Comic Con 2011: Friday/Saturday Report!
Annoying news first: Due to general sleepiness this morning, I forgot the camera at home and didn't realize until we were at the trolley station. However, there are photos from Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday here! And I will take plenty tomorrow, and plan to spend the whole day on the Exhibition Hall floor.
Anyway, without much further ado: Our trip on Friday was tricky because we were arriving later than we would have preferred; yebisu9 had work and we decided that for babysitting ease, it would be best if I dropped him off at work and then picked up later and we both went to the Con together. So we negotiated the drive and trolley fairly well, but were shaving things awfully close to our 1:00 panel start time. Both of us were into this "must get there on time or else!" mode and I nearly collided with someone going into the door for the panel. At the last minute, I was able to stop myself and said, "No, please, you go ahead." And Seth Green looked at me and said, "No, you first." I was so flabbergasted and in between brain states that I didn't babble like an idiot at him, which I usually do with people I admire. (I thanked him, went in, and procured decent seats instead.) So, yeah.
As it turned out, he contributed in a small way to the panel itself, which was a Dark Horse Comics love-in for all their Star Wars titles. For the life of me, I cannot remember if anything important was said during this whole thing, although all the writers and artists were SUPER EXCITED to be working and, of course, everyone there LOVED Star Wars. We got a fairly nice swag poster--not my favorite item of the whole con, but on nice quality paper and good art (not too cheesecakey.)
After that, Yebisu was determined to stay for the rest of the panels in the same room, so I went down on the exhibit hall floor to take pictures and gawk. The crowds were pretty crazy, although not horrifically unmanageable. (I think it's easier when you're by yourself on the floor, but it's also terribly lonely!) I was taking a picture of some Halo cosplayers near the WB booth when all sorts of hubbub and screaming broke out. I stood next to two maintenance workers, who pointed out the cast of True Blood heading into the booth for a signing. (Mr. Skarsgaard appears to be also very pale in real life.) I then had a very funny conversation with the two maintenance workers about all the famous people they'd seen; they were simply ecstatic. Reportedly, they'd gotten close to Justin Bieber (not at this Con), William Shatner, and some basketball star who'd made the woman swoon. ("He's just as handsome in real life as he is on TV!") They seemed perfectly content to just watch the action, and I left them to it.
The rest of the time, I drifted from booth to booth, acquired some random swag, and commissioned a sketch from a very chatty woman who'd done some background work on the movie "Rio" and was trying to break into the animation industry. She seemed so happy to have someone asking about her career, and told me all sorts of interesting things about her work--namely, animating backgrounds and props. She also mentioned that she'd not found work for over a year. I'll try and scan the work she does for me, if anyone wants to see it.
And then it was late, and there was pointless confusion with the trolley, and we got home later than we planned, tired but glad to be back in our quiet neighborhood.
And then today, Saturday: I had been torn between the Quick Draw panel and the Sanctuary/Community panels taking place over in the hotel on the other side of the Convention Center, and timing made the decision for us: we arrived too late to safely make the Sanctuary panel and decided it would just be easier to see Quick Draw and then stay in the same room for Avatar: Legend of Korra later in the afternoon. But before all that, we sat through the Marvel TV panel, heard about HOW GREAT their new lineup is, and watched an episode of "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!" Season 2. (Side note: Yebisu and I have been watching this show independently of the Con, and have come to the conclusion that writing silly dialogue for the Hulk is the best activity ever: Hulk need to revise resume! Hulk seek out anger management counseling! Hulk smash bad financial portfolio!) It was a good episode, but I wasn't overly wowed one way or another. We also saw a promo for the new Ultimate Spiderman show, which was... OK? I guess I'm really not the target audience. It was fun enough. Not unpleasant?? Also, we heard about how GREAT all the people at Marvel are. Did I mention they were GREAT?! (Watch this come back to haunt us later.)
And then it was Quick Draw and Cartoon Voices, and both panels turned out to be excellent--funny parts where I laughed so much that I teared up, creative types showing off their skills and bouncing off each other in terms of jokes and gags, and it was fantastic. I was sad I couldn't do everything I wanted, but I think we did make the right choice on panels.
But after that, and before Avatar, there was ANOTHER Marvel panel. This panel coincided with me feeling a little stir crazy that we'd come all the way down to the Con only to sit in one room all day and I got very grumpy. I ducked out of the beginning and wandered around the autograph area--not wanting an autograph, just looking. The three idiots guys from "Ghost Adventures" were there, looking all prima donna-ish and preening, along with some big name stars who I unfortunately didn't immediately recognize or care about. After that, I felt a bit better, and headed back into the Marvel panel, just in time to hear about how GREAT their new TV shows were and how AWESOME their writers and artists are and did I mention they were GREAT?! (Eyeroll here.) Anyway, they went on and on about this and started taking questions, and I read one of the many, many freebie things I'd amassed, half-listening to the rather useless answers until the following question:
Young Girl: So, yeah, I'm a girl, obviously, and I really like comic books, but my question is will we please see some more diverse characters? I mean, with people other than white guys? Different from you?
A HUGE rally of applause went up for this question, and all the panelists looked very uncomfortable. Joe Quesada's half-assed answer was along the lines of, "So we would like to change that, but it's really hard to make it happen when people expect us to write about the iconic characters who are white. And I'm Hispanic, and I care about this, too, but we can't just make it change overnight." I think answers like this are what's keeping comics from reaching a wider readership, and the reason why manga are winning over so many new readers while mainstream American comics are losing them. Yes, you can't instantly change all the characters overnight, but you can TRY HARDER. Employ more women and people of color in whatever capacity you can. Push for movies or TV shows about characters like Static Shock or Black Panther (seriously--Spiderman is getting a brand-new motion picture AND animated TV show, while the Wonder Woman pilot isn't picked up by any networks and the purported Luke Cage movie is stuck in development hell.) Try to bring out a new title every now and then that features a new character of color, or incorporate them into a major storyline (of which Marvel has several.) But don't whine about how it's difficult because of market forces or cultural nonsense ingrained into your core market. Think about other core markets and be the change you want to see! After that, hearing about how GREAT Marvel was didn't thrill me at all. I pretty glad when the panel was over.
But fortunately, there was GREAT AWESOMENESS awaiting in the "Avatar: Legend of Korra" trailer and concept art! Simply put, this looks gorgeous and much more ambitious than Avatar: The Last Airbender in terms of setting, martial arts, and character design. The hard work from all people involved was evident in every moment of the gorgeous trailer, which shows a world 70 years after the events of the first story, a world that has grown accustomed to peace and grown. There are some beautiful cities and lonely islands, and there's a giant statue of Aang on an island; there's more complicated technology (one of the most interesting pieces of concept art was an elaborate bending battle taking place during a car chase) and a greater integration of bending skills into society. Of course, all isn't well, and it looks like our heroes will be facing an interesting villain and a unique set of challenges. The design for our heroine, Korra, is great; she looks tough and scrappy, but realistic. Apparently, she's something of an anathema to her creators, who confessed that writing her dialogue has been a challenge because she's so different from Aang. Her sidekicks are a very bishounen-looking firebender (named Mako for Uncle Iroh's voice talent) and the comic relief earthbender Bolin. The polar bear-dog creature is Naga, and her design is apparently based on the dog of one of the creators. There were also little side notes like the fact that Toph's daughter has grown up to be the Head of Police in one of the cities (writers would not say who her father was), and the composers for the series trying to wrestle with the question of "if jazz had been born in Shanghai, not Harlem, what would it sound like?" There's also some excellent martial arts work coming up, too, and all people involved in the production are hellbent on making it better than the first one. Anyway, this whole thing was highly worth waiting for, and made my day. I cannot wait to see what they come up with!
Anyway, it was good today, and I'm looking forward to seeing as much as possible tomorrow. :D
Anyway, without much further ado: Our trip on Friday was tricky because we were arriving later than we would have preferred; yebisu9 had work and we decided that for babysitting ease, it would be best if I dropped him off at work and then picked up later and we both went to the Con together. So we negotiated the drive and trolley fairly well, but were shaving things awfully close to our 1:00 panel start time. Both of us were into this "must get there on time or else!" mode and I nearly collided with someone going into the door for the panel. At the last minute, I was able to stop myself and said, "No, please, you go ahead." And Seth Green looked at me and said, "No, you first." I was so flabbergasted and in between brain states that I didn't babble like an idiot at him, which I usually do with people I admire. (I thanked him, went in, and procured decent seats instead.) So, yeah.
As it turned out, he contributed in a small way to the panel itself, which was a Dark Horse Comics love-in for all their Star Wars titles. For the life of me, I cannot remember if anything important was said during this whole thing, although all the writers and artists were SUPER EXCITED to be working and, of course, everyone there LOVED Star Wars. We got a fairly nice swag poster--not my favorite item of the whole con, but on nice quality paper and good art (not too cheesecakey.)
After that, Yebisu was determined to stay for the rest of the panels in the same room, so I went down on the exhibit hall floor to take pictures and gawk. The crowds were pretty crazy, although not horrifically unmanageable. (I think it's easier when you're by yourself on the floor, but it's also terribly lonely!) I was taking a picture of some Halo cosplayers near the WB booth when all sorts of hubbub and screaming broke out. I stood next to two maintenance workers, who pointed out the cast of True Blood heading into the booth for a signing. (Mr. Skarsgaard appears to be also very pale in real life.) I then had a very funny conversation with the two maintenance workers about all the famous people they'd seen; they were simply ecstatic. Reportedly, they'd gotten close to Justin Bieber (not at this Con), William Shatner, and some basketball star who'd made the woman swoon. ("He's just as handsome in real life as he is on TV!") They seemed perfectly content to just watch the action, and I left them to it.
The rest of the time, I drifted from booth to booth, acquired some random swag, and commissioned a sketch from a very chatty woman who'd done some background work on the movie "Rio" and was trying to break into the animation industry. She seemed so happy to have someone asking about her career, and told me all sorts of interesting things about her work--namely, animating backgrounds and props. She also mentioned that she'd not found work for over a year. I'll try and scan the work she does for me, if anyone wants to see it.
And then it was late, and there was pointless confusion with the trolley, and we got home later than we planned, tired but glad to be back in our quiet neighborhood.
And then today, Saturday: I had been torn between the Quick Draw panel and the Sanctuary/Community panels taking place over in the hotel on the other side of the Convention Center, and timing made the decision for us: we arrived too late to safely make the Sanctuary panel and decided it would just be easier to see Quick Draw and then stay in the same room for Avatar: Legend of Korra later in the afternoon. But before all that, we sat through the Marvel TV panel, heard about HOW GREAT their new lineup is, and watched an episode of "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!" Season 2. (Side note: Yebisu and I have been watching this show independently of the Con, and have come to the conclusion that writing silly dialogue for the Hulk is the best activity ever: Hulk need to revise resume! Hulk seek out anger management counseling! Hulk smash bad financial portfolio!) It was a good episode, but I wasn't overly wowed one way or another. We also saw a promo for the new Ultimate Spiderman show, which was... OK? I guess I'm really not the target audience. It was fun enough. Not unpleasant?? Also, we heard about how GREAT all the people at Marvel are. Did I mention they were GREAT?! (Watch this come back to haunt us later.)
And then it was Quick Draw and Cartoon Voices, and both panels turned out to be excellent--funny parts where I laughed so much that I teared up, creative types showing off their skills and bouncing off each other in terms of jokes and gags, and it was fantastic. I was sad I couldn't do everything I wanted, but I think we did make the right choice on panels.
But after that, and before Avatar, there was ANOTHER Marvel panel. This panel coincided with me feeling a little stir crazy that we'd come all the way down to the Con only to sit in one room all day and I got very grumpy. I ducked out of the beginning and wandered around the autograph area--not wanting an autograph, just looking. The three idiots guys from "Ghost Adventures" were there, looking all prima donna-ish and preening, along with some big name stars who I unfortunately didn't immediately recognize or care about. After that, I felt a bit better, and headed back into the Marvel panel, just in time to hear about how GREAT their new TV shows were and how AWESOME their writers and artists are and did I mention they were GREAT?! (Eyeroll here.) Anyway, they went on and on about this and started taking questions, and I read one of the many, many freebie things I'd amassed, half-listening to the rather useless answers until the following question:
Young Girl: So, yeah, I'm a girl, obviously, and I really like comic books, but my question is will we please see some more diverse characters? I mean, with people other than white guys? Different from you?
A HUGE rally of applause went up for this question, and all the panelists looked very uncomfortable. Joe Quesada's half-assed answer was along the lines of, "So we would like to change that, but it's really hard to make it happen when people expect us to write about the iconic characters who are white. And I'm Hispanic, and I care about this, too, but we can't just make it change overnight." I think answers like this are what's keeping comics from reaching a wider readership, and the reason why manga are winning over so many new readers while mainstream American comics are losing them. Yes, you can't instantly change all the characters overnight, but you can TRY HARDER. Employ more women and people of color in whatever capacity you can. Push for movies or TV shows about characters like Static Shock or Black Panther (seriously--Spiderman is getting a brand-new motion picture AND animated TV show, while the Wonder Woman pilot isn't picked up by any networks and the purported Luke Cage movie is stuck in development hell.) Try to bring out a new title every now and then that features a new character of color, or incorporate them into a major storyline (of which Marvel has several.) But don't whine about how it's difficult because of market forces or cultural nonsense ingrained into your core market. Think about other core markets and be the change you want to see! After that, hearing about how GREAT Marvel was didn't thrill me at all. I pretty glad when the panel was over.
But fortunately, there was GREAT AWESOMENESS awaiting in the "Avatar: Legend of Korra" trailer and concept art! Simply put, this looks gorgeous and much more ambitious than Avatar: The Last Airbender in terms of setting, martial arts, and character design. The hard work from all people involved was evident in every moment of the gorgeous trailer, which shows a world 70 years after the events of the first story, a world that has grown accustomed to peace and grown. There are some beautiful cities and lonely islands, and there's a giant statue of Aang on an island; there's more complicated technology (one of the most interesting pieces of concept art was an elaborate bending battle taking place during a car chase) and a greater integration of bending skills into society. Of course, all isn't well, and it looks like our heroes will be facing an interesting villain and a unique set of challenges. The design for our heroine, Korra, is great; she looks tough and scrappy, but realistic. Apparently, she's something of an anathema to her creators, who confessed that writing her dialogue has been a challenge because she's so different from Aang. Her sidekicks are a very bishounen-looking firebender (named Mako for Uncle Iroh's voice talent) and the comic relief earthbender Bolin. The polar bear-dog creature is Naga, and her design is apparently based on the dog of one of the creators. There were also little side notes like the fact that Toph's daughter has grown up to be the Head of Police in one of the cities (writers would not say who her father was), and the composers for the series trying to wrestle with the question of "if jazz had been born in Shanghai, not Harlem, what would it sound like?" There's also some excellent martial arts work coming up, too, and all people involved in the production are hellbent on making it better than the first one. Anyway, this whole thing was highly worth waiting for, and made my day. I cannot wait to see what they come up with!
Anyway, it was good today, and I'm looking forward to seeing as much as possible tomorrow. :D