If you had asked me five years ago what the one event I would look forward to each summer, there is no way in hell that I would have ever thought that the answer would be Comic-Con. Without being a braggart, I'm not what you think of when you think nerd (I'm actually quite cool...well, more of a dork than a nerd at the least). Farenheit 451 was pretty much incoherent to me; I like watching sports (not doing them to be fair), I've never played Dungeons & Dragons; my obsession with Star Wars ended after Return of the Jedi and my experience with comics as a kid consisted mostly of my dad's old Archie comic books in my grandparents basement. So, who'd have thunk that I would fall in love with nerds at The Con?
This is my first year in five that I'm not making the trek to San Diego. I've always gone because I had to work. And when I say work, I mean crazy work: wrangling people, constant fire drills, lots of coordination, walking back and forth through the Gaslamp to the Convention Center about 100 times a day and longer hours than sometimes seem possible. But, through all that, I fell in love with Comic-Con. It wasn't the booming nightlife; all the crazy parties you see on TV are impossible to get into. It wasn't the "hot" guys; there are none for the most part. Actually, it's the people and the overall spirit of it. Everyone goes all out for Comic-Con. Attendees dress up in crazy costumes and give out free hugs, high fives, and sometimes kisses. They get so excited about things that they can't contain themselves and run as fast as they can wherever they are going. They are extremely knowledgeable about things that I can't begin to know. Ancillary characters in the first editions of Superman comics? I don't know. But they do.
I think that the one thing that I love about Comic-Con the most is that I get to be as excited as I want to be about whatever there could possibly be to be excited about. Big Bang Theory panel? I'm going. The cast of Psych doing a Q&A with the dude from Tears for Fears? I was front row. The first episode of The Avengers cartoon? I saw it. Because I was second row, and waiting for the Adult Swim panel starring Tim & Eric, the people behind Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Mary Shelly's Frankenhole. No matter what panels you want to see or what stars you want to stalk, IT'S OK. You can literally geek out about anything, and the bigger geeking that you do, the better. It's ALL GOOD. Especially because I live in LA, this isn't something that I'm used to: unconditional acceptance when it comes to stalking. Want to see the hottie Nathan Fillion up close? Um, yes please. Want to just get a look at Lou Ferrigno? And take a picture? Make a snarky comment? Done. When I'm in LA, I have better things to do than to wait in line. But, at Comic-Con, if you're not waiting in line, you're no one. Nerds LOOOOVE to wait in lines. Start a queue and they're in it...they don't even have to know what it's for.
These are just some of the things that I love about The Con. And, I am just so sad that I couldn't be there this year. You would think that I would be sadder that I don't have a job, and that that's the reason I'm not there. But, not really...I'm more sad that I'm missing all the action. I'm not cool anymore. All the newest movies, all the latest marketing ploys, scoops and teasers of upcoming tv shows. This is my jam, and I'm not part of it. I won't be there to make fun of all the Twilight moms camping out for two days to maybe see Edward and Bella. I won't get carpet bombed by the nerds that don't wear deodorant or flat-tired by the nerd running to god knows where. I'll miss my annual photo shoot with zombies, sluts dressed as Leia and likely candidates of people going to the Comic-Con cuddle party. I'll have to follow along on Twitter and other sites and pretend I was there.
I guess I'll have to go see Captain America this weekend in honor of The Con. And after, I'll light a saber and pray really hard that I get a job that will send me back to San Diego next year.
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