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So another San Diego con is in the books. I’ll be heading home tonight.

Highlights:

The autographing sessions, particularly at Marvel, were well attended and enthusiastic.

The gigantic scale model of the Black Pearl atop the Pirates display.

The presentations for the Hulk and Iron Man films, complete with stars and directors in attendance. Ed Norton looks as if he was born to play Bruce Banner, and the four minutes of footage from “Iron Man” were absolutely fantastic. If nothing else, it reminds you of what a fantastic actor Robert Downey Junior is.

Saw the pilot episode of “Sarah Connor Chronicles.” Absolutely great, although there was faint moaning from the audience when the closing words, “Coming Soon from Fox” appeared on the screen, since Fox’s track record with SF isn’t exactly stellar.

Met Guy Williams, Jr., who–among other things–sells replicas of his father’s Zorro outfit. Pictures of me modeling some of the outfit will go up as soon as I have them in hand.

Bought neat stuff for the family.

Participated in Mark Evanier’s Quick draw panel, once again guessing three words that the artists had to convey via pictures only. Abstract words like “Easy” (which ironically was the hardest). Got all three in a reasonable amount of time. I always love the “Aha” moment when I suddenly realize what the word is. It’s the closest I’ll experience to the kind of moment that Monk has when he solves the case.

The Impact publishing table brought sixty copies of my book on writing comics and by the end of the con had only three left, so that was nice.

PAD

The second annual Marvel vs. DC softball game came to a hard-fought conclusion Thursday as, for the second year in a row, Marvel triumphed over DC in the San Diego softball contest. The prize was the treasured Stan Lee Cup (not to be confused with that two-bit imitator, the Stanley Cup.)

Your humble host pitched the first three innings, allowing one run. I ran into trouble in the fourth, as I got rattled between a couple of walks and some poor fielding by my teammates that caused our 8-1 lead to be trimmed to 8-5. Paul Jenkins came in to pitch and, after allowing DC to take the lead 9-8, got us out of the inning. An Humberto Ramos grand slam followed by a solo shot by Johnny Romita, Jr., put Marvel back on top and we never looked back. Paul volunteered to come back out so I could return to the mound, but he was pitching well and I didn’t want to mess with a good thing, so instead I subbed in as catcher when the player who had been catching asked to be taken out on account of being drunk. All proceeds when to the Hero Initiative.

Several of our players were celebrating with the Stan Lee Cup at the Hyatt bar after midnight. Losing DC player Dan Didio saw the guys and endeavored to snare the cup away from them, perhaps in hope that–since they were drinking–they wouldn’t notice. Unfortunately what Dan was unaware of was that they were, in fact, drinking beer out of the Stan Lee Cup. Consequently, Dan’s abortive attempt to yank the Cup away from its bearer’s grasp resulted in beer spilling out of the cup and down Dan’s crotch. To his credit, Dan was a good sport about it and then drank the remainder of the beer from the cup. And yes, that little incident was captured on video, although not by me, since I was securely asleep in my room by that point.

PAD

So we were at Disney-MGM today (anyone reading Kath’s blog is getting a blow by blow of our vacation) and Ariel was interested in riding “Tower of Terror.” But when we arrived, there was a sign indicating that there would be no Fastpass available: A way of checking in early at a popular ride and getting a set time at which you can return and head straight in, thus enabling you to plan your day more effectively. Without Fastpass, the popular rides are going to have formidable waits.

We decided to check the status board on Main Street, the one that tells you what rides are open and what the projected wait times were. Curiously, there was a little sign blocking the wait time for TOT, and the sign read, “Guess the Wait Time!” Ariel guessed a half hour and the Disney cast member overseeing the board shook his head. He turned to me. I gave it some thought and said “Fifty seven minutes.” He said, “We only go in increments of five.” “Oh. Okay.” I rounded up. “Sixty minutes.” He blinked in surprise and removed the sign to reveal “60 Minutes.” He asked if we were planning to go on (“We” being Ariel, myself, and a friend of ours, Jay, with whom we’d met up at the park.) I said yes. He then gave us Fastpasses for TOT, telling us that today the ONLY way one could get a Fastpass for TOT was to guess the wait time.

We walked over to TOT with the passes and the cast member to whom we presented them said, “These are rare as gold” before waving us past a huge line.

Cool.

PAD

Overall, I liked it a hell of a lot.

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So there we were at a fairly small airport in Long Island, our preferred means of departing the area by air as opposed to the more busier, more hectic JKF or LaGuardia, as casa David prepared for our annual pilgrimage to Florida (followed by my continuation to the San Diego con.)

We encounter a huge line waiting for curbside check-in, but the line inside seems no shorter, so we wait. And wait. We inch forward. After about fifteen minutes of waiting, some guy steps in back of us. Apparently he doesn’t realize that he’s cutting in line, because there’s ten people behind us. It’s just that the woman behind us hadn’t yet moved forward because she had several suitcases to maneuver. Kathleen points out to him that he’s cutting in line and indicates where the actual end is. His response? He starts cursing at her, telling her to go f*** herself.

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With Emmy nominations out, there’s apparently some buzz that the inconclusive ending to the series might hurt its chances.

Personally…I thought the ending was brilliant.

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Spoilers for the upcoming last “Harry Potter” novel are starting to spring up like weeds on the internet.

I’ve read none of them, but now seems a good a time as any to post my daughter Ariel’s predictions. Over the past two weeks she’s re-read the previous six books and here’s what she thinks will happen.

(I’m putting them below the cutline since I know there are some strange individuals out there who consider guesses to be spoilers, but I emphasize that in the definition of spoilers that sane people hew to, there are none.)

Real spoilers are NOT to be put onto this thread.

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At Shore Leave convention in Maryland, we performed a sketch in masquerade involving Beauty and the Beast..and the Beast…and the Beast. Beauty, a.k.a Belle, is Marina Olsen, costumed by her mom. Kathleen made the rest of the outfits. That’s her as Vincent, with Ariel as the Disney Beast and me as the X-Men Beast. Neither the audience nor the judges knew it was me; I billed myself as “Hank McCoy.” We took first place for Showcase of Champion and won Best In Show.

PAD

First of a four part story. Whad’ja think?

PAD

An irregular feature for this blog that I’m instituting here: As someone who had a name that high schoolers thought was hysterically funny for some damned reason, I will occasionally take note of individuals who probably suffered more in high school than I did.

The first winner:

HUNTER PENCE.

A rookie outfielder for the Houston Astros, I think we can surmise that this is someone who never wanted to enter the armed forces, the police force, or become a commercial airline pilot, for fear of achieving the rank of “Captain.” Because that would make him (say it out loud) Captain Hunter Pence.

What the hell were his parents thinking? Of all first names to link to a name like Pence. What, “Tup’ Pence was taken? How many times did this poor devil get called “Underpants” throughout his school career? We’ll probably never know. He may well have become an athlete just so he’d be big and strong enough to beat the crap out of kids who made fun of him.

PAD

Investigations are apace into the blackmailing of Miss New Jersey, Amy Palumbo. When one is dealing with a scheme designed to make a beauty queen give up her crown, the obvious culprit (at least insofar as the inevitable episode of “Law and Order” will play it) would be the runner up, and that’s where police investigations are now turned. Personally, if I were a cop, I wouldn’t be grilling the runner up; I’d be talking to her friends and boyfriends. This whole thing has the stink of some chowderheaded guy who thinks he’s doing his girl friend or girlfriend a favor by setting up a situation so that she can take over the crown. Apparently the saga of a skater named Ms. Harding didn’t leave an impression as to how such schemes typically turn out.

I very much suspect that Ms. Palumbo will not be forced to resign. Why let the terrorists win? However, if she were, it wouldn’t be the worst fate. Quick, name the Miss America some years back who was forced to resign in disgrace. Right: Vanessa Williams. Now, just as quick, name the woman who took over the crown in her place. Ummm….

PAD

Kath and I went to see “Transformers” this afternoon.

Now I was a bit old for the animated series when it first aired, so I have no particular attachment to the characters or concepts. I’m not going to get my knickers in a knot because character designs were changed or liberties were taken. I’m much more interested in the simple concept of whether I was entertained or not.

Answer: Most definitely.

Mild spoilers below…

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Received the following missive from Andy Schmidt, the editor who basically willed both the Madrox LS and “X-Factor” into existence:

“I’m pleased to announce that Alix and I had a son on Sunday, July 1st, 2007. His name is Cale Richard Schmidt, he weighed in at 7 lbs, 11 oz, and is purely awesome.”

Naturally I was hoping for (a) multiple births or (b) that the kid would be named Jamie. But, hey, a happy event is a happy event.

PAD

First of a three parter guest-starring Billy Tucci’s “Shi,” with Billy contributing eleven pages of art and a flip book cover. Whad’ja think?

PAD

Let us pause a moment to consider the patriots who founded this country, the immortal document that put forward their sentiments in words so plain and firm as to command the world’s assent, and the fact that not a single one of them felt the need to sign a fake name to it. It just wouldn’t have been the same if John Hancock had, in lieu of the moniker that would launch a thousand insurance offices, written “BEANEATER1776″ large enough so fat George in England could read it without his glasses.

Happy Fourth everybody.

PAD

AP has reported the following:

“President Bush commuted the sentence of former aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Monday, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case. Bush left intact a $250,000 fine and two years probation for Libby, according to a senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced.”

Watch the Republican Prez candidates back away even further from the Bush Administration.

PAD

UPDATED 7-3: THIS JUST IN…It has been announced that Scooter Libby will indeed go to jail since, as it turned out, Bush commuted the sentence in error: He thought he was guaranteeing no jail time for Phil Rizzuto.

UPDATED 7-4: Well, I have to admit, I underestimated the GOP candidates. Thus far, to my knowledge, they’ve lined up behind Bush. In fact, amazingly, they’re even managing to blame Bill Clinton. “Hey, Clinton pardoned people who the public thought shouldn’t have been, so why shouldn’t Bush?” The obvious answer is that because Bush set himself up as being morally superior to Clinton.

It seems that the GOP candidates are simply without shame. Or perhaps they want to preserve the option of extending clemency to their own people when they commit crimes.

PAD

Katherine Keller, editor of “Sequential Tart,” has asked me to post the following challenge:

“If I get 40 emails (kadymae at operamail dot com) with a proof
of a donation of at least $25 to the CBLDF since 6/10, I will
personally hand Charles Brownstein a cheque for $1000 at San
Diego.

I’ve got 30 people so far, as well as an amazing co-offer. A
gentleman by the name of Carl Rigney has offered to match my
$1000 if I get the 40 emails.”

She has ten more to go. It’d be cool if the remaining ten came from readers of this blog.

PAD

The conclusion of the X-Cell storyline. Whad’ja think?

PAD