Whew! What day is it? Where am I? Who am I? Did anyone get the license plate of that convention that just went by?
I just spent Saturday and Sunday in the company of a few tens of thousands of fellow fans at Dragon*Con 2010 and I think I'm finally ready to lift the cucumber slices from my eyes and dish about the best and worst of Dragon*Con. I didn't get to do a lot of comic book stuff this weekend - Dragon*Con is so wonderfully/woefully diverse in its topics that any given corner of fandom is constantly in danger of being lost in a sea of other ways to get one's geek on - I did get to see a ton of stuff: animated short films, a panel on the future of pen and paper roleplaying games (I keep a set of d20 dice in my messenger bag at all times, no lie), a magic show by Brian Brushwood, most of the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 talking about the early days of the show, Farscape's Virginia Hey and Raelee Hill, Adam Savage of Mythbusters, a cosplay parade, Peter David live and in person and the fabulous Rainbow Flag Party thrown by OutlantaCon and the Brit Track from Dragon*Con 2010. I mean, sure, I wanted to go to the Stan Lee talks but as it turned out so did everyone else in our half of the galaxy. Sorry, Stan, but no amount of X-Men love can make me skip a day's worth of events to stand in line for that one. Instead, I have a hundred other topics to discuss.
Just a quick note to remind any readers who are attending Dragon*Con this weekend that OutlantaCon and the Brit Track are throwing a queer-targeted Rainbow Flag Party on Saturday night from 10pm to 12:30am. From the pocket guide it looks like that happens in the Sheraton but honestly I am not sure that I have quite worked out how to read this thing. I'll be wearing a nametag with my nom de plume and a black shirt. I know, I know, it's shockingly original con wear but sometimes one must simply pick a stereotype and lean into it. Feel free to come hang out at the party, say hi and get your groove on. I'll also have access to email all weekend.
Maybe after we can stalk Peter David togetherstalk cute nerds together compare notes on the Dragon*Con experience!
Irony can be a powerful tool, as the anti-Westboro church demonstrators showed yesterday outside of SDCC, but Matt Fraction and his wife Kelly Sue DeConnick found a better way to cancel out Phelps' bigotry. Organized under the #godlovesbatman hashtag on twitter, the duo set up a pledge
...in the spirit of love, we are pledging to donate $50 to amfAR if Phelps and his crew actually show up (often they don't) and $10 an hour additional to amfAR for every hour they stay. And we'll make our donation in Fred's name.
Frankly, the politest kick in the nuts I've ever seen, as it essentially turns the protest into money earned toward a cause he opposes, like AIDS reseach. Phelps and crew ended up making a poor show of it anyway, ditching the San Diego streetside in under an hour, presumably to wash off the smell of defeat by Bender's shiny metal ass. Truer to their word, the couple made up for the church's rather limp appearance with a $100 donation each to amfAR. The noble endeavor is still taking personal donations, and acts of kindness done in the name of the project should continue regardless of Phelps' presence. If you want to find a way to help, or to check out recommended funds, check Kelly Sue's blog for details.
Hallmark never quite did it for me. Which explains why I've consistently stuck with macaroni-and-glue Valentine's Cards since kindergarten. But this year's different. I've got the Batman & Robin Comic Generator. Well, okay, using a corporate preprocessed image and applying your own supposed beautiful and unique words doesn't stray very far from Hallmark, but it's sure to be cheaper.
This Valentine's Day, say it with love. Say it with a Bat-slap to the face.
I'm a big fan of Chris Sims' writing about comics. His slight obsession with absurd Batman panels makes me a little hot for him, so maybe I'm prejudiced, but I think he's a funny guy. Today he posted to Comics Alliance a list of Super-Hero Missed Connections ads that really and deeply amuse me. Well, OK, the one about Lobo? Enh, but I'm kind of reflexively that way about anything involving Lobo.
On his own blog, Sims links to the inspiration for them: a hilarious parody screenshot of a Gotham City Craigslist page done by Kevin Church.
I'm a big fan of any work that explores the more pedestrian, everyday corners of otherwise fantastical settings such as these - yes, I liked the first part of Gotham Knight best of all - and some of these are a perfect example of that: Bowser wants a friend, Adam Strange wants a day off from planet-saving, Batman wants at long last to have a good word with Catwoman. Anything that relies on the notion super-heroes are really just people after all will align nicely with my own entertainment tastes, as these mostly do.
Spider-Man, Turn Off The Dark, discussed here in an earlier post and possessing what is surely one of the world's strangest titles, was originally scheduled to begin previews on 25 February of this year. A news release being reported today states that they're scratching that as their start date but that an opening this year is still planned. Given the huge names involved, I'd be awfully disappointed if this ran into problems but it certainly wouldn't be the first big weird idea to have trouble or delays reaching the stage.
It's worth noting that the "Buy Tickets" link on the musical's site is still live but following it still takes one to the site where American Express members can pre-order tickets for the very previews that have theoretically just been canceled.
I'd probably use this as a chance to discuss the widely-reported implosion of the existing Spider-Man film franchise, but honestly I'm a little too excited about that. For one thing, Spider-Man 3 was a dog of a film; for another, I went to a speaking and signing event when Bruce Campbell's memoir (If Chins Could Kill) was released. Someone in the crowd asked him if there were plans to do an Evil Dead 4 now that Raimi had such weight in Hollywood and Campbell's response was, "If you can convince Sam to do Evil Dead 4 instead of doing Spider-Man 2, be my guest."
So, with that in mind, maybe now is the perfect time for Raimi to return to his roots.
In observation and celebration of DC's 75th anniversary a line of DC-related & -inspired designer merch is hitting the shelves at Bloomingdale's. As a fan of Batman and a student of Japanese I have a particular appreciation for the Batman shirts that include "Bato-man" in Katakana. The hottie in the picture is purely a coincidence and in no way influenced my selection, I assure you, especially if you're my boyfriend.
Apparently there's a launch event featuring sales and cocktails at Bloomingdale's brick and mortar stores on Wednesday night. If you live out of range of a physical store, as I do, the DC goods are also available on their website.
Minor technical issue over the weekend. So let's pretend it's still the end of the week and you're ready for the wrap-up from your friendly gator ally. Let's see what he has for us this week.
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BAM! ... Let's end the week by starting at Cracked.com and one of their more highbrow lists (of course given it's Cracked, that bar isn't exactly all that high). They're counting down the Six Most Insane Moral Panics in American History. Good old comic books start off the list at #6 talking about Frederic Wertham and his book Seduction of the Innocent. Comes with a nifty image of Batman kissing Robin to complete your collection.
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BAM! ... Did you ever wonder what it would be like to read your hero's favorite blog? Would Spider-Man have a Twitter account? Would the White Queen be banned from Blogspot for posting inappropriate photographs? The Bulletproof Vest blog answers some of these questions by giving us a glimpse of the heroes on the internet.
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BAM! ... Chris's Invincible Super Blog points out one of the strangest cover blurbs I've seen to date. It's also one of the most honest ones I've ever seen too.
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Regardless of your religion (or in cases such as I, lack thereof), enjoy today for the sales stores will invariably have, the plentiful chocolate abound an not feeling guilty at all about not seeing your extended family (or wallowing in agony if you weren't as lucky as I was).
Review: Avengers: The Children's Crusade #1
I literally clapped my hands together and said OhMyGodYesssss when the friendly staff member at my regular shop held this book out to hand it to me. Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung finally - finally - return to this title with a nine issue limited series. I will spare you paragraphs of pontification and cut to the chase: it's not just good, it's the best thing Marvel has going, period. Read on for the pontification and petty quibbles!...
