This past weekend, the largest promotional event for TV, movies & animation happened in San Diego.

Comic-Con took place from Wednesday night thru Sunday evening, as thousands  of people went to San Diego to see new promotional materials of their fave shows, movies & comic franchises. Of course, they also went for the stars. Comic-Con has become a promotional tool, and that means bringing your biggest stars to promote your product.

After an epicly horrid year last year for Vancouver shot shows (mainly because SDCC was earlier than years prior & a later than usual start for a  couple shows) there was very little in the way of seeing the Vancouver based shows & movies going to, or returning from the big event.

This year however, it was the opposite. Every show, wit the exception of 2, that were at SDCC had some or all of their cast that attended go through Vancouver Airport to get to SDCC.

Supernatural sent off 4 of their most notable cast. Misha Collins, who plays angel Castiel, and Mark Sheppard who plays the king of hell Crowley, both went to the event. While we didnt see them going to or coming back, we did catch the shows 2 largest stars returning.

Jensen Ackles (aka - Dean Winchester) was the 1st to return, and took the unfamiliar route of coming down "the row" a long railed off area that most celebs take to get out of the airport. This was possibly the 1st time I can remember him going this way, and clearly if it werent for him having to find his driver that he gets on the Comic-Con dime he likely wouldnt have gone that way.

Jensen stopped to sign for everyone there & was in a really good mood. Certainly better mood than last time I saw him when he refused to sign for me because as he put it I was "on the bucket list" (yes, thats the list I was on apparently) for angering Jim Beaver by breaking his return scoop allegedly (I was contacted by someone from SPN about that blog post saying they were displeased with me posting it.). But new season & the responsiblity of being a dad now, all is forgotten on that 1 off encounter last year, as I expected would be the case. We said we heard about Jareds baby announcement and he replied "ah, oh, thats out there?". I congratulated him on his new child, he  thanked us all for the congrats & went on his way.

About 5 minutes later (oh the joys of a camera that records the time the pics were shot eh?), Jared Padalecki (aka - Sam Winchester) strolled thru. Like Jensen, there was some baby news of his own to congratulate him on since the last time I saw him last season. His wife Genevieve & him had announced during SDCC they were expecting their 2nd child soon. I recall seeing Jared for the 1st time after his 1st child & he was pretty overjoyed at the whole thing. He glowed with that same excitement talking about the 2nd one. I also wished him a happy belated birthday & he thanked me for that too. He then went on his way to find his driver.


As he was leaving, he saw us getting autographs from Colton Haynes from Arrow & was peering over out shoulders to see who we were getting.

A little while later we also saw Lucifer coming into town...but that isn't because Mark Pellegrino is here to resurrect the role, he is on the Vancouver shot "Tomorrow People". As well, saw Jim Michaels returning

 At Comic-Con several things were announced for the show. Most notably.

- Felicia Day will be back this season to play her character Charlie, the geeky lesbian "little sister" type the Winchesters have crossed paths with a few times the last couple seasons. 

- Jim Beaver (this time without trying to sneak in & out for his work) will return this season, but apparently there will be something different about his return. 

- A Supernatural spin-off is being discussed. Will it be Castiel? Or Garth? Or Charlie? Its really the only options I can see, unless they did a back story of Bobby? 

Here are photos of Jensen & Jared returning from SDCC.

Let me start off by saying, my favorite emails I get are delusional hate mails. They truly are fun to read.... Sooo, before I get onto last nights adventure, I thought I would share 1 of these nuggets of wisdom, and my very professional & personable reply to them.

So, last night the cast of Supernatural returned from their Chicago fan convention.

AS EXPECTED (except by the crazies who think the world is a conspiracy theory)all the stars coming to Vancouver came in together. Jared Padalecki (with his wife Genevieve, and son Thomas), Jensen Ackles, with their bodyguard "Clig?" & Misha Collins.

After my encounter, as I usually do, I tweeted about my success & failures. Had a couple questions about it, tred to answer as many as I could before bed. Then woke up & read my "fan mail"

Usually, an email like that would get a snarky reply from me, and no follow up "proof", because I believe in not negotiating with terrorists. They want the pics, so they try to bully them out of you with "pics or it didnt happen" philosophy. A couple times over the years I have posted photos because of such whining, but 90% of the time, I usually let the nutjobs debate my "lies" in their tinfoil hat clubs.

This particular email woulda got the same enthusiastic level of "go fuck yourself, I dont care what you believe", but I did have several people on twitter & email say "I dont care how grainy they are...please, can I see them".  So I uploaded them into my computer & looked to see if anything was salvagable, and was mildly suprised to see that while still shitty, they werent horrendously impossible to identify the persons in them shitty. So I decided, I'll add them.

Now, lots of confusion on several facts that were asked via twitter, and this charming chap or lass above that I'll possibly explain in the actual blog part of this post.

I got to the airport and ran into another autograph hound, who much to my chagrin didnt even have anything for the SPN guys except for Jensen. Wish I had known that sooner, he coulda helped me with my plethora of Jared photos I still have to get done.

Once the flight landed, Jensen came out about 11:55'ish (give or take a couple mins) and was being escorted by their bodyguard. As I saw them approach I realized their driver was going to meet them at the door. The door only opens from the inside, with Clif there, it was no shock, but they let their driver inside & went thru the out door that was right there. I now had a 150-200 ft speed walk around the side to get outside & hurry down towards where the vehicles were waiting. As you can see by my pics, never got really too close. Knowing Jared still had to come, I snapped a couple quick pics, hoped maybe I got something & knowing damn well I probably didnt, and headed back inside.

About 10 or so minutes later, Jared popped up on the screen, with Gen a Porter and a bunch of luggage. Gen had Thomas in 1 of those carry them on the front of you things mothers use, while Jared walked along with her & the porter. As they came around the corner, I snapped a couple pics of them as I knew by the time they got to the door, I might have to run outside. So I didnt even wait to see if they went thru the inside or went right outside, I headed straight outside. Sure enough, thats what happened as well. I made the beeline outside knowing they will be slower with the porter pushing all the stuff & Gen carrying Thomas & I might actually have a chance to get up to them. I made it out there in plenty of time this time. As I waited for them to get to the vehicle, I displayed my photos to Jared & asked if he can sign (contractually, hes not allowed to till Midnight) and was all ready to tell him "but its after midnight" when he took a quick look at his watch and then replied "sure" and proceeded to sign. He then said he hadnt seen me in a while, I told him I was out of town for awhile, he asked where, I told him Toronto, he said "oh, I was just there last month" which of course I knew.

While the driver & porter were loading the vehicle, I broached the question to Jared "can Gen sign right now, or is it a bad ti..." "yeah sure" then he called Gen over, and she signed, while Thomas sat in the contraption I dont know the name of. I said hi to Thomas, and he didnt even say hi back, how rude eh?

Jared & I talked for a few more seconds, I asked him about getting a photo of him & Gen together. He thought for a second about it & replied "maybe another time, when shes not with thomas" & I knew he was basically saying "haha, no.. I know what your trying to do", but he was quite cordial & professional in declining it I thought. I then let them go on their way.

When I got back inside the other autograph hound told me "Mishas over there" & although I had nothing for him, I went to say hi. He was busy trying to figure out where his driver was. Seems his driver wasnt as familiar with what he looks like as he shoulda been. In the drivers defense, Misha was wearing a touque, so he probably did look a bit different. I told Misha, I think that was his driver (with his face almost pressed up against the glass he was so close) looking longingly into the arrival area for his client. He started walking over, and the manager/head driver of the co. was just coming back in from escorting Jared out (I thought he drove him, but appears not), and I told Misha "ask him" & sure enough he summoned the driver against the glass to come over, and Misha was eventually on his way too.

Because these photos are, to be honest, some of the worst ones I've taken, I didnt even tag them. IF you repost them anywhere, please include a link to the source. If people can play by these rules, I'll try to be less intrusive with the tags I put on the better photos in the future.