My new laptop computer — so new it's still actually under warranty! — is malfunctioning and if my reports from Comic-Con grow sparse or cease, that may be the reason. I can use it but I'm not sure for how long.
I also don't have a lot to report. The con we love so — which some of us love so — is back and in some ways, it's the same event it's always been, packed with happy, enthusiastic people, some of them dressed as characters from their favorite source of incredible fiction. I was in the main exhibit hall yesterday for about 90 minutes and am not likely to be in there at all today or tomorrow. I'll be upstairs playing Mr. Panel Moderator.
But what struck me in that downstairs hall was how much was the same as it ever was: Same crowds, same jammed aisles, same exhibitors — most of them with the same displays in the same places. Everything was the same but the prices. I guess I'd hoped for less humanity in the usual close proximity but that was a silly thought. If you sell the same number of badges to enter the same building, you're going to have the same density of people in there. Simple rule of Physics.
But there was something different you couldn't miss: The masks.
Everyone was masked…or should have been. A few, less than I might have expected, had their defiant nude faces or wore their masks improperly. Some seemed to be employing the Beverage Ploy based on the premise that you're not expected to mask when eating or drinking…so you carry around an open bottle of water or something all the time on the premise that makes you exempt. By contrast, most cosplayers I saw were masked and many had figured out clever ways to incorporate a mask into their particular, peculiar ensembles.
You can't ignore the masks. Yours is right below your eyes and they're a constant reminder of how few of us are fully-comfy with being around so many people. They also remind us how thanks to COVID-19, Comic-Con missed two years, is still a bit risky to attend, and is even weirder than it used to be. Which was already pretty weird.
That's all for now. I have to get over to the convention center to host Quick Draw! and then the first of two Cartoon Voices panels this weekend. On the way over, I'm going to stop at the front desk of my hotel and ask about what seems to be a new policy of this establishment. It seems like every three hours, some hotel employee is required to think of a random amount of money between fifty dollars and five hundred, and to then charge it to the credit card they have on file for me…without explanation. If I'm late for Quick Draw!, I'm probably duking it out with some assistant manager over this. Maybe I can get the guy in the tiger suit to confront him about the $217.44 I was charged at 4 AM this morning.