Comic-Con Preview Night was Wednesday (July 21)from 6-9 p.m. I showed up at 7, knowing parking would be a mad house. I slid into Horton Plaza (always a good move, if you’re going to be less than three hours, which is free). I’m guessing the walk to the convention center is close to a mile, unless you want to pay the big bucks to the pedi cabs (I like to take them on the way back, when I’m carrying various bags and want to make a few phone calls).

Preview Night at Comic-Con.

^{Photo by Josh Board}

There were two drunk guys at The Field, with Comic-Con badges around their necks. One of them just kept repeating, “I’m from Iowa, and I’m here for Comic-Con. I can act stupid.”

A cute young woman was playing a cello on a street corner nearby, with a sign aboutwanting to raise $9,180 for Haiti.

On another corner, a guy was playing a mouth harp. I had never heard one played through an amplifier. Both of them sounded great.

Of course, getting there at 7 sometimes means you have to deal with that long train, that seems like it’s 50 coaches long. As I watched everyone impatiently waiting, I mentioned to my girlfriend how a crowd once pelted the train with things because they were so mad. A guy overhearing this said, “I’ve seen people try jumping through the cars. There’s one point where the train stops up there, and people actually climb between the cars not wanting to wait. It’s insane.”

The convention center was surrounded by news vans and people going in and out.

We walked in and the first booth selling comics had a bizarre negotiation going on. Both parties looked serious, but the figure they discussed made me think it was a joke. The exhibitor said the comic book (I believe a Red Robin) was $500,000. The customer wanted him to go down on the price. A guy behind me said, “How much do you go down from $500,000? Do you ask him to take $200,000 off if you pay in cash? Does he only go down $20,000? Crazy.”

A much better value for your money was over at the Rare Earth booth. Now, I had heard of the band Rare Earth (remember the song “Get Ready”?). Never heard of the comic book illustrators by that name.

For $5 they’ll draw the artwork of anything you want and make a button. My girlfriend turned our Maltese into an evil dog. She also bought a raffle ticket for $1 that could win any artwork they’re selling out of a book (a few of the drawings were $20, and amazing).

As we were leaving the booth I said to my girlfriend, “Not as many people are dressed up on the preview night.” She said, “They’re all in their Clark Kent costumes. The real outfits will come out tomorrow.”

We walked by Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and his booth. He’s always in the same place, near the café. He had a better look going, with his long kinky hair in a pony tail. Two teenagers were excited about seeing him and I said, “I’ll give either of you $10 if you ask him to make that growling yell that Chewbacca made.” Neither of them wanted to take me up on it.

A few booths over was an actor named Gary Lockwood, who was in 2001 and Star Trek. He had a sign that said “I’m an actor,” and he was selling autographs. The company he was with was selling autographed pictures of more famous celebrities. I overheard the owner saying “I can’t believe that guy just asked me if I had an autographed Brando picture. Yeah, I have one of those! If I did, you know how much that would be?”

I replied, “A lot.”

He didn’t laugh. I moved on.

There were a handful of women dressed rather sexy in various costumes. They were representing different companies. I heard a woman in her 60s say, “I wonder how they’re allowed to be dressed like that and not be arrested.” Her husband replied, “I don’t know how that girl can be so pale. Do you think that’s make-up, or is she like a vampire and hates the sun?”

Through out the center I saw huge creations with Legos. The two main characters from Toy Story were in one corner; Boba Fett from Star Wars in another. The one that people were taking the most pictures of was a fat, bearded guy that looked like Jim Morrison right before he croaked. It turns out, that was a character from Harry Potter.

My girlfriend and I finally split up. No, not the relationship, but the directions we were going. She wanted to wait in a line that Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim had, to see what prize she’d win.

I figured I’d go back and get a quote from Chewbacca.

When I got to his booth at 8:30, he was gone, with a black blanket covering his table. A guy behind me said “Chewy has left the building!”

I went back over and my girlfriend was excited by this scarf she won with various characters illustrated on it. She told me, “They had shirts and other things, but sometimes the person just got a postcard or stickers. You had to stick your hand through a hole in this wall, and they just placed something in your hand. This couple behind me were make-up artists, and the guy thought he was funny writing B.J. on his hand. But when he stuck his hand through, the woman working the booth didn’t even look at it. She just put something in his hand and they went to the next person. I felt bad for the people working there, so I stuck my face by the hole and thanked them.”

She added, “One of the young guys working at that booth was from Georgia and it was his first time in San Diego. He seemed excited about that.”

“Yeah, until he runs into more people writing messages on their hands.”

The National Cartoon Society was there, and I was thrilled to see Greg Evans talking to a few fans.

He’s the San Marcos resident who has written the syndicated Luann comic strip for the last 25 years.

I’ve met him at a few different parties, and he’s always very low-key, but hysterically funny.

I said, “I have a question for you.”

He immediately responded, “Yes. The answer is yes.”

I asked him how long he’s been working the Comic-Con and he said, “I’ve been coming here for the last 25 years.”

I was fiddling with my camera saying, “Before I ask you another question, I don’t want to forget to take your picture.” He had a variety of books and CDs nearby, and I said, “Can you hold up something of yours?” He picked up his glasses from the table and said, “I’ll hold up these.”

I asked him for his most memorable Comic-Con story. He said, “A few years ago when I was here, this guy came to my table and was looking at my stuff. I said, ‘Has anyone ever told you that you look like Richard Dreyfuss?’ He laughed. And about 30 minutes later I was walking around, and saw him sitting at a booth that said, ‘Meet Richard Dreyfuss’. I was so embarrassed.”

I laughed and said, “That story would’ve been so much better if Dreyfuss had seen you and said, ‘You look like the guy that does the Luann comic strip.’

Evans smiled and said, “Okay, sure. You can change the story to end that way. Anything you want to do to make my story funnier…you have my permission.”

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