The weather forecast for San Diego during the con is trending a few degrees warmer than what I posted a week ago here. Click here for the latest info.

And it's still going to be 108° in Las Vegas.

If'n you're in San Diego and you need to get to the Convention Center, you have a number of options. Walking ain't bad. Driving and expecting to find a place to park is.

The convention has set up a series of shuttle bus runs from many of the major hotels. This page (a PDF file) will show you where they run and how often. Also, I know people who drive but don't even try to park at or around the Convention Center. They try to park at or near some hotel on the shuttle route.

(If one is hungry and low on cash, the Blue line can take you over to Broadway, where there seems to be one of almost every fast food restaurant in the world…though not In-and-Out. The nearest In-and-Out Burger is four miles from the Convention Center and probably not worth the trip. By the way, two Five Guys outlets are soon to open in San Diego but sadly, not in time for this convention.)

The taxi service in San Diego is pretty decent…and maybe this won't particularly amuse you but I love that almost every cab is from a different "company," most of which only have the one taxi. They have some very colorful names. My friend Jake finds it cheaper to stay at a fairly remote hotel and pay for a taxi each day to take him to and fro, as opposed to paying for a hotel close to the festivities.

They also have these things called "pedal cabs," where a sweaty teenager on a bicycle carts one or two passengers around for what are sometimes rather bumpy, inertia-challenging rides. These are not necessarily dangerous but I take a hard look at the driver before I commit and give him or her a kind of mental field sobriety test. You also need to negotiate the fee up front…which will usually be a bit higher than a car-style cab. And the drivers of the pedal cabs work so hard and seem so needy that I usually feel it appropriate to tip big.

If you're coming in via choo-choo to the Amtrak Station, you could hike to the Convention Center. It's about three-quarters of a mile. Then again, you'll be doing tons of walking once you get inside so maybe you'd like to save your feet for that.

Lastly, San Diego has an excellent trolley line that can pick up or deposit you right across the street from the Convention Center. This page will show you where it goes. The Convention Center is near one end of the Orange Line.

One last tip and this really doesn't go under this topic but I have no place else to put it: Go outside. The Convention Center is built on a harbor and if you go out the back way, out onto one of the terraces, there's a spectacular view and there's real air, as opposed to whatever that gaseous substance is they recycle inside. The con can easily get to you with the noise and the excitement and the women walking around in Red Sonja costumes and especially the noise of folks with sound systems trying to attract people to their booths. People think I have a lot of clout with this convention. I don't…and I offer as proof that I don't that there are still exhibits with microphones and amplifiers and obnoxious pitchmen trying to lure you to their displays. If I did have any clout, those people would all be sharing a room with Phil Spector, mumbling about their Walls of Sound.

You may enhance your convention experience, as great as the hall can be, to every so often venture outside and look at a seagull…although when I tried it last year, the gull was wearing a badge and he asked me if I could help him get Neil Gaiman's autograph.

The great comic book illustrator Gene Colan has found it necessary to cancel his appearance at the Comic-Con International this year. As I understand it, it's for medical reasons but not necessarily serious ones. Gene merely needs some tests which have to be performed next week and his doctors have advised him not to subject himself to the strenuous trip at this time. We'll miss seeing him and his lovely mate Adrienne at the convention and will assume he'll be fine for it next year.

This means that the Spotlight on Gene Colan, which was scheduled for Friday at Noon, will not take place. Drat. Gene was also to appear on the Golden Age Panel on Thursday but that will go on without him. Matter of fact, I shrewdly scheduled seven panelists instead of the usual six because I sensed this might happen. So we'll proceed with Ramona Fradon, Jerry Robinson, Russ Heath, Jack Katz, Leonard Starr and Murphy Anderson, and though we'll miss Gene, we'll have a fine time.

An old op-ed piece by Walter Cronkite on why he turned down Bobby Kennedy's suggestion that he [Cronkite] run for the Senate.

I braved the warmth of Burbank today and went out to the Hollywood Collectors Show, a crowded autograph event loaded with famous folks. Let me see if I can quickly run through a list of those I talked with…

In no particular order: Billy West, Marty Krofft, Maurice LaMarche, Jack Riley, Bill Daily, Pat Harrington, Greg Evigan, Jerry Maren, Bob Bergen, Billie Hayes, Anson Williams, Donny Most, Phil LaMarr, Rob Paulsen, Tom Bosley, Edie McClurg, Henry Winkler and I know I'm leaving a couple folks out. Those are just celebs who were there to sell and sign. In the aisles, also wandering around, I talked with Jason Marsden, Chuck McCann, Wally Wingert, Stephen Cox, Dave Shelton, Chad Frye and again, I'm leaving people out. Most (not all) of those in the first group will be there tomorrow if you want to swing by and get a signed photo or some other piece of memorabilia.

The two big themes this show were Happy Days (much of the cast was present) and James Bond. George Lazenby was there, and I guess he qualifies even though he's only done one more film as 007 than I have. Richard Kiel, who was the villain in several, was present. And they had a whole bevy of Bond Girls, some of whom still looked like Bond Girls, even though they last Bonded with Mr. Connery. There was much excitement by some to see Davy Jones of The Monkees…and a lot of folks were stopping by to tell the Futurama cast that someone would have to be brain-dead to think they could do that show with new actors.

A note to the promoters: At one point, I came across a group of your guests and they were discussing how much it might cost to pay Lou Ferrigno (another guest) to go over and deck the guy on the P.A. system. Other than that, everyone seemed to be having a very good time.

While you're at the Comic-Con International in San Diego, you're going to swing by the booth (#501) of the Van Eaton Galleries and pick up a signed copy of June Foray's autobiography. Remember that she's only going to be there late Friday afternoon and intermittently on Saturday and Sunday.

And while you're there, I highly recommend grabbing a copy of Mark Arnold's new book, Created and Produced by Total Television. Total is the company responsible for King Leonardo and His Short Subjects, Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, Underdog and a few other shows of the sixties, and Mark has written a must-have book for anyone who recalls those programs. Based on extensive research and interviews, it tracks the history of this little-known studio and also offers up generous amounts of scripts, storyboards, merchandise and other visual material to tell its story.

They'll have copies at the Van Eaton booth. If you don't make it to the con, do yourself a favor and order one on Amazon via this link. You can also order June's book from Amazon with this one but if you can wait a week or so, I'll direct you to a site that will allow you to order hers autographed. That's worth waiting for, right?

I have so much to do that I've decided to call up the folks who run the Comic-Con and ask them if they'd mind postponing it for a couple of weeks. I'll get around to this on Monday and I'm pretty sure they'll do it for me. I mean, why wouldn't they?

But just in case there's some odd reason why they can't, here's the schedule again of events with which I'll be involved…