SDCC08 Postscripts
SDCC08 Postscripts
Jul 28My last SDCC 2008 post. Promise.
* In the Marvel vs. DC news battle, I’m not sure there was a clear winner; DC’s Sunday announcement of Gaiman doing Batman was pretty explosive, but other than that, DC seemed to be offering lots of old shit warmed over–“We got the Archie characters! And Milestone! And Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver doing another Rebirth mini for another fetishized Silver Age hero!”
Marvel’s news was at least NEW, but none of it shattered my earth, at least–a sorta-side event to Secret Invasion, a few new exclusive artists, Andy Diggle on Thunderbolts…I can’t even remember what else.
In the battle for ownership of geek minds, however, DC clearly emerged victor. As fabulous as the Wolverine footage may have been on Thursday, Friday’s Watchmen panel was without a doubt the convention’s great gigantic orgasmic buzz event, or at least it seemed that way from a distance.
* I’ve given Hero Complex, the new LA Times “geek blog,” a college try, but it’s not for me. This post pretty well sums it up–shameless star-fucking disguised as golly-gee-whiz fandom, and the “OMG Comic-Con’s not about comics anymore” rant delivered three or four years too late.
I know comics reporters get a lot of shit from others for their verbatim recitation of regurgitated hype bullet points–me, I slurp up second-hand PR gasbaggery like it was candy–but that site has them all beat. If you have a few hours to kill and want to spend it reading thousands of words about less than nothing, read some of those celebrity interviews. Absolute wasted access to famous and occasionally interesting people. It made me dumb.
* Over at io9, Graeme McMillan scrapes a bit at the unusual step by Paramount to show no footage from the Star Trek reboot at Comic-Con. He’s right; it’s silly to blame Fox for Paramount’s strategy, but it was a bone-head move regardless, right? Maybe they feared (and rightly so) that Watchmen’s buzz would sweep Trek’s buzz tidily under the carpet?
* This piece in the San Diego Union-Tribune features several high-profile comics retailers complaining about Comic-Con’s loss of comics focus, and by extension, what a hassle it’s become to sell actual comic books there. Here’s a fascinating quote from Mile High Comics’ Chuck Rozanski:
“There’s actually a movement afoot to pull all the comic-book dealers out of Comic-Con and move to a separate venue,†he said.
That would be a fascinating development. I’m not sure what it would mean, or how it would even work–is there any alternate space in San Diego large enough to host a couple hundred comics dealers the same weekend as Comic-Con?–but it would certainly put some pressure on Comic-Con organizers to take a more “poop or get off the pot” approach to the whole “Where will Comic-Con be after 2012?” question.
