Sorry this one has taken so long. I got off my plane Sunday night and started teaching a Summer Camp Cartooning program the next day. It's been crazy busy. So, Comic-Con.
Yeah, that happened.
I’ve been doing con reports sporadically since I started coming to shows, and it was fun to tell you about all the cool stuff I did and people I saw. The problem I’m running into now, as it becomes more about the work, is that I can’t talk about things.
But here, I offer you this Mad Libs version of my San Diego experience.
I spoke with [name of person] at [name of company] about doing [type of work]. [Pronoun] seemed warm to the idea and even [follow up action]. I am cautiously optimistic.
Now repeat that, say, twelve more times.
Last year, my heart was starting to harden about Comic-Con. It was the first year that I really felt it was becoming too much. This year felt a little more manageable, so maybe that was a one-year thing. And maybe it’s that I’ve decided to have a quantum mechanical con now. The only part of the show that exists is the part I perceive, which means the 50 feet square around my booth, the men’s restroom just outside the Hall C doors, and, technically, the Marvel booth since I can often hear the crowd noise from their danceatorium.
I’m can’t say I took it easy. I still do a pretty massive amount of work, I think. But the bar con scene seems to have faded a bit. I’m wondering if because of the preponderance of cool parties, that people aren’t going to dinner and hitting the bar, but going to an event and then hitting their bed.
I know I certainly did when I went to [exclusive party] and then, instead of running by the Hyatt bar, I just went back to the hotel to get my five to six hours of sleep before starting the fun parade again.
Energy on the floor seemed better this year. My sales seemed better, and traffic seemed steady. The only exception to that was Preview Night, which was a little dead because the show only had one point of entry, and that was down by the Hollywood booths. The result being that people stopped to see all the cool stuff, like KITT and the Trolls from The Hobbit, and slowed progress to the rest of the floor. I’d like to see that changed.
The show security certainly seemed tighter, and I think overall better. The new security team was a little more strident, but there were things that the old team was lax on. I’ve heard good stories and bad stories, and I’m willing to chalk a lot of them up to growing pains for now. We’ll see next year.
I’ve set up a photo gallery plugin to my website now, so some of my favorite scenes of the show are below. Click on through, there’s a lot of cool there.
Not the least of which is the lovely Ms. Amy Ratcliffe dressed up as a female version of the Crusader. She was inspired by the cover to Love and Capes: What to Expect #5 which, oh, yeah… you haven’t seen that yet. Guess you’ll have to wait, won’t you?
San Diego. It’s still the place to be. And, after so many years, maybe I’m starting to figure it out… or at least how to do it so it doesn’t break me. Having good friends to help me out certainly makes it easier.