The Phoenix Comicon had a fairly inauspicious beginning. We drove up after work, had a yummy dinner at Culver's in Casa Grande, but didn't get into Phoenix until well after 8:00. We made our way downtown, found the hotel (directly across the street from the convention center, which is handy), but the garage the hotel uses was full. Had to park several blocks away, beneath a Bank of America building. With about a dozen heavy book boxes in the car, that doesn't work. This morning at 6:15 I moved it to the closer garage.
After dropping suitcases in the room, we went across the street, though it was 8:45 and the con closed at 9:00. We figured at least we could check in and get our badges. Lucky: there was no line at the guest check-in desk. Unlucky: They couldn't find my name in the computer, even though I'm on 7 panels (and have a table in the dealer's room that does have my name above it). Lucky: a helpful staffer handed us blank guest badges and a Sharpie, so we got badges and wrote our names on them. Mine's hanging on my Che Guevara lanyard instead of the boring red con lanyard, because I'm just that way.
Fellow guests I've seen so far include J. Scott Campbell (actually the first person I knew, called my name as soon as we walked into the hotel lobby the first time), Jon Lewis, Mike Dubisch, Mike Stackpole, Dan Wickline, Eric Esquivel, Whilce Portacio. Missed Wil Wheaton when he brought his family around to introduce, but I'll see them again over the weekend. Saw Shannon Eric Denton in the distance but he turned the wrong way. Also various dealers and publishers in the room as we were being herded out at closing time.
The room is huge, by Phoenix Comic-Con standards (which means, not by San Diego standards). Looking forward to seeing more of it today, before my non-stop afternoon paneling.
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