Original subtitles

- Grrr. Argh.

(man): The first annual Golden State Comic-Con

gets under way this weekend at the U.S. Grant Hotel.

Artist Shel Don' says he hopes to make this event an annual thing.

(woman): Will this be open to the public?

(Dorf): Uh, yes. And this is a chance

for the amateur fan and the amateur writer

to really meet with the professionals

and find the magic secret of how it's done.

(man): Natalie Best asked Don' if he expects a large gathering.

(Dorf): Hoping for about 500.

(lively music)

(trolley bell clanging)

(man over P.A.): Welcome to Comic-Con!

(music intensifying)

- A die hard Comic-Con conventioneer is a person who has got the card games,

they've dressed up, they go to Masquerade,

they've got the backpack filled with, like, strange die that they roll

with the strange book that's got their character chart in there.

"Daredevil #51: check!

"Daredevil 52: very fine, near-mint. Almost there.

Must continue perusing. Check!"

Mixed in with, like, "Duh! What is this'? That's weird.

No. What? No, I don't understand it."

That's what it is now.

It's people who've never read a comic book and people who've, like,

never left their mom's basement, like, mixed together.

(background chatter)

- I work at a sci-fi/horror/fantasy-themed bar.

Like, Black Cat, I don't think she could win a conflict with Longshot,

because bad luck to Longshot - his power would temper her power

by saying, like, he would take a couple punches to the gut,

but still come out on top. - No matter what, they'd end up screwing.

- 'Course it'd end up being a sex fight. That's the way it works.

Being a geek is what defines me, I think, as a person.

I'm driving to Comic-Con in the morning.

Finally got my portfolio done today.

- Oh, good. - And...

I'm kinda, like... I'm cranking it out I finished it.

Whether I like it or not, it's done.

- Oh, then to unnecessary luck. - To unnecessary luck.

- Harvey Pekar.

- I read comics every day as a kid.

I was obsessed with it.

I still am. And now,

I wanna be a part of this fabric

of something that I grew up on, that I love.

I just want to be able to make a contribution to the culture that I find so self-defining.

(knocking)

Hi, guys! Come on in. Yeah! - There you go.

- My parents are fiber-geeks.

That's my birth announcement, right?

- Yes. - Yeah.

- See the Star Trek symbol? - They met at the planning committee

for the first Star Trek convention in Kansas City in 1976.

They are the reason that there were...

Star Trek conventions in the Midwest

in that era. - Do you believe that?

This is the convention we got engaged at.

So are you ready? - I... I've got stuff, I've got stuff.

Comic-Con is, like, basically a job fair for comic-book industries.

I'm obsessed with comic books. I really, really want...

I wanna do this so badly.

Some of the stuff I've already gotten done.

- Mm-hmm. - I haven't put it in my actual binder yet,

so you can sorta look through 'em, but...

See, l try to be diverse. I try to show character design,

I try to show panels, pages. That's-- - Obama?

- It's H.P. Lovecraft. No, it's not Barack Obama!

- It looks like Obama! - What are you talking...?

- It looks like Obama. - That's not in the portfolio, then.

(laughter) Oh, it kinda does kinda look

like Barack Obama. (laughter)

If Comic-Con goes the way that my fan-boy fantasies play out,

best-case scenario would be getting a good review,

getting networked

getting someone to notice and someone to want too...

help me get into the industry.

Worst-case scenario is that they de-pants me in front of everyone, set my stuff on fire.

But I bring more passion and excitement to it

than any of those nervous kids with their portfolio.

Because I mean it. 'Cause I mean it.

(military-style music)

(man): I wanna draw from the time the sun comes up to the time it goes down.

It seems like I'm the oddball in a world of very normal people.

But when I dream about going to a place like Comic-Con,

it's got to be, like, nirvana,

it's got to be the closest thing there is to heaven,

because other people there are just as much of a nerd as I am.

Did you know where daddy's going?

- No. - No? He's going to California

You know where that is? - No.

- Of course not. I barely know where it is.

But I gotta go to a comic convention so daddy could show his drawings to people.

And then maybe they'll let daddy draw Superman.

- Let me go with you.

- No, I have to go by myself. - It's crazy,

because it's gonna be thousands of people

and... one little, little him.

He's gotta push his way through these people to meet some people he don't know

to get people to look at his work, and I think that's kinda...

...kind of... bold.

- I think it's gonna be... scary, uh, in a lot of ways,

just because of who I am as a person,

and not really being accustomed

to huge venues of people, large cities.

But I've got to go, because this is what I wanna do with my life.

- I've brought people

who'd never been to the Con and seen the look on their face

that was on my face, which is, "My tribe! I have found my tribe!"

Like, it is a time when these people can express themselves

in a totally safe environment and it doesn't matter what they're a fan of.

Somebody, y'know, who loves Star Wars is gonna be hangin' out

with somebody who loves Final Fantasy and they're gonna get along just fine.

It's not gonna be a big argument about, "My thing's better."

This is really the place where they can lay down their arms

and come together and just be, like,

"Are we not dope, are we not amazing, for being this obsessed with something?"

(woman): This is not a pleasant town.

It's just where people stop to go to the bathroom

before they go skiing.

Like, no one wants to come here.

There's Mentone over there, which is like the meth capital of the world.

And easily, I'm sure my neighbours think that I'm making meth.

They're, like, "That girl, she's a druggie. I saw her outside looking really tired

and wearing weird clothes. I think she's a meth addict."

But, actually, it's just because I make costumes in my garage, so...

Me and my whole team are working on costumes

based off of the computer game Mass Effect 2.

Commander Shepard is the lead. And that's the role

I'm gonna be playing at Comic-Con,

on stage, in the Masquerade.

All of my friends, we all love computer games.

It makes you feel like you're in another world completely.

I wanna take the characters from the games and make them into a reality,

and have people really experience seeing something that could be in a movie,

like, on the Comic-Con floor.

I think we could totally do a tongue in there, too.

- Yeah, it definitely needs a tongue For the roof of the mouth,

if you keep that sorta clear,

that's another area that he could look through.

Probably really important so he could see where his feet are going.

- Yeah, definitely.

- Open the mouth again. Oh, wow, that looks so cool!

- Grunt's been kind of a hard character to build,

because the head is completely animatronic.

His mouth is entirely puppeteered by Tank.

When he opens his mouth, the krogan's mouth opens,

'cause that's how it's hinged to his jaw and the underworkings of the skull.

- We can do a little test. - Oh, no!

I'm definitely worried about something falling apart

and it just being a laughingstock,

because, y'know, you can only stick

so many pieces on there and not have something fall off.

Like, a couple of years ago,

there was an Iron Man costume that was fabulous.

They did their skit in the Masquerade and the guy's crotch plate just flies off.

Like, during the skit! And I'm, like, "Oh, man."

I mean, like, I'm gonna make sure that crotch plate is super secure,

because no one's crotch plate is falling off on stage.

All right, you know the drill - Mm-hmm.

There. - Yay. There you go.

The Masquerade is a great place for exposure

and it's a big chance for me

to get myself out there

and have people see my work. Instead of just sitting here

and, y'know, applying to places with resumes,

I decided to make giant costumes and hope that I could get people's attention with it.

- Okay, get over there. - It's about doing

something insane and taking all your chances, spending all your money,

getting all your friends together, making this crazy team of people,

just like in Mass Effect, and going on a suicide mission.

We need to finish this before we get through. And that's what this is.

It's like a metaphorical suicide mission for my future.

Was I doing my things good? - Yeah, yeah.

Your... your movements looked great. - Yeah, I've been practicing them alone

in my room. (laughter)

- Comic-Con is, like, a mainstream event.

This thing is like Cannes, it's like Sundance.

Y'know, it's like the Olympics, except it happens every year.

Everybody knows about it. My mother's, like, "You going to Comic-Con?"

Like, how do you know about Comic-Con? You're not supposed to know about Comic-Con.

There is - somewhere buried in this gigantic monolith of the celebration

of the popular arts, as they say - is a very cool comic-book convention

that a lot of us have been going to for many, many years.

You just have to kinda dig through the Con a bit more to find it now.

(man): Now, actually, one thing you have to understand

is that if you really wanna show people that you're a real comics dealer,

you have to huff in front of them.

- Let's see.

Now, these have that really great flavour,

the aroma.

(inhaling) Mm!

- Go to the centrefold. - And smell it.

- You never touch it with your nose

'cause you don't wanna get the oils from your nose on the paper.

But you get as close as you can and then you breathe in deeply.

And if you can actually appear

like you know what you're doing, all the comic boys,

all the geeks, like, you'll go up, like, eight notches.

(military-style music)

(Western-style music)

- Magic Boy and Robot Elf. Let's actually take a couple extra of those.

I make the claim that we're America's largest comic dealer

simply on the basis that we have eight million comics

and we service more customers than anyone else.

I've gone to Comic-Con 38 straight years and, uh...

I am... one of the last survivors.

I feel very much differently about this year's Comic-Con

than other Comic-Cons,

because I've got a strong suspicion

that fewer and fewer comic fans will be at the show.

We're gonna be trying to sell books to people

who are really into electronic arts.

That's...

an enormous difference than in past years.

(bombastic music) And this has been just a beast of a year

and our short-term cash-flow considerations

are still really, really tight. I mean, there's no gettin' around that.

- Yeah. - But I think our prospects right now

I mean,

especially compared to last year, are infinitely better.

- Okay. You don't wanna hear what I have to say about that.

- Well, but the thing is,

is that I may put the half-full spin on it and you may put the half-empty spin on it--

- I'm good at half-empty. - Well, I'm good at half-full, all right?

(Nanette laughing) But that's why we've stuck together

for 34 years.

(lively music)

This year, I'm taking out Red Raven #1.

Red Raven #1 is probably the rarest Marvel comic.

The price that I'm asking on the Red Raven 1

is $500,000.

If I sold it, the money would be used to pay off all of our bank debt at Mile High

and all of our accounts payable.

- It's a 9.0. - 9.0, but it's way better than that.

- And the page quality is-- - White.

- When you're lookin' at a retail price of...

- Well, five, but not to you. - Okay. Okay.

- Gotta have enough to where I can actually take money home

and give some to the bank.

Life being what it is, the economy being what it is,

it could very well end up that these books don't stay with me

for another 34 years, as I would really dearly love them to do.

- I've got a couple of customers one or two people,

that I will mention it to. (cellphone ringing)

And that's a key book.

- But I can't just let Mile High Comics disappear

because I wanna hold on to a really spiffy-coloured piece of paper.

That's dumb. I'm not dumb.

I didn't survive for 41 years in this business by being dumb.

- All right, cool deal, kid. - All right. Whoo-hoo-hoo.

(lively music) (door creaking)

The two guys that are flying out on Wednesday

are gonna be carrying out my books.

Aside from Bill being sometimes a little clumsy and almost killing William,

I trust these guys totally with my million dollars in comics.

(woman): San Diego's biggest convention

is only days away,

which means downtown is bracing for Stormtroopers,

wizards and all things Comic-Con. - You be safe in San Diego.

Okay'? - Oh, yeah. I'll be all right.

- Your childhood's over. (laughing)

- It's never over.

(laughter) - It's all one piece.

(chatter)

- We're making costumes for Comic-Con!

(lively music)

- Comic-Con started in 1970.

Only about 145 in attendance.

Now the annual event has sold out since 2008,

bringing in over 125,000 people.

(man): We started coming because of the blockbusters,

the things they present here

before the premieres.

- Comic books. And so that's why we came here,

to see the artists, the writers...

- I'm looking forward to all the panels about the upcoming games,

like Gears of War and Halo and stuff like that.

- Danny Elf man panel.

So we wanted to honour Danny Elf man and Tim Burton with our Alice costumes.

- This year, I'm just trying to really push my graphic novel that I wrote.

- I'm really excited about the Captain America panel.

- It's called Kidnapping Kevin Smith.

- Robert Kirkman's Walking Dead.

- Phineas and Ferb. - Yeah, I have to say Phineas and Ferb.

- Role-playing games. - Doctor Who.

- Fantasy books. - Anime.

- Sergio Aragones. - The Quantum Leap Retrospective.

- Prototypes for new Kiss merchandise that's not out on the market yet.

(trolley bell ringing) (lively music)

(trolley bell ringing) (lively music)

- I'm practically vibrating right now.

I feel like I'm the Flash and I can just move through solid objects,

I'm vibrating so hard. (man on bullhorn): Exhibitors,

enter through door D.

- As nicely and calmly as possible,

you're gonna follow this gentleman right here,

and line up inside. - We wanna be the first.

That's the whole goal, to be the first ones to get down there.

- It keeps you going to know that you're gonna get a bunch of cool stuff in there.

(triumphant music)

(cheering)

- I wanna get in already. - Send 'em?

(cheering) (man): Welcome to Comic-Con International!

(woman cheering)

(man): Nice.

- How appropriate is it that you're gonna be the first one at the show to see this book.

- Mm. Wait, let me put my sunglasses on.

(laughing) - You ready?

- Whoa. (woman): Oh...

- Oh, my gosh, page... Ah.

Look at how tight these are.

This is better than 9.0.

- If this doesn't give him a hard-on, I don't know...

I mean, he's not in comics. - That's great. Nice.

Oh, man, that looks beautiful.

- All right, I've got our registration form, our judges form,

our technical form and our master-of-ceremonies form.

- I don't know where my bag is. - It's in there.

- Is it in there? Okay. - I saw it.

- And our music. - Yay!

- How's it going, Holly? - I'm good. How are you?

- So far, looks like we're gonna have a show. - What is this?

- So I've got everything here. - Let me see your forms, please. Um...

Music starts and then lights come up.

When you say "moody," what sort of moodiness are you talking about?

- Oh, we're mostly front-centre. And we're spotted, right?

- Yeah. Oh, we definitely want the spotlight. - D'you write that down?

- Yeah. - We wanted to be earlier in the show

if we can. If it's possible. - Just because Tank's costume is so heavy...

- Tank's costume is just so heavy.

- ...that, um... - Ah, let's see.

I could put you in #7. - 7 would be great.

Okay, here's the rehearsal times, you guys.

- Great. - The meaning of Masquerade

is to portray someone you're not, to take on a different identity.

It's not just a fashion show, it's a masquerade.

The character's what counts, the drama. So...

this is the wrong way

to use a stage.

(laughter)

All right, now the correct way.

(cheering)

(singing): Ta dah dun dun dun

(cheering) (singing)

(laughter) Well, okay.

- Stop laughing

- When I was a kid, I was so in love with Star Wars, all I wanted to do

was dress up like Han Solo or Darth Vader. And that love has never gone away.

(lively music)

(indistinct chatter)

(trumpeting sound)

There's something about watching

a movie experience and wanting to be part of it

and making it your own experience.

- Biker scouts, we're gonna put you in front of the Tl-(s here.

- You're stepping on your cape - Is my hair flat?

- Cosplay is costume play. People dress up as their favourite character

from TV shows or movie characters.

- Cosplay is a fusion of all my hobbies.

Like anime art, video games,

fashion, makeup.

So cosplay's the whole deal.

- I know! will probably never be famous.

I know I'll probably never have that six-pack-body type of deal.

But it just feels awesome to know

that even if I'm not famous, y'know,

people want to acknowledge me.

- These things we love just become so much bigger and more real.

This is just another dimension of our love for this world.

- It's about transcendence, it's about becoming,

it's about transforming into something

beyond what you do day-to-day in your normal routine.

- We all need... an escape.

We all need a place to go where we can live in a fantasy world

where we don't have to be grounded by the realities of our particular lives.

Delving into a world that's created for us,

with new faces, new characters, new places to embark, new journeys

new adventures. That's the magic here at Comic-Con.

- One, two, three!

(Feldman): Once you've gotten a taste of that magic, you don't wanna let it go.

- Buckets off, everybody!

(chatter) - Okay, we're good.

- Big smiles! Stormtroopers, you're not smiling!

(military-style music)

- When people approach me to show me their work,

trying to break into the industry, I can smell the...

guys who are really passionate about it

and the guys that are just, "This month, I wanna be a comic-book artist. "

- I'm doing a portfolio review.

Um, do l sign up here?

- You sign up in the portfolio area. See the sign?

- When somebody sends me a portfolio now,

I open it up, all's I care about is one thing

is the work good?

- You don't mind if I show you a little something here?

I just wanna see if I got a shot.

- The thing about people that come to Comic-Con to try and break into comics,

is that a good 80% of them just aren't that great.

- I was that kid trying to break in. I mean,

I came down to all these conventions

and I peddled my wares. I'd follow editors

into bathrooms, literally, to show 'em my portfolio.

- Well, I got my start in comics by bothering Neal Adams, mainly.

And he would tell me that that cause was hopeless,

that I was terrible and to go back to Vermont and pump gas.

- Wanting it bad enough is not necessarily good enough.

- I think your ink's a washout; you detail, a little bit.

- You gotta move your camera around a little more, right?

- Right. - Your camera's pretty static.

- The big thing is storytelling. Don't do...

big-splash pages just for the sake of doing big-splash pages.

Anyone at Marvel and DC will tell you,

if you don't have storytelling, they're not gonna hire you.

- Sometimes I just wanna kinda give them the advice of, y'know,

"If it's not workin', just, y'know, move on."

Y'know, "You could be the best lawyer the world has ever seen."

Or, "You could create a business that could become the next McDonald's."

Or, "There's gotta be something out there for you to do."

- Rejection never feels good. Total rejection would be...

would be the worst.

But a wise man listens to the advice of their peers.

I'm probably gonna use that. Hope you don't mind.

- Okay. I don't mind. - Thanks.

Cool.

- Hey, guys. - Hello. How ya doin'?

- I'm good. Do you guys, uh... I'm doin', uh...

portfolio reviews and stuff this year. I know it's unsolicited stuff,

it's annoying, but do you guys take, uh, like,

submissions and things for portfolio reviews and stuff?

- Sure. There's the man to talk to right here

- Yeah, sure. Why not.

What's your name? - I'm Skip.

- So, what do you wanna do? - Um...

I really just... I really wanna illustrate comics, honestly.

These here, I did five sequential pages.

Um, I focused more, previously, on single-page illustration and, uh...

I feel like I can do a lot of different things, uh, style-wise, uh...

- Do you have any other examples of your style, your own style?

- Uh... Well, not, uh... I-I focused more on--

- 'Cause I'm gonna be really honest with you.

I mean, this is a nice drawing right here. Right'?

But I come in here, and you're trying to do this with Star Trek,

and you're trying to do this with Superman. It's, like, this isn't working for you.

Here's... I mean, these aren't horrible,

but I don't feel like this is you.

So that when I... What's your name again? Skip?

- I'm Skip. - So, yeah.

So when I look at the work, I go, "Skip did that."

- Can I just leave this, so that next year... - Yeah. Absolutely. Sure.

- ...when you see the new one, it'll be-- - Yeah.

- It's really nice to meet you. Thank you very much.

- Sure. Good luck to you. - Thank you. I appreciate it.

Just a guy that says I have the ability to do it.

I have the talent. I just need to find a voice.

If I just pour out my sort of, like, nervous energy out into a page,

and just let it go the way that I know how to do it,

I think I can totally do this.

I don't know why it took somebody else to tell me that.

Well, that's... that's good news.

(woman screaming)

(screaming)

(camera shutters clicking)

- Even though they have "comic" in name of the event,

very little of the convention anymore is actually comics.

(whirring) (hissing)

(epic music on TV)

- We can't use the loading docks anymore,

'cause fricking Lucas films owns the loading docks.

You know, that kind of pisses you off.

It really does, 'cause it's our house!

(whooping and cheering) (man): Are you ready?

(cheering)

The excitement continues right here in the Marvel booth.

Captain America himself, Mr. Chris Evans!

(cheering)

(man): Comic-Con, for a long time,

has not been just a Comic-Con,

it's been a pop-culture-con,

which means that any...

entertainment property that has a passionate following

now belongs at Comic-Con.

(man): Please welcome Will Ferrell. (cheering)

- I brought breakfast.

Uh, I didn't expect this many people.

I only have about six doughnuts.

(man): You have literally the entire fan base

for your movie or TV show here in one concentrated place.

So it's basically the world's largest focus group.

- Does anybody wanna talk about Captain America?

(wild cheering)

Wanna see what we shot last week?

(wild cheering)

- The studios have realized this is a place to get grassroots awareness.

(man): And the man with the ring, Ryan Reynolds.

(man #2): Give a warm welcome to Angelina Jolie.

Jeff Bridges.

Harrison Ford.

(Smith): Now it's just crazy.

You get Academy Award winners to come up and kiss the ring, man.

They feel like this is where the audience is.

(man): They're using Comic-Con now as, like, a little test market.

So all the bean counters out there are, like,

"95% clappage."

- It's amazing the power this place has

to sway huge companies.

- The whole world started going, "Oh, you know what?

"These are the people who buy the tickets.

"These are the people who buy the toy,

"and then they buy another one, so they don't have to open it.

"These are the people who want every...

"Like, we must mine this extraordinary love,

"because inside of it, there might be money.

So let's dig into this love and get the money out."

- Mike thinks, or at least he said,

that he had a nibble on the Red Raven.

I am highly dubious that that actually is true.

But on the other hand,

Mike has brokered some big, big books in his day.

So if he can do something, he can do something.

If Nicolas Cage got his brain back on again

and stopped pissing his money away,

then maybe he'd be interested.

But he sold his entire collection a few years back

when the lady that he was hanging out with told him to grow up.

Like, as if he ever could. - Oh... Bad idea.

- When a woman tells you to grow up,

that's God's way of telling you to get a new woman.

- Right'? - Yeah.

Especially if she says, "Get rid of your comics."

Just a load of crap.

There's three billion women on the planet and not a lot of great comics,

so it's an easy choice.

(lively music)

(Stan Lee): Y'know, I've often thought, "How can you not love comics?"

Because everybody loves a story.

Well, comics are stories,

but you also see what's happening.

(Kirkman): I don't remember the first movie I watched.

I don't remember the first novel I read.

I don't remember the first CD I listened to.

But I could tell you, almost to the day of the week,

like, the first time I read a comic book,

what room I was in, y'know, what the lighting was like.

Y'know, it's just something that, y'know,

if it hits you at the right age, it really takes hold and doesn't let go.

- My mother tells me I was six years old

when I walked into her kitchen with a bunch...

of pieces of typing paper stapled together, and drawings all over them,

and told her I was gonna do this for the rest of my life.

So I'm a lifer.

- When I didn't finish my homework or clean my room,

my comic books got ripped up. That was the punishment.

I kept saying, "They're gonna be worth millions one day!“

Eventually, they fell for that,

not knowing that I would never actually sell my comics.

- One of the things that I think makes them attractive

is that we look at the heroes and we see human qualities inside them.

Our own stories are illuminated by them.

But it all happens in the course of an exhilarating tale.

- Comics are escapist. - Now wait a second.

- I wanted to escape. - Comics are art.

(man): Comics, be they sublime or ridiculous,

give us a... myth.

This is our Iliad.

It's our Odyssey. It's these kind of hero stories

that shows us what we are capable of

in our hearts and in our souls.

- The superhero is the kind of last small, broken ideal

of what we might all become one day

if we just get it together and stop being assholes.

- Michael. - How you doing?

- We're doing all right. - Yes.

I sent my fax out, okay? I wanted to come over and talk to you.

And... I'm waiting for a phone call

from the guy this afternoon to see what's going on.

And, uh, we'll see.

Sunday might be the best day, if we're gonna do something, if it works out.

- One way or another, we'll still befriends.

- Okay, that's good. - We'll see you later.

- You look good. - All right. Take care.

Because it's an awful lot like a religion.

Any time that you get into collectibles,

you have a mutually shared system of beliefs.

We all believe that Superman can fly. We all know that Batman will avenge evil.

I mean, there's all these things that we know that maybe they're illogical,

but we all mutually agree on them.

Get your comics! Red-hot comics!

Ten-percent discount for cash!

Get your comics right here!

Ten-percent discount for cash.

(laughing)

The Red Raven is actually so rare

that very few people even know it exists.

First, it's a number-one issue. A lot of people collect number-one issues.

Second of all, it's a Marvel/Timely Comic from 1940.

That makes it a collectible.

Then, it has seven characters in it that never appeared anywhere else.

If you collect Marvel characters,

if you don't have this book, you haven't got them all.

If you're gonna go home from the show with just one comic,

I have a recommendation.

- Oh, yeah? And that is? (laughing)

(Guillermo del Toro): Collectors, we collect exclusively for that moment

when the other collector wants to kill you.

I mean, I collect, for example, I collect a guy that no one collects:

Lee Brown Coye.

Y'know, he was a fabulous illustrator of Weird Tales.

He's one of my favorites.

And I know that there are two other guys that collect him:

Richard Sala and Mike Mignola.

And the rest of the world, when they come to my collection,

I show Lee Brown Coye, no one bats an eyelid.

But I dream for the moment

when Mignola will hear that I beat him on eBay,

or that I got a new Lee Brown Coye.

Y'know, collectors are aware of the collectors.

The rest of the world, frankly,

doesn't care that much, and that's okay.

(lively music)

(lively music)

- Room of doom.

Welcome. This is my hangout spot,

my workshop,

my breather time,

my man cave.

My, uh... my collection.

(lively music)

My wife's not too... ecstatic

about this whole toy-collecting thing.

She's just, like, "What is he doing? Why is he piling toys in the room'?"

Let's go down here. We're gonna go to the money pile.

This is an Annihilus prototype.

I sold one of them recently for 750.

"Can we talk for a minute?" "What's up, babe?"

"What are you doing with all those toys? Are you gonna sell them?"

I love this figure.

You could offer me a couple thousand and I won't sell it.

She started realizing, like, "He's collecting. Okay, he's collecting."

This was released at the Con about two, three years ago.

I paid 20 bucks for it.

Now it's worth five times that amount.

My wife, she used to make fun of me She's just like, "You got a gun safe.

"You think you're all bad with your gun safe.

You don't even have a gun." I'm, like, "So what?"

So this year at the Con,

my priority this year is the 18-inch Galactus.

- Welcome to Comic-Con! Everybody's smiling!

That's a good thing!

- Yeah, I waited frickin' two days in line.

But, you know, it's okay, man.

There's gonna be people down there selling them for twice the price,

and if that's what it runs to, then I'll buy them at twice the price.

I think we should all split up, man, and see who gets there first.

- If I could have you... I need you to back it up.

- I will not leave that Con.

You can pull me out kicking and screaming,

I'm not gonna leave unless I have those figures.

- Science fiction and fantasy fans

tend to be acquirers.

They tend to be buyers of merchandise.

That's one of the things that attracts people here.

This is exclusive to Comic-Con.

(man): What we have here is Hot Wheels Wonder Woman invisible jet.

We got 3,000 that we're gonna be selling here at Comic-Con.

And as we've been telling everybody, if you want it, get it before it disappears.

- It's funny. People ask me, "Why do you collect action figures?"

And I think... I don't know.

- Why is it important? I have no idea. There's something wrong with me, I think.

It must be my dad threw my toys out when I was a kid or something like that.

(Sheridan): What I do know is that, at this point,

if I stop, if I miss one,

I will always know that I missed that one figure,

and I can't live with that.

(man): Here we go. Here we go.

- Oh, let's go, let's go. Whoo! - Whoo!

- Shit. Here we go.

(woman): No pushing. Slow down.

- What the (bleep) is going on?

Are you serious?

So when we get there, I'm, like, seventh in line,

and by the time I'm going down the stairs for some odd reason,

I become, like, the 30th person in line.

What? Dude, I...

And there's people cutting through the sides.

Go. Break. I'll go this way. Once that line breaks, you know,

it's everyone for themselves. They're gonna say, "Sir, you cannot run. "

What are you gonna do? You gonna kick me out for running? I bolt.

(epic music)

(panting) Where's the Hasbro booth?

Where's the line for the toys?

And we made it. They're not out, right?

There we are. - Down there.

- How are you? - There you go. I am good.

Wow. Wow.

I'm all done.

There it is.

I'm really happy

This is what I came for and, uh, I'm done. I'm done.

I'm gonna go have a good time now.

- Y'know, my generation is the first generation that...

We really saved everything from our childhood and never got rid of it.

We thought the Star Wars action figures of our childhood,

we thought that was it, but now they just keep going

and going and going, and people love it.

- Look at the variant! It's got the red!

Look at the variant Deadpool! - That's crazy.

- It's X-Men! Oh, shit! Lookit! - You know what?

Just because you're a certain age, you don't have to stop

loving the things you loved as a child. That love can evolve.

- I'm tired, man. You ready? - I'm ready to go, yeah.

I got almost everything I wanted. - Wow. Let's go play with our toys.

(both chuckling)

- You guys, we've never seen any animatronic heads

or costumes or anything at Comic-Con, huh?

- I know I haven't. - I was just thinking about that.

I have never in my, like, six years of going to Comic-Con,

have seen any sort of animatronic anything.

Why can't we bring puppets and animatronics back?

- 'Cause Jim Henson died. (laughter)

- Well, you know what? We need to be the next Jim Henson

and make people realize that these things are what...

brings magic out into the real world. We're trying, guys.

We made an animatronic head in a garage.

(accordion music)

- We are here at Comic-Con and I am Reverend Lufercilious von Rat Speed,

vocal emissary for the Reno division 777,

of Doctor Steel's army of toy soldiers.

And I am here busking in traditional format,

scaring the pedestrians as they walk towards the convention.

- Sit in my chair. Let me make you look dead. Come on, buddy.

(Roth): I'll never forget the first time I took a piss

next to a Stormtrooper and a Klingon.

The Stormtrooper was, like, "How are you, sir?"

And the Klingon guy, y'know, speaking the Klingon back and forth.

It was... That could only happen at Comic-Con.

With no irony whatsoever. - Time.

You're done.

(laughing)

(growling)

(all): Arrghh!

(screaming)

(man on P.A.): Welcome to Comic-Con, folks.

(Regen): I was looking out my hotel room window,

and I saw three Ninja Turtles

really impatiently checking their watches,

waiting for the fourth Ninja Turtle to show up.

And then the fourth guy showed up. They're like, "(bleep).

"Where have you been, man? We have three Ninja Turtles here.

We look like a couple of jerks."

(Morrison): My favourite one, I think,

was the character Dr. Manhattan from The Watchmen,

the blue guy who walks about naked.

And there was a version of him who was, like,

300 pounds overweight,

walking around almost naked, painted completely blue.

And it was all kind of flaking off his ass and stuff.

- I'm sorry. Sir, excuse me You have to check that in.

- It's been checked. - Every day, we gotta check it in, sir.

(man): If you got weapons, come on in.

- How you doing?

(laughing)

(whirring)

- One of the craziest things

that you definitely see at Comic-Con

are women dressed

in very strange and revealing outfits.

And you know it's from a comic book

or an anime or a video game, but you can't quite place it,

and all you know is that girl forgot her pants.

(man): And you see, like, people dressed as Predators,

people doing karate, and just other people with guitars.

It's like, they don't have characters, but they got a guitar,

and they're wearing a weird hat. They fit in. It's fine. It's perfect.

Yesterday, I saw 30 Princess Leia's all lined up on the comic-book floor.

- All right, let's see here.

Let me meet the Leia's.

How's everyone doing? - Good.

- Every year, I bring as many slave ladies as I can

to hang out with me and to meet all the fans out here.

We got our bounty hunters

and our Stormtroopers here to guard them.

Because I can't do it all by myself, y'know.

- Move along.

- All right, thanks for coming.

And without further ado...

(whistling and applause)

Hopefully, we're gonna celebrate later with a few cocktails.

- I actually met my wife at Comic-Con. (laughing)

So that was pretty exciting. We had a crazy adventure night.

We were practically kidnapped

and taken across this bridge in San Diego that I didn't know existed.

And we wound up having the adventure of a lifetime

and bonded in a way that has made us husband and wife.

How about that? That happened at Comic-Con.

- I just saw an Asian-boy/white-girl couple.

- Wow. That's-- - It was like seeing a unicorn.

- Twilight Zone. - And she was really tall.

- My name is James Darling, and this is my girlfriend.

- And this is my boyfriend.

- This is Se Young.

We actually started dating

at Comic-Con last year, so...

- We're really looking forward to seeing Kevin Smith.

He pretty much gave birth to, like, the indie movement as we know.

- Yes, this is true. - He's amazing.

(James): But what Se Young doesn't know is that...

I'm actually planning on proposing to her

at the Kevin Smith panel at Comic-Con.

This is James Darling.

Um, uh...

my friend Jess talked to you last week

about popping the question at Kevin Smith's panel.

(woman): And you're gonna be asking this question?

- I am. I'm the one popping the question.

I kind of scoped out some of the jewellers that will actually be at Comic-Con,

and I found this one jeweler who actually specializes

in making The Lord of the Rings replica jewellery,

to make a custom ring.

The ring is sort of going to be a clock without hands, too,

to symbolize our...

timeless nature of our love.

- This is a perfect...

breeding ground for nerd love.

- Love blossoms at the Comic-Con.

- He brought me to my first Comic-Con.

(man): To me, it's just a great time with my best friend.

I mean, it's... y'know, I get to come with the girl I love

who loves the same things I love.

- We'd come to Comic-Con every year,

and that became one of our traditions as a couple.

- And, actually, that led to me proposing to her at Comic-Con.

- We very much are on our honeymoon.

- We are on our honeymoon, at Comic-Con.

- Before the Kevin Smith panel,

I actually need to pick up the engagement ring.

We're gonna be in a couple of panels today in hall H,

and I'm hoping that, if I can be apart from Se Young,

I'm gonna try and go and pick up the ring.

- I'm proud to call him my friend,

Sylvester Stallone -

Rocky, Rambo, Demolition Man.

(cheering) Everything you love!

- Whoo!

(James): Hall H is the biggest room at Comic-Con,

where they do all the biggest events.

It's as close as you can get to a baseball stadium.

- For geeks. - For geeks. Yeah.

(man): So did it hurt more in Rocky IV or in Expendables?

- Uh, Rocky IV maybe hurt a little more.

- Oh, my God. I wouldn't wanna do it again.

He put me in the hospital for four days.

Four days. No, thanks. (laughter)

- On the break, you go change. - Okay.

- I'll stay here, you come back, and then...

- But that means I have to stay here alone

through the Scott Pilgrim panel.

(man): I mean, when you think about...

(James): It's been really hard finding any time

apart from Se Young.

She basically just wants to stay attached at the hip 24/7.

These are the tough choices you have to make at every Comic-Con.

Too much awesomeness. - No, not this tough.

- It's making my mission incredibly difficult.

What did you wanna go to? There was something in the evening.

- What time is Caprice?

- I thought you wanted to go to Walking Dead.

- No. I wanna go where you are.

- We can go our separate ways for one hour - No.

- You can tell me everything that happened at Walking Dead.

- Then you should go to Walking Dead. - No, but I really wanna see Caprica.

- Then we should go to Caprice. - Okay.

You never wanna be apart from me. - Never.

(crowd chanting): Stan! Stan! Stan! Stan! Stan! Stan!

- I like that. (cheering)

- Hey. - Hi there. Hey.

- Yo, Stan Lee! - Yo! There we go.

- This is my friend right here.

I really wanna meet this guy really badly.

Oh. Stay up there, Stan.

(man): Let's bring out the man you've been waiting for,

Mr. Stan Lee!

(cheering)

- There you go, my friend.

- I think the first time you go around Comic-Con

you find that when you walk through the autograph booths,

there?! be somebody in one of those booths

who'll make you kinda stop dead in your tracks

and say, "I have to get Sam Jones's autograph."

- I think the most star-struck I was

was when I was in an elevator in my hotel

with Joss Whedon, who I think is awesome.

And I was so nervous to talk to him, I didn't.

I just sat there and was, like, "I'm gonna keep my head down,

I'm not gonna say anything, 'cause no matter what I say, I'll screw it up."

- I met Neal Adams here,

and I've geeked out that hard probably twice.

I mean, to the point where I'm, like...

(breathing heavily, muttering) "Do you know that you're Neal Adams?

Has anybody told you about your Neal Adams-ness?"

- I got to meet Michael Winslow. "Oh, my gosh, that's Michael Winslow."

He does the sound effects from the Police Academy movies.

- Lucy Liu actually came to the booth to visit me.

- I actually was in an elevator with Lou Ferrigno once.

- I almost followed George Romero into the bathroom once.

- I have been star-struck at Comic-Con

only moments ago when I saw Bruce Campbell

in the steam tunnels outside the show floor.

- Someone's, like, "Hey, there's Stan Lee." He was, like, coming right towards me.

I guess he had just gotten out of another panel.

And I was, like, quickly fumbling for my camera,

like, "Hey, Stan Lee, can I get a picture?" Then he was, like, whoo.

Like, instantly turned left A hard left.

And his handler was like "Stan, you're going into the ladies' room!"

And then all my friends were, like, "You scared the shit outta Stan Lee."

- I think, honestly, more than anything,

the fans just want to literally press the flesh.

They just wanna meet the people who are involved

with the comic books and video games

and movies and TV shows that entertain them.

- It's surreal.

There's no other place in the world that you can do that,

not for a normal, average fan, anyway.

- I've seen Gene Simmons here on multiple occasions.

- I would like to meet Jim Parsons from The Big Bang Theory.

- I really wanna meet Edgar Wright.

- Zachary Quinto. - David Tennant.

- Warren Ellis. - Tom Baker with the afro.

- Harrison Ford. - Ray Bradbury.

- Nicolas Cage. - Stan Lee and Joss Whedon.

- Neal Gaiman. - Adam West.

- Mike Mignola.

- Robert Kirkman from Image Comics.

He's kind of an idol of mine He writes Walking Dead.

I got a tattoo on my arm from it.

It's all in black and white, 'cause it's a black-and-white comic.

- That's the beauty of Comic-Con.

You can be next to people that you idolize,

y'know, next to people that you hate,

next to people who have written bad things about you, people who love you.

It's the only time where nerds and the people who make things

get to come together and kind of geek out together.

- Gee, it's so nice to see you. - Thank you.

- Can I sign it over there? - Perfect.

- Why not? I like that shirt. - Thank you very much.

- You're very welcome. - So, one quick question.

- Yeah? - Who's your favourite superhero?

- Silver Surfer! - Silver Surfer.

- You didn't expect that, did ya? - No, I didn't.

- All right. I wanted to surprise you. - All right.

- Good meeting you. - Nice to meet you.

That was awesome. It was like a dream come true.

(Smith): I got here today to go to a Batman panel.

We step into the back. As soon as we get in back,

I hear, "Hey, spider friend." And I was like, "it was (bleep) Stan Lee

If I could go back in time and tell, like, the 11-year-old me,

like, "One day, not only do you go to Comic-Con,

"you go to Comic-Con every year, so much so that, like,

you get greeted by Stan Lee when you show up."

Y'know? And the 11-year-old me would be, like,

"How did we get so fat?

What the (bleep) happened? Stop eating Obviously something went wrong.

"Never mind Stan Lee. Look at your diet. It's horrible.

Coming from the past to show me this from the future?"

And then, boom, he tries to kill me and I die.

And then, the young 11-year-old me progresses and shit as a thin Kevin Smith,

becomes president.

- How are your sales? Okay?

- It's been steady. - Everybody's saying that.

- I don't think that we'll set records, but it's been steady.

- Sales for the show so far, up, down, sideways?

- Y'know, a little slow, but steady.

- It's not as heavy as we've seen in years past.

- And yesterday was okay? - Yeah.

We're making margin, but we're not making gross, so...

I gotta just wait and see what happens.

- Hopefully today.

It's like Vegas, y'know? It can turn around.

Maybe it's not like Vegas at all. - No, it's not.

A gentleman came by. He's made a lot of money in high tech,

and he's interested in possibly buying the Red Raven.

I mentioned to him, because Mike Carbonaro was here,

and I mentioned to him that one of Carbonaro's guys

was interested in buying the entire case, which is true.

- Right. - So all of a sudden,

he's saying, "Well,

I might be thinking about the whole thing, too."

And I really don't wanna do this.

- I know that. I know that.

- I'll follow through because I said I would, okay?

But I just...

This is definitely moving me away from my comfort zone.

All right? So we'll see. We'll see how it goes.

(epic music)

Let's start laying out money.

Okay, so what do we have here so far?

We got 10,000 and change.

- The only charges that we did yesterday

totaled 941 and 1,372.

- Something here is completely whack-a-doodle.

They gave me a total for today of 30,200,

And then I get here and I start counting the money,

and there isn't squat.

So we didn't even do as well as we thought we did last night,

which means that instead of doing mediocre, we did bad.

- No, I mean, that's the problem. Like, if you walk over to the movie section,

it's chock-a-block.

And you walk over to our section, and it's not that busy.

That's the trend of the Con. I'm sorry. Anybody can say,

"At the end of the day, it's all about comics."

But it's not. It's dying.

- I'm actually worried about where Comic-Con is headed.

When I started off, it was almost 100% about comics.

- Comic books and graphic novels have taken a backseat, sort of,

to this pop-culture explosion, which Comic-Con has now become.

- Comic-con, it's about everything now except for comics in some ways.

- It's weird to sort of be the low man on the totem pole

at this kind of, y'know, 100,000-person orgy of...

of nerd stuff, but we kind of are.

- Most of the people here don't care,

'cause they're not necessarily "comic-book readers," per se.

- The sad thing is, y'know,

a lot of people don't even know

there's comics going on at this thing.

- Shit.

It looks like, for last night,

that we only did, like, 445, something like that.

I know, hon. Let's see what happens, okay?

Give me another couple of days, let me see if I can bust this out.

(clattering)

- I know. - It just... It sucks.

- I know. We'll be due. We'll be golden.

Just chill out. - We'll see.

But Nanette was saying that we should pull out, y'know?

I'm not. I'm not pulling out. - Don't.

- I'm just not gonna give it up. This is where I live.

(Macho Man playing)

- How you feeling?

- I'm feeling good. How are you?

We're gonna be in costume tomorrow night.

- Yes! - Awesome.

- That looks really cool. - He's letting me borrow his gun.

The aging is really good.

- Can I see the...? - Ooh, the trigger moves.

- Oh, cool gun. - Nice.

(Macho Man still playing)

- Holly's gonna come out.

At her line, you're gonna come out.

And because he's standing in the middle,

I want you to stand right here.

Okay, Alex, tell me when you're ready. (Alex): Okay.

(slow, dramatic music) (man): We're at war.

(mouthing words): One very specific woman

might be all that stands between humanity and the greatest threat...

- You're standing in front of Alex.

Stand right there on that one. Perfect.

Keep walking. Keep walking. - Thank you, Shepard.

- Keep walking. - My job is to hurt things.

- Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk.

Keep walking. Keep walking!

- Okay. Can we practice again?

- But running through doesn't help if you do it wrong.

- He can't see that well. He's doing his best.

- All right.

I'm gonna press play. ls everyone ready?

- Hey, Nevaeh, I'm looking at this building right now

that's bigger than anything you've ever seen.

Maybe one day, daddy can work here.

(man): Follow the cart.

(woman): Follow the cart. Follow the cart.

- It's been along day. - Yeah, it's been a long journey.

- The real adventure starts right now.

(James): It's about 6 a.m., and we're gonna go line up

for the Warner Bros. panel in hall H.

Throughout the rest of Comic-Con, I haven't had a single opportunity

to get away from Se Young and pick up the ring.

We're gonna be on line and in hall H all day together.

(whispering): Today, I'm actually gonna be proposing

to Se Young.

So I'm gonna just go take a bathroom break,

but I will be right back.

- Go to the Hilton. I think that'll be closest for you.

- I'm gonna try the hall first, because the Hilton, you have to go in--

- It's not open yet, is it? There was a long-ass line--

- They usually let the people into the hall -

the hallway - at the end of the hallway.

- 'Cause when I came, there was a huge line,

Like, of people waiting to get in to the floor.

Outside.

- Hey, Dan's up there.

- Really? - Yeah.

All right, bye.

So, I do actually need to go to the bathroom,

but it's not really why I left.

Hi. I just stepped out of the line.

I'm walking by the H.

- Hey, James. - Hey, how you doing?

Good to meet you. - It's good to meet you, too.

What we've done, is we tied the rings together with silk thread.

- That looks so good. - Okay.

- All right. Thank you so much. - We'll see you later. Good luck.

- Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Now I gotta start doing

the mental writing in my brain of those perfect words

in which to express my love...

...in front of 7,000 nerds and geeks, so...

All right.

- Hey, Mom. How's it going?...

Well, I've done, like,

11, 12 reviews in--

Yeah, like 12 reviews in two days.

The first thing out of just about everybody's mouth is, like,

"Well, you've got talent. You can draw." You know, they didn't tell me

to get the hell out or anything and never read a comic again.

So that was, like, y'know... That's a good sign.

A lot of constructive criticism.

Some people were just dicks...

I know, I know, I know.

I've been making the most of my opportunities. Don't worry.

(man shouting): Walt Disney Studios...

- I've never seen a gathering of human beings this large for anything.

- Oh, really? - It's ridiculous. I've...

- You haven't been to Disneyland, then. - No, I haven't.

- Some of those people that were in the copy room with me were, like...

I felt, like, head and shoulders above me,

and I'm, like... It was a little intimidating.

Hello. How's it going? Hi.

- Do you wanna sign up for-- - I do.

Um, for Dark Horse today, actually, if I could.

Dark Horse has really been intimidating me,

because they're very specific about what they look for.

But I was, like, "I don't care. I'm gonna do it."

Someone who's obsessed with the visually drawn medium

has the ability to draw.

It ain't rocket surgery to put those together.

Shit.

Let's just jump into the fire,

as Duran Duran would say.

The fact that I have that ability seems almost like fate.

Last call! Shantelle Adina!

- Anytime an artist goes up to get critiqued,

there's always that nervousness of, "They're gonna hate it."

- All right! Dark Horse! I'm looking for McCall, Art!

- Well, I don't mind the harsh critiques.

I mean, growing up, doing art, you hear critiques all the time.

But what I don't wanna hear is that, "You're not meant for this.

"You can't do this, because so many things

are wrong with your art I don't even know where to start. "

(mm yelling)

The one critique that you can never argue with:

"You're not what we're looking for."

Doesn't matter how good, y'know, or how bad.

If you're not what they're looking for, then that's it.

How you guys doing? Honour to meet you.

- Hi, I'm Art. - Nice to meet you.

- Hi, I'm Tory.

- All right! Dark Horse! I'm looking for a Skip Harvey!

- Thank you. Hi.

It's nice to meet you. Skip. - Nice to meet you.

- You wanted to see sequential stuff, right?

- Yes. - Let's just skip to that.

- All right.

- Your portfolio is really, really solid.

I really mean that.

You have a style, Eric, that doesn't look like 100 other people's.

It's got great line work. It's got great panel work.

You know how to use nebulous space.

I would love to work with you. Like, seriously.

As soon as I saw this, I was gonna tell you, "We're gonna do a book together."

(beeping)

Hey. I just got out of my portfolio review

with Arch Enemy Entertainment.

They wanna do a book with me.

So they wanna work with me, want me to call them.

I was so nervous.

I was so scared that they would be, like,

"Ah, you're okay, but you need a little more work."

And he seemed like it was amazing to him.

- Now, are you working from a script,

or are you just kinda making it up as you go along?

- I work from photo reference, so we kind of, like,

played it out in my living room. - The first thing I'd tell you is,

keep drawing until you can work without the photo reference,

because sooner or later,

you're gonna have to draw stuff you can't get a photo of.

So you won't get paid for it until you can do it better.

- I have a to-go one if you'd like to--

- No, I think the next stuff you do is the stuff I'd wanna see.

- That's fair. Okay. - All right'?

- All right. I appreciate it. Thank you. - Okay. Thanks a lot.

- Have a good day. - You, too.

- He was very diplomatic, but, uh...

It was very much a "You're not ready to work for Dark Horse" kind of a...

I'm trying to keep my spirits up. But, y'know, I put a lot into this, y'know,

and I feel like back home, everybody believes in me,

but here, I'm just a fanboy with a portfolio.

Y'know what I mean?

So it's just kind of... hard sometimes

when I've got so much emotion, like, riding on it not to...

- The place we ate, where we got the ravioli,

not Spaghetti Factory,

but the other place, it was really good.

-Okay.-

Se and I have been in here all day.

Starting to feel a little... claustrophobic

with all the people here.

Starting to get a little nervous.

(indistinct chatter)

If I'm gonna ask... I should get in line, even if I don't know the question.

- It better not be a dumb question, or else I'll be ashamed of you forever.

- It's gonna be a miracle if everything kind of...

coalesces exactly how it's in my head.

I'm at the mercy of Kevin Smith and his people

and the Comic-Con staff and,

y'know, essentially, all the fans.

- Oh, my God. This is gonna be so awesome,

except if James asks a dumb question.

Then it won't be awesome anymore.

He's not even gonna get to ask.

He's, like, way too far behind in line.

- That's the line? - Yeah.

- Are you the marriage proposal? - Yes.

- Okay. - I'm just standing right here

so that my girlfriend doesn't--

- Got it.

- I have a backup question for you,

in case someone asks your question before you get up there.

Will you ask him if he'll marry me? - Okay.

- Really? I'm so excited.

(man): I want you guys to yell as loud as you can

and let Kevin Smith know you're excited to see him.

(cheering) Thank you.

- Whoo!!

(James): I think this is gonna come as a huge surprise for her.

She could be, like, “It's not the right time."

(laughing) You know?

Which would be pretty tragic in front of so many people.

I just want it to be something

that she'll remember forever.

(cheering) (man): Thank you. Thank you.

- What's up, man? How are you?

(muted): Good, man. How are... Hello? Can you hear me?

(crowd booing)

- Can you do, like, dance interpretation of your question?

(laughter)

(muted): Hello. (laughter)

(audience members shouting)

(amplified): Hello. (Smith): Hey!

- Yeah!

- Yeah!!!

- Hey, Kevin. - Hey, man, how are you?

- I'm good. How are you? - That's good.

That was such a build-up. Hopefully the question is gonna kick a...

- I know. I'm sorry. - It's not your fault, dude.

Anyway, what do you wanna talk about, dude?

- Well, my girlfriend and I are huge fans-

- Love you, Kevin!

- And she was wondering

if you would ever consider making a 3D movie?

- I don't think I'll ever shoot a movie with that.

I mean- (cheering)

My shit is barely two-dimensional.

I can't imagine popping it into the third dimension.

That'd be weird. - Sure. Sure.

There is one other thing I wanted to ask.

(crowd booing)

- What'? - Well, is it an important question?

- It's a very important question.

- You have an important question for me?

- Not for you.

Uh... for my girlfriend.

(audience murmuring)

- Do it!

(laughter)

Do it, dude! Do it! - What is it?

- We started dating one year ago at Comic-Con.

- Oh, my God!

(audience whooping)

And I was wondering--

- Where is she? Where is she?

- She's right here. - Stand up! Stand up!

- ...If she would be willing to marry me,

and spend our geek lives together.

(muffled yelling) (cheering)

(cheering continues)

- You have to put it on me! Oh, my God!

(crowd cheering) (Se Young crying)

Oh, my God!

(whooping, whistling)

- Congratulations, man. That's awesome.

(cheering)

I just want you to know, I claim primae nocta rights.

(laughter)

- Oh, my God. - Congratulations.

Can I go to the wedding? - Absolutely.

- You wanna do it next year here at Comic-Con?

- Yes! Yes! (cheering)

Yeah! Oh, my God!

- Either that, or I could do it for you. I'm an ordained minister.

- Oh, my God!

(cheering continues) Oh, my God! Oh!

- All right, man, you all good? - Yeah.

- (bleep) off. Stop stealing my spotlight.

Congratulations, man. Well done.

- Thank you, Kevin.

- Welcome to the club.

- We're finally here outside the Masquerade ballroom.

Yeah, I'm really excited.

I'm not really sure what I'll be seeing here,

so let them surprise me. (giggling)

(woman): Go ahead and find a seat! All the seats up front are taken!

(chattering)

- Don't do the scars. We don't have time. Just do it.

- Groups two through nine, line up right here.

We're gonna get started.

- Tank, we're almost done.

You should put your head on and start trying it.

- Put the head on? - Yes. You need to start trying it.

'Cause you need to start making sure everything works.

- We're gonna do that over here.

(cheering and applause)

- Welcome to the 2010

San Diego Comic-Con Masquerade.

(cheering)

- We're at war.

No one wants to admit it, but humanity is under attack.

- Relax for a second.

(click) - How's that?

(muffled): Pretty good.

- Much better? - Yeah.

(muffled m uttering)

- All right, we are ready to begin!

Entry number...

(audience): One! Ha-ha-ha!

And now, from James Cameron's Avatar,

a costume that needs no further introduction.

(dramatic music) (applause and cheering)

(chattering)

- It's very surreal, because when I start getting nervous,

I stop becoming the character

and start going back to just being Holly and being confused.

- It was working before. - I know.

It works if we just bridge the contacts. There's something wrong with that circuit

that wasn't wrong, you know, 10 minutes ago.

- Costume number...

(crowd): Three! Ha-ha-ha!

(dramatic music) (cheering and applause)

(gunfire)

(gunfire continues)

(explosion) (cheering and applause)

Costume number...

(crowd): Four! Ha-ha-ha!

(dramatic music) (snickering)

(Holly): What's wrong over there?

Is it working?

I hear servos. It's working.

- The servos are working. The other things aren't.

(cheering)

- Costume number...

(crowd): Five! Ha-ha-ha!

(dramatic music)

(screaming)

(Holly): I need to know the head's working.

If the head's working and the lights are on, we'll be back on the same track.

- Plug the blue one into that. - Are you guys okay handling that?

- And then bridge the two red ones together with that piece of wire.

(Holly): Why isn't it lighting up?

Someone needs to help them.

- How's that feel?

Want me to flip the switch?

(woman): Ready?

- I see lights. - That works.

Yes! Servos, lights together, yes.

- Are all of these and the head going to work at the same time?

- Yes. - Okay.

(dramatic music) (cheering)

(dramatic music) (cheering)

(whoosh)

(cheering)

- Entry number...

(crowd): Six! Ha-ha-ha!

(applause) (slow tempo)

(growling)

(audience whooping)

(woman singing): Monster man

Monster man

- Are you ready to be Mass Effect?

- Yes. - Whoo!

Monster man (audience clapping along)

(music stops) (clapping)

(screeching)

(soft music)

(Holly): I never thought that I would be here,

making these characters I'm so passionate about

and having them stand next to me, and they really look like the characters.

(slow tempo) (applause)

(announcer): Costume number...

(crowd): Seven! Ha-ha-ha!

(Holly): When you're about to go on stage in something you've created,

after all those months and months and months

of all this pain and everything for this show,

and you're going to show all these people, the whole audience, thousands of nerds -

we're all part of the same fan base -

that's that moment where you feel like it was all worth it.

(cheering and applause)

(man): We're at war.

No one wants to admit it, but humanity is under attack.

(lip-syncing): One very specific woman

might be all that stands between humanity

and the greatest threat of our brief existence.

Shepard, you're unique. (cheering)

Not just in ability or what you've experienced,

but in what you represent.

You stood for humanity at a key moment.

You're more than a soldier, you're a symbol.

I brought you back.

It's up to you to do the rest.

(gunfire)

(audience whooping)

(gunfire continues)

(man over radio): Commander, we got a problem.

Hostiles massing just outside the door.

(lip-syncing): We need to finish this before they get through.

(Grunt): You gave me purpose. Thank you, Shepard.

(cheering) My job is to hurt things.

Now let's find something big to kill.

I am krogan!!!

(cheering)

(Holly): It's been a long journey and no one's coming out without scars.

Make me proud. Make yourselves proud.

(cheering)

(squealing) - We did it! We did it!

Oh, I'm so happy.

- That was so cool. - You looked so cool.

He walked out there and they loved it.

- It couldn't have been any better.

(woman): We won an award!

- We won an award? - We won an award!

Some guy just came in, and he was, like,

"Suit up, everyone, you've won an award."

"Suit up, everyone"?

(woman): For the judges' choice,

number seven, Suicide Mission.

(people cheering) - Let's go, let's go!

(applause)

(audience cheering)

- Here's what we do: 50 off everything from get-go.

- Right when we open the door, 50 off everything.

- 50 off, and we're gonna go that way all day.

- That's the only saving grace I think we have

is maybe people are waiting for that.

- Maybe.

- Pick up your badges and enter door E.

(woman): 10.87. (man): You folks need a receipt?

Thank you very much. Have a good one.

(woman): All right.

(man): All right.

(man #2); 32.58.

(chattering) (cash register dinging)

(man): Sunday's usually, like, the quietest of the days.

The dealers are starting to box things up,

and everybody's starting to, y'know, get out of town early,

and you realize it's coming to the end for another year.

It's almost sort of like 11:30 at night

on Christmas... Christmas day.

You realize it's over for another year.

- This is Mecca.

And what that means to these sorts of geeks,

people like me,

is this is a place where you go,

and you're probably very normal.

(Way): It's a big... reward

for being passionate

about something that doesn't exist.

Because there's nothing wrong with that.

- Con was all about this small window

in your year where, y'know,

you weren't a geek or a nerd or like, "You like those movies?"

Or love Star Wars and shit like that.

Suddenly, you could go someplace where everyone was kind of like-minded.

It kicks off the geek year.

Y'know, like the Chinese calendar begins, like, at a different time.

It's got rats and zebras. This is the same (silence) thing.

(Holly): The skit was really, really fun, and I think that we put on a performance.

We produced an entire short for Mass Effect,

And that was a success, and it was really, really amazing.

But I think what we really wanted to do

was get on the floor and confront people close up,

because when you're close to them in costume, they see everything.

They see the detail. They see the eyes blinking.

They see the mouth moving.

And there's so many gamers who wanted to see our costumes, and fans.

And that was really, I think, what everyone enjoyed the most.

(laughter)

(chattering) Next year, we're all gonna get together

and make costumes again, until, y'know, if maybe one day,

I get to actually work as a super-sweet movie costumer,

and then we'll just be making costumes somewhere else.

- Did you draw this? - This is fantastic, man.

- This is your portfolio? - Damn, man.

- Coming to this convention has shown me

that there's two types of people.

There's the kind that sit back and admire,

and then there's people that use that same time to create

something to admire.

- Your Hulk is awesome! Dude, you already know what you're doing.

- I know I should be a part of this world. Not just this year but every year.

(applause)

(man): Thanks for coming out.

This is "breaking into comics the Marvel way."

You're all here to find out how to break into comics.

- Going into the convention, I thought maybe that I would be able

to just waltz in there and somebody would "notice" me.

- It took, you know, 10 long years of trying.

Ten long years! (Skip): It's a lot like a kung-fu movie.

They really had to strip through my hubris and my ego,

and then I can now

totally break that board with my hand.

I can do this.

I just need to work really, really hard.

(man): All right. Let's do it.

So, Lynn, what did you get for a number?

- And whatever... - What William took in?

- Whatever William took in.

One hundred.

- We're in.

That's better than last year.

(whistling)

As far as I'm concerned, they're off the market.

-Okay.

- I said many times that if I was gonna die,

I really didn't wanna go to heaven,

because heaven would just have all the stiffs in it.

I wanted to go to Comic-Con where you get the diversity

of exciting, dynamic people with whom you can share your life.

And so I wanna die and go to Comic-Con.

- You're the man, Stan. - You're right. Damn right.

Hi. -You're the man, Stan.

- You're right. I agree. (laughing)

I think the fans are the most important things

in the comic-book business,

and I might add, in any form of entertainment.

- Thank you! - You're welcome.

I feel you've gotta be nice to the fans.

- You're my favourite. - And I admire your taste.

Because without them, you're nothing.

Here you are, Galactus. - Thank you.

- Would you be willing to sign my shirt?

- I'll be glad to. - Just right on the star.

- We used to come here, and we got geeked out

looking for autographs from favourite artists

and writers, but I've stopped collecting comics

for the last 10 years.

But I still come here because it gives me a...

a warm sense of belonging.

- The person I am, the things that I love to do...

I mean, I almost feel like I have to hide that the rest of the year.

But this is the point where you can just be.

- You know, you can come to a place where nobody's judging you

or making fun of you because you're a 6'2" black male

who likes to wear a superhero costume.

- I've always described it as kind of a big family reunion

whenever I come back.

- It's like having a country of your own.

- Whenever I go inside, I feel like I've gone home.

(Schnepp): In all my years of coming to Comic-Con,

the thing that draws me back to Comic-Con every time

are the people.

That's what I look forward to.

That's what Comic-Con is to me, and that's what it's always gonna be.

- Imagine if you took all the people that still think that life is going to be...

magical and fantastical and great,

and you put them all in the same room,

and you told them, "Hey, guess what? It's true!

Everything's gonna be great! Y'know?

And you just set them free. That's what it's like.

It is the most depressing thing and the most depressing place in the world,

if you look at it that way.

If you look at it like, "Oh, my God, my favourite comic book,"

then it's great.

- Ha. When I came to my first Comic-Con, all I knew was that it was gonna smell.

And other than that,

I figured there'd be a lot of comic-book stuff that I'd never heard of,

and I was right on both counts.

- Yes, it's not just a legend.

It is a fact that there is a smell at Comic-Con.

Me and my friends joke that because of my height,

I'm above the stink line.

The stink line probably goes to right about here.

I'm above it, so I don't catch it so much on the floor.

But when I'm stuck next to someone on line for a few hours,

uh, it's deadly.

It's deadly. It's real. The stink is real at Comic-Con.

- I think people do have a misconception.

I mean, like, if anybody, like, talks about it in a derisive way,

they'll say that it's, like, just a bunch of big geeks,

and they'd be right.

- Another friend who came with us was telling us

there's a panel about how to meet chicks at Comic-Con,

which was kind of like, "Ew."

But I don't know. I don't know. - I bet no chicks attend that.

- Yeah, no chicks. It's a sausage-fest at that place.

- It used to be, like, only dudes there. Now there are (silence) chicks.

Y'know, and now there are vampire chicks.

Y'know, 14, 15-year-old vampire chicks, who, in five years,

are gonna be slutty and perfect, with fangs and shit and all emo.

Like, "I wanna hurt my father. Let's have sex." That kind of thing.

So that never happened five years ago.

You could conceivably get laid at Comic-Con now.

That's how cool it is. The geeks truly have inherited the Earth.

- Um, when people say the geeks have inherited the Earth,

I tend to say, "Stop calling me a geek," and "How much of the Earth do I get?

Can I have Australia?"

Still not sure the difference between a geek and a nerd,

except that I think a geek can bite the head off a chicken.

- If you got crushed by a stampede of people

in Star Wars Stormtrooper outfits,

wouldn't you be honoured to go that way?

I would. Y'know, I think...

Y'know, if I got crushed by,

y'know, a guy in a in a Donald Duck costume,

y'know, and that were part of my obituary,

I dunno, I think it'd be a good way to go.

- I'm so glad I was born at this point in history.

'Cause if I was born in, like, the 40s and shit,

and your whole life is about the World War and shit...

There ain't no World War going on. My whole life's about like,

"Did you see, they changed Wonder Woman's pants?

"It's (bleep) up, isn't it? (bleep) up."

DVD Subtitling: CNST, Montreal