All the Stuff and More
Saturday, Satyrday.
First up, breakfast at the Original Pancake House in Kearny Mesa. Cherry crepes and thick-cut bacon. I ate there more times than I could count, having lived in the area for something like seventeen years. It never gets old, though I burned out on the buckwheat pancakes some time ago.
Then the blogging panel. Which not so quickly became a "Is there such a thing as comics journalism" panel. Lots of repeat offenders from last year's outing, minus a couple (Chris Butcher most notably) and the addition of EW's comics blogger (whose name I really should remember and am far too lazy to look up now.) There wasn't the electric tension between Tom and Heidi as there had been in years past, or perhaps my senses are so dulled by boredom and bourbon that I just didn't pick up on it, but I don't think so. My big question is what matters of real journalism are there to cover in comics? The marketplace itself is dissected on a regular basis by all sorts of folks much smarter than myself (though I chime in from time to time.) For the most part, we already know why things happen in terms of franchise maintainence versus audience outreach. We know that women are underrepresented for the most part and that there's still a boy's club mentality at work on the publishing side of things (and at some, but not all, retail outlets.) There's facts that we can report, such as so and so taking over ASTONISHING X-MEN after so and so leaves. And that's probably an issue to so and so's fans. But beyond that? Does it mean more folks reading ASTONISHING? Not particularly.
But then I was never a big fan of master narrative construction, so maybe that's why all this is escaping me. There's plenty of commentary to be offered about creators and their creations, but not a lot that requires undercover investigative journalism to unearth. And finally, I'm a lapsed lapsed comics blogger, so perhaps all of this is suspect. At any rate, it's good to see Graeme in person (even if only for a period of moments.)
Caught up with my friends James and Kiersten of the Isotope, as well as receiving a quick boot in the ass by Mr. Spurgeon, who then went on to declare me the "politest man in comics." Or maybe that was "in comics blogging," I'm not quite sure. It's all so confusing.
Oh, and for the record "nerd" is perjorative, and "geek" is affectionate. Though anyone else you ask is likely to give a different answer. This is the problem with language. Words really *are* useless. Especially sentences. But maybe this is an east coast/west coast thing at work. Perhaps we could start up a blogosphere-discussion of the matter.
Next up, the JH Williams panel. He really makes every book he works on look smarter, maybe smarter than it really is. Either way, I can endlessly stare at how he breaks up a page and fill in all sorts of esoteric meanings as to why the panels fall where they do. And, as it turns out, he got into Marvel comics because of THE MICRONAUTS. Who knew? I thought I was the only one. Michael Golden claims another misspent youth, I suppose. And of course, there was the big news that he's working on a project with Grant Morrison, creator-owned. Pretty huge so far as I'm concerned. Maybe it'll end up at Vertigo and maybe, just maybe, a book publisher will get a hold of it. Yes, yes, Vertigo is a book publisher, but not in the same way that say, Harper-Collins is a book publisher. Vertigo would still aim such a book primarily at the Direct Market. But more people are going to see it if it's aimed past that (and I'm sure the DM will get it as well.) And apparently Mr. Williams has a writing project as well; we'll have to see where that goes (but to confess, I'd be far more interested in it if he were doing the art, which is not the case.)
Chatted a bit with the guys working on KILLING GIRL over at Image. I'll pick it up based on Frank Espinosa's art (and that of Tobey Cypress, who does the heavy lifting past issue #3). Also had an opportunity to chat with a bunch of the Brits: the Phonogram guys, or is that "blokes"? and Frazer Irving. GUTSVILLE was one of the genuine good surprises of the year so far. I'm particularly encouraged that apparently the story is not going to be "what you think it is", as parts of the first issue seemed kind of hidebound and cliché (but not in a dire manner.) He was also nice enough to sketch up a Klarion for me, which made my day right then and there.
As for the crowds, well, they were there. The place I really noticed it was after the panels let out in the upstairs hallways. Since folks were all being funneled one way, those corridors very quickly turned into sticky floes of humanity. Or is that Geekanity? Either way, I learned that you get to the front of the line or you just wait it out (not unlike leaving the parking lot after a Def Leppard concert.) And yes, the man with the BIG VOICE that Tom mentioned was indeed terrifying. Human herding is serious business, I guess.
Lunch at an Irish pub with the best damn curry chips ever. The french dip wasn't bad, neither. And at least I can drink cider still, though the Guiness on the other side of the table was beckoning me, but I knew that that way led to allergy-induced madness. Afterwards, back at the show, talked with the CASANOVA crew and got a couple of signatures. Oh, and I was introduced to this amazing book called RUNOFF. I'll try to gather up a review of it sometime next week. It's very much its own thing, tough to quickly explain. TWIN PEAKS, BLOOM COUNTY, Universal Monsters, THE X-FILES and My Little Pony all blended together into something unique. In short, it gets a hearty recommendation, if'n you can find it. http://www.oddgodpress.com/ is a start.
More later. Gotta wrap this up for the nonce.