Repaneled is a newish blog that recreates classic comics panels in new art styles. Up today:
Anthony Vukojevich’s reimagination of a key panel from Gabrielle Bell’s San Diego Comic-Con Comicumentary.

BTW, 2010 was my first time experiencing the unfettered party insanity that is the Indie Comix Embassy Suites Happy Hour. Long will it haunt my dreams.

BTW, part 2: This blog post title was my official entry into the all-time hardest to spell blog post title derby.

The definitive account of SD10, just as great as it began. Can’t wait for the Uncivilized Books version of this epic of epicness.

BOOM! STUDIOS GUESTS INCLUDE:  
Eisner & Harvey Award-nominated
 IRREDEEMABLE & INCORRUPTIBLE’s Mark Waid
 DARKWING DUCK’s Ian Brill & James Silvani
28 DAYS LATER’s Michael Alan Nelson
 FARSCAPE & CARS: THE ADVENTURES OF TOW MATER’s 
Keith R.A. DeCandido
CARS’ Travis Hill
THE MUPPET SHOW COMIC BOOK & MUPPET SHERLOCK HOLMES’ 
Amy Mebberson

 ALSO ATTENDING:
FARSCAPE’s Will Sliney
 FARSCAPE: SCORPIUS’ David Alan Mack
 28 Day’s Declan Shlavey
 TOY STORY’s Jesse Blaze Snider 


BOOM! Studios Booths #2135 

NYCC Exclusive Covers

MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS # 300
 DARKWING DUCK # 1
THE AMORY WARS: IN KEEPING SECRETS OF SILENT EARTH:3 # 5
 THE MUPPET SHOW # 10 “GET-A-SKETCH” Cover
 TOY STORY# 6 “GET-A-SKETCH” Cover

 
SCHEDULED SIGNINGS & PANELS


Friday, October 8, 2010 

All Day Signing – FARSCAPE writer Keith R.A. DeCandido,  28 DAYS LATER writer Michael Alan Nelson, MR. STUFFINS writer Johanna Stokes &  FARSCAPE: SCORPIUS writer David Alan Mack

All Day Sketching – TOY STORY artist Travis Hill & MUPPET artist Amy Mebberson

 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM –  28 DAYS LATER artist Declan Shalvey and FARSCAPE artist Will Sliney signing

 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM – IRREDEEMABLE / INCORRUPTIBLE writer Mark Waid signing 

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM – TOY STORY writer Jesse Blaze Snider signing

3:30 PM – 4:30 PM – BOOM! IRREDEEMABLE / INCORRUPTIBLE panel: Panel room 6 (1A21)
Mark Waid’s Eisner and Harvey Award -nominated, bestselling IRREDEEMABLE took comic fans by storm last year, becoming one of the top-selling independent comics of 2009 and 2010. Join Mark Waid as he looks back at IRREDEEMABLE’s beginnings, the future of the series, and its sister series — INCORRUPTIBLE.

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM – DARKWING DUCK writer Ian Brill & artist James Silvani signing 

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM – IRREDEEMABLE / INCORRUPTIBLE writer Mark Waid signing 


Saturday, October 9, 2010 

All Day Signings – FARSCAPE writer Keith R.A. DeCandido,  28 DAYS LATER writer Michael Alan Nelson, MR. STUFFINS writer Johanna Stokes &  FARSCAPE: SCORPIUS writer David Alan Mack 

All Day Sketching – TOY STORY artist Travis Hill & MUPPET artist Amy Mebberson

 11:00 AM – 12:00PM – IRREDEEMABLE / INCORRUPTIBLE writer Mark Waid signing

 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM – DARKWING DUCK writer Ian Brill &  artist James Silvani signing

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM – 28 DAYS LATER artist Declan Shalvey and FARSCAPE artist Will Sliney signing

 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM –Comic, Hollywood – What Creators Need to Know Panel: Featuring BOOM! Studios CEO Ross Richie
More comics are being turned into films, and creators have important questions about how Hollywood works. Get actionable information from top creators who have navigated the TV and movie business. Featuring: Jimmy Palmiotti, Ross Richie (BOOM). Moderator: Buddy Scalera

2:30 PM – 3:30 PM – Stan Lee @ BOOM! Panel: Panel room 9 (1A24)
Join Stan Lee and Mark Waid as they discuss the details of SOLDIER ZERO, THE TRAVELER, and STARBORN, Stan Lee’s new series at BOOM!, which will be some of the most exciting new titles of 2010/2011!

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM – TOY STORY writer Jesse Blaze Snider Signing

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM – DARKWING DUCK writer Ian Brill & artist James Silvani signing

4:15 PM – 5:15 PM – CSC:GOTHAM CITY 14 MILES: WHY BATMAN ‘66 MATTERS panel with Mark Waid: Panel Room 1A15
Editor Jim Beard (Gotham City 14 Miles) and Batfan Mark Waid (Boom Studios) lead a roundtable of contributors to Gotham City 14 Miles, a collection of essays from Sequart Books on the 1960s Batman TV series, the comics that inspired it, and why it should matter to both comic book fans and followers of pop culture alike on the 1960s TV phenomenon. Participants include Jennifer Stuller (Ink-Stained Amazons) Paul Kupperberg (And Then I Wrote blog), Bob Greenberger (bobgreenberger.com), Peter Sanderson (Comics In Context), Tim Callahan (geniusboyfiremelon.blogspot.com), Michael Miller (Toledo Free Press), Joe Berenato, Julian Darius (Sequart Books).

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM – IRREDEEMABLE / INCORRUPTIBLE writer Mark Waid Signing


Sunday, October 10, 2010 

All Day Signings –FARSCAPE writer Keith R.A. DeCandido,  28 DAYS LATER writer Michael Alan Nelson, MR. STUFFINS writer Johanna Stokes &  FARSCAPE: SCORPIUS writer David Alan Mack

 All Day Sketching – TOY STORY artist Travis Hill & MUPPET artist Amy Mebberson 

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM – TOY STORY writer Jesse Blaze Snider signing

 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM – IRREDEEMABLE / INCORRUPTIBLE writer Mark Waid signing

 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM – DARKWING DUCK writer Ian Brill &  artist James Silvani signing

 1:15 PM – 2:15 PM – BOOM! Studios / BOOM Kids! panel: Panel Room 9 (1A24)
History will be made. New titles will be announced. Heads will explode! And…comics will never be the same again!

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM – FARSCAPE artist Will Sliney signing

 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM – IRREDEEMABLE / INCORRUPTIBLE writer Mark Waid signing

 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM – DARKWING DUCK writer Ian Brill & artist James Silvani signing


CARTOON NETWORK & ADULT SWIM PANELS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8

DC Comics: MAD
3:15 – 4:15 p.m.
Location: Room 1A06-7
Talent: John Ficarra (MAD Magazine editor), Sam Viviano (MAD Art Director), Mort Drucker (MAD
artist), Mark Marek (MAD (television) Producer)

MAD Magazine has established itself as the original, most imitated and influential satirical publication
across generations. Recently, MAD made a triumphant return to TV on Cartoon Network with an all-new
animated series from Warner Bros. Animation to corrupt the minds of the next generation! Come join MAD
Magazine editor John Ficarra, MAD art director Sam Viviano, legendary MAD artist Mort Drucker and
MAD television program producer Mark Marek, plus a few surprise guests for a light-hearted look at the
past, present and future of an American institution.

ADULT SWIM: Childrens Hospital
4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Location: Room 1A06
Talent: Rob Corddry, Jon Stern, Rob Huebel and Erinn Hayes, Lake Bell, Nick Kroll (additional
guests TBA)

Check out the Childrens Hospital panel and hear from the show’s creative team led by Rob Corddry
(Hot Tub Time Machine, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) and Jon Stern (producer of The Ten and
Scotland, PA). They will be joined by members of their ensemble cast including Rob Huebel (I Love You
Man, Human Giant), Nick Kroll (The League, The Life and Times of Tim), Lake Bell (How to Make It
in America, What Happens in Vegas)and Erinn Hayes (Parenthood, Worst Week). Childrens Hospital
is a live-action comedy that explores the emotional struggles and sexual politics of a group of doctors
charged with healthy libidos. Their dedication to their personal lives is relentless, interrupted only by the
occasional need to treat sick children. Childrens Hospital airs Sundays at midnight (ET/PT) on Adult
Swim.

ADULT SWIM: Robot Chicken
6:45 – 7:45 p.m.
Location: Special Events Hall
Talent: Seth Green, Matt Senreich

Adult Swim panel featuring Robot Chicken show creators, Seth Green and Matt Senreich. They will
discuss their original series, answer questions and give a sneak peek from the next season of Robot Chicken
and the upcoming one-hour special, Robot Chicken Star Wars: Episode III, which premieres December 19.

ADULT SWIM: The Venture Bros.
8:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Location: Special Events Hall
Talent: Jackson Publick, Doc Hammer

Come see Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer talk about all things Venture, show some clips and take
audience praise and questions. Season 4.5 of The Venture Bros. premiered Sunday, September 12 at 11:30
p.m. ET/PT on Adult Swim. The Venture Bros. first premiered on Adult Swim in August 2004 and has
been a fan favorite every since.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9

WB Panel: Green Lantern: The Animated Series Presentation and Q&A
2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Location: Room 1A14
Talent: Bruce Timm (executive producer), Giancarlo Volpe (producer), Jim Krieg (producer/story
editor)

Saturday will be NYCC’s “brightest day” as Warner Bros. Animation proudly unveils this new series
coming soon to Cartoon Network and based upon characters from DC Comics. Join series executive
producer Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series), producer Giancarlo Volpe (Star Wars: The Clone
Wars) and producer/story editor Jim Krieg (Ben 10: Alien Swarm) as these creative forces reveal their
plans for one of the most highly anticipated new animated series.

WB Panel: Young Justice Video Presentation and Q&A
3:45 – 4:45 p.m.
Location: Room 1A14

Talent: Brandon Vietti (producer), Greg Weisman (producer)

Join the league! Fans were given their first glimpse of Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian
and Artemis this past July at Comic-Con International: San Diego. But this panel will offer far more
than just a glimpse as producers Brandon Vietti (Batman: Under the Red Hood) and Greg Weisman
(Gargoyles) answer questions from fans and show footage from this highly anticipated series. A one-hour
special event of Young Justice will premiere November 2010 on Cartoon Network and the series beings
in 2011. Young Justice is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and is based upon characters from DC
Comics.

ADULT SWIM: Delocated!
5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Location: Room 1A14
Talent: Jon Glaser, Kevin Dorff, Jerry Minor, Steve Cirbus, John Lee, Zoe Lister-Jones (additional
guests TBA)

Adult Swim panel featuring Delocated! show creator/executive producer and star Jon Glaser. After
testifying against the Russian Mafia, “Jon” and his family are uprooted and start living undercover through
the witness protection program. After existing quietly in an anonymous suburb, “Jon” accepts an offer
for the family to participate in a reality show based on their lives. In order to protect their identity with
television audiences—and more importantly, the Russian mob family the Mirminsky’s—they wear ski
masks and have their voices disguised. As part of the deal, the family is relocated to a sweet loft in New
York City, where the series will be filmed.

Jon Glaser (“Jon”) will discuss the series and answer questions. Now expanded to 30 minutes, season two
of Delocated! airs Thursdays at midnight on Adult Swim. Jon will be joined by Steve Cirbus (Sergei),
Jerry Minor (Mighty Joe Jon, the Black Blond), Zoe Lister-Jones (Kim), Kevin Dorff (Mike), and John
Lee (Executive Producer).

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10

CARTOON NETWORK: Firebreather Exclusive Screening and Panel
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
jgLocation: 1A08
Talent: Phil Hester (co-executive producer), Andy Kuhn (co-executive producer), Peter Chung (writer/
director)

Fans will get the first look at Cartoon Network’s original CGI movie, Firebreather, with an exclusive
screening! Be the first to see the film, then stay for an in-depth panel discussion featuring creator and co-
executive producer Phil Hester (The Wretch), co-executive producer Andy Kuhn (Freedom Ring) and
writer/director Peter Chung (Aeon Flux). Firebreather is based on the popular comic book series and will
premiere on Cartoon Network in November.

CARTOON NETWORK: Ben 10 10.10.10 Celebration
12:15 – 1:15 p.m.
Location: 1A06
Talent: Yuri Lowenthal, Greg Cipes, Ashley Johnson

Come celebrate Ben 10 on 10.10.10 with the cast of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien! Fans will be treated to a
never-before-seen episode of the series with voiceover dialogue performed LIVE by Yuri Lowenthal
(Ben), Greg Cipes (Kevin) and Ashley Johnson (Gwen)! Other panel highlights include a sneak peak
at the new season of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, cast Q&A, and a chance to win lots of Ben 10 Prizes!

ADULT SWIM AUTOGRAPH SIGNINGS

Friday, October 8

3:00 – 4:30 p.m.

4:30–5:30 p.m.

5:45 – 6:45 p.m.

Robot Chicken Signing
Location: Room 1C02
Talent: Seth Green, Matt Senreich

MAD Signing at the DC Comics booth #2243

Childrens Hospital Signing
Location: Show Floor – Autograph Alley
Talent: Rob Corddry, Jon Stern, Rob Huebel and Erinn Hayes, Lake

Saturday, October 9

11:00 – 12:00 p.m.

2:00–3:00 p.m.

3:45 — 4:45 p.m.

Bell, Nick Kroll (additional guests TBA)

Venture Bros Signing
Location: Room 1C01
Talent: Doc Hammer, Jackson Publick

Young Justice Signing at the DC Comics booth #2243

Delocated! Signing
Location: Show Floor – Autograph Alley
Talent: Jon Glaser, Kevin Dorff, Jerry Minor, Steve Cirbus, John Lee,
Zoe Lister-Jones (additional guests TBA)

As announced last evening, CCI: San Diego’s board, despite intense wooing from other cities, has decided to keep Comic-Con in San Diego. The announcement has been met with generally universal relief thus far. Yes, we moan, we complain, but exchanging the city of San Diego’s mild temperatures and convenient layout for the bland boulevards of Anaheim or tent cities filled with lovable hobos of Los Angeles wouldn’t have really been much of an improvement. It isn’t much of a surprise, really — things had been going this way for a while and it was very clear that the board wanted to stay in San Diego.

Steadfast Lori Weisberg at the San Diego Union-Tribune has the wrap-up story and it’s clear that after all the misunderstandings and local tensions, the people running the city realized that keeping Comic-Con was vitally important for their economy and image. But it was a long battle, and some hearts were broken along the way.

Despite being disappointed by the decision, Anaheim tourism officials remain optimistic that Comic-Con could eventually come their way in the future. “We certainly recognize how difficult a decision this was by virtue of how long it took,” said Charles Ahlers, president of the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau. “We understand it was not a unanimous decision by Comic-Con so clearly there is interest in alternative locations so that gives us hope for the future.”

“I truly think the catalyst was the mayor getting involved personally, having meetings in his office to let the hotel community know we were all committed,” said Carol Wallace, Convention Center Corp. president. “People really stood up and took notice. I also had a staff person assigned full time working with Comic-Con for the last year.”

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders is a figure not without controversy, and in times past he was thought to be a bit dismissive of the con. But if this story is to be seen as the denouement, Mayer Sanders has now been won over and stands tall and proud beside the nerds, stormtroopers and Glee cast members:

“I think everyone met face to face on this and decided this was really important for the San Diego region.” said Mayor Sanders. “This is a great employment generator in terms of people working on the convention and all the things it spins off. It’s also good for the psyche of the city. And we literally couldn’t buy the kind of P.R. we get. We get more journalists and magazines and TV here during Comic-Con than we get for anything else in San Diego.”

If it took a little longer than expected for city fathers to notice what those of us who go to the show found obvious, we shouldn’t begrudge their standing atop the podium this time. But there are still a few factors that remain.

What about the hotels??? is it still going to be horrible???
The Comics Reporter immediately got David Glanzer on the blower to answer just this question:

GLANZER: Well, we’ve received assurances that we will have access to more rooms for our room bloc. This gives us the possibility of doubling the amount of rooms available to our attendees. Rates are always an issue, and the hotels fully understand this. This agreement will hopefully keep hotel rates competitive.

Which is about as vague as you can get. We know people who have already paid for their rooms for 2011 at full price of $500 a night. Getting the hotels to agree to terms the Con was comfortable with is seen as the last holdout for getting the show to stay. However, according to the Union-Tribune story, the Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego Marriott and Hilton San Diego Bayfront have pledged “an additional 300,000 square feet of meeting space free of charge in 2013 through 2015.” And the room block has been expanded to 14,000. That’s right, even the nutty Hyatt came on board. 14,000 rooms is a lot more than have previously been available through Travel Planners, so all the hotel rooms should be gone in about two minutes this time, instead of one.

While the bigger room block sounds great, we can only hope that room rates will stay at least only crazy instead of crazy-ass insane. And please note:

The Agreement was only for three years.
Did you see what the Anaheim guy was doing there? “We understand it was not a unanimous decision by Comic-Con.” See, he’s trying to sow dissension! And Comic-Con has signed on to stay in San Diego until 2015. Since it was staying until 2012 originally, this is only a three-year extension. While that’s in line with previous contracts for the show, it leaves the situation open enough so that if things don’t go well in the next two years, we can start the whole competition all over again. And there’s also the matter of

What about the convention center expansion?
That is still a go, with an architect being selected but the city needs to come up with $750 million to pay for it — not an easy task. Realistically, the city needs to expand the exhibit hall not just for Comic-Con but for other large shows — several of which outgrew the venue several years ago. With all the features we already mentioned, San Diego is really the ideal site for major trade shows — but the need for a larger convention center is holding it back from being more competitive with Las Vegas, Chicago, and Orlando. Expansion is a major goal for the city overall. But if the venue doesn’t get bigger, and the Con stays the way it is…come 2013, things may need to be reexamined yet again. And finally –

What about that pedestrian bridge?
A lot of people have been mentioning this in the comments. A pedestrian bridge over Harbor Ave. is already under way (opposite the Bayfront Hilton) and should be nearing completion.

Finally, although this all seems to have a happy ending for now, in true thriller fashion, a cryptic comment in the UT story is a perfect set up for a sequel:

On Tuesday October 4, 2010, Las Vegas based The Clarence Group (theclarencegroup.com} will announce a new well-funded, visionary and comprehensive consortum with unrelenting intentions to purchase, expand and relocate Comic-Con to Las Vegas.

A visit to the Clarence Group website shows a bunch of statements so creepy and boilerplate that we’re half convinced it’s some kind of alternate reality game. Nonetheless, they do have this graphic:

The Clarence Group comments have been removed since we copied the above, so it’s certainly some kind of hooey, but the idea of a secret cabal planning to annex Comic-Con sounds like something out of…well, a comic book.

So in the end, order is restored. The mild breezes of San Diego Bay, the tasty tropical cocktails at the Marriott, the torch-lit roof at Petco Park, the shimmering mirage of Ralphs…it’s on!

It’s official, via a press release. After long, complex negotiations that involved serious offers from Los Angeles and Anaheim, Comic-Con International: San Diego has just announced they will stay in the city they are named for.

With the Con’s contract with the convention center expiring in 2012, and the facilities MAXED out for space, everyone has been wondering if the con would move to a different city that offered more perks, The city of San Diego has been seen as indifferent to the biggest civilian convention of the year, although that has changed in the last couple of years.

This is good news for those who like continuity. You can renew that frequent shopper card at Ralphs!

A press conference is being held tomorrow. PR below:

Comic-Con International: San Diego (Comic-Con), the largest comics convention of its kind in the world, today announced it will be staying in San Diego for the foreseeable future. 

Comic-Con reached a self-imposed attendance limit at the San Diego Convention Center (SDCC) in 2007 and has had to cap attendance at approximately 125,000 people each year since.  In looking at ways to better accommodate the growing demand from attendees and exhibitors, the nonprofit organization considered proposals for a move to larger facilities in Los Angeles or Anaheim after the expiration of its SDCC lease in 2012. This decision keeps Comic-Con in San Diego through 2015.

“We are grateful for the tireless efforts all three cities put into to their proposals,” said David Glanzer, Comic-Con’s director of marketing and public relations. “In the end, we feel this decision is the best for all those who attend Comic-Con and for the organization itself. We are happy that the community has worked with us to ensure that we remain here.”

Comic-Con was first held in 1970 at the U.S. Grant Hotel, where it attracted 300 people. As the event grew, subsequent homes included the downtown El Cortez Hotel in the 1970s and the San Diego Convention and Performing Arts Center in the 1980s. Comic-Con moved to the then newly built SDCC in 1991. Comic-Con celebrated its 41st year in 2010.

The San Diego Convention Center Corporation has scheduled a press conference for Friday, October 1 at 11:45 a.m. at Lobby E of the convention center.

More later.

S gets very, very personal in this installment.

The New York Times has a story on how Comic-Con has become a venue to market to — gasp! — girls, with lots of info on various toy and clothing lines, including gymnast Nastia Liukin’s Supergirl line of clothing.

And marketers, including publishers, toy manufacturers and Hollywood’s entertainment giants, used Comic-Con 2010 last month to promote products for girls and to build anticipation for new ones. Mattel, for example, used Comic-Con to promote several toy lines for girls, offering an exclusive set of its Polly Pocket dolls dressed as superheroes and promoting Monster High.

I was actually interviewed for the piece by author Gregory Schmidt, who was very smart and nice and did a fine job on the story, but everything I said got cut out in editing. I was nonplussed by this, not so much because I didn’t get my name in the NY Times again, but because it leaves the article with just men quoted about selling to girls.

So yet again it’s a story about girls and women and what they like without a single woman expressing an opinion on the matter. Thanks, guys! We’ll just keep shelling out the money — no need to actually listen to us.

Jillian Tamaki

And Gabrielle Bell — this one is an EPIC.

We could have SWORN there was a third…but can’t find it now. Readers?

Has all the Comic-Con hype actually TURNED OFF some moviegoers? That’s what a chart over at THR seems to show, Jay Fernandez reports:

Flixster provides data for the Bullseye over at Risky Business each week, and occasionally the company tacks on some other random information. This week, Flixster included this graphic, which measured how online activity around featured films was affected by Comic Con.

Do you notice anything about this? Yes, other than “Scott Pilgrim” and “Sucker Punch,” of which little had then yet been seen, everything else went down. DreamWorks Animation’s “Megamind,” Disney’s “Tron” reboot, the whole mess of Marvel movies, etc., all had interest in them drop post-Con.

Now, this may mean nothing, of course. We’re still a long way from the release of most of these, and probably most of the fans who would have been swirling around these projects suddenly gorged and had to rest for a few days. But it does support the theory that Comic-Con isn’t really drumming up business outside of the true believers who were going to see these movies anyway. Had those not already attuned to this material gotten fired up by the Con parade, those activity percentages would have gone up.

There’s some dissension in the comments and competing charts which seem to show an opposite effect. And really…who the hell knows what this chart means. It’s iPhone users searching for info based on trailers. And you know, a good trailer is still a good trailer, no matter where it’s shown.

But probably somewhere some studio head saw this info and peed his/her pants, just like Batman.

Tangential — we can’t wait for SUCKER PUNCH, aka Zack Snyder does Tarantino.

Lesson #1 of San Diego Comic-Con 2010: You can’t live on breakfast from the Embassy Suites.

Or if you do, you will pay a frightful price.

It was Thursday morning at Comic-Con, the morning after Preview night and the day when things blast into high gear with a roar of thunder and a crack of ozone. It was my second morning at the Embassy Suites, the “family hotel” of the Inner Circle. With a free breakfast buffet and “manager’s receptions”—aka FREE BOOZE—every evening, not to mention giant suites that sleep 6 comfortably, the Embassy Suites is the best bargain at the con for those, like this year’s Beat, on a budget.

By only the second day in, the low-grade bacon and baked-by-Methuselah bagels were already setting off a protest march in my stomach. That left nothing but small portions of yogurt and plates of rubbery melon to set me up for a day of rugged expeditioneering over the crevasses and screes of Under the Sails and the Hilton Bayfront. According to lore, a hearty morning helping of proteins and potatoes is the only thing to help you through this endurance test.

But you need good quality rations.

This is going to be one of those “I didn’t get enough to eat,” con reports. I’m sorry. My flight was delayed on Tuesday night, and the three-hour setback was enough to throw the whole schedule off because it meant I never got to go to Ralphs and every problem I had at the con could have been solved with a trip to Ralphs. But it never happened.

By Saturday, my body had toughened up, and adjusted to this new, no-food regime. But I wasn’t alone. Oh no. Everyone was reduced to a hungry zombie state, roaming a hostile landscape, storming media lounges for bits of sustenance.

I know you all think I’m being dramatic. But by Saturday, as I waited in the lobby of the Omni to conduct an interview with director Adam Egypt Mortimer, I ran into these two fellows – let’s call them Tom and Jerry — who were there making a documentary about a well known Comics Figure. Adam arrived a bit late, apologizing for the delay, explaining that he had abandoned his lunch halfway through, and brandishing a styrofoam container full of cold French fries and a few morsels of cut-up steak. He then generously offered the three of his his leftovers…and since none of us had eaten all day we started devouring the French fries like zombies who just caught up with a red shirt.

“I can’t believe we’re eating scraps!” Jerry exclaimed.

While enjoying the bounty, Tom was more worried about their cameraman who was sitting weak and pallid on a divan. “Maybe we should give this steak to Bill. He was really complaining about being hungry,” he suggested. Indeed, their mercy mission to offer Bill the left over steak scraps was successful. I offered to share the bag of peanuts that I had been living off of since the Eisner Awards, but they bravely declined.

The bizarre fact that this reenactment of the rescue of the Donner party was taking place in the lobby of a well-stocked and civilized hotel — nearby, Erik Estrada mugged for autograph hunters, Charisma Carpenter and Lou Ferrigno wandered by, and mere yards away, comics creators hobnobbed with producers, pitching movies — was not lost on us.

As the week progressed, it was increasingly clear that comics are now living off the scraps of the Comic-Con media monster, whether it was waiting for the leftover dollars of vacationing families, or living on the trickle down of the studio system. This particular eco-system isn’t the way the whole comics industry works — some companies that just publish books are doing just fine — but in San Diego, it was unavoidable.

Lesson #2: Always remember to sample the charms of Old Con.

Have you been over to Old Con? It’s so quaint and timeless with its antique longboxes and Pow! Splat! décor. If you ever wonder what “the olden days” were like at Comic-Con, just go to halls A and B because you can find the old tribes still living in their primitive Mylar huts, almost untouched by time.

But the people who live in Old Con might just be endangered by the high-rise booths at the other end of the hall. The constant refrain among comics publishers was that sales were flat or down. The reason most often cited was that the 126K attendees had bought their tickets six months previously and weren’t interested in anything that wasn’t a big media presentation. The convention has had to spread out over the adjoining hotels to thin the crowds, and this has also thinned the number of people who want to go to Old Con to buy comics.

While no one we talked to had an out and out shit show -– and indie pacemakers Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly reported strong sales and sellouts -– as it becomes more and more expensive to travel and exhibit, it becomes harder and harder to recoup all that money. Every year, people throw down their hat and cry out in disgust, “That tears it! I’m never coming back to San Diego!” only to be seen partying at the Hyatt like a rock star 12 months later. But it’s safe to say that everyone questions their involvement every year more and more, and the questioning is getting more and more serious.

One thing we did notice –- a few publishers we talked to had disappointing sales, but most artists in Artists Alley we checked in with seemed to do very well. For instance, Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett had sold out of their copies of Boilerplate by Saturday afternoon. It’s the added value of an autograph and a conversation that seems to seal the deal in AA.

Also, it’s not entirely certain what effect the absence of Comic Relief and diminished presence of Bud Plant had on the show. Both retailers formerly offered giant booths where you could buy all kinds of cool comics and books. Comic Relief gave up their primo spot, and for reasons that weren’t explained to us, Bud Plant was much smaller. It made it far harder to make an impulse buy on some comic you’d heard about on a panel.

Also unclear is just how the continuing bad economy affected the fantasy economy — a lot, we’d guess. Nearly two years into the Great Recession, it’s possible people are just beginning to question those nerd purchases. It’s certainly why some bloggers were economizing by eating other people’s leftovers.

Finally, it’s just not clear how to keep the comic in Comic-Con any more. This is the year we all just Gave Up. While everyone was proud that THE WALKING DEAD and SCOTT PILGRIM, two creator-owned properties, were the hottest things at SD10, getting attention without covering a hotel with a banner, making over elevators into vampire-themed make-out rooms, or flooding the air around hotels with floating bubble people was much harder.

Lesson #3: The “heart” of Comic-con is now the entrance to the Gaslamp, although “heart” may not be the proper body part.

The piazza at the confluence of the Hard Rock, the Omni, the Tin Fish, the Gaslamp Hilton, the trolley and the Gaslamp district is now the heart of Comic-Con where ninjas, masked wrestlers, Con Girls, alien resistance fighters, indie rockers, religious nuts and everyone else stands around and flogs their products. By Saturday, the ground was a disgusting litter of flyers, as the tight butts of the Green Hornet girls wiggled on one side by the Black Beauty, and the Scott Pilgrim Experience handed out garlic bread on the other.

Two fellows dressed as characters designed by Dean Haspiel handed out comics drawn by Dean Haspiel, and he wasn’t even there to enjoy it. Just crossing the street was an ordeal like walking around the Pyramids or the Taj Mahal, as huckster marketers swamped every hapless tourist– only instead of begging for a few American dollars, they were giving you disposable shit – candy, tattoos, stickers, whatever. Most of it was garbage.

Outside the swirl of hucksters, it was nonstop Zombie Gras as lines of professional autograph hunters camped out by the Hard Rock, pedicabs zipped around and “media types” headed over to various swanky sponsored press rooms. Someone who seemed to be knowledgeable suggested to me that the actual number of people in town for Comic-Con was closer to 160,000 – a full 35,000 people over the number of folks with actual badges. After spending a few moments at Zombie Gras, this number seemed modest. It seems that many, many folks now come to Comic-Con just to make the scene and snap up the off-site swag — there was a lot of stuff you could get without a badge.

The net effect of all the shilling was probably gross and definitely crass. Next year the pedestrian bridge over Harbor Drive will be completed and the human traffic pattern may change a bit, but the Marketing Town Square will probably still be high on my “places to avoid” list.

LESSON #4: Douchebags ruined Comic-Con.

SERIOUSLY. If I hear one more person slam Twilight for ruining Comic-Con, I will stab someone in the eye. The horrors of this douche spill -– pumping out over 100 millions gallons per day of Prada cologne and bullshit — are just being recognized. Over 100 acres a day of comics wetlands are being lost to this tragic spill, and if we don’t do something the entire coast will be eroded.

If the riot gear level security was the big complaint last year, this year the problem was the all-pervasive stink of Hollywood. All of my studio moles confirmed that this is the year that San Diego became Park City. Sure there were signs before – Kardashians, endless agency parties. But this year no one even pretended that comics were important.

I’ve already recounted how almost no one from Image could get into the AMC/Circle of Confusion party on Thursday, despite the fact that the theme was The Walking Dead, a comic they publish. I heard lots of stories like this about Hollywood’s increasing disdain for comics – Hollywood in general hates writers and people who create things, and comics have joined this tradition of disrespect, even as the fear of “the internerd” makes publicists coach their clients on how to pretend to be “geek savvy” and dress in the proper T-shirts. Helen Mirren’s Harvey Pekar moment was hilarious but it was about as genuine as the racks on those Green Hornet girls.

Comic-Con is becoming comics’ very own Barton Fink Moment.

The Douche Spill is mostly lemmings….it isn’t really FOR anything. NO ONE really thinks that the crowd of 6000 people who are dedicated enough to sleep out and get into Hall H are the ones who are going to make or break any movie. Comic-Con is for entertainment fans, not that mythical “geek” and the fact that Hollywood automatically equates people who like their products with social undesirables tells you a lot about Hollywood marketing people.

Along those lines, there isn’t a single person I talked to who thinks that SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD is going to be a huge blockbuster because it had the biggest presence at Comic-Con of anything ever. Everyone is very happy for Edgar Wright and Bryan Lee O’Malley, those pesky CREATORS, and what is by all accounts a charming, quirky movie. The giant hotel banner, multiple screenings and fucking theme park was a very innovative way to promote the film, but we’ll have to wait and see who goes to see it in a few weeks.

Studios are increasingly playing one-upmanship with Comic-Con and the “nerd herd” – whatever the fuck that is. “Peeks for geeks” trumpeted a headline in Variety. Once again, I can’t jibe the Orange County teenagers and families pushing strollers and folks dressed as the Scarlet Witch with tastemakers who will tell all their friends about this great postcard they got at Comic-Con. All the lists of “winners and losers” don’t mention the real people with things at stake: studio marketing planners who want to impress their bosses. Comic-Con is just another pissing contest for studio heads, a blank canvas on which to paint more and bigger banners, posters, room keys, lounges, yachts and sky-writing.

It’s been my experience —and surely that of some of you reading this – that far from being tastemakers, when one of those “geek nerd herd” folks starts waving a postcard at you and telling you how great this or that fantasy zombie direct-to-DVD movie is, your general reaction is to run away in fear and turn up the sounds on 30 Rock.

Unquestionably, there are more nerds and geeks than ever before because it is socially acceptable now, but by and large Comic-Con’s marketing efforts for big name movies come down to preaching to the converted. Did Angelina Jolie showing up at Comic-Con help SALT beat INCEPTION? No. Did it enable the people who marketed Salt to say “See, we were at Comic-Con!”? Yes.

Todd VenDeWerff at the A.V. Club has an excellent post that covers whether media people even NEED TO BE AT CON ANY MORE. Certainly it’s easier to sit at home and write about what’s happening than it is to be there and write about it. The increasingly controlled and staged events that are trotted out are another factor:

I’m not trying to argue myself out of a job or anything, but I do wonder if the amount of ink spilled on Comic-Con is truly necessary. This is an event created to specifically keep people from saying, “Oh, hey, maybe this won’t be good, huh?” Aside from all of the big, obvious problems – the long lines, the inability to stop thinking like a small convention when this is one of the biggest conventions out there, the ridiculously overpriced concessions, the fact that the whole thing may move to Anaheim, LA, or Vegas — no one really talks about whether news organizations should even be sending people like me to cover this stuff. Comic-Con started out for the fans, and then Hollywood got involved and tried to make all of the attendees fans of everything it could possibly get them to consume. And now, the event is such a big deal within the entertainment media that it sometimes seems as though the studios are using it to sneak a virus out to the public at large, just another bit of marketing in the long march toward a big opening weekend, but a form of marketing that we haven’t yet built up a resistance to, like billboards or TV commercials.

So much that happens at SDCC is obviously canned. After the show a few people told us that the kid who asked Ryan Reynolds to recite the Green Lantern oath (above) was a plant — a notion supported by all the videos of the event staying up on YouTube.
Lesson #5: If you came for a spectacle, you came to the right place.

Everyone was talking about the throne in the Marvel booth, the actual Odin’s Throne set from the upcoming Thor movie. It was Disney-esque in so many ways – from its forced perspective, to the way they only opened the doors behind it at certain times—kinda like the way the Pope only opens the holy doors at the Basilica once every 25 years, for Jubilee. (Why the Pope is an X-Men fan is not clear, but it probably had something to do with Milo Manara’s X-women.) It created great spectacle and interest as people tried to sit in it, and brought the razzle dazzle of moviemaking right into the comics booth. (Marvel did something like it last year with the Iron Man armor, but this was way bigger.)

On the other hand, the movie prop associated with a DC movie – the corpse of proto Green Lantern Abin Sur in a glass case – was located in the Warner Bros. booth, not at DC. Given the level of traffic at the DC booth, adding movie props to the scrum is probably not a great idea, but what with moving to Burbank and all, it’s getting more and more likely.

Lesson #6: Protect yourself at all times

A few told me that this was a “jumping the shark” year for Comic-Con, and cited the “Hall H Stabber” as the defining moment of shark jumping. While it made for some excited tweeting, and excellent cosplay, the actual incident – as opposed to the blogging speculation about it – seems to have been quite minor, and the details have effectively been hushed up. Both the Stabber and the Stabbee must be the ONLY two people at Comic-Con who don’t have blogs, Facebook or Twitter accounts, and their identities – and even the extent of the injury that left the Stabber with a big splash of blood on his Harry Potter T-shirt – have not, to my knowledge, been expanded upon from initial police reports. As the police were eager to point out, Comic-Con remains a peace-loving, law-abiding creature, despite the crowds and tumult.

BUt you know, there is still much fun to be had, even if the purpose and execution of a successful Comic-Con evolve. DQ’s Peggy Burns for the defense:

Perhaps, I may be considered lucky, but despite all the craziness and sometimes utterly depressing fall of humanity-esque atmosphere that is witnessed, I like San Diego. I like comics. I like seeing friends. I like meeting new ones. I like meeting our fans. I like meeting the artists. I like the panels. I like the Eisners. I like the people who put on San Diego. While the floor did seem emptier than usual on Saturday and it would be great for the convention to figure out way to not sell every single pass six months beforehand, and perhaps stagger some releases of badges so that the casual fan of comics or someone who reads the press the convention generates, has at least a chance in hell to attend, we made our {modest} goal and enjoyed our time. So let’s get going.

Lesson #7: Always go to Ralphs.

ALWAYS. Crawl on bloody stumps if you must, but get yourself to Ralphs. Carrots for day, Jack Daniels for night. Motrin for the morning. So simple.

******

The conflicted feelings over which way to take Con — and whether it has “ruined Fandom” — is very much evident in other writings about the show. Here’s a gallery of views and voices:

Veteran retailer Chuck Rozanski is always worth reading. This year he apparently was featured in the Morgan Spurlock documentary, along with his assistant Ashley, and makes some interesting observations:

…everyone is walking around with cameras. At first blush that might not seem important, but an epiphany that struck me as I was walking through the media section (which was, once again, insanely crowded), was that the real motivation for many people to come to Comic-Con these days is to be able to post breaking news and photos to their personal social networking sites. I later confirmed my hypotheses by asking people what they were going to do with their snapshots and video streams. The irony is almost palpable when you realize that for a great many people who are in this building right now that their elevation is social status is no longer derived from actually owning cool items, but rather from being the first to be able to report that they’ve seen something cool. The media moguls seem well aware of this trend, so they are doing their very best to try and motivate fans to take as many photos as possible of their new projects, in the hope at they will then go viral on the Internet. As crazy as it may sound, this sharing of information (and the bragging rights to being able to be the first to report to their peer group) has become more important to many people than scoring free stuff.

First timer Van Jensen had a bit of Con-pocalypse:

Tangentially: Comic-Con clearly isn’t a comics show anymore, and it’s a little saddening to think that I never experienced it in that form. Now it’s an insanely crowded typhoon of promotion, with pretty well every media entity exhaling every piece of nerdery they can. And the bulk of those trapped in the typhoon are those who want to see celebrities, who want to sit on a prop Odin’s throne, who want to stab someone in the eye over the right to watch Harrison Ford talk about whatever Harrison Ford talks about nowadays.

As far as comics goes, the show is increasingly not the great sales event it once was (just ask any retailer or publisher). And it’s not a great opportunity for promotion unless you have a movie coming out (just ask me). With the show’s organizers pondering the next stage of Comic-Con’s evolution (to L.A.?), I would hope they sit down and simply ask what they want the show to be. And if they want it to remain in some significant way a comics show, they need to figure out how to make it worthwhile for the smaller publishers to handle the ever-rising cost associated with attending.

Mark Evanier marvels, as we so often do at just how well it all works:

I continue to be amazed at how little goes wrong at these conventions. I’ve been going to cons, good and bad, for four decades now and I think I know a little about how difficult they are to organize and how many disasters can occur. Even when things go wrong at Comic-Con International, the crew knows what to do, how to do it, how to keep things running smoothly. That was one thing that was often on my mind this year. Another was a new (to me) way of looking at the attendees…

BTW it’s time once again to recognize the fact that the Comic-Con staff does a fantastic job making sure everything runs smoothly every year. This time security did their job with a minimum of fuss and hassle, and just being on the floor wasn’t a struggle against a totalitarian society.

Equanimous Eric Reynolds also had a good time despite it all and even managed to find a whole steak:

That said, I kept telling folks all weekend that even though it’s in my nature to complain, I had almost nothing to complain about in regard to this year’s show (which I realize makes for a boring con postmortem). Yes, I find it weirdly condescending and annoying that every retail worker in downtown San Diego now seems to wear some generic comics-related t-shirts or capes for five days straight (especially when you know they’re being forced to do it and probably resent it every bit as much). But so be it. When I go to a nice restaurant downtown, I can promise you that I’m not so hungry to relive my day on the floor that I need Green Lantern-themed cocktails or steaks named after the wild creatures of Pandora. But I will be famished enough to forgive it.

Warren Ellis had a few thoughts on the side of Hall H that most will never see.

I’ve already linked to the Videogum guy’s moaning about how shit Comic-con is; of course, I’m secretly happy that the whiny hipsters who just started coming had a crap time, doused with the stench of entitlement. But I think they also caught onto the baffling mystery behind the whole enterprise:

Perhaps I’m not the intended audience for Comic-Con, and that’s fine, but my question, then, would be WHO IS?! I certainly understand feelings of alienation, and the thrill of finding a place where people accept you as you are, but that doesn’t really seem to be what this is about. What this is about is shoving endless promotional materials for uninspired and/or unnecessary nonsense into increasingly large branded gift bags. If you would like to know how it feels to be at Comic-Con it feels like you are a door, and people won’t stop shoving fliers under you. A door saddled with oversized garbage bags.

Sean T. Collins has a “when they came for Trina Robbins I said nothing!” type epiphany right on the interweb:

I guess what I’m saying is that in retrospect, I should have stuck a big fat caveat lector atop my dismissal of the post-show pique that flares up after each year’s Con. Don’t get me wrong, I do think a lot of that stuff really is just pique (and pandering for hits). And in fairness to myself, whenever I talk to people who haven’t been to the show, I warn them that there are lots of people who are just not constitutionally suited to that level of crowd and media and visual overload, so it’s not like I’m totally head-in-the-clouds about the inhospitability of the show for some people. But I’ve been far too willing to ignore the fact that there are people with perfectly reasonable and even noble expectations for the show for whom those expectations are now going unmet.

Even movie people — like this writer from Slash/film — were disgusted by the marketing:

That Comic-Con is quickly become a marketing maelstrom is news to no one, but this year the marketing flaks were even more aggressive than usual. It was especially bad at the 5th Avenue streetcar crossing that separates the Convention Center from downtown San Diego. Perhaps because it’s such a bottleneck for foot traffic, many TV and movie marketing teams decided to camp out right at the crossing and try everything in their power to make con-goers notice them.

They would usually just hand out a small piece of marketing fluff, but more than once they continued to badger me and others even after we declined their crap. The marketers also had the bad habit of jumping right in your way as you moved back and forth from the convention center, making the already-packed crossing even more tortuous.

In the wake of this year’s marketing-fest, the very nature of nerd-dom is being debated. This fine piece in New York magazine lays out the terrain: How Fanboy Obsessions Became the Pop-Culture Norm. Over at Techland, Lev Grossman, Wil Wheaton and Douglas Wolk also argue the nature of fandom. Is Comic-Con Really Hurting Nerd Culture? asks Wheaton before concluding “No!”

Grossman, on the other hand, had a crap time:

Comic-Con is hurting nerd culture, in a broad and systemic and probably permanent way. Nerd culture is a counter-culture, and counter-cultures can die; in fact if there’s one thing late-stage capitalism is good at, it’s co-opting and killing counter-cultures. Viz. punk, the 60’s, etc.

Douglas sensibly splits the needle and suggests that everyone have a place to sit down.

My own convention was middling. I had some great moments of serendipity, got to see a few old friends, fleetingly, met a few of my idols, had some good meals towards the end of the show. Kate and Torsten did a fantastic job manning ground control, but I had a lot of on-site tech issues that left me more frustrated than anything with my own coverage. The days when one person could cover Comic-con are long gone. I mean, I can cover MY Comic-Con, but isn’t that what Twitter is for?

I have some more observations and suggestions but even though this already took a week and no one cares any more, those will have to come out tomorrow.

[Bloody Eye logo by Nathan Schreiber. Hall H stabber perp photo by Frank Patz.]

By Shannon O’Leary, Entertainment Editor

Last week I said I’d turn in a late True Blood Recap after I got back from Comic Con. Last week I hadn’t actually gone to Comic Con yet.   Going to Comic Con this year was not unlike attending The Fall of Saigon. It was a crowded combat zone littered with hundreds of thousands of nerds elbowing each other out of the way so they could get their pop culture freak on until one of them got stabbed in the face with a pen!

I’m not saying it wasn’t fun. I had a blast! But after all that madness, chaos and immersive viral marketing I just don’t have it in me to properly recap the sixth episode of Season Three: I Got A Right To Sing The Blues. Sorry to not live up to my commitments to you, the fang faithful, but I’ve been to war and back and I’m going to save my recapping jujitsu for episode seven on Sunday. What I can do now is tell you a little war story.

It started off on the 2^nd day (for me) of the con. On Friday morning, I waited in line for an ungodly amount of time to get into Ballroom 20 to see, among others, the True Blood panel. I was not alone. I was there with hearty individuals like my new friend, Jennifer, who kindly held my place in line while I got a coke and a grody overpriced bagel dog. She was good peeps. And she had her peeps (who’d waited in line since 8:00 AM just to see the cast and creators of True Blood) save me a seat on the inside.

Jennifer (left) and her friends waiting for the SDCC 2010 True Blood panel to start after waiting in lines for hours to get in

The panel itself turned out to be well worth waiting for. Series creator, Alan Ball, was there along with Charlaine Harris, writer of the Sookie Stackhouse series, and cast members Nelsan Ellis (Lafeyette!), Sam Trammell (Sam Merlotte), Rutina Wesley (Tara Thornton), Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica Hamby), Kristin Bauer van Straten (Pam), Denis O’Hare (Russell Edington), Joe Manganiello (Alcide), Stephen Moyer (Bill Compton), and Anna Paquin (Sookie Stackhouse). Bauer Van Straten immediately lightened the mood up, showing how she makes the character of Pam such a fan favorite by saying, “Hello, Daddy,” when Paquin and Moyer dragged out a cardboard cutout of Alexander Skarsgard.

Sookie and Bill place a cardboard cutout of Eric next to Alcide and Sookie Stackhouse Series Charlaine Harris

You could tell the cast had an easy familiarity with each other. They all seemed to be having an easy going, good time together. Except for Nelsan Ellis, who seemed a little tired and recalcitrant, but, good god, Comic Con could do that to anyone and he must’ve had people up on his jock left and right during their ubiquitous Con PR blitz.

Pam (left) was sassy, Jessica was lovely, while Lafayette seemed tired but dutiful

(WARNING SPOILER ALERT: If you have not read the Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris and want to stay surprised, you might not want to read the following paragraph)Other highlights included revelations by Harris and Ball of where the story’s going, although they didn’t reveal much and panel attendees had to read between the lines. Most interesting was how Harris said that True Blood and the Sookie Stackhouse books are “two different entertainment experiences” and that “things won’t wind up the same way in Alan’s world” as in her’s. Although both let slip that Season Four will be following the plot line of book number four of the Sookie Stackhouse books, Dead to the World, when Eric gets a bout of wicked spell induced amnesia and Sookie nurses him back to health without even a sexy nurse’s costume on. They also said True Blood will be picking up a lot of the witchy poo storylines from the books – which I think will be done a good turn by Alan Ball and company.

It’s interesting to think of True Blood as a massive scale fan fic take on the Sookie Stackhouse series though. Another juicy revelation from Ball and Harris concerned Sookie’s love life, although ultimately either said they would reveal NOTHING about how either story winds up. Harris would say only that Sookie never becomes a vampire in her series but she wouldn’t breathe a word about who steals Sookie’s heart in the end. Although I haven’t read the latest Sookie Stackhouse book yet (I’m waiting till this season of True Blood ends and I need a good fix), I think the writings on the wall for her and Eric.

Author Charlaine Harris (right) looks over at hot hunk of werewolf Alcide

As far as who winds up with Sookie on the show, Ball dropped major hints when he said that he believes Sookie and Bill are “soulmates” and that he’s “rooting for things to work out with them.” He went on to say that “the Sookie and Bill of the show are very different than the Sookie and Bill of the books.” Ball also talked about my own personal VILF, Franklin Mott’s, character evolution on the show (although given last week’s episode, had I not heard this, I’d have major questions about his immortality). He said that Franklin’s “a psychopath” and that the writers were going to “luxuriously luxuriate in the nature of his psychopathology” going forward.

Sookie and Bill, soulmates IRL, and according to Alan Ball, on the show as well

Ball, Harris and the cast sure did have a lot of fun with the audience question portion of the panel. Some intriguing tidbits that came out during the Q & A were that Manganiello’s Alcide has just become an official series’ regular. Apparently, Manganiello just inked the deal with Ball et al right before Comic Con. Also interesting was when a fan asked if Harris’ popular Bubba character from the books would appear on True Blood. Ball at first said that there’s no one who could convincingly play the character who, as readers of the series know, is Elvis Presley after being bitten and turned into a vamp but then Trammel chimed in and noted that Bruce Campbell would be good casting (to rapturous applause from the audience). But one of the best fan questions was, “what vampire stories do you guys like?” Both Ball and Ellis said they loved Let the Right One In and to my pleasant surprise, Ball said that he loved the movie Near Dark. I’ve always thought the show was quite similar to that movie and was happy to hear it’s an influence on the series after noting numerous similarities. Ball also touchingly revealed in answer to the question of why he writes so many stories about death is that he suspects it’s because he lived through the AIDS epidemic of the gay community in the late eighties and early nineties. Also touching, was when Ball thanked a humble and sweet-natured Harris for creating the series and giving him his “favorite job ever” at the close of the panel.

That was nowhere near the end of my True Blood experience at Comic Con however. Look who I saw right outside Ballroom 20!

Mein Godric

Godric Lives!

I also heard it on good authority that at least one True Blood cast member was running around Comic Con engaging in cosplay to keep from getting recognized. Word had it that it did them no good and as they were soon mobbed by fans and recognized and had to flee the scene. The show was beyond everywhere at SDCC so I can’t imagine that any of them were able to go anywhere except under cover of armed guard. I did however, have this interesting sighting when I was over the Top Shelf booth on Saturday picking up a copy of Ax Volume 1, the alternative Japanese Manga anthology edited by the imminently charming Sean Michael Wilson.

Michael McMillian as Pastor Steve Newlin in True Blood's Season Two episode, Timebomb

McMillian penned the Archaia comics mini series, Lucid, which previewed at the Con (and will be coming to a comic book store near you in August). Chris hinted that McMillian will be coming back as Newlin for later episodes which should come as no surprise to anyone since he was awesome on the show and Newlin appears later in the Sookie Stackhouse books. I’m sure Ball will continue to have all kinds of fun with that character.

Later I went with Andy Ristaino, sometime financial news journalist and full time animator and cartoonist to the Wired Lounge. Andy has been working on the popular new series, Adventure Time, for Cartoon Network and was signing copies of his new book, Escape From Dullsville, at the Slave Labor booth. Unfortunately, we weren’t there to see the True Blood cast in action serving up (what else) True Blood themed drinks. Apparently, they were there on Friday working the Merlotte’s themed bar.

A fangbanging waitress at the Merlotte's themed bar in the Wired Lounge

We got served by Merlotte’s fangbanging waitresses ourselves and generally had a good time there until we road down in the elevators. Andy has always been gripped by claustrophobic fear in elevators. It’s as if he’s being stalked..

And it turned his fears were not unfounded as it looked like he was about to be killed by Eric and possibly also by basically good werewolf, Alcide! I managed to get him out in the nick of time though before he was bitten.

Escaping the Omni's True Blood themed elevators in the nick of time

So as you can see from this rundown of just the True Blood portion of what I did at Comic Con, it was quite exhausting but definitely fun times. War can sometimes be like that, man, and then afterwards you have to recover as far away from civilization and loud noises as possible. Which is exactly what I’m doing right now, so this Sunday I’ll be able to recap like a fucking champ.

As far as last week’s episode went, I liked it quite a bit and am again sorry (for me and you) that I just didn’t have it in me to get all recappy on it this week. In particular I loved Talbot going off on Russell, I loved Eric getting gay on Russell and Talbot as a political strategy, I loved Bill and Lorena’s freaky scene in the barn, I loved Sookie and Tara escaping from the King’s manse and loved, loved, loved Lafayette and Jesus kicking the Hot Shot gaybashers asses. I even started liking the shapeshifter wacky family storyline a bit. But who knows if I’ll be giving them the same goodwill in episode seven. I’m eager to find out though. Talk at you then.

As images of SD10 filter out, the defining one has yet to manifest itself, but in this image of a woman helping her Iron Man-themed friend pee into a bottle, we have a fetish-palooza: water sports, mascots, bondage, superheroes. No wonder Comic-Con is all things to all people. But the one message that this image inspires is the one that all of Con should remember: friendship. When a costume restricts arm motion to the point you can’t unzip your fly, may you always have a buddy to hold the bottle, if you know what we mean.

With little fanfare, right under the noses of thousands of Comic-Con attendees, DC Comics, in partnership with Converse, announced the creation of five unique designs. (Literally. Most of the DC booth staffers were wearing the new designs last weekend.)

Available in September from Journeys, the line will feature five different designs based on the iconic Chuck Taylor All Star Hi-Top.

Journeys also offers an All Star shoe with a generic comics design.

For those who prefer a more light-hearted, youthful design, Converse has partnered with Dr. Seuss Enterprises and offers Seuss-inspired designs for both children and adults!

Visit the websites for more information and multiple viewpoints.