This year’s San Diego Comic-Con was pretty different for me. It’s the first time I’ve been there that I haven’t had either a booth or a book to promote. It’s also the first time I’ve gone for less than all four days. So this year was condensed but also more relaxed.

Eden and I drove to San Diego on Friday afternoon and arrived around 8:00 that night. Since all the hotels near the convention center were sold out we stayed in Mission Valley, which actually ended up being closer to the Con than we suspected. After dumping our stuff in the hotel and changing clothes we went out to dinner with Crystal Jordan, one of Eden’s fellow Smutketeers. I made a great impression by drinking too much, getting hammered and mentioning dildos every chance I could get.

Saturday was spent wandering Comic-Con’s massive exhibit hall. We started near Artist Alley, checking out a lot of great independent work. In particular we loved the work by artist Fang Ling Lee. Around the same area were the video game publisher booths. I watched some people play Rock Band 3, although no one touched the new keyboard controller, so it looked like they just were playing Rock Band 2.

Around the video games area we ran into our next-door neighbors, which was a pretty weird coincidence. Then near the G4 booth we ran into porn star Nicki Hunter, who Eden knows from her appearances on Playboy Radio’s Night Calls, and who I know from the marvelous Anal Acrobats series of art films.

Laura & Pope & Pig

Later we met with our friend Laura, who had a surprise: She hand-made some incredible Pope & Pig dolls for me! They’re really amazing and they’re definitely the best “fan art” I’ve ever received. Now I need to figure out where I can display them so that they’re out of the reach of our destructo-kitties.

After lunch we stopped by the Heavy Metal booth, which I make of point of seeing every year. I like their booth not only because I’m a fan of their books, but also because they sell most of it for half the cover price. I ended up buying the oversized “Florescent Black” hardcover and three “Borgia” books by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Milo Manara. The “Florescent Black” guys were really nice and they gave me some free shirts and prints.

In the evening we went by the Sigh Co. Graphics booth and picked up a bunch of fantastic shirts. We left the show around 6pm and later had dinner with Sigh Co. owners Brian & Gwen. We tried getting in to the annual X-Sanguin party, but tickets were sold out, so instead we got lost wandering around Horton Plaza.

www.fanglinglee.com

On Sunday the first thing Eden and I did at the show was pay another visit to Fang Ling Lee’s booth. We’d spent a while talking about her artwork the night before, so we figured we should give it another look. After sorting through her art we ended up buying a framed canvas piece called “Dragon” and also buying FIVE of her limited edition prints. So, yeah, we liked her stuff a lot.

After that we said our farewells to whatever friends we could find and took one last look around the anime, music, clothing and movie vendors. We left the Con around 2pm and then after lunch we were on the road. We finally arrived home in LA last night. Not bad for a 50-hour vacation!

Random Highlights:

  • Seeing Bill Plympton absentmindedly scratching his butt.
  • Getting a kiss from Nicki Hunter.
  • Standing in front of a bored-looking Billy Dee Williams.
  • Showing off my Cthulhu tattoo at the Lovecraft booth.
  • Vegetable Garage.
  • Helping a woman at a Japanese import booth decide what pocket pussy she should buy for her 17-year-old nephew.
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