ICYMI: The San Diego Convention Center Has Survived The Great Disaster
I've always wondered what it would be like to, say, play a Fallout game that takes place in a city where you live. I imagine it would be pretty weird to see the local landmarks of the place you grew up rendered with the age and ruin of the Great Disaster upon them, but until someone decides to set their apocalyptic fantasy in rural South Carolina, I don't think I'll ever know. I mean, if nothing else, I'm not sure you'd be able to tell.
But this week, I did have something close to that experience while reading Kamandi Challenge #2, because Peter J. Tomasi and Neal Adams have presented me with the post-apocalyptic version of a building that I'm very familiar with. So in case you missed it, the San Diego Convention Center, the home of Comic-Con International, has canonically survived the Great Disaster and emerged into a post-apocalyptic wasteland that's only slightly less hellish than the one it turns into every July here in our time.
True to Jack Kirby's original map of Earth AD (After Disaster!), San Diego is right in the heart of the Wild Human Preserve, one of the last remnants of the world that hasn't been taken over by the mutated animals who roam the land. Which makes sense, of course --- that map is at the core of Kamandi Challenge, with teams dividing it up to take their shots at the most interesting landmarks of the Last Boy On Earth's wild journey.
Looking at that page, though, it seems that while the Bayfront Hilton didn't fare too well in the apocalypse, you can probably assume that the Starbucks at the Marriott is still doing a pretty brisk business. And while it's just out of frame, I am almost positive that those wild humans are still lining up outside Hall H, waiting to see some remnant of the long long ago, and ask it how it really got into the character of Green Lantern.
Seriously, I could not be more excited for the next issue, because all I want in this world right now is to read about KamandiCon.