Immediately, I set to work at finding the anime and manga companies. Viz was the easiest to find. Its logo stood in the air near a Bakugan sign. I was disappointed to find that the usual manga samplers Viz gave out was the same from two years ago. Still, the older manga samplers didn’t stop me from grabbing a few volumes. If I hesitated too long, the other manga-hungry attendees would have claimed the entire collection.

I tried to locate more anime companies giving out free stuff. Dark Horse gave away new samplers that fused both American graphic novel previews and manga samples. Yen Press beat out its competition. The company produced a manga sampler in a magazine format.  I hoped to find Tokyopop or Del Rey, but I became engrossed by the attractive region of the convention holding only games and computer software. I wandered between different companies—Tomy, Namco, and DC Games—and played Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny. (My ass was handed to me on a silver platter by Sophitia. I blame the player before me; when he decided to walk away and I took up the controller, I was already Raphael and my entire battle against the Greek warrior relied on my previous knowledge from Soul Calibur II.)

After an embarrassing loss, I made my way through the crowds and walked by a booth hosting Anime Studio and Manga Studio, two computer programs geared for artists to draw comics and animate renderings. Like many merchandise during conventions, the Smithmicro Software booth also had deals on their software. There were also demonstrations on how to use the software, and the artists and representatives on location answered any questions.

I gratefully departed the software booth and made my way towards the center of the venue, trying to spot more freebies. Unfortunately, the economic situation dashed my hopes into disappointment, and I didn’t receive any more freebie items. I went to the more popular booths, watching previews of new TV shows and upcoming seasons of old ones. The NBC booth previewing the upcoming season of Heroes was giving away a new car with the scan of your convention badge.

After mapping out the convention center, I realized that I was long overdue to line up for a volunteer assignment. This year, the volunteers were told to sign up for the next day’s shift after 1:30 PM. With the amount of volunteers, I knew that 2:00 PM was pushing my luck in getting a new assignment. I raced to the volunteers booth and found a line wrapped around the side of the convention center. I think I sulked as I walked to the end of the line. Immediately, I made two new friends. Angelica, clad in a white wig and black school uniform in Zero from Vampire Knight fashion, joked along with me. Derek, a second-time Comic-Con attendee, discussed the past seasons of Heroes, the failures of The Legend of Chun-Li, and anime shows.

When we reached the scheduling desk for volunteers, we were the best of friends. Unfortunately, as we waited, cosplaying volunteers stood in line with us. There was this one woman who wore hardly anything. Thankfully, a pink feathered scarf hid the majority of her fat, which hung out like apricot gelatin unable to remain inside its container. When Angelica and I told Derek, he turned slightly, and the cosplayer revealed to us her collapsed fatty mid-section. Angelica screamed, “Oh my gosh! My eyes are burning!” Derek simply turned away, paling beneath his frames. I just cringed profusely. I don’t know if the woman knew it was us trying to avoiding another eyeful of bulges, but we just decided to repress the memory of her.

Once we received our volunteer assignments for the next day, Angelica parted ways with us and Derek and I set out to explore the rest of the convention. Randomly walking through the aisles, some guy that looked like Kevin James (The King of Queens) practically jumped in front of us. “Hey, do you like CSI?” he huffed. I was caught off guard and simply nodded. “The creator of CSI is here and he’s signing T-shirts. The T-shirts are free.”

Sold! We stood in the aisle as a line formed behind us, and the Kevin James lookalike asked me which CSI I liked. I didn’t really watched CSI much, except a couple episodes of CSI: Miami, and he smiled when I replied with Miami. “Yeah, that’s one is pretty good,” he agreed before disappearing down the stretch of the line.

When we finally met the CSI creator, Anthony Zuiker, we waited patiently for someone to supply more shirts. “So how did you get into this industry?” I asked Zuiker as someone handed him an extra large T-shirt with “Level 26” printed on it. He began to sign the T-shirt as he answered.

“I wrote a script and I sent it to the company, and they liked it,” Zuiker supplied, scribbling his name into a tiny block on the T-shirt. “I guess it was just luck that I had the right connections.”

I looked at Derek with wide eyes. That’s not luck! I thought, That’s crazy! Derek seemed to be thinking the same thing as we accepted our signed T-shirts and started down the aisles again. “Dude, I can do that too!” Derek breathed, stuffing his Level 26 shirt into his bag.

We went through more of the booths, trying to get more free stuff. We walked by Marvel, J-list.com, and several T-shirt vendors before we decided to go eat. Surprisingly, most of the surrounding restaurants, bars, and eateries gave Comic-Con-goers deals and discounts. In the past years, there wasn’t a very strong support for Comic-Con attendees. It seemed those businesses just looked down at attendees as nuisances who swarmed in on a geek convention. With the economy, they could only accept us “geeks” and “nerds” with the best customer service. After all, comic guru or not, we were still customers.

The first day ended with relative ease. Although I hated the lines to every single little giveaway and fun thing to do, I enjoyed just being in the midst of my comic, anime, and nerdish comrades.

Friday, July 24^th, 2009

My volunteer shift started at 9 AM. I jumped on the trolley and practically ran to the convention center at the transfer station. I made it to check in right at 9 AM, and the instant I received my volunteer sticker, all of the other 9 AM volunteers were escorted to the second floor of the convention center. While the first floor held the Exhibition Hall, the second floor consisted of convention registration, the Freebies Table (yes, this was a designated area), and the meeting rooms where artists in the industry and casts of popular TV shows and movies held panels.

We were broken into small groups of three and four, then  we were taken to a nearby meeting room. I was placed as a sentry at the entrance of the meeting room. I simply made sure everyone entering had a badge. The first panel in the meeting room was Charles Vess, an artist who inked Spiderman comic book covers along with his own fantasy-type drawings. As I stood in the darkened room, watching many of his works flash by on a large screen, I realized that I needed to improve my own drawing skills. Sure, I was ok, but I knew I hadn’t reached the peak of my potential. It was rather relieving to understand the actuality of my passion for art.

The next panel was hosted by one of the top toy brands in the nation, Mattel©. Unlike the Charles Vess panel, the meeting room was packed to capacity. I began to usher people to seats as the chairs filled up. Many of the attendees were collectors, some with armloads of Mattel© merchandise. There was a little mix up as a live version of Matty the Collector was supposed to start the panel. Unfortunately, the panelists just began the hour-long panel, and poor Matty the Collector was left to stand awkwardly on the wall. Finally, halfway through the Superman action figures, Matty wobbled out of the room with many curious eyes following him.

The biggest commotion from the Mattel© panel came when the marketing director introduced the new lines of Superman, Batman, and other DC Universe action figures. The three-packs of the action figures and their opponents will be sold in Target locations around the country. Disappointingly, none of the Mattel© panelists addressed the upcoming release of the James Cameron inspired Avatar toy line.

When the panel was finished, I was dispatched from my volunteer assignment and I promptly met with Derek to get lunch. One thing I learned about going to conventions is to avoid the convention food. Since most large conventions are held in convention centers, downtown stores are nearby with cheaper and healthier options.

After we ate, we ventured back to the convention to try and get more free stuff. Walking back was pretty interesting. Vendors and representatives stood on the corners of the streets, promoting the newest games, TV shows, and parties with stars. Surprisingly, Megan Fox (Transformers) was one of many stars featured at several parties promoting the next big film. NBC posted a giant television panel on the curbside with trailers blaring.

Once inside the convention center again, we picked up the next day’s volunteer shift and walked the expanse of the convention we missed. Earlier in the day, Derek got me a voucher to get on the green screen at the Miramax booth. They were promoting Extract, a movie by the same producers of The Office featuring Mila Kunis (Jackie from That 70’s Show), a greasy-looking Ben Affleck, and Jason Bateman (Michael Bluth of Arrested Development) slated for release on September 4^th, 2009. Comic-Con attendees could film a short segment that would later be spliced into the Extract movie trailer. I went to the Miramax booth, and when I was ready to be filmed, a line outside of the door looked in to watch. It seemed I was the “example”. I dawned a blue-collar shirt, and upon the signal, I gave my enactment if my balls were blown off by a piece of flying metal.

“Come back in 20 minutes, and we’ll have a T-shirt and a flashdrive ready for you,” one of the both managers told me before ushering me off. With a little more than 20 minutes to kill, we came across a gruesome booth promoting Splattercut, a short film with blood and gore. Two women with fake blood coaxed us to take a picture with them inside the booth. On the outside of the booth, the screen revealed everyone in the image to have a ghostly, haunting aura around them. The bloody ladies let me hold the knife as I went to “murder” them.  

Shortly after our brief encounter with the Blood Factory, I wanted to buy Manga Studio Debut 4.0, but in walking in that general direction, we encountered so many distractions. We came across a booth advertising the Capcom sci-fi game, Dark Void, (darkvoidgame.com) to be released in America sometime in 2010. At the booth, we took a picture with Will, the main character from the sci-fi game.

Since the Smithmicro Software booth was near the Dark Void booth, I purchased Manga Studio. We trekked off towards Tomy and Capcom to play some video games. Before reaching the video games, I detoured to a Corel Painter booth where I participated in a digital art contest. I had a hard time controlling the digital pen, but I did my best to draw Batman.

We finally arrived at the Capcom booth where consoles were set up to play different games. I decided to play Magna Carta 2, but it was extremely boring (and I hate RPG type games). We walked around the rest of the gaming booths until we arrived at the DC gaming booth. They gave out Catwoman and Batman masks. I watched Derek play DC Universe Online, a PS3 game from Sony Online Entertainment. DC Universe Online is set to release sometime in 2010 in the action-based MMO where players can either play alongside their favorite DC Comics superheroes and villains.

Once we got our fill of the DC Universe, we walked to the section of the convention center advocating smaller press. Artists from smaller publications also lined the aisles, and we stopped at a booth for a custom drawing. I think there was more technology used at booths this year than ever before. Across from the booth we received custom drawings, the Art Institute of Southern California used drawing tablets to show groups of people how to use Photoshop. Of course, the freebie light saber key chains were especially nice.

After the tutorial on Photoshop, we went back to the Miramax booth, and the manager gave me a flashdrive with “Extract” on it and a T-shirt. I think it was the best free item I received the entire day. I mean, free flashdrives aren’t exactly growing on trees!

Saturday, July 25^th, 2009

My volunteer assignment at 7 AM on Saturday made my day drag on like a pair of baggy jeans. When Derek and I checked in, we were escorted from the back of the San Diego Convention Center to the Hilton next to the venue. We walked through the posh lobby of the Hilton until we reached a pier-like area outside of the 5-star hotel. A line of attendees were already lined up, and some looked like they spent the night there.  I even spotted someone holding a toothbrush.  

As volunteers, we were responsible for keeping the line in order, and when too many attendees lined up, we were instructed to wrap the line around itself like a folded snake. It was a boring job. Derek and I ended up playing several rounds of “Ten Fingers” between the moving of the line. The attendees were there so early because several different panels took place in the same room, the Hilton’s Indigo Room. Marvel, Sanctuary, Glee, and Heroes were all featured on the program, and the room’s capacity was 2,000 people. Already, about 1,000 people were already inside the room, and the supervisors told us the attendees could stay in the room throughout each panel.

I was sad that I wouldn’t be able to attend. Whenever volunteers finished our shifts, we were required to return the excess badges given to us at the start of each shift as well as the check out cards attached to our badges. If we didn’t return the items, we were told we could never volunteer at Comic-Con again. By the time we returned our items, the capacity would be filled.

We returned to the convention to return our things before we trekked off to get lunch. As we walked towards the mall, someone handed me an IGN.com shirt. Yay! I thought, More free stuff!  After lunch, we came back to the convention to register for another volunteer shift for the next day. We saw some people that we knew, but it didn’t seem very worthwhile to wait in lines inside the convention center.

As we ventured outside, a man with a camera stopped me. He was from Popcultureshock.com, and they were interviewing women at Comic-Con. I agreed to be interviewed, and a shorter man with shades and a microphone came forward.

“What have you been looking at in Comic-Con this year?” Jon, the producer and designer for Popcultureshock.com and webmaster of Midtown Comics in New York, held the microphone to my face as the cameraman continued to film.

“I’m looking at anime, manga, and new games,” I answered, smiling. I forgot what it felt like to be at the receiving end of an interview. Normally, as an Anime3000 representative, I asked the questions. Still, I knew that the initial questions were just setting me up for the audience. I braced myself for the real questions.

“Would you date a geeky or nerdy guy?” Yup, the real question came up, short and quick.

I beamed. “Yeah, I would date a geeky or nerdy guy.”

“Why would you date a geek or nerd?”

I smiled at the mild question. “Unlike ‘normal’ guys, at least they know a lot about something.” My response prompted a chuckle from the cameraman.

Jon seemed to recover from the humor, but the quiver in his bottom lip made me wonder if he really did this before. “So, if you could give advice to the geeky or nerdy guys out there, what would you tell them?”

I thought for a moment. This should be easy, I thought. I mean, I hang out with a lot of geeky guys and nerds. “Just be yourself,” I supplied honestly. “If you try to be someone you’re not, the girl is falling for the persona, not for you. If she rejects, don’t worry. They’ll be someone out there who won’t.”

Jon nodded at the response before he thanked me. The cameraman, Shola, jumped in like an interviewer. “Are there any shout-outs you wanted to give?”

Ah! I forgot about that! Duh! “Uh…Anime3000.com,” I answered with less conviction than anything else I said. I was caught off guard about shout-outs. Like I said, I wasn’t used to being interviewed. When Shola asked me what it was, I gave them a short spiel about the site. They nodded and turned off the camera. Shola turned to me and asked if I was an upcoming artist or something. We traded business cards, and we parted ways. 

Across from the convention center, there were yellow and orange tents in carnival fashion. We crossed the trolley tracks again to see what was inside the mini carnival. On the way, someone informed us of the EA Gaming Lounge. We went up to the lounge, but the line was so long! Though the free T-shirts and blow-up swords seemed fun (and free), we continued to our destination.

It turned out that the carnival was really a Heroes-themed carnival. NBC provided everything carnival-like; there were dart and shooting booths, free snow cones and cotton candy, Heroes fake tattoos and even a sitting area with plasma TVs showing a loop of the Heroes upcoming season. Apparently, Claire Bennett (Hayden Panetierre) will have a more vocal role in Heroes than in the past seasons with the fourth season airing on September 21, 2009. Bales of hay, metal canisters, and pictures of Heroes characters like Hiro Nakamura, Nathan Petrelli, and Peter Petrelli decorated the small carnival. After I shot a palm-sized basketball over a booth, we decided to get fake tattoos and eat refreshing snow cones.

The sun bore down on everyone, but the hype of Comic-Con kept people in good spirit. We sat down in the shade to decide what to do. As we started to play another game of “Ten Fingers”, Derek suddenly jumped up and called out, “Justin!” At first I thought the tall blonde man in shades was someone that Derek knew, but as they shook hands and the fellow walked off with a pretty woman and a child holding his hand, I realized who it was.

“That was Oliver Queen from Smallville!” I didn’t recognize him because of the shade, lack of bulging biceps, and the chin stumble. I just thought he was someone Derek knew. Derek smirked at me, and for the rest of the day, he kept saying, “I met Justin Hartley! Oh, yeah, I shook hands with Justin Hartley! Man, that sure was Justin Hartley.” I wanted to punch him after the second time he gloated.

Soon, Alan Tudyk, former pilot Hoban “Wash” Washburne from the series Fire-fly and its subsequent movie, Serenity, walked by us, talking to a woman. We stared after him, trying to fathom that another star walked by us. Other heads turned, a questionable expression on their faces, but the moment left us and we finished our game of “Ten Fingers” before heading back into the convention center.

There, we walked around aimlessly. We stopped at the Marvel Studios booth where popular fighters like Leilene and Chun-Lee were taking pictures. We even saw some Battlestar Galactica stars. I picked up a David Mack (Daredevil, Kabuki) comic before we headed out for the day.

Sunday, July 26^th, 2009

I was extremely tired by the last day of Comic-Con, and I practically slept-walked to the convention center from the trolley. The volunteer shift started at 7:30 AM, and Derek and I followed an elderly woman to our volunteer location. This time, we weren’t line management. We were stationed inside a box of tables with packets of free comics and the Comic-Con programs. They were to be handed out, and our supervisor, Spidey, gave us instructions on how to hand out the bags.

“Try to hand out as many bags as possible. I want you guys to be loud, but not annoying. If I like you, I’ll write your name down, but if you’re annoying, I’ll write your name down too.” With that said, he left us to our own devices. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but as attendees began to filter in, I realized that standing around wasn’t going to send the bags off by themselves.

“So far, that table has been the loudest,” Spidey told my teammates as he pointed to a set of tables a few feet away, “but you guys have given out the most. I want you guys to be loud.” He disappeared to continue supervising everyone.

With Derek, a white-collared stocker, a Full Metal Alchemist, and myself clad cosplayer named John, our table began to get loud. “Free comic! Free smile!” I began to yell out to the passing attendees. Soon, my team was in buzz mode, Derek becoming one of the stockers and John and I yelling out to everyone, persuading people to get a bag from us. The table across from us became our competition.

Soon, we were hurtling rival quotes. “Don’t go to the Dark Side! We have cookies!” I smiled the entire time, meeting men’s eyes and trying to get them to come to our table with my smile. I knew, as a model, that eye contact and a smile would entice anyone—but mostly guys and lesbians—to walk towards me. The competition escalated as the second hour of our 3-hour shift closed, and our competition was really laying it down hard on us.

“Don’t go over there! They yell at you!”

“Well, at least we’re personable!” I think everyone stopped and laughed at my claim. It was pretty fun just competing to get some free comics and bags out of our way. Spidey came around and took down our names while we continued to hand out freebies. Finally, when the new volunteers arrived, Derek and I went to get some food. We weren’t in any particular hurry to get back to the convention center. After all, we didn’t have to wait in line for getting another volunteer shift.

When we returned to the convention, I changed into my “fan vixen” outfit. It was just a costume made up of a plaid skirt, boots, black arm warmers, and a vest. (Basically, I dressed slutty). It was nerve wrecking, having guys staring at me everywhere I went. Somehow, I took many pictures with different cosplayers. I took a picture with the White Ranger from Power Rangers at the Viz Media booth. The picture I took with Catwoman at the DC Universe gaming booth earned me an English-laden “You look wonderful, darling!”

When I went to take a picture with the Green Ranger and Deadpool, I received a look from Deadpool who answered enthusiastically, “Yeah, I’ll take a picture with her!” The Green Ranger even handed me his sword, and we struck a cool pose for the camera. We walked around for an hour or so, and I managed to get a few more free buttons, lanyards, and demos. We saw a few more stars making special appearances at Comic-Con, including Leonard Nimoy (Spock of Star Trek), Kell (Keenan and Kell), and Adam West (Batman from the 1960’s Batman TV show).

I changed my clothes again—I was entirely tired of the lewd attention I was getting from men—before I parted ways with Derek and went home for a much-needed nap.

All in all, I think that Comic-Con 2009 was the best convention I attended in 2009 as well as the most exciting. I saw stars, new releases, and obtained loads of freebies. I made many new friends and participated behind the scenes of Comic-Con. I wish I attended several panels and actually interviewed companies and stars, but the long lines dismissed any patience I held for waiting. Still, Comic-Con 2009 proved to hold its ground as one of the largest conventions in the world after 40 years.