My Comic-Con Days 3 & 4

July 28th, 2008 Robert Posted in Comic Books, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, SDCC 2008, Television / Movies, The Venture Bros |

My Jedi moment with Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars: Clone Wars!

Lots of photos from Days 3 & 4 (plus some from Day 2) along with more details on my time at Comic-Con, the panels, the floor, the madness and will I be coming back to Comic-Con next year or will I just be doing Emerald Con in the future? Hmm…

Day 4 - Sunday

Alright so I really didn’t blog from SDCC very well. I had hoped I could get things setup a touch better, I did not drag my 1000 lb laptop around (another reason to do the Mac ‘puter switch — lighter laptops) plus I wasn’t interested in sitting around blogging. I mean its tough at SDCC, you are either in a line or waiting to get into a line to get into a panel to get a good seat and then to go leave as quick as you can to make the next panel. To a point, it got a little too much for me. Today I took it all easy. I got into the Smallville / Supernatural panel and that was fun, then I had 10 mins left in the DC Nation: Weekend over panel so I decided to skip it and the DC I love comics panel. Actually at one point, I said “F***K all the panels!” and just kicked around on the floor. I struggled about as it seemed that Sunday had more people on the floor than any other day — even Sat.

Some of the big things that I noticed was that the entire Con is MORE about TV Shows, Movies and Holywood and like 10% about comics. Even in the Smallville panel, an announcement that Geoff Johns will be writing an episode that will introduce the Legion of Super-Heroes to the Smallville world had people leaving the panel (and MANY of them) asking, “Who was the big surprise? Was it the guy who wrote Superman writing Smallvile? Big deal! Who cares!”, and when I clarified that it was Geoff Johns who WRITES the Superman comic they were like, “WHO?! Yeah, who cares. I hope he can write! He writes the Superman comic, is he going to make Smallvile like Superman NOW?!”. I kid you not and this was generally the speak from the majority of the SDCC attendees. ALL the big line-ups were for shows and movies. When you went on the floor and to the right (north) it was all comic & misc stores and almost NO ONE was there. Okay at the begining of the Con today it was the busiest I ever saw it but otherwise it was DEAD in comparison to the area near the WB booth when I tried to get the WB special bag (Smallville/Supernatural) for my wife. IT was INSANE, people fighting and pushing one another. Everyone trying to get more than 1 bag, hanging around after getting one — insanity but go to the comic retailers area and you could play a football game without hitting someone. Insane.

More on Geoff Johns, Smallville and Legion of Super-Heroes
http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17458

I say it here and now — I think “Comic” Comic-Con is dead, it is now Media-Con. The far left (south) of the Con has misc premiere stores and video games with a TINY Artists Alley since this is Comic Con. Emerald City Con’s Artist Alley seemed bigger! It was pretty sad really. I think this is the first and last Comic-Con for me unless I am going there re: comics work and not as a geek/fan. I will leave Emerald Con for that!

Oh and big congrats to Newsarama for winning an Eisner! Even if their new site still doesn’t work with me, I guess I am one of the few out there who don’t like it. I didn’t like Dark Knight either so I know I am a freak!

Smallville panel was fun and cute. A fan dressed like Green Arrow impressed Justin Hartley but the key was a fan dressed as Batman (who was throughout the Con at many panels) asked, “I have only 1 question — When am I going to be on Smallville!” which had all the panelists and fans laughing, cheering and ended the panel. Supernatural was next and it was decent. I took as many photos as I could, watched the first 5 mins of the season opener, rather than a preview reel like Smallville, and laughed when the GhostFacers came onto the stage until “Dean” kicked them off. It was decent and ended with the gag reel that will be on the DVD (I hope).

Supernatural signing at the WB booth!
Supernatural signing at the WB booth!

Riker looks pissed at me for taking the photo!

The Supernatural panel

Visiting the Dharama Initiative booth! Nice people!
Here I am joining the Dharma Initiative

The DC Comics DEMON & ME!
The DEMON and Me!

My Comic-Con Day 3!

Day 3 - Saturday

Oh and I snuck into the Marvel: Secret Invasion panel to hear that Bendis! and Dan Slott weren’t coming (and someone called Bendis! a punk for not showing) then Bendis! did a phone-in and was on the speaker phone. William S pointed out to me that he has done that before and at Emerald Con, Bendis! phoned in but wasn’t on speaker phone. Bunk. You can read all about Marvel Secret Invasion stuff like the WAR of KINGS upcoming event/storyline coming out:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080726-Secret-Invasion.html

And I did attend the Fables panel where I found out that Bill Willingham will do Fables forever and I also got the bonus page from the Con which was awesome! The panel was good, I just can’t remember all that was said or any links about the panel details (as my brain is mush tonight).

I did get to the DC Universe panel which was good. The old Archie heroes / Impact (oh how I enjoyed those characters!) & Milestone characters are coming into the DCU! The mystery image on Teen Titans (the teaser in the back of the latest issues) is Milestone character Static which I thought was decent news. The panels hilight for me was meeting Keith Giffen and getting a book signed! SWEET! Oh and as I mentioned after the Emerald Con here, I said I talked to Mike Grell about his upcoming Warlord series and they announced it at the panel.

I was pretty disappointed with Geoff Johns who kept up the SDCC ‘08 joke of anytime someone talked about any dead character, “I need Black Lanterns!” and all his other comments were boring, short and blah. Another thing that I noticed at SDCC, almost NO teasers (not to be confused with announcements) from ANYONE! Even Greg Rucka said he had news he COULD NOT talk about for over a year now (okay, he really made me laugh with his “Keith is always teasing me!” bit) but overall it is just plain boring! BORING! Give all the 100K+ fans SOMETHING for F**K sakes! Another reason NOT to come to Comic-Con as I get more teasers online from other Cons than SDCC! That was disappointing. More here:
http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17432

Okay I got my days wrong, I wrote about Day 2 again (After not being able to make The Venture Bros. panel (which was BULLSHIT! We got their early enough but you shouldn’t have to be there 3 hours before to get in!!), we (Ethan from Elfsar Comics and his brother) went to the EW Visionaries panel with Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, Zak Snyder and Frank Miller. I have to say that this was like a dirty comedy show (not for kids ’cause every second word was a cuss) and HOLY SH***T it was GREAT! I laughed so hard my sides hurt, it really was a comedy show. I think Frank Miller uttered like four words after drinking more of his pints (or whatever his was drinking, it wasn’t water!). We ended the night doing a late night crawl on the floor, got to see Sean O’Rielly at Arcana Comics booth. Great guy! Then after leaving the Con well after the closing, Ethan and his bro took off for their bus back to their hotel, I snuck into the Kevin Smith panel and had much more laughs until my wife called me for a pick-up.) — really I ended the Con on Sat with the Secret Invasion panel then I capped the night with a wonderful dinner with family at a Mexican restaurant in Old Towne San Diego!

Lou Ferrigno, The Hulk
Lou Ferrigno, the original Hulk!