1. Resident Evil: Afterlife - San Diego Comic-Con, 2010
This panel (held in Hall H and featuring Michelle Rodriguez, just like the "Women Who Kick Ass" panel) showed every sign of being a snoozefest. That's its own genre of disaster, especially at San Diego, where the stakes and expectations are so high. Director/writer/producer Paul W.S. Anderson kicked things off with a 3-D version of a trailer already seen in 2-D which didn't look that different, prompting Cinema Blend and SlashFilm to ask why the 3-D conversion was necessary or desirable. After that, the team didn't have a whole lot of new or interesting information to share-- did you know that the same creative team had worked on all four films in the franchise to date? Did you know the cast are happy with their lead actress and director? Did you care? Still, there were worse things in the world than boredom, and the stability of the franchise (this was the fourth of six movies) means that at least some of the attendees of the panel were having a good time. It was possible to take comfort in such philosophy as the panel went on. And then at the end of the panel, people were filing in and out to get ready for the next promo, for the movies Paul and Cowboys and Aliens. And someone got stabbed near the eye with a pen. For maybe sitting too close. Neither the attacker nor the victim's name was released to the press, and no lasting injury was done, but still. Still. We're sure there's a joke to be made here about "eye-popping 3-D," but ultimately, we can't show a better sense of humor about this one than the convention itself-- the cosplayers organized a quick response. Those are the biggest con horror stories we could find, but we're sure you have some others! Hit us up in the comments.
T Campbell has written quite a few online comics series and selected work for Marvel, Archie and Tokyopop. His longest-running works are Fans, Penny and Aggie-- and his current project with co-writer Phil Kahn, Guilded Age.
