CON: It Ain't Rocket Science (Mike G's San Diego report, part 1)
Michael R. Grabois
IT AIN'T ROCKET SCIENCE
Comic Con International: San Diego con report part 1
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Monday July 1
My con week began on Monday when I met Greg "Elmo" Morrow at the
airport. We're both from Houston, so it was convenient to share a
flight and a hotel room. Upon arrival in San Diego, we checked into
the US Grant (a really nice hotel, BTW) and headed out to Horton Plaza
(aka the Escher Mall, aka the Fast Food of All Nations) and Planet
Hollywood to look things over. These were directly across the street
from the hotel, which was mighty convenient. We walked down to the Old
Spaghetti Factory, where we thought we were going to meet Dave Rawson
& Co. for dinner. Unfortunately, the message saying the dinner was
cancelled was posted to me after I left, so I didn't see it. Dinner
was good anyway, and then we headed back to the hotel to see if Dave
was in the bar (which was the backup plan). He was, and we chatted
with him and Brian Uehlenbrock (sorry, I know that's spelled wrong!)
and his wife for a while; we started off discussing retailers,
distribution, and the future of comics, and we drifted into talking
about Mark Waid, the Legion, the Flash, Picket Fences, high energy
physics, the space shuttle, Discover magazine, dinosaurs, Ducks,
politics, Northern Exposure, and ecological biology. Dave and Brian
are interesting guys to talk to; too bad I didn't see them for a
combined 30 seconds for the rest of the con.
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Tuesday July 2
Greg and I headed to Horton Plaza (aka the Escher Mall, aka the Fast
Food of All Nations) for lunch and then hopped the bus to the San
Diego Zoo. Definitely recommended if you have an extra day, but
there's a LOT of walking. Just the thing to get you acclimated to
walking around the convention center.... But let me tell you, you
haven't lived until you've seen a man in a koala suit doing the
Chicken Dance. We tried to see Independence Day but it was sold out
for the night. Dave Rawson had told us about an Expo party that night,
but we skipped it and crashed early.
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Wednesday July 3
I went scuba diving in the morning, then picked up our third roommate
Rick Jones at the hotel. We hit Horton Plaza (aka the Escher Mall, aka
the Fast Food of All Nations) for lunch as usual, then bummed around
until it was time to head to the convention center for
preregistration. Inside I ran into Sidne Ward talking to Jeff Moy and
Cory Carani, along with some long-haired bearded guy I didn't
recognize who turned out to be Alex Ross. Alex didn't believe that
there were 47 people for the Legion dinner in Chicago; I told him that
since he drew the Legion on one page of Kingdom Come, he's now
considered a Legion artist too. We planned on 35 at the SD Legion
dinner, and he was impressed at that too. Spot The Pro: there goes Gil
Kane (who looks like a Gil Kane character). We ran into Kynn and Liz
Bartlett on the other end of the registration area, and someone
(forgot who) told us that they had cheap beer at the Cost Plus, so off
we went to pick up a few six-packs for the party at Chateau Chaput
(aka the Clarion). After dropping off the beer (and signing Elaynes
copy of Legionnaires #38 that has a number of fans drawn in) I went
down to the Kansas City BBQ to meet Johanna Draper for dinner. That's
the place where they filmed the sleazy bar scene in Top Gun, as they
proudly boast. There was a mixup in plans so I didn't eat with
Johanna, but I did run into former astronaut Charlie Bolden and his
wife, and we chatted about what's going on back home in Houston.
So after dinner it was back to the madhouse at the Clarion. I didn't
know it was possible to fit that many people in one room. A partial
list of those who showed up at some point: Carl Pietrantonio and his
kids Carl Jr. and Ann, Sadie O. and her friend Maddie, Kevin Gould,
Elayne and Steve, Johanna Draper, Terri Boyle, Paul Storrie, Sean
McKeever, Ed Douglas, Denise Sudell, Steve Mattson, David Goldfarb,
Katie Schwarz, Tom Galloway, Greg Morrow, Rick Jones, Sidne Ward, Sam
Powell, Diane something (and I forgot her friend's name), Steve
Lieber, and Rich Johnston. There was food and beer a-plenty, and
plenty of wine, too (just ask Carl's daughter Ann). Ann and Carl Jr.
found out that I'm a rocket scientist, and for the rest of the weekend
I was Rocket Scientist Man. Heh heh, how's the hangover, Ann? After we
got too loud and crowded, the management kicked us downstairs to one
of the convention rooms, where there was actually room to sit down and
talk. And drink beer, too. Met lots of interesting people and talked
about everything from the internet communities to the Lois and Clark
tv show to British accents. (Note to Richard Johnston: next year I
want to hang around with you some more. Maybe I can pick up a British
accent by osmosis, if you know what I mean and I think you do.) The
party wound down with the Black Ink Irregulars trivia team having a
warmup session, and we broke about 1 am. Don't worry, I have plenty of
blackmail pictures.
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Thursday July 4
Sat next to Sarah Dyer ("Action Girl") on the bus on the way to the
convention center. She had blue fingernail polish. I also decided that
rather than a sketch book, I'd bring along a big posterboard and get
as many people as I could to draw something. Certainly more
interesting than a sketch book, I thought. After getting a bunch of
autographed stuff and drawings, I settled down to some serious buying:
I picked up copies of ADVENTURE COMICS 267 and ACTION COMICS 267, the
2nd and 3rd Legion appearances. Set me back a bit, but they were good
prices. At the DC table I saw previews for an upcoming Elseworlds
starring Superman and Wonder Woman, and the first issue of the
DC/Marvel teamup called DC/MARVEL: ALL ACCESS, featuring the Access
character seen in the DC vs. Marvel book. While there were 11 tracks
of programming, only one caught my eye as something I wanted to see:
the Curt Swan tribute, which I unfortunately missed altogether. Ran
into Stan "The Man" Lee logging into Marvel's site on AOL from the
Marvel booth. On the way back to the hotel I sat with Ed Douglas and
James Robinson.
The annual Legion dinner was that night (but not at Horton Plaza); we
had close to 35 people, and we had to sit at 3 tables. Among the
crowd: Jeff and Phil Moy and Cory Carani, Steve and Elayne, Andrew
Woodard and his sister, Craig Hyde, Sidne, Johanna, Greg, Rick, Ed,
Joe M-something and his friend, Denise, David and Katie, Kevin, tyg,
Ben Tansley, Wendy Richards, Josh Macy, John Sardegna, and a whole
bunch more that I can't remember right now. Thanks to Sidne and Andrew
for organizing it all. After dinner some headed out to the Friends of
Lulu party, and some headed back to the convention center for the
fireworks, but we missed most of it. Somehow I lost everyone but Ben,
Denise, and tyg, so we trudged back to the Lulu party. Spot The Pro:
Mark Evanier, Heidi MacDonald, Maggie Thompson, Marie Severin, Martha
Thomases, Anina Bennett, Elaine Lee. Met Ed Douglas and Paul Storrie
there, along with Carl and his kids. Ann was drinking water, since she
had quite a hangover that morning. She said she'd never drink again,
at least for a couple weeks. Thought we might find a party up at the
Hyatt, so I went with Paul, Ed, Johanna, and Ben, but there was no one
there we knew (aside from Mark Waid, Bryan Augustyn, Mark Millar, and
Grant Morrison) and nowhere to sit down. On our way out we dropped off
Johanna and picked up Terri Boyle and a couple of guys I didn't know,
ran back up to the bar where we dropped off Ed, and headed to the
Doubletree bar where we ran into Sean McKeever, Sadie, Maddie, and
Dale Colvin. Apparently this is where the rest of the Legion dinner
folks stumbled into, since we saw Sidne, Greg, Rick, Ed, Craig, and a
few more. Spot The Pro: Paul Smith, Mark Schultz. I'm sure I left out
a bunch of names: chime in, please! Party broke up around 1 am.
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Friday July 5
Two panels were all I had planned on for the day: the Jerry Siegel
tribute and the DC Universe panel. The Siegel tribute was quite good,
featuring Roger Stern, Mike Carlin, Paul Levitz, Julie Schwartz, and
Jerry's wife Joanne and daughter Laura. Roger and Mike talked about
growing up reading Superman and Legion comics and what that meant,
Paul discussed his dealings with Jerry, and the three talked about how
fortunate they were to have been able to work with one of their
boyhood idols. Julie showed us a copy of the science fiction fanzine
he helped inspire in the mid-30s which led to the creation of
Superman, and discussed the early days. Laura related some anecdotes
about growing up the daughter of a comic book writer: when Jerry would
write Supergirl scripts, for example, he'd bounce ideas off her, since
she was a teenage girl. It was a thrill when she saw the published
comic that she helped work on. Finally, Joanne discussed at length how
she and Jerry met, the creation of Superman, and their courtship and
married life, as well as a few interesting details ("Clark Kent" came
from actors Clark Gable and Kent Taylor, Lois Lane came from singer
Lola Lane and was inspired by actress Glenda Farrell in a newspaper
reporter role). It was a special hour. The biggest news, which I had
heard of but not in detail, is that there's an unpublished 1940's
Siegel script of Superman with a very un-Superman-like ending. Roger
Stern is rewriting and revising it for today's standards (like
removing all the captions that tell what's going on in the panel).
They plan to publish it in a Prestige format, but there are no
concrete plans yet. Other news: there is a new Superman Archives in
the work for Christmas, along with a new All-Star Archives; and
Kitchen Sink is going to co-publish a collection of the Superman
newspaper strips in the same format as the Batman strips from a couple
years ago. In the audience: Rich Morrissey, Harry Lampert, Pete
Coogan, Paul Storrie, Tom Galloway, Dick Giordano, and only about 120
others. It's been said before: today's fan doesn't care about the
industry's history, and that's a shame.
The DC Universe panel (part 1) featured Chris Claremont, Mark Waid,
Kevin Dooley, Mike Carlin, Marv Wolfman, Dan Thorsland, Kelley Jones,
Ron Marz, Steven Grant, and Brian Augustyn. Among the tidbits:
* there will be a Nightwing ongoing series
* Flash/Nightwing Special, featuring a road trip and "a new meaning
to the phrase 'are we there yet?'"
* a series of Birds of Prey specials featuring Oracle
* Batman vs. Aliens in March 1997 by Bernie Wrightson
* intercompany teamups: Batman/Captain America, set in World War II;
Lobo/Mask by Alan Grant/Arcudi/Manke; Azrael/Ash by Quesada
* All Access is the name of the next big Marvel/DC crossover: 4 issues
by Marz/Guice/Rubinstein, featuring Superman and Spider-Man vs Venom,
Robin and Jubilee vs. Two-Face, Batman and Dr. Strange, and the new
JLA and X-Men.
* Final Night is weekly.
* in the next few issues, Aquaman loses someone close to him
* there's no hope for the Perez JLA/Avengers story, so quit asking
* fans suggested a Flash Family Quarterly to great applause
* "Plus" books are teamup specials: Superboy PLUS Capt. Marvel Jr.,
Supergirl PLUS Mary Marvel, Robin PLUS Impulse, Sovereign Seven PLUS
the Legion, etc.
Got a free poster when I left. Traded the Ray by Quesada for Death by
Bachalo (not quite like Death by Chocolate).
Spot The Pro: Walter Koenig, walking through the lobby with a con bag.
Friday night was the Compuserve mini-get together at Horton Plaza for
dinner. At the table were Craig Shutt, Markus Hopper, John Sardegna,
Joe Ekaitas, Carl Pietrantonio & Co., Ben Tansley, Sadie O., Paul
Storrie, Sean McKeever, Josh Macy, Denise Sudell, Ed Douglas, and
probably a few more, as well as non-forumites Greg Morrow and Sidne
Ward. I hadn't met most of them before, and hadn't seen others since
last year. Grabbing a cookie, we walked back to the Hyatt for the
Eisners.
For whatever reason, the ceremony started a half hour late, at 9:00.
We were worried, since the Fans vs. Pros trivia contest was scheduled
for 10:00. But we made up a lot of time when everyone's acceptance
speech was just "Thank you", frustrating early MC Scott Shaw!, who
wanted to crack jokes based on what they said. The list of Eisner
winners has been posted elsewhere, but a few comments:
* Will Eisner lost -- twice -- the award given in his name. Wonder
how he would have presented it to himself if he had won.
* Lots of applause for "Batman and Robin Adventures" winning "Best
Title for Younger Readers", and Paul Dini accepted it on behalf
of co-winners Ty Templeton and Rick Burchett. But then he stunned
the audience with the news of Mike Parobeck's death just a few days
before, and dedicated the award to Mike.
* Presenters were Heidi MacDonald, Andrew Vacchs, Kurt Busiek, Howard
Cruse, Geoff Darrow, Jeff Smith, Donna Barr, Frank Miller, Bill
Morrison of Bongo, and Sergio Aragones.
* Check out the "Best Writer" category: Kurt Busiek, Garth Ennis,
Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, and Grant Morrison. I notice a
preponderance of Brits. Alan won for "From Hell".
* RACer Kurt Busiek won for "BEst New Series" and "Best Single Issue"
(KBAC 4). Alex Ross won for "Best Cover Artist" for KBAC, too.
* The Post Office's comic-strip stamps won for "Best Comics-Related
Item".
* Multiple winners: STan Sakai ("Talent Deserving of Wider
Recognition" and "Best Lettering"), Evan Dorkin ("Best Humor
Publication" and "Best Short Story"), Bronwyn Taggart ("Best
Anthology" and "Best Editor"), Chris Ware ("BEst Publication Design",
"Best Coloring", "Best Continuing Series").
* Evan Dorkin made a comment about how the retailers need a kick in
the head to see that there's more than just super-hero stuff out
there. This becomes more relevant tomorrow.
* Russ Manning Newcomer went to Alexander Maleev for "The Crow", and
Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award went to Andrew Vacchs for his work
against child abuse.
During the Eisners, Sidne Ward (who was sitting next to me) was
reading her new copy of "Showcase '96" #8, containing the Legion
story. This is significant, since she had a bet with Elayne
Wechsler-Chaput over the outcome of the Fans/Pros trivia challenge: if
the fans won, Elayne couldn't read a Mark Waid book for a month, and
if the pros won, Sidne couldn't read a Legion book for a month. Sidne
told me she was hedging her bet just in case.
After the Eisners were over, we headed back to the convention center
for the trivia contest. Due to a scheduling mixup, the contest was put
at 10:00 on Friday night, but a number of people showed up anyway. I
explained that Kurt Busiek would be late, since he had to stay and
accept his Eisner Awards, and read the list of winners to the crowd.
Most of them also hadn't heard about Mike Parobeck's death. But Kurt
showed up, to thuderous applause, and he set the awards down in front
of the pro's table for inspiration. Jim Hay was the moderator, and
Keith DeCandido (from Byron Priess) was his Vanna. Okay, here's the
setup: Tom "tyg" Galloway and David Goldfarb had gotten kicked off the
regular trivia contest for winning too much. So last year they set up
a trivia challenge with a number of pros (Len Wein, Kurt Busiek, Roger
Stern, and Ted Elliot). The fans, known as the Black Ink Irregulars,
trounced the pros, aka the Purple Pros, 280-125, and so Len and Kurt
issued a Silver-Age-only challenge for this year (Showcase #4, 1st
Flash, to Amazing Spider-Man 122, death of Gwen). The 1996 Purple Pros
included Wein, Stern, Busiek, and secret weapon Mark Waid. The
Irregulars brought out Greg "Elmo" Morrow, and two guys whose names I
can't recall right now. Right before the match, the Irregulars
announced that in a bid to psyche out Waid, they were changing their
name to the Rogues Gallery Revenge Squad. Waid announced that he was
shaking. In the audience were such luminaries as Peter David, Craig
Shutt, and Carl Pietrantonio. I sat next to Johanna, who was dressed
as a cheerleader (also in a bid to psyche out Waid), behind Elayne and
Steve (who were taping the event), and near Sidne.
The Pros jumped out to an early lead of 100-10 before the Irregulars
charged ahead 165-150. Questions ranged from "What were the properties
of Silver Kryptonite" to "What does T.H.U.N.D.E.R. stand for" to "Why
did the Teen Titans first meet" to "What innate power did Herbie
Popnecker have" to a romance question. Elayne was sweating by now. But
the Pros pulled it out, winning 190-170. An immediate rubber match
challenge was issued by Tom Galloway, who happened to answer every
question the Irregulars got right. But next year we'll put in a
30-seconds-or-less time limit on the answers, just for Tom. <G>
So it was off to the Hyatt again for drinks in the bar, and once again
Mark Waid played human trivia master. "C'mon, hit me again" was the
constant call on the way over. Who were Sugar and Spike's parents?
Which one was Flippity and which was Floppy? and so on. But once we
got to the Hyatt we became (in Mark's words) Real People, and a group
of fans found a table and sat down for drinks: Sidne, me, Johanna,
Keith, David and Katie, Greg, Elayne, and Rick (I think that's it).
Topics of discussion ranged from the Legion to "Kirk/Spock" stories
(Trek fanfic, aka "slash" or "K-S" stories) and all points in between.
Johanna showed us what a lightweight she was, getting drunk off of two
French Kisses. When the party finally broke up around 1:30, Keith and
I walked her back to her room (fortunately she was in the Hyatt) where
she was bouncing off walls in the corridor. After that I headed back
to my room at the Grant. After all that, Saturday still loomed ahead.
part 2, coming soon....
Michael R. Grabois | http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mgrabois
Houston, TX | or...@ix.netcom.com CI$: 74737,2600
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"Some people call me Maurice, 'cause I speak of the Pompatus of Love."