I've been going to Comic Con for almost six years.  I already got used to waiting in lines, standing for several hours, skipping meals, and being broke for a month.  After all of that, I still enjoy making new friends, seeing amazing costumes, checking out booths and panels, and last but not the least having a great time.

    Comic Con is a 5 day celebration of Comics, Art, and Pop Culture.  But not everybody is into those things. Yes, one of them is my fiancee, Shannon.  She does understand that this is a big thing for me.  From the toys I brought home, to the pictures and selfies I post on social media,  Shannon has been supportive and very understanding about it. I had a surprise for her.

     Shannon has not been to Comic Con at all. She doesn't like dealing with large crowds, long lines, and the hot weather.  This year , Comic Con 2015,  I got her a pass for Saturday and Sunday.  Below are some highlights of her first Comic Con.

     She was excited when we picked up her official Comic Con badge.  She does describe the feeling as being "exclusive".  The official Comic Con badge was the hottest and most exclusive thing that week.  Not everybody gets to have a Comic Con badge. A Comic Con badge gets you inside the San Diego Convention Center, into exclusive Comic Con events, and hotels, stores and participating establishments.
   
      She was excited seeing people wearing costumes.   From Spider Man,  to Superman,  soldiers marching with fake guns,  Wolverine and other video game characters,  anime characters with fake weapons, Shannon described it as "visual overload".  I asked her to take couple of pictures with them.






     Her very first official picture with a cosplayer was with Ursula from the Little Mermaid.

     

 

The famous Comic Con sign on the escalator.  It does have an awesome circular view.  The best part is seeing the massive crowd outside the convention center.






 





    She heard about the show "Walking Dead".
 Sadly she doesn't watch with me  since its too "bloody, scary, and violent".  I tried to explain to her that the story is not just zombies eating people, its also about survival, personality, and leadership.  So at the AMC booth, Shannon was scared but with some encouragement,  she had the courage to get close to a "real" zombie (and snaped a picture).











      I was really surprised when she mentioned that she knew somebody who had a booth at Comic Con.  Yes she knows Cutter Hays who is an author, artist, and an amazing sketcher.  Check him out at http://www.cutterhays.com/.

Our sketches done by Cutter.

         All in all she had an awesome time.  She  ran into couple of people she knew, took more pictures, and experienced my world.   Below are some more pictures we took.

   After that whole day, I asked her if we can come back and do it again next year.  She said yes!

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My experience at the San Diego Comic-Con
Part 1:

I have been a great fan of comics, anime, collectible figures, movies and video games since I can recall. I enjoy the stories that the authors are able to imprint in our minds and hearts; they let us live in unimaginable worlds and to be able to empathize with fictional characters that steal our hearts, makes us laugh, cry and others times just hate them.

Like a great fan of pop culture or the geek nation I enjoy all the events related to any of the later mentioned, but there is an international event that for me is the biggest, greatest and most important.  I´m talking about the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), an event I just can´t miss.

I´ve been attending SDCC for around 16 years, that time of the year is sacred for me, all the world stops and turn their heads to the event, there’s nothing else in my calendar except the Con. Those five days are a priority for me, starting with preview night (Wednesday for around four hours) and Thursday through Sunday (from 9 am to 7pm).

My experience began in 1999 when a friend of mine visited for the first time the Con and told me about his experience, everything he saw and what hooked me the most was the freebies J (in that time the companies gave a lot of posters, stickers, postcards, t-shirts and so on).  So the next year in 2000 I decide to travel to San Diego (I´m from Tecate, Baja California, Mexico that´s like 40 minutes drive to SD) to attend SDCC.  Those were the golden days of the Con, you just walk in and buy your badge without making lines, got a lot of freebies and I’m saying a lot (the bags that they (vendors) gave you there always ripped with all the stuff you could collect). You just passed by and in every booth there were freebies, walking by the exhibitors hall wasn´t an issue, you were free to walk without bumping with people every 3 seconds.

Two or three hours were enough to see the exhibitors hall, coming and going freely, even the A/C was cold enough.  The line for Hall H was one or two hours long so you could attend the conference you wanted without any problems nor camping out, you just walked by, enjoy the show and get out and were still able to enjoy the rest of the Con. The same goes for screenings and/or parties, you could arrive to the line 30 minutes or one hour early and you were able to enter.

As I was saying, that was the golden age of the SDCC because as time went passing by, the Con got more fame which means more people and well you know the ending of it (lines, lines and more lines).

Besides all that, at least for me, SDCC is still the best experience for a fan of the pop culture. But don´t feel relieved, you have to be prepared to survive San Diego Comic Con because now is very different from early years…

To be continued...

Mi experiencia en la convención de comics de San Diego. Primera parte:

He sido un gran fan de los comics, anime, figuras, películas y video juegos desde que tengo uso de razón, disfruto mucho las historias que los autores logran plasmar que te hacen vivir en mundos inimaginables o conocer personajes fantásticos que te hacen reír, sentir empatía o hasta llorar.

Como gran fan de la cultura popular o la nación geek disfruto todos los eventos que se realizan para darles promoción, pero hay un evento internacional que para mí es el más importante y no me lo puedo perder, me refiero al San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) o la convención de comics de San Diego California.

Tengo ya alrededor de 16 años atendiendo esta convención que para mi es un tiempo sagrado, todo el mundo se detiene, no hay nada marcado en mi calendario solamente ese evento y le doy prioridad a poder asistir los 5 días que dura el evento (desde el preview night o la noche previa que solamente abren el piso de exhibiciones por alrededor de 4 horas y de ahí de jueves a domingo en  horario normal).

Mi experiencia empezó en el año de 1999 cuando un amigo mío visito por primera vez la Convención y me hablo maravillas de todo lo que vio lo que experimento y lo más importante para mi son los “freebies” o las cosas que regalan las compañías (posters, tarjetas postales, stickers (calcomanías o pegatinas).  Así que el siguiente año en el 2000 me decidí a viajar a San Diego California para visitar la convención, en ese tiempo el día que fueras podías pagar tu entrada ese mismo día sin hacer filas para entrar al piso de exhibiciones , para recibir publicidad gratis solamente era pasar por algún “puesto” y podías tomar cosas gratis o ahí mismo alguna persona te lo entregaba, se caminaba libremente entre los pasillos sin andar topándote con gente o batallando para poder caminar o ver algo que querías comprar en algún puesto.  En dos a tres horas ya habías terminado de recorrer toda la convención  si había algún evento por fuera podías llegar media hora o una hora antes y alcanzabas a entrar, ya fuera alguna película gratis en el cine o algún evento o fiesta.

En aquellos tiempos las filas para entrar a “Hall H” era de una hora a dos horas, podías entrar a la conferencia  que querías y salir para poder seguir disfrutando de otros eventos en la convención.

Para mí fue la época dorada de la convención ya que conforme fueron pasando los años y se fue haciendo cada vez más famosa la convención, empezó a llegar cada vez más gente y empezó a cambiar todo, desde la forma de comprar tu entrada hasta las filas para poder agarrar cosas gratis.  Aun así sigue siendo la mejor experiencia para un fan de toda esta cultura pop pero en la actualidad debes de ir muy preparado para sobrevivir a la convención.  Porque hoy en día es diferente a como fue en los primeros años que asistí…

Continuara…

About the Author

Misa Moreno is a native of Tecate Baja California, Mexico and San Diego, CA. Bilingual Noob blogger (getting the hang of it) been a geek since he can remember starting with the love of comics with the classic X-Men, has loved action figures all his life and playing video games since he could put his hands on the first Nintendo Entertainment System, playing Mario and Duck Hunt. Currently enjoying Grand Theft Auto V online and also Gears Of War multiplayer...

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Welcome one and all to the introductory post of Con Chronicles! A blog about popular culture, video games, technology, and a bit of comedy.

About five years ago I began attending the San Diego Comic Con with my college buddies. Every year we would meet up a few days beforehand and share our plans for the upcoming event. Although our plans would not always turn out the way we wanted, we had fun nonetheless. Shortly after the comic convention had left town and many days afterwards, we would reconvene to share our crazy convention chronicles. This blog is a reflection of our adventures.

Our many adventures prompted us to begin writing in order to share our thoughts and experiences going to conventions and also the culture that surrounds these gatherings.

Expect to see TV show, movie and video game reviews, various collectible un-boxings, interviews and related media from a group of guys that are immersed in the culture day in and day out. 

Currently our staff consists of Joseph Aranez, Gerald Briones, Jorge Knapp, Marcos Mora, Misa Moreno, and Adrian Ortiz. As time goes, special guest writers may join in. (Blog will be bilingual, English and Spanish!)

Here's a brief introduction of our writers and what they will cover.

Joseph Aranez from San Diego California is an active reader and follower of trending topics in the technology and pop culture industry. He has been a big fan of classic Marvel Comics and biggest Dragon Ball Nerd. He is also knowledgeable in some console and PC games. Currently, he is working as an Integration Engineer for a start up company in San Diego. On the side he has started playing Heroes of Storm from Blizzard and patiently awaits another Call of Duty title.

Gerald Briones grew up in sunny San Diego. As an avid gamer, he enjoys video games of all genres. Some of his favorites include Chrono Trigger, Pokemon, and World of Warcraft. His other interests include Brazillian jiu-jitsu, finding ways to survive the zombie apocalypse.

 Marcos Mora, a beginner in the blogging world but an avid viewer of Anime and reader of manga. I have enjoyed watching anime while growing up with Dragon Ball, Robotech, Samurai Pizza Cats, Transfomers and many more. Have more than a couple of anime and manga series and a few action figures. A Comic-Con regular atendee for the last 17 years and counting. A frequent movie watcher from sci-fi to documentaries and play a couple of video games from time to time when there is some down time.

Misa Moreno is a native of Tecate Baja California, Mexico and San Diego, CA. Bilingual Noob blogger (getting the hang of it) been a geek since he can remember starting with the love of comics with the classic X-Men, has loved action figures all his life and playing video games since he could put his hands on the first Nintendo Entertainment System, playing Mario and Duck Hunt. Currently enjoying Grand Theft Auto V online and also Gears Of War multiplayer...

Adrian Ortiz also hails from San Diego, CA and as soon as he watched Gundam Wing and Dragon Ball Z, he was hooked on anime and manga. He also thinks Batman can solve any problem and is the only person that can defeat Superman. Adrian will cover anime, manga, movies and technology.

Our Readers may contact us via comments for now. Stay tuned for our official email and Facebook page.

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