ON THE ROAD :: SHAWN’S PHOTO REPORT FROM SDCC
Shelley and I had a blast! I took a million pictures but condensed it down to the best and posted them on our Flickr page. There was so much to do and see and experience. I have never been to anything like that in my life. Shelley and I talked to a ton of people about the convention and gave Shelton a lot of leads to follow up on. So hopefully before too long we will be able to get the initial guest list up. There will be plenty of familiar faces but maybe there will also be some new ones. And we have some exciting events planned for fall.
San Diego is a beautiful town with beautiful weather! I sure was missing it when I stepped off the plane and immediately began melting. We got to see a little bit of the city and went to several restaurants in the area. I didn’t have a bad meal the whole week! I was really surprised by how friendly everyone was. You bump into a million people as you try to maneuver the convention floor but no one is angry or mean-spirited. I had a lot of people smile and apologize. And all the artists, writers and publishers I talked to were incredible friendly. Ted McKeever, Paul Dini, Bill Willingham, Scott Snyder were so nice! It is such a good feeling when creators you really like are friendly. And it was so good to get to talk to Cully Hamner and Steve Niles. I love those guys! Almost everywhere I went I ran into someone I knew. It is a strange feeling being in a town you have never been to and yet feeling like you know everyone there.
I was able to make it to several panels which is always fun. My favorite was the Big Bang Theory panel. It was moderated by Wil Wheaton and the Barenaked Ladies came out and sang the the theme song. But I also had fun at the Fables panel (which I only caught the end of the Q & A), the Hellboy/BPRD panel and the Scott Pilgrim vol 6 panel. Mike Mignola has some interesting storylines planned for Hellboy! And a word of advice, if you don’t want things spoiled for you don’t go into a panel about a book you haven’t had the chance to read yet.
I spent most of my time walking the floor. I did a little bit of shopping here and there. How could I pass up a Sgt Slaughter SDCC exclusive GI Joe action figure or an original He-Man animation cell (I found an awesome one with Skeletor and Orko)? There were so many booths to look at that even though I walked to floor for 4 and a half days I still don’t feel like I saw everything. A number of the booths were jaw-droppingly amazing. Especially DC‘s, Marvel‘s, Lucasfilm‘s, Hasbro‘s, Mattel‘s, Lego‘s, Walking Dead‘s (both Image‘s and AMC‘s), Dark Horse and Archaia‘s. And those are just the ones I can think of right off the top of my head! The video game companies all had demos of their games. You could play Rock Band or Just Dance among others. I liked all the diversity and even though it is call Comic-Con I am ok with it having evolved into something else. There are plenty of other conventions that cater to the comic crowd. And who knows maybe someone came to meet the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and stayed to check out some comics. The only thing that really surprised me was the lack of new comics. I really didn’t see any of the past couple weeks new releases (or just about any books from the past decade). Some publishers like IDW and Dark Horse had new comics but DC and Marvel didn’t (except for the occasional freebie).
And the costumes were amazing. I tried to get pictures of some of the best ones but it is hard. I didn’t always have my camera readily available and it can be hard to get a good picture when you’ve got thousands of people in your immediate vicinity. But I did get a couple of good pictures of people in costumes. Just keep in mind the pictures I took aren’t even a drop in the bucket compared to everyone wearing a costume. It was crazy!
I highly recommend going to San Diego Comic-Con (or Comic-Con International as it is now being referred to) at least once in your life. As long as you are patient and friendly you will have a blast! For more pictures and stories visit my Flickr set! And stay tuned for Shelley’s pictures!
Speaking of pictures, if any of you have any Heroes related photos we would love to see them and possibly post them on our Flickr page. I am particularly looking for photos from FCBD 2010 and the Adam Hughes signing. So if you have any send them my way (either by email or drop them off by the store and I will pick them up next time I am in). And if I do post them I will be sure and attribute the photos to the proper photographer.
Glad you all had fun. Thanks for the pics.
I don’t know if you have ever been to DragonCon, but the costumes there are equally amazing. I’ve seen Shelton there most years. It’s also smaller, but feels just as busy. And closer! Nothing like September in the south while wearing a Batman costume!
Honestly I don’t even know why it’s still even called Comic-Con. Comics are not even the focus at these anymore, and as a comic book collector I avoid the west coast Cons as well as Dragon Con and Mega Con on the east coast. Last time I went to comic-con it was all about video games, hollywood movies and tv shows, actors, anime, and everything else that really is a different genre from comics. Thank God we still have Heroes Con here which hasn’t been invaded by this mess.