I’m getting my geek on at Comic-Con but those lines keep me from getting into the biggest rooms. The true experience for 95% of Comic-Con attendees is standing in line, pushing through crowds and going to the smaller events. Luckily, there’s a ton of cool shit to see and the smaller events are often better than the biggest ones.

The first actual battle I saw was a group of people reaching for swag at the Fox booth. Comic fans may be shy in real life, but they are fearless in costume and ruthless when free shit is to be had. However, I do have to say that for every shoulder that bumped me as we all squeezed through the aisles, I heard an apology every time. Geeks are nice and they search for the swag lines.

Archer screening? Wanted to. Line too long.

Firefly 10^th Anniversary Reunion? Really wanted too. Line ridiculously long. (but luckily the entire 52 minute panel is online thanks to Fandango and Things From Another World, http://www.fandango.com/movieblog/watch-entire-firefly-comiccon-panel-and-press-conference-718266.html)

Walking Dead and Games of Thrones panels in Hall H? Did you read the first part of this article? NFW.

But, being that I’m a total geek for cartoon strips, I went to see Dan Piraro talk about his Bizarro strip and Lynn Johnston talk about For Better or For Worse. I’ve known both of them for a while, but I had never seen them give a talk before. Dan is like a stand-up comedian. He controlled the room and had us rolling. Then I found out that his alter ego really is a stand-up comedian at nights. Lynn Johnston is soft spoken one-on-one, but give her a marker and put her in front of a large group of fans and she becomes the quickest wit in the West.

Dan Pisaro of Bizarro and Lynn Johnston of For Better or For Worse.

Back to the floor to squeeze through throngs of thongs (I just made that up!) and I exposed (keep your mind out of the gutter) more secret identities. The Marvel booth had an Xbox going and men and women alike were letting their inner superhero fly while playing Avengers: Battle For Earth.

Xbox player’s alter ego as Thor in the Marvel booth.

Want to be a jedi? Complete outfits are available.

Want to be James Bond? Have your picture taken in the Bond 50 booth with one of his hot cars.

The guy roaming the halls riding the dinosaur spends his normal days with old things too. He works on the Midway ship in the museum.

Dino guy works in a museum.

Since the screening for the new CW series Arrow was impossible to get into in Ballroom 20, I went to the Robot Chicken panel at the Hilton. Merely a 25 minute push and shove through the crowds and across the street to the Hilton and I spent an hour laughing with these guys who make production look so fun. (It is fun, but they make it LOOK like fun.)

On the way to the Hilton, I discovered one of the best displays. On the lawn were all of the Batmobiles, starting with the 1960’s version. They were awesome and when they started up, the rumbling of those engines made your knees quiver. So cool.