Getting down to San Diego went smoothly, even though I was not 100% sure I even had a seat on the plane until I got to the gate (each stage of the ticketing process assured me that the NEXT stage of the process would be the one to give me a seat assignment, but it all went smoothly). San Diego itself is not horribly hot (yet) and has been overcast, and the hotel is only a mile north of the convention center (this is, in Comic-Con terms, incredibly close).
As I mentioned, we're
This will, I am now convinced, be a multi-day quest, the hall is so large, urban legend says, that when empty you can see the curve of the earth. And I have revealed myself as being ancient beyond words, remembering aloud how small the hall was there the last time I was there (it was the first year they started selling Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles stuffed animals), by pointing at Petco Field and saying "When did THAT get built here?". I did have lunch with some of the team at a nice place in Little Italy (San Diego has a lot of good restaurants in close proximity).
After getting badges (again, kudos to the team for sparing me a huge but well-organized and swift-moving line), I went exploring, and managed to take a few pictures without the supposed horde of fans. I also ran into the good and glorious Maggie Thompson for the first time in years, which pretty much made the entire trip down worth it. Then I met up with Stan!(who, by the way, created some cool D&D Christmas wrapping paper for Game Paper) and discovered the attraction of the fried fish taco at Tin Fish (surprisingly good seating, despite the fact it was right across from the teeming convention). We wandered the floor, got Galactus hats from Hasbro (pictures of me in one that may appear on the net are lies. LIES I tell you!), saw Odin's throne, traded my Galactus hat for a notebook, got some things for my brother and the Lovely Bride (don't tell her - its a secret), met my editor from Simon & Schuster, re-engaged with Godland, found some nice gems in the Web comic/small press sections, picked up a few new t-shirts, and probably covered all of a quarter of the hall (but most of it having comics in it, so I was happy). Ran into people I know and people Stan knew and introductions were made all around and finally, about 9, we retired from the field.
And it is before the official first day of the con and my feet already hurt.
More later,
