star Wars. We started in the vendors' room in the exhibit hall, where we bought a cowboy hat and a sonic screwdriver to complete Creed's Doctor Who get-up and a "Bow Ties Are Cool" t-shirt for me so I could be a more legit sidekick. We also did quite a lot of ogling and picture-taking of other people's costumes as they milled about. We didn't recognize half of them, but we found that everybody was willing to talk about who they were and how they made their costume, and everybody was happy to pose for photos. Didn't have to ask "Do you mind if I post this on Facebook?" once. The whole goal was to be seen. My husband was quite liking having his photo taken himself.

Chatting with LeVar Burton

In the back of the vendors' hall, behind skirted tables, sat some of the stars of Star Trek, calmly signing photos of themselves. Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, and William Shatner! More ogling ensued. You could just stand there and ogle to your heart's content, but it cost money to get the autograph, and nobody was allowed to take photos of William Shatner at the table. I quickly googled, "What should you say to Shatner when you ask for his autograph?" because I was tongue-tied, and got a website written by a very disgruntled ex-fan who now uses Shatner as a curse word, as in "My car is a piece of Shatner." I googled again. The next site said to invite them home for dinner. I was surprised at how nervous I was, but I found them all to be absolutely delightful, and our VIP ticket allowed us to jump to the front of every line. Mr. Shatner definitely had no time for extras, in spite of my efforts to interest him in my life story, but was quite gracious. Brent and LeVar both signed not only their names but added "To Captain Sue" when I asked them to, and engaged in lengthy conversations with me. I told Brent about the google search and he asked, "Hmmm, well, what are you having for dinner?"

Not taking a pic of Shatner, but he's behind me!

The next day, we attended the William Shatner panel. Thanks to our VIP tickets (which were by now bedraggled VIP bracelets), we were able to saunter in at the last minute and didn't have to wait in line, because we had reserved seats in the first few rows. We took photos. We laughed. We cried (seriously, my husband got tears in his eyes over seeing Captain Kirk). We gloried in our geekiness and the geekiness of our fellow geeks in the convention hall. We told each other how charming Mr. Shatner was and how we would never use his name as a curse word, and we said over and over again, "Those VIP tickets were worth every penny."

Mr. William Shatner discusses Mr. William Shatner ("Who else do you want me to talk about?" he said

Daughter of Shrek???

The Doctor with Rory and Amy!

But the VIP tickets didn't help us when it was time to line up to have our photos taken with Shatner. We were in the same gigantic queue with the huge crowd that furbled around a million stanchions and looked hours long. This is when we discovered two really fun Con activities, Making Friends In Line, and Name That Character. The people-watching really was amazing.

Absolutely adorable Dalek

Everybody wanted a picture of her!

And we made new friends, two attorneys from Dallas who were in line in front of us and had left their kids at home with a sitter, who gave us their phone number in case we wanted to meet them at another Con. When we parted, they said, "Have a great Con!"

The really really amazing part of the long long line was that it moved at lightning speed. The whole picture-taking experience was so expertly choreographed (each person got 7 seconds in the room with the seated star), that I barely remember how it happened. I do remember turning to Mr. Shatner, the idol of my teenaged years, and saying, "Thank-you for coming to Dallas to see us, Mr. Shatner." And he turned to me and looked me in the eyes and replied with a warm smile, "The pleasure was all mine, Captain Sue."

I could go on and on about how much we enjoyed the STTNG panel, all of the Nathan Fillion jokes (call in sick for an eye infection, Nathan, and jokes will be made about you), the many creative costumes and new friends, and just hanging out together with people who were comfortable being themselves, or I could gripe about the food (bring your own next time) or the one measly escalator in the entire convention hall, but instead I'll just say Live Long and Prosper and hope to see you at the next Dallas Comic-con. Who needs San Diego?