Tales from Comic-Con, Day 1 (Thursday): Kind of Familiar

Much like my 2006 trip to Comic-Con, I started out by getting lost trying to find the Mission Valley trolley station. I got to the convention center a little late, just before noon. Unlike my last visit I decided to skip most of the panels. I go for information and that can be obtained from the internet from reporters and bloggers after-the-fact. Instead I spent my time in the exhibition hall photographing booths, many of which are in the same place as last time. There were some differences though: Udon Comics shrank considerably and got a section backed by the wall. Capcom grew and had a multi-tiered setup. Marvel actually had a recognizable booth instead of horning in on one of their subsidiaries.

{The small press section is supposed to be one of the less-busy areas.}

Later I wound up in the game room playing Rock Band. There was a Smash Bros. tournament in the afternoon but it was a mess: people didn’t hear their name called, people kept sitting directly in front of the projector (didn’t they feel a circle of heat on their backs?). Then again running a convention program is no easy task, and the sponsor, sdtekken.com did a good handling the crowd. I sat next to a mom cheering her son and we conversed about how troublesome the crowd was while they sorted out what the next match was going to be. I also didn’t like the format of the tournament, though it is standard for Smash Bros. Why only have one on one matches on the flattest stage when the game features 4-player battles on over twenty unique stages? It got kind of boring after a while and I skipped a lot, coming back to see the end.

{A finely detailed Predator statue at the Sideshow Collectibles booth.}

Also, 100th post, woot.