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Comic-Con 2008 Blog: Day Zero

Written by Mikey

July 24, 2008

Every great story has to start somewhere, this one begins....right now.

Due to an early departure out of SFO, my day begins at long before the butt crack of dawn. Can I really say begin though.... I wasn't done packing until nearly midnight and sleep (like always) was lost to me. Nevertheless I arrived at the airport with little time to spare...this is going to be a long day. In Flight:

As I type this from row 21 seat E....currently located at 34,898 feet in the air traveling at 541 miles per hour, we've got 341 miles to go. I'm sure if I break those numbers out and play with them I can come up with some awesomely geeky LOST number codes...but since I have a fear of flying lets just skip that for now.

This is my first flight on Virgin Airlines..holy swanky airlines Batman! This is a geekz delight! Every seat has a media device where you can watch movies, make an Mp3 Playlist (listening to mine right now), order some booze, see a map of where your plane is (complete with stats), enter the planes chat room and chat up any seat I like, play video games...hmmm I wonder if I can play Mortal Kombat with a friend in Vietnam?

So far I'm feeling a bit Jack Bauer-ish I'm functioning on about 35 minutes sleep out of 24 and I have a very long day ahead of me. Upon landing and checking in I'll be using my Jason Bourne skill set to gain early entrance into the convention center (I could tell you but I'd have to kill you, and my lience to kill was revoked over an incident at that Paris Hilton party...which I also cannot tell you about..because I'd kill myself.) Which reminds me that it's time for my community service PSA: Kids don't do blow off Paris Hiltons ass...even if it is free there's a price to pay. And know you know and knowing is half the battle..YO JOE!! Also there's still no sex in the champagne room. None.

35,035 Feet, 536 MPH and 155 miles to go. We are somewhere near El Segundo according to the map. Did I ever tell you guys about that one time I left my wallet there? Perhaps another time.

Ok I think I'll sign off for now and enjoy my playlist while I hit the chat room and let these people know who rules this plane...reconize!!

Back On The Ground:

There's something very surreal about landing to the your own soundtrack. As the plane descended into San Diego I was treated to Radioheads Karma Police and some tracks from Sweeney Todd. NICE.

Once I had my feet back on goold ol tera firma I discovered my cell service wont work in the least down here. Thanks a bunch Metro! Now I know this is going to be a long day. But this is me so it's a test I will pass.

After pulling some Jedi Mind Tricks on a few unsuspecting hotel clerks I was able to check my bags and make contact with my sources inside the convention and quickly assumed my new secret identity..Fred Perry. HA!! Jason Bourne aint got shit on me.

Camera in hand and a cover story to match I set out to capture what Comic Con Day Zero is like.

Last year was my first at the big show and I spent very little time on the convention floor, but when I did I faced a crushing onslaught of people that left little room for polite navigation. Thank the gods I'm a big MOFO who can put on a scary look enough to convince people that they should get out of my way. So I did ok but it was frustrating still.

Walking around the near empty convention floor is sort of like taking over the mall during a zombie holocaust..except you can't just take what you want and shooting people in the head is discouraged. (poor sports).

Watching everything get set up is amazing, thousands of people working their asses off to get everything ready in time. For me though it's a chance to get a glimpse into what this place is going to be like come tomorrow morning..and I can tell you it's going to be off the chain. They even have a Unicorn set up to have your pic taken at the Harold and Kumar DVD booth...oh hellz yes!!

All I can say is BRING ON THE FREE SWAG!!!

While my time here last year was largely spent running between interviews (and many that never went down) and panels, this year I've decided to lay off the interviews and stick to the panels. Sure interviews can be fun, and you get a chance to meet some celebs I just find the whole thing a bit tedious, as I'm sure they do getting dragged through the gauntlet of interviews facing the same 6 questions over and over again. At any rate my interviews tend to go off the rails and I end up like Chris Farley (though I have yet to smash through a table at the end.). So over the next few days I'll be checking out some of the coolest stuff heading to the theaters and letting you know all about them. Thus saving my agent of chaos energies for when the sun goes down.

Tonight I'm lucky enough to be seeing the pilot of JJ Abbrams new show Fringe, and after that I'll be heading to the DC Online Launch Party. Question how much trouble I can find for myself to get into at a video game launch party..only time and Sailor Jerry's will tell.