Howdy! Each year, I try and give you a slightly different perspective on dealing with the immensity of . My past themes have focused on the rapidly changing demographics of the convention as it has morphed from being a gathering of comics fans into primarily a media event. Included within those observations has been the rapid rise of women and girls as a percentage of the overall population attending the convention, and the rise of meeting Internet acquaintances as a primary motivating factor for people attending the show. The one major change that I have noticed this year is the rise of cell phones as the binding element of the entire social structure of the convention. As recently as last year, cell phones were an optional device that provided some measure of convenience in allowing those outside of the convention to keep in contact with you while you were at the show. The big difference at this year's show is that not having a cell phone now puts you almost completely out of the social loop. Cell phone reception is excellent in this building, and this has led to an evolution in which one of the first things that you are asked is, "what's your number?" Those who have no cell phone number simply end up not being able to find others in the immensity of the halls. (click on image for larger view) Waxing philosophic for a moment, this trend toward cell phone linkage creates a very odd binding of people throughout the entire convention. If you follow the old "Six Degrees of Separation" concept, everyone in the convention who has a phone can be reached if you just ask enough people if they have that particular person's number. In effect, that means that the whole place is essentially one large social organism linked through phone and data transmissions. I know this has been the case in many high schools for a couple of years, but to actually be a part of it myself has been a very surreal experience. For example, just before I began writing this column I had a momentary panic attack because I noticed that my cell phone wasn't on my hip. I can only relate how I felt to that same sensation you feel when your credit card is missing, or your entire wallet. You need a cell phone to really exist in this environment, and the lack thereof can be quite distressing. Isn't that weird? You certainly couldn't have convinced me that I would become so dependent on a phone two years ago. In fact, when they first became popular, I swore I would never get one. Now I cannot even fathom how I would keep track of our 15-member crew without phones. Just a thought... As regards the convention itself, everything is continuing pretty much as expected. The crowds are huge, but manageable. Still, everyone seems to be having a good time, and the dealers are mostly reporting brisk sales. Our booth has been particularly busy. So much so, in fact, that I sent Bill Daniel up to our Garden Grove Mega-Store store this morning with our rented mini-van to strip out every trade paperback and hardback in the store. Despite having ordered well over $100,000 in trades and hardbacks from the Diamond Star System for this show, I think our stock will be drastically diminished by mid-afternoon tomorrow. Rather than leave us with a very limited supply of books for Sunday (which is the day that children are encouraged to come to the show...), I decided that we would integrate the Garden Grove stock into our convention inventory. While this will leave some bare shelves at Garden Grove for the weekend, we can easily replace their book inventory by the end of next week by placing a huge reorder with Diamond. In fact, since we will be ordering them all the most popular titles, this will actually turn out to be an upgrade of the Garden Grove book inventory. I genuinely like this kind of win-win scenario! While sales have been remarkably brisk here at the convention, our online sales are down a little right now. They're certainly far better than last year, but I'm still perplexed at why 50% off and free freight for all orders over $40 during our San Diego Sale isn't absolutely overwhelming us with orders. Could it be that such a great number of our clients are at the convention that the show acts as a drag on our entire system? That's the only real event that I think could be affecting things, as our inventory is certainly continuing to grow each week, and we're now shipping almost all orders within 24 hours of receipt. Given our current robust sales here at the convention, our online sales are certainly not as important as they would be normally, but it still is an interesting trend. I can tell you that the convention does have a tremendous impact on stores in Southern California, and particularly on comics shops in San Diego. I've heard, in fact, that the show sucks so many dollars out of the San Diego market during July that local comics retailers are forced to go on a starvation diet during August and September. If the convention has the ability to impact even the overall Internet market for comics sales I find that to be a positively awesome development! My final item for today is a plug for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund auction that is being held here at the convention tomorrow (Saturday) evening. If you are planning to come to the convention tomorrow, and can stick around until 7 PM, there will be an incredible selection of cool items being sold in upstairs in meeting room #8. I am once again the auctioneer, and I will guarantee to provide much mirth and merriment. I will also do my absolute best to hustle as many dollars out of the crowd as I possibly can. Defending our First Amendment freedoms to express ourselves without restraint is very important to me, so I work especially hard to keep the CBLDF solvent. For more information on the auction visit the CBLDF at Booth #4504, or www.CBLDF.org\pr\archives\000194.shtml, where I believe that they have posted the complete auction listing. That's it for another day at the convention. Pam has been roaming around the show shooting pictures of comics creators for you to see, and also added to the collection of booth shots that she started yesterday. I hope that you enjoy sharing this great show with us! Happy collecting! Chuck Rozanski, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. Also, we have images from yesterday, Wednesday on our website! Pictures from Day Three! Activision Battlestar Galactica - Sci-Fi Bionicle Our booth on Friday Catman Devils Due Howard Chaykin Chris Claremont signing at our booth Hawkman Jeff Smith Our favority 3 Geeks Rich Koslowski Jack Sparrow Jim Shooter Slave Labor Graphics Spidey Villians Ted Naifeh - Gloom Cookie Wonder Woman & Flash Chuck - How Many Comics Are There? Jim Shooter and the Girls Sean & Aaron Chuck working on the daily San Diego Comic-Con Reports Will Aleta Bosch Fanstin - Table For One