Brought to you by ManWithPez, guest costume blogger extraordinaire.

After Thursday’s excursions into the realms of drunken surreality, we all realized that we had to pace ourselves. Friday held the first of the celebrity panels we were going to, the first real day of costume wear, and the Buffy and Dr. Horrible sing-a-longs.

Before the day could start, however, ThatCostumeGirl, queen of the procrastinators had to finish my Dr. Horrible costume, which required some hemming. I was running around like a kid on Christmas morning: “C’mon! Get up! We gotta go!” And she, gamely, rose to the occasion. She got up and finished the costume before putting on her Dr. Horrible groupie costume. Our pal Lissa was dressed this way as well, and I was the only Dr. Horrible with his own fanclub!

The elation about this faded fast when I ran into the first other Dr. Horrible of the day, and his costume was ten times better than mine.

Didn’t bother me much when I found out later that night that he was actually in the Whedontrack’s Sing-a-long as Dr. Horrible. So, I don’t feel so bad about mine, and besides, I hadn’t had anything to drink yet.

The lines in Dragon Con are legendary, and to get into a 2 o’clock show, we began waiting in line around 10am. We found our friends, holding our places like the good friends they are, at least, they were holding the place, until the entire line had to be moved elsewhere. Dragon Con has yet to understand the sheer size of the crowd the Firefly celebrities draw, but it is substantial.

The very first things I noticed in this line were two costumes. One, a young lady (I have to say that I use this term loosely…but I did appreciate the costume) in a Gizmonics Institute jumpsuit that was open damn near down to her knees. Not only did I appreciate it, everyone who passed her enjoyed it, as she was wearing very little underneath. Now, this kind of thing happens rampantly at this con, but it was a shock to see it first thing Friday morning.

The second was the young woman in the beautiful Cylon Six red dress. She was having a hard time staying in her dress, as it doesn’t lend itself very well to standing, or sitting in line. I noticed that if she didn’t keep the dress in check, it was going to get the better of her, and all the males in the line were with me in hoping that gravity or her dress would come out on the winning side.

After the line moved, ThatCostumeGirl took the opportunity to look around and take pictures of the more interesting costumes. She came back to find me getting my picture taken with the Six. What can I say, I’ve always been interested in robotics.

When it was my turn to look around, I ran into what was possibly the coolest group of costumes I’ve ever seen. Jack Burton and Gracie Law from Big Trouble in Little China, but, scattered around them, there were dozens of people dressed in the red and yellow costumes of the Chang Sings and Wing Kong, the rival gangs that duke it out in the Chinese Standoff at the beginning of the movie.

I was impressed to say the least, but, man, those guys were near impossible to herd together, which is probably why you won’t see a picture of them here.

Also of note, there was a little guy dressed in one of the coolest Speed Racer costumes I’ve seen! He also asked to get his picture taken with me, and who is Dr. Horrible to say no to a photo op?

I can remark on there being a lot more Dr. Who costumes this year, and, one of my favorite things in the con happened while I waited near the beginning of the line. The guy who promised me an “Evil League of Evil” ribbon for my badge came through, knowing he was going to be at the back of a miles long line, and he STILL gave me the ribbon. That’s class, man…that’s class.

Less classy was the line for the Dr. Horrible Sing-a-long. The panel went off without a hitch, and was very entertaining, but what do you expect from Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk? After that we went our separate ways, and I, knowing I was going to be singing later, went up to the room to start getting my courage on…rather, to begin drinking. After an elevator ride with a woman wearing my favorite comic costume from the con, a flawless Lilandra costume from X-Men, the drink was on!

The good thing about staying in the same hotel as the sing-a-long was that I could head back up and replenish whenever I needed to. The bad thing about the hotel is that this was where it appeared most of the Clemson v. Alabama fans had decided to stay. These poor people were wandering and mixing among people dressed…well, like me, while they were wearing their football jerseys. As I have stated previously, the surreality knows no bounds.

When we got into the show, it became readily apparent that we weren’t the only ones that had imbibed in social lubricant in order to get ready to sing this evening. Frankly, I don’t see the point in getting so drunk that you can’t stand, let alone sing at a sing-a-long. Cast members were scattered in the first few rows, and we would find out why during the show. The show was wonderful, with the exception of the man behind me stating very loudly and exuberantly that he wanted the Dr. Horrible on stage to …well, make love to him, after a fashion, I guess you could say.

It was after this show that I ran into the scariest Captain Hammer of the show. We were allowed to keep out seats for the next show, the Once More With Feeling sing-a-long, and happily did so. As we got up to go to the bathroom, however, I was grabbed around the neck by a flamboyantly gay Captain Hammer, who proceeded, after choking me, to hump my leg vigorously.

While ThatCostumeGirl and Lissa snapped pictures, I was being violated by this young man who was obviously very into his character, and very drunk. It’s hard to yell for help when you’re being choked and drunk yourself, but I’m not certain a cry of “I NEED AN ADULT!!!” would have gotten the attention that I needed.

The Buffy show was even better than it had been previous years, with Buffy alum Ken Feinberg (the Chaos Demon from Fool for Love) playing the part of the Mustard Man. Also, instead of Spike throwing a wine bottle into the crowd, causing pain and mass hysteria (and possibly alcohol poisoning), she threw, instead, a huge plush bunny. It nailed me right in the face, and I couldn’t have been happier about it!

After the show, we decided to A) drink more, and B) roam around looking for more cool costumes! Frankly, the rest of the evening is a quick blur to me, but if you look at ThatCostumeGirl’s pictures, under her favorites from the convention, you’ll see her favorite pose was a Batman/Superman picture. I took that picture, with the huge telephoto lens on my camera, from 40 feet away, as I was trying to keep from falling on the pavement. I failed, but the picture rocked!

Saturday would see a huge costume failure on my part, a weather failing, an unasked question, and a shindig! See you soon!

[Photos by Lissa, MalsWay, ManWithPez, and ThatCostumeGirl]

A word of note before this article begins: I am a compatriot of ThatCostumeGirl, and if you go to her website, you will see me referred to there as ManWithPez. Some of the pictures you see here were taken by me, some were taken by her. Of the five costumes I took with me this year, she made all of them. This article is written in conjunction with her experiences, and predominantly relates to costumes, but offers a look in the round regarding the convention.

THURSDAY:

There aren’t many costumes to be found at Dragon*Con on Thursday night. Thursday night doesn’t really cover any official function of Dragon*Con other than registration and badge retrieval. This year, the registration line started early, but, in their wisdom, Dragon*Con opened the doors early as well. Earlier registration can mean only one thing: A chance to drink more beer. Alcohol can be very important to most of the costumers at Dragon*Con. Besides offering a shot of courage, it helps to suppress dignity, and plenty of dignity was suppressed here.

On a more serious note, I was wearing my Dr. Horrible groupie costume (consisting of a t-shirt bearing Neil Patrick Harris’s face and the much coveted Dr. Horrible goggles). My first costume sighting this year was Shaggy and Daphne from Scooby Doo. It beat the brakes off my first year at D*C, where my first sighting was a gang of Klingons on line at the Chik-Fil-A. Surrealism knows no bounds in Atlanta during Labor Day weekend. Back to business, Shaggy even had a box of Scooby Snax. It made me smile and point, much like most people in the line.

And then the lady Captain Hammer showed up.

Nothing against this young lady, but it was an encounter that would set the tone for all other meetings I would have with the Captain. More on that later.

This young woman put an “I Got Hammered by Captain Hammer” sticker right over NPH’s face! If I had known that I’d be in this line again later, I probably wouldn’t have been so tolerant of it. But, hey…a Thursday costume at D*C is a rarity, and I was just happy to see it.

After badge retrieval we ran into another Horrible fan (or Interns, or whatever the hell we’re calling ourselves this week) who claimed that if we found him on Friday, he would give us some Evil League of Evil ribbons for our badges. Also, one of our fellow linegoers shouted out “You just made my day!” at me at the top of his lungs (for some, apparently the registration line does not prevent alcohol consumption) when he saw my t-shirt and goggles. I also did get to hear a costumer’s favorite question: “How did you do that?” This time meaning the hard to obtain goggles and the paint job applied to them by ThatCostumeGirl. Often times, I find myself repeating the phrase “My girlfriend made it,” over and over again at this convention.

As for the second time I ended up in the same line, a friend of ours got into town a little later than everyone else, and the phrase “Leave no man behind” applies in the case of Dragon*Con. After dinner (mine consisted of libation, and little else) we took her through the line again. She and I sang from the Dr. Horrible songbook, or rather, another friend’s cell phone which held the entire score, to the applause of some and the ire of others. By that time, I was too far gone to care. To put it another way, I was very confident in my groupie costume at that point.

I did see a few more decent costumes that night. There was a young man dressed as a golden dragon, complete with wings. There were two Dr. Horribles, one of whom tried to steal my goggles. But, since ManWithPez don’t play dat, he went away disappointed. There was a first sighting of a huge Wookiee costume that we would see several times, mostly because it towers over everything else in the room. Speaking of Wookiees, my first celebrity sighting this year was Peter Mayhew, somehow negotiating an escalator with his two canes.

Con foot traffic can be tough on a 7 foot 2 inch former Chewbacca. There was an early Richard Hatch (from Battlestar Galactica…both incarnations) sighting. He was talking with fans and apparently enjoying himself as he always seems to be doing at these conventions. The Recliner of Rage guy Pierre Bernard was there, and ThatCostumeGirl, to her credit, recognized him immediately. Hey, I might be a media gadfly, but I had to apologize as I had no idea who he was. I guess I don’t watch enough Conan O’Brien. As I write this, I am saddened at the very prospect of not watching enough Conan. TCG was excited enough for the both of us, though.

The night ended with meeting old friends, making new ones and much carousing between the two in the best Dragon*Con traditions. It also ended with regurgitation, reminding me to pace myself for the rest of the convention. Too much confidence can be a bad thing. Friday, the first real day of the con loomed large ahead.