Returned from Comic-Con

We just got back from Comic-Con in San Diego, that huge (and I mean HUGE, over 100,000 people) popular culture convention held every year in mid-summer. I've not been in a couple of years due to grad school obligations, but I was able to swing it this year, now that my coursework is nearly over (I have one more session beginning today). Comic-Con has changed in the 3 summers since I last attended and that change isn't neccesarily good: it's become too popular. Every day of the Con was sold out, so that meant that the Convention Center was at capacity -- very, very, very crowded. The security company (ELITE) still hasn't figured out how to handle crowds of that size, and honestly, the Convention Center isn't big enough for that many people. Bottom line: if large crowds freak you out, this is NOT the Con for you.

Someone at the hotel we stayed at asked me to describe the Con and I told her that if she wanted to see what was percolating up from the collective unconscious, just park herself for half an hour on the sidewalk near the Convention Center and she would see it all walk past her. About 20% of Con attendees dress up and you see a combination of folks wishing they were on a specific hero's journey, people still working out images from childhood nightmares, the the usual cos-play folk who think they are getting away with something.

I looked for XenaStuff while I was on the exhibit floor but didn't see anything. A found a Xena I dollie at one vendor and M-R received a X:WP comic book in her blood donation goodie bag. Lucy Lawless crashed the Women of Battlestar Galactica panel, her ego not allowing the other 3 women to have the panel to themselves.

I enjoyed the Bionic Woman panel -- we saw a "Comic Con cut" of the pilot, which will be significantly different when it airs. This Bionic Woman is darker and edgier that it's goofy 1976 ancestor, and I'm glad. There is also some interesting sexual chemistry between Jamie Sommers (Michelle Ryan) and Sarah Corvus (Katee Sackhoff) though Ryan seemed startled when someone mentioned it. Sackhoff just grinned. Too many of the Qs in the Q&A session were from old farts who still have a hard-on for Lindsay Wagner and couldn't wrap their libidos around the new concept. I kept yelling at them "Go away!". The crowed helpfully booed these creeps, but it shows you how much people hate change.

More on Comic-Con later. I've got to pack the car to head to my last class session. After 3 years, I can't believe this is really the end.