Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad
I went to the San Diego Comic Con this year, like most years for the last couple of decades. This year, because I saw so much cool stuff, I wrote up a report on my live journal (in three parts). Since a lot of it is stuff y'all might be interested in, I'll repost it here.
2005.07.17 22.32
Comic Con 2005
So, I've been at San Diego Comic Con International 2005 since last Thursday. My friend Jonah of http://www.comicbookresources.com was able to get me a press pass to get in at the last minute (thanks Jonah!). I didn't abuse the press pass (though I thought about it once or twice when facing big lines for some things).
The time was split between comics-related stuff, movie-related stuff, and television-related stuff. So, I will split my posts to this blog in that manner as well. Anyway, this is the comics-related stuff.
The floor was good this time around, though even more crowded than last year with well over 75,000 showing up I am pretty sure. I bought a lot of great new stuff (most of it Eisner nominated). Just looking at the stack, I'll mention a bunch:
1) The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft - a book of short comics about witchcraft interspersed with commentary from people of the Wicca faith, nominated for a story Evan Dorkin did for it I believe. Melody started to read it and said it was good...and she is a pretty tough customer when it comes to comics.
2) In the Shadow of Two Towers, by Art Siegelman - previous did Maus, the Pulitzer prizing winning book about the holocaust. I read Two Towers at the con, and it is fairly good though of a political bent that I tend to disagree with. Worth the $20 for sure though, if nothing else based on the art, the enlarged art-book style blow-ups of some great comic strips from 100 years ago, and the writing style.
3) Courtney Crumrin in the Twilight Kingdom - nominated for as Eisner for best kids book I think. I've had good luck with kids-oriented graphic novels in the past, like Herobear and the Kid by Mike Kunkel, so I figured I would take a chance on this one. It's the third book in the series, but the author assured me it wouldn't be confusing to start in the middle (which is the one that got the Eisner nomination).
4) Tricked, by Alex Robinson. Alex also did Box Office Poison, a most excellent graphic novel that I highly recommend. When I saw this, I grabbed it up pretty fast and showered Alex with compliments over the Box Office Poison stuff he had done - which he took graciously.
5) Spiral-Bound by Aaron Renier. I don't know much about this one, but he's published by Top Shelf Productions, who tend to make great stuff like the afore-mentioned Box Office Poison, and Blankets by Craig Thompson. It looked interesting (another kids-themed book it seems from the cover and the Lemony Snicket review on the back), his booth seemed lonely, and he drew me a fantastic picture inside that was worth the $15 price tag alone.
6) Later Days, by Dave Sim and Gerhard. This is the second to final Cerebus book (the last one is out I understand, but I will have to pick that up some other time). This one is going to be painful - not in the emotional way, but in the slogging through mud to get to the other side sort of way. Sim's work has really gotten wacky near the end of the Cerebus series, but I've committed myself by reading the prior 265 comic books in the series, so I intend to finish out the final ones through 300 even if my eyes start to close and I drool while trying to figure out what the heck is happening in that religious-insanity-driven brain of Sims. Mind you, I have no objections to religion in general - I just think Dave Sim has gone bonkers.
7) Astonishing X-Men Volume One. This is, literally, the first super-hero oriented comic book I've bought in half a decade at least (and even then it was odd stuff like Starman), aside from a few old things like a Daredevil compilation by Kevin Smith. I bought it because Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and now the Serenity movie) wrote it. I've heard great things about it, and he got nominated for it as well, so I figured I would break down and give it a try.
8) Fables Vol. 4, March of the Wooden Soldiers. Fables is a great series of books about the ongoing adventures of all of your favorite (or not so favorite) fairy tale characters who are kicked out of fairy-tale land temporarily and set up camp in New York in disguise. Despite that description, this one is not a kids line of books. In fact, it's published under DC's alternative imprint of Vertigo. I've liked all the books up to this point, and was just filling in my collection with Vol. 4 as I missed it at my friendly neighborhood comic book store. Speaking of which, Mile High Comics offers 30% off their graphic novels and trade paper backs, plus free shipping if you spend enough, which is a lot more than my comic store is doing for me lately (they used to, but not so much anymore). So, I may ditch the local store (which is not in any way struggling for business), and go with Mile High from now on.
9) Serenity, Issue 1. I don't buy individual issues of comic books anymore (which are now called Pamphlets in the industry, by the way), and have not for years except when absolutely necessary (like with the 3 geeks, mentioned below). That said, Joss Whedon wrote this along with Brett Matthew, it features some nice art by Will Conrad and a great cover by Brian Hitch, and best of all it was free at the Dark Horse Booth. Not to mention Brett Matthew signed it for me. Of course, it's STILL a pamphlet, and therefore likely to end up being given to my friend Laura after I read it (who is an even bigger Whedon fan than I am).
10) The 3 Geeks: Full Circle and 3 Geeks Super-sized Swimsuit Spectacular, and Archie's Pal Jughead issue 166 (which I bought only because the 3 Geeks are in it), all by Rich Koslowski. Rich is a fantastic writer and a fine artist. He's been struggling for years in the comics industry, stuck doing Archie/Jughead comics while trying to self-publish his 3 Geeks series. It's really funny and well-written stuff, and these are the three newest for this last year. If you have not read Rich's 3 Fingers graphic novel (about the seedy and truly devious side of the disney characters if they had really existed), you are seriously missing out.
That's all I see in the stack right now, though there may be a few other things in another bag.
Panel-wise, I went to the "The Graphic Novel" panel discussion, featuring Kyle Baker (Why I Hate Saturn, a book I enjoyed); David B. (a great French comic book writer/artist who does a book called Epileptic which I will have to get my hands on one of these days); David Lapham (Stray Bullets, a really excellent series I've mostly read); Gary Panter (Jimboilin Purgatory, which I've never read) and Jordan Crane (The Clouds Above, which I have also never read). The panel was interesting. I was pretty surprised to hear that a bunch on the panel STILL are stuck thinking they have to publish pamphlets along with trade paper backs instead of just doing the graphic novel stuff. I just don't get it. Why restrict yourself to chopping your work up into 20-minute-read sections rather than writing what you want to write with the space you need to write it? The moderator made two points that I hope sunk in with the panel: 1) Barnes and Noble, Borders, and other non-comic stores are carrying graphic novels these days, not to mention alternative book stores and record stores and college stores; 2) not one but two six-figure deals were recently signed by major book (not comic, but novel) distributors for relative unknowns in the comics industry to publish graphic novels. Guys, enough with the pamphlets already. At least Kyle Baker and the French guy David B. got it. Kyle is coming out with a slavery-themed Nat Turner book, which I will have to pick up some time. David B. mentioned that in France, a MAJORITY of the best-selling books (that includes regular text novels) are graphic novels right now, which is something that only Japan can match right now.
There were some other panels I was interested in that I managed to miss. The Talent Deserving Wider Recognition panel seemed to be missing from the schedule this year (which sucks, because I like that panel and usually end up buying a lot of books based on what I see/hear from them), or maybe I just missed it when scanning the now-mammoth schedule of "Spotlight On: Some guy I've never heard of" panels.
Nuff said on the comics end, on to the TV and film stuff.
2005.07.17 22.32
Comic Con 2005
So, I've been at San Diego Comic Con International 2005 since last Thursday. My friend Jonah of http://www.comicbookresources.com was able to get me a press pass to get in at the last minute (thanks Jonah!). I didn't abuse the press pass (though I thought about it once or twice when facing big lines for some things).
The time was split between comics-related stuff, movie-related stuff, and television-related stuff. So, I will split my posts to this blog in that manner as well. Anyway, this is the comics-related stuff.
The floor was good this time around, though even more crowded than last year with well over 75,000 showing up I am pretty sure. I bought a lot of great new stuff (most of it Eisner nominated). Just looking at the stack, I'll mention a bunch:
1) The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft - a book of short comics about witchcraft interspersed with commentary from people of the Wicca faith, nominated for a story Evan Dorkin did for it I believe. Melody started to read it and said it was good...and she is a pretty tough customer when it comes to comics.
2) In the Shadow of Two Towers, by Art Siegelman - previous did Maus, the Pulitzer prizing winning book about the holocaust. I read Two Towers at the con, and it is fairly good though of a political bent that I tend to disagree with. Worth the $20 for sure though, if nothing else based on the art, the enlarged art-book style blow-ups of some great comic strips from 100 years ago, and the writing style.
3) Courtney Crumrin in the Twilight Kingdom - nominated for as Eisner for best kids book I think. I've had good luck with kids-oriented graphic novels in the past, like Herobear and the Kid by Mike Kunkel, so I figured I would take a chance on this one. It's the third book in the series, but the author assured me it wouldn't be confusing to start in the middle (which is the one that got the Eisner nomination).
4) Tricked, by Alex Robinson. Alex also did Box Office Poison, a most excellent graphic novel that I highly recommend. When I saw this, I grabbed it up pretty fast and showered Alex with compliments over the Box Office Poison stuff he had done - which he took graciously.
5) Spiral-Bound by Aaron Renier. I don't know much about this one, but he's published by Top Shelf Productions, who tend to make great stuff like the afore-mentioned Box Office Poison, and Blankets by Craig Thompson. It looked interesting (another kids-themed book it seems from the cover and the Lemony Snicket review on the back), his booth seemed lonely, and he drew me a fantastic picture inside that was worth the $15 price tag alone.
6) Later Days, by Dave Sim and Gerhard. This is the second to final Cerebus book (the last one is out I understand, but I will have to pick that up some other time). This one is going to be painful - not in the emotional way, but in the slogging through mud to get to the other side sort of way. Sim's work has really gotten wacky near the end of the Cerebus series, but I've committed myself by reading the prior 265 comic books in the series, so I intend to finish out the final ones through 300 even if my eyes start to close and I drool while trying to figure out what the heck is happening in that religious-insanity-driven brain of Sims. Mind you, I have no objections to religion in general - I just think Dave Sim has gone bonkers.
7) Astonishing X-Men Volume One. This is, literally, the first super-hero oriented comic book I've bought in half a decade at least (and even then it was odd stuff like Starman), aside from a few old things like a Daredevil compilation by Kevin Smith. I bought it because Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and now the Serenity movie) wrote it. I've heard great things about it, and he got nominated for it as well, so I figured I would break down and give it a try.
8) Fables Vol. 4, March of the Wooden Soldiers. Fables is a great series of books about the ongoing adventures of all of your favorite (or not so favorite) fairy tale characters who are kicked out of fairy-tale land temporarily and set up camp in New York in disguise. Despite that description, this one is not a kids line of books. In fact, it's published under DC's alternative imprint of Vertigo. I've liked all the books up to this point, and was just filling in my collection with Vol. 4 as I missed it at my friendly neighborhood comic book store. Speaking of which, Mile High Comics offers 30% off their graphic novels and trade paper backs, plus free shipping if you spend enough, which is a lot more than my comic store is doing for me lately (they used to, but not so much anymore). So, I may ditch the local store (which is not in any way struggling for business), and go with Mile High from now on.
9) Serenity, Issue 1. I don't buy individual issues of comic books anymore (which are now called Pamphlets in the industry, by the way), and have not for years except when absolutely necessary (like with the 3 geeks, mentioned below). That said, Joss Whedon wrote this along with Brett Matthew, it features some nice art by Will Conrad and a great cover by Brian Hitch, and best of all it was free at the Dark Horse Booth. Not to mention Brett Matthew signed it for me. Of course, it's STILL a pamphlet, and therefore likely to end up being given to my friend Laura after I read it (who is an even bigger Whedon fan than I am).
10) The 3 Geeks: Full Circle and 3 Geeks Super-sized Swimsuit Spectacular, and Archie's Pal Jughead issue 166 (which I bought only because the 3 Geeks are in it), all by Rich Koslowski. Rich is a fantastic writer and a fine artist. He's been struggling for years in the comics industry, stuck doing Archie/Jughead comics while trying to self-publish his 3 Geeks series. It's really funny and well-written stuff, and these are the three newest for this last year. If you have not read Rich's 3 Fingers graphic novel (about the seedy and truly devious side of the disney characters if they had really existed), you are seriously missing out.
That's all I see in the stack right now, though there may be a few other things in another bag.
Panel-wise, I went to the "The Graphic Novel" panel discussion, featuring Kyle Baker (Why I Hate Saturn, a book I enjoyed); David B. (a great French comic book writer/artist who does a book called Epileptic which I will have to get my hands on one of these days); David Lapham (Stray Bullets, a really excellent series I've mostly read); Gary Panter (Jimboilin Purgatory, which I've never read) and Jordan Crane (The Clouds Above, which I have also never read). The panel was interesting. I was pretty surprised to hear that a bunch on the panel STILL are stuck thinking they have to publish pamphlets along with trade paper backs instead of just doing the graphic novel stuff. I just don't get it. Why restrict yourself to chopping your work up into 20-minute-read sections rather than writing what you want to write with the space you need to write it? The moderator made two points that I hope sunk in with the panel: 1) Barnes and Noble, Borders, and other non-comic stores are carrying graphic novels these days, not to mention alternative book stores and record stores and college stores; 2) not one but two six-figure deals were recently signed by major book (not comic, but novel) distributors for relative unknowns in the comics industry to publish graphic novels. Guys, enough with the pamphlets already. At least Kyle Baker and the French guy David B. got it. Kyle is coming out with a slavery-themed Nat Turner book, which I will have to pick up some time. David B. mentioned that in France, a MAJORITY of the best-selling books (that includes regular text novels) are graphic novels right now, which is something that only Japan can match right now.
There were some other panels I was interested in that I managed to miss. The Talent Deserving Wider Recognition panel seemed to be missing from the schedule this year (which sucks, because I like that panel and usually end up buying a lot of books based on what I see/hear from them), or maybe I just missed it when scanning the now-mammoth schedule of "Spotlight On: Some guy I've never heard of" panels.
Nuff said on the comics end, on to the TV and film stuff.
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