Spaz Diego

Sam & Max costumeWell, here I am in beautiful San Diego in about the most unbeautiful place you can imagine, the San Diego Comic Con. At one time I thought that it’d be impossible to cram as many people into one place as they do at Tokyo Disneyland. I know better now.

It’s neat to be walking around and seeing random celebrities I’m interested in — I saw Craig McCracken and the other guy from Shaun of the Dead who’s not Simon Pegg (turns out his name is Nick Frost) and I’m sure a few others that I’m forgetting. Still, it’s just way too crowded to be enjoyable. I think the Wonder Con, as dismal as it tends to be, is more my scale.

One thing I’ve realized is that these things put out some kind of coolness suppression aura. I’m a nerdy guy, and I’ll be the first to admit. But I’m a high-functioning nerd; I generally do an acceptable job of appearing somewhat normal. As soon as I get at one of these conventions, though, I turn into Lisa Lubner from the original Saturday Night Live. I’ll be talking to someone, and my brain is screaming “look them in the eye, look them in the eye,” but I just physically can’t. I trip over things, I forget what I’m saying halfway into a sentence, I just basically lose all non-dork functionality.

So far, Comic Con is pretty much exactly how it’s always been described to me. Huge, and hot, and manic, and impossibly crowded and geeky. And it’s something that’s good to see once, but you really don’t need to make a return visit. As soon as we entered the exhibit floor, I thought, “It’s like a quieter E3.” I wish I’d learned my lesson from E3 earlier; I would’ve been happier if I’d stopped after one.

And if you happen to be at the Con, stop by the Telltale Games booth and say howdy.