I arrived late to the first-ever Friday of Emerald City Comicon, but according to the interwebs, there were plenty of folks who showed up well before the doors even opened.

There aren't so many fannish costumes here today (probably on account of a lot of folks coming directly from work), but the Seattle Real Life Superhero community is out in full force. I've seen the Black Knight and Phoenix Jones. The latter, of course, had an entire documentary film crew in tow and was swaggering about in the way that only a man with an entire documentary film crew following him around can swagger. I'm sure this is part of some sort of elaborate and completely selfless crime-fighting plan on Mr. Jones's part.

I met a couple of pros I've always admired, but the one who made me swoon was Sergio Aragones. His Mad Magazine illustrations and Groo comics were some of my favorites growing up, and he's drawn himself into so much of his work that seeing him in person was like seeing a cartoon character jump off the page.

And there are a ton of free books for everyone. Here is swag:

The DC Comics booth is churning out free comics at an alarming rate. Dark Horse Comics is giving out a Mike Mignola-written comic; the first panel features a giant-monster-ravaged Pike Place Market. Stigmata isn't free, but is an Italian comic book from local publisher Fantagraphics that I'm excited to read.

Right now, I'm waiting for an incredibly long ask-the-Boondock-Saints-actors-anything panel to end so that the Buffy the Vampire Slayer singalong can start. These guys swear a whole lot. Sometimes life imitates art! My favorite fan-gush to the Boondock Saints actors came from a lady in the audience and began like this: "I want my kids to grow up to be like you," she said. "My dream is to have my kids going out and killing people and being awesome." Okay! More tomorrow.