In quite a few ways, Comic-Con is getting too big for its venue.  But in others, it’s exactly the same—the stink of sweat as the dude with the man-boobs in front of you waits for his turn to by the same exclusive you want, the way your senses overload as that  overbearing perfume wafts from the twentieth slave Leia that passes by.

But with preview night as exclusive as ever (not everyone who had a four day pass could get in), if not more, the chaos was much the same.  No clear lines of demarcation between anything other than what kind of pass you needed to register for, the anarchy in the vendor room.  The parking was horrific, as always. 

And yet, when I walked into that room I couldn’t help but feel that sense of wonder, that first breath of stale con air, and the aroma of microwave pizza from the mini food area,  that first inkling that yes, I am here at Con.  While everyone else made a beeline for the swag (more on that later) I went on over to the independent artist area, where the aisles were conspicuously empty.  I don’t necessarily buy anything from these guys, but if I see something I like I buy it, to support them.  On preview night these guys are bored, bored, bored out of their minds (because everyone is trying to capture some swag), so they have some time to talk to you.

My next stop was the books.  Penguin, DAW, Ace, the heavy sci-fi/fantasy hitters are all here, giving out free samples of their authors, and some eco-bags (I’m a sucker for a nice big eco-bag).  I haven’t quite given up my bad habit of reading this stuff, so I’m all about this area.

And then, like a salmon swimming upstream in what seems like broken air conditioning because of the sheer volume of human flesh in that room, I hit the video games—SOE, Capcom, all those guys.  These aren’t much different from what’s at E3, but since I’ve never been to E3, I appreciated my Dragonquest slime shirt just the same.  Speaking of free stuff, I acquired more bags, bookmarks, posters, and…bobbleheads? Than I can count.

Viz had an awesome UFO catcher game set up with inflatable Bleach Zanpakutos.  I missed the line cutoff; I will attempt this again tomorrow.

All in all, another great preview night.  If you walk out of there exhausted like you’ve fought a battle to the death and won, you’ve succeeded.  Surviving Preview Night, getting tons of free stuff and exclusives, whatever.  It’s time to go home and divide the spoils.