Really, I'm not ego-maniacal... most of the time. Since this a blow by blow account of the event from my POV I thought throwing my name in the title for this entry would actually be kinda funny.

So I'm back home and in the studio after spending most of last week in San Diego for Comic-Con 2005. It usually takes me a few days to recover and regain my senses so I thought I'd share with all of you some of my highlights and experiences of the show.

After arriving and dropping off our bags Wednesday afternoon at the Westgate we strolled over across the street for lunch at Baja Fresh where we ran into fellow Star Wars artist and comic illustrator Ron Randall and Archie comics artist Craig Boldman. They shared with us some antecdotes about their legendary class of the Joe Kubert School while we scarfed down some spicy burritos. Then we went back to the hotel room to catch some z's in preparation for the evening's festivities.

Preview Night started off nice and easy for me and my pal Justin (creator/webmaster of WorldFamousComics.com). For the past few years, since I'd been doing the show back in 2001, I usually run to my table in Artist Alley first thing to be prompt and ready for the early bird crowd being let in. Some years I do great, making a few extra bucks that night, other years not so hot, but I always find that I end up burning myself out big time by the end of the show on Sunday and that I never really get to enjoy the sights and sounds of the con.

This year, I opted for a different strategy and philosophy. It's actually in tune with the joke/parable Robert Duvall shares with Sean Penn in Dennis Hopper's film 'Colors'. If you don't know what I'm talking about rent the movie since I can't repeat it here. It's an awesome film anyway. Basically, instead of running in with guns blazing, I thought I'd accomplish more by walking in and planning, which I think worked for the most part. At least I don't feel as fried or as stressed out this year as I've been in the past which is good. I even had fun the first night checking out all of the exhibitors and dealers for once.

Of course, one of the first stops was the Star Wars Pavillion. I breezed by though since I didn't spot any of my friends and figured I'd check back later. The Lion's Gate Films booth rocked with lots of Devil's Rejects and other horror movie swag (by the way, check out my review for 'The Devil's Rejects' in my weekly column, Comics 101, right here). I made it over to the Dark Horse booth who had a huge spread this year and said hi to a few friends there. I spotted John Landis, horror director extraordinaire, signing at the DHC and promoting his new comic book 'Teenage Vampire'. My love for his epic film 'The Blues Brothers' knows no bounds and I'm a huge fan of 'Animal House' and of course 'An American Werewolf in London' but since there was a long line I opted to keep on moving.

Later on in the week I did spot Bruce Campbell signing 'The Man with the Screaming Brain' comic books at the DHC booth and since the line was pretty short at the time I jumped in and got his autograph. It's actually the third time I've met him in person - not that he would remember me from his other appearances over the years. But he never ceases to amaze me as a classy guy and a talented performer, he will always be my icon of ultra-cool.

Strolling along the dealer's area I saw the Misfits front man himself, Glen Danzig, selling his private collection of original comic book art. I was too nervous to say anything to him though but I just thought it was cool to see this rock god on the floor mixing it up with us mere mortals.

Justin and I decided to finally head over to Artist Alley and check out where my table was so I could bee line to it first thing the next morning to set up. We see our fellow artist comrades Tom Hodges and Cat Staggs already set up and we say stop over to say hey. We also run into our pal Bonnie Burton from Lucasfilm and Star Wars.com who's hanging out and taking pictures of the show for the official site. We decide to walk around the show together and we had fun checking out more of the booths, taking pictures, oggling the thousands of toys (not just Star Wars but Napolean Dynamite collectibles too!) and meeting other professionals.

We bumped into Pablo Hidalgo staking out the awesome Sideshow Collectibles booth near the life size T3 endoskeleton which I'd love to have in my house. Imagine having that in the living room window to detract burglars. It's like a Dirty Harry standee only better. We discussed that we both need to put our heads together on the next installment of HNN soon (as I'm writing this I'm thinking I better drop him a line next). After taking Bonnie over to meet a friend of Justin's in the t-shirt biz and we stopped by to finally say "hi"to Glen Danzig. Bonnie asked if she could take his picture for Star Wars.com and he half jokingly said, "Star Wars?!?". He did oblige but not without saying something derogatory about Jar Jar Binks as we turned to leave. We head back to the Pavillion and say hi to Mary Franklin, Steve Sansweet, Kristen and Paul Ens. We wrap it up at 9pm when the show ends and head out into the night in search of food with our pals Jan Duursema, Doug Wangler (her real life model for Quinlan Vos) and DC/Marvel artist Tom Mandrake who just arrived in town at 8.30 pm.

You remember that part about pacing ourselves the first day? That was shot straight to heck since we stayed out way too late conversing after dinner and didn't make it back to our rooms until 3 in the morning. I was already dead tired the next day but the show went pretty well for the most part. I stopped over at the Dark Horse booth on the way in and said hi to my editor Randy Stradley. We chatted for a few minutes then I ran into my good pal Chris Trevas in Artist Alley. I suppose I did pretty good business at my table for the first day for having such lack of sleep... which wouldn't be the last time during the week actually.

By far, the highlight of Comic Con for all of us Thursday was seeing The Killer Robots band that night. From the urging (or was it a Jedi mind trick?) of Doug 'Mr. Vos' Wangler who saw these guys walking around in homemade giant robot suits at the con passing out flyers for their show we decided to check them out later. The big question wasn't "will they be any good?" but "how the heck will they play instruments with these elaborate costumes on?". Before the show we met up with Chris Trevas and Randy Martinez and soon began our expedition into late night insanity.

Words can't even describe what happened that night. Between the Robots, whose sound can be described as an amalgamation of metal-synth-polka music, and the extravagant costumes from the groupies on the floor ranging from Lobster Boy, The Dumpster Monster and Robot Abraham Lincoln, it wasn't so much a concert as it was more like a free for all in a late night Godzilla movie.

And we were caught right at ground zero for all of it.

The funniest Killer Robot was probably the drummer who had these unwieldy, larger than life, permanently clenched fists. They had sat up this kid-sized, miniature Toys R Us drum kit and we thought how are they going to perform live music with that thing? Well, from the first second of the first song, the robot started smashing it with his fists instead of using drum sticks and then proceeded to leave the stage. He then just sort of bizarrely wandered around the hallway backstage for the rest of the entire show as we could see him occasionally passing by the doorway from time to time. Weird.

Perhaps the scariest person most of all wasn't even in costume. It was a homeless man who went by the name of Joseph Yellowfeather. He danced and danced and danced some more to the tunes of the Killer 'bots and even in between songs when there wasn't any music. Wrapping himself up in the American flag and drinking any beer that was left unattended on the surrounding tables he often would try to communicate verbally with us as we sat against the wall to take in the show... but we never heard a word he said. We did our best to keep our distance since this guy was more erratic than Jim Morrison on acid as the Lizard King. Then again, we never laughed so hard in our lives and we hardly had to drink to enjoy any of it... not that that stopped us. I'll never forget that show, the Robots, Mr. Yellowfeather, Lobster Boy... I miss them so already.

Any late night festivity would be hard to top that one but luckily the Lucasfilm/Gentle Giant party was the next evening so we had something exciting to look forward to.

After another day of meeting fans, sketching, selling artwork, meeting old friends and making a few more contacts in the industry a small group of us, including Justin and Star Wars author Abel Pena, headed out to meet with a director who Tom Mandrake and I are working for on an independent film called 'Zombie Prom', based originally from an off Broadway play. We went up to his hotel room to watch the finished film and where our artwork would feature in the movie as transitional old EC horror inspired comic book scenes. Think of Romero's film 'Creepshow' for basically the same method and effect but with hopefully better art.

The movie, which was absolutely hilarious, and the meeting ran until 9pm so we didn't have time to catch dinner. Luckily I knew the LFL party would have a nice spread so we made a full course meal out of small party sandwhiches, nachos, veggies, brownies and chowed down. The open bar was a swell addition as well. Thank the maker!

The party was a blast though I was so tired by that night, the lack of proper sleep the last few nights was catching up to me and my endurance level was wearing down a bit so I stayed pretty much at one table the entire night with Jan, Doug (Quinlan Vos), Abel, and Justin. I met Brandon Badeaux and not only is he an amazing artist but he's one funny guy with an awesome sense of humor and a penchant for reciting the best skits verbatim from 'The Dave Chappelle Show'. I hope we get to hang out again at another show. Pretty soon Doug Wheatley, Randy Martinez, Chris Trevas, Brian Rood, the Fillbach Bros. and other Dark Horse crew all stopped by and it was really cool to see everyone having a good time and enjoying themselves like one big happy SW family. Sorry Tom, you were outnumbered so you're automatically included!

While heading back to my room I somehow found myself crashing the Adult Swim party later that evening (morning?) at the same hotel after the LFL gathering had wound down and our little gathering of Star Wars types had dispersed. I spent most of the night talking to Brendon Small, creator of Home Movies and probably my favorite Adult Swim cartoon over the past four-five years. I really do love this show so you have to understand how absolute geek-struck I was by getting to hang out and talk with Brendon all night. We mainly bonded over music, heavy metal, death metal, classic rock, new music, the entire gamut of anything to do with an electric guitar probably. Queen, Faith No More, old school Metallica. This was a small party mind you, maybe ten people or so, so it was somewhat surreal to look across the hotel room five feet and see Tim and Eric from 'Tom Goes to the Mayor' just hanging out and drinking with us. I cashed in somewhere around 4 am but made it to the show by 10 -11 am the next morning. I was so proud of myself but I paid the price with another headache for not getting enough sleep and by being dead on feet that night for most of the evening.

Saturday at the show Chris Trevas, Abel Pena and I caught the Star Wars Spectacular hosted by the main man Steve Sansweet with a special appearance by the evil droid general himself, Matt Wood. It was hilarious seeing him perform the voice for the crowd and even singing Disney tunes as Grievous. You had to be there. I ended up giving Matt a signed piece of Grievous artwork when he was signing at the C2 Ventures booth. He actually remembered me from Celebration III when he was being interviewed by a reporter in the Artist's Room after show hours there. I had stopped in to pick up some things behind my table as he was leaving. I recognized who he was and asked him to spout any line of dialogue from the yet to be released Revenge of the Sith on the spot. He cleared his throat and began to recite the line, "You fool! I've been trained in Jedi arts by Count Dooo-kuuuuu!" The few friends who had came back to the room with me really got a kick out of that.

At the Spectacular Steve showed us a really cool deleted scene from the forthcoming RotS DVD release featuring Padme, Bail and Mon Mothma in a clip that is essentially the birth of the Rebellion. Great stuff. That evening Chris and I had dinner with our art director from Star Wars Insider and we discussed some really cool ideas for the magazine for the next year including new ideas for articles, artwork features and such. I hope some of them get approved since I think the fans will really dig them too.

After the dinner I met up with my buddy Tom M. again and we hooked up with two other film producers that we're working with on other comic book related projects. I don't have much to share at the moment, in fact I want to hold some details back for now for fear of invoking the whammy as Tom says, but if the project finds a studio there's a chance for a little more extra change in my pocket which would be nice. We capped off the night with drinks at the Fillbach Bros. room, the masterminds behind the Clone Wars Adventures comic book digests from Dark Horse Comics. All I have to say is Matt and Sean, you guys rock hard

The final day I mainly sat at my table, finished up a few commissions and then ran around the floor meeting with publishers, editors and other potential clients for the last hour trying to get some leads on some extra freelance. Even though it seems I'm usually always busy with something Star Wars related these days it's better to have work to turn down than not have it all. Though, I hardly ever turn down work. I guess it's just a matter of keeping my name and face out there since it's always nice to have an exit strategy, a plan B if you will, should Star Wars not come a calling when I'd like it to.

Towards the end of the show I spot Tom Kenny (yes, I'm a geek and I know what the voice of Spongebob Squarepants looks like) walking with his son through artist alley a few rows over. I grab my friend who's watching my table and tell her to bring her pocketbook asap. You see, she's a big time Spongebob fan, her Patrick Starfish wallet justifies this. I introduced myself and got Tom to sign the wallet for her which he signed in sharpie, 'Roseanna - Stay Bubbley, Spongbob Tom Kenny'. She was on cloud nine I think and for me this almost tops meeting Elijah Wood two years ago in Artist Alley when he stopped at my table to look at my Star Wars artwork.

We say our goodbyes to Jan, Tom and Doug as they head off into the sunset to catch their early afternoon flight. Saying goodbye to these three pals is always tough but it feels good knowing we'll be seeing them all in a few weeks again anyway when we head out Wizard World Chicago in early August. So Justin and I ended the show right where we had started on Weds. afternoon... at Baja Fresh with our pal Chris Trevas and a few other friends in tow. It was nice little quiet meal to commemorate our survial of yet another grueling Comic-Con experience.Then it was time to pack up and hit the tarmac.

This year went mind-bendingly fast. As soon as we arrived it seemed we were heading out back to Ohio. We approached the show with guerrila tactics, surveying and battle planning on Wednesday, hitting the ground running Thursday and extracting ourselves out on the red-eye back to the wilds of Ohio on Sunday immediately after the show. Overall, I had one of the best con experiences ever, with lots of great memories mainly due to hanging out with my good friends and fellow cohorts from World Famous Comics, fellow SW artists, the Star Wars Insider crew and the Dark Horse Star Wars team. Thanks everyone!! It'll be hard to top this one in the record books.

P.S. I broke in my brand new iPod at the con and I'm still rocking to the new NIN cd 'With Teeth' but my new favorite album might very well be Audioslave's 'Out of Exile'. 'Doesn't Remind Me' and 'Dandelion' are such great songs. Note to self, must order the RotS custom iPod skin from Star Wars Shop.com soon.

P.P.S Thanks everyone who stopped by my table, purchased artwork, got an autograph or sketch or just wanted to say hi. Jeff, Ed, Moriah, Enrique and Fracine, John H., Wil, etc. Everyone... I really enjoyed seeing all of you again. Nothing tops meeting fans either. It's always the highlight of the show for me. Thanks for the support!!!

P.P.P.S. My big score for the show was snagging a Kotobukiya Vader model kit for $70!!! I purchased it from a dealer who was breaking down right after the show had ended. Now I can properly display him next to his best buddy Boba and my Koto Clonetrooper kits that are in my studio. I even scored a holographic Leia, Darth Vader Lives t-shirt and plenty of Bust-ups. Thank you Roseanna!