After advertising that this would be the “Year of No” here I am still stunned that I was given professional status at the San Diego Comic-Con. As I write this Preview Night is but a memory and I am going over my notes from today’s sessions while trying to figure out where all my money went. A brief recap for those interested- I applied for pro status, got it but it was too late to get any guest badges. While I immersed myself in geekdom, Sue was going to go geocaching.
Preview night worked out OK… I gave myself some time to get the lay of the land, while Sue read a bit. After an hour the crowds were getting to be a bit much and I called it a day. What SWAG did I get? Nothing that I can recall- except three SWAG bags from Warner Bros. One Justice League, one Big Bang Theory, and one Looney Tunes. I did go and scan the BBC America QR codes that were part of the Dr. Who scavenger hunt. I am only missing one but can’t find Titan entertainment anywhere. The BBC lists them in the same booth spot as “Unshelved” a great web comic and the Comic-Con app put them in aisle 5500 of the exhibit hall (5400 is the last aisle). So that was about it for preview night. Two years ago Marv Wolfman I believe said that preview night was the new Saturday… With the number of comp passes I saw I can believe it. I can also understand why people with 4 day passes without preview night were not happy.
So, I got up Thursday morning with a plan… All geeked out with my QR code t-shirt and geek vest I set out to do a few things first go to Comic Book Law 101 & next go to David Petersen’s CBDLF master session. Both were fantastic and have gotten me to rethink a few things. One on copyright and the other on the process & tools I ink with. After that it was a day in the exhibit hall which is a very scary place. I think I was able to cover the entire floor, but I could be mistaken. I purchased a few things: Katie Cook’s cat & Gronk books along with a Doozer drawing for Sue. A David Petersen sketchbook. Almost the entire “DC Super Pets” series (the last 4 books will be available tomorrow). Two convention special books from Archaia (Rust & Fraggle Rock) which let me get three books for free (& then lug all of them around for hours & hours). Finally, a complete sketchbooks of Dave Stevens compendium (Dave created “the Rocketeer” one of my favorite comics & movies ever). Now you might look at that list and wonder why I bought sketchbooks and kids books… First I am a teacher so finding new comic material for my classroom is important. The sketchbooks are great because I learn so much seeing how other artists draw, even roughy sketches teach me something. By 4:30 I was exhausted. Sue arrived and we dumped my stuff in the car and wandered having a pizza dinner at a Cartoon Network NY style pizza place. Afterwards we walked around people watching and ended up on the grass waiting for a rather sad Cirque du Soleil performance on the the side of Petco Park.
Since I had mentioned the Rocketeer here is the infamous monkey with him… Or at least a very good imitation. For those wondering about other pictures I would ask that you visit my Flickr site and as for Cecil, I had a wonderful chat with some steampunk outfitters about getting him a pair of goggles. I (and he) will be overjoyed if we hear back from them after the con.