Judy Stephens

Lee Hurley

Matt Sumner, Alexander Rae, Kevin McKinnon, Johnathon and Victoria Catron, Lemen Yuen and Adam Coker

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JAMES GUNN - THE APPEARANCE!FIRST:SECOND: Again, my many, many thanks goes out toof Marvel.com for helping arrange this! I'd asked her a couple months out from DragonCon (long shot!) if she thought we could get James Gunn to come to the shoot. She then reached out to his people - but since he was still in the midst of his world-wide publicity tour for GOTG we didn't hear back right away. We actually didn't find out he was coming until right before the Convention! Judy met with his people on Saturday to work out the details.Prior to Mr. Gunn's (hereafter referred to as James) arrival at the steps, I had added all the Marvel Cosmic characters last and put them at the bottom of our group shot. I felt it was appropriate that James be backed by his Cosmic brethren! (I only worried that I wasn't telegraphing to everyone what was going to happen later) Here's our fantastic Marvel Cosmic group!I broughtof HurleyFX (< I'd recommend liking that page!) in his amazing Groot costume in last and put him front and center. (Guys, he's like the most famous costumer in America right now!) Lee and I had been corresponding back and forth for several days prior to the shoot (I'd invited him, promising him it'd be worth it) and I'm so, so glad we were able to work out the logistics of his appearance. Here Lee's Groot in case anyone hasn't already seen it:Thank you so much for coming Lee! I know you just about died in that heat in the suit! But I think I kept my promise that it would be worth itWhat I'd also worked out with my security team beforehand was that we'd patrol the taped pathway to and from the hallway and keep it clear for James Gunn's entrance and exit - I didn't want him to get scared off or get crushed by the crowd! Again, my thanks goes to all my Security Volunteers:Before the Con, I'd also bought a pair of walkie-talkies and had given one to Judy on Friday at our X-Men shoot. The plan was that she'd escort James from his panel (in the adjacent Crystal Ballroom - what kind of Kismet is that?!?) to the hallway between the steps, where she'd then radio me via walkie-talkie to let me know when he was ready.As Chris and Mandy were getting their picture with Thanos and the crowd had begun singing "Hooked on a Feeling" - I was laying down on the ground again furiously trying to get the boom box to work once more. (There was an issue with the boom box's battery connections; every time the batteries glitched and lost their connection for a split second, the boom box's settings had to scrolled through and be reset to AUX again - for the bluetooth to my phone's music to work - and THEN my phone's bluetooth had to be reset to connect again to! I was going bonkers trying to get it all to work in the right order.) So, I'm on the ground swearing at this boom box, I hear the crowd start singing, and then I get a tap on the shoulder. To the best of my recollection, this is how the conversation went:Judy: "Are you ready for James Gunn?"Me: "Almost, Can you give me one more minute before you go get him? I'm just trying to get the boom box to work."Judy (nodding her head back over her shoulder): "He's here."It immediately clicked in my brain that that's why the crowd had started singing and I looked up from the ground to immediately see James Gunn standing off by the entrance to the steps. Guys, can you tell that he was excited too?I stood up, quickly escorted Thanos and the happy couple off the "stage", walked over to James, and turned to introduce him to the crowd, saying:TO THIS DAY I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID THAT.I swear, my heart literally skipped a beat waiting for James' reaction. Thankfully, he got a big laugh out of it too:Whew.Here's the video:(For the record: I was not making fun of the movie Slither - I still haven't even seen it! Many in the crowd had already seen and recognized James Gunn, had even started singing the main song from the movie.... so it was a JOKE people.Anyway, as you just watched, I then properly introduced James as the Director of GOTG and walked him over to the front of the group. He gave Thanos a hug:I then shook his hand and thanked him for coming:And then put him and his brother Sean Gunn down up front and center. I told them what we were going to do for our first shot (you guessed it - a fan-out - what else?!?). Here I am explaining how everyone explodes outward from the middle:Once finished with the explanation, I then walked back out of the shot, held up my megaphone - realized what I'd just done - and announced to the crowd:Highlight of my Directorial Career)Here we go:George went up on his own to introduce himself (George can do whatever he wants guysGeorge told me Monday morning that James told HIM how excited he was to meet HIM! How cool is that???Of course we had to get a picture of George and James together. Judy asked if she could get in the picture too - "Yeah, Go!" I said - and then I looked over at KSD, smiled, jerked a thumb and told her to get in there too. The expression on Judy's face in these pics is priceless:I wanted this shot, but didn't think we'd end up getting it. So I was ecstatic that we actually got a picture of all of our celebrities together: Nicole and Judy from Marvel.com, James Gunn, George Perez and Kelly Sue Deconnick!NEXT: JAMES GUNN PART 2: THE GROOTING