Comic Con Craze

...this past weekend I experienced the hyped nerd-fest known as Comic Con for the first time ever  in San Diego. I never thought too much of going (even though Halloween is my favorite 'holiday' and I love dressing up when the opportunity arises) but when my closet-comic loving boyfriend expressed the idea of 'checking it out'...I was intrigued. A friend of mine also happens to be a colorist for Image comics so it was cool to get the hook up on the convention and finally understand what this 4 day event was like. For us, just one day roaming the booths and panels was plenty - but for some people it's a camp out all night to be the first in line type of deal. (insanity).  I mean -some people plan all year which character they're going to dress up as, and it's a total moment of glory when a random stranger asks if they can take a picture alongside. It's possibly the best people-watching ever...the seriousness in these adults as they walk around in batman, mortal kombat or avengers costumes. You really see it all. I mean, Willow and Labyrinth were 2 of my favorite movies growing up - fantasy has always been in my blood you could say - but I don't think I could bring myself to this level of dorkum. The high point (at least for the bf) was meting the Howard Stern staff and getting personalized autographs - I told Jon Hein I was a somewhat new listener and he said pretty soon I'd know them all too well. Of course 'jump the shark' was written on my signed photograph. My favorite part might have been that first sip of Jameson and ginger I ordered at the dive bar we hung out at after 3 hours of walking the comic isles. The gas lamp district was package and the over-stimulation was in full force...you almost don't even need to go inside the convention center since there is so much entertainment on the blocked off streets alone. What else...ok, I did love the Darth mobile, and the Gollum statue was pretty creepy/cool too.

We stayed the night with a friend after Comic Con in Ocean Beach  and woke up the next morning to thunder and lighting - something that we never get to hear in so-Cal. It was cool having brunch on the water and watching the downpour...kind of eerie watching the surfers and the feeding frenzy that happened post thunderstorm. Guess all the rain really stirred up the fish so the birds were going nuts nose diving into the water while meanwhile dolphins swimming around the pier it was hard to count them all. Also - fun fact-  ocean beach pier is the longest pier on the west coast - we of course had to walk to the end and take pictures. The sun even came out too....