Howdy! Another day has passed here in San Diego, and the excitement continues to build. I have been coming to this convention for 32 years, so you would think that after a certain point that I would become pretty jaded. In reality, that has simply never happened. No matter how many times I've entered into the building housing the San Diego Comics Convention, I still never fail to get that wonderful little flutter of excitement as the booths first come into view. The only real change that has occurred over the years is that I now have so many more friends here at the show that my time is now increasingly spent renewing relationships with people that I genuinely look forward to seeing, rather than wandering the aisles. Given that in my post-West Nile condition that I now have to really be careful about overexerting myself, however, waiting for my friends to come by our booth to visit with me probably is a far wiser course of action. That plan has worked out particularly well today, as there has seldom been a moment when I haven't had someone fun with whom to enjoy a personal moment. While I have been off in my corner talking with friends, the Mile High Comics booths have been swarmed over with eager fans snapping up trade paperbacks at 30% off. In fact, we are already out of about 20% of the books we brought to the show. Blessedly, we have many thousands more books still in our Denver warehouse, so we've been able to fill the needs of many fans here at the convection by drawing upon our warehouse stock. I'm beginning to think that by Saturday afternoon that our shelves here at the convention are going to be darn near bare... (click on image for larger view) There have also been quite a few fans taking advantage of the special 50% off sale on all the back issues comics and magazines we have listed in our huge online inventory. Those orders have been placed here at the convention, and have also been flooding in to our warehouse from comics fans all around the world. I thank all of you who have been ordering very, very much. Thanks to your support our online sales are not going through the depressed state that we experienced during last year's San Diego Comic-Con. In fact, we've already taken in more this week than we took in for all seven days of the convention last year! If sales keep rolling along at their present pace, we even have a shot at this month being the all-time best July in our history. We'll just have to see how the next eight days turn out. As regards news from elsewhere in the convention, the crowds for today are already huge. Typically Thursday is a relatively slow day at the convention, but that has not at all been the case this year. Despite the convention having now expanded to encompass the entire convention center, every aisle is full of eager fans checking out the booths of the publishers and retailers. I've heard that the initial registration of full (5-day) memberships was an all-time record at 17,000. An additional 60,000 one-day memberships are expected to be sold by Saturday. I cannot even imagine how crowded it is going to be in this building on Saturday. (click on image for larger view) The most important element of the convention that I've noticed this year is just how many fans are smiling. The economy has gotten a little better, and quite a few folks seem to have a little extra money to spend. Aside from that one positive factor, however, people just seem to be relaxed this year, and in a much better mood than in year's past. That makes working the convention very, very pleasant. The one negative about the convention continues to be the logistics of getting in the door. Parking is a nightmare, as all the lots near the convention center fill up by 9 AM. After that point you have to park about ten blocks away. There are some free all-day spots in the warehouse area around 13th St. (near the trolley station), but that is quite a hike away. Once you do get parked, buying a membership can take forever. Last evening was a particular fiasco, as the con committee decided to hire an outside company to handle passing out badges to the 5-day members. The folks from the new "professional" company grossly underestimated how many people they would need to process the thousands of fans. They also reportedly had problems getting their computerized system to work properly. As a result many fans had to wait outside the building for over two hours. Then, to add insult to injury, after finally getting into the building at 7:30 PM, they were forced to leave at 8:30 PM. The situation was similar for comics dealers seeking to retrieve the free passes to the show offered by Diamond Distributing. What is the benefit of getting in for free if you have to wait for over an hour in line just to pick up your badge? The question this raises for me is why the convention doesn't simply start mailing out badges in advance of the show? All the major rock concerts I attend and the Frankfurt Book Fair, send out badges well in advance of the event. Why does San Diego insist on requiring that you pick up your badge in person? It would sure seem to make more sense for them to pay the nominal cost of creating badges that cannot be easily duplicated, and to then mail them out well a month before the show. The convention organizers could then focus their efforts entirely on facilitating getting all the one-day people into the show as quickly as possible. If nothing else, knowing that they could avoid waiting in those awful lines would be a great incentive for many fans and dealers to register well far before the beginning of the show. I'll close today's report with a slew of pictures of the booths around the Mile High Booth. Our 1/3 of the building is primarily comics dealers and publishers. The middle third is mostly media companies, and the far end is toys and the Artist's Alley. I'll get more pictures for you tomorrow. (click on image for larger view) Happy collecting! Chuck Rozanski, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. Also, we have images from yesterday, Wednesday on our website! Pictures from Day Two! Jim Krugher, The Clock Maker Elsbeth helping out in our booth Our good friend Bud Plant Bud Plant Comic Art Broad Sword Comics Rob Liefeld Last Gasp Krause Publications Motor City Comics-Golden Age Comics Our booth from a distance WildStorm DC Comics Day Two Our booth beginning to get busy Monty Python's Albatross and Cthulhu the King Antoinette Dolls Our booth Crow Statue Disney Hellboy Bust Left side of the con Our banner Tripping the Rift-Sci-fi She-Ra Star Wars Pam and Street Fighter Sword Play Tie Fighter Wizards of the Coast