Run for your lives, local mortals! 'Tis time! 'Tis time! San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) is here, again, kittens! Whilst Summer is my least fave season (Moi, aka, authoress Jennifer Susannah Devore, needs her Autumn days and Sbux PSL!), July is a glorious month indeed! Comic-Con, the reigning monarch of all comic book/pop culture conventions takes flight July 19 - 23, 2018 at the San Diego Convention Center. Once again, Yours Truly will be there with my fave con cohort and shutterbug, Eslilay Evoreday of Twisted Pair Photography and Sea Gypsy Costume Designs. As this Summer tradition remains a constant, some aspects of the game are ever-changing. Now, the game is afoot!

It's Springtime in San Diego, kittens and that means one thing: San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) approacheth! July 19 - 22, 2018 will find Yours Truly awash in cosplay and cultur de pop, more so than usual. Sure, it's still three months off; yet playing the big Con takes prep. Every sweltering, sunny, San Diego Summer year my Con-cohort and I, Eslilay Evoreday, immerse ourselves in all the geeky goodness at the grandest of comic book conventions.

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Can't make it to Comic-Con? Don't be sad! JennyPop's got you covered! All the dorky fun rages July 19 - July 23, 2017. For full posts, detailed accounts and, possibly, her Souvenir Book article, bookmark @JennyPopCom Twitter and Insta for all the in-depth, geeky, good times.

"San Diego’s booming prosperity attracts unscrupulous characters ... This includes prostitutes and gamblers."

Unscrupulous is such a subjective characterization. Effervescent? Of course. Adventurous? Certainly. Creative? Sans doute! We, specifically of the Comic-Con ilk (as this post pertains to that segment of the San Diego populace) are merely carrying on Rabbitville's long-running, luxe and intricate tapestry of the curious, the frivolous, the entrepreneurial, the artistic, the devoted and the odd. We also like a good martini, an unobstructed sunset and free parking.

One week out from San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC July 19 - July 23, 2017, incl. Preview Night, San Diego Convention Center)! If you're attending, most of your prep is likely finished: cosplay elements, travel and entertainment itineraries, recruiting a friend to watch your dog and feed your turtle. Of course, even with all your ridiculous-meticulous prep, so much of the unknown remains.

First things are first, whatever you do ... carry a travel-size deodorant in your bag. Trust me, Con days are long, active and exceedingly warm; you don't want to be part of the problem. Bring or buy a spare pair of shoes. Trust me here, again. I'm starting off with 5" OTK Lana Kane boots and will likely end up in Yoda bedroom slippers. Have Uberalready loaded on your phone so you're not tempted to drink and drive in the evenings, or don't want to wait for a trolley. Keep emergency cabbage on-hand for those impromptu Meet & Geeks; you never know when a martini or espresso can turn into a networking opp! Now, after you're set with all that, it's time to tend to your curious self and schedule all those fab SDCC panels, conferences and screenings!

The thing about Comic-Con news, is, for San Diegans, it happens to be our local news. Ergo, unlike those arriving in town for the yearly pop cultural extravaganza, convention energy heats up early for us local dorks, comme Moi,. Besides telltale banners around The Gaslamp District and the Harbor, news and radio badge-giveaways, and blocked-out hotels for miles, San Diego local news is covering tidbits and factoids almost daily. (Note: Local news generally bites. Yours Truly watches the first minute solely to see if there's a wildfire, Sharknado or Cloverfield monster headed my way. Good thing, because it appears a few threats headed here in about two weeks! Further, it appears they'll be returning every Summer, at least for a few years. (WooHoo!!)

On June 30, less than three weeks out from the 2017 Con, Mayor Kevin Faulconer spoke at the San Diego Convention Center, outside Hall H, home to the most coveted of SDCC panels each year. (2017 panels incl. Game of Thrones, Westworld and Stranger Things.) There, framed by San Diego's Tourism Authority CEO, Joe Terzi, and San Diego Convention Center's CEO, Rip Rippetoe, Mayor Faulconer ingratiated himself to Comic-Con's Dir. of Marketing and P.R., David Glanzer, under obligatory blue skies and soft breezes.

As San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) doth approach, Yours Truly is awash in all the final, frivolus tweaks and adjustments which inevitably occur three weeks out from the Granddaddy of Cons: cosplay details, SyFy-interviews schedule, social commitments (a.k.a. après-Con good times) and a plethora of so many things Geek & Fundry. Whilst I plan my best Con, to cover it all for you, dear reader, enjoy some puppies, via Warner Bros., highlighting their ~ahem~ doggone ~sorry~ inimitable slate of panels for SDCC 2017. Puppies!!!

Maybe my focus was on all the supa kawai'i Sanrio merchandise. (Have you met Hello Kitty's friend, Gudetama the Lazy Egg?! Please, leave me alone.)

I have always pondered what an experience it would have been to claim, casually over a tankard of Port, back at my fave, Yorkshire pub, The Gargoyle's Daughter, in my twee, riparian village of Notting-on-Scythe, “Yeah, cool. I was at this amazing party last week, in London. Yeah? Shakespeare was there. No, I didn’t get to talk to him, actually. But I saw him, yeah. Cool. Had loads of people around him. Dinna wannna bother him, yeah? He was hanging out by the wooden glove-forms, writing bits of dirty sonnet for some of the guests. Crazy, I tell you. Cool. Yeah, okay cool.”

Well, that never happened, not to Moi anyhoo. History is chock-a-block with visionaries we, today, will ne’er get to meet: Socrates, Didier, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Ben Frankin, Th. Jefferson, Mozart, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Walt Disney, Jane Austen, Coco Chanel, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Marie Antoinette (yes), Tim Burton and, natch, Stan Lee. So, I have to ask the universe, What the heck?! More precisely, what the heck, Stan Lee’s handlers?

If you’re paying attention to comic-reference specifics on The Big Bang Theory you’ll note one franchise regularly takes a hit: Archie Comics. Jughead, Reggie, Archie and the kids at Pop’s Chocklit Shoppe might be beneath Dr. Sheldon Cooper; yet, he wouldn’t even take notice if Betty and Veronica took up permanent residence with him and Leonard … unless they sat in his spot. Clearly, Not-Dr. Wolowitz would absolutely appreciate America’s hottest sweethearts.