A quote from a panel at San Diego Comic Con ticks me off.

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Didio noted that most of the people that reacted positively to this story had small children of their own, meaning the writers "touched a real nerve" which was a good job and not a bad job.--Dan DiDio at Thursday's DC Nation panel about the events in Arsenal's life.

Really, Dan? Who are these parents? I want to see them. I want to be sure they exist. Because I am the parent of a small child, and I think that killing off Lian, the 5 year-old daughter of Roy Harper, is disgusting, cheap and reprehensible. Especially since teh result is a poorly written, laughable series.

And you think that making comic fans think of what would happen if their small child was killed is a "good thing"? That's a nerve I just do not want touched.

Man, this statement really infuriates me.  

I rant about the "OpenSource Boob Project"

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Yes, I am one of the last to tackle this topic. After Get Off The Internet, Beaucoup Kevin,  Occasional Superheroine, The Beat and almost countless others have said what they had to say. I thought I said all I had to say about it in my comments on Val's blog, but I felt compelled to write more about it here.

What is the Open-Source Boob Project? Read more about it here but this is the gist of it:

The Open-Source Boob Project.

At Penguicon, we had buttons to give away. There were two small buttons, one for each camp: A green button that said, "YES, you may" and a red button that said "NO, you may not." And anyone who had those buttons on, whether you knew them or not, was someone you could approach and ask:

"Excuse me, but may I touch your breasts?"

And if you weren't a total lout - the women retained their right to say no, of course - they would push their chests out, and you would be allowed into the sanctity of it. That exchange of happiness where one person are told with gropes and touches that they are desirable and the other is someone who's allowed to desire.

For a moment, everything that was awkward about high school would fade away and you could just say what was on your mind. It was as though parts of me were being healed whenever I did it, and I touched at least fifteen sets of boobs at Penguicon. It never got old, surprisingly.

Some women didn't want to. That was fine. We never demanded anything of anyone. And if you didn't want to put yours up for the Project but you wanted to touch, well, that was fine, too. It was simply for folks who felt like being open.

It was a raging success at Penguicon.... And there haven't been any hookups that I know of thanks to the Open-Source Boob Project. It is, as I said, a very special thing. (Though I wouldn't rule it out if two single people exchanged a moment.) And we'll probably do it at other cons, because it's strangely wholesome and sexual at the same time.

I've left off the names, because frankly, people should reveal for themselves whether they're Open-Sourcers or not. Not everyone wants to go public with it, and what happens at the con stays at the con. But trust me. If you are, and I meet you, I will ask. And you'll understand the beauty and simplicity of the Open-Source Boob Project for yourself.

Touch the magic, my friends. Touch the magic.

Yes! A geek's glory land! Being able to touch a woman's boob without dinner and a movie first! Or even showering!

I have these few tips for anybody who thinks that this is a good idea:

1. It's not
2. No, really, it's not.
3. Not every woman wants their boobs touched.
4. Those that do might be coming from a wide variety of reasons. They are not all free thinkers who are comfortable with their bodies. So don't think that if someone doesn't want to have their boobs touched that means something is wrong with them. 
5. Couching your 'feeling girls up' project in new age-y jargon doesn't take a way from the fact that the whole point of the project is so you can get your rocks off by feeling a woman's boobs.
6. Don't try to deny it. You don't need to touch a woman's breasts to say her body is beautiful. You want to touch her breasts so you can touch her breasts.
7. Backpedaling by saying that people have misconstrued your "healing" and "wholesome" breast touching ritual and turned it to a lewd and perverted breast touching ritual doesn't really work. These people might be perverts, but they cut to the gist of your ideas.
8. And for those who think this misguided idea, which gives women a choice in the matter, allows you to just go up to any woman any a convention and cop a feel, you are really, really, REALLY mistaken. I feel sorry for your groin, which will probably be kicked. A LOT.
9. Anybody at a convention who comes up and grabs my wife's boobs will be power bombed through a table.
10. By HER, not ME.
11. If you are so socially maladjusted that the only way you can touch boobs is starting up a program where the willing will allow you to touch their boobs, might I suggest going to a strip club. The less reputable the better. Think BYOB. Sure, you have less money for Star Trek prop replicas and almost naked Japanese vinyl figurines, but, with the right stripper on the right night, you will be able to touch all the boobs you want.
12. Or better yet, how about you start treating women with dignity and respect. Treat them like human beings. Then you might actually get a girlfriend who would let you touch her boobs all the time. Yes, yes, I know. You'd have to start brushing your teeth and showering, and you'd have even less money for Star Trek prop replicas and mostly naked Japanese vinyl figurines and you'll be limited to only one pair of breasts for an extended period of time, but there are other benefits, like having someone care if you live or died.

See, I have a circle of friends where we come up with some wacky, off the wall ideas. But we usually keep these ideas to ourselves. We don't present these wacky, off the wall ideas to the general public where they will be viewed out of context and interpreted differently than we intended. That being said, theferret is either deluded or less suave than he thinks he is. Because as much as he tries to couch his groping in an intellectual way, in a way which he wants to appear is empowering to women, he is still trying to cop a feel of random women's boobies. And even though the women in his circle of friends do not think that's offensive, it doesn't mean that it's wrong for another woman to think it is.

 

My Friday at the NYCC

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After two consecutive years of irritating visits to the New York Comic Con, I was glad one of my best friends was getting married this weekend. I was thinking that I could skip the con entirely. But friends from out of town were coming in, so, since I had Friday free, the wife and I decided to hit NYCC more as a way meet up with friends that we haven't seen in a while.

Imagine my surprise, against my negative expectations, I had one of my best convention going experiences!

Since I had class on Friday, the wife and I didn't get there until after 4PM, an hour after the con opened. I was expecting there to still be a line, but there wasn't. We got our lanyards and were able to walk right in.

The NYCC is in most, if not all, of the top section of the Javits Center this year. This means that the con felt much less crowded. The aisles were bigger too so you were free to walk and weren't bumping into each other. I don't know if the same went for Saturday, but this was a great change.

But best of all, the air conditioning was on. This means that this was the first convention where I wasn't sweating my ass off. Trust me, that was a good thing.

Since I was only going one day to the convention, I made a checklist of things I wanted to do. Luckily, I got most all of them done.

First off, I made a bee line over to the Harry Abrams booth so Mark Evanier could sign my copy of Kirby: King of Comics. I am a huge fan of Mr. Evanier and his newsfromme blog is an everyday read for me. And it should be for you as well.

Next on the list was I wanted to get a Knight Shadow Batman at the Mattel booth. Got it and two other figures.

Next I wanted to meet another of my favorite bloggers, Valerie D'Orazio of Occasional Superhero fame:

 

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Note: This will probably be the only appearance of my wife's face on my blog. She thinks that if her face is on the internet, someone will create an exact match of it to create a mask and use said mask to steal her identity, steal all our money and ruin her credit. But since Val already posted a similar picture on her blog, I think I can get away with it this one time.

Val was awesome. Very friendly and down to Earth. I'm really glad I went over to say hi. And we bought a trade from the MoCCA/Friends of Lulu table, which helps both worthy causes.

I will say this. I am going to have to lose some weight. I am a Val-and-a-half-wide. That's not good.

The MoCCA/Friends of Lulu booth was near the Dark Horse booth. So Jen and I decided to go and pick up the hottest commodity of the NYCC--The big yellow bags that Dark Horse was giving away free. These were all over the con as they were big, roomy and excellent for carrying all of your purchases.

But while we were there they were setting up for a Mike Mignola signing. I was a fan back to his days on Alpha Flight and Hulk. I didn't intend on going to the signing. But there was only a small line while I was there so I decide, why not?

 

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 That's Joshua Dysart in the back, handing me my autograph book. Duncan Fergedo, Paul Azaceta, and John Arcudi also signed the book. I have a picture of Mr. Arcudi, but since he doesn't like to have his photo taken, I will honor at least part of his wishes and not put it on my blog. (BTW< the not taking pictures isn't a diva thing for him. He just doesn't like it. Seeing myself in these pictures, I'm beginning to see where he's coming from in a personal sense.)

From there, we booked it over to artists alley where I met one of my idols, Geoff Johns:

 

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I actually got to tell him that he writes a great "last page". I told him that many times reading the JSA. that I came to his last page, I really wanted it not to end and eagerly awaited the next issue.

What's cool, is that when he signed my book, he drew a little Hawkman mask around his name. This is the second writer who drew something in my book. Brian K. Vaughan drew a monkey when he signed my book. which was cool.

I had wanted to get Peter David's autograph, but, unfortunately, he wasn't there. Unfortunately, his wife got in a traffic accident which caused him to leave early. She's okay, but he did the right thing.

After this, we needed to sit down and relax. So we bought some overpriced drinks from Starbucks and went downstairs. It was down there where I realized I might be secretly a Skrull.

 

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Or, even worse, secretly a Simpson!

 

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Yes, I am a dork. But I am a fun dork, if that counts for anything.

As we were waiting there, this big group of people walks by. A bunch of NYCC red-shirts, a couple suits and an extremely skinny woman were in the group. Turns out, that it was that noted comic writer Jenna Jameson herself. Funny thing is, she passed us by at 7:15PM, a time which she was supposed to be at that "Girls who kick ass" panel that she should never have been a part of. I don't know what this means. One option was that she went to the panel, found out she really had nothing to add, and left. That would be funny, but unlikely. More likely she was just late, pulling a diva stunt, like being called a comic writer for coming up with an outline for a Virgin series makes her worthy of being on the same panel as Louise Simonson and Colleen Doran and isn't a big enough diva stunt the way it is.

But I digress.

We went back up and walked around for a few minutes. Jen picked up some Sojourn trades from the Checker tabel. Then we went back downstairs and met our friend--and my employer--Rich Drees of Film Buff Online fame after the X-Files 2 panel. 

 

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And since Rich is a cool guy. He posed with me, masked.

 

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This way, when he becomes a respected movie critic on the lines of Roger Ebert or Pauline Kael, a picture of him wearing a Lisa Simpson mask will be on the internet. And I'm glad that I can make that happen.

Then we went upstairs and met our friend, Jeff Stolarcyk, of Conditional Axe, Another Castle and Snackbar Games fame 

 

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We decided to take them to one of our favorite places to eat in the city, Stout. Usually, it is so crowded that you can't get a seat, but that was not the case on Friday. It was, however, louder than usual. Not very condusive to conversation. But the food and drink was good, so we had that going for us.

 

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Now, in order to make this the longest post ever, my thoughts on some of the NYCC announcements.

ITEM!!: Gail Simone to write a Secret Six ongoing: Three words. This. Is. Awesome. But since I am a negative bastard, I just hope this isn't like the recent Waid/Flash thing where Gail only writes the first six issue and then leaves. Speaking of Waid...

ITEM!!! Mark Waid joins the Amazing Spider-Man writing team: I thought that his BOOM! EIC duties would preclude doing anything else, but maybe just being part of the rotation makes this work. He's a good fit nonetheless.

ITEM!!! Trailer for The Spirit debuts: Somebody should tie Frank Miller to a chair and explain to him, at length, that not every comic property worked better if you make it exactly like Sin City. Actually, most don't.

ITEM!!! Marvel announces Marvel Apes: I am not a big fan of apes, so I could be wrong when I say this is the stupidest idea ever, but this is the stupidest idea ever. Most stupidest. But I do know that this is really too much like the JLApe story line DC did years ago. You know what, Marvel, instead of releasing Indentity Disc the same time DC released Identity Crisis and apeing DC's Invasion and Millenium with Secret Invasion, and now this one, why don't you show some real back bone and do a crisis of your own. Serious, stop pussyfooting around and just do it already.

ITEM!!! Duane Swierczynski, Gregg Hurwitz  and Victor Gischler replace Garth Ennis on Punisher: It takes three writers to replace him, and they still seem puny in comparisson. Credit to you, Mr. Ennis.

ITEM!!! Gordon Lee case dismissed: See what happens when the D.A. can't price a defendant out of pleading not guilty? Justice, at a cost, is finally served. BTW, donate to the CBLDF.

ITEM!!! Power Girl gets her own ongoing: Palmiotti, Gray and Connor make this a must pick up.

ITEM!! Stan Lee to create superhero line for Virgin:  There is a joke out there somewhere about Lee working for the same company--in the same capacity--as Jenna Jameson, but I just can't wrap my mind around it. Anyone care to take a shot? 

The Gates Ombudsman: April 8, 2008.

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Yeah, I know I just made two other posts. But this one is going to be a catch all for all the other, smaller new items I want to rant about. It could be a long one. And all over the place.

ITEM!!! I will be attending the New York Comic Con: I know, I know. I have been critical of the NYCC in the past. But it is practically in my back yard and it is quickly becoming a place where my comic loving friends from NEPA and I can meet up.

I will only be going on Friday, however, for those of you who will accept that as a protest. A wedding and Kids in the Hall tickets interfere with me making a weekend out of it.

They are making changes to some of the issues I had with the convention. Not necessarily the changes I think they should make, but at least they are addressing the problems. When I got my ticket, the letter, instead of saying I could proceed directly to the show floor like last year's did, at least alerts me that there will be a line. Why there needs to be a line is beyond me, but at least now I know. Not that knowing does me any good, because I can't get there early, like they recommend, because I have class that day. Of course, if I had a VIP badge, which costs $400, I could get directly in. This is quite a bit more expensive than Wizard's baseline VIP package, and you get far less swag for it.

They also addressed the issue of not everybody getting a chance at an autograph with their special guests (last year, all the ticket were handed out a good 8 hours ahead of schedule due to demand). Their solution? Charge for it! $200 for Mike Mignola and Grant Morrison, $350 for a VIP party with Stan Lee, $500 for a party with Neil Gaiman. The proceeds for the last one go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a worthy cause, but the rest I guess the money goes to NYCC. I guess there could be a better way, but at least this give the people who want Grant Morrison's autograph but can't camp out overnight a chance at meeting him.

ITEM! Bill Richardson creates divisive act, calls for unity: I was going to give this one it's own post, but decided against it. I will say this: if you are a man who kept his name in the political spotlight through mentioning his friendship with the Clintons--even going so far as to speak to Anderson Cooper for 10 minutes about watching the Super Bowl with Bill Clinton--then you go and give your Superdelegates to his wife's opponent, you, sir, are a hypocrite and are in no position to ask for unity. And the fact you gave them to Obama after your state voted for Clinton is even worse. Worse yet is the fact that you stated that the Governors should give their Superdelegates to whoever their states votes for makes you the king of all hypocrites. Sure, he might have been just following his own beliefs, but lets just see if he lands a place on Obama's ticket somewhere.

ITEM!! Firefly might be coming out with a special edition of the complete TV series: If I thought for a second that buying this might get another season or movie out of the cast and crew, I'd buy it. But it reeks of the powers that be trying to wring a little more dough out of their fevorent fan base. I mean, really. Will there be enough new stuff on this edition that I have to buy it? If so, why not put it on the first edition in the first place. It's not like you seriously thought it would be this popular at the time, was it?

ITEM!!! Comic Book Resources updates it's look: I don't like it. The old way might not have been fancy, but at least you knew that the left side had news, the right had columns, and the new ones were at the top.

ITEM!! Comics Should Be Good starts its 100 Greatest Creative Team Runs countdown!: The idea is to list the Top 100 creative teams or creators who worked on a book for an extended period of time. Clicking above will take you to 100 to 91, clicking here will take you to 90 to 86.

ITEM!!! Entertainment Weekly runs down the 20 Worst Comic Book Movies: Their definition of "comic book" is a bit stretched. I'm not certain, but I don't believe Brenda Starr ever was a comic book. But, regardless, it is fodder for conversations at your local comic shop.  

ITEM!!! Kids on the Block to reunite: I'm with Joel McHale. I doubt the apocalypse is ever going to arrive. I mean, if this isn't a sign, then nothing is.

ITEM!! Set pictures from The Spirit released: You know, the more I see of this movie, the less I want to see.

ITEM!!! Uwe Boll will stop making movies if they gets 1,000,000 signatures on a petition asking him to stop: Finally! A cause everybody can get behind!

ITEM!!! Fraction and Brubaker off of Iron Fist, Johns and Katz off of Booster Gold, Ellis off of Thunderbolts: My reactions, in order:1) Noooooooooooooooo!!!!! (Swierczynski is, really, no replacement), 2) Noooooooooo!!! (If DC really wanted to give fans a treat, they'd have Jurgens take over the writing as well. 3) Wait a minute? Marvel is still publishing Thunderbolts? (No, seriously, are they still publishing Thunderbolts?)

ITEM!!!: Marvel fan is a contestant on Deal or No Deal: Spoiler alert: The guy opens a million on the first case. The banker reveals himself to be Mephisto and offers to put the million back in play if the guy gives up his marriage.

ITEM!!! New Guiding Lines columns published: There's a link to all of them.

ITEM!!! Also, my article on the Geppi Entertainment Museum is posted: Click above for the link to that.

Requiem for a convention: Big Apple Con/The National

The Big Apple Con was, for me, Ol' Reliable. I know that every three months or so, it would go up, satisfying my convention fix. This, however, is now in jeopardy.

The venue the con has taken place the last few years, the Penn Plaza Pavilion, has a bunch of rumors swirling about it. The most prevalent rumor is that the location is going to be torn down and replaced. This, naturally has thrown a monkey wrench into the convention planning. Instead of the regular occurring Big Apple Cons, we now have two, one in June, one in November,.dates and locations to be announced.

When compared to the Wizard Worlds, San Diego Comic Con or even the New York Comic Con, the Big Apple would seem rinky dinky. None of the major publishers set up shop here to present their wares. The artist alley was made up of the up and comers and old favorites that the now hot creators. The media guests leaned to old wrestlers and TV stars than big stars trying to promote a new film.

But it was a great place to buy back issues. The big time Golden and Silver age guys were there, like Motor City, Harley Yee, and Koop's Comics. Also, one of my faves, Katz Komix, with his boxes and boxes of $.50 books and half price trades.

Don't get me wrong, the Big Apple wasn't perfect. The venue is small and can get crowded. More than it's fair share of Playboy playmates and the ilk. And at least once a year, the Big Apple turned into The National. It took place in the same venue with the same vendors but would increase in ticket price because they would bring a celebrity like Steven Segal or Carrie Fisher in.

The most recent con was a National and the tickets were $20--almost twice normal and $4 or 5 dollars more than they usually charged for the National. The reason for the increase--the celebrity guests were Hayden Pantierre (sic) and  Kristen Bell from Heroes. I had to attend because I had to pick up books a dealer was holding for me, and I expected to grumble for paying so much (I had no interest in seeing either Hayden or Kristen. No Offense, ladies). But it turned out to be one of my better visits to the convention.

First off, I met up with former Marvel editor Andy Schmidt. He is starting up a teaching business called The Comics Experience.I took his breaking into comics course at MOCCA and found it very valuable. We caught up and I found out more about his new venture.

Mark Evanier was there too. I am a big fan of his work and his daily blog (click his name to be taken there). So, I set out to find him and give my praises. Usually, this sort of thing ends in disappointment. Not this time. After a bit of lurking because he was talking to someone else, I had a small conversation with him, got his autograph, and had my picture taken with him:

 

Me and mark evanier

That thrilled me. The book you see was what he signed. Doing the art on it was Sergio Aragones. His table was set up right next to where Mark was. Feeling brave, I went up to him and had him sign the book as well:

 

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This was totally cool. I now have a treasured keepsake from two creators I admire. I was in fanboy bliss. But best of all, was introducing my wife to Sergio. Usually, I have to give a mini-bio for the professional I introduce her to. But Jen was familiar with Sergio from Mad. Finally, a creator she know going in! My wife was taken by Sergio, especially the gentlemanly way he stood up when shaking her hand. She thought that was classy and was honored by the gesture. I regret not pushing my luck and getting a picture.

And on the way out, I came across Rich Johnston, writer of the Lying in the Gutters column at Comic Book Resources. I am a religious reader of LITG, and was pleased to pass on that information to him. I had a nice conversation with him and it was a blast to hear his enthusiasm for the color version of his Flying Friar and a new project he has in the works, Hoods. Now I have a voice to go with the writing, and that is cool.

This might be the last Big Apple/National. If it is, at least it went out with a bang for me. I got closer to completing my Cerebus and Miracleman sets, met a few people I admire, and had a great experience. If it was the last one, it went out with a bang.   

Improvements to NYCC announced for 2008.

Let me just say, that I, like Heidi MacDonald, do root for the New York Comic Con. She calls the convention "her backyard convention". Well, I don't live in New York, but I do live only a 40 minute train ride outside of it. So for me, it's not a "backyard" con but "a few streets over" con.

And I really want a great con, one one the level of the San Diego or Wizard Conventions with only a train to ride, not an airplane.

But, in my experience, NYCC hasn't become that. I aired my grievances here and here, so I won't re-air them here. But I do want to talk about the article about the NYCC at Publisher's Weekly.

In the article, show organizer Greg Topalian announce that he will be making an effort to add more indie publishers such as Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly. I say all well and good. Some might raise concern about a conflict of interest with the MoCCA fest but I think NYC is big enough to support and Indie only event and to also have the indies at NYCC.

The article also states that the convention will increase in floor space by about 50% and there will be three entrances and the press and professional guests will have their own way in. Also, there will be more staff on the floor to answer questions and hand out maps.

On paper, this would help some of the situations I spoke about in the above reviews. But there is still more to be done. The floor staff needs to be better educated. Crowd control needs to be loosened. Three entrances are good, as long as they are used to the most effect. Last year, they had two entrances, two big archways about twenty feet wide. They only had one open for guests and had people line up in a pen to essentially enter the entrance in a straight line. This is what the pass looks like:

 

Convention pass

Have a few volunteers or security guards at the front of each entrance. Have them look at the passes. It clearly says what type of pass they have. If they don't have a pass or have the wrong pass, don't let them in. If their pass is okay, let them in. Yes, there are a lot of people going to the con. But there are a lot of people going to the Wizard World cons and that is the way they do it.

That way would be better than having everyone stand in line, make their way through mazes, or have to get wristbands each day to get in.

Like I said, I really want the NYCC to be the biggest con in the land. It's good, but it definitely needs improvement.

 

WWC'07 Kibbles and Bits

Here is where I go through the news that came out of this weekend's Wizard World Chicago and rant snarkily about it.

• Mattel to come out with "Marvel Legends-like" versions of DC heroes: I have already warned my wife that I will be buying more toys. She is accepting but not all that happy.
• Matt Wagner's Madame Xanadu series to deal with her "love affair" with the Phantom Stranger: I remember an issue of the '80s Spectre series where it was hinted that she was getting it on with the title character. Sheesh! This lady sure gets around!
• Yet another Silver Surfer Mini-Series in the Works: You can't swing a dead cat at Marvel with out hitting a book there with the Silver Surfer in it. Who does he think he is? Wolverine?
• DC Announces yet another "Countdown" tie-in series: 1. I was in NEPA this past weekend, at my friend Jeff's house and he told me that DC announced at WWC that they were turning all of its titles into "Countdown to...(said title), I.E. Countdown to All-New Blue Beetle. He was totally joking but I completely believed him. Yes, the idea sounds silly, but not so wacky that they wouldn't do it. 2. Could the concept be anymore derivative? Let's list the books the plot borrows from: Contest of Champions (Hero fighting hero), Crisis on Infinite Earths (select team of heroes only the person selecting them knows why they are selected), Secret Wars (heroes forced to fight heroes because of one enormously powerful man), Planet Hulk (gladitorial like combat),etc.) 3. That being said, it still sounds cool to me. I always want to know what the Green Lantern on Earth-5 looked like. (I hope DiDio wasn't teasing with that) 4. So, some of the 52 Universes will be based on "Elseworld" stories. I don't know what I think of that. I think I'd prefer the multiverse and Elseworld's be separate. 5. "not all the heroes are going to emerge from the arena alive.". That Dan DiDio. The Grim F'n Reaper.
• Kirkman and Liefeld to work on Killraven:  I went from mild excitement to total apathy in the span of three words.
• Genndy Tartakovsky on Cage!: This could quite possibly rock harder than anything else announce at the Con. Just get the whole series in the can before you even dream of soliciting it.
• Fans "shouldn’t be surprised if a third weekly series launches after the completion of Countdown": A roomful of monkeys are now writing it. It's already a better story than Countdown.
• DC Announces a Kids Line: This is good news. I only wish that one of the books wasn't a toy tie-in.
• Millar and Hitch to take over Fantastic Four: Congratulations, Marvel, your flagship title has just become a bi-yearly.
• Alex Ross and the "Return" of Captain America: Got to love Marvel marketing. They release a promotional image, which I would love to have posted here but VOX won't let me, centering on Captain America as painted by Alex Ross with the word return posted over the chest. Even though you can see what looks like Sub-Mariner's and Bucky's arms to either side of him, and flam in the back, Marvel damn well knows that people will be saying that this means Alex Ross is bringing back Cap from the dead. So they get months of internet buzz for a new Invaders series. Evill Geniuses, them Marvel boys. Don't get me wrong. I wish it Alex was bring Cap back to life. But don't get your hopes up.
• Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, long rumored to be a movie, comes to comics instead:  That Ash! He's a comic company hopping slut, isn't he? First, he was in bed with Marvel with the Marvel Zombies and now Wildstorm? What a himbo!

Entertainment Weekly ticks me off...Again!

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Yes, I know how this one-sided war with EW makes me look. It makes me look like a petulant child, stamping my feet and holding my breath, screaming over and over "I am not a geek!"

I really should let this go. Basically, EW bringing out the word "geek" every time it covers comic books or the San Diego Comic-Con is really minor. Inconsequential, really.

But the fact that they do it over and over again really irks me. I get the feeling that they are doing it on purpose just to piss me off.

The August 10th issue is another example. The issue features a four page article on the convention, advertised with a colorful blurb on the cover.

This should make me happy. A major weekly mainstream magazine devoting that much space to Comic-Con means that it and comics in general have become more legitimate. (And also is in line with my thoughts that next year, Comic-Con will grace EW's cover).

But EW seems to have a distainful look on comics, their readers and the fact that they are forced to cover things like Comic-Con. This might just seem like crazy talk. But this issue gives me evidence to back this up. All involving, you guessed it, the word geek.

The first issuance of the word geek comes in the opening tagline. "Join EW on Four Days of Geek-tastic Gorging as Hollywood's Heavyweights Decend on San Diego to Court Their Fanboy Fan Base". Yes, besides the excessive use of alliteration, one of my least favorite literary techniques, the bastardize "geek" to become an adjective. Groan.

But the worse case of this comes on the opposite page. Here is the pull quote as it appears in EW:

 

EW snyder pull quote

Wait a minute? Did Zack Snyder just call me a geek? EW sure does make it look like he did! But here is the actuall quote, taken from the text immediately to the left of the big, red lettered, pull quote (I circled it to help you out):

 

EW actual Snyder quote

Notice a difference? A word missing perhaps? The "looking for the good in all people" Bill is trying to convince the pessimistic Bill that "So-called" was just left out as a composing issue. A way to make the pull quote line up on the page better. The pessimistic Bill thinks they had to do it on purpose. Removing one phrase changes the whole meaning of the text. Instead of it being "You may call them losers, but they wield power in the entertainment industry", it became "These Losers? They wield power in the entertainment industry. Can you believe that? Crazy!"

At the very least, it borders on shoddy journalism. Snyder didn't say what it seems he said in the pull quote. It is a textbook case of what he said being taken out of context and spun. All by having one phrase plucked out.

Of course, it doesn't stop there. Anytime you see a regular fan, they are wearing a costume. Okay, that's not true. The guy wearing the goofy Ghost Rider costume has about 50 normal looking fans behind him. I guess EW thought that the costume was so lame that it would counter act the visual evidence that all comic fans are not costume wearing weirdos.

Entertainment Weekly ticks me off...Again!

EW 081007

Yes, I know how this one-sided war with EW makes me look. It makes me look like a petulant child, stamping my feet and holding my breath, screaming over and over "I am not a geek!"

I really should let this go. Basically, EW bringing out the word "geek" every time it covers comic books or the San Diego Comic-Con is really minor. Inconsequential, really.

But the fact that they do it over and over again really irks me. I get the feeling that they are doing it on purpose just to piss me off.

The August 10th issue is another example. The issue features a four page article on the convention, advertised with a colorful blurb on the cover.

This should make me happy. A major weekly mainstream magazine devoting that much space to Comic-Con means that it and comics in general have become more legitimate. (And also is in line with my thoughts that next year, Comic-Con will grace EW's cover).

But EW seems to have a distainful look on comics, their readers and the fact that they are forced to cover things like Comic-Con. This might just seem like crazy talk. But this issue gives me evidence to back this up. All involving, you guessed it, the word geek.

The first issuance of the word geek comes in the opening tagline. "Join EW on Four Days of Geek-tastic Gorging as Hollywood's Heavyweights Decend on San Diego to Court Their Fanboy Fan Base". Yes, besides the excessive use of alliteration, one of my least favorite literary techniques, the bastardize "geek" to become an adjective. Groan.

But the worse case of this comes on the opposite page. Here is the pull quote as it appears in EW:

 

EW snyder pull quote

Wait a minute? Did Zack Snyder just call me a geek? EW sure does make it look like he did! But here is the actuall quote, taken from the text immediately to the left of the big, red lettered, pull quote (I circled it to help you out):

 

EW actual Snyder quote

Notice a difference? A word missing perhaps? The "looking for the good in all people" Bill is trying to convince the pessimistic Bill that "So-called" was just left out as a composing issue. A way to make the pull quote line up on the page better. The pessimistic Bill thinks they had to do it on purpose. Removing one phrase changes the whole meaning of the text. Instead of it being "You may call them losers, but they wield power in the entertainment industry", it became "These Losers? They wield power in the entertainment industry. Can you believe that? Crazy!"

At the very least, it borders on shoddy journalism. Snyder didn't say what it seems he said in the pull quote. It is a textbook case of what he said being taken out of context and spun. All by having one phrase plucked out.

Of course, it doesn't stop there. Anytime you see a regular fan, they are wearing a costume. Okay, that's not true. The guy wearing the goofy Ghost Rider costume has about 50 normal looking fans behind him. I guess EW thought that the costume was so lame that it would counter act the visual evidence that all comic fans are not costume wearing weirdos.

SDCC'07: Brouhaha at the Beat.

Let me just say that I am a fan of Heidi MacDonald. I think she is witty and knowledgeable and teh Beat is on my daily read list. But something she wrote doesn't set right with me.

I was going to write this after her second SDCC '07 recap post but decided against it. Then there was something in her third post that pushed me over the edge.

Her first recap was seemed okay. Basically her saying how busy the con was and the usual stuff like that.

Her second recap was what caught my eye. About half way down, around the photo of Clive Owen, she relates how she got to the Warner Bros./Watchmen panel late (and by late, in all fairness, I mean 15 minutes early. In real life, arriving somewhere 15 minutes early would mean, well, that you were early. In con-reality, you are SOL if you haven't camped out. This brings up Bill's comic convention tip #1: If there is a panel, signing or event you wish to attend, show up at least 30-45 minutes before it starts, if not an hour to an hour and a half. Because everyone else will.).

She stands in line for a while.  Then they announce that the Fire Marshall is closing the room for fear of overcrowding, and people will be allowed in only when someone leaves. This didn't sit well with Heidi so she tries to go to the side door and try to get into the show using her press credentials. That doesn't work either because, well, the Fire Marshall had closed the room, meaning no one, press or not, was getting in and the Con did not have a press list..

But, the fact that some of the press received special wristbands led Heidi to beileve that she was being lied to. I'll let her words speak for themselves:

"“There is no press list,” said the Elite guy. And I admit, this really pissed me off. I am a grown up and you don’t need to lie to me. And in fact, the nice lady from Comic-Con said that if you were on the WB press list you would already have your wrist band and your pass."

This was later straightened out in this post by a SDCC spokesperson David Glanzer. Warners had a bunch of all-purpose passes that they deemed to give some out to the press. Other passes were probably given out to friends and familty of the panel members, etc. But they weren't press exclusive.

But what stinged me most was this comment Heidi made afterwards.

"I realize that thousands and thousands of people get “press passes” to Comic-Con and some of them are little dinky bloggers, and some of them are EW and the New York Times. And not all of them deserve equal access."

I don't think Heidi meant this as a insult to "little dinky bloggers", but rather to say that the powers that be at Warners would like to exclude the smaller folks.

However, if you look at it as is, it seems that Heidi almost feels insulted to be lumped with the "dinky little bloggers" and to be kept out of the room.

Now, I am a blogger. But I am also a columnist for a smaller comic news website (Broken Frontier) and review comics for a pop culture website (PopMatters). I certainly don't consider myself dinky. But I grant that compared to Heidi, who was an editor for Vertigo and Disney and is currently an editor at Publisher's Weekly, I am Mario Mendoza to her Reggie Jackson.

But, that being said, if the whole "Warner's only letting in certain press" was true, I'd probably have more of a right to be there that Heidi. Not being arrogant, but Heidi's main job is as an editor for a trade publication for book retailers and publishers. It would be hard for Warners to see how Publishers Weekly would be helpful in spreading the word about their Watchmen MOVIE. Warners was hoping for good word of mouth from movie websites and bloggers to spread the word to people who respect their opinion. Now my blog reaches all of five people. But Ain't It Cool, IGN and others reach far more. It make sense for Warners to include them over Heidi if you think about what they are trying to get out of the publicity.

But, since Warner's excluding certain members of the press didn't happen, I think this all boils down to SDCC growing bigger and faster than Heidi would like. In my speculation, it seems like Heidi was once a big fish in a large but managable pond to being a small fish in a humongous ocean. I gather this opinion, and that's all it is, an opinion which very much could be off base, from this statement of hers:

" I began to resent the fact that I had to stand in line at all. If 23 years of covering Comic-Con doesn’t get you a pass, what does? "

 The SDCC has grown into a beast. Hollywood has recognized it as a tool to market their films in their backyard and other press markets have been forced to cover these panels. If I was covering the con before covering the con was cool, I'd too be upset at these interlopers. But, unfortunately, it doesn't look like things will ever go back to the way they were.

The something in her third post that rankled me was this:

"I kept saying that the crowding at San Diego was the best ad possible for the New York Comic-con, and indeed, I heard many publishers saying they are saving their announcements and roll outs for that show. As I suspected, Europeans are beginning to choose New York over San Diego — it’s cheaper and all Euros love New York. The people who got turned away are going to spill over to other venues, that’s undeniable."

Now, I have never been to SDCC, but plan to next year (It's the one thing I want to do before I die. For some, it's climbing Mt. Everest, others, it's skin diving in the Maldives, for me, my Mecca is the SDCC), but from what Heidi described of the SDCC, it still seems better than the NYCC.

I HAVE been to both NYCC's. The first year was so crowded that the State Troopers, in addition to the Fire Marshall, had to shut the ENTIRE con down from allowing people in, instituting a strict one out, one in policy for the entire show. The organizers fixed this the next year by instilling a German military way of doing things which meant that crowds were microcontrolled to a point where if you bought your passes ahead of time. and were promised you could "proceed directly to the con floor", you still had to wait outside in the cold in a line for a half hour (or more) to get in.

The NYCC as I experienced is more poorly managed that what I read of the SDCC.This could be chalked up to a learning curve that comes about by starting a major comic con from scratch. SDCC grew and adjusted with the changes as it got bigger over time.

I should say this, because Heidi forgot to mention it, that the NYCC is put on by Reed Exhibitions, a subsidiary of Reed-Elsevier, which also owns Publisher's Weekly who Heidi works for. I'm not saying that she is being paid to shill for the PW's sister corporation. It could just be that her loyalty to her employer causes her to turn a blind eye to the foibles and problems that were existent at  the NYCC. (Although, since she was considered a member of the press, she didn't have to deal much with the controls place on crowd entry. My friends had press passes and could come and go as they pleased.) But regardless. NYCC has the same, if not worse, problems that SDCC is experiencing, from what I read. It is not the idyllic paradise that Heidi would have us believe.  

SDCC'07: Brouhaha at the Beat.

Let me just say that I am a fan of Heidi MacDonald. I think she is witty and knowledgeable and teh Beat is on my daily read list. But something she wrote doesn't set right with me.

I was going to write this after her second SDCC '07 recap post but decided against it. Then there was something in her third post that pushed me over the edge.

Her first recap was seemed okay. Basically her saying how busy the con was and the usual stuff like that.

Her second recap was what caught my eye. About half way down, around the photo of Clive Owen, she relates how she got to the Warner Bros./Watchmen panel late (and by late, in all fairness, I mean 15 minutes early. In real life, arriving somewhere 15 minutes early would mean, well, that you were early. In con-reality, you are SOL if you haven't camped out. This brings up Bill's comic convention tip #1: If there is a panel, signing or event you wish to attend, show up at least 30-45 minutes before it starts, if not an hour to an hour and a half. Because everyone else will.).

She stands in line for a while.  Then they announce that the Fire Marshall is closing the room for fear of overcrowding, and people will be allowed in only when someone leaves. This didn't sit well with Heidi so she tries to go to the side door and try to get into the show using her press credentials. That doesn't work either because, well, the Fire Marshall had closed the room, meaning no one, press or not, was getting in and the Con did not have a press list..

But, the fact that some of the press received special wristbands led Heidi to beileve that she was being lied to. I'll let her words speak for themselves:

"“There is no press list,” said the Elite guy. And I admit, this really pissed me off. I am a grown up and you don’t need to lie to me. And in fact, the nice lady from Comic-Con said that if you were on the WB press list you would already have your wrist band and your pass."

This was later straightened out in this post by a SDCC spokesperson David Glanzer. Warners had a bunch of all-purpose passes that they deemed to give some out to the press. Other passes were probably given out to friends and familty of the panel members, etc. But they weren't press exclusive.

But what stinged me most was this comment Heidi made afterwards.

"I realize that thousands and thousands of people get “press passes” to Comic-Con and some of them are little dinky bloggers, and some of them are EW and the New York Times. And not all of them deserve equal access."

I don't think Heidi meant this as a insult to "little dinky bloggers", but rather to say that the powers that be at Warners would like to exclude the smaller folks.

However, if you look at it as is, it seems that Heidi almost feels insulted to be lumped with the "dinky little bloggers" and to be kept out of the room.

Now, I am a blogger. But I am also a columnist for a smaller comic news website (Broken Frontier) and review comics for a pop culture website (PopMatters). I certainly don't consider myself dinky. But I grant that compared to Heidi, who was an editor for Vertigo and Disney and is currently an editor at Publisher's Weekly, I am Mario Mendoza to her Reggie Jackson.

But, that being said, if the whole "Warner's only letting in certain press" was true, I'd probably have more of a right to be there that Heidi. Not being arrogant, but Heidi's main job is as an editor for a trade publication for book retailers and publishers. It would be hard for Warners to see how Publishers Weekly would be helpful in spreading the word about their Watchmen MOVIE. Warners was hoping for good word of mouth from movie websites and bloggers to spread the word to people who respect their opinion. Now my blog reaches all of five people. But Ain't It Cool, IGN and others reach far more. It make sense for Warners to include them over Heidi if you think about what they are trying to get out of the publicity.

But, since Warner's excluding certain members of the press didn't happen, I think this all boils down to SDCC growing bigger and faster than Heidi would like. In my speculation, it seems like Heidi was once a big fish in a large but managable pond to being a small fish in a humongous ocean. I gather this opinion, and that's all it is, an opinion which very much could be off base, from this statement of hers:

" I began to resent the fact that I had to stand in line at all. If 23 years of covering Comic-Con doesn’t get you a pass, what does? "

 The SDCC has grown into a beast. Hollywood has recognized it as a tool to market their films in their backyard and other press markets have been forced to cover these panels. If I was covering the con before covering the con was cool, I'd too be upset at these interlopers. But, unfortunately, it doesn't look like things will ever go back to the way they were.

The something in her third post that rankled me was this:

"I kept saying that the crowding at San Diego was the best ad possible for the New York Comic-con, and indeed, I heard many publishers saying they are saving their announcements and roll outs for that show. As I suspected, Europeans are beginning to choose New York over San Diego — it’s cheaper and all Euros love New York. The people who got turned away are going to spill over to other venues, that’s undeniable."

Now, I have never been to SDCC, but plan to next year (It's the one thing I want to do before I die. For some, it's climbing Mt. Everest, others, it's skin diving in the Maldives, for me, my Mecca is the SDCC), but from what Heidi described of the SDCC, it still seems better than the NYCC.

I HAVE been to both NYCC's. The first year was so crowded that the State Troopers, in addition to the Fire Marshall, had to shut the ENTIRE con down from allowing people in, instituting a strict one out, one in policy for the entire show. The organizers fixed this the next year by instilling a German military way of doing things which meant that crowds were microcontrolled to a point where if you bought your passes ahead of time. and were promised you could "proceed directly to the con floor", you still had to wait outside in the cold in a line for a half hour (or more) to get in.

The NYCC as I experienced is more poorly managed that what I read of the SDCC.This could be chalked up to a learning curve that comes about by starting a major comic con from scratch. SDCC grew and adjusted with the changes as it got bigger over time.

I should say this, because Heidi forgot to mention it, that the NYCC is put on by Reed Exhibitions, a subsidiary of Reed-Elsevier, which also owns Publisher's Weekly who Heidi works for. I'm not saying that she is being paid to shill for the PW's sister corporation. It could just be that her loyalty to her employer causes her to turn a blind eye to the foibles and problems that were existent at  the NYCC. (Although, since she was considered a member of the press, she didn't have to deal much with the controls place on crowd entry. My friends had press passes and could come and go as they pleased.) But regardless. NYCC has the same, if not worse, problems that SDCC is experiencing, from what I read. It is not the idyllic paradise that Heidi would have us believe.  

Scranton Comic-Con

Jen and I went back to Northeastern Pennsylvania for a birthday party this weekend. As luck would have it, there was a comic book convention in Scranton, which was right on the way back.

I have been to a number of comic conventions all around the country. But I will say this, seldom have been to one as enjoyable as Scranton's.

First of all, I got to spend some time with Dave Romeo, who owns Comics on the Green, a great comic book store in Scranton. He's a good guy and I always like talking to him.

And the guests for the show were Walter and Louise Simonson. I was a fan of both growing up. I got a chance to talk to them at length. We covered everything from property prices in the NYC area to Harry Potter. They were two of the nicest people you could ever meet.

Walt was giving out head sketches for free, allowing me to get a sketch of one of my favorite characters, the Beast. Here it is:

 

Simonson Beast Sketch

The aforementioned Dave made the suggestion to have Louise add some dialogue to the sketch. The Oh, my stars and garters is courtesy of her. The sketch is going into a frame and up on the wall soon.

Top it off, they were giving away door prizes. I won a Thor Marvel Masterworks.

So, if you notice the Scranton Comic Con coming up, give it a shot. I'm sure you'll have as good a time as I did.