You see so much in the media these days about video games being directly related to recent increases in adolescent violence. Frankly, my take is that this is no different from those points in history where ignorant politicians/lawyers/media went after comic books and rock-and-roll, also forms of new media in their respective times.

Anyway, here's a link to an interesting article with something I always enjoy seeing, actual data.

Hi everybody! We just got back from the San Diego Comic Con...here are some pictures from our vacation, and some brief captions. Ronda and I both will be back later to tell a little more about our adventures.



Us at the San Diego Zoo



A Silverback Gorilla



A Hippo. I named him Henry.



When all the animals are hanging out at the after-hours zoo bar, this must be the guy picking up all the ladies.



Kimodo Dragon, and some kids.



Galapogos Turtles need love too.



Here's a view from the sky train over the zoo.



Here's a picture of our hotel, the Hyatt Regency Islandia. We had a balcony suite on the 10th floor.



Here's a picture of one end of the San Diego Convention Center, where the Comic Con was being held. Notice the line of people.



Here's another pic further down the building, again, lines were the theme of the week at the con.



Here's a view of the convention center and the San Diego Padre's ballpark from our plane, just for a scale of reference. The ComicCon filled all 3 floors of the convention center, and was about 5-6 football fields in length. In all, there were over 100,000 attendees at this years convention.



Here's a 7' tall Chewbacca made entirely of Legos.



Another Lego exhibit. "Look at the size of that thing!"



"I'll be back."



I learned that the Penny Arcade guys are going to be publish a compilation book through Dark Horse this fall.



Here's a pencil sketch by famed comic artist Alex Ross, depicting concept art featuring Tom Welling (Smallville) in the role of Superman. This piece was selling for over a thousand dollars.



Here's a nightshot from our balcony.


The next day we saw a host of interesting people, as evidenced below:


I'm Boba, the Fett. I bounty hunt for Jabba the Hutt to finance my 'vette.



A modern day Linda Carter.



The Klingons were in attendance in full force. "Chak-tah!" I have no idea what that means.



As were the Star Wars geeks, who prove here that they have an incredible amount of time on their hands.



Here's a few more Star Wars fans, posing in front of an 18-wheeler done up like Optimus Prime, advertising the new, live-action Transformers movie coming to theaters sometime next year.



Here's Ronda with a couple of friends we made at the convention, who were dressed as Aleria from the show Angel.



I didn't know what to even think then, and I still don't now.



Here's a Superman we saw at the Superman Returns panel with Bryan Singer.



....Bizzarro Superman am happy! Up with Man!



Who you gonna call?



The Superman Returns panel in Hall H, which held 6500 people that morning.



Here's Ronda at the panel talking on the phone with our friend Gina.


At the Con we had the chance to meet a lot of famous people as well:




Margot Kidder (Lois Lane in Superman: The Movie) and Ronda. To the right in the baseball cap is the guy who played Jimmy Olsen.



Elvira.



We saw lots of cast members from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, such as the guy who played several demons (including The Gentlemen) and the guy who played Adam.



Here's Seth Green, who played Oz in Buffy and Scott Evil in the Austin Powers movies.



Here's a blurry pic of Amber Benson, who played Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She was extremely nice to me and Ronda.



Here's a pic of Amber and Ronda.



We also met Nicholas Brendan, who played Xander on Buffy.



Another pic, Ronda likes these pics and said they all had to go on here.



Here's Ronda and Nick.



And here's Ronda getting his autograph.


We also picked up some pretty cool stuff while at the ComicCon.




Here's a high grade 1940 More Fun Spectre Cover my Uncle Rick purchased.



Here's a a Buffy the Vampire Slayer picture autographed by the entire cast.



Here's a sketch drawn for me of Gabe from Penny Arcade (by Gabe from Penny Arcade).



Here's another sketch by Gabe from Penny Arcade of the Fruit F***er, described in social settings as the "Fruit Friend". As you can tell by now, my theme for my sketches was "Boh Hell Yeah!" and "Suck it".



One of the guys from Aqua Teen Hunger Force drew this for me, after I requested him to say "Boh Hell Yeah".



Here's another sketch of Meatwad done by another guy from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, who asked for the story behind "Boh Hell Yeah", and upon hearing it, turned to the other guy and said in Meatwad's voice, "Hey blah blah blah, Boh Hell Yeah!"



Here's a Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) sketch penciled and inked by Leonard Kirk, previously an artist in the Tomb Raider comic, and currently drawing The Freshmen with Seth Green and Aquaman for DC Comics.



Here's another Lara Croft sketch.



Here's a Limited Edition Lara Croft print (#146 of 300) created by Frank Cho and Brandon Peterson that I picked up at the Con.

A Multi Media Share!

Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade