It’s the little things like how in Europe they don’t call a Quarter Pounder a Quarter Pounder and now in San Diego they don’t call a Comic Convention a Comic Convention they call it a “Celebration of the Popular Arts”. At least that’s what the new banners say up and down the Gas Lamp district. For the last couple years Hollywood has taken over the big hall programming to promote effect heavy genre films but now the “popular arts” have expanded more to include new TV shows and CG animated features. Ch-ch-changes. The old geek mecca has become a big family show and it’s bringing in Disneyland size crowds.

The other major change this year was the huge turnout for preview night. After a couple of years one of the con’s “best kept secrets” has become the big show before the show. The frenzied masses move fast down the crowded aisles snapping up the first night freebies and lining up for the “exclusives” (Way too many this year, making them all way less exclusive). Thursday morning is now the best time to move around on the floor as the previewers are resting up from the night before. (Food Note: Thursday morning you can also get an easy table at the Sun Café for steak and eggs for $5.25 before the crowd packs this place over the weekend)

Another big difference is the overabundance of those silly amorphous plastic doodad toys. They look like prototype panda bears and they come in a wide variety of uninteresting painted details. Man, they were everywhere???

I made it to three panels Thursday: The first day release celebration of the DC Heroes Stamp, The Grant Morrison Deepak Chopra talk on the Seven Spiritual Laws of Super Heroes, and the Guillermo delToro Pan’s Labyrinth presentation.

The first panel was a grand love fest by and for the post office and stamp collectors; there was even an ovation for the local post master and the mayor. The stamps themselves are sweet, but do I really need one more thing to collect? (I bought three sheets and got them first day cancelled so don’t expect any mail from me)

The Deepak talk was in the big room but only a few people were scattered in there. Ironically, the real draw at the time was the Animainiacs/Pinky and the Brain DVD presentation, but you couldn’t get in there unless you had been camping out in the room for the talk before.

The concept of Deepak at Comic Con is a sure signal that things have gone askew in the geek world. (Do we really need spiritual validation for our pastime?) Chopra was there because his son is a comic contributor to the new line put out by Virgin, and he was interested in the form as a source of modern myth. While the talk was pretty unstructured, Chopra and Morrison made some interesting remarks about the progression of comic mythology. They traced the field’s path from its early roots of immigrant’s dreams through the long dark shadows of the over psychoanalyzed anti-hero 80s. (A time they felt almost killed the medium) Both Chopra and Morrison were excited about the medium as a possible source for new myths of hope for our troubled times. But the whole thing had a weird undercurrent as Chopra and his son seemed a little edgy and uncomfortable about coexisting in each other’s worlds. (Colman enjoyed the talk, it gave him a chance to nap)

The real treat of the day was Guillermo delToro. Wow! A great trailer and talk about passion, and a new land speed record for the use of the word fuck. DelToro could soon overthrow Kevin Smith as a fan favorite panel leader. He’s got a true passion for filmmaking and perfect rapport with the audience. He was inspirational and fucking funny as hell. After the talk the crowd jumped out of there to go rent Chronos, The Devil’s Backbone, and Hellboy. I can’t wait for Pan’s Labyrinth.

Well, more about the comic’s aspect (oh yeah, comics) in my next post.

	The Devil’s Backbone (Special Edition)
	Hellboy (Director’s Cut)

That’s right, if you’re a movie star or director who has been press-ganged into promoting your latest project at the San Diego Comic-Con, here’s a few tips to tame the lions of Hall “H” — we the audience are the lions, by the way, in case you hadn’t sussed that out.

We don’t care if you’re famous.

Poor Jamie Foxx came to us last year to push Stealth. Foxx is an excellent actor (he has an Academy Award to prove it), but we’d already seen the trailers for Stealth and it looked like a piece of crap. Which is fine, except Foxx thought all he needed to do was show up to get us excited about the movie. Wrong! What he got was questions from the audience like, “How do you go from something incredible like Ray to something lame like Stealth?” Foxx and his cohorts were obviously confused and annoyed at our reaction. In this case some humility on their part would have at least won our respect, and who knows … maybe enough so that we would have given their crappy movie a chance by spending the half an Andy Jackson to go see it.

Questions, questions, questions.

We have come to expect Q and A at Hall “H”, but probably not for the reasons you think. You see, when folks like Charlize Theron and Marton Csokas come around (they came out for AEon Flux) we are actually a little starstruck. In fact, something you may not know, if you were to sit in Hall “H” all day long and watch all the panels, every panel gets asked the same set of questions! Why? The questions are merely a formality. They are a mechanism which provides us a chance to get to talk directly to one of you: an actual Hollywood Star™. For instance, I guarantee your panel will be asked these three questions:

• What did you do to prepare for your role? This is especially significant if the movie is based on a comic book.
• What was it like working with [whoever it is you are co-starring with]?
• What was it like working with [whoever it is you co-starred with in your last movie]?
Now that you understand the questions don’t really matter, then you can focus on the real purpose of the question: giving the asker a special moment they can remember and share with their friends. Heck, often people are nervous and don’t realize that the person in front of them asked their question already! Don’t say, “I already answered that question. What else you got?” Answer it in a different way and be cool about it. Then we’ll go home and tell all our friends how cool you were and we’ll make sure we all go see your movie because you’re real nice, down-to-earth people who deserve the price of a movie ticket.3. One more for the road: Make the experience uniqueOur favorite panels are those who come with clips of footage no one else has seen or cool freebees (like those sweet V for Vendetta masks!). If you just show up and open the floor to questions, the least you can do is tell us some interesting stories. Make it feel like we’re special and that you are telling us something you normally wouldn’t tell anyone else. Last year Naomi Watts and Adrian Brody showed up for King Kong, but what we loved was Jack Black pulling out his guitar and playing us some tunes! And if you want to sit down with “one of your own kind”, give Nathan Fillion a call. He may not have an Academy Award, but everyone at the Con loves him.

Damn, this year I might have to go to the Eisner Awards. When I first started attending the Con the Eisners were a break on Friday night to get a little free food (well you know the carrot/celery/dip sort of thing but after spending a fortune on bad Con food, free was free!) and see what the comic field was determining as their best. The Eisners are the Academy Awards of the funny book world and in the past they have become just as predictable. Many of the awards go out to the same crowd as last year and much of the evening depends on the host or keynote speaker to set the tone of the night.

I stopped going the year Frank Miller launched into one of his rants about the evil state of the field and the treatment of the old guard by the corporate powers that be. At the time Frank was railing against DC and Marvel and swore in many of his interviews and letter columns that he would never work for these companies or return to their licensed character again. He stormed off at the end of the speech and didn’t stay to watch any of his friends and fellow artists get their brief moment in the spotlight. He was probably heading off to sign the contracts for the monumental piece of crap that would become The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Miller… don’t get me started!

But this year things look much brighter. Bill Morison (Bongo Comics) will be the Master of Ceremonies and there are some great new people in the creative field. When The Simpsons first started to break into print in magazine covers, toys, and comics the chance were 99.9% that even if it was signed by Matt Groening, Bill did the drawing. Bill is one of the true gentlemen of the comic world. I have seen the man spend hours at signings at a neighborhood comic shop talking to each kid in line asking him about his or her favorite Simpsons’ character. And at the Con he is a regular at the Bongo booth checking in everyday. I have little doubt that he will set a great tone for the evening. And I doubt he will stomp off at the end of his speech.

Another reason to be there is to root on Kazu Kibuishi in two categories: Best Anthology for his ensemble work Flight 2, and Best Digital Comic Copper. Kazu is a long time friend of the site and some of his work can be seen in our sketch page. And while Flight has gotten a lot well deserved attention from web reviews and industry pros like Scott McCloud (another great guy in the field), it’s Copper that I will be cheering for this year.

If you haven’t seen Copper you are in for a wonderful treat. This digital comic mixes the sense of wonder of childhood that Bill Watterson perfected in Calvin and Hobbes and the simple beauty in graphic layout and color palette that Chris Ware works with. Being on the web there is no small bandage shaped panel restriction and so every Copper feels like a Sunday full page newspaper treat. The strip’s concept is simple the adventures of a young boy Copper and his dog Fred (his best friend and companion) as they go off on adventures from the backyard to outer space. The layout has a wonderful sense of narrative much like some of Winsor McCay’s work with Little Nemo. And the individual strips can be purchased as prints. They make fine gifts!

I can’t believe the Con is less than a week away now.

Ah, Ciros Pizza! Ooh! The secret 10:00 o’clock screenings in the Gas Lamp! And now the Eisners!

Good luck Kazu!

When I was a kid, my dad referred to comic books as “funny books.” This was odd to me since I was reading Spiderman: Kraven’s Last Hunt and Batman: The Killing Joke at the time. “He crippled Barbara Gordon! You find that funny, you sick, twisted bastard?” I said to him … internally. Now the new mini-series Sidekick is truly a funny book. But not one I should have been reading when I was a kid, or if I did my parents shouldn’t have know it.

In the most distilled movie pitch terms, Sidekick is a politically incorrect rated R version of The Tick. Not Nine1/2 Weeks R-rated, but Wedding Crashers R-rated. I won’t get too specific or spoilerific, which is a disservice especially to comedy. How many times has someone described a scene from a movie that ends up much funnier than when you see it yourself?

The sidekick in the title refers to a twenty-something pizza delivery boy by day and sidekick to a clueless melodramatic commie-hating sanctimonious Superman archetype by night. The one perk of his job, an affair with the sexy wife of his clueless boss, is greatly outnumbered by having to repeatedly fix his bosses messes, wearing a silly costume, and being completely superpower-less. These factors along with a dispute regarding merchandising, lead the sidekick to look for work with spoof versions of Batman, Wonder-Woman, et al.

Creator Paul Jenkins (Civil War: Front Line, Spectacular Spider-Man) uses British wit to poke fun at the same super heroes he has written for Marvel and DC. Chris Moreo’s art style is simple, effective, and fun, and looks a great deal like the art from Penny Arcade. Sidekick won’t change your view of comics, but it will take you mind off your problems as well as do something good for you: make you laugh.

Sidekick is a 5 issue creator-owned mini-series published by Image. Check out this preview for it!

Hi, my name is Claypool, and I’m a Warcraftaholic.

It’s been three days now since I’ve had an epic and I don’t think I can make it another day. My last epic was the Judgment Legplates, and I honestly don’t remember picking up the first mob. I must have fought all night, because when I finally came to, it was 5 am in the morning and I couldn’t remember where I put my Fire Resist Potions. I don’t know who to trust anymore. I asked my sponsor for help, and he told me that he was too busy getting AD rep for the new instance to give me any advice. I hope I can resist the urge to PK tonight. I just have to remember the steps and I think I can make it!

Seriously though, I had a customer the other day interested in playing an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) because he had heard about how fun they are. He asked me about Final Fantasy 11 and I suggested that World of Warcraft might be a little more accessible for a beginner to the genre. He answered that World of Warcraft worried him as a game to try because from what he understood, many people become too involved in the game and “lose control of their lives”. True story.

WoW

To be honest, (tbh in WoW speak) I am not surprised, nor, I suspect, are many of you who are reading this. There are countless stories of people flunking a class or missing a day of work, or even getting fired, losing a loved one, even getting kicked out of school or fired due to an MMORPG. It’s true. Anyone who plays these sorts of games can relate.

World of Warcraft seems to be a different animal to me, however. While I too, have fallen victim to missing a day of work or skipping school in order to “just get that last bubble of xp till lvl 49!!!”, I have never stayed with a game as long as WoW. WWII online, Dark Age of Camelot, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies, Final Fantasy XI, City of Heroes, and RF online only held my interest for a maximum of 8 months or less, and this of constant two to five hours of game play a day, sometimes more. Warcraft, however, I have played since its release in November of 2004, and have rarely skipped any significant amount of time.

While this may seem like ample reason for anyone to avoid the game (cough, cough, the editor!) it’s actually a good thing. The REASON so many people love and live by World of Warcraft is because, quite simply, it’s a terrific game. I’m not here to really write a review about it, but visit any website associated with gaming and you’re sure to find a glowing review or editorial on the content and game play.

So to summarize, if you ARE considering an MMORPG, above all others, I DO highly recommend World of Warcraft. Of the MMORPG’s on the market to date, it’s arguably the easiest and most accessible one to pick up, quickly understand, and immerse you in without having to know any back story or have any previous experience with the genre.

Besides, everyone’s doing it. You want to be cool, don’t you?

World of Warcraft