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B.P.R.D.: The Universal Machine and Mazzy Star: So Tonight That I Might See

Labels: comics, music

I haven't gotten around to blogging from San Diego at all this year. It's just been too busy. I've had a lot of thoughts bouncing around in my head, though. The con is over now, and I'm back in my hotel room with not much to do, so I thought I'd write a long rambling blog post on a few things that came up during the con.

A lot of people have blogged about how the city of San Diego doesn't think that the con contributes as much to the local economy as other, smaller, cons that are, shall we say, a bit more upscale. I got into a discussion with a cab driver today, and I can tell you that the cab drivers have loved the past few days. This guy said that the cabbies were making $300 to $500 a day over the last few days, which is apparently a lot more than they usually make. He said things had slowed down today (Sunday), but he was still doing pretty well. And I can say that, just walking around the Gaslamp and Horton Plaza, I'm seeing a heck of a lot of con folks moving around and (presumably) spending money.

The combination of my iPod Touch and having free wifi at the convention center turned out to be a very good thing. There's always a lot of empty time to fill at the con, sitting in a panel room between panels, or waiting in line for something. I got in the habit of bringing out my iPod Touch at these times, and browsing through a few comics-related newsfeeds through Google Reader. This allowed me to keep up with stuff that was going on elsewhere at the con during the day, rather than having to wait until I got back to the hotel room and my laptop. Very useful, and kind of fun.

Due to the huge size of the con now, I had pretty low expectations about how many panels I would actually be able to get into. I was pleasantly surprised about my success rate in that area. I got into the Fringe preview on Wednesday night, no problem. I got into the Doctor Who and Torchwood panels on Thursday and the Stargate Continuum and Atlantis panels on Friday. The only big problem I had was on Friday afternoon and evening, when they closed off the line for room 6B, so I didn't see the Venture Bros panel or the MST3K 20th anniversary panel. I wound up leaving the con earlier than I'd really wanted to on Friday, just because I couldn't really get into any of the nighttime stuff that I was interested in. I spent a little time in one of the anime rooms watching Gurren Lagann, then just took off around 7pm, I think.

I did pretty well on Saturday, though. Saturday is traditionally the most crowded day at the con, but I think the dynamic may have changed a bit on that. Or maybe it's just me. I plunked myself down in one panel room around 10am, and basically stayed there all day, until around 4:30pm.

Saturday night I went to a live Rifftrax event outside the convention center, at the Balboa Theater downtown. It was a live "riff" on Plan 9 From Outer Space. Not that it's at all hard to make fun of that movie, but the guys (Nelson, Murphy, and Corbett) did a great job. Very funny.

Today, Sunday, I again went to a bunch of panels, but this time I actually had to get up and switch rooms a few times. I never really had to wait in line for a panel, nor did I fail to get into any panel, though.

I stayed at the Sheraton on Harbor Island this year, which is the farthest I've ever been from the convention center. I can't say I'm happy about that, and it has been a bit of an inconvenience, but it was manageable. The shuttle bus situation was a little problematic. There are two separate towers to the Sheraton, and they're about a five-minute walk apart from each other. I'm staying in the "Bay Tower" which is basically the secondary one. On the first day of the con, a bunch of us waited in front of our building for the shuttle bus for about an hour. It turned out that the bus was filling up at the main tower, and just wasn't bothering to come by our tower at all. I wound up taking a cab to the con that day, and I've just walked over to the main tower every day since and caught the shuttle there. No big problem, but it just seems like something they could have figured out, maybe by having every other bus (or every third bus) stop at the Bay Tower first.

And I've found myself taking cabs on a few other occasions, to get from downtown back to the hotel or vice versa. There's really no viable mass transit option to get off Harbor Island, as far as I can tell. I'm definitely hoping to get into a downtown hotel next year, assuming I go back.

Overall, a great con. I've definitely had a good time, learned a few things, seen some interesting people, had a few good laughs, and discovered a few comics, movies, and books that I hadn't previously heard of. I've got a bunch more stuff I could blog about, but this post is already too long, and I need to pack, so I'll just save that stuff up for another day.

Labels: comics

I'm off to San Diego tomorrow. I noticed today that Variety has a Comic-Con news page up at http://www.variety.com/comiccon. I guess the con is really in the big leagues now. It still seems kind of weird to be seeing articles about the con in Variety and the New York Times.

Labels: comics

io9 has a nice article up highlighting some of the interesting panels on the comic-con schedule. There's so much stuff going on this year that articles like this are going to come in mighty handy.

Labels: comics

Go now. Watch.

Labels: comics, scifi

I stumbled across a couple of semi-interesting con articles on the web today. SanDiego.com has a short article on "how to enjoy comic-con." Mostly common sense stuff there.

The Huffington Post has an article titled "Obama at Comic Con." The article is basically making the case for an Obama appearance at the con. There was some talk about this elsewhere a couple of months back. It's not going to happen, but it's an interesting idea. Heck, Obama was thinking about doing a NASCAR sponsorship; if you're going to go after the NASCAR crowd, why not the geeks too?

Labels: comics

So the Friday and Saturday schedules for Comic-Con have been posted. Some highlights:

Friday: Stargate Continuum, Cup o' Joe, Stargate Atlantis, Jim Lee, Joss Whedon, Geoff Johns, Jim Butcher, Venture Brothers, and the MST3K 20th anniversary reunion!

Saturday: Forrest J. Ackerman, Futurama, Ralph Bakshi, The Simpsons, Heroes, Hellboy, the Quick Draw panel, a Will Eisner tribute panel, Bryan Hitch, BSG, Scott Shaw's Oddball Comics, Pixar, Ray Bradbury, JMS, and quite a bit more.

I guess the big question is how many of the panels that I'm interested in will I actually be able to get into.

Labels: comics

Here's an article about the San Diego con that ran in the NY Times a few weeks ago. It's nice to see the con getting mainstream attention, but it's a bit annoying to see them calling out stuff like this advice from the con magazine: “Please don’t smell bad.” Well, yeah, it does seem like some people at the con need to be told that. But it's really not a defining characteristic of the average con-goer.

And the Times calls the con "decidedly low-rent." I think that anyone who can afford a hotel room in San Diego during the con is *not* low-rent. Sure, there are a lot of people who would rather spend their money on comics and related merchandise at the con than spend it in an overpriced hotel restaurant, but regardless, the con has to be pumping a lot of money into San Diego each year. Heck, I'm pretty sure I drop about $200 each con, just at Starbucks!

(Here's a blog post on this article that I mostly agree with.)

Labels: comics

The Thursday and Sunday schedules are up at the comic-con site. As usual, plenty of interesting stuff.

Some Thursday highlights: a Paul Gulacy spotlight, Doctor Who and Torchwood panels (both with Russell T Davies), an Eddie Campbell spotlight, the Mark and Sergio panel, DC Nation, and, at night, the annual Ric Meyers' Kung-Fu Extravaganza.

And Sunday: The Jack Kirby tribute panel, a Kyle Baker spotlight, a second DC Nation panel, the Art of the Cover panel, Cartoon Voices, Dave Gibbons, and Buffy the Musical!

Labels: comics

There's a great post over at The Beat on the San Diego con. It includes a short interview with David Glanzer. Some of the comments are worth reading too. As expected, four-day badges are sold out, and one-day badges will likely sell out too.

I think the con experience will be a little different for me this year, since I'm staying at a hotel that's not in a reasonable walking distance of either the con or downtown. Since it won't be easy for me to pop back and forth to the hotel during the day, I'll probably wind up spending either more time in the convention center, or more time in the hotel. (I get the feeling that once I'm back in the hotel at night, I probably won't want to bother making the trip back out to the convention center again for any late-night activities.)

Given the size to which the con has grown, I'm probably going to try to concentrate on stuff that's outside the mainstream, and maybe look for some interesting off-site events, like the Rifftrax event I blogged about previously.

I'm actually wondering if there will be a lot of no-shows for the con this year, given the cost of gas, and the general state of the economy. Anyone who waited until just recently to book air travel may be having second thoughts, for instance. And I can imagine some local California folks who would normally drive to the con from, say, the LA area, skipping it this year.

Well, either way, I'm sure it will be interesting, and (as usual) a great change of pace from NJ in July!

Labels: comics

In today's NY Times Book Review section, John Hodgman takes a look at some great comics, including Kirby's Fourth World stuff, Eric Shanower’s “Age of Bronze” and Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s “Y: The Last Man.” It's great to see stuff like this getting covered in the Times, and Hodgman does a good job of summarizing this stuff for a general audience, without dumbing it down or over-generalizing or sensationalizing it.

read more | digg story

Labels: comics

The RiffTrax guys will be doing a live event during the San Diego con this year, riffing on Plan 9 From Outer Space, at the Balboa Theater. This would likely be quite fun, though it's on Saturday night, and there's going to be a lot of other stuff happening on Saturday night. Of course, since this is a ticketed, off-site, event, this might be a good way to escape the craziness of the convention center for a little while.

Labels: comics, scifi

I didn't get to the NY Comic Con last weekend, and honestly, I wasn't that interested in it, but I sure would have liked to have made it to the Steve Gerber memorial panel.

Labels: comics

Michael Chabon has an essay in the New Yorker about superhero costumes. And there's a related audio interview here.

I still haven't gotten around to reading any of Chabon's books, despite hearing many good things about them, but, judging by this essay, he's definitely an interesting thinker and talented writer.

Labels: comics

Steven Levitt has a short bit up on the Freakonomics blog mentioning that he's just finished the last Harry Potter book, and now has been "left aimless in Harry’s absence" and would like to know what he can read to "restore meaning to his life." There are a lot of great suggestions in the comments, including not just books, but some comics too.

It's interesting to see what people think of when they're asked to suggest new material to a Harry Potter fan. The Potter books have a certain ineffable quality to them that has made them popular far beyond the audience that would usually be attracted to a "young adult" fantasy series. Mr. Levitt certainly doesn't seem like the kind of guy who reads a lot of Piers Anthony, for instance. (Not that there's anything wrong with Piers Anthony.) I do think that any open-minded, intelligent reader could find some great underrated stuff in the SF & Fantasy aisle in Borders, given a little direction, though.

Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy is mentioned by several commenters. That's certainly a work that has some superficial similarities to the Potter books -- it's a fantasy series featuring a couple of young kids as protagonists. And it's a great work. I think somebody could probably get a great term paper out of comparing and contrasting the themes in Potter vs HDM. (And, come to think of it, I'd bet a good number of high school students probably already *have* written that paper.)

There are several recommendations for the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. Also great books, but different in tone from Harry Potter. Come to think of it, I've only read one Discworld book (Mort). I think I have another one around here somewhere waiting to be read. I should really dig that out and read it.

On the comics front, there are a few recommendations for Fables, which I blogged about recently. (I now have the first six volumes waiting to be read.) And Neil Gaiman's Sandman (and some other Gaiman stuff) gets mentioned. (I've read all of Sandman, and I'd certainly second the recommendation on that.)

Stephen King's Dark Tower series gets a couple of mentions. I haven't read any of that, but I'm getting curious about it. Maybe after I get through some of the other stuff in my pile, I'll pick up a couple of Dark Tower books and give them a try.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell gets a couple of nods. I read that a couple of years ago, and it's great. Definitely a good book to read after the Potter series, if you're interested in seeing how another great author handles magic.

There are a couple of recommendations for Orson Scott Card's Ender books. I've read the first, Ender's Game, and have the next few in a pile waiting to be read. Good stuff, but I don't really see any relation to Potter, other than (again) a young protagonist.

And Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels get mentioned too. I've now read through all but the most recent Thursday Next book, and I'm definitely worried about withdrawal after I finally finish that one! (Hopefully, Fforde hasn't finished with Thursday books yet, though.)

So, in a nutshell, there's lots of great stuff to read out there, both books and comics! I'm curious as to whether Mr. Levitt would consider picking up any of the comics work mentioned in the comments. Would a serious economist like him consider picking up a Sandman or Fables graphic novel? Would your average businessman want to be seen reading a comic in public? I don't know. It's never been a concern for me, but then again, I'm a nerd, and proud of it.

Labels: books, comics

A few random things I didn't mention in my previous WonderCon posts:

The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon looks like it'll be worth watching. I like the design work and animation. It's got a distinctive style that works well without being obviously derivative of any other cartoons out there right now.

Outside of the con, I finally got around to visiting SF MOMA. It's not a huge museum, but they've got some nice stuff. The Matisse and Beyond exhibit had some nice pieces in it.

At the Bill Willingham panel, he read a short passage from an upcoming Fables book. This was, of course, cool in and of itself, but also cool is that he read it from a Sony Reader. He mentioned that he was interested in the Kindle, but knew he could get his hands on the Sony device quicker, so he went with that one. He seemed to be pretty happy with it, except for one quirk he mentioned regarding the sorting of books by Author name. He said that it sometimes put his stuff under "Willingham, Bill" and sometimes under "Bill Willingham" and he wasn't sure why.

Labels: comics

The day started out a bit rainy and windy, so I got a little wet on my way to the Moscone Center this morning, but it was nice and clear when I surfaced at 5pm. Hopefully, everything will be fine for the flight home tomorrow.

I bought a few comics today, including the first ten issues of the Justin Gray / Jimmy Palmiotti Jonah Hex book. I've heard good things about it, so when I saw the issues in somebody's dollar boxes, I grabbed them.

I spent most of the day in panel rooms. I went to the Tim Sale panel, the Wildstorm panel, and the Art of the Cover panel that Mark Evanier does every year. That's always fun.

Finally, I ended the day watching the New Frontier movie. I was quite impressed with it. I think they captured the essence of the original Darwyn Cooke comic reasonably well. The animation, character design, and overall look of the movie was great. I was afraid that it would all be watered down, but it was very well done and true to the original.

Overall, it was a great con. Not too crowded, but certainly not empty. Plenty of good guests and interesting panels. Definitely a good little late-winter vacation!

Labels: comics

It's Sunday morning in San Francisco, and the big storm is hopefully going to peter out today. At some point, I'll have to leave the hotel and meander down to the Moscone Center. Hopefully, I won't get too wet doing that. I had a good day at the con yesterday, but I got pretty wet coming back from the convention center at the end of the day. I wound up watching the Chinese New Year parade on TV and ordering a burger from room service.

Friday and Saturday were both good days at the con. I saw Bill Willingham on Friday. I haven't been reading Fables, but I picked up the first trade at some point last year, and it's in my reading pile. I picked up a couple more trades yesterday, at half-price, then ordered a few more from Amazon, so I'll have the first six volumes to read.

I picked up the first four trades of Robert Kirkman's Invincible series at half-price yesterday too. That's another series I've been meaning to read, but just haven't gotten around to.

I saw JMS at a few panels: his spotlight panel, a writing panel, and one of the DC panels. He's involved in some pretty cool stuff right now. He's got several film projects going on, including the film version of World War Z, which sounds like it ought to be fun. On the comics front, he said that he'd continue doing some work for Marvel, but he's no longer exclusive to them, and he'll now be working for DC also. He didn't say what he'd be working on at DC though. And he said he's got a couple of creator-owned projects in the works that will be published by Image. All good stuff. It sounds like there's a possibility of more Babylon 5 DVD projects, given the sales on the Lost Tales DVD, so that's also good news.

Labels: comics

I made my travel arrangements for San Diego today. I had almost enough frequent flyer points for the trip. I transferred a few thousand Membership Rewards points from my AmEx cards, and that gave me enough. So, for this year, I'm flying to San Diego for free. Cool.

Labels: comics

I spent a little time today looking through the various tributes to Steve Gerber that have been popping up on the web. There's a good one at The Comics Reporter, and another one at The Beat.

Labels: comics

I just came across the news of Steve Gerber's death. Mark Evanier has written a very good blog post about Mr. Gerber. I have very fond memories of reading his Howard the Duck comics when I was a kid. At the time, Howard was pretty much the strangest thing to come out of mainstream comics (e.g. Marvel and DC). And I loved Destroyer Duck too. The first Destroyer Duck comic would have been one of the first independent (e.g. NOT Marvel or DC) books I'd ever picked up.

Along with a few other guys, like Don McGregor, Steve Englehart, and Jim Starlin, Gerber redefined mainstream comics in the 70s and early 80s. I never got a chance to meet him or hear him speak at a con, but I loved his work, and it sounds like he was a nice guy. RIP.

Labels: comics

As usual, it was nearly impossible to get into the Comic-Con hotel reservation site when it went live today. Eventually, I got through. Nearly everything was taken by then, but I managed to snag a room in the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina. It looks like an OK hotel, but it's not in easy walking distance of the convention center. And it's right by the airport, so it may be noisy. I can cancel the reservation, if I decide it's not worth it, but I think it'll do.

There are a lot of interesting comments on the experience in this entry on The Beat's blog, and more in the official Con blog. Lots of grumbling about moving to Vegas and/or dumping Travel Planners. Maybe there's something wrong with me, but I actually find the whole process kind of fun. It takes just enough effort that I feel like I've accomplished something when I've got the reservation made, but not so much effort that it annoys me.

Labels: comics

Comic-Con has started a blog on "Staying in San Diego." Hotel reservations open up next week. It'll be interesting to see how that goes. They haven't even posted the list of con hotels and rates yet, so I have no clue how many hotels they've got deals with this year, or what the rates are. Their initial post in this blog even encourages you to try booking a hotel outside of the official con block, since that'll obviously sell out quickly.

I've been scouting alternatives myself, and I haven't come up with much. There are few downtown hotels you can book through normal channels, but they're all $300+ a night. There are a couple of hotels in Mission Valley that can be had for under $200, but that's a bit of a haul to get back and forth to the convention center every day. I think it can be done via the trolley, but I'm not sure about the logistics on that. One of the hotels I was looking at is across the highway from a trolley stop, but it's hard to tell if there's any way for a pedestrian to get across the highway.

Well, I guess I'll try getting a room in the official block, and if that doesn't work out, maybe I'll consider skipping the con this year. The way the economy is headed, maybe that's not a bad idea anyway.

Meanwhile, WonderCon is just a few weeks away!

Labels: comics

I just cross-filed the last two months worth of my Westfield shipments into my "to be read" pile. I'm embarrassed to say that, if I were to make one big pile of comics I'm waiting to read, that pile would be three and a half feet tall. (I've actually got all this filed into a foot-long box, a two-foot pile, and a six-inch pile. A 3.5 ft pile would be kind of dangerous.) I'm gradually cutting back on my Westfield orders. I've got 21 books total on this month's order, which is a bit less than what I was getting a year ago (28 books on my January 07 order), for instance. And I'm pretty sure I'm not signing up for any weekly books after Countdown is finished, though I don't know if DC is planning a new weekly book anyway. Either way, that'll knock 4 books a month off the total.

Meanwhile, I picked up four trades at Waldenbooks today, since the store in the Bridgewater Commons is closing (as, apparently, are most Waldenbooks) and they had everything on sale for 40% off. I've got a pretty big stack of trades to read through too, so I didn't really need four more, but hey, 40% off is pretty good, right? I picked up Black Dossier, which looks to be pretty deep and fairly strange, just judging it based on a quick look. And I picked up Buffy Omnibus 1 and the season eight Long Way Home trade. Mind you, I haven't actually watched the season 7 DVDs, so I won't bother reading the season 8 stuff until after I've done that, which probably won't be for another year or two.

The fourth book I picked up was the first Moon Knight trade from the Charlie Huston run. I've been curious about that, but just hadn't gotten around to picking it up. (I was a big fan of Doug Moench's run on Moon Knight from back in the eighties.)

So, to sum up, I still have quite a lot of comics and graphic novels to read! I think I need to be careful about what I buy at WonderCon next month.

Labels: comics

I dropped Amazing Spider-Man a year or two ago, so I haven't been following all the stuff leading up to the "One More Day" story. I've read a bunch of the online reaction to the conclusion to this story though. This article at Newsarama sums up some of the conflict between JMS and Joe Quesada on the matter. I don't think that I'd be happy with either of their approaches to this story. It doesn't really seem like a story they needed to tell at all. I do agree with JMS that Joe Q genuinely cares about the character, and is doing what he thinks is right. I'm actually wondering if they're going to undo this whole thing at some point and just go back to Peter and MJ being married. The whole point of the story might be to set up an arc that ends with the whole retcon being undone. That might be interesting.

Either way, I have to admit that I'm not really much interested in the Marvel Universe right now. I did enjoy Civil War, for the most part, but I wasn't too happy with some of the character changes made during the course of that event.

Labels: comics

I didn't do much today, aside from watching football. I'm not making any major resolutions this year either. I did make all the arrangements to go to WonderCon today though. As usual, I wasn't really sure I wanted to go this year, but a few things convinced me to go again. Basically, a good guest lineup, plus a general desire to get out of New Jersey for a few days. And a chance to see the Chinese New Year Parade again!

I haven't really done much reflection on 2007. Normally, I would get kind of reflective on New Year's Day, but I haven't really been in that frame of mind. Well, just for the heck of it, here are some things I've done in 2007:

Books and comics I've read and liked:

• Absolute Watchmen
  
• Nextwave
  
• David Allen's Getting Things Done and Ready for Anything (though I haven't finished RFA yet)
  
• the first two Jasper Fforde "Thursday Next" novels
  
• a couple of Jim Butcher "Harry Dresden" novels
  

Movies & TV shows I've enjoyed:

• Paprika (my favorite movie of the year, for whatever that's worth)
  
• Once
  
• Ratatouille
  
• The Simpsons Movie
  
• Rise: Blood Hunter (okay, not exactly high-brow, but fun)
  
• Torchwood
  
• Life on Mars
  
• Heroes
  

Music I've liked:

• Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
  
• Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
  
• Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full
  
• Pizzicato Five - Made in USA (from 1994, but I'd never heard it until this year)
  
• Derek and the Dominoes - Layla (I only just got around to buying this CD in 2007)
  

Pointless stuff I've spent money on:

• new couch
  
• iPod Touch
  
• TomTom One LE GPS
  
• Dell Inspiron laptop
  
• MacBook
  
• Microsoft Office 2007
  
• Motorola SLVR
  
• 19" widescreen LG monitor
  
• Toshiba HD-DVD player
  

Things I didn't get around to doing:

• buying a new car (the old one's still working, but maybe not for much longer)
  
• checking out the new Greek and Roman galleries at the Met
  
• visiting the new Morimoto restaurant in NYC
  

Well, that's just a bunch of random lists off the top of my head. I guess the two big things that happened in 2007 for me were the office move my company did (from Edison to Somerset), and my mostly successful implementation of GTD.

Labels: books, comics, hardware, movies, music

According to this article, new episodes of Heroes will be available on Amazon Unbox rather than iTunes this season. I bought the first season from iTunes, and I might find myself looking to buy digital versions of the show this year, too. It's nice that they didn't shoot themselves in the foot and choose not to offer it at all, which is what it was starting to look like after the iTunes thing fell through last week. I've rented a few movies from Unbox (downloaded to my TiVo) and the quality is OK. I imagine the quality on Heroes would be similar to the iTunes quality. It's kind of annoying that Unbox doesn't work on Macs though, so I wouldn't be able to watch Heroes on my Mac if I got it from Unbox.

Labels: comics, scifi

Well, comic-con is over and done with for this year. Today was pretty mellow. I went to three panels -- a DC panel, the second Cartoon Voices panel, and an "Art of the Cover" panel. All were great. Only the voice panel was uncomfortably crowded. I didn't buy anything at the con today though, other than coffee. I feel kind of bad about that, but really, I've got plenty of stuff in my reading pile at home right now. The last thing I need is more books to read! Over the course of the con, I think I bought just three trade paperbacks, and several toys, most of which are for other people. I think this is the least amount of stuff I've ever bought at the con.

The NY Times actually has an article about the con. A decade ago, I wouldn't have imagined an article about comic-con showing up in the NY Times; now, it's really not that surprising. The article concentrates on the Hollywood stuff, mostly, which I completely skipped out on this year. I didn't go to either Stargate panel, the BSG panel, or any of the movie studio panels. I never saw the inside of Hall H or Room 20 at all this year.

Labels: comics

Once again, I seem to find myself back in my hotel room early. I went to Mark Evanier's "Quick Draw" and "Cartoon Voices" panels this morning. Both were great. Neither was overcrowded, or hard to get into. There was a DC panel right after the Cartoon Voices panel, in the same room, and I was going to stay for that, but I decided to make a trip to the bathroom, then try to get back into the room. That was a mistake; there was a big line to get into the room, so I gave up and wandered the floor a bit. Then, I went upstairs to try and get into a different panel, but I got there a few minutes late, and they'd filled the room already. I wandered around some more, then decided to go for a late lunch. I got myself a turkey sandwich and a beer, then headed back to the hotel, and here I am, blogging and enjoying the peace and quiet.

There's an interesting article about the fire marshall over at Sign On San Diego. The photo they ran with it is a bit misleading, though. At first glance, it looks like she's dressed as Prof. McGonagall. When you look at the picture more closely, though, you realize that she's in the background, wearing her uniform, and the woman in the foreground is a random Harry Potter fan. (They couldn't have managed a picture with the subject of the article in the foreground?) Either way, they're doing a pretty good job of crowd control at the con, given the circumstances. I have to admit that I long for the days when I could just walk into any random panel five minutes late, and still get a good seat, though.

Labels: comics

I'm not sure whose wifi I'm using right now, but it's working OK, so I'm spending a bit of time this morning browsing the blogs and news sites. A lot happened at the con yesterday, apparently. CBR has a whole bunch of stories up.

I have no idea what I'm going to do today. There are probably twenty different panels I'd like to attend, but, like yesterday, I'll be lucky if I can get to two or three. Hopefully, I'll have more energy than I did yesterday, though.

Labels: comics

I had a pretty light day today. I gave blood in the morning, then went into the con and saw Paul Dini's panel. Then, I wandered the floor a bit. Later, I went to Neil Gaiman's panel. I was tired after that, and things were getting crowded, so I gave up and went back to the hotel, stopping for a burger at the Hard Rock. I was going to go back to the con for some of the evening stuff, but I'm just too beat right now, so I'm hanging out in the hotel room watching Torchwood. I guess the blood donation took more out of me than usual.

Labels: comics

The first day of comic-con was pretty cool. I didn't spend a lot of money, but I went to some interesting panels, and generally had a good time.

I went to the Torchwood panel. They showed a long clip from the first episode. I think I was the only person in the room who hadn't seen the entire series already. It looks interesting, but I don't get BBC America on my cable system, so I'll have to wait for the DVDs, or maybe just watch it the way everyone else apparently has -- good old BitTorrent. I loved the Q&A session. A lot of people who'd clearly seen season one wanted to ask questions about season two, but obviously didn't want to admit that they'd watched season one via pirated DivX files or whatever. They all pulled out the "I've got a friend in England and he sent me the DVDs" line. (OK, maybe a couple of them really *did* have friends in the UK.)

I also saw The Pixar Story, Leslie Iwerks' documentary about Pixar. Really good, fascinating, stuff. I'll have to see it again when/if it gets a theatrical release. If not, I'm sure it'll be on DVD at some point.

Later at night, I went to Ric Meyer's Kung-Fu clip show thing, which I've done every year since he started doing it. I only stayed for the first half-hour. It started at 9pm, later than usual, and I was getting pretty tired by then. (I'm still mostly on east coast time.) He concentrated on TV shows rather than movies this time, and I have to admit I wasn't that interested in the stuff he was showing. I guess that's partially because I was sort of worn out by then, but also I'm just not that enthusiastic about the TV stuff.

Labels: comics

I'm off to San Diego tomorrow morning. I've got a bit of a headache right now, and I really hope it's gone by the time the con starts!

Labels: comics

Four-day memberships to SDCC are now sold out, according to Newsarama, which I presume means that this con will be just as crowded as the last one, if not more so. I'm fine with that. I'll just stick with stuff that's a bit off the beaten path, and stay away from most of the Hollywood stuff.

Labels: comics

Mark Evanier has his list of panels that he's involved with up on his site. Most of these are worth going to. I always enjoy the Sergio & Mark panel, the Cartoon Voices panel, and especially the Quick Draw panel, when I can manage to fit them into my schedule.

Labels: comics

The Beat has a San Diego guide posted, higlighting some interesting panels. And ComicsReporter.com has a nice con guide up, with some very helpful tips and links.

Labels: comics

The San Diego programming schedule is up! As usual, it's chock full of wonderful things. Neil Gaiman! Warren Ellis! Gumby! Kung Fu! Yay!

Labels: comics

I'm not usually big on con-exclusive action figures, but I like looking around to see what's available. StarWars.com has a Shadow Scout with Speeder Bike figure available for pre-order that can be picked up at the con.

Labels: comics

Boy, I sure wasted a bunch of time on the internet tonight...

I'm a Marvel, I'm a DC
Hulk vs Bizarro
Alien Loves Predator

Labels: comics

At work today, I got rather overwhelmed at one point, and the phrase "my robot brain needs beer" just popped into my head unbidden. Checking the internet (of course), I see that it is a phrase uttered by Machine Man (aka Aaron Stack) in Warren Ellis' excellent Nextwave series. Googling that phrase returns a whole barrel full o' hits. Apparently, the phrase has become a bit of an internet meme or something. Looking through the first few pages of hits, I couldn't find a scan of a panel with Aaron actually *saying* the phrase though. Disappointing. I was hoping to find something to use as my wallpaper. If you look through the various entries that come back on that search, however, you will find a bunch of interesting stuff. For instance, Adam Warren's DeviantArt page!

Labels: comics

As long as I'm linking to comics, this Shoe makes me feel a little better about my turning 40 last month.

Labels: comics

I'm a sucker for crossovers. And here's another one! Lio is definitely the funniest strip out there right now.

Labels: comics

It looks like the last Big Top strip ran today. I've been enjoying this strip since I started reading it in January. Sorry to see a good strip go!

Labels: comics

Well, I'm back in NJ. It was snowing a bit as we came into Newark, so I really feel like I'm back home now, after the great weather in SF. Sunday at WonderCon was pretty uneventful. I went to the "Art of the Cover" panel that Mark Evanier has been doing for the past few years. It was once again very enjoyable. I bought a few more comics, but not a lot. A few discount manga volumes, a couple of half-price trade paperbacks, and a set of "21 Down" 1-12.

Off to bed in a few minutes, then back to work tomorrow.

Labels: comics

I left the con early today, largely because I was weighed down with so much stuff I could barely move, and also because I'd hit a lull in the programming where there really wasn't anything I wanted to sit through at that point. I may head back in a bit to catch a panel with Brian K. Vaughn, Pia Guerra, and Tony Harris. I'm not sure I'd be able to claw my way back to the Moscone Center, though, since the streets are starting to fill up for the Chinese New Year parade already.

I picked up a bunch of stuff today, mostly at pretty good prices. I got The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases, which is a book I'd been meaning to pick up since it came out, a couple of years back. Really oddball stuff in there, including contributions from Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, and Alan Moore.

I also got several Powers collections, volumes 5 to 8, at various discount levels. I'd read the first four volumes some time ago, but hadn't gotten around to picking up any more. Looking at the dates on these, I guess I'm still not up to date, but I'm a bit closer. It's great that Bendis continues to work on this. It's different from his other Marvel work, and always a good read.

I haven't been following Civil War at all, but I've been curious, and now that it's done, I figured I'd try and pick up a set of 1-7. I found someone selling a set at right around cover price, along with a set of Civil War: Front Line also at right around cover, so I went ahead and got both. I'm not generally seeing Civil War back issues selling at below cover, so I guess people are still interested in this storyline, and some (like me) are just jumping on the bandwagon now that it's over.

What would a con experience be without picking some stuff out of the quarter bin? Incomplete, I say. Brian K. Vaughn, during his spotlight panel, mentioned that he'd done a Ka-Zar annual early in his career, and I managed to find that in a quarter box. I also found some of the Jeph Loeb / Tim Sale Challengers of the Unknown mini-series, which Loeb talked about during *his* spotlight panel. I would have liked to get the Ka-Zar annual and one of the Challengers issues signed, just for laughs, but I may have missed out on my chance for BKV and Loeb autographs at this point.

Labels: comics

I'm here in San Francisco at WonderCon right now. In a (perhaps) interesting example of Old Ways meet New Ways, I picked up Nextwave 1-7 from a dealer yesterday, for $15, then went on eBay last night and bid on a set of Nextwave 7-12. I won the auction at $7.50, so I now have a complete set of Nextwave 1-12 (with an extra #7) for a pretty reasonable price. Now, I need to go looking for Fell, another Warren Ellis series that flew under my radar, so to speak, when it first came out.

Labels: comics

Mark Evanier has posted the list of panels he'll be hosting at WonderCon. Looks like some good stuff, including a spotlight on Gene Colan, one of my favorite artists.

The main WonderCon site has an updated program schedule posted. They've got a Pixar panel on Saturday that I'm definitely interested in, with Brad Bird and Patton Oswalt.

I'm a bit worried about what the weather might do to my flight out of Newark, but it's looking like the snow and rain will likely clear up by Thursday.

Labels: comics

Mark Tatulli's comic strip Lio is starting to grow on me. Very odd humor. Have you hugged your cephalopod today?

Labels: comics

Once again, Wondercon will coincide with the San Francisco Chinese New Year parade. The initial programming schedule for Wondercon is up, too, and it looks good.

Labels: comics

The Beat has a post up about the San Diego hotel situation, along with links to a couple of interesting forum discussions.
I went ahead and made my flight reservation too. It wasn't too painful, though the price for the flight actually went up, then back down again, while I was making the reservation. Weird.
I did a little bit of reseach on the Westin Horton Plaza, too, since I've never stayed there before. It's got some very good reviews and some very bad ones, so I'm not too sure who to trust on that. I'm not too picky about hotel rooms, really, so if there's a comfortable bed and the room doesn't smell like cigarette smoke, I'm good, for the most part.

Labels: comics

Some random good news today:

• I got new bed sheets today!
  
• I got the renewal letter for my apartment lease today, and the landlord isn't raising the rent!
  
• I got a hotel room for San Diego! This might not sound like a big deal, but it's gotten harder and harder to get a room for San Diego over the past few years. They opened up the hotel reservation system at noon (Eastern) today. I tried getting to their web site right then, but the site was getting hammered so much, there was really no chance of getting in. I went off to eat lunch and came back at 12:30 and tried again. It took awhile for pages to load, but they did come up, and I did eventually manage to make it through the system and came out on the other end with a valid hotel reservation. I'll be in the Westin Horton Plaza this year, which is probably a pretty good hotel, and not too far from the convention center. I've never stayed there before, but it looks nice.
  

Labels: comics

I registered for WonderCon today, and made my travel arrangements. This will be the third year I've gone out to SF for WonderCon. I was originally going to skip it this year, mostly due to financial considerations, but then I realized that I'm turning 40 about a week after the con, so this will be my very last vacation before I hit 40! (Not that my birthday has any real bearing on anything, but it seemed like a good excuse for going.)

Labels: comics

Well, I just finished re-reading Watchmen last night. One of the recurring motifs in Watchmen is a clock that's counting down the minutes until midnight. It is, of course, a reference to the doomsday clock that indicates how close we are to nuclear armegeddon. (This is also the inspiration for one of my favorite Iron Maiden songs, "2 Minutes to Midnight".) I haven't seen the doomsday clock mentioned much in the news since the Reagan years. In fact, I'd mostly forgotten about it until re-reading Watchmen. Today, out of the blue, I stumbled across an article announcing that we're now at five minutes to midnight, the closest we've been to "certain doom" since the eighties. The last time the minute hand was moved was back in 2002. On the one hand, I should probably be seriously depressed that we've regressed so much, in so many ways, over the last few years. On the other hand, I can't help but feel somewhat nostalgic for the good old days of the Reagan administration. There's something bracing about being a mere hair's breadth away from oblivion.

Labels: comics

A couple of years back, I spent a little time looking into the comic strip subscription services that are available online. I blogged about it here, and what I wrote then is still mostly correct. At the time, I kind of lost interest in the subject, but I started thinking about it again this year. My local paper recently cut back their Sunday comics section from six pages to four, dropping some strips and shrinking others. It's kind of depressing to read, knowing how much better the section could be, just by adding those two pages back, and changing the mix of strips a bit. The Sunday NY Daily News still has a good comics section, but I don't get around to picking it up every week.

After reviewing what was available again, I decided to start up a subscription to MyComicsPage.com. They've got a couple of my favorite strips, namely Doonesbury and Foxtrot. Now, I know that there are plenty of ways to get those two strips for free, but it's nice to be able to get those, plus a bunch more, consolidated into one nice page, and also to know that I'm contributing at least a little money toward keeping comic strip artists in business.

MyComicsPage.com has a pretty nice interface for putting together your preferred page of strips. You can reorder strips on the page, though you can only move strips up or down one position at a time, and the page does a postback every time you do that; someone really needs to add some Ajax to the interface there, and get current with the whole Web 2.0 thing. Also, the list of available strips is somewhat misleading, since they include a bunch of discontinued strips that are available in the archives, but are not really available for your daily page. They list Spanish language strips in a separate section; I really think they should put the discontinued strips into their own section too, just to make it more obvious which strips are still alive. One nice thing they have is a "collection" feature, where you can store links to specific strips you like. (I started a collection of anti-cat cartoons; that should be fun to maintain.) I should also mention that they have a number of good editorial cartoonists, too, including Tom Toles, my all-time favorite.

Labels: comics

I ordered Absolute Watchmen from Amazon a week ago, and it showed up in the mail today. I haven't reread Watchmen since it came out, but I've meaning to pull out the original issues and reread it for some time. Now, I've got it in a nice big hardback! Watchmen is a definite classic. The wikipedia article for Watchmen has a lot of good info, and links to a bunch more stuff.

Labels: comics

Comic book writer Grant Morrison talks about, um, many things.

read more | digg story

Labels: comics

You know, I think this was the first year I didn't see Caveman Robot at the con. This photo proves he was there, though. Plenty of other con-related photos up on Flickr, too, of course.

Labels: comics

After initially deciding that I would skip 52 entirely, or maybe pick up the collections after it's finished, I broke down today and went over to the comic shop and picked up issues one through twelve. I just finished reading the first issue, and it looks like it might be an interesting series. I'm still balking at getting all 52 issues at $2.50 a pop though. That's a bunch of cash.

Labels: comics

I'm done with the con, and back in my hotel room, trying to figure out how to fit all my stuff back in my luggage. I think I'll get everything packed away OK, but I'm wondering how it will all look by the time I get back to Newark. Hopefully, everything will still be in one piece.

Looking back, I think I did most of the things I like to do at a con:

• Ric Meyers' kung-fu thing.
  
• A few DC and Marvel panels.
  
• A couple of the panels done by the CFQ guys. (This year, the movie preview and Robot Rumble panels.)
  
• A couple of Mark Evanier's panels. (This year, the cartoon voices panel, and a panel on cover art.)
  
• A couple of TV or movie panels. (This year, BSG and Blade.)
  
• I picked up a few cheap TPBs from TFAW's "nick and dent" sale.
  
• I picked up a few books from Mile High's "last hour of the con" 50% off sale.
  
• I picked up a stack of books out of somebody's $1 box.
  
• I picked up a couple of action figures. (Hellboy and the Ikki Tousen figure I mentioned in a previous post.)
  

As usual, I'm not 100% sure if I'll be going back next year. I probably will, but the con is getting so big it's almost a hassle to deal with it. I find that I can still have a good time, if I set my expectations correctly. I don't assume I'm going to get into any particular panels, or get any specific signatures, or anything like that. That generally works.

Labels: comics

Record crowds at the con yesterday, and record heat in San Diego. I managed to get to a few good panels yesterday, but a number of panels I was interested in were impossible to get into.

Labels: comics

I picked up an exclusive Ikki Tousen PVC statue today: Kanu in Red School Girl Uniform. I'm not sure if I should be ashamed of that or not. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm just not sure where I can display it.

I also picked up a Harry Potter trading card "mystery box", which included a "costume card" that has an actual piece of cloth from Neville Longbottom's pajamas attached to it (from the Goblet of Fire movie). Weird.

On the more mainstream side of things, I picked up a couple of sheets of the new DC superhero stamps. The USPS has a little booth in the convention center lobby that's doing a *lot* of business.

Labels: comics

I just started reading Infinite Crisis. This site has some nice notes explaining the many references in each issue. Whatever happened to footnotes in comics? In this case, I guess, the footnotes would have gotten quite overwhelming. Still, it's weird to pick up a book like this and not get maybe half the references, despite having read a number of the prequel stories and having at least some knowledge of the other stories via the web.

Labels: comics

The Thursday, programming schedule is up, and it looks like it'll be the usual overabundance of wonderful things this year. Also, there's an RSS news feed for the con now.

Labels: comics

Warren Ellis is always fun. I wonder if he's going to San Diego... Hmm, I don't see his name on the list. Oh well.

Labels: comics

A9 Maps has some pictures of San Diego, including a couple of my hotel. Browsing through some of their San Diego pictures, it looks like a lot of them were taken on a rainy day, which is pretty weird for San Diego. And looking at some of the pictures on 7th has reminded me that there's a bit of an uphill climb involved in getting to A St.

Labels: comics

Lots of Star Wars goodies at San Diego this year, as usual.

Labels: comics

I heard back from the Comic-Con folks today about registration, and it turns out that they are just late in sending out the registration paperwork. They said they're sending stuff out this week. That's a bit of a relief, since I was starting to think I'd lost mine.
Meanwhile, I've been checking in with SignOnSanDiego.com every few days to keep an eye on the weather and local news. Let's hope we don't have a big quake while I'm out there!

Labels: comics

Only about a month until Comic-Con. I realized today that I haven't received my little registration confirmation card yet. I registered back in March, so I'm not sure if this is a problem or not. They may just be late in sending them out. I guess if it doesn't show up, I can maybe talk my way in with a copy of my cancelled check and a photo ID. Or I can sneak in the back door. Or I can just spend the week at the San Diego Zoo instead. Either way, I'm looking forward to the vacation.
Every year, it seems like I really start to get enthusiastic about the Con around this time. It just seems like I start to go stir-crazy in mid-June and really start wanting to get out of New Jersey, and get away from my job for a few days. This year's probably a bit worse than usual, for a few reasons, mostly work-related.
And, regardless of any bureaucratic worries, I always wind up having a good time in San Diego, so I probably shouldn't worry about anything this year either.

Labels: comics

CBR has an article listing all the Eisner award nominees. Although I'm way behind in my reading, I have actually read a few of these books, and I'm planning on reading several more. I've never actually gone to the Eisner awards ceremony at the San Diego con; there's always something else going on at the same time that I'm more interested in. Maybe this year I'll go.

Labels: comics

I've been on a bit of an X-Men binge lately. I read Ultimate X-Men volumes 1-7 on the plane trips out to San Francisco and back a few weeks ago. I finished Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men 1-12 last week. I just started reading Chris Claremont's recent Uncanny X-Men run (starting from #444). And I bought all of the Grant Morrison New X-Men trades on eBay this week.

I've been looking at some X-Men sites on the internet tonight, just to see where all the pieces fit, from the Morrison era to the present. Grant Morrison's site has a list of all his X-Men work. The X-Axis has reviews of Morrison's run, and much more. The Comics Journal has an interesting article on the "X-Men Reload" event, with a little overview of Morrison's run, and reviews of the first few issues of Whedon's Astonishing run and the other stuff that came out at that time. There's a big index of Morrison-era stuff at Seqart.com. And there's a review of the entire Morrison run at PopMatters.com.

I enjoyed the Ultimate X-Men books, even though they're in their own little world, continuity-wise. They've gone in some interesting directions, different from the main Marvel universe, but still clearly exploring many of the themes that the X-Men titles frequently play with.

The Astonishing X-Men series was a lot of fun to read. Joss Whedon is great at writing a certain kind of story, basically the same kind of thing he did so well in Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. He handles dialog really well, maintaining a certain economy that still succeeds in establishing character traits and relationships. It's a lot different from the way Claremont writes, but he's clearly a fan of the original Claremont Uncanny stuff. John Cassaday's art is incredible, too, though it's not quite as inspiring as his work on Planetary.

The new Claremont stuff is fun to read, too, reminding me (of course) of his original work on the title. The Comics Journal review mentioned above really rips into Claremont for his caption-heavy writing and clunky characterizations, but I enjoy it. It's all kind of obvious and predictable, but it's fun, and the key characters are all likable. The baseball game at the beginning of #444 is a perfect example; a standard Claremont method of enumerating his cast for the new reader, and sketching out a few of their relationships. Alan Davis' art on these issues is great too; I'm a big fan of his work on Excalibur from some years back, and it's nice to see him on an X-book again.

I'm looking forward to reading through all the Morrison stuff. I've never been a huge fan of his, but I saw him on a few panels at Wondercon, and I got interested in tracking down some of his work. From some of the reviews I've seen of his New X-Men run, it sounds like it ought to be pretty interesting.

Labels: comics

I'm kind of glad I didn't go to the NY Con last weekend, since reports are indicating that it was a zoo. Most NYC conventions seem to face problems with overcrowding. I remember some big problems with the last Big Apple Anime Fest, for instance, and the Big Apple Con tends to have overcrowding problems too. I guess I'll stick with Wondercon and San Diego, for now! Even though they're on the other side of the country, and even though San Diego attracts over 100,000 people, both are very well organized and always fun.

Labels: comics

Well, I decided to take a chance and book a hotel for San Diego through Hotwire. I got a room at the Sheraton Suites San Diego for less than the con rate, so that's good. It's farther away from the convention center than I've ever been though, so that's not so good. It's on the con shuttle route, and it looks like it should still be OK walking distance (ten blocks), though a bit too far if I just wanted to make a quick trip back during the day to drop stuff off.
Hotwire doesn't tell you which hotel you're in until you've paid for the room, and their "downtown" area extends all the way out to the far end of Harbor Island, so I could have wound up quite far away.

Labels: comics

Well, since I might not be able to get a hotel room for San Diego this year, here's the WonderCon Photo Parade from CBR.

Labels: comics

Today is the first day that you can make hotel reservations for Comic-Con. And maybe the last day. I just went on-line here to check availability, and there's NOTHING open whatsoever. I remember from last year that a few of the hotels were all booked up on the first day, but not ALL of them! Hopefully, this is a temporary glitch of some kind, or some hotels will block out more rooms for the con. Otherwise, I'm either not going, or sleeping in a cardboard box on the street.

Labels: comics

There's an interesting Wondercon aftermath story up on Newsarama. They mention that the fire marshall closed down the show floor for a little while on Saturday afternoon. I managed to miss that entirely. I was upstairs at panels most of the day Saturday, so I guess that happened while I was listening to Kevin Smith or Grant Morrison or whatever.

Labels: comics

Well, I'm pretty much done with the con now, back in my hotel room resting. The stack of comics I bought over the last few days is only agout eight inches high, and largely consists of trade paperbacks bought at a discount, so it wasn't a really expensive con for me.
For some local SF con coverage, look at the SFGate Culture Blog or this page at the Mercury News.

Labels: comics

WonderCon is going well. The weather in SF is great. Apparently, it's snowing back in NJ right now. Lots of WonderCon related news at Newsarama.

Labels: comics

Just for yuks, I've been looking at the major online comic strip services. As far as I can tell, there are basically three big ones. All include daily comics by email.

Comics.com -- Run by United Media. $12/year for the basic paid package. Comics available include Peanuts, Get Fuzzy, and Dilbert. Lots of mainstream strips, along with a few oddballs.

DailyInk.com -- Run by King Features. $15/year. Comics available include Mutts, Zits, Zippy the Pinhead, Spider-Man, and Prince Valiant. Generally includes more adventure strips than the other services.

MyComicsPage.com -- Run by uclick. $12/year. Includes Foxtrot, Doonesbury, and a bunch of others. Mostly mainstream humor strips.

Labels: comics

Well, I missed the Christian Bale appearance at WonderCon, but I did make it to the Joss Whedon panel, among others. Lots of good stuff, even if it was raining most of the time. And I did catch some of the Chinese New Year parade.

Labels: comics

Check out this eBay page. Everybody needs a Spider-Man toothbrush, autographed by Stan Lee, right? (The text on this page was apparently written by my brother Mike, by the way.)

Labels: comics, ebay

Yikes, I just bid on 50 issues of JLA! Why the heck did I do that? Don't I have enough to read?

Labels: comics, ebay

I just finished reading the most recent Cerebus story arc, Going Home. As usual, great storytelling, great backgrounds from Gerhard, and some great funny bits in the main story.
Some weird stuff in the back, though, including a way bizzare essay in the back of the last issue. You can read it here, on the Comics Journal's page. I actually think Sim makes some good points, although he goes way too far with most of them. You can read more about his essay here. Have fun.

Labels: comics

Some stuff to report from the con:
- Good presentation on the Lord of the Rings movie from the guys at TheOneRing.net.
- Interesting stuff on the next Star Wars movie from Steve Sansweet of Lucasfilm. There's an article about the "Star Wars: Connections" presentation on