jwaneeta

Another San Diego Comic Con has come and gone.



A whale of a pic post follows. San Diego? Sea World? Get it? *snicker*





This, from a safe distance, is San Diego Comic Con 09. A sea of humanity ( if you don't count subhuman marketers and shitty publishers who don't honor commitments). Throngs, freebies, swag, junk, laughs and tears. Bags of blood -- if you donate blood; free Spike School Hard action figures -- if you donate blood; lots of good food, which you will need if you donate blood. Did I mention I donated blood? :D

Okay: There's this comic con, and it's a mob scene. So I did some business stuff and got a bite for my epoch defining book about slaughtering deadlines. But then I got pooed on by another publisher and got a sad. So then we all went to the beach!



Splashing in the surf at Ocean Beach are (tiny) Astrid and (tiny) Alenka. It was a hazy day, with an incredible riptide. It was actually breaking small waves at a 90 degree angle to the surf. Never saw that before.

I watched our stuff as Astrid and Alenka swam. An enormous iguana slogged past, going his hardest.



As I took photos, I made the acquaintance of his owner, a very fine fellow with thinning hair and an excellent body.



The iguana likes the beach. The iguana wanders about (never far from Mr Bod) and as the day draws to a close, Mr Bod takes him to the shallows for a short dip. I don't know how big iguanas get in the wild, but I'm telling you this was a HUGE ASS iguana. And a very happy one, insofar as one can judge iguana felicity.



Kes, I apologize: I brought my camera to the beach for the express purpose of taking a pic of my new cossie. I asked Alenka to take a pic. And then we went into the water and a wave knocked me a bit silly and I forgot. But I did take some pics of a pair of attractive young people (my theory is that they work for the Cirque de Soleil show at the SD Zoo) doing a bit of a day-off workout.





Even jaded surfers, who see more hard bodies in a week than us mortals see in a year, were hanging on the rails of their bungalows and cheering them on.

On the way back, Astrid and I posed in front of Hodad's, a dump of a surfer burger place that makes the BEST BURGER IN CALIFORNIA. I give you my oath. And now that I have a pic, I can perhaps remember the name.



As evening drew on we stopped at the Maritime museum and visited the Star of India and the Rose. Alenka reminded me of my pic duties so I posed for you, kes! Youuuuu.



Then there was a beautiful sunset:





Then we met thedeadlyhook and toysdream. Toys had a brilliant con, presaging his brilliant future. But all that good stuff had thrashed him, so we ate as we were, at the delightful Anthony's Fish Grotto. Alenka treated Astrid and I, bless.



Curiously, one of the Biggest Comics Stars EVER was at the next table with his retinue, facing the sidewalk, holding court rather. Since he has a rep for reclusiveness I found this a bit odd. But he was posing for photos and accepting the homage of people queuing for food with a good grace. Go figure.

The next day Trina got me into the Wired Magazine cafe, which was a days-long bash on the pool deck of the Omni Hotel. SD Con looks very fine from the pool deck of the Omni Hotel:





I was shy of the beautiful hipster people at the party itself and took no photos lest I seem like a rube, so I mostly stuck to the pool and caught up with Trina (who is a lioness of courage and doing great with her recovery). But then she told me there were free massages at the party, and I'm sure she was still talking before she realized I'd vanished in a puff of smoke. The masseuse was booked, but somebody blew off her timeslot, and I got in. Ohhhhh gawwwwd, nice. I felt so good after that, I gave blood. Did I mention that everybody ought to give blood? GIVE BLOOD! (I'll try to make a swag post after this showing my con freebies, of which the blood giving-swag was not least. But you don't want swag! You want to save a life! GIVE BLOOD OKAY PLEASE)

Very few pics of cosplayers this time. Astrid, Alenka and I tried to get pics at the press area for the masquerade, but I came over feeble and punked out early. I did get a pic of a very dedicated protester, who was hanging about the convention center long after closing, expressing a sentiment shared by all sane CCgoers in 09:



Don't get me started about the Twihards and their impact on this con. Yikes.

I should mention that the Whovians were not far behind the Twihards in mad camping-on-the-concrete action:



11 pm. I don't even know, man.

Okay! So, the last day I tore out in the early gloaming and went hiking around Cabrillo national monument. The marine layer was still screwing with the vista, but in this pic, you can see a shiny thing on shore. That's the convention center. Far away.



It was very silent and peaceful on the Point. I could only hear wind and the barking of seals. There was a lighthouse and I took a photo of the thingie. You know, the thingie that makes light come out of a lighthouse.



Pretty, eh?

On my last pass through the exhibition hall I spoke to Los Bros Hernadez (creators of the seminal Love and Rockets) but by then I was so sick of carrying shit I'd left my camera in the room and therefore got no photos. Indeed here endeth the pics.

Thanks for the the Wired invite, Trina! Thanks for being such delightful companions, Astrid and Alenka! Sorry we didn't get together, Panda! Great to see you again, Pukajen!

See you next year, everybody.