I got in from Vegas Wednesday, so there was no going to preview day for me. But I was there bright and early Thursday, with my sister and brother-in-law. Parking wasn't too hard to find, though it was $15. We had a bit of a walk to the convention center, and no sooner than we had lined up to pick up our passes then they opened the doors to go upstairs and check-in. Advanced registration pick-up was quite efficient, and in less than five minutes we had our badges on and were waiting for the doors to open at 9. Despite the crowd, things went very smoothly. And no sooner had I entered the main hall, then I saw Keith Knight's booth, right by the rear entrance. So I bought his collection of (Th)Ink strips, making my first purchase less than a minute after entering Comic-Con. I decided to walk to the North end and make my way back, but on the way saw the Unshelved booth, where they were selling the "Mad About Reading Cow" T-shirts, which I knew I had to have. Got a shirt, talked for a minute with cartoonist Bill Barnes, and got snookered into buying some books, too. I see on the web site that the T-shirts at Comic-Con are going to be rarities; on the main run of the shirt, the Cow's book, "Cud: A Love Story," is changed to "Clover: A Love Story." No accounting for tastes. I spent most of that morning on the floor of the convention center, shopping, and bought a fair amount of stuff. I got a real good deal on The Comic Art of George Herriman, which was exciting both because the book is awesome, and because co-author and Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell would be signing later. I spent a fair amount of time at the booths selling animation cels, hoping to find a good Simpsons cel to pick up with my Vegas winnings. But I never saw one I liked enough to justify the hefty price. I did take an immediate liking to the Futurama pulp fiction covers, limited editions based on season one episodes. Really cool, and as an added bonus, a lot cheaper than an animation cel. I knew I wanted one, but picking which one would take several days. I did a good deal of shopping, hoping to get as much done on Thursday as I could, because I had to keep a tighter schedule the other days. But I did go to two panels Thursday; one was on general DVD releases coming up, and the other one, a real highlight of Comic-Con, was the Freaks & Geeks panel. They screened "Discos and Dragons," talked a bit, and took questions. Paul Feig was there, as was John "Sam" Daley, Samm "Neal" Levine, Martin "Bill" Starr, Steve "Kowchevski" Bannos, and Natasha "Cindy Sanders" Melnick. When Melnick chose to speak, it was a bit painful, but overall a great experience. After the panel, I hurried to the autograph area, but by the time I got there, the line was already pretty bad. They warned us at the time we weren't guaranteed an autograph, but after a wait of just over an hour, I got them all to sign my yearbook. So that was exciting. After that, we had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory before heading back for the evening festivities. My sister and brother-in-law attended the Star Wars Fan Films Awards, while I planned to watch Bubba Ho-Tep. I watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back to kill time, and went to the bathroom between movies. While heading back to see the movie, I peeked in another room, and quickly got sucked in by a bizarre Kung-Fu movie. It took me some time to figure out what I was watching, but what I mistook for a remnant of '80s USA Up All Night-style film was actually a new independent film seeking distribution, All Babes Want to Kill Me. I hesitate to say it was good, exactly, but I enjoyed watching it. Really poorly edited, it seems to me, with huge gaping holes and contradictions in the plot, but does it really matter. The cast and director were there, and were very nice, and signed autographs afterwards. Worth seeing if you get a chance (they are apparently near a deal for theatrical distribution). A good way to end the day.
Friday we decided to take the trolley, because the web site said the special green line, which services the stadium during Padres games, would be running. But turns out it was not. So it was a minor ordeal taking the trolly, waiting about 40 minutes for a train, and then having to transfer. So I was late, and missed the Bongo Comics panel. But I did more shopping, bought one of the aforementioned Futurama pulp fiction covers, among other things, got things signed at the Peanuts booth, and in the afternoon attended some panels. The two panels that warrent mention include "Why We Love Peanuts," where Jean Schulz, the Hernandez brothers and Chip Kidd, as well as the head of Fantagraphics, discussed Sparky's legacy. That was immediately followed, in the same room, by an interview of Patrick "Mutts" McDonnell, who was asked questions by novelist Glen David Gold and the audience, showed some slides, and drew some of his characters for us. We left soon after that; nothing much going on that evening, so we had dinner with Mom.
I knew Saturday was going to be a busy day, and there were lots of conflicting things to do at the same time. Unfortunately, by Saturday I was truly exhausted, and not quite up to the task before me. But I got the most important things done. I had seen the day before that Ruben Bolling of Tom The Dancing Bug would be signing at 10, so I was very disappointed when I didn't get there until about 10:10, and dreaded the long line. Turns out there was no one there, and he hadn't sold a book yet. Seemed happy to see me, and was very kind and funny, and it was one of the more comfortable autograph sessions of the day (I always feel weird getting someone's autograph, and never know what to say). Bought two of his books (paid $10 each, later looked on-line and saw that they go for far more than that, being out-of-print), and pre-ordered his new book coming out this fall. If you don't read his strip religiously, you should. Then I met up with an internet friend and got her to buy some books from him, as well. Then we lined up for the Patrick McDonnell autograph session. The line wasn't bad at all when we got in it, but got pretty long soon afterwards. Once he started signing, the wait was probably less than twenty minutes, and he was very nice, signing two books and a poster for me. Then I headed to the Simpsons panel, which was underwhelming. A montage of clips, basically extended cuts of things that have already aired, followed by a French laundry detergent commercial, in which you could see Bart's penis (still quite small, even on the big screen)...what Matt Groening said was a real Comic-Con exclusive. Some nice little snippets of information on what to expect this season (I won't reveal any of the surprises). I left not long after the Q&A portion started, to get to the second Peanuts panel, but turns out I had the wrong time, and was 30 minutes early. So I went back to the floor, looked around a bit, and headed back to the Peanuts panel, only to find such a line to get in, I decided to skip it (I knew from the previous days the room it was in was small, and I doubt everyone fit, comfortably, at least. So back to the floor I was. As I mentioned, I was very tired, and found myself getting a bit punchy. Just basically walking with no destination. Which, while not the most productive way to see Comic-Con, is not necessarily a bad thing. I found lots of interesting things I missed the first few times. Even stumbled upon Billy West's booth, and bought his CD. Headed up to get Matt Groening's autograph at 3, but the line was just too long, and I knew there was no chance of getting an autograph, especially since I had a panel at 4. That panel, with voice-over goddess June Foray, was a suprise highlight of Comic-Con. I figured it would be good, but it really was great to hear her stories, see clips of her wide range of work (I never realized she was the voice of Talking Tina on The Twilight Zone). And when she did Rocky, she sounded exactly as she did on the show. They even brought in some other voice-over actors to re-enact an episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle, including a Fractured Fairy Tale. Fun times. Of course, my camera's batteries died right as I tried to record part of the script reading, so I have no clip of that to bring you. But trust me, it was great. That was immediately followed, in the same room, by the Adult Swim panel. I of course had to attend, but I must say the audience the Adult Swim panels draws disturbs me. Lots of bros. Lots of people hooting a lot and asking really, really dumb questions. The clips of coming programming, though, is what you come for, and even that was troubling. The clips for existing shows were pretty awesome. The Aqua Teen Hunger Force clip lambasting standards and practices (it's strange; Cartoon Networks lets them get away with a lot, yet even gentle blaspheme--i.e., the quote from Futurama, "Sweet Zombie Jesus!"--is excised) was possibly the single funniest thing I saw at Comic-Con. But they showed new shows, as well. And while I will withhold judgement on Squidbillies, I must say that Stroker and Hoop looks absolutely awful. I didn't care for the pilot of Venture Brothers, but the clips they showed looked interesting enough to give it another chance. And as I already suggested, the Q&A portion was painful (thank god M.C. Chris was there to keep things fun). Q&A at Comic-Con is always a bit painful, at least at anything that attracts a wide audience. Lots of questions that aren't questions at all, for instance. Just like last year, I'm happy to report the worst question I heard came from the Adult Swim panel. A young man complained about the departure of Captain Murphy from Sealab 2021, and asked how they could commit such blaspheme. The crowd groaned, and Kate Miller, the voice of Debbie, explained as gently as she could that the actor who portrayed Captain Murphy, Harry Goz, died. He explained that he did not know that, and then asked a follow-up question that was almost as painful. Really bad to claim to be a fan of that show, a big enough fan to go to Comic-Con and ask that question, and not know he died (to be fair, it was the same week Johnny Cash and Warren Zevon died). They gave out decks of cards after the panel, I managed to get two. So that was pretty sweet. And that's how Comic-Con ended for me. We didn't go Sunday; Eric wanted to see Legoland. But that story will have to wait for tomorrow.
That's Comic-Con, in broad strokes. Should have documented it better as it happened, but as I mentioned, I was wore out. A week with a pretty bad flu, a trip to Vegas, and then Comic-Con was a bit too much. Lots of walking. Next year, I hope to be more rested and ready. One plus, I was on my feet and walking a lot, and my foot doesn't hurt. So maybe I'm ready to resume running. Pictures of Comic-Con won't be up tonight, just posting this took longer than I thought. A lot of my pictures didn't turn out, but those that did are pretty cool. And I have a good Legoland story, maybe I'll have time to post that at work tomorrow.
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