Mainstream Mania
by Mike Guardabascio
Special Announcement
Mike and his wife Shar Higa have started a new column called He Said/She Said, which will take the place of Mainstream Mania. Please follow the link and settle in for a good read!
8/01/08
Too Tired For Witty Headlines: One Fan's Comic-Con 2008
(Note: you can click on the pictures below to see a larger view!)If you've ever been to Comic-Con, you know this feeling-it's Tuesday of the week after, and I'm still finding it hard to get on a sleeping schedule that would qualify as human, my already full bookshelves are now bursting at their cheap Ikea seams, and people keep asking if I did anything cool, then getting offended when I burst into incredulous laughter. Some websites (you know the ones) send forty people down there and offer comprehensive coverage of all the major news and views from the convention floor…well, we don't have forty people. In fact, what we have is me, my wife Shar, and our friend Angie. I don't know how else to organize this (it's like trying to walk against traffic outside the Warner Brothers booth), so I'm just going to offer a thumbnail glimpse into the madness of each day.
Wednesday
This was the fifth Comic-Con for Shar and me, and the fifth consecutive year we've left late. The result? We got stuck in that mushy afternoon traffic on the 5, checked into our hotel a little late, and registered for our press passes about an hour after Preview Night (6-9 on Wednesday) started. Honestly, the whole point of going down on Wednesday is just to get our passes without waiting in line-it's worth the extra night's hotel fee, especially when you're splitting that four or five ways.
Preview Night was as quiet as usual-there isn't any programming schedule, so it's kind of just walking around, finding booths to help plan out the weekend, and saying hi to old friends. We found Tim Sale, who we usually get a chance to spend twenty or thirty minutes with at Wizard World and Comic-Con, and he complemented me on my beard-rightly so, I think (Shar does not think). I met Eric Powell, twisted mind behind The Goon, for the first time, and frankly kind of geeked out on him a bit. This is to be expected. We also stumbled upon Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani, the co-creators of Tiny Titans, one of the most original kids' comics to come out of Marvel or DC in a long time. They were predictably awesome, selling one dollar sketches done with crayons and Sharpees, and after chatting for ten minutes we told them we'd see them again. Also-and this will only make sense if you've read the comics-they really say "Aw yeah" (as in Aw yeah, Titans) pretty much all the time.
We popped by the Alex Ross booth-okay, granted, he's Alex Ross, but seriously? He's selling a black and white sketchbook for forty bucks. Forty bucks! Then I mugged with the Bartman statue for a while, we checked out the signed Neil Gaiman black t-shirts at the CBLDF booth, and headed for the exits when the whistle blew. On the way out, we overheard (for the first but not last time) someone asking their friend, "So, how much are you going to raise your budget by?"
Thursday
To be honest, Thursday kind of sucked for me. There was a slew of stuff I wanted to go see and cover, but there was an event in Long Beach that I was obligated to cover at five in the evening, so I had to duck out of San Diego at around two, less than twenty-four hours after I'd arrived. Still, I got to stay long enough to see the Grant Morrisson/Stan Lee panel, which was pure surreal brilliance.
It was sponsored by Virgin Comics, since both have projects for the fledgling company, and it was moderated-to the crowds' disappointment-by the President of Virgin Comics, who obviously wanted nothing more than for the panel to be an hour long advertisement for Virgin. Thankfully, Grant Morrisson was there, and not having it. He derailed the conversation a half dozen times, turning it from a Virgin promo to an actual conversation between he and Stan, whom he obviously admired a great deal. Stan had clearly heard Grant was great, but didn't seem to have read any of his books, and didn't seem to be able to understand Morrisson's thick Scottish accent. At no point did Grant get Stan to talk about fourth-dimensional time dolphins (the ones that told him to write the Filth), but still, a pretty great conversation about comics and writing from two men who've ushered the medium into new eras. Not a bad way to start the weekend.
Also, a conversation with Eddie Campbell at the Top Shelf booth convinces me that I should attempt to become British in some way. Shar thinks this may be a bad idea, but Angie is intrigued…
The trip to Long Beach is fast, the even I'm covering is not, and I don't finish writing my article till two in the morning, then proceed to crash at my apartment for the night. Meanwhile, Angie and Shar got to go to the Entertainment Weekly Visionaries panel with Jim Lee, John Cassaday, Robert Kirkman, Grant Morrisson, etc. I am ragingly jealous, and exhausted. It's going to be a long weekend…
Friday
Friday I'm up way too early to get down ahead of traffic. I listen to old punk albums very loudly to stay awake, which I manage to succeed at, despite only getting three hours of sleep. As a result of being too tired to fight the crowds, or perhaps just the jam-packed programming schedule for Friday (busiest Friday I've seen at the Con), I spent most of the day in different panels. We started at 11:30 at the Cup o' Joe panel, which lacked the fun atmosphere that it usually has. Most of this was due to the number of stupid questions posed to Marvel EIC Joe Quesada-about half of them were about what's happening in upcoming Marvel movies, which obviously he had nothing to do with, a point he stressed repeatedly to no avail. Movies really are taking over Comic-Con…
From there we bounced to the first ten minutes of the Jim Lee spotlight-man, is he bitter at DC…He told us all the PC stuff they want him to say at panels now (A book isn't late, it's "held up," or "temporarily delayed," and if you don't like something don't say it sucks, say it "doesn't fit" etc…). Must be frustrating for one of the biggest comics artists of his generation…
We bounced out early to catch the last half of the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon panel-if you've never seen the show, by the way, you should check it out. Between it and Tiny Titans, there might almost be hope for the future, as kids are getting more options for smart, well-crafted material that neither panders nor condescends. Plus I got to see Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger and voice of the Vulture) make a joke about how the Rhino pees while in his suit. This is what Comic-Con is all about.
From there we went to the Image panel, where newly named partner Robert Kirkman was going to make an announcement that would rock the comics world…what he announced was, I thought, pretty damn underwhelming. Several of the original Image guys (including MAYBE Todd McFarland) will be drawing a six-issue miniseries next year. The cool bit is that they'll all be drawing the characters they created, in every issue. If they can pull it off, it'll be cool, but honestly I expected a big-name signing or something else that might fundamentally change the game, not a throwback miniseries that may or may not actually happen. Still, Kirkman's such a teddy bear that we decide we won't be mad at him…yet.
We went straight from there to the Charlie Brown panel, since Shar grew up on the cartoons and wanted to hear the original cast reading. Not being a big fan of the shows, I was pleasantly surprised at what a fun panel it was. Lots of weird stories-the fact that all the voices were recorded by kids aged 4-8 obviously produced some funny anecdotes-and a dedicated and appreciated fan base. Proves that with as big as Comic-Con is, it can still be a viable option for niche entertainment markets.
Then we wandered the floor, and had a patented, only-at-Comic-Con moment, the kind that you have at least one of every year if you're there all four days. A few years ago it was hanging out at Tim Sale's booth when Jeph Loeb arrived, the first time they'd seen each other in months, and hanging around while they caught up. This year it was-almost literally-bumping into John Cassaday, who was just wandering around checking out different booths. We had a nice ten minute conversation with him about the show and what he's up to (relaxing and hanging out with friends, mostly), and he hit on Shar (until he found out she was married to me) and Angie, and generally dressed and played the part of a rock star. Which, I guess, he is at Comic-Con.
Then we hoofed back upstairs to check out The Goon panel, which started with one of Eric Powell's trademark sketches, where two guys from Reno 911 did a forced baptism that foiled his plans for a Godzilla porno comic. It made more sense if you were there…Definitely one of the funniest things I've seen at Comic-Con. Then it was on to the Eisners.
I go to the Eisners every year, mostly because I have the opportunity to, unlike any other major artistic awards. Usually it's mind-numbingly boring, except for one or two cool moments. This year they obviously made an effort to keep that from being the case. For one thing, almost all of the winning creators were there to accept their awards and give a speech-two years ago I think they gave a dozen awards before any winners actually graced the stage. This year, Pia Guerra won for best penciller and burst into tears on stage, Ed Brubaker won best writer and was so giddy that he ended up just cussing as he walked away from the mic, flabbergasted. Eric Powell won two Eisners, and a Brazilian artist I'd never heard of won two awards and gave two heartfelt speeches that made everyone in the ballroom remember exactly how lucky we all were to be there that night, celebrating comics. It was fast, it was funny, it was…the Eisners? A pleasant surprise, to say the least.
That night we stumbled off the trolley, exhausted, and only halfway to the end of the con.
Saturday
We were a little panel-ed out from Friday, so Saturday we spent getting sketches and meeting people, including another stop by the Tiny Titans' booth, a congrats visit to Eric Powell, and visits with Dave McKean, Kaare Andrews, Paul Karasik, Eddie Campbell, Jeffery Brown, Greg Pak, Dan Goodsell, David Mack, and Shannon Wheeler.
The sketches were awesome-they're such a unique part of comicdom. Very few other professions in the world besides comics artists would be expected to provide their work for free to fans, on demand. Kaare Andrews did a cool Spider-Man head sketch for me, and Dave McKean drew Shar some kind of freakish man-pig-Batman-cat thing. It's indescribable, and very McKean-ish.
We did get to a few panels, including a Q&A with the writers of The Office, our favorite TV show. It was moderated by Rainn Wilson (Dwight), and it was over the top hilarious-makes me wish it was television season though. Don't know what we'd do without comics!
That evening we took in the Ultimate Universe Must Die! panel with Joe Quesada and Jeph Loeb, which had much more of the vibe we'd expected from the Cup o' Joe, very freewheeling and loose. There was a funny moment in the panel when someone asked Joe when Ultimate Wolvierine vs. Hulk was coming out-Joe called up Damon Lindelof, who delivered the final script (titled Issue Six: The One That Took Two #$(*&@ Years to Write) on the spot. We took in the first hour of the CBLDF auction after that, where an unpublished ten-page Kirby story went for about fifty thousand less than it probably should have (under ten thousand dollars, which is what one page of Alex Ross art was fetching downstairs), and a lot of people got good deals. There was a singular item, too, a volume title Endless Reflections. It had been assembled by a fan over twenty years, as he commissioned artists and painters to do portraits of characters from Sandman. He had taken these nearly 300 pieces of art and handbound it, had Neil Gaiman and a few of the artists sign it, and then donated it to the CBLDF. Stunning.
Sunday
Sunday we crawled out of bed with that "Are my feet bleeding?" feeling that inevitably comes on the last day of a Con. If Friday was about panels and Saturday was about meeting people, Sunday was, of course, about the shopping. We'd done a good job of not eating really any food all weekend, so we had plenty of cash to blow. And blow it we did!
We bought sketchbooks from Tim Sale and Jim Lee, sketches and old books from the Tiny Titans dudes, two stunning Charles Vess Spider-Man prints, a David Mack print, some random Image and Top Shelf books, a few random Eisner winners I'm hoping to get around to reviewing, a couple paintings, and about two hundred dollars worth of stuff from Drawn and Quarterly (for less than half that).
The big news, though? We're now officially owners of original comic art, for the first time. We dropped by Albert Moy's booth-Moy is the art dealer for Jim Lee, John Cassaday, and about a hundred other big names-and flipped through some pages for fun. Then we realized that the jaw-dropping last page from his fourth issue of Cap was priced affordably. Like, furreally affordable. So we took a deep breath and bought it, and proceeded to guard the plastic bag we carried it in like bears defending their young.
We also made it to one panel, the second DC Nation panel of the weekend, where the show's biggest announcement came out: Neil Gaiman will be writing a Batman story for DC in January, illustrated by Andy Kubert. Let that set in for a while…there were audible gasps (including one from Shar) when the graphic went up on screen…
Then, after a screening of the musical episode of Buffy that took us to con's end, we headed home, with enough extra baggage to put a dent in my normally excellent mileage. But what's a few hundred dollars, a little extra gas, and stiff muscles? It's Comic-Con, baby! Nothing else like it in the world…we'll see you next year.
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