Comic Con 2006
Has Comic Con grown up?
So today, we went to Comic Con.
Leave house: 10:30am.
Get downtown: 11:10am.
Find parking spot: 12:20pm. $5 (amazingly, most of the close ones were $20, but they were full. We had to park on the other side of Petco Park).
Make it to the convention center: 12:35pm. $20 by pedicab — no way the kids were willing to walk that in the heat.
Entrance for me and the kids: $25. (And a very nice ComicCon employee let us cut the line when he saw I had two kids in tow).
Have the line for the Pokemon autographed Pokeballs closed right in our face: 1:01pm.
Order lunch: 1:25pm. ~$20
Receive said lunch: 2:15pm.
Do stupid Avatar scavenger hunt for the kids that involves five booths and a mile of shoving past people, only to get a pretty stupid mousepad at the end: ~45 minutes.
Misc shopping: around $160.
Amount overpaid for Naruto headbands: $5 for the small one, $10 for the big one.
Number of near-tantrums: one, when I wouldn’t buy a Jiji plush for $40, or a Totoro backpack for $75.
Most overpriced item seen: A plush catbus for $500.
Amount I spent on me: $5.
Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade
Number of famous Internet cartoonists seen: three. Scott Kurtz & his lovely wife Angie, and Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade.
Number of Scott Kurtz items Angie gave me: Three, two issues of Truth, Justin, and the American Way, and the Captain Amazing book.
Number of words Gabe said to me: one.
Average number of words spoken by Gabe every time I see him: one.
Number of words spoken by Tycho & myself: uncountable, neither of us ever shut up.
Number of Anakins leaning towards the Dark Side: 7.
Number of noble Jedi Knights: 3.
Number of Charles Vess prints I managed to locate despite a half hour search: zero.
Number of people who recognized me and stopped to chat in the hall: three.
Amount gratefully spent on yet another pedicab: $20.
Shocking total: $219.
The only thing priceless was the picture of Batman pushing a stroller. You can click the pics to enlarge. 🙂
11 Responses to “Comic Con 2006”
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The badges don’t look different from last year… Since I still have mine, I could get into Comic-Con for free!
But I didn’t go this year because it’s simply too much work for too little benefit.
I’d have to enter the schedule into Excel, select the interesting workshops and presentations, organize my trip, drive south on the interstate attempting to avoid the really slow drivers who are probably east coast transplants, park at the opposite end of the convention center, walk for 15-20 minutes in 110°F heat to get to the entrance, stumble over costumed comic-crazed characters trying to get to the workshop or presentation on time, and then realize that the subject is too basic to be of great interest, but rationalize that since I’m here I might as well listen. Then when my schedule is cleared, I would trek back to the parking arena in the blistering heat through hordes of people, find my car on one of the floors that I couldn’t remember, drive to the gate and pay the increased parking fee, drive a less travelled route on Harbor Drive to avoid the downtown traffic, and then return to the interstate only to get locked in traffic with really slow drivers from the east coast… No thanks.
Last year, some buddies from SCEA were exhibitors as independent comic artists. They let me place my business cards on their table, which they said were snatched up faster than their materials. Unfortunately, the popularity of my company’s previous hangtree logo convinced the duo that they shouldn’t draw attention away from their exhibit to some guy’s business card that had little to do with comics. So they denied me the next day. Good for them. Here’s payback, Chris. 🙂
By the way, there’s a Sony Online Block Party on July 22. You’re probably not going, eh, Raph? 😉
I am glad that I am not famous enough to have such giant pictures of my head on the internet.
Hey maybe it’ll be a good memory that stays with your kids for all time (and only took a few years off your expected life!)
If you ever wished they made TV shows “like they used to”, check out Truth, Justin and the American Way, which is on the surface based on The Greatest American Hero, but strives to be something more. It’s fun and fresh in a retro-way.
Most amazing sight I saw – Mike Mignola- I mean Mike frigging Mignola just sitting there in a chair, no line, no hype. Talking to anyone who noticed his tiny booth, signing stuff and drawing for you. Waaaaa 🙂 way cool
Awww, I like Charles Vess, too.
Weirdly, I’ve never made it out to that con in all my years. A friend of minme back in Maryland used to give me care packages of posters and other goodies, when she went.
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OMG it got to 110 in SD….you poor people down south near the Ocean, Im suprised there werent massive riots given that the people I know down there start writing thier congressmen when it hits 90. Eh…I think we hit 112 this weekend in Sacramento, and this is going to last all week apparently.
Of course were lucky to have almost year around Comic Con here in Sacramento, all you have to do is drive by the State Capital….
It hit 119 here in San Jose, according to the car’s thermometer. I don’t check the weather reports: there is no “good” when you can’t hope for anything under 90 outdoors. It’s just jumping from indoors to cars to indoors.
Heat is to me like water is to the Wicked Witch. Except it acts slower. And can be removed reasonably quickly.
[…] Comic Con 2006Has Comic Con grown up? So today, we went to Comic Con. Leave house: 10:30am. Get downtown: 11:10am. … Amount overpaid for Naruto headbands: $5 for the small one, $10 for the big one. Number of near-tantrums: one, when I wouldn’t buy … […]
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