So there's this crazy convention in San Diego every year called Comic-Con. No mere fan convention, it's THE industry event every year for not only comics, but has grown to include what they term "pop culture," which mostly centers on science fiction, fantasy, horror, comics, gaming, anime & toy fandoms, mostly media-oriented, which includes a lot of collectibles, previews and artwork. At around 80,000 attendees and hundreds of exhibitors, panels, artists and guests, it's quite a show - it literally takes up the entire San Diego Convention Center, which is about a mile long. Yowza.
This was, I believe, my 4th Comic-Con. Comics isn't really my fandom, and the sheer size of it puts me off, but I can't deny it's a thrilling event, and, if you can get past the crushing crowds and the overwhelming fannish stimulii, is well worth attending.
Knowing I was only going for the day Saturday,



While getting our tickets for the trolley we saw


Once I got in I called

What an amazing display of talent! I knew there were a few people there I wanted to see specifically, but ended up oohing and aahing over many more folks than just them. Adam was particularly taken any time we saw a Wonder Woman print, and I of course noticed any winged men to add to my collection, including one by Ron Brown that I ended up going back for later. At one point

From there we wended our way through dealers, noise and toys to get to the DC Comics booth. Adam wanted to say hello again to Phil Jimenez, and I got another picture of him for

By this point it was past noon, and the Stargate panel had let out, plus Kevin had arrived, so him, Daniel, JayTee and Adam and I went into downtown to a Chinese buffet for lunch. Since most of my objectives had been met, when we got back I was pleased to just wander around and soak in more of the exhibitors. We met up with Stuart and CeaJay and went with the flow. We ended up at Ruth Thompson's booth, where I finally got a copy of "Vox Fini", which I thought was out of print (I'm going to get more of her angels series at Pennsic I think, plus her "Invictus" is what kicked off my winged men collection in the first place, and I spent some time blaming her for that!). She and her staff were really cool, and since I bought something, Daniel bought something, and Kevin was actually buying two pieces (she does great dragons), they decided that counted as four purchases, and her con special was "buy 3 get 1 free," so Kevin got one of his free. Keen! We walked around more, and Stuart bought a very disturbing-yet-kinda-hot Superman print, and I caved and bought the Ron Brown angel print I'd seen earlier.
Finally it was time to head to the "Queers in Comics" annual panel, which was in a very big room and had an amazing turnout (kudos to Andy Mangels for putting together another great panel this year). My friend Vince from Surge of Power was on the panel, and so was Sean-Z. While we were sitting down I actually saw D'wan, D'ner and Perry, Bells, and Michael the Lawyer, so it was good to unexpectedly run into lots of old friends. Right as they finished the panel they let me give a quick plug for the Gaylactic Network and Gaylaxicon, which was good. Prism Comics hosted the post-panel social hour, and although previous years was just a mix-and-mingle with some door prizes, they tried to run some sort of ice-breaker game, but the vast majority of people weren't having it (and the guy running it was kind of being pushy about it, which seemed to turn a lot of people off). I was happy to schmooze a bit, and it paid off - I got to squee over Ivan Velez, Jr. whose "Tales of the Closet" series back in the 80's was a favorite of mine, and since he's re-releasing them in collected form and finally finishing off the series, he pulled one out of his bag and gave it to me, plus Sean gave me one of the prototypes of the t-shirts he's getting made next year because I love the little fairies he draws that he's putting on them, and Michael gave me a Justice League pin.
After that it was really time to get out of there and eat (plus Stuart had to go to see Serenity). It ended up being me, Kevin, Daniel, CeaJay, JayTee and Adam, plus




You can see my pictures here, which include Phil Jimenez, a group of DC superheroes, Daniel with an Alien and a Gloomy Bear, a bunch of us after dinner, and, of course, an Elvis stormtrooper:
Today I actually only slept until 1:00 (early for me), then gathered myself together and headed to



So, a slightly exhausting but very, very fun weekend. I'm sure in future years Quincy will want to attend all 4.5 days since comics is his fandom, but I think 2 will be about my max, although I certainly enjoyed looking at the toys and meeting a lot of really, really neat people. Props to JayTee, Adam, Daniel, Kevin and Stuart for hanging out with me most of the day - you guys made it way more fun!