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Let me tell you, there have been many years where I have pretty much survived at Comic-Con by eating at the Ralphs across the street from Horton Plaza. It’s almost a tradition for me at this point, even if I have the money to eat someplace better, at some point, I’m grabbing a corn dog out of the hot deli there. It’s a little bit of a walk from the con, but without a doubt it is the cheapest place to get a healthy meal within walking distance, corn dogs aside.

Still, if you’re looking to get some grub not marked with a price tag, Comic-Con has put together a handy guide in PDF format for you. It even has places serving convention specials.

Heck, while I’m at it, I made this video two years ago about cheap places to eat surrounding the con. It’s a little out of date now — there’s a Subway much closer in the Gaslamp District now — but it should give you some good ideas.

It’s the Fourth of July, and there is no con news. However, instead, I offer a tip to any retailers who will be working San Diego this year.

The movie Captain America: The First Avenger is coming out. For some reason, its primary restaurant licensing partner is Dunkin Donuts, which is putting out collector cups. However, the closest Dunkin Donuts to San Diego and the Southern California area in general is over 300 miles away in Las Vegas, which is a really long way to go for a cup. Some enterprising retailer could make a decent couple of bucks buying up cups on the cheap and selling them at the show. Just a thought.

Another thought — if the movie is half as well done as this commercial, it will be the greatest movie of all time!

Go to a convention, and there’s a better than average chance you’ll see a booth taller than the rest stocked to the ceiling with geek-oriented t-shirts, jackets, hats, belt buckles, patches, and other assorted nuttiness. That’s the booth for StylinOnline, It’s been a long time since I personally have been to a con and not seen them. So if anyone knows anything about a con, it’s president and CEO James Cucchiara. Go watch, it’s informative, if only so you know that StylinOnline is the one booth you do NOT want to wait until the end of the con to buy something at. Seriously, usually you can get discount prices by waiting until the last hours of the last day, but at StylinOnline, it just makes it more likely they ran out of your size. If you are going to buy something there, do it first thing, when they are guaranteed to have everything.

Not a ton of news today, so I’m going to get to business first. The four day passes Comic Con International was reissuing? They’re already all sold out. Single day passes will be sold at a later date.

The other news today would be the passing of legendary comic book penciler Gene Colan. If you don’t know who Gene is, you don’t know comics. Amongst other things, he created Blade in “Tomb of Dracula,” drew the first African American superhero with the Falcon, revolutionized  books like “Daredevil,” “Howard the Duck” and more. He even won an Eisner Award in his eighties for his work on “Captain America #601.”

I was lucky enough to have met Gene at Comic Con International a couple of years ago, working as his talent wrangler for the Hero Initiative. I had to get Gene across the San Diego Convention Center floor from his booth in Artist’s Alley to the Hero Initiative booth, which was at the other end of the show. Given that Gene was using a walker, and couldn’t see out of one eye, it wasn’t easy. But I never heard him complain once. He was just happy that people were still interested in his art work.

Goodbye, Gene. I’m still interested.

Guess what, kiddies? Around 1,500 4-day badges were returned to Comic Con International. You know what that means? That’s right, they’re going to be offered again! Although at a non-discounted rate. “A 4-day adult badge without Preview Night will be sold at the non-discounted rate of $137 that includes a $6 reprocessing fee. Junior, Senior, and Military 4-day badges without Preview Night will be sold at the non-discounted rate of $68 each. You may purchase up to TWO 4-day badges only.” Single day badges are going to get sold as well, but later. Good luck! Because you know they’re going to sell out fast.

• Looks like director, animator and voice actor Makoto Shinkai will appear at Otakon 2011.
• Want to see CONvergenceCon’s guide? Now you can.
• Dear god, this may be the best bullet point I’ve ever written. Going to GenCon? If you sign up in advance, you can get a discounted lunch box from Ruth’s Chris Steak House. I can’t even come up with a zinger for that. Every other con now officially sucks in comparison.