Ten years in a row. Good lord. I have to admit, this year I had the realization that if I’d skipped the Con, I probably could have bought the XBox 360 and flatscreen TV I’ve been wanting with the money. But I still had a really good time, and I’ll probably go next year too. If nothing else, the store can pay for the hotel, but not for an XBox.

By now, you’ve all heard the size of the show. It’s bigger every year. Although Saturday this year wasn’t really any worse than Preview Night, or Friday, or even Sunday, from what little I saw. Which probably just means the whole thing is overcrowded. I know that I couldn’t get into any of the movie or TV panels, and I just gave up when I saw the line for Battlestar Galactica. Kind of disappointing on that front, actually. But I had a lot of fun on the floor.

This year, the Con has been covered from every conceivable angle. Look around at CBR, Newsarama, their respective blogs, The Beat, Comics Reporter, Bags and Boards, etc. and you’ll have a picture that’s almost more complete than actually being there. As always, I’m completely out of the news loop while I’m in San Diego, and I’m still catching up on news. This feature is more of a travelogue, the Con through one attendee’s eyes, and my usual “Here’s some stuff and some pros to look out for” thrown in for good measure.

As always, there are no pictures. I tried this year, I did. Brought the camera. Took one picture of the Iron Man crate at the Marvel booth. Next year, no camera again… I never remember to use it. But fear not, you can find a ton of pictures (and video) of San Diego on the web. Oh, and as always, I may come off like a horrible name-dropper, and if so, I apologize. Believe me, I’m generally amazed that any of these folks even know who I am, much less consider me a friend or friendly acquaintance.

Day One: Wednesday (Preview Night)
I knew that this year was going to be a little different. I was attending the show mostly as a fan, but partly as a retailer, and my new job also meant that I was going to have to work the day I left. So I got up at my usual 8:00 and drove out to get the comics, take them to the shop and get out subscriptions and new wall ready. At 11:00, when we’d finished up and opened the doors, I headed home, picked up the luggage and my wife and two kids drove me to the airport. While waiting for the plane, which was slightly (but not really) delayed, I ran into one of my customers at the shop, Adam Creighton, who was attending his first San Diego along with a friend. We talked videogames and comics and voice-overs (Adam being a voice actor as one of his many hats) and exchanged cellphone numbers, although I don’t think we ever wound up seeing each other again during the show.

When we arrived at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, I headed over to catch my connecting flight. I heard someone behind me talking about “Suicide Girls party” and said “You’ve got to be heading to Comicon.” He was, and so was the guy in front of his, and we shared a communal “Comicon is cool” moment. It’s always kind of fun, given the number of people who attend San Diego each year, to see that so much airport traffic is made up of folks heading out to the Con, and so the good vibes and community spirit starts kind of early, usually mid-journey. Certainly one of my treasured memories is running into Will Eisner and his wife at a Houston connection a few years back. This was also my first encounter with hearing about cool parties, and never getting to go to any of them. *sigh*

At any rate, the plane got us to San Diego just before 5:00, as was the plan, and I took a pricey solo taxi ride to my hotel, the Westin. I had never stayed there before, but my friend Paul Benjamin had booked the reservations, and gotten another room through his work at Tokyopop, so he graciously hooked me up. It was a great location, as it turned out, just a block up from Ralph’s, the indispensable grocery store in San Diego and a block over from Horton Plaza, the M.C. Escher-like mall with plenty of decent, cheap food court action for lunches and only a few blocks from the convention center. It was also the most expensive hotel I’ve stayed in, but the staff was great and so was the hotel, and if I can afford it next year, I’ll probably try to stay there. The reservation, as it turned out, was for a king bed, not a twin, but they sent up a rollaway, and between myself and my two roommates, we had plenty of room. There was no spooning. At least, not while I was awake.

My roommates for this trip were former Viper editor PJ Kryfko and DMZ/Supermarket artist Kristian Donaldson, both Dallas guys whom I had come to know through appearances at the store and at STAPLE! Kristian designed the new logo and business cards for my store, Rogues Gallery, and so I hooked him and PJ up with a hotel room. It was a good deal for me, as well, as I had a couple of good guys to hang out with for the rest of the weekend. They had gotten in earlier than me and hadn’t been able to check into the room (even though Kristian’s name was on it), so they were at the convention center, badges in hand. I checked in at the hotel, dropped off stuff and headed out for Preview Night.

As with last year, the pre-registration process went smoothly, and after a short wait, I had my badge and went into the hall about 10 minutes after it opened. During the wait, I ran into Nate Lee and Brandon Thomas, whom I’ve had great dinners with in past years, but they were on their way in and I was headed somewhere else. I gave Nate my cell number, but stupidly didn’t get his, and as a result, didn’t run into them again until Saturday afternoon. As it turned out, Preview Night was the first indication of how busy the show was going to be this year, as it was packed. But I still managed to walk around and say hi to a whole bunch of people.

I don’t honestly remember the entire order in which we saw everyone. We stopped by Boom! Studios to say hi to newly-minted marketing director Chip Mosher, who hinted at some exciting news to come in the next few days. Chip is a former Texan and a guy I’ve known a fairly long time, so we had a brief chat about his new position, what he’s been up to and his comic, Left On Mission, which has had three issues published through Boom! so far. While we were talking to him, Ted Naifeh (of Courtney Crumrin) came over as well. There were also a couple of stops by Oni Press, to say hi to James Lucas Jones and Randy Jarrell, as well as getting to meet Brandon Graham (of Multiple Warheads and King City). From there, it was a quick jaunt over to Top Shelf, where we said hi to Chris Staros, Andy Runton (of Owly), Rob Venditti (writer of The Surrogates) and Christian Slade (of Korgi).

We then made a beeline to one of my priorities for Preview Night, picking up a Fist-A-Cuffs print from Sam Hiti. In addition to getting a swanky print with art by Paul Pope, Guy Davis and several others, Sam did a personalized inked character in the empty space on each print. I requested “someone with a bow and arrow” and got a cool cyclops-looking dude, and Kristian was impressed and decided to get a print as well. After that, it was time to head to Image for my other priority, picking up the various mini-comics of Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos. I got their collaboration Nebuli, Becky’s Minis, Vasilis’s Hats and 5, the mini they had done with Fabio Moon, Rafael Grampa and Gabriel Ba. While at the Image booth, I also got a chance to meet Image PR guy Joe Keatinge and say hi to Rick Spears and Jeremy Haun.

By the way, it is at this point I will stop linking to the names of everybody I’m talking about, because it’s taking me forever to put in the links. Put the names in a Google search if you want to track down some of these writers and artists, trust me it’ll be worth your time.

As always, Preview Night was basically bouncing around like a pinball, trying to remember which booths I wanted to stop at first. Kristian and PJ gamely accompanied me on this journey, and we wandered back to the front of the hall to Active Images, where I said hi to Richard Starkings and got the new sketchbooks from Moritat and Tim Sale. Starkings also handed me a postcard promoting the Art of Ladronn, which I’m very much looking forward to, and I got my first glimpse of the Elephantmen hardcover, which should hit shops this week, and the Ladronn Elephantmen jigsaw puzzle, which is just a really cool idea and beautifully executed, as with everything Active Images does. A few “doors” down was Adhouse, where I picked up a copy of the out-of-print Project:Telstar, the only Adhouse anthology I had missed, as well as getting a copy of Paul Pope’s new THB. One of the most exciting announcements out of San Diego for me was finding out that First Second is going to reprint all of Pope’s THB work, so I can finally read it.

Close to Adhouse, I found Maerkle Press, the publishing company run by Thom Zahler, who does the excellent Love and Capes (issue #5 just shipped last week), and he was sharing the booth with Toon Tumblers. Toon Tumblers are sturdy glasses emblazoned with comic book characters, basically like grown-up Slurpee cups for those of you who remember them. This was the first I’d seen of several of them, which included Moon Knight, the ’70s Avengers, Power Man, Ghost Rider and plenty more. I exchanged business cards with the owner to make sure I could order some Toon Tumblers for the store, partly because we’ve sold some of them already and I know my customers like them and partially because I didn’t want to try shipping all the ones I wanted to buy back. Of course, I did buy two Love and Capes tumblers (one for me, one for somebody else) and Thom hooked me up with a Cyclops tumbler in honor of our love of swashbuckler boots and of course Cyclops himself. I put that tumbler to fine use drinking rum and cokes in the hotel room during the weekend.

As the show was drawing to a close, we went back to Top Shelf to gather up Rob Venditti and Andy Runton, who were going to head to dinner with us. We also met Tim Leong, who is producing the new comics magazine Comics Foundry, and invited him to join us. We all headed in the general direction of The Rock Bottom Brewery, my inability to actually find it last year fresh in my mind. Fortunately, we ran into a couple of webcomics folks that Rob knew who were going there and knew how to get there, and after exchanging cell phone numbers with Rob, he and Andy headed off to get a table while PJ, Kristian and I went to dump off stuff in our hotel room. The hotel was really close to Rock Bottom, although once again I’ll be damned if I can remember the actual address, and we got back in time to order food, even though we found out that the kitchen closed at 10:00. Why it closed at 10:00, when the San Diego Con was in town and they could make so much money serving food, I’m not sure. At any rate, with little time to peruse the menu, I once again went with the meatloaf and white cheddar mashed potato meal I remembered from last year. It was good, if not as awesome as I remembered, but that was probably because I wasn’t starving as I had been the previous year.

Dinner was great, and the perspectives of a publisher, two creators, a magazine editor, a comics editor and a reviewer/retailer made for a pretty lively and interesting discussion. My favorite dinner of the Con was getting to meet up with old friends and talk retail at the Fish Market on Saturday, but this was a very close second.

On the way back, Kristian, PJ and I went to Ralph’s, where we grabbed bottled water, rum, beer and cokes for the room. I also bought deodorant, since I wasn’t sure if that would be covered under the “gels” stupidity of the TSA, and I had only brought carry-on luggage with me.

After that, we headed out to the Hyatt to see what was up. We hung out for a short time, and I mostly talked with Brad Bankston, owner of Austin Books, and another Brad whose last name I’ve forgotten, but who used to work in Austin and is the visual model for Fables‘ Bluebeard. I know that PJ and I were both jet-lagged, and we headed back to the hotel just shy of 1:00 (which, in fairness, was like 3 A.M. on the Texas time we were used to.) We were both back in the hotel and crashed out long before Kristian arrived in the wee hours of the morning. This would be a recurring pattern for the weekend.

Day Two: Thursday
Thursday began early, as I woke up somewhere around 8:00. PJ was up as well, although Kristian was sleeping soundly. We decided to head out early and grab a breakfast at Cafe 222, which Andy Runton had recommended the night before, using the magic words “Peanut Butter Banana Waffles.” After I checked email in the lobby (what is with super-expensive hotels not offering wireless in-room?), I found the location, which was a couple blocks from the hotel, and we headed over.

PJ got the aforementioned waffles, I got the Peanut Butter and Banana stuffed French Toast, which was essentially a PB&B sandwich with french toast instead of bread. It was delicious, and even though it was more than I usually spend on breakfast in San Diego, still came in just above $10 with tip… and I was able to save half the meal for lunch later. Most important lesson learned here was that the tiny glass of orange juice cost $3, and my larger coke cost less than $2.

After breakfast, PJ and I caught up with Kristian and then headed down to the convention center. As always, though I made some notes, I don’t promise to remember the order in which I did everything or met everyone. I do know that I decided early on to skip panels on Thursday… I was in the middle of something when the Comics and Storytelling Panel started, and when I tried to hit the Lost panel, it was wayyy too crowded. While the crowds in San Diego were definitely big this year, where I noticed it most wasn’t on the floor, but in the fact that for the first time ever, it was impossible to get into most of the TV and movie panels without waiting for two hours in line ahead of time. Which I’m not willing to do.

At any rate, Thursday was a busy day on the floor. My convention pattern seemed to be centered in large part around returning to the tables of Oni Press, Image Comics and the area at the front of the show that featured Cartoon Books, Adhouse and Active Images, among others. DC was constantly busy and honestly didn’t feature a lot of folks I wanted to wait in line for, and Marvel was even busier and had even less frequent signings.

One of my early stops was at Oni to get sketches from Joe Infurnari (of Borrowed Time, also picked up his excellent mini-comic Mandala), Vasilis Lolos and Ryan Kelly, all of whom did great theme sketches for me. While there, I ran into longtime Internet personage Tom Galloway, who I’ve known since my Usenet days, and we talked briefly about poker, online feuds and other things. Greg Thompson, known for his work with the CBLDF and on the Image series Hero Camp, stopped by to give me a preview of his new book, Sinbad, Rogue of Mars, which looks very fun, and I also picked up Steve Rolston’s mini-comic, Little Ghosts.

I swung by AIT/Planet Lar after that to meet Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman, writers of one of my favorite new comics, The Highwaymen. While in that vicinity, I got a chance to say hi to Mike Wellman (of Atomic Basement, creator of Mac Afro and Gone South) and Rafael Navarro (creator of Sonambulo), both of whom I’ve visited with at many a Con, including Wizard World Texas and (in Rafael’s case) STAPLE!, in my neck of the woods. At some point in passing, I said hi to Tim Seeley, who hooked me up with a copy of Devil’s Due’s new Troma trade paperback. I’m intrigued, and mildly frightened, by what I might find within. Sadly, I didn’t see Tim much at all during the show, we were moving in different orbits.

Thursday was also the day to cover a pretty wide range of the con floor, from Artist’s Alley to the “fine art” area at the front to the small press area and back. I picked up RASL from Cartoon Books, which is probably the closest thing the Con had to a “buzz book” akin to last year’s Lost Girls. At $5 for 6 pages, it was a pricey preview, but it’s such a gorgeous oversized production that I don’t care. I came to San Diego curious about RASL, I left extremely excited about it. I also picked up the latest sketchbooks from the BLVD, Clement Sauve and Patrick Morgan (three years’ worth of each now) and picked up sketchbooks from Amanda Conner at the Naked Fat Rave booth. The Naked Fat Rave, always a good booth with a ton of artists, was constantly mobbed this year, no doubt helped by the presence of Matt Wagner, Art Adams, Michael Golden, Gene Ha and numerous other art superstars. It was quite a line-up.

At around 3:00, I had a meeting with Lys Fulda, one of the marketing folks behind Sphinx Group, who do press for a number of comic and game companies, including Archaia Studios Press. I met with Lys at the Archaia booth, which gave me the chance to look over all their soon-to-hit-shops material (like Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 #1, The Killer HC and several others) and meet Joe Illidge, who has recently joined the company as an editor. I got to talk with Awakening writer Nick Tapalansky and thank him for posting on a Comic Pants thread, as well as talk briefly with Archaia guiding light Mark Smylie, Mouse Guard creator David Peterson and Inanna’s Tears artist mpMann, who showed me the next thing he and A. David Lewis were working on, which seemed quite cool.

Lys and I headed off to grab a seat and talk about the industries (both comics and gaming) that we’ve both worked in for quite a while, and it was a treat. Lys’s experience is in retail, at Diamond and now in marketing, and she clearly knows the industry from a variety of levels. It’s always a pleasure to talk to a smart, informed and opinionated person about the industry, and this conversation stood out as a bright spot in my convention.

At some point, I stopped back by Oni to talk with Brian Hurtt about The Damned (which I loved) and meet the writer of the book, Cullen Bunn. I also said hi to Ande Parks and Chris Samnee (creators of Capote in Kansas, among other things) and found out what they were up to next… although I have to admit that between Thursday and now, I’ve completely forgotten what those projects were.

One thing that emerged during conversations on Thursday, and continued throughout the Con, was discussion of the Minx line. It seemed that the next wave of the books was going to be pretty impressive, and it also seemed that at least a half-dozen folks, probably more, independently mentioned that they were most looking forward to (or had read and loved) Ross Campbell’s Water Baby. Given that I love Campbell’s work on Wet Moon, The Abandoned and Hopeless Savages, I’m very much anticipating this graphic novel as well.

After a long day of wandering and buying, I headed off to one of my two scheduled dinners for the convention. I had been invited to join a small group to view some kind of presentation by EA Games at the Hard Rock Cafe. I figured, hey, I like videogames and I like free food, so why not? It was a small gathering, and they showed off some character designs and early work on a Marvel fighting game in the works. It was really early, so I can’t fairly judge, but what they were talking about, trying to do a sort of realistic (Fight Night was often referenced) fighting game that would put the player in the mindset of the superhero, sounded pretty promising. Dinner was appetizers, a pulled pork sandwich and a delicious dessert that was chocolate and peanut butter crisp. I was stuffed. I also initially resisted the lure of the drink menu, but after three of the others had gotten Hurricanes, it sounded too good to resist and I got one as well.

Dinner finished and I gave a cursory glance around the restaurant for the Austin creators group, which was also having dinner there, but didn’t see them. So I headed on down to the Hyatt, planning to catch up with the Boom! drink-up and probably Kristian and PJ as well. Looking around the relatively lightly crowded bar, I didn’t see a lot of folks I knew, so I decided to head back to the room. Literally minutes after I’d arrived, Kristian and PJ walked in with Austin natives Nick & Tania Derington and headed back out to the Hyatt. I went with. Glad I did, as it gave me the chance to say hi to and chat briefly with Darwyn Cooke (who told me about The Spirit ending, the biggest bummer of the Con) and meet Lee Loughridge, a colorist whose work I’ve always admired, and a guy that Kristian had once worked for. I quickly learned that while PJ was impressed at how many people I seemed to know, it was nothing next to Kristian. He either went to school with or somehow knew almost every pro at the convention, and the ones he didn’t know before the show, he knew by the end.

I got myself a $20 (seriously) double rum and coke and resolved from then on not to buy any more drinks at the Hyatt bar… well, probably ever. I hadn’t actually done any real drinking since STAPLE! ‘06, and the relatively small amount of rum I ingested on Thursday mostly left me feeling kind of queasy. Either I can’t get drunk properly anymore, or I’m just not trying hard enough. At any rate, feeling out of sorts and more than a little old, I once again called it a relatively early night, leaving the Hyatt at around 1:30 A.M. and heading back to bed.

Day Three: Friday
Once again, up early, although this time I was up even before PJ, who had stayed out later with Kristian. However, when I came back up from the lobby after checking in on email, calling home to talk to Suzanne and checking in on Diamond and such or the store, he was up and ready to go. Kristian, as was now the tradition, was zonked out asleep. PJ and I headed down the street to a breakfast place that served what we were seeking, namely meat and eggs, and had a good breakfast. I was still a little queasy, but the solid breakfast settled my stomach a bit.

After grabbing some bottled water from the room, we headed back out. At the hotel, I caught a lucky break and spotted Ed Brubaker coming out of the elevator. I’d been wanting to talk to him, but wasn’t sure I’d see him at the show. I talked to him briefly, which was a lucky thing, as I don’t think I really saw him again during the show.

PJ and I arrived at the convention center around 11:00, too late to hit the Image creators or Pixar Short Films panel, and so it was off to wander again. This is when I made what was, in retrospect, an obvious mistake. I stopped by the Heavy Metal table and saw some gorgeous looking hardcovers, obviously some kind of fantasy epic. I flipped through some pages and saw, “Hey, English!” I also saw that it was a seven volume series. As I was browsing, the woman manning the booth told me they were 50% off. $7-8 each got me an entire series of beautifully-illustrated fantasy? Done. Then I realized I now had seven heavy hardcovers to carry around with me for the rest of the day. Thankfully, I was able to stash them with a friend at one of the booths (I won’t name him so nobody else will try to dump stuff on him at future Cons), for which I was eternally grateful.

I stopped by the table of Pixar animators Ted Mathot and Derek Thompson to tell Mathot how much I’d enjoyed his graphic novels Rose & Isabel, and I picked up one of Derek Thompson’s terrific monster sketchbooks. I also swung by Oni and got to meet Joelle Jones and Marc Ellerby, as well as saying hi to their writer/collaborator Jamie Rich. Jamie had a short story mini, Marc had mini-comics (including a great penguin humor strip) and Joelle had a sketchbook and I bought all three… I had left my sketchbook with Christian Slade (of Korgi fame), however, and so I never did get a chance to get a sketch from Joelle. I did, however, get an awesome sketch from Christian.

Friday was line day for me. I waited in several long lines throughout the day, and each time, it was well worth it. The first line was at about 11:30, when I waited to talk to Robert Kirkman. I’ve been a fan of Kirkman’s since Battle Pope, and it was a real joy to see how huge his profile has gotten… he was swamped with fans at every signing, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Even better, while talking to Robert about a possible future signing at the shop, our conversation was interrupted by a familiar looking gent who wanted to come over and tell him how much he liked Kirkman’s books. It took me a second to realize that it was Joss Whedon, a guy I’ve always wanted to meet, and I didn’t miss the opportunity, stopping him for one second to tell him how much I’ve enjoyed his work, especially Firefly and Serenity. I like to think I didn’t go uber-fanboy, but I’m not an objective judge. I didn’t offer to have his babies or anything, I know that. Although if that’s what it takes to get the man to come back and create something new for TV, I would. I’m not proud.

Moving on to less disturbing thoughts, the second line was about an hour later, when I waited in line to meet Ben Templesmith, who was signing with Antony Johnston at the Image booth to promote their upcoming project, Dead Space. Waiting in line got me a swanky free poster for that project, but the project I wanted to talk about was Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse. So I got to the front of the line, introduced myself (as Ben had seen my review, so I knew he at least had some idea who I was) and told him how much I’d enjoyed Chronicles of Wormwood.

D’oh. That’d be the Avatar Press project from Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows. Ben didn’t let me off the hook immediately, giving me the uncomprehending stare for a moment until I’d realized my mistake, but then he laughed it off and told me it happened a lot. Still embarrassing, though. He did confirm that there’s more Wormwood on the way, which is terrific news. There was too much of a line for me to ask for a sketch, so I said goodbye and headed out.

PJ and I met up with Kristian and headed out of the convention center to drop off stuff at the hotel (including my heavy hardcovers) and grab some lunch. We had a relatively cheap meal at cheesesteak shop Steak Escape in Horton Plaza, and then headed back to the convention center so I could get to the main objective for the day, the Paul Pope/James Jean signing at Adhouse.

This was the biggest line I’d waited in during the whole Con. Unfortunately, it was split in two, so I never did see James Jean, but it was Pope’s autograph I wanted on my Pulphope, so it was an easy choice. PJ kept me company in the line for quite a while, and as I was waiting, my old friend from Austin, Tess Bodley, came by and said hi. I knew she was in L.A., but didn’t know she was coming down from the Con. It was great to talk to her again, and find out she’s doing well, and we exchanged cell phone numbers. I told her I’d see her at the Live Art show later that night… which was the plan, but it didn’t work out. More on that later.

At any rate, I finally got up to talk to Paul Pope for a few minutes and got him to sign the book. I would have loved to have gotten a sketch, but I was the second to last guy in line, and I’m quite sure he wasn’t in the mood, so I didn’t ask. Later I saw a beautiful sketch he’d done in someone’s book and greatly regretted my decision.

Finishing up at Adhouse, I rushed over to Splash Page, which was hosting a signing for a number of artists who contributed to their gorgeous sketchbook. I got to say hit to Cliff Chiang, Cameron Stewart and Dave Bullock and get them to sign copies for me and for Nick Budd back in Austin. I also got signatures (although I had only the briefest of interactions) from Charlie Adlard, Jay Leisten and Lee Bermejo. The Splash Page sketchbook is a thing of beauty, by the way, and I believe any remaining copies are going to be sold online, so keep an eye on the Splash Page site if you’re interested.

I also managed to pick up a few other things on Friday, including the hardcover of Jeffrey Brown’s hilarious Transformers riff, Incredible Change-Bots, the newest Mike Mignola sketchbook (and I got to talk with Mignola briefly about how great Guy Davis and Duncan Fegredo are on the new books, and how much I’m enjoying those) and Dean Trippe’s mini-comic. Trippe is an artist whose work I’ve always enjoyed, so it was a pleasure to meet him and get to talk to him for a little while. He’s going to be working with Christos Gage on a book at Oni as well. The other thing I bought during the day were two Love and Capes Toon Tumblers, which meant I now had three glasses to carry onboard the plane. I was nervous the whole trip back, but they did survive intact.

I also left my theme sketchbook with Brandon Graham, and made arrangements to pick it up at the Oni Press booth around noon on Saturday. This was one of the best decisions I made all Con, because the resulting sketch is one of the best in my entire sketchbook. While there, I also ran into Melli “Miss Monster” who had recently left Austin for Chicago, and she was excited that she might get to see Kristian and PJ at the Hyatt that night, as I don’t think she’d seen them since STAPLE!

Friday was Eisner night, and Kristian was up for the coloring award. Originally, I was going to be his “plus one” to the dinner, but he had discovered that “plus one” was actually for significant others, and since neither he nor I wanted to get gay married just so I could get a free dinner, Kristian headed out for dinner while PJ and I made other plans. As we were walking down to Baja Rockin’ Lobster Company, though, PJ thought he was cutting a bit close for the Eisners and decided to hold off until later. I was way too hungry for that, so I sat down and had dinner by myself in the bar. Had some shrimp, some of their tortillas, salsa and honey-chipotle butter and a delicious Berry Mojito, and while I would have wished for some company, it was actually a pretty nice quiet dinner in the midst of the San Diego chaos.

After that, I joined PJ at the Eisners (which were just starting as I got there, perfect timing). I watched a few minutes of them, long enough to see Dave Stewart pick up the coloring award, and then PJ and I, both exhausted by the day, decided to head out. We figured we’d catch up with Kristian at the Hyatt or at the live art show. Instead, we started talking comics, and I was so tired that I fell asleep in mid-sentence at around 11:00. I woke up around midnight and saw that PJ had also crashed suddenly, laying the wrong way on his bed. I went back to sleep and didn’t wake up until Kristian came in at what was probably 4 or 5 AM. It was kind of funny, Kristian was having a completely different convention from me and PJ, but we kept crossing paths at the hotel or out on the town.

Day Four: Saturday
After some early exhaustion on Thursday and Friday, huge crowds and a known sellout of the show, I was expecting that Saturday might be a bit hellish. Instead, I had gotten my second wind, and the crowds were really no worse than the rest of the show, for the most part. I skipped breakfast and left the room before PJ or Kristian were up, stopping in at Ralph’s to buy a $6 Italian Panini that I could stow in my bag for lunch. I will definitely do this again, it was a delicious and easy lunch and they had a pretty wide variety of pre-prepared sandwiches available.

I attended the one panel of San Diego 2007, Meet the Press, from 10:30 to 11:30. It was an interesting examination of blogging and comics media with a great panel line-up. Afterwards, I got to meet Nisha Gopalan of Entertainment Weekly, Graeme McMillan of Savage Critics/Blog@Newsarama and Tom Bondurant of Blog@Newsarama, which was a treat. I still managed to narrowly avoid actually meeting Heidi MacDonald of The Beat. I see her at every Con, but I’ve never managed to actually say hello.

Having failed to land a lucky spot in the Joss Whedon signing at Dark Horse, I nevertheless stopped by to meet Georges Jeanty and Andy Owens, the Buffy art team. I’ve been a fan of Jeanty’s work since his earlier Marvel work on Bishop and other titles, so it was a pleasure to finally meet him. Again, too busy to really do a sketch. I did get a sketch from Tom Scioli over at the Image booth, however.

I then decided to brave Hall 20, trying to get into the latter half of the Heroes panel and maybe settle in for Battlestar Galactica. No dice, the line was immensely huge and I gave up at that point on seeing any media presentations at the Con. Unless something significant changes next year, going to the TV and movie presentations I love so much may be out, because I’m not waiting a couple hours in line if I’m not guaranteed to get into the hall at the end of that time.

I caught up with PJ again after finishing lunch, and he walked around the Con with me for a while. I stopped back in Artist’s Alley to pick up the latest Flytrap mini-comics by Sara Ryan and her new artist, Ron Chan. I also picked up a super-cool sketchbook from web artist Katie Cook, got a print and sketchbooks from Astounding Wolf-Man artist Jason Howard, and bought a beautiful full-color sketchbook from Attila Adorjany. At that point, Dan Brereton had returned to his table, so I went and picked up a Nocturnals fan kit for Dan Grendell. This also brought me face-to-face with the hardcover Nocturnals A-Z, and so I had to journey over to the art booth that was selling these beautiful hardcover books. The book is great, but I have to say, I’ve never seen such a complicated process for buying a $35 book with cash. It must have taken literally 10 minutes to get it all sorted out, and included me signing a receipt for some reason.

At some point before all of this, I managed to catch Michael Golden at the Naked Fat Rave booth. When I saw that he had a print of Cobra (from G.I. Joe) for $20, I had to buy it. Golden’s G.I. Joe covers are one of the main reasons I even got into comics. I also picked up a print he had done of ’70s Marvel guys, including Moon Knight, Man-Thing, Captain Universe, etc. and got them both signed. I should have gotten a copy of the Cobra print, as well as the Micronauts print, for Dave Farabee, but I didn’t think enough about it.

From there, it was over to the Image booth to catch up with the Drink & Draw guys and tell them in person how much I had enjoyed their book and couldn’t wait for another one. Dan Panosian was kind enough to sketch a Dr. Strange for me, the last non-themed sketch of my Con. Then I headed back over to the Oni Press booth one last time.

I spent a fair amount of time talking retail with Randy Jarrell, as well as chatting with John Layman about various things. While there, Scott Chantler did an amazing sketch in my theme sketchbook. As he was doing it, another artist came over, and seeing the sketchbook, told me that his theme was pirates. I looked though his sketchbook, which featured an impressive number of artists’ work, and when I realized he was a cartoonist, I asked if he’d be willing to do a sketch for me as well. His name was Chris Schweiser, and not only did he do a great sketch, he gave me a copy of his mini-comic. Schweiser has a pirate comic coming out from Oni Press, and based on what I’ve seen of his work so far, I’d definitely recommend folks check it out.

While I was at the Oni booth, Josh Elder (of Mail Order Ninja) came over and said hi. This was a pleasant surprise, as I’d heard that he wasn’t at the show. We talked for a while, and he mentioned that he had been hoping to meet Dean Trippe, so we wandered over to where I knew his table was. Josh and Dean talked for a while, and I was about to head over to the Strangers in Paradise booth to meet up with my dinner companions, Maida and Doug Scott, when Doug came strolling down the aisle. I said hi to him, said bye to Josh, and we walked over to meet up with Maida. Doug and Maida are long-time friends from the Strangers in Paradise list (they knew me and Suzanne two years before we were even dating, much less married), and they bought a comics shop two years ago, so I knew we’d have lots to talk about.

We did, and we were joined at dinner by Laura Marsh (of Santa Fe’s True Believers Comics & Gallery) and the whole thing was a long discussion about comic book retailing. I got some good ideas, I like to think I contributed a few, and it was all done over our traditional dinner at the Fish Market, my favorite restaurant in San Diego. We had delicious calamari as an appetizer and I had grilled scallops and shrimp with bacon. This was easily my favorite dinner of the whole convention.

Maida decided to go back to her hotel and Laura to the place she was staying, but Doug joined me for a drink at the Hyatt. Walking in, I ran into Don Hudson, who had promised to buy me a drink earlier when I met him in the hall talking with Jose Marzan Jr., and he bought me a rum and coke and Doug a beer. I chatted briefly with him and with Steve Buccellato, but they both then headed out. I had gotten a text message to come up to my buddy Joe Doughrity’s room at the Hyatt, so Doug and I went up. He had just finished screening his film, which got into the San Diego Asian film festival, for a room full of about a half-dozen faces, some of which I knew and some I didn’t. It was a great time, though, and we all chatted about comics and movies and such for a few hours before the lure of Doug’s early flight and my increasing tiredness called, and we departed at what was probably around 2 A.M.

As we got off the elevator, Doug and I heard a roar of noise, and then saw the Hyatt bar more crowded than it had been throughout the show. It was packed to the gills, spilling outside, and as I walked out, I saw Paul Benjamin talking with Matt Sturges (co-writer of Jack of Fables and an Austinite) and I decided to stop and say hi. This led to me spotting a few other familiar faces in the crowd, including Kristian, PJ and Chip Mosher, all of whom I introduced to Doug. Doug headed off, and after maybe half an hour of talking with various folks, so did I.

After packing up most of my stuff for transport the next day, I went to bed.

Day Five: Sunday
I decided to go ahead and go down to the convention center for a few hours on Sunday, even though I had really accomplished most of what I had intended to get done already. I said goodbye to Kristian and PJ, dropped the “Express Checkout” form and checked my luggage, then headed on out to the convention center. I was glad I did, as I nabbed a few last minute things on that last day, including a copy of Oni Press’s Narcoleptic Sunday, a copy of Tripwire Annual (a full-color magazine that is just amazingly well done, and well worth the $15 price tag) and some copies of Hack/Slash and Forgotten Realms trades for the store.

Finally leaving the convention center at around 1:00, I ran into Marc Andreyko on the way out and we talked about the possibility of him coming down to Austin for a store signing. So all told, I worked out several possible signings I’m very excited about, and hopefully some of those will work out either in late 2007 or early-to-mid-2008. I walked over to Horton Plaza to grab some lunch from a fast food fish place, and was reminded of how hard it is to get decent seafood in Austin by comparison. Because even the fast food fried scallops, fish and shrimp plate was pretty damn delicious.

After that, I cabbed it over to the airport to catch my 3:50 flight. And here is where it gets interesting. In the “Chinese curse” sense of the word.

The flight was showing as delayed, and one of the passengers sitting there said they had heard 4:15. OK, no problem, that still gets me to Dallas in plenty of time to catch my connection to Austin. Worst case, I can stay with in-laws in Dallas and catch a flight on Monday morning. So I wander back to the bar, pay $7 for a day-pass on wireless Internet and begin catching up on my RSS feeds. Shortly thereafter, Scott Kolins and his wife Kim come into the bar and say hi… they’re on my flight as well. I chatted with them for a few minutes, then let them get back to their meal and I went back to my email. As I’m reading, a guy notices the Adhouse stickers on my laptop and comments, and I recognize him as Josh Cotter, creator of Skyscrapers of the Midwest. We get to chatting a little bit about Austin, and STAPLE!, and indy comics, and hopefully he’ll come down to the show in the next year or two.

Scott decides to go check on the flight, and after a few minutes, he comes back with some dire news: Our flight out of Dallas has been canceled. He got their tickets switched to a Continental flight to Houston and then Austin, getting in at midnight (two hours later than the original flight) and they were trying to transfer his luggage. I rush over to make the change myself, and then walk with Kim and Scott over to the Continental boarding gate.

We get on the plane with no other real problems, and take off for Houston. Running a little late, but still in plenty of time to catch the connecting flight. On the flight back home, I read Incredible Change-Bots, the first issue of Comics Foundry and a good chunk of Tripwire, as well as beginning the writing on this Con report you’re reading.

When we get to Houston, there are problems. There’s a plane, but no flight crew. More delays. It looks like we’re not even going to leave until at least midnight. I’m feeling really bad for poor Dave Farabee, who agreed to pick me up from the airport, and wondering if I should call him and tell him I’ll grab a cab. Thankfully, they find a crew to board us, and we actually leave around 11:30, getting us into Austin around 12:30.

I’m worried the whole time that my luggage, which contains my electric razor and cellphone charger, not to mention sketchbooks and almost every book I bought at the Con, might not make it. When we go down to baggage claim and Scott and Kim find their luggage, I breathe a sigh of relief. Until I realize that my luggage isn’t there.

Long story short, I spent a stressful day and a half wondering if Continental and American had managed to lose a pair of sketchbooks I’d spent about seven years putting together, but finally the luggage turned up and got to the house, no worse for wear.

At this point, you have my traditional apology for this long, rambling and probably only about half-accurate Con report. There are also my traditional “Things I Learned in San Diego This Year.” Truthfully, this year it’s more lessons that were reinforced.

Lessons learned at this year’s San Diego:

1. Food is key - Last year I realized the true value of Ralph’s, this year I found another facet with their pre-prepped sandwiches. I also decided last year that a break from the floor to go out and grab lunch was a good idea, and Friday confirmed that. It was a nice break from the Con madness and it was good to grab a hot lunch in the middle of the day. Definitely part of the new routine.

2. I’m old - I can’t drink properly anymore, instead of feeling buzzed and happy, I get full and sick. Maybe I was drinking on too full of a stomach, or maybe I’m just a wuss, but I can’t seem to drink like I could anymore. I also crashed out way earlier than my roommates, pretty much every night of the Con.

3. Carry-On Baggage - You’d think I would have learned from the Las Vegas ordeal two years ago, but I didn’t: Put everything really important in your carry-on. I should have stowed the store stuff (Hack/Slash and Forgotten Realms trades) in the checked luggage and made sure I had my cellphone charger, electric razor and sketchbooks with me, just in case.

4. Don’t Buy A Ton of Hardcovers You’re Going to Have to Carry Around the Con Floor all day - I knew enough not to buy the oversized RASL, or not to pick up the original art I bought from Tom Beland, until I was ready to leave the Con floor for the day, but I forgot not to buy enormous hardcovers that I’d have to carry all day first thing in the morning. Next year, I will remember.

5. How Did I Ever Do Cons Without A Cellphone? - Seriously, I still didn’t get to talk to everybody I wanted to for as long as I wanted to, but without my cellphone, I can’t imagine trying to find people as easily as I did.

6. There Isn’t One San Diego Comicon… There Are Hundreds - Reading over the Con reports of Heidi MacDonald or Darwyn Cooke, you can see one tier of the Con: Hanging out with friends, going to a variety of cool parties, networking for work and playing for fun. Then I look at my roommate PJ, who had previously come as an exhibitor and found himself for the first time free to wander the show. Then I look at Kristian, who was closer to the MacDonald/Cooke experience, hanging out with editors and pros, staying out late into the night and mixing business and pleasure. There are plenty of fans who go just to the show, attend panels, maybe wear costumes, stay out late attending the gaming or movies or what-have-you late night offerings of the Con. Then there’s me, talking to folks I know, walking the line between being a fan and being a retailer, not even knowing about those parties until after the fact, rarely entering the convention center after 7 P.M. and crashing at my hotel relatively early each night.

7. But There Are Common Links In All Those Cons - Whatever your experience, it’s usually true that some of the best times in San Diego have little to do with comics, and a lot to do with shared experiences with other comics fans. A timeout at the beach, a memorable dinner, even just a brief chat about comics with someone you see rarely (or have just met)… that’s what San Diego is all about to me. And that’s why, even with the expense, the travel hassles and the weariness that comes after five days of madness, I’ll probably be right back in the mix again next year.