We're at the point where about half the things I say to people include the phrase, "After Comic-Con," as in, "That'll have to wait until after Comic-Con." The other half include some variation of the phrase, "Hope to see you down at Comic-Con." I can feel myself entering the mode where I am unable to talk to anyone face-to-face without first scanning their torso for a badge and the name on it. I don't know why I do this. I can have known you, as I've known some folks I'll see at the con, for 30+ years. If you come up to me at the convention, I will read the name on your badge before I talk to you like you're you. One time, I called one of my best friends by the wrong name because he was wearing someone else's badge.
I have a tightly-packed schedule of where I'm supposed to be and when, devised with the awareness that my knee may make it a little harder for me to scurry about the hall like I usually do. The knee is better but unpredictable. It hurts a bit on stairs but will also inexplicably hurt for no evident reason…and I haven't subjected it to too much stress yet. So I think I'll be scootering about at times, mowing down rows of people dressed like The Joker and Harley. I've decided to skip most of the off-site parties to which I've been invited but that's fine. They're usually too loud, too crowded and too difficult to get to. Last year, I found myself at one that was very uncomfortable in terms of noise, density of population and unidentifiable hors d'oeuvres. Trying without much success to be heard by the person to whom I was allegedly speaking, I yelled, "Why are we here?" He yelled back, "Because we were invited and other people weren't!" That, I've come to realize the hard way, is not a good enough reason to be anywhere.
I highly recommend advance-study of the programming schedule. There are a lot of programs and panels about comic books as comic books, not as movies or TV programs. I mention this because the 'net is full of articles and preview lists of the panels that spotlight TV shows and motion pictures but which mention few (if any) of the panels about actual comics. A few of those articles lament how there isn't enough attention paid to comic books…and then proceed to pay no attention to comic books. I am not complaining; just reminding you that the panels you want to see may well be there but it could take a bit of research to find out about them.
The list of panels I'm hosting, most of which are actually about comic books, is here. I will repost it in a day or so for those of you too lazy to click or scroll. If you have an iPhone and are attending, you should have the new, updated Comic-Con International app. It's chock full o' great, useful info.
Also, if you're attending, note that we are now looking at a 40%-50% chance of a thunderstorm or two on the weekend. At the moment, the greatest likelihood is Saturday night through Sunday morning. Even if there's no precipitation, the nearness of storm clouds could muggy things up a bit. So watch out for rain if only because nothing smells worse than a damp Klingon.