Two and a half weeks later I finally feel recovered from San Diego Comic-Con 2012. Now that I’ve been through my first ‘Con’ as the cool kids say, I’d like to share some friendly advice.
1. Take public transportation if at all possible. You do not want to DRIVE in this madness! If you live in LA, be smart and take the train.
2. Dress for comfort! Yes I know as women our #1 concern is looking good, but seriously … who gives a shit. You are going to be clocking some serious hours on your feet and walking some major miles. By day four I was rockin yoga pants, sneaks, a sports bra and pigtails and I OWNED IT!
3. Book your hotel in advance, Comic-Con is not something that you ‘wing’ last minute. All the nearby hotels book up fast. You do not want to be stuck in a far away hotel where you have to take the shuttle to and from the convention center everyday. The lines are long = not fun!
4. Be open to adventure! Yes it’s fun to make a list of must sees and must dos, but go with the flow and be open to where your adventure will lead and most importantly ‘who’ you may encounter. Did you know there is a group that puts on plays entirely in Klingon!?
5. Bring hand sanitizer and febreze. I cannot emphasize this enough! You end up coming in contact with thousands of people and you do not want to catch the Comic-Con flu. Seriously, sanitize after every hand you shake and febreze often. People are stinky and sweaty and they will be all up in your business. Be prepared!
6. Cosplay – do it! I literally had like two days advance notice that I was heading to SDCC, but next year if I go back I’m totally dressing up. At least for one day! You will see some of the most AMAZING costumes that people have spent years and years working on. It is really something, which brings me to my next piece of advice……
7. Bring all of your cameras! Flip camera, digital camera, phone camera – bring it all! You are going to see some of the craziest things ever and you do not want to miss something because one of your cameras died.
8. Be prepared to function without your phone. With all of the people there, it is very hard to get online on your phone. I seriously could not tweet or upload any pics until I got back to my hotel room every night. So be sure to have hard copies of anything important you need access to.
9. Drink lots of water and bring your own healthy snacks – enough said!
10. Make dinner reservations early, you can’t just walk in.
11. Allow yourself enough time to get from one place to the next. The amount of people on the street is insane, everything takes forever!
12. And finally, yes all your movie and TV stars are there, but make time to actually check out the comic book section. Remember, that’s how this all started.
To get a taste of the real action check out my vlog from day 3. I got to interview Mark Hamill/Luke Skywalker. Yeah, no biggs 
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Stuart Brazell
Co-Founder of DirtyandThirty.com Stuart Brazell has talent, brains and beauty as distinctive as her name. She’s a fab, fierce, femme who always speaks her mind whether in person or online (just ask her husband). The social butterfly knows how to work a room and dress for every occasion. Equally comfortable on a red carpet or at a yoga retreat, she’s the sassy southern belle who friends call when in need of advice or just plain fun.
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