COMIC CON - DAY THREE - WEIRD SHIT EVERYWHERE

The floor of ComicCon is literally packed from wall to wall. I couldn’t even give a rough estimate of how many exhibitors are in the place, but it’s a lot. Pretty much anyone can get a booth or a table to peddle just about anything, provided they fill out the paperwork and brave the two-year waiting list. Some people do this, and they bring with them the most random things that people end up loving.

One small booth that I saw a few years back, but hadn’t been able to find again until this year, was the Asylum Press booth. One of the company’s specialties is a magazine called Girls with Corpses. And yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s filled with pictures of girls and dead bodies. Some of the models were mildly attractive, and because they were posing next to dead bodies that probably helped up their overall status. But at the same time, they were posing next to rotting corpses trying to look sexy, so that dropped them right back down. There were people there every time I walked by—some appalled, some intrigued and a few women wondering how they could apply to be models. There were also multiple back issues, which means the magazine sells well enough to warrant a new one every so often. What kind of world do we live in when quality magazines are on the chopping block, but Girls With Corpses is rolling along unaffected?

While looking for relatively quiet place to rest , I found an escalator that led to a weird half-level that not only had booths and entire rooms set aside for Japanese card games (i..e. Pokemon and what not) and obscure video games, but also a booth for being fitted for (and ordering) chainmail, and some truly jaw-dropping live action role-playing going on just outside (jaw-dropping because I’d only heard about it and never actually seen it, not because I was amazed at the talent that it took, which didn’t look like much at all). The San Diego Film Festival had a booth also, but it was sandwiched between another medieval recreation society and The Dented Helmet.com. The Dented Helmet is the definitive Boba Fett costume resource—because apparently there are many different occasions for such a thing, and like any good outfit, you shouldn’t wear the same one twice.

There were more booths that I just didn’t have time to explore, but one of them had a table offering autographs from Extreme Karate (I think MMA is the proper term, but let’s call it what it really is) fighter Cung Le and Sober House "contestant" Amber Smith. Anything goes at ComicCon and everything has an audience—even if it is only five people.