The con is on

Right now a small frenzy is happening in Southern California as the annual San Diego ComicCon kicks into full gear. Approximately 150,000 geeks and their drug dealers are swarming the city until Sunday.

By the way, when I saw drug dealers, I don’t mean literally people selling crack and heroin, although I have no doubt there are few of those kicking around the city. No, these are people supplying geeks with the stuff to satisfy their habit. You may call them businessmen or women. I prefer to label them for what they are. They are supplying comic books, action figures, odd paraphernalia, science fiction oddities or whatever. If you’re a geek and you’re jonesing, then the ComicCon is the o.d. for your habit.

I know that many of the people who read this blog have little or no interest in comic books. However, as I believe Neil Gaiman put it, comic books are the tail that wags the dog at this thing. Gaiman, for example, is not there to promote a novel or a comic book, but rather two movies. The adaptation of his illustrated novel Stardust, which is coming out in two weeks, and for his screenplay adaptation of Beowulf, which is coming out at Christmas. Plenty of other movies will also be getting sneak peaks at the con in an attempt to build buzz before they open.

However, if you want to get an idea of what it’s like, just click on pretty much any of the links under the “Geek” section of the sidebar and you’ll get a small dose of what the insanity that is the Con is like.

And yeah, I’ll be checking out the announcements, because I am a big comic geek. The names of new writers, artists and storylines actually matter to me, sadly enough. Although my favourite announcement so far, although it’s early, is that porn star Jenna Jameson will be starring in a comic book called “Shadow Hunter” for, wait for it, Virgin Comics.

I’ll also be checking out this site.

One of the things that amuses me the most about the con are the costumes. And thanks to the joys of digital and cell phone cameras and photo websites, now everyone can get an idea of what it’s like at the con, and the types of costumes people are wearing. Yes, some of them are lame, although there’s something about the lameness that makes it endearing. The Elvis (Elvi?) Stormtroopers will no doubt show up, although the Samurai Stormtroopers from a couple of years ago are my favourite.

And, of course, there are plenty of women who think it’s a good idea to dress up in skin-tight and revealing costumes surrounded by thousands of geeks, many of whom are probably still virgins.

I really would like to go to this madhouse one day. Almost arranged it last year, but given the size of this con and how fast hotel rooms disappear, you almost need to plan a trip a year in advance. As it stands, the earliest I could see us making it back to San Diego will be in 2010. The tentative plan is to go to Costa Rica that year for a couple of weeks, and then maybe pop up to San Diego for the con and then perhaps back to San Francisco to visit friends. But we shall see. That year also marks the end of our original five year plan for the North. I suspect that’s going to be a summer of transitions for us.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for some quick amusement, check out some of the sites. If nothing else, you have to admire the enthusiasm.