Andy's Blog

I’ve posted a blog entry for every other day of the con, so I might as well post one more, for Sunday. My friend Bill came to the con, but only for Thursday and Sunday, so I had a chance to hang out with him again a bit today. That was cool, since I’m usually on my own for these things. I went to the DC “Young Justice” panel with him, which was not actually about the Young Justice cartoon, rather it was about several DC books featuring young heroes. I’m not reading any DC books right now, but it was interesting to learn a bit about what they’re doing. Plus, I got a free copy of Justice League #1, which means that I now own exactly one “New 52” book.

I spent most of the day in panels, going to the “Cartoon Voices II” panel, and a couple of others. I managed to avoid buying anything at all, other than coffee, at the con on Sunday.

The trip home was fairly uneventful. I managed to get a seat with extra legroom on the flight, so that was nice. And the flight was only a little late getting in. And the drive home went smoothly.

Overall, it was a nice enough con, and a nice vacation from NJ and work. I came home with some new books, but few enough that they fit in my luggage. (I still have a huge backlog of stuff to read, much of it purchased at past cons. But, as I keep reminding myself, that’s a good problem to have.)

Back at home, NJ is still way too hot, and the A/C in my apartment is still not quite working as well as it should be. So, here I am, back in reality. I’ve got tomorrow off, to get laundry done and try to get back on east coast time. Then, back to work on Wednesday.

Last night’s Nerdist thing was fun. Also, much shorter than W00tstock, thankfully.

Today, I got into the con right at 9:30, and, surprisingly, walked right in the door, no waiting. The floor was actually not that crowded. I wandered around a bit, but didn’t buy anything. I went upstairs, and sat through three panels, all in the same room. First, a Marvel animation panel which included a screening of a very funny Spider-Man episode, where Loki turns Spider-Man into Spider-Ham. Silly, but funny. Then, the Quick Draw panel, which is always fun, and the Cartoon Voices panel which is also aways fun.

After that, I wandered for a bit, then went back upstairs for a couple more panels. First, a Roddenberry panel, where they talked about the movies and comics they’ve got going on, then Scott Shaw’s Oddball Comics presentation, which was hilarious, as usual.

Then, I wandered around the Gaslamp for a bit, then hopped on a very crowded trolley back to Mission Valley. It’s now just about 8pm. I’d like to go back to the con now, but I’m really tired, and there isn’t much going on tonight that I’m all that interested in. I think I’ll just stay in for the night, and maybe watch a movie here in my room.

So, after getting in from W00tstock after midnight last night, I had a bit of trouble getting started this morning, but a nice breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee helped. I got to the convention center a bit after 10am again, and walked right in. Wandered the floor again, for about an hour, and bought a few more random books. I’ve been trying not to buy too much, but I think I’m going to wind up having to check a separate bag full of comics on the way back home, as usual.

I went to a Mike Mignola panel, which was pretty cool. I’m way behind on my reading, so I didn’t even know that Hellboy was dead. I think I’m about two or three years behind on Hellboy/BPRD stuff. I actualy would like to catch up (as opposed to some other books, where I’m OK with having missed a lot, and don’t really intend to pick them up again). I have maybe a year’s worth of actual comics waiting to be read, then maybe another year’s worth of stuff on my iPad. Once I catch up with the stuff I already own, I’m not sure if I’ll just keep buying digital, or switch to buying trades.

After the Mignola panel, there wasn’t really much else I was too excited about, and likely to be able to get into. So I set off to wander the streets a bit. There’s a lot of stuff going on outside the convention center this year. I dropped by Trickster first. That was basically just a room full of indie books. Some cool stuff, but I didn’t buy anything. Then, I found the spot at the far side of the new pedestrian bridge where they had a few random food trucks and other stuff set up, including a Norton truck. (Not sure I’m enthusiastic about computer software companies encroaching my Comic-Con. I don’t really want to think about that stuff while I’m on vacation, thanks!)

The con shuttle bus that goes back to my hotel leaves from that spot too, so I decided to give up for the day, and head back to the hotel, even though it was only around 2pm. So I’m back in the hotel typing away now. I need to get back downtown later for the Nerdist thing at 7pm. Until then, I think I’m going to rest up and get dinner. I was originally thinking I’d just hang out at the con all day, but I think I’m getting too old for that!

Thursday was the first full day of the con. I took the trolley in, no problem, did a little roaming around downtown to get a few things, then headed over to the convention center a little after 10. Walked right in. Wandered the floor a bit, picking up some random books, then saying hi to Rick Geary and Randy Reynaldo. Both cool, friendly people.
After that, I went upstairs and sat through a few panels. One with Geof Darrow, then a Tarzan panel, and then the Sergio and Mark panel. All good.
Then, I wandered a bit more, then just hopped the trolley back to the hotel. Grabbed a burrito for dinner, then the trolley back in, for W00tstock.
W00tstock was pretty nifty, but very long (7pm to 11:30pm). I probably should have taken off when they broke for an intermission around 9:30. Some very funny stuff, but also some stuff that wasn’t really my cup of tea. Overall, I feel like I ended the day with a case of nerd fatigue.

So I’m here in San Diego for the con. The trip in was mostly uneventful. No problems, except for spilling my coffee in my lap on the airplane. My hotel is about 5 miles from downtown, right off the freeway. Not very exciting. I’d much rather be downtown, but that’s pretty much impossible these days.

I did decide to leave my laptop home, so I’m typing this on my Bluetooth keyboard, connected to my iPad. It’s working better than the on-screen keyboard, but I’d rather have a real keyboard, rather than this cheap one. Maybe I should get a decent Bluetooth keyboard to use when I’m traveling.

I’m missing preview night this year, but I’m seeing a lot of footage from it on the local news tonight, from here in my hotel room. Comic-Con is getting a lot more TV news coverage than it used to, but that’s not surprising. It’s getting a lot of attention, in general.

I’m pretty tired, since I got up at 5am this morning. I’m going to try to stay up until 8pm, at least, so I can start trying to get on Pacfic time. I want to stay out until at least 10pm tomorrow and Friday.

So the plan is to get up at 5am tomorrow, take a shower and grab a quick breakfast, then head out for the airport at 6am. If all goes well, I’ll be in San Diego just past noon Pacific time.

I got my laundry all done, and I’m all packed and ready to go. I haven’t been on an airplane since 2008, so I’m a little anxious about things. I shouldn’t really have any trouble tomorrow, but I’m worried that something might go wrong or I might forget something.
I’m trying to relax now, and catch up on a bit of SDCC-related news. Unfortunately, the big news item right now is the death of a Twilight fan who was camped out waiting for Thursday’s Twilight panel. She tried crossing Harbor Drive (against the light apparently) and was hit by a car. As sad as that is, I’m still very excited about getting out of NJ and enjoying a few days in San Diego, surrounded by like-minded nerds. The local paper has a good landing page for con news up now.

And I actually managed to leave work today at 6pm, with a fairly clean plate. I cleaned up my email inbox, so I’m done to just 9 messages in there, none of which require any immediate action. Pretty much all my projects are in a “waiting on somebody else” state.  I’m almost afraid to say it, since I don’t want to jinx it, but I may not have to worry (much) about work while I’m away!

I’m killing some time this morning reading con-related stuff on the internet. Just stumbled across an article in the local San Diego paper titled “Has Comic-Con reached ‘peak geek?’“. Interesting question. The article talks about how TV is taking a bigger role at the con, as opposed to movies. I’m not much concerned about that either way. I’m honestly not seeing too much this year on either side that I’m interested enough in to actually wait in line for Hall H or Ballroom 20 or wherever else they might be having the ginormous panels. I’d maybe go to the Fringe panel if I could get in without too much hassle. I’m mostly interested in stuff that’s a bit more fringe (with a lower-case f). Like maybe the Gilbert Shelton panel!