Comic Con 2009 has come and gone and only the memories remain.

Daddy Geek Boy has gotten me into the mood of posting my Comic Con Recap post.  It’s been a few  weeks, but we had a blast.  The crowds were just INSANE this year, and getting yourself from one side of the hall to other is an art form.  We went on Sunday, which is traditionally “kid’s day” and quieter then the other days, but you couldn’t really tell by the massive amount of humanity.  This is my second year going, even through I’ve lived in the San Diego my entire life. A buddy introduced me to this insanity a couple years back and it’s something that I’ve really enjoyed going to.  To be honest, I didn’t know Comic Con existed before a couple of years ago.  I’m more the computer nerd, rather then the comic book/movie/video game nerd.

The previous time, my buddy and I drove the half hour down to San Diego bright and early, spent some time competing for parking spaces, and all the fun stuff that went with it.  THIS year, I took my family and we stayed at a friends condo downtown San Diego, right next door to Pet Co park, and within walking distance of the San Diego Convention Center.  Having a place downtown allowed us to explore downtown much more and wander over to the convention center at our leisure.  We could get really spoiled doing it this way, and look forward to trying for the full four days next year.

This first image is from the balcony of the condo overlooking the San Diego Sky line.  If you could pan over a little more, you could see the convention center and the ocean.  We had a great view.

 

We got to the convention center FIRST thing on Sunday morning.  I woke everybody up at the crack of dawn and got everybody moving and we wandered downtown to eat.  Upon arriving at Comic Con, you couldn’t really see this was going to be a busy day yet.  Later in the day, it was WALL TO WALL people.

We decided to wander around the floor for awhile before heading off to the panels we had decided to attend.  The first thing that hit us was the Hasbro booth and of course, Super Michael’s VERY favorite Bumblebee from Transformers!

 

The next favorite on Super Michael’s list is, of course, Star Wars.  We had to check out all of the latest cool toys coming out of the new year.  His wish list is now longer then he is.

We wandered around a little more, bought a few toys, visited the boys at the Penny Arcade booth and had them sign their latest book for my collection.  Super Mega Mommy got herself a drawing and autograph from the Archie guy.  By this point, we were due for our first panel “How to Draw Star Wars For Kids”.  It was a real blast, and the characters were easy to draw.  Super Michael embellished on the designs a little and had a lot of fun.

Right after the Star Wars panel, we were due to attend a couple of other panels, but Super Michael decided he’d rather check out everything on the floor. So, of course we had to go and visit Snoopy!

 

And we just HAD to visit the Lego booth, too!

We also ended up getting a few signatures while we were there.  Super Mega Mommy, besides her prized Archie drawing, got a signature from Nicelle Nicols, from the Original Star Trek (she was a super nice lady), and Brent Spiner from Star Trek the Next Generation (who was also a really nice guy).  Super Michael, being a big Star Wars fan,HAD to get Peter Mayhew’s autograph since Chewbacca is one of his favorite characters.  Stupid me, however, had a Chewbacca action figure IN THE BAG I was holding while taking this picture!  Oh well, he’s there every year.

 

And, finally, to finish up the day, we played a little with an R2 droid!

So, all in all, it was a great day.  We learned that the secret is to go first thing in the morning, then maybe give it a break in the afternoon and go and have lunch for awhile, or even try to get as many panels as possible in the afternoon.  The crowds are just INSANE in the afternoons.  You MUST physically shove yourself through the people.  I had Super Michael with me the entire day and he just followed in my wake.  Super Mega Mommy, however, tried to be more polite and always said excuse me and had to be nice.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work.  She eventually learned to just stay behind me and follow my lead as well.  I’ve grown up in this tourist town, so I know crowds. However, Comic Con is just in a league of it’s own.

There were several times where we accidently found ourselves in one line or another and ended up getting whatever freebie was being handed out for the line.  I trained Super Mega Mommy to just say “Yes, we’re in line” when asked (unlike Daddy Geek Boy).  Edit: I'm not implying that Daddy Geek Boy was a bad boy here, if anything, I'm saying he was very polite compared to me.  I'm the one that was being bad by telling out of towners, sometimes poor English speakers from Europe that I was in line for free pencil erasers.  People will stand in line for ANYTHING.  One of the lines we found ourselves in accidently was a line for a free bag (one of those huge ones that you could sleep in).  The line actually snaked across the hall, but we got in it somehow near the end.  Super Mega Mommy was constantly on the hunt for these things, because she thought they were super cool, but I wasn't about to stand in line for ANYTHING.  Hell, I even gave up free Star Trek Tribbles and pictures with half naked Orion girls because the line was longer then two minutes long.

So, there’s my Comic Con update.  I feel much better now that I’ve finally shared. :)