Comic Con - part 2
[crossposting manually... hope this won't double-post]
Here’s part 2 of my Comic Con report... I typed it on the plane and didn’t get around to posting it. I'm right now sitting in a rotel room with friendshipper and sgatazmy :)... enjoying internet access (that, no matter what the hotel promises, is not high-speed.)
...
So, that was Stargate. In the afternoon I got together with Cyn and our roomie for this con, Alenka. We went to Ocean beach, which was fantastic. The waves had some extra kick to them that day. Great fun.
Well, at home I’ll have the Dortmund-Ems Canal. :P
We showed Alenka our favorite Hamburger joint, Hodad’s. Best burgers in SD and don’t people know it. The other day I went by there during lunch time and there was a line outside half a block long.
This is some guy’s pet leguan, who was sunbathing on the rocks.
The view from the Maritime Museum, at the harborfront downtown.
They have two ships from the Age of Sails, a steamer, and two submarines, and you can go below deck in all of them. I took barely any pictures during my trip, but I shot like a hundred photos on these ships. And now I have great picture references next time I need to draw a sail boat.
This guy was hanging around at the pier, not the con.
After the museum we hooked up with toysdream and thedeadlyhook for dinner. Toysdream is a brilliant, brilliant artist and I just knew they’d love his stuff at Comic Con. Which they did. And I own two of his originals, yay. They’re hanging on my wall at home. :)
Saturday: dropped by the small press section of the dealer’s room, where some of my hostel friends had booths. Some of those indie books have such a high production value, they’re virtually indistinguishable from the stuff produced by major companies. Well, distribution is still a problem, but still, it feels like there are interesting options for comics creators now.
Went to a pretty interesting panel on character design next, and one on breaking into the industry. That one was actually very good. I didn’t expect much; I’ve been to a bunch of these before and never learned much new. This one had editors from diverse publishing houses and a lot of useful tips and anecdotes. Here’s something I found interesting: They asked the audience who wanted to work for Marvel - some people raised their hands. Who wanted to work for DC - some more people. Then they asked who wanted to tell their own story, and the majority raised their hands (me too).
Oh, at one point I went to one of those late night industry parties, because one of my co-hostellers‘ girlfriend was sick and I went in her place. Hosted by, I want to say Microsoft?? Anyway, they were presenting some cool new X-Box gaming systems or whatnot... I don’t play computer games so I have no clue. We played a few of those games, and man, I suck. I got killed all the time. I think I killed my teammates more than once. Hey, last time I played was on a C64.
So, free booze and videogames, but other than that I don’t see the appeal of these parties. Well, except for the one Cyn got into because that one had a pool and free massages. I’ll take a pool over a video game an time!
We tried to get good pics at the masquerade, but either we were too early or too late; this is the only one I have:
Sunday... I, uh, forgot what I did Sunday morning. Oh, right, dropped by one publisher I was interested in, and when I was told that I could leave copies, I didn’t think long and gave them one of the comics I brought for the Writercon library. Um. (But I already made replacement copies.) And then I had to buy the biggest-ass comic book I could find, because I had started leafing through it and the plot grabbed me right away: Local. It’s heavy as a brick, but I’m glad I bought it, story and art are really good.
In the afternoon me and Cyn went to the Torchwood panel, and I was already bracing myself for the ginormously long line that had been winding its way through the halls all weekend. Alenka had tried to get into the Dr Who panel first thing in the morning and reported a record-breaking line. Some fans had actually been camping on the sidewalk during the night. But by afternoon the line was gone and I got to go in right away, albeit an hour early. Cyn briefly left to grab a bite, and we never found each other again in that room. ;)
The first half of the panel was about a comedy movie called Mystery Kids, and I’m feeling generous so I won’t say anything more about it.
The second half was about some 50s sci-fi movie spoof whose title escapes me now. Unlike the first one, that one seemed actually reasonably funny because it’s played straight. The panel was entertaining enough.
Okay, after that, it was Being Human and Torchwood. BH is a British show about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost sharing an apartment, and despite what that sounds like it’s drama, not comedy. Once again I thought the concept sounded way less original than the creators like to think, but I’m telling you, that trailer looked great. Never seen this show but might check it out.
Okay, then the announcer announced Torchwood and the room burst into whooping applause; the BH people said, You couldn’t have waited with that until we left? :D
Torchwood ahead... spoilerish but no specific spoilers skip this part
John Barrowman can work a crowd! He was so funny... he made some little innuendo, as he’s wont to do; the crowd laughed. He said something else, the crowed roared, and he’s like, „Nonono, I didn’t mean it like that! I’m trying to be GOOD here.“ Then later, „I can say it in a way that the kids won’t understand it.“ then, even later, "let the kids stay and learn something"... well, not verbatim but something like that.
Very entertaining Q&A all in all; I enjoyed it. Good mood in the room too, considering. It seems like CoE got great ratings and was well received overall, if not by all the fans. (I liked the miniseries very much, myself, but I was glad that I wasn't as emotionally invested in the characters as others. The series had never gripped me until now, I wouldn't even have gone to the panel had it not been for CoE.)
Btw, first they said, „For those of you who haven’t seen CoE yet, here’s a trailer,“ and then showed a trailer that completely spoiled CoE, all five days, and had most of the important moments in it. Bzuh?
... read on... or not; taking a break here... just one more quick pick of the nighttime view of San Diego, from Point Loma.
tbc...
Here’s part 2 of my Comic Con report... I typed it on the plane and didn’t get around to posting it. I'm right now sitting in a rotel room with friendshipper and sgatazmy :)... enjoying internet access (that, no matter what the hotel promises, is not high-speed.)
...
So, that was Stargate. In the afternoon I got together with Cyn and our roomie for this con, Alenka. We went to Ocean beach, which was fantastic. The waves had some extra kick to them that day. Great fun.
Well, at home I’ll have the Dortmund-Ems Canal. :P
We showed Alenka our favorite Hamburger joint, Hodad’s. Best burgers in SD and don’t people know it. The other day I went by there during lunch time and there was a line outside half a block long.
This is some guy’s pet leguan, who was sunbathing on the rocks.
The view from the Maritime Museum, at the harborfront downtown.
They have two ships from the Age of Sails, a steamer, and two submarines, and you can go below deck in all of them. I took barely any pictures during my trip, but I shot like a hundred photos on these ships. And now I have great picture references next time I need to draw a sail boat.
This guy was hanging around at the pier, not the con.
After the museum we hooked up with toysdream and thedeadlyhook for dinner. Toysdream is a brilliant, brilliant artist and I just knew they’d love his stuff at Comic Con. Which they did. And I own two of his originals, yay. They’re hanging on my wall at home. :)
Saturday: dropped by the small press section of the dealer’s room, where some of my hostel friends had booths. Some of those indie books have such a high production value, they’re virtually indistinguishable from the stuff produced by major companies. Well, distribution is still a problem, but still, it feels like there are interesting options for comics creators now.
Went to a pretty interesting panel on character design next, and one on breaking into the industry. That one was actually very good. I didn’t expect much; I’ve been to a bunch of these before and never learned much new. This one had editors from diverse publishing houses and a lot of useful tips and anecdotes. Here’s something I found interesting: They asked the audience who wanted to work for Marvel - some people raised their hands. Who wanted to work for DC - some more people. Then they asked who wanted to tell their own story, and the majority raised their hands (me too).
Oh, at one point I went to one of those late night industry parties, because one of my co-hostellers‘ girlfriend was sick and I went in her place. Hosted by, I want to say Microsoft?? Anyway, they were presenting some cool new X-Box gaming systems or whatnot... I don’t play computer games so I have no clue. We played a few of those games, and man, I suck. I got killed all the time. I think I killed my teammates more than once. Hey, last time I played was on a C64.
So, free booze and videogames, but other than that I don’t see the appeal of these parties. Well, except for the one Cyn got into because that one had a pool and free massages. I’ll take a pool over a video game an time!
We tried to get good pics at the masquerade, but either we were too early or too late; this is the only one I have:
Sunday... I, uh, forgot what I did Sunday morning. Oh, right, dropped by one publisher I was interested in, and when I was told that I could leave copies, I didn’t think long and gave them one of the comics I brought for the Writercon library. Um. (But I already made replacement copies.) And then I had to buy the biggest-ass comic book I could find, because I had started leafing through it and the plot grabbed me right away: Local. It’s heavy as a brick, but I’m glad I bought it, story and art are really good.
In the afternoon me and Cyn went to the Torchwood panel, and I was already bracing myself for the ginormously long line that had been winding its way through the halls all weekend. Alenka had tried to get into the Dr Who panel first thing in the morning and reported a record-breaking line. Some fans had actually been camping on the sidewalk during the night. But by afternoon the line was gone and I got to go in right away, albeit an hour early. Cyn briefly left to grab a bite, and we never found each other again in that room. ;)
The first half of the panel was about a comedy movie called Mystery Kids, and I’m feeling generous so I won’t say anything more about it.
The second half was about some 50s sci-fi movie spoof whose title escapes me now. Unlike the first one, that one seemed actually reasonably funny because it’s played straight. The panel was entertaining enough.
Okay, after that, it was Being Human and Torchwood. BH is a British show about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost sharing an apartment, and despite what that sounds like it’s drama, not comedy. Once again I thought the concept sounded way less original than the creators like to think, but I’m telling you, that trailer looked great. Never seen this show but might check it out.
Okay, then the announcer announced Torchwood and the room burst into whooping applause; the BH people said, You couldn’t have waited with that until we left? :D
Torchwood ahead... spoilerish but no specific spoilers skip this part
John Barrowman can work a crowd! He was so funny... he made some little innuendo, as he’s wont to do; the crowd laughed. He said something else, the crowed roared, and he’s like, „Nonono, I didn’t mean it like that! I’m trying to be GOOD here.“ Then later, „I can say it in a way that the kids won’t understand it.“ then, even later, "let the kids stay and learn something"... well, not verbatim but something like that.
Very entertaining Q&A all in all; I enjoyed it. Good mood in the room too, considering. It seems like CoE got great ratings and was well received overall, if not by all the fans. (I liked the miniseries very much, myself, but I was glad that I wasn't as emotionally invested in the characters as others. The series had never gripped me until now, I wouldn't even have gone to the panel had it not been for CoE.)
Btw, first they said, „For those of you who haven’t seen CoE yet, here’s a trailer,“ and then showed a trailer that completely spoiled CoE, all five days, and had most of the important moments in it. Bzuh?
... read on... or not; taking a break here... just one more quick pick of the nighttime view of San Diego, from Point Loma.
tbc...