Fan Killed at San Diego Comic-Con Howdy! Death is oftentimes Nature's way of telling you that you just did not plan very well. Sadly, that turned out to be exactly the case at the beginning of this year's San Diego Comic-Con International. The San Diego Union Tribune is reporting that a 53 year-old TWILIGHT fan died yesterday, after she was struck by a car while running across the street in front of the convention center. The motive for her being so rash was supposedly that the convention staff was reversing the way the line flowed, thus potentially costing her the position that she had established beginning on Sunday. Upon reflection, I have to tell you that the sad news of this lady's unnecessary death makes me feel more than a little angry. As those of you who have seen Morgan Spurlock's documentary about the 2010 convention, COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE, are already well aware, much of the drama in the movie revolves around scarcity. At San Diego, scarcity begins with attendance tickets for the convention being quite difficult to obtain, and then escalates into other fan conflicts, such as availability of limited edition toys and giveaways, placement in the admission line, and the availability of seats for the most popular panels. The infamous incident of a couple of years ago, where two fan's disagreement over seating in Hall H led to one being poked with a pencil in the eye by another, was but one previous instance of where scarcity of highly desirable resources at the convention caused serious difficulties. My personal take on this situation is that it is long past the time for the San Diego convention to (at the very least...) make arrangements to pre-allocate attendance tickets to popular panels and autograph signings. If all the TWILIGHT fans, for example, already knew in advance of the convention if they had a reserved seat for the main TWILIGHT panel, then camping out days in advance would be completely unnecessary. Allowing fans to request seats at certain panels while preregistering, only makes sense. A lottery could then be held well in advance of the convention, with winning fans being notified of their seat assignments. With as many different events as are being held each day at the convention, allowing seating at the most popular events to remain a free-for-all is not only ill-advised, but also dangerous. In this instance, it took someone losing their life to illustrate that point. My heart goes out to that unfortunate lady's family... Chuck climbing up the ladder. In other news from the convention, COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE will not only be screening here at the convention at 7 PM tomorrow (Thursday) night, but will also be released on DVD worldwide this week. If you have not already tracked down a copy of the limited edition DVD release, I highly recommend that you do so, as it comes with four PVC figures of Stan Lee, Morgan Spurlock, Joss Whedon, and Harry Knowles. Word has it that those highly collectible PVC's are already totally sold out... My only other news for today is the announcement that not only did we purchase that private comics collection that we viewed here in San Diego on Monday evening, but that it turned out to be over 30,000 very high grade comics, magazines, trade paperbacks, hardbacks, and graphic novels! The gentleman who sold us his collection is a long-time comics fan who shopped with us for many, many years both at the convention, and online. His health has recently taken a turn for the worse, so as a part of his estate planning, he came to the difficult decision to part with his beloved comics. We are honored that he chose Mile High Comics to help him with his dispersal. Chuck setting up the banner. What our purchasing this kind man's collection means for you, is that I can immediately begin a 60% off SANDIEGO codeword sale on all of our back issue comics and magazines, while simultaneously leaving in effect for you 40% off discounts for you on all of our trade paperbacks, hardbacks, and graphic novels. So you know, these new SANDIEGO discounts are a full ten discount points higher than my original plan for during the convention. Simply put, this exceptionally steep discount sale will help us to cover the premium price that we gave for the collection, while simultaneously allowing all of you who shop with us online to share in one major benefit of this year's San Diego Comic-Con. Please enjoy this special convention sale with our sincere thanks for your continuing support of our efforts on your behalf, here at Mile High Comics. Happy Collecting! Chuck Rozanski, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. July 11, 2012 Advance Previews of next weeks comics from Archie Comics The early stages of the Mile High Comics booth at SDCC 2012. Click here to view all of the Premium New-In-Stock Click here to view all of the New In Stock Click here to view all of the recently added Trade Paperbacks and HardCovers Current Newsletter