Over the past few days (nearly a week, actually: early Wednesday morning to late Sunday night), I attended San Diego Comic Con. This is my sixth year attending, and fourth in a row. As is the case every year, it was a completely overwhelming experience that I loved to pieces and that I couldn't possibly hope to explain in detail. So read on as I try to do just that anyway.

The first, important note: I was sick the whole time. Remarkably sick. More sick than I've been in years, even. I could feel it coming on early Tuesday morning, and just knew it was going to peak over the course of the Con. And I was right! A chest cold, which gave way to a sore throat, which in turn gave way to a head cold, and with a nasty cough that stuck with all three. I endured the con well enough, though I admit, more than once it was causing me some frustration. Usually when I was trying to talk to someone (especially some awesome artist I admire) and I had the pause the conversation every few minutes so I could point my head at the ground and have a violent coughing fit. I'm still sick now, but at least I think I'm at the point where my body is finally recovering. Gonna be a few more days before I know for sure, though.

I also apologize to my roommates at this con, as I most certainly got each of them sick.

Oh yeah, roommates! My compatriots at the con, as has been the case in the past, were the ever-wonderful  zarafa,  calico, and  dreamcastfox. Having them around always makes the con that much more fun and exciting, and I was really happy to spend more time with them. Even if Zarafa ditched us on Friday to head off to some snuggle party across the country. But, I digress. Onto the con itself.

I arrived in San Diego Wednesday afternoon, after nearly having a physical breakdown on the plane thanks to the aforementioned sickness (not a lot of times in my life I've put serious consideration to the idea "I wonder what would happen if I just stood up, vomited everywhere, and dramatically fainted in the aisle..."). For the first time ever, I'd managed to score tickets to Preview Night, which is basically an extra three hours of con time on Wednesday evening. It let me get a better layout and handle on the exhibition hall floor before Thursday, and as a result the whole Con went that much smoother.

It's a bit difficult to explain the Con as a whole, really. I'd say 75% of it was spent with me just wandering around the massive exhibition hall. Thousands of booths spread out across the whole convention center, with every conceivable geek property represented in some way. Comics, movies, books, games, anime, cartoons, artists, shirts, and everything in between, and then every one of those another three times over. All the while, a good 120,000+ folks are wandering around with you. Every known demographic is here, and the cosplay folks go from the well-known properties (sooooo much Fury Road and Steven Universe this year) to stuff slightly more obscure (I certainly wasn't expecting someone to do this as a cosplay. I loved it). Many times in the past I've referred to Comic Con as the Geek Mecca, and I still can't think of a better way to put it.

Outside of floor wandering, I managed plenty of other fun activities. I got into the panels for both Gravity Falls and Rick & Morty (the latter thanks entirely to Streaks), and each of them was a blast of a time. The show staff who showed up were totally enthusiastic, and the short clips of upcoming episodes I saw from each show left me super excited. I also managed to get to a smaller panel that talked about the state of modern horror (specifically how there's a lot of amazing stuff that's come out over the past few years, and almost all of it being on a much smaller scale than most movies) that was really interesting. And also Elijah Wood showed up to that one, and was as charming and adorable as ever (he's so tiny!).

What else, what else? There's the ten or so sketches I got in my sketchbook, and the two Mondo posters I managed to snag (for Ant-Man and Crimson Peak), and all the other con swag and comics and books and posters and whatnot I accumulated. Then there's all the artists! Beyond the ones who I got sketches from, including the amazingly wonderful Tracy Butler of Lackadaisy Cats, I was able to chit-chat with a whole host of immensely talented people of all sorts of mediums. Special shout-out goes to poster artist Jay Shaw, who was very friendly and who I've been meaning to meet for years. And then there's just the random folk I met in the many, many lines, all of whom proved nice and interesting in their own way. And also dozens upon dozens of other things that I can't immediately draw to mind, because it was such a full five days that I'm still just trying to get my head wrapped around it all myself. Great cons are like that.

Because it was a great con! It can be hard to really explain the "appeal" of Comic Con, especially once those aforementioned crowds and lines-upon-lines are brought up. And it's true, the absurd crowd levels, long wait times, and obscene price-gouging ($2.25 for a single banana!? Are you insane!?) certainly paint the picture of an event that is far more trouble than it's worth. The stress brought on by the event and the need to do a dozen things each day (some of which are scheduled at the same time) just compounds as the hours tick by. Then there's the need to get up at the crack of dawn to get in line to really have a chance to get anything, and then there's trying not to destroy your back carrying all your swag around all day, and then there's trying not to bankrupt yourself in the process, and then there's all sorts of other little problems that find new and exciting ways to rear their heads over the weekend (like getting a sunburn over your face and neck because you didn't even think about sunscreen until you've stood in line for an hour in the midday sun).

And yet... it still just works. It's an atmospheric thing, I believe. An almost palpable buzz in the air that you're at the center of the collective geek hive mind. You're surrounded by all these like-minded people and all these amazingly cool sights and items, all in this massive pop culture bubble. For a few days, your world is a few square miles of San Diego, and in that time everything just feels a bit more interesting. A bit more weird and cool and fun and everything else. We all feel it at Furry cons, this is just that amplified in various ways and to an extreme degree.

I really love going to Comic Con. I've been going all these years for that very reason, and each year I find more and more things I love about it. I hope to go again next year, provided that the ticket Gods once again smile down on me. And I hope as many of my friends as possible are able to go as well, because this is the ultimate geek social event, and friends make it that much better.

For now, another one has gone by. Now I'm back into the real world, adjusting to it as best I can. I've been fairly out and about over the past few weeks, as my previous journals have indicated, and that all ends today. Now, it's time for a quiet stretch of nothing. I start Paramedic School two months from tomorrow, and from there my life will likely get considerably busier. So between now and then, I just want to hang with friends, watch movies, and generally take every little thing as easy as possible.

Except when ticket sales for next year roll around, of course. Then it's time to get my game face on.