Hele On to Comic-Con

My wife Jen and I will be attending Comic-Con International 2008 in San Diego this week. Dubbed by some as the "Geek Prom," Comic-Con is no small gathering of basement-dwelling nerds. Everyone from Hollywood's biggest guns to aspiring web cartoonists shows up for Comic-Con, which sold out last week. Over 120,000 people are expected to descend upon the San Diego Convention Center in an event so massive, some are suggesting that it's getting too big for its hometown.

I've set up a special Comic-Con Blog to document all the excitement. I'll also be posting updates on Twitter (I'm here and Jen is here), and via Flickr.

Mind you, we know absolutely nothing about comics. But the breathtaking scope and mind-boggling size of Comic-Con make it irresistible. For us, the key draw are the events and people surrounding ABC's filmed-in-Hawaii hit series "LOST." ABC screened the show's epic pilot episode at Comic-Con in 2004, and ever since, "LOST" has been a Comic-Con fixture. This year looks to be no different, with ABC actually airing a fake commercial during the season finale in May that promised something special in San Diego.

So in addition to the official "LOST" panel at noon on Saturday (for which we, and other fans, will likely be lined up before dawn), there'll be a "recruiting drive" at Booth 3529 in the massive exhibit hall. We have no idea what we're signing up for, of course, but it's a fair assumption that ABC is planting the seeds of another ARG.

We're really looking forward to meeting with several great folks. The brilliant listeners of our "LOST" podcast "The Transmission," for one, as well as fellow "LOST" podcasters Jay & Jack and Ralph & Ben and John and Colleen (to name but a few). We plan to post lots "LOST" of news from Comic-Con via our podcast (hopefully audio and video).

And believe it or not, we also hope to see a few things besides Comic-Con on this trip. Neither of us have ever been to San Diego, and we've heard great things about it. Other Comic-Con survivors have told us that the convention can be overwhelming, so we won't hesitate to take a break and escape into the city should the sightseeing mood strike us. Our kids, for one, are expecting some kind of loot from Legoland.

Speaking of the kids... not only will this be our first Comic-Con and our first trip to San Diego, but it will be our first trip away from our offspring since... before we had offspring. They've never gone more than 36 hours without seeing one of us. So this is a big deal for everyone in the family, including my wonderful mother, who has selflessly agreed to wrangle Katie, Zac, and Alex for five crazy days.

Thanks, mom!

San Diego, here we come!