Scenes From Comic-con!

Just got back from the 2006 San Diego International Comic-con, my first time here, and have some photos to share...


Some of the expected 100,000 plus attendees. This is the volunteer line, where you can help this awesome show from behind the scenes.


That's a big Pikachu balloon, just to give you an idea of how big this show is.

Jack Skellington. Cool!

Another photo to show how big the show is... it took us 2 hours to go from one end of the convention floor to the other in super-browse mode, and we maybe saw 50% of what was there. On each return pass through, we always found more booths / tables / displays that we hadn't seen earlier.

Who? Q!

Who ya gonna call? Possibly these guys, if you need help with a wardrobe malfunction. Seriously, though, you have to give credit to the people attending the con in costume. Brave AND creative :0)

Here's just one more example of the many elaborate costumes out there. Imagine if all of these people lived in one town? Halloween would be awesome :0)

Some of these people got strange looks while walking around downtown, but I thought it was pretty cool seeing a couple of stormtroopers on a coffee break.





The National Cartoonist's Society tables. Could this be the year I finally join?

Well, that's all the photos for now. My comments on the show? Well, I had heard about all the great giveaways at these shows, but to be honest, most this year were pretty lame. Lots of tiny little pins with logos on them, and temporary tattoos. Some of the tattoos were cool, and I did pick up a lot of postcards featuring great artwork. The highlight, though, were these cool Pirates of the Caribbean bags, which were only given out on the hour, so you had to line up fast to get them. I expected a lot more mini-comics, or free comics, but there were few, and many of those I found were uninteresting, and left behind when I packed. {Update: I've been going through my loot, and there are some pretty cool things here. I'll mention the highlights later}

The show was excessively crowded, but fun. As I mentioned before, it takes a lot of time just to see everything, and when you add shoping and talking time, you can easily need at least two days just for the convention floor. I was disappointed in the lack of bargains, though. We payed a lot to be at this show, and I was hoping for a lot of exclusive items, hard to find items, and frankly some bargains.

I did find a few things that I couldn't find elsewhere, and I did meet a few nice people. The highlight for me was talking to Andy Schmidt, the Editor of my favorite title, Fantastic Four, and Annihilation Nova, which I am also enjoying. He told em about an Iron Man project that he's working on, which sounds really great.

Anyways, this was my scouting expedition. I'll be more prepared for the next convention, and hopefully get more out of it by putting more into it. I'll admit that I'm completely exhausted, so I'm off. I'll be happy to answer any questions, though, if you have them.

Cheers, JOHN :0)