SDCC08: News I Can Use – The Rest
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.
* So, Neil Gaiman on Batman, eh?
I will allow myself to be excited, not just by the prospect of the story itself, but the idea of a Superman-esque Batman reboot, with new number ones and a wholly fresh approach. I’m assuming at this point Morrison will stick around post-Gaiman, which means we might see a Morrison-masterminded Batman reboot, which would be twelve varieties of awesome.
* I’m glad someone managed to put together a decent Dick in a Box costume.
* I am really excited about Chip Kidd’s Bat-Manga! book.
* Upcoming creative teams on the Buffy season eight comic are a mixed bag for me at best; Jane Espenson is a YAY, Brad Meltzer is a BOO (that fucker needs an Eisner like I need a second asshole), and Jeph Loeb is a HMMM. This cover for Loeb’s issue does give me great hope, however. The Buffy animated is one of the all-time great unfortunately lost projects, and even a tiny glimpse would be sweet. It’d also be nice if someone bootlegged the demo reel I think they put together to try and sell the show. GET ON THAT.
* From the Vertigo panel, I’m most excited about the new Moon/Ba series, Day Tripper, and Azzarrello’s Filthy Rich, which sounds a bit like Vertigo’s version of Mad Men.
* Wow, the new Black Panther animated series really DOES look like moving John Romita Jr. artwork.
* A fascinating bit from a teaser video shown at the Comic-Con Lost panel:
Candle’s real name turns out to be Pierre Chang, and he’s an astrophysicist from Ann Arbor. He’s been brought to this godforsaken island to study Einstein thingies, and now he knows that he and his colleagues are going to be killed in a purge. He’s sending his video forward in time 30 years, to a time when George W. Bush is president and there’s something called the internet. And he’s imploring people to reconstitute the Dharma Initiative, travel back in time and change history to save him and his colleagues. He says, “TIme is not only of the essence, it IS the essence.” Whoah! And then the Dharma Initiative guy got up on stage and said the Initiative was withdrawing sponsorship, and the panel had to end.
“Time IS the essence.” NICE.
* I really want one of these:
