Guttergeek Reports from the Con I
July/28, 2007
Forced to man guttergeek HQ in the interest of
national security this summer, I am living
vicariously off of reports from Alex and other far
flung guttergeeks as to the happenings at the Con.
Here is Alex's first report from day
one:
If you thought last year was crowded, this year is worse. It's almost unmanagable on the exhibit floor. Thursday is usually a pretty calm, orderly day, but I'm exhausted.
The only panel I saw all of today was Darwyn Cooke's spotlight panel, which was the only one I really *had* to see. He's a smart, honest guy who had interesting things to say about his work, his contemporaries, and his industry. He said he'd only really heard and seen what's public knowledge about the forthcoming Spirit film, and he said it seemed to be a little too one-dimensional for his taste. He said Miller's focusing mainly on the sex and violence aspects of the Spirit (surprise, surprise) and marginalizing the human elements of what made Eisner's strips work so well. He revealed that he's not going to be working on The Spirit after issue #12, which to me was horrible news. The Spirit is my second-favorite periodical read from DC right now (after All Star Superman), so I'll be sorry to see him off that project. But he's working on two new graphic novels (of his own creation with his own characters) that will take up the next two years. He described one as an all-ages fantasy novel "with giant robots and such" and the other as a graphic novel for adults. He hasn't settled on a publisher for either project, but he said he's been approached by several publishers and isn't worried about finding a home for his books. I was hoping to see clips from the forthcoming New Frontier animated adaptation, but no footage is ready to go yet. DC's really pushing their inaugural animated film, Superman: Doomsday, which they'll debut here at the con tonight.
I stopped and talked to several creators about their work. I talked to Rucka about the Question article I interviewed him for, and it was nice meeting the guy who told me how 52 was going to end. I dropped by David PetersEn's booth, bought the first issue of the second Mouse Guard volume, gave him a GG card, and talked to him a while. I talked to Brian Wood about DMZ and to Cully Hamner about his work on the new Blue Beetle series. I gave him a GG card and told him about the review, and he did a Question sketch for me. I talked to Warren Ellis briefly on preview night, but the crowds were too crazy to really talk much.
On the action figure front, Hasbro is revealing all sorts of Marvel Legends goodness here (including a new, better version of Namor in his trunks, Tigra, and a slew of others I'm just not remembering). I'm getting the "business" She-Hulk and Stan Lee exclusive figures tomorrow after much difficulty getting a ticket just to get in line. I also found the fist wave of the "Legendary Heroes" line at Wal-Mart here in Temecula. (We're staying with Kristy's sister about an hour away from SD.) It's the indy character line; I never thought I'd have Savage Dragon, Madman, and Judge Dredd figures in the same scale as Marvel
Legends, but I'm not complaining. These things are as good as the last couple waves of ToyBiz's Marvel Legends run (which means they're much better than the first couple waves of Hasbro's Marvel Legends run).
So. That's the first day's report. Lots of good panels tomorrow, when I'll finally able to settle in and enjoy that part of the con. Thursday is usually the day when I run about chasing all my silly toy exclusives. Mezco finally finished off the BPRD with their Abe Sapien exclusive, so that made me quite happy. I also grabbed a battle Leonidas (from 300) and Harry Potter w/Hedwig from NECA.
--Alex
If you thought last year was crowded, this year is worse. It's almost unmanagable on the exhibit floor. Thursday is usually a pretty calm, orderly day, but I'm exhausted.
The only panel I saw all of today was Darwyn Cooke's spotlight panel, which was the only one I really *had* to see. He's a smart, honest guy who had interesting things to say about his work, his contemporaries, and his industry. He said he'd only really heard and seen what's public knowledge about the forthcoming Spirit film, and he said it seemed to be a little too one-dimensional for his taste. He said Miller's focusing mainly on the sex and violence aspects of the Spirit (surprise, surprise) and marginalizing the human elements of what made Eisner's strips work so well. He revealed that he's not going to be working on The Spirit after issue #12, which to me was horrible news. The Spirit is my second-favorite periodical read from DC right now (after All Star Superman), so I'll be sorry to see him off that project. But he's working on two new graphic novels (of his own creation with his own characters) that will take up the next two years. He described one as an all-ages fantasy novel "with giant robots and such" and the other as a graphic novel for adults. He hasn't settled on a publisher for either project, but he said he's been approached by several publishers and isn't worried about finding a home for his books. I was hoping to see clips from the forthcoming New Frontier animated adaptation, but no footage is ready to go yet. DC's really pushing their inaugural animated film, Superman: Doomsday, which they'll debut here at the con tonight.
I stopped and talked to several creators about their work. I talked to Rucka about the Question article I interviewed him for, and it was nice meeting the guy who told me how 52 was going to end. I dropped by David PetersEn's booth, bought the first issue of the second Mouse Guard volume, gave him a GG card, and talked to him a while. I talked to Brian Wood about DMZ and to Cully Hamner about his work on the new Blue Beetle series. I gave him a GG card and told him about the review, and he did a Question sketch for me. I talked to Warren Ellis briefly on preview night, but the crowds were too crazy to really talk much.
On the action figure front, Hasbro is revealing all sorts of Marvel Legends goodness here (including a new, better version of Namor in his trunks, Tigra, and a slew of others I'm just not remembering). I'm getting the "business" She-Hulk and Stan Lee exclusive figures tomorrow after much difficulty getting a ticket just to get in line. I also found the fist wave of the "Legendary Heroes" line at Wal-Mart here in Temecula. (We're staying with Kristy's sister about an hour away from SD.) It's the indy character line; I never thought I'd have Savage Dragon, Madman, and Judge Dredd figures in the same scale as Marvel
Legends, but I'm not complaining. These things are as good as the last couple waves of ToyBiz's Marvel Legends run (which means they're much better than the first couple waves of Hasbro's Marvel Legends run).
So. That's the first day's report. Lots of good panels tomorrow, when I'll finally able to settle in and enjoy that part of the con. Thursday is usually the day when I run about chasing all my silly toy exclusives. Mezco finally finished off the BPRD with their Abe Sapien exclusive, so that made me quite happy. I also grabbed a battle Leonidas (from 300) and Harry Potter w/Hedwig from NECA.
--Alex
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