8 Things I Learned at Comic-Con, By a Newbie

Confession: This past week marked my first time at the nerdfest known as Comic-Con. This fact has surprised many people. Aren't I a west-coast nerd? A nerd journalist, in fact, and thus someone who could have gotten in for free for a decade or more?

Well, yes. But I always resisted the siren lure of the San Diego summer. I heard horror stories. I knew how many people were in attendance (an estimated 130,000 this year). I got the sense that it had become too commercial, packed with big-budget movie marketing and dripping with hype. I recently interviewed Charley Lippincott, the marketing director on the original Star Wars, and the first guy ever to tease a forthcoming movie at Comic-Con. When asked about what had happened ever since, he simply said, "I'm so sorry."