Pictures from the 2017 Comic-Con International, part 2: Wednesday, 7/19

Wednesday night of Comic-Con is only open to those who have four-day passes to the show, and it's titled "preview night", but it's really just a mad dash and a frenzied rush as attendees get a head start on the convention. I have to think that in years to come, hours will expand for this day and it'll become something closer to a full day in most other regards, too. This year, the show floor opened at 5:30, a half hour before the advertised time, so maybe we're slowly getting there.

I showed up a few hours early to finish setting up the booth and to take a stroll around the floor before the doors opened. One of the first in line at the rear entrance was this guy:

I talked to him for a minute and learned that he was a writer for the Bleeding Cool website. His Tick paraphernalia came from the offsite location, which was open to press only on Wednesday. I was, of course, stunned to see all of the gear - he gave me a pair of antennae, which was a nice gesture. The voice of Comic-Con spoke out at the end of our conversation, announcing that the hall was open, but the security guards at the doors didn't seem to hear it and held up this line from entering for a solid minute, which I'm sure drove everyone waiting absolutely crazy.

I grabbed a few things at the starting bell and made it onto social media as a result:

1st ever sale of The Tick Pixel Party toy radly went to The Tick writer @JeffMcClelland! Get yours at booth 1234.#TheTick #SDCC #sdcc2017 pic.twitter.com/XoDemSbSe0

— PIXEL PARTY (@PixelPartyOn) July 20, 2017

The first booth I visited was the Pixel Party booth, where I bought their new Tick pixelated action figure, which I think is really great. I got a chance to talk to a few of the people at the company - all great guys who are excited about The Tick.

Also can't forget to thank the first person to swing by and get a pack of Comic Book All Star Trading Cards! Drop by booth 2547 & get yours! pic.twitter.com/6jJKWGkF47

— comiXology (@comiXology) July 20, 2017

Next I hit up the ComiXology booth to get the third set of comic book creator trading cards (which is as absurd as it sounds). I would go to great lengths to get my face on one of their cards, just saying.

Almost as soon as the doors opened, the place was swamped with backpacked individuals.

I saw Andrew Aydin, artist on the "March" series, at the IDW booth!

Lockjaw made an appearance promoting the new Inhumans show.

...there were more crowds of people...

Near the end of the night, I saw Luke McGarry and got my first Thing sketch of Comic-Con 2017 (in the new Thing sketchbook)! McGarry is probably best known for "Sad Chewie", but I knew him because he drew Weird Al in a Festival Supreme 2016 poster - which I was also able to buy at the booth. I got some great Thing sketches this time around.

Preview night ended up being 3.5 hours this year, which never feels like enough, but I managed to get a good amount done in that time. After walking through the Gaslamp District and getting some pizza, I called it a night.

That's it for Wednesday. I'll post pictures for Thursday soon!

Marvel Value Stamps are the bane of my existence.

I took a trip home to take in the Pittsburgh Comicon on September 12th - not because the Pittsburgh con is a great con by most definitions (it's remained relatively the same for the past decade or so...just like the Pirates!), but because Stan Lee was making an appearance. As I've always wanted to meet The Man and won't get many more opportunities, I took the 600-mile jaunt and managed to score some home cooking and find a few sought after comics in the mix.

One of the worst comics (as far as the physical condition is concerned) I have out of the thousands I've got stashed away in boxes is a copy of Fantastic Four #150, which features a rare battle with Ultron as well as the wedding of the Inhuman Crystal and Pietro Maximoff, the mutant Quicksilver with the Pinko Commie name. This isn't an uncommon issue or a particularly expensive one - the reason I have such an awful copy is a cautionary tale in and of itself: I rather haphazardly bought it on eBay. I got it for a great price, but I skimmed over the description, which, of course, is a silly thing to do when buying practically anything online.

The book is in such bad shape because whoever previously owned it decided that it'd be fun to draw mustaches on every character in the book - man, woman, child, dog, and robot. Nothing living and not a vegetable was spared. Now, I'm all for a good mustache joke, but come on. Don't draw facial hair or any other kind of hair on my comics!

In any case, I found a few good comics at the con that I thought worth buying - a few early issues of the Sub Mariner Tales to Astonish series, the last issue of the first modern Human Torch series, a recent Avengers issue I was missing, and, lo and behold, a nice looking copy of Fantastic Four #150. I got it at a great price - 50% off what the vendor was originally charging, too! Then I took it home and opened it up - over all, a really spectacular copy.

Except the damn Marvel Value Stamp was cut out.

Marvel put these "stamps" (which were really just pictures of stamps - there was no adhesive backing or anything like that, just the other side of the page) in most of their books for a few years back in the mid 1970s. I'd imagine they were there to give kids another incentive to buy more of their books - what's collecting without getting the complete set?!

I will admit that I like the idea of the stamps. They have, in all honesty, a nostalgic feel about them that I enjoy; they're kind of the precursor of comic book trading cards at any rate, and I like the history behind them.

But dammit! Stop cutting them out of the books I'm paying money for thirty years later, people! Seriously!