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The Douche Army has packed up their Desigual and headed back home, leaving Sunday for comics here at Comic-Con. It’s been an action packed week of parades, parties and panels. The big news from the show? Was it Andrew Garfield at the Spider-Man panel? Was it Tintin? Was it Paul Pope and Matt Wagner joining Frank Miller at Legendary Comics? Was it Fantagraphics adding EC to its reprint line-up?

Or was it just the “Angoulême of Pop Culture” feeling of the town all week? From the Conan O’Brien Art Gallery to Tr!ckster to Marvel’s Monster Truck display, the entire Gaslamp has become one big festival of pop culture, more so than ever before. Last night the klieg lights were on star power with the COWBOYS & ALIENS premiere — Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Steven Spielberg and Jon Favreau did the old school red carpet for the premiere while the E!/SyFy party had the block closed down for arrivals.

Meanwhile, the plan for Tr!ckster to become the chilled out hang for cartooning types was definitely achieved, as it was packed to the rafters last night with the likes of Jeff Smith, Ben Templesmith, John Cassaday, Amanda Conner, and too many to count, really. Mike Allred’s band rocked out with some prog rock stylings and the lawn quickly filled up with comics people hanging, laughing and planning.

While the sheer spectacle that is Comic-Con is overwhelming to all, everyone seems to be having a fun, productive show. People are used to the heightened security and larger crowds, and have simply adapted to get their business done the new way.

While the whole story won’t be told on Tr!ckster until the dust settles, it seemed to be a sales success. Co-founder Scott Morse says that books sold briskly, while original art was more of a high-ticket item that moved slowly.

Elsewhere, the big story was people wondering what was the big story. As usual, the gestalt of Comic-Con is more powerful than any single part, and people will only see the elephant after they get some rest.

1 COMMENT

  1. Frank Miller and Paul Pope walked by us twice (brushing by us). Miller looks sick. He also kept looking at my 14 year old boy (all decked out with Con swag) somewhat expectantly. We knew who he was but said nothing. Anyone know if he’s sick or anything?

  2. And Nerds throughout the world, now a-bed
    Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
    And hold their geekhoods cheap whiles any speaks
    That went with us to Comic-Con this year
    .

    Be it Angoulême or Agincourt for we few, we happy 120K who were fortunate to have attended this year’s Con: anxiously anticipated… exhaustively enjoyed… glad it’s all over… can’t wait till next year.

    SDCC ’11, one for the books.