Mary and I, posers that we are, got free press passes for Comic-Con this year. One of the things you get with that is admission to the press/preregistration Preview Night on Wednesday. We found this to be a highly enjoyable experience, because it's
slightly less insanely crowded than subsequent days. Here are some of our more entertaining encounters.
Mega64. When we were passing this booth, we heard someone within it say, "It's like 'Jackass' for video games." This was enough to make us stop and watch a sampling on their small TV. First they ran a clip of Luigi's Mansion. Next was a clip of a guy dressed like Luigi walking through San Diego's haunted Whaley House with a flashlight and a hand-vacuum. We were so overcome with hilarity that we decided to spin the prize wheel. I won a "tattoo," which was a zombie Sharpied onto my forearm. Mary won something to the effect of, "the love doctor," and her hand was joined with that of the guy next to her, so that they might form an everlasting bond. They gave Mary their sample DVD, so she will have to tell you what that's like. When I asked what free things they had for me to remember them by, I got 3D glasses with their site name Sharpied onto the plastic wrapper. I love being amused.
Clayholio. I stopped here to peruse Lost! #1 and Lost! #2, which I liked a lot. The guys at this booth were incredibly nice and told us a lot about their stuff. They had "Hello My Name Is" stickers filled in with Zenjeff, which Mary and I wore for the rest of the evening because we’re solid believers in cheap and effective marketing.
Dorkboy. We stopped here just because we were amused by the two-sided cards reading, "i [heart] dorkboy," and, "i hate dorkboy." I actually really liked the freshly-printed Dorkboy and its Twinkie-obsessed Dorkbot character. I love dorks and robots, so why not a Dorkbot?
Blind Wolf Studios. Mary and I really enjoyed this one. I stopped here because I saw a crayon drawing of old-school TV Batman captioned, "Adam West." Mary and I went through the whole crayon drawing stack, and also particularly liked one of everyone's favorite bald man in a wheelchair, Charles Xavier. There was a ton of interesting stuff, but ultimately I bought a drawing of Spiderman by booth proprietor Franco's five-year-old son, Nicolas. It is most excellent.
In addition to all of this, we each bought "New Job" from Explodingdog's Sam Brown; we got fancy crystal massages at A Mystic's Garden; and we checked out and loved booths for Penny Arcade, Patrick Morgan, Mr. Toast, Bumperboy, and Devon Devereaux.
In short, I love things, and Comic-Con is full of them. |
