If you have never been to Comic Con it's a little difficult to describe the chaos and energy of the place. The attendance is anywhere from 125,000 to 180,000 over the course of the weekend. The picture above doesn't really tell you how crowded it can get or just how big the dealers hall is. The dealers room is probably 4 footbal fields long, 1200 feet, and one football field wide, 300 feet. And in that space it's not just comics -- it is now media and television and video games. It's staggering just how much content is trying to get your attention. It's like a bunch of colorful 3 year olds. But more than a bunch, say 300,000 3 year olds. I think I took this picture on Saturday afternoon when there was a very popular panel upstairs. That clears out the hall sometimes...
As you walk thru the crowd, which is sometimes a very slow proposition, you see a cross section of humanity. From the Uber-geek of any type of media, comic, anime, movie fanatic who is obsessed with a thing (movie, comic, tv show) to the casual day visitor. Or the parents who bring the kids who are obsessed with whatever. There are people in costumes. Some I easily recognize, others I have no idea what the fuck they are. There are hot girls in small superhero, anime, movie costumes. There are heavy girls who shouldn't be wearing spandex (it's a privilege not a right). It reminds me a bit of Halloween. It's a chance for women to dress in skimpy clothes and not be judged. They can be leered at and safe at the same time. Name a movie, video game, television show, cartoon, anime, and someone was probably in a costume from that property. When I do costumes, I do recreations of comicbook characters: Spiderman, Carnage, Sabretooth. Though, I just wore a new one from Torchwood, a BBC series, on Saturday.
There is a preview night Wednesday. It's for the 4 day badge holders to run in and get exclusive toys and whatnot from the dealers. Things that are sold at Comic-Con can sometimes be found on Ebay that very day for much more than it was intially purchased for. I've never gone to the preview night. It has become so popular that 3 hour period is almost as busy as the next day will be.
Yeah, I know, I'm not giving you anything specific about day one. I didn't go to any panels for movies or television shows while I was at the con. I'm not willing to spend 2-3 hours in line to maybe get into a ballroom to see the cast of Glee, or Thor, or the Expendibles. I don't really go to be a fan. If there is a movie coming out in the next year that might have something to do with a fan of this type, it will be at Comic Con. And Glee ended up there, I suspect, because the kids who are in the Glee club would attend Comic Con. So they are making a show about the people who attend the convention. They see themselves as geeks, or rather Gleeks.
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