Comic-Con Preview Night

Yesterday I braved the madness that is Comic-Con. This year's passes sold out months ago and even so knowing, you never really realize what kind of crowd to expect. I had planned on going downtown early, but I was actually pleased in arriving at 4 with plenty of time before the preview doors opened. The line for pre-registered professionals and media was long but the bonus about geek culture is that they're REALLY efficient and in about 15 minutes I had my badge. Then I wondered, what do I do now??

Naturally I found a spot on the floor and opened up my laptop to take advantage of the Google sponsored free wi-fi. That was fine until the Elite security started clearing the floor area, so I moved upstairs to wait in line with Jim. He told me there were three main lines and we were at the front of one of them. I still don't understand the lines to be honest, but I guess there are certain booths with exclusive collectibles and giveaways.




People were in such a frenzy, it was hard not to get caught up in it. I'd see a line or a mass of people and 3 minutes later I'm the owner of a District 9 t-shirt or a Twilight bottle opener. Or a ginormous Harry Potter bag. I even stopped at a booth and got my picture taken to look like I was caught on fire. I imagine the reusable grocery sized bag from TheBloodFactory.com is gonna get some looks next time I'm at Trader Joes.



But then what? I'm not in the market for Star Wars figurines, I haven't played a video game since Super Mario Bros., there aren't really any shows that I'm obsessed with that would make me fight people to grab some memorabilia, and I've probably watched 5 movies this entire year and none of those is of the action/summer blockbuster/must-see variety. Something compelling still makes me excited to be there.

Maybe the Ugly Dolls?


Or American mockery?


I dunno, but whatever it is, I'm heading back for more.

Incidentally, I only lasted 2 hours before heading to the tweet-up at Voyeur which was fun but probably only about 20% of the 500+ who signed up to attend actually showed up. It was good chatting with a few friends before Jake and I took off to catch Ryan Bingham at Casbah. I'll be posting some Youtube from that later; hopefully tonight.