Comic-Con thoughts
Sorry, no pics of Batman pushing prams this year.
The whole office went together this time, but within five minutes of my hitting the hall, I had lost them anyway.
Name-dropping:
- As usual, Scott Kurtz was too busy sketching to chat, but I did get to chat with Angie. Review forthcoming on the trade of Truth, Justin, and the American Way.
- Maybe it’s a deep dark Internet secret, but Tycho of Penny Arcade is a closet game designer. I won’t reveal his great idea here, as it is too intense for most people’s small minds, and could cause brain explosions across the Internet.
- As usual, Gabe said one word. 🙂
- This year, I did in fact track down a Charles Vess print. In point of fact, I tracked down Charles Vess himself, got it autographed, and got the lowdown on how he does his colors (diluted and mixed colored inks) and what he uses for linework and other art-geek sorts of things. I also learned that he loves Miyazaki, and he showed me all the Totoros he has hidden in his artwork.
- Quite coincidentally, Ellen Kushner was there, so I told her how much I enjoyed Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword. I gather she’s teaching at Clarion (which is here in San Diego now) this year. She asked me where to get good sushi downtown. I recommended getting out of downtown on a Comic-Con Friday. 😛
- I didn’t get to say hello to Peter Beagle (whom I met at Worldcon) because he was busy talking to someone, but instead, the guy with him gave me an amazingly long disquisition on the legal battles surrounding monies for The Last Unicorn.
- I did get the first three books of Girl Genius, which was up for an award this year. I’ve been reading the strip for a long time, but hadn’t gotten the books — and Phil Foglio was there to sign ’em, so… my daughter is currently devouring them, so now I need to order the next three.
- I got slipped an advance copy of Empire of Ivory (Temeraire, Book 4). It’s not out until September. It’s excellent, but man does it end on a cliffhanger.
- FuzionFall, the new Cartoon Network MMO, looks rather interesting. Heavy on platforming, which makes sense for a kids’ game. I spent a longish while talking with Sam Lewis, the lead designer, he of the excellent MMO economies talk.
- Tycho, btw, was right, the most interesting game thing at the whole show was undoubtedly Eye of Judgment. In short — a mat and a collectible card game, plus a PS3 game. Play the card game on the mat in front of an EyeToy. The cards res on the screen and become monsters. It’s like the coolest game of miniatures you’ve ever seen, and gives off the vibe of a magic trick.
- I spent a while at the Locus/Analog/Asimov’s table discussing how Comic-Con seems to have an audience that Worldcon does not.
There’s more stuff I picked up and people I saw. But I’ll skip past all of that to give you the bottom line.
Only 30% of the show was comics. And that’s being generous and including the fantasy art. The tables of artists doing pay sketches was half the size of last year. The art section was also half the size. The indie press bit was smaller. And in the meantime, Hollywood was cheerfully happy to fill the gap. We really do not need a sequel to Wargames, people. And Spaceballs: The Animated Series is overkill. There were too many camera crews running around. The big story of the show was that Sylar is Spock, and there were way too many booths selling “goth cute”or “gory cute” or whatever else you want to call the current trendy toy look.
In the current infatuation with comics as fuel for mass media, I hope that we don’t forget that you need the comics in the first place.
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source:Comic Con thoughts, Raphs Website Ah, well, back to the drawing board and try again.
What was the one word Gabe said?
“Goth cute”? “Gory cute”? I think I’m officially old.
“Hey.”
I’m pretty sad that I didn’t get to go to Comic-Con this year. I went each year after moving to San Diego and since I’ve now moved off to Boston, it’s a lot tougher to get there. At least I benefit from all the reviews… *sadface*
“In the current infatuation with comics as fuel for mass media, I hope that we don’t forget that you need the comics in the first place.”
This struck me as an interesting reversal of sorts. Generally, I personally think of Japan as pwning the market on taking fandom to extremes, but they seem to have integrated comics into the media pipeline in rather sensible fashion and now it may be the U.S. that’s taking things to extreme (in an unfortunate way).
Please. We have, what, 60 years of IP to turn into other media and release as platformers? 🙂
I think Raph was referring to the fact that Comic-Con was built on comics and thus needs comics to survive as Comic-Con. As staff at Comic-Con, I find myself more curious about the organization’s strategy.
For example, there was a false rumor going around about how the conference was planning on moving to Las Vegas to increase capacity. Last year, Comic-Con had over 123,000 people. They filled the capacity of the San Diego Convention Center. People were actually turned away from the doors. This year there were informal estimates of around that many people, but the board couldn’t be more specific immediately after the end of the conference since the attendance breakdown is a lot more complex.
Some people not associated with CCI suggested to the local news that CCI was considering relocating to Las Vegas because maxing out capacity at SDCCC meant continuing a lot of logistical problems. I’d say that relocation is not a solution. Popular Media is simply going to keep getting more popular and if relocation was used as a solution then that means CCI would have to keep relocating to bigger venues in an expensive, vicious cycle. I think as time progresses the Comic-Con brand will be more and more diluted by the extension of the conference’s offerings into areas outside comics. That’s the real problem. There doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of focus on what CCI is all about. But I could be wrong.
Hah! I called “Eye of Judgment” as one of the top two or three things at last year’s E3, when it was showing in a room with no one bothering to come in – very exciting in one of those “you have to see it to get it” ways. The sense of real magic when you can see your own hand in the camera view place a card, and then see a dragon manifest itself out of the card – fabulous. I happened to walk by the MtG booth later, and it was like seeing a Model T Ford after viewing a DeLorean (STILL the car of the future…) CRM 114 to you obscure movie reference fans.
The guy with Peter Beagle was probably Connor Cochran, his business partner. I wrote about Peter’s problems before, a great example of how you can’t simply ignore business just because you want to be creative. It’s a shame because Peter’s is a wonderful person and a brilliant author, yet he has almost nothing to show for his work.
We ran into Mr. Beagle and Mr. Cochran outside of the very delicious Ghirardelli chocolate ice cream parlor. He was very polite and soft-spoken and it is worth anyone’s time to read up on his story.
Sorry to have missed you at the show, Raph.
Wow, blast from the past! Good to see you here, Scott! Sorry I didn’t see you at the Con.
Comic-Con was really really packed this year. If you are planning on next year make sure you get your badges online and early. Apparently some people flew in to SD and spent Saturday in their hotel rooms.
PS to: Ryan Shwayder you are welcome to come back any time you want. 🙂 Say hi to everyone for me.
Can I have your copy of Empire of Ivory since you’re done reading it? 🙂