Here are all of my card pick ups (purchases and freebies) - I didn't see too much swag at all this year. The World's End promos weren't hard to get but involved a lot of walking.
____________________ "For a universe that's supposed to be half Chinese, Firefly sure doesn't have any Asians." -- The Uncomfortable Truths Well
Posts: 1562 | Location: Milwaukee, WI | Registered: November 27, 2002
So what excited the people the most from SDCC? Marvel's announcement or DC's Batman/Superman movie that will be a sequel to this years Man of Steel? I thought Marvel blew DC out of the water to be honest. Sure a Batman/Superman movie will be interesting, but it seemed to be pretty desperate on WB's part.
Anyone make it to Orphan Black's or Veronica Mars' booth?
Posts: 860 | Location: Alaska | Registered: May 28, 2009
Originally posted by Chuck Bartowski: So what excited the people the most from SDCC? Marvel's announcement or DC's Batman/Superman movie that will be a sequel to this years Man of Steel? I thought Marvel blew DC out of the water to be honest. Sure a Batman/Superman movie will be interesting, but it seemed to be pretty desperate on WB's part.
Anyone make it to Orphan Black's or Veronica Mars' booth?
Highlights for me were meeting up with people like NL, Ace of Hearts, Dane Ault and Ashleigh Popplewell who (up until now) I had only dealt with online. Always great to catch up with Paul Hart, Jeff Allendar, Tom Breyer and TWS as well. I also managed to meet and get a sketch from Lilo and Stich artist/creator Chris Sanders. I've posted a ton of photos on my Facebook page, will start posting some here when I get a chance.
Originally posted by Chuck Bartowski: Anyone make it to Orphan Black's or Veronica Mars' booth?
VM was part of the WB booth, and other than the signing, I didn't see anything going on there. Same thing with Orphan Black - part of the BBC booth, which is almost exclusively focused on Doctor Who.
____________________ "For a universe that's supposed to be half Chinese, Firefly sure doesn't have any Asians." -- The Uncomfortable Truths Well
Posts: 1562 | Location: Milwaukee, WI | Registered: November 27, 2002
We only went on Thursday and Sunday, so it was another quick 15 hours or so in the grand hall, and while my feet were glad when it was over, I was still buzzing on Monday, which I always take off from work just to decompress (and go through all the goodies).
Bill Plympton and Sergio Aragones are two of my favorite artists so I always check in with them and usually get something amazing, no exception this time. I got an uncut sheet of the rare 1995 Groo set chase cards from Sergio, autographed and with a little sketch on it, and a cool "Mallow" figurine from Plympton on which he drew a cool caricature of a funny face I was making for the occasion. The fastest artists just might also be the friendliest!
Cards wise, I got X-Men Ultra I & II, the Batman 1966 Topps Reissue factory set, Superman 1978 series II (with Stickers) and some nice chase cards and promos for about $60
Picked up the Rittenhouse Promo set and the Mars Attacks #0 card, along with some other promos.
Got 16 random Marvel Masterpieces sketch cards for $160, including a Sanna U. Rachel Summers anime pinup variety.
Visited Tom and Julio and picked up the knockout Optispex card sets for American Horror Story & Dexter and 4 of the DAWN Sketch packs. Again insisted to Tom that "Twin Peaks" would make a great set! However, should it never happen, I defer to the experts, naturally.
In terms of the panels one could attend, we were able to sit for an hour each with the casts of three of our favorite TV shows:
Dexter, Community, & Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
There were clips and lots of entertaining audience questions in all three panels, but Dexter was a particularly heady affair as they'd only just finished shooting the finale last week, and the actors, especially Jennifer Carpenter who plays Deb, were still pretty emotional. Jennifer and Deb were a little hard to tell apart at times, although for some bizarre reason, it was a "PG-13" panel which a couple of actors mentioned, so not a single cuss word was uttered, not one. The audience in the hall basically begged Sgt. Doakes (Erik King) to say his catch phrase, which contains an expletive (it starts with "Surprise" and ends with an "er!", for those who don't know it) but he wouldn't, although he seemed tempted. He just pointed to his shirt which had the famous phrase, but censored, printed on it. That must've been some trick for Jennifer Carpenter not to curse, still being kind of wrapped up in the Deb character, as salty as she is with language on the series. Dexter is set for a great serie finale and the actors seemed guardedly pleased with what they've got in the can, although all were tight-lipped about it, as you'd expect. Yvonne Strahovski who plays the poison flower lady accidentally said that her character was back for revenge, not love, but that may have just come out wrong. She was very embarrassed, and man, I never watched "Chuck", but I see why people like her so much, she is a cutie. Jennifer Carpenter said she wants, wanted, and will always want her character Deb to die at the end of the series, so you can read into that whatever you'd like. She did kind of clarify by saying that she meant if Deb was dead, she'd never have to think of the character again, and just be able to put it away, knowing that she knew the full story of Deb. Really good stuff, and Michael C. Hall, who has, surprise, a dark sense of humor also got off a couple of pretty good one-liners, as he is known to do. To blow off steam in real life, he said he does everything Dexter does preparing for a kill, but once he has someone on his table, he just "tickles" them instead.
The quick list of celebrities we spotted on the floor in close proximity to us for the ten hours or so we traversed across its vast and wild regions were: Tom Hiddleston who plays Loki in Thor, Brent Spiner, Sean Astin of "LOTR", Evangeline Lilly from "Lost", John Barrowman of Torchwood, and a couple more, I'm sure.
Purchased a signed Lost Girls hardcover by Alan Moore to support the CBLDF and the Overstreet Guide with the HERO exclusive cover to support that outstanding charity organization. (Pretty easy to lend a hand when you get such great stuff!)
Seeing Simpsons creator Matt Groening at the Bongo Booth is usually a highlight for us, but we missed him this year. Still picked up the usual Simpsons exclusives like the Mr. Burns/Professor Frink Comic-Con exclusive cover, and the Futurama Girls pinup calendar. From Acme Archives, I bought a beautiful Comic Book Guy lithograph.
On the Books front, I got an advance copy of Star Trek the Topps 1976 Card series (done in the style of the recent Wacky Packs and GPK books) and it is an absolute thing of beauty. Run, don't walk, to pre-order this book which comes out later this year, if you are a Star Trek Original series fan. It includes four actual cards, just like the other books, and these are done in the style of 1976 Topps Star Trek cards and for the first time feature Sulu on them. He'd been absent from the original 1976 set for whatever reason.
Abrams Comic-Arts, the publishers of those books, also had a similar format book celebrating Topps Bazooka Joe Bubble Gum comics. It was published earlier this year, but here was offered in an exclusive Comic Con signed edition with EIGHT autographs including sigs from Mars Attacks co-creator Len Brown and master cartoonists Jay Lynch and Bhob Stewart, among others. There are so many autographs, there's a signed plate on the front end page and another on the back end page.
Thank you for these books, Abrams, every single one is incredible. It's time to do Star Wars I think, perhaps a 5 book slipcased lot for the original 1977-78 cards each with 4 new cards in the style of the originals, so it'd be a set of 20 new cards with every complete set. Since the single books retail for $20, they could probably sell something like that for well under $100 at pre-order.
Finally, I was happy to run into a couple of old friends I never see anymore, and later, I thought for a minute about when I used to go Dave Stevens' booth and how cool he was, back when the place was smaller and just comics, and when we parked where Hall H is now. I marveled at the line for a Jim Lee sketch or autograph and then thought of all the artists in the small press area all trying to break through. Some will, many won't, but keep trying, guys and gals, and maybe people will need a ticket for your signing someday, too.
There are people in amazing and thoughtful costumes and some not executed as well, but they all wear them the same way, proudly and happy to stop for pictures from anyone who wants one. There are kids everywhere, a lot of them reading. It warms my heart to see that these days.
Perhaps best of all was when we saw a young woman overcome with tears of joy when they packed Hall H just a little tighter to let about in about 15 more people just in time for the Doctor Who panel to start. She and her boyfriend were at the very front of the enormous line they'd been in for hours at that point, only to be stopped just moments before being allowed entry into the hall, so close and yet so far. Both were dressed as Dr. Who characters and it was great to see them make it into the hall, after all.
There is so much you can see, if only you know where to look for it, and Comic-Con is such an astonishing and varied collection of people by now, I could've spent a week there. The stuff I've mentioned is a very tiny fraction of what goes on. It's not what it was before, but back then, it wasn't what it is now. Both versions and all before and in between are all the same: amazing. If you can ever get there, even for a day, do it. If you can't find something that appeals to the kid, fan, or collector in you within its steadily expanding walls, it's probably time to check your breath on a mirror.This message has been edited. Last edited by: chesspieceface,
____________________ Everywhere around this burg they're running out of verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. Everywhere around this town, they're running out of nouns.
Posts: 3384 | Location: California | Registered: December 23, 2007
We have the first of a few show reports from Comic-Con on the blog today. Laura ("WandringRebel") has done these for us. There's a fairly substantial photo gallery with each. Today's report focuses on what was happening outside of the Convention Center...Smurfs, Falling Skies, Spider-Man 2, LEGO's, Once Upon A Time, and more. Another report should be up tomorrow morning about stuff going on inside the Convention Center and you'll see a few familiar faces like Tom Breyer and TWS.
