Oz Comic Con Perth 2013: Day 2 Review

Sunday morning was hard going. By the time I had stayed up late with Bene and Jacinta watching Fast Girls and analysing English slang, I’d not slept nearly as much as con fairing requires and there was no time for coffee. I donned an awesome Doctor Who apron, designed by a talented internet seller as a dress to resemble the 11th Doctor’s outfit, and Bene and I trundled back to the convention centre for more fun and more punishment.

Follow me under the jump for day 2 panels and adventures.


Getting in on Sunday was a much less painful process given that we already had lanyards and wristbands from the previous day. This meant smooth sailing into the main area and easy access again to the token lines. Today I was getting a photograph with Jason Momoa and getting him to sign the beautiful Jason Palmer print I had picked up the day before. I was also getting my photo with Colin Ferguson and a group photo with my cousins, brother and Richard Dean Anderson. Truth be told, day 2 turned into a bit of a spontaneous day. I hadn’t originally intended to get a Jason photo, or and RDA photo, or a Colin Ferguson autograph. Events during the day just led me there, not the least of which, my cousin ringing and begging that we all get a photo with our childhood hero. We came home from family events and all watched MacGyver and Stargate together, I could see why there was a nostalgic family thing going on there.

I lined up for my photo with Jason which was less intimidating than the last time. He was really nice, chatted to me, and after Deb had taken an excellent photo asked if I wanted him to be shorter in the photos... so he knelt. When Jason Momoa kneels for you in a photograph, you don’t argue or shun the final product, you just say thank you, shuffle away and end up with two Jason Momoa keepsakes. They are pretty rad.

I got to hang out with my brother for a little while and show him some cool stalls. The one with the Disney Princess statues was making me wish I had more money, partially because of the statues and partially because of the big signed and framed Fringe print. Other stalls had impressive Kirk dolls and Enterprise models, Marvel Select toys and autographs from hundreds of different actors. The artists were fantastic. Jason Palmer being at the convention was a real treat. I have had the pleasure of seeing him once before and owning a few of his prints, but I am sad that I missed his talk. He has so much beautiful work. The Starbuck drawing with the painting of the swirl in the background was amazing. There were some impressive commissions being done by other artists and many cosplayers around to admire. My cousin Lin loved all of the Star Wars cosplay. Here she is with a lady Darth Maul.



The next line to stand in was for Colin Ferguson’s photograph which resulted in a lovely photo, before standing in a mammoth and winding Richard Dean Anderson line. We entertained ourselves with stories, saw an awesome X-Men all female team including Phoenix and Storm, heard from some con-goers who were big Eureka fans and were so happy that Colin had come down. The RDA photo is a pretty hilarious family keepsake. We are all being crazy in it and Richard Dean Anderson appreciated that, he shook our hands and thanked us saying “that was awesome!” and we told him what an honour it was. He was a champion.

Lin and I ran straight after to Gigi Edgely’s panel, known for her role as Chianna in Farscape. I’m sorry that there are no photos of Gigi, the photo time was over by the time we got there, but she was cute as a button in an owl dress and huge heels showing us the way she decided how Chianna would move and act. She talked a lot about stunt work and make up for the show. She also told us about her life in LA as a street performer and living in what was essentially a cupboard in a big old house with her then boyfriend (now husband). All of this mainly resulted in people getting some serious cravings to watch Farscape. There were questions about why she didn’t end up on Stargate like Ben Browder and Claudia Black did, which she answered with good humour. I’m really glad I got to see her talk because I often miss her and she is really fun and engaging.

We dashed out to grab some food and water before the next panel. I was originally going to spend the time at the Sanctuary panel in the other room, but given that Robin wasn’t in attendance, decided to only go if he was swapped with Callum Blue, who had also been in Sanctuary. Perhaps they couldn’t do this because of contracts. I really hope it wasn’t because they didn’t have the idea. Emilie was going to do another panel by herself, so I told Lin that I was going to see Colin Ferguson again in the main auditorium and that she should come. Lin has never seen any of Colin’s work, but by the end of the panel she was completely won over by his humour and professionalism. Colin tried to call Niall Matter who plays Zane Donovan on Eureka, and in true Sheriff Cater style, animatedly complained when the technology didn’t work. He talked about the first panel he had done in Melbourne where he demonstrated a stunt and smashed a wall. He complained about gold body glitter getting EVERYWHERE after a role he played in which he had to wear the stuff.

Someone asked about his night and it turned out that Colin had gone to the beach with Jason Momoa and some friends and lost them. He had to ask for directions and got the train back into the city. He then ranted at us comically about how our public transport was both cheap and very good and gesticulated about our need to appreciate it. I was still amused that he’d gone to the beach with Momoa and then gotten lost. How can you not find Momoa, he’s a giant.

He also spoke at length about his respect for Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton and what they have created on the internet. He said that they fit into the Eureka group very well and that he’s really happy that they are now all friends. He also said that he would be going to play a game with Felicia on the 30th of March for Geek and Sundry, which is awesome. He’s appeared before and told the story of him thinking that he was going to place croquet with Felicia and then showing up to a yarn shop and realising he was there to demonstrate crochet.

Colin also talked about his friendship with Misha Collins, of Supernatural fame, and their trip to Haiti to fix various things... which they were pretty bad at fixing. After exposing wires of power tools and hooking them onto other exposed wires, he was sure one of them was going to die.

Before leaving the stage for Richard Dean Anderson’s panel to begin, Colin became serious and earnestly told the audience that Richard has really set the tone for this convention and that Colin and Eddie McClintock of Warehouse 13 owed Richard a lot for making humour in a lead in a Sci-Fi show acceptable to the genre. He said that he probably owed RDA a pay check, and if not, at least this thank you, and that he hoped that we would give Richard the respect and attention that he so deserves. Clearly, Colin is just a fantastic guy and a lot of people over the weekend were really impressed with his demeanour and attitude.

Next up, the show stopper; Richard Dean Anderson…looking much older than his rippling photographs and apologising profusely for it.

His multiple foot, knee and back surgeries have kept him fairly home bound, his hair was a matter of neglect. I maintain that Col. O’Neill was actually just Richard Dean Anderson getting to play with guns and order a team around. O’Neill was funny and Richard Dean Anderson is an incredibly funny man. His ability to poke fun at himself, even in a room full of adoring and attentive fans, was really refreshing. He cooed at a crying child, he removed a stand of hair for a girl whose aunt was after a DNA sample, he spoke about his relationship with the writers of Stargate and his role as an executive producer. I was sad that he didn’t get a chance to talk about Sea Shepherd, there was a booth at the convention which I assumed was because of him, but he did speak about a project he is supporting to aid the cure for malaria. To be honest, the panel was full of meandering jokes and stories that went on tangents, I am not sure what I witnessed, I think Shatner would call it a failing hippocampus, but I think that this isn’t age, this is who Richard Dean Anderson is. A guy who likes to make people laugh, doesn’t take himself too seriously and gets distracted pretty quickly. And we lapped it up. We enjoyed every second of it and we stood and applauded when it ended. A legend and truly a privilege.

We filed outside and then back inside. The Colin Ferguson, Richard Dean Anderson and now the Jason Momoa panels were all improved greatly by my VIP pass. This meant I could have close reserved seating for each and didn’t have to choose which one I wanted to see more or wait in huge and long lines. Once everyone was seated the large, dancing and jumping Jason Momoa came out on stage to tell us stories and on occasion, shake his posterior. The stories got laughs and the posterior shaking got giggles. Jason himself got his very own heckler, giving him playful grief about Baywatch.



Jason was well on his game in this panel, telling stories about harassing David Hewlett on the Stargate Atlantis set and his lasting friendship with Rachel Lutteral and all of the guys on the Atlantis set. He’s also picked up a good friend in Christopher Judge which is great. He talked about his amazing tattoo which we who watch Atlantis know was written in as a tribal tattoo for his home people of Sateda. The tattoo represents his ancestry and is a series of shark teeth. Many in his family have it. His explained the scar on his eyebrow was the result of a guy throwing a glass in his face and resulted in a huge number of stitches. It took place during his time on Stargate... now he’s famous for Game of Thrones and Conan and the guy is still in jail. Jason spoke some Dothraki, the language of his character in Game of Thrones, and made men and women alike swoon. He called on a lady in the crowd to help by saying Dany’s bits.

He mentioned that he was in David Hewlett’s latest film project, being dressed like Duran Duran and killed six times. David owes him. There were words the previous day resembling something about David Hewlett, nudity and fighting in the middle of the wilderness. Jason Momoa does payback well.

Jason also mentioned on both days that the person that he fanboys over the most, that leaves him star struck and giddy, is Tom Waits. He was in an elevator with Tom once and was trying to explain it to a child of his... who of course didn’t get it as she is a tiny baby. The second time, he asked Tom Waits to mind his child in a car. Amazing. (Unrelated; Teryl Rothery’s star struck moment was hilarious, she more or less blanked Sir Patrick Stewart because she was so in awe and intimidated, tried to and successfully made it up at another convention and ended up getting a kiss goodbye from him and completely freaking out. Adorable, the woman is adorable.)

To close out the panel, he showed us the trailer for his new self written, directed and produced movie, filmed by a friend of his. The movie looks in one word stunning. Simply breath taking. The quality of colour, the way that it’s shot. It looks to be about a group of people who are rough around the edges and ride motorbikes. Momoa stars in it and looks rugged and fierce. This music is incredible. I don’t think I can say much more about what I saw; the film needs to be kept under wraps for distribution etc. But it’s making me hesitant to start watching Sons of Anarchy again, because this may just put it to shame.

With the cosplay parade and competition next, I left Luke and Jacinta in the main auditorium and headed back inside to get my Jason Palmer print signed by Jason Momoa, letting him know that the movie trailer was awesome and that I hoped we would get to see it soon. He was chuffed. I next saw Colin Ferguson to get an autograph and we talked about tiredness, the mispronunciation joke he was discussing in Saturday’s panel and I let him know just how entertaining he was. I told him that he’d not only won over people who had seen his work, but people who hadn’t, like my cousin. He was touched and thanked me profusely for the kind words. People who are that great and that humble about it, who are just that good, need to be told that they are and that people appreciate it. It’s so nice to see entertainers who are genuinely fun and good people.

I headed back to the cosplay to check out the results and see the last few contestants and lamented not getting a photo with the Dalek! The people who won (soon to be covered by Jacinta in another post) were really good. In true Oz Comic Con style the contestants all broke into the Harlem Shake, including the Worm, and there’s nothing quite like seeing a Dalek dance to put a smile on your face and tell you it’s time to head home.

I certainly didn’t see everything that I had wanted to see. I missed all Aaron Ashmore, Callum Blue and Eddie McClintock panels and events. I didn’t have time to see the Star Trek actors, in full costume, delight and entertain the auditorium of fans in the morning. And if Robin Dunne and August Richards had made the flight over, I am sure some more painful decisions would have to be made, like missing Colin Ferguson’s second panel in favour of the Emilie/Robin spectacle. I’m pretty gutted that I saw no Callum Blue and no Aaron Ashmore, I was hoping to get to their VIP Smallville panel on the Sunday afternoon, but with Momoa lines and such there was no chance.

An excellent convention and an excellent weekend. Thank you to all the organisers and guests who put on an entertaining and well run event. They were not only helpful and organised, but certainly open to feedback and willing to change things to make everything run smoothly. I hope that they will be back with a big line up again next year... hopefully with Amanda Tapping!

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