Of the wondrous phenomena of Comic Con that’s received such thorough coverage already, I don’t think enough words have been relayed about the mind-bogglingly long, utterly-insane, morale-clobbering lines at the convention center. Just roll these numbers through your bean counters…

• 7,000 attendees (at low estimates)
• Six hours of wait time (at the shortest)
• Ten panels or so in the room per day
• One ballroom everybody’s trying to get into

I showed up well before the convention floor’s opening, aiming to get into the WALKING DEAD panel (among others.) As much as we ridicule the fans who camp outside the convention center overnight, they actually must’ve had the right idea. I was led by staff through a line that coiled on the front lawns and snaked up and over the convention center before finally twisting into the shoreline at the opposite side. Not even the lines at Disney World are that outrageous (and at least those have some entertainment on the way.)

Word is, the much-ballyhooed withdrawal of some studios from the con led to many attendees taking their attention off the infamous Hall H and putting it on the less-discussed Ballroom 20. I was told later that it was actually easy to get into Hall H, and I suppose it had to have been, because it felt like every single attendee was standing in this damn line. Everybody told me that the length was unprecedented for the show and, once my view of the convention center started receding to the horizon, I finally had to throw up the white flags of surrender. You simply can't vanquish a serpent with 7,000 heads.

Look upon all the angles of this monstrous crowd and gasp in horror...

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With all that given its proper due, I want to say that Comic Con 2011 was otherwise another phenomenal experience. Fun times were had with Tony, Sara, Mat, Daniel, Ana, Joey, Norm and Rorie. I'm honestly still closing my eyes sometimes to relive it all in a kind of astral meditation. It was that good of a show.

The most important part of the show, of course, was getting to hang with you maniacs in person, so I want to give a proper shout-out to sora_thekey, Bruce Vain, Grim, TheMess1428, Iron Lad, Rayeth, Dvorak and Artistic Needham. More so than getting to sign copies of my books, more so than making contacts with my favorite creators... seeing you all in the flesh is what really makes SDCC fun. You make these sites, and you make these shows.

Tom Pinchuk’s the writer ofHYBRID BASTARDS!&UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazonhere&here. Follow him on Twitter:@tompinchuk

I thought your screen name was "Tom Pinchuk" and it was just a coincidence that it was the same as your real name..

@keith71_98 said:

Ok, I've never made cComicCon but was really thinking about making my first trip from Arkansas to San Diego next year. These pictures make me think otherwise! As someone who has never been, please explain those lines to me. Were those simply people trying to get into ComicCon or were some of the lines for specific events during the convention?

This line was specifically for entrance into Ballroom 20 for all the TV panels they had in there.

@G-Man said:

I thought your screen name was "Tom Pinchuk" and it was just a coincidence that it was the same as your real name..

It's like Stephen Colbert the TV persona and Stephen Colbert the actual person. I've lost track of which is the real one.

I've never been to SDCC, and I always wanted to go, but I couldn't imagine being able to wait on those lines -- or even ones a fraction of the length.  
 
Perhaps I'll go when geek culture falls out of the grace of pop culture and back to its more comfortable, solitary niche. You know this can't last forever...

@Tom Pinchuk:TRICKY TRICKY LINES

Yeah this kinda makes me start to think otherwise for Comic Con International. Sheesh...I get way too bored waiting in lines like that for anything.  I would put the suggestion again that CCI be moved then to where I am but I doubt that would help much with regard to lines...but in terms of more space for panels and things it would be a solution. Still, wow on the lines!

I don't get the line situation, you cannot buy tickets on site, you have to get them online.  If you have the tickets already I think the line was pretty short to get in for your badges.  So why was there a line?
I got there, got right in and got my badge.
 
I remember one year I waited in a line like this, by the time I got to Alex Ross who was signing that year I was exhausted and looked frazzled:

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@inferiorego said:

@Tom Pinchuk:TRICKY TRICKY LINES

Glad I stopped going to SDCC a few years ago, those pictures remind me of my first SDCC back in '93 or '94, the convention center was less than half the current size and nobody registered online so the line to get tickets the first day was just as long it and wrapped around the whole building and wound through seaport village, when I arrived and got to the back of the line it was in seaport village by the boats and two fanboys fighting about who cut in line both fell in the water :P

I hate to be "Debbie Downer" on this one, but SDCC needs to rethink their program access. Now I am all for a democratic process, but it occurred to me (after being one of the people waiting in line for hours and not getting to see the Walking Dead or Big Bang Theory) that the SDCC has not considered the leaches known as "The Squatter". I'm sure there were a lot of fans there for Walking Dead, but most of them probably didn't get to see that panel, because, say a True Blood fan, which their panel shows at 5pm, will wait all day in order to see it! You don't have to leave once you sit in your seat. This seems unfair to people who are the fans of certain panels. May I suggest changing this system? For the life of me I cannot think of one, since there are so many people, but given some time I think I could think of something. Does anyone think that they should change this system? If so, what would you suggest?

San Diego is the Big Leagues.....I know that I will never be able to attend there because no matter people there are or how long it takes in a line for something....IT'S TOO DAMN BIG!!!!!
 
But I am thankful for just being about to attend WonderCon....

@pikahyper said:

@DarkMatter23: no way to change the system without more space, one year they did try making it so you couldn't squat in Hall H but that didn't work all that well cause they wasted so much time herding everyone out and then people would hide in the bathrooms too. Things might get better when comic con moves but until we know where we won't know if it will be better and there is a pretty good chance that it will be worse then SD. The current two front runners are LA and Vegas, they both have large enough convention centers to handle all the attendees but neither of them can handle the large AV rooms that would be needed.

I know for a fact (living in SD and listening to local news and all) that CCI is contracted to be in SD through at least 2014. There is a large amount of lobbying going on to get the Convention Center expanded and I'm guessing that keeping Comic Con is a large part of that push (it brings roughly ~$40 million over the 4 days to the local economy every year with fees, food, hotels, etc). Now who knows whether a promise of an expansion will keep anything the way it is-- not a chance in hell they will actually finish an expansion by then--, but I have also heard that the original people who started Comic Con waaaaay back in the day are SD natives and really like it here. So who can say what the future holds? Personally I'd like it in Vegas. Way more space, way more awesome stuff to do for adults. Screw all those kiddies, I want easier access to alcohol dangit!

Thanks for the Shout-Out!

I keep thinking about going, but those lines seem crazy.