San Diego Comic Con recap: 2023
May 28, 2024
Rescued from drafts, I didn’t realize I never finished this up.
Our travel cost breakdown
1. Food and lodgings: ice cream, Japanese $84+$88
2. Gas and parking: $oops I forgot to record this
3. $400 cash for shopping and cash only booth shopping (so this blends a bit with the other numbers)
4. Gifts for other people: 6+33+11+33+12=95
5. Gifts for us: 50+89+5+54+17+26+55+33+66 =$395
6. Badges for 2 adults and 2 children, $623
6. Dogsitting, $1100.
7. Stupid tax, $2.50. We had to pay cash tolls because we forgot to choose the “avoid tolls” feature on our maps and missed the Fasttrak lane. The last time I contended with toll problems was also in San Diego and also during Comic Con. Honestly, they’re so confusing!
Total: $2704+
As always, this endeavor starts many months in advance. Badges are sold through a lottery system so it’s never certain that we’ll get in. I’m always grateful when we do.
Best moments
JB wanted to look at the dumpster fire booth, so we pulled over to ogle the stickers at the cash register counter. We apologized for getting in the dude next in line’s way, saying we just wanted to look and weren’t cutting. JB was intensely interested in the stickers so I said we had to go to the back of the line to buy. We can’t cut. The guy offered to get it since he was up to buy his stuff. I waffled a bit and then asked how much the stickers were: $5. Said “ok, would you mind? I can give you cash for them.” He buys his pile of stuff, hands them the stickers, then offers them his free lanyard with $75 purchase. I start handing him the $5+ change and he waves it off.
!!!!
What?! You don’t know us, whaaat? He just grinned and said bye. He’s made himself a mini Con legend in the family for $5+tax.
On Saturday, JB was contemplating their budget very carefully and decided against a sticker because they were saving their daily budget for a big buy the next day. A kind lady called them back to the booth and bought them the sticker.
On Sunday, I pulled them over to watch a professional artist sketching some commissions. I couldn’t see his name tags and I’m the absolute worst at recognizing faces. I do recognize that his lines were beautiful. I thought it was good for JB to watch a pro at work, and shared that with the artist. He very kindly asked another interested party at the booth to bear with him a moment, he wanted to oblige JB’s interest by filling in some more of the portrait he was working on. As he did so, he explained what he was doing and offhandedly mentioned that this drawing is a character from a comic I drew, Fables. I was stunned. We were interrupting Mark Flipping Buckingham. JB of course hasn’t a clue what that means but I was a huge fan of the Fables series and here’s the man who created that beautiful art chatting to my young kid very kindly and seriously, letting them squish his eraser and explaining how it works. He gave them very kind advice about art, what’s important is practice and learning, and then to top it all off, dug out an unfinished sketch, beautiful still, and signed it for them. I couldn’t believe it. A Mark Buckingham original sketch from a friendly chat. Who would ever have seen that coming?
Unlooked for parenting commentary (this is usually a bad thing): the fellow across the table from us was probably in his 50s. He kept to himself for a while but the two ladies between him and us asked about our experiences with Preview Night and that question got the table talking about the convention’s history, the WGA and SAG strikes (which we all support!), how the film industry is abusive etc. Smol Acrobat was sitting in their seat gobbling a cup of snacks quietly, absorbed, and the man commented: I’ve never been that well behaved in my entire life. Whatever you’re doing as parents, it’s working.
Me: ohhhh that’s because they had a meltdown seven aisles that way!
Him: so did I! 😂
It was kind of him.
The two ladies left and their seats were taken by a young man and his father. We looked away from Smol Acrobat for a minute and BAM the cup of snacks hit the ground. We apologized to our table companions for the mess underfoot and the father laughed saying that’s normal. His son asked quietly: was I ever like that??
We all laughed. I hear young adults ask their parents that all the time.
I pointed out we were all there at one point.
He said I’ve been in this position (pointing at Smol) and that position (pointing at PiC).
We ran into a professional looking cosplay of Geoffrey the giraffe and Smol was enamored. We stopped to take a picture, me holding Smol on one side and JB on my other side. Geoffrey laid a hoof on my shoulder and Smol wouldn’t/couldn’t look at the camera, they were too busy cuddling the furry hoof.
I love the image of SA snuggling up to Geoffrey!
I recall a while ago that you mentioned the Kate Daniels series, which I’d never heard of. I spent a couple months sourcing books 1-8, and I’m done with them now (9 & 10 were in the library). They are mass market paperbacks. If you’d like to have them, I am happy to mail them to someone you can pick them up from, as I know you value your privacy.
I loved these books, and I really appreciate the recommendation!
It was awfully cute 🥺
I’m so glad you enjoyed them. That’s such a lovely offer! Let me have a think about it.
OK 🙂 No pressure. I’ve gotten my enjoyment out of them twice already because I went to the friends of the library book store multiple times over several months to collect them. I didn’t let myself read them til I’d collected them all, then I put in a library request for the two there,and then Pow I was able to binge them all over four (I think?) days. It was heaven, lol.