Pictures from the 2019 Comic-Con International, part 2 (Wednesday, 7/17)

Let's look at Wednesday's pictures at Comic-Con 2019!

Preview Night started early for me this year, as I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Conan O'Brien taping that took place before the convention officially opened. This means getting up early and waiting in line - a Comic-Con tradition! - to officially get the tickets you had semi-reserved. I got in line at about 7:30am; there were several hundred people in front of me. But I got my tickets and was set loose at around 10:00.

From there I hopped back over to the convention center to complete the booth setup...and to see some of the displays while there was time.

The Comic-Con tarp thing that hangs outside of the convention. Still looking good after another year in storage!

One of the nearby parking garages was dressed up in an Avengers promotion.

I saw a few interesting things on the show floor. This Marvel Two-in-One cover caught my eye, for some reason.

And, oh, this Action Comics #1, graded 8.5, as well. That's a $2 million book right there. Sheesh. The other ones aren't bad, either.

The Conan taping started at around 3:45 that afternoon. The Spreckels Theatre looked snazzy, as always.

Here I am with some friends! I'm apparently showing off my bracelet.

The guests on this day were from the It sequel. Bill Hader giggled through most of the interview. It was a weird show - more raunchy than I had expected. I know that Conan recently moved to a new 30-minute format, but this show ran an hour. Everyone was excited to be there! And when the show ended, we burst out of the theater and galloped toward the convention center. It was great to be able to see the show without having to miss any time at the convention.

I got inside about a half hour before the floor opened. It's always fun to see things right beforehand - there's a nervous energy going through the crowd of exhibitors.

And here's the Dark Horse staff getting those yellow bags ready...

...and I saw Robert Kirkman walking around the floor...

And then it was open! And it got crowded fast.

One of my first stops was the Marvel booth. I'm a sucker for SDCC comics and Marvel has had some interesting ones the past few years.

Some Captain Marvel costumes and props were on display by the booth!

I passed by Grae Drake, former Rotten Tomatoes gal and current Ms. Moviefone, and we got this very natural picture together.

In years past, I was able to do most of my shopping on this night (to be fair, I shop every day, but I get the bulk of my "must have" items on Wednesday if I can). This year, for whatever reason, the lines seemed to move more slowly than I remembered. I stood in the Marvel line for quite some time, and when I got out, there wasn't a lot of time left to see and do other things. But I did see this Alien statue!

So, I apparently have a three-issue comic series coming out this fall from Keenspot? This was interesting to see. I'll write more about it at another time, but a lot of this was unexpected.

Here's my friend and collaborator Mario Wytch, who I met for the first time in person, despite knowing him online for about 15 years. I also learned at this show that his last name is not pronounced "witch".

After the show ended for the night, I stopped by the Chuck Jones Gallery in the Gaslamp district, one of my go-to locations every year. It's always a fun place to stop and see.

There were some neat Fantastic Four prints on display among the other items.

NBC's The Good Place had a pancake diner right in the Gaslamp, which seemed to be one of the more popular attractions during the show.

Super7 once again had a neat offsite pop-up shop; this year it was called the "Boodega" after being Skeletor and Hordak's Lair for the past few years. The line was just as long as it always was, though, and because I don't have any particular affinity for the Universal movie monsters, this was as close as I got.

It was a pretty low-key night all around, but it was a big day with Conan in the morning and early afternoon. After getting some pizza, I was ready to head back and get ready for Thursday. We'll look at those pictures soon!

Pictures from the 2018 Comic-Con International, part 2 (Wednesday, 7/18)

Let's look at some pictures from Comic-Con's preview night, Wednesday the 17th! As usual, I took advantage of my exhibitor badge to take pictures and see stuff before the crowd made its way in!

So they still make Transformers movies. What are these movies like? What happens in them? Does anyone know? Maybe they'll make a Beast Wars movie some day. Anyway, this Bumblebee display was pretty impressive.

Thanos snapped his fingers and MegaBloks disappeared.

I know that this is a video game display. That's the extent of what I know about this.

Time for a few last minute arrangements, and...

...open!

The doors to the hall opened a half hour early this year, at 5:30. And things were actually pretty calm until 6:00, which leads me to believe that only certain lines were allowed in for the first half hour, which was interesting. I naturally ran around like mad and made it through a number of lines before things started to get really crowded.

I can see carpet! What is going on?!

Here's Chris Burnham and Robert Kirkman signing...things.

Snake or dragon?

People do dress up on Preview Night! Here's Mario, Princess Peach and...Toad, before we collectively were no longer allowed to dress as Toad ever again.

I know this character is from an Adult Swim show, but can anyone tell me which one?

Preview Night ended at 9:00, and soon after, I made my way over to the Super7 offsite location! This year's theme was "Hordak's Lair", but I guess they still had the Skeletor's Lair neon sign, so they used the branding for both.

Super7 released the "Laughing He-Man" figure at Comic-Con, and I had to make sure I got one. Like before, they had collections on display as well, such as this lovely Snake Mountain!

And there's Hordak, the man of the hour.

I would love it very much if Super7 one day decided to get a bigger space for their store, because it always takes a long time to get in. I guess that's part of the point - the exclusivity of it all - and once again I was willing to brave the line. But I would be okay if I only had to wait half as long.

What else did I end up with on Preview Night? Well, ABC Studio had quite a few items on sale for the first time that I can remember, including...this Golden Girls mystery box. It cost $45, and it was imminently worth it.

That's it for Preview Night. More to come later!

Pictures from the New York Comic Con, part 2: Saturday (Robert Kirkman, Dana Snyder, and...okay, more costumes)

Hi, everyone. Here are some more pictures from this year's New York Comic Con, taken on the Saturday of the show.

I've probably seen more group costumes at NYCC than any other show. I wonder why that is? Anyway, here's a pretty neat Game of Thrones smattering.

Adult Swim had a glass-lined cubicle set up on the show floor where they were streaming video to their website. You could wait in line to be on the program for a few minutes. I wonder how many people swore just to see if you could.

Here's a really nice costume from the He-Man cartoon and...wait, is that guy wearing a Steelers jersey in the background? Good for you, guy.

I guess these people beat up Batman. Fair enough.

Here's a view of the mass of humanity at the show. Those hallways fill up very quickly and very tightly.

There were two great Lex Luthor costumes that I saw at this show. This battle suit is great!

This lady was born to dress up as Barb. Very well done.

I got on the escalator to get to the main hall and found that I was right behind "Walking Dead" co-creator Robert Kirkman. I'm pretty sure the only reason I was able to get a picture with him is because neither of us was going anywhere for half a minute.

I'm fairly sure all of these Spider-people came to the show separately and then were drawn together when they saw the elaborate Carnage.

Here are some folks as the TV-show inspired Flash and Professor Zoom.

I've actually seen a few Ant-Man costumes lately. It doesn't look like a very easy costume to make, so that's surprising to me.

I chased these MST3K fans down for about three minutes before I could get close enough to take this picture.

Okay, this guy is dressed up like every Johnny Depp character (or a lot of them, anyway). I thought this was a really unique outfit, but Larry tells me that he's seen it before.

I got a picture with this Thing last year, and I had seen the Invisible Woman then as well. But this year the whole gang got together. Great to see a Fantastic Four group costume at the show!

And then I saw someone else dressed up as Mr. Fantastic! Crazy!

I caught up to Dana Snyder - Master Shake on Aqua Teen Hunger Force - in artist alley. He shouted right as the camera took the picture. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.

I'll never get tires of seeing Chairface Chippendale costumes.

I love that this is an issue specific Mr. Fantastic. The costume (and the beard) are from the Hickman run on the book.

Someone dressed up as the Comedy Bang! Bang! mascot! We even exchanged show quotes.

Shameful fact about your old pal Jeff: I've never watched The Sopranos. I know that I should fix this and I plan to one day. Here I am with Matt Servitto, who I knew because I was an extra a few times on the show "Banshee", where he plays a small town sheriff, and I remember seeing him there. We talked a little bit about the show and Pittsburgh in general. He's probably best known for his role on Sopranos, which I found out soon after.

This whole family was dressed in their Starfleet uniforms.

Interestingly enough, Run DMC had a table in artist alley.

Samurai Vader.

I was walking past the Stan Lee Collectibles booth, and I thought to myself, "Oh, I wonder if Stan Lee ever comes here". I then thought that was a stupid idea, because what would he do there? Sell merchandise? Then I looked to my right and I saw Stan Lee. It was at this time that everyone else in a 30-foot radius also noticed him, and chaos ensued. A huge crowd gathered and he left soon after. Here's a picture of a guy getting a picture of himself near Stan Lee.

And here's Stan Lee, pretending not to notice the masses gathering around him. Everyone was very excited, but thankfully no fathers of modern comics were trampled.

And here's the last group shot of the show, near closing time. Lookit all of these '90s-era X-Men! I think I see Marrow in the back. That Bishop is rockin' it pretty hard.