You know, for a preview night, the con was sure as hell packed. Maybe it's been the countless other cons I've been to in the last year, but the preview night for this year's Comic Con alone was about the same as a regular day at Anime Expo, or Otakon--doubled. If you've ever been to a large anime convention before, you can easily understand what I mean by that.

I got a chance to swing by several booths, including VIZ media, and Dark Horse, both of which had free sample manga to give away. At one point a young girl in her teens walked up behind me and asked what the books were on the shelf, and the moment I said they were free manga she started yelling "OMG OMG OMG, GET THEM, GET THEM," to her friend, and literally snagged like 3 or 4 of the sample booklets. I don't think she realized they weren't full manga, and that they were all the same. It was pretty scary to see her freaking out like that, but I suppose that's normal for SDCC, besides it's just refreshing to see actual industry booths for once.

I also dropped by the Kotobukiya booth. While they're primarily known for selling toys and collectibles--a good portion of which are anime related--including the ones designed by my absolute favorite artist, Shunya Yamashita. Their pamphlets they handed out at the booth were pretty awesome and unintentionally hilarious at the same time. Of course, I scanned them so you'll see what I mean, but Shunyama's bishoujo versions of popular Marvel characters are simply gorgeous. They also included a mini poster featuring the characters, which is insanely hot. I just think it's funny that they decided to sneak non-anime related things into each page. For example, the F1 Racer on the page with the Gainax figures, or the Star Wars stuff on the page with the Shunyama figures. It really makes you stop and think, "seriously?"

Any ways, we'll have more to report from San Diego as the week goes on. Also, be sure to check out Destructoid and Tomopop for even more on-going coverage!