Comic-Con... My first blog that has nothing to do with surfing.

It's summer and as expected, waves are hard to come by.  Instead of punishing myself by checking the forecast and living for the moments that will happen (supposedly) in two weeks when swell comes my way, I decided to skip summer surf all together and just enjoy the present.  I check the buoys every morning, and if there is surf, I surf.  If there isn't, I work out.  I gave up watching forecast models until September.  Besides, if a swell is coming, I'll get a text from one of my buddies.  So instead of surfing, I've invested some more time at work by providing some really great trainings and presentations, going to Padre games, keeping fit by doing a 50/50 regime of P90X and Cross fit, and last week, attending Comic-Con.

Adding protien to my diet at The Walking Dead booth.

Mind you, this is my first Comic Con.  Last year while the 2013 Comic Con was going down, I was moving our stuff down from The Bay.  Luckily enough, my wife had a couple of friends who helped us score the coveted "4 - Day Pass".   And dang, was it worth it.  Simply, Comic-Con is sensory overload. It's like Las Vegas, but minus the gambling, boo's and hookers.  It's a Las Vegas for all of us grown-ups that never grew up.

Comic-Con is a collectors paradise.  A couple buddies of mine from The Bay were down for the convention.  These fellas are hardcore collectors.  They want every "exclusive" toy they can get their hands on.  To buy any exclusive, you have to wait in line for a "ticket".  Which means you have to sleep all night in a line or get there at 3am to have a chance.  But if you scored (according to my buddies, one of the most coveted items this year was Hasbro's "Magic Planeswalker with Garruk's Axe", or something like that), that item could sell on Ebay and pay your way through Comic-Con.  I got sucked into the whole "Exclusive" thing and bought a couple Starwars pieces that are worth a pretty nickle now.  But I'm going to keep them.  A friend of mine scored a free Batman Lego piece that was given away by Lego.  The catch to get that Lego piece was that you had to wait in line for at least three hours.  That little, itsy, bitsy toy is now going for over $200 on Ebay.  Sounds like a hard way to make a living.  But It's not all about that.  It's all about the hunt.  And scoring.

Hall H, Christopher Nolan and Matthew McConaughey talking about next years film "Interstellar".

Besides the "Exhibition Room" where all the toys, costumes, booths and comics are, there are also these really cool "panels".  They are held in ballrooms, like any other convention.  The ballroom to be in was "Hall H".  This is where all the cool previews of the new movies coming out in the future were shown.  Besides movies, popular T.V. shows were previewed in this hall as well.  My wife and I were able to score a seat (the wait to get into Hall H can be 1 hour to overnight) in Hall H and saw a couple cool previews.

Kevin Smith.  His interview on the "W.T.F. Podcast" with Marc Maron is still, by far, one of the best podcasts I ever heard. 

What was really cool about Hall H was the sound system.  The sound system was epic.  It was loud, but not deafening loud, but it was loud enough to rumble your pants during explosions on the screen.  And if your lucky, they hand you a ticket while the presentation is happening, which scores you what the Comic-Con-ians call "Swag".  All that means is you'll get a cool promotional item like a poster, t-shirt, button or backpack that you pick up at the "Fulfillment Room" which is located a couple hotels north of the Convention Center.  My wife went to the ballroom for "True Blood" (she's a hardcore fan) and scored some really cool "Swag".  She wears her True Blood swag to bed now. 

But the coolest thing about Comic Con is the people attending it.  I never been part of an event with so many people who all share such a high level of stoke.  All I saw were wide eye'd smiling people.  And for a crowd so large (150,000+), there were no fights at all (that I seen).  And the costumes were awesome.  There was this costume of Optimus Prime that was soooo sick!  And the costume next to him was Megatron in the sickest Megatron costume ever! And to add to that, it was nighttime, and they both had neon lights, blazing there costumes as they walked through the crowd.  I read a few articles about ladies in costumes getting harassed, which sucks.  But all I witnessed were guys asking ladies in costumes, in a really polite manner, to take pictures with them.  Like I did below. 

One for my Pop's who is a huge Trekky.

The only disappointment I had was not getting into the Barbecue for "The Walking Dead".  To get into The Walking Dead BBQ, I had to first find the "Terminus" map, and then take a seflie with it and tweet that picture with the hashtag "#tweettoeat".  Then I had to wait in line before 9am to get a wrist band.  Well, to get a wrist band, you had to get to the line at around 7am and wait two hours.  Sway and I got there at 8:30am.  No chance.  But we almost made it, we were about 15 people off.  Maybe next year.

Darkside Swag

All in all, Comic-Con was all that it lived up to be and more.  Super fun!!!  My wife and I are already planning on taking off work for a few days for next years event.  We're so stoked that it happens in San Diego.  All we have to do is jump on the lightrail, and bam!  We're at the doorsteps of the convention center in downtown.  Hopefully we'll score another 4-Day Pass and join the stoked out crowd of movie buffs, collectors, costume lovers, celeb's,  and zombies.