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True Blood fan Stephanie attended Comic-Con on July 25 in San Diego. This is her story.

This was my very first Comic-Con and I was extremely excited to attend.  So much so I made plans in December, 2008 in hopes that the cast of True Blood would be in attendance.  My main purpose was to meet the cast specifically Rutina Wesley as I adore her and her portrayal of Tara.

I didn’t know what to expect of the “Con”.  I had heard of what goes on but you never know what you will get until you get there.  To give a brief synopsis of all things True Blood related:  Thursday, I attended the screening of Anna Paquin’s, “Trick r’ Treat”.  There was a panel, minus Anna, where the Director, Michael Dougherty, gave some insight on the film.   Before the film began he called Anna so the audience could sing, “Happy Birthday” to her.  While we were waiting for her voice mail to pick up, people were calling out, “Sookie”…it was cute.
Friday, I attended one of the True Blood after parties and I stood in a long line, for over an hour, and received a t-shirt that stated, “Fangbanger” on the front and the True Blood bottle logo on the back as well as a poster, a napkin and a coaster, all with True Blood slogans and logos.  There was food and free beer and lovers of True Blood so it was a great time.  I stayed about forty minutes because the club was so small and I had to get home to prepare for the big day…Saturday, the day I would meet the cast of my favorite television show.

I stood around the WB booth about three hours in a crowd of people waiting to hear someone call for the line for the True Blood autograph signing.  My experience of the previous days I knew I had to basically stalk the area in order to get the in the line.  After the group being led around like cattle, I waited patiently for the cast to come out.  I wondered what I would say to any of them, specifically Rutina.  I thought I had this one chance to speak to the entire cast, including Charlaine Harris and the one and only Alan Ball I should make it good and make it count.  I hoped to get a picture with Rutina but I notice from the jumbo tron there were no pictures.  I was finally two people away from Alan Ball when the security guy told me I had to put away my camera.  I was devastated.  Then I thought, who cares, I am about to realize a dream.  I will have to remember it fondly and so here it goes my memories of the WB booth moment.

We were given a poster for the cast to sign and when it was my turn I gave it to Alan Ball and here is our exchange.

Stephanie: Hello Mr. Ball, I think the show is great and so are you.

Alan Ball: Thank you very much. I’m glad you like it.

Stephanie: I want you to know that I am a huge TAMshipper.

Alan Ball: (leaning in to me looking perplexed) a what?

Stephanie: A TAMshipper; a Tara and Sam worshipper. There are several of us out there that love Sam and Tara together and we want them back together. We were pretty ticked that you apologized for their relationship on the DVD commentary.

At this time, Alan Ball looks at me with stretched eyes and his mouth open and his arms stretched out as if he was shocked to hear my remarks.

Alan Ball: You don’t like Eggs?

Stephanie: Don’t get me wrong, I like the naked butt shots but in the end it there is something about the dysfunction of Sam and Tara that works.

Alan Ball: (Looking as if I blew his mind and told him there was no such thing as Santa) I will think about it, no, really I will think about it. Thanks.

Stephanie: Thank you.

I was dazed and confused at this point but I had to move on because next up was Charlaine Harris.  All I said to her was Hello and I thought she was great then I was there in front of Anna Paquin.  I was star-struck to say the least.   I said Hi and then I gushed and told her I could not believe I was standing in front of her.  I was there and I couldn’t say anything else.  She was looking me in the eyes and I could not say a word.  I could barely look at her.  Next up was Stephen.  He said, “Hello Love, how are you?”  I told him he was pretty.  He batted his eyes and smiled.  He signed my poster and thanked me for being a fan and watching the show and being at Comic-Con.  (He said more stuff but I am blank)  All I wanted was to hear him talk, that accent was beautiful.  He was beautiful, far more beautiful than Bill could ever be.  My God, Anna Paquin is a lucky woman.

Then there she was, the beautiful Rutina Wesley,  I told her that I loved her and her work and what she does with Tara and how in many ways her coming on the scene as an actress has changed my life (I was an acting major in college).  She smiled and thanked me and then it happened.  I felt it coming and I couldn’t stop it, I started tearing up and it the tears came like someone told me I had ten minutes to live and I was on minute nine.  I cried while I was talking to her about our favorite color purple (which we were both wearing) and telling her I came there from Louisville, KY, she held my hand and cried with me.  All I can say is that was an amazing experience.  I was with her for seemed like an eternity and no one made me move, no security, no one they just left me there to cry in front of Rutina.  After I had successfully freaked her out enough with my crying, I thanked her and moved on to Michelle Forbes.

Michelle Forbes took my hand and asked if Rutina had made me cry and I shook my head and said yes.  At that time Alex, Nelsan, Sam and Deborah all laughed.
Michelle told me to breathe and Alex demonstrated the breathing technique and Nelsan and Michelle told me I would be o.k.  A photographer stepped in and requested a photo with Michelle and me and then I thanked her and talked a little more and moved on to Alex where I could not speak, I just looked at him, he looked so different.  He was so tall and his hair was so dark I felt as scared of him as Lafayette.  Later I just yelled back to him that he was great when I was with Sam and Deborah.  Beside Alex was Nelsan and I got myself together enough to tell him that he was fabulous and he cocked his head to the side and arched is back (a little like Lafayette) and responded with “Thank you”.  Then I asked if I could touch him and he looked at me and I asked again and he said yes so I did.  I asked Sam and he laughed at me so I touched him and I asked Deborah and touched her, the great thing is she touched me back.   I walked away with tears streaming down my face having just experienced something that would be with me for the rest of my life.  I was so overwhelmed I went to the ladies room and had a break down.

Later I stood in line for the Q&A session.  During the session the moderator asked one question to the panel and the audience was then allowed to ask questions.  The best thing about it was the news about the True Blood drink being released and the trailer.  We were given little tickets to claim a gift at the end of the Q & A; I had to come back on Sunday to claim of gift of a True Blood nylon backpack that included: a notebook, t-shirt, the Dead in Dallas book and a coupon for the drink.

Somehow my autograph poster got wrinkled but that doesn’t matter.  I am taking it to get framed this week.  I only wished I had remembered to bring along my season one DVD to get it autographed.  Meeting the cast was truly the most exciting part of my visit to Comic-Con.  I just hope that Alan Ball and Rutina Wesley, if they remember me at all, don’t think I’m a psycho but a true lover of True Blood.

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BuddyTV interviewed Michelle Forbes and Sam Trammell at Comic-Con on July 25 in San Diego.

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Photographer Michael Muller took photos of the True Blood cast at Comic-Con for EW.

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Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello interviewed the True Blood cast at Comic-Con

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Sky TV interviewed Anna, Deborah, Stephen and Sam at the WB booth at Comic-Con on July 25. Sam reveals that he will shift into something else that the dog, something very small and something very big.

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Comic Con 2009 – Saturday, July 25th, 2009

True Blood fan Deanna was at Comic Con last Saturday, this is her story.

WB Booth “Line” Experience

The sole intention of Saturday’s trip to SDCC was True Blood. Try to get autographs, photos, and/or into the panel; preferable in that order – but I would have been happy with any one of the three. As it turned out I got all three and more. So what a day it was! Though it sure didn’t start out that way.
I arrived in the hall at the Expo Hall at 10:30 am and went directly to the WB Booth to scope out the situation. The True Blood cast signing wasn’t scheduled until 2:30pm, but having already spent two days at the conference and knowing how many True Blood fans were going to be there – I knew the line to get an autograph was going to be crazy – but I had no idea how crazy things were going to get.
When I got to the WB Booth, there was already an “unofficial” True Blood line of about 20 people mixed in and around the Chuck autograph line. As the Chuck line moved forward, that’s when things began to go wrong – not wanting to get sucked into that signing the goal was to hang back, be near the line entrance, not where security would run you out for “doubling up an existing line” or standing in a thorough-fare. Oh and did I mention there were also still two other signings – Eastwick and Vampire Diaries before True Blood as well.

So began the 3 plus hour wait for the True Blood signing. During those three hours, the WB Staff lost complete control of the crowd and their “line” system. Because of this, it was very hard to know what to do or how to strategize what move was going to get you in. There were some folks that created the “unofficial” True Blood line that by all accounts should have guaranteed them a spot in. But that didn’t account for the secondary line forming on the opposite side that somehow was “allowed” to start or the mass group right in the middle that was allowed to stay. Anyway, this is when the craziness began, and I do mean BEGAN and only BEGAN.
Comic Con security closed the aisle at both ends which should have stopped the bad situation from getting worse, but really didn’t., they barely slowed it down Even I who was not positioned in the best location was able to use the lax security to maneuver myself into a better position. Now I will not apologize for this – since I was indeed there in line from 10:30 am on, I asked SEVERAL different WB Booth staff what to do and how to do it (getting a different answer from each of them), so in the end I had to work for what I perceived to be my best strategic position.
By launch time minus 1 hour (and launch is pretty accurate description) I was in a fairly good position. I knew it was going to be close. All I could do was hope that things worked out. During that hour, there continued to be more jockeying and shifting and I actually got pushed a little further back, but right next to the booth. Since most of the folks that got in were not necessarily next to the booth – I’m not so sure that worked in my favor.

Then they starting taking folks into the signing queue and the craziness really began. The pushing and shoving was pretty insane. At one point in time my arm actually got wrapped around a post and wrenched backwards. All I can say is good thing I don’t play softball anymore or need my right shoulder to write or type with – can you say torn rotator cuff!
As I neared the entrance, I could tell they were selecting the last couple of individuals. I heard one of the WB Staff members say, is there anyone we know that has been here waiting. Now what I had learned from the previous day at the Fox Booth is it can’t hurt to be nice, patient, and helpful with the booth staff. That lesson served me well again on Saturday, as a nice Booth worker who I had spoken and laughed with over the course of the conference remembered me and so remembered that I had been waiting for hours and made sure I was let in. I was the second to last person let in!
All I can say about the whole booth autograph line situation is that the Fox Booth used a ticket system which lead to Organized Chaos and the WB Booth system lead to Disorganized Chaos. But in the end, both systems lead to Chaos.

Autograph Experience

When it was time to get your autograph, you were given a poster for the cast to sign or you could have an item that you brought yourself. I took the poster.
On the first side Alan Ball, Charlaine Harris, Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, and Rutina Wesley. Then on the next side sat Michelle Forbes, Nelsan Ellis, Sam Trammell, Deborah Ann Woll, and Alexandar Skarsgard. They told you that you were not allowed to take any photos or you would be taken out or your camera would be taken away, or something bad was going to happen. Either way, I took a photo right before I started through the line and that was it.

Obviously you couldn’t stop and talk to everyone, so just because I didn’t talk to someone it wasn’t because they wouldn’t talk to me – it’s just how the flow of the line worked out, and I didn’t really stop long in front of them. I tried not to take more of their time then had already been taken.
Alan asked how we were doing and thanked us for standing in line. He noticed my earrings and said he really liked them. It took me by surprised that he would notice something like my earrings. We asked him how they were hanging in there and he laughed. I told him that I was glad we made it through because this was going to be my sister’s birthday present and Charlaine and Anna both laughed and said “wow what a nice sister”.

Next was Stephen. He greeted me first and was very charming. He seems to smile constantly. Which is nice, considering I was at the end of the line, so they had been signing for an hour by this time. I asked if he would sign it Happy Birthday for my sister and he asked what here name was, I wasn’t going to ask him to personalize it – so that was very thoughtful of him to offer. He made a special point to get the spelling correct as well.
Next was Rutina. I’ve noticed this season that she looks quite a bit thinner and in person she is very thin. I told her she looked great and she was very appreciative. We told her we liked the feistiness she brought to Tara, she said she liked the feisty Tara, but this Season we were seeing the more emotional side of Tara.
Next was Michelle. She greeted me first and asked how I was doing and thanked me for coming out.

I thanked Nelsan for the autograph and told him that I was glad his character didn’t get killed off. He laughed and said “me too”. I knew I wanted to speak with Sam about his guest appearance on LOCI. So as I got to him I asked him about being on Law and Order and working with Vincent D’Onofrio. He said he enjoyed doing the show and Vincent was absolutely great to work with, just a wonderful person to be around. I told him he did a really great job on the show and he thanked me for that. I was still talking to Sam as Deborah signed, so didn’t really speak with her. Alexander is really tall and very good looking. He said that he is really glad that we are getting to see Eric as more than a villain. But he said don’t expect him to go too soft and laughed.

True Blood Panel

The True Blood panel started with Alan announcing that “Tru Blood is real!” He also told the same joke as last year about part Viagra, Valium, etc. then said it’s really a blood orange soda.
After that announcement it was followed by a Video clip of highlights from the rest of the Season. Lots of good stuff.

Charlaine announce that she has signed a contract for three more Sookie Stackhouse novels that will take her into 2012.
I don’t think there were any real big surprises, super questions, or anything great that stands out from the panel. Most of the questions were actually directed at Alan and Charlaine.
Michelle had the best answer to a question when she was asked why she decided to take the role, her response was, “When someone offers you an entrance where you’re standing in the road naked with a pig, you don’t say no.”

All in all it was a very successful day. I’m sure my shoulder would hurt more today if I hadn’t gotten in. I’m sure I would be second guessing a lot of things and the whole booth escapade would feel more depressing if I would have just missed getting in. So until next year ….

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Stephen Moyer, Deborah Ann Woll and Alexander Skarsgård at Comic-Con San Diego July 25, 2009.

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Access Hollywood interrupted the autograph signing at talked to the cast of True Blood at Comic-Con on Saturday July 25.

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It was Alan Ball who answered the most burning fan questions yesterday at the True Blood Comic-Con panel. Will we see Eric wearing pink spandex? “I plan not to”, said Alan. “But maybe you’d change my mind.” To give the spandex-fans at least a little taste of what it could have looked liked, Alexander Skarsgard got up, pulled his pants up and showed his pink socks. I am not riding the pink-spandex-bandwagon, personally I don’t think any man should ever wear spandex, or speedos for that matter, under any circumstances.

Another burning question of course, a question that is dividing the total True Blood fan base into two camps, is if there will be a love triangle between Sookie, Bill and Eric. Alan’s answer was short and clear: “Yes”. Earlier that day Stephen Moyer joked in an interview he did together with Alexander and Anna, that it would be a love triangle with Bill and Eric as the main players making the luv connection.….mmmm let me think about that…. Yes, I could go for that….. Now that would give a whole new meaning to the word “fangbanger.”

My girl-crush Deborah Ann Woll was totally adorable. Unlike many other Truebies, I was struck by her talent and beauty the moment she jumped out of the trunk of that car during the vampire tribunal. And I don’t get struck on first sight very often. Not even my first celebrity crush since 1986, Stephen Moyer, had me at “Do you have any of that synthetic bottled blood?”, it took him until episode 3 before he had my sparks flying all over the place.

Alan Ball also had a tasty surprise for us. Tru Blood is now available in the HBO Store.
The ingredients according to Alan: “Cabernet, the blood of European hemophiliac royalty, vodka, Viagra, and ecstasy. Unfortunately, it’s highly illegal.” Actually, the drink is “a tasty orange soda drink.”
You can preorder Tru Blood exclusively in the HBO Store, check it out.

For the rest of the panel… I am not going to spell it all out for you, watch the videos of the complete event here.

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