Sunday Comic Con

Didn't do too much at Comic Con on Sunday.  We got up at the hotel, packed, and did the usual ritual of eating hard boiled eggs and sugar danishes in the Hotel Guests Only Nook of the dining room, except that on Sundays, the daily paper, the San Diego Union Tribune (The UT) is $2 rather than its weekday dollar. Luckily another fan came to our rescue with an additional 70c in nickels, allowing us to purchase what is almost certainly one of the world's most fatuous newspapers in order to have breakfast in newspapery bliss.


We rode in to the Convention Center on the excellently convenient trolley, as usual, and tried to get on with finishing the exhibits in the main hall. No chance - the huckster room is GIGANTIC and it would seriously take three weeks to actually examine what was for sale at each booth.  I was pleased to see that a fair percentage of the merchandise was:

• Comics
• Vintage comic art
• New comic art
• Pastiche and mash-ups of comic art
• Art supplies
• Fine art (with a comic-y bent)

I felt that Fox and the big three broadcast companies were doing their level best to ensure Comic Con becomes all about Big Entertainment and drops the beardie guys with seventy-year old copies of The Spirit as soon as possible.  Hopefully the Force is strong with these fans, and they won't succeed. 

The comics on sale ranged from $660,000 (six hundred and sixty thousand dollars, for the hard of reading) an issue, to two for a buck (or less if you had trade ins).  We bemoaned the fact that it's hard to know in advance if an issue will eventually break the half-million dollar mark or will forever be traded for a buck or less.  If anyone knows the formula, please let us know. Our retirement fund is beckoning.

As for panels, we went to a humor in science fiction and fantasy panel chaired by Scalzi, which was funny, as advertised. Didn't learn of any new humorous authors. (My own funniest authors are Terry Pratchett, obviously, Douglas Adams, obviously, and Harry Harrison, whose Bill, The Galactic Hero changed my life. (See panels passim.))

We went to a panel Where Do Ideas Come From? and learned how to stick to an idea, but little about how to squeeze one out of the ectoplasm when you're not feeling creative, which is what I wanted. Then we went to a costuming panel chaired by members of the 501st, a Stormtrooper association with, they said, 6000 accredited members. I thereby learned that male Cosplay folks are exactly the same as the female ones I talked about the other day, except they are more likely to talk about what adhesive you use on your armor and less likely to talk about how to have your handler smooth things over when someone tries to hit on you. 

I've always loved the 501st - I'm an Imperial fan - so this was a great panel for me. 

After that, we left in order to get lost on the trolley lines, ditch our Comic Con badges, and eventually drive home, still failing to grasp why the freeway is jammed (30mph) from San Diego to Orange County on a Sunday evening. I know that it's because everyone is coming up from Mexico, but given the superbly clear freeway, I don't understand why it doesn't flow at 75 mph, like every other freeway. 

Oh well. I'm home now.