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Today was Star Wars Day at Comic-Con International, which always means stormtroopers on the move.
Angela Carone
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A stormtrooper works day two of Comic-Con International in downtown San Diego.
Angela Carone
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It seems like everyone has a camera at Comic-Con and anyone in costume comes ready to pose.
Angela Carone
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Even superheroes on the move work it for the camera.
Angela Carone
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A Comic-Con cosplayer dressed as Jack Sparrow breaks for a coffee.
Angela Carone
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Skip works at the San Diego Convention Center and has worked Comic-Con for 20 years. He said this was the largest Friday crowd he's ever seen, rivaling the Saturday crowds of years past.
Angela Carone
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Everywhere you looked, there were crowds moving in and around the convention center.
Angela Carone
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The face of Mary Louise Parker, star of the Showtime comedy "Weeds," on the side of a bus in front of the convention center.
Angela Carone
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Comic-Con attendees dressed as members of the Guild of Calamitous Intent, a supervillain collective from The Venture Bros., a show on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
Angela Carone
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A group of young girls demo the Just Dance 2 video game on the convention floor.
Angela Carone
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A little boy watches his parents get their picture taken with a corpse on a fake set for the new AMC drama "The Walking Dead." He was too frightened to join them.
Angela Carone
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A young Spiderman demonstrates how he would shoot his web at Comic-Con International.
Angela Carone
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Today I discovered that the Society for Creative Anachronism stages combats on the mezzanine level of the convention center during Comic-Con. The SCA is devoted to the study and preservation of the Middle Ages.
Angela Carone
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SCA members fight with swords (made of rattan) and real armor (very heavy). They claim to recreate the fun parts of medieval society, like feasts, costumes and sword fighting, and leave out plagues, lice, and beheadings.
Angela Carone
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After the combats, the participants invite the kids in the crowd to enter the ring and learn how to sword fight. They call it "Whack-a-Knight."
Angela Carone
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A member of the Society for Creative Anachronism rests after a combat demonstration.
Angela Carone
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A young cosplayer at Comic-Con dressed as the Mad Hatter from Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland."
Angela Carone
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A crowd of photographers gathered at the sight of Disney heroines (see next picture).
Angela Carone
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These were not the traditional Disney heroines, which explains the large number of male photographers.
Angela Carone
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A steampunk couple at Comic-Con, International.
Angela Carone
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Comic-Con 2010 started today and though it was only Thursday, plenty of fans were dressed up.
Angela Carone
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This gentlemen introduced himself as simply "The Superman." A crowd gathered around him as he announced he was using his superpowers to Comic-Con in San Diego.
Angela Carone
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A group of young girls dress as Pokemon characters at Comic-Con, 2010.
Angela Carone
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Original caption: I'm not sure who these two are. Any guesses?
From KPBS producer Andy Trimlett and resident pop culture expert: Travis Touchdown and Bad Girl from the Wii game "No More Heroes."
I was going to guess that ;)
Angela Carone
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I think these two are also Pokemon characters.
Angela Carone
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These women were dressed up as Jackie Kennedy Onassis to promote a book. The one holding the purse is our lovely KPBS intern Hilary!
Angela Carone
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There were religious protesters across the street from Comic-Con.
Angela Carone
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Their presence drew other protesters with various agendas.
Angela Carone
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This protester seemed to take his cue from the religious protesters, but with a whole new twist.
Angela Carone
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During Comic-Con, it's not unusual to run into a "hang ten" Jesus in downtown San Diego.
Angela Carone
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I asked this family from Los Angeles if it was difficult to navigate Comic-Con as a family. They said it wasn't hard at all. Of course, they now have a very large diaper bag.
Angela Carone
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An outdoor screening of the new Robert Rodriguez film "Machete" takes place Thursday evening. Rodriguez will be serving tacos from this truck.
Angela Carone
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This was my favorite costume of the day - a giant sock monkey!
Angela Carone
The Union-Tribune is reporting that Comic-Con International, the popular arts convention that takes place in San Diego every July, will remain here for another five years.
Other cities (Los Angeles and Anaheim) have been vying to host the convention after 2012, when Comic-Con's contract with the San Diego convention center expires. David Glanzer, spokesman for Comic-Con, told These Days back in April that organizers were facing a tough decision, one that would require time and deliberation.
One of the biggest concerns was the size of the San Diego convention center and whether it could continue to accommodate what has become San Diego's largest convention with more than 130,000 attendees each year.
David Glanzer told the U-T: “We’ve always had a desire to stay in San Diego, and we had three amazing proposals. It was obviously a very difficult decision, one born out by the amount of time it’s taken to make that decision. But in the end San Diego was able to address a lot of our concerns. It’s never been a secret we’d hoped to stay here, but the real challenge was that those who want to attend the event can afford to attend, in terms of size and space and cost.”
The U-T says the final decision came after contracts were made with 64 convention-block hotels, locking in certain rates for Comic-Con attendees through 2015.
What do you think? Are you happy Comic-Con will remain in San Diego?
Were you frustrated by the long lines and crowds at Comic-Con over the last couple of years? A larger space would presumably alleviate some of those frustrations. Are the lines worth it to keep Comic-Con in San Diego?
