SATURDAY (Part 1)

Before even leaving the hotel room on Saturday morning I managed to get in touch with Greg Weisman (my Young Justice comic collaborator, co-producer and writer for the Young Justice TV show), principally to apologize for not having been able to exit the hotel in time to make it to our planned lunch meet-up the day before. I told him about the Young Justice fan meet-up I was organizing in the lobby of the Gallifrey One hotel that evening with the help of Hal (aka ChristopherJonesWebMinion on tumblr), and to my surprise, Greg seemed interested in turning up for it! He needed to check on his schedule, but made it clear that if he was going to attend, he’d want his presence to be a secret surprise. I wouldn’t have had it any other way!

Inspector Spacetime Panel – Photo by Alex Halcyon

First up, I attended the (Not) Inspector Spacetime Panel, which was a lot of fun. Character was dropped much more than last year’s panel, and there was tons of behind-the-scenes news about the production of Untitled Web Series About A Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time Season 1, and the upcoming Season 2. You can read lots more about that panel here. I arrived at the panel first while Hal finished changing into her Greendale Human Being cosplay, which seemed appropriate for the panel, given the Inspector and the Human Being’s shared origins on NBC’s Community. Later in the day we got a photo of the Hal’s Human Being emerging from the TARDIS, looking very much like a Hartnell-era monster.

Hal as the Greendale Human Being in the TARDIS

Immediately after the Inspector Spacetime panel was my second panel of the convention, Superheroes as Popular Culture. Lots of good discussion from a panel of heavy hitters I was lucky enough to join! After the panel, Marv Wolfman and I grabbed a quick lunch at the hotel. I’ve known Marv since he was a guest at CONvergence 2005, and it was great to catch up and talk shop 1-on-1.

Superheroes as Pop Culture (L to R: Len Wein, Christopher Jones, Sterling Gates, Marv Wolfman, Joshua Fialkov)

There was a little bit of time to sightsee after that. There are always lots of fun people and great costumes on display at Gallifrey One. I tried to get into the Sylverster McCoy interview panel, but it was standing room only. I managed to get into the room and was standing along the wall near the door when the irripressable McCoy hopped down off the stage to take the microphone into the audience to talk to people one-on-one. A camera followed, so it was possible to see McCoy on the screens at the front of the auditorium, but at this point it wasn’t too different from watching McCoy on video. It was about this time that I got a text message from Brittney Powell who I’d met on Thursday while at dinner with Wally Wingert. She was at the convention and was wondering if I was around. I ducked out of the room to respond to her and let her know where I could be found, which led to one of the best chains of impromptu people spotting and networking I had the entire weekend!

A Dalek taking in the view photo by Jason Musgreave

Weeping Angel cosplay photo by Amanda Winter

Robot cosplay photo by Drew Simchik

While standing outside the Programming Room, in the span of about a half-hour I managed to talk to:

Shaun Lyon, Programming Director for Gallifrey One (Who I’d been trying and failing to find and connect with all weekend)
Brittney Powell, Lovely lady and actress (She turned up after a few minutes, and she kept running into people SHE knew while we stood in the hall)
Sterling Gates, Comic book writer (I’d been on a panel with Sterling earlier in the day, but we’d not had a chance to chat)
Bridget Landry, JPL Rocket Scientist and Master-Level Costumer (dressed as Doctor Who‘s Harriet Jones – yes, I knew who she was!)
And many more!

Bridget Landry as Harriet Jones
Photo by Susan Fox

Soon it was almost time for the planned Young Justice meet-up in the lobby.

Would our gathering have a decent turn-out? Would Greg Weisman appear?  Would our Young Justice Meet-up signage be held by a cosplay Cat Nurse?

These questions and more will be answered in our next installment!

NEXT: SATURDAY PART DEUX

You can find all the installments of my Gallifrey One 2013 trip by clicking the link.

I’ll be attending the Gallifrey One convention February 15-17 at the Los Angeles Airport Mariott Hotel. I’ll be spending most of the weekend attending as a fan and catching up with some Los Angeles area friends, but I will be on two panels:

Design and Illustration
Friday 2:30pm – With Paul Hanley, Blair Shedd, Marueen Starkey, and Charlie Kirchoff.

Superheroes as Pop Culture
Saturday 1:00pm – With J. Fialkov, S. Gates, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman.

I’ll also have many of my Doctor Who art prints in the Art Show, including these new ones:

Edit: All of these prints are now available for purchase in my Etsy Store.

If you’re already pre-registered for Gallifrey One 2013, I hope I’ll see you there! If not, sadly they are sold out! I hope you can join us in 2014! You can watch for social media traffic from the convention by watching the facebook page or follow the #gally1 hashtag on twitter!

P.S. If you have Young Justice stuff you need signed and you’re going to Gally, feel free to ask!