Comic-Con Is Coming!

Once again, Comic-Con has arrived and will take over downtown San Diego starting this Wednesday night through the weekend. Unlike the last two years, however, I won't be there. I don't have a ticket--they are very hard to get this year.

My wife is going, though. She heads out early tomorrow morning, taking my son and his friend along. The two young men don't have tickets either, but will spend the time hanging out in San Diego, a favorite vacation spot. There's a lot that happens outside the Convention Center, too--much of it free--so they are expecting to have a great time.

Comic-Con, the world's largest comic/movie/graphic novel convention, has gotten so enormous that even the sprawling San Diego Convention Center is becoming a tight fit. They plan to move it to Anaheim in a few years, which will be a real hit to San Diego's downtown businesses and hotels. And San Diego is a nicer place to hang out, too. But--if it's this hard to get a ticket, they have to somehow find a way to accommodate everybody.

When I attended, I found myself talking with artists and graphic novel authors and artists much of the time. I'm less interested in the movies or the video games, but there is no shortage of entertainment just walking the hall, which feels like it's a mile long and a half mile wide.

It's fun outside the hall, when you may see a Klingon talking with Captain America and Hello Kitty at a streetcorner. Or, you can have a meal at Dick's Last Resort, where the specialty of the house is being insulted by the wait staff. They may even single you out and put an insulting (and possibly obscene) paper hat on you!

I'll miss the action, and also the preview of next year's new Spider-Man movie, but maybe, if I act quickly, I can get tickets for 2012.

Here Comes the Spider-Man!

I just read in USA Today that a nearly mint copy of Amazing Fantasy No. 15--the comic that introduced Spider-Man to the world--sold for $1.1 million dollars. It came out in 1962 and somehow escaped the fate of the comics I used to read and collect, which got rolled up and stuck in a back pocket or piled under the bed in a heap. It's the highest price ever paid for a comic from what's known as the "Silver Age" of comics--the mid-1950's to around 1970.

I read comics from 1964 to the early 1970's and loved Spider-Man. My first issue was number 8. My mom got it for me along with several other now forgotten comics when I was home from school sick.

I loved the story of Peter Parker, the nerd with glasses who suddenly, with the bite of a radioactive spider, acquired super powers. I would have loved to have had super powers in the 7th grade.

I started buying Spider-Man and other Marvel comics off the newsstand myself with issue 25 and was able to fill in most of the gaps from guys in the neighborhood. My oldest one was number 2, featuring the Vulture--a popular and recurring Spider-Man villian.

Starting with issue number 39 the artist changed from the classic Steve Ditko to the sleeker renderings of Johnny Romita. I still treasure those original 38 issues--but don't own any comics now. I gave it up as an adult--but now I wish I had those slim little Marvel 12-cent classics back.