One Week to Comic-Con

It's one week to San Diego Comic-Con 2010, my first ever. I've been to other media conventions before, mostly during college in my otaku days, but I've never done *the* Comic-Con. And suddenly all the idle musings about costumes and schedules have turned into furtive searches for old Halloween makeup and drawing up battle plans to cover as much ground as I can over the three days I'll be in attendance. I thought I'd share some pre-descent-into-madness thoughts.

The Basics - Good shoes? Check. Bottled water? Check. Granola bars? Check. Registration E-mails? Check. Plane tickets? Check. Printed schedules? Check. Map of the convention center? Check. Cel phone? Check. Money? Sunglasses? Checkity-check. Geeky enthusiasm for all things genre and fannish and fun? Triple check!

Costumes - I have two different costumes planned, a group costume and an individual backup. They're both very simple, but the amount of drama that went into their creation is amazing. I've never done costuming with a group before and I now understand why some people are so hesitant about it. Fortunately the major battles have been fought, and there's nothing much left to do aside from crossing my fingers that certain pieces will arrive from Amazon in time for the big day. I am loathe to reveal who I'll be dressed as, in case more people (and potential employers) read this blog than I know about, but rejected costuming concepts include Harry Potter, Star Wars, Charlie's Angels, Twilight, and Kill Bill. My hair is now also shorter than it's been in about a decade. The backup costume just needs a little greasepaint it'll be ready to go too. It's my old Halloween standby - and since this is a comic book covention, someone may actually recognize who I'm supposed to be for once.

Cameras - I've been debating with myself over the past couple of days whether I can justifying buying a new camera for the event. I'm one of those poor unfortunate souls who does not have a standard point-and-click digital camera, because I haven't been able to bring myself to drop $100 at the Best Buy or $75 on Craigslist for a used one. Now I'm worried it might be too late. I have a Samsung Rant with a 2MP camera that's pretty decent quality, but it's a pain to use, there's no flash, and I'm not fast enough with it to take pictures quickly, which is going to be a neccessity at an event like this. On the other hand, I've spent a good amount of money on the convention, airfare, and costumes already, and I know I'm going to spend much more on merchandise and food and all the ancillary odds and ends when the time comes. Not to mention unforeseen expenses. There are always unforeseen expenses.

Stargazing - I have to see Ray Bradbury. And I have to see Joss Whedon. And I have to see Guillermo Del Toro. And I have to see the Mythbusters. And I have to see Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer. And I cannot possibly leave Hall H or Ballroom 20 for more than five minutes or I might miss something or lose my seat or be accosted by Wookies or - or - or - *Ahem.* The only thing I have managed to decide so far is that I'm going to have to forego the autograph lines because they're just going to be too time consuming. I've staffed bookstore author events before, and I'm assuming Comic-Con is going to be exponentially more crowded and chaotic. I'll just stick to the panels and presentations, and whatever chance encounters come my way. Besides, as everyone tells me, the best part of these conventions is the fans. And there will be plenty of those to go around.

Updates - I'll be staying with a friend in San Diego for the duration of the convention. She does not have the best internet connection and I don't want to spend the short time I have with her and my other friends frantically typing out blog posts in the evenings. I'm a slow writer and 750-1000 words takes me a solid hour or two that I won't be able to spare. I doubt I'll be in any sort of shape to form coherent thoughts anyway. I'll do daily write-ups that will go up on the blog when I get back, but unless I can find another internet connection at the convention itself, I'll have to suspend daily updates until I get home on Sunday night. And even if I do update earlier, it'll be material I've prepared in advance. Twitter may be a different story, but no promises.

Whew. Bottom line is that I'm just going to go to enjoy myself this year. I'm a newbie and will be totally out of my depth, so I'm not going to attempt anything too ambitious. I'll try to get into the TRON panel and the Marvel films panel, but I honestly don't know how the rest of my schedule is going to work out. I'm actually glad I missed nabbing the four-day passes. I think figuring out how to navigate three days of Comic-Con is going to be more than enough for me.