Saw this outside the DC booth...

Ever since I moved to San Diego in 1993, I have never missed a Comic-Con. It has always been huge for as long as I’ve been going, in the last decade, it has become a monster. People complain that Hollywood has completely engulfed the event, but it still says Comic-Con on the marquee, and I spent the majority of my time there either buying graphic novels and Black Lantern T-shirts, or attending panels devoted to comics. Hell, in a lot of cases, the big movie studio panels drew people away from the panels I actually wanted to see, so Hooray for Hollywood! Anyway, since the days blurred together a bit, I’ll just give you a list of some of the highlights:

• Seeing the cast of  The MiddleMan doing a live script reading of the unfilmed season finale.
• Listening to three forensic psychiatrists debate whether or not many of the residents of Arkham Asylum were actually legally insane.
• Seeing Eliza Dushku, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, and Elizabeth Mitchell on the same panel. I said it once, and I’ll say it again: It was a Mount Rushmore of HOT.
• Finding a whole bunch of Ultimate Marvel TPBs for 50% off.
• Getting to see the upcoming musical episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold (keep an eye out for it; it’s AWESOME).
• This one’s for Matt Breir: Getting to hear Gail Simone and Nicola Scott announce that they intend to stay on Secret Six for a long time.
• Watching burlesque performers do stripteases dressed (undressed?) as comic book characters.
• Watching Bill Willingham declare war on fans of the Venture Brothers for taking up space at his panel to ensure a seat for the VB panel which happened immediately afterwards in the same room.
• Getting to enjoy a Fables panel and a Venture Brothers panel without leaving my seat.
• Watching Doc Hammer and James Urbaniak arm wrestle.
• Seeing the upcoming Green Lantern animated movie.
• Reconnecting with old friends.
• Making new friends.
• Getting people hip to this website.

• The rink where they held the Robot Chicken Skate Party ran out of skates that fit me.
• As much Coke and booze as I had, I should have drank more water.

• I remembered to bring lunch and snacks most days. I’ll never spend $10 on a crappy pretzel and 20 oz bottle of soda again.
• Since I don’t live that far from downtown or Hotel Circle (the two areas where you are most likely to stay, unless you have friends in town), public transit was a viable option, especially since the normally annoying parking situation downtown becomes nightmarish during Con.
• I looked at the programming schedule as soon as it was available, and made a list of first and second choices. That way, if I couldn’t get into one thing, there was something else to enjoy.
• I wore comfortable shoes. Four straight days of walking can be hell if you’re wearing Chucks.