Okay, so, with all that happens at the con, I try to upload the days shots and keep a live update going, but this year, my shots got tricky to format with software, so I never posted this, and update from last Friday...
Since it's now almost a week later, here you go (and it is a live blog entry, so it's a bit rambling after a night out and the days events, but here it is uncensored):
Yesterday I just dropped a slide show of booth crap, the big media cool stuff of sorts...
Today, lets name drop, both cool creator friends, and celebrity/comic celebrity... as well as give a taste of my SDCC exploits...
So, aside from the cavalcade of geek cool, comics, movies, TV, games, toys, etc etc, and trying to convert folks to your product, in my case independent comics, SDCC is not about sales, it's mainly, the single best place to network, meet kindred spirits and new contacts of every variety.
Sure, you can join online communities, and foster multitudes of great new connections business or personal, but nothing beets face to face, and sharing a beer, or a meal, or many beers, or whatever your social thing is. And SDCC is the best of all cons for that. The most people, of the widest variety, not to mention fans, and a totaly accesible city with endless eateries and bars within walking (or even train) distance.
Blah blah blah
Anyways, that's cool.
Cuz it's cool to meet and share with people that get your otherwise decidedly different world views...
blah blah, yadda yadda
Shit, I got off track (it's approaching 2AM and that happens, but I want to get the blog pics up in the PM rather than the AM so I can make it to the con hall earlier than I did today)....
My point was, none of the above, that's another point, my point was, I thought I'd share some of the geek cool celebrity-ish sitings I've had in the last 24ish hours...
Yesterday, small geek moment, taking the shuttle from the Sheraton Suites hotel to the con, we wind around downtown, and there outside the window, is Stan the man Lee, by himself, walking at a good clip, happy as a clam, looking around, passerbyes none the wiser...
I've seen Stan up closer before, but he's perhaps the biggest geek thrill, I'd really like to meet him. Regardless of his questionable past with his artists, he's undeniably an icon, and maybe genius, in his own indemetable way, at marketing. And I very much respect him for building the house of ideas...
Moving on, or fast forwarding to yesterday late evening, or early Friday AM, returning to the hotel after going out post show Thursday, I get to the hotel lobby, and there's Richard Hatch, original Appolo, sitting at the free internet computer... doing his thing. Just was, ya know, when you see people from TV etc, you don't expect to see them doing such mundane shit...
Skip back to today, or early Friday...
I grabbed some crappy breakfast sandwich from the hotel (no thanks on that again), and proceeded to the shuttle stop... I was already anxious after leaving much later than I wanted, and there was a good cueue for the bus, which is a good thing most likely, meaning it may be coming sooner than later. But, I didn't feel like waiting and quickly headed off on foot, as I wanted to pick up a some juice or decent stuff to hold me through the day en route anyway. From my hotel it's a good 14 blocks or so, a bit of a walk, but doable, and downhill to the con. Plus, it's Friday, and the con turns into a giant traffic cluster fuck with 125 thousand people descending to it on the weekend days... and shuttles can get held in limbo on approach.
A nice panoramic shot coming up to the massive con center, with folks buzzing in from everywhere.Any way, meet a guy on the way that runs a bobble head vendor, or company, talk bobble heads, turns out Benders the shows best seller, and they have some Sleestack exclusives too, with a top secret appearance from Sid or Marty Kroft (I forget which)... ya know Will Ferrel and crew are doing a new movie that sounds pretty cool, especialy to someone of the right age like me, to have watched that crazy shit as a young child.
Just as he excuses himself to finish his cigar prior to crossing the main street and train track to the convention center, I notice a big backdrop with crew and cameras etc staged off to the side in the park block area that proceeds the street across from the con, at the main pedestrian route in... It's the new Kit car for the new Knight Rider show, about to be unveiled (and probably sit there the rest of the day or con)...
So I took this spy shot, just for you all...
Getting into the con, even though I've not much time till it opens, I start to look around, talk, check out, and snap pics...
I stumble on some kind of Greatest American Hero booth, I'd heard William Kat, and practically the whole cast of the 80's psuedo superhero show were there, including the old dood that played the FBI agent or whatever, who must now be really up there... Well low and behold it's (a quick IMDb check reveals) Robert Culp (and also reveals he's only 78 now)... I always dug him, so I ask if he's cool with me taking his picture, he's busy hanging Greatest American Hero posters on the front of the boot and says sure, "As long as he doesn't have to stop working"
I wanted a better shot, but he really was crouching and not photo ready, and time was short, so there ya go.
From there I tried to find some more cool stuff I hadn't captured, including this Clone Trooper that didn't come out good yesterday, nor today, but there ya go, crappy pictured number 3...
Found this cool life sized Cylon, complete with scrolling red LED visor...
Got back to the table and Grant (Gould) called, he'd come by to pick up preview copies of his Wolves of Odin book I'm publishing, but I wasn't there and he could find them...
So I had to jet down to the other end of the massive hall to his spot in artist alley drop them off (and the show had just opened, which meant things were going to get nasty)
When there, I forgot to snap a shot of him at his table, but I did run into my bud Jason Kruze, creator of The World of Quest, which got picked up as a kids WB cartoon series that now airs...
I met him as a neighbor at the infamous one and only Las Vegas Comic-Con, long story, lost of creators, no attendees...
He was an animator that turned me onto using blue Col-erase pencils... and had just finished World of Quest for that show (it later became a Komikswerks webcomic and trade, then book publisher graphic novel and cartoon)
Any way, he's good people, but as this pic shows, he had a rough go of getting to con this year...
I really wanted to try and get shots of friends/creators, because I'm bad at doing that, so I snapped these shots of Hector Sevilla and Dave Dwonch sketching this morning...
and here's Gnome cover artist and underground rap superstar Super Ugly hammin' it up with the Star Wars gals...
Fast forward again to the end of the day, and I was heading out of the con to try and catch a shuttle to the hotel, but again, it's a peak day, and travel out of the con towards Gas Town, is FUBARed
As I realized I went outside at about hall A/B, and my shuttles at about D/E (a long ways folks) things weren't looking good.
Then, as I tried to hustle to the shuttle, I noticed just about everyone was looking up in the sky, trying to read...
Turned out there was a skywriter, big deal, it's comic-con, who knows what crazy shit they're pimping, move along.
But as I kept trucking, I go curious as folks started to get more engaged, looked like some kind of LOST tie-in...
The wrote "seek the six" in the sky over the con.
Pretty cool. (turns out it was a viral promo leading to some TV show remake on the web)
Adding to the only at comic-con cool, I happened upon another crowd, mobbing and posing for pictures... After slowing down to get a loook, it was G4 TV's Olivia Munn. She, co-host of the cool Attack of the Show, a regular view of mine since before Kevin Perrera was more than a mere man-child, and through the numerous changes... When they brought in Oliva a couple years back, she seemed like eye candy, that annoyingly couldn't read a teleprompter to save her life... And with the whole show live via teleprompter, that was annoying as hell. But something happened, she got hooked on phonics and widdled down her stumble to one or two a day, and built a genuine rapport with KPer and the viewers...
Anyway, I snapped a few shots, in case they didn't come out, as she posed with all comers (while they ran tape)...
Then of course a giant fat Darth Vader had to make his way into the shots...
By now I'd reached my shuttle, and got in line, only to find out there were two lines, mine being wrong (even though it started where the shuttle door was), and we had to move to the back of the longest shuttle line ever...apparently nobody rides anything but green...
As a group gathered behind me though, I could here them asking about who the girl was, taking all the pictures, "Who is she?", then one girl said, "I think she's a porn star"
Ha ha!
I let em know, but it was damn funny...
So, I figured if I didn't make the first bus, I'd walk or cab, and sure enough, it was a no go...
You see, I needed to meet up with my wife, and head to a Hollywood type party... I was supposedly put on the list for a certain talent agency shin-dig at the Hard Rock Hotel, but I didn't get many other details beyond that. You see after con last year, I got in talks with a certain 3 lettered agency (aren't they all 3 letters, that end in A as in Agency?) regarding interest in Super Real from a certain "family programing network"... I didn't think Super Real was a great fit there, but what the hell, how knows, the concept is certainly broad enough to spin any way...
Any way, low and behold it didn't work, but I've kept in contact with said agency, and I thought it was best to check out their swaray...
So, I headed to the hotel on foot, actually passing the Hard Rock hotel, where the packed patio bar was roaring and then cheering as someone made their way down the street by me (across from the action)... it was Mark Hamill, flanked by security and followed by cameras, apparently all of it being staged (come on, cheering for Mark? Flanked by security?!? Even for Luke Skywalker at comic con, that's a bit much)....
And I wasn't able to get a decent shot of it...
Back to the hotel then, to get ready and take a cab with the wife to the Hard Rock, when we get there and find the right entrance for the party, they inform us it doesn't start til 10pm, and it's about 20 til... So, since we hadn't eaten yet, we got next door to a cool Hard Rock coffee shop hat was really a nice swanky diner, with good food to boot.
We head back to the party entrance, and see a big line, after checking, sure enough we need to wait in it. It took a good half hour or longer, with much of that time being spent beneath a fryer vent of some sort, blasting warm fish/burger air upon us...
As we get up, show ID and make our way to the check in, the gal in front of us was heard told, "I'm sorry mam, your name's not on the list, do you know who was supposed to put you on it...", the exact frase I knew we'd hear...
And sure enough, no Jason Martin on the list.
God damn it.
It's one thing to say you'll do it, and not, but to make us wait on line, in fish fry vapors, that's fucked up.
Of course, I'd forgot my phone and couldn't call the man with the power to fix it, so we had no choice but to leave, as they would do nothing to check on it from their end.
I could see where he looked on the list, Avatar Press and Devil's Due, with names... fuck.
So, turning around back out the door, to pass backwards though security, there was a bit of hub bub, someone was making a stink about getting it... I quickly realized it was Carlton Cuse, Lost producer (from their story so far specials etc), po'd and storming off... and could hear someone say "He tried to get a minor in..."
Ah, comic con, you strange hybrid beast of psuedo celebrity madness...
What to do now, well, hit a bar, it's Gas Town, and there's literally endless choices...
Walking, we passed the dood that plays Brian Posehn's gay partner on the Sarah Silverman show (Steve Agee, again, IMDb), at an outdoor bar... I'd seen him earlier at the con...
I needed to pee, and there was a Bucca De Bippo handy, so we ducked in there, after finding my was to the bathroom, admidst winding corridors, and passing several comic types... I returned to the bar to find my wife waiting, they closed at 11...
So, onwards, towards the hotel, but more towards the main strip of bars... Passing Joe Quesada on the crosswalk, and settling on a pretty cool tiki bar. Whilst hanging there, Dan Didio came in and past us, then returned back out a minute later, now mysteriously wearing a Padres ballcap he didn't have on before, and smiling at my wife (dirty old man)...
No, sightings at the 7-11 though, and no 80's sci-fi actors in the hotel lobby, but there you have it, 24 hours that can only be had at San Diego Comic-Con!
So, I left all the "Ooh, look who I saw" crap in there, cuz, that's the fun of doing the con, so for those who can't make it, that's what it's like, pretty fun...
Tune in tomorrow for my final pics and tidbits to share from Comic-Con 08!!
I think it was Rolling Stone (side note, my wife has us subscribed to nearly every magazine, literally, for next to no money I guess, I dunno, but I do enjoy RS and Entertainment Weekly) who had a blurb about this 1982 gem a few issues back...
Stains is not only quite a unique story, but it's told in gritty style, perfectly capturing the darker side of the times, showcasing punk music, and road weary rockers, as they take a cross country run down tour bus (complete with rasta driver/manager) that never makes it out of the mid-American tri-state PA setting. Like a time capsule, of punk music, clothes, and attitudes from the dawn of the 80's, and with a line up of radically younger actors still around today, also including Ray Winstone (most recently as Beowulf, and Indiana Jone's "buddy" in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), and punk/rockers (members of Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Tubes are featured) the Stains is the perfect rock movie and feels as snarky fresh as if it were shot now, with an eye for campy details from then.
Great music, great cast, and a solid story make LAGTFS a really fun trip to another era, that's as relevant (both musically, and socially, it's mixed messages are as grey as reality) now as it was all those decades ago, even with the uneven ending.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
