Comicon 2006

Day One:

I took off work on Friday, July 21st. I packed up my multitude of clothes and costume accessories the night before. I woke up at 8 am and left LA around 9 for the 3 hour drive to San Diego. I arrived around noon and parked at the Hyatt. Unfortunately my room was not ready yet. So I went over to the convention center and got my badge and checked in with my friends at the Nickelodeon booth. Did a little walking around.

My original plan was to hang out in plain clothes on Friday since it would be a short day. Wear the Han costume on Saturday. Go back to plain clothes for Sunday. But Friday was “Star Wars Day” and there were a lot of SW costumes on the floor. So, as soon as I got the call that my room was ready I headed back to the hotel, got my key, quickly settled in my room and changed into Han.

I made my way back to the convention floor. Keep in mind, this is the first time I have ever worn a costume to a big Con like this. I was truly not prepared for the looks, the picture requests, or the general information exchange with other costumers that would take place. I ran almost immediately into a TK costumer from the 501st who wanted some pics. He was the first perosn to ask if I was in the Rebel Legion. To which I replied, “What’s that?” He directed me upstairs to their table. I said I’d head up later. After that I ran into a guy named Bryan I know from the Anakin threads on the Jedi Council forums. He was hanging out with a large group of Anakins. A guy with them was dressed Indiana Jones so we took a picture together: the two Harrison Ford iconic roles.

I remained on the floor for the rest of the day. Taking pictures with some people. Checking out the booths. I got asked, or told, about the Rebel Legion another 4 or 5 times that day. Finally I decided to go to their booth. I approached, chatted with some of the folks working, and filled out my application. I met Lori (Jedi Loreen) who I knew from the Jedi Council boards and we chatted a bit. She had on her Rebel Fleet Trooper costume and told me about their attack on the 501st. The general consensus from the RL people was that they needed more good guys and especially more Han Solos and especially especially would like more ESB Solos. It’s a bit of a wildcard costume. I left the booth and went to see some panels.

I went back to my room as the floor closed and got changed to go to the Master Replicas Collector’s Society Party. I had a ticket since I am a member and figured free food and shwag is always welcome. I got there, saw some people I knew, got some food, watched a lightsaber fight, and then went to get a drink. In line in front of me was a woman in Fleet Trooper uniform. It was dark. I feel stupid now that I didn’t notice the difference between the blue and black of the standard RFT and this replica of Captain Antilles brown uniform.

“Lori?” I asked.

The woman turned around. It wasn’t Lori. She wasn’t even wearing the same costume. I am a jackass.

Luckily, I soon found out this woman knew Lori, was a tremendously nice person named Donna, and was happy to talk to me about the Rebel Legion and my Han costume. She also knew some people from Nickelodeon by a strange coincidence. She made Jedi tunics for a few guys who work on Avatar: The Last Airbender. So she was happy to know I worked at Nick too. We chatted for a while. I had a few more drinks and then left to meet up with my friends from Nick.

I ended up having a great time and staying up way to late.

Day Two:

I woke up early. I had to get into costume and make it to the convention hall in time for the Lost panel. Afterwards I went back to the Nick booth to take pictures with, my now girlfriend, Austin. As I was in the booth a familiar voice came up behind me. It was Donna. She was at the Con with her son and checking out the Nick booth. We chatted for a bit and she got a chance to finally see my costume. She said she was going to be at the Avatar panel and I said I’d see here there.

I spent the rest of the morning on the floor. Doing the costume thing. Waiting for Dan, the kid who bought my Anakin tunics, at the MR booth. After it became way clear he was not showing up I bolted for some panels. Me and a friend Jef made our way to the Nickelodeon New Shows/Avatar panel. Afterwards, I helped pass out free Avatar t-shirts. A job which almost ended my life as the crowd began to crush me against the table at one point. I guess dying as Han Solo wouldn’t have been so bad. Donna showed up to get a t-shirt. She asked for 2 for both her sons. I was about to oblige, because that’s the kind of guy I am, but a woman from NickToons reminded me one per person. Luckily I would get the chance to appologize in the future. We finished with the grabbing hands of t-shirt doom and I made my way, with Austin, to the Veronica Mars panel.

I stayed for another day. But it was a plain clothes day and there’s not much to tell that relates to costuming. A big thing happened at the Con: I used my costume for something other than Halloween adding to my content with the amount of time and money spent on it and, by applying for membership to the Rebel Legion, had begun taking steps into an exciting new area of costuming.

But, like most good things, it would take a while for the wheels to get rolling.

Cheap plastic zipper

My friend, Brinsfield, was having a Halloween party at his house in North Hollywood. Well, more accurately, I bugged him to have a party at his house as he swore the year before was his last. I even helped him decorate. Going over there on weekend for a few weeks to set up the Jar Jar dart board, the Death Star mural, the Imperial symbol drapery, the Yoda Hut, the Jawa, etc, etc.

I decided to wear my new Han costume to his party because Anakin wasn’t done yet. I also kind of wanted to save Anakin for the Nickelodeon costume contest. You know, show off the current duds.

I squeezed into my 70’s era slacks and headed over to his house. The party was great and everything was going smoothly. My friend Eryne asked me, “Those pants look tight. How are you going to go to the bathroom?” I could only answer, “I hadn’t thought about that.” I truly hadn’t. I had neglected to realize I would be drinking beer and most likely going to wizz about every half hour in my hard-to-get-zipped-up slacks. So the moment finally arrived when I couldn’t hold it any longer and I went to relieve myself. When I went to zip back up I breathed in and pulled and heard a rip and a pop and looked down and the zipper had come off the track. I quickly scooted into Brinsfield’s spare bedroom to try and fix the pants; to no avail. The whole time wondering how funny it would look if someone came in. Me sitting on the bed, pants around my ankle, fiddling with something in my crotch…

Anyway…

I decided to make a quick getaway and head home and put on my other costume. This being the only time when making 2 costumes was advantageous. I headed out the door quickly, drove home, changed and came back. Everyone puzzled by my absence and return in a different outfit. They all chuckled at my story and I spent the rest of the night trying to keep my pleather tabbards on my shoulders as I hadn’t yet added velcro to keep them in place.

The worst part of losing Han for the night was it happened before my friend Molly showed up. She had done a ANH Leia dress. We worked on our costumes at the same time and shared a lot of knowledge with each other. I really wanted a picture together. But it wasn’t to be. The moral of the story kids?

Have metal zippers sewn into your tight 70’s action slacks before you do drinking.

The busting of the zipper would actually kind of hault my life as everyone’s favorite smuggler until sometime in the spring. But, from there, it would prove a step into a larger world.

The beginning of the end

I’m not exactly sure when it was that I fell in love with Star Wars. As far as my albeit feeble human memory serves it has been my whole life. I know, from gathered stories told to me by my father, that I had a stuffed Ewok as my favorite toy when I was 5 and flew to Florida to go to DisneyWorld. That would place the date sometime in 1984. A mere year after Return of the Jedi hit theaters.

I do know I have loved the movies most of my life. I remember watching them on my parent’s Beta VCR, taped from a friend’s HBO, and swinging a yellow magic marker in my hands like a lightsaber. This shows us 3 things: that, decieved by the color of the toy Luke’s “arm saber,” I thought his lightsaber was yellow and was too young to differentiate, that I was apparently young enough that a magic marker was large enough to simulate a saber handle, and, most importantly, as a small child I wanted to be Luke Skywalker.

Every kid did. C’mon, before you are old enough to figure anything else out, you see a guy who destroys the Death Star, moves things around with his mind, and seemingly destroys an Empire by himself. I don’t know what kid wouldn’t want to be Luke. As icing on the cake he gets to use a lightsaber. Still an object of fantasy and fascination even to my “old” 27 year old self.

As I grew older and girls entered into my scope of consciousness, I begun to realize the power behind being a scoundrel. There’s a mystery there that is very attractive; the loner seemingly beholden to none who eventually decides to fight for the side of good and win the princess. Not to mention he gets to wear a low slung holster, make wisecracks, and fly the most kickass ship in the galaxy. From then on I wanted to be only one person from the Star Wars Universe.

Captain Han Solo.

It was a fascination that would last me through college. I’ll admit I was slightly sidetracked in 1997 when I heard George Lucas planned to do prequels; finally telling us of the rise of Darth Vader and the birth of the twins. Movies, no doubt, mired in Jedi sorcery and lacking in smugglers. When The Phantom Menace opening in 1999 I couldn’t help but taken in. Do you remember seeing Obi Wan v. Darth Maul sword fight for the first time? I have been told I giggled like a little kid throughout. But once the flash of the Nick Gillard choreographed sword play faded, my mind was always drawn back to the man in the striped pants. Never failed.

I had always wanted to make a Han Solo costume. My dad had instilled in me a love for home made Halloween costumes. I could never buy some cheap plastic thing at a store when I could make something at home using all means of duct tape and Shoe Goo. My problem was not the motive; it lay squarely in the means.

This was the time before the pervayance of the internet. The heady days before DVDs. Old school Star Wars costumers scoff at us young people and our ease of research. While they poured through old cinema and sci-fi magazines for screen shots, we kids just log onto Parts of Star Wars, Obi Wan’s Jedi Academy, or The Padawan’s Guide for free and download images from the tubes of the interweb to our heart’s content.

I have that luxury now. But the late 90’s, when I first thought of the idea of donning the Vest, was a bit different. I still had a dial up 56k baud modem. I watched the Original Trilogy on Special Edition VHS tapes. I had none of the resources at my disposal I do now.

I contented myself to make a rough and tumble Darth Maul costume for Halloween of 1999. Based solely off the many promo shots available of everyone’s favorite Sith Lord. The prequel had given a lot of costumers new abilities due to well lit, well shot promotional material blitzed across the globe for the opening of Episode I.

I stagnated in the pauperism of college and post-college; lacking the funds to finance a costume of my liking. Eventually, Lord of the Rings dominated my life for a while. I took a liking in Strider as he is very similar in initial features to one beloved Correllian pirate. I made a rather fine Aragorn costume in 2003. It rekindled my love of costume making. When I was promoted at Nickelodeon in 2004, receiving a sum closer to a Los Angeles living wage and finally given the funds to attempt an accurate costume.

I decided to finally bring Han into my closet for good.