Comic Con 2007 Returns to San Diego

Once more unto the breach, dear friends.
King Henry, Henry V - Act III, Scene I
Shakespeare

After attending last year's event, I was concerned about the growing success of Comic Con. They had sold out Saturday, and while I don't know what that means in terms of numbers, I do know the lines to get into panels were very long and there were so many people milling about the showroom floor it resembled a day at Mardi Gras, unfortunately minus the good food, public intoxication, and nudity.

This year, four-day passes and individual passes for Saturday sold out before the event started. Friday did as well. I prepared for the worst as fellow geeks from around the country and globe descended upon San Diego, California.

I, like a number of people north of the city, headed down on the Amtrak train Thursday morning. It was easy to pick out the attendees from the regular commuters by their clothing and reading materials. Conversations could be overheard discussing favorite childhood cartoon shows and the problems with Quentin Tarantino's latest film.

By 10:15am, the streets of Downtown San Diego were a mess as the city began its yearly transformation into the Island of Misfit Toys. The streets that approached the Convention Center were near gridlock, filled with trolleys, buses, cars, bicycle rickshaws, and pedestrians.

The attendees of Comic Con are a wide and varied lot, coming from all walks of life. Not solely the stereotypical nerds still living in their parents' home with poor social skills and hygiene, though there are plenty of those to go around.

They are artists, entrepreneurs, and most notably, lovers of imagination and creativity. Outsiders would consider their discussions inconsequential on the surface, but they have deep, philosophical meaning. It matters that Han shot first, that Steve Ditko get credit as co-creator of Spider-Man, that Deckard is a replicant.