More SDCC Thursday

Jeff Mariotte

Michael Uslan

Every year, it's the same situation: Sit in the room and post or speed to the con and take more photos and chat with more folks. I'm sure the Internet is packed with reports with crowd-sourcing aplenty, so my views ... Well, I just have more pictures, right? Jeff Mariotte, for example, was on hand to talk with folks who are eager to read his latest. And Michael Uslan was carrying with him a copy of his project due for release this autumn. And, in fact, that's what so much of Comic-Con is about: what's coming - or out there - that I'm going to want to enjoy between now and next Comic-Con.

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Looking Back at Comic-Con's Thursday

Valerie at the blood drive

Prying open my eyes following the first full day of Comic-Con, I realize that Valerie and I basically lolled about, taking things as they came, checking out Angry Birds items for Valerie's son, desperately pursuing a giveaway Tintin bag (unsuccessfully; on the agenda for this afternoon again), and hugging old friends as we came across them. If my goals had been to get as many photos as possible and troll for the latest news, well ... Didn't happen. But Comic-Con is what you make it - and we made it fun. We started the day with a Blood Drive appointment, and Valerie overcame her concerns about whether her iron level would let her be accepted. Woo hoo! We actually ended up facing each other in a donation race. (She won.) True Blood T-shirts in hand, we returned to the con.

Sergio Aragones and Stan Sakai
(with Gordon Kent hidden but laughing)

And it was really a "whatever happens, happens" day, complete with attending our own "Spotlight" panel (with a surprising attendance, considering just how many events were counter-programmed). As Valerie and I chatted about being raised as second- and third-generation fans, the room slowly began to fill even more - and we asked what the next panel was scheduled to be. Why would the room be so packed? Oh, of course! It was to be Mark Evanier with a Groo team. So, of course, we stayed for the fun. In the course of much hilarity were hidden a number of to-be-noted factual treats, such as that Tom Yeates will draw Conan and Tarzan for upcoming Dark Horse crossovers for Groo. Yes, Conan will have to deal with Groo - as will Tarzan - with, of course, the basic Groo material provided by Evanier and Aragones. Also noted: Sergio Aragones Funnies (available at the show). And a Bongo Maggie (no relation) comic book done by Sergio. Stan Sakai said that Dark Horse's Usagi Yojimbo #141 will actually be his series #200, and there will be treats.

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And I Quote: Stephan Pastis Says Dante Couldn't Have Imagined Comic-Con

Newspaper cartoonist Stephan Pastis produces an oddball strip "peopled" by zebra-hungry (but dim) crocodiles, a passive-aggressive rat, a sort-of-pig-on-the-street pig … and Pearls before Swine is laugh-out-loud funny an impressive percentage of the time. The most recent collection from Andrews McMeel is Pearls Blows Up reprinting Feb. 17, 2008-Aug. 22, 2009, and it's well worth your investment. Among its other charms are Pastis' annotations of many installments. ("That's supposed to be Osama bin Laden in the last panel. Sadly, he's about as recognizable as Saddam Hussein was a few days earlier. That brings up an important rule of cartooning: If the joke is dependent on the reader recognizing someone in the last panel, it's a good idea to make that person recognizable.")

But I was struck by his commentary in the introduction to the volume: a discussion of his appearance at Comic-Con International: San Diego in 2009. As in:

"I was in a land not even Dante could have envisioned.
"People dressed like animals. People dressed like superheroes. People dressed like Star Wars characters.
"And they don't just dress like them, they act like them.
"Take my word on this. There is nothing more disturbing in all of human existence than watching a forty-five-year-old man dressed like a Stormtrooper battle a fifty-two-year-old man dressed like Luke Skywalker.
"It is the kind of debauchery that made God flood the earth in the time of Noah and surely must tempt him to do it again."

But Pastis also says he had a great time - and it was not so much the convention, as it was the wonders of the convention combined with those of San Diego itself. Which is something to consider, while we agonize over finding a San Diego hotel and begin to schedule what we're going to be doing each day of our annual adventure. Pastis wasn't quite ready for it when he first arrived; are you? And have you figured out yet what you will be doing there this year?

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Counting Down to San Diego

You'd think I could come up with a different topic - especially given that I already wrote about it a couple of days ago - but to many of us (except Mark Evanier, who can cover more topics more entertainingly in 24 hours than anyone else I know) there is no other topic right now. I'm actually feeling slightly relaxed, given that my flight leaves in something like 60 hours and that I still have to finish my column in Comics Buyer's Guide, my laundry, my "to do" list, and my convention schedule, not to mention ... Oh, never mind. It's all about what I have done:

* made name badges for me and my booth buddies
* designed with Brent Frankenhoff three Excel files for convention schedules (including a list of booths we want to visit in numerical order) Comics Buyer's Guide is Booth #1419; have I mentioned that yet? Stop by, won't you?
* tried on an infinite number of slacks to see which ones will do nicely for con wear (and begun a pile of rejects that will be donated to Goodwill upon my return)
* begun watching The Towering Inferno (No, that has nothing to do with Comic-Con. I hope. But a bunch of KP current and former denizens gather each month to chat about a movie they've picked, and TTI is the next choice - which I'd like to have out of the way so I don't forget to watch it before the next meeting. I lead an exciting life.)
* bought a slew of convention supplies
* made a list of the convention supplies I'd forgotten to buy
* saw In - deliverable? -decisive? -direct? -dispensible?  No, wait. I almost figured out a mnemonic when I first realized I couldn't remember the title for five minutes in a row. Let's see. It was "insep" something, wasn't it? Inseparable? Doggone it. I vowed I wouldn't actually stoop to looking it up. But I must. Ah, yes. Inception. Enjoyed it a lot, have quibbles (my dreams, at least, change from moment to moment a lot more than these - and, yes, I gather that the "architect" keeps things more under control), but it's imaginative science fiction and nicely handles a "what if" that could not have been easy to develop. Wups. Major digression. Sorry.
* contacted the nice people who invited me to events scheduled opposite the Eisner Awards to thank them but to point out that they were, yes, scheduled opposite the Eisner Awards.
* speaking of which, begun to write the annual "In Memoriam" portion of the Eisner Awards - and I'm not at all sure I'll be able to get through them without a tremor this year.

That noted, there are sure a lot of things left to do. After all, the slacks have been sorted - but that brings up such basics as footwear, not to mention tops and jackets. 60 hours? What will I forget? (Good thing the hotel is near the Horton Plaza shopping center.)

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Comic-Con Ho!

Why so few entries in the blog? Why will there be so few over the next week?

My bags are packed, I'm ready to go -- and this afternoon, fingers crossed, I'll be in San Diego, picking up exhibitor badges (Booth #1419) prior to Comic-Con International: San Diego.

Onward!

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