Ok, I made the return to comic-con. I have missed the last couple of years. The last time I went, it was crazy, busy, just a mad rush of people. And this year, the entire San Diego Comic-Con was sold out before it started. Not only, sold out.. but entirely sold out online.Imagine that? This event has gotten such strong word of mouth, that it basically sold itself out. I am not sure how many people that means. But I fairly certain it is the capacity of the convention center here is a little over 125,000 people.
This was also the first time Christine got to see the full world of comic books. And I have to say that it packed to the rafters. Of course, comic-con is not only about comics any more. It is more of a pop culture event now. Christine and I got to experience at little bit of everything. The traditional comic mania. I got a couple of new sketches for my book. Francis Manapul (pictured above) was kind enough to give me a sketch. He is an up and coming artist. I have to say that sketches are getting harder to come by. That artists are charging for them now at their private booths. Can't really blame them. You have to hit 'em up at the big company booths. Only problem there, is you have to deal the lines.
Schwoo.. lines.. there are plenty of lines. That is probably the most annoying thing to deal with at comic-con. Anyways, we got to see the comic book side of things. Even hit a couple of panels. And we hit the Liongate's panel. We saw the stars of the upcoming film called the Spirit. Sam Jackson is a funny guy. It looks intense. If you like Sin City, it is probably going to be right up your alley. Definitely was a lot of Hollywood walking around comic-con. Anytime, there was a signing it turned into a madhouse.
So we had comics, Hollywood.. what next? Science fiction of course. By far the most popular costumes were Star Wars and Star Trek. Couldn't go anywhere without running into them. I have to admit that the most loyal fans are Star Wars and Star Trek. And costumes.. yikes so many costumes. The Joker was pretty popular of course, because of the new Batman movie.
And after science fiction, toys... Toys are huge. I don't think people realize how many people collect toys. Hasbro and Mattel had huge booths. Christine even got a couple of Mighty Muggs (I never saw one before comic-con). Kinda got those by accident. Plenty of people were searching for toys.
You think that is all.. heck no. How can you forget video games? There are whole rooms dedicated to video game tournaments. Video games are a huge money maker now. And they have taken over a whole section of the comic-con. I am not into video games too much, but all the flashing lights are cool.
And you can forget the gamers. There are tournaments for Magic and Forgotten Realms. Hah.. that is where the traditional nerds as Christine calls them hang out the most. Hmm.. so am I leaving anything out. Oh I can't forget the medieval gang. Christine got a kick out knights banging on each other. I still can't believe those guys got dressed up in full chain mail and walked around in the sun.
As you can see it is an overwhelming experience. Things to see in every direction. It was a great time though. I have to say I enjoyed it immensely. My wife was a trooper. I think she has a little bit of fun. And got to know another side of me. Get a little more inside my head. As strange as that may be. Thanks for the tickets baby doll. It was awesome.
I can't leave off the comic-con report without saying what the most exciting bit of news for me was. The characters of Milestone are returning to comics. DC Comics and Milestone Media are "merging". Not sure what the legal ramifications are, but supposedly Static, Icon, Hardware and other characters are going to start showing up in the DC Universe. The city of Dakota will join Gotham and Metropolis in the DC world.
Milestone published books in the 90's. Really good books, with solid stories and art. So it exciting to see what new stories will be told about them. I never have collected DC books, but I will now. Gonna have to rearrange what books I buy in the future. Ok.. lots of rambling.. but bottom line it was a fun time.
