Back at the Con
The overall impression I have from this year's FanExpo (i.e. ComicCon Toronto)?

If I never have to hear the song "Freebird" again, I'll be an extremely happy camper.

You see, a few rows over, there was a large area devoted to video games, one such video game being Guitar Hero (which, is actually a video game I enjoy for the most part. Probably the only one...). Unfortunately, I guess they only had a few songs available for the playing public, and the most popular one was Freebird by Lynyrd Skynryd. So we got to hear it played (complete with missed notes from the game) over and over during the three days of the Con until pretty much all the retailers were ready to go over, pull a John Belushi in Animal House, and smash the damn guitar so we wouldn't have to listen to it again. I've never been fond of the song to begin with, but now I LOATHE it.

Other than that though, the con was a nice experience. Graig has now officially 'married' into the Snail crowd so this was his first year participating behind the Snail booth, selling comics to the con going throng.

After attending San Diego this year, I guess I can't really say Toronto has 'throngs' per se, but still, its busy enough on the convention floor to still be annoying and make me want to get right back behind the tables asap where its not crowded. But, Graig and I did manage to find some nice deals, including a (nearly) entire run of Elementals (no Sex Specials though. Damn), and I was able to complete my run of Mark Waid-penned Captain America.

I did brisk business on Sunday, not so much on Saturday (although the sale of Brave and the Bold #11 for $300 was pretty sweet) and overall had the usual nice visit with past and present Snail employees. Graig and I were also allowed to take home the $10, 000 copy of Amazing Spider-Man #1 for safe keeping. While it was really neat to have such an expensive piece of comic history in our grasp for an evening, it was also nerve-wracking 'cause if something happened to it, we'd be dead :) But it was fine and returned to the shelves on Sunday morning.

The gang took great delight in calling me "Mrs. Kent" all weekend. And I couldn't really blame them, of course a bunch of comic book geeks would get a kick out of that.

There were the usual amount of costumes and the usual amount of people who should not be wearing costumes (the at least 160lbs Poison Ivy was... not good) and the usual amount of fun customers and the usual amount of annoying customers. My dear friends kon_el333 and troy_duffy stopped by on Saturday, which was good fun. I didn't get hit on at all this year, but I think the big sparkly rings on my finger and the fact that my husband was right there with me kinda killed all that. For which I am eternally greatful :)

And now, I've got lots credit at the store, which will pay for this comic book habit of mine for at least a good six months or so. That fact alone is worth all the math, the sore feet and the sliced finger this year.

And yeah, of course I was also reminded that every year, Graig's and mine 'honeymoon' will be our tour of duty at the Con. Which suits us just fine :)