San Diego Comic-con July 2010

[John Helmer]

Wednesday- Preview Night 7/21/2010

I drove in from phoenix, leaving early on Wednesday. Arriving a half hour before my long time friend, brad flew in from Oregon. We commandeered our favorite hotel in Old Towne, San Diego.



Getting our trolley passes early, we headed to the convention center three hours before the 6-9 preview night opened at the exhibition hall. When we were finally let in just after six, I was amazed to see huge crowds in the hall. This year the preview night passes were restricted to make it more of a special event, but it seemed too overcrowded for that type scale of people.

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It was difficult to move down the corridors and the halls to get around. brad and I had to use our tried and true method of walking outside the hall and then ducking in the entrance near the desired destination.

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I slipped into the dark Horse booth to procure the Solar Variant. They sent me to the Diamond toy booth, who sent me to the Diamond comic booth, who promptly told me I had to take a flier and go to a specific few dealers to get the variant. When I arrived at Graham Cracker Comics, the dealers did not know if they had it. After several minutes of hunting around, they produced three with jim Shooter's signature on them The dealer did not want to sell me the signed variant. I was offered an unsigned one which I quickly purchased for $4.00.

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The Dark Horse booth was handing out hundreds of FCBD Solar/Magnus comics, Solar posters, Solar, Buttons, and an autograph comic with a white cover and Solar on the front. I grabbed a handful of each. The buttons are tiny, but neat.

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I walked to artists Alley on the south side and after a hike of ten minutes, made it to the confined and constricted tables. They are getting smaller and smaller every year. Dennis Calero was sitting in an empty row. Brad called his attention and we introduced ourselves. He seemed energetic and vibrant. I showed him the Variant and he remarked it was something he hadn't seen yet. I got him to sign my variant and he offered to draw both Brad and I free sketches if we came back tomorrow. I asked Dennis if he liked working with Jim Shooter and he said it "...is really great working with him."

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I have pictures of Dennis, the hall, and other cool Preview Night things which I will upload Sunday night when I return to Phoenix!

Cool panels tomorrow: DC, Marvel, and others...

[John Helmer]

Thursday 7/22/2010

Brad and I hustled to the con so we could pick up a few autographs early and head to our array of panels we penciled in for the first full day. We walked to the Trolley station at Old Towne and jumped on the first train: Red Line!!! That's a special direct trolley to the convention center --saves sooo much time. Sitting on the trolley I released we forgot to buy passes, so we jumped off and made a quick purchase, then hopped back on the next Red Line trolley.

Once in the con, we were directed to walk through a maze all around the convention center. Brad skipped the line and waited by the entrance with the new badge attendees. I dint get out of the massive cow herd fast enough and had to meet up with him a half an hour later after being led through hallways and corridors for no apparent reason but to move humans in circles!!!

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First off, was Brian Pullido, a Scottsdale AZ resident and his free lady death addition. I picked up his free preview and had him autograph it at the IDW booth. he's a great guy to talk to.

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We walked over to the dark Horse booth and scooped up a handful of free comic book day Solar/Magnus issues, the DK buttons, Solar posters, more DH con signature books with Solar on the cover and the DH yellow bags! Lots of booty today...

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Crossing over on the upper floor, Brad took a picture of Face from the original A Team TV show or as i know him from Battle Star Galactica! He seemed nice, but looked a little for the road even with make-up on.

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The Con is full of LOTS OF BABES wearing almost everything and nothing. We say Supergirl and tons of misc. cos players or fans.

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Star wars was in full f'force' as well. There were stormtroopers and jedi everywhere.

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The Robert Kirkman was the best panel so far. He's funny, super witty, full of jokes, and really plays with each guest as they ask questions. I laugh the most at his panels. He talked alot about the Walking Dead movie and was very excited to show off the new talent from his brand new publishing company Skyhigh. He brought the artist and writer of the Witch title and they talked about their property.

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More to come tonight about the independent marketing panel, Janette Kahn tribute panel, Dennis Calero, Mark Waid and Boom Studios, and the overcrowding & pedestrian bridge issue.

[John Helmer]

Friday 7/23/2010

Today we hit the panels late, our first one starting at 1130 am. The dark Horse line was considerably long and we had arrived more than a half an hour early. It was, unfortunately, in a room way too small (hall 3). Brad and I did not make the first cut, but after they checked seats, we were able to enter. It was standing room only. Mike Richardson quickly introduced creator after creator and project after project. He brushed over the "Jim Shooter Universe" as he called and did not announce or show anything new that we had already been privy too from their website. He reaffirmed that Doktor Spektor and Samson would be launched soon.

I spent the rest of the day in Room 6E where I saw 4 consecutive DC panels: Spotlight on Grant Morrison, Batman Returns, DC Nation, and Superman. Five straight hours and i only left my seat once with a bathroom pass!!!

The first panel was the Grant Morrison affair --filled to capacity and given a loud, warm welcome by the audience, Grant delivered. His quick wit and soft Scottish charm wooed virtually every fan, especially the ones who asked questions. He appears on the outside to be a very respectful creator of both the legacy of the characters and the fans who adore them. He is fond of making quick jokes that are funny, but not stinging to the array of silly questions asked by fans. When a fan asked him to state Batman and Robin's actual ages, he moved charmingly to explain that the comics are fiction and meant to be fun, not real and set in the real world. A great answer to a question that would just pigeon hole him into a corner a writer doesn't want to reside int.

He stayed next for the batman returns panel with several other creators.

The Batman panel had a parade of creators from Grant to Gail Simone. They announced new titles, such as Batman, Inc. A team book with Batman as the lead. Funny how things in life are circular --didn't they have one in the 1980's called Batman and the outsiders? This panel was also filled to capacity.

The Superman panel was half full and slowly filled as the time went on, clearly panel jumpers were squatting for the next panel DC Universe. The mood was subdued and the energy almost completely siphoned from some other force or maybe the franchise is just "tired" and needs a re imagining.

The DC Universe panel was packed and full of electricity ---say what you want about Dan Didio, but he energizes a crown and brings the level of intensity, for good reasons, to a crescendo. I perked up and laughed several times. The costumes from fans here were amazing. There was a Darkseid fan with one of the most amazing life-like costumes,.. it was so good, Dan had him sit on the panel next to Jim Lee and Grant Morrison. How exciting it must have felt for the fan who put in hours and lots of money into his costume.


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[John Helmer]

Saturday 7/24/2010

Wow! the big day is here. i have two Stan lee panels to hit, a golden age panel at 5 with Bill Everett's heirs, and the big one --Kevin Smith at 7:15 pm.

Today was the annual Cup of Joe panel. I attend this one every year because Joe Quesada is an honest, sincere guy. He does care for the characters, even if they take them in wrong, crazy directions. The panel started late and the guests seemed bored with the material. many times, they looked at each other until someone decided to answer a question. The funniest moment was when a fan asked the panelist which Disney character they would work on in the Marvel side of things and Joe answered he had a storyline about Mephesto breaking up Minnie and Mickey titled: One Mouse in Time.

I shopped for an hour and stopped by to see Dennis calero to get that sketch he promised from Wednesday night.
He spent 15 minutes talking to me and drew a cool Solar head. He was a pleasant guy with a lot to say. I enjoyed the one on one contact.

In the autograph hall, I met Jon Levene for Classic Doctor Who. He has aged, but was a wonderful, warm human with a pleasant smile. Great to see the Doctor's pal, Sgt. Benton in action!!!!

"Sgt. Benton, six rounds rapid!"




The Marv Wolfman panel on how to write was the most informative of the can. I took extensive notes and will post them online here. He had detailed steps for constructing a story and creating a plot. Fantastic information.

Then the biggie: Kevin Smith. We decided to leave the exhibition hall early and get in line, thinking we could get into the Marvel panel to see the Avengers actors. It was filled to capacity. And to make matters worse, there was a stabbing between panels. We knew right away what had happened as the police and ambulance pulled up to Comic con because everybody inside was twittering and face booking about the assault. They were fighting about one man panel crashing and the second told him to leave when he pulled out a pen and stabbed him in the eye.

There were dozens of hand made signs in the lines of between 4-5 thousand people waiting to get in. Some said:

"I went to comic con and all I got was this lousy pen in my eye!"

"Don't stab me please, I'm in line to see Kevin Smith"

"The pen is mightier than than the phaser!"

"Stick a pen in me, I'm done!!!"

There were dozens more. They sprouted up on posters, sheets of paper, anything...

www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/25/comic.con.pen.stabbing/?hpt=T2


Kevin Smith did not disappoint even blasting the pen stabbing people. He used more F-bombs than there were attendees this weekend! He was very funny.

We waited three hours in line to see Kevin Smith:

[John Helmer]

Sunday ---The Last Day!

We decided to stay for the Denis Oneil panel, but to do so we crashed the Fraggle Rock-Archaia panel. They handed out free Dark Crystal posters.



As we left the con, we were blessed by the Pope!