Dolby Laboratories

“Keep Calm and Comic-Con” –BBC

How much do geeks love entertainment? So much that we gather in San Diego every July for the International Comic-Con to spend five days:

• Camping in line overnight for Hall H access, just to see exclusive previews of our favorite upcoming movies and TV shows
• Milling around the base of the G4 military-style watch tower to catch glimpses of celebs gazing out over the expo hall chaos (you can see me here starting at minute 03:29, the chick in the green tank top by Norman Reedus’s knee)
• Standing in line for hours to collect coveted autographs from our favorite authors, artists, and actors

In fact, I love my comics, TV shows, and movies so much, each year I take time off from my job as a writer here at Dolby to help my good friend Dan Cooney run his indie graphic novel booth. It’s the perfect home base and vantage point for the whole show.

Here are my brief highlights from the Con:

• Cosplay: The awesome, the scary and the OMG they shouldn’t wear that in public. My favorite was Darth Vadar with Jarjar’s head on a platter. 

• Sci Fi celebrity sightings on the expo floor: This year I caught up with David Boreanaz from Bones, John Barrowman from Torchwood, and Jim Beaver and Mark Sheppard from Supernatural. 

• Special exhibits: The exhibit for The Batmobile documentary, the Walking Dead Escape obstacle course, and the Coma quarantine area were by far the coolest

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• Doctor Who: EVERYWHERE! Who knew Americans were so in love with The Doctor? From women dressed as the TARDIS, men as the David Tenant and Matt Smith, and kids as Daleks, to never-ending plushies and other swag—the Doctor owned the Con. 

• Special Anniversaries: 10^th anniversary of Firefly (a wonderful, teary-eyed reunion panel, 20^th anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 20^th anniversary of Power Rangers, 20th Anniversary of Image Comics, 30th Anniversary of Love and Rockets, 50^th anniversary of Marvel Superheroes, 75th Anniversary of Prince Valiant, and the 100^th anniversary of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and John Carter of Mars.

Michelle Lemire puts the E in eclectic. When she’s not writing for Dolby’s marketing department she’s climbing big rock faces, crocheting beanies for her Etsy store, collecting graphic novels, baking multilayer goodies, traveling, and keeping up with all things geek.