Conventions

Otakon, the anime/manga show held each year in Baltimore, drew a record 31,000 fans. Brigid Alverson runs down the announcements from Viz, Bandai, Funimation and Aniplex .

Another winner in TCJ's cartoonist diary series.

The Comics Journal is posting video tapes of several Comic-Con panels -- so avoiding those crowds was the right way to go after all! Here's one that we much desired to see 50 Years of Comic Book Fandom with Mark Evanier, Jean Bails, Paul Levitz, Dick and Pat Lupoff, Richard Kyle, Bill Schelly, Roy Thomas, and Maggie Thompson. This is where it all began, people.

But does media really dominate the programming at Comic-Con International? Let's find out!

One red-eye flight from Burbank later, and I've had the most uninterrupted sleep I've gotten in two weeks. It will take another 10 hours to really get normal, but for that I've got to hang on until the weekend. YOU CAN DO IT! I'll have more emblematic con thoughts tomorrow, but for now a few shout outs:

Okay we're not going to spend weeks and weeks rounding up San Diego memories, but we are going to share a few good ones. James Kochalka has started his sketchbook diaries account, and this is the comics equivalent of the MODERN FAMILY recap.

By Ali Colluccio Days at Comic-Con: 4 Total hours of sleep: 15 Total number of drinks: lost track after 23... Time of brain death: Sunday, July 24, 12:47am PDT, Hyatt lobby bar Items crossed off To-Do list: 10 (out of 22)

While a veil of acceptance settled over most of the attendees of the just passed Big Show, a few people were still miserable, namely those who had to sleep out over night on concrete to get a ticket for next year, with the oft-heard, but seldom-heeded battle cry "I don’t think I’m coming next year."

One of the best stories coming out of Comic-con? After they had camped out for two days, diehard Twilight fans got a huge thrill when cast members showed up with some breakfast:

There's been much chatter out there that WonderCon doesn't have dates yet -- and indeed construction on the Moscone Center in SF means that the con doesn't yet have dates. Now, retailer Chuck Rozanski suggests, the big spring convention might be moving to Anaheim!

By James Urbaniak -- I was planning to arrive at San Diego Thursday morning but I ended up getting a callback for one of my trademarked red herring characters on a crime procedural for Thursday afternoon. (Seriously, why do I still have to audition for these red herrings? But that's another blog post.) So I ended up taking the train from Los Angeles Thursday night. I arrived around 11:00 pm. An Adult Swim party was in full swing but I was tired and carrying bags. Dr. Venture took a cab to his hotel.

by Lauren Adkins I'm writing from the Indigo Ballroom line! A wise man once said, Comic-Con plans often go to complete shit. And since my arrival...