Comic Con - 1st Day, Thursday

One has to sacrifice for art. We got up at 5:45 this morning to get ready to get in line for the first day of Comic Con. It may not be our art, but it's gotta be somebody's.

Last night was interesting. Comic Con has completely sold out, meaning that all 125,000 people -- mostly geeks -- are expected over the next 4 days. At least, oh, 90,000 are four-day pass people, which means that we saw them all last night at Preview night.

Registration last night was a breeze. It opened at 3 pm, we showed up around 4 pm, and then got our badges, a process that took less than 30 minutes. We then retreated to Lou and Mickey's, the restaurant across the street, for a leisurely view of our program.

I then asked Ricky, what's the game plan? When are we standing in line tomorrow. We're going to Hall H for all day tomorrow, as that's where the major movie and T.V. programming is. But he couldn't tell me when. He said, ominously, "I'll know when I see the crowds" at Preview Night. Ooooh.

Keanu Reeves will be there, promoting The Day the Earth Stood Still. Klaatu Borada Nicto. Jennifer Connelly is also there, playing the Patricia Neal part. Max Pain movie will be promoted - some video game - Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis will be there. The movie Push will also be promoted - Chris Evans. And Disney's Race to Witch Mountain, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will be there.

Well, we could barely walk along the floor of the convention hall. We went from booth to booth, hitting all the major studios like Warners, Disney, New Line, Sony, Paramount, Fox, NBC, Family, Sci Fi Channel, LucasFilm, ABC, Marvel -- most of which gave out freebies. If you don't know, I take the more lucrative and promising freebies and put them on eBay.

We found giveaway sacks that were larger than our Comic Con ones, and immediately went about stuffing them with toys, pamphlets, books, posters, trading cards, anything that hawkers gave us. And then we all brought it back to the room and sorted it out.

I now have 12 auctions on eBay, two of which have bidders.

Today we hope the major studios will give away neat SWAG....which I will bring back to the room and put on eBay tonight.

I doubt we'll get to the dominoes set I brought along.


This morning we went over to the little liquor store across the alley from the Hilton. We had scoped it out last night to inquire about hours and sandwiches available. We ordered our sandwiches this morning, and I gave her 14 ones. "Thank you," she gushed. "You're the best."

Now we get in line for Hall H. The main convention center opens at 9:30, but that's not for us: we're waiting for programming that starts at 11:30. Whew.