Emerald City Comic Con 2012: Top 5 Highlights
We booked our hotel and registered our tickets for Emerald City Comic Con 2012 months ago. I was especially excited about the prospect of meeting Katee Sackhoff AND Edward James Olmos, so I didn’t spend much time prior to the convention planning or even reviewing the comic book guests. Decided to use this as my pop culture/media frenzy event for the year. A few weeks ago when Sackhoff cancelled her appearance due to acting engagements, I was more than a little bummed. Still excited to meet Edward James Olmos, but was *this* close to having both those items crossed off my nerd bucket list.
With considerably less enthusiasm, I downloaded the Guidebook App and went through their schedule of events, plotting out a handful of interesting looking panels. I think we averaged about one panel a day, but again – they were mostly for media guests so you won’t find any breaking news items here.
Top 5 Highlights from Emerald City Comic Con 2012:
5. Ready Player One Panel. For me was the most interesting panel we attended because the author of the book series, Ernest Cline, not only discussed his enduring love for Star Wars but the Hollywood process behind the making of his original screenplay Fanboys and the years long journey to publish “Ready Player One” which has now been optioned for the big screen. We didn’t stay for the Q&A session, but he delivered an inspiring few sentences on the writing process which have given me a long, hard look at my novel.
Ernest Cline, Author of Ready Player One
4. Meeting Wil Wheaton and Witnessing his Awesome Hour. In which he plugged his table-top gaming series on Felicia Day‘s recently released Geek and Sundry YouTube Channel. I’m certain Dan and I will check it out. He also wrote a book Memories From The Future, Volume 1 about his experience with the first season of Star Trek The Next Generation we will hunt down as well. He was very gracious when we snapped pictures and was super complimentary about my tattoo.
Mindy, Wil Wheaton, and Dan
X-Men Nonsense: No Patch For You
So I woke up last week with this brilliant idea to make an X-Men: First Class track jacket by obtaining an Iron-On Patch and augmenting an article of clothing. And then in the shuffle of the weekend and getting ready for the weekend, it was lost. Only to be resurrected yesterday with the idea that I could easily locate an “Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters” patch in Portland, Oregon.
Like THIS
Because it is, after all, Portland Oregon. The home of Dark Horse Comics and Oni Press. Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Greg Rucka, Scott Allie. You know – it’s kind of like comic book heaven. And at all the conventions, there were patches galore. So OF COURSE one of our 10 or so comic book stores in the Portland Metro area would carry them.
Right? Right?
Dead fucking wrong. After spending an hour yesterday calling around to all of our local comic book stores, toy and hobby shops – I came up with nothing. The only place remotely close to PDX is in Everett, Washington. That’s about an hour North of Seattle. So my only alternative was to drive four hours away or try and convince someone to air-mail it to me. Neither option was feasible. For an Iron-On Patch.
Guess that means I’m not especially nerdy?
So then it occurred to my feeble, yet sometimes winning brain that I should make one of my own. I mean, I can knit. I can sew. How hard could it be to create a patch?
Turns out – not that difficult. The hardest part so far has been in obtaining a usable image of the symbol I want. Tonight I will procure the right kind of iron-on transfer paper for our Photosmart printer and test-run an old shirt. Then I will apply it to an item I intend to wear. Target has shirts for $8, so in the very least I’ll be able to sport an X-Shirt.
To avoid further embarrassments such as this in the future – Dan and I purchased THREE X-Patches from some shop in the UK. They are flying across the Atlantic Ocean and across the country as we speak. There is something exceptionally nerdy about getting packages from foreign countries. I kinda love it.
Halloween Hinjinks: The Walking Dead and Music Playlist
Halloween weekend was chock full of hijinks – and the topper of the weekend was The Walking Dead television premier at the Baghdad Theatre in Portland, Oregon. 600+ Zombie fans crammed into the ornate location for a costume contest, raffle and unveiling of the episode. This is the first time I’ve watched television with hundreds of people, so it was actually quite thrilling to listen to the roar of chatter during the commercials. We were warned about talking during the episode, so when the show started – the theater became quiet enough that you could hear the rustling of people in the first few bottom rows from the upper levels of the balcony.
The costumes were pretty fantastic. We missed getting pictures of Chairface (The Tick) but there were dozens of other people who really dressed for the occasion.
Check out the pictures we snapped here, as well as some from our Halloween party:
Another highlight of the weekend was getting to air out the massive playlist of Halloween-y songs I’d been preparing all throughout October. It ended up being about six hours long (three hours of ambient, three hours of dance).
The Top 20 Tracks from each are listed here.
Comic Book Catch-Up: The Peter David Edition
The reviews have been sparse the last few weeks as I’ve been catching up on at least a years worth of several series I follow. You all know of my passion for Peter David books, so the first batch of catch-up I’ve done is with his titles specifically. So, let’s get this party started right…
SHE-HULK: Peter David Style
As promised earlier this month, I’ve been really making an effort at finding a non-mutant female superheroine to follow in a regular monthly series. She-Hulk, as penned by Peter David, seemed like it was built of instant win. Not so. Ever since a conversation with comic book sage, Hisham, it’s been quite impossible for me not to see how meta his writing becomes at times. I dig his sense of humor, but it was not jiving well with the She-Hulk I remember from earlier days.
I read an issue with her as a respected lawyer, struggling with balancing work, superhero duties and a relationship. Seems pretty relatable. Unfortunately for this new direction – Bounty Hunter She-Hulk has too many throw-backs to a lame reality TV show I’ve watched a few episodes of. And it confusingly includes a Skrull woman who assumes her identity. They live in a trailer park and roll around in an RV. I dunno, nothing about it really sung off the pages for me. I gave the trade paperback the first 20 pages and then honestly couldn’t press myself further. But I tried, alright? I really did.
FALLEN ANGEL – To Live and Die in Bette
The first of the three Fallen Angel TPBs – Red Horse Riding – opens with a young boy being able to pass in and out of Bette Noire in his sleep. He witnesses the start of the war between good and evil being waged there (or perhaps, evil and more evil?). By the conclusion of the book, Jubal (son of the previous evil magistrate) has successfully deprived his 1/2 brother Jude of the title of Magistrate, and is in control of the City that shapes the world. Except he’s a freaking all-powerful demon now. So, that sucks.
The next book, Cities of Light and Dark has to do with Black Mariah, Jude and Liandra (who escaped) chumming about in the real world, attempting to find someway back to Bette Noire to reverse all the bad mojo and dethrone Jubal. They make it to one of the other cities (apparently there are four), but on the way crash an airplane, battle a shark, and jump into a volcano. Which of those three things screams moody noir to you? Oh right, none of them. Hmph.
Long story short – they win the battle and then, Illyria from the Whedonverse shows up and wants to kill Liandra (cause the Powers That Be asked her to). They go on a magical journey to find three instruments of power Illyria needs to retain her God form, but in the end she is convinced that being in Fred’s body ain’t so bad.
No single part of these elements is stand-alone awful, it just isn’t resonating with me. The first few TPBs were mystical, ethereal and fairly low on the camp, cheese and witty back-and-forth.
The entire series feels so uneven at this point. The concept is great, and the world David’s created is intensely fascinating, but I feel like its floundering. Personally, I could do without the “special guests.” Unless they really fit with the story, and the universe…I don’t want them there. Despite it’s flaws, I’m still attracted to the series and will continue to follow where Mr. David leads.
X-Men Tattoos
In checking my WordPress stats, I see a common search term coming up over and over again. So, in recognition of people searching for X-Men Tattoos (a really arduous process requiring some patience)…I’m posting this here blog filled with pretty pictures and links to their origins. Hopefully it will be a helpful compilation!
Tattoo 1: X-Symbol
Tattoo 2: Rogue
Tattoo 3: Phoenix/Jean-Grey
Tattoo 4: Gambit and Rogue
Tattoo 5: Wolverine
NEW Wolverine: Origins Trailer
For those who giddily watched the Wolverine: Origins Trailer during the Watchmen previews, and squealed with fan delight – here is that trailer:
Pass this around to friends and loved ones. This might be one of the better X-Men movies yet made. It’s already high on my list because of the awesome scenes with Gambit.
X-Men Noir *drools*
Thanks to the ultra-amazing Sir Michael, I just got the skinny on a new series that will most assuredly be taking up residence in my comic box when it finally hits the shelves. It is X-Men Noir, and you can read all about it here.
Mmmm – have fun checking out this art:
I’m getting the impression I’m the last one in the Comic Universe to know about this.
Fred Van Lente is an unknown quantity to me, as is the illustrator Dennis Calero, but the idea is wicked cool (though it could be argued, already done by Peter David in X-Factor), and the art is stunning in black and whites. I’m HOPING they do B&W in this series. HOPING.
Too bad we have to wait until December. And it’s only going to be four issues. But hey, no complaints here. I’ll just get back to drooling over the teaser art. Mmmm.
Much Love, Mindy C
The Second Wave: X-Books
The entire gaggle of X-Books (we’re collecting 4 of them) consisted of 13 issues, and some were fairly slow going due to a lack of interest on my part. So, without further ado, here goes:
Of course, we all know a few of the main reasons this book was making it in the box. It was penned by “the man” Mr. Whedon, and it revolved around everyone’s favorite lovable band of Merry Mutants. Two great flavors that certainly tasted great together…while they lasted.
*Cue dramatic music*
Warren Ellis now helms this book, bringing with him an artist, Simone Bianchi who seems hell bent on making everyone and everything look like a Halloween Super Store exploded on the pages. He’s not all that bad really…but his art is spooky and all the characters look like malicious goblins or demonic war-lords. It’s definitely a change from the clean and shiney inks of John Cassady.
As for Ellis, I can’t say he and I have much history, or will in the future. His book is much too technical and wordy to suit my X-Men desires.
And that’s fine, right? There are many other X-Books to choose from. No harm, no foul.
After the Messiah Complex tore the team asunder (and annihilated the X-Mansion for the billionth time), it only seemed appropriate that the team members should take a hiatus. Xavier was dead, the mansion destroyed, the dream hanging in tattered shreds.
So, let’s all pick up and move to San Francisco.
Eh, what? Does anyone else remember how bad of an idea that is? Similar plot-lines wherein the X-Team alters locations never end well. And come on – San Francisco? Let’s take the comic allegory and decorate it with political trappings please. Be sure to mention HYBRIDS! I don’t know about this Ed Brubaker character.
*sigh* As if all this wasn’t bad enough – Rogue and Gambit are MIA (remember them, two of your more popular characters??) and Emma Frost is doing her best Jean Grey impersonation to everyone’s discomfort. She sticks out like a sore thumb that the X-Editors are intent on jabbing in the eye of every reader who thinks Jean Grey should return from the dead and kick the holy telepathic shit out of her.
But Emma’s on every other page – with smarmy retorts and her boobies jostling up out of her top. Always so classy, Ms. Frost.
It would seem that the X-Creators forget she’s only ever worked as a minor character and only when given some sort of purpose. Otherwise, she’s like a venereal disease infested peacock preening and pretending to fill the shoes of the most powerful mutant in the Universe. Puh-thetic.
Cyclops is back as the leader (AS ALWAYS). Could anyone be less enthused?
X-Men Origins: Wolverine NEW Comic Con Trailer
It’s hard to feel awful about leaking promotional material – so I don’t. If they wanted to keep it a super secret, they wouldn’t have released it to a room full of rabid fans.
LOOKS LIKE THE TRAILER HAS BEEN PULLED EVERYWHERE – SORRY FOLKS.
It’s hardly a shocker…but why bother acting like all the promotion the studio received violated “Property Rights?” *sigh* MOVIE STUDIOS ARE STUPID.
Someone was smart though – here’s a play by play of the trailer with screen-shots!
Was that Emma Frost? If this source is correct…that’s an affirmative.
Dan
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