Comic-Con 2007: (The Day Before) Day One

I go to Comic-Con International in San Diego every summer. The reasons are pretty simple. 1) I'm a comic writer; 2) it's in San Diego; 3) I'd be stupid not to.

I've been going to this thing since 1990, since before I actually got into the comics biz. It started off as a place to meet up with other members of the Clobberin' Times, the Champions APA I was part of. It was our excuse to get together, but, all being comic fans, we went for the event itself as well. It was a lot different at the start (and had it different name...it used to just be the San Diego Comic-Con before it turned into Comic-Con International, the biggest comic convention in the world). It was smaller. It used to take place in the old convention center in San Diego. Over the years, it's switched over to the new Center, and it's grown, like crazy, every year. It used to be sort of a secret...kind of the best kept secret in entertainment. When the average person heard "Comic-Con", they just thought comic books. What they didn't realize was that, for a really low price for all you get out of it, you could hang out with known celebrities as well. The thing may have started out as a comic thing only, decades ago, but it evolved into the biggest "popular culture" convention in the world, inclusive of comics, film, television, videogames, you name it. I've got endless stories from over the years. Back then, you could just walk in to one of the many panels offered, take a seat amongst the not-full-house, and listen to director John Carpenter talk for an hour. Which I did. It was badass. These days, you've got to get in a very long line to get into panels like that, and often can't get in before they fill up.

What it's evolved into is a monster event packed with really huge celebs. All the major (and minor) TV networks and film studios use it to promote upcoming shows and movies, and with that comes a lot more stars. Big ones. I think the year Halle Berry showed up was the breaking point. That's when folks like Entertainment Tonight and "E" finally took notice of what was happening. After that, the celebs kept pouring in, as did the attendees, and suddenly, there were over 100,000 people attending this thing each year over the four days it's held. It became a madhouse, jammed to the walls of a very, very big building. Not as intimate as it used to be, but still the biggest spectacle of its kind on Earth, and always a good time.

I usually meet up with quite a few friends down there for the event, but this year was to be a small year. Not a lot of my peeps, for various reasons, could make it. And not only could my Nice Guy co-creator and artist, Tim, not make it, but we didn't have our second book done yet, so we had no way to justify getting a table there to push our product. But I still needed to be there to do a little selling and schmoozing, and I always count on the trip to give me a load of creative inspiration to last me until the next summer, so I was there. It was just going to be me and my pal A.T. going from Sacramento, and we'd be meeting up with our friend Russ (a former San Diego resident, like myself, who moved away and now had to fly in (from Boise, in his case) to attend) and staying with our pal Tony (the last resident from our old San Diego gang still there) and his family, skipping the hotel route this year. Which was important, because I think every hotel room within five miles of downtown filled up months before the event. I'm not kidding. They really did.

I took a week off work, wanting a day before the flight to get myself together and packed, so I spent my Tuesday doing that (after spending a late night on Monday at the office to get my desk ready for me being gone). Then Wednesday came around, and it was time for A.T. and I to get out of Dodge (or Sac, in this case). He still had to work on Wednesday, but only a half day, so he finished up his work and family stuff and came and grabbed me, and it was off to the airport we went, ready to leave our nightmarish insurance jobs behind for a few days and get a much needed mental break. Russ would already be there when we arrived, as he flew in that morning, so we planned to meet up with him and Tony after getting out of the airport. They, themselves, would be picking up their pre-registered Con badges at the Convention Center and attending what's called "Preview Night". If you're pre-reg'd, you get to go in the night before everyone else and check out the place. There aren't any panels or events going on, but all the companies and vendors have their stuff all set up, and people can come through and start buying any of the ENDLESS items available for purchase (comics, tee shirts, DVDs, swords, collectibles of EVERY kind). They essentially added an extra half-day to the Con. Not needed for me or A.T. First of all, due to A.T.'s schedule, we weren't able to fly in in time for it. Second? We...uh...didn't actually have badges yet. This would be my bad, and this was a potential disaster that was still hanging over our heads, even as we drove to the airport to fly off to America's Finest City.

There are the regular badges, you see, and there are "pro badges" for industry professionals. Since I technically am one, this allows me to get a badge for free, and allows me one guest for free as well. Which is cool, since other folks are still paying $25 per day for their badges (and I can't imagine this low price is going to last much longer). But to get the free badge, pros have to pre-register. Well, life got busy, and I didn't. It's happened before, and it's usually not an issue. That only meant, in the past, that you would have to wait until Thursday morning, stand in line for a while, and then buy your page on-site, which would cost you (and your guest) $25 for all four days. Not as good as free, but still 1/4 of the price others are paying. So I've done that a couple of times.

This year, there was a potentially big problem. You see, this year, for the first time ever, the Con started selling out. There was an announcement that went up about a week before the Con that all 4-day badges were now sold out. This was unprecedented. Believe me, I know, as I've been doing this for 17 years. They were encouraging people to get online and pre-register asap, as there were still 3-day passes and single day passes available. But, as a pro, I didn't have this option, as I found out when I called the pro hotline at the Con and got a recording. You have two choices as a pro--you make the May 1st pre-reg deadline, or you're out of luck and you have to buy at the door. Well, that was fine, but did that mean that I now wouldn't be able to get a 4-day pass...me or A.T.? I couldn't find out, because no one ever answered to pro-line. Just the recording. And there was no help on the web site, either. All they told you was just to buy at the door, but didn't state anywhere if the sell-out applied to us pro-types. I even emailed them, and never got a response. So it seemed it was too late to do anything about it. So as I waited that final week, news then hit that Saturday passes were totally sold out. Holy crap! Saturday's the biggest day, with all the big events. Missing that would suck, big time. So it looked like there was a chance A.T. and I wouldn't be able to be there for one of those days. As it turned out, in the end, all the other days sold out as well.

But, as luck would have it, Russ went to the pro people while he was getting his badge and asked the question for us, and called me, just before we got on the plane, and said that all was well...the sell-out didn't apply to pros. Whew! So that took a big load off, and got us relaxed and excited about the trip. We landed in San Diego (which I always love doing, as I still consider that city home and treasure every chance I get to get back there) and went to go take care of our rental car. In years past with me and my friends, there were always numerous vehicles available for the attending gang...there was Tony's car, and Russ had his when he lived there, and I had my van back before I made the move back north. Now, we'd be down to just Tony's car, and as Tony has kids and family matters to deal with, we didn't want him being stuck having to taxi us around if he suddenly had to take off. So, A.T. and I both being in insurance, we've got connections with Enterprise. A.T. used his and got us set up with the good rate, and set us up for an Economy-sized vehicle. This had started to worry me as we got closer, the more I thought about it. If we did have the situation with Tony happen and A.T., Russ and I needed to all use the car, we wouldn't be able to fit three of us plus my wheelchair in there. So I figured we should rethink that once we got to the rental car place.

IF we got to the rental car place...

We waited for the Enterprise shuttle outside the airport (the Enterprise location is off-site), and the one that showed up didn't have a wheelchair ramp. But the driver said a workable one would be by in about 15 minutes. Okay, we could wait. Well, that didn't happen. As it turned out, two of Enterprise's shuttles were down...including the one with the lift. An Enterprise guy showed up and let us know this, and that they'd actually called us a cab. Oookay. Whatever got the job done. Our cab showed, a mini-van with a lift, and our driver was a Russian cabbie named Boris (I'm not making that up), who informed us (not quite buying this) that his cab is one of two in all of San Diego that has a wheelchair lift. Boris came complete with the accent, and at one point, I almost leaned forward and asked him to say "moose and squirrel" for me, but self-control got the better of me.

Boris got us there, and then it was time to get hooked up on our car. I asked the helpful guy who'd be setting us up if we still had the option to get a bigger vehicle, and he said sure, we could just see what was available in the lot. I was thinking we needed a standard-sized vehicle (their sizes go: Economy, Compact, Intermediate, Standard...then move up to Full-Size, Luxury, and so on). He showed us to a Taurus. He started writing it up for us, and we even got our luggage in the trunk, and that's when A.T. let us know that he insisted on having the extra insurance, and he had budgeted his portion of the rental based on that, so he really wanted to look at an Economy. Okay, so our guy showed us what Economy ones he had, and A.T. even unloaded the Taurus. I looked at it, and its lame excuse for a trunk that wouldn't fit the wheelchair, and realized that even if we didn't need to put the chair in the back seat, Russ is too tall to fit in that back seat with any kind of comfort. It just wasn't going to work. We looked at the next size up, but while our guy was walking back from inside with some adjusted figures, another couple of people stepped up and got the last Compact. In the end, A.T. worked his mojo, and managed to talk the guy into giving us the Taurus for the Compact price. Problem solved, and we got a great deal on the car for the trip. And we could now finally get on the road, since it was now after 10pm and Russ and Tony were waiting for us downtown at a bar.

We took the (what would have been) short drive toward the Gaslamp area downtown to track down the Yard House where Tony and Russ were waiting. We were preparing to make a left turn that would get us into the Gaslamp when we hit a red light. As we waited, a train started coming (we'd have to cross the tracks to make our turn). Well, okay, that happens. So we waited. And waited. This was like a mile-long freight train. And as more of it passed us, it started slowing down. Way down. Pretty soon, it stopped. And then, to our further frustration, it even started backing up, slowly. So this train had managed to get far enough into our area to completely block any street would let us get to where Russ and Tony were. This was frustrating me even more because I hadn't had a meal all day and I knew the kitchen would be closing soon. I managed to call Russ and asked him to at least order me some kind of appetizer before that happened (which would be less than 10 minutes from that time).

As it looked like the train wasn't going anywhere anytime soon (you should have seen the line of traffic behind us), A.T. got in the job. As his visual memory is apparently MUCH better than mine, he remembered back to a previous trip when Russ had driven us through a back way to the Gaslamp...and A.T. also thought he remembered a spot up ahead where a bridge would take us over the train. Keep in mind that I lived there for seven years and even *I* didn't know that. So. A.T. hit the gas, and soon, we found the route he remembered. We got past the train (woo hoo!) and found our way to the Gaslamp. And we managed to find a parking spot just a couple of blocks away from our destination, thanks to my disabled parking pass that I'd thankfully remembered to bring.

So we hit the Yard House and found the boys (already pretty toasted), and it turned out that Russ had gone ahead and ordered me a burger (time for another 'woo hoo!'). So, now relaxed and in better mood, I was able to get some food in me and order a Guinness before last call. So the four of us toasted the trip to come, got caught up, since we hadn't seen each other in a while, and enjoyed some quality hang-out time downtown.

As parking is just ridiculous during Con time, particularly on preview night (which begins right around rush hour traffic time), Tony had parked his car at a trolley station elsewhere and taken light rail down to meet up with Russ. So thanks to us having the Taurus, we were able to give them a ride back to that station to get Tony's wheels. We all hit the freeway and headed to Tony's place, where, as I said, Tony and his wife, Wendy, and their three (count 'em!) kids were letting us crash. We got unloaded, and I got my stuff into the room I always get to use when I'm staying with Tony (he puts a rollaway bed in his home office for me, which is awesome because the office also opens right into the downstairs bathroom), and we got to catch up with Wendy a bit (who was miraculously still up at that time). Eventually we all managed to get off to bed. I think it was near 3:30 or 4:00am when I finally got to sleep. Which would, certainly, be making for a very long first day (Thursday) at the Con...