Con Comparisons

Sunday was a very interesting day for me. I attended my first ever non-Supernatural convention--Stargate.

I have been to 8 Supernatural cons and find them incredible experiences. So how did I end up at a Stargate con? I've been a hard-core Trek fan since the original series, but I never watched Stargate while it was on TV. Ten years ago I bought the DVDs as a present for my husband, and we enjoyed watching both the original series and the Atlantis spinoff as fun entertainment after a long day at work. When we finished those shows we started Farscape, but I didn't get many episodes into it when I discovered Supernatural and immediately formed a monogamous attachment. My husband watches Supernatural with me, but he has never felt the same intensity toward it as I have.

This spring he rewatched Stargate and I saw that Creation had a Stargate con happening in Chicago on our wedding anniversary, so I bought tickets as our present.

I had a fascinating time comparing the two cons and thought I'd share my experience and observation.

First thing to remember is that Stargate has been off the air for 9 years. Creation now only holds one Stargate con yearly. So naturally the crowd was a lot smaller. However in the theater I overheard a fan from England and a fan from Australia comparing their love of the show, which made me wonder what fandom will be like at Supernatural cons when it has been off the air that long. (Don't tell me there won't still be cons happening!) Not nearly as many fans were in costume, but those that were had the military regalia done so well that I was constantly thinking they were real military personnel!

Alex Zahara, who I am not familiar with, and Dan Payne, who I know as Gadreel's angel friend that Gadreel killed on Metatron's orders, were the emcees who introduced the other guests. Unfortunately anyone would pale in comparison to Rich and Rob, but they did their best.

The panels we saw were: Peter Kelamis, Rachel Luttrell and Paul McGillion, Cliff Simon and Corin Nemic, and the big name for the day was Michael Shanks.

Everyone displayed a sense of humor, and the 2-person panels bounced one-liners and funny stories off each other and answered the fan questions patiently. What I missed, though, was the engagement of the panelists with the entire audience, not just the questioner. Again, I've been spoiled by how the SPN guests play with all of us as they give their answers, and spin questions off onto tangents that usually end up cracking everyone up.

Corin Nemec was there with Cliff Simon as last minute replacements for Ben Browder. Someone asked Corin about his SPN experience and he talked about Jared and Jensen being so down-to-earth and funny, and said that the funniest thing to see was those 'two giant dudes' on their itty-bitty motorcycles which they would ride 20 feet from their trailers to the set just because they could, and drawing out the ride by doing donuts and extra circuits.

Michael Shanks had the funniest comeback to a question he was asked about what his favorite love scene was. Without missing a beat he said 'fan fiction.' He then went on to tell about a fan giving him pix to sign that were multiple artworks of Jack and Daniel in 'ahem, friendly positions' and she was clearly so into it. He wasn't exactly 'comfortable...but you could sure tell who was catcher and who was pitcher...'

One point the Stargate cast wins is remembering the episode titles. When asked questions like what was their favorite scene they could all name the episode title, and they had almost as many as SPN does now!

But where Stargate won hands down was in the non-actor panel--an entire hour was devoted to authors of the Stargate tie-in novels! Five of them--and they were all women!!

AND THEY ALL STARTED AS FANFIC WRITERS!!!

Long story short: Fandemonium is UK company owned by Tom and Sally Malcolm. They were fans of Stargate. She had written/read fanfic and become internet friends with other SG fanfic writers.

When Stargate Atlantis was cancelled, Fandemonium approached MGM about writing some novels and to their utter amazement got a UK contract to write 6 novels. Sally immediately recruited fanfic writer/friends, published a series which was well received and as of now have produced over 50 novels in the Stargate universe!

The other writers in attendance were: Jo Graham, Melissa Scott, Laura Harper, and Diane Dru Botsford. The panel was fascinating, but the conversation I had later at their merchandise table was my highlight of the day.

I talked with Tom Malcolm about the amazing break they got when they initially floated the proposal to MGM. He said they were literally in the perfect place at the perfect time, MGM was in a weak spot financially, didn't have any further plans for the franchise, and they likely gave it approval because no one was really seeing much coming from it.

He also said they they had recently discovered Supernatural, were up to season 4, and were loving it! I joked that they had a wild ride ahead of them, and said they needed to get the fanfic writers to do tie in novels for SPN as well. Sally Malcolm said that she had deliberately reached out to fanfic writers for the Stargate novels because fans had the passion to create characters and scenarios that were true to the universe and to explore things that were only hinted at in show canon because they were so intimately familiar with the canon. She added that she turned down 'professional' writers if they weren't passionate fans because they couldn't give the same richness to the stories, they just didn't know the nuances.

When I said I was glad they'd done the panel, she said it was totally Creation inviting them! So how do we get Creation to invite Supernatural writers and crew to conventions?!?

One other difference between the SPN cons and this Stargate con was the autograph and picture setup. While the 'big names' (Luttrell, McGillion, Nemic, Simon, and Shanks) had formal times and lines for them, the rest of the actors, including ones from Friday and Saturday panels, simply had tables in the lobby and you gave them cash and could take a picture of them or with them on your own phone/camera or get something autographed.

I think if this were tried at an SPN con the tables would be swarmed, but here it was very laid back and the actors were fine with just chatting as well.

I stopped by Dan Payne's table and said that he must have enjoyed being one of the few guest stars who was as tall as Jared and could hold his own against him. Dan immediately corrected me that he was taller than Jared and then pulled out his phone and scrolled to a picture from the set that showed he was indeed taller.

I have to say, that was probably my favorite moment of the day, just the unexpected gleefulness he had showing that he was the bigger man!

He added that Jared was great to work with, a lot of fun.

Later Dan did a pitch on stage to raise money for Covenant House, a charity in Canada, and he ended up taking his shirt off for donations. He did have a nicely tanned and chiseled chest...

I will also give Stargate con points for much better vendor room, big multi-fandom tables including some SPN art and items.

All in all, a very enjoyable day!