SDCC08: News I Can Use – The Rest
Jul 28It hit me sometime Saturday afternoon, or rather, maybe I hit it: The Con Wall.
It’s a sudden, overwhelming feeling of disinterest mingled with mild disgust. It’s like you’re at an all-you-can-eat buffet, featuring only foods you love, and you go up for plate number five, and you feel overwhelming nausea, and not only can’t eat another bite, but can’t bear to even look at the food itself, or think about the idea of the food existing. You’re done.
I was done. This happens to me at actual conventions as well, but I was surprised it would happen while I was breathlessly following events at a convention across the country from the comfort of my couch. Usually at the actual conventions, it’s combined with a sudden sensation of self-loathing and paranoia. Thanks, clinical depression!
So after Saturday, I stayed relatively far away. Instead I did stuff I could never do while clicking “reload” over and over on Newsarama; I visited IKEA, I played with my kid, I caught up on Mad Men with my wife.
Now I’m catching up only for the sake of finishing what I started. I scroll Google Reader, skim bullshit, and try to find interest. It’s going to be fucking endless. Come with me; let’s stare into the abyss, and let the abyss vomit in our faces.
SDCC08: News I Can Use, Day 1 (Cont) & Day 2
Jul 25Just before the show, I added a few new blogs to the RSS reader, including the new geek-centric blogs from the LA Times and Hollywood Reporter. And I have to confess–I think they’re not doing such a good job.
I guess their beat really isn’t true geek coverage; it’s coverage of the limited mainstream-ish crap that they think non-geeks or casual geeks may like. And sure, the bloggers themselves may be geeks in good standing; I don’t know.
But I’ve read enough banal interviews with vapid celebrities who think Comic-Con is “so cool, man” to last me ten lifetimes.
Anyway. Here’s stuff I think is cool that happened at Comic-Con while I was stuck on the wrong coast.
* I don’t watch the videos that often, but I like that Comic Book Resources has a boat. It’s a kick-ass idea.
* Here’s a video I did watch: the trailer for the new Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon series. LOVE the music and the vibe–fast, light, big and fun. There was a panel, too.
* Agent_M is using this amazing new app, CoverItLive, to liveblog their panels. You get real-time news updates AND images. It’s like being there minus the stink.
* So much crap happens at SDCC and the bloggers are so busy transcribing Geoff Johns (JK! LOL! BFF!) that news continues to leak out from Thursday even as it’s Friday afternoon. For example, this exceptional Publishers Weekly report has plenty of juicy nuggets, including a bit more on Vertigo Crime, the new Vertigo imprint announced Thursday that at first made me shrug, but now has me intrigued thanks to these details:
And, speaking from the Con floor about Vertigo Crime, DC’s Karern Berger provided PW with a few more details about the new line. Editor Will Dennis, who worked on 100 Bullets, will be overseeing the line which will focus solely on standalone graphic novels. The titles will all be 6×9 and black and white. Berger, who said the idea behin Vertigo Crime was to allow the imprint to do more standalones in the genre, described the books as “really smart, edgy, sexy, fast-paced crime stories that have a modern noir sensibility.” DC will be revealing more details about future titles, beyond Ian Rankin’s announced Dark Entries and Brian Azzerrello’s Still Too Rich, at the thriller festival Bouchercon.
I may be oversimplifying here, but isn’t this just Minx with guns? Love it.
* The DCU MMO may get me to fall off the wagon and play all night again, like my brief love affair with WoW.
* More Thursday news: TR2N! The Tron sequel! With fucking JEFF BRIDGES!!! I’m not even a Tron fan, but shit: JEFF BRIDGES. Everything he does, in any capacity, from taking a piss to making a movie, deserves front-page news coverage. This is no exception.
* It’s been years since I read a Star Trek novel, but every once in a while, I get the itch. I usually scratch it by sticking the handle of a plastic fork into my ear until it bleeds. I’m still curious enough to maybe check out the Destiny series coming this fall, especially if it seems like a relatively easy jumping-on point. Then again, I don’t know if Trek has had a “relatively easy jumping-on point” since 1966.
When non-genre press try and cover "that comic convention thing"
Jul 25Dear Huffington Post,
You’re new to this whole comic thing, so we’ll give you a tip. It’s not news when Stan Lee cameos in a Marvel movie. It’s news when he DOESN’T cameo.
hugs and kisses,
c
SDCC08: News I Can Use, Days 0 & 1
Jul 25Like many a male, I get angst in my pants…and like many a comics fan, I have my RSS reader and Twitter follows loaded to hell with just about every source I can think of to get all the latest news out of San Diego Comic-Con.
Here’s the stuff I found interesting and exciting so far.
* Entertainment Weekly set up an amazing panel featuring Jim Lee, John Cassaday, Matt Fraction, Mike Mignola, Robert Kirkman, Colleen Doran and Grant Morrison. What a line up. My favorite quote of many fantastic quotes, from Matt Fraction:
As long as there’s print, there’ll be comics. We’re a cheap, easy, nasty, swarthy medium.
AMEN.
* A few awesome items dropped on Wednesday night, including Darwyn Cooke adaptations of Parker crime novels from IDW. Talk about a perfect marriage of creator and story.
* Wolverine crashed Fox’s movie panel with footage from next summer’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Shitty title, but the movie sounds cool. And I can’t help myself–I enjoy seeing Hollywood megastars pander to nerds. Is that wrong? Ten years ago, the best pandering we could hope for was a pitying smile from the alternateen behind the counter at the comic book shop, and now celebrities are gladhanding Len Wein. I’m down with that.
* The Disney/BOOM! deal. Mark Waid writes The Incredibles! Mark Waid also writes the Muppets! Have I died and gone to comic book heaven?!
* More Wednesday news: Ed Brubaker will write a web series for Sony, Angel of Death, starring Zoe Bell.
The concept (“a remorseless assassin…becomes so haunted by her victims that she decides to kill the people who ordered the hits, one by one”) sounds a little faux-Tarantino, but I love that Brubaker is getting the chance to play in such a new distribution format. Hopefully it will mean a very pure Brubaker script, as opposed to something that’s been processed a few times through the Hollywood shit machine.
* Agents of Atlas ongoing, by Jeff Parker. YES. I want a whole story arc devoted to Ken Hale exploring the spaceman toilet on Bob’s flying saucer.
* As he did last year, your pal Bully has probably the best daily con roundups you’ll find, especially if you’re just looking for what’s fun and strange at the con.
London After Midnight…found?!
Jul 24When the discovery of the missing Metropolis footage was announced a few weeks ago, my mind turned to one subject only: London After Midnight.
Like many a geek, at some point I saw an image of Lon Chaney Sr. in that freakish, chilling makeup and was instantly mesmerized. The fact that the film itself was lost, and only such images remained, only increased the mystique. I was never a huge horror movie buff, but I like movies period a whole hell of a lot, and the scope of that blank spot in film history has always loomed large in my mind.
Now, apparently, allegedly, it has been found. Click the link; read the story; see if you believe it. I’m equal parts shocked and skeptical.
On one hand, it is odd that the man who allegedly found the print twenty years ago in a vast warehouse never bothered to act on his knowledge in a public way till this point. That shows a remarkable and stupid level of confidence in large entertainment corporations to do the right thing on behalf of film history and film buffs.
On the other hand, there are a lot of remarkable and stupid people in Hollywood, and this guy may just be one of them.
He’s got a truckload of contact info at the end of his story; I’m going to send a few e-mails right now, try to do my part. Do the same, if you’re so inclined. If this is some massive hoax to clog the inboxes of UCLA film historians and entertainment executives, I’m willing to take that risk.
