Sound like a genius (albeit a slightly geeky one)

The not-at-all-daft Carolyn Bickford of "Daft Musings" alerted us to her Comic Book Convention Party Cheat Sheet, inspired by our own Cocktail Party Cheat Sheets. Carolyn's cheat sheet should prove highly useful at Comic-Con, which is starting at this very minute (really, 10 a.m. PST) in San Diego. We liked it so much we had to share a bit here:

Marvel versus DC. They're both comic book companies, but it's rare to find the mainstream comic book fan who reads titles from both companies: no matter how many comic books they read each month, the titles will generally be from one or the other. ... Marvel's hot title is much friendlier for those challenged in their comic book knowledge. Marvel is the company that publishes Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. Their title of the moment, the 12-issue mini-series Civil War, also features a multitude of characters, but you don't need to know who they are, because, in essence, the series is simply a long drama about what would happen if the government decided all superheroes need to be registered. If you're politically astute, all you have to do is pull out your favorite privacy rights versus public safety debate, and try not to be flustered that when you get to confidentiality issues, you have to say "Spider-Man" instead of "Valerie Plame."

We highly encourage our readers to (A) check out the rest of Carolyn's brilliant musings and (B) join her in doing our work for us, for free.