I would have gone to Comic-Con, but the Padres are not in town

As I sit there at The Gulag, I am reminded from various web sites that the San Diego Comic-Con is this weekend. As much as I love Shore Leave and WorldCon, I must get to this convention some year. Check out this blog of an attendee during this years con.
 
Although it started as is still is "mostly" a HUGE Comic Book convention, Comic-Con is also the biggest Science Fiction Media and Pop Culture convention in the country if not the world. Some 50,000 people came and went last year. The guest list this year is in the hundreds and include Kevin Smith, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Keanu Reeves. Some of my favorite comic artists will be there. They will be previewing the film Sky Captain as well as the Extended Edition of LOTR: Return of the King will be shown with an introduction by director Peter Jackson himself. I think I made my point. It's HUGE!!!!
 
And the cost of a membership? $60 for Adults 17+ at the door for the whole weekend (4 days)!!! With teens $30 and Children under 12 FREE. And that includes autographs and shuttle service to and from all the local hotels. Amazing. The reason for the low price is that the con has one of the biggest dealers hall ever stuffed with product, a lot of it special edition stuff that is made for the weekend.
 
There used to be a lot of SF media events at WorldCons with producers, publicists and the like hawking whatever they were working on, but as Comic-Con grew and with the close proximity of the location to LA, not to mention how much easier and cheaper it is to bring "talent" there, all the studios started to go there to hawk all the SF and fantasy films and TV shows. It's a shame that they do not do WorldCon as much (if at all) anymore, but that's all the more reason to go.
 
I still would like to go to the Star Wars Celebration next April, but in looking into things like airfare, hotel and the like, it's starting to look like it would actually be cheaper to go to San Diego than Indianapolis. The airfare to both cities from here is about the same and the hotels in Indy are already starting to charge outrageous prices for rooms downtown near the con ($175-200/night!) whereas I can get a room near the con in SD for around $110-120/night. I do not know what the cost of the membership for the SW con will be, but I'm pretty sure it'll be more that $60. Plus the family can do things in SD like the world famous zoo and Sea World while I geek out at the con and if the little one wants to tag along and geek out with me, she's FREE!!!
 
Between now and the end of the year, I'm gonna have to give this serious thought.