I’m going to put this report behind a read more cut…
Official Blog of author R. K. Bentley
Tag: comics
Free Comic Book Day is almost upon us.
To a find a shop near you can check the store locator.
I’ll be over at Rah-CoCo’s Collectables in Providence, R.I. selling issues of the comic book Totems that I wrote with the late great Paul F. Chabot.
Signed copies of issues #1, #2 + #3 will be on hand.
On May 4th, I’ll be at South Attleboro Collectables Show selling my collection of comic books.
The lead up to Comic Con begins with the mad rush for tickets. This sounds really easy but it’s become more like getting Red Sox tickets. The hotel reservations is ten times worse and looking at places on VRBO is easier. Then reselling unused tickets which ends with the scheduling being dolled out two weeks before the con.
Over the years the convention website has gotten considerably more detailed and easier to use. They even started allowing pre-ordering of t-shirts so no more lines like the ones I complained about in 2011. The introduction of My Schedule through sched.com is one of the better additions to the con. No more dogeared newspaper pages looking for panels! It’s all at your finger tips on your tablet or smart phone!
Unfortunately, that’s if the SDCC Comic-Con and the SDCC Comic-Con Sched App were updated. In this day and age you live and die by the app. Neither of which have been updated in a dog’s age. Something I hope was just overlooked but with a week to go it’s looking like we won’t be seeing a proper working SDCC App with sched.com integration until 2014.
And then there’s the giant elephant in the room that Emerald City Comic Con is streaming their panels through FlipOn
Stream it and they will pay.
So let’s take a look at things going on after the cut.
“Yeah well, my baggage doesn’t try and kill me every five minutes.”
Based upon the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley Scott Pilgrim chronicles the Toronto existence of Scott Pilgrim, a 20 something guitar playing slacker that hooks up with a seventeen year old high school student named Knives Chau. Everything is going well until he meets Ramona Flowers and in time he dumps Knives and begins to date Ramona only to find out he must defeat her seven Evil Exes. Steeped in video game, music and action/comedy this saga stretched out across six trade paperbacks and judging from the advertising blitz behind it’s presence at SDCC this year it was the Belle of the Ball.
This week has seen a great deal of moving and shaking in the comic world.
Ed Norton is no longer mild mannered Bruce Banner, Mark Ruffalo is being heavily courted if you believe the funny pages.
Asgard’s finest and in Loki’s case, worst were put on display for the first time.
And, The Green Lantern made the cover of EW just in time for SDCC.
In the case of Asgard, seeing Hannibal the Cannibal missing an eye and zipped up like a can of sardines leads me to ask the question: Sir Anthony I hope you asked for a lot of money to be trussed up like that. The design could be a lot worst I suppose. Having not been a reader of any of the Thor books except the Ultimates when Hitch was drawing it I’m not the best to say whether it’s good or bad but it sure beats the hell out of nothing, I guess. The movie doesn’t seem Punisher bad, yet.
As for Mr Reynolds in the CGI suit, I think DC has the right idea in mind. The suit comes from the ring. The ring is alien. So the suit isn’t made in Wayne Industries or Stark Enterprises. It’s different. And, that’s what I think will make this movie different than the rest. Motion Capture worked in Avatar and if done correctly I think it’ll serve Green Lantern well.
The announcement two weeks back of Wonder Woman being rebooted and redesign was met with some criticism. Personally, it doesn’t look half as bad as many have complained about. Does it take away from the fact she’s a women or the fact the stars and stripes are now less prominent than they were? Nope. In fact, it should quiet complaints about the T&A factor since she’s out of the unitard. Too bad about the boots aren’t a tad more biker. It could have been worse, have you seen what She Hulk is wearing lately, bleh. And, don’t even get me started when Ghost Rider went from the leather to the neon red.
Yep, she’s got pants and a jacket from the ’90’s. And her origin has been rebooted, again.
I think I’ve stayed away from mainstream comics because of the event books and the reboots. Starman stands out in my mind, I hopped on James Robinson’s title just in time for issue 1 and followed it until Starman went into space aka the Magical Mystery Tour until I gradually lost interest. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend tracking down the trades, Robinson and artist Tony Harris was great stuff.
Wonder Woman doesn’t lose anything if she changes outfits for a year or less. Remember, changes in the comic world never ever last long. Sure, Captain America was assiminated (yes, I know speeled that wong). Supes went back to being Supes after his death and the Bruce Bayne is being brought back from the past sooner or later. Even, Parker and MJ may be getting back together after their marriage was dalarted by Mephisto.
Out of the Trio (Bats, Supes and WW), Diana’s origin and history may be at the heart of her character but for the life of me I can’t name any of her rouges gallery, her friends or her island. Now, that’s nothing against the character, the writers or greek mythology majors. We can even ignore any of the fetishes the original creator had in mind. To put it bluntly, Diana has no Joker and if I can’t pronounce her Island then a ten year old can’t either. If this change makes her more in the vein of Promethea and less forgettable, than I think it’s a good thing.
I thought it would be good to post some links regarding people’s advice about handling SDCC.
SDCC was in previous years was somewhat manageable.
Nowadays it’s gotten ten times worse with tickets selling out, the reservation system was a trip through at least one to two levels of Hell and for some reason a group of Doctors decided to hold their convention at the same time. And, let’s not forget the constant: “We should move the Con outta San Diego!” Vulture.
My only pieces of advice may sound vaguely familiar because, well, all the SDCC Survivors have been doing this for long enough everyone has this down to a science.