Hey folks, Ambush Bug here. While I continue to recover and transcribe all of the stuff I did and said at the 2012 San Diego Comic Con, I am fully aware of the fact that some of the world didn’t go to this year’s entertainment mecca. For those who thought that all San Diego consisted of was Hall H and cosplay, this little series of reports are here to prove you wrong. Roving reporter James Coville attended a ton of comic book related panels and was nice enough to pass them on to me so I could share with all of you. So even though you missed out on the con this year (or just wasted your time in line for Hall H), but here are a few panels that reminded folks why the world Comic still exists in the title Comic Con.

So sit back and listen to the extremely interesting and informative recordings from the con. And maybe if you stew a concoction of ass and turnips to sniff while watching, if you close your eyes, it’ll be just like you were there at the panel itself!

Enjoy!
 

Geof Darrow wins an Inkpot award and talks about how he got started in comics with Moebius, Frank Miller and the Wachowski Brothers. He showed a partly worked on Shaolin Cowboy Anime that had no audio, but gave funny commentary as it played. He talked in detail about trying to get the anime created and some road bumps he encountered along the way. Geof took the unusual step of asking the audience questions and giving them some signed prints for answering them. The audience did ask him some questions and the Geof talked about good movies the audience should see towards the end.
 

A cross section of retailers talked about reasons to be Optimistic in the current comic market. On the panel was Joe Field (Flying Colors Comics, Concord, CA), Carr D'Angelo (Earth-2 Comics, Sherman Oaks, CA), Thomas Gaul (Corner Store Comics, Anaheim, CA), and Calum Johnston (Strange Adventures Bookshop, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada). From the back Amanda Emmert (Muse Comics + Games, Colorado Springs, CO) asked questions. They revealed some very good news about how the market has rebounded in 2012 and also trades stories with the audience of primarily retailers on cheap, easy promotions that created big sales. They talked about the demographics of readers now and how digital comics market is affecting them, among other topics.
 

Richard Alf was one of the co-founders of the San Diego Comic Con and was it's chairman in the early years. Moderated by Mike Towry, friends of Richard Ed Cormier, Earl Bookhammer, David Clark, Bob Beerbohm, William Clausen, Paul Sammon, George Clayton Johnson, Greg Koudoulian, David McClone, Denis Smith, Clayton Moore, David Glanzer and Rob Ray from San Diego University gather to talk about meeting Richard, what he was like, how he helped the convention and more.
 

Moderated by Chip Mosher, Mark Waid, Jeff Webber, Scott Kurtz, Chris Ross talk about how to price digital comics. Mark Waid was late getting to the panel which lead to Chip calling his cell and leaving a voice message with the audience participation. The group talked about what price a digital comic should be and a bit about how much comics they should get for that price. Scott Kurtz was not shy about talking about his issues with the way ComiXology business works, those on the panel asked the audience some question about pricing structures for digital comics. DRM (digital rights management) was also an issue that was brought up too.

Look for more panels for your listening pleasure later this week!