Saturday at Comic-Con

Saturday was a blur of activity, as it’s usually the busiest day of Comic-Con, with the largest crowds and most panels. This year, Saturday sold out months in advance, so there was no on-site ticket sales. This made for no long lines surrounding the convention center, and the crowd seemed to flow much more smoothly than in years past. (In fact, the crowd seemed to be not as large as the last couple of years’ Saturdays; I suspect the Con set a lower number of ticket sales than were allowed in the last two years; supposedly the Fire Marshall almost shut the con down last year, due to overcrowding.)

Spent the day pressing the flesh with people at our booth. It was nice seeing our regulars; guys like Jerry Boyd, Carl Taylor (who we hadn’t seen here in a few years), Clayton Moore (not the Lone Ranger), Dr. Mark Miller, Michael Zuccarro, Glen Gold, Pete Von Sholly, and so many others who we only get to see once a year in San Diego. Got to meet John Lowe (author of our new book Working Methods) in person for the first time; we know so many of our contributors only through phone and email correspondence, so this is my favorite part of Comicon. Also, Roy Thomas was on hand (as he was Friday and Sunday) to meet a sizeable line of people wanting his autograph, so it was fun to get to speak to him in person, instead of always by phone and computer.

All in all, just a crazy day. I was supposed to have dinner with Lisa Kirby, Mike Thibodeaux, Rick French, and Rand Hoppe, but after figuring the logistics, plus having two small kids that needed their sleep (and me not having had much the night before, because of the Eisner Awards ceremony), I had to opt out. The extra snoozing did me a lot of good, as I was much more awake on Sunday. More soon!