Some of the large booths were fairly impressive: Disney Home Entertainment, DC Comics, Dark Horse, Marvel, Hasbro, Cartoon Network, LEGO, Mattel and Upper Deck, to name a few.

There's something for everyone at this show. TV and film actors, book and comic authors, artists who work in just about every medium, vendors selling tshirts and clothing, collectibles of all kinds, plushes, art, books, light sabers, medieval armor and weapons, games — it's a pretty dizzying array. Booth sponsors provide bags, some of which are highly prized themselves as "con swag."

The show offers a variety of panels on current media, cartoons, comics and superheroes, fantasy and science fiction, current science and presentation of new shows (and new seasons of popular shows like "Heroes.") Some of the panels were pretty hard to get into because the lines were extremely long, especially for "Mythbusters," "Heroes," and Joss Whedon's wildly popular "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog."

Comic-Con attendees in costume are an intrinsic part of the show and this year was no exception. We saw Storm Troopers, Boba Fetts, Yodas, two adult Darth Vaders and one little kid Darth, Princess Leias, Jokers, a Shark, a Banana, fairies, Jack Sparrows, Chun Li, Narutos, several Indys, and a disturbing number of zombies with oozing bleeding (latex) sores and dark circles under their red eyes.

Of course there were superheroes everywhere -- Spidey, Superman, Green Lantern, Red Arrow, Storm, Batman, Wolverine, Iron Man, Hellboy, Wonder Woman, Captain America, and a number of attendees as superheroes of their own design.

We handed out flyers about the 2nd Annual Massachusetts Game Challenge to potential entrants and instructors, and really enjoyed the opportunity to talk to a lot of people (our location was pretty much perfect, just inside the entrance to Section C). Our Director of Art Thom Ang reviewed portfolios, which was very well-received especially by the art students who appreciated his input.

All good things have to come to an end at some point, so we packed up the temporary oasis and waved good-bye to beautiful San Diego until next year ...