How to sum up Comic-Con 2004. Oh, where shall I begin.

First, even though the fanboys are bellyaching about the lousy name for the new SW prequel, I saw it with my own eyes: the fanboys were lining up in droves to get anything and everything Star Wars. The biggest bottleneck on the display floor was that damn Star Wars Pavilion.

I think that they should have borrowed a title from a Batman illustrated novel and called the last of the prequels "Knightfall." Because this episode, if they follow all the stuff marks both nightfall for the Republic and the fall of Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight. Then again, this is the trilogy that reduced "The Force is strong with this one" to "oh my, look at the Midichlorian count in that boy's blood." This is the trilogy that allowed the Jedi to fool around all they want, just don't get "attached." (Great, the Jedi Code, reduced to the Playboy Philosophy.) This is the trilogy that unleashed the creeping horror that is Jar Jar Binks on the public.

It seems that even though the consensus is that Episode 1 and Episode 2 sucked and that Episode 3 is going to be like Catwoman's litterbox if she forgot to scoop after a while, the fanboys still eat up the whole Star Wars thing with ketchup. The SW Pavilion was mobbed, I saw tons of people walking around with very expensive replica (not a toy, toys cost much less than replicas) light sabers, and there was a lot of SW-related cosplay going on.

The best thing people were giving away at the con was this duffle bag with a "Highlander" logo on it...I missed out on them, alas. However, the funniest was a "Manhwa" (Korean for "Manga") sampler that was apparently translated by the same folks who translated the videogame Zero Wing. Here's an example of the prose you can find within:

This baby is from the Devil World to kill all family...

We have to kill the baby! We have to!

Oh my God, they are twins!

Shintak got wrong everything!

Don't be so suspicious with holy Shintak!

Evil stone! We can sure who is really from the Devil World with this stone.

Pretty good, huh? There's more where that came from. I might just post from the Manhwa book when I have a spare moment and no ideas to post anything else to my blog.

Highlights: catching up with Jim Smith, Spumco big shot and all-around good guy; catching up with Megatokyo creator Fred aka Piro and Sara aka Seraphim; seeing Bill Plympton's new feature Hair High; finally meeting MTV Downtown and now Megas XLR creator Chris Prynoski; and best of all, the June Foray panel discussion where America's premier voice actress got some mad props and participated in recreations of two Jay Ward classic cartoons: a Fractured Fairy Tales and a Rocky & Bullwinkle.

Lowlights: the two-hour wait to get our badges; the fact that Comic-Con is starting to outgrow its space at the San Diego Convention Center even though it's one of the biggest freakin' facilities of its type in the US; the depressingly high price for food and kewlstuff (twas ever thus) at the con; the fact that we had to choose between panels, sometimes between more than two panels, at a time; and the fact that our hotel required taking not one, but two trolleys and almost an hour of travel time to get to the Con.

I don't know whether I will be looking forward to the next one or dreading it. Probably a bit of both. But I will return.