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Comic Comic Comic Comic Comic Con-meleon

A week since the last post. I don't want anyone to think I've already quit the 'Ganza. No, this won't be an on again/off again Ross and Rachel/Sam and Diane/Chris Brown and Rhianna kind of relationship. No, I am still dedicated. But over the past seven days, I have still been going through geeky detox (Geek-tox?), recovering from Comic Con 2010.

It's a life experience. It's like going to war or shopping at Best Buy on Black Friday. I check into my room. Heading to the convention, the guy who plays the priest on "V" was in the elevator with me. The doors open, and there's Stan Lee. Definitely set the mood for an epic weekend of epicness (note: as you can tell, the Scott Pilgrim cast ran wild in San Diego. And by "run wild," I mean that Michael Cera took his hands out of his pockets and was only slightly awkward as he hit up the local bars).

I could do a day-by-day run down of events/photos, but you can go on Flickr or Facebook and see the same pics of geeks in costume. Sidebar: Best costumes I saw: J Jonah Jameson, Han Solo in carbonite, 1970's, tiara wearing, Power Man, angry stereotype Luke Cage (who, if they ever do a live action adaptation of Heroes for Hire, needs to be played by the Old Spice guy), and a one year old in a Nibbler costume.

Highlights:



Billy Dee Williams was charging $50 for an autograph, granted that you also bought a copy of his biography. This begs two questions:
1) Seriously, Lando? $50? How about we play a game sabaac for an autograph?
2) What has Billy Dee done in his life that warrants a biography? "Chapter 7: How I almost played Two-Face." "Chapter 33: Colt 45 and Me." Epilogue: Why the Jeri-curl will never go out of style."



I got half of a John Cassaday sketch at the DC Comics booth. Sadly, the line was moving too slow so he stopped sketching and would only sign comics. So I got a signature and an empty space reserved for a no doubt "awesome" sketch of Elijah Snow.



While I didn't get to rub elbows with Captain Hammer (and if that doesn't sound like a masturbatory euphemism I don't know what does), I did sit in on the "Castle" panel. Any time you get to see Nathan Fillion reading steamy excerpts from his crime novel Heat Wave and handing out his plucked eyebrows as a prize (I wish I were kidding), you know you're in a good place.



It wasn't all fun and games, as I spent six hours a day at the Bongo booth. As I have stated before, I think I missed out on a career in retail. Sales comes easy, particularly when you're hawking Simpsons comics and black light Futurama posters. But the human body was not meant to stay on its feet for more than three hours at a time. A mitigating factor was the unadulterated geek love that radiates. You've got the Simpsons fanatics and the comic book geeks coming together in some sort of Perfect Storm of pop culture war hawks.




Shutting down the booth is always a sad affair, particularly since it reminds you that at the end of the day, Comic Con is nothing more than a dressed up Costco. Ashes to ashes, kryptonite to kryptonite and all that nonsense.

And no BiMonSciFiCon is complete without a love story. Sadly, my Con romance is a story of "what if." She told me to stop by booth #5038 at some point during the day. If it was meant to be, it was meant to be. She said it would be like our favorite book: the novelization of Serendipity. Apparently, it wasn't in the cards. Then again, I had also lied to her about my identity, claiming that I was UCLA masters grad who now worked as a junior editor at Marvel. But what great relationship isn't built on lies? Did Clark tell Lois that he was a mild mannered reporter from Kansas? Exactly. Greatest love story of our time. Entirely predicated on distrust.

The take home message is that Comic Con is awesome, but it would be better if you were a VIP. These guys live the rockstar life during the convention. And I'm not talking about the uptight movie stars who dress down and head to the afterparties and pretend to be geeks for the weekend. I'm taking about the comic book creators who are among their people for four days a year (for example, this guy). While Hugh Jackman might be an icon, the 100,000+ fans are more excited to meet the guy who wrote Incredible Hulk #181, Wolverine's first appearance. It's why the Marvel booth gave a decent reception to the cast and crew of Thor, yet marked out like madmen when Stan Lee sat on Odin's throne and shouted "Excelsior!" So let's add "Comic Book VIP" to the bucket list. Nothing but sex, drugs and debates about whether Greedo shot first.

Avengers assemble,
-Max

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