NO! That headline has nothing to do with Quint, at least I don't think it does... Father Geek here, I went to my 1st San Diego Comic Con back in 1971 a few months before Harry was born, I was a dealer in Golden Age Comics, vintage (1914-1959) movie posters, Animation Cels, and Fantasy & Science Fiction art. Harry's mom and I had a great time, made a fistful of dollars, some good friends (4-E Ackerman, Sheldon Dorf, Phil Sueling, Irving Bigman, and that kid that made the Mile High Find Chuck Rat-ass-ki) and set up at every one thru the rest of that decade. That means Harry attended everyone from age 8 months till he was 9 years old... The 80's, I had other stuff (some good, some bad) going on in my life, so I missed every one of them. Started going again just as a "collector" in the 90's, couldn't make it this time, but wanted to go just the same. Oh well, there's always some Bastard that will keep me up-to-date by rubbing my nose in what I missed...
Right Bastard here with my third annual Comic-Con review (Quint can't see everything!).
Oh well, there's always some Bastard that will keep me up-to-date by rubbing my nose in what I missed...
Right Bastard here with my third annual Comic-Con review (Quint can't see everything!).
There is so much, it's hard to know where to begin. I really had a lot of problems with the Con this year. Last year was one of the best cons ever, and this year is one of the worst. I won't hang the Con's dirty laundry in this summery. I just will say that I've been going to the Con for ten years; and they've been holding the Con at least twice as long as that; by now you would think that the security and the organizers would have gotten their shit together, and I'll leave it at that.
Wednesday was preview night. Those of us with four day passes get early access to the Convention floor. It's a great time day to get your bearings, and to meet people from out of town. It is difficult to express how huge the Con is. In three hours I crossed the entire hall and back, and saw maybe 1/3 of all there was to see if I was lucky. To put it in perspective, even New Yorkers are impressed by this convention...and New Yorkers are not impressed by anything Californian. They will even admit that it is bigger than their Con.
The Thursday schedule was very light. Most of the true fans and fanboys show up on that day to get in on early deals before prices go up on Friday and Saturday. The guests that fans and fanboys, and not many "civilians", drool over are usually talking on that day. Dave McKean gave a talk going over a retrospective of his art over the last 15-20 years. Neil Gaiman gave a brief talk and showed a documentary that he filmed. He has finally worked out that he will be able to write and direct the "Death: High Cost of Living" movie. He thought he should practice directing a film before dedicating a year of his life to directing Death movie; mainly so see if he actually would like directing. He created a wonderful documentary on English artist John Bolton. There are many surprises in this wonderful little short film, and I'd rather not spoil it for anyone by saying anything about it. Needless to say, Neil quite enjoyed directing and can't wait to get started on Death. His rational for sitting in the chair is "If someone is going to fuck up my creation, I'd rather it be me."
That night I went to a Comic Book Relief Defense Fund party at a local pub. Apparently Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller, among others, were there...but I didn't see them. Still, it was a worthy cause (fighting censorship in comics), and the whisky list was impressive.
Friday. This is the day that the civilians arrive and a new annoying breed of fanboy shows up. [Yearly Rant Start] I've seen the proliferation of these people over the past several years, and now they've reached a heightened level. This particular species is the "fair-weather-fanboy". In sports, the fair-weather-fans are the ones who overnight cover their house, car, and clothes with the local team logo when the team starts winning and might actually make it to the playoffs. The fair-weather-fanboys are worse than fanboys. Fanboys are obsessive people who like to hold on to minutia like treasure so they can tell others, "Oh! You just found out that Chewie is going to be in Ep.III? Ha! I knew that months ago!". Slightly annoying, but harmless. The Fair-weather-fanboys are people who heard Rosie O'Donnell or Oprah tell them that X-Men was a good movie, so they must latch on to it blindly; and not really care about the history or quality of the product. People who are doing it because it's friendly. As annoying as fanboys are, at least they're passionate. The fair-weather-fanboys who go to the Con because they might be in the same room as Halle Berry (with 5000 other people) severely bring the vibe down. [Yearly Rant Stop]
So, Friday at the Con. First up for me was the 25th year celebration of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". It's neat that the film was made in San Diego, and many of the people involved showed up. They gearing up for an anniversary release of the DVD through Rhino (who else?). Next, I got in position for a Rob Zombie "House of 1000 Corpses" panel. Sid Haig, Bill Moseley (Chop Top!!!), Sheri Moon, and Chris Hardwick were all on hand. Zombie was his usual "to the point" self. The DVD for Corpses will be out soon, with lots of extras and interactive menus. The panel discussed the current (non) state of horror; and whenever it got a little slow, they would start ripping into Mtv boy Hardwick, who was a good sport. There is a plan for an eventual Uncut release of the movie, but they are holding off on that while they work on the current sequel. There should be no distribution problems this time around, and they all seem really excited about the new movie.
Next up we stopped in on Vertigo Comic's 10 year anniversary celebration, followed by Bill Plympton showing a rough cut of his new film. It looks fantastic, and as creative and messed up as we are used to seeing from Plympton. Next, I drug my friend to the Episode III/Lucasfilm panel. He really didn't want to go, but I told him that he had to see Steve Sansweet, Lucasfilm's head of fan relations, for himself. I needed verification in my belief that Sansweet is the biggest suckass in the universe. Sansweet began by telling us about a "dark character" who has carried himself through many adventures. You got it. Finally, the Indiana Jones DVDs will be released in November. The print looks beautiful, but I didn't have the guts to ask if they replaced the guns with flashlights, edited out blood, put in a CG Jabba, or any other extremely lame idea to come from the minds of Spielberg/Lucas lately. I really do hate the title "Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Arc", though. Next Sansweet told us that EpIII will be the darkest of all six films, showed a really lame real of Anthony Daniels stumbling through sets where everything is covered with blue cloth, and admitted that wookies will be in the next movie. At that point my friend admitted that, indeed, Samsweet is the biggest suckass in the universe, and we took off to see another panel.
We saw a bit of Jill Thompson's Scary Godmother. I like her work with Neil Gaiman's characters, but this is definitely a kids show. Also, is uses the type of CG that I don't really have an aesthetic for. The kind that flows too much, and than has characters shaking at an epileptic rate. It's too bad, because the animation is being done by the guy who worked on Beast Wars and Reboot, which both had a much better look to the animation.
Then came the panel all of my friends were waiting for. Lisa Henson, Jim Henson's daughter, announced that though "The Dark Crystal" and "Labyrinth" were considered initial failures, they realize that both of those have an enormous cult following. Given this, she is proud to announce the first artistic/edgier children's film from Henson productions since 1986, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's MirrorMask!!!! They just finished principle photography the week before the Con, and now Dave will spend the next year and a half animating it. Neil wrote the film, and Dave is directing it. They showed a few stills from the film, and it looks simply magical. The story is a "through the looking glass" sort, much like labyrinth, and I am really anticipating it. I hope people will really rally around this film.
Next, I stumbled into an intriguing panel on Starship Troopers 2. Paul M. Sammon, Ed Neumier, and Brenda Strong gave an intriguing panel. Ed discussed the reason for the changes in the first film and why their message was very different from what Heinlein was trying to say in the 1950's. A very interesting discussion about how war and militarism breeds fascism ensued, and how a movie made during the first gulf war is even more relevant during our current altercation in Iraq. The sequel is going to be more of a horror movie along the lines of Alien (a trapped group that has to get out of a messy situation), compared to the politically/socially conscious first film.
The evening ended with Mark Hamill giving a Sneak Peek at Comic Book: The Movie, which he filmed at the Con last year. The movie will be released direct to to DVD in November, and I can't wait to see it. It's a movie that would only interest Comic Book fans, but it a work of passion for Mark, so I want to support it. He was very conscious on to make it a "Trekkies" or "Best in Show" style Mockumentary. He wanted to do his best to make the fans look good in this film. I can respect that. It might actually be refreshing to so the fans given a little respect. I hope he pulled it off. The story is about a history teacher (Hamill) who doesn't want to see his favorite golden age character co-opted by films and corporatized for mass audiences. A lot of us can relate.
Saturday. I won't go into the Hell that it was trying to get into the
Halle Berry panel. Needless to say, I managed to get in the front row of a room that holds 4500, and had 5000+ (mosh pit experience comes in useful at times like this). Even more annoying that the fair-weather-fanboys, were the obnoxious members of the press corps, who were stomping every old lady and child in their way to get a picture of Halle. If I were security and they didn't back off when I told them to, I would have confiscated their cameras and kick them out (like they do to people without the little press badges). Being about 15 feet from miss Berry, I have to agree with what the magazines say. She IS the most beautiful woman on the planet. Her new movie is Gothica: a woman who works at an institution for criminally insane wakes up as a patient, and needs to find out why. Nothing new, but it looks nice and creepy. But I know what you really want to know. She was very tepid on the thought of another X-Men film. She may as well have said that she's not going to do another one unless she gets a major story arc, and Storm gets to actually fly. (My guess: there will be a new actress playing Storm in the next movie. Halle is great, but personally there are no interesting story arcs with Storm that I think would merit a movie. We want to see the Sentinels, Phoenix, etc. Not the friggin' Morlocks.)
Next Angelina Jolie came out to promote Tomb Raider II. The questions were too stupid, and the press were so obnoxious that I gave up my prime seat and went to a less poplar panel. For those who want to know; Tomb Raider II has things that go boom, and lots of karate and guns and jumping of high things. They put the Futurama panel in a room half the size that it could have been, and it was closed off to the public by the time I got there. The news is, Cartoon network will be picking it up for hopefully new episodes. That being packed, I went to the Spotlight on Neil Gaiman. Not much that non-fans would want to hear, aside from Good Omens is on hold. Terry Gilliam had foreign investment pending on $15 million from the US. He couldn't get the 15 mil, so the foreign investors backed out. He is currently working on a Brother's Grim film, that I am really looking forward to.
I managed to sneak into the Kevin Smith panel about 1/2 way into it. He did the usual shtick about "fucking his wife", and ripped on stupid fanboy questions, which is always a good time. It ended on a down because he talked about Mewes battle with drugs, and you could tell it tore him up to watch his friend killing himself. Mewes is doing better this time compared to previous stints in rehab, and hopefully he'll make it.
Next up was the New Line panel. Robert Englund and many others from the Freddy vs. Jason world came out to pimp that film. There wasn't really much to say. You know it's going to be fun. Following that the LOTR people started appearing. First the WETA folks came out and gave a sword making and costuming demonstration, accompanied by Billy "Pippin" Boyd. Andy Serkis then appeared to talk about his Gollumization, followed by Sean Austin and Elija Wood talking about Sean's new short film that will be on the Two Towers DVD (though, I hope everyone will wait until November, and just buy the extended version of the DVD). Tight lipped as they are, there was not much information about ROTK, but they did show a 3 minute preview of the 12 minute trailer. I had a break after that, and stumbled across the actors who did the voices of Pinky and The Brain doing a live reading of an old episode. God, I love the Con.
Next up was the Adult Swim panel. New episodes of Sealab, Aquateen Hunger Force, Home Movies, The Brak Show, Harvy Birdman, and Space Ghost were previewed. They also announced that Cartoon Network will be getting FLCL. Are they insane? That has to be the best/weirdest anime ever to come out of Japan!
Saturday night involved the usual getting drunk and then heckling at the masquerade. Those people have a lot of guts to shove themselves into those costumes and get up on stage for a rowdy crowd who they know will jeer them. They get a lot of props for putting up with bastards such as ourselves. Next was the packed Bloodfire Comics party, each year taking hedonism and decadence to a new level.
Sunday we saw Eliza Dushku's new show Tru Calling. It's basically a rip off of "Run, Lola, Run". She's is the second hottest woman in the universe, but I don't think that will be enough to carry a show on. Then, there was a hysterical conversation between Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, the two most ubiquitous characters at this year's Con. I didn't care. I'm a fan.
