I wasn’t sure I was going to go to Comic-Con this year since last year’s experience was so tiring but that’s the same thing I said after I went to my first Otakon and I went to Otakon several consecutive times afterwards. I haven’t gone to Otakon lately since they don’t do single day passes anymore and being among so many anime cosplayers for several days causes a severe shock to the system that makes it difficult to reintegrate back to reality. There is a good deal of cosplaying at Comic-Con too but the ratio to regularly dressed people is closer to the real world. Either that or I’m probably just desensitized by it all now.

But Comic-con is a different animal because it is so big and has sold out to capacity of around 125,000 for the past several years. Since there are so many panels dealing with film, television, comics, animation, writing, drawing, and more, scheduling is a nightmare with titanic lines for the more popular events. Luckily some of the panels, like the EW and SyFy ones, can be seen online on their respective sites.

I was lucky enough to buy a 4 day pass since they were auctioning some last minute about a month before the con and I stayed with a friend who was within walking distance of the convention center. Mucho Hollywood star power came down to San Diego this year including Johnny Depp, Denzel Washington, and Scarlett Johannson as well as the regular sci-fi/comic book celebrities you might expect.

And when someone wasn’t available, they sent a replica.

I really didn’t buy much because I didn’t really find anything that I had to have. That means I probably wasn’t really looking that hard. I was a bit distracted since I was working on a couple submissions to the WB Writers’ Workshop but inevitably was able to send out only one. The TV writers’ panel I went to gave out some helpful information though some of it was also disheartening. The other panels I went to were informative and entertaining for the most part but the Star Wars one that I sat through just to get to the next panel was one long boring infomercial. The best footage I saw was for District 9 which is coming to theaters soon and Kick-Ass which is still looking for distribution. It was a good trip but next year…it’s just too early to think about it.