A serious note.

Hello, everyone. John here. I "help" Bully out with his blog, but there's some things can't be said in the voice of a little stuffed bull.

A couple weeks ago at San Diego Comic-Con incidents of sexual harassment were confided to me and I overheard others. I wanted to write about it but was uncertain whether Bully's blog was the proper place. After much thought and discussions with friends and colleagues I've decided to post it here:

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Overheard at San Diego Comic-Con while I was having lunch on the balcony of the Convention Center on Sunday July 27: a bunch of guys looking at the digital photos on the camera of another, while he narrated: "These were the Ghostbusters girls. That one, I grabbed her ass, 'cause I wanted to see what her reaction was." This was only one example of several instances of harassment, stalking or assault that I saw at San Diego this time.

1. One of my friends was working at a con booth selling books. She was stalked by a man who came to her booth several times, pestering her to get together for a date that night. One of her co-workers chased him off the final time.

2. On Friday, just before the show closed, this same woman was closing up her tables when a group of four men came to her booth, started taking photographs of her, telling her she was the "prettiest girl at the con." They they entered the booth, started hugging and kissing her and taking photographs of themselves doing so. She was confused and scared, but they left quickly after doing that.

3. Another friend of mine, a woman running her own booth: on Friday a man came to her booth and openly criticized her drawing ability and sense of design. Reports from others in the same section of the floor confirmed he'd targeted several women with the same sort of abuse and criticism.

Quite simply, this behavior has got to stop at Comic-Con. It should never be a sort of place where anyone, man or woman, feels unsafe or attacked either verbally or physically in any shape or form. There are those, sadly, who get off on this sort of behavior and assault, whether it's to professional booth models, cosplayers or costumed women, or women who are just there to work. This is not acceptable behavior under any circumstance, no matter what you look like or how you're dressed, whether you are in a Princess Leia slave girl outfit or business casual for running your booth.

On Saturday, the day after the second event I described above, I pulled out my convention book to investigate what you can do and who you can speak to after such an occurrence. On page two of the book there is a large grey box outlining "Convention Policies," which contain rules against smoking, live animals, wheeled handcarts, recording at video presentations, drawing or aiming your replica weapon, and giving your badge to others. There is nothing about attendee-to-attendee personal behavior.

Page three of the book contains a "Where Is It?" guide to specific Comic-Con events and services. There's no general information room or desk listed, nor is there a contact location for security, so I go to the Guest Relations Desk. I speak to a volunteer manning the desk; she's sympathetic to the situation but who doesn't have a clear answer to my question: "What's Comic-Con's policy and method of dealing with complaints about harassment?" She directs me to the nearest security guard, who is also sympathetic listening to my reports, but short of the women wanting to report the incidents with the names of their harassers, there's little that can be done.

"I understand that," I tell them both, "but what I'm asking is more hypothetical and informational: if there is a set Comic-Con policy on harassment and physical and verbal abuse on Con attendees and exhibitors, and if so, what's the specific procedure by which someone should report it, and specifically where should they go?" But this wasn't a question either could answer.

So, according to published con policy, there is no tolerance for smoking, drawn weapons, personal pages or selling bootleg videos on the floor, and these rules are written down in black and white in the con booklet. There is not a word in the written rules about harassment or the like. I would like to see something like "Comic-Con has zero tolerance for harassment or violence against any of our attendees or exhibitors. Please report instances to a security guard or the Con Office in room 17."

The first step to preventing such harassment is giving its victims the knowledge that they can safely and swiftly report such instances to someone in authority. Having no published guideline, and indeed being unable to give a clear answer to questions about it, gives harassment and violence one more rep-tape loophole to hide behind.

I enjoyed Comic-Con. I'm looking forward to coming back next year. So, in fact, are the two women whose experiences I've retold above. Aside from those instances, they had a good time at the show. But those instances of harassment shouldn't have happened at all, and that they did under no clear-cut instructions about what to do sadly invites the continuation of such behavior, or even worse.

I don't understand why there's no such written policy about what is not tolerated and what to do when this happens. Is there anyone at Comic-Con able to explain this? Does a similar written policy exist in the booklets for other conventions (SF, comics or otherwise) that could be used as a model? Can it be adapted or adapted, and enforced, for Comic-Con? As the leading event of the comics and pop culture world, Comic-Con should work to make everyone who attends feel comfortable and safe.

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Fellow bloggers have also kindly posted my essay on their sites, and you can also read it at any of the links below.

• Armagideon Time
• BeaucoupKevin.com
• Blog@Newsarama
• ChaosMonkey's Abysmal Pit
• Chris's Invincible Super-Blog
• Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin
• Ringwood
• TangognaT
• Thoughts, Clippings and Utter Nonsense
• When Fangirls Attack

I'd ask that you please treat the comment sections of my colleagues' blogs with respect for this serious subject. I'm pleased to say that they feel strongly about this subject as well, and thank them for their support on an uncomfortable but vital subject.

Comics oughta be fun. Comic book conventions ought to, as well. But as long as harassment goes on and there is no clear-cut official written rules on convention behavior and what to do in circumstances or physical or mental assault, our hobby runs the risk of alienating and endangering those within it.

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Edit on 8/22: Girl-Wonder.org has initiated the Con Anti-Harassment Project. This is good news and a step forward to be applauded. Please check out their out their campaign here, especially the thorough and well-written FAQ.

Comic-Con: The Last Stand Day

If you've been following my Con reports, you may have noticed I take a different approach to the hard-hitting news and fact blogging done—and done well, I'll add—by a lot of other bloggers at the Con. I'm not in the thick of things and haven't been privy to the (relatively few) big news announcements at the show; I haven't been to panels or parties or even much beyond the confines of the 1700 aisle.

What I have done is had a lot of fun.

Sure, go ahead: make fun of me for being all wide-eyed and happy about it. (Go ahead! Go ahead!) I'm sure not the whole con hasn't been sunshine and lollipops. From my vantage point, however, it looks like most everybody had a humdinger of a time, because I'm seeing a lot of delighted and cheerful people strolling the aisles. The vast majority of Con attendees passing before my little stuffed eyed were friendly, outgoing, and obviously having fun. I've been comparing this show a lot to BEA and aside from being a big-ass show inside a big-ass convention center, there's an air of energy and excitement, even on this, the final day. The place was still packed. BEA dies on its last day. You can argue that's because BEA is a business show and Comic-Con is just a fan gathering...but I think the lines dividing them are slimmer than that. Lots of people came to Comic-Con to do business—I've made some great contact with industry book buyers, comic book stores, other publishers and even promising new authors.

Even that cliché of Comic-Con, the costumed attendees, is a heck of a lot of fun to watch. The more cynical of you might scoff or laugh, but I was impressed and a little jealous: I guess I have to get working on my tiny Bender costume for next year.

I filled in a few gaps in my collection...nothing too dramatic, but hey! There's that issue of Doctor Strange I wanted. And that West Coast Avengers that's the sequel to it. And wow, lookit those beautiful small-press comics! And who doesn't want a marshmallow gun?

It was my first Comic-Con, and I went into it not knowing what to expect. So forgive me if I'm being wide-eyed and bushy-tailed about the experience. Maybe next year I'll be cynical about it, but the roller-coaster atmosphere of it was a kick and an adrenaline rush and I've enjoyed myself a lot. Sure, there's things I wish. I wish more major new project announcements that would astonish the industry would be announced in San Diego. I wish the outside news media would understand they're looking at a large group of highly motivated consumers of pop culture and not simply a buncha weird fans who like to dress up in costume. I wish Marvel would take making contact with their fan base more seriously by making an outreach at these shows beyond videogame and movie tie-in appearances. I wish a method could be found to decrease the in-the-sun waiting lines and eliminate the fat that fans were turned away at the door. I wish I had a soothing, cooling tub to soak my sore little hooves in.

But in the end, it was a valuable learning experience. With Stormtroopers. You can take it seriously or you can do it because your company has to or you can even just come for poops and giggles but you can't deny it's good for the fans and good for the industry and the medium of comics on the whole. Those who read some of my more ranting blogs know that I frequently challenge the industry to nurture and build the next generation of fans. In other words, what is the comic book world doing to make certain there is a comic book world in twenty, thirty, forty years? I'll quibble at the big publishers about their commitment to that end. But take a look around you as you stand in a booth or an aisle at San Diego Comic-Con and do an informal mental poll. There were pre-teen kids. There were teenagers. There were college kids, people in their twenties and thirties and forties. There were grandfathers and grandmothers. There were people in wheelchairs and babies in strollers. There were more women than I expected. There were more parents than I expected, and not just being dragged by their kids. In other words, look around you: the passion and purpose comics, fantasy, gaming and toys brings to people runs across all generations.

Which brings me to, as I promised, the most heartening, encouraging sign for the power and strength of the comics industry that I overheard: As I stood in the Norton booth, I overheard a boy in his early teens...maybe thirteen or fourteen...excitedly pick up a copy of Norton's Up Front and eagerly explain to his forty-something father, with passion and accuracy, just who Bill Mauldin was. And why he was important. And that he drew great comics.

Kid, I salute you. You are others like you are the future of comics: carrying on the interest, passion, and genuine enthusiasm for the medium of comics, its history and great creators. It's for people like you that I'm happy to come to San Diego Comic-Con. It's for people like you that Comic-Con is created.

See you next year in San Diego!

Other Comic-Con entries: Tuesday • Wednesday • Thursday • Friday • Saturday • Extra #1 (Wolverine) • Extra #2 (Eisner)

Comic-Con Day 1: It's like BookExpo on the Super-Soldier Formula

Hi hi hi from San Diego, Comic-Con attendees and those who are green with jealousy because they can't come to the really big show! It's quite late at night and I have an early morning but I wanted to let y'all know what went on in my very first day of my very first Comic-Con ever.

Well, first of all, I was signed to an exclusive creator contract at Image...

Hah! I kid. That didn't happen. (Sniff.) But what did happen was John drove me down beautiful Harbor Drive (past the exciting piratey-looking Maritime Museum which I will hop up and down until we get to go visit there on Monday) and right to the Convention Center. We've been warned that for best results in getting a parking space, speed at eighty-eight miles an hour down Harbor Drive, until you go back in time to before the Convention Center was built, and park then. Or, for those of you who do not have a flux capacitor, try to arrive as early as possible, and then revise that estimate and arrive an hour earlier than that. We got there at 1 PM and the main Convention Center parking was already full; luckily a block or so south there's a mighty new parking garage at the corner of Harbor and Eighth, looming over the Convention Center like the Death Star but with more driving ramps. Plenty of parking there, but John, who is paranoid about all things parking related, told me I'd have to get up early so we can get in well before the crowds tomorrow. I suggested perhaps we just camp out in the Norton booth all night. He looked disappointed that he hadn't thought of that. I guess it's a good thing neither one of us brought out sleeping bags.

I'm sure you're going to read a lot of blogs from my good comics blogsophere pals about attending the show as a guest and zipping merrily from panel discussion to Q&A session, skipping happily from booth to booth, buying wonderful souvenirs that put the treasures of Ali Baba to shame, and just generally using more shoe leather in a weekend than Forrest Gump did in the 1980s. My blog is gonna be a little different: it's a working show for me and I'm mainly tied to the W. W. Norton booth (#1714 for those of you who are comin' by to shake my hoof), so this will be a view from the floor blog. In other words, The Working Bull's Comic-Con.

In addition, since it's my first Comic-Con, it's all new to me, but it's got that delicious nougaty deja-vu feeling of standing in a booth in a convention center talking about books. It's very much like BookExpo America (BEA) on the surface, and yet dig deep and you hit an entirely different vein of rich caramel and crunchy cookie. I've been attending BEAs for Norton all my life (I am six! It's a very good age to be) and John has been doing them since the early years of the Industrial Revolution, but this was entirely a new and different experience for us. BEA is not a selling show: books are either just displayed or given away for free. Comic-Con? If it's there, it's probably for sale. BEA: populated by bookstore owners, managers, and employees, publishers, authors and agents—restricted to the professionals of the trade. Comic-Con: everybody in the universe can come in: it's a public consumer show. It's therefore a larger, busier, and in many ways, more fun and exuberant show. I've only been through the slightly busy Preview Night, which I'm told is a mere shadow of the tsunami-forces of crowds that will hit the floor tomorrow, but there was a lot of grins on faces and excitement and energy: the energy of fandom and love of the medium. I think this show will be a lot of work. But looking at the faces of young and old, I also think it will be a lot of fun.

Not that I didn't do a lot of work today. The booth was quite empty and bare when I got there:



But we soon had that fixed just by hanging a few colorful posters. Say, Miss Ingsu sure designed some beautiful Will Eisner paperback jackets, didn't she?:



Whoa doggie! There sure are a lot of boxes to unpack. Let me go get my child's safety-tip box cutter:



Norton books look great on display, but like sad little orphans, they would like to be on your bookshelf even more. So c'mon by and buy some, won't you?:



Today, it's quiet, but tomorrow, one zillion people will invade the Convention Center, only some of which will be in Stormtrooper costumes. For now, I'm enjoying a brief respite: this is the calm before the storm. The quiet before the crowds. The last time you'll be able to see the carpet:



Finally, a handful of brief observations about Day 1 of the Never-Ending Con:

Department of You Need to Use Comic-Con to Increase Your Knowledge of the Genre: overheard from a pair of men looking at Norton's Will Eisner books: "Who's this guy?"

Cool industry folks I've spotted today: Brent Anderson, Ryan Sook, Kyle Baker, Jim Balent, and the always vibrant Holly Golightly, whose booth is immediately opposite Norton's and who cheerfully wandered over to chat with a friendly "Hi neighbor!"

I don't have much pocket money but I must buy one of these: the Owly plush toy from Top Shelf.

I'm not allowed to buy this but it is one mightily impressive looking boxed set: Lost Girls by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie, also at Top Shelf. Seriously, an absolutely gorgeous production of book production. Even if you don't buy one, wander by the Top Shelf booth (#1721) and gape in awe at it. If you're young or easily startled like I am, however, don't open it up. Oh my goodness! Miss Dorothy! What are you up to?

Costumed characters spotted so far: Snoopy, Captain Jack Sparrow (in the parking garage elevator, no less!), and my personal favorite: a toddler in a handmade Superman costume and her baby sister in a Powerpuff Girls Bubbles outfit. So cute you would scream with glee! Well, I did, at least. Aiiiiiyiiiii!

One thing BEA does better than Comic-Con: name badges. Tiny, tiny type on the Comic-Con badges makes it almost impossible to glance at someone and tell who they are. BEA badges feature sixty point type: that would be a big help to those of us with black button eyes, Comic-Con!

One thing Comic-Con does better than BEA: Better and more comprehensive signage all around the show and especially hanging over the aisles. The Washington DC Convention Center should take a clue from San Diego.

Favorite intercom announcement: "There is no running in the aisles of the Convention Center. That means you, guy with the green and white cap!"

Most handled and looked-at books on the Norton table: Lots of interest in Bill Mauldin's Up Front and Dr. Seuss Goes to War.

Books I have sold so far tally: one copy of Will Eisner's The Plot and one copy of Dr. Seuss Goes to War. That's not enough to pay for our plane ticket back home! But everyone says tomorrow is the big day. I can't hardly wait, and neither should you. Go to bed now and get up early to get a good parking space! Go ahead! Do it!

Other Comic-Con entries: Tuesday • Thursday • Friday • Saturday • Extra #1 (Wolverine) • Extra #2 (Eisner) • Sunday

Comic-Con Day 2: Stand in one place and the world parades before you

You native San Diegans (San Diegites? San Diegoarati?) are pretty darn lucky living in the Pacific Time Zone, because that makes it a heck of a lot easier to get up at the crack of dawn (seriously! The sun wasn't even warm yet!) and hit the misty Harbor Drive, all in an attempt to score an early parking space at Comic-Con. I'm sure glad John didn't let me drive (I asked him as usual. As usual, he told me "No, Bully. You're too short. Your hooves don't even dangle off the front seat. And stop changing the radio station.") because I kept dozing off all the way over to the Convention Center and dreaming of comics and cards and action figures and Ewoks. You might look at me asconce and scold "Bully, shame on you! You're still on Brooklyn time—it should feel like 9:30 in the morning to you. That should be plenty of time for you to feel awake." To which I can only say: you know nothing of my Brooklyn sleep habits, which generally involve sleeping until noon or so, rolling out of bed into a delicious and comfortable bowl of cold cereal, and then watching Cartoon Network most of the afternoon.

Where was I?

Oh yes. Comic-Con.

In any case, it's a lot easier to park at Comic-Con at six-thirty in the morning that later, I'll tell you that. So we were on the floor of the show hours in advance, which gave us plenty of time to set up and arrange lovely Norton books for display on this, the first full day of the Con:


And to help dust and arrange the fantastic Fantagraphics books:


But then I went exploring, seeing the sights as best I could hours before the show opened. Not too many people were about and merchandise was stowed away, but hey, there's still plenty of fun stuff to see behind the scenes. For example, this jolly banner for one of my favorite comics publishers:


I want all these toys on display at the DC Direct mega-booth. And then I will interchange their clothes, and that will make me giggle and giggle:


Nintendo has a nifty futuristic kiosk where you can test-drive the new Nintendo DS Lite! Cool fun! If only I had opposible thumbs.


From left to right: Snoopy, Imperial Snowtroopers, and Wonder Woman. It's like some sort of Crisis on Fanboy Earths:


Skidloads and skidloads of molded plastic fun waiting to be unpacked at the Hasbro booth:
Spoon!
Golly.:


Of course Comic-Con is a great place to catch up with your best friends:


And make some new ones:


"The Mach Five is the most complex and ingenious car ever built; a tribute to my father's imagination, genius and technical skills!"


Do you dare walk into the jaws of the Snakes on a Plane exhibit? I didn't!:


One of my favorite booth designs of the show: the bright and vibrant black-and-white Peanuts booth:


We end our impromptu early morning trip around Comic-Con by checking out the gigantic ass of Pikachu:


And then, as quickly as it began, our wonderful exploration of the Comic-Con comes to an end and like the clams returning to the clam flow, we return to the Norton booth and prepare for a day of greeting the eager attendees of the show.

As I explained yesterday, I'm pretty much locked to the booth all day long, lugging books back and forth and trying not to get underfoot of all the guests, so just like the pre-heliocentric Earth, I stand still at the center and the world of Comic-Con revolves around me. It's a busy day: not as hectic as I had expected (I guess that day comes on Saturday, when it is truly every little stuffed bull for himself), but the pace never stopped and the flow of foot traffic was speedy and constant. BEA exhibitors would kill for this sort of attendee flow: never-ending people in and out of the booth, up and down the aisles, cheerful and excited. That's the best part of Comic-Con for me so far: the boundless energy and enthusiasm attendees have, the wonderful grins on their faces, the fulfillment when they see a book they wanted, the delight at seeing costumed fellow attendees. In short, Comic-Con makes you smile. Most everyone seems to be having a good time, even those of us who are working the thing, and it makes the long hours fly by pretty quickly. One very concrete difference between the professional crowd of a BEA and this happy fan crowd of Comic-Con is the entrance method. Although the doors are scheduled to open at ten AM, intercom announcements calling to us from the heavens of the San Diego Convention Center reminded us that until all booths were in compliance with safety regulations—boxes out of aisles and lines for products dismissed (it's not fair to start lines until the regular attendees can get in!), then the doors would not be opened. They finally popped open around 10:10 and whooosh! Like a rush the crowds poured into the aisles. I simply can't imagine that happening at BEA—there would be a mass revolt and someone, probably Avin Domnitz, would be burned in effigy. Comic-Con seems to have rules both stricter and yet more acceptable to the general attendees than any other trade show I've attended. It's very interesting to see and experience the differences.

I'm kept busy throughout the day hopping up to help guests out with Norton and Fantagraphics books. We've made some sales to enthusiastic fans today: people are digging the Eisners especially, and there's a lot of love for Bill Mauldin's Up Front and the Dr. Seuss book. The most handled book in the Norton booth by far is Newmarket's The Art of X-Men: The Last Stand, cooed over by fanboy and fangirl alike. It's a good time to be publishing stuff like this and the fans are enjoying the wide variety.

As busy as I am, there's still plenty of time to people-watch as the crowds move through the aisle, and I'm having a ball watching the world go by. Famous creator sightings of the day: Jim Steranko manned his booth all day within site of the Norton booth. He's a petite but powerful man who could probably break my back in three places if I had a spine instead of just fluff, and the crowds were lining up to meet and talk with him. I had a lovely chat with Phil Yeh about merchandising (both authorized and unauthorized) of his delightful dinosaurs. I took my jingling change purse across the aisle to Top Shelf to buy that Owly plush that caught my little button eye yesterday, and who should be selling it to me but Owly creator Andy Runton himself, who did a beautiful sketch and gorgeous calligraphic inscription in the book I bought, in addition to being just about the pleasantest guy to chat with. One of my favorite artists, Shawn McManus, dropped by the Norton booth and admired the Eisner books, and while I didn't get a chance to speak personally to Matt Groening, he was a pleasant and cheerful personality to the fans who approached him as he departed from window-shopping in the Fantagraphics booth. Class act, Mister G.

Even more fun are the costumed con attendees, many of whom have put a lot of hard work and skill into their costumes. Spotted from my vantage point: A really authentic Hugh Jackman-style Wolverine accompanied by a slinky and elegant Black Cat (I didn't know they hung out together, but maybe they were having a team-up). Several Lara Crofts were squeezed into tight-tight shorts and tiny tops. A whole cadre of Stormtroopers of all designs and sizes. Incredibly impressive fan-coistumed Blue Beetle and Catwoman spent some time in Jim Balent and Holly Golightly's Broadsword Comics booth across from ours, and cheerfully posed for photos with young and old. I spotted a totally authentic-looking Harry Potter, a gaggle of geishas, many amazingly impressive-looking goths, dozens of anime and manga characters I didn't recognize but which had costumes so detailed they've got a great career ahead of them in Hollywood. Ninjas flitted by in the shadows constantly. Boba Fett hugged small children. The joy and pride of costumed attendees is infectious. You may giggle at folks attending in costume, but they're having the times of their lives attracting attention for an afternoon and showing off their skill, creativity, and sheer chutzpah in wearing an elegant costume. I wish now I had finished my Ewok costume!

Which brings me to my favorite costumed character of the day: a concept brilliant and outrageous, unique and fully-formed: The Elvis Trooper:


For this stormtrooper, TK-421 stands for Takin' Kare of Business.

So, in the end, it was a work day. But it was, even more important, a lot of fun. And that's what I love most about comics, and Comic-Con: you walk out of there with a smile on your face. Would all the world's gatherings be the same.

See ya back tomorrow at the Con!

Other Comic-Con entries: Tuesday • Wednesday • Friday • Saturday • Extra #1 (Wolverine) • Extra #2 (Eisner) • Sunday

San Diego Comic-Con, Day 4: You don't have to go home but you can't stay here

Like the end of Christmas vacation or the new season of Doctor Who, Comic-Con comes to an end all too quickly, but like both of those things, they'll be back, although you're not guaranteed to see Billie Piper at every one, I'm afraid. This is Day 4 of Comic-Con and while the aisles are busy and frantic, there's a sense of finality about it all, a shadow of the oncoming closing, a last chance to buy $600 Buffy the Vampire Slayer maquettes and to pose for photos with cadres of stormtroopers. Yes, today is the last day, but you c couldn't tell it from the crowds.

I realize I haven't gone into one of the most important aspects of the Con: keeping yourself from getting too hungry on the floor. Eating on a budget is always a challenge in San Diego, but luckily there are heroes who help out when your tummy's a-rumbling. I always recommend the superheroics of Captain Ralph, the iconic mascot of Ralphs Pretty Good Grocery at G Street and First in downtown San Diego. Captain Ralph will battle supervillains to bring you a healthy lunch in a handy cooler case for a mere ten bucks. Best value of the con!:



And when there's snackin' to be had, my good pal JustJenn was always ready for little stuffed bull-sized treats and goodies. Here's one of her justly famous and absolutely delicious mini Burger Bites:



Thanks, Miss JustJenn! That's good burger eatin'!:



She also made my otter pal Shelly some yummy vegan cookies!:



So now you know why I'm always so cheerful and enthusiastic on the show floor: I'm hopped up on delicious, delicious treats.

The fun never stops on the final day of the show, and it's business as usual: busy, busy, busy, busy. I've been coming here for three years and the show gets bigger all the time. They keep saying it can't get any bigger, but how are you gonna stop it? Rumors float around the floor about moving the show to Las Vegas (too hot!), but I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime, San Diego is here to stay, baby! Why, just ask all these people:



That's a typical crowd—sometimes it's even more hectic—for the final day, and I'm kept busy at the Norton booth cheerfully telling people about our Will Eisner and Annotated and art books and selling Norton title to our fine, fine customers...thank you each and every one for stopping by to see our books! Sorry, lady who didn't pick up Beowulf: The Illustrated Edition in time before we sold out...after all, the motto of Comic-Con is "You snooze, you lose." Or is it "Of all the souls I've encountered in my travels, his was the most...human."? No, come to think of it, it was definitely that snoozing or losing thing.

Busy at is was, I did have time for one last quick spin around the convention hall. Randi and John had brought a bag of stuffed bears to donate to an appeal Stan Sakai's daughter was doing: the bears were donated to a local fire department for use with traumatized young kids following a fire or disaster. An excellent cause and Stan was very friendly and happy that we'd brought some bears. He even did a wonderful sketch for me of a ronin Bully which I'll post on the ol' blog soon. Thanks, Stan!

Of course there was time to drop in on the cow people:



And at the Paramount booth, you could line up at Starfleet computer terminals to help construct the brand-new Enterprise! It was pretty tricky swinging those antimatter engines into place. Mister Scott said I did just fine and those scratches'll buff right out, nae problem!



But y'know what I love best about Comic-Con? It's truly a place for all of us fans to fit in. Why, even if you feel like you don't fit in, you can bring a few friends to help you piece things together:



And all too soon, the lights go down, the tables are folded up, and it's all over except for the Clonetrooper masks.



Whew! That was a busy week of work at Comic-Con. The best way to unwind is to head out for a delicious meal of heart Mexican food at one of my favorite new resturants, the cheerful and colorful Casa Guadalajara in Old Town, a delightful deep-fried, frosty-salty fiesta of a restaurant. They are famous not only for their Mexican food...



...but also for their yummy margaritas, and who am I to argue?:



Oh, don't worry, folks. I only took a tiny teeny weeny sip. It doesn't affect me at all. If anything, a little fruity tropical drink only makes you dive more fully into your dinner...



...and it's a great way to meet and find new friends. Well, hello there, good-looking! Do you come here often? Also, are you by any chance filled with candy?



Yesh...thasha one good marguritaaaaaaa



zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

(Thanks so much for readin' my Comic-Con reports, folks!)

Comic-Con Day 3: More stars than there are in Louis B. Mayer's movies

Note: Boistrous Bully-booster Michael correctly points out that today, Friday, is more accurately Day Two of Comic-Con, and that I should have counted Preview Night as Day Zero. In my defense, 1) I blame society, 2) Hey, I worked all day setting up the booth on Wednesday...I consider that a full day! And 5) 3) I thought 'bout correcting the errors but I realized that'd affect my incoming links because the numbers are in the post titles. Chalk it up to experience, thanks for the correction, and next year my numbering will be a little more bull-liveable!

You know how in each successive Star Wars film George Lucas crammed more and more people into the background of every scene? That's just like Comic-Con: the more it goes on, the busier it gets. I don't want to draw any specific other comparisons between Star Wars and Comic-Con except that the stormtrooper population gets denser every time we come back to the show. Seriously, it was this busy


...all...day...long!

Greetings once again from the San Diego Convention Center, folks—it's Friday, it's steamy-hot outside and icy-cold in the Con. Really cold: even the Lara Crofts were wearing fluffy cardigan sweaters today. That's a nice change from most convention centers I've done shows in, where the temperature increases a degree for every thousand people who step across the threshold. The crowds poured in, the climate stayed cool, and once again I had a busy and fun day. Despite the amazing rush of people, there's never any log-jams of traffic; the show aisles seem wider and clearer than at BookExpo and there is never a time when there aren't at least twenty people in the Norton and Fantagraphics aisle. John dragged me out of my comfy soft bed again this morning at five-thirty so we could be at the Convention Center parking lot by six-thirty—his paranoia about getting a parking space is cutting into my valuable sleepy dream time and seriously beginning to cheese me off. Stop it, John! But we made up for it by scoring another excellent parking spot poised right at the exit (excellent for making a fast departure in the evening) and walked across Harbor Place to have a spicy and lovely Mexican breakfast before heading back to the Convention Center, full of energy, anticipation, and beans.

Still firmly on duty in the Norton booth today, but the usual assortment of comics celebrity sightings made it a perfect place to experience the Con: Kurt Busiek dropped by the booth to look over Norton's books; I got a chance to compliment him on his excellent automobile-themed Hawaiian shirt as well as fanbullishly telling him how much I enjoy his comics writing. Top Shelf gets good value for money bringing their authors to Comic-Con, because just like Andy Renton yesterday, Eddie Campbell was working the booth, front and center, happily wrapping up my copy of his new book The Fate of the Artist and accepting my thanks for his great work on From Hell and Bacchus with a friendly and cheerful grin. He also has quite possibly the best hair in the business, maybe apart from Jim Steranko. All-around nice guy and uber-news-blogger Tom Spurgeon darted into the Fantagraphics booth to say hi very quickly before dashing off again to do seventeen or eighteen panel discussions, and Denis Kitchen dropped by to whisper a confirmation in my little stuffed ear of that big movie rumor we've all been buzzing about. Rian Hughes, master of design and typography passed through, and the Fantagraphics autographing area continued with more hits than a top forty radio station: Dan Clowes, Linda Medley, Los Bros. Hernandez, Roger Langridge, R. Kikuo Johnson, Kevin Huizenga and many, many more showed up to sign and inscribe books for fans.

But by far my favorite celebrity sighting was the cheerful boisterous guy who lunged dramatically into the Norton booth, tossed a copy of the Agreeable Comics sampler into my fuzzy lap and then shook my hoof with grace and aplomb: yes, folks, it's the ebullient BeaucoupKevin himself, Kevin Church, full of glee and gossip and bringing the world of my little oatmeal cookie-flavored blog together with his massive media powerhouse. Don't believe he's really here at the Con? He can prove it.

So if you're here at the Con, don't run (because they'll yell at you over the intercom), but stroll swiftly and with intent and purpose, to booth 1531, grab Kevin by the lapels, plop down your eight bits, ten dimes, or that crumpled dollar bill the soda machine wouldn't take to buy a copy of the Agreeable Comics sampler, and walk away a happier and more joyful soul than you were with that filthy lucre weighing you down. I hereby declare Agreeable Comics the most fun comic of the Con, and I'd be saying that even if he hadn't grabbed my nose ring and threatened to toss me to the heavily-eyeshadowed goths if I didn't like it.

The colorful parade of costumed attendees continued today as well: add to my character-spotting list Dr. Strange, Anakin Skywalker, Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood, Metal Bikini Leia and Bare-Midriffed Amidala walking arm-in-arm down the aisles in some sort of vaguely disturbing mother/daughter skin-barin' outing, and the compellingly clanky yet prehistoric Caveman Robot. Zatanna posed near the DC booth early this morning, and a little light bulb popped on over my little stuffed head: Ah ha! I now see the attraction of fishnets. Green Arrow, Willy Wonka, Spider-Man and Santa crossed paths. Thorn was accompanied by an elaborate Fone Bone, and Shaun of the Dead looked on as an Adam West-style Batman strolled purposefully down the aisle. I saw two beautifully creepy (or is that creepily beautiful?) Corpse Brides at different times, but synchronicity rules later in the main aisle when two different crimson-leather-clad movie-style Jean Grays faced off against each other (with compliments for each other's costume work rather than Phoenix-fire). An amazing quartet of Ghostbusters posed with kids and let them hold the spectral container units. Around mid-day it hit me: it was a real-life Neopolis from Alan Moore and Gene Ha's Top Ten comic—if you're good at your pop culture you can spot 'em all. Seeing them interact in one universe is like the biggest team-up comic of all, and it's happening right before your little button eyes, a universe where the Imperial forces are always on the move:


...where Catwoman's fightin' back and Blue Beetle's happy just to still be alive:


...where nobody's a little short...or busty...to be a Stormtrooper:


...where Ulala and Holly Golightly can swap alien dance-move tips:


...where the Imperial troops are still on the move:


...where Superman's never too busy to strike a pose:
...and neither is Aquaman! (If only Tegan could have been here to see!)


Okay, before I sign off for the night and head for bed to dream of Zombie Businessman Roommate, scroll back up and take a peek one more time at that first photo in this post, the one of the crowded con. Pretty busy, huh? Pretty darn crowded and hectic Comic-Con, ya think?

Well, folks, tomorrow is Saturday, the busiest day of the Con. In other words: You ain't seen nuthin' yet.

Other Comic-Con entries: Tuesday • Wednesday • Thursday • Saturday • Extra #1 (Wolverine) • Extra #2 (Eisner) • Sunday