Well kids, it's all over.  All the freebies and flyers and comic/movie related thingies that I picked up have finally been gone through, with most of it, of course, sent to the recycle bin.  I've survived yet another Comic-Con and I wanted to share a few thoughts with you.  As usual, it was packed to the gills.  The weather was great and the show was fab for the most part.  This was the first year that I tackled every day of Con.  Usually I attend preview night, skip Thursday, and then attend Friday through Sunday.  But this year I decided to give my feet a real workout and added the extra day. 

Where to start? Well, first of all, it's impossible to see everything and do everything that is offered.  There are so many events that happen after hours or even off site that it's impossible to know, much less, see it all.  For example, there was an actual working arcade named Flynn's in honor of Tron II. It was offsite about three blocks from the Con.  They had free shirts as well as sketches of the new light cycles from the upcoming movie as well as a full sized model.  However, I didn't know about any of this until two days AFTER the Con.  I don't know if they announced this at the Disney panel and then word got out or what but man was I bummed that I missed it.  Of course there are countless after hours parties but I never bother with those because they are packed and just not worth it.  For instance, I got approached on the street by someone from IGN.com.  He gave me a shirt and a card and said "Wear this shirt and take this card over to such-and-such hotel tonight and you might win a chance to get into Megan Fox's party tonight at 8pm."  So let me get this straight.  I stand there for about 90 minutes wearing a shirt that don't fit (he only had large sized shirts and I require an XL) and MAYBE I'll get into the party.  Also, I'm sure Megan isn't going to be milling around the floor.  Most likely, she'll be behind two feet of armored glass or sitting up in some VIP balcony and occasionally wave down to us sub-humans.  Nah, I got better things to do with my time.  I did manage to get into an exclusive meet and greet with the cast of Boondock Saints II.  Now that was friggin cool!  There was maybe thirty of us.  We got pictures taken and posters signed and I got to have multiple cocktails with Rocco himself. (if you
aren't familiar with the first movie, shame on you.) 

Other thoughts: Damm this crappy economy!  There weren't nearly as many cool freebies as in years past.  I got two shirts (one of which didn't fit) and 2 CD's.  This was the first year that I didn't get a free hat.  Not nearly as many freebie comics and stickers.  And hardly any of those quirky one-off items like, for instance, a free baseball to promote the new MLB2009 game.  Those quirky things are usually quite charming.  I love freebies, even though I usually toss or give away most of them, I love 'em.  Not much love for me this year. 

The biggest drawback though is the crowd.  This was the fourth year that attendance topped at least 120,000, and it definitely felt like it.  Honestly, I think they should cap attendance at 100,000 even.  I said to someone, "if you took out even 10,000 people from the main floor, you'd definitely notice the difference." It's just not as fun when you're all jostled around.  Of course, part of it comes from lack of communication from the vendors themselves.  Let me explain. On Friday, Robert Englund....Mr. Freddy Krueger himself, was going to be doing a signing at 3pm at the Sony booth to promote a new series this fall.  When I got to the booth at 10am, I was told there would be no prior lineup and no tickets given, it was first come first served.  Needless to say I called B.S. because that's what they had said the day prior when there was a singing with the voice talents for the upcoming animated film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  (Yeah, I know, but Anna Faris was going to be there and me gots the hots for Miss Anna.)  When I got to the booth for that signing I was asked for my wristband.  When I said, "what wristband?", I was told that they decided to hand out wristbands for the autograph session.  This was about maybe two hours after I was told there would be no such thing.  So sure enough, about two hours after being told that it was just first come first served for Robert Englund, I checked back at the booth and they WERE handing out tickets.  I got one and was told to come back at 2:45pm.  I came back at 2:20 and the line immediately formed. Good thing I didn't wait till 2:45pm.  On the bright side, Robert was a complete gentleman.  He posed for pics and signed my Nightmare DVD box set.  Truly, a class act.  But the fact that booth management told me what they were doing, only to reverse themselves just shortly after was pure bollocks.  I said management because when I first asked and employee at the booth, she went to get the booth manager to confer with her on how they were going to handle crowds for the various signings.  "Nothing special, it's all first come first served." Bull.

Now, let's jump over to the FOX booth shall we?  On Friday at 10am, they handed out tickets for the Dollhouse signing that was taking place on Saturday at 6:15pm.  The signing featured the cast (Eliza Dushku!!! and some other people) as well as Joss Whedon himself.  They said, "if you have a ticket, you are guaranteed an autograph."  We got to the booth on Saturday about 5pm and it was pure chaos.  The line was circling the booth in BOTH directions and no one seemed to know where the line started or stopped or why it was going in two different directions.  I ran to the Hasbro and Mattel booths to purchase something, got back to the Fox booth about 40 minutes later just as the signing started and the line was now closed.  I showed the girl at the end of the line that I had a ticket to guarantee me an autograph and she simply said, "sorry, they closed the line".  My theory is that they handed out waaaaaaaayyyy too many tickets.  I'm guessing they handed out at least 150 tickets.  Did they really think they could get through at least 150 people in the 45 minute time slot that they had allotted for the autograph session?  Folks, every year there's at least a few booth that are ass-backwards in their policies.  This year it was a tie between Sony and Fox.  Congratulations guys!
 
I gotta rant about something else here.  I know that comics are geared to all ages and Sunday is particularly designated as Kids Day with much of the programming aimed at the wee ones.  What I don't understand is why you'd bring an infant to SDCC.  I'm not talking about little kids, I'm talking about babies.  Why would you put them and yourself through that?  The best part is that you're going to get jostled around just like everyone else so there's no need to shoot that dirty look at me cause I bumped into your offspring.  Don't use him as a shield and I won't accidentally trip over the stupid stroller you decided would be perfect to roll around the floor with 100,000 plus people.  I gotta throw some love to the Tilted Kilt.  I found this way cool pub off of 10th Avenue (okay, I found it because this is where they were holding the Boondock Saints meet and greet) right next door to Petco Park where the San Diego Padres play.  The food was awesome and the wait staff was hot!  They give Hooters a run for their money.  I'd suggest looking them up online after you finish reading my lil article.  Kudos to our waitress, Michelle.  You rock, honey.

I hope those of you who went and saw my last article about survivng the Con found some useful tips there and hope you truly enjoyed yourselves. I'll be going back next year and I've already pre-purchased my 4-day pass.  But $100 pre-pay?!?! ouch!!!  Last year it was only $65!  I know costs are going up but at these prices, less people will be able to afford go to.  And of course the surrounding hotels are no bargain either.  Brief example:  I looked at staying at the Days Inn.  I've liken Days Inn to a Best Western.  Rooms were normally $89 per night but during the week of Con, $210 per night!  I wanted to scream "YOU GUYS KNOW YOU'RE JUST A DAYS INN, RIGHT?"  Eventually SDCC will price themselves out of customers.  Technically that would be great because it would mean less crowds but I'll start to reconsider going for the full show and maybe just one or two days.  But I'm not there yet.  They haven't even announed pricing for next year yet on their site.  The $100 pre-pay was a show exclusive. Speaking of exclusives, that will lead me to one more topic.

Exclusive merchandise.  It's one of the main draws for SDCC.  Kudos to Hasbro for doing it right.  You get a ticket telling you what date/time to come back to pick up whatever exclusives you want.  Obviously, the sooner you get your ticket the better.  Some booths, it's just a free-for-all.  I'm quite used to many vendors selling out of exclusive merchandise by end of day Thursday, if not first thing Friday.  Some booths, like Hallmark with their exclusive Star Trek and Star Wars ornaments this year, allotted only so many to be sold per day.  A few kinks are understandable because this was the first year that Hallmark did this but I got my Star Wars ornament to put on my SW Xmas tree so I be happy.  

Preview night (Wednesday night is called Preview night and it's only available to those who purchased the 4-day pass) is the primary time to pick up exclusives because there are no panels going on.  It's mainly a chance to get the layout of the place.  There were a few late night screenings being held but for the most part, all the major booths (Hasbro, Mattel, Entertainment Earth, etc.) that had exclusives for sale were just inundated with a line from the moment the doors opened at 6pm.  Luckily for myself, I purchase few exclusives so I don't have to deal with too much of this nuttiness.  I get plenty of that throughout the rest of the show. I'm a bit disappointed in the Freebie table, too.  It's really gone downhill the last few years.  It's pretty much a place to get flyers and postcards and advertisements but you used to get shirts (got one last year), DVD screeners, tons of posters and magazines etc.  Some of those items were available just by being there at the right time.  I got one of those little stress/squeeze balls a few years back simply by walking by the table right when a girl opened a box and said out loud, "ok, I've got 20 only, so who wants one?"  Again, damm lousy economy!  Me lovie the freebies but only when they're worthy. 

Okay that wraps up my SDCC recap.  My feet are no longer tired, I've caught up on sleep and I can't wait to do it all again next year. San Diego Comic Con...can you dig it?  I know I can and I do!