Away, Comic-Con! Away!
posted by Tach at 1:30 PM1st off- we took the trolley from Qualcomm to the Convention Center. Half-hour each way, but that's less time that it would have taken to find ANY sort of parking downtown. And at $4.50 a round-trip, probably less expensive in the long run. I highly recommend this for anyone staying outside the downtown area, and not attending an afterparty. They stop running at 9-ish. We're definitely using it again next year.
2nd- having press passes kicks ass. We avoided both the purchase lines, and the regular check in lines. In, badges, and on the floor in 5 minutes. Awesome, with a side of awesome for dipping.
Having been to Comic-Con before, I pretty much knew what to expect. Throngs of comic fans, spending money like crazy, walking around with bags and bags of merch, seeing famous and near famous folks at booths, etc. It's exciting to see an artists' booth, and think: hey- I've seen his stuff on the internet!
These guys were too cool. The backpacks were spot on.
Once we made the first round of the floor, it came time for us to head to the first panel we wanted to attend- Bradbury, Harryhausen, and Ackermann. Having met with Forry before, we definitely wanted to see him again, and the Rays were certainly a bonus to that. We actually got seated during the panel before it- the Simpsons' panel. Got to listen to Matt Groening and co. talk about the show and the upcoming movie- even got to see some animatics and story-board clips. Funny stuff- funnier than the show's been for a while, really. The panel we'd come for, while entertaining at times, was a bit less than what I'd hoped for. It really turned out to be just 3 guys telling a few stories. While that's fine for lunch at the House of Pies, it was a bit... underwhelming. I heard Ray Bradbury say he's got some books and movies in the works, though. And Forry has yet another movie cameo coming up. Go Forry. (all the photos I took during this panel came out pretty fuzzy, due to our distance from the stage)
So, we headed back downstairs to the showroom again. We saw some pretty interesting costumes over the course of the weekend. A lot of Jedi, naturally- let me tell you the folks at Master Replicas must have made a fortune selling those Force FX lightsabers over the weekend. EVERY Jedi had one, it seemed. I'm glad really. It saves a bit of embarrasment when they swing it around and DON'T have to make the "vrrrmm" noises themselves. Somebody send one to that Star Wars Kid.
Bad costumes are a normal thing for most conventions- but Comic Con is the best. Seriously. Home costumers of every talent level take it to the extreme. If they're good- they're really good. And if they're bad- they're horribly bad. Saw the worst Captain America ever. He markered up a shirt and shorts, and painted a star on a red garbage can lid. Awesomely bad.
Case in point- Green Lantern. 3 out of 10 on the Flannel-scale.
Of course, we did see things like: the cross-dressing Lara Croft, complete with moustache and belly flab. See also, Capt. Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and chubby Elizabeth Swann- ALL girls. Saw a girl Link, too.
Believe it or not she was one of the better Jack Sparrows
These folks were out at the Nintendo Booth. Seems to me Zelda isn't quite living up to the Legend here.
We made it to the last few minutes of the "Spirit Movie" panel. Mac saw Frank Miller for the first time, and was pretty interested in learning more about the Spirit. An excuse to head to Continental Comics, methinks.
After Frank & Co. moved on, we waited for the next panel- Narnia & Pirates 2. The Narnia stuff was okay- they were pimping the 4 disc DVD out in a few months. Showed some of the extra footage they were adding. They also explained to the fans why they were filming the next films out of order- Prince Caspian was the 3rd book, apparently- short answer was: the kids would be too old if they didn't.
The Pirates stuff was worth the wait. They showed a whole bunch of stuff regarding the creation of Davy Jones and crew- including the new motion capture techniques and digital animations. I had no idea that DJ was completely CG'd- but he was. Even the eyes. An even more amazing feat, after seeing Bill Nighy's non-effect performance. They captured every detail of his face and expressions and translated them to the computer model. A-mazing. But not as amazing as the clip from Pirates 3. What seemed like minutes of a trailer- incomplete shots and all, it was incredibly cool. We even got posters afterwards- in lieu of cigarrettes, I'd imagine.
We did take some time Sunday to make the rounds to our favorite webcomic folks. Gabe & Tycho were gracious and awesome, as always. Glad to see that Mike grew some hair since last I saw him in '03. Sorry to see that Jerry hasn't.
Gabe & Tycho take a moment to pose with Mac- probably the highlight of their Sunday.
We also hit the PvP booth- right in time to see Scott Kurtz return from a signing. We were going to press for a sketch at that time, but he admitted to being a bit less than exhausted at that moment- so we asked if we could come back later, once he'd refreshed himself a bit.
So, we went back and visited with a guy named Andy Lee. He came highly recommended to talk to by Nate- seems they've become fast friends at the cons they've been to together. I've gotta say, I'm totally impressed by the guy's work. He does it so well, and so fast- we were both really sad that we didn't have the funds to get something from him. Next time, we'll definitely shell out for a custom bit of art.
Mr. Andy Lee working on a sketch. Awesome stuff.
We walked around, getting stoned off the sheer geekery to be had. We stopped by a booth that had something to do with a new Avatar card game- to whit, they gave us a poster. Upon the poster were to be placed stickers from other booths that had Avatar related products. After collecting the 5 stickers, we returned to the Nickelodeon booth, and claimed our prize- an Appa mousepad. Sweet! As a bonus, we got a placemat for the Avatar CCG. We'll find something to do with it.
Hottest costume of the Con. To bad she's not real.
There were quite a few pieces of artwork, sculpture, and figures that we were drooling over. Mac found a near full-size model of Boris Karloff as the Mummy that she almost broke the glass over. I myself found some killer Star Wars statues from Gentle Giant that called out to me from behind their clear prisons.
New SW figurines based on Clone Wars-type art. I want a Leia/R2.
This Capt. Jack from Gentle Giant even caught my eye:
I don't collect Jack Sparrow stuff, but this guy calls to me.
Finally, we called it quits. Since this was our first Con, I didn't want to overly-bore Mac with standing in line for sketches or autographs- especially since we were only there Saturday and Sunday. Next time, we'll do more- and with Wondercon coming up in March, that doesn't sound to bad at all.
Here are the only two sketches I really, really wanted this go round...
Gabe, by Gabe. Also signed by Tycho- adds to the sentiment. Interestingly enough- there's a story. When Tycho was signing the sketch, Gabe asked about my mechanical pencil- if I could part with it. I explained that it was the only one I had, and for me, more importantly, I'd had it forever. I don't even remember where it came from. He said he didn't want to take my only pencil, so we moved on with our sketch in hand. Mac piped up that we did have plenty of pencils at home- and I could part with that one, if I really wanted to. So, we went back, and I handed the pencil to Gabe. It felt right- that something that brought so much of my mediocre art to life, would now be in the hands of guys who make great things, and that MY pencil could possibly be participating in that creation. Or, you know, be used by Kara to write up grocery lists. Whatever. It's just my favorite pencil ever, y'know?
Shecky, by Scott Kurtz. He apologized six times for the "crappiness". Seeing as how it was the last day of a 4 day convention, I can see past any deficiencies that might be present. I don't care what some folks say about Scott- he's a class act to his fans. And that's all that really matters to me.
So that, in a nutshell was Comic Con '06. There's other stuff, but nothing that really matters in the long run. Only, I'll let you know that John DeLancie broke my ridiculosly dumb inner fanboy's heart. Yes, he did.
-Talk hard
