[Thanks to Amy Berg, Aaron Douglas, Cristi Jacques, Ryan North and Tommy Wiseau for unwittingly appearing in this comic. If any of you don’t like it, please email and I will remove your image.]

My first San Diego Comic-Con has come and gone and I live to tell the tale. I don’t want to just list everything that happened in chronological order (since I am still decompressing and processing the longest convention of my life), but I would like to relate a few highlights.

I have a few of the SDCC exclusive “Protest” prints
[based on this comic] left over from the con.

If you want one, order a comic print from the store
and put “SDCC Protest Print” in the notes.

Also make sure to let me know what you want written in the blank sign.

The week pretty much started with w00tstock SDCC. I went on sort of a last minute whim only expecting to have a reasonable amount of fun and I left with a refreshed perspective on why it is I do what I do. Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage, Paul and Storm and their MANY scheduled and surprise guests certainly delivered in the entertainment department but what made that night special, made it unique was the palpable sense of “I am home.” I don’t often feel at ease on the road. I rarely sleep at all when I am away from my own bed and I usually feel displaced from reality until I return to my typical surroundings. w00tstock instantly replaced that unease with a sense of belonging and community. The weirdest part is that we (the audience) weren’t even interacting with each other directly. But we were REacting in the same manor to the same geeky stimuli. Each joke, each reference, each touching story were met with comunal LOLs, smirks and tears. I remembered why I make this silly comic. I make it for these people. These were my people. These were my friends. In our collective choice to be weird, we chose to belong. That may sound sappy but it was real. I felt it and I know you (if you were there) felt it too. I was particularly grateful that I got a chance to tell Wil how much that night meant to me when he came by the Topatoco booth a couple of days later. For a much more complete list of of the amazing, unexpected and special things that happened at w00tstock SDCC please see the write ups from Wheaton and Paul and Storm. Also listen to Paul and Storm’s heartbreaking podcast about how Joss Whedon was accidentally turned away at the door.

I am also grateful that during w00tstock I was able to finally meet long time Fancy Bastard and TV writer/producer extraordinary Amy Berg [pictured above with me and Chief]. Amy was a writer and producer on Leverage (still one of my favorite hours on TV) and is now a writer/EP on the geektacular Eureka. I tend to ramble when I’m excited so between w00tstock, meeting Amy, Amy introducing me to Eureka creator Jamie Paglia and Mythbuster Grant Imahara I was probably talking… err, spewing nonsense from my face-hole like a ruptured pipeline. Amy invited me to the Eureka screening the next night (Which was fantastic btw. Watch it.) and for the first time in my life I was able to watch a television show, get up from my chair and immediately walk over to the guest star (Wil Wheaton) and tell him “good job.” I’m sure that’s an every day occurrence for some, but for me it was truly special. Amy came by the booth on the final day of SDCC and I loaded her down with HE swag. She is a joy to be around and a prime example of living the pro-geek life to the fullest.

Thanks to my buddies from Cyanide and Happiness I was one of the first people in the world to see The House That Drips Blood On Alex, a short film starring The Room director, Tommy Wiseau. I will not be able to use human language to properly describe the levels on which this experience affected me so please feel free to assume that you should take whatever emotions or impact I am able to convey and multiply it by infinity. Room fans will be please to know that THTDBoA (though only 20 minutes long) was exactly as incomprehensible as it’s predecessor. It will eventually be airing on Comedy Central and you will all get to know the happiness-secrets that it contains. What you will never be able to do, however, is be present for the panel that followed the movie. When I tell you that it was like descending face first into the mouth of madness, understand that I am not exaggerating. If anything I am underplaying the sheer macabre, non sequitur experience of witnessing a (seemingly) ordinary human man display a complete disconnect, nay, disregard for coherent communication. I have NEVER laughed so hard for so long and with such utter confusion in my entire life. Tommy Wiseau will one day return to his home planet or dimension of origin but for now we on Earth are blessed with his ferocious insanity. Some videos from the panel are already on Youtube and I have a few that I need to upload myself. Hopefully the entire thing will be made available soon. It was glorious. I spent the rest of the evening giggling like a child.

[more on SDDC, my Topatoco boothmates and other happenings tomorrow in part 2!]

Did you miss the COMIC-CON EXCLUSIVE “Browncoat vs. Red Shirt” SHIRTS?

I designed these shirt for Quantum Mechanix, but they were only available at Comic-con due to licensing issues. If you would like for them to be available online I strongly urge you to email beth[at]quantummechanix[dot]com and let her know just how much you like these shirts. The more positive emails she gets the more ammo she will have to prove to the studios that these shirts should live on. [NO ANGRY EMAILS AT ALL, PLEASE. BETH AND QMX ARE ON OUR SIDE]

Special thanks to JustChristine and JonnyAce for hosting me at SDCC. They are indeed the fanciest of bastards.