San Diego Comic-Con, Day Minus 1: If you need me, me and Neil'll be hangin' out at In-N-Out

Greetings from Sandy Eggo, everyone! That's not (as I was surprised to find out) the sad result of dropping your waffle at the beach, but actually the cool, hip, with-it, fab and gear way the kids today are saying San Diego, the city by the bay, the city that rocks, the city that never stops! Unless I've gotten mixed up again.

One thing I'm definitely not mixed up on it that I'm here for the annual running of the nerds, San Diego Comic-Con, starting more or less officially tomorrow (depending on how you count the seventy-three days it runs). I got up this morning at 3:30 AM, half an hour before I went to bed, tossed several changes of clothes into my little valise, gathered up my Garth Ennis comics to be autographed, petted my kittycat and then dashed out the door to the airport. I flew in this morning via JetBlue's luxurious overhead compartment class, and here I am, in the land of palm trees and balmy breeze.

I don't have to be at the convention center until tomorrow to set up the fabulous Norton booth, home of fine graphic novels and pop culture books. When you get here, visit me at booth #1714, just adjacent to our good pals at Fantagraphics! In the meantime, me 'n' John 'n' Randi and Miss Jenn drove around San Diego with the top down, cranking up the Beach Boys and not letting the music stop. After a long transcontinental flight, you gotta refuel yourself, so what better than a burger run to the finest fast food burgers of them all, In-N-Out!:



Don't worry, folks, it ain't cannibalism...I am not filled with beef, I am filled with beans and fluff! (Also, love.) Well, actually, after a double-double secret animal style, I guess I am kinda filled with delicious beefy goodness:



But the thing I love best about In-N-Out? It's the way they make me feel like I'm Number One:



You may say at this point, "But Bully! Unless that burger was made from Soylent Green (i.e., peoples), that's not a very comic booky/science fictiony/fantasysysy thing to do at all for Comic-Con!" And I'd fix you with my very firm stare and tell you that this evening we went to the wonderful Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, a shop where all the books are SF and fantasy and mystery, and some, which feature people getting mysteriously murdered in outer space by elves, are all three.



Take a look at how busy the shop was tonight:



No, they're not just all milling about waiting for the next Harry Turtledove book in which Napoleon wins World War II through a cunning use of laser weapons...we're actually here to see Mister Sandman himself, the ever-ebullient Neil Gaiman, read us a delightful chapter from his upcoming The Graveyard Book and sign forty bajillion copies of his brand-new The Dangerous Alphabet.

i did not get too close to Mister Gaiman...



...but I had a really good vantage point from which to watch and listen to him:



And anyway, I think it is prudent not to get too close to a man who is so well-connected with her.

'Specially when there is yummy Chinese food to be had. Hooray for kung pao scallops! They are among the many, many good things about life. Take that, Death lady!



Then it's back to the wonderful hotel and snuggle in for a restful night before the Con begins tomorrow. Let's see what's on TV, shall we? That's a good way to relax before crawling into bed, right?:



Batman, no!

(More tomorrow from the Con!)