We managed not to get a SANDMAN 20th Anniversary poster with art by Jill Thompson, Tony Harris, Steve Leialoha, Mike Allred, Bryan Talbot, and more than 25 others, but Vulture shows it to you. Follow the link for the whole thing and a character key.
Lots of stuff emerging from the cracks of con reports:
¶ Neil Gaiman’s Batman interview:
So I don’t have to write lots and lots of emails back to all the journalists:
1) Yes, I am writing a two part Batman story.
2) Yes, Andy Kubert will be drawing it.
3) Yes, it will be two oversized issues.
4) No, I don’t plan to say anything else about it until it’s all written and drawn.
¶ Cecil Castellucci’s new book:
The big news: There will be a third Janes book! Right now it’s called Janes Go Summer! That could change. But color me SO Excited!
¶ James Romberger has drawn a yet unannounced book for Vertigo Crime:
I hope it works out well since I did the art for one of the Vertigo Crime graphic novels….it’s been finished for a few months now, but they didn’t announce it yet.
¶ Raina Telgemeier teases some news:
I also have some exciting news to report, hopefully very soon! I told a few people about it in San Diego, and if you know where to look (*cough*), you might be able to guess at most of what it is.
Stay tuned!
Following the link yields this from Scott Robins:
Raina Telgemeier gave me some insight on her next book following the 4th Baby-Sitter’s Club title. Longtime fans of hers will GRIN at what’s upcoming and I’m sure so will a whole new audience of kids.
Hm, Raina does a great webcomics called SMILE…wonder if…
You can’t stop after just 300. Just some random linkage and so on; by reading a few of these, you begin to see the elephant:
§ Caleb Monroe attempts the greatest experiment of all with a pedometer:
So, since my feet sure feel the mileage every year, this year I thought I’d find out just what that mileage was. So I bought a pedometer to count the number of steps I took during the con, and therefore approximately what distance I traveled. I forgot to get one before leaving for my train, but after walking the few blocks from the train station to my hotel and dropping off my bag, the first thing I did was walk another couple blocks to Long’s Drugs to buy a pedometer. A Gaiam Beginner Pedometer, to be precise.
§ And what about those pesky strollers?
I was one of those persons who took a stroller and 8 month old to the Con, and I’d just like to say — that stroller and child is no bigger than half the fans on the show floor. Most of the people I ran into were rude people trying to jump over the stroller and grab a sticker or postcard. And I protect my child, thank you very much. I mostly stayed to the lesser traveled areas unless there was a specific reason to go to the more crowded areas. And I paid more than enough to go wherever the hell I pleased however the hell I pleased with whomever the hell I pleased. My daughter’s safety and happiness was paramount, and I missed most of the signings and panels I wanted to see because I was catering to her and my wife. And I had absolutely no problem with that. Anyone complaining about the kids at the Con either have no children or have forgotten what it is like to be one. In other words, shut up. BTW, I didn’t get run over by one single stroller, even my own when the wife was driving. Maybe paying attention to my surroundings and not being rude helped a bit. I’ve been going to this event for 9 years, and I’ve rarely been run over by anything but a rabid fan looking for freebies. Maybe we should ban THEM.
Aaron Alexovich:
A BOLD PREDICTION: The SDCC Hollywood money-train will soon drift to a slow crawl. Comic properties will continue to sell, but the marketing people will wise up a bit. Oh, you’ll still see cool presentations and the occasional Owlship at the Con every year, but the Keanus and Jolies will dry up, and with them all the casual fans who swell the yearly body count past 125,000. Things will drift back to a more sustainable size and no one (sweet jeezus here’s hoping) will have to go to Vegas. So don’t fret none, San Diego… You’ll be hating our guts and collecting all our money for many, many years to come.
(This one businessman-looking guy on the sidewalk actually shouted at me to “get my ass out the way” on Friday. He waved his arm all angry-like and everything. We reacted the only way you can react: hysterical laughter.)
§ Ben Templesmith’s show:
I had a fake homosexual encounter on the con floor. I vandalized a baby and I nearly got a spanking from Stan Lee.
§ Bryan Lee O’Malley’s show:
Saturday: more of a blur. At 7 AM we looked out the window of our hotel room and saw that there was an enormous WAVE of people waiting to get in (not a line/queue, a WAVE).
§Nikki Cook’s photos and LJ, above with Ted McKeever.
§ Comics Bakery photos
§ Dave Roman comes home:
-Coming back home with Raina, getting late-night Greek food in Astoria, and feeling good about our lives.
Apparently there was some kind of viral game for AMC’S PRISONER remake going on at Comic-Con, and they were responsible for the skywriting:
AMC played their own little marketing game (Fox also did this with Fringe) at Comic Con to create buzz for their remake of the 1960’s cult classic The Prisoner.
Attendees were provided with cryptic puzzle cards, which when decoded drove participants to SeekTheSix.com where they were told to ‘seek the six’ in order to reveal the secret behind the campaign.
Not impressed.
Ballantine is going to collect those bleak, nihilistic “Garfield Minus Garfield” strips by Dan Walsh. PR below:
The full-color book format will give readers the experience of having both the original and doctored Garfield strips together on the same page for comparison. Dublin, Ireland-based Garfield Minus Garfield creator Dan Walsh will provide the foreword to the book.
Garfield creator Jim Davis was intrigued by—and pleased with—the concept. “I think it’s an inspired thing to do,” Davis said. “I want to thank Dan for enabling me to see another side of Garfield. Some of the strips he chose were slappers: ‘Oh, I could have left that out.’ It would have been funnier.”
Garfield Minus Garfield site creator Dan Walsh says, “When I looked at Jon and laughed at his crazy antics I thought ‘He’s just like me.’ As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one saw myself in him: millions of visitors from all over the world visit Garfield Minus Garfield and tell me they think the same thing. Now, thanks to the awesome generosity and humor of Jim Davis, Garfield Minus Garfield is going to become a book and I’m absolutely honored to be part of it.”
Ballantine has already made a mint printing Garfield — 33 Garfield books have made the New York Times bestseller list. Will the strip minus the porky pussy fare as well?
When you see a picture like this, it is really impossible not to want to go to San Diego, despite the crowds and expense, isn’t it?
Via Dean Trippe.
ComiPress has an exhaustive guide to all the manga-related SD doings. Simon Jones has a guide to the guide. Among the interesting tiddle taddle-bits: Although absent from the show, Tokyopop announced a deal with Japanese publisher Gentosha
Global manga giants TOKYOPOP and Gentosha Comics have entered into a worldwide partnership to advance the cause of the manga revolution. Under the terms of the alliance, TOKYOPOP will provide sublicensing agency services (outside of Asia, France, and Italy) for Gentosha Comics’s world-class library of manga hits, including titles like GRAVITATION, LAMENT OF THE LAMB, and ARM OF KANNON.
The companies will also pursue a wealth of co-development opportunities in the digital, film, and merchandising spaces.
The TOKYOPOP/GENTOSHA COMICS alliance is expected to yield great results not only in the world of printed books, but will also represent a significant addition to the growing library of properties that TOKYOPOP is developing into feature films, television series, and web shows.
Japanator has the color commentary.
RECOMMENDED: Neil Kleid does Rorschach’s SDCC Journal:
Meeting with Warners left bad taste in mouth. Pampered and decadent, betraying even their own shallow, poor understanding of the comic book industry. Comics industry as bad. Flabby failure that sits whimpering in mothers’ basement.
Why are so few of us in this industry active, healthy and without personality disorders?
…ooh. Free Ben 10 DVDs. Yoink.
Technorati Tags: Watchmen
Okay, we lied. We’re going to put good photo sets we find in this one link, so keep checking. First up, Beaucoup Kevin’s always excellent photos.
§ NEW! (I think) Hip Flask’s photos.
If you are like us, you are very, very sick of San Diego. We’ll have some thoughts, some photos and this link roundup, but unless something of bold and shocking content suddenly appears, that’s it. We’re moving forward!
§ Hip flask photo set with lots of us and FMB!
Longtime Beat pal Steve Marmel gave us permission to repost his Facebook rant on Comic-Con. We found it of some interest because Steve is what we’d term a card-carrying nerd-lebrity — he’s got his own fairly lengthy IMDb page, has starred in at least one TV show and several Comedy Central Specials, and has written and produced tons of animation and live action, including The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, and the upcoming Welcome to Mollywood. But we only know him because he likes comic books. And even the nerd-lebrities think Comic-Con isn’t as much fun when it’s all Hollywood and not enough comics!
Hey, you.
In the back of the room, sneering at the guy in the home-made Flash suit that might be a little bit illfitting, but he made it himself. You know who I’m talking about. You, the guy that didn’t stop to appreciate how freaking cool the guy in the “Sandman” costume was.
Yeah, you.
I, like a lot of people, made my annual pilgrimage to the San Diego Comic-Con. I, like many of the people who have gone as often as I have gone, understand the cons of the con. We make the jokes. But we’re allowed to.
It’s our f***ing party.
Batman isn’t just a property that made 300 million dollars, he’s a guy who took a tragedy and honed himself into a weapon against evil. Iron man isn’t just a vehicle for Robert Downey Jr. to reintroduce himself to the public, it’s the story of a flawed (alcoholic) billionaire that uses his genius as one of the 12 steps to redemption.
…or at least that’s what our cabbie told us. On the ride to the airport, this 25-year vet of San Diego confided that the mayor was going to build a brand new convention center and hotel complex with an airport in Chula Vista (just south of SD) to host the convention. This canny fellow — who would only tell us he hailed from a “former Communist bloc country” — also allowed as how San Diego is the richest city in the US and the fifth largest overall, so you may take this information as “unconfirmed,” but if it comes true….you know where you heard it!
Waitaminnit, turns out there actually was talk of a new Chula Vista convention center but it wasn’t nearly big enough:
Nashville, Tenn.-based Gaylord Entertainment, the owner and operator of the Grand Ole Opry, its affiliated hotel and other hotels, entered into an exclusive developer agreement with the port and Chula Vista last year to build a 2,000-room hotel and 400,000-square-foot convention center on 33 acres of bay front the city has been trying to develop for decades.
All this talk of moving is tedious, but something has to give, says David Glanzer:
We haven’t seen any movement on an expansion, and that has us very concerned. If nothing happens, as in a groundbreaking or some other solid movement, by 2010, we’re going to have to explore options. If our attendees and exhibitors don’t want us to leave San Diego and are happy with limited attendance, limited exhibitors, things of that nature, then I imagine we’ll stay here. But if they’re not, then I think we’ll entertain some of the offers we’re being given.
We asked the cabbie about the city vs. the con, but he said it is a very busy time, and “It seems, now, that everyone is knowing that San Diego means Comic-Con.”
Sleep, sleep, my pretties, poppies… poppies…popp–
Oh yes, where was I? A word of advice: If you want to get in the fast track, stick with the The Beat. Our normal San Diego commute every year is to arrive Wednesday and leave Monday. This year, Wednesday flights from NYC to San D were horribly delayed, with up to 17-hour delays. *shudder.* And on Monday? Freak hailstorms in New York on Sunday ended with flights canceled left and right!
Yet our own flights were smooth and undelayed, even in notoriously erratic JFK!
In addition, normally we go to LA after the con. This year? Straight home. What did we miss? AN EARTHQUAKE.
Stick with The Beat. That’s our final warning.
Just a few…
§ Ian Brill:
Before that the strangest thing to happen at the booth was having Stephen Baldwin and Mark Waid signing at the same time. Baldwin was on “stage left” and Waid to the opposite end. On one side you had people bring out their camera phones as if unseen puppet strings were lifting their arms from their sides. On the other a healthy smattering of fans would walk up to a creator they admire, share a few kind words and got their copy of Kingdom Come signed (and hopefully buy Potter’s Field). While I make no judgment calls here I still remembered to stand at the back of the booth and slowly move my eyes from one end to the other. I had the two spiritual halves of Comic-Con happening right in front of me, not even eight feet from each other. For an hour or so booth #2543 was the Harvey Dent of fandom.
§ Buzz Bags
Each day, as the sun rises over Comic-Con, marketing geniuses at the big media booths unpack boxes of promotional doodads to hand out to conventioneers eager to fill up on free stuff — stickers, posters, T-shirts, rub-on tattoos, plastic rings, hats and the ever-useful swag bag. As Jen mentioned in an earlier post, yesterday’s hot item — the animated “Wonder Woman” swag bag — was supplanted today by the equally outsized “Watchmen” swag bag you see above. It’s useful because the bags give you a place to put all your other swag. And so a million (okay, a few thousand) mobile billboards are launched out into the world — helping, it is hoped, to build buzz for one’s product.
§ Various disgruntled media types
OK, that’s pretty funny. Not fair, but an acutely observed generalization, nevertheless. (Can a generalization also be acute?) MSN Movies Editor Dave McCoy, an old friend, had his Comic-Con epiphany after seeing a wooden stake used by Buffy. Yes, the Buffy. And yet, it took Dave a couple days to figure out why he initially wasn’t enjoying Comic-Con as much as he thought he should. His title for his blog post: “A snob out of water”.
§ Steve Marmel, animation and comedy guy, has a great post on his Facebook page which I can’t link to, but I will, against the rules, post the first few paragraphs, because he summed it all up very well:
I, like a lot of people, made my annual pilgrimage to the San Diego Comic-Con. I, like many of the people who have gone as often as I have gone, understand the cons of the con. We make the jokes. But we’re allowed to.
It’s our f***ing party.
It is our F***ing party. Thanks for reminding us, Steve.
We’re mobilizing back to base. Everything is packed up at B.L.A.R.D. The mobile transmitters, the latrines, the Medivacs. Nothing left to do but write this journal as we listen to the lonely whistle of a train down the way.
Was it a successful expedition? Yes, and no. A lot of shit happened. A lot of shit that shouldn’t have happened. There was triumph, and tragedy. Stupidity and lucidity.
Saturday night, at the swanky EW/Sci-Fi party that we’ll probably never get into again, we ran into our old pal Steven Zeitchik, who is a ninja reporter for The Hollywood Reporter now. He’s there to cover show biz, the subject of Comic-Con, not our own little pasteboards and mini-comics. He’s also covered Sundance and Cannes, the other legs of the show biz triathlon. We asked how it compared. He pointed out that those last for 10-15 DAYS. Not four. He mentioned that at those events, you have time to do nothing but sit and watch a movie. At Comic-Con, it’s go, go, go, go, and whatever you happen to be doing, you’re missing 19 other things.
There was a sense of acceptance at this show. Everyone knows it’s too big and too crowded and too frantic. Everyone just goes with their own little flow now.
I think comics did okay, despite it all. I think great cartoonists still had their time to shine, and our own viral marketing campaign has been way too successful for our own good. I have some actual thoughts on this topic, but they’ll have to await a good night’s sleep to be put into coherent form.
We’re still recovering from too much information and stimulation. A long plane ride is ahead of us. With any luck, we’re flying home as you read this.
We want to send shout outs to our good buddies and two awesome people Laurel Maury and Andy MacDonald. A shout out also to Future Mr. Beat, Ben McCool, who endured all the ups and downs that Comic-Con can deal. And big thanks to the PWCW crew, Calvin, Laura, Douglas, Kai-Ming, Jody, Ed, Erin and honorary member Noah. Big thanks to Ralphs for the tasty pumpkin pie which we ate as a nightcap every evening. Big ups also to Trish (always), her nephew Michael, Anina, Paul, Charles, Larry, Tanya, Richard, Ben, Lorelei, Chappie, Nisha, Ed Douglas, Frank 3, Frank 2.3, Nelson, Jimmy, Amanda, Jimmy A., Ivan, Kristyn…well, you know there are always too many people to name. Anyway, thanks to you all. Let’s do it all again next week!
Wow, sorry for late updates but we’ve been busier than a boxing ring here at Beat Local Action Rapid Deployment HQ. Deadlines schmedlines.
This morning, we had to check out of our room and check in to the same room (long story) and the desk clerk handed us normal, unadorned room keys.
“Awwwww, you don’t have any more of those cool Comic-Con keys?” we said.
The reply came stone-faced and grim. “Comic-Con is OVER.”
And it is. But effects will linger for a long, long time. Some good, some bad.
We went to the traditional Graphitti Dead Dog party last night, which served as a 53rd birthday for Dave Stevens. I found myself missing Dave a lot at that show. Because the art was everywhere, of course, and Bettie Page was everywhere, but also because he represented so much of the best of Comic-Con — a world-class cartoonist who showed a lifelong devotion to craft, and crossed over to other mediums without ever losing his dedication to his chosen field — comics. Of course, I missed Dave’s matinee idol presence and gentlemanly ways and sly humor as well, but he was so much the spirit of the OLD Comic-Con, the El Cortez and the crossover of people who made comics, cartoons and movies that inspired the con for the first few years.
Now of course it’s something else, for someone else.
In years past, we’ve had some complaints about ways the con is run, but this year we have to salute Faye Desmond and the entire Comic-Con crew for running an event bigger than the Super Bowl with astonishing smoothness. With at least 60,000 people moving, milling and posing each and every day — from movie stars to studio heads to cartoonists to kids in costume– keeping them all safe and satisfied is a herculean task. No one can be entirely happy, but the people running the show made a tremendous effort to make it work for the most possible people. We’ll have our detailed assessment and rundown a bit later tomorrow, but suffice to say for now that the people running the show have our utmost respect.
Plus, better them than us.
More later.
Meeting Al Jaffee; breakfast with Pia Guerra; getting a copy of Comic Book Tattoo; and nattering at this man at the EW/Sci-Fi party!!!
That’s right, Dr. Lucien Sanchez, aka Matt Berry from GARTH MARENGHI’S DARKPLACE, no less. Simon Pegg overheard us lauding the rather bemused Berry for his epic portrayal, but indicated that he agreed with us. Hooray for Comic-Con! We love celebrities after all.
We have many thoughts on the subject, but in the meantime, here’s a play by play:
With 125,000 people attending the San Diego Comic Con, the city of San Diego is bursting at the seems. With a limit on the number of people that can get into the convention hall, and growth expected, is it time for Comic Con International to move the show somewhere else?
Sorry, all. The Con crap hit B.L.A.R.D. hard this morning and it was all we could do to get to the Dave Stevens memorial. After that, we chatted with various folks and started uploading our Flickr photos here.
Big news today, Gaiman on Batman, Humanoids at Devils Due, and big sales EVERYWHERE. Despite the increasing Hollywoodization of Con, comics continue to do very, very well. COMIC BOOK TATTOO was one of the big hits of the show, selling out in 20 hours. D&Q reported their biggest sales ever; UMBRELLA ACADEMY is sold out everywhere, and in general, comics did quite well.
We’ll have more photos, reports and linkage when we’re not quite so under the weather.
We’re sitting through the CHUCK panel right now. These TV casts are so funny and banter-y. Someone just asked if the two male leads would demonstrate a position between 68 and 70. They declined. We have never watched CHUCK and this panel will not persuade us to do so, but the actors all seem quite personable. They keep referring to the Nerd Herd…is that what we are?
Coming up next JJ Abrams will show some FRINGE footage…and maybe answer some “Star Trek” questions.
Luckily, we were able to amble right into Ballroom H on this occasion, but we’ve been hearing complaints from reporters at outlets such as Variety, the LA Times, and TV Guide about not being able to get into panels they were assigned to cover. We thought it was just us, but as we were told, “If there’s a secret password, I’d know it.”
The press list for the show numbers some 5000 outlets, so managing them is definitely no picnic, but the studios and networks that control access to their presentations may need to get a little more inclusive about certain things. Granted, press whining happens each and every year, but since it’s so clear that the entire show is now just a means to get publicity for every show on TV, with the increasing hubbub of the press scrum, perhaps it is time for a reevaluation.
In the meantime, although Tom told us not to live blog about how big the show is, with all the security and access issues, not to mention 100k people…this is bigger than the Super Bowl.
Anne Thompson covers the Webmasters panel:
When asked how Latinoreview got its hands on so many early scripts six months before they go into production, Kellvin Chavez said: “We clean your offices.”
Today, these once unassuming fanboys are courted by studio flacks and granted early access to set visits, star interviews and marketing materials. “Studios are paying attention to sites and fans as part of the online community,” said Sanchez.
“To be honest it sort of makes me jaded a little,” said Brad Miska of Bloody-Disgusting.
BTW, Viz has broken the comics industry wide open, debuting their incredible YELLOW BAGS at this show. Demand is high.
PW has the deets on Charlie Kochman’s new imprint at Abrams, Abrams ComicArts, which will publish a variety of comics and comics-related books:
Kochman will direct the new imprint, which will launch with four new titles: The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle; The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death by Todd Hignite, designed by Jordan Crane with an introduction by acclaimed cartoonist Alison Bechdel; Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-creator Joe Shuster by Craig Yoe; and Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? by Brian Fies, the creator of the award-winning Web comic/book Mom’s Cancer.
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