Wall-to-wall geeks

Later Wednesday, July 23

Sharon:

SAN DIEGO -- Tonight was supposed to be the easy night, when Comic-Con attendees could casually stroll the Exhibit Hall, buy a T-shirt, grab free stuff, not wait on long lines for video game demos ... wrong!!

After waiting in line to see a preview of J.J. Abrams' pilot for the new Fox show, "Fringe" (I'll leave the reviewing to our TV editor), Josh and I went downstairs to the floor, where thousands of people were already walking around carrying the gigantic bags that are given out for fans to carry around more stuff than the late George Carlin could fit into his comedy routine about "too much stuff" (example: at the Sci Fi Channel "booth" -- actually, an organic looking ice-cave sort of thing -- they were handing out a purple bad with the letters "big frakkin' bag," a take on Bloomingdales' brown bags and a real hoot).

I had to wait in a long, long line to pluck down $17.99 for a Comic-Con '08 T-shirt and was happy to do it, because they've been known to sell out. And the lines to try out LEGO Batman, Stargate Worlds and various Star Wars video games were so long, Josh only got a short time with the LEGO version of the Dark Knight on this supposed "preview" night.

I did, however, find Mt.Lebanon's (soon to be South Park's) Chris Moeller as he was packing up his illustrations for the 9 p.m. close. He said it was the busiest he's even seen Exhibition Hall on a Wednesday, perhaps because there were no panels, just the "Fringe" screenings for competition. Whatever the reason, it was packed. I'll stop by tomorrow to admire his work.

While waiting for "Fringe" to start, we realized we were standing next to some first-timers who had come from Youngstown. They were first in line and waited 3 hours to get into a room with thousands of seats for the screening. We waited over an hour. Tomorrow, when more people arrive, it's more likely that if you're not in line early for any panel you really want to see, you'll be shut out. Our first stop will probably be the 20th Century Fox panels for the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" with Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly and "Max Payne," starring Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Ludacris. It conflicts, though, with a panel for BBC America's "Torchwood," and star John Barrowman will be  there. Maybe I can sneak out of one and back into another ... we'll see.

Josh:

It's been a long day. It's hard to believe I've been up for about 20 hours.  That three-hour time difference really kicks in once the day's activities are done. And there was a suprising amount of them for a supposed "slow" preview night.

Let's start off with the part I'm not allowed to spend that much time on: "Fringe" was awesome! It was weird, graphic, mysterious, and could potentially be the beginning of another J.J. Abrams hit.  And Anna Torv can now join Lena Heady, Anna Friel, and Yvonne Strahovski as another fanboy favorite. I'll definitely tune in when the show premieres this fall.

After that the rest of the day was spent in the exhibit hall. Last year seeing the hall for the first time was a huge thrill.  It was kind of anticlimactic this year realizing how little everything really changed. My second Comic-Con and I'm already jaded. Whatever, just walking the hall is always a special experience, even though my mom kept complaining every five seconds about her lack of a "big frakking bag".

I got to play LEGO Batman for about 5 seconds and I got to shoot cops as the Joker and jump super high as Harley Quinn and lose the little LEGO Joker head I was given. I hope to get more time on it tomorrow.

I've been texting a friend for the last half-hour bragging about the awesomeness of San Diego. She's jealous, exactly the reaction I was going for. Right now I'm tired. I'll have more to say tomorrow when the interesting stuff starts.