Not at San Diego Comic-Con

And sulking a bit because of it. It's Nerd Prom and instead of prancing around in my pretty, pretty shitkicker boots with all the other superheroes, I'm sitting in my underroos in front of the computer, wondering if it's time to do laundry.

Last night, I attended Brooklyn Bridge Park's Movies with a View, in which the city sets up a giant inflatable movie screen on the lawn of the new Pier 1 park and shows us movies. I saw "The Big Lebowski" under the moon and helicopter lights (no stars in New York City's sky) on a blanket on the grass with a bunch of friends. That's four prepositional phrases in a row in that sentence, people; that's how you know it was good.

I sat in front of a friend of a friend who is a cartoonist-in-training, and he, too, was sulking because he's not in San Diego right now. It was worse for him, though, because he had friends who are there with vendor passes. Vendor passes! That's like being at prom with a flask and condoms in your garter belt, a deck of cards in your purse, and water pistols strapped around your waist. You're already miles ahead of everyone else before you walk in the door.

So I've been parked in front of my 'puter the last two days reading live dispatches about SDCC from my fellow nerd writers at AV Club, ToplessRobot, io9, and Comics Alliance, and they all say the same thing: Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church can bite our collective shiny metal asses. The Westboro Baptists are those creeps with the "'G-d hates fags" signs outside of soldiers' funerals. They're haters and they've decided to hate outside of SDCC for some dumbass reason, something about comic characters being idols. Mainly, they're just creeps.

Fortunately, awesome beats creep every time. A counter-protest by con attendees has been happening across the street from the WBC group. The nerds outnumber the Baptists 10 to 1 and their signs and chants are so great I can't decide whether to fall off my chair laughing or weeping with happiness over the triumph of love and the indomitable human spirit. "WHAT DO WE WANT?" "GAY SEX!" "WHEN DO WE WANT IT?" "NOW!" G-d hates Jedi. All glory to the Hypno-Toad. Odin is G-d--See Thor Issue 5. All glory to Darkseid. Fags are Sexy. Buddy Jesus. Magnets--how do they $#@* work?

Superheroes vs. the Westboro Baptist Church, courtesy of Comics Alliance. You can check out the rest of their pictures at the link, and they also have a video interview with comic writer Gail Simone (Wonder Woman, Gen13) and the Buddy Jesus.