San Diego Comic Con 2003 Report:
July 16 -
Took off around 11, which was about an hour later than I wanted to. Make a couple quick stops to fuel up the car; get a few more bottles of Gatorade and some cash to spend at the con. Quickly worked my way over to I-5 south and settled down for the long drive south. Make a refueling stop in Buttonwillow just over 4 hours later. Around 4:30, I made it into L.A.
Following the MapQuest directions, I got on the I-405 to loop around the main part of L.A. Well that proved to be a rather big and dumb mistake. Did pretty well up until I hit Sunset Boulevard where the highway pretty much became a parking lot. At one point, it took over ten minutes to cover maybe half a mile. I regret not taking I-5 straight through. Sure that would have been a parking lot as well, but it would have been a moving parking lot.
Around 6:45, and near Long Beach, I finally got clear of the major road congestion. Managed to get back up to a pretty good speed. Of course, I was still two hours away from San Diego.
Got to San Diego around 8:45 and went right for the hotel since I could not make preview night now, which had ended at 8:30. Made a wrong turn going towards the hotel and ended up on Hotel Circle North, instead of Hotel Circle South. Quickly fixed that problem and found the hotel about, oh, five minutes later. Quickly checked in and was happy to see a gas station, ATM and restaurant all within 100 yards.
Hauled everything up to my room and loaded up the rooms mini-refrigerator, which had nothing in it to begin with. Ah yes, would be nice to keep all the drinks nice and cold. Only draw back about my room was if you looked out the window, you got a lovely view of I-8. Can't win them all. Set the alarm for about 7 and crashed around midnight.
July 17 -
Woke up at around 6:30 to the sounds of rush hour on I-8. Got out of bed around 7:15 and took a long shower. Ate a breakfast consisting of a pop tart and a can of Dr. Pepper. Yummy. Left around eight and got there about 20 minutes later. Got a spot on the lower level of the parking garage under the convention center. Walked up the two flights of stairs and started hunting for the pre-registration badge pick up line.
Stood in line until about 9:30, when they started moving us inside. About ten minutes after that, I got my badge and goodies bag. Sat in the hallway until about ten before heading downstairs to the dealer’s room. For reasons unknown, most of us had to wait until 10:30 to get inside. Never did find out why.
Slowly walked around the place. Picked up another free comic and some stuff for a trading card game. Can't remember the name of the card game. Looked at a few of the places selling cels, but nothing caught my interest right away. Saw a couple Scooby Doo cels I debated about picking up later on during the con, after all, wasn't about to spend all my money right away.
After a few hours, ran into Dasha, who I saw there last year and it a fellow Gargoyles fan. We chatter for a while at the booth she was running. Joined her and a few others for dinner at a Mexican place about 4 or 5 blocks from the convention center. I got a cheese quesadilla. Wasn't too bad, but I wish I had told the guy to add steak to it when he asked. Oh well. After dinner, got my car and went back to the hotel. Crashed around midnight after setting the alarm.
July 18 -
Woke up around 7:02, about three minutes before the alarm was supposed to go off. Went through the morning routine once again and this time, discovered I had set the refrigerator to be a bit too cold. Ended up almost turning my sodas into a block of ice. Took off around 8:15. Got there about 20 minutes later and realized I should have left a little sooner. The garage was packed, so I had to loop around to the backside lot. Found a spot, parked, paid for parking and headed off to stand in line.
This time the sky was overcast and as I stood out in the open, began to wonder if it was going to rain. Got hit by a couple drops and that was about it. Waited in the line with the others folks who had badges and around 9:30, they started packing us in like cattle upstairs. Took the chance to sit and start working on some more of night 3 for Chaos. Around ten, they started to let us into the dealer’s room.
I wandered around for a bit. Picked up another free comic and some free figure thing for some game that's like Hero Clicks. Picked up a cel of Knives (which came with a matching sketch). Slowly moseyed over towards the other end and stopped by one of the cel places again. Picked up 4 cels from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splinter, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo. Got all four of those for $100 ($25 each), which is a pretty good deal.
Walked from one end to the other a couple times over before sitting down and chatting with Dasha for a while. Saw Cindy later on that day and she had brought along a few of the sketches for the commissions she's working on. She showed me angry Shaun Pup, Shaun Pup as a puppy and Chaos. All of them looked good and I told her she's got them dead on. We chatted for a bit before she had to go meet up with some of her friends that came down with her. We talked briefly about meeting up the next day and maybe getting her revenge picture for last year.
Took off around 6:30 to head back to the hotel, since I wanted to avoid some of the driving crunch that would start around 7 when most of the folks took off for their hotels. Sadly, I ran into David Wong. That discussion could have gone better. Ended up leaving at 7 with a huge headache thanks to him. Ended up having to spend about 30 minutes fighting the traffic to get to I-5.
Once I got near the hotel, I put more fuel in the car. I debated about going to the diner for dinner, but had too much of headache. I attempted to fall asleep early, but didn't pass out until around 11. So much for catching up on sleep.
July 19 -
Woke up around six. I had wanted to sleep until seven so I could get a full eight hours, but didn't happen. I tried to sleep some more, but failed. Went through the morning routine and left at eight. As I got close to the convention center, traffic was a nightmare. The main lot and the lot around the backside was full. Ended up finding a lot near 5th and J.
Walked over to the convention center and joined the insanely long line of people waiting to get in. Once again, I wondered if it was going to start raining since it was cloudy out. Got hit by a few drops while waiting once again. Around 9:25 they started to pack folks inside, but stopped doing so around 9:45. It was either full upstairs or as I heard later on, some communication problem. At ten, the doors opened and folks surged inside.
Wandered for a bit and snagged a couple more free comics. Chatted with Dasha some more and even started working on some writing. Met up with Cindy and a few of her friends in the late afternoon. They were dressed up as Indiana Jones characters. Got a group photo of them.
The lot of us wandered around for a bit before they took off to do some group photo ops. I took off at seven and walked over to Pat and Oscar's for some dinner. Got a personal pepperoni pizza, which came with a Caesar salad (too much dressing) and breadsticks (those were good). After that, walked over to the Ralph's that was across the street to get more Tylenol since the bottle I brought ran out that morning.
After that, headed for the car. After a bit of confusion, and getting lost, I found the lot my car was parked in. Of course, a bit more confusion followed at I tried to get over to 1st Avenue. I'll say this, this night was proving to be an adventure in and of itself. After a number of twists, turns and delays, I finally got to 1st Ave and from there, got to I-5.
A few minutes later, got to the hotel and threw my stuff in the room. Walked over to the nearby ATM and got more spending cash. Once again, set the alarm and tried to crash early. Didn't fall asleep until midnight.
July 20 -
Woke up sometime after six. Got out of bed around seven and went through the usual morning routine. Left several minutes before eight, hoping this time I could somewhat close parking. Got to the convention center around 8:10. This time, the lot was open, so I was able to get close in parking. Sat around on a set of stairs for about 30 minutes while doing some minor writing.
Got up and walked up 5th to Market. I then walked over to 1st to get a few things from Ralph's. Picked up some cookies and crème milk to drink and a bag of peanut M&M's chew on as well. Ran into somebody else from the con that was a volunteer. We talked about a few different things as we both walked to the convention center. Parted ways near A hall.
Found a nice shady spot by the stairs and sat down. Worked on some more writing since I had about 45 minutes to kill before the hall opened up. Once it opened up inside, I took it nice and slow. The lack of sleep started to catch up with me. Ended up picking up the first InuYasha DVD along with the first Wild Arms DVD. Browsed around for a bit and picked up a couple books.
Ran into Dasha and company once again and we chatted for a while. Helped them tear down their booth before getting dinner. Chatted for a while afterwards and went our own ways. I have no idea what time I fell asleep.
July 21 -
I finally managed to sleep in somewhat. Ended up working on writing while alternating between watching TV and listening to it. Tried to get in touch with Cindy around four with no luck. Called her again around six to if we were going to be able to get together. She wasn't feeling well, so we talked for a few and decided to get together another time. Pretty much worked on more writing and started to pack up things. Took some most of the stuff down to the car.
July 22 -
Checked out and took off around 8:15 for home. Hit some rush hour traffic getting over to I-5. And as usual, hit some of the usual congestion in the L.A. area. Once clear of there, managed something of a steady pace. Stopped in Buttonwillow for more gas and debated about getting some lunch, but decided against it. Got home around four, which brought my trip to an end.
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The images.
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