Comic-Con International 2007
SAN DIEGO, CA –

Comic-Con Is Big. How big? Really big. For the first time in its existence, Comic-Con was completely sold out. Not just the 4 Day Passes, but the individual day passes as well. Considering that the main exhibit hall of the San Diego Convention center is 1,500,000 square feet this is no small accomplishment.

Each year Comic-Con has been growing in attendance. Freaks and Geeks just keep coming in droves. This geek went of course. I also enlisted the help of fellow Safehousers, Nymm and More to help with Comic-Con coverage.

The video game industry made another strong showing, looking around the floor and finding names such as Square Enix, Sony, NC Soft, Sierra Games, EA Mythic and Blizzard I nearly felt like they hadn’t stopped having the “real” E3 but just moved it to San Diego. I had the feeling that since big displays weren’t needed this year with the downsized E3 that the companies had packed up their displays and just used them here. Not all had hands on displays but I did get to play Warhammer Online a bit. I know they'll hate me saying this, but it looked and felt a lot like WoW. Also, not officially part of Comic-Con but a free bus ride away, was the SOE Block Party held on Saturday. Free food, beer, and gaming industry gossip.

Aside from the floor exhibits, the panel schedule was also full of variety: writers, actors, illustrators, game makers, fans, they had something for everyone.

Here are some quick quotes:

From a guy undoing one of the barricade guidestrips and stepping into the line of folks who did NOT have Comic Con badges yet, “Why didn’t anyone think of doing this before?”  Yes. Brilliant, you have now found a fast way to let yourself *out* of Comic Con.

“I’ll be back tomorrow” from Lou Ferrigno when some guys asked if they could take his picture as he was stacking up some books on a table in front of him. It took him a long time to do this.

“I thought that was her arm across her body,” More, explaining how a bare bellied Wonder Woman looked as she sat in a pedicab passenger seat.

“Anyone want to sell their return ticket?”, Woman wanting to get into Ballroom 20, location of Stargate, Battlestar, Futurama, and Joss Whedon panels on Saturday.

“I thought you guys had gone out of business,” Me to Asimov’s Analog magazine booth folks who were giving away a free copy. They didn't go out of business, I’ve just been out of touch with them.

“Rearrrron rearrrron,” Old School Battlestar Gallactica cylons. They each had a recording playing the "cylon sound" and their “eye” moved.

Next up are specific articles on the game Dragon Blade, the Women of Battlestar Gallactica press conference and an interview with the co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender. For now enjoy our Comic-Con pictures in the Safehouse Mugshot gallery.

 ~ Fricka