Genevieve Padalecki Joins Some Real Life Superheroes at Comic Con

The Winchesters and Cas are most definitely Superheroes onscreen – those characters have inspired countless Supernatural fans to keep on fighting even against odds that sometimes seem insurmountable. But in the real world, it’s the actors who bring those characters to life who are the real world superheroes – through the Represent tee shirt campaigns, the messages that You Are Not Alone and Always Keep Fighting, the Crisis Support Network, and Random Acts global change initiatives. One of the most exciting new projects is a partnership between Random Acts and the Pop Culture Hero Coalition to combat bullying. Supernatural’s Genevieve Padalecki is one of the contributors to the partnership, and joined some other crusaders for change on a Comic Con panel to talk about their important work.

The Superheroes In Real Life panel takes the prize for being my most inspiring hour of Comic Con this year – and that’s saying a lot considering all the incredible panels! Of course Comic Con is all about the fantastical and the imaginative and the fictional and how all of those things are healthy and positive and beneficial – something for us to celebrate! But Comic Con has a history of also hosting panels that are anchored in real life challenges and problems, and bringing to light social change that’s needed. This year was no exception, and I attended several panels that inspired everyone in attendance to be a part of that change.

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Supernatural Meme Star Michael Adamthwaite Talks War for the Planet of the Apes

20th Century Fox

I’m rather fond of saying that everything leads back to Supernatural, but honestly, it’s just true! I had the pleasure of chatting with Michael Adamthwaite, who is currently playing Caesar’s lieutenant Luca in the new film War For the Planet of the Apes. The film had a presence at Comic Con with a panel showing off the artistic and visual effects of the film. As a long time fan of the entire Planet of the Apes series of films (I even read the book by Pierre Boule and loved it), I was excited about the last in the sequel trilogy. The film focuses on Caesar and the war between his quest for revenge and his innate empathy, as well as on the actual fight between humans and apes. It also introduces the de-evolved young human girl Nova, a familiar name from the original series of films and first group of sequels. The movie tackles deeper themes than might be expected, which makes it even more intriguing to me. So having an opportunity to chat with Michael Adamthwaite, who played Caesar’s lieutenant, Luca, was a real treat.

As soon as I did a little IMDb research on the film, I realized its Supernatural connection – Michael, as well as Ty Olsson and Aleks Paunovic, had all been on SPN too! Here’s my chat with Michael, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

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Supernatural at Comic Con 2017!

For the past decade, there’s been one show that has inspired me to brave the insanity that is San Diego Comic Con again and again. Pretty sure you can all guess which show that is.

In 2007, it was the prospect of seeing Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki in person that made me throw caution (and possibly good judgment) to the wind and fly all the way across the country with almost no notice just to hopefully sit at the feet of the two actors who brought to life the characters that had entirely captured my heart. My friend Kathy and I slept on the sidewalk to get in early and raced through the hallways to the room where the Supernatural panel was, breathless but triumphant. This was long before SPN had proven itself able to fill the gigantic Hall H, so they were relegated to the much smaller Room 6CDE. Little did Comic Con know, Supernatural was already a fan favorite, with the line of SPN fans wrapped around and around the building and many disappointed fans unable to get into the room. Jared wasn’t able to come that year, but Kathy and I made it in and sat there beaming at Jensen Ackles and Eric Kripke sitting right in front of us. I managed to snag an autograph ticket through all sorts of machinations, and thus had my first actual conversation with Mr. Ackles, after which I found Kathy and immediately burst into tears. Fangirl problems, what can I say?

I’ve been back to Comic Con almost every year since, in the audience for the Supernatural panel as others began to notice the show’s passionate fan base and move the panels into ever larger rooms, until finally we were in Hall H itself.  If you’ve never experienced Hall H, it’s something to behold. The first time I walked in, my jaw dropped – the sheer size of it is overwhelming. I felt a swell of pride the first time Supernatural was deemed worthy of Hall H, and that feeling has never gone away. This year was no exception.

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Turning up the Heat at #Supernatural Phoenix Con!

Phoenix Con was the first con after a bit of a break, for those of us who weren’t lucky enough to go to any of the non-US cons, so it was great to see everyone again. The cast of course, but also my vendors room buddies and fellow fans and friends new and old. My old friend CB, from my very first job as an ‘adult’, now lives in Phoenix, so she came to the con to keep me company in the vendor’s room for part of the time. For another part of the time, she was sick with a nasty stomach flu, which left me on my own in the vendor’s room – which makes it very difficult to get any food or drink or even to run to the bathroom! But never underestimate the kindness of the SPNFamily. There were several contributors to Family Don’t End With Blood there, and they took turns checking on me and bringing me food and drink – so did several fellow fans and fellow vendors.

Padalecki books! With the awesome Megan Padalecki and Little Moon

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Salute to Supernatural Nashville – It’s Sunday!

Another pretty pretty guest post from Kim Prior!
-Lynn.

My Sunday morning began with the Gold Panel with Jared and Jensen. I think they were still full of giggles from their distillery tour the day before as most of the panel was full of shenanigans and laughs. I’ll talk more about that tour later.

Jared began the panel by telling us that his daughter will be born very soon, and he’s a little nervous about having a girl… Jensen immediately laughed at him.

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Salute to Supernatural Nashville – Saturday Night Special Featuring Louden Swain

I cannot say this plainly enough: The Saturday Night Special is Special because of Louden Swain.

Yes, I enjoy the special guests. Yes, I miss it when guests aren’t at the convention and therefore not at the concert. So, yes, I missed Gil and Briana and Kim and Ruth and Osric.

But let’s not forget that this is Louden Swain, live, on stage, pouring out their hearts and their souls for us. It is Billy Moran and Michael Borja on guitar. It is Stephen Norton on drums. It is Rob Benedict playing guitar and singing with so much passion you can actually, tangibly, feel it in the air. This is a raw, unfiltered show of energy and passion and love pouring out to us through guitars and drums and lyrics.

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Salute to Supernatural – Nashville 2017 Ain’t Nothing Better Than Flowers In May

Nashcon was extra fun because I got to spend it with my friend Kim, who takes gorgeous photos and doesn’t mind when I drool over them over her shoulder every evening as she’s hard at work in our hotel room. If you read this blog regularly, you know I’m behind in posting con reports (Houston and Vegas are coming, honest!), but luckily Kim was willing to write the report for Nashcon, including her beautiful photos. Enjoy!
– Lynn

Lynn and I had a fandamntastic weekend at the Opryland Resort in Nashville for the Salute to Supernatural Convention. I have to give a shout out to the staff and volunteers from Creation Entertainment for all of their hard work in bringing to us such a wonderful experience! I continue to be impressed by their enthusiasm, even on Sunday evening, even after working crazy-long hours. If you have the chance to attend one of these cons, please make the time to thank these volunteers for their tireless efforts in giving us these incredible experiences.

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Catching Up On Cons: Supernatural Jacksonville 2017

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I’m seriously behind on everything, including my con coverage for 2017. Between trying to finish up the new book (which I’m ridiculously excited about – have you pre-ordered your copy yet??? If you do, you get free goodies and can win even more free Supernatural stuff! Check it out at https://www.familydontendwithblood.com/!) Anyway, with that and starting off a new semester of teaching and Supernatural episodes returning, there aren’t enough hours in the day. So here, belatedly, are some of my favorite moments and photos from the first con of the year.

The 2017 Supernatural con tour kicked off in sunny warm Jacksonville, Florida. The sunny and warm part was definitely relevant to me, coming from cold and rainy dreary Philly. I love my hometown but Januarys are hard! So I was pretty euphoric just being able to walk around in my flip flops and lay by the pool in the sun for a while.

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The Kings of Con Hit The Big Apple!

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I had a whirlwind day in the Big Apple, so wanted to share a few photos and some of the fun. I was in NYC for the premiere of the new M. Night Shyamalan film ‘Split’, and as luck would have it, it turned out that Richard Speight Jr. and Rob Benedict would be in town too! They welcomed a small group of lucky fans to Tumblr headquarters for a screening of the last two episodes of Kings of Con followed by a Q&A.

Even waiting in line was fun – I met some great fellow fangirls while we stood on the sidewalk waiting to be let in, sharing con memories and photo ops and favorite episodes. Tumblr proved to be a wonderful host, with plenty of refreshments and a very friendly welcome.

Thanks, Tumblr!
Thanks, Tumblr!
Are Rich and Rob getting big heads...
Are Rich and Rob getting big heads…

I had already seen the last two KoC episodes, as had most of the fans there, but watching them on the big screen with a room full of fans was such a treat. We had a momentary audio glitch (must be a tech demon following Rob and Rich around this week…) and even it just added to the fun – because it sounded even more hilarious than usual.

Then Rob and Rich came out and took some questions, first from our Tumblr host and then from the audience. We had confirmed a few things that most of us were pretty sure about – for example, Jared and Jensen did a lot of improvising in their episode in that hysterical photo op scene. No surprise there! It was Jared’s idea to have Rob ask him to take his beanie off, and I think we all had already figured out Jensen’s ‘back that ass up’ in the outtakes wasn’t in the script. And the joke is that nobody actually knows what a squishy bear hug is – but I feel like lots of fans are going to try to find out at the next con.

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What SPNFamily Is All About at SFCon

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The last Supernatural con of 2016 was memorable for me, though not for the reasons I thought it would be. I was spending time with the kids so was only able to get there Saturday night, and the second – literally – I stepped off the shuttle and into the hotel, my phone rang and I got the shocking news that my dad had passed away. It was one of those moments that turns completely surreal immediately. I think I told the doctor trying to be sympathetic on the phone “no that can’t be right, I’m in San Francisco.” He patiently answered that yes, he realized that, but in fact my father had still expired. It will be darkly comedic at some point, but I’m not quite there yet.

I wandered into the hotel in a sort of daze, and immediately some of the Creation people I’ve come to know over the years knew something was wrong. Even though it was way too late to get registered, they got me a wristband and my seat pass and whatever else I needed. My friend Max held my hand and walked me to my seat and checked on me throughout the concert.

I couldn’t even bring myself to make any phone calls; instead I drank in the Saturday Night Special like it was a lifeline. It feels like that sometimes anyway, but never so much as that night. I felt surrounded by love, fans who are friends all around me and cast who feel like friends too singing such emotional songs that I was swept up in it and out of my own sadness. Just for an hour, but it was what I needed to give me time to accept what had happened gradually, so it didn’t overwhelm me.

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