Comic-Con 2007: Day Two

You know what the problem is with putting off writing one of these things until over a month after the event? The memory does tend to fade. Especially at my age... Which, I should point out, is younger than Russ. It's not pertinent to the point, but it just makes me feel better.

So, I'll try to recall Friday as best I can, but there may be some discrepancies. We got ourselves downtown again (I remember that much...), and I believe we all split up a bit. This being Friday, the bigger celeb stuff was starting, but really, with the big crowds, I was less and less interested in hitting Hall H. It's a funny experience...you look through your schedule, you circle all these things that you just HAVE to see and can't POSSIBLY miss...and then you get there and realize you just feel like roaming around and doing some shopping or something. Maybe that's just with people who've been to this thing enough years to have kind of seen it all, like myself. I clearly remember my first year, the 1990 Con. So young, so naive, so star-struck nerdy. The "celebrities" back then didn't include, like, movie stars. These were celebs only comic nerds knew. Guys like X-Men writer Chris Claremont, the biggest comic super-star of his day. And X-Men/Fantastic Four/Alpha Flight/You Name It artist John Byrne. And a host of smaller names. But they were big to me. That was my first! I'd never been to anything like Comic-Con (and compared to what Comic-Con has become, that one might as well have been the Flint, Michigan Comic-Con and Knife Show. But I, and my other traveling pals who were experiencing it for the first time, didn't want to miss a moment. We went to every panel, every workshop, even went to the Saturday night annual Masquerade (the costume contest that I haven't been to in many years). Quick very embarrassing story? I was part of a Champions APA back then (you're thinking that's enough of an embarrassing story right there, aren't you?), and I wanted to make a videotape for all those who were members of the APA who couldn't make it. And I, and my friend Joel (I'm taking him down with me) went around and thought it'd be a SWELL idea to stick our video camera in the faces of comic celebs and ask them to say "Hi" to the members of the Clobberin' Times. Dear...God. I was young, okay? That tape still exists, as do such "Hi to the Clobberin' Times" moments from Erik "Savage Dragon" Larson, Phil Foglio, Evan Dorkin, Joshua Quagmire, Mike Leeke, and even Chris Claremont himself...a very obviously annoyed Chris Claremont, who paused long enough to just say "This is Chris Claremont, saying Hi" and give us that look that said asking such a thing of him was not a good idea. Yeah? Well...I'm glad Jim Lee forced you out, then...ya...jerk. While we deserved no graciousness from any of them, thumbs up to those who were gracious anyway (for those of you Dorkin fans out there? Don't be disappointed....Dorkin was not gracious either. I know, you were worried there for a minute).

But now, there are the actual must-see panels, there are the hey-I'd-maybe-like-to-see panels, and there are the I'll-see-it-if-I'm-not-hungry-and-others-are-going panels. Good news is that there's something of some type going on in the panel rooms all day, so you can pick something (if it's not so popular that you should have gotten in line three hours beforehand) that sounds good at the moment and drop in and follow your fancy. I had considered doing the Hall H thing for the Warner Bros. presentation, but decided on something else (that I can't recall right now...I think this may have just been my solo wander time, something that's a must to pencil in for yourself during the four days somewhere. Yes, you go there to hang with your buddies, but you and your buddies all have different interests, too, and someone may want to be digging through back-issue stacks looking for old comics while someone else may be wanting to get an autographed paperback from that favorite author at one of the book publisher tables. You need at least a couple of hours to fly solo in there somewhere). But Russ made it in. Quite an impressive panel, too, with the likes of Joel Silver, Edward Burns, Kate Beckinsale (meow) and suddenly-all-the-rage director Zack "300" Snyder there. Russ was only there for the Snyder, because at this part in the panel he was there to talk about his in-progress project, the 20-years-overdue Watchmen film. For those not in the know, Watchmen is one of the most influential graphic novels in comic history. The Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons masterpiece was, I believe, the first graphic novel to be reviewed in Rolling Stone Magazine. It, along with Frank Miller's The Dark Knight returns, caused a major shift in the industry, and nothing's been the same since. And the task of making it into a movie has been talked about (and then fallen apart) many, many times in the two decades since. Though there are fans, like myself most times I consider it, who think it probably SHOULDN'T be made into a movie. How can you fit a 12-part opus like Watchmen into a two-hour film? I've been afraid of seeing it destroyed. However....now Zack's directing. I've been a fan of his since his remake of Dawn of the Dead came out (fast zombies rock!), and then became an even bigger fan when I sat through the 300 panel at the Con...and then letter sat stunned in the theater with everyone else when the film came out. Zack proved what he can do adapting graphic stories to film by translating Miller's tale into something so amazing. If he's on Watchmen, I'll give it a shot. And from everything Russ told me from the panel, I don't think we're going to be disappointed.

Other things I missed on Friday: Might have liked to have seen Clive Owen talking about the new film Shoot 'Em Up, which looks like a lot of fun, or have seen director Frank Darabont (hey, I'm directing another Stephen King film!) and star Thomas Jane giving us a sneak-preview of the upcoming film The Mist. Would also, if I had more of my SG:1 peeps there with me, liked to have seen the "SG:1, The Movie" panel, with some of the stars there pushing the upcoming straight-to-DVD movie spun off the series. And would like to have seen Scott McCloud (and family), my biggest inspiration in comics creation, the guy who I try to see every year to get that big boost of creative whammy from. But other stuff got in the way of those. But hey...I've seen panels with the SG folks before, and I've seen Scott a number of times. And I'm sure both those groups will be back again.

After my roaming and Russ's Zacking, Russ and I took off for lunch in the Gaslamp. We tried to get our buddy Andy to hook up with us (mentioned before? Husband of Jo?), but he was wrapped up, and I think this is when A.T. was doing his animation voicing contest thing. Can't remember what Tony was doing. So Russ and I hit Trophies for food and beverages. At this point, our only panel plans for the rest of the day were to see J. Michael Straczynski's panel on Babylon 5: The Lost Tales...the upcoming (as in coming out a couple days after the Con) straight-to-DVD B5 film. Russ and Aaron were the guys who were big B5 fans back in the day, and I came into the game late. I had just moved to San Diego with Aaron, and medical thing knocked me out of work and kept me on the couch, mostly, for a couple of months, when TNT picked up B5 and was just started to show the reruns from the beginning. So Aaron would come home from work and we'd kick it and watch a B5 every day. So I got to check it out from the very start, and watch it all the way through, and it was, in fact, a hell of a ride. We even had a get-together over at Russ's place when the final B5 episode aired. Between myself, Russ and Aaron, I won't say which one of us got teary-eyed at the end...but I can tell you it wasn't me or Russ. Just sayin'... It was a great show for four seasons, pretty weak for its fifth season (long story, but it wasn't actually supposed to HAVE a fifth season, so that was understandable), and ended with a great finale. It then followed with a couple of...um...questionable attempts at spinoff series (depends on who you ask. If you ask me, they were HORRIBLE!!!), and I kind of figured that was the end of it. But our man J.M.S. was apparently trying again, and testing the straight-to-DVD waters with something new for us. So, being the fans we were, we couldn't very well miss out on that. Even if it meant me missing Scott McCloud.

But first it was back to the Con to kill time before the late B5 panel, so we headed to our usual "sweet spot" for cigar smoking. Have I mentioned this spot yet? I think I did but didn't go into detail of why it's so "sweet". Aside from Hall H (downstairs), all the other big stuff happens upstairs...the bigger celeb stuff, as they have bigger panel rooms up there (including Room 20, which is the next best thing to Hall H). There's a spot there where security walks the celebs around to get them to their panel rooms. So, knowing the spot, we kick it there, enjoy the sun, and watch famous (and semi-famous) people go by us. And sometimes even say hi. Maybe it's the cigar-smoking that makes it feel more casual, but there's none of that "Ooh, look, it's so-and-so!" fanboy vibe happening. We're just chillin'. A celeb will walk by. For example, a couple or three years back, we were smoking, and security was walking the cast of "Invasion" by, which included Brent Spiner (you know, Mr. Data? If you're reading a blog called The Geek Side, you had BETTER know that). So Russ looks over and says, through the cigar in his teeth, "Hey, it's Spiner". Just casual. Spiner hears this, looks over as he walks by, smiles and says "How are you?". To which all us smokers just nodded and said "Doing good" or some such. Like, you know, we were just celebrities like him. Yeah, it's got to be the cigars...

Tony and A.T. joined us out there, along with Tony's pal...damnit, I forgot Tony's pal's name. Or was that the following day? Garrrr! Memory loss be evil! This is why I need to take more photos like I used to. That used to help me remember the details and help me set a timeline. I'm lucky if I remember to pull out the camera these days. Ah, well. But we kicked it and smoked. A couple celeb sightings. I mentioned that Stargate SG:1 thing. I got to see Amanda Tapping (mmmm) from that show on the way to that panel. That's always nice. She's purty. But eventually we did make our way to the B5 panel, which was a lot of fun. B5 stars Bruce Boxleitner, Tracy Scoggins and Peter Woodward were up there with them, and we got to see a preview of the "film". It's actually more like two episodes of a series. "The Lost Tales" will hopefully be a series of "films" (depending on the sales on this one), and stories will focus on individual B5 characters. In this first one, there are tales with Sheridan and Lochley). The only thing that made me doubt that we're going to get a series is when (I think it was) the moderator started things out by asking the audience "So, how many of you have already pre-ordered yours on Amazon?". It was one of those questions asked with an expectation of a certain response. Hey, it was a room filled with B5 fans, right? You'd expect thunderous applause all around. Uh...not so much. I was pretty shocked at the lack of applause there. Hey, maybe it was the marketing. I'll be honest...I knew nothing about this until the Con (actually, Russ had emailed us about it a couple of months before, but I had somehow completely blocked that out....). I got online right when I got home and ordered mine. And watched it. It was...okay. I liked it. The Sheridan one was better. The only dismaying thing is that they're having to do this on a SERIOUS shoestring budget. It's the only way they could get it done. And it shows. They don't have the old sets anymore. I think they just have one greenscreen room, from the look of things. And apparently they couldn't afford extras, either, because it looked like this 5-mile long space station had about four people living on it. But you work with what you got, and that's what J. Mikey did, and did a pretty good job with what he had, I think. We'll see what happens with it.

At this point (If I'm not getting my nights confused) we headed back to La Jolla to grab some dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery, where we did get to hook up with Andy this time. Fun and feast and liquid nirvana was had. Mmm. Rock Bottom. Titan Toothpicks GOOD. I do like to hit that place whenever I'm back in the old Diego. We had a good time, but not TOO good of a time, because the BIGGEST day of the Con was coming. Saturday. Not only the biggest panels with the biggest names, but the most populated day at the convention center. NIGHTmare crowds! Adventure awaited after a few hours of sleep...