Jul 29, 2014 San Diego Comic-Con 2014 Recap
By now you’ve read about the celebrity hijinks, the sequel and reboot announcements, and the crazy fans who camped in line for hours to enter Hall H. You’ve seen photos of scandalous or sad cosplay as well as the horrendous traffic all over the city. And it’s true that the annual gathering of pop culture and subculture addicts was packed with corporate filler and it was more difficult to get tickets than ever. It’s really easy to be distracted by the Hollywood buzz and make fun of poseurs and over-the-top fans, but did anyone note that making the pilgrimage is a lot of fun?
Along with our pal Mike from second and third grade, my brother Greg and I have been attending since 1979 when we were comics-obsessed little kids. So we were stoked to be able to purchase single-day badges for Thursday and Sunday after Friday and Saturday sold out. Of course, when we arrived the first thing we did was look at the program guide and see if there were any interesting panels. You probably didn’t read about any of the ones we attended in Entertainment Weekly…
Below, clockwise from top left: Editor Mark Evanier, artists Sergio Aragones and Tom Yeates, and letterer Stan Sakai talked about the much-anticipated Groo vs. Conan; indie animator/midnight movie legend Bill Plympton shared some recent work and previewed his badass noir project with Jim Luhan, Revengance; cartoon voice actors (from The Incredible Hulk and Star Wars to Goofy) showed off their wit as well as their talent in an unrehearsed and off-the-railsl reading of Snow White; sci-fi experts partook in a heated discussion over which spacecraft would emerge victorious in a Sweet Sixteen style bracket featuring vessels from the Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and even Cosmos franchises; Sesame Street Muppets and puppeteers gave a sneak preview of their takes on Comic-Con and Star Wars and then fielded questions about a world without support or educational TV or cookies.
Hopefully, that last one received some mainstream coverage. In the middle of the Sunday morning panel, moderator Chris Hardwick from the Nerdist podcast admitted the experience of interviewing Cookie Monster, Grover, and Murray Monster blew away his Walking Dead, Marvel, and DC talks.
But what makes Comic-Con special for me is the people that attend and the friends that I run into. Below, top row: Bros Martin Ontiveros, Kiyoshi Nakazawa, and Gargamel bring punk- and metal-infused indie art and custom toys to the Con; reunited with my pal Michelle Kim from Mimoco flash drives but also from the GR office back in the day; fine artist Saelee Oh holding it down at the Hello Kitty booth outside the convention center.
Below, middle row: Martial Arts Hall of Famer and movie connoisseur and columnist Ric Meyers; Super7 founder, Hybrid Design worker, fine artist, and Imprint contributor Brian Flynn; my esteemed friend and colleague for 15 years, Giant Robot main man Eric Nakamura; old friend and Marvel writer Sam Humphries with his pal and DC’s Batman group editor Mark Doyle.
Below, bottom row: Old friend Bob Burden of Flaming Carrot and Mystery Men fame; interTrend’s own Henry Liao, who gives a shout-out to deviantART for sponsoring and saving Artists’ Alley; member of Pinback, Thingy, Optigonically Yourse, Goblin Cock, and San Diego indie rock mainstay Rob Crow with Hyphen, who plays keyboards for Rob Crow’s Gloomy Place.
Where else can I see all these folks from different walks of life scattered all over the world. I love how our overlapping fandom of all kinds (underground comics, indie art, weird or cute anime, Hong Kong movies, sci-fi…) brings us all together. And this year I was even able to bring my wife and daughter on Sunday–the former’s first time in years and the latter’s first time ever.
Of course, I bought some comics (Ernie Bushmiller, Bob Burden, a signed copy of The Fifth Beatle from the CBLDF table, the new Drunken Master). All day on Thursday, I saw the legendary comic artist Jim Steranko hanging out at the Vanguard Productions table but was too cheap to buy a sketch or get an autograph for 10 bucks. After obsessing over the next two days, I returned on Sunday with a comic for the influential and enigmatic comic book creator to sign but he had already split. Crud! Will he return next year? Will I even be able to purchase a badge?
For a few days every summer, us so-called collectors, enthusiasts, and experts are revealed to be the fanboys and fangirls that we are. And we are also reminded to be inspired, excited, and ever youthful in our interests and appreciation of popular culture, subcultures, and the friendships in between. Hope to see you there in 2015, with or without Steranko. We’ll have a blast.
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