San Diego Comic Con 2012
So, as I posted in other threads, last month I made another one of my crazy trips, this time to San Diego, to attend SDCC for the first time in my life. And...I'm still shocked about the event. I delayed the posting of the chronicle and pics due to some personal issues but today I'm on the road and wanted to share this with you all.
To be honest, this project began almost by accident. Some time ago I told a friend of mine who is a big comics fan that it would be cool to attend one day to the Comic-Con. It's only 5 days and we could enjoy everything we always see on the internet. And my friend...took the idea literaly. And during another local event another friend jumped in, so it was a matter of digging a little bit on the idea and...well...I don't know how it happened, but on january I had the tickets, and on July 10th after three connections and 23 hours of flight, I arrived at the airport in San Diego, California.
I must confess that the first few hours in San Diego were not the best. The first problem was that I could not check-in at the hotel until 5 hours after arriving. San Diego has a great transportation system ... once you understand it (if not you can spend 3 hours walking to reach the airport again...) And as far as possible, unless they are reflex cameras, try to avoid buying a Sony digital because they tend to NOT work and they don't take a single picture. So, after these little problems in the first 5 hours in San Diego, I started enjoying the city, which is very beautiful and picturesque.
On Wednesday July 11 Comic-Con opens its doors to fewer people, in what is called Preview Night. It's a day where doors open at 6pm and close three hours later. Not many events and panels take place on that day, but is ideal for touring the nearly 7000 stands present. And, despite the large number of people going to the event (Saturday had near 100,000 in the place), everything is so organized that it is impossible not to enter a few minutes after the opening of doors. That same day, for example, Charles Adlard, illustrator of the comic The Walking Dead was signing copies. So, after getting our badges (credentials), and receive as a gift one of those giant bags where you place everything you buy, we made the queue waiting for the opening. And when the Con started, we found pretty quickly the booth where Charles was signing and...voilá...got the first item in less than 10 minutes. The madness began...
After obtaining the signature of Charles Adlard on a few copies of The Walking Dead #100 I started visiting several stands. And few minutes later we find one dedicated to the tv show Haven, where some items were given away and they also had for sale the first season on dvd and a Comic-Con T-shirt. Of course I bought one inmediately and there we got the first surprise: The first 30 shirts sold included a ticket to an exclusive event with the cast, to be held in a pub a few blocks from the complex. My shirt was the entry number 5, so we purchased two more (one for each of my friends) and we booked the event.
After that, it was time to go, trying to grab everything that was given as a gift in most of the stands. One advice for future visitors: do not grab everything just because it's free. At the end of the trip you will leave behind a lot of pamphlets, papers, postcards and even items that are not going to be interested. But hey, this is something you learn on the fourth day. The first days is inevitable you'll pick up and grab EVERYTHING they'll put in front of you.
After three hours touring that were very short, loudspeakers announced the closing of the event for that day. I was so tired I couldn't even stay awake...so at 9 pm I felt asleep.
On Thursday (and now with a new camera), I entered the event with a paper with all the info of the events I wanted to visit on that day. And the first one was Joe Hill signing at the booth of Harper Collins. I got in line 10:50 (the signing started at 11am) and waited for the signing to start. I had in my hand the spanish copy of Locke and Key II and a paperback copy of 20th Century Ghosts (I already have his other books signed thanks to loving people from dt.org). When I got near Joe I asked someone to take me a pic when I was with Joe. When it was my turn, I shook hands with Joe, greeted him and told him I came from Argentina. He asked how things were going on Buenos Aires. He signed both things and I told him that I was hoping he someday visited us there. He told me "I'd love to. As a matter of fact, we're talking with my agent to do a South American tour". I took another pic with him and left. It was AWESOME!
Next to Joe:
And both books signed:
After this great moment, well..I just started to walk, enjoy and took a lot of pics. Here are some:
(He choosed... poorly)
The pic that allowed me to win Liljas' contest:
At 5 pm I met with Dave McKean (I talked with him before the event and he told me to stop by at Art Spiegelman's booth) and took a pic with him:
And got three items signed. My Viking 1st ed. of Wizard and Glass (already signed by King)
A copy of Coraline signed by Neil Gaiman and now by Dave McKean as well:
And a small sketch on Arkham Asylum's Comic:
Half an hour later the event closed for the day and we headed for Haven's event at the pub
I'll post that chronicle and what happened on Friday, Saturday and Sunday later
And when I got in front of Scott and Rafael, Rafael recognized me from the Buenos Aires event and we talked for a moment there, when Rafael introduced me to Scott and told him we met in Buenos Aires. What a cool guy he is! Rafael draw one Skinner Sweet in a cardboard for me and Scott signed all the comics I got:
