A day late and a dollar short: my two days at Comic Con (in a nutshell)

Sadly, I have no pictures to post because....well, I despise the people who stop short in the middle of the walkways to snap pics of people who should never wear spandex in the privacy of their homes, much less in public. Plus I have this weird thing about people dressing up and going out in public anyway. Yeah, for Hallowe'en, sure, go nuts....but to spend three days indoors in a hot convention center?

And that goes double for the 300-pound guy dressed as Lion-o from Thundercats. A loincloth and orange body paint? Really?

• Walt Simonson said he'd heard the organizers expected upwards of 100,000 people this year, up from the 70,000 at last year's show. I would've guessed there were 100,000 on Saturday alone.
• Jerry Ma and his Epic Proportions booth kicked ass. Unfortunately, the distance between Artist Alley and civilization (more later) made it impossible for me to get back to him by the end of the show to get the Simonson Thor shirt. Jerry, I still want one!
• Last year, Artist Alley was in the same area, towards the back on the 35th street side. This year, they moved it to the dark side of the moon, which required navigating through the gaming hordes near the Nintendo booth and the booth showing a demo of some kind of new Alien movie (direct to DVD?) with some kind of virtual pods for people to climb into. There was also an IDW Doctor Who table, which made me drool looking over their stuff....but $40 for an Adipose stress relief squeeze toy? Seriously?
• Artist Alley is always a double-edged sword to me. I know some people who take tables, and it was good seeing some people I knew would be there, and some that shocked me, and it's always great to catch up with people and see what they're doing. But, occassionally, I turn into a stuttering goofball when confronted with someone who I idolized as a kid (see Bolland, Brian a year ago, and my inability to say anything other than "Hi". Gaaaaaaah). And, knowing some of 'em are doing commissions to pay for their table, I hate bugging people I don't know well or at all. I amaze myself: I can meet Mickey Rourke, shake his hand, talk to him and shoot the shit like it's no big deal....but let me meet a comic artist I grew up idolizing and it's instant drooling imbecile.
• Big thank you to Ken Knudsten for his vodka pick-me-up on Saturday (and the nifty My Monkey's Name is Jennifer shot glass) and Jerry Ma (just for being his usual self).
• We went to Art & Design a hundred years ago, but Jamal Igle is still the nicest guy in comics. I just hope he didn't have problems getting a cab back to Park Slope outside the convention center lugging all that stuff....
• You know you're having a good time when you start reminiscing about a guy from college who was the worst swiper around (for those who don't know: in comics, a guy who swipes is someone who copies from another artist exactly and adds their own details; in other words, the lowest of the low), and said swiper is hiding out at his booth two tables away. Classic.
• I go these days to keep up connections and make face time with people, it's more a networking thing for me than a fan thing like it was when I was a kid (and back then, they held these things at hotels like the Pennsylvania or the old one on Vanderbilt & 45th, where my father would take me to buy Silver Age books and maybe meet an artist or two in attendance....and nobody was dressed in a costume)...so the whole running around at the Marvel/DC/Dark Horse booths looking for free stuff is just kinda meh to me. I'm a people person!

All in all, aside from the impossibility of walking at a normal pace and the ten mile gap between the Alley and the floor layouts (and, as per Jerry, the limitations of wifi availability), it was a good time. Hell, even my wife enjoyed herself, although I'd like to know what she bought for me after sending me out of Artist Alley.....