San Diego Comic Con 2012 Review – Part 1

While a little late to count for news of any sort, I still wanted to spend a little time talking about my experience at Comic Con this year (let me clarify, my first San Diego Comic Con experience) over a post or two.

A few years back I started making a habit of going on vacations for my birthday.  It just seemed like the thing to do; rather than spend money on a gift why not spend it on an experience instead?  So after last year’s ridiculous birthday extravaganza I started thinking about what I wanted to do for the big 4-0.  I noticed that the 2012 Comic Con fell on the week of my birthday and I thought “What better way is there to shake my fist at Father Time and proclaim that I will never truly grow old?”  I couldn’t think of one, so I got to planning.

And let me tell you if you haven’t been, plan you must.  Regular attendees are probably reading this, nodding their heads knowingly, feeling a twinge of pain as they think back on the ever-changing process they have been enduring for years; but for me it was a whole new world filled with uncertainty and nerd-rage.  The process to obtain tickets sucked donkey anus to be frank.  I won’t get into the whole fiasco, mostly because revisiting it would probably result in an aneurysm, but at the end of the day I had two-day passes (Thurs & Fri) for me and my wife.

Fast forward five months, a scramble for finding a hotel and trying to not get airfare raped and we were ready to fly out to San Diego!  Not only were we looking forward to the convention, but getting away from the unusually horrendous east coast weather was going to be a treat.  We arrived on Wednesday, played a quick game of “spot the geek” as we waited for our luggage, and checked into our hotel with no issues.  Since not only had neither of us been to the convention before, we had also never visited San Diego (German translation = Whale’s Vagina #ronburgundyprotip) so we were excited to get out and explore a little before heading over to the off-site registration location and picking up our passes.

The first thing that struck us was how the city embraces the massive influx of geek.  They really get into it, not that they have a choice I guess, but it was nice to see restaurants flaunting comic and movie themes and art galleries putting on comic inspired shows.  We wandered through a few galleries and whatnot before getting to registration and picking up our badges and schedules, luckily it was still early enough that the lines were short and we cruised through quickly.  (due to a lost credit card and driver’s license we backtracked to registration a few hours later and were greeted by a veritable sea of people waiting.  It was ugly.)

After a stuffing our faces at one of the Gaslamp district restaurants we wandered down to ground zero to see get a glimpse of what Comic Con held in store for us.

View from the Convention Center… Preview Night, before it got crazy.

The crowds were light still, as only people who bought the primo four-day pass with preview night, were allowed in.  One or two people with costumes, but mostly gawkers much like us.  We wandered around to the bay side and I got my first glimpse of what I have been referring to as “Nerdvana”.  There, lined up on the grass, was every Batmobile from every one of the movies.  I really think this is where my wife started to question her mating choice as I took out my ginormous, mental, fan-boy button and pinned it right on my proverbial sleeve for the world to see! I was at the world-famous Comic Con, and the Batmobiles were here?!?!?

Holy Nostalgia Batman!

Needless to say out came the camera and I spent some time looking at each one, even the dreaded Schumacher-mobile *shudder*, paying special attention to the original 1966 version.  Not 3 feet from me was a huge part of my childhood and my first experience with the world of super-heroes and comics!  I was in nerd heaven, and that was to be just the beginning!  Check back in tomorrow loyal readers to hear about what it was like actually inside the Convention Center at Comic Con… same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!

P.S. – Here is a hint.  It was shiny!

Read: San Diego Comic Con 2012 Review – Part Deux