In another example of the time warp phenomenon, weeks later I came across Comic Buyer's Guide editor Maggie Thompson's blog entries on the Con () and found out that the Con organizers had decided to open at 9 AM that day but had apparently screwed up informing the exhibitors, many of whom were not yet there to guard the merchandise at their booths. The Convention was supposed to open at 10 AM, but I got there over a half hour early only to discover at 9:30 that the security people, the Red Shirts, in a surprising display of mercy, had started letting us in. She introduced a report from Comic-Con, and the man said he sensed "nerds." Later in the telecast the male anchor interviewed Jean Schulz and said that people would be surprised to find out that Peanuts started out as a comic strip. On a flat-screen TV in the breakfast room were two local news anchors, a man and a woman. THE FLOOR SHOW As I resume my account of my 2005 Comic-Con experiences, it is Saturday morning, which I started by having breakfast at my hotel, noticing that a woman at the table was reading a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, released roughly only eight hours before. Here is another reason to value Comic-Con: one should not take the opportunity to see, hear, and meet the great individuals of this artform for granted: they will not be here forever. Over the years I've seen other giants of comic and cartoon art at the San Diego Con who have since passed away, including Milton Caniff, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ward Kimball, Joe Shuster, and, of course, Will Eisner and Jack Kirby. This reminds me of the fact that the Silver Age comics writer John Broome died within a year after I saw him make his first and only convention appearance at the 1998 Comic-Con. This was only a month and one day since I had seen him on the "Disney Coming Attractions" panel in Comic-Con's Hall H (see "Comics in Context #96: "Dial H for Humongous"). It was surprising to learn at the Cartoon Brew blog () that Joe Ranft, a head of story for Toy Story and Toy Story 2 and the forthcoming Cars, and described by one person on the blog as "the heart of Pixar," died in an automobile accident on August 16. People who only know about Comic-Con from such media portrayals would never know that the Con provides opportunities to see and hear major figures in the realms of comic and cartoon art, people who have made genuine artistic achievements. Entourage's contempt for the Con and its audience was so intense that several minor characters were listed in the credits as Geeks 1 through 6. The episode wasn't actually shot at Comic-Con, and is mostly set at a hotel, which looked as if it might be the Marriott near the Convention Center. Then there was the recent episode of HBO's Entourage, in which its lead characters head to the Comic-Con to promote a forthcoming Aquaman movie. For example, I've discovered that the movie website iFilm features various brief films shot at Comic-Con, including one, "The Girls of Comic-Con," whose hostess mocks the "geeks" and "dorks" in attendance, even while the film panders to their presumed tastes by interviewing women in scanty costumes. Then there is the persistent nuisance of seeing the media cover Comic-Con as if it were the modern day equivalent of the way Elizabethans used to entertain themselves by gawking at the inmates of madhouses.
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