This saga has seemed to focus more on getting sleep than on comic books. Part of it may be that I'm often sleepy when I update this. Part of it may be that I'm not sure that everyone who reads this knows what I'm talking about when I talk comics, everyone can relate to sleeping. But I think the biggest factor is that we snuck into a hotel to catch some shut-eye, effectively making us SLEEP NINJAS!!!!
which is awesome.
So we caught a few hours of skittish rest under that banquet table, but left around five in the morning so as to not be caught and arrested/flogged/yelled at. This gave us another five hours on the streets of San Diego before the convention hall opened. At least it was light out, and still warm.
We trudged over to the convention center, where a few dozen comickids were already lined up waiting. One of them told me that he got there early so that he could be sure to be one of the first at a booth where they were painting the faces of the first 100 guests like murderous psycho clowns. Out of those lucky 100, anyone still wearing the makeup by the end of the convention would get invited to the premier of Rob Zombie's new horror film where people kill other people and then wear their skin!
He was very, very excited about this.
Peter and I decided to hang out elsewhere.
We found some concrete bench/step things on the terrace behind the convention center facing the ocean. The view was very beautiful. The benches were also very hard. We were still so tired that neither of these things mattered much.
Here is what mattered:
-
The further the sun rose in the sky, the colder it got. Somehow. and it's very difficult to sleep when you feel like you're freezing. Peter at least had a jacket and a hat. The only extra clothes I had brought for the weekend were a fresh tee-shirt and a fresh pair of boxers. Somehow I managed to make the extra tee-shirt cover my exposed arms, and was able to doze for a bit.
-
There were men with leaf blowers headed our direction. Constantly. I think we had to switch bench locations at least twice, maybe more than that.
-Somehow, I really associate that morning with the Teen Titans, but I have no idea why. Maybe it was a dream?
...
We probably got two more hours of semisleep out there, and had a breakfast of cold Pop Tarts which Peter had brought to bribe his friends (the ones who never showed up) into letting us spend the night with them.
I left to find a restroom, and found that they were letting people inside the convention center. I also found that we weren't supposed to be on the back terrace and was almost prevented from going back and relaying this information to Peter. Fortunately, no one at Comicon seems to be too mean. hooray!
Soon Peter and I were in an actual building again, although there was an awful draft and it was nearly as cold as it was outside. I wore the extra tee-shirt over my arms again, but couldn't sleep, so I read Peter's Bill and Ted comics.
FINALLY we got into the convention itself.
I don't actually remember a whole lot of what went on at the convention that day. The best thing that happened was I was able to leave my bags at a check station for only a dollar. I had been so weighted down by Friday's booty that there were actually indents in my shoulders where the straps to my backpack had been until sometime on Sunday I believe. I don't think my flesh is supposed to be quite that malleable??
The second best things were that I was able to talk to some of my favorite authors/artists and get sketches from them in my books!
Stan Sakai doodled in the Usagi book I bought on Friday, and I picked up a few smaller items for some of my favorite Oni/Whatever creators to sign.
The thing I'll remember the most, though, was meeting Don Rosa, who is one of the two really great Uncle Scrooge/Donald Duck comic book artists in the US. I grew up on Disney comics, and the sprawling, detailed Scrooge epics that Rosa did best are still vividly imprinted on my mind.
There wasn't a lot of fanfare -- he was just signing at a booth I couldn't even find listed in the program guide, but it was the highlight of the show for me, as I got to thank him for his stories, and for sending me some comics when I wrote to him back in fourth grade. I asked him if he could draw Uncle Scrooge as a young Yukon prospector in the front of my book, and he said, "oh, that one's my favorite!" He spent probably five minutes doing a very detailed full-page head shot, and I could tell that he really loved this work, even though he's hardly recognized for it in America.
But I could talk about this stuff forever.
The main point is, Comicon was worth being homeless for, at least for a night, and I would certainly go back next year if I got the chance. It's crowded and expensive and I didn't really know what was going on half the time and I was sore from walking and carrying crap most of the time, but underneath the flash and free tee-shirts, Comicon is built on a massive shared love for stories and art, and that's a pretty great experience.
So I caught the train home and sorted through my haul on the way. Faye and friends picked me up from the train station and I was overjoyed to get home to my own BED!
The end.
(finally!)
