San Diego comic con is like nothing you have experienced. Period! Every year in July the southern California city is transformed by Comic Con International THE mecca for all things pop culture. This year promises to be the largest ever comic-con as last year years record of 123000 visitors is expected to be beaten.
So join me, as I take you on a journey through this, my first ever comic con and gain a glimpse into my diary of the sights and sounds of San Diego Comic Con 2007.
The first thing that struck me today was how much the city of San Diego is invested in the show, from every lamp post hangs a banner displaying one of next summers cinematic offerings, Iron Man. The convention centre is vast and already, three hours before the show opens the crowds outside the show and in the main lobby are impressive. Press pass in hand and in the spirit of investigative journalism I venture past the security guards making as though I am supposed to be there, into the main exhibition hall.
If you venture to comic con I recommend that everyone tries to get a sneaky peak into the show being setup, this will be your first and only opportunity to gaze the entire length of the hall and realise just how vast the entire setup is. As I dodged a forklift the energy in the hall was electric and that was just as well as in two three hours the maddend hordes would come through the doors and the chaos would begin although in a lot of instances, it looked as though it would take a lot more than three hours to get ready for the crowds.
Jack Sparrow’s ship the Black Pearl cuts an awesome outline dominating one section of the floor as I dodge another forklift. A giant Boba Fett at the Gentile Giant stand and a vast screen hangs from the rafters showing Revenge of The Sith above the Star Wars booth. Its almost too much to take in as I venture towards my pals at Top Cow where the excited race to get the booth ready for is under way. Exclusive comics to bag, wide screen TVs showing the smash hit Darkness video game to setup, prints, t-shirts and posters to sell as well as a host of statues, prints and graphic novels to drive the fanboys and girl crazy.
At Top Cow it doesn’t matter whether you are a president of the company or an intern, everyone joins in the preparation as I helped bag comics and chatted to the visibly excited team. Opposite an enormous banner, like a massive coat of arms, sits above the table where artist Alex Ross will hold court, his tower like banner looking like it will drop to reveal the artist in all his majesty to hold court over his people (alas, this was not to happen).
Suffering from the rare disorder known in comic book stores the world over as ‘baggers wrist’ I make my excuses to my Top Cow friends and venture out again into the exhibition hall only to be nabbed by an eagle eyed security guard who doesn’t seem convinced that “I am a very important journalist from England and have permission to be here” and ensures that I make my way out of the hall and to the back of the queue with all the other journalists and fans.
The queue it seems is very, very, very long. At some points four people deep, the queue stretches around the building on two floors even on the supposedly ‘quieter’ preview night. An excited hush of anticipation falls over the crowd as it slowly but surely starts to move forwards like a giant snake wearing a Green Lantern t-shirt.
As I make my way through the hallowed doors into the exhibition hall I realise that one of the absolute musts for a successful comic-con is to plan your trip with military precision. I am one of the first through the doors and there are folks already laden down with boxes and boxes of con exclusives, statues and action figures, me? I’m there because I am a comics fan so I head off to meet some of my heroes and The Naked Fat Rave booth is where my heroes live.
Naked Fat Rave is the collective San Diego home to such comic book superstars as Tim Sale, Arthur Adams, J. Scott Campbell, Michael Golden, Bruce Timm, Amanda Connor and Matt Wagner. Being early days Tim Sale had just setup and already quite a few people were around his table checking out t-shirts and sketchbooks. Assisted by the delightful Christina, Tim was already signing up folks for his 10 minute sketches, mini marvels that for a bargain price Tim would draw the character of your choice, within reason. I introduced myself to Tim, whom I have known through interviews for this magazine and his message board for several years and negotiated my ten minute sketch. My first choice, Barbara Gordon as Batgirl was met with a look of dismay from Tim but hey, this was Tim Sale artist behind Batman The Long Halloween, Spiderman: Blue and the real life artist behind the tormented Isaac the painter with the addictive personality from hit TV show Heroes.
With my sketchbook character of choice denied there was no alternative, what other character to ask Tim Sale to draw other than Batman so Christina presented me with my ticket for my slot for the next day as Tim and I exchange pleasantries I notice sitting down next to Tim, my absolute comic book hero, Mr J. Scott Campbell. As with Tim I have interviewed Jeff and gotten to know him through his message boards so I was looking forward to meeting him at last. You see, for us Brits, while we have the Bristol and the London and Brighton comic expos we don’t have much opportunity to meet many creators from across the Atlantic, hence my excitement. Already quite a queue is forming as Jeff produces not only his highly anticipated sketchbook but also his brand new Danger Girl 10th Anniversary print.
Imagine my surprise when I introduced myself to Jeff he presented me with a Baroness piece that he had done for me. A surprise to be sure. After saying thanks about 14 times I head off leaving Campbell to his ever increasing row of fans. Drawing almost as big a crowd as Jeff is his girlfriend Christie Marie who works exhaustively throughout the con by delighting fans dressed as Slave Princess Leia.
For those of you who don’t know, Comic-Con is divided into three main sections. At one end of the hall sits artists alley. Rows of tables where independent artists can meet their fans. Here you will find the entire Wildstorm crew including artist Ale Garza and inker Sandra Hope as well as the legend that is Jim Lee . Superman / Batman and wraithborn artist Joe Benitez happily sketches for fans while along the line Whilce Portacio and Leinil Yu sign and sketch for fans.
Next to artists alley which winds for about 10 rows along the side of the hall sit various vendors and stalls all selling figures, statues and toys at far above the average asking price although I was soon to find out that it is well worth waiting until the final day of the con when everything must go at bargain prices.
Between artists alley and the main exhibitors are artists who, like Naked Fat Rave have a booth or more substantial presence at the show. Fantasy artist Larry Elmore, fan favourites Adam Hughes and Allison Sohn and Terry and Rachel Dodson are all here. It’s well worth searching every nook and cranny of comic-con as you never know who you might find lurking. Hidden away but hugely popular you might find such superstar artists as Travis Charest or Mike Mignola, all ready and willing to chat and sketch for fans.
As I venture through the main exhibition hall I realise that to say that there is a lot of money spent here is a total understatement. Money spent, not just by the folks buying their limited edition, life size Optimus Prime’s but by the exhibitors themselves. From organisations such as Hasbro, Sci-Fi channel, Lucasfilm and Paramount to comic publishers such as Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Image the stands were all very impressive with mammoth screens playing movies, trailers and game releases.
Convention exclusives are the order of the day at Comic-Con and while the sceptical may speculate how much these items will be inflated by the time the wind up on Ebay. Of the sure fire rarities of this years comic-con you should look out for the convention exclusive GI Joe Destro, The Gentle Giant Clone Trooper and a very slick looking collection of Drew Struzan Indiana Jones art distributed by Paramount.
Movies, TV and major industries dominate the centre of the exhibition hall. Paramount has a t-shirt printing station setup and were working hard to keep up with the demand despite a rather contrived system of queuing and collecting tickets and not surprisingly the Iron Man shirts went quickly. The Mach 1 car from the forthcoming movie Speed Racer was on display as was the car from Quentin Tarantino’s movie Deathproof. Individual movies also had their showcase with actor Kevin Bacon star of Death Sentence making an appearance surrounded by a somewhat over zealous and over wealmed security team. Sci-Fi channel has one of the most bizarre stands looking not unlike one of the Alien structures from the movie The Abyss. The movie Planet Terror had an interesting stand that raised a controversial murmur in passing fans as a model, portraying one of the films characters who has a machine gun in the place of one of her legs, posed for photos for what seemed like hours. Another big hit with fans was the Heroes stand where cheerleaders gave out ‘Vote Petrelli’ pins and prints of Tim Sale’s art hung from the walls.
This was just an example of the eye-brow raising and the bizarre sights that you can see at comic-con. Of course one of the big draws of the show is the cos-play where fans go to extraordinary lengths to dress up as their favourite characters from movies, comics, anime and everything in-between. As I wonder through the show I encounter Captain Jack Sparrow, numerous Clone and Storm Troopers and perhaps the highlight of the cosplay aspect of the show a bevy of Slave Girl Leia clad beauties surrounding Jabba the Hutt led by the undisputed queen of the Slave Leia’s Christie-Marie. The time and effort fans put into their costumes is striking as many are scratch built but extremely professional.
The big two, Marvel and DC have a huge presence at comic con and their stands dominate the section dedicated to the major publishers. Marvel’s stand is dominated by a large wooden crate marked with the stencil ‘Stark Industries’ and considering that the show is dominated by the upcoming Iron Man movie anticipation for the crates contents is high. There are also signing tables and a huge Joe Madureira mural on the booth. Here you can watch the banter between Joe Quesada and Brian Bendis, watch the unveiling of the Mk 1 Iron Man armour along with Robert Downey Jr, Stan Winston and John Favreau or meet some of your favourite creators such as Ed Brubaker, Jeph Loeb and John Romita Jr. DC’s stand a mere stones throw away was quite by comparison and with no big DC movie announcement or promotion (Dark Knight was waiting until WW Chicago for its big announcement) relied on its appearances which drew a moderate crowd.
Top Cow are now up and running and already drawing a considerable crowd which will remain consistent throughout the show and already there is already a crowd gathering around the Darkness video game on show.
Commerce is the order of the day and it is not without a sense of slight embarrassment that I watch the frenzy as hordes rush forward for exclusive mini-mates and posters that will later scatter the floor and more than once I see grown ‘adults’ barge children out of the way to ensure their stash.
Beyond commerce however are the many presentations and seminars being held however a word to the wise, if it involves a major movie release be prepared to queue for a very long time. The Paramount panel with the much anticipated Indiana Jones panel proves one of the most popular as a surprise live link-up with the set of the movie produces a huge response from the crowd.
One panel I was looking forward to in particular was the Image founders first get together since the heady days at the highlight of Image Comics. With a new book focusing on the creation of Image comics just about to hit the shelves the Image comics founders, Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio, Rob Liefield, Jim Valantino and Eric Larsen are all present in a packed hall and cover everything from the founding of Image to the highpoints and low points of the companies early years. The banter is entertaining and as per his reputation Todd McFarlane leads the panel talking at 100 miles an hour. Marc Silvestri rose to the banter well and played an excellent foil to McFarlane and unless I am mistaken there was a slight sense of tension between the two creators. Jim Lee took the panel in his stride and much against his reputation Rob Liefield, while providing commentary when prompted remained less animated than we had been led to expect from the controversial creator. An enlightening and entertaining panel and a fantastic and rare opportunity to see the image creators together. The thing with panels is, because of the immense queuing involved it means that you miss out on a lot of exhibition floor action. Despite my best intentions those queues put me off and the only other panel I attended during the show was Top Cow.
A busy panel, Top Cow put on a good show despite a few hiccups with technology with a Darkness video game trailer and the preview for the upcoming Witchblade animae series both of which received an impressive reception from fans. Top Cows Filip Sablik introduced one of the voice actors from the show who spoke about the voice acting process for the show which is the first western concept to be produced as an animae. The panel concluded with a draw for a piece of Marc Silvestri art and none of the attendees left empty handed as staff distributed a comic-con exclusive litho.
Although there were many panels I was interested in, including the shows popular for the TV show Heroes, unfortunately the lines put me off as they stretched around the building. Maybe next year!
For the uninitiated you might be fooled into thinking that once you have seen all there is to see, that’s it. Believe me, you need the entire length of the show to see everything on offer and even if you did see all you wanted to there is something different happening every day. From signings and appearances to the sheer mass of things to see, comic-con is a spectacle to be seen.
I left Comic-Con exhausted on the final day of the show having met some incredible people. From creators who worked hard and were gracious despite being extremely tired and in the face of a less than favourable attitude of some fans. Then there are the fans themselves without whom there would be no comic-con. At places like this you see the best and worst that comicdom has to offer but I left San Diego having made several good friends from around the globe and that made it worth while.
Would I go again, hell yeh! I recommend that everyone goes to experience the show and then stay beyond the last day as San Diego itself quietens down almost over night and reverts to normality, until next year.
For more pictures please click HERE.
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Russ Sheath is 33 and teaches at an FE College in North Devon. After a stint in the regular and reserve armed forces and helping a pal run a comic shop Russ decided he would become a comic celebrity stalker and has interviewed, amongst others, Todd McFarlane, J. Scott Campbell, Marc Silvestri and Tim Sale for Fractal Matter.