Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here.
A few folks may say otherwise but I have seen zero negative impact of the two entertainment industry strikes on this convention. And even the attendees who might be upset that they can't go over to Hall H and spend hours in line to see Brad Pitt talk about his upcoming movie (a) don't hold that against the con or even the unions and (b) have found more than enough to make them happy to be here.
There were rumors that the striking unions might set up picket lines outside the convention but everyone must have realized how brain-dead stupid that would have been. It would not have put the slightest gram of pressure on the producers to settle and it would have presented fans with an awkward decision. With very few exceptions, the fans are not fans of the studios and production companies and certainly not of the CEOs. They're fans of the writers who are on strike and the actors who are on strike. Why punish them?
If you couldn't make it here — or, more likely, just couldn't gain admission — I apologize for saying I'm having a great time here and as far as I can see, so is everyone as far as I can see. Maybe I'm lurking in the wrong corners of the con but I'm not spotting quite as many cosplayers as in past years. Otherwise though, it looks and feels like the previous Comic-Con and the one before that and the one before that and the one before that…
The pattern does not go all the way back even though I do. This, for the love of God, is my fifty-fifth one of these. I watched this entity grow in slow-motion from 300 attendees in 1970 to something where the fire marshals have to cap attendance at (I'm guessing) about 20% of all the sentient beings who'd like to flood the hall. Since it reached capacity, it has been a wonderful place to be for those of us who know how to find the things we want to see and do. I really think that if you don't have a fabulous experience at this gathering, you either don't know where to look or are arriving with impossible expectations.
I have a full Saturday ahead of me: Breakfast with an editor at 8:30, Dungeons and Dragons panel (about the cartoon show) at 10 AM, Quick Draw! at 11:45, Cartoon Voices panel at 1 PM, a panel on reporting comic book history at 3 PM, panel on The History of Cartoon Voices at 4:30, dinner with friends at 8 PM. Hope your day is equally full but maybe not as fatiguing. Gotta go get mine started…