Comic-Con: 36 years of nerd prom

It started in a hotel basement in 1970 with 300 people. Last year, its 35th anniversary, more than 100,000 showed up. And contrary to its image, The San Diego Comic-Con is about more than comics. It’s five days of nonstop geeking over what seems like every single niche of pop culture that has ever existed on this planet. And maybe the other ones.

It’s all over now and I bet they’re still cleaning up the San Diego Convention Center. I was there for my fifth Comic-Con in as many years. And I just want to state for the record that I have always showered, never played “Magic: The Gathering” or lived in my parents’ basement. But stereotypes exist for a reason and there are plenty of them being made reality right before my eyes almost every three feet of the vendor floor. There’s a reason the remake of “Revenge of The Nerds” held casting calls there this past weekend. No, seriously, they really did.

And to write about it all is impossible. It would take a team of reporters working 20 hour days to do it. But if you weren’t there and already have your own version of the events, here are 10 things you missed:

1. Rosario Dawson comes out as a comic book fan

Denis Poroy / AP Rosario Dawson smiles as she answers a question at the introduction of her new television series, "Occult Crimes Taskforce."

I walk in late as the “Clerks 2” star is talking about a law on the books in Florida that says that a dog and an elephant can’t get married, so in the comic book that she’s co-creating called “Occult Crimes Taskforce” there will be a magical reason for that kind of law, such as the spawn of such a union being evil never before seen or something like that. I want Rosario Dawson around to explain all ridiculous laws to me now.

During the Q&A portion a guy asks her if she’s seen the unauthorized game where the gang from “Sin City” battles the gang from “Rent,” making it possible for her to actually fight herself. She seems very excited by this.

2. Weird autograph moments
I’m on the vendor floor, a cute name for the football field-sized shopping arena, and — bam! —There’s 86 year-old Jerry Maren, the green munchkin of the Lollipop Guild from “The Wizard Of Oz.” I had been wondering what he was doing and now I know. Selling his signature alongside (well nearby anyway, it was a big place) the equally old woman who was the body model for Tinkerbell and not-so-old Kelli Maroney from “Chopping Mall.”

3. Deepak Chopra
Yes, Deepak Chopra is here for a panel, discussing the seven spiritual laws of superheroes. How many minutes before he says something incomprehensible? I decide to count. Seven minutes in he begins talking about superheroes being expressions of archetypal energies. They teach us what is possible and when their energy manifests itself in reality it will help to heal the rift in our collective story and soul. So yeah, seven minutes.

4. The Recycling Clown mixes it up
There’s a guy on the vendor floor, not far from where I’m buying a really excellent homemade comic about Glenn Danzig and Henry Rollins being domestic partners, and he’s got on clown makeup and he’s standing near a trash can announcing loudly that he is the Recycling Clown. He starts berating people who hand him empty bottles and cups. He’s the mean Recycling Clown. When a convention center employee/bouncer hustles him along, they get into an altercation, one the bouncer eventually wins. A crowd gathers to enjoy the free theater. I can’t pass because on the other side of the crowd is another flow-jamming batch of teen boys taking pictures of a Playboy Playmate posing as an unidentified giant-boobs-on-stick-body female superhero. Her manifested spiritual law is being stacked.

Print this Email this Blog this  IM this

MORE FROM MORE LIFESTYLES STORIES, FEATURES

Producers blast actors over Internet clips issue

Producers blast actors over Internet clips issue Graffiti festival transforms London tunnel Tape shows ‘Kristen’ OK with ‘Girls Gone Wild’ The world’s highest-paid supermodels   Add More Lifestyles stories, features headlines to your news reader: