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For the first time in our married life, Chris and I
had enough money and time off to not only go visit his
family back east in the fall, but to take a summer
vacation of our own. We decided at the last minute to
go to the San Diego comic con, which we had only been
to once before. The trip was over all great, but not
without its flaws, as I will outline in this rambling
column.
First and foremost, I heartily recommend booking your
hotel well in advance! We booked ours a week in
advance, and ended up in THE LAST room in Motel 6 in
Chula Vista. Do you know what the last room in Motel 6
is like? It is not only a smoking room, but it is next
to the electric maintenance room, from which weird
buzzing/humming/pulsing noises emanate at all hours.
Dont bother trying to use the TV to tune it out,
either, it doesnt work. Oh, and dont get me started
on the shower head that was about 6-9 inches below
where it should have been. Another word from the
wise... Make sure youre absolutely positive of the
city your hotel is in. There is no Motel 6 on E street
in downtown San Diego. There is one on E street in
Chula Vista, 15 minutes south on the I-5.
Perhaps my biggest rant is . . . Why are convention
centers always built in the downtown area??? Downtown
areas are confusing, crowded, and expensive. By the
time you navigate your way to the convention through
one way streets where half the time you cant make a
turn and never a U-turn, all the parking at the
convention center is taken (seriously, we got there by
9 and it was already full) and you have to navigate
through more one way streets, hoping to find an empty
space at one of the ridiculously expensive parking
lots in the area. The good news is, sidewalks arent
one way and it actually takes you less time to WALK to
the convention than it did to DRIVE to the parking
lot.
Now, I ask you, would it be so hard to build the
convention center somewhere on the outskirts of town,
with a HUGE parking complex? Furthermore, someone
could build a McDonalds or Burger King right across
the street, so you could slip out for a quick bite to
eat, instead of trying to guess which downtown
restaurant wont cost you an arm and a leg. This way
everyone (except the people who sell high-priced food
from the snack bar at the convention center) would be
happy and also have more money to spend at the
convention, which will make the vendors happy.
That brings me to my next rant . . . 2.50 for a 16 oz
bottle of water. Do you know how much that same bottle
of water would cost me at Trader Joes? I think they
sell 6 packs of 16 oz water for about that much. I can
see jacking prices up a bit, but we were talking
highway robbery on the food here. And of course you
have to pay, because theres no such thing as cheap
food downtown, everything I saw was a bar and grill or
some such.
Now, the moment youve all (at least those who were at
the con with me or who talked to me afterwards) been
waiting for! Thats right, AJ Rips The Security
Guards! First off, these people had no clue about what
was going on. Ask them where to pick up your press
badge and they send you upstairs and all the way
across the building to the pro registration area.
There, an exasperated person with a clue will send you
back downstairs and half way across the building to
where you can really pick up your badge. As if that
wasnt annoying enough, just a few minutes into the
convention, Im standing there talking with Sheryl and
Sidra, wearing my sorceress costume. This costume is
topped off by a wonderful, handmade staff that my Dad
(of "Confessions of a Newbie" infamy) spent many hours
working on for me. Two security guards walk up to me
and tell me that it needs to be attached to my
costume... Im like... excuse me? How am I supposed to
attach a 6 foot staff to my costume? So they send me
to the security booth. The lady there seems to have no
interest in helping me, no empathy that this is a very
valuable personal item and an important part of my
costume. She sends me to the coat check, and I have to
ask 2 people where the heck that is before I arrive
and have to pay a dollar to satisfy some dumbass
security guards being overzealous in interpreting the
rules. My staff may look impressive, but it is made
out of a light weight agave plant stalk that would do
no more damage than any of the fake gunswords we saw
some anime cosplayers wielding. Well, dont mess with
the press, baby! I would like to say, loud and clear,
that I think security at comic con SUCKS. If I had
wanted to, I could have hurt people just as much with
the bag of dice that Sidra bought or the tote full of
comic books I was carrying as with my staff. Anything
is a dangerous weapon in the right (wrong?) hands.
Heck, go watch a martial arts movie... some people
dont even need weapons! Would they tell Jackie Chan
that his hands needed to be attached to his costume?
Also, a quick mention of the security guard who asked
to see my badge, and then said I looked too young to
be press. When I told her I was 20, she said I looked
14. I told her I knew, dont rub it in. But what I
should have said is (and this is all true!) "I wrote
for the Tucson Citizen when I was 15, and Ive been
with CollectorTimes.com since about 16 or so. Are you
saying that young people cant write? That we dont
have opinions? I am with the press, and Im not too
young to know discrimination when I see it! Ageism is
wrong!" Ahem... Im done ranting now.
Ok, now that Ive got that out of my system, its time
for an over-all review of the Convention, highlighting
the good and the not-so-good. Comic Con was huuuuge,
and I seriously wiped myself out on the walking. There
were some small disappointments, such as the fact that
there was only 1 booth devoted to role playing
products (but what a booth it was! Borealis dice!
Cthulhu bumper stickers! Lots of books and card games!
But alas, absolutely nothing Earthdawn-related...
sighs). Chris heard from a friend in the know that
Hasbro, who owns Wizards of the Coast (and is
apparently driving them into the ground), told WoC not
to get a booth at the convention because they didnt
want to spend the money.... Then Hasbro goes out there
and has a big damn booth for all their toys! I believe
that Hasbro did a big disservice to this large
customer base of gaming geeks by not even having a
small showing for Wizards of the Coast at Comic Con. I
think the role playing community as a whole was nearly
snubbed. There was lots of Yu-Gi-Oh and Mage Knight
and Hero Clix and even tables set up for the Lord of
the Rings collectable card game, but as far as I saw,
no gaming company bothered to come out and set stuff
up for us. I feel so unloved... *sniffles*
It seems like, just like Tucsons gem shows, Comic Con
is turning into more of a swap meet (this one with a
geek theme, as opposed to gem shows hippie theme)
than a pure Comic Book Convention. I was disappointed
by the lack of new, interesting comics. There was a
large amount of fantasy and sci-fi artwork,
anime/manga merchandise, people selling action figures
and other toys, a few t-shirt places, several weapons
dealers, and even a cell phone place! I really hope
that comic book creators werent left without a space
because someone selling t-shirts booked their booth
sooner.
In all fairness, I enjoy the non-comic stuff, too. I
bought a lot at the gaming booth. I bought a lot of
fantasy prints and stickers to decorate my ugly yellow
tool box. I saw a lot of t-shirts, that I would have
bought if I hadnt already spent so much, and the same
with weapons. All this stuff is cool and fun... But
does it really belong at Comic Con? I think the
organizers of the convention should take a poll and
see what us geeks are really interested, and what we
dont want to see at Comic Con (my guess is the cell
phone people are going to be high on the list of what
we dont want!).
I came home with lots of comics. Many we didnt even
pay for, as people were giving out free previews and
of course theyre happy to give them to the press. I
hope they remember the old Hollywood motto "Any
publicity is good publicity" after they read the
scathing reviews some of this crap is gonna get (if
youre a creator whose comic I bought and youre
cringing while reading this, dont worry . . . I liked a
few things that I came home with). I have enough
review material to last me the rest of the year and
beyond, even if I review a couple of comics a month.
Now, a list of costumes, good and bad! Edward
Scissorhands . . . Very cool! Klingons . . . Face makeup was
mostly not as good as expected and they needed to work
a bit more on sounding and acting like Klingons, IMHO.
Darth Vader . . . That dude was tall! But his Storm
Troopers were never around, they were always off in
some other part of the building. Hobbit- a girl
sitting on the floor next to me while we waited for
the "Mark Hamill Wants You In His Movie" panel had a
hobbit costume made out of every day clothing that
looked period from a distance, medical gauze wrapped
around her bare feet, and wig hair attacked to it to
make her feet furry. She gets a mention in my rant and
rave for her innovation, way to go! There were lots of
Lord of the Rings costumes, including one guy who was
almost a ringer for Legolas. There were also many
costumes (including an American Maid from The Tick)
that had obviously seen a lot of cons and were looking
pretty well-worn. If you cant keep your costume
clean, you need to retire it.
I recommend coming up with a costume to wear to Comic
Con if you ever get a chance to go. Its a great way
to start a conversation, get your picture taken, and
an easy way for friends to find you (if you dont
choose a costume that half a dozen other people are
wearing!). Try to make it appropriate to your gender,
age, and body type, though. I am going to piss some
people off and say that fat guys look stupid dressed
like Superman. Dont like my opinion? Well, I dont
like your beer belly!
Cool stuff: Pete Abrams (of sluggy.com) giving free
sketches to fans who bought stuff and patiently
signing damn near anything (we now have a signed copy
of book 6 with a little sketch of Kzk in it. If that
doesnt make sense, dont worry, just go to sluggy.com
and after four endless, sleepless days of reading the
archives because you just cant stop, youll
understand). Learning that Phil Foglio (of Girl
Genius) is a Sluggite, AND getting complimented on my
costume by him (yay! someone famous thinks I looked
cool!). All the talented cartoon voice-over people at
The "Mark Hamill etc etc" (you think I was gonna type
that more than once?) panel. What an amazing bunch!
Hearing someone always talk in an announcer voice is
almost scary, though. Booths where all the comics are
already signed, so you get a signed comic even if the
creator is someplace else at the time. The Marvel
Booth! It was a lot of fun pointing and saying "Look,
its bigger than the Marvel Booth!". So much fun that
I even shouted it when reading about Microsofts booth
at some Linux convention. Im sure someone will
explain this more, but I just wanted to mention it so
I didnt feel left out. Fantasy artists selling more
than just prints... I got stickers and folders (to
hold character sheets). I also saw journals, watches,
keychains, all kinds of inexpensive merchandise with
beautiful fantasy artwork.
Not-so-cool stuff: The crowds on Saturday! I recommend
either skipping Saturday altogether, or spending all
day at panels, like Sheryl told me they do every year.
It was a major frustration to have to fight crowds to
get anywhere! The security guards! Oh, wait, I already
mentioned them. The fact that jewelry and other
non-drawing stuff at the art show was on tables behind
a sort of barricade, so you couldnt see it very
close. Im sure that this was to keep small, valuable
items from being pocketed, but it was still kind of
annoying. The poor showing of female voice talent at
the Mark Hamill etc etc" panel. 1 woman with 1 claim
to fame? Compared to the funny, talented, very
experienced men on the panel, she was a big
disappointment. Booth babes in trashy lingerie...
puh-lease! At least dress like a comic book character!
Booths with almost nothing in them. Why get a booth at
Comic Con if all you have is preview material? I dont
want you to tell me how good your comic is gonna be, I
want some solid proof. Your sketchbook is not enough.
And dont charge me a lot of money for a preview that
has very little substance! I fell for that one once
this time, and it wont happen again.
A few tips if youre ever planning on going to Comic
Con: Save up, plan in advance, and book yourself a
hotel room where you can walk or take the bus to the
Con. Parking is too much of a hassle. A mask or a
deep, hooded cloak are a great way to avoid being
handed junk you dont want or getting sucked into
conversation with people whose comics youd never
touch. With your vision limited by the confines of
your mask or cloak, its easy to pretend you just
didnt see them! And if that doesnt work, youll look
pretty scary when you stare them down and say youre
not interested. Oh yes, wear comfy shoes! As much as
my feet hurt when I wore walking shoes, I hate to
think what poor-quality shoes would have done for
them. Dont wear/carry any weapons that the security
guards might get huffy about. Make sure you dont piss
off anyone with a press badge.
To sum it all up, Comic Con was a great time, despite
disappointments and annoyances. It was great to see
the whole Roberts family again and finally meet Joe
"Artistic License" Singleton. I found some good comics
that I might otherwise have never seen, picked up some
cool souvenirs, and oooh, look, my dice are sparkly!
(this moment has been brought to you by short
attention spans and pretty shinys everywhere).
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