Too Fond of Books

( Thursday!: Videos Games! Awesome Web Comics! A depressing panel that turned out OK! Talking with awesome people! )

( Friday!: Defiance! Literary How-To's! Weird Outside Stuff! )

( Saturday: We camped out in Room 8 for five hours! But the Adventure Time panel was worth it! Huzzah! )

( Sunday!: Loose Ends of all varieties! )

General Thoughts:

~ The fundamentalists were more vocal and more... uhm, personal, this year, for lack of a better word. Last year, they just yelled about Jesus, but this year, their attacks were more Comic Con-specific, like the guy with a megaphone who shouted at all and sundry, "Don't let your souls be enslaved by comics!" (It took some willpower not to shout back, "Too late!") There were counter-protests, of course, and those looked unpleasant to referee. I tried to thank as many of the law enforcement people as I could when they weren't working or concentrating on other things; one of the transit security police officers looked surprised when I did, and confessed that he really wished he could go to the Con himself. (He wanted to meet Stan Lee for real, not just pay for an autograph.) As usual, even in the hoards of people, I never felt unsafe or afraid for my physical well-being once, and I think the SDPD is responsible in a large part for that.

~ For some reason, the crash after this Con was especially hard this year. The real world, as much as I love it, doesn't seem quite as interesting for the first few days afterwards, and today was no exception, with mundane chores and problems looming large.

~ There was a lot of zombie stuff--costumes, toys, images, etc.. It was not fun for me. I wish this trend would run its damned course.

~ There were times when the Exhibit Hall didn't seem as crowded as usual, and I couldn't figure out if it was actually truly empty, or I had just gotten really, really good at making my way through the knots of people. It is a lot easier when it's just me, and I tend to stay out of the central scrum of the big companies and their lines, but I could have sworn there were times when there were swathes of empty space, and that's an oddity.

~ The overall theme of this year's Con ended up being something along the lines of, "Crazy Contradictions!" It was personified best in the juxtaposition of the Christian Comic Arts Association booth next to the Killer Zombie Bunnies booth in the Small Press area. Comic Con often leaves me with the aftertaste of sweet and sour. On one hand, there's a pure interest in comics and reading that makes my heart sing, but on the other, there's a crass commercialism that manifests itself in the crazy-long lines for the exclusive toys and vinyl collectibles that makes me alternately groan and grumble. Comic Con is the only place where I can wear my Kate Beaton t-shirt and people not only compliment me on it, but also want one themselves. Comic Con is also the place where my phobia is everywhere, all the time, and I have to make compromises with myself to get past it, but it's also the place where many, many people I admire (both real and fictional) are front and center, and I can draw on their words and examples to give me strength. There's beautiful art, and there's the cheesiest of cheesecake, side by side; in fact, there are Charles Dickens-esque contrasts every two feet or so. It's sublime and ridiculous, and I love almost all of it, even as I realize that what I love is what some other attendees hate. But that's the beauty of multiple fandoms, and when they're all present and not in conflict, it's just completely awesome.

Pictures are here, updated with Saturday stuff. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera on Sunday, so no extra photos. Still, lots of good ones, though. :)

SDCC Update: A. arrived safe and sound! And exhausted. While I do envy her train trip across the country, I think three days of traveling that way has its own stresses and tiring aspects, and I'm feeling very lucky that I live in San Diego right now.

~ The area outside of the Convention Center continues to get larger and larger. (Realistically, at this point, I'm starting to think that you can make a day of it even without a ticket to the Con itself.) There's an Adult Swim bouncy castle, a Hello Kitty merchandise installation next to the Silver Samurai armor from the upcoming Wolverine movie, and two Justice-League-themed Kias. (The Flash makes sense. Aquaman does not.) Over next to the Hilton, there are five inflatables of the Teen Titans characters, a Lego Hobbit village, and the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine van. I've haven't even gotten up to other side of the center yet, but there's a huge Ender's Game pavilion, and a food truck area.

~ I have the only item of swag that I wanted: a Mockingjay lapel pin that is actually quite stylish for something free. That said, I stood in line for half an hour to get it, and I'm DONE with standing in lines for stuff. My policy from here on out is if it's easily available and it's something I want, great, but if not, THE HELL WITH IT.

~Cartoon Network has an Adventure Time installation that I need to get close to so that I can photograph it. :D

Photos to follow later when I'm not on a limited timeline. I've seen some adorable kids' costumes, but the best was a sleepy, three-year-old Thor chewing on the handle of Mjolnir.

Squee!

General caveat: This year, I'm not doing anything Hall H, and I'm thinking Ballroom 20 is out of the question, too, due to the general level of hysteria surrounding the line to get in there. :(

( Thursday )

( Friday )

This Sunday was spent in two ways: 1) the Adventure Time Children's Museum Installation, and 2) wandering through the Exhibit Hall for one final hurrah.

First, the AT installation: ( in one word, awesome! )

And then there was wandering on the Exhibit Hall floor: ( Getcher autographs here! Step right up and meet our renowned artists! One draws Cthulu, the other draws butterflies! )

Due to camera malfunction, there are no pictures from today. But if you missed the others, they're all here!

I'll try to do a write-up on the whole experience in the next few days, but I do have to say that it really was quite fun and I do not regret any of our time there. :D

In general, things I am loving this year: people and conversations over the most random of things. With a few exceptions, it's been a big fannish love fest so far.

Things I am not loving: The number of zombies and zombie-related crap. And the Christian group that has brought megaphones with them and yells at us every time we go in or out of the convention center about how Jesus Christ died for our sins and we are worshipping false idols. Yesterday, a lone guy tried to engage them in debate by yelling back, "This is NOT the way to convert people!" but had no effect.

Specifically, ( Thursday: )

And also ( Friday: )

For those who just want to see the pictures, check them out here.

Tomorrow: Adventure Time panel! I will be in costume all day! Hopefully reconnecting with some friends! Stay tuned!

There are a bunch of internet acronyms that I'm tempted to use here about my general mood now, but they're not quite encapsulating of how I feel about the Con and this Sunday's experience.

OMG: So. Much. Fun! (I had a great time this year, even though it was tempered by having a small child at home who needed attention immediately when we got back and insisted on waking up early every morning of the Con. This experience made for a great "stay-cation".)

OMG: So. Many. People! (OMG OMG OMG. I don't mind crowds, and as usual, this was a fairly benign group of people, but it was intimidating to get stuck in the middle of scrums on the Exhibit Hall floor, and I did get antsy towards the end of the whole affair, but this always happens. I couldn't get near many of the really big booths and I did witness a fairly unpleasant frenzy over Conan the Barbarian t-shirts at the Lionsgate booth, which could have been easily avoided with some line management.)

OMGWTFBBQ: So many people in costumes this year wearing very uncomfortable looking shoes. I saw some heels that I just couldn't believe; walking around the floor in 6-inchers? Really? For how long?

WTF: The tickets for next year thing. The lines. I passed one line of people at the Star Wars booth today and asked what they were waiting for. The last guy answered me: "The new "Old Republic" game demo. We're waiting two hours for three minutes of gameplay." I tried to be polite and not gape at them, but I think I gaped a little. I understand loving games and geeky things, but there's a real problem with his statement.

o_0/Slightly annoying: Amongst the freebies, there are a ton of totes and bags that turn out to be enormously useful the rest of the year for moving, grocery shopping, etc. However, this year, the great majority of these bags were poorly/cheaply made and I saw a lot of them falling apart with even just a little use on the floor. I understand we're in a recession and some companies didn't want to go for broke, but there's being generous, and there's being cheap, and this fell squarely into the "cheap" camp. Likewise, the annoying trend for free downloads of book samplers, instead of the physical samplers themselves. I count on the book samplers for reading in lines for panels, and I was hard pressed this year to find any at all! (Penguin Group came through in the end with not one, but FOUR samplers that I heartily enjoyed.)

OMGYAY: Getting to meet new talent (Tori Davis, who did an excellent commission sketch for me--she is so talented and her work is just amazing!) and seeing old acquaintances (like Tammy Stellanova & Ryan Clayton).

-_-;;/Sad Things: There was a genuine air of desperation for many people on the industry end of things. I heard a lot of talk about being unemployed or partially employed for long periods of time; everyone was concerned about the general state of the industry and its chances. I was also saddened at some of the unpleasantness that I overheard on the floor. More people were rude to one another than in previous years, and there was a lot of talking back to authority figures, who I thought were mostly pretty relaxed, considering the challenges they were faced with. I was also a little lonely for old, personal friends who couldn't make it for one reason or another.

But there were so many awesome things to counteract the sad ones, and the experience was excellent overall. I had a really fun time observing children today. One kid, at the XBox Kinect Star Wars booth, was just itching to get his turn at the game and went through all the motions himself before he even got into the demonstration. There was another very funny moment a few days ago, too, when I was about to go back into the Exhibit Hall and was passed by a man and a boy of about seven. I got the impression that the man was trying to be a Cool Uncle. The kid declared, "Let's go back and buy MORE TOYS!" and the wannabe Cool Uncle's face lost a bit of its color. In other kid-related developments, yebisu9 commented that he was really happy to see so many girls and young women dressing up as Jedi, and I liked that, too: there's a lot of power in those characters and I think a lot of young women really respond to that well. It was a nice balance to the Sucker Punch sailor-suited girls who were wandering around the hall.

In the end, though, what really makes me the happiest about this whole experience, is that it boils down to a celebration of reading, and the reasons reading makes everyone's lives better. Even though some people are there for JUST the movies or the vinyl toys, there are many more who aren't, and every kid who goes home with a free comic book or sampler is going to go home and *read* it, and that's a gateway. And I can't think of many other occasions where reading is as celebrated and valued. :)

Pictures are updated and annotated here. Thanks for reading!

Before I get into talking about the time spent at the Con itself, I have to get something off my chest, and I will do my best to keep it short and not too soapbox-y: I don't have tickets for next year's Con, and this is because it is impossible to get them. At 10:30 yesterday morning, I went over to the Hyatt, all set to procure them, only to be to told that the number released for today had already been sold out. And (here's the kicker, wait for it!) people were *already* lining up to buy tickets for the limited number available tomorrow (i.e., today, Friday.) So the upshot is that even though I live in San Diego, have the cash, and am prepared to spend it, I cannot buy the tickets. I am not willing to waste a day of my Convention experience waiting in line so I can have it again next year. This is ridiculous. Of course, there will be a certain amount available online later this year, but I'm not holding my breath, given the experience others have had with that system. I think at this point, a lottery system is the only fair way to distribute these, if they're this limited. But making people wait overnight in line? That's just messed up.

OK. Now to the fun part!

Preview Night! yebisu9 and I had an awesome time poking around in the exhibition hall, although the lines were already insane. I couldn't figure out who, exactly, was doing the lining up. But, regardless, we got to see a lot of fun stuff. Even though there are purportedly fewer movies this year, the big studios are certainly around and their booths are usually jammed full. The hyping is still at epic proportions, especially for TV shows and cartoons. (The entire Con appears to be bankrolled by basic cable networks, HBO, and Showtime.) The swag is still rolling in, too. Yesterday, I ended up with untold numbers of postcards and flyers, an inflatable plastic sword from EA Games, a plastic water bottle, a paper model of Godzilla, sunglass promoting "Psych", pins, tote bags, a superhero toy made out of popsicle sticks, and several temporary tattoos (one for Dexter that is actually pretty awesome). The best swag was a bag of microwave popcorn promoting Movies On Demand (appropriate AND useful!)

Best Dialogue Overheard On the Exhibit Hall floor:
"Wow, this is a nerd nexus!" (Said by some people behind us as we were all trapped in a large scrum of people trying to get to the Hasbro booth.)

And, another time:
Guy 1: (pointing at a screen) Oh, that's from "The Exorcist".
Guy 2: The movie, or the musical?

And, yesterday, between a mother and daughter:
Mom: Who's that character?
Daughter: (disbelieving/amused/affectionate) Mom, how are *you* at Comic Con?!

Thursday: After the ticket debacle, I spent the day on the floor, going through the Small Press Area and Artist's Alley. I had the great good fortune to see Katherine Brannock and buy her gorgeous sketchbook; her artwork is amazing combination of Arthur Rackham and Charles Audobon. I also chatted with Ryan Clayton of Elephant Eater comics, who is kind enough to remember me even though I only see him once a year. (We talked about teaching comics; he is someone who I wish I could do a joint Comic Books course with--I'd tackle the literary end, and he could handle the artistic end). I also visited Nemu Nemu Comics at the behest of a friend, and was pleasantly surprised to find an adorable comic and related merchandise. There was also a great double-header in the form of The Frantic Meerkat and the Mincing Mockingbird, which showcases some awesome bird paintings and funny animal comics; again, nice people to talk to, and with some really fun, innovative stuff.

There are photos, too, but I'm waiting to post them until I work out a kink with LJ. :p

The gallery is here! I realized how much I wanted a better camera this year, so as to better capture the crazy that is the Con.

Saturday:

First up was the Marvel panel, run by Joe Quesada (editor-in-chief) and some of his minions, whose names have escaped me. Quesada swore up and down that the merger with Disney was the Best Thing Ever to Happen to Their Little Company and that no creative control was being meddled with. (But guess what? There's a tie-in comic with the new Disney film Tron: Legacy coming out in October, which everyone was Very Excited about!) As is probably obvious from the preceding sentences, I really didn't give a damn about this panel one way or another. But it did lead to some of the most hilarious quotes I heard during the entire Con:

Quesada on a new Incredible Hulk title, coming out in September: "There'll be a lot of smashing in this one... yeah, lots of things smashed. It'll be really cool."

One of the scriptwriting/artists minions, in response to an audience question from two guys in costume who asked, "Why are Captain America and Iron Man hoarding all the knowledge of [unintelligible]?": "Uhm... you do realize that Captain America and Iron Man aren't real, right?"

Guy in the audience, ecstatic over an announcement of a certain character's return: "YEAH! Rocky Rac-Coon! Woooo!!"

This panel was quickly followed by the far superior and more entertaining Quick Draw, featuring Sergio Aragones (of Mad magazine), Scott Shaw!, and William Stout doing improvisational drawing games. I actually got a couple of decent pictures this year of the drawings they did, which are in the gallery. Describing this panel is like trying to grab hold of a very determined and grouchy eel in a large tank of vaseline, especially given my tired state of mind, but here goes: This panel reminds me why we're all actually at the Con. It's because of comics and drawings and stories. Little improv sketches give way to crazy stories, and come with all sorts of tales and prompts that hint at the stories that inspired them. (My favorite running drawing game is "New Jobs for the Hulk", as suggested by the audience. This year they were Secretary, Janitor, and Astronomer.) This panel always makes me glad I spent the $$$ on the ticket in the first place, mostly because I get to spend some serious time in the presence of people who I think are creative, funny, and talented.

After this, I met with M. from Book Group and a friend of hers and we went out for drinks and non-Con airspace. It was very peaceful out in Seaport Village, and nice to talk fannish stuff.

Following lunch, I lurched my way back into the Exhibit Hall and realized, somewhat belatedly, that I had hit my wall, putting-up-with-the-Con-wise. The crowds were pretty crazy; I didn't feel like spending anymore money; and I kept running into people at the booths who were really into the hard sell, which is something I really don't appreciate. (No, I will not buy the 5$ compilation of the series that I stopped reading over 10 years ago; I stopped reading it for a reason. Yes, I would like to support your charity, but I cannot for the life of me remember what this guy's artwork looks like, and I don't want to commission something from someone I don't know.) I did have a very nice discussion with the women at the Bekyoot booth, who did not do the hard sell and seemed happy to have someone talk with them about their designs and their plans to expand into the babywear market.

yebisu9 caught up with me around 5:00 and we decided that we had to have dinner or we both might do violence. Unfortunately, I think it was this decision that caused us to miss a good place in line for the Mythbusters panel: by the time we got back to the room, it was still an hour before panel time and the line snaked back away from the room, down the wall, and outside, where it curved and rounded back on itself so many times that we couldn't figure out how many people were actually waiting and if we had a chance to get in or not. In the end, I told Yebisu he could call it either way and he decided we should bail. (We read in the Con newsletter this morning that 2,000 people came to see it! No way would we have gotten into that!) So we went home and watched an episode of "Survivors" instead.

[Bonus report! Yebisu attended the "V" panel and provided the following information:
1) Morena Baccarin is GORGEOUS (well, duh, we already knew that);
2) Mr. Hawt Britishy Guy will be a series regular this next season; and
3) Anna's mother is named Diana and there will be a shot of her on the V home planet.]

Sunday:

Today's panel was the spotlight on Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson books. And he was a gracious, articulate, and kind speaker, who fielded the questions from his youngest fans with great attention to detail. Overall, he didn't tell me anything especially new about the series and its creation, but his passion for writing and education really shone through, and it was a pleasure to hear him speak.

After that, psydolivia and I wandered around the Exhibit Hall floor, where I fulfilled my final few quests of the Con, which were buying one more crazy fleece hat, procuring comic-themed baby clothes (Flash onesie! YAY!), and generally trying to soak it all in one more time. We met psychoe and her friend, had lunch, saw ashears one last time... and then my brain began the shut down process and I knew it was time to go. I would have loved to talk longer with everyone, but I could see the mental and physical storm clouds gathering, and I was determined to leave on a high note. One trolley ride and short drive later, we are home, and I am finding that I do, in fact, have a very painful blister and more free swag than I know how to deal with.

Sum-up post to follow, most likely tomorrow, when I've regained my brainpower. But whatever brainpower got drained, it was totally, 100% worth it. XD

First of all, photos can be found here. Of course, I'll continue updating as the Con rolls along.

Day 1 started somewhat blearily, as decaf coffee really is no substitute for the real thing (but regular caffeine has to be rationed at the moment.) We ran several much needed errands before catching the trolley downtown. (The trolley is simply excellent, and I look forward to the day when it is actually convenient for me to use it on a regular basis.)

Of the three panels I attended today, two of them were literature-based and one was science-based. The science-based panel ("Iron Man and Rocket Men: Is Stark Industries an Appropriate Model for Private-Industry Space Exploration?") turned out to be very interesting and rather optimistic about the long-terms odds for continued space exploration, despite the current state of space science research funding here in the States. (In fact, there was general consensus amongst the panelists that space tourism would eventually become a financially accessible thing for many more people than it is now, and that private industry would help advance the cause much further than current government projects.) The literature-based panels were both equally interesting, but veered into dangerous conversational territory towards the ends. Each panel consisted of at least seven authors, which was one too many; I think the conversation would have been much more focused with just five. However, both panels produced interesting observations from their authors, and (as I expected) left me with a long list of new books to get my hands on.

[Short note: For the record, contrary to my previous impressions, Lev Grossman (author of The Magicians) does not appear to hate children's literature, or C. S. Lewis. I think he just wanted to push a lot of buttons.]

There was one especially awkward note in "The Power of Myth" discussion, though: one audience member asked how what the authors were doing was any different from fanfiction. (It had been established that all the authors had taken established mythological characters and rewritten their stories.) After a short moment of awkward laughter, and then silence, one author spoke up and said he thought the difference was "quality". An angry buzzing murmur went up from the audience, but before anything could happen, the moderator hastily ended the panel. The eternal fan/creator crisis was narrowly averted.

I also spent today doing one of my favorite things at the Con: walking the Small Press, Independent Press, and Artists' Alley areas. I got to chat with Ryan Clayton of Elephant Eater Comics who is kind enough to remember my name despite the fact I only see him once a year. He's turned his master's thesis into a combination essay/comic special release, and I am looking at a copy of it right now. I also met Tammy Stellanova, whose work is a beautiful and wonderfully detailed combination of comic narrative and scientific animal observation. Another great artist who patiently answered all my questions was Richard Peter Han, whose work is inventive, dynamic, and funny, without being forced or contrived. Finally, I commissioned a sketch from the always awesome Tracy Butler, who I think could get away with (read: should be) charging a lot more for her personality-filled and inspired drawings.

The running theme I've been overhearing this year in conversations between fans and artists, in practically every area of the Con, is "So, what's your day job?" Tammy Stellanova, for example, takes on commissions of pet portraits and freelance magazine work, all so she can keep on drawing for a living. But I've also heard it on the lips of people who I thought were seasoned professionals, veterans of the industry. This is somewhat sobering, because one of the things the Con always leads me to is the thought that being creative and living a creative life producing what you love should be its own reward. But this year, that idea's being sorely tempered by economic concerns. Still, I can't escape the fact that everywhere I turn at the Con, someone's reading something, or drawing something, or talking about something they've seen, read, or drawn. And I get this feeling in my heart that all's right with the world, money woes be damned.

Tomorrow: Moto Hagio panel! Girls Gone Genre panel! Hopefully meeting more of my favorite webcomic authors! More photos! More fighting with my wallet! Stay tuned!

Tonight, yebisu9 and I watched The Wolfman, which had a plot that can be best described as "murky". Normally, when this sort of thing happens, I wonder just how many screenwriters were in on the creative process and where the ideas got too mixed up to work anymore. In this case, there were only two screenwriters, but they were basing the script off the Lon Chaney original, and on top of that, there were four producers. Too many cooks syndrome, most definitely. The results were... kind of mixed. The atmosphere that the production cooked up was top-notch: creepy moors with lingering fingers of fog; gorgeous costumes and score; cavernous country houses with dramatic-looking staircases; and a scene set in an "asylum" that sets a new low in the history of mental health care. But the story dragged on and on, and Anthony Hopkins seemed to be phoning his performance in. I swear, in every scene he was in, he was thinking about his laundry, or what he'd had for dinner the night before, or something else other than the action at hand. Done right, this would be scary and psychopathic-seeming, but it just felt distracted/distracting. As usual, with a boring main plot like this, I wanted to focus on the side characters instead, particularly in devising a sequel where the love interest (played with steely propriety by Emily Blunt) and the inspector from Scotland Yard (Hugo Weaving) forge an unlikely monster-fighting relationship after getting a handle on how best to deal with his impending lycanthropy problem. (He's the last bitten.) That would be a movie I'd happily pay to see, and not wait for the DVD from Netflix.

And, speaking of adaptations, there's a rumor afoot of a live-action version of the manga Rurouni Kenshin. I'm very fond of this manga, and its various anime adaptations, but I have my sincere doubts that it could be successfully turned into a satisfying live-action movie. For one thing, there are too many characters to include in a 90-minute movie; quite a few of them would have to be excised to create a workable script. And this is sad, because one of this story's strengths is its ensemble cast and their interactions with one another. (I think this would be yet another movie where the plot would be better served by being carved into a 12-episode mini-series.) Another point of contention would be which arc of the story to turn into the main movie plot. (This is a 28-volume manga epic.) I would like to see some part of the Kyoto arc, but that means we'd have to put up with the villain of that arc, who really, really gets on my nerves. On the plus side, there's the part of the rumor that Watsuki (the creator) held out on offers from Hollywood studios (YAY!) until he got an offer from a company that promised to devote enough $$$/yen to recreate the CGI effects necessary to bring to life the original style of martial arts he created for the manga. Anyway, over on the newsgroup, casting rumors and suggestions are flying back and forth, but I think I won't weigh in on this until there's some actual footage/confirmation from official PTB on this.

In other fannish news, the schedules for Comic Con Thursday and Friday are up. ( Specific Panel Babblery Follows. )