San Diego Comic-Con 2007

After no little anxiousness about the trip, a few hours of sleep after a record breaking packing, E put me in a cab (she said that she would drive me) for O'Hare Airport. Once there, I found that my 7am flight had been canceled and the only remaining flight THAT DAY was not boarding until 730 pm. Phuck. There's goes my Swag-grab on Preview Night. So I went back home and had a leisurely day of napping and waiting for my later flight.


Back at the airport...ticket and strawberry-banana smoothie in hand!


God...3 and a half hours of this...


Hey, the movie's starting! Hope they've got '30 ROCK' or 'The Office'!


ARRG-Gah!!! Sandra Bulloch!? BLARG!


Korean Guy with a laptop; nice garter action will clear my head after that movie. Meow!


After arrival and cabbing up to the Manchester Grand Hyatt, I met the "the Crew" in the North Tower bar (forever the rally point for all attendees after a day on the convention floor). Bill Willingham, Matt Sturges and Mark Buckingham had already secured a table, a crowd, and generous contribution to both legal occupancy and decible output. Liquor ran like blood in the gutter during a CIA-backed coup! But before things got too out of hand (there'll be plenty of opportunities for crunkeness later...and DRUNKENESS!)it's off to bed, only to rise far too early for my liking; Bill bells the room where Matt and I are staying (just down the hall from the suite he's sharing with his friend Brad Thomte, the Las Vegas Poker Tournament Director)at 8bloodyO'Clock for breakfast...time to shake a leg!

First thing to pass my lips; AIRBOURNE*! Fortifying ones' self against the teeming viral/bacterial output of the massed fandom is a must. A MUST, I say!
(*despite heavy dosing, I still came down with a cold)


Bucky converses far too well at this hour for a man that's just endured a 16 hour flight not ten hours ago. Bill marshals the breakfast orders.



Matt Sturges and Brad Thomte seem to be breathing...barely. Damnit, man! Where's the food!?



What the phuck!? Now he's got a sketchbook in his hands! The man is made of STEEL!
Can nothing stop him!?



Ah! Beautiful SoCal Sun! We're off to the convention floor bright and early. Matt Sturges lets the wind, scented with acacia blossom, play with his dark tresses. A serene moment I will hold in my heart forever...


...because just ahead of us, on this very path, awaits a seething cauldron of Comic Book Culture; fueled by OCD, clinical depression and delusional (yet cute and well-executed) fictional-identity imprinting, comic fans will be relentless in their efforts to shop, trade, seek-out and get sketches from anyone, ANYONE with Sharpie ink on their fingers (just ask Matt).



Hmmm, this reminds my that I have to bone up on my History of The Boxer Rebellion.


Casting one last look back in the direction of sanity, Brad, Bucky and Bill display the stiff upper lip and that rare pedigree of joie de vive that are the crunchy vertebrae of any Comic Creator.
FABLES Fans should note that Brad is indeed the living model for Bluebeard!


Approaching the Jaws of the Beast now! Shhh!


There! That guy there?...He's standing beside the Uvula of the Beast. I swear to God, it waggled and touched my elbow...Eewwwww! (the Uvula, not the guy)

And as our Heroes pass into the cavernous innards of the Convention Center, we must ask ourselves...Where do such Men and Women come from? What mettle they show as they saunter into certain calamity.


Tune in for the continuation of SDCC 2007! Seriously, I've got 200 photos to post...
h.e!