Comic Con Memories (Part 1)

On Thursday, the four days of the San Diego Comic Con begin. I have to work on the weekend, so I'm not going this year. This makes me sad, because it will be only the third one I've missed in the last eighteen years. Did that sentence make sense? The first San Diego Comic Con I went to was in 1984, and I've only missed three since then. Right. Got it.

Even if you're used to science fiction cons, San Diego is something else. The dealers's room is fourteen football fields (because, as we all know, the only logical way to measure large areas is in "football field" units. These units are smaller in the US than in Europe, although they're sometimes called "futbol field" units). Last year's paid attendance was 48,500, which is just ridiculously high. I've lived in cities with smaller populations.

It's not just comic books, either. There's science fiction, and fantasy, and games, and generally everything a geek could want. I particularly enjoy the "voice actor" panels, where you get to hear Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche talking like Pinky and the Brain. And all the other big voice actors, too. It's neat!

The guests are also stellar. You basically get everyone in the Comic Book industry. For instance, it's news that this year, Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer aren't going. You also get surprises. Like, last year during the "trailers" panel, they showed a long Lord of the Rings trailer no one had seen and then brought out Ian McKellen to shock and amaze us. Keeping in mind that X-Men had just come out, I think you can imagine the reaction. Likewise on the WB Animation panel when they were talking about Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and they brought out Mark Hamill.

Now, like I say, I can't go to Comic Con this year. But because it's still "Comic Con Week" in my head, I'm going to share with you various memories and anecdotes from previous years. Only a couple of them will be sad and disturbing, I promise.

Oh, speaking of sad and disturbing, I saw Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within over the weekend. The movie itself was all right, but the theater showed Britney Spears's Pepsi commercial before the feature. Have you ever seen Britney Spears on the big screen? Waving her well-toned midsection at you? For three minutes or however long it took her to sing that whole song? Creepy.