Comic-Con Report #3 – Cavalcade

In no particular order, our Saturday cavalcade of Comic-Con Activities. (I’ll be doing some follow-up linking to actual articles on these events later on, once I get some time.)

1. The San Diego Convention Center‘s ground floor is some 525,000 square feet across all meeting halls. And all the halls were in use, though hall “H” (they run from A-H) was actually partitioned off as a 6500-seat presentation hall/theater.

   And that’ s not counting the exhibition space upstairs, in use by various programs, including two 40,000 square foot ball rooms, the 90,000 square foot “Sails Pavilion” (used for registration and autograph lines), etc.

   We estimated that the main hall of exhibitors worked out to about a half mile in length — and, as you switched back along the aisles, about three miles in booth length. That translates out to about four or five hours of wander time — the first pass. Then you start going back to things you saw that you wanted to check out further.

   As Doyce — no stranger to conventions, but never at this one before — opined, a scosh slack-jawed, “It just keeps going …”

   N.B. Next time I’m bringing my pedometer, just for kicks.

2. At the south end is space for the Artists Auction, where various creative types either donate art or create it on-site. It’s auctioned off to pay for disabled services at the con, as well as to provide space gratis to artists who want to just sit at a table (and sell art, and chit-chat). That “Artists Alley” is just adjacent there, and it’s neat actually seeing artists you recognize, both “hot” ones (Peter Kirk, Peter Gross, Whilce Portacio, etc.) and classics (Gene Colon), as well as others I’d never heard of (and might nor might not enjoy their work — Sturgeon’s Law applies to the Con as much as anywhere else).

   Also at that end, as well as at the other end, is a melange of “miscellany” booths — t-shirts, interesting clothing/costumes, collectables, action figures, videos (both legit and bootleg) independent this-n-that.

   Next up the line are the independent artists who have actual booths, e.g., Stan Sakai, Michael Jantze, Charles Vess. More serious art booths start to show up in this area. Adjacent to this are bigger toy and collectable areas.

   In the center of the whole thing were some dozens of large pavilions by movie production companies (LucasFilm), video game vendors, and similar media conglomerates. That then segued into comic book producers — DC, Marvel, Dark Horse — trailing off to smaller independent producers — SLG, Oni, New England, Bongo. Those creators without their own booths who often hung out in those areas, or at least had regular time there.

   Next along the food chain were comic book (and other book) sellers, both big multi-booth installations (Mile Hi, Bud Plant) and smaller vendors. Yes, you can sitll riffle through back issue bins at the Comic-Con, though it continues to slowly dwindle as a presence. The fact is, the Comic-Con has become a pop media/genre media con, with a large but by no means exclusive (or possibly even majority) presence by comic books.

   There are other, smaller clusters of similar vendors. Adult comics seemed less of a presence this year, but they were pretty much in one area. Jewelry shops were mostly clustered. Fan clubs had a row or two, etc.

3. I would say that the number of costumed folks around the hall this year was significantly down from the last time I was there (two years ago). Most noteworthy were the dearth of Star Trek costumes (aside from some obligatory Klingons) and Star Wars costumes (aside from a Jedi or two). The former seems to be part of the sea change regarding that franchise. The latter is almost certainly fan backlash against the past two flicks.

   Even so, there were not a lot of super-hero costumes, either. Even the LotR stuff was smaller in number. It may just be that, as a tradition, costuming at the Con is dwindling as a whole, for whatever reason.

4. The Con is often an opportunity for folks to attract crowds. There was a decent-sized “get out the vote” presence, both a booth inside the hall and out across the street. They seemed to be strongly affiliated with the Kerry/Edwards campaign (though I certainly support any GotV effort). I did find it amusing that the John Kerry folks were also passing out Coke C2 cans — welcome, of course, but a bit ironic given the criticisms leveled at Kerry about waffling on both sides of the issues (and thus handing out half-calorie, half-carb, half-caffeinated sodas …)

5. The first panel we attended was the Quick Draw competition — Sergio Aragones, Jeff Smith, and Scott Shaw, MCed by Mark Evanier, with the work by the three artists being projected onto large screens at the end of the hall. Hi-larious.

   All three men do great quick sketching, with Aragones (the guy who continues to do all the little marginal cartoons in Mad) being a master. Triffic stuff.

6. Caught the tail end of the Sin City presentation, which sounded good (and, I was told, looked fabulous).

7. Team America looks pretty amusing, particularly if you like South Park and/or have a satirical fondness for Thunderbirds. The key comment from the creators: “I’m really … really … sick of puppets right now.”

8. Saw the (late) Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow presentation, which included both a panel discussion (mostly “Ooooh, Jude Law, I love you!” type of stuff), the trailer (faboo), a making-of vignette (cool), and two lengthy (at least 2-5 minutes) action scenes from the movie — giant robots coming down Fifth Avenue; an undersea battle (really keen).

   I’m not convinced the movie is going to be any good, but it’s going to be eye candy to die for.

   I did find a comment by Jude Law to be interesting. Part of what makes the movie unique is the huge amount of blue-screen work — aside from the actors, most of the set pieces will be virtual. Law pointed out that, in many ways, it was like working on stage, where, as an actor, you’re still having to mentally fill in the missing bits. A good observation. Given that the entire movie was heavily animatixed before any of the actors came on, and I don’t think the blue screen stuff will turn into much of a problem.

9. Big news of the con was the announcement (previously leaked, according to Doyce, but I’d not heard it) of the title of Star Wars III, Revenge of the Sith. Nice, and certainly the best of the “first” trilogy. Lots of shirts being sold/passed out.

10. I don’t know if Las Fajitas in the Gaslamp district has the Best Margaritas in the World, but they were certainly very good. I just can’t remember if we got the Perfect or the Ultimate Margarita. Michelle? Mary? Doyce?

11. I am irked that so many of the Justice League t-shirts available have only Bats, Supes, GL, Flash, and Martian Manhunter. I’m sure someone decided that the demographics is for boys, and thus boys wouldn’t be at all interested in Wonder Woman or Hawkgirl. I think they’re nuts. Katherine, certainly, would enjoy shirts with those characters on them.

12. I’d never been to the Comic-Con Masquerade before, and I’m glad we went (though I don’t see it being an every-year kind of thing). There were 52 entries in the show, more than usual (I understand), and some of them were pretty incredible. Phil Foglio was the MC, and he handled the crowd very well (“We can make this take as long as you want. I have infinite patience — and comfortable shoes”).

    By far the crowd favorite was a young kid dressed and made-up perfectly as Beast Boy, who did a very fun, energetic dance to the Teen Titans theme. He was the 4th contestant out, and thereafter whenever things got slow (or a lame costume came out), there would come the crowd-wide chant of “BEAST BOY — BEAST BOY — BEAST BOY …” He ended up winning a number of prizes.

    Another fan favorite was titled “Not the Droid You’re Looking For,” which started off as a reenactment of the Jawa robot sale to Owen Skywalker (complete with Luke’s whining), but ending with the replacement robot (for the one with the “bad motivator”) being Futurama‘s Bender. They ended up with a couple of prizes, too, and chants for “BENDER — BENDER — BENDER …” were also frequent.

    The other big prize winner was a gal who did a Harley Quinn song pining for Mr. J, dressed in mask, make-up, and a red teddy. Other noteworthies included a 12-foot-tall Optimus Prime, some Star Wars bits, and a group that did the Justice League (quite nice, though they surprisingly won no prizes). We didn’t get out of there until midnight, alas, and that was pretty much it for the night’s activities.

13. Sunday was (a) buy the stuff that didn’t get bought the day before, (b) see the Serenity panel, (c) scrounge for Serenity autographs, (d) wrap things up and get out of Dodge. Well, we did about half of that …

UPDATE: Analogous postage from Doyce on Saturday’s events.