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or “How after 12 years I came closer to completing my oldest collection and won the con at the same time”.

I started collecting Sandman comics around 1998 or so. This was back in the days when huge swaths of the San Diego Comic-Con floor was nothing but booth after booth of comic books. I would plop down with a box of $1 comics and a list written down on notebook paper and carefully pluck out the little treasures.

As we all know, SDCC is nothing like those halcyon days any more. Where there were once 10-15 booths of cheap back issues of non-superhero comics, there are now 2. Walking into Baltimore Comic-Con was like coming home. Comic shop owners dominated the floor. $1 comics. $5 graphic novels. Action figures, artists, independent comics publishers, and web comics. It was beautiful. My nerd heart wept.

We stopped in many booths looking for a comic that has eluded us since July: Blackhawk #133, the first appearance of Lady Blackhawk. (Still haven’t found it) In one booth, I started flipping through a box of comics entitled “Misc. Vertigo”. In it, I found the Death Mini Comic, “Death Talks About Life”. A 6-page pamphlet distributed in the 90s informing people about safe sex, STDs, and condoms with a guest appearance from John Constantine. I kept flipping through the box and Trey and I opted to split up so he could keep looking for Blackhawk. This booth wasn’t done with me, yet.

I found the Sandman back issues and the front of the stack had issue #3. My eyes got big as saucers. The front part of my collection was the most naked. The first 8 issues of Sandman were always out of my price range as a young’un. I am now a grown up with a scandalous amount of disposable income. I stumbled upon the box of comic book treasures. Literally. I pulled all the low number issues missing from my list rather gleefully.

Tucked in the wrong place, out of order, was Sandman #8 — the first appearance of Death. My breath caught in my chest. I stared at in disbelief for a few seconds. I had found it. My first thought was, “Trey is NEVER going to believe this!” My second thought was, “He missed me finding it! Sad! I wish he was here.” No matter what else happened, though, I could go home happy.

I purchased my huge stack of Sandman back issues and asked the booth owner if he had copies of Sandman #1 and #2. He stepped down to a box of comics on the floor and plucked issue #1 effortlessly from the box and handed it to me. His asking price was half what I was used to seeing when I started my collection, it was a no-brainer. I had successfully found the mini-comic, the first appearances of Death and Dream in one place. Full on triple nerdgasm, all the way, across the con. (To borrow a SUPER tired meme)

Out of a 75-issue run of a seminal series of comics, I am only missing 4 issues. I am on nerdy cloud 9.

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Theoretically, I should really do a post about different events and chunks of the honeymoon. Likelihood of that? Slim to none. I may surprise myself and do something about the different snippets of awesome that comprised my honeymoon in San Diego.

Thursday was a travel day and can be summed up with a headache from pre-flight beer and high altitudes with a dash of cramped airline seats on Continental. If you are tall, flying Continental may not be a good choice for you. Research, research, research. (Yes, I know I am short, I can fit on any plane, my husband, not so much. His comfort is a priority of mine considering he already hates to fly)

Friday was a con day for us. We met some really nice people who work for Hasbro on the walk from our hotel to the con. They gave us the 411 on some really neat things to find on the con floor, like the actual Bumblebee car next to the transformed Bumblebee in the Hasbro booth. We picked up the majority of our free stuff from con that morning (as can be seen in the pic above). It was also the day we stood in line to get Gail Simone’s autograph on a comic and confess to her that we were at Comic-Con on our Honeymoon. She asked if we were nuts. We said we were.

Saturday was our second and last con day. We spent the day looking for some hard to find single issues and completing a few trade paperback collections. We were thwarted in finding Blackhawk #133, the first appearance of Lady Blackhawk, Zinda Blake. I was also unsuccessful linking up for The Guild panel after lunch, but got to see the DC Showcase with Trey instead. Thomas Jane spent the whole panel eating a sandwich and fries. He was a trip. I got horrible pictures of him, sadly. We ended our Saturday with the Fables panel, amiably hosted by Bill Willingham. It was amazing.

Sunday, we went to the World Famous San Diego Zoo. We spent all day there. Quite seriously. It was wonderful, as always. Trey had never been, so it was pretty important to me that he get to it this time around. Many aminals were seen and just as many photos were taken. They can be seen on my Picasa page.

Monday was a very slow day with checking out of the hotel and me losing my passport amongst all our crap and blaming its disappearance on the housekeeping staff. More than slightly embarrassed by that, but at least I found my passport. I really should have apologized all over myself to the housekeeping and hotel folks a ton more than I did. I will instead sing the praises of the Sheraton Suites at Symphony Hall in San Diego lots. It was a great hotel and a wondrous home base for our Comic-Con adventures. I highly recommend it.

That’s really the highlights. It was a really good time. We had a lot of fun and were really sad that the con had to end. Super nerdy honeymoon FTW.