San Diego Comic-Con International 2002 Report #2

Howdy! I'm really starting to get excited about this convention! Pam spent the afternoon walking the aisles of the show, shooting pictures of all sorts of neat new toys. I just finished reviewing all of her pictures, and I can't believe how many cool items are either available now, or will be available in the near future. I highly recommend that you go through the pictures with a notebook in hand. If you see anything you might like, send a note to Sean at nicefeedback@milehighcomics.com. Sean is here at the convention through Monday, but when he returns to the office he will immediately seek to find out which of these nifty items we can get quickly into stock. (click on image for large view) Aside from all the new toys, we also have a couple of close-up pictures of the Edgar Church artwork that we have on display here at the convention. The gallery show is drawing rave reviews, and we've had several offers from publishers interested in possibly doing a book on Edgar Church. I am very interested in that idea, but it will take a while to put everything together. In the meantime, we're planning to put together a large archive of Edgar Church artwork for inclusion in the website. I'll let you know via this newsletter when we have all those scans completed. It will probably be a couple of weeks... Traffic at the convention today started off dead slow. The highway to LA was back open this morning, after yesterday's day-long closure due to the flaming asphalt truck that closed all the southbound lanes into San Diego. Early in the day, I was rather worried that today would be even more restrained in enthusiasm than yesterday, but that fear completely disappeared as the day progressed. By late afternoon, the crowd was huge (15,000-18,000?), and very enthusiastic. This was back to the size of the crowd that I've come to know and love in this greatest of all conventions. Around 3 PM, I was finally able to escape our booths for a quick walking tour of the convention. What this revealed to me was that the San Diego convention has undergone a complete makeover in the past two years. This year the comics are almost entirely gone from the show floor! In past days, San Diego was famous as the one place you could go to in the world to find any comic book ever printed. In those wonderful times there were hundreds of booths selling back issues, with prices ranging from a dime, to over $100,000. For all practical purposes, that entire element of the convention is now dead. Due to a steady increase in booth costs (now over $1,000 per booth), the dealers selling actual goods have gradually been forced out, and have been almost entirely replaced by sellers of games, toys, and purveyors of upcoming films. Sadly, it is time for San Diego to remove Comic-Con from their name. The word simply doesn't fit any more. This is the greatest popular culture convention in the world, but as an actual comics convention, it now sucks. If you collect comics, you'd be far better off at a Mid-Ohio Con (Columbus), Pittsburgh, or Minneapolis. Those shows are still wonderful places to find comics. That having been said, I still would encourage everyone to come to this convention. The amount of eye-candy in this place is astounding. If you like to see lots of new things, and mingle with folks who share similar interests, San Diego is the most wonderful place to be in the world on this magic Summer weekend. Not only is it even larger than it has ever been before, but it has become an astounding social phenomena. People now travel here from all over the world to simply enjoy the wonderful buzz that emanates from the huge crowd. This place is just flat out as fun a place to be as anywhere in the world! The only thing that's now lacking is that you can't shop here anymore. Sigh... Tomorrow, Pam is going to focus on photos of fans in costume. The costume contest is tomorrow night, and the range of outrageous outfits that pass by our booths is just incredible. All of us guys especially like the beautiful scantily-clad women who go by, but I'm sure that Pam will get shots sure to please everyone! See you tomorrow! Chuck Rozanski, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. Birdman and the Blue Falcon Prototypes from Toynami Birds of Prey Action Figures from DC Direct Big Trouble In Little China Action Figures from Mirage Toys Characters from Tim Burton's Oyster Boy from Dark Horse Comics Edgar Church Art on display Edgar Church Art on display Edgar Church Art on display Summertime Cthulhu DawnAction Figure available next year DC HeroClix Various Figures from Dark Horse Comics, includeing Blinky the Fish Little Endless Figures from DC Direct GI Joe Display Gundam Arch Enemy Action Figures Herculoids Figures from Toynami Jimmy Corrigan & Sof'Boy Figures Kabuki Agents Action Figures Lord of the Rings Figures from Sideshow Weta Masters of the Universe New Series Action Figures Men In Black Merchandise form Inkworks Kingdom Hearts Collection from Mirage Toys Mullet Heads Figure from Achy Breaky Toys The Muppet Show Busts from Sideshow Weta Great Mystery Museum Collection available 2003 Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang Figures from Playing Mantis Popeye and Groo PVC's from Dark Horse Comics Captain America Statue available this Fall & Red Skull Statue available now Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Figures from Playing Mantis Joey Sakic Figure from McFarlane Toys Secret Agent Cthulhu. Does he really need to go undercover? Sock Monkey & Drinly Crow Figures from Dark Horse Comics Giger's Spell I Wall Sculpture Prototype from Sideshow Weta Superman & Batman Mini-Statue from DC Direct Transformers Armada Action Figures from Toynami Vampire Hunter D Action Figure from Toynami Xena Warrior Princess Bobbleheads from Rittenhouse Archives X-Men Medium Statues from Marvel Comics, back in the Silver Age Era!