The streak of good airport luck continues! Amazing, really.
I really wasn't even planning on attending Comic-Con this year, to be honest. Last year was fun but I'm really not that big of a fan of comic books. Plus this year Newgrounds was not having its own booth anymore. And besides, that place gets really damn crowded. Luis talked me into it though, after our meetup at the NY Big Apple Con in June. It turned out a lot of NG regulars were still planning to attend, and flight tickets weren't as expensive as I was expecting.
This year Luis and I stayed in the Omni hotel, which was right across the street from convention center (awesome). We also bunked up with Krinkels and BlueHippo. Friday was a short day at the con, since we were all trying to meet up together at the hotel, and were arriving at different times. I had just enough time to check out the Behemoth booth and see some of the surrounding video game booths.
Full-size foam figure of the Blue Knight
People line up to play Castle Crashers
After everyone was accounted for we hung around the hotel room for a bit before getting ready to head off to the Castle Crashers launch party! Well, pre-launch party. The game was complete but comes out August 08. This was a great idea, since it's so hard to get a group of people this big into any bars or restaurants in downtown San Digeo. Food and drinks were provided, so we didn't have to split up or go anywhere else. It was here that I got to meet and talk to a bunch of Newgrounders that I hadn't seen the year before like Egoraptor, RubberNinja, Rina-Chan, Danomano, Hans Van Harken, and others. They had some Mario-Kart going on upstairs, and some pinata-bashing on the main floor.
Overhead view of the party
I really wanted to play Smash Bros
Beating up the pinata
The candy inside was pretty good!
Before I knew it it was time to leave, so we all gathered up and went to a bar down the street. For some reason last call was 12:30 though, so we didn't stay too long. Luis, Krinkels, BlueHippo and I ended up going back to our room, but I think the others managed to find a bar that didn't have a lame last call. I was pretty tired so I ducked into bed but the rest of the guys decided to raid the room's mini-fridge (bad idea!) and go out on a walk for pizza.
Saturday was my only 'full' day at the con. As such, I spent a majority of the day walking around and checking out booths and costumes, and buying a comic or two.
The best picture from Comic-Con 08
Street Fighter meets Mortal Kombat?
Various Batman contest submissions
This will attract the kiddies like no other
I will never tire of life-size lego models
Star Wars... stuff..
We tried to go out to eat as a group on Saturday, but unfortunately we didn't have any reservations anywhere so we were looking at 2-3 hour wait times. We opted to just go and get some pizza instead, which was still kinda hectic. We split up here for a bit, as some of the guys went to play a poker game with Dan from Armor Games and the rest of us made our way to danomano's hotel room for some after-hours partying. If you were checking out the webcam late at night you would have caught some shots of us making fools of ourselves. The guys that went to play the poker game came back as we were getting ready to leave, but we had a cab ready for us so we headed back to our place.
Krinkels, Luis, and BlueHippo all had to head out relatively early on Sunday so we stopped in at the con for a little bit then got some lunch. My flight left out at 10pm that night so after they departed I spent some time wandering around downtown. I ended up at a candy store that sold sour cherry coke bottles, so I got roughly a pound worth and proceeded to eat most of them. For those unaware, sour cherry coke bottles are the best kind of gummy candy available. And they don't sell them in my town anymore >:(
I made my way back to the con to meet up with the rest of the newgrounders that were still there, and took a few more pictures.
Dethklok action figures
Egoraptor meets Homer Simpson
After the con closed down for the day we all went down to a food court for some dinner. Didn't bother with trying a restaurant again. Afterwards we ended up back at Dan's hotel, where Rina-Chan conducted some mini-interviews that she had been waiting for all day. I was first since I had to leave for the airport (can't be too early!) so I finished up and grabbed a cab outside. The trip home was a little long, and through the night, but I can't complain with no delays or cancellations. Another great year at Comic-Con done and passed. Honestly though, the long lines and crowded show floor are starting to get pretty annoying, but as long as there are Newgrounders to meet up with each year I think you can count on seeing me there!
Also, if you want to see more NG-related Comic-Con media, check out Luis' collection here
Posted to: Adventures