Part 2: San Diego Comic Con

It had been a month since we found out that I was the grand prize winner and here we are in the airport waiting for our flight. Dark Horse booked us on a flight through Denver to San Diego. If we hustled we might just make it to the convention in time for the last half of the Hellboy Animated Panel.

Then we found out the flight was delayed. Our plane was at the gate in Minneapolis but our crew was still asleep in their hotel. There was to be a delay of 2 hours and 40 minutes.
After waiting almost 4 hours...



We decided it was time to get in line and ask United to get us on another flight on another airline if necessary. We had already missed part of the convention. This was our once-in-a-lifetime chance to attend Comic-Con as the guest of one of the major comic book publishers (not to mention the publisher of my favorite books). They took pity on us and got us on the next flight out on Northwest, non-stop.

I called Matt at Dark Horse and left him a message that we were delayed and would arrive much later than planned. He called us back just as we were boarding the Northwest Flight. We made plans to contact him after checking into the hotel.

The flight to San Diego was uneventful. The airport in San Diego was much closer to the convention center than I had thought. It took us about 15 minutes in a cab to get to our hotel. Due to the non-stop flight we arrived only 2.5 hours late, despite waiting in the airport for 5 hours.

We stayed at the Marriott Gaslamp. Our room on the 16th floor had a great view of Padre stadium.

We called Matt as planned. He met us out in front of the hotel and walked us straight to the Dark Horse Booth. Our convention badges listed us as professionals. This was handy in that there is no waiting in line to get into the convention center for professionals. It also raised a few eyebrows with the fanboys who tried to figure out who we were and if we were worth bothering. (Only one did, he didn't seem disappointed to find out that I was a museum professional and not an inker for his favorite title.)

Once we were at the Dark Horse Booth we got to meet almost the entire assembled staff. What a great bunch of people. We were welcomed by Mike Richardson, publisher; Matt Dyer, Editor; Dirk Wood, Director of Marketing; Scott Allie, Editor; and so many more (I am sorry if I have forgotten or left out your name). To meet the publisher and the editor of so many of the books I loved was great. We were off to a good start.