I remember reading once that the most universal characteristic separating humans from other, lesser, mammals is not brain size or the ability to manufacture a rocket that takes people to the moon, but something much more ordinary: a love of ornamentation. Humans are the only creatures that regularly and inexhaustibly change our clothing, jewelry, hair, shoes, lipstick, shaving lotion, whatever.
Some people take this love of ornamentation to the extreme, if only for a long weekend. Witness the light-hearted, but often gruesome creativity to be found every year at San Diego’s Comic Con, the preeminent geek gathering across the world.
.jpg)
The Beginning
It started innocently enough, back in 2006 or 2007 (my memory for details is not so hot, I must confess). An occasional sci fi convention attendee, I was scanning some newspaper or magazine when I came upon the mention of Comic Con. The biggest sci fi convention of them all, it proclaimed – a must to attend if you liked media, pop culture, and all things speculative fiction.
