There was one thing I learned from my two-day trip to San Diego’s 2008 Comic-Con.
Four days would have been better.
Yours truly
And also possibly one more person joining me to help cover the event. The vastness of Comic-Con is staggering. I know that I didn’t get to spend enough time on the exhibit floor, but even the 3-4 hours I put in allowed me to only explore maybe a quarter of the booths and displays.
Sure, I wandered almost from one end to the other, but I’m talking about really sinking your teeth into what is the heart of Comic-Con:
The comic books, writers and artists.
I initially was excited about attending because of the panels they had scheduled. Lost, BSG, Chuck, Fringe, Heroes, Watchmen, Terminator Salavation and the list goes on and on.
And they were all great. In fact, I had a very cool experience while waiting for the 24 panel to begin.
In order to ensure a seat, I jumped into the panel BEFORE 24 just in case there were rabid Jack Bauer fans out there. It turned out that Jim Butcher, author of The Dresden Files, was the guy talking to fans right before Bauer.
I’ve never read a single book in the Dresden series, nor heard much about Butcher, but he was one of the more entertaining personalities I saw at Comic-Con over the course of two days. He sat there by himself, with a meek little editor, in front of hundreds and hundreds of people likely waiting for 24, Prison Break and Avatar, and he made the entire room focus on him for the next hour.
He truly loved his fans that got up to ask questions. He gave detailed and awesome responses, the kind of thing these Comic-Con attendees go nuts over.
It was a pleasant surprise to accidentally walk into an entertaining panel. In fact, I may pick up a copy of The Dresden Files because of it.
But that moment was one of the main reasons I loved being there. Not because I got to see the shows I loved, but for the little corners of Comic-Con that I discovered on my own.
My favorite corner was the one that housed a comic book called The Black Coat. I plan on writing a review of their first trade in the coming days, but I’m loving it so far. I met the creator and writer behind it, interviewed him on how he came up with story and was handed a free copy of the first issue released after the graphic novel.
All signed of course by himself and the artist.
It reminded me of the introduction in the first Rex Mundi collection. The guy who wrote the intro talked about how he found the two gentlemen behind Rex Mundi hiding in a back corner booth at Comic-Con. He read it, fell in love and now they are working on their seventh collection (I believe).
I admired the writers and creators of these comic books for putting so much effort into promoting their stuff. There were countless booths where authors sat and hoped a potential new fan would stop by and enjoy their work.
It was fun to be a part of that.
The other enjoyable aspect of the convention were the fans themselves. At first I was a laughing at all the insane costumes I saw, but then I realized how much a part of Comic-Con they are. Some were outrageous, skimpy, detailed and just plain crazy. But all of them were worn by people having a great time.
I also met a few new friends along the way, like Bill from TNT’s web department. There was also Shannon from Sparkplug Comic Books, an independent label who had a title up for an Eisner. I was in awe of Angelica, a young woman who had more swag than I thought humanly possible. One bag must have contained around 20 books, and she said she only paid for two. Slung over her shoulder were three posters cases and then a third bag contained even more goodies.
Then there were the two guys I met early on, who both were interested in our little blog here and I hope to see visiting sometime soon.
Next year I want to be there a day or two longer, if only to pack my wallet with a few hundreds and walk the floor looking for new and exciting comic books, artists and writers.
It was truly a blast to attend Comic-Con this year, even if I’ve never been so tired before in my life. My age is catching up with me when it comes to these things.
I leave you with a bunch of photos from my two days there that I didn’t get to post yet. Thanks to everyone for helping make this a fun trip for me. I truly did it for you guys, because if no one was reading this stuff, I’d have no reason to write it.
A pleasant surprise awaited me
OMG!
Mmmm, Starbuck
Stormtroopers.Are.Awesome.
A very good Hurley look-alike
Cows for the Fringe scavenger hunt that went on
Y: The Last Man!
Lee Pace from Pushing Daisies...a little annoyed at my flash
The Nerd Herd Mobile from Chuck - Someone won this thing
The Spirit
Chopper Zombie - Perhaps the greatest, most disgusting prop at Comic-Con
Chopper Zombie from the front. Don't you love it?
Lou Ferrigno! The Incredible Hulk!
The massive lines on Saturday morning
And last, but not least...Tricia Helfer
I guess I'd better make plans to go next year. It sounds like you had a ton of fun. Great work, Mike!
A few comments….
Perhaps I should have had Tricia Helfer as #6…. yum!
1) Everyone should stand up and applaud cause, DUDE FRAKKIN OVERALL AWESOME JOB!!!! You sure made all of your coverage seem like it was more than one person there covering it all. Simply all the things you covered were really cool to see (Lost & BSG panels, Ironman pics, stories, articles, etc..)
2) Thats a great picture of Katie!! Espcially if you are in the back row…
3) The Trooper brigade is always fun to see
4) that Hurley look a like dude in uncanny, how funny they gave him a darma ranch dressing!!
5) Lee Pace will get over it.. whats he gonna do cause you are taking his picture?!?! Touch You? =)
6) Lou still looks great!! How old is ole Lou?
7) Man no idea about the lines… nice pic telling that story…
Twice the coverage, now you are talking!!
Many years ago I too went to a panel that I did not want to see because I did want a good seat for the one after it. It was at DragonCon in Atlanta. I forget the panel now, but I fell in love with an author whose first book STORMFRONT was out. The author was Jim Butcher, and by the end of that panel, I just knew I was going to be a fan for life. Well, here it is, 6 or 8 years later and I am still a big fan. I watched the TV show and have the audio books as well. If you’re not into reading or just don’t have the time, I highly recommend the audio books. They are put out by Buzzy Multimedia and they got James Marsters as the narrator.
Lomax Lamat
Hey, that's an awesome story and thanks for sharing. Cool that we both had
the same reaction to Butcher.
I will likely pick up at least one of his books soon and see how they are.
I'm guessing I was one of those “two guys” you referenced (exhibit hall line on Fri.?). I finally sorted through the collected materials to locate your card. Glad to see you made it out alive with sanity intact. I think you hit on an important aspect that too often is the source of ridicule, which is the devotion and intensity of the fans. It's easy to demean people and throw out the “get a life comment” but the vast majorty of fans including the diehard ones simply revel in an opportunity to share their passion with others of similar ilk. Costumes for some, for others it's waiting in line for hours for a chance to get a close up view of their favored artists. Then also as you mentioned, you get that occasion where you have a one on one with an artist and they turn out to be friendly, open and genuinely happy to share, and as a result your fan status/ obsession is rewarded and enriched.
While perhaps too big for some the Con is certainly rewarding on many levels.
I hope you get to cover it next year.
I enjoyed chatting with you in San Diego and look forward to visiting this site regularly to feed the never ending addiction.
David, so glad you stopped by…I assume you were the guy on my left for most of the time and that I ran into at that comic book table where the dude was selling trades for $6.
I got a new Hard Boiled for $6, can't wait to read it.
Glad you agree with the costume stuff and the artists, because that was really one of the best aspects of Comic-Con.
You can read about one of the comics I found in my Black Coat review that I posted this morning…great, great stuff.
Hope to run into you again next year!
Yea, that's me.
You'll enjoy the Hard Boiled.
That table you bought from is a company out of Portland “Things from another world” or something like that.
Cheapest to purchase at conventions but worth a website visit to their online store, in particular check out the “Dent and Scratch” section for graphic novels, most stuff is 50 % off. They were good on shipping prices as well.
Like the site, just have to figure out the navigation ins and outs.
*applause*
You did an amazing amount of coverage of this ginormous thing considering you were there alone! Impressive!
I saw a few quotes from your report over in the forums on Jim Butcher's website and decided to check out the full report. Great stuff!
As for picking up The Dresden Files, according to an article I read, Jim Butcher recommends that new readers pick up “Dead Beat”, which is his personal favorite (I have to say that it's mine, too). A word of warning, though: this series is pretty much the literary equivalent of crack and most people who start don't want to stop.
Dead Beat….is that the first in the series? Or does that not matter?
Also, a new book series that's like “crack” sounds good to me
“Dead Beat” is number seven in the series so far, but it doesn't spoil too much for preceding books. Besides, it's got some of the coolest scenes in fiction. Ever.
The first book of the series is “Storm Front”, which was also the first book Jim Butcher completed and published. It is a fantabulous read and the book that originally hooked me into the series, but it is, of course, weaker than the later books in the series.
Like every other crack pusher, I'm going to give you a taste. Rather, I'll let Jim Butcher do it via all of the sample chapters on his site.
Just click a book cover to get to the sample chapters.
I always like to start from the beginning, so maybe I will with this as well