Fans get first chance to geek out at Comic-Con in San Diego

SAN DIEGO — Think of it as the calm before the Stormtroopers.

And the Wonder Women. And the Deadpools. And the people dressed up as that guy from that thing you saw a couple of minutes of late one night on Syfy.

Approximately 130,000 lovers of geek culture will descend on the San Diego Convention Center on Thursday for the first of four days of Comic-Con. But Wednesday’s preview night served as a chance for many of them to get their first looks at the convention floor.

The doors opened at 6 p.m., but the first people in line showed up at 11 a.m. Tuesday to buy exclusive merchandise ranging from limited-edition Hasbro and Funko toys to London artist Ryan Callanan’s $55 hand-cast action figures of artist Keith Haring dressed as a Stormtrooper.

And, yeah, I bought one.

Aside from the Comic-Con badges themselves — which sold out in a little more than an hour with demand far exceeding the inventory — the hottest tickets in town were to see Conan O’Brien, who brought his late-night show to the convention for the third straight year.

Only 1,500 fans made it inside the Spreckels Theater to see Will Smith, Joel Edgerton and other cast members from Netflix’s upcoming movie “Bright,” along with “Supernatural” stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. According to social media reports, people were lined up at 4 p.m. Tuesday for standby tickets that were distributed 16 hours later.

There was so much pent-up energy inside that theater, Conan’s arrival on stage was met with some of the loudest roars I’ve ever heard.

Then Will Smith came out, started slapping hands with audience members and generated a full-on nerdsplosion. Smith, who may enjoy being himself more than any other celebrity on the planet, spent a commercial break in the crowd taking selfies while everyone else was having his or her makeup retouched.

After the show, audience members received an exclusive Funko Pop toy of Conan dressed as Spider-Man. Outside the theater, not far from where a couple of dozen campers were lined up for Thursday morning’s standby list, was a thriving, chaotic shadow economy of entrepreneurs buying those toys for $80 each, then selling them on eBay for $125.

And, yeah, I kept mine.

The next four days will offer fans exclusive looks at and interactions with the casts of “Justice League,” “Blade Runner 2049,” “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” and whatever movies Marvel decides to showcase.

The biggest series on television will be represented with panels and autograph sessions featuring cast members from “Game of Thrones,” “The Walking Dead” and “The Big Bang Theory.”

Everyone from comics legends Stan Lee and Frank Miller to The Black Eyed Peas (minus Fergie) and Rep. John Lewis — yes, the same Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who had his skull fractured at Selma and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom — will be signing their graphic novels.

Then there are the dozens of special events — activations, as they’re known in Con-speak. HBO’s “Westworld” promises “an immersive theatrical experience” that will take visitors inside the show. AMC is hosting DeadQuarters, the home of Negan batting cages. Or you could just play laser tag with actor Jason Mewes, the Jay to Kevin Smith’s Silent Bob.

Through Sunday, regardless of your pop-culture obsession, downtown San Diego is your nerdy little oyster.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on Twitter.