San Diego Comic-Con 2009 Con Report: Part II

Friday: Our brains must've been really baked by the sun because we decided to try and bring the kids down to the con. Stupid, I know, but we figured at least we'll get some fun photo ops. The Zuda booth was busier than ever and Haden was enjoying looking around the DC booth. We had been showing him Justice League episodes and he knew the names of all the DC characters by the age of two. He also got a big kick out of the Lego booth and the giant statues scattered around the con. They offer child care services upstairs, but at about $10 an hour we decided to skip it although it is a great idea for people with toddlers. Haden got worn out pretty quickly though and ended up passing out on the lobby floor. Classy. Our newborn Darwin did fine at the con although it was difficult to navigate the sea of conventioneers with a baby stroller... Most people have their attention constantly distracted by flashing screens or cleavage-revealing costumes, not to mention the people who were actually wearing costumes that significantly impaired their vision. We nearly had a full-on collision with a woman wearing a deep sea helmet... Anyone know what character that was? In hindsight we will try to leave the kids out of the con until they are older. By the way there's a kick-ass Children's Museum just across the street from the convention center that we ended up going to the next day and it is a great option for a place to take kids.

Between wrangling the kids in the afternoon, I did manage to visit with some of the old gang from AP. It's cool to see that they're still doing well after all these years, since they were the ones who gave me my first break back in the day. I was also happy to see Adam at the AP booth as well, and he's doing some awesome work on Empowered for Dark Horse so definitely check that out if you haven't yet.

After the hectic day, we really needed a break from the kids. After a great sushi dinner with friends, we hit the Hyatt bar for some drinks. my friend Dave had a chance meeting with Dave Gibbons which was awesome, too bad I was busy chugging my scotch and missed it!

Saturday: I was running low on batteries in the morning and from the looks of it the rest of the con was feeling the same way. Things picked up by the afternoon and it looked like all the heavy hitters were out for autograph sessions. Among the celebrities I spotted were Mark Hamill and Peter Mayhew (if you don't know who he is, congratulations on having a real life). Also saw some of the cast of BSG and the cast of Boondock Saints 2, but the real congestion was caused by the TrueBlood cast (I still haven't seen the show yet but like I said, never underestimate the power of pretty vampires). I didn't feel like waiting in line for anything, and also didn't end up spending money on anything. It might have been just con overload or maybe I should've worn a sign around my neck that says "Grumpy Jaded Old Man". Went by the TokyoPop booth specifically to buy MBQ but the girl at the booth didn't even know what I was talking about... Oh well. Kids, get off my lawn!

The highlight of the day was collecting more sketches for my sixty-second sketchbook from some of the other fine Zuda artists. I started the book back when I wanted to get some drawings from all the great guys that I worked with on Scanner but didn't want to put them out with doing crazy detailed sketches so I started getting sketches from everyone with a time limit of sixty seconds. It turned out to be a fun thing for everyone, and I hope the Zuda guys got a kick out of it. If you're ever in the company of a bunch of artists, it makes for a fun drinking game.

The con ended on a somewhat sour note for us since we had to drive out early Sunday morning to make it to New Mexico to visit family. I was already bummed to miss the Sunday webcomics panel hosted by Zuda, but then a mixup with hotel reservations meant we had to skip out on the second half of Saturday as well. It was probably just as well because I probably would've been too hung over to drive if we had stayed. All in all, it was exactly the kind of crazy, intense, and ridiculous experience that only Comic-Con can offer. We're probably masochists, but we'll be back next year!