by Mary Anne Butler (Mab), photographer and reporter

ComicsOnline’s Mab writes from her hotel room during Atlanta’s DragonCon 2012:

Wow, it feels like an entire week has passed already, but in a VERY good way! So many panels and photoshoots and too few hours in the day. Doesn’t help due to a miscommunication on our travel person’s part we had to shift hotels for the remainder of our stay- meaning no more DCTV while we’re here. It also meant we had to miss a block of things to reset all of our camera gear, and personal suitcases and such.

I will say we’ve managed to eat more this year than last, getting to snack at a media party where I played pool with Battlestar Galactica’s Richard Hatch twice (he won once, I won once) while Lou Ferrigno (The Hulk) and John Rys-Davis (Salla from Indiana Jones) laughed at the discovery I could shoot ambidextrous and sink two stripes in one shot. We sat down for sustenance with some of our favorite cosplayers Abby DarkStar and her other half KeithZenDragon, along with several of our photographer friends and caught up on plans and hopes for the weekend.

The first panel of the day for us was a Battlestar Galactica one (you’ll notice a theme here shortly).  We stopped on the way from our new hotel back to the Mariott Marquis for a LARGE caraf of Carabou coffee to give to the panelists, knowing a few of them got in much later the night before then they had expected. Michael Trucco (Anders), Jamie Bamber (Lee Adama/Apollo), Dr. Kevin Grazier (science advisor on BSG), Richard Hatch (Apollo for original BSG series/Tom Zarek), and Katee Sackhoff (Kara Thrace/ Starbuck) made up the “This Is Not All We Are” presentation. (posting a podcast of it once I’m home again)

We managed to poke our heads into the True Blood panel, a LoTR one, and Billion Dollar Babies which was an hour with Alice Cooper and the Amazing James Randi. I was in heaven, and got to speak briefly with Mrs. Alice Cooper herself, Sheryl Goddard, who has been married to Vincent (Coopers real name) since 1976 and was the original ballerina in his stage shows (the role was taken over by their daughter Calico in later years).

Our first MAJOR photoshoot of the con was a Gotham City-Harleypalooza gathering of almost two hundred fans of the brooding nocturnal flying mammal man and his rogue’s gallery, gearing everyone up for the MASSIVE DC universe shoot taking place tomorrow where they are expecting upwards of 400 cosplayers. During a pause in the shoot I spotted a set of folks at the top of the largest of the outside staircases, one of which happened to be Michael Trucco.   Bill also got some pictures of the WoW (World of Warcraft) costume contest.

Our evening ended with the Friday Night Costume Contest, and the spotting of yet another Cylon, Aaron Douglas (Chief Galan Tyrol). Lasting alost an hour, it was probably one of the shortest costume contests we’ve been to yet. The normally witty Dueling Swords hosts seemed to be having a REALLY off night; not being able to read names properly, laughing when a contestant fell, and otherwise just being rather droll compared to previous experiences.

I’ll leave you with one of those special little moments of the day, a Black Cat wearing heeled boots and a Deadpool walking through the passageways from Hyatt to Marriott:

Black Cat: “My feet are on FIRE! I HATE these boots!”

Deadpool: “Wanna trade shoes? I can walk in heels.”

Keep an eye out for further Dragon Diaries and galleries on ComicsOnline