Comic-Con 2013 Day 3: MacGuyver saves the day!

I decided to go ahead and cosplay Phantom of the Paradise today, now that the weather had cooled down. I was all dressed up when we realized that part of my helmet/mask was broken (it's a two-part affair connected by hinges, and one of the hinges had broken off and vanished. Fortunately Karen is way more handy than I am and she made a connector out of a hair tie that held the mask together for a while. 

So down we went to Petco Park for the Nerd HQ panel with Joss Whedon. It was in a bleacher box and intimate for Comic-Con, just 250 people. Zac Levi (of the Chuck show) runs Nerd HQ but by this far into events he was losing his voice, so Nathan Fillion filled in as host, an entirely welcome turn of events by my standards. 

I suspected Joss was a Phantom fan based off some movie quotes that had emerged in his tweets, so I made sure I was all helmeted and ready when he entered. Sure enough, he saw me, pointed and grinned. Later I got the mike and stood up to ask a question; when I did, he said something along the lines of "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be in the rafters terrorizing people or writing beautiful music for Jessica Harper to sing?" I replied, "Today's my day off." I asked him about his reputation as a bloodthirsty writer who kills off lots of characters and how he felt about that; turns out he's very tired of it. Which I can respect, but I'm still mad about what he did to Fred and Wes. The whole panel was great, with lots of laughs not just from Joss but from Nathan as well (quelle surprise). But my inner fangirl was all happy at the interaction with one of the creators I admire and respect the most. 

After the panel it was over to the convention center, where I got in line for the panel about Live Forever, a biopic about Ray Bradbury. It was a good panel (the only disappointment was that my longtime crush Malcolm McDowell, who reads Bradbury's poetry in the film, could not attend). I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for the film, as Bradbury is one of my idols.

Then I paraded around the place in costume getting compliments and my picture taken, until my patience with the sweaty costume and the jury-rigged hinge gave out and I caught the bus back to the hotel.

We still have a full night ahead of us, as Nerd HQ is putting on a screening of Serenity in Petco Park with Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk in attendance. It will be late by then, and in the morning we have to pack before our full day and travel back to Pasadena, so the next update will be Monday morning!