Tom Spurgeon has posted his annual list of tips for Comic-Con, which is so exhaustive you'll need no other. He did, however, leave out the very important one about how you should make a list of every panel I host and attend. There are, believe it or not, a couple of folks who just about do this every year. (One of my pet peeves, as I think I've mentioned before here, is when someone complains to me that there's not enough at the con about classic comic books…and this person didn't show up for, or even know about the panel I did with all the surviving Bob Kane ghost artists, the panel I did with Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams discussing their run on Batman, the panel I just did about Harvey Kurtzman and MAD Comics, etc. Hey, folks. It's there for you. Turn out and support this stuff with your presence and there'll even be more of it.)
Tom mentions the Ralphs Market near the Convention Center. It's at the corner of 1st Avenue and W. G St. and it's open 24/7. During the con, its aisles are often full of congoers, many still sporting badges as they pick up snacks or supplies or even whole meals. If I ever found an evening at the convention where I didn't know of a party but I wanted to be around convention folks and maybe run into friends, I think I'd just hike over to the Ralphs…which, by the way, I'm told has been completely remodelled and rearranged since we were there last year. It's truly become a part of the con and I expect to soon begin panels there, probably near the deli case where it's cool.
Speaking of which: Last year, a cash-strapped friend of mine told me how he saves money at the con…or anywhere he travels by car. He bought a tiny microwave oven (I think one of these) and he takes it and the appropriate groceries along and just heats up meals in his room. He told me this in the Ralphs where he was buying the one necessity he'd forgotten to pack — a can opener. He also told me he's learned to call ahead and ask if the hotel has microwaves because he'd recently hauled his along on a trip and found there was already one in the room.
I'll probably think of other things to suggest about the con before it happens but not many that you won't find in Tom's guide. Did I mention about going to my panels?