The drive to San Diego took about seven hours. If you think that's inordinately long to cover approximately 375 miles, well, you're not wrong. Usually we factor in about an hour because of the kids, but this time, my daughter Norah kept claiming she had to pee but she would not use any restroom at which we stopped (this is not terribly unusual, but if she has to go, she usually goes, despite her distaste of public bathrooms). So we kept stopping, but she never sealed the deal. Then, on a lonely stretch of highway somewhere between the Imperial Sand Dunes and the mountains east of San Diego (I believe they're the In-Ko-Pah mountains, but I'm not sure), it all came out. Norah was taken by surprise, so she puked pretty much all over herself. She doesn't often throw up, so it was even more surprising. We actually had to pull over on the side of highway, with the traffic zipping by, so my lovely wife could clean her up. Luckily, we could put her dress way in the back of the van, so it didn't stink too bad. We gave her a cup to puke into if she felt like it and moved on. Norah was still whiny, and Mia was picking up on that and starting to be annoyed with life, so somewhere around Alpine (which, I'm sorry to say, does not look alpine at all), Krys climbed in the back with them. This was to calm Norah down and to keep Mia from grabbing at her, as that's often Mia's most pleasurable form of entertainment. Norah was very happy about this, and when she puked again (and, unfortunately, she did), Krys was able to hold the cup up for her, so there was no mess. We made it to San Diego successfully, but it did take a lot longer than we thought it would. Plus, there were random border patrol stops along the way. What the hell? I know we were close to the border (you can see the wall running through the sand dunes), but the Border Patrol wasn't exactly trying that hard - if they did ask me anything, it was where we lived or of what country we were citizens. So we stopped for no real reason. Really, Border Patrol? Do you ever catch illegal aliens this way?

We got to Paradise Point Resort, where we were staying. It was fun coming down the mountain and watching the temperature drop (we have a gauge in our van). It was still 108 at the summit, and by the time we got to our hotel, it was 78 degrees or so. Good times! Paradise Point is in the middle of Mission Bay, so it was a bit far away from downtown, but who cares, right? It was right north of Sea World, right across the water from Mission Beach, and it was a very nice place to stay. It was also very quick to get downtown on the freeways, which was nice. Of course, driving downtown was a nightmare, which is why it's always good to get a hotel near the convention center so you can walk, but this was all about the family vacation, man! Plus, staying up there saved us about $600, plus we got tickets to Sea World and the zoo included. Whee!

I had a standing invitation to head down to the CBR yacht, so I figured I'd drive on down and see what was what. I figured I'd never get to see the mythical yacht unless I went there on Wednesday night, before the craziness really began. I spent about two hours on the actual YACHT. Yes, it does exist! Yay! Jonah gave me some shit (ever since the Tom Beland thing, Jonah always gives me shit) and we had a grand time. I didn't get a photograph that evening, but the yacht does exist, and I can prove it:

Yes, there's a boat blocking the actual yacht, but there it is!

The next day I took Mia to the con (see the picture above). We had been talking about it all week, and Norah was quite keen to get rid of us. She's very much a mommy's girl (mostly because Mommy is the working parent, and by the time she gets home, Norah is sick of me), so whenever she gets to spend time with Mommy alone, she's all for it. She kept asking me, "Are you going to see the nerds, Daddy?" We had told her many times that Daddy and Mia were going to see the nerds, warning her that Daddy and Mommy are nerds and that she's probably going to be one too. Krys drove us down to the con, dropped us off, and we were off! I thought Mia would have a good time, because she loves checking people out. I figured Norah was a year or two away from really enjoying herself - she would probably have freaked out if I had taken her. If you've never seen the convention center in San Diego, it's a fairly cool building:

It actually looks like a spaceship, which is fitting for this convention, if not for any other one. I had to get my press pass, which meant I had to stand in line. Confound it! This was puzzling, because the area for the press passes had three separate windows and at least five people behind the counter. Yet only one person was checking people in, and one other person was ... well, doing something. The others were just wandering around, and those of us in line - I waited at least thirty minutes - were wondering what in the name of all that's good and holy was going on. I finally got my pass, and we went in. I wasn't planning on spending too much time there on Thursday because of the kid, so we zipped around a lot. It's somewhat difficult navigating the convention floor, and I was pushing a wheelchair around, so it was even harder. But we managed. Mia likes sticking her hand out and grabbing people, and there were plenty of people to grab, I'll tell you that much! Of course, she's so cute and friendly that people don't mind getting grabbed by her. We browsed Artists' Alley, checked in on some creators at their booths, and I bought some books. Well, of course I did! Mia seemed to have a grand time - it's tough to tell with her, because she doesn't use a lot of words and often uses "yes" and "no" rather randomly. I stayed there only until about two in the afternoon (one good thing about going to San Diego for more than one day - there's no rush), then my lovely wife picked me up and we were off!

We headed to Sea World later that afternoon and checked out some of it, saving the rest for the next day. Norah had a grand time jumping around in the Sesame Street play area, until she fell hard on the air mattress thing and cut her forehead open. We're not sure what she was doing so close to the side of the enclosure, but that's where it's a bit harder than the rest, and all it took was one ill-timed leap as a bunch of other kids were bouncing and she lost her balance completely and face-planted. It looked awful for a day (and this is what it looks like right now), but she didn't act any differently, so we think she's fine and that it's just a normal childhood injury. We went up in the tower and got a bird's-eye view of the area, saw some rays and eels, and generally had a good old time. The next morning we went early to see more stuff, but mostly to see the Shamu show. That was quite fun. We sat right behind the "soak zone," so we were safe (we couldn't have sat in the soak zone even if we wanted to; the handicapped seating was behind it), and it was impressive seeing the whales (there are seven of them) do their thing. Mia and Norah were quite astonished, which was nice. When the show was over, we were going to spend some more time at Sea World, but Norah had remembered that we were going to the beach afterward, and she was set on going right then! So we left at drove over to Mission Beach, where we managed to find parking relatively close to the beach (I've said it before, and I'll say it again - there are hardly any benefits to having a handicapped child, but one of them is parking - it's not even close to being a fair trade-off, but you have to take the good things when you can). Ever since we went to Anaheim and Norah spent a few minutes in the surf at Newport Beach, she's been keen to go back to the ocean. I hadn't been in the ocean since 1999, so it was fun for me, too. Norah ran away from the surf a few times, got knocked over by a wave, ran out crying, calmed down, and then went back in. She and Krys started jumping over waves, and Norah thought that was the greatest thing ever. I hung out with Mia for a while as she chowed down on Doritos, then went in the surf when Krys came out. After a while, Norah wanted to play in the sand, so I took her out, then went way out in the surf to jump waves. The water was pretty danged cold, but it was much better once you got into the water. We spent a few hours at the beach, and then I figured I should probably make use of my free admission to the convention, so I headed back downtown.

This time I drove and parked, because I figured I would spend the evening down there. I spent more time chatting with various creators, which was nice. I always like to catch up with the usual suspects who occasionally read the blog. On Thursday I met Anina Bennett and Paul Guinan, creators of Heartbreakers and Boilerplate, the latter of which is the subject of a alternate-history book that will be out this fall. It looks awesome, and I'll have to mention it again when it shows up in Previews. I also stopped by Zander Cannon's table and instead of talking to him (he was chatting with someone else), I ended up talking for a time with Brian Hurtt. He's working on a Western with the writer of The Damned, Cullen Bunn, and then he hopes to go right into another series of The Damned. He showed me some of the pages from the Western, and dang, it looks good. Just one of those things I can eagerly look forward to! He also drew one of those crime graphic novels that Vertigo is publishing, so look for that, too. I had also wandered by Mike Huddleston's table, and he told me he's working on a book with Robert Venditti, the writer of The Surrogates (more on that below). That will be very cool to see, I predict. I didn't take too many pictures on Thursday because of Mia and her impatience at, you know, standing still, but I tried to make up for it on Friday and Saturday. I also didn't take too many pictures of the costumed people, because I try to get them when they're not posing, but if they spot you, they pose. I like them "out of character," so to speak. I wandered around looking for cool stuff. I spoke to Brian Wood for a bit, looked at the entire first issue of Beasts of Burden (sans words) by Jill Thompson (she was at the same booth as Wood), which, if I didn't emphasize it enough when it was offered in last month's Previews, you really should get, as the first issue looks freakin' brilliant (Evan Dorkin might drop the ball on the script, of course, but I doubt he will). I always like wandering through the small press area, because it's keen to see what people are coming up with on the tiniest of budgets (not all of it's good, of course, but it's still nice to see people going nuts and creating comics). I stopped by the Law Dog Comics table and spoke to Steve Bryant, creator of Athena Voltaire. Steve is a very cool guy, and we spoke about his creation and how hard it is to make it work in today's market, even though it's, you know, awesome. Steve has come by the blog and explained why Athena Voltaire hasn't been coming out, and even though he was under no obligation to do so, I still appreciated it. He was running around the con talking with publishers, which would be nice if it gets us new stories starring everyone's favorite 1930s aviatrix/adventurer! He was at the table with James Heffron, who gave me a copy of his latest graphic novel, Bring Out Your Dead, which takes place in plague-ridden Cyprus in A.D. 1208. I'm not sure how I missed it in Previews when it was offered, because it sounds right up my alley! It becomes just another fun thing I'll have to review when I get the chance.

I had to stop by the Oni Press booth to see what was going on. On Thursday I went by to purchase, finally, issue #25 of Wasteland, which came out a few weeks ago but which my comics shoppe never got. It's 6 bucks but worth it just for the fully painted art (I haven't read it yet). I went back on Friday to see who was there, because there's always someone interesting. Hope Larson was giving away uncorrected proofs of her latest graphic novel, Mercury, so I took one (it was free, and I'm not proud). Jamie S. Rich and Joëlle Jones were signing stuff, mainly their latest collaboration, You Have Killed Me, which I didn't get because it came out last Wednesday and was sitting in my subscription box in Mesa. I did, however, pick up 12 Reasons Why I Love Her and got that signed. While I was standing there, Antony Johnston walked by, and I chatted with him for a few minutes. He told me that Wasteland's tardiness was completely his fault, as he didn't anticipate that Christopher Mitten might, just might, need a bit more time not only to draw twice as many pages as usual, but then color them all. I don't care, because it's not tying into Secret Invasion or anything, so as long as it comes out, I'm happy. I'm just jonesing for the next issues, which have been delayed a bit, but Johnston said everything seems to be back on track. Whoo-hoo! I also stopped by Steve Earnhart's booth, because Steve is a cool dude. He gave me his latest stuff, which I will sit down and review soon enough. I always like talking to Steve, because he finds great artists to work with and even with a bunch of setbacks (not the least of which is the fact that he had to change the name of his comic because Frank Miller was grumpy about it), he keeps putting out comics. You should check out the first volume of Hard-Bullied Comics, because they're totally insane comics - and why would you want it any other way?

I went over to the Image area, which I had done the day before as well. I always enjoy chatting with Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, even though issue #4 of Phonogram was sitting at their table and I couldn't look at it because it was waiting for me back in Mesa. Man, I wanted to check it out, but I could not! I dared not! They also told me the story of the T-shirts they were going to sell at the con, which had become, well, a clusterfuck. But hearing it in Gillen's accent makes it entertaining. I went by their table a few times, because they're groovy cats. They do well selling their books at the con, too, which makes me happy, as throughout the year they don't make any money doing Phonogram because you all suck and don't buy it. Yes, I blame you! Around the corner from Gillen and McKelvie were John Layman and Rob Guillory, creators of the smash hit Chew. Yes, the inexplicable smash hit Chew. Seriously. I asked Layman if he had any idea what was going on with Chew, which is a nice little comic but certainly doesn't seem to be one that people would be going gaga over. They had third and second printings of issue #1 on sale, and when I went back on Friday, they had first printings on sale ... for 35 dollars. Of course, over in the retailer section, they were selling issue #1 for $120 or so, so $35 is a bargain! While I was standing there, some dude actually bought both issues #1 and 2. I wonder how long before those showed up on eBay ...

On Friday night I met up noted blogger and bon vivant Tim Callahan, who was in town hobnobbing with all the glitterati of the comics world (not that I'm jealous or anything!). Tim was hanging out with several people including Dean Trippe, who posts here very, very occasionally. After dinner we went over to the Hilton where the Eisners were being held. Dean was up for an Eisner, along with a few of the people he was hanging out with, so we figured we'd give him some support. Well, the Eisners are really boring, in case you're wondering. I mean, the presenters do their best, and some of the award winners did their best (Jill Thompson was fabulous in accepting her award), but it was still pretty dull. I was surprised that Blair Butler, who presented the award to the Comic Book Resources Mothership, made a point of mentioning that Jonah's site was nominated despite my presence in its darker corners, but I was too giddy because OMGWTFBBQ Blair Butler knows my name!!!!!* Before the ceremony ended, however, I bailed on it, because I am old and tired. Tim mentioned that he had been up the previous night until three-goddamned-thirty in the morning, and I just can't handle that anymore. My kids get up before 7 every day, and Norah enjoys waking me up, so there's no way I can handle staying out too late anymore. Yes, I'm boring. None of my con stories are like Tim's, which I'm sure begin with "Jason Aaron and I were drinking 190-proof Balinese vodka" and end with matching dragon tattoos on their shaved heads and big gaps in their memories. Sorry!

* Note: the anecdote may not be true.

And then it was Saturday, and we went to the zoo. I will say this about the San Diego Zoo: It's vastly overrated. I don't like zoos as a matter of principle, but I've heard all the grand things about the San Diego Zoo and its greatness, but I didn't see it. Oh, sure, the animals are fine, and the landscape is nice enough, but I'll tell you this much: Dang it's hilly. So? you say. Well, we'll get back to that. We took a guided bus tour so we could scope out the scene, and then it was time feed the giraffes, which the kids wanted to do. They both did quite a good job feeding the giraffes, even though neither of them are particularly tall and Norah tends to be nervous around new things. But she was very jazzed about feeding the giraffes, so even though the giraffe's long tongue freaked her out a bit, she stuck in there like a trooper. Then we wanted to go see the pandas, so we did. Here's where things get annoying. The pandas are pretty much at the lowest point in the park, and to get there, we had to walk down a long road. However, on the other side of this road were the monkeys, and we thought the kids would like to see them. The monkey section is higher than the panda canyon, though, and, inexplicably, there is no easy way to get a wheelchair from the monkey section to the panda section. There's a people mover from the panda area up to the monkeys, but not one going down. So we'd need to go through the monkey section, then come back to the beginning and go a long way around to the road down to the pandas. As we entered the monkey trail, however, Norah got all cranky and didn't want to walk anymore, so we ditched the monkey trail. We walked down the steep hill to the pandas, and then headed to one of the bus stops that people can use so they don't have to walk everywhere. A bus came by ... but was not wheelchair-accessible. Fuck the heck? A zoo employee said he could call a shuttle to come pick us up, so he did. We waited. And waited. And waited. After about 30 minutes, the shuttle finally came to take us to the exit. Seriously, San Diego Zoo. Krys pointed out that Target probably has more handicapped parking than the zoo did, and then, when we got in there, they weren't all that well equipped to deal with a wheelchair. I mean, if you have that many people coming into your park, you have to assume a good percentage of them will be in wheelchairs, right? And not everyone has fancy motorized ones, you know!

Krys dropped me off at the convention once more, because I decided I wasn't going to spend the evening down there (I'm boring, remember). As sappy as it sounds, I miss my wife when I'm not with her. I wanted to find a couple of cool toys for friends of mine, maybe pick up a few more comics, and take off. I would certainly like to go out drinking with people at the con (for the second straight year, I didn't get a chance to meet up with Tom Beland and have a drink with him - and honestly, I'm not sure he was even there), but when nobody goes out until 11 at night, my enthusiasm goes down. Seriously, comics pros - get some sleep occasionally! There's nothing wrong with drinking at 9, you know! Sheesh. So I headed into the retailer section, where I got an Atom Ant bobblehead and a sculpture of Giant-Size X-Men #1 which is the comic cover in 3-D - the characters are bursting out of the cover. I thought it was freakin' cool, and you can't change my mind! I stopped by the Elephantmen booth to say goodbye to Richard Starkings and Moritat. As usual, Starkings gave me the latest issue of Elephantmen, which was very nice of him, and Moritat drew me a nice sketch. I always like talking to Starkings, because he's a fun guy and he always has fun stories to tell. I had spoken briefly to Larry Young on Thursday (when he showed me pictures of his son and I showed him my real-life daughter), but I was able to spend some more time at the AiT/Planet Lar booth on Saturday, when I was kid-free. We chatted with Adam Beechen, who showed up about the same time and was trying to restore his comics collection, which was recently stolen. Damn, that sucks. As I continued to wander, I went by the Man of Action booth, where a few days earlier only Steven T. Seagle was hanging out (and he told me that he was not announcing anything with Mike Allred later that day), but now Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau, and Joe Casey were all in attendance. I talked to Kelly about I Kill Giants for a while and how freakin' excellent it is, and he told me there are plans for a large-sized hardcover, as the artist, JM Ken Niimura, did it "European-style" (that sounds vaguely dirty) and therefore it would look fine in a bigger format. I own the individual issues, but damn, a big hardcover would be tempting. I bought Duncan Rouleau's Metal Men because I enjoy being confused (he was joking about it being confusing) and heard about Joe Casey's new project, Doc Bizarre, M. D., which sounds, well, awesome. Then I was off again! I walked by the Radical Comics area and saw Jimmy Palmiotti promoting a book he's doing for them. I figured, since I wasn't too kind to the first issue of Power Girl, I should at least introduce myself. He's a very cool guy and said that I should really check out issues #4 and 5 of the book, because it goes a bit nuts then (I did buy issue #3, so I'll keep going at least through issue #5). I told him I enjoyed The Last Resort, his parody/homage to 1970s disaster movies, much more than Power Girl, so I hope it sells well for him (obviously, it's not going to outsell PG, but still). Of course, I had to gush about Amanda Conner's art, and considering how intimately connected to Ms. Conner he is, he couldn't disagree! Finally, I stopped by the Top Shelf booth, where Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele were selling and signing The Surrogates (and showing the trailer to the movie, which looks neat; I did tell them that Willis's hair looks ridiculous, and Venditti told me that was the point, which mitigates it a bit, I suppose). I told them I already had the first series and was getting the new graphic novel when it comes out so I wasn't going to buy the extremely handsome $75-hardcover collecting both stories, but they asked $40 for it, so I couldn't pass that up, could I? Weldele also confirmed something I feared - he's pretty sure that his series for Zenescope, The Straw Men, is dead. He hasn't heard anything about it, and although he said he had drawn some of the issues that haven't been released yet, it doesn't look like it will see the light of day. Damn. It's still listed on their web site, so maybe there's a small glimmer of hope, but I guess I wouldn't count on it.

I left the con and waited on a corner for Krys to pick me up. It was quite the busy place - I saw the guy who works at my comic book store stroll by, followed soon after by Adam Beechen. Then some dude congratulated me on the Eisner win, for which I could take no credit. Then I met Lou and Dawn, who also love the site. They sell nifty stuff at the con, like Dawn's hand-made purses in the shape of Captain America's shield. They were awfully swell. Krys finally made it downtown (traffic in San Diego on the Comic-Con weekend: awful) and got me, and we were off! The next day we drove home (a much nicer drive) and that was that!

So that was my SDCC experience. No, it wasn't as groovy as some people's - I'm sure Mr. Callahan has piercings in strange places that he didn't have before the weekend - but I had a good time. And, as usual, I bought a crapload of comics. Let's look at the list:

12 Reasons Why I Love Her by Jamie S. Rich and Joëlle Jones.
Anna Arky #1 by James Heffron and Miguel Atencia.
The Annotated Northwest Passage by Scott Chantler.
Brian Wood Public/Domain, designbook 2009 by Brian Wood.
Bring Out Your Dead volume one: It Tolls For Thee by James Heffron and Manuel Martin Peniche.
Cakewalk by Rachel Bormann and Nate Powell.
Clever Tricks to Stave Off Death: A Bunch More Wondermark Comic Strips by David Malki!
Crogan's Vengeance by Chris Schweizer.
Elephantmen: Damaged Goods by Richard Starkings and Marian Churchland.
Elephantmen War Toys: Yvette by Richard Starkings and Moritat.
Firebreather volumes one and two by Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn.
Hard-Bullied Comics #6-7 by Steve Earnhart and Federico Dallocchio.
Heartbreakers #1-4 by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett.
Hench by Adam Beechen and Manny Bello.
Jar of Fools by Jason Lutes.
Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier.
Magic Trixie by Jill Thompson (this is for Norah, but I'll read it a lot, I'm sure).
Masterpiece Comics by Robert Sikoryak.
Mercury by Hope Larson.
Metal Men by Duncan Rouleau.
Naoki Urasawa's Monster volumes one and two by Naoki Urasawa.
Pilgrimage: Two Weeks in G-d's Country, a travel sketch journal by Neil Kleid.
Pluto volumes one and two by Naoki Urasawa, Osamu Tezuka, and Takashi Nagasaki.
Portland Noir, edited by Kevin Sampsell.
Pounded #1-3 by Brian Wood and Steve Rolston.
Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology by lots o' folk.
Sketches and Drawings volume one by Steve Bryant.
Stickleback: England's Glory by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli.
The Surrogates "Owner's Manual" by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele.
Tripwire Annual 2009.
The Villain #1 by Steve Earnhart and Pat Loika.
Wasteland #25 by Antony Johnston and Christopher Mitten.
We Kill Monsters #1 (of 6) by Christopher Leone, Laura Harkcon, and Brian Churilla.

Well, that's a bunch of books. Maybe someday I'll get a chance to read them all!

Oh, and what makes Jamie McKelvie happy? Absolutely nothing! He was asked to do a sketch of whatever made him happy, and he was stymied. Seriously. Poor guy! I left before he actually figured out what he was going to sketch. Maybe he eventually decided that something in this bleak, bleak world made him joyful. Wouldn't that be nice?

(Here's a key to the photographs, in case you don't recognize the people. 1. Some costumed dude chillaxin'. 2. Mia and Daddy ready to hit the convention floor! 3. Norah before her tragic injury. 4. The three lovely ladies in my life on the Sea World tower. 5. The YACHT. 6. The convention center. 7. Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett. 8. A jumping whale. 9. Norah and Mommy in the surf. 10. Brian Wood. 11. James Heffron and Steve Bryant. 12. Joëlle Jones and Jamie S. Rich. 13. Kieron Gillen. 14. Antony Johnston. 15. Steve Earnhart. 16. Rob Guillory. 17. Jimmy Palmiotti. 18. Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. I also took a few other pictures of people I couldn't fit into this post: Joe Casey, Becky Cloonan, Hope Larson, John Layman, Duncan Rouleau, Milo Ventimiglia and Marc Silvestri (and Ventimiglia may be short, but Silvestri is a freakin' giant), and Richard Starkings.)

So now I'm back. How are you all doing?

9 Comments

• At July 28, 2009, Dan Bailey wrote:

  I'm sure the drive up must've been fun fun fun, assuming my memories of that very route (to Disneyland back ...

• At July 28, 2009, Ken Raining wrote:

  Your family looks really nice, Greg.

• At July 28, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Did you play "count the bald guys"? I would've.

  And proper drinking time is anywhere between 6pm and 5am. But it ...

• At July 28, 2009, Da Fug wrote:

  YAY, the YACHT! Cool trip report. Glad you and your family had a good time.

• At July 28, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Good stuff, Greg, glad you enjoyed it!

• At July 28, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Whoa, I can't imagine going ten years without going to the beach - having been in cities with coasts since ...

• At July 29, 2009, Bald Steve wrote:

  It was great to see you and meet your daughter, Greg! Holy crap, I'm still not fully recovered from ...

• At July 31, 2009, Jamie McKelvie wrote:

  Here's the happy sketch, by the way: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oSp9GSncA2U/SmwH7-hJdVI/AAAAAAAAAC8/903jCGHMUxE/s1600-h/101_0207.JPG

  Was great to chat again!

• At July 31, 2009, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Good stuff, sir. Carnage always makes people happy!

I flew out from Phoenix on Friday morning and landed around 9 in the morning.  By 9.15 I wanted to move to San Diego.  Damn, that's a nice city.  I took a cab to the convention center and began forging my way toward the building.  Weirdly enough, in that sea of humanity I saw Jake Bell, writer of Ye Olde Comick Booke Blogge and major domo of the Atomic Comics site.  So we journeyed together while I got my "press" pass (thereby bypassing the sad mass of humanity with the brown-edged passes - too bad, suckers!) and tried to enter the convention.  Yeah, that was a mistake.  Jake was trying to get down to the extreme end of artists' alley to talk to Art Adams, from whom he wanted to commission a sketch.  We ran smack-dab into a velvet rope at the "D" entrance, and could go no further.  The security detail told us we would have to wait until 10.  Like good Americans, we respected the authority of the security detail and waited.  People continued to try to convince the security dudes that they were far more special than the rest of us and were therefore allowed to go beyond the ropes, but very few succeeded.  Then the magic hour struck.  No movement from the security guards.  Oh dear.  The natives remained docile for about three minutes, and then the griping began.  I told Jake that all we needed was for one or two people to make a rush for it, and then, when the guards took them out, the rest of could go for it.  That's how it worked at Penn State football games when we wanted to rush the field (and get the goalposts, for which I was once tear-gassed) - one or two students would boldly sacrifice themselves for the rest.  What team spirit!  Unfortunately, nobody here had such team spirit, and we contented ourselves by whining loudly.  Finally, at approximately 10.13, they let us in ... but they funneled us toward the entrance to the hall, and we had to flow that way and then double back to get down to the "F" entrance, which is where Adams was.  Phew!  But the adventure had begun!

I went into the convention hall and was a bit overwhelmed, I must say.  I was in artists' alley but didn't stay there very long, because I didn't have a ton of interest in it.  I bid farewell to Jake for the time being (clutching a copy of his ashcan, which features various prose and comic stuff he's done) and went off.  I headed to the very other end of the convention hall (which is huge) to hit the retailers.  It's a comic book convention, after all, and I was interested in finding bargains on back issues!  So I walked.  And walked.  And, you know, walked some more.  Finally I reached the other end of the hall, where I dived into the various booths looking for treasure.  And yes, I found some!

One thing that annoys me about comic conventions is that the retailers bring their really old back stock.  I have absolutely no interest in "Golden Age" or even "Silver Age" comics, so I pass over a great deal of stuff.  Similarly, I have no interest in recent "hot" titles nor their cover variants, so I pass over that as well.  I'm interested in late 1970s to early- to mid-1990s stuff, but that stuff is often not easy to find.  But I did a pretty damned good job, if I do say so myself.  I picked up the seventh trade collection of Invincible, which for some reason I didn't get when it came out.  I also got the first 17 issues of New Mutants in trade, which was nice.  I have recently spoken of my search for back issues of Dazzler.  I was looking to complete my collection, and I came oh so close!  I got issues #5, 8, 12-14, 16, 23, 27, 30, 32-33, and 38, leaving me one issue (#22) short of the entire run.  I also dug up Martian Manhunter #12-21 and 23-36, also leaving me the elusive #22 short of the entire run.  I bought the first few issues of the series when it came out but dropped it.  I figured I'd give it another chance.  Hell, the issues were cheap.  I was also looking to complete my run of John Byrne's Namor series, which I skipped when it first came around but read later and really enjoyed.  So I found #1, 20-21, and 23, which means I am yet again one issue short of the entirety - this time #4.  While I was looking for things I stumbled across Alpha Flight #1-13 (again, the Byrne series), so I picked those up for a dollar each.  I read these as well, years ago, and really liked them.  Another comic I was keen on finding was Chase, but I only got issues #1-3 and 5.  Oh well - it's not like there were a ton of issues in the series!  I'm sure I'll find them eventually.  Another nice thing about conventions is that retailers package entire mini-series or runs by certain creators and sell them at a discount.  I found Dean Motter's The Prisoner series from DC, the recent Wisdom mini-series from Marvel, and the Gerard Jones/Mike Parobeck Elongated Man series, which Bill Reed was nice enough to remind me about last week.  Such was the extent of my back issue buying, and I moved onto the small press area of the convention floor.

I happened to wander past Steve Bryant's booth, where he was sitting behind a spread that included all four issues of Athena Voltaire plus a trade of the webcomic.  He started to explain what it was all about, and I hope he didn't think I was rude when I told him I already knew about it.  He did seem startled that someone had heard of the book, which is odd, because it seems that it's a bit more popular than a lot of small press stuff.  Anyway, we talked about the new series, which he promised would be out soon, and I told him how cool it was that he actually had the issues, because I knew they are hard to find.  I was a bit bummed out because I was running low on hard cash at this point and I could only get the issues and not the trade.  I know I could have found an ATM, but it kept slipping my mind.  That's okay, though - I'm looking forward to reading the series, because it looks really flingin'-flangin' cool.  I didn't take a picture of Steve because I'm an idiot.

I next came across Gia-Bao Tran, who was nice enough to introduce himself as GB, thereby saving me the embarrassment of mangling the pronunciation of his name because I'm an ignorant Yankee.  Tran is a very nice guy (everyone I met was very swell, actually), and we talked about Content briefly and why I didn't like the second issue (the cell phone sex, which he said was quite polarizing).  He gave me the first issue, which was very nice of him.  Tran is a very good artist, and it would be nice if more people saw his work.  He illustrated a story in Postcards: True Stories that Never Happened, which came out last week and which I would get signed by a bunch of people later, so maybe more people will see his work.  I encourage you to get Postcards.  It's very good.

As I moved on, I finally came to someone whose picture I remembered to take: Steve Earnhardt.  Earnhardt is the creator and writer of Hard-Bullied Comics, which I have reviewed here and which is a blast of a four-issue series to read.  We discussed the new art on issue #1, which looks great, and how this series featured Rudolf Montemayor's first published work, which is amazing because it's quite good.  Steve gave me a copy of the trade, which was ridiculously nice of him, and we talked about his new project, which is a graphic novel instead of a series of floppies.  The economies of comic book production comes into play again, as it's very expensive to bring out individual issues.  It's a shame.  I'm looking forward to the graphic novel, however, because it was fascinating to watch as Earnhardt slowly became a better writer over the course of this series.  Here's Steve:

I wandered around and found myself at the Oni Press booth.  Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly were sitting there signing stuff and chatting.  I told them how much I liked Local (because who doesn't?) and kicked myself for not buying a print from Kelly showing the cover of Local #11, which was beautiful.  Yes, I'm stupid.  Kelly mentioned that they were working on something for Minx, which I guess was announced later that day.  I thought I'd have a scoop!  Oh well.

I turned the corner at the Oni booth and said hello to Ande Parks, who wrote the rather brilliant Capote in Kansas and the somewhat less brilliant but still pretty damned entertaining Union Station.  He's also an inker of some note.  And quite stylish!

Next I stopped at Rich Koslowski's booth.  Koslowski wrote and drew The King, which was a wonderful comic from two years ago.  His latest is The List, which is a Christmas book with pictures.  It sounds like lots of fun - the powerful are desperate to get their hands on Santa's famous "list"!  I'll read it eventually - so much to read!

At about this time I managed to hook up with two other esteemed bloggers.  Yes, it was networking time among the blogaxy at the San Diego Con!  I had made arrangements to meet Tom Collins of the always-interesting Tom the Dog's You Know What I Like? and Ian Brill of the now-defunct Brill Building.  I hung out with them for a good portion of the afternoon and had dinner with them.  They were very cool guys and it was great to meet them.  I always dig meeting people you get to know on-line, because it's weird yet fun.  Here's a handy photograph for reference:

That's Ian looking goofy on the left, and Tom proudly wearing his GrimJack T-shirt on the right.  The first thing Ian wanted to do was head to the AiT/Planet Lar booth and say hello to Larry, who just had a kid (well, presumably he didn't actually have the kid, although I wouldn't put it past the marketing master that is Larry Young!).  We spoke to Larry briefly and then talked to Matt Silady, the writer/artist of The Homeless Channel.  Matt was (of course) a swell guy, and I got a lot of insight into how he created the "realistic" look to the book.  It was fascinating - I'm no artist, or even close to one, so the process by which guys create stuff is really neat.  It sounds complicated.  Here's Larry trying to hide from my camera!

We moved on and saw one of the coolest (and by coolest I mean absolutely stupid) things at the convention: the Girls and Corpses magazine booth.  I guess there's an audience for that particular combination, although I can't even imagine who.  Oh wait - Tom bought a copy! 

Here's the kind of thing you can find in Girls and Corpses.  Surprisingly, I heard of this magazine two years ago.  Unfortunately, now I've been reminded of it.

 

At this time, we went upstairs.  Ian wanted to check out the Image panel, while Tom wanted to see the preview for Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween (which casts Malcolm McDowell in the Donald Pleasance role - McDowell has taken over from Pleasance in the "go-to" actor who adds some class to your low-budget horror flick).  The Image panel was the only panel I even half-attended, and I don't really have much to say about it.  I mean, according to Erik Larsen (I guess it was Larsen - I was sitting in the back of the room and could barely see the panelists, much less their names), every single comic that Image has coming out in the next few months is the coolest one ever.  I'm serious - he'd put a slide up of, say, Casanova.  "I love this book," he'd say.  "It's so cool.  It's the coolest book."  We would all ooh and aah about the nifty covers, then the next slide would show, say, that new Steve Niles/Bill Sienkiewicz book.  Now, I'm drooling over the idea of Sienkiewicz doing interiors again, but Larsen was even more enthusiastic.  "Man, I love this book," he'd say, sounding strangely familiar.  "It's probably the coolest book we have."  Then we'd get a slide showing Invincible, and everyone clapped because that's such a fave.  Kirkman spoke of the 50th issue of both this and The Walking Dead (in which he claimed everyone dies), and then Larsen broke in with, "God, I love these books.  They're, like, the coolest thing we have."  Make up your mind, Erik!  I know you love your own company, but come on.

I left Ian and Tom to their respective things and went back downstairs.  I happened by the Penny-Farthing Press booth, where they were selling copies of the first Captain Gravity series plus the trade of Captain Gravity and the Power of the Vril.  I bought the first series because I didn't have it yet, and then I berated the salespeople.  Why would I do that?  Well, I bought the six issues of the second series and tried to get other people to check it out because it's a damned nifty comic by Joshua Dysart and Sal Velluto.  When the trade was solicited, there was a completely new issue in it, making it a trade of seven issues!  I was a bit grumpy about it because I supported the comic when it was coming out, and then the trade features a LOT of new material!  I didn't really berate them that much, just mentioning that it was kind of strange that they would do that, but they offered me a good price on it and, like a sucker, I bought it.  But that's still annoying.

I went back to AiT/Planet Lar because I wanted to talk more to Larry about his company.  We discussed The Black Diamond and how neat it is.  Larry was nice enough to introduce me to Richard Starkings, who was around the corner in his own booth.  He was hanging out with Moritat and John Roshell.  Starkings and Moritat, of course, are the creative force behind Elephantmen, which is a very good comic book.  I talked to Starkings for a good 45 minutes, because he's a very nice guy.  We talked about Image's business model, which allows him and other creators a great deal of freedom.  He also told me that Moritat drew Solstice under his "real" name, Justin Norman, which was news to me (I suppose I could have found it out on my own).  Solstice, by the way, is a brilliant comic book that I encourage you all to get.  He gave me a few goodies like the latest issue of Elephantmen (I told him I hadn't bought an issue yet because he kept sending them to me, and he joked that I was a cheap bastard, which of course I am) and the hardcover trade that comes out this week.  I'll have to take a look at it, because I might be giving it away as I already own the issues.  He also gave me the first two issues of Strange Embrace by David Hine, about which he raved.  As my only experience with Hine as a writer is the latest issue of Spawn, I'll be keen to read it and see if the raves are deserved.  Moritat was also very nice, and drew a sketch of Sahara (seen here on this astonishingly beautiful cover) for me gratis.  That was surprising and very cool of him.  It was great talking to Starkings, especially because he knows so many people in the industry and has been in it so long.  Bryan Talbot stopped by at one point, but I didn't get a chance to talk to him.  Oh well!

Here's Moritat, Starkings, and Roshell.  Excellent guys all around!  Below is the sketch Moritat did for me:

Then I wandered some more, and took a picture of, well, I'm not proud of pandering to the lowest elements of our geeky society, but, you know, it's girls in bikinis:

No, it's not a very good picture.  I'll make up for it soon, I promise!

I went back to the Oni booth and met Antony Johnston and Christopher Mitten.  Johnston knew who I was, as he occasionally stops by the blog, and he was typically swell.  The trade of Wasteland is out, by the way, so pick it up if you want to read a neat post-apocalyptic story with fantastic art.  He mentioned that he has the entire story plotted out, including the ending at about issue #50.  He also said it's a pretty good seller for Oni, so I hope he can continue and finish it, because it's getting better as we get further into the story and it will be very cool to see where it's going.  I was going to buy some of Antony's other stuff like Closer and Three Days in Europe, but I was, as you recall, running low on cash, plus I was running seriously low on places to put all my booty.  More on that below!

That's Johnston on the left and Mitten on the right, by the way.

I had hooked back up with Ian and Tom, and they wanted to head toward artists' alley because Ian wanted to speak to Steve Lieber and Tom wanted to say hello to Zander Cannon.  So we headed into the scary part of the convention, mainly the movie studios and non-comics-related pavilions.  Seriously - if you're going to a comic book convention, do you really need to buy a kilt (which you could do there) or check out what's happening on the Sci-Fi Channel?  I guess you do.  I could not have cared less about the ancillary stuff, because I'm hard core, man!

We stopped at Steve Lieber's table and spoke to him for a bit.  I was going to mention that the first time I saw Lieber's work was on Hawkman in the mid-1990s, but does anyone really need to be reminded of that?  Lieber mentioned that the Whiteout movie wrapped filming in April but they still don't have a release date.  Despite the somewhat odd poster of the Frank Miller cover with Kate Beckinsale's face, I'm really looking forward to this movie.  The comic is awesome, after all.  Lieber had the two trades to buy, and I asked him where the version with both trades was.  He said he doesn't even have a copy - he had a copy, but a few years ago he took a bunch to a con and accidentally put his in with them, and now it's gone.  Apparently it's out of print and he can't find it on eBay.  Poor Steve Lieber!

Tom had met Zander Cannon long ago, so he wanted to catch up.  He mentioned that he's writing a new Top 10 series, which could be rather cool.  Gene Ha is pencilling it, so it might come out before my children go to college.

We moved back into the "entertainment" section of the convention, where we saw the most awesomest thing there.  At a movie booth (the Weinsteins'?) stood a model dressed like Rose McGowan in the "Planet Terror" section of Grindhouse.  Now, her wig wasn't great, but nobody was looking at her wig.  They were looking at her leg - which did not exist.  Yes, she was an actual amputee with a rifle strapped to her knee:

Now THAT'S commitment!  We were wondering if, as an amputee model, this young lady heard about this gig and thought, "Hot damn!  I'm all over this shit!"  Or did they have her on speed dial?  Either way, this was the coolest thing going, and I didn't need Erik Larsen to tell me that.  I didn't get a picture when Danny Trejo came out and posed with her.  Go to Tom's blog if you want to see his somewhat crappy cell phone pictures.  Mine are much clearer, but they don't include Trejo.

It was around five o'clock when I headed over to the Comic Relief pavilion for a signing of Postcards.  This anthology features some excellent stories by a host of good creators, and although not all of the stories work perfectly, it's still a fascinating project.  My book was passed around to Antony Johnston, Ande Parks, Matt Kindt, Rick Spears, Rob G, GB Tran, Joseph Bergin III, Jason Copland, and Micah Farritor, as well as Jason Rodriguez, the book's editor.  I spoke briefly to Copland about our love of Marillion, which is of course the Greatest Rock Band in the World, and we also talked a bit about his story in the book, which is a creepy claustrophobic tale that owes a lot to its art, as the story isn't fleshed out terribly well.  Jason's a cool guy and it was nice to meet him.  When I got my book back it looked like a high school yearbook, only with cooler signatures:

You'll notice another signature I didn't mention.  The last person to sign the book was Tom Beland, who was standing around because he didn't get a chair.  I gave it to him and hoped he would sign it before he noticed my name, but as he started, he asked if he should write something mean and nasty because of who I was.  I joked that I was trying to avoid telling him my name, but we shook hands and laughed about our weird feud from last October.  He apologized for his actions, I apologized for what I now realize is a fairly immature review (I stand by my convictions about the book, but not the pretty mean tone of it) and we had a nice conversation.  He was very cool about the whole thing.  His story in Postcards is actually one of the better ones, and I told him I might have to check out True Story Swear to God one more time and give it a second chance.  As proof that I met him, here's a picture of us:

I also really like what he drew in my book:

I like that Lily looks like she really wanted him to kick my ass.  She wanted blood!  Anyway, it was great to meet him, as well as all the other creators.  It's a bit weird to realize that a lot of people know who you are - I've never come across that phenomenon before, but it's also pretty neat.  Of course, now it's going to be hard to be mean to their comics.  I may have to be less childish when I give a bad review!  Oh, the horror!

By this time I was exhausted and ready to eat dinner.  I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, but even though I wasn't that hungry, I figured if I went any longer I might drop dead.  I had also been carrying a big bag and a little bag full of comics around all day.  I heard very late in the day that I could have checked my bags, and considering I didn't really buy much after about noon, I would have, but there I was, lugging around my entire haul like a sucker.  I ached for days afterward, I'll tell you that much!  Ian, Tom, and I went out to dinner, and then I caught a taxi to the airport.  While I was waiting for my plane, I realized I didn't have my Moritat sketch.  Shit.  Where the hell was it?  You realize I was carrying it around in a plastic bag all day, not putting it in my bigger bags where it would get crushed, and now I didn't have it.  I assumed I had left it at the restaurant, and when I called them, they confirmed that they did in fact have it.  Phew!  I called Jake and asked him to pick it up on Saturday, and he, not being a dick, did so.  My friend Robert takes a flat portfolio thing to each convention because he gets a lot of sketches, so he brought it back to Mesa.  I was very grateful.

I went away for the weekend (it was my thirteenth anniversary on Monday, so the wife and I fled to northern Arizona for a bit) and then, on Monday, I headed to the Mesa store of Atomic Comics to meet Warren Ellis (through a horrific storm that actually flooded the freeway near my home).  It turned out I didn't talk to him at all - he was a signing machine!  One thing I noticed was that he used hand sanitizer whenever he shook hands.  He has a bit of the Howard Hughes in him, I guess!  He was very jovial and not at all scary, but that's possibly because I didn't mention I got him to sign the collected edition of Come In Alone because of the fun irony involved.

He also kind of has a Mick Fleetwood thing going on with that outfit.  Still, he's more stylish than I am!  Next to him was Jacen Burrows (that's not him in the picture; he was taking a break), who signed my copy of Scars.  I asked him why he doesn't work for the Big Boys, and he said whenever his contract comes up, Avatar says they have another project with Garth Ennis or Alan Moore or Ellis lined up that they'd like him to draw.  He told me if he worked for Marvel or DC he'd be stuck doing fill-in issues for a while, whereas with Avatar he can do series with these very talented writers.  We talked about Avatar's reputation as a porn publisher, which I think is pretty unfair.  It's good to see their profile rising through some very good comics over the past decade or so.  A lot of people think the Avatar house style of art is too "busy," but a look at Burrows' work puts that to rest.  Sure, some of their artists put a ton of detail into the work, but for me, someone like Juan Jose Ryp is better than a guy whose art looks sketchy.  It's all a matter of taste, I guess.  As I talked to Burrows, William Christensen, the editor-in-chief of Avatar, came over and said hello.  He thanked me for getting the word out about the company.  I told him if they keeping making good comics they'll get recognized on their own.  It's nice to see more people giving them a chance.  This is Jacen, by the way: 

So that was my big day at the convention and my coda at the comic book store.  I had a great time, but I'm not sure if I think it's necessary to ever go back.  The Con is pretty overwhelming, I'll tell you that much.  I'm not as jaded about it as those people who claim it's not about comics anymore, because despite the presence of a lot of non-comics-related stuff, there was still plenty for the discerning comic book geek to do.  I can't imagine spending four days there, unless people don't go for the full time every day.  I was a bit disappointed not to go to more panels, but that was just a compromise I made.  I also missed a few people I would have liked to meet, most notably Peter David, who was around somewhere (at the IDW booth, I think, which I just missed).  But that's okay.  Life goes on.

Anyway, it was a fun day, and I got to meet many excellent people, and whenever you end up at a restaurant quoting They Live ("... put the glasses on!"), you know you've had a good time.  And isn't that what it's all about?

17 Comments

• At August 1, 2007, Bully wrote:

  Great report! You covered a lot of areas i didn't get a chance to get to, so it was like ...

• At August 1, 2007, Jeff Wetherington wrote:

  Great write up, great photos and it sounds like you had an extremely full day. I'm hoping to make it ...

• At August 1, 2007, Da Fug wrote:

  Sweet report! Awesome that you and Beland buried the hatchet. That took some real guts, man.

• At August 1, 2007, Bill Reed wrote:

  Happy anniversary, man! I can't wait for the issue of True Story Swear to God detailing your epic battle with ...

• At August 1, 2007, Bald Steve wrote:

  Great report! Meeting you was definitely one of the Con's highlights for me. My wife asked if you ...

• At August 1, 2007, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Considering Beland told me he was over it, it didn't take that much for me to meet him.

  I'm glad your ...

• At August 1, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  Marillion isn't a rock band.

  They're a soft rock band.

• At August 1, 2007, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Man, them's fightin' words, Dan!

• At August 1, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Good stuff, Greg!!!

• At August 1, 2007, John Seavey wrote:

  The reason that you see so much Golden and Silver Age is simple: There's a limited amount of comics they ...

• At August 1, 2007, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Yeah, I know, John. My retailer takes all his oldey-tyme stuff for that reason, and that's cool. I ...

• At August 1, 2007, stealthwise wrote:

  Kick Beland's ass!

  Naw, I'm just kidding. You should go after Terry Moore now, before he takes over on Runaways. ...

• At August 1, 2007, Frans wrote:

  Marillion is the greatest rock band on the planet, you were right about that!

  Frans

• At August 1, 2007, Jason Copland wrote:

  Ha! Thanks for the kind words, Greg!

  Now back to the drawing table.... and to some Marillion!

• At August 2, 2007, Kelson wrote:

  Wow... that's got to be the most detailed con report I've ever seen! (And thanks for the kind words ...

• At August 2, 2007, Aaron Kashtan wrote:

  I don't know about Golden Age comics, but whenever I attend Comic-Con, I always find lots of good deals on ...

• At August 2, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  Man, them’s fightin’ words, Dan!

  Please. Coldplay fans are more intimidating.

By Sunday I was exhausted. We returned to the show for the last day. I don't think there were fewer people than Saturday, but there were fewer costumes. Saturday was clearly the costume peak.

This morning I started with a trip to Subway to grab lunch for later in the day. I had my badge on, and as I walked up Sixth Ave. a woman walking the other way came up to me and asked whether I was leaving the convention. "Well, later, yes..." She had a badge herself, so I think she wanted to buy mine for a friend who hadn't managed to pre-register.

One of the sights of this year's convention are the Smallville/Superman:Doomsday bags that Warner Bros. has been handing out. They were everywhere, in part I'm sure because they were so large. At one point I saw a little girl carrying one slung over her shoulder, and it actually dragged the ground behind her. Today I saw two people who had done something creative with the bags. One woman had turned it into an apron...

and a man had simply cut holes in the bottom and was wearing it the way cartoon characters wear barrels.

Phil Foglio just walked past as I was typing this. I was sitting against a pillar outside rooms 1-10, trying to think of what to write next, and I looked up, and he walked by, and I thought, "Who is that? I know who that is..." And even though I stopped by his booth the other day, talked to him, and got his signature on a book, it took several seconds to remember his name.

I spent more time talking to writers and artists today. I went back to the Studio Foglio booth and talked to Kaja Foglio, and I read a preview of Alcatraz High and got a copy of issue #1 signed by the artist. By 11:30 I was more or less ready to leave, but I had a panel to go to at 1:00, so I stuck it out.

I got in line for the Fables panel about 45 minutes ahead. The line quickly grew, and then they started letting us in halfway through the previous panel, "My Dad Makes Comics," featuring Scott McCloud's kids and Matt Wagner's kids. It actually turned out to be a very fun panel, though I felt bad that they knew all these people who came in 30 minutes in weren't there to see them.

The Fables panel was worth it. There was a sense of energy in that panel that I hadn't seen in several days. But once again, everyone had underestimated the audience. They brought special give-aways -- a one-page exclusive Jack of Fables story -- but based the numbers on how many people came to last year's panel. They didn't have enough for a full room, so they asked people who had come with friends, spouses, or significant others to please share if they were willing.

My wife managed to win one of the 300 shields by answering a trivia question about Pushing Daisies. Neither of us really wanted it, and we didn't want to mess with selling it on eBay (though perhaps we should have), so we just set it on a table with a note saying "Free Shield."

We finally left around 3:15.

Thanks to Kelson for his con reporting!! Good job!

8 Comments

• At July 29, 2007, Kelson wrote:

  Thanks for the opportunity! I had fun putting together posts and photos, trying to pick a few that would ...

• At July 29, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, it looked like an apron to me, but I figured, "Eh, if he says it is a dress, I ...

• At July 30, 2007, Bully wrote:

  There was a woman who had turned the WB bags into a gorgeous form-fitting, tailored minidress. Really, it looked amazing ...

• At July 30, 2007, MarkAndrew wrote:

  Heh. That's WAY better than a borin ol' Storm Trooper costume.

  (Also, y'all should read Bully's convention coverage, too. ...

• At July 30, 2007, Lucion wrote:

  I think "homeless" is going to be the hot new look for next year's con.

• At July 31, 2007, Kelson wrote:

  I think “homeless” is going to be the hot new look for next year’s con.

  No kidding. With the amount ...

• At July 31, 2007, monel wrote:

  Great pics Kelson! Thanks for sharing!

• At August 6, 2007, Kelson wrote:

  @monel: Thanks!

  @Bully: I think I found a picture of the woman in the actual Smallville dress at this LA Times ...

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US Federal Law

§ 475. Imitating obligations or securities; advertisements

Whoever designs, engraves, prints, makes, or executes, or utters, issues, distributes, circulates, or uses any business or professional card, notice, placard, circular, handbill, or advertisement in the likeness or similitude of any obligation or security of the United States issued under or authorized by any Act of Congress or writes, prints, or otherwise impresses upon or attaches to any such instrument, obligation, or security, or any coin of the United States, any business or professional card, notice, or advertisement, or any notice or advertisement whatever, shall be fined under this title.

I think by avoiding actually placing the web address on the bills, they successfully skirted violating the statute, but I'm curious as to what you other legal minds out there think. My pal Slam makes a good argument that, really, there is no way they can claim this ISN'T advertising, so yeah, Warner Bros. screwed up.

7 Comments

• At July 29, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  Yeah, I think it's pretty demostrable as advertising.

• At July 29, 2007, Eriata wrote:

  They seem to get away with the Jesus Loves You dollars (Google-able as "Jesus dollar"). Joker dollars might be a ...

• At July 29, 2007, Michael wrote:

  Jesus dollars aren't advertising a movie, though.

• At July 29, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, exactly.

  The concern here, Eriata, is that they do not want people making money by advertising on US currency. So ...

• At July 29, 2007, Greg Burgas wrote:

  There were people outside giving out the bills but not mentioning what they were or what the advertised. Inside, ...

• At July 29, 2007, Sleestak wrote:

  Santa Dollars no problem either, because the sticker on the bill is clearly for charity. But Joker is just marketing ...

• At July 29, 2007, Rohan Williams wrote:

  Lousy advertising, Greg? Seriously? The whole viral marketing thing Warner has going seems to be working pretty well so far, ...

Including the announcement of the Amazing Spider-Man (almost) weekly creative team!

Amazing Spider-Man creative team!! Writers: Dan Slott, Zeb Wells, Marc Guggenheim, and Bob Gale. Artists: Phil Jimenez, Steve McNiven, Salvador LaRoca and Chris Bachalo.

Hmmm...there is some good, some REALLY good, and some mediocre there, but on the whole, it is probably better than DC's Countdown line-up (especially the artists), so Marvel is off to a nice start.

Jamie Delano doing a special Hellblazer project with artwork by Jock. That will be good. I trust Matt Wagner implicitly, so as silly as a Madame Xanadu comic book sounds, I will trust in him that it will be good.

Teen Titans East by Judd Winick and Ian Churchill. That was quite sporting of DC to put both creators on the same title.

By the by, how freakin' creepy do you have to get to go to a panel with a freakin' "Dan Didio Must Die!" T-Shirt?!?

It reminds me of this one guy who I banned on the CBR forums for talking about wanting to stab Bendis in the throat because he killed Ant-Man.

Freakazoids.

At least "Dan Didio Must Die!" can be taken as an actual joke!!!

26 Comments

• At July 29, 2007, Bill Reed wrote:

  That was quite sporting of DC to put both creators on the same title.

  Bwahahahah!

  The ASM thing does not really excite ...

• At July 29, 2007, Ian Astheimer wrote:

  I wonder how the Amazing readers will react to the artistic shifts from month to month.

  Whereas 52 had a ...

• At July 29, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Maybe they'll try to let them work ahead of schedule, and have them each do separate story arcs?

• At July 29, 2007, Michael wrote:

  That's exactly what they're doing, Brian.

  Of course, my getting it all hinges on Peter and MJ still being married after ...

• At July 29, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  Wow. I sure hope they don't line up Jimenez and Bachalo, one after the other. That would be a pretty ...

• At July 29, 2007, Matt D wrote:

  Man, the best they could do was Bob Gale and Zeb Wells?

  I think Guggenheim and Slott are pretty good fits ...

• At July 29, 2007, yo go re wrote:

  By the by, how freakin’ creepy do you have to get to go to a panel with a freakin’ “Dan ...

• At July 29, 2007, jccalhoun wrote:

  Hmmmm.... Back when Kurt Busiek left Aquaman he said it was because he had an idea for some super project. ...

• At July 29, 2007, Bill Reed wrote:

  because he has the unabashed temerity to let characters change and grow.

  I think you typed "change and grow" when you ...

• At July 29, 2007, Tim Callahan wrote:

  I'll pick up Amazing Spidey for a while and see where it leads. I'd prefer Fraction and Kirkman in ...

• At July 29, 2007, Andrew Collins wrote:

  jccalhoun said:

  "Hmmmm…. Back when Kurt Busiek left Aquaman he said it was because he had an idea for some super ...

• At July 29, 2007, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  By the by, how freakin’ creepy do you have to get to go to a panel with a freakin’ “Dan ...

• At July 29, 2007, Carl wrote:

  I went to the "DC Big Guns" (whatever that means) panel on Sunday, and when DiDio appeared from nowhere and ...

• At July 29, 2007, Sleestak wrote:

  Salvador LaRoca and Chris Bachalo. Ick.

• At July 29, 2007, Rohan Williams wrote:

  I think the shirt was first mentioned as a joke by one of the editors, and DiDio went along with ...

• At July 29, 2007, chdb wrote:

  Steve McNiven on a weekly title?

  HHHHAAA AHHHA HHAAAA HAAAA HAAA HAAA!

  haa haaa haaaa haaa aahh haaa!

  hee!

  No, seriously, what else you ...

• At July 29, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, like I mentioned above, "Dan Dido Must Die" could at least actually be a real joke. There certainly is ...

• At July 29, 2007, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  Did anything on the Didio shirt make it look like the Jimmy Olsen ads? The lettering, the color, etc?

  Cause it's ...

• At July 30, 2007, T. wrote:

  I expected Salvador Larroca and Bachalo to be a bad fit, but from what I've seen of their preview art, ...

• At July 30, 2007, Ian wrote:

  "Man, the best they could do was Bob Gale and Zeb Wells?

  I think Guggenheim and Slott are pretty good fits ...

• At July 30, 2007, Paul O'Brien wrote:

  Zeb Wells has written some really good stories in the past, and Bob Gale's handful of previous comics weren't bad ...

• At July 30, 2007, John Seavey wrote:

  Now I'm picturing the other Countdown slogans...

  "WWDDD?"

  "Unto DiDio shall come...a Great Disaster..."

  "DiDio Defiant"

• At July 30, 2007, Matt D wrote:

  I've found most of the stuff Wells has written to be real mediocre, especially the last few things he's done ...

• At July 30, 2007, jccalhoun wrote:

  The Dan Didio shirt does look like the Jimmy Olsen must die ads.

  Newsarama has a picture of it at the ...

• At July 31, 2007, DanCJ wrote:

  That looks like a decent team of writers (though I'm not familiar with Guggenheim) but I really don't like the ...

• At July 31, 2007, Brad Curran wrote:

  In a perverse way, I'm really looking forward to seeing Bachallo's Spider-Man. Although I do generally like his style when ...

We arrived early today. Before 10:00 everyone seemed to be clustered on the east side of the hall, where the large company booths were. In that area, it was already difficult to move. As I moved toward the lower numbers, where the small press, dealers, and individual exhibitors were clustered, the crowds thinned out to nearly nothing.

The costumes, however, were already thick. I must have taken two dozen photos just walking from one end of the hall to the other this morning. I saw X-Men, Justice Leaguers, Bat-villains, Cylons, Spider-Men (both read and black), Venom, zombies, Death, Rorshach, G'Kar, tiger creatures, Jessica Rabbit and Betty Boop, several groups of Replicants... I even found Waldo and Carmen Sandiego!

Something I've noticed over the years: certain costumes go through a process of fatigue. A decade ago, if someone had their own stormtrooper costume, it was amazing. Everyone wanted to see it. Now, there are so many fans with their own costumes that it needs to have some sort of hook. A group costume with several troopers and an officer. Or a variation, like the infamous Elvis Stormtrooper, or the Samurai Stormtrooper from a few years ago. I'll walk straight past a lone stormtrooper without paying any attention these days.

Quick Draw was, as always, hilarious. Cartoonists Sergio Aragones, Scott Shaw, and Mike Kazeleh (filling in for Kyle Baker) competed to speed-draw on topics suggested by the moderator or the audience, such as "New Jobs for the Hulk" (and later "New Jobs for Harry Potter.") One of the highlights was the Sergio Scenario, in which he started by drawing Groo charging into battle, and was told to add more and more elements to the picture. They auctioned of the finished drawing for the CBLDF for $325.

It's been years since I've worn a hall costume (you can tell since I still call it that instead of cosplay), so I'm not used to getting stopped by other fans. Last night, the Babylon 5: Lost Tales panel handed out medallions with flashing LEDs. People kept stopping me today and asking about it, which suggests that it's been a very successful ad gimmick.

By afternoon I realized that I hadn't adjusted to the crowd quite as well as I'd thought. I found myself staggering, dazed, through the floor, exhibiting the third-day convention stare. By then the west end of the main hall was as packed as the east end had been that morning, and the east end reminded me of the Persian army at Thermopylae, pressed forward by those behind them and unable to stop or change direction.

Accidental celebrity sightings continue. I was on the main floor, helping someone find the list of booths in the schedule, and heard shouts of, "Ray Bradbury, coming through!" The crowd parted, and sure enough, a few seconds later the author sailed through in his wheelchair.

There was a major problem with the big events. They've tried to jam as many high-profile media panels as possible into one day. This puts them up against each other, and forces them to compete for the largest rooms. Audience demand for the Heroes panel would have filled the largest hall, but Hall H had the Rogue/Focus Studios panel.

People who lined up more than two hours ahead for Heroes were still turned away from the room. It seems that if you want to hit one of the big events, you have to get in line the moment the doors open, then wait all day... and not do anything else. There were a lot of very unhappy people who waited in line for hours and weren't able to see what they wanted.

THE NIGHT!!!

Ah, Saturday night! Headed back to the convention after dinner. The main floor and daytime panels were just letting out, so it was swimming upstream to the upper floor and the line for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer 10th Anniversary screening put on by Whedonopolis. As seemed to be the theme for the day, more people showed up than anyone was expecting. Fortunately, this time there were empty rooms all around. They were able to get a second room and extra time, for a second showing!

It started with a showing of the musical episode, "Once More, With Feeling," that quickly developed into a sing-along. After the episode got going, the room started breaking into parts on the duets and group numbers. People started waving lighted cell phones during the second half of "I've Got a Theory" and "Walk Through the Fire." After that was "Checkpoint." Don't worry, in a room full of Buffy fans, none of us recognized the title either, but it was the one where the Watcher's Council shows up to determine whether Buffy is worthy of information about Glory.

The showing ended around 11:00, and while the halls upstairs were full of people emptying out of the two rooms, plus no doubt the Warren Ellis event, once we got downstairs the main lobby was eerily empty and silent.

Following that was a walk through the Gaslamp district on a Saturday night. There was just enough cloud cover to add a halo around the moon. The square in front of the trolley station was still teeming with people coming and going. The walk up Fifth Street was an odd mix of fans from the con and normal downtown night spot traffic. There were people going clubbing, there was a bachelorette party, and there was even a group of college girls signing updated lyrics to "Lord, Won't You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz?"

We finally made it to the Ghirardelli ice cream shop, which is not to be missed if you like chocolate or ice cream (and who doesn't?), followed by a return to the hotel.

Kelson's better half, back at the hotel.

3 Comments

• At July 29, 2007, Bill Reed wrote:

  C'mon! Checkpoint! Season five, episode twelve! Jane Espenson and Doug Petrie! One of the best episodes of that year!

  I think ...

• At July 29, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  I went down on Saturday night and met my friend Justin (AKA Uncle Nobs) and his girlfriend for dinner. They ...

• At July 30, 2007, West wrote:

  Love the costumes, am almost saddened that no one checked Bradbury's outfit beforehand, and amazed that a two hour wait ...

Including the super cool news of Grant Morrison and JG Jones doing Final Crisis, which gives us all hope that it may actually be a good comic book (shockingly).

First off, the Morrison and Jones news. That is just really cool. I can't even recall the last time I saw interiors from Jones. And Morrison wrote DC One Million, which is probably the greatest company-wide crossover ever. So this is good news.

Plus, I love Morrison's line when someone comments on Bill Willingham using Zauriel in Shadowpact, ""Yeah, it's cool! Usually I create things and then they disappear forever!"

Hehe...they do, indeed. They do, indeed.

Mark Waid becoming Editor in Chief of Boom! Studios was interesting news. It's interesting to look back at Rich Johnston's rumors about Waid, and see how they were correct...just a bit askance. He said Waid was taking on an editorial position, but Johnston thought it was at DC Comics. In any event, this is a good move on Boom!'s part. Nice pick up.

While Indiana Jones has had success as a licensed comic, most licensed comics are awful, so I wasn't TOO excited to read about a new Dr. Who comic book, but I will allow that perhaps Bill Reed is right, and the idea may, indeed, be cool.

And the news of DC collecting the Heroes online comics didn't seem that interesting to me, at all, as they're just collecting previously published comics, right? I mean, it's a smart move on DC Comics' part, but it also doesn't seem like all that interesting news to us readers. If it was NEW comics, then perhaps...

JMS' "The Twelve" story sounds good, and Chris Weston is obviously awesome. The idea of taking Golden Age heroes to the present and seeing them react to the present is a neat idea. And making it a murder mystery? Top notch idea, JMS!!

How freaking awesome are these upcoming Casanova covers!?!

Meanwhile, check out this covers of Image's Golden Age comic project...totally cool...

Butch Guice is an interesting exclusive choice for Marvel, as he (and Immonen) seem to represent a different artistic approach to the Ultimate titles by Marvel.

Greg Rucka's Stumptown from Oni sounds really cool.

I remember when Rucka started doing comics. He was so awesome. It'd be cool if we saw that awesomeness again (granted, Checkmate IS pretty good).

But really, stay away from superheroes, Rucka!

13 Comments

• At July 28, 2007, Ian Astheimer wrote:

  I've been waiting for The Twelve to be announced for what feels like years now. And, I'll continue to wait--for ...

• At July 28, 2007, Dave Sikula wrote:

  "The Twelve" does sound great. I liked the idea even more when it was called "Watchmen."

  Yet another reason for ...

• At July 28, 2007, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  I enjoy the SDCC (0r CCI) coverage by CBR, but however, I noticed something missing that's usually covered in past ...

• At July 28, 2007, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  "I can't top what Geoff did in Infinite Crisis," Morrison said before revealing that Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, ...

• At July 28, 2007, Kelson wrote:

  What I find exciting about the DC Heroes collection is that it's an actual, physical collection that you can walk ...

• At July 28, 2007, Bret wrote:

  Well, the Who book will have great art.

  Nick Roche did the BEST spotlights for Transformers at IDW.

• At July 28, 2007, T. wrote:

  Mind you, I already think Morrison is overrated (excellent technically, but so stuck in a soulless, detached metafiction rut it's ...

• At July 29, 2007, John Seavey wrote:

  My heart sunk at two things: One, Grant Morrison on 'Final Crisis'--sorry to the GoaC fans, but I really think ...

• At July 29, 2007, Brian Lockhart wrote:

  A few notes...

  I've actually found the coverage of the convention pretty maddening. I mean, you have Didio and all these ...

• At July 29, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Very fair point, Brian.

  It DID seem like it was mostly fan questions, didn't it?

• At July 29, 2007, ATOM HOTEP wrote:

  "excellent technically but soulless" is kind of the inverse criticism of Morrison, even his best work is not technically excellent ...

• At July 30, 2007, Ian wrote:

  All due respect to the parties involved, but does anyone else find it inappropriate that the EIC of a publisher ...

• At July 30, 2007, ATOM HOTEP wrote:

  It might be a conflict of interests, but I don't think BOOM! Studios counts as a competitor.

Friday at Comic-Con really felt like a Saturday. The aisles were jammed, there were people with costumes everywhere, and every 30 seconds there was someone taking a picture, and someone else not seeing the camera, walking right in front of him.

I spent the morning in the comic book dealer's area, marked on the map as the "Gold and Silver pavillion." There were dozens of stores there, some focusing on more modern books, others focusing on the older, classic books. Last year it seemed like the number of actual comics dealers had dropped to disturbingly low levels. It seemed like there were more this year.

I also went looking for creators. I found the Studio Foglio booth, talked to him a bit, and got him to sign my copy of the latest Girl Genius trade. I've made a couple of trips through Artist's Alley. I keep looking for Joshua Middleton -- I've found his table, but either I hit the alley at all the wrong times, or he hasn't arrived yet.

Crowd control seemed to have improved since yesterday. The two big panels I went to were both upstairs, and they'd managed to tape or ribbon off areas for the lines. Most importantly, staff was keeping an eye on where the end of the line was going. It made for a much better experience (though I did accidentally get in the wrong line). Now, getting out of the panels, on the other hand... They've tried to make traffic flow only in one direction in each corridor on the west side of Sails Pavilion. It helps, but sometimes it's still a crush of people more reminiscent of a cattle drive than anything else.

The art show had its usual mix of fan and pro art, some comics-focused, some sci-fi and some fantasy. I noticed a lot more in the way of sculpture and textile work than I'm used to seeing here. There were actually a few pieces I was thinking of bidding on. I've never bid in the art auction before, so if I go back tomorrow, it'll be a new experience.

One panel I always try to attend is the Neil Gaiman spotlight. Even when he doesn't have his own panel, there's usually something he's working on, and he'll show up to a gigantic, packed room.

Today, he didn't have anything prepared for the panel (Stardust and Beowulf were covered yesterday), and still managed to be engaging and funny. Among other things, he talked about the very first San Diego Comic Con he attended, back in 1989 when only 9 issues of Sandman had come out and no one knew who he was. After a couple of other items, he opened the floor to questions.

While writing this section in the hall outside Ballroom 20, the following characters have walked past: a dozen Stargate troops. Witchblade. Two samurai. Several Renaissance women. A Navy captain. A number of schoolgirls. Green Arrow. Naruto. A Jedi in a full robe. Two pairs of catgirls. Someone in a dress with blue hair and a scythe. Several people with giant keys. A Death Star weapons technician. A woman in a corset and jeans. A man in a Jayne Cobb hat. A slave-girl Leia with a robe. And a chef. And of course hundreds of people in T-shirts and jeans or shorts (with the occasional suit).

TV show panels with actors can be interesting, especially if a show had been running several years and the cast has developed a camaraderie. The Babylon 5: The Lost Tales panel showed that, even though the show had been off the air for nearly a decade, that connection was still there when the cast returned to do the new movie. Peter Woodward especially was constantly making jokes at the others (and sometimes even JMS') expense, but the rest of them held their own. And the sock-puppet edition of the movie was... unnerving.

Something I've learned in the last few years is the importance of making reservations for dinner. You can either wait for two hours because everyone is trying to have dinner in the Gaslamp District at the same time, or you can go off the beaten track, or you can call ahead of time. This afternoon I made reservations at Royal India, and even though there was a mix-up with our reservation, they were very accommodating and actually set up an extra table so we could be seated in a few minutes instead of waiting.

4 Comments

• At July 28, 2007, Lewis wrote:

  PLEASE tell me the sock-puppet edition of the Babylon 5 Lost Tales will be included in the DVD.

• At July 28, 2007, Kelson wrote:

  I don't remember for certain, but I think they said it will be.

• At July 28, 2007, Elyse wrote:

  Oh god, the guy covered in papers and photos is hysterical! best cheap costume award! :)

• At July 30, 2007, West wrote:

  Good to hear that crowd-control was better. The "line that ate itself" thing sounded pretty doggone screwy - and ...

Especially that whole Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi doing Astonishing X-Men thing.

Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi on Astonishing X-Men. Probably the highest-profile new creative team ever to lose 40% of the sales of the previous creative team. I kid, I kid!!

Seriously, though, Axel Alonso had practically an impossible task on hand to replace Joss Whedon and John Cassaday, and I think he did about as good of a job as you can expect from an editor. Good on him.

That's a cool looking cover.

Terry Moore and Humberto Ramos on Runaways? Well, one of the biggest problems with Joss Whedon's run is that Michael Ryan's art, while technically good, sure isn't that interesting to look at, and Ramos will certainly at least be interesting. Moore does a fine job with character works, so this should be a good move on Marvel's part.

Marc Guggenheim exclusive to Marvel. Good pick up on their part, and it's certainly good news to hear that he's one of the four writers who will be doing the almost-weekly Amazing Spider-Man series.

I think that Neil Gaiman did a nice job of setting the Eternals up in the Marvel Universe, so I guess an Eternals ongoing could work. I dunno if the Knaufs are who I'd go to, but I will give them this much, the father and son team have been improving a little bit each month on Iron Man, and as I've always said, the transition from other media to comics is a lot harder than most folks think.

Michael Green to take over Superman/Batman? His Batman Confidential issue had some good parts, and some laughably awful parts, so I'm a bit wary here.

I dunno about The Sinner, but Steve Niles is owed at least a look with him bringing Bill Sienkiewicz on board.

That's it for now, but I'm sure there will be more news to react to later!

And I can't wait to see what Burgas has been up to there!

24 Comments

• At July 27, 2007, DubipR wrote:

  The only news that's interested me, aside from Cooke, was the Matt Wagner MADAME XANADU monthly. I've been a ...

• At July 27, 2007, Ian Astheimer wrote:

  I'll be picking up Astonishing as soon as Ellis and Bianchi start.

  And dropping Runaways as soon as Whedon and Ryan ...

• At July 27, 2007, Michael wrote:

  I really hope Moore and Ramos's Runaways is good. The interview with Moore fills me with equal parts interest and ...

• At July 27, 2007, Bill Reed wrote:

  No, no, no. You missed the big news: IDW is doing a Doctor Who comic! WOOOOOOOOO

  Oh, right, and I totally ...

• At July 27, 2007, Aaron Kashtan wrote:

  Blecch. I love Runaways, but I hate Terry Moore's writing. Maybe I'll try the first issue and see if I ...

• At July 27, 2007, T. wrote:

  Man, while Ellis is annoying in that Newsarama interview (why do UK writers try SO damn hard to be clever ...

• At July 27, 2007, T. wrote:

  Oh wait...I just looked up who Michael Green is. He works with Loeb on Heroes and wrote that horrid ...

• At July 27, 2007, Jordan D. White wrote:

  Uhg... I am not a fan of Bianchi's art at all. I've been just hoping the Wolverine Arc would ...

• At July 27, 2007, Jordan D. White wrote:

  With JG Jones on art. That's a damn good team.

• At July 27, 2007, Michael wrote:

  That Bianchi image makes me hard. I just wanted to share that.

• At July 27, 2007, M Bloom wrote:

  So far I'm most excited by the announcement of Final Crisis' creative team. Morrison and Jones have made that book ...

• At July 27, 2007, JG wrote:

  Stoked about Ellis writing Astonishing. Wasn't too keen on Counter X and all that, but everything else he's done is ...

• At July 27, 2007, JG wrote:

  PS

  Bill Sienkiewicz FTW!

• At July 27, 2007, Ian Astheimer wrote:

  But about that art…is Emma telekinetic now? And is X-23 actually on the team, or just being used in the ...

• At July 27, 2007, stealthwise wrote:

  Moore on Runaways? Crap.

  "Final Crisis," no matter who's writing it? Crap.

  Ellis and Bianchi on AXM? That's a ...

• At July 27, 2007, ATOM HOTEP wrote:

  Final Crisis by Morrison and J.G friggin' Jones. Anyone hesitant about picking this up can blow a dog.

• At July 27, 2007, Bill Reed wrote:

  I will buy Final Crisis because Morrison is writing it. Yes, I will buy a big "event" book. But, you ...

• At July 27, 2007, Dave wrote:

  Given Charlie Knauf's amazing work on Carnivale, I'd have to say I think he could be perfect for a series ...

• At July 27, 2007, Cove West wrote:

  I'da thunk after ONE MILLION, DC would've let Morrison do ALL of their event crossovers. Only took 'em about ...

• At July 28, 2007, Paul wrote:

  Maybe on the 'stretching too thin' bit, Mr. West, but I'm not following the rest of your argument.

  How is ...

• At July 28, 2007, ATOM HOTEP wrote:

  It could be Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman sitting around having a chat in a park and it would still ...

• At July 28, 2007, Cove West wrote:

  The problem I have with Astonishing is that it's a bad flagship model, compounded by a "whenever the creators get ...

• At July 29, 2007, lummox wrote:

  Terry Moore doing Runaways is something I seriously look forward to. But art by Humberto Ramos? God, why hast thou ...

• At July 29, 2007, michael wrote:

  I hate to be a downer here....but I'm not thrilled with Ramos on Runaways. Moore though....maybe we'll get a good ...

Whew! Every year I go to Comic-Con, I forget just how crowded it really gets. It
seemed busy when I arrived at 11:00, but as I joked to someone at the href="http://cbldf.org/">Comic Book Legal Defense Fund booth, you could still
see the floor, so it couldn't be that bad yet! Actually, from what they
said, preview night was much more crowded this year.

There were a lot of familiar sights from last year -- the giant Batman made out of
Legos, the oddly organic Sci-Fi Channel booth -- and a lot of new sights. A pirate
ship towered above the floor atop an artificial island, part of a Pirates of the
Caribbean exhibit.

There were a few people in costumes, but they weren't out in force yet. Many of them were standbys like Indiana Jones, pirates, and Jedi -- and lots of anime characters. So far nothing has jumped out as the popular costume of the year, unlike the years that seemed to have the entire Jedi Order in attendence.

Something that always surprises me is how, with so many thousands of people spread out across a gigantic hall and dozens of programming rooms, if someone you know is there, you're practically guaranteed to run into them. I ran into groups of people from two local comic stores at different parts of the day. They weren't at booths, they were exploring the hall too.

I barely scratched the surface of the main floor, mostly exploring the small press area and the exhibitor tables nearby. The crowds grew heavier as the afternoon wore on, and by the time I left, this morning really did seem light.

The two big panels I attended -- Paramount and Lost -- were very different in the general audience feeling. With Paramount, they were previewing so many different movies that there was a heightened feeling of anticipation in the room, almost like a concert. With Lost, it started out similarly, but slackened in the middle, as it became clear that (no big surprise) we weren't going to get much in the way of answers, and it settled into waiting for the clip they had said they were going to show at the end.

Sadly, crowd control at the big panels was seriously lacking. It helps that they no longer clear the room between each panel, but they haven't been keeping track of the lines very well. Half an hour before the Paramount panel, the line for Hall H wasn't starting at the door and running along the outside wall as it was supposed to. It had doubled back, run along the wall in the other direction, and worked its way back inside the lobby. Amazingly, the staff didn't realize that it was the line and were directing people outside! Ballroom 20 for the Lost panel was even worse. Instead of running down the hall, it went straight out, curved around, and eventually spiraled in on itself, with the end of the line at the center of the spiral!

In all the commotion, some of the moments that stand out were moments of stillness: pausing out on the nearly empty lawn after leaving Hall H, or watching a small bird that somehow made it into the main hall.

We had dinner at Indigo Grill in Little Italy. Our waitress had been to the convention for the first time today, and as we were getting ready to order dessert, she came up to us and said, "You know Stan Lee is here, right?" We looked, and sure enough, Stan Lee was just leaving the restaurant. Another group of fans walked out to where he waited for a taxi, and he chatted with them and posed for photos.

3 Comments

• At July 30, 2007, West wrote:

  Not sure why Stan's positive response to fans surprised me. I guess I thought that being approached at/just after ...

• At July 31, 2007, Kelson wrote:

  I guess I thought that being approached at/just after dinner might’ve made him unhappy or something.

  That was our thinking, too. ...

• At July 31, 2007, monel wrote:

  While it seems that most commentators nowdays rightfully give credit to those creators who worked with Stan Lee, imagine how ...

Here is Kelson's introduction to his coverage, with some quick general tips about the convention.

Hi, I'm guest-blogging the "fan experience" of Comic-Con International. My name's Kelson Vibber. I've been attending San Diego every year since about 1990, and this is my fourth year attending the entire weekend.

I skipped Preview night (my wife and I went to see Avenue Q), but we picked up our badges this afternoon, and registration seemed to be much more efficient than it was last year. Considering the record attendance this year, they're going to need it.

One thing about Comic-Con, though: it extends beyond the convention itself. You see other con-goers everywhere -- in your hotel, on the trolley, in restaurants, at the supermarket, in the audience at the theater. You can tell by the badges, by the large backpacks, by the printed T-shirts, by the convention tote bags. If you sit next to a complete stranger, you know you have at least one thing in common.

And people who aren't going to the con will ask about it. Even locals sometimes don't know more than that downtown gets really busy. "What kind of stuff do they have there?" "Can you go just one day?"

Speaking of the trolley, for the first time in four years, I was asked to show my ticket. I stopped at my local comic store on the way out, and everyone there had the same experience. I can now confirm that yes, they do sometimes check, so just spend the $2.50.

Be sure to look for Kelson's daily coverage of the Comic Con this weekend! - BC

1 Comments

• At July 30, 2007, West wrote:

  Hey, Kelson! Sounds like a good start. I've heard horror stories about how crowded or poorly arranged certain ...