San Diego Comic Con: Preview Night

If the train station signs are written in Klingon, it must be San Diego Comic Con (or we're trapped in the elaborate fantasy of a 16-year-old Radio Shack employee):

Yes, I'm here at Comic Con in San Diego's very charming Gaslight District (so named, I imagined, because the area slowly convinces everyone they are insane). I'm sharing a room with my good friend Brendan of King Features at The Westage, a magnificent hotel designed to resemble Versailles, right down to the curious lack of electrical outlets.

Last night was the first phase of Comic Con--Preview Night--an exclusive event in which every single person alive with a badge or who can convince security detail that these are not the droids they are looking can get a sneak peek at the 179,452 booths. It was quite fun as I spent my time with two great guys, cartoonist Lucas Turnbloom of Imagine This fame (who autographed a copy of his new comic collection for me) and Tom Racine, host of the must-listen for comic strip fans Tall Tales Radio (and whose the mellifluous voice should always be followed by the phrase "as heard on Mercury Theatre").

Naturally, numerous extraordinary and eccentric sights were seen, but thanks to forgetting the camera connection for my laptop and there not being a single electronics store in the Gaslight District (hence the slowly go insane part), I can only share a few less-than-crisp pics I took with my Blackberry until I procure said link (which I've just learned aforementioned mensch Tom Racine did for me). So here is a close-up of one of the finest automobiles to ever ride the streets of Manhattan:

And what is either the Valhalla set from the upcoming Thor movie or the executive bathroom scene from Goldiggers of 1933:

Of course, the single greatest moment for me was meeting and shaking the hand of one of my greatest idols--a man who has had a tremendous impact on both my personal and professional life--Berke Breathed, seen here signing my Bloom County collection (and commenting on what a Southern Italian name I have) in front of, well, a Rockekteer poster:

Today I'm attending the hotly anticipated Tron Legacy preview (or, to put it more accurately, probably getting shut out off the hotly anticipated Tron Legacy preview) and maybe getting within 47 miles of Angelina Jolie at her Salt panel. So stay tuned and next time I'll try to do a blog post with more current references than Charles Boyer films, Orson Welles theater troupes and the Sun King.