![\"\"](\"\/gallery\/albums\/2004-07cc\/IMG_3459.jpg\" "\\"Shot")
The San Diego Convention Center<\/a>‘s ground floor is some 525,000 square feet across all meeting halls<\/a>. And all the halls were in use, though hall “H” (they run from A-H) was actually partitioned off as a 6500-seat presentation hall\/theater.\n<\/a>And that’ s not counting the exhibition space upstairs, in use by various programs, including two 40,000 square foot ball rooms, the 90,000 square foot “Sails Pavilion” (used for registration and autograph lines), etc.<\/p>\n
We estimated that the main hall of exhibitors worked out to about a half mile in length — and, as you switched back along the aisles, about three miles in booth length. That translates out to about four or five hours of wander time — the first pass. Then you start going back to things you saw that you wanted to check out further.<\/p>\n
As Doyce — no stranger to conventions, but never at this one before — opined, a scosh slack-jawed, “It just keeps going<\/i> …”<\/p>\n
N.B. Next time I’m bringing my pedometer, just for kicks.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"\/gallery\/albums\/2004-07cc\/IMG_3438.jpg\" "\\"Doyce,")
<\/a>At the south end is space for the Artists Auction<\/a>, where various creative types either donate art or create it on-site. It’s auctioned off to pay for disabled services at the con, as well as to provide space gratis to artists who want to just sit at a table (and sell art, and chit-chat). That “Artists Alley<\/a>” is just adjacent there, and it’s neat actually seeing artists you recognize, both “hot” ones (Peter Kirk, Peter Gross, Whilce Portacio, etc.) and classics (Gene Colon), as well as others I’d never heard of (and might nor might not enjoy their work — Sturgeon’s Law<\/a> applies to the Con as much as anywhere else).<\/p>\nAlso at that end, as well as at the other end, is a melange of “miscellany” booths — t-shirts, interesting clothing\/costumes, collectables, action figures, videos (both legit and bootleg) independent this-n-that. <\/p>\n
In the center of the whole thing were some dozens of large pavilions by movie production companies (LucasFilm), video game vendors, and similar media conglomerates. That then segued into comic book producers — DC, Marvel, Dark Horse — trailing off to smaller independent producers — SLG, Oni, New England, Bongo. Those creators without their own booths who often hung out in those areas, or at least had regular time there.<\/p>\n Next along the food chain were comic book (and other book) sellers, both big multi-booth installations (Mile Hi, Bud Plant) and smaller vendors. Yes, you can sitll riffle through back issue bins at the Comic-Con, though it continues to slowly dwindle as a presence. The fact is, the Comic-Con has become a pop media\/genre media con, with a large but by no means exclusive (or possibly even majority) presence by comic books. <\/p>\n There are other, smaller clusters of similar vendors. Adult comics seemed less of a presence this year, but they were pretty much in one area. Jewelry shops were mostly clustered. Fan clubs had a row or two, etc.<\/p>\n Even so, there were not a lot of super-hero costumes, either. Even the LotR stuff was smaller in number. It may just be that, as a tradition, costuming at the Con is dwindling as a whole, for whatever reason.<\/p>\n I’m not convinced the movie is going to be any good, but it’s going to be eye candy to die for.<\/p>\n I did find a comment by Jude Law to be interesting. Part of what makes the movie unique is the huge amount of blue-screen work — aside from the actors, most of the set pieces will be virtual. Law pointed out that, in many ways, it was like working on stage, where, as an actor, you’re still having to mentally fill in the missing bits. A good observation. Given that the entire movie was heavily animatixed before any of the actors came on, and I don’t think the blue screen stuff will turn into much of a problem.<\/p>\n By far the crowd favorite was a young kid dressed and made-up perfectly as Beast Boy, who did a very fun, energetic dance to the Teen Titans theme. He was the 4th contestant out, and thereafter whenever things got slow (or a lame costume came out), there would come the crowd-wide chant of “BEAST BOY — BEAST BOY — BEAST BOY …” He ended up winning a number of prizes.<\/p>\n Another fan favorite was titled “Not the Droid You’re Looking For,” which started off as a reenactment of the Jawa robot sale to Owen Skywalker (complete with Luke’s whining), but ending with the replacement robot (for the one with the “bad motivator”) being Futurama<\/em>‘s Bender. They ended up with a couple of prizes, too, and chants for “BENDER — BENDER — BENDER …” were also frequent.<\/p>\n The other big prize winner was a gal who did a Harley Quinn song pining for Mr. J, dressed in mask, make-up, and a red teddy. Other noteworthies included a 12-foot-tall Optimus Prime, some Star Wars bits, and a group that did the Justice League (quite nice, though they surprisingly won no prizes). We didn’t get out of there until midnight, alas, and that was pretty much it for the night’s activities.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/gallery\/albums\/2004-07cc\/IMG_3489.jpg\" "\\"Doyce")
<\/a>Next up the line are the independent artists who have actual booths, e.g., Stan Saka<\/a>i, Michael Jantze<\/a>, Charles Vess<\/a>. More serious art booths start to show up in this area. Adjacent to this are bigger toy and collectable areas.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/gallery\/albums\/2004-07cc\/IMG_3441.jpg\")
<\/a>The first panel we attended was the Quick Draw competition — Sergio Aragones<\/a>, Jeff Smith<\/a>, and Scott Shaw<\/a>, MCed by Mark Evanier<\/a>, with the work by the three artists being projected onto large screens at the end of the hall. Hi-larious. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/gallery\/albums\/2004-07cc\/IMG_3442js.jpg\" "\\"Jeff")
<\/a>All three men do great quick sketching, with Aragones (the guy who continues to do all the little marginal cartoons in Mad<\/em>) being a master. Triffic stuff. <\/p>\n