Location: San Diego Convention Center
Attendance: Sold out, over 126,000 people.
Wednesday (Preview Night)
I went to get my badge a bit after 3:00pm, discovered that they merged the Professional and Press line ups again which made for a huge line. After getting the badge I sat down inside to mark out which panels I was going to attend and to map out the people I wanted to see. This was regularly interrupted by con security telling people to move. That's one improvement the con could make: setting up an area for people inside the building to go to. What's happened the last couple of years is that people sit inside the downstairs lobby, the security shoos them away from various areas of the downstairs part, until finally telling them everybody needs to be moved out into the upstairs part to get into a line up (or go outside). On the plus side, preview night is listed as 6pm opening, but people with badges inside the building lined up started getting in just after 5pm. I got in after 5:30pm and noticed con security holding people waiting outside for the 6pm start time. Not sure what happened there.
One of the booths that caught my eye was the Paramount booth which were custom making and giving away free T-shirts and other stuff. They were promoting two upcoming movies. Red staring Bruce Willis, based on a Warren Ellis GN and Drive Angry, staring Nicholas Cage. T-Shirts you can get in black or red colour, pick 1 of 3 movie logo (Drive Angry also had a 3D version) and place where you wanted the San Diego logo on the shirt. They had a group of guys with hot presses making them and cooling them off by waving cardboard before giving them to people. There was a very hyped up woman on the microphone who suddenly began to interview me as I was in line to get a t-shirt. I felt like Bruce Willis in the 5th Element being interviewed by Chris Tucker and came off just as well. It was a very long day for me.
A couple of places were holding draws for an free Ipad's, which I signed up for. Titan Books was actually giving 2 of them away. The Hasbro booth was giving away these paper Galactus hats that were very popular, but I noticed a few other paper hats that didn't have quite the same impact (I think one was Naruto hair, another was an Alien crawly thing). Sideshow Collectibles was giving away free gift cards for $20-$100 dollars off a purchase. Viz Media had long line up for a small cloth bag and then some other items as well. There was a DC Universe Online booth handing out colourful, branded neckstraps. Big bags were given out along with a badge but other booths were either doing trade in or giving out their own. The smartest one I saw was by SyFy, it was a giant bag that had straps so it could be worn like a backpack.
I did some shopping and left the con when it closed at 9pm.
Thursday:
I chatted a bit with Carla Speed McNeil in the morning and got to play with her Ipad for a bit, nifty. I discovered that you can make Iphone apps (which are small) blown up to fit the Ipad screen. I did some more shopping throughout the day but spent much of my time at panels. They were:
Comic Arts Conference: New Fun About Siegel and Shuster (1:20:09, 73.3mb)
Moderated by Comic Book writer and Men of Tomorrow Author Gerard Jones, this panel brings together a number of people with new info to reveal about Siegel and Shuster from a variety of different angles. Panelist were Lauren Agostino (Lawyer), Brad Ricca (Author), Mary Wheeler-Nicholson/Brown (Granddaughter of DC founder Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson) and Mel Gordon (Author).
Brad Ricca has gone though the early work of Siegel and Shuster and found a lot of characters that they pulled from real life, from their school teachers, popular movie stars at the time, to specific buildings. He is compiling a book about all of this and had a little slide show with Shuster's art and photo's of the people and places to compare too.
Lauren Agostino was told to throw some old court documents away by an old, long retired ex-lawyer. She found out some of those documents were from the 1947 lawsuit between Siegel and Shuster and DC comics.
Nicky Brown talked about dispelling some myths about her grandfather based on her research into his history and presents evidence that Wheeler-Nicholson gave a very specific and detailed outline on the Slam Bradley character. Her research is ongoing and is looking into what other characters Wheeler-Nicholson might have given a detailed outlines on.
Mel Gordon has written a book about Funny Man, a character created by Siegel and Shuster after Superman. Along the way he talked about Jewish humor and brings up details about Zisha Breitardt, a Polish-Jew strong man that often labeled himself Superman and did lots of true and faked amazing feats to show off his strength. It was also mentioned that he toured in both Toronto and Cleveland around the time the two were growing up. He appears to be a strong likely influence on the creation of Superman.
There was also questions from the audience and talk of Vin Sullivan who was Siegel's and Shuster's editor when Superman was first published and for Funny Man.
Spotlight on Jenette Kahn (48:55, 44.7mb)
Jenette Kahn was Publisher, later President and Editor in Chief of DC Comics between 1976 and 2002. She is interviewed by former DC President and Publisher Paul Levitz. They go over her time at DC comics and how she was greeted at first and some of the major projects she had a direct hand in. Specifically they talk about a comic about land mines that was handed out to children in areas with land mines were still hidden. One of those asking questions was someone who handled those books overseas and spoke to how effective they were in drawing kids attention, getting them to read and take serious the threat of land mines. There was a lighting round of names and her reactions to them. They also talked about her being a producer of the Clint Eastwood Gran Torino movie. Kahn talked about what was involved in getting it made and the list of big name actors that turned down the movie. This panel started late due to the previous panel going over its time.
During the Q&A Mark Carlin went up to the microphone and asked Kahn who was her favorite editor was as a joke which got everybody laughing. Tom Galloway asked Jenette about her interviewer Paul Levitz.
There were a lot of people there for this panel, but truth be told, some of them were also there for the next panel featuring Robert Kirkman.
Spotlight on Robert Kirkman (43:50, 40.1mb)
Sina Grace moderated a spotlight on Robert Kirkman. They talked about Skybound, the new imprint under Image that Kirkman is heading up. They promoted the first book coming out called Witch Doctor and brought up its creators Brandon Seifert and Lukas Ketner to talk about it. There was a long Q & A with fans where Kirkman went into Kevin Smith mode answering questions and having snappy conversations with his fans. Anybody who asked questions were also given a free Witch Doctor promo comic. A lot of the questions focused on the upcoming Walking Dead TV show.
Geek Girls Exist (48:43, 44.6mb)
Moderated by Kristin Rielly, this panel includes Bonnie Burton (Star Wars Craft Book), Kiala Kazebee (ThatIsNoMoon.com), Morgan Romine (The Frag Dolls), Kari Byron (Mythbusters), Veronica Belmont (Qore), Jill Pantozzi (Has Boobs, Read Comics), Sarah Kuhn (One Con Glory) and Marian Call (Singer/Songwriter). They talked about when they realized they were geeks, how they got their geek jobs, their role models and gave advice for Geek Women looking for Comics and Gaming related jobs. Also during the panel, Marian Call sang a song that was cheered by the audience. The room was packed for this panel.
Friday:
Here are the panels I was at:
Spotlight on Moto Hagio (55:05, 50.4mb)
Moto Hagio was presented with an Inkpot Award. Matt Thorn moderated the panel and did the translating for Moto. They went over her career, highlighting some popular and not so popular works. She was very funny about her work, telling jokes about how she treats her characters and why she did certain series. As they went through the work, she would point out which stories are in the new collection of her works from Fantagraphics called A Drunken Dream and Other Stories. She explained which US Sci-Fi authors she read and influenced her. Some of the audience did not need any translating as they were laughing at her jokes before the translation was done. When the Q&A period was going on, some of them spoke to her in Japanese as well, but gave an English translation for the audience too.
Spotlight on Stuart and Kathryn Immonen (48:11, 44.1mb)
This panel was moderated by John Siuntres of WordBalloon.com. It starts off with Stuart being asked about his earliest work and then receiving an Inkpot Award. From there it went through both Stuart's and Kathryn's career in comics, when they worked together and apart. They talked about their most recent work together, Moving Pictures from Top Shelf. They went into what their next book together will be and answered questions from fans, particularly about their superhero work. Kathryn talked about Hellcat and her upcoming work, Stuart talked about Nextwave.
Comics Pro: So You Want To Become A Comic Book Retailer? (1:23:25, 76.3mb)
Comics Pro is an organization dedicated to helping other brick and mortar Direct Market retailers. Moderator and Comics Pro President Joe Field believed that the Direct Market can support another 1,000 comic book shops and used this panel to reach out and help people wanting to open their own stores. On the panel was Diamond Comics Dave Hawksworth, Retailers Thomas Gaul, Derrick Taylor, David Wheeler and Michael Ring. They presented a range of newer and established stores who've found success and are willing to share their knowledge. The group gave their comic retailing origin stories and talked about what made their stores unique. All retailers talked about the importance of creating a sense of community within the store. There was also a lively Q&A with the audience with a lot of questions. Among the topics covered was the Online Market (Amazon, etc..), Kids Market, Buying a store vs. opening a new one, Doing a Manga style cafe and more.
I left and went back to my hotel early before the show closed just to get batteries recharged for the Will Eisner Awards. When I got there, I was surprised to see they were giving away to pros an Eisner graphic novel. I got The Building, but I did notice others had a different one with them. On the VIP tables were copies of The Dreamer and a Will Eisner documentary DVD. Some very nice woman gave me hers as she left the awards ceremony.
Full 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards (2:56:28, 161mb)
The 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards was held in the Indigo Room at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront on Friday, July 23rd.
Introduction by Masters of Ceremonies Bill Morrison and Maurice LaMarche. Assisted by Kayre Morrison.
The welcome was done by Jackie Estrada, Eisner Awards Administrator.
Denis Kitchen made an announcement of Contract with God being made into a movie.
Presenters included James Robinson, Thomas Jane, Phil LaMarr, Robert Ben Garant & Thomas Lennon, Milo Manara and Chris Claremont, Peter Bagge, Dave Gibbons, James Sturm and Jillian Tamaki, C. Tyler, Laurie Sandell, Berkeley Breathed also the entire cast of Scott Pilgrim was on stage and a few of them took turns presenting awards. The Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award was presented by Eric Shanower, The Bill Finger Award was presented by Mark Evanier and Jerry Robinson, The Spirit of Comics Retailer Award was presented by Joe Ferrara, The Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award was presented by Ruth Clampett. Sergio Aragones presented the Hall of Fame and Maggie Thompson did the Memoriam.
The Winners can be found at the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards page.
Among the more interesting highlights were Paul Levitz speech that defended Mort Weisinger's induction into the Hall of Fame that also served to protect his daughter from any possible negative reaction. Jill Thompson "fainting" on stage and later picking up her presenter. For celebrity humor Thomas Jane just presenting awards was funny, and Robert Ben Garant presenting with Thomas Lennon joining "on Skype" while drunk, red eyed and seemingly naked, blathering on about certain creators as if he didn't realize he was watched by the Eisner Awards. I also couldn't help but notice that Steve Perry's name wasn't within the Memoriam that Maggie Thompson gave.
51 pictures from the Eisner Awards are here
Saturday:
In the morning I went to a US Postal Service place to mail some books to myself. As they didn't open until 10am, it made me late for some panels I wanted to cover. I did get in to the very end of the Jillian Tamaki spotlight. An audience member asked her about being snubbed for the Canadian Governor Generals Award (they nominated her cousin for being a writer, but not her for being the artist). Jillian said she was devastated at first, but then a number of big name Canadian cartoonists she respected like Seth and Chester Brown started a public campaign to attempt to get her nominated too. Also a conversation started in regards to what the artist contributes to the story of a graphic novel. She found this to be very affirming and saw the whole experience as a plus at the end. The book did not get the award anyhow. When asked about being a woman in the comic industry she said she's not come across major obstacles because of her gender. Said she finds she getting more work involving Asian material because of her ethnicity.
Spotlight on Peter Bagge (50:04, 45.8mb)
Jason T. Miles moderated this panel. Peter Bagge receives an Inkpot Award at the beginning. The two talked about Bagge editing Weirdo and the differences between them and RAW which was running at the same time. Bagge also explained further about how Art Spiegelman (then RAW editor) tried to get the fine art world to take comics seriously. Bagge explained why he doesn't like what was called fine art at the time and prefers low brow humor. He also talked about his time at School of Visual Arts and why he dropped out. In terms of new work, he is still working for Reason Magazine and is doing stories about women writers during the 1920s. What is appealing to him is how they ignored society's rules and did what they wanted. He's hoping to have them collected in a book when he is done. The first one is now online.
I came into the MTV Games panel towards the end. They were talking about an upcoming dancing game that's miles more advanced than Dance Dance Revolution. At the end they surprised everybody by giving away Rock Band Green Day. People would yell out what system they are using and one would be handed to them. I got one for the Wii as my niece is a Rock Band fanatic and doesn't have that game yet. She was very happy about getting the game.
Comics Criticism Panel (50:10, 45.9mb)
The panelists were R. C. Harvey, Gary Groth, Brian Doherty, Douglas Wolk, R. Fiore and Gerard Jones. Ben Schwartz did the Moderating. They talked about if comics criticism is now in a Golden Age or not. They went into "outsiders" getting involved with comics and comics criticism and the pros and cons of that. R. Fiore spoke a lot about his disappointment in the intelligence of modern society, likening it to Flowers for Algernon when Charlie goes back to being mentally disabled. At the end they spoke about the influence Harvey Pekar had on comics. The room was sparsely attended which disappointed a lot of the panelists. It was jokingly referred to having more panelists than audience members but that wasn't quite true. Still there wasn't much more than 20 people in the audience.
Comics Reprints Panel (49:20, 45.1mb)
Panel moderated by Andrew Farago of the Cartoon Art Museum. Panelists were Craig Yoe!, Dean Mullaney, Daniel Herman, Peggy Burns, Gary Groth (who arrives about 5 minutes in), Steve Saffel and Charles Pelto. The group talked about the cyclical nature of comic reprints. Yoe! brought up the earliest newsstand comics were reprints of comic strips, then comic strips were reprinted again the 60s and 70s in paperback books. Peggy Burns talked about making books for readers vs. collectors. She mentioned how collectors give them negative feedback because they choose to exclude certain things from their books. There was also talk of how the later volumes don't sell as well as the first one, but that they all see it through to the end because they love the material and made the commitment to it. They went into their stories involving having to put out an S.O.S. to fans for missing art and weird stories of finding it. This went into stories about dealing with families and how they can help and hurt reprinting old comic strips. On the panel Gary Groth announced that they worked out the rights with Disney about publishing the complete Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse. This panel was supposed to be moderated by Tom Spurgeon but it was announced that he was still hung over from partying last night. Tom deserved to party though, his great website Comics Reporter won an Eisner Award.
I was going to record the Batman in the 70s panel, but Neal Adams wasn't comfortable with it being recorded unless I had a signed legal release form approving it from the convention. I did tell him that I've already spoken with convention employees and it was okay but that's wasn't good enough. Paul Levitz brought this up during the Janette Kahn panel and Gary Sassman the Publishing Director (and who presents the Inkpot awards) said it was okay when we both turned to him. San Diego's rules does say that video recording is a no-no (San Diego video records all of their own panels), and any video or audio recording of movie related panels is also forbidden (which is further stated with signs outside of the panels). There are no rules forbidding audio recording their other panels. I'm sure if they didn't want it, their rules would say so. Also they would have said something to me by now as this is the 3rd year of recording them. DC also records and posts all of their panels both last year and this year as well and I don't believe there are different rules for exhibitors. I could do what some organizations do, hastily transcribe 80% what everybody says and post it online mere minutes after the panel is over, but that leads to potential misquotes and things being taken out of context (I've seen pros get negative backlash because of this). I also like protecting myself in case of people lying and angrily insisting they didn't say what they wish they hadn't said.
Anyways, Neal wasn't comfortable and I wasn't going to record him against his will. I left and did some shopping. But this was the most disappointing moment of the whole San Diego experience for me. The next panel helped make that up. People there really wanted me to record them.
Bill Everett Panel (50:03, 45.8mb)
Author of Fire and Ice: Bill Everett, Blake Bell interviews Bill's daughter Wendy Everett. Blake showed some early work of Bill's showing how good he was, and actually much better than most if not all golden age comic artists working during that time period. Wendy spoke about what Bill was like as a father. She went into detail about how hugely creative he was and gave examples of things he was did for them (her and her two brothers). Wendy said her father taught her to letter comics and involved her brothers in comics in different ways. Wendy reveled what the inspiration for Daredevil was and what colour they wanted the costume to be (it wasn't yellow). They also talked about Everett's alcoholism and how it started and that he eventually joined AA. Blake mentioned a couple of comic creators that Everett helped out with their drinking problems as well. Blake revealed that after Everett died the ACBA (Academy of Comic Book Artists) created a Bill Everett Foundation and that it has been rolled into HERO Initiative. Blake said 10% of the book proceeds will also be going to HERO as well.
I did a little bit of looking around and then left. I had dinner at a Whisky Girl and was told by one of the employees there about the Hall H stabbing.
Sunday:
I spent much of Sunday morning going around the Artists Alley and catching up with creators I've known for a while. There were some complaints about the section from some people. For starters, the layout of it made it difficult to walk though, there only had to be 2-3 people and there wouldn't be any room to get past. If a popular creator was on the end, anybody in the middle would be cut off. A few times throughout the show I walked around the Artist Alley but not through the area due to clogging, it was only Sunday morning that I saw it clear. Also Artists Alley was quite a bit smaller than in previous years and I noticed some of the people were in the small press area, closer to where the comic book dealers were. There was literally 16 aisles between the Artists Alley and Viz Media, the first of the comic publishers booths, and then after the big publisher area, then all the comic book dealers. Another complaint was the video game section twas nearby, one Silver Age creator was being driven crazy by the constant thumping back beat from the Rock Band 3 that was set up and going all weekend. I really wish Comic Con would treat these people better, they very much come across as the red headed stepchild of the convention. At the very least give their section a carpet, I can only imagine how many people see the hard floor and decide to skip browsing the area just to help their already sore feet.
Funny Stuff: Humor in Comics panel.
On was Howard Cruse, Doug TenNapel, Larry Marder, Keith Knight, Nicholas Gurewitch, and Peter Bagge. The panel was moderated by Andrew Farago.
They talked about humor in a general sense for a bit at first. Then Doug TenNapel announced he was a Republican and said he hated much of the humor out there today. Said liberals make fun of Sara Palin for being a woman and they should also make fun of Barack Obama for being black. He called them cowards and felt they should go after their own side and their own sacred cows. He also said if you wanted to hear a funny Bush joke that you talk to a conservative.
This created some tension in the room and much of the panel was a bit about responding to this in some ways for a while. Howard Cruse tried to steer it away from sides and politics by talking a bit about the human condition. TenNapel came back to the topic again, also pointing out Jeff Foxworthy as a comedian he liked because of the self depreciating humor. There was a lot of banter between TenNapel and Gurewitch throughout the panel. Gurewich made the comment that people made fun of Palin not because she was a woman but because she was really stupid. This drew cheers from the crowd. At one point TenNapel challenged Gurewitch to make a black joke and asked him to "use all of the words." This was particularly contentious as Keith Knight (African American who uses humor to discuss racial issues) was sitting beside him. Gurewitch made a lame "Why did Keith Knight cross the road?" "To get his Inkpot Award" joke. Keith got one earlier and had it with him during the panel. TenNapel did say he really enjoyed Keith's work and liked what he was doing.
The topic got moved away from this when the audience started asking questions. Keith was asked about how location affects his humor as he had recently moved to LA. He brought up some local LA stories that he referenced to in his humor. There was also a question asked about self censoring and clean humor as the person asking it brought her kids to a humor show the night previous and heard a bunch of foul language which she felt wasn't appropriate for her kids. She had also mentioned she does humor as well, but clean material for kids. Gurewitch felt she should trust her kids and while they would think it's really funny during adolescence, they would grow out of it. TenNapel didn't trust his kids at all, felt they did need supervision. He said he hated shock humor and felt it's better for comedians to build something up, create something and poke fun at it, instead of just tearing things down. Others joined in about using foul language, both Knight and Gurewitch said it's not something they rely on, but occasionally use the tool.
I should note that I did record this panel but Doug TenNapel was late and not aware that he was being recorded. He asked that either the recording either not go up at all, or at least go up with his bits edited out of it. As much of the banter is between him and others on the panel I've decided against putting it up at all.
Fan vs. Pro Comic Trivia contest (1:16:25, 69.9mb)
Panel was moderated by Peter David wearing a Galactus hat. Fans were Michael Grabois, David Oakes and Tom Galloway. On the Pro's side it was Len Wein, Kurt Busiek and was supposed to be Mark Waid. Mark was unable to make it to the panel, taking his place was Peter Svensson who took his spot 2 years ago. He altered Mark Waid's name tag adding a "Pal" (ala Jimmy Olson) and his name underneath. There was some delay as people were waiting for Mark. Kurt offered his Hershey Kisses to people in the crowd that could answer one of his trivia questions. Kurt also brought a kazoo with him and occasionally played it. The theme this year was Pre-Crisis DC in recognition to their 75th Anniversary. The questions were unbelievably hard and there were many that nobody on either side got. Everybody agreed that Mark Waid would have been answering some of them though. Still people on the panel wanted to strangle the guy who wrote the questions. Peter David was extremely funny on stage and got the audience involved by having sides say "ooohh" and "aahh" at times and giving which question number they were asking. The "series" between the two was tied 6-6 prior to the start of event. Details on the previous contests can be found here.
I had talked to 17 dealers in the Golden/Silver age area and 6 well known independent publishers that were selling books at the con. Most of the dealers I talked to said they did around the same as last year. Some said less, some said more. One dealer did not as good and will be reducing their tables for next year, another said they did much better. I did hear people say that people were spending money on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but the typical big day of Saturday was down, Sunday was typical. It was speculated that people who bought 1 day passes got them on those days and came, spent their money (especially after it was announced the con was closing soon) and left. Of the indy publishers I talked to the split was even on better or worse than last year. I kinda wonder if maybe the big books from certain publishers drew money away from those that didn't have anything major going on. One long time indy publisher was unhappy with the direction of the convention, said now there are a lot of movies being showcased that have nothing to do with comic books. They felt the con is drawing in people to see the celebrities and not shoppers who would buy their type of books. Another complaint was the quick sell out of tickets as they felt their customers might not know so far in advance what day they can take off to come to the show for a 1 day pass and buy books. They mentioned Saturday was dead for them and suspected it was because of this reason.
I enjoyed the show myself but yes, I did find that it's more becoming "movie con." Previously I didn't mind so much as I found in the other areas away from the main comic section you could wander around and still find people selling comic books and GNs. There was less of that this year, which I found disappointing. Also the "Hollywood" section took up isles 4400 to 2900, which is about a 1/3rd of the floor. Add in the video games, toys, t-shirts, etc.. and comics were only for sale for about half of the floor space of the con, and that's being generous. In regards to panels, I found myself not having such a hard time picking and choosing which panels to miss as in previous years. I'm starting to be one of those people who complain about the con.
I did overhear a dealer say that it's been decided and the show is going to move to L.A, and thus it would be his last time at the convention. I've asked some vendors about this but nobody heard anything, so I don't think it's true (or at least if it is, I've got no way of confirming that, we'll have to see what the actual announcement is). Personally, I wouldn't be too sad if the con does move to L.A. Then it really can become "Movie Con." I would be very surprised if Wizard and/or Reed hasn't already called the convention centre and let it be known that they want to set up a multi-year contract to have a convention if Comic Con does chooses to move. If a new convention only got half the audience it would still be among the top 5 conventions in North America. If it were more focused on comics and wasn't quite as crazy with celebrity fans it might be better thing for everybody involved. The Comic Con International staff might not like this as I'm sure they're all comic lovers, but they've made their bed. Or maybe they can have their cake and eat it too. Move the con, then create a newly named comic focused con for San Diego and run it like they do Wonder Con.
That said, I did enjoy the con, more so than last year and I'll probably go again next year if I can. But I don't like the trend I'm seeing. Hopefully it's just an off year but I don't think so.
Regards,
http://www.TheGraphicNovels.com
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