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San
Diego Comic Con 2003
A report
from Ground Zero by Corey Henson
For the
second year in a row I attended the mecca for all pop culture-obsessed
geeks and nerds everywhere, the San Diego Comic-con. Last
year, I was there on official business for my day job as a
marketing representative for ADV Films. This year, I was on
vacation, and a couple of friends were coming with me, so
it was a much more enjoyable experience. Here now is my day-by-day
con "diary." For a proper con report, including all the news
and stuff I didn't catch while out there, one of the hundreds
of other websites that posted proper reports.
Wednesday:
I arrived in San Diego at about 4 p.m. My flight from Houston
was overbooked, and I didn't have a seat assignment, so I
almost didn't make it on the plane. Luckily, I got the last
seat on.
My buddy
Frank, also from Houston, had arrived earlier in the day,
and picked me up from the airport. We went straight to our
hotel, the Radisson, which was just around the corner from
the airport. After an hour to settle in and rest, it was off
to the convention center for Preview Night. The hotel was
a mile away from the con, so we had a nice little walk through
downtown. (After a couple of days, though, the beautiful walk
turned into a grueling trek down the Trail of Tears.) The
architecture in San Diego is beautiful, and there isn't nearly
as much road construction as we have in downtown Houston.
The weather was a bit warmer than we expected, but at least
we didn't have to worry about a hurricane.
At the
con, I went first to the ADV Films booth to say hi to the
poor saps who had to work the booth. The new booth is huge
and elaborate, but not nearly as tacky as I'd expected based
on the conceptual designs I'd seen at the office. (some of
us had taken to calling it "Six Flags Over ADV.) I think we
were again the only booth with a second story.
Next,
it was off to the Oni Press booth, to finally meet and talk
to Jamie Rich about the graphic novel proposal I'd sent him.
He said it needed polishing up before they'd consider publishing
it, but he gave me some great tips on how to improve it. He
seemed to like my work, for the most part.
I stopped
off at the Avatar booth to pick up one of the exclusive Alan
Moore's Yuggoth Cultures Preview. Artist Jacen Burrows drew
a zombie for me on the cover, while we chatted about anime.
I then
walked over to the DC booth, to catch a glimpse of their upcoming
DC Direct figures. There was no Firestorm figure to be found,
which was discouraging, but they did have some cool looking
Superman figures, including a new Superboy and Eradicator.
They also debuted a new line of figures based on their Golden
Age characters' first appearances. The Bob Kane-style Batman
was represented by a cool but unpainted prototype. I'm definitely
picking that up when it comes out.
I went
over to the Mattel booth to pick up the Keldor and Batman
exclusive figures, only to find they weren't selling any till
tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, the news got worse the next
morning...
Stopped
by the Diamond booth to pick up the Mary Jane/Peter Parker
Exclusive Mini-Mates, then it was off to the Art Asylum booth
for the Ultimate Spider-Man/Grey Hulk Mini-Mates. Unfortunately,
I had no idea where their booth was, and couldn't find it
after an hour of searching. Ugh.
Thursday:
I got to the con about fifteen minutes before the doors opened
to the general public. Lucky me, I managed to snag an Exhibitor
badge from my connections at ADV, so I didn't have to pay
for my admission or stand in any of the ridiculously long
lines. Heh heh...
Armed
with my newly acquired floor map, I found the Art Asylum booth
pretty easily. It seems I'd walked by it several times the
previous night without even noticing. (Grr...) I got my Mini-Mates
though, so it's all good.
Next,
it was back to Mattel to pick up my toys. Here's where the
news gets worse. They'd suddenly decided that instead of letting
everyone buy their Keldor and Batman toys at the beginning
of the day, they would pass out tickets and hold a lottery
to decide who would get the chance to buy the toys that afternoon.
If the number on your ticket didn't fall within the range
of numbers they selected, you were screwed until the next
day, when you had to pick up another ticket and try again.
Not only that, but you could only buy ONE of the figures,
meaning you had to choose between Keldor and Batman. And once
you bought one, you weren't allowed to buy the other AT ALL.
Luckily, I had a winning ticket the first day, so I picked
up my Batman exclusive (in his eighties-style blue and grey
togs) and waved good-bye to Keldor. (We'll always have Eternia.
Sniff.)
My stomach
started growling, so I went over to the Starbucks counter
in the lobby for a Mocha Coconut Frappucino and a blueberry
scone. I got there just in time to see one of the Too Much
Coffee Man booth monkeys picking up a few coffees. (Hypocrites.)
I also stood in line next to Rob Liefeld, better known to
the online community as A-Bunch-of-Names-You-Can't-Repeat-in-Polite-Company.
He's still dressing like it's 1991, but at least he's finally
starting to show his age. I took my grub to the cafeteria
are in the convention hall, while I sat across the table from
Neal Adams as he sketched on a drawing pad. He smiled at me
as I sat down, but I didn't have the balls to say anything.
He looked like he might want some privacy (otherwise I imagine
he would've stayed at his booth). Plus, it was Neal-freaking-Adams,
the best Batman artist ever, and I was a little starstruck.
I attended
the DC Direct brainstorming panel that morning, as I'd promised
Troy I'd try to go (and there weren't any other panels I was
interested in that day). Interesting tidbits learned: Non-DCU
action figures don't sell too well, so don't hold your breath
waiting for America's Best Comics figures or the rest of the
Authority; there will be more Legion figures, but they'll
likely be mostly male characters; there will be figures for
Firestorm and Atom in '04; and they're strongly considering
the idea of doing lines of figures that are based on famous
artists' renditions, ala' Alex Ross' Kingdom Come toys. (I
was happy, since Maguire's JLI was one of the ideas floated
out by DC.)
For the
rest of the day I walked the floor, shopping and saying "hello"
to some of the creators I met last year, like C.B. Cebulski
and Pat Lee (who showed me his ultra-top secret project for
next year - it's cool as hell, and it's going to be BIG),
or people I've met only through email, like former Dreamwave
staffer Adam Fortier and Slave Labor's Director of Sales,
Deb Moskyok.
Later
that night, Frank and I attended CrossGen's invitation-only
"Non-Dinner Dinner" at the Marriot's Yacht Club. The idea
was that comics press members and CG staffers could mix and
mingle without talking business or schmoozing. Frank and I
talked for a bit about the state of comics with Dan Mishkin,
writer for a whole bunch of 80s DC comics. Then, CG President
and CEO Mark Alessi stopped at our table to introduce himself
to Frank and I. We chatted for a solid twenty minutes about
comics and CrossGen. (Amazing, isn't it? Marvel can't even
be bothered to set up a table at the convention, yet here's
the big cheese at CrossGen going out of his way to chat with
people he's never met.) After the dinner, which CG picked
up the check for, company Vice-President Tony Panaccio passed
out copies of a Brandon Peterson/Chimera sketchbook to the
press in attendance. The sketchbooks were signed and numbered,
and made exclusively for this dinner. I got #19 of 50 copies
produced. Jealous yet?
After
dinner, Frank and I headed off to the airport to pick up my
best friend, Carrie, who flew in from Chicago to visit us
for the weekend. I don't get to see her much these days, so
I was anxious to spend as much time with her as possible.
After dropping off her luggage at the hotel, we headed back
to the Gas Lamp District for some good old fashioned bar-hopping.
Carrie and I had fun catching up with each other and throwing
back drinks, while health-conscious Frank drank Cranberry
juice and looked generally very bored.
Now, in
the 9+ years we've known each other, Carrie and I have always
been strictly platonic friends. While I'm not really all that
attracted to her, I realize she's a very beautiful woman,
and a LOT of guys are going to want to mack on her. But goddam,
why is it that everytime her and I go out, someone's gotta
hit on her RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME? C'mon guys, you see me walk
in with her, and you see me buying her drinks. I know I'm
not a terribly good-looking guy, but does everyone have to
assume we're not together? Give my ego a break, please, and
at least wait until I make one of my frequent trips to the
bathroom before you start moving in on her.
While
we were out, we noticed one thing about downtown San Diego:
The night life sucks. Seriously, there's nothing interesting
to do in town after hours, at least nothing we couldn't do
in Houston. Even the tattoo parlors close early.
Anyways,
on the way back home, we stopped off at Ralph's to pick up
a bottle of wine (yes, we're lushes) and some late night grub.
As we went to check out, we met a short drunk man who tried
pushing some Drumstick ice creams on us. He wanted to buy
a box of four cones, but he only really needed two, so rather
than waste the other two, he wanted to get rid of the rest.
We didn't want them, since we were already buying food, but
we ended up chatting with him anyways. It turns out he works
for McFarlane Toys. When he found out I worked for ADV, he
tried convincing me to sell them the rights to do toys based
on the Evangelion live-action movie we're working on. Hey,
even if I had the authority to do that (which I certainly
don't), I certainly wouldn't negotiate business with a drunk...
After
that, back to the hotel for bed. We had three people sharing
two beds, so Carrie and I ended up sharing one of the beds
for the weekend. Yes, sleeping next to a beautiful woman is
usually fun, but not when she snores and hogs the bed.
Friday:
I didn't sleep too well that night, so I got up early and
headed off to the convention, leaving Frank to sleep for most
of the morning while Carrie finished up some work. I only
wanted to stay at the con for a few hours, as I was anxious
to spend time with Carrie.
I popped
into the CrossGen booth to say hi to The Path penciller, Andy
Smith, who I'd met the year before. Andy and his wife just
had a baby girl. (I suspect his wife did most of the work.).
I attended
the Judd Winick/Geoff Johns panel. They talked a lot about
their plans for Titans and Outsiders, and how the two books
are connected. Winick is hilarious and outgoing in person,
while Johns looked half-asleep. Good news: Winick is working
on Barry Ween in Space. Bad news: He's only working on it
one day a week, so who knows when it will actually come out.
Next I
went to the Rob Zombie panel. I thought he was going to be
talking about his upcoming CrossGen comic, but instead he
only wanted to talk about the House of 1,000 Corpses movie.
I left after about 20 minutes, and tried to get into the Vertigo
panel. The place was too packed to get in, but I did walk
beside Neil Gaiman on the way to the room it was being held.
Close enough.
I left
around lunchtime. Carrie and I walked around Little Italy
looking for a place to eat. We couldn't settle on one place,
so we ended up going down to the waterfront and getting seafood
at Anthony's. We had this really awesome deep-fried California
Roll as an appetizer, which sounds odd but is really quite
good.
On the
way back to the hotel, we stopped off at the W for overpriced
martinis. (The cocktail waitresses were smoking hot, so I
didn't mind paying so much for the drinks.) Carrie overheard
someone say Angelina Jolie and some other stars in town for
the con would be hanging out at the bar that night, so we
made plans to come back later that night.
We had
plans to meet up with David Ireland, friend and editor-in-chief
of BPM Culture, so we decided on the W as a meeting spot.
When we got there, the line to get in was about an hour long,
and none of us had the patience to wait that long, Angelina
Jolie or not. David decided he wanted to go to Star Bar, a
really disgusting dive bar downtown. Frank and I had a particularly
unpleasant time there the year before, so we passed in favor
of finding our own good times outside of downtown. But again,
the nightlife in San Diego sucks, so we ended up getting a
late dinner and going back to the hotel.
Saturday:
Back
to the con for a few hours. Frank and I snuck Carrie in so
she could see what the big deal was. She's not interested
in comics or anything, but she was curious about the convention.
I showed her around for a bit, and introduced her to some
folks, before leaving to go to the Neil Gaiman solo panel
while she hit the Gas Lamp for some shopping.
If you
ever get the chance to see Neil Gaiman speak in a public setting,
I highly recommend doing so. He's a great public speaker:
warm, friendly and hilarious, with the most pleasant English
accent you'll ever hear. He didn't have anything prepared
to talk about, so he just answered questions for an hour.
Here's a brief rundown of some of the things he talked about:
Todd McFarlane is appealing the Miracleman/Angela court decision
from last year, but Neil doesn't think Todd's "Yeah I screwed
him over, but look at how long it took him to figure out it
out" defense will carry much weight; following 1602, he has
another project coming from Marvel that kind of ties into
1602, but no one's talking about it yet; don't hold your breath
waiting for movies based on American Gods or Good Omens, or
another Good Omens-style collaboration with Terry Pratchett
(Gaiman and Pratchett are both too successful, the legalities
of such a collaboration would be a strategic nightmare); and
not only was he doing a CBLDF reading at the con later that
night, but he's thinking of coming out of retirement for another
tour, ala' the "Angels and Visitations" readings from a few
years back. Towards the closing minutes of the panel, a line
of Klingons filed into the auditorium and waited off-stage
while Neil wrapped things up. Ah, only at Comic-con...
I shopped
around a little more after the panel. Didn't find much, but
I picked up a copy of the 2003 SPX anthology and got one of
my heroes, Jaime Hernandez (of Los. Bros. Hernandez fame),
to sign it.
Left the
convention to meet Carrie and Frank for lunch. After walking
around the Gas Lamp for a while, we settled on Indian food
at this place called "Star of India." It was supposed to be
one of the better restaurants in San Diego. While my Chicken
Biryani was a bit overpriced, the samosas were AMAZING.
Frank
headed back to the con, while Carrie and I took off to Coronado
Beach. The ferry ride over was great, but there isn't much
to do in Coronado. The beach is kind of tiny, and the town
is a tourist trap. After about 15 minutes, we were bored stiff.
So we headed back to get ready for Neil Gaiman's late night
reading.
The reading
was a benefit for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. I signed
up as a CBLDF member earlier in the day and bought some tickets
for Carrie and I. She wasn't familiar with Gaiman, but is
a tremendously good sport about enabling my geekish tendencies.
The CBLDF auction was running a bit long, which meant the
reading would be pushed back to accomodate. It was supposed
to start at 9:30, but didn't get under way for about an hour
after that. Inside, I heard some people talking about Neil's
assistant (and folk musician of some renown), the Fabulous
Lorraine Garland (formerly of The Flash Girls, currently in
Folk UnderGround). I wanted to introduce myself to her, since
we'd been emailing each other recently about the possibility
of my interviewing Neil for Newtype, but didn't I didn't see
her there. Unfortunately, Carrie was cold and dangerously
close to falling asleep by then, and I was starving. So after
forty-five minutes of reading (which amounts to 2 poems and
one lengthy short story), Carrie and I left to pick up some
late night munchies and hit the sack. I would loved to have
stayed for the full reading, but there was no way either of
us was going to make it the whole 2 ½ hours. The good news
is that Carrie enjoyed what parts of the reading she managed
to stay awake for.
Sunday:
We started the day by taking Carrie to the airport to catch
her flight back to Chicago. (Sniff.) Frank was also heading
out that day - he was going to drive to Los Angeles to stay
out there for a week and look for work. So, that means I was
left to my own devices for the entire day, which I spent at
the con.
I had
two goals for the day: spend lots of money, and fill up my
sketchbook. For the former, I picked up a few toys and comics,
including a Mr. Freeze action figure from the original animated
Batman toys, assorted cheap DC and Marvel Heroclix (I don't
play the game, but I like collecting the toys), AiT/Planet
Lar's Couscous Express and Switchblade Honey graphic novels,
and a first print of Pedro and Me, which I got signed by Judd
Winick right before leaving the con for the final time.
I didn't
get as many sketches as I wanted, though. First, I stopped
by the Oni booth to meet Steve Rolston (Mek, Pounded), whom
I'd interviewed for an article in the upcoming issue of Newtype.
He hooked me up with a cool sketch of that punk chick from
Pounded. I also met Oni publisher Joe Nozemack, who actually
used to hang around a bunch of ADV old-timers back in the
day. He's a helluva nice guy.
Next,
it was off to the CrossGen booth, to get a George Perez sketch.
Alas, by the time I got there, the line had already been capped
off. Bah. So I popped over to the space David Mack was sharing
with Brian Bendis and Mike Oeming, and got Mack to do a quick
doodle for me. I also picked up a Kabuki trade I was missing.
While there, DC editor Shelly Bond introduced herself to Mack,
and mentioned how she'd love to get him to do some Vertigo
work. Mack seemed pretty open to the idea, so let's all keep
our fingers crossed.
I returned
to the CrossGen booth in hopes of getting a Greg Land sketch,
but that line was capped, too. I did manage to corner Butch
Guice, whom I had breakfast with the previous year, and got
him to do a pencil sketch for me. I don't think Butch remembered
me, though.
By that
point, I was completely exhausted, and ready to get the hell
out of Dodge. So I made one more sweep of the con floor, then
headed back to the hotel for a night of room service pizza
and HBO. The next morning, I made the trek back to the Lone
Star State, and began psyching myself up for next year. Comic-con
was fun, but I'm glad it's only once a year.
Corey
Henson works for ADV Films and has great taste in comics (and
websites). Pay homage here.
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