If Thursday had one thing that everybody seemed to agree on, it was that the day was pretty steady. No huge swells, no long dead periods, nothing crazy. Pretty calm so far, hope it stays like this a security guy in the vicinity of Hall H told me. Nice and easy today a facilities worker by the food trucks said. The view from the booth even had the omnipresent line for Snoopy exclusives in a reasonbly-wrangled state¹ (as opposed to Preview Night, when multiple attendees tried to scam an alternate line when the real one got capped, and security came as close to yanking badges as I’ve ever seen).

I mean, that’s weird, right? I’ve never heard of such a thing; the closest equivalent I can think of was the fire marshals stopping people from entering the first New York Comic Con due to overcrowding. But it wasn’t the weirdest thing of the day.

The weirdest thing of the day was a guy in a head-to-toe Spider-Man suit with a single zipper that ran up the back and ended between his shoulder blades. I watched him walk into the men’s room, approach a urinal, and then just stop, trying to figure out his next move. I hope every superhero — especially the ones with armor and pouches and everything — has thought ahead to what happens when they need to take a leak when they designed their costume. As I left Spidey wondering how he was going to take care of bidness, I passed a guy who appeared to be changing into costume, pulling stuff out of a large shopping bag. He appeared to be going to He-Man, as he already had a furry, diaperesque pair of underpants on. You don’t get photos of those dudes because come on, it was the bathroom.

Cosplay started in earnest; early in the day I met an authentically great Squirrel Girl and got her photo; I asked if she’d been to see Ryan North yet and her face lit up — He’s here? I walked her over to the TopatoCo booth and watched the magic happen. Surprisingly, I only saw one King T’Challa, but he exuded great dignity. Less surprisingly, I also only saw one person try to channel Inner Goldbluminity to play The Grandmaster, with a suitably why do I put up with this crap looking companion as Topaz. The best cosplay was probably that of Pepper, a chihuahua who did an amazing job cosplaying as a greyhound².

The day ended improbably, at the top of the Marriott Gaslamp, looking down on Petco Park, at a party sponsored by Webtoon; I ran into Jamie Noguchi and we chatted a bit about Danielle Corsetto³ (we wished she was there), the potential return of Yellow Peril (gotta balance the paying jobs, some of which are ridiculous), our dislike of companies running “contests” for talent searches (as we accepted offers from the plates of sliders and other foods being passed), and how there’s a great comic to be made about the gig economy (which is pretty damn close to both freelancing — the subject of Yellow Peril — and webcomics). We also played who’s actually in comics and who’s invited because they’re very, very pretty and make the party sexier and determined the giveaway was the shoes. Strappy, shiny, elevated shoes that cost as much as 100 Copic markers? Not in comics.

Panels to attend today include:
The Power Of Nonfiction Graphic Novels with Thi Bui, Alex Irvine, Clifford Johnson, Peter Tomasi, Travis Langley, and Abby Howard (who I met yesterday and she’s delightful). Room 32AB at 10:00.

Graphic Novels: From Eisner To Explosion!, which overlaps, but which features Scott McCloud, Jeff Smith, Emil Ferris, and Paul Levitz. Room 24ABC at 10:30.

Autobiography In Graphic Novels with Raina Telgemeier, Jarrett J Krosoczka, and Tillie Walden; coincidentally, I saw all three of these folks on panels yesterday, and they’re great. Lots of writeups to do, may take a while to get them posted. Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library at 3:00.

LGBTQ Graphic Novels with Aminder Dhaliwal, Molly Ostertag, and Ivy Noelle Weir. Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library at 4:00.

Handling Challenges: Bans And Challenges To Comics with Gina Gagliano, Judd Winick, Charles Kochman, Candice Mack, and David Saylor. Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library at 5:00.

I’ve got about 3500 words of rush transcripts from yesterday’s panels to edit down, so look for those sometime today, as time permits.

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¹ There is an exception to every rule; I heard one toy-related merch booth a few dozen aisles to the south managed its exclusives so poorly, creating uncontrollable crowd hazards, and was shut down for the day by the showrunners. That’s gotta put a dent in your budget.

² Okay, okay, she was a real greyhound, but a small one. And she was a good girl.

³ Whose new comic, Boo! It’s Sex, is on Webtoon, so it all ties together.