July 30, 2011: Is That San Diego Comic Con Ringing In My Ears?

The convention may be over, but the effects of our time at San Diego Comic Con will be felt for many months to come. Not only did Andrew, Ben, and I spend our time teaching games -- Zombie Dice and Cthulhu Dice were played almost non-stop -- but Andrew and I also attended a number of secret meetings that sealed a few deals and guaranteed that we would be busy for several months. (Not that we were bored.) And at Saturday's panel for the web series, The Guild, it was announced that next year we will be publishing a Munchkin booster based on the series; MTV Geek has a decent write-up of the announcement. Have I mentioned how much fun it is that MTV's site takes time to cover the hobby game market?

New at the show for us was the Munchkin Conan the Barbarian booster, which sold very well and led to several cries of joy as players ripped packs open at the booth and started flipping through cards. There was also an Axe Cop panel on Sunday where Andrew took a moment or two to talk about Munchkin Axe Cop, but since I missed that panel we'll have to wait for Andrew to share his experiences with the Axe Cop fans.

On the "at the show as a random geek" front I had a little time to see the booths and meet with friends. One evening Ben and I joined an army of toymakers for burgers. While not as insane as last year's burger feast (see the July 24, 2010 Daily Illuminator entry) it was still an impressive showing; impressive that so many uncoordinated and unorganized artists could (eventually) find their way to the same restaurant. I'm still a bit amazed that we even managed to find our way to the restuarant. I posted various photos from the show at battlegrip.com and Andy at ToysREvil posted a short Q&A with me about my experiences at San Diego Comic Con. Between the Q&A and my own random posts and tweets you can get a pretty good idea of how I spent my free time at the convention. Yes, I had fun.

Next year I am going to try to arrange for a little more time to see the convention; as usual the scheduled free time filled with work. But that's okay, because we have some great new products for 2012.

-- Phil Reed