New York Comic Con Day 1
Man, I'm tired as anything. Comic Con was a blast, as usual. And I don't think I sounded too stupid when I got a chance to talk to famous (tm) people, although I always go over everything I said over and over to make sure.
We got to go during the professional hours, which was nice on one hand because it was before everything got too crowded. Of course, some of the exhibitors were just showing up! We were there for an hour and ended up going through less than half of the exhibit hall. And oh man, I got so many books, some free, some I paid for, including one on "creepy crochet" cause Hubby wants me to make him a tiny Cthuthulu. Course, that would depend on me learning how to increase finally...
I went to one panel (the panel rooms are really far from the rest of the con) that I thought sounded cool. It was supposed to be about how Manga is the new YA, which I thought would be interesting because there is actually a LOT to discuss about manga in the context of Young Adult Literature. However, despite some promising beginings, the librarians giving the powerpoint show seemed STUCK on boys love manga. Now, I'm not against shonen-ai of COURSE, but I was annoyed that 1. they had the opportunity to discuss so many differing KINDS of manga and they didn't and 2. their conclusions about the positive elements of boys love manga were erroneous.
Basically they argued that the gender blurring and adrongenous characters were teaching teen girls openess about people who were gay, both men and woman, as well as challenging traditional gender stereotypes. Now while I agree that a lot of boys love lets girls experience sexuality without being a partner in the act, I completely disagree about this encouraging positive viewings of RL people who are homosexual. How many of us have seen the yaoi fangirl who loves boys love, but thinks gay people are "icky"? Plus, the boys love couples often fall into traditional uke and seme roles, one always takes on the feminine role of being the bottom or receiver. Many of the examples the presenters themselves provided only enhanced tradtional gender roles.
I was also angry because I felt they lost a fantastic opportunity to discuss the other ways manga can take the place of traditional YA literature. For example, a manga like Mars which deals with things like teen suicide, rape, teen sex, falling in love with the wrong person, etc. There are loads of issues there, which could lead to discussions about, censorship, age appropriateness, etc. However, the presenters seemed stuck on boys love as this huge liberating genre. I was especially annoyed because they made it a point in the beginning to say how manga in Japan covered so many genres and age groups, and then they were stuck on one small area of it themselves.
After the panel, we met up with hubby again and ended up exploring the upstairs, where they had a staging area before an awesome assortment of beanbag chairs. As we were walking, hubby pointed to some guy and said "Omg, it's the cable guy from the Verizon commercials!" Cable guy is also apparently a pretty good stand up comic. Me and coworker didn't stay to hear him though, I wanted to get to an author signing.
As for authors ... I ended up accidentally meeting Keith DeCandido, the dude who wrote two of the Supernatural tie-in novels. He also wrote some Farscape comics coworker bought and I recognized his name and asked him about it. I did not bring up the eye color problem in Neverwhere:) I also did not tell him why I didn't buy Bonekey, just pretended I didn't know there was a second novel out.
I met and chatted with Peter David, after coworker literally SHOVED me towards him. He was sweet, but of course, I complimented his Trek books and he starts talking about New Frontier, which I DIDN'T read, but he was nice about that and told me the latest book is a good starting point for someone to get into the series. Once I get home I remember I also liked his Supergirl and Young Justice...doh.
Also got to meet and chat with Barbara Hambly and I really hope I didn't ramble on for too long. Oh god. My mouth just starts going and I don't know what I'm saying because I'm so nervous. At least I didn't start blushing. And at least I didn't say "your books were a huge influence on my formative years" even though they were. I own all of her fantasy novels, which I will keep forever because they're out of print now and hard to find. *cuddles books*
Hubby got to meet Tycho and Gabe from Penny Arcade and is apparently now best buds with MC Frontalot. He play tested a bunch of games and according to him, DC Universe is much better than Champions Online. You heard it here first.
Tomorrow, if we can make it there on time considering how exhausted we are, Jared Padalecki!
Oh, and there were HUGE freakin' banners everywhere for Sherrilyn Kenyon. Now, I get that she's pretty famous, but she's a romance novelist. This is comic con. And when I say banners, I mean in the main hall taking up half a wall, plus several different booths in the exhibit hall. Are they really expecting that many people to show up just for her? Hubby wants to get her to sign a book for a friend of his, but I doubt we're gonna get close based on the advertising alone. I need to go check the schedule...
*heads to bed*
We got to go during the professional hours, which was nice on one hand because it was before everything got too crowded. Of course, some of the exhibitors were just showing up! We were there for an hour and ended up going through less than half of the exhibit hall. And oh man, I got so many books, some free, some I paid for, including one on "creepy crochet" cause Hubby wants me to make him a tiny Cthuthulu. Course, that would depend on me learning how to increase finally...
I went to one panel (the panel rooms are really far from the rest of the con) that I thought sounded cool. It was supposed to be about how Manga is the new YA, which I thought would be interesting because there is actually a LOT to discuss about manga in the context of Young Adult Literature. However, despite some promising beginings, the librarians giving the powerpoint show seemed STUCK on boys love manga. Now, I'm not against shonen-ai of COURSE, but I was annoyed that 1. they had the opportunity to discuss so many differing KINDS of manga and they didn't and 2. their conclusions about the positive elements of boys love manga were erroneous.
Basically they argued that the gender blurring and adrongenous characters were teaching teen girls openess about people who were gay, both men and woman, as well as challenging traditional gender stereotypes. Now while I agree that a lot of boys love lets girls experience sexuality without being a partner in the act, I completely disagree about this encouraging positive viewings of RL people who are homosexual. How many of us have seen the yaoi fangirl who loves boys love, but thinks gay people are "icky"? Plus, the boys love couples often fall into traditional uke and seme roles, one always takes on the feminine role of being the bottom or receiver. Many of the examples the presenters themselves provided only enhanced tradtional gender roles.
I was also angry because I felt they lost a fantastic opportunity to discuss the other ways manga can take the place of traditional YA literature. For example, a manga like Mars which deals with things like teen suicide, rape, teen sex, falling in love with the wrong person, etc. There are loads of issues there, which could lead to discussions about, censorship, age appropriateness, etc. However, the presenters seemed stuck on boys love as this huge liberating genre. I was especially annoyed because they made it a point in the beginning to say how manga in Japan covered so many genres and age groups, and then they were stuck on one small area of it themselves.
After the panel, we met up with hubby again and ended up exploring the upstairs, where they had a staging area before an awesome assortment of beanbag chairs. As we were walking, hubby pointed to some guy and said "Omg, it's the cable guy from the Verizon commercials!" Cable guy is also apparently a pretty good stand up comic. Me and coworker didn't stay to hear him though, I wanted to get to an author signing.
As for authors ... I ended up accidentally meeting Keith DeCandido, the dude who wrote two of the Supernatural tie-in novels. He also wrote some Farscape comics coworker bought and I recognized his name and asked him about it. I did not bring up the eye color problem in Neverwhere:) I also did not tell him why I didn't buy Bonekey, just pretended I didn't know there was a second novel out.
I met and chatted with Peter David, after coworker literally SHOVED me towards him. He was sweet, but of course, I complimented his Trek books and he starts talking about New Frontier, which I DIDN'T read, but he was nice about that and told me the latest book is a good starting point for someone to get into the series. Once I get home I remember I also liked his Supergirl and Young Justice...doh.
Also got to meet and chat with Barbara Hambly and I really hope I didn't ramble on for too long. Oh god. My mouth just starts going and I don't know what I'm saying because I'm so nervous. At least I didn't start blushing. And at least I didn't say "your books were a huge influence on my formative years" even though they were. I own all of her fantasy novels, which I will keep forever because they're out of print now and hard to find. *cuddles books*
Hubby got to meet Tycho and Gabe from Penny Arcade and is apparently now best buds with MC Frontalot. He play tested a bunch of games and according to him, DC Universe is much better than Champions Online. You heard it here first.
Tomorrow, if we can make it there on time considering how exhausted we are, Jared Padalecki!
Oh, and there were HUGE freakin' banners everywhere for Sherrilyn Kenyon. Now, I get that she's pretty famous, but she's a romance novelist. This is comic con. And when I say banners, I mean in the main hall taking up half a wall, plus several different booths in the exhibit hall. Are they really expecting that many people to show up just for her? Hubby wants to get her to sign a book for a friend of his, but I doubt we're gonna get close based on the advertising alone. I need to go check the schedule...
*heads to bed*