Just a very quick post, alas. Day 1 feels like day 1000. Everyone has 1000 yard stares, dry mouth and blisters. And dread, numbing, seeping dread.

We’ll try to roundup some of the news emanating from the show, but the big news is that Preview Night and Thursday are now just as crowded as Friday used to be.

There doesn’t seem to be huge amounts of news that anyone is talking about AT the show. It’s all meeting and pacting and solidifying the pacting. The main booths are frantically busy giving away free stuff, and gangs of people descend every time something is given out, like piranhas around a scrap of flesh.

Seriously, everyone is so preoccupied with survival that everything else seems secondary! When just getting a cup of coffee means a half hour minimum wait, the misery factor begins to creep towards too much.

We spent the day just trying to survive, buffeted from place to place. It started with a nice hearty breakfast perhaps the only thing to keep us from the abyss. From there it was a series of missed meetings, close encounters and milling around. At one time we ran into an old timer from the show we first went to in 1984 and enjoyhed a conversation about a Rocketeer cookei jar. It was truly a pictish moment.

Swapping survival strategies is a popular pastime, with the main controversy being whether it;s better to have no agenda or a tight agenda. We favor the latter, and our buddy John Green agreed. “When you just wander around with no purpose, it turns into an end of the world scenario, and you gradually succumb to feelings of depression and hopelessness.”

With Friday now sold out– and the con capacity said to be 130,000– the trope “Wait until Saturday!” is now meaningless. Friday is the new Saturday, and every day may be Saturdaty from here out.

Or as the local media puts it:

Yup, it was a big steaming slice of hell on a stick.

“I’m already tired of Comic-Con,” said Michael Uman, the owner of a design shop in New York City. “Between the meetings, the drinking and the sensory overload … ”

For some exhibitors, getting here is half the hassle.

“Once you get here, it’s fine,” said Douglas Paszkiewicz, Milwaukee-based author and cartoonist of the “Arsenic Lullaby” comic books. “But the stress of getting here, of getting all of your stuff here, of making sure your help gets here when you get here, setting up all your stuff – and then recovering to talk to 100,000 people … ”

Not to mention having to pull this off in such punishing surroundings.

Bill Cunningham in the comments says there is a bizarre scam going on in San Diego. Is this true? Beware!

A word of warning if you are standing in the pre-registration line, there were scammers working the line. They would come up asking for anyone who had one-day registrations, that ou could get in ahead of the actual line by registering with them. They had a bunch of preview night admission stickers which you have to actually look at closely to see were for preview night. They were collecting people’s registration barcode sheetsn giving them the stickers and telling them they were good to go. Of coure, they were not. My friends got snared by this, ad though security was very understanding and professional, and my friends had extra printouts of their passes, it was definately a scam.

I have no idea what the point was. I presume they were collecting printouts to scalp to others on the sold out days as though they were valid one day registration sheets.

Kitty bar the door! Friday is going to be as bad as Saturday! According to a press release from
Comic-Con’s David Glanzer, Friday at the show is completely sold out, a n hour previously reserved only for Saturday.

Comic-Con, the nation’s largest comic book and pop culture event
announced that Friday admissions have sold out due to early, online
registration.

“I feel a little like a broken record,” said David Glanzer,
spokesperson for Comic-Con, “we sold out of Saturday admissions, four-day
admissions, and now Friday and three-day admission.”

Last year the convention drew over 123,000 people over the
four-day show and this year appears to top, or at the very least, match that
number.

“You never want to be in a situation where you advertise an
event that people can¹t attend,” continued Glanzer, “however as it relates
to Friday and Saturday, this may be the case, especially if they don¹t
already have tickets.”

Single day admission for Sunday is still available. For a
complete schedule of events and up to date information on admission
availability, visit www.comic-con.org.

Click on pic or here for video.

Damn I was so perky on Day 0! Click on pic or here for vid. sapphic movies hotmovie blowjob freemovie sex teengay free gay movies free videosmovies big free pornfree gay free movies gay videossoftware movie editingfree porn movies Map

Now that Harry Potter is passed, what’s the next thing for Nerd Nation over which to obsess over? How about CLOVERFIELD aka 1-18-08, the new film project headed up by ALIAS/LOST maestro J.J. Abrams?

You’ve already seen the trailer. You’ve been to the website. What’s next?

Well, this week’s “Entertainment Weekly” (Harry Potter cover) has the first look at the movie’s one-sheet, but it seems to raise just as many questions as it might answer.

And in today’s “Washington Post,” there’s a story about the project and how it relates to Alternate Reality Games.

Abrams was supposed to be a late afternoon panel today at Comic-Con possibly revealing more about the movie. If word does filter out, we’ll throw the details in here.

Edit: At the panel, JJ said that it’s not called “Monstrous” and that he always wanted to make a monster movie.

Posted by Mark Coale

Yikes! Somehow this never got posted

THURSDAY, JULY 26:
12:00 - 1:00 Joshua Dysart: Conan and the Midnight God
1:00 - 2:00 Tara McPherson: Lonely Heart
2:00 – 3:00 Will Vinton & Andrew Wiese: Jack Hightower
2:00 - 3:00 Chris Grine: Chickenhare
3:00 – 4:00 Matt Wagner: Celebrating 25 years of Grendel!
4:00 - 5:00 Jeff Smith: The Art of Bone
4:00 – 5:00 Eric Powell: The Goon, Chinatown
5:00 - 6:00 Rick Remender: Fear Agent

(more…)

Not much time to blog, alas. The crowds were as big as a Saturday, some said. Freebies were snatched up at an alarming rate, the most popular being an oversized cloth Smallville bag and a cardboard shield for 300.

The big evening event was a screening of some 20 minutes of BEOWULF, the Robert Zemeckis-directed 3d cgi mo-cap retelling of the classic legend. The script is by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary and the duo was on hand to introduce the clips and answer questions. We’ll have a fuller report on the footage after some sleep.

On a personal note, while wandering the vast hall, it dawned on us that Twittering comic-con is really the only way to cover it. Whenever we ran into someone we knew, the first words out of their mouth were usually “mobile” or “web” followed by “content.”

We spent our now traditional sleepless night before getting stuffed into Supershuttle for the dawn ride to JFK for the 8:30 Jet Blue flight, otherwise known as the Hogwarts Express, because everyone who isn’t on the 11;)) flight is on the 8:30. The sun came up over Queens like a crimson King Vidor melodrama. At the gate, we ran into Phyllis Novin, who we ran into last year, same place, same time, and caught each other up on the past year’s events, some happpy, some very sad.

On the plane, we were praying that a total stranger would sit next to us so we could avoid chit chat and get some much needed sleep. The result was even better — our seatmates were none other than Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti. We all had the same up all night schedule, so a big communal nap was called for when we weren’t oohing and aahing over the baby polar bears on Animal Planet. Amanda also lent me a neck pillow which helped me fall asleep in no time.

A word about Jet Blue: although when they fuck up they REALLY FUCK UP they are still so superior to any other airline in terms of leg room, seat comfort and of course 40 channels of satellite TV. They are still my preferred airline no question.

Anyway back to SD, we also chit chatting at the luggage carousel with AdHouse prexy Chris Pitzer who’s got a REALLY BIG SHOW this year (he only exhibits every other year) and First Second’s Gina Gagliano. We made the Hogwarts Express joke about 12 times, and then spotted Scholastic’s David Saylor, the art director of the US editions of Harry Potter, but didn’t get a chance to find out how hilarious our joke really was.

Now we’re at the swanky Omni (view from our room above, although we didn’t catch one of the helicopters gliding by) and can see the madness unfold quite nicely. Our cab driver from the airport was already mentally girding his loins for the madness to come.

The Omni is swell. Free Wifi, some vietnamese coffee, bathrobes. Our cel phone is already abuzz with text messages about secret meetings and plans.

Meanwhile San Diego dreaming is capturing the REAL goings on:

25/07/07 10:18 EMAIL: Overheard in the Hyatt at closing time:

Waitress1: That’s nothing. Come Friday there’ll be 400 of ‘em here.
Waitress2: 400?
Waitress1: Just on our side of the bar. Make sure you get their money every round. And be sweet. They’ll tip better.

TRAVEL TIP: A pal of ours took an early flight from NYC to SD that connected in Chicago and said it was empty and cheap AND arrived half an hour early. Something to think about.

25/07/07 10:18 EMAIL: Overheard in the Hyatt at closing time: Waitress1: That’s nothing. Come Friday there’ll be 400 of ‘em here. Waitress2: 400? Waitress1: Just on our side of the bar. Make sure you get their money every round. And be sweet. They’ll tip better.

Immigration Official TELLS IT LIKE IT IS to Tony Lee:
There was one concern while I was in customs - when asked why I was there, I explained that I was going to the San Diego Comic Con, no, I mean superheroes, not comedians - and the customs officer goes ‘You know about solvent abuse?’

Now, what the hell am I supposed to say here? Did I look like some kind of deviant comic professional? Should I reply with ‘I’m from London, mate - we invented glue sniffing’?

I make a vague agreeing motion, wondeing what the hell I’ve brought into the country in my luggage - am I about to be deported back? But no. The customs guard wants to inform me that one of the current ‘trends’ in California is that when people who have severe solvent abuse addiction well, die - their possessions are put up for public auction, and many of them have boxes of comic books, usually sold off at a dollar a box. I tried to sound vaguely interested in this (as opposed to horrified) and escaped into the terminal where I had a burger. Of course, it’s now

As regular readers of this blog may be are aware, the city of San Diego has been undergoing some fiscal distress of late, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that they are wondering just how Comic-con can be a tax-free charity perhaps with an eye to glomming a new revenue stream.

But the 38th annual San Diego Comic-Con International, which opens tonight, is registered with the federal government as a public charity, placed in the same general category as many schools, hospitals and churches.

As such, the pop-culture extravaganza, which generates about $5 million in revenue each year, is exempt from income taxes and pays less in city traffic-control fees.

That loss of money to government coffers means the public is, in effect, subsidizing an event that has become a massive promotional vehicle for new movies, TV shows, comics and toys.

The article points out that Fleet Week and the Tournament of Roses are also non profits. Con spokesperson David Glanzer explains that there is an educational element:

“We strive to inform the public that comics are as viable an art form as other art you may find in a museum, or in a gallery, or a bookstore or even a film festival,” said David Glanzer, director of marketing and public relations for the convention.

“In addition, as the medium has branched out to film, television and interactive multimedia, we offer a venue where the public can meet the actual creators in those fields and interact with them to further their understanding of this industry that has a historic and ongoing contribution to arts and culture.”

Yeah! Culture! Hands off Comic-Con you people!

The annual San Diego Flickr set has started.

Above, Mechanical Man spotted by Ivan Brandon.

Our wonderful Helper Bee Mark Coale has compiled this master list of Beat posts linking to signing schedules, panels and so on for your last minute planning pleasure. Enjoy!

Tom Spurgeon’s priceless guide: Welcome to Nerd Vegas

Active Images # 2106
Adhouse # 2104
Archaia Studios Press # 2049
Avatar Press # 2800
Curt Schilling # 2601
DC Comics #1915
Del Ray # 1135
Dial R Studios #5524
Drawn & Quarterly #1529
Fangoria Comics # 4517-4519
Fantagraphics # 1716
Fox Atomic # 4429
Friends of Lulu # 832
Girls Drawing Girls # B7
Hero Initiative # 3848-3850
IDW # 2229
Image Comics # 2729
Impact Books # 1415
Last Gasp #1616
Marvel Comics # 2429
McFarlane Toys # 2601
NBM # 1528
New England/The Tick # 1807
Oni Press # 1834
Radical Publishing # 2701
Spectrum # # 5001
Slave Labor # 1815
Steve Rude # 1737
Top Shelf 31721
TwoMorrows # 1215
Viz # 4113
Zenescope # 2514

Via markandrich - San Diego Dreaming:

24/07/07 19:42 TXT: signage at the virgin comics books indicates “jenna jameson is coming soon.” has there ever been a weirder episode in contradictory brandng

Every year there is one post or quote or something that exemplifies what it is like to be part of the big show, and this year, Mariah Huehner said it as she contemplates her first San Diego ever.

It feels like, right now, to me at least, that many of the people I know are having lives that’re taking off, Mine included. It’s very strange and amazing and completely immediate. That’s how right now feels. It’s like sitting in your car with music playing and you’re on a long stretch of highway. And a song you love but haven’t heard in awhile comes on. You can see your life stretching out in front of you and at the same time you can tangibly feel your life happening. Who you are, what you’re doing, where you were, and possibly where you’re going. Although where you’re going is the part that is happening right now and the fact that you know part of it, but not the whole, is the exhilarating, terrifying, goose-bumpy part. The part that makes everything more alive and real and NOW. Because you can feel it happening right NOW.

Yeah that’s it. Enjoy it while you can, everyone. Inky, I will see you on the other side.loans title hud onetoll free fax loanpayments total consolidation loan detail amounttotal consolidated detail payments loantraining commercial officers loan forlending in truth auto loansfiancial area services tulsa loansdateline tv microloan Map

As we previously (we think) mentioned, we’ll be at the Fox Atomic booth at various times, but we’ll also be VIDEO BLOGGING THE SHOW AGAIN! Bruce at DiVX and the rest of the great crew that helped us finally find the FulFillment Room last year will be back and we have some cool peeps lined up to chat up, and we’ll be doing our own nutty little things, as well. We have only one panel, and as usual it’s 10:30 Saturday morning and we’ll be yakking about comics writing, a topic near and dear to our hearts.

And of course, we’ll be staggering back to our hotel room late at night and uploading photos, and waking up at an ungodly hour, propelled only by Vietnamese instant coffee and blogging as much as we can. In brutal honesty, we don’t know how efficacious we’ll be — this year’s party slate is BRUTAL — but we’ll do our best to bring you some impressionistic word pictures.

Dear Alex Billington of FirstShowing.net writes to let us know that he’ll be covering San Diego’s multi media news via Twitter. Wasn’t it only a few weeks ago that we wrote this

2008: On a panel at San Diego, Heidi MacDonald says she really doesn’t like Scott McCloud and has just been being nice to his face all these years. Luckily, since there are 10,000 blogs, podcasts, video blogs and movies about the show, no one ever really notices.

Imagine everyone Twittering about San Diego.

IT WOULD BE JUST LIKE BEING THERE. Only you wouldn’t be waiting half an hour at the railroad tracks. But you also couldn’t eat a fish taco. So…it’s a trade-off.

UPDATE: Great here’s another Twitter-con: Marvel’s Agent M.

UPDATE UPDATE: Okay Rich Johnston is doing the one you really want to read. To participate:
Email yours to markandrich@gmail.com, text them to 0 (1144) 7801350982 or AOL IM to TwistRich

Writer/editor/talent wrangler CB Cebulski, much like ourselves, owns many hats and dons and doffs them at regular intervals. First there’s the Marvel-based CB, who posts the following on something calledChesterQuest:

1 man.
6 months.
3 continents. (Possibly four.)
13 countries. (Possibly more.)
20 cities. (So far.)
12 artists who will be awarded the opportunity to work at Marvel Comics.
Guaranteed.

Possibly the largest worldwide comic book talent search ever undertaken.

Please come to the Mondo Marvel panel this Thursday, July 26th, at 4:45PM at the San Diego Comic Con, Room 6A, for all the details.

Hm. One man wandering the world looking for Omega Flight pencillers? Someone call Koike! More here.

On CB’s Image side, he’ll be debuting COMPASS at the show:

Printing is Japan as I write this, we’ll have copies of Compass Zero, our San Diego Comic Con Exclusive, on hand at booth 2729 all weekend. It featured an eight page original story and all kinds of other goodies and info about the upcoming series. Me, Aki and Ryusuke will all be there to meet and greet, and sign and sell you comics. Ryusuke will have his other Japanese manga and dojinshi on sale as well. Please stop by to see us and say “hello”!

Miriam Katin, Joe Matt, Guy Delisle (making his first U.S. appearance!), and James Sturm are D Q’s guest artists at San Diego this year. They’ll be on various panels and signing at our booth #1529. The schedule is as follows:

(more…)

This joint is PACKED. Left: “The Invincible Dead.” Everyone is doing it!

THE IMAGE COMICS BOOTH (BOOTH # 2729) INCLUDES: Ryan Ottley (INVINCIBLE), Tom Scioli (GODLAND), Frank Cho (LIBERTY MEADOWS), The Shadowline Team, Derek McCulloch (STAGGER LEE), Shepherd Hendrix (STAGGER LEE), Frazer Irving (GUTSVILLE), Kieron Gillen (PHONOGRAM), Jamie McKelvie (PHONOGRAM, SUBURBAN GLAMOUR), Rick Spears (REPO), Rob G (REPO), Mark Haven Britt (FULL COLOR), Jonathan Hickman (THE NIGHTLY NEWS), Jeremy Haun (BATTLE HYMN), CB Cebulski (WONDERLOST, DRAIN), David Finch, Zack Sherman (SEAL TEAM 7), The Beckett Comics Crew, David Mack (KABUKI), Mike Oeming (MICE TEMPLAR), Ivan Brandon & the 24 Seven team, Jay Fotos (DEATH DEALER), Nat Jones (DEATH DEALER) and Joshua Ortega (DEATH DEALER).

(more…)

This booth is so big we didn’t even bother to put in the booth number! Try as we might, in our weakened state, we couldn’t find the list of DC creators appearing, but below is the panel listings:

Guests of DC Comics scheduled to be at the convention include:

* Jason Aaron (SCALPED, THE OTHER SIDE)
* Brian Azzarello (100 BULLETS, LOVELESS, TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED)
* Tony Bedard (COUNTDOWN, BIRDS OF PREY)
* Adam Beechen (COUNTDOWN, ROBIN, TEEN TITANS)
* Mark Buckingham (FABLES)
* Cecil Castellucci (THE PLAIN JANES)
* Paul Dini (DETECTIVE COMICS, COUNTDOWN)
* Joshua Dysart (SWAMP THING)
* Christos N. Gage (STORMWATCH PHD)
* Justin Gray (COUNTDOWN, UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS, JONAH HEX)
* J.G. Jones (52)
* Jim Lee (ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER)
* Sean McKeever (COUNTDOWN, TEEN TITANS)
* Jesus Merino (SUPERMAN)
* Grant Morrison (52, ALL STAR SUPERMAN, BATMAN)
* Carlos Pacheco (SUPERMAN)
* Karen Palinko (DC Direct sculptor)
* Jimmy Palmiotti (COUNTDOWN, UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS, JONAH HEX)
* Ivan Reis (GREEN LANTERN)
* Jim Rugg (THE PLAIN JANES)
* Gail Simone (BIRDS OF PREY, GEN13, WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY)
* Bill Willingham (FABLES, JACK OF FABLES, SHADOWPACT)
* Brian Wood (DMZ, NORTHLANDERS)

(more…)

HYPE ALERT! HYPE ALERT! We should note that we’ll be at the Fox Atomic booth sporadically, and if you’re looking for us that’s the best place to leave a message. There will be movie star signings but also signings for THE HILLS HAVE EYES: THE BEGINNING and the upcoming THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY, as well as 28 DAYS LATER: THE AFTERMATH. Please come by!

Maybe while we’re hanging around we can meet Kevin Bacon, to get our degree down to 0!

If you are going to the show, please stop by the Fox Atomic / Fox Atomic Comics booth (#4429) to check it out, pick up our free swag (believe me, we’ll have LOTS of it), meet the gang, and perhaps score an autograph or two.

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Every year Comic-con hosts some new comics companies. Will they last? Which cuisine will reign supreme? This year it’s Radical, which is headed up by comics/movies hyphenate Barry Levine.

Come join us as we launch the Radical Universe July 25th-29th at the 2007 San Diego Comic Con. Radical Publishing is located at booth #2701 and will be holding a raffle everyday at 4:00 p.m. for prizes such as the iRiver, a handheld multimedia device that will allow Radical fans a closer look into the unique properties displayed at the booth and for release in early 2008. We will also be handing out Radical Flex-fit Hats, T-shirts, keychain lights and more. Radical President and Publisher Barry Levine and Co-Publisher and Editor in Chief David Elliot will hold a special panel on Saturday at 3:30 P.M. in Room 2 to discuss the Radical future ahead and the company’s big plans in the coming months.

Radical Publishing is currently producing a Yoshitaka Amano art book, which has not been done for over five years, a John Bolton hard-cover graphic novel as well as numerous other comic books from acclaimed industry talent such as Luis Royo, Jim Steranko, Frank Hannah, Dan Abnett, Dave Wilkins, Steve Pugh, Warren Ellis, James Heffron, Steve Moore, Sam Sarkar, Nick Percival, Dave Dorman, Bill Sienkiewicz, WETA, and many more. Come explore our Radical Universe and meet the team behind Radical at Comic Con 2007.

2007 marks the 10th anniversary of Oni Press and its appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con International!

To celebrate this milestone, Oni Press will have a special panel on Saturday at 1:30 where we will be giving out free comics to all those who attend. That’s right… free stuff!

In addition to the anniversary panel, we’ll also be celebrating the release of a number of new Oni Press titles that we will have on sale at our booth:

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In what has already been a crazy busy year, Archaia Studios Press (ASP) amps it up at this year’s Comic-Con International: San Diego (July 26-29). Come by the booth (#2049), meet the creators, visit the panels, and see what’s happening at ASP!

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