Comic-Con
Well, it finally happened. I got to go to Comic-Con, Southern California's annual gathering of geekdom. But what's even better, is that I got to go there on the company dime. So that made the trip even sweeter.
Let's talk about the size of Comic-Con. It's huge! It's enormous! It's gigantic! I mean, they said it was big, but I didn't expect it to be BIG! I've been to conventions before, but nothing on this scale. The San Diego Convention Center is hundreds of thousands of square feet, and yet it got filled to capacity. Thursday, it was busy; Friday, it was crowded; but Saturday, it was jam-packed! Apparently, they had to stop selling one-day tickets on Saturday because the place was too full. But even with those insane crowds, I had a lot of fun.
Some highlights:
*Seeing Bruce Campbell on a panel promoting his two new DVD sets, "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr." and "Jack of All Trades"
*Seeing multiple panels featuring a lot of my favorite voice actors. I won't bore you with any details there, since most of these people are anonymous except to voice chasers like me.
*Seeing a panel promoting the DVD sets of "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain" which featured several of the creators and stars of both shows. And then:
*Getting free copies of the DVD sets of "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain" for letting some people interview me about the panel I just saw. It seems there's a chance my interview footage might appear on the DVD extras on Volume 3 of "Pinky and the Brain" when it comes out.
*Seeing Sergio Aragones, Scott Shaw and Kyle Baker compete in the Quick Draw competition, kind of like improv for cartoonists.
*Getting to see a sneak preview of the movie "Monster House" in 3D--a quite entertaining little film, with great 3D effects.
*Getting to see the pilot of NBC's new show "Heroes"--it's just as intriguing as the commercials make it look. The pilot didn't blow me away, but the series has tons of potential, so I'll be following it in the fall.
*Seeing the panel for the Jim Henson Company and hearing about all the stuff they have in the works. It seems like they've been rather quiet for a while, so I was surprised to hear everything they have in production, including a sequel to the Dark Crystal. Normally, I would have been put off by that news, but since it's being designed by Brian Froud and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, who insisted it include puppets, it sounds like it's in good hands.
But perhaps my favorite panel of the weekend was Robert Smigel's. He talked a lot about doing cartoons for SNL, a little about Conan O'Brien and a little about Saturday TV Funhouse. He showed a lot of clips, which the audience was clamoring for, although I would have much rather heard him tell more anecdotes and stories, because I've seen all the clips before. But there was something especially thrilling about getting to see him do Triumph the Insult Comic Dog live in the audience, picking on Comic-Con geeks. He was all pumped up to go next door as Triumph and crash the panel on Klingon Lifestyles, but sadly, he discovered that panel had already concluded. He said he'd be back next year to promote the Saturday TV Funhouse DVD, so that'll be a priority if I get to go again.
All in all, Comic-Con was information/sensory/wallet overload. There was almost too much to see and do. Several times I had to make tough choices when there were overlapping panels I wanted to see. But I was satisfied. I really hope I can go back again, although I've heard from some people that Comic-Con has kind of gotten too big for its own good. I think a large part of the growth is that, in some ways, Comic-Con has transcended its geeky roots. Oh, there's still plenty of sci-fi and comics and gaming to be had, but I think it's really become more of a pop culture convention. Consequently, that means an even larger audience of people getting pulled in. Oh well.
Oh yeah, one other result of this trip is that I really want to go back to San Diego sometime on a non-Comic-Con trip, because it seems like a pretty cool city.
Let's talk about the size of Comic-Con. It's huge! It's enormous! It's gigantic! I mean, they said it was big, but I didn't expect it to be BIG! I've been to conventions before, but nothing on this scale. The San Diego Convention Center is hundreds of thousands of square feet, and yet it got filled to capacity. Thursday, it was busy; Friday, it was crowded; but Saturday, it was jam-packed! Apparently, they had to stop selling one-day tickets on Saturday because the place was too full. But even with those insane crowds, I had a lot of fun.
Some highlights:
*Seeing Bruce Campbell on a panel promoting his two new DVD sets, "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr." and "Jack of All Trades"
*Seeing multiple panels featuring a lot of my favorite voice actors. I won't bore you with any details there, since most of these people are anonymous except to voice chasers like me.
*Seeing a panel promoting the DVD sets of "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain" which featured several of the creators and stars of both shows. And then:
*Getting free copies of the DVD sets of "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain" for letting some people interview me about the panel I just saw. It seems there's a chance my interview footage might appear on the DVD extras on Volume 3 of "Pinky and the Brain" when it comes out.
*Seeing Sergio Aragones, Scott Shaw and Kyle Baker compete in the Quick Draw competition, kind of like improv for cartoonists.
*Getting to see a sneak preview of the movie "Monster House" in 3D--a quite entertaining little film, with great 3D effects.
*Getting to see the pilot of NBC's new show "Heroes"--it's just as intriguing as the commercials make it look. The pilot didn't blow me away, but the series has tons of potential, so I'll be following it in the fall.
*Seeing the panel for the Jim Henson Company and hearing about all the stuff they have in the works. It seems like they've been rather quiet for a while, so I was surprised to hear everything they have in production, including a sequel to the Dark Crystal. Normally, I would have been put off by that news, but since it's being designed by Brian Froud and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, who insisted it include puppets, it sounds like it's in good hands.
But perhaps my favorite panel of the weekend was Robert Smigel's. He talked a lot about doing cartoons for SNL, a little about Conan O'Brien and a little about Saturday TV Funhouse. He showed a lot of clips, which the audience was clamoring for, although I would have much rather heard him tell more anecdotes and stories, because I've seen all the clips before. But there was something especially thrilling about getting to see him do Triumph the Insult Comic Dog live in the audience, picking on Comic-Con geeks. He was all pumped up to go next door as Triumph and crash the panel on Klingon Lifestyles, but sadly, he discovered that panel had already concluded. He said he'd be back next year to promote the Saturday TV Funhouse DVD, so that'll be a priority if I get to go again.
All in all, Comic-Con was information/sensory/wallet overload. There was almost too much to see and do. Several times I had to make tough choices when there were overlapping panels I wanted to see. But I was satisfied. I really hope I can go back again, although I've heard from some people that Comic-Con has kind of gotten too big for its own good. I think a large part of the growth is that, in some ways, Comic-Con has transcended its geeky roots. Oh, there's still plenty of sci-fi and comics and gaming to be had, but I think it's really become more of a pop culture convention. Consequently, that means an even larger audience of people getting pulled in. Oh well.
Oh yeah, one other result of this trip is that I really want to go back to San Diego sometime on a non-Comic-Con trip, because it seems like a pretty cool city.