Totally geeking out
Every year the annual event Comic-Con comes to San Diego, delighting thousands and ruining traffic for the rest of us, and every year I tell myself I'll go. This year I still wasn't sure. I've never been into comics really, although I hear there's plenty of cool stuff to be seen. Once I heard that Kevin Smith would be appearing, my enthusiasm kicked up a few notches, but I still wasn't sure. I waffled all the way into the weekend...and got lucky. One of our new D&D players had passes to go and had something come up for work. So he hooked me, Kyle, and his girlfriend Pam up. Forgive me for skipping details, but after some parent-related drama on Pam's part we were finally on our way sometime around 10am. It took forever to find parking, which ended up being about 9 blocks away. We got some poor-bastard pedi-cab dude (and a masochistic one at that, probably), to speed us to the Convention Center. Unfortunately we were left to wait in a line that stretched about half the buildings length and then-some. After that, I went straight downstairs...to wait in another line for Kevin. THAT line also snaked around outside, which gave me a slight sunburn on my left arm only, and got me into the hall just after 2. Just my luck, Kevin was stuck in traffic. So they trotted out Rosario Dawson to assuage the crowd. As she fielded questions, one guy got up and asked if she had his cell phone # and could call him and ask where he was. She did so and told him we were all waiting, to which we all cheered. Kevin's response, via-cellphone, was something to the effect of "Wait...why the fuck are all of you there are not going to see Clerks 2?" LMAO. They ended up rescheduling a Q&A with Kevin for 6:30 that evening. Having not eaten a scrap all morning, we headed out of the convention center in search of food. We managed to find a Subway only a couple blocks away, thankfully. Once we got back we spent an hour or so browsing the booths. Kyle and I drooled over the real-life reproduction of the Twin Mill at the Mattel/Hot Wheels booth. I accosted the emcee at the Wizards of the Coast booth who was rolling a giant D20, asking him, "Can I touch it? It's so big..." LOL. I got a pic with the D20 as well as with Chewbacca at the Star Wars booth. I got a copy of the new Gargoyles comic book and got it signed by the artist, as well a Tinkerbell print signed by the original model for the character. Pam and I also swooned over the goth clothing booth, laughed at the funny t-shirts, and mooned at the Johnny Depp posters. We then headed back to the Hall for Kevin. I trotted upstairs on my way there to check out the art show. I bidded on two pieces - a nifty red dragon and a pin-up style pic of Malificent. Yay. Not sure if I'd have heard from the artists by now if I'd have won, so still crossing my fingers. By the time I raced into the hall Kevin was already talking. I squeed madly when he mentioned how much gayness was in the movie. Throwing caution aside I decided to get in line to ask him a question - which I never got to ask. I think my questions were better than most of the stuff the other people were coming up with, but regardless the whole session was hilarious. I managed to locate a vid that shows a couple good chunks from that panel, which I will post separately next (or above, as the case will be). Anyway, we left right after that and got home about 10pm. I'm definately going to pre-register both me and Mitch for next year. Not only is it cheaper, and you get in faster, but going all four days, I now realize, is the only way to see it all. Not too bad a day, but now that I know what to expect I think next year shall be awesome!