SDCC - Trip report

[BobBretall]

Preview Night

* Attended the Stan Lee/Boom! Press conference....... I recorded the whole thing & it should go up on the ComicBookPage feed next week.

SOLDIER ZERO, written by DOCTOR WHO and ACTION COMICS scribe Paul Cornell with art by SUPERMAN artist Javier Pina, tells the story of a wheelchair-bound astronomy teacher who finds himself in a freak accident that bonds him with an alien weapon of war.

THE TRAVELER, written by Eisner Award-nominee and BOOM! Studios Chief Creative Officer Mark Waid with art by AMAZING SPIDER-MAN artist Chad Hardin, features a mysterious new superhero with time-traveling powers battling the Split-Second Men, super-powered assassins from the future.

STARBORN, written by iZOMBIE's Chris Roberson with art by THE X-MEN's Khary Randolph, tells the story of a regular guy who discovers he's the heir to an intergalactic empire, putting him the center of a war between five alien races.

* Hit Artist's Alley & talked to a couple of folks I know that were setting up, Ron Randall (Doom Patrol, Murder of King Tut), Norm Rapmund (Booster Gold, Time Masters), Steve Leiber (Underground, Whiteout)

* Grabbed a Green Hornet "Big Bag" from the Sony booth. Watched some trailers & other material, I'm NOT feeling it. Seth Rogen as Green Hornet & John Cho as Kato...... One of the booth babes told me "it's funny stuff"

* Visited Radical comics booth & picked up some previews of upcoming projects. Their marketing guy gave me an advance copy of Time Bomb #1

* Visited Boom!, picked up "Hawks of Outremer" #1, which somehow didn't get shipped to me by DCBS ( I got #2 in my box this week). I also talked with Claudio Sanchez (Amory Wars, Kill Audio, Coheed & Cambria) and his wife. They said they listed to our review of Amory Wars and actually thought it was fair and well done......so "please observe" to all the Coheed fans who called us to task over it......

* Talked to Filip Sablik, Top Cow publisher

* Hit the Archaia booth, took advantage of their "Buy 2 get 3 free" HC sale. Talked to Josh Finney & Kat Rocha (Titanium Rain), Dave Rodriguez (Starkweather: Immortal), Thomas Siddell (Gunnerkrig Court)

* Image Booth, talked to Kody Chamberlain (Sweets), Jimmie Robinson (Bomb Queen), Stephen Scott (Murderland).......

* Talked to Kevin Freeman @ the Ape entertainment booth

* Saw Pat Loika @ "Dial R Studios" and ran into Brian "Pants" Christman also.

* Went back to my room to drop off the heavy stuff before going to dinner @ the "Tilted Kilt". Once I got there, I decided I was too tired to walk all the way over to that bar (there is no direct route from my hotel because of the railroad tracks), so I decided to just call it a night & skip the Kilt.

[RadConsv]

Preview Night


...One of the booth babes told me "it's funny stuff"

I don't know about you guys, but I always trust a booth babe's opinion on anything! The question Bob, is Green Hornet supposed to be a comedy?

I have not really followed the movie at all. I don't really care about the Green Hornet at all.

[BobBretall]

I don't know about you guys, but I always trust a booth babe's opinion on anything! The question Bob, is Green Hornet supposed to be a comedy?

The original radio series & TV show were NOT comedic. The comics are not comedic.

I think they are attempting to make a movie with elements of humor, though not a flat-out comedy.

I have not really followed the movie at all. I don't really care about the Green Hornet at all.

I think you're like 99% of Americans, which is why they don't feel the need to be particularly true to the character. They'll make more $$ appealing to Seth Rogen fans than they will appealing to Green Hornet fans.

[80sJunkie]

Heard the podcasting panel...

I think you and John do quite a bit of journalism, especially in terms of interviews, market analysis and first-hand con reports. I mean, this is all original content, not even mentioning your comic reviews and comments on notable comic news.

Seems the bulk of "journalism" is forwarding company-produced press releases. Thankfully, you guys do much more than that.

[BobBretall]

Trip Report continued.......

Thursday

* Bought a "Hero Initiative exclusive" Overstreet Price guide with a JR Jr. Conan cover.

* Got autographs on HCs I brought to the show from:
- Titanium Rain v1 - Kat Rocha & Josh Finney
- Bomb Queen Omnibust - Jimmie Robinson also did a Bomb Queen sketch in the book
- Elephantmen v3 - Richard Starkings also did an Ebony Hide sketch in the book

* While at the Elephantmen booth, my son & I also picked up some free sketches:
* My son got a great free sketch of Obadiah Horn/Sahara from Gabe Bautista & I got a great Miki sketch from Axel (who I still need to catch his last name).
* Great deal on Elephantmen trades - my son bought all 3 "supersize" SCs (to give as a gift) for $30 & got a free jigsaw puzzle too

* Picked up an "Art of Athena Voltaire" HC from Steve Bryant

* Oni Panel - lots of cool stuff coming from these guys. I was particularly interested in the announcement that Jen van Meter is going to be doing a new Hopeless Savages mini.

* Ape Entertainment panel - They mostly talked about their all ages stuff, but it's great to see someone helping reach out to a new generation of fans with Shrek, Penguins of Madagascar, etc. There were a lot of kids who you could see their faces light up when they got a free Shrek comic.

* Radical Comics panel - Lots of cool stuff coming out from Radical, if you can get beyond the "gee, this is an indie company that actually wants to make money, so they do film deals for their properties". As has been pointed out before, they try to make good comics that tell a good comic story. That these are then (hopefully) developed by Hollywood is immaterial to me, since I still have a beautiful comic to enjoy. My favorite thing here is that they are a great "different genre" pallet cleanser after all the super-hero comics.

* Radical Press conference - cool session with more direct access for Q&A with the creators. I got some good questions in and recorded the press conference. Not sure when it will go up, but Rick Remender & Jimmy Palmiotti were great.

*Podcasting panel - had a great time with Josh From iFanboy, John Siuntres, Brian "Pants" Christman, Jimmy Aquino from CNI, and Cameron from Cammy's Comics Corner.

* Dinner @ Rock Bottom with a great group of guys!

[HipHopHead]

Heard the podcasting panel...

I think you and John do quite a bit of journalism, especially in terms of interviews, market analysis and first-hand con reports. I mean, this is all original content, not even mentioning your comic reviews and comments on notable comic news.

Seems the bulk of "journalism" is forwarding company-produced press releases. Thankfully, you guys do much more than that.

I agree, I fall into the percentage that enjoys listening

I also appreciate their analysis of comics, by understanding the medium is "Art" and is subjective. Great Stuff guys.

[RadConsv]

Trip Report continued.......

* Radical Comics panel - Lots of cool stuff coming out from Radical, if you can get beyond the "gee, this is an indie company that actually wants to make money, so they do film deals for their properties".

Wow making money in a captailistic system... that's so EVIL!

Bob did Oni mention if they were doign another Spellcheckers or more stuff with Jamie S. Rich and Joelee Jones? I have been really enjoying thier stuff a lot.

[BobBretall]

Heard the podcasting panel...

I think you and John do quite a bit of journalism, especially in terms of interviews, market analysis and first-hand con reports. I mean, this is all original content, not even mentioning your comic reviews and comments on notable comic news.

I also appreciate their analysis of comics, by understanding the medium is "Art" and is subjective. Great Stuff guys.

Thanks, guys! We try......

I think that comment was more targeted towards investigative journalism and really digging into the facts behind the press releases.......

[BobBretall]

Bob did Oni mention if they were doing another Spellcheckers or more stuff with Jamie S. Rich and Joelee Jones? I have been really enjoying their stuff a lot.

I don't recall any of this......but was mostly keying in on stuff I was a fan of.....in addition to Hopeless Savages there was talk of the Sixth Gun series & Marc Guggenheim's Resurrection, but I'm fans of these so I retained the info.....

I was not taking notes in any of these panels, I leave that to Newsarama & CBR & news outlets like that.

[BobBretall]

Trip Report continued.......

Friday

* This was "Sketchbook day" for me..... I picked up sketch books from:
Art Adams, Frank Cho, J. Scott Campbell, Michael Golden, Adam Hughes, Dan Brereton, Stan Sakai, Brandon Peterson

* Walking by Joey Calafiore's booth, I saw he had a pile of "Cheap Art! $5-$20/page!!" Looking thru that I got 4 pages (#1,3,4,5) from Catman's Origin in Secret Six #21 for $50 total for all 4 pages.

* Walked the floor a bit but didn't buy anything else, I'm guessing that this year I will not even come close to seeing all the booths on the show floor, I may be less than 50%.

* Attended the Aspen Comics panel. Some cool stuff coming out from them. I have been enjoying Dellec & Mindfield, and am looking forward to Benitez's "Lady Mekanika"

* Interviewed the folks at Creative Impulse Entertainment (Justice For Hire). I'll put up these interviews at some point, one thing I found to be very cool is that when they have a fight scene in the comic, they actually act it out and have someone photograph them doing the martial arts. Then the artist uses the photos kind of like storyboards.

* Also interviewed actress Paula Garces at CEI about her new book Aluna. I saw the 1st issue & it looks good. Action & mysticism with a strong female lead set in 15th century central america. Art looked decent, too. In addition to the print comics, they'll be doing a motion comic, you can see more here: http://www.latinoreview.com/news/sdcc-2 ... omic-10597
- Here's a pic of Paula I pulled from the internet if you cannot place who she is......she was NOT wearing this outfit at con....


* Interview with Keith Arem & Adam Lawson about their new series "Exile" coming from Radical. I also asked them "Why do this as a comic?" "What does the comic form bring to the story that you don't get from film?"

* Interview with Jimmy Palmiotti & Paul Gulacy about Time Bomb from Radical. Time Bomb #1 is out & it's fantastic! I've been a huge Paul Gulacy fan forever, so I'm just eating this thing up, time travel & killing Nazis, what more could you want? Since I've talked to Jimmy about the book before, I concentrated the interview on Paul & the art.

* Talked to Barry Levine about Radical. I specifically had him address the whole "are you guys just doing movie pitches" issue that everyone seems to bring up about Radical. I liked what he had to say about this topic. All the Radical interviews will go up in an episode in a week or so.
- Interesting note, Barry stopped in the middle of the interview to go to talk to a couple of women wearing V for Vendetta masks. It turns out they were Liv Tyler & Ellen Page who were having a great time being able to anonymously walk the floor at comic con waring masks (since so many people are in costume). Turns out Barry is a good friend of Liv's dad from his days as a Rock'n'Roll photographer.

* Went to the Wowio "Comics Cruise" as press. Someone needs to let the Wowio guys know that it's not a cruise if they never plan to pull the boat away from the dock. It's a "boat party". Anyway, got all the info I needed to know about Wowio in the 1st 30 minutes, had some cheese'n'crackers, and then split to find some real food.....

* Ended up having a great Kobe Beef burger at the Hyatt, then met up with Sean from the "only the Valiant" podcast, Ralph (Atomic99) Werner, Trevor Pearson, & Chris Murrin. We talked comics for hours and did some comics trade swapping. We also looked at some of the really sweeeet back issues Trev scored at the con (Sean was providing his expert opinion on what he thought they'd grade out at, lots of 8.5+ stuff there.)

[Frank Castle]

Man Bob, I envy you!! Have fun the last 2 days.

[BobBretall]

Trip Report continued.......

Saturday

* Picked up one more page of original art from Joey Calafiore. This one has Catman in costume, $20, a steal!

* Got the Ultimate Amory Wars HC from Boom! so I can catch up on the very hard to find 1st 2 series that came out from image. Got an autograph from Claudio Sanchez on it, I think I was the only one in line that was not a huge Coheed&Cambria band-fan.

* Attended the IDW panel, lots of announcements that were VERY cool
- Love & Capes will be coming to IDW for new issues. 1st IDW issue will be released Feb 14th 2011.
- Missy Suicide will be teaming with Steve Niles to bring a Suicide Girls comic out next year.
- George RR Martin will be bringing a new series out called "Doorways" & will be writing it himself.
- John Byrne will be doing a 3-issue Jurassic Park series (He wanted to draw some dinosaurs!)
- Byrne will also be bringing his "Next Men" series back with new issues in 2011.
- The talked about the Rocketeer "Artist Edition" which reproduces ALL of Dave Stevens original art for Rocketeer in a 12x18" HC so the art can be shown at original size, AND you can see blue lines, white out, where he penciled outside the borders etc. Less than 100 of these left, so I rushed down to the IDW booth & snagged one after the panel
BIGGEST NEWS
- New Rockeeter stories by an all-star cast including Mike Allred, Kurt Busiek, John Cassaday, Darwyn Cooke, Michael Golden, Gene Ha, Michael Kaluta

* Attended Top Cow panel -> New phenomenon of "panel camping". Since so many rooms were filling up and being "closed" so people could not attend, people who want to go to a Hollywood or video game panel will come one or 2 panels early & fill up the room of a comics panel just so they are already in the room for the panel they really want to see. In this case, 2 panels after Top Cow was a video game panel giving out a free copy of a "Red Faction" game for PS3 or XBox. I was in line by several kids who wanted the game and had no desire to hear about Top Cow. As a plus, I gave my 15 year old son a call & he came & camped the room also & scored a free Xbox game.
- Milo Ventimiglia was there, they'll be bringing "Rest" to Top Cow since Devil's Due was incapable of putting issues out.
- Various creators of the new Pilot season books came up & talked about their new series.

* Attended DC Animation panel -> They showed the Jonah Hex short that will be on the "Under the Red Hood" DVD that comes out next Tuesday. Thomas Jane was at the panel (he voices Jonah) and this guy is one crazy son-of-a-(bleep). His antics made the panel very fun.

* Oddball comics panel -> My favorite panel @ SDCC yet again. Some of the craziest comics covers you've ever seen enhanced by Scott! Shaw's very humorous running commentary. You can check these comics covers out here: http://www.oddballcomics.com/

* Went back down to the floor:
- Got a free Pilot Season Preview & Pilot Season trade from Top Cow (given out to everyone who attended the panel who came to the booth and asked for them) and had them autographed by Silvestri.
- Talked to Kieron Gillen about Phonogram (I loved it). He says it's unlikely they'll do any more, sales were just not good enough. He recommended checking out his CBGB comic from Boom! for more of his music-oriented comics.
- Talked to David Mack, who is a great guy. He tossed me a couple of copies of the Reflections series.

* Attended the Kickstarter panel (moderated by Chris Murrin & featuring the likes of Kody Chamberlain, Steve Bryant & Pat Loika). This panel was being camped by people interested in seeing Felicia Day & the "Legend of Neil" crew that was in the same room next.

* Ended up back at the hotel & had dinner at Fox Sports Grill with my 2 sons, Trev Pearson, & the guys from the "Only the Valiant" podcast.

[JohnMayo]

Panel camping has been going on for a few years but is really bad this year because of the long lines. I tried to go to the Castle panel this morning but they capped the line 90 minutes before the panel started.

[neenjah]

Did either of you run into Dave and Micah on Saturday? Dave was signing at the DC booth that afternoon. Said he had a great time but it was a crazy day and night. Called me for a second on Sunday on their way home, but had to call it short to help Micah navigate. Said he should have some good news to announce soon.

[BobBretall]

Did either of you run into Dave and Micah on Saturday? Dave was signing at the DC booth that afternoon. Said he had a great time but it was a crazy day and night. Called me for a second on Sunday on their way home, but had to call it short to help Micah navigate. Said he should have some good news to announce soon.

Dave gave me a call but we were not able to synch up.

DC booth was very crazy during con, I spent most of my time with the smaller publishers.