Friday, July 27, 2007
Comic-Con '08 - Day 1
After my first few hours at the San Diego Comic Con, I found myself reaching out to my editor at CNN.com for guidance.

Apparently, the words I had chosen to describe the first official day of the convention fit neither the CNN style-guide nor the AP style. I was given alternate suggestions such as "chaotic nightmare," "aggravating people-mess," and "cacophonous mind-melting crowd scene." Sold!

From the moment the convention center opened at 10.30AM/PT - it was sheer madness. From hard-core nerds, to average geeks, to the mildly amused people numbering in the tens of thousands had descended upon the San Diego Convention Center to... stand in line and fight the crowds to get a look at the same thing the rest of the world was getting to see online on the Internet.

My photographer, Rick Taber, and I stood in line to get into various panels throughout the day - to glean such nuggets of pop-cultural insight as "Heroes" star Zachary Quinto would be joining the cast of the new "Star Trek" film as "Spock..." might have been exciting, if we didn't already know this before we ever left Los Angeles. Of course, the appearance of Leonard "Spock" Nimoy at the convention was pretty cool, but learning that he's going to appear in the same film - playing someone other than "Spock" left us wondering, but hey - it's Comic Con... 'suspend your disbelief and play along' is the order of the day.

Of course, it helps when film-makers such as Jon Favreau get in on the act, appearing in a video greeting the crowd and making reference to the number of "Comic-Con exclusives" that managed to end up on You Tube the previous year, by showing what he referred to as "early, not final" samples of his upcoming "Iron Man" film which ended up being nothing more than clips from Marvel's early 1960's animated series of cartoons of the "armored Avenger." Of course, when he debuted a sampling of shots and sequences from the actual film, the crowd went nuts. (F0r the record, I did, too. From the look of things, "Iron Man" is going to rock your world when it comes out in 2008! As a fan, I approve... ")

Still, having to fight the crowds - whether costumed or simply consumed with geek-lust, really felt like a burden.

We are literally talking about tens of thousands of the deeply devoted, descending upon a single location, to see - up close and personal - stuff that's already been rumored or reported on the Internet. What used to be considered a "Comic-Con Exclusive," is now just - your online fantasies realized - behind a Plexiglas barrier.
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