As promised, a few words on Comic Con. First point of praise: When I was there years ago, there were con staffers whose job it was to scold anybody who dared to sit in line or lean against walls in line. Back then failure to comply with their orders would get you ejected from the event. Luckily, those days are gone, and crowd control in general was handled in a friendlier manner.
First point of criticism: Event planners need to put a food court on site. I didn’t even discover the food trucks over behind the baseball stadium until the end of my second day. If the city wants to cut the congestion of the city streets, put some food options in the convention center. Most of the panels I attended were good. The Robotech panel was promoted as a look at Harmony Gold’s plans for an upcoming movie now that they’ve worked out the rights to everything... but no, it was a look at all the overpriced product tie-ins (“... Spaceballs, the bed sheets!...”). By far, my favorite panel experience was the Mad Magazine panel. They planned and prepared in advance so although it was less spontaneous than most, it was more engaging and entertaining. They teased upcoming features, promoted the brand, and discussed the changes since the staff’s move to Burbank... and it was fun... and I want to invest in real estate with Allie Geortz. She’s my new Twitter crush. Second point of criticism: The exhibit hall, aka the sales floor. Back in my Peace Corps days, I was one of few volunteers who genuinely enjoyed the Asian bazaars, with street food and knock off merchandise and haggling in foreign languages and general chaos. But those bazaars have nothing on the claustrophobic pandemonium of the exhibit hall. My man boobs haven’t experienced that much action in 20 years. Frankly, the big name media companies like Fox and Marvel need to move to another room or series of rooms, as the biggest obstacle for navigating the exhibition hall were the people waiting in long lines for exclusive comic con merchandise. I liked chatting with the people behind their counters who were all eager to talk about their art and their craft, but it was impossible while being jostled and molested. Second point of praise: Although the merchandise is still all cluttered together, a lot of the big and small companies have taken advantage of the downtown area (the Gaslamp District) to erect areas focused on their brands and media, with rides and themed foods and performance stages... and those areas are accessible to even those who do not buy Comic Con tickets. “The Good Place” probably did the best job in that regard, and the unique pop-up gallery for Peanuts/Snoopy next door to the Chuck Jones Gallery was small but awesome. In terms of any TV related stuff, I attended the Voltron panel this morning. I’d only barely registered that the animated series had been resurrected, and knew very little about it, but whenever I have attended Comic Con, I experience a group of people (both creators and fans) who share a passion and a love for something, and their collective joy brings me joy, even if I don’t totally share their passion or love. I experienced that at the Voltron panel. They screened the next season premiere, and for any who might follow the series, I won’t give spoilers, except that one major character is revealed to be gay... a revelation which was met with cheers of joy if not ecstasy from the true fans as they watched the storyline unfold. It isn’t done flamboyantly, and it was frankly done in such a way that a kid young enough to not be aware of human sexuality might not even pay much attention to it. I did not attend today’s big Hall H panel for Star Trek Discovery (people camped out overnight to get into all the Hall H events, H being the biggest room with the events most-hyped... I am not the camping type), but I did get all the Trek spoilers. Notably, although I lament the cancellation of TNT’s The Librarians, the Trek people could not have done a better job casting Rebecca Romijn as the enigmatic first first officer of the Enterprise, known in the pilot episode only as Number One. I’m still unwilling to fork over money for CBS All Access, but she is a perfect choice for that. I attended most of the separate Rod Roddenberry panel, but that was mostly a review of trinkets and memorabilia from the Roddenberry estate that was going to be for sale this year. I attended a panel of the Transformers: Unicron comic book line, which will conclude all of the IDW publishing’s Transformers lines. They will still have the Star Trek/Transformers crossover series of books, with the Trek characterizations based on the old Filmation animated series... but ultimately the comic books don’t relate to the TV shows or movies. Another panel I found fascinating was Max Allan Collins discussing his friend and mentor, the late Mickey Spillane, creator of the Mike Hammer character. I knew next to nothing about Spillane himself, why he stopped writing, how his writing led directly to the success of the Ian Fleming James Bond novels, and on and on. This was a very interesting hour. A panel I sat through but lost interest in was the Shooting Clerks panel, a panel featuring the cast and crew of the movie about how Kevin Smith created the original movie Clerks almost 25 years ago. I think I’m just suffering from Kevin Smith fatigue. I’m not a big seeker or collector of autographs, but I did secure an autograph of the creator of Bloom County, Berkeley Breathed. Since he resurrected Opus and Bill as an online strip, I’ve made a point of buying all of his book releases to support the free entertainment he has given me. Good humor must be recognized and subsidized in these trying times. I didn’t wait in line in the hall of autographs or whatever they call it this year, not because they didn’t have good people there, but names on pieces of paper has never been my thing... but I wanted Breathed’s. I wanted to shake his hand and thank him. I did take part in cosplay this year, but because I can never do what everybody else does, I didn’t choose a character from science fiction or fantasy... I chose John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn... I even grew my sideburns long for the first time since I was maybe 10 years old. The eyepatch, which thankfully went over my blind eye, became itchy after a while, so by the end of the day I was less Rooster Cogburn and more the Cowboy from the Village People. I think I saw more women cosplaying as the new Doctor than any other character, though a close second would have to be Harley Quinn, which still annoys me. Lots of Assassins Creed guys this year, and lots of Jedi. I saw nobody dressed as characters from the new Han Solo movie, and nobody dressed as characters from Star Trek Discovery. I had two favorite costumes. The first was a blind boy dressed as Ash from Pokémon, but what clinched it was his seeing eye dog dressed as Pikachu. The second costume, and if this sounds like I’m making fun of the woman I’m not because she totally owned it, was a biggish woman dressed as a TARDIS, but the reason I said she owned it was because she chose to extend her already large frame by incorporating a massive hoop skirt into the costume design, the end result being a TARDIS the size of a Volkswagen, and people had to acknowledge her and make way for her as she strutted through the convention center with a happy, satisfied smile. In a related note, there are several non-fans who show up to Comic Con in character, and they are paid by somebody to promote something. And despite most of these paid cosplayers being physically attractive women, there is a fakery to taking money to pretend to be a fan to lure people over to your display booth or whatever, and it bugs me. But one group in particular might have (and I’m still digesting this mentally and emotionally, so I may take all of this back in the morning) crossed the line of good taste, and they were a group of women dressed as members of the Manson family (the cult of murderers under the spell of Charles Manson) walking around like moon-eyed hippies — not breaking character — saying things like “Charlie loves you”... all to promote the pending release of yet another film about Manson. It just felt tasteless/tactless/shameless. Maybe tomorrow I’ll realize it was just a cheap publicity gimmick and I should just calm down about it, but I found the very idea distasteful. Overall I had a positive experience at Comic Con, but I went into it not looking to rush around and meet everybody and get all the exclusive merchandise, but rather to just relax and gather and talk amongst fellow geeks. Perhaps those who try to cram more into a day would’ve found this year’s Comic Con too much or too overflowing. I mean, there were panels I wanted to get into but was unable to attend for various reasons, but my mindset was just to do what I could and not worry about what I couldn’t accomplish. I took a break from my life to let loose and be goofy; if that notion sounds good for you, then I recommend Comic Con. If you’re the type who feels compelled to adhere to a strict schedule and gets all hot and bothered when things don’t go as planned, you might want to skip Comic Con. On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 3:30 PM 'David Bruggeman' via TVorNotTV < [email protected]> wrote: > Hey Kevin, > > Congrats on getting the tickets. > > Based on my experience last year, here's what advice I can offer on the > free stuff. TL;DR - plan ahead and expect to wait. > > If you think one of the panels you're interested in seeing will be popular > (or at least popular enough to fill whatever room it's scheduled in), you'd > be well served to get there early, even early enough to see the panel > before. You probably already know how crazy it is to get into Hall H, but > I discovered that their second biggest room, Ballroom 20, it at least as > bad. But it can happen to small rooms that have a panel booked that's > popular enough. For me last year it was the Adam Savage panel. Room > seated less than 400 but effectively filled up almost immediately after the > last panel ended. > > There may be one or more local galleries in the Gaslight district that > have Comic-Con themed exhibits. This would be in addition to the things > like what NBC is doing for The Good Place, and likely smaller. I went to > one that had costumes and the captain's chair from Star Trek Discovery. > They will most likely be free, but there will be lines due to limited space. > > Similarly, at least look in the guidebooks to see if there's something > that might interest you in the official venues outside of the convention > hall. There were plenty of interesting things in a small theater in the > Gaslight (I checked out a panel of voice actors there 'moderated' by John > DiMaggio/Bender) > > I was standby for all the Conan tapings through whatever audience service > handled it. As best as I could tell, they didn't release any. You can try > your luck standing in line, but since you're only at the Con Thursday and > Friday, either skip it or consider doing it on Wednesday (they may or may > not tape on Saturday). > > I don't have any vendor or panel requests. The Peanuts merch booth was > impressive, but the line was *always* long. Plenty of great art to check > out. > > Have fun. > > Best, > David > > On Thursday, July 12, 2018, 12:37:52 AM EDT, Kevin M. < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > I years ago stopped trying to get tickets to SDCC since they sell out > seconds after they are made available online, but I have a friend, and she > worked some magic... long story short, I’ll be geeking next Thursday and > Friday in America’s Finest City. I have a lengthy list of panels I hope to > gain admittance to, but if anybody has anything they’d like me to check out > while I’m there and report back to the group, let me know. It is possible I > will even do some cosplay while I’m there. Money is extra tight, so please > don’t ask me to check out any of the sideshow events that require extra > fees (unless you want to contribute to the cause!). > > A few of the TV related stuff I plan to check out includes panels on > Stargate, Mickey Spillane, Snoopy, Robotech, Voltron, Robot Chicken, Bob’s > Burgers, and Archer. I also plan to check out the section of downtown San > Diego that NBC is converting into “The Good Place” (they might have frozen > yogurt or clam chowder... either way, I’m happy), and I’m on the stand-by > list for ConanCon admission. > > It’s my first vacation in years, and I intend to make the most of it. > Again, ideas for any events or vendors to check out while I’m there are > welcome. > -- > Kevin M. (RPCV) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Kevin M. (RPCV) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
