Second year in a row and third year overall of attending Comic-Con. While it's been widely noted that comic books themselves are now a small part of the event, there's an even bigger cult that's taken it over: the anime freaks.

Japanese t-shirt, doll and manga dealers flooded the place. Last year, it seemed like there was a little corner for the anime crap, but this year it was all over. Every row seemed to have more shitty Japanese junk. Selling 35 dollars t-shirts. Plus, the weird teenaged fans who dress up in strange costumes and all hold carboard signs reading "Free Hugs". Highly annoying. It's like if you went to a wrestling show and it was taken over by football fans. Sure, there are some similarities, but they're distinctly different. Thus, if I go next year, I'm taking a sign that reads: "FREE HEADBUTTS (for pimply anime fans, only)"

A fun part was meeting a Stormtrooper. Yes, I stood in line for 45 minutes with--and met-- a guy who was a Leiutenant or some shit in the North American Storm Trooper Battaltion. He had a special rank and badge to prove it. After getting over how g'damn ridiculous it was, I enjoyed the guy. Had to appreciate his enthusiasm. He created a pretty damn nice Stormtrooper pilot outfit from scratch. Including a CPU fan in the helmet that kept him cool. At first, I thought: "fuck..shouldn't you be doing something PRODUCTIVE with your life"? But then he told me how they routinely do charity events, similar to the Make-a-Wish Foundation. So, I can't believe I'm saying this, but: "yay, Stormtrooper Club!"

Quick rundown on what I did/saw:
-Caught a big panel for LOST! Just two of the writers (Lindelof and Cuse) teasing the fans and having fun. Matghew Fox (Jack) came out for a little bit, too. A staged "fan" ran in with "secret footage", which inlcuded a message into the future from "Dr. Marvin Candel", aka "Dharma Video Orientation Guy". Key parts: in the video, Candel broke down, stopped messing around and said his name was "Pierre Chang". He knew the year would be 2008 and that the President was George Bush. Chang had a baby crying in the background (Miles?!!) and it sounded liked Faraday was filming the video. Neat teaser.

-Sat through a presentation and extended trailer for "Terminator: Salvation". Live panel included the director and...the entire cast with the exception of Christian Bale. Rip-off! Even with the extended footage, I couldn't get excited for this flick.

-Went back to Sergio, Scott Shaw and Mike Peters doing "Quick Draw". Wasn't as fun as last year. Best gag was Sergio drawing the phrase "Don't Do That", in which he depicted an overweight Shaw dressing up in a Wonder Woman outfit.

-Spent less than five minutes, combined, at the Marvel and DC booths over two days. When I wandered into the DC booth twice, they had two of my "favorite" writers-- Greg Rucka and Judd Winnick. I thought: "you have GOT to be fucking kidding me! My luck sucks!"

-Coolest thing for me was running into Larry Hama at the Hasbro booth. I freaked out like a little fanboy and got him to sign my exclusive SDCC Cobra Commander figure. Yes, in hindsight I should've gotten his autograph on both of the figures I bought, but I didn't want to be greedy. One made me more than happy.

-Closed out Saturday by seeing a conference on the "Sarah Silverman Show". Including Sarah, Patton Oswalt, Jay Johnston and Brian Posehn. Posehn was probably the funniest guy on the panel. One dorky fan go the mic and said "Sarah, you're the hottest chick on television". Posehn jumped in and said: "I mean, c'mon.... have you seen Battlestar Galactica?! Sheesh!" Funny how the panel was almost NC-17, too. Silverman and the writer ended up doing a live gag about giving oral sex to the microphone. To the Bad Parent who sat in front of me: you should've taken your kids to the Marvel cartoon screening.

-Started Sunday by going to a panel on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". I'm now a fan of that show. Funny shit. Also helped that they gave us a free DVD of the first two seasons, plus two free t-shirts and other schwag.

-Went to a stupid, stupid, stupid, incredibly fucking stupid and stupidly retarded panel on "Indy Fans". We thought it was some deal or promo for Indiana Jones stuff. That's what the capsule preview said! Nope...a buncha' fans in costumes ready to talk about Indiana Jones in a small room. We bailed after less than five minutes.

-Saw another panel on Fraggle Rock. The chick who performed Red was there, doing Red live for the first time, ever. Okay...fuck you, it was cute! The girlfriend ate it up and texted her friends that Red had dubbed us both "honorary Fraggles".

-Tried to listen to Wes Craven do something. Fuck, he's a boring speaker. He said he was unique...because he gets his ideas in the shower. No way! Get the fuck out of here, you damn freak!! The ballroom was seemed less than 1/3 full while he was there.

-During the final hour of Comic-Con, I wandered though the "comic book dealer ghetto" and bought some cheap comics. Including Giant-Size Man-Thing #1. So my girlfriend can now brag to her friends that she is the only person alive who has seen my Giant-Size Man-Thing. Yes, it's an old joke....but a good one.



I don't know if I'll go again, next year. Yes, we had a great time, but I really think the Comic-Con itself is too far removed from what I'd like it to be. Of course, what I'd like it to be wouldn't generate more than 500 bucks for the city of San Diego...and it'd probably be held in the ballroom of a shitty hotel, like it was back in the 70's. Honestly, I could fart around on YouTube and Aintit Cool to get the same scoop and experience I had....yet without the crowds and annoying anime kids.

(oh...and standby. I'll be adding PICTURES to this thread, sometime this week!)

Pictures!?!?!? Of your Giant-Sized Man Thing?!?!?!?!





The comic, that is. Of course.

;-)