Posted in: Comics, san diego comic con | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, san diego comic con

San Diego Impossibly Calm Before The Storm

Published Tue, 07 Jul 2015 21:30:06 -0500

By Abdulkareem Baba Aminu

I got into San Diego and checked into my hotel a good 48 hours before Preview Night, so I got a chance to see the city – the Gaslamp District especially – in its serenity before the glorious madness of Comic-Con hits. All over the streets, artists could be seen painting murals with comicbook themes, some of them of the cringe-worthy Zap! Pow! category. But still, they were in the spirit of the massive assembly of global geekdom which has become quite famous.

Restaurants have already started to offer comicbook-centric menus and I wanted to have a slice of pizza but passed, as it was named the 'Two-Face' (Two halves of different pizzas put together). My palate isn't strong enough for the haute cuisine that is Harvey Dent, I guess.

In the boutiques, you could overhear residents talking excitedly and visitors buying superhero-themed apparel, even as billboards and signage promoting tons of TV shows were being put up. It was all fine and dandy. Idyllic, even. Compared with, say, Thursday when the actual con kicks off properly. See the photos? Compare them with those which will be taken in a couple of days.

Abdulkareem Baba Aminu is a newspaper editor, award-winning journalist and comic book creator. Based in Nigeria, the writer has reviewed comics, novels, movies and music for a variety of platforms. He is currently the Editor of the Saturday edition of the Daily Trust, one of the most influential newspapers in his country. Last year, he survived The Walking Dead Escape, photobombed the cast of Avengers: Age of Ultron, got drawn by Ladronn as a Metabaron and snapped a photo with Jim Steranko. This is his second Comic-Con, but he'll remain awestruck. You can follow him on Twitter: @KareemReal