Off to San Diego (2011 edition)!

Sorry for the lack of posting of late, but we've all been busy preparing as the monolithic comics brouhaha known as Comic-Con International, she does approach. I myself am headed out west bright and early tomorrow morning, so this is likely the last you shall hear from me on this blog until at least next week.

HOWEVER!

You can follow my live streaming adventures all week long with Marvel.com Live, providing full coverage of Comic-Con with great guests, up to the minute news, yada yada yada. I'll also be liveblogging and posting stories at Marvel.com Classic.

Kiel will be doing his thing as well over at Comic Book Resources, so swing by there as well.

See you in seven!

San Diego 2010 Novarama Sketchfest

Once again the sketch gods smiled upon me again at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. I already showed off the new additions to Megan's Miss Martian collection, so now here's the dynamic duo I was fortunate enough to snag for my Nova Sketchbook.

In addition to being the son of the legendary Neal Adams, Josh Adams is a dang fine artist in his own right and a swell dude as well. I met him at a Ring of Honor show a couple months ago via our mutual friend Christopher Daniels and I gingerly mentioned I'd be tracking him down sooner rather than later for a sketch. At San Diego, neither of us forgot this pact and Josh was more than happy to take some time and do this neat piece for me. Josh went the Magneto helmet route on Nova's headgear, but not in a way that renders him unrecognizable, so I actually dig that his sketch stands out in that way. I also always love when somebody throws in an extra touch like lettering or a gag, and Josh did both; I may not totally understand the Dr. Seuss allusions because I'm, y'know, uncultured, but I certainly appreciate it nonetheless.

For my second piece of the con, I was wandering Artist's Alley and got super-psyched when I saw that Jacob Chabot was in the house. I first got to see Jacob's work when Rickey recommended Skullboy my way and then flipped my lid when he did X-Babies and drew every friggin' X-Men character ever as a baby (it was a thing of beauty)! I worked with Jacob a few times on Marvel.com to promote X-Babies and in fact a series of sketches he did for us ended up being variant covers for the series. I had a nice talk with Jacob and his buddy and X-Babies collaborator Gregg Schigiel about the book and other stuff and was of course overjoyed to get a sketch in the bargain. This sucker is everything I love about Chabot's style, particularly his ability to find the fun in a super hero piece without making it goofy; that's a Nova who knows how to party but is also ready to kick some ass. Factor in an awesome pose and great background and you've got one of my favorite sketches I've gotten in some time.

Thanks guys!

Kevin's Excellent San Diego Adventure

Man oh man, I have been a bad blogger. But I'm here now, ready to blog--hopefully on a more regular basis--and for this particular entry, I'm taking a cue from my fellow Cool Kids and talking about my personal Comic-Con experiences. Now, I've worked a number of conventions before, but this one really took the cake for a number of reasons, a few of which I will list below. So come join me as I go back in time to my weekend at Comic-Con International in San Diego!

CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS
Part of the whole San Diego experience is running into celebrities. As a reporter, it's hard not to geek out when I talk to someone that I really adore or who influenced my childhood in some way, shape or form. For example, I recently interviewed Lisa Henson, the daughter of Jim Henson, and it took all my energy and composure to not suddenly shout out, "I totally love the Muppets and everything your dad did totally rocked my entire childhood life! I still own a Muppets blanket and I'm going to see the theme to Muppet Babies right now!" At conventions, it becomes a little easier to geek out a bit because I'm usually lost in a crowd as they take the stage. But with a convention like San Diego, you're just as likely to see a celebrity on stage as you are standing around the hotel lobby--as evidenced by Kiel's post where he was lucky enough to run into Charlie and the Waitress... that bastard. I kid. Kiel's awesome.

Anyway, so here are some of my cool celeb moments. Thursday was officially my day of the con. That day, after doing my usual comic panels, I made my way into Hall H. I got there early, so I was able to get into the RED panel and get a good seat up front. For those who don't know, RED is an upcoming movie based on the graphic novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner. The movie stars Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Mary-Louise Parker, Karl Urban, John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman. Willis, Mirren, Parker and Urban were on the panel and let me tell you, it was glorious. Helen Mirren is the Queen, so what more can I say there? Urban is a new guy to the field, but I've loved him in everything he's been in, especially his recent role as Doctor "Bones" McCoy in Star Trek. Mary-Louise Parker, I mean, how can I not have a crush on her? She is stunningly beautiful and looked just as amazing in person. However, the real cream of the crop for me was Bruce Willis. Die Hard was the first Rated-R movie I ever saw, sneakily viewing even though my parents told me to go to my room as they watched it downstairs. Willis was extremely cool and laid back on stage. He definitely seemed like an awesome guy, which made me happy.

After that came the Expendables panel, another joy for this little blogger as on the stage was Terry Crews, Steve Austin, Stallone, Dolf Lundgren and Randy Couture. I'm a huge fan of Terry Crews--as his roles are always completely insane and hilarious. Thankfully, he's apparently just like that in real life. He walked out onto the stage, opened his shirt, got up onto the table and started making his pecs dance. It was exactly something you'd expect him to do. The best part of this panel though was seeing Stallone work. I'm a huge fan of his and watch Rocky pretty much religiously. Heck, the Rocky theme is on my iPod for when I go to the gym. Besides seeming like a totally nice dude, Stallone was HILARIOUS. He cracked a lot of jokes and got along really well with the guys on stage. I really wish I could have met him in person, but I feel like that would be one of those moments where I'd lose my cool and start gushing. Then he's probably punch me out. But then I could tell everyone Sylvester Stallone shattered my jaw. Hmm... Note to self, fight Sylvester Stallone the next time I see him.

Alright, so back to reality. Right after the Expendables panel came the panel I was probably most excited for: Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Now, this got me crazed with excitement for a number of reasons. First of all, I love Scott Pilgrim. It's probably one of my favorite comics ever... EVER. Secondly, Edgar Wright. I love his films and love his friendship with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. I always felt those guys go everywhere together and this panel sort of proved me right. More on that in a bit. Finally, I probably have the biggest crushes ever on Anna Kendrick and Mary Elizabeth Winstead--and BOTH of them would be on stage for this panel. It's literally more than I could ever ask for from one panel. So, yeah. The panel was filled with a number of guests, pretty much the entire cast came out. However, at one point when introducing the panelists, Wright--in his awesomely British accent--said that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost would also be in this movie. Sure enough, Pegg and Frost walked out. It was a very, very awesome moment. And while I later found out they were here to promote "Paul," I still like to believe that they'd have come to San Diego anyway just to chill with Wright. Anyway, Wright corrected him and said that they were also not in the movie, and the two walked back off stage dejectedly. As for one last note, Brandon Routh is a giant, giant man. I know that he played Superman and Superman is a big dude, but Routh TOWERED over the rest of the cast. It was pretty ridiculous. They looked like children next to him.

That was it for Thursday as far as celebs go. Over the rest of the weekend I saw one or two here and there. On Friday, I was standing outside my hotel and noticed a huge crowd next to me. I look over and literally right next to my shoulder is Ian Somerhalder. I was like, "Is that freaking Boone??" Ends up it was the cast of Vampire Diaries just hanging outside the hotel, taking pictures with fans. Later that day, I was walking toward the elevators with my buddy Jim Gibbons and he was like, "Hey, it's Guillermo Del Toro." I moseyed on over and debated running up and saying something to him, but I ended up chickening out. For those wondering, I probably would have sounded something like this: "Holy crap, dude! Hellboy! Pan's Labyrinth! The Orphanage! Those movies rocked! And now Haunted Mansion?! My friend Amanda freaking LOVES that ride since she was a kid and she officially pooped herself in excitement when she found out!" It probably wouldn't have gone over well. Saturday, I experienced a sexy sighting as the show floor began to shut down. I had sneaked my way over to the Marvel booth to say hello to Ben, but there on the giant golden throne of Asgard was Adrianne Curry dressed as Leeloo from the Fifth Element. That lady loves to pose to pictures, let me tell you. Sadly, I did not have my camera on me, but the fifty other gentlemen around me did. Lastly, on Saturday night, I was chilling at the Hyatt bar drinking with my buddies when someone bumps into me. I turn around and I see walking away Joel McHale from the Soup. I was a little sad he didn't apologize for bumping into me, but then again, I'm glad he did because now I can tell that story. Also, he is a very tall and lanky man.

Well, that's it for celebrity stuff. It was pretty awesome to be able to see a lot of people that I'm very big fans of and one day, hopefully I'll be famous enough to hang out with them--especially Anna Kendrick and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. They're adorable. In part two of my San Diego memories, to come very soon, I'll hit on more Scott Pilgrim and my own personal favorite aspect of Comic Conventions.

Ben's SDCC 2010 After Hours Adventures pt. 2

FRIDAY, JULY 23
Freaky Friday is when things got equal parts exciting and surreal for this mild-mannered some-time reporter, but rest assured it was all good.

Started off the evening at the official Marvel-sponsored get together for staffers and talent at a nice Gaslamp bar and grill type joint I’m sorry to say the name of which escapes me at the moment. As I assembled my meager meal of what appetizers proved compatible with my lactose intolerant system (some tasty spring rolls and meatballs), I got a friendly tap on the back and hearty hello from my comrade of the previous evening, Andy Lanning, sporting a crazy-ass Hawaiian type shirt that screamed “I am British, this looks amazing on me whether you like it or not.”

Mr. Lanning and I pulled up some booth real estate and were joined in short order by Marvel production whiz Rich Ginter as well as “Serial Thrilla” Tom Brennan for cuisine and conversation. Andy favored us with the “secret origin” of his comics career, including how he bypassed UK staple 2000AD and went straight to Marvel via the Epic series The Sleeze Brothers and how he and Dan hooked up in Marvel UK then ended up in the States pitching the Punisher crossover Eurohit and eventually landing Force Works. Along the way, I confirmed everything I always suspected about the craziness of Marvel UK in the 90’s (yes, they were more or less required to have at least three X-Men guest star in every issue of every series) and why original Force Works artist Tom Tenney vanished after four issues never to be seen again (apparently he just kinda…did), replaced by some guy named Jim Cheung.

After that initial crew dispersed to work the room, I mingled and got to enjoy watching Mike Choi convince my officemate, Margarita Vaisman, that he was a struggling young artist who hoped to get work for Marvel someday and then hear her offer him encouragement; after I blew the ruse, I gave him a hard time for getting rid of his rad “Rufio from Hook” Mohawk prior to his wedding.

Suddenly, I received a call on my phone from none other than pro wrestling superstar Christopher Daniels, who informed me there was a party going down on the roof of PetCo Park, home of the San Diego Padres, and my presence was requested; well, you don’t say no to The Fallen Angel, so I politely excused myself and headed to the ballpark.

When I arrived at the venue, there was a huge line and elaborate set-up to get in, so I wasn’t quite sure if I’d make it. A couple texts to Chris later and he descended from on high, ditching his ever-present sports coast no doubt ready to intimidate whatever bouncers he needed to on my behalf, then politely asked some lady if I could cut the line (which I did, no doubt pissing off dozens of frustrated onlookers). Chris introduced me to party host Jeff Katz, the Great Gatsby of SDCC and a dude I share many mutual friends with and had chatted with over Twitter—though I always assumed he thought I was Kiel—and was pleased to finally meet; extremely pleasant fellow who went out of his way to make me feel welcome even as he was in the midst of doing the same with hundreds of others. Those dudes showed me to the elevator and within a minute or so I was overlooking a baseball field on one side of me and downtown San Diego on the other.

Once we hit the roof, Chris had to go find his aforementioned jacket, and so for a few minutes I found myself playing deer in the headlights as music blared, drinks flowed, and Bill Hader, Seth Rogen and Joe Lo Truglio from The State all filed by me in short order. Fortunately, before my mind got too blown, Daniels came back, jacket intact, and escorted me over to where his crew was hanging.

Of course given that Chris’ “crew” consists pretty much exclusively of pro wrestlers and I’m a pro wrestling nut, so my wild night was just getting started.

It was actually pretty funny in retrospect how we rounded the corner and out of nowhere Daniels casually introduced me to one of his good buddies, Samoa Joe, one of my personal favorite current performers and a guy whose matches with Kurt Angle I was literally watching on the plane ride to San Diego. Dude was chill as can be and had actually been wanting to meet me because Chris had been bragging about all the free swag I get him; he said he’d even gotten my number from Daniels and had been contemplating giving me a call “during dinner or something and being, like, ‘Yo, it’s Samoa Joe…could I get some free comics?’” which would have cracked me up to no end. He then told me my spirit animal was a “raging tortoise,” which I told him I “got a lot,” then we shared a hearty laugh as I thought how cool I was sharing a joke with Samoa Joe and not getting choked out in the process.

Daniels wasn’t the only wrestler I knew in the immediate vicinity, as I got a shout out and bro hug from my old buddy Shane “Hurricane” Helms and his crazy ass new dreadlocks (which he reminded me weren’t exactly new as he used to wear them back in his 3 Count days 10 years ago). Hurricane told me he’d been at the show that day and really wanted to “get on that Odin’s throne gimmick” (an important lesson I learned that night was that “gimmick” can mean pretty much any and everything in wrestler lingo; as Chris put it: “It’s the wrestler’s ‘aloha.’”) but there was somebody else who he wanted to see up there even more, gesturing to a gentleman in a suit leaning back all cool and a little bit sinister against the bar.

A few seconds later, I was shaking hands with Mr. Paul Heyman, driving force behind Extreme Championship Wrestling and legendary creative mind in the wrestling industry.

I only got to speak with Paul for a brief time, but that was long enough for me to get a glimpse at the crazy charisma and intensity I’d always heard about. I’d love to get another chance to chat with Paul and just pick his brain about pretty much anything, because you can tell the guy is something else (and I mean that in a good way).

Former WWE Divas Maria and Stacy Keibler were also in “our” little clique, but I only introduced myself briefly. I mostly chatted with fellow “civilians” Michael Kingston, writer of the Headlocked comic, and JC, a former WWE behind-the-scenes dude whose job description I always forget (sorry, bro). Mike and I especially noted how wrestling folks really do live in another world and have their own little cool ass fraternity, but it was real neat to be a part of it for even a night.

After the party gimmick wrapped (ha!) Chris and I accompanied a New Zealander gent named Richard Fairgray who writes the Top Cow joint Blastosaurus back to Jeff Katz’ room at the Hilton where we walked into the unique sight of Stacy Keibler getting a foot massage from Paul Heyman while Hurricane and Samoa Joe watched on—not my typical early Saturday morning.

I hung out for a bit longer, got to witness Jill Thompson join the soiree resplendent from her double Eisner win, then said thank you to the gracious Mr. Katz for a crazy awesome night, said adios to the folks I met, and parted ways with my boy Daniels circa 2 AM to head back to my hotel for some shut eye.

Definitely a night I won’t forget, and a reminder why I’m grateful to have Chris Daniels as a buddy.

SATURDAY, JULY 24
So by the time the show wrapped on Saturday, I was still pretty beat from the night before. I did get a nice natural contact high from watching the awesome Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes preview alongside Chris Yost and Jim McCann, but unfortunately myself and Tom “Maverick” Brennan made the mistake of ordering out for burgers just before the panel, ensuring they’d be nice and cold by the time we got back. I myself followed Jimbo to watch him on the first half of the Gays in Comics panel and received a text from Brennan saying “Your burger is here. It is cold and greasy.” That was my cue to scurry down to the booth where I “live” blogged the big Marvel Studios panel from back amongst Marvel storage while munching on my chilled burger and soggy fries.

The panel ran a bit over—there was some stabbing incident—so I ended up booking it back to my hotel en route to a swanky dinner date with my familiar posse of the Naucks, Dan Abnett and Senor Lanning plus Mike McKone and Tom Brennan as “The Beav.” In my mad dash to snag a clean shirt, I bumped into The Cool Kids Table’s own Kevin Mahadeo and swept him up in my whirlwind, inviting him along while I texted, changed and tried to grab a glass of water.

We met up with the team at the Hyatte and then made our way to Seaport Village, a neat little seaside community that reminded me a lot of Mystic or Rockport. We pulled up a table at the Edgewater Grill and managed to squeeze everybody in; I managed to go five minutes without offending Dan before telling him I felt Mel Gibson’s “Maverick” was vastly superior to Star Wars (it is). From there, Brennan and I began our stand-up routine and had Dawn and Kevin in stitches as we talked about our alternate reality in which we call Joe Quesada every dinner after we get the check to tell him we “made a huge mistake” then he picks us up and takes us home so Bob Iger can yell at us (Kevin assures me it was hysterical). Brennan and me both ordered the crab cakes to keep things light given our still burger-filled-bellies, but I also cowboyed up for a salad I would quickly call “my biggest mistake in hours.”

It was a nice chill end to my evening exploits at the con with some of the people who made it such a fun experience for me. I hit the Hyatte bar briefly afterwards to say my goodbyes to all my bros, but called it an early night.

SUNDAY, JULY 25
We made it! I stayed overtime to help Tim Dillon and his skeleton crew clean up the booth a little and then made my way to the airport.

After what I’m pretty sure was me getting hit on by the girl checking my baggage (oh for a witness), I met up with Alex Kropinak, Ed Bursch, Justin Aclin, Josh Wiggler and a couple more for some last-minute pizza and beers (for them at least; Justin got me some fries).

The delightful Dan Slott was on my red eye home, which was a nice surprise. He was there to see a Marvel exec who shall remain unnamed (lest he choose to reveal himself, because I know he totally reads this blog) offer me $50 for my aisle seat, not realizing he had the aisle seat right in front of me; unfortunately he figured it out before we boarded or I made the deal then spent the early part of the flight reclining his seat back and laughing at me.

Smooth flight home with a kid next to me who kept showing me card tricks (I was polite) and then a few pleasant hours at home in my bed before it was time to head back to work.

Let’s do it again next year!

My Top 5 Comic-Con Celebrity Sightings: 2010 Edition!

Just like last year, Comic-Con 2010 ended up being a hyper-real parade of strange late night encounters with people most of us would vaguely describe as "famous." I'm not the kind of dude who watches TMZ or clicks to People.com in my spare moments, but even I got a little giddy during the show when I'd bump into Jerry O'Connell while heading to dinner in the Gaslamp or bump into Matt Groening and the cast of "V" in my hotel lobby (though part of that giddiness was obviously sleep deprivation).

Though aside from the "aww shucks! weren't that neat?" aspect of bumping into celebrities at The Big Show, I think the thing I like the most about rubbing elbows with minor TV stars and other people too pretty to be nerds is the fact that Comic-Con somehow becomes the ultimate equalizer in terms of how we interact with the people we usually only see on Letterman. The Hollywoodization of San Diego doesn't just mean that these celebs get big panels where their names are cheered for. It also means that they have to share the same hotels, restaurants and pedicabs as people who come to the show to dress up like Power Girl or buy slabbed issues of My Greatest Adventure. And even with the supposedly awesome yet inaccessible studio parties, I think seeing a celebrity at Comic-Con is more like seeing a celebrity at Taco Bell than anything else. Let me show you what I mean with my Top 5 famous folk sightings from this year's show...


5. Erik Estrada

After the first day of the show, Rickey came out to the CBR Yacht after his stint at the DC booth so we could live the glamorous dream of eating Subway and buying beers at Ralph's together. But before we took off on that envy-inducing adventure, we took a quick walk from the slip where CBR's boat was docked to my room at the Marriott Marina Hotel. That path took us just past this spaceship-shaped, Hawaiian-themed restaurant called Ray's. And as we strolled past, Rickey looked up and declared, "Erik Estrada!" and sure enough, the "CHiPS" star was standing by the hostess table being rapidly circled by his nine children (okay, maybe not that many, but there were at least four of them, and they were ALL bouncing off the walls).

As we moseyed on by, I couldn't help but notice that the double E seemed to be quite exasperated with the wait staff. In my mind, I imagined him going, "Look man, I know it's busy here, but I was fucking Ponch...can't I just get goddamned table?!?!" Maybe it was going easier than it looked, but it didn't look that easy on the dude.

In any event, I was glad when I heard that Estrada got some love from members of the Scott Pilgrim cast later in the weekend.


4. LeVar Burton

When I told people that we had LeVar Burton out to the CBR boat for a video interview, they'd do one of two things: sing the theme from "Reading Rainbow" or go "Did he wear a barette over his eyes?" That's about as clear a nerd divide as one can get when you think about it. And really, I'd wondered a little myself whether the real guy was more the imaginatively happy man whose word I didn't have to take for it when it came to picture books or more the no-nonsense problem solver that was Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge.

Though as it turns out, the real LeVar Burton is more like when he shows up on "The Soup" or "Tim & Eric" – a boisterously loud and kind of bonkers joker who doesn't sit still and loves ever minute of it. While most of the staff sat below deck during the on camera CBR interviews, we might as well have been lounging beside him on the captain's chair during his chat with Jonah (which you can see here) as Burton was cracking jokes and rocking the complimentary CBR kazoo at full volume the entire time he was aboard. After the shoot was done, Burton bound down into the cabin for the briefest of moments and declared in the cartooniest pirate voice imaginable "I's just wanted to see what the crew in the bowels of the ship was like. ARRRRRRRRR!" before shooting back up the stair and out of our lives.

I won't lie. It was pretty rad.


3. Donald Glover

Like I said, I've never been really high on trying to get into the big Hollywood parties like the infamous EW shindig or whatever, but one exception I used to make was getting to the United Talent Agency party because the booze was free and it was co-sponored by Oni Press so I got to hang with cool comics people of my acquaintance while gawking at movie stars. This year, the UTA party went on its own way and the Oni crew had their own Scott Pilgrim-themed shindig sponsored by the Toronto Tourism Board. That was great for a few reasons:

1 - As I made my way to the location of the Oni party, I just happened to bump into the Man of the Hour himself – Bryan Lee O'Malley – in the middle of the street. When I asked O'Malley if he was coming from or going to his party, he said, "Going to...follow me!" From there on out, I was led to the entrance where a quick "He's with me" from O'Malley got me a VIP pass and direct entrance into the party (thanks again, dude). I've got to say, for all the bitching I've done about people cutting to the front, acting like a big whig myself for five minutes was kind of awesome.

2 - As expected, the event was chock full of cool people to hang out with. Off the top of my head, I can recall chatting up Matt Loux, Abbie Denson, Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, Doug Sherwood and Chris Butcher, and I KNOW there are people I'm forgetting who I'll want to add back in later. I don't care what people say about comics people getting pushed out by Hollywood – I fucking rocked out with some of the best comics folks I know that night, thank you very much.

3 - At one point in the evening, I came across Oni Editor-in-Chief James Lucas Jones and his super keen wife Jennie (who was MEGA helpful all weekend whenever I was covering Oni and Scott Pilgrim stuff or just bumming around near their booth), and it just so happened at that moment they were hanging with "Community" star and would-be Spider-Man Donald Glover. I snapped the above photo and chatted up the trio for a minute, and while I didn't really get to talk much to Glover in any real way, I have to say that the company he kept made him A-list in my book. I mean, I'm pretty sure dude was the only star in attendance at that party, meaning he bailed on the flashier UTA gig to drink with a cabal of cartoonists and Canadians. Gold star for Donald Glover.


2. Stan Lee

I'm sure EVERYONE who spends some time wandering around Comic-Con gets a Stan Lee sighting at some point – the Man is everywhere at the show! – but it can't be said enough that if anyone from the comics side of the aisle whose crossed over into the broader celebrity, it's Lee (pictured here being awesome thanks to UGO and Robot 6). On Thursday morning, I got dragged to the local Fox affiliate at 5:00 AM to be their "Comic-Con expert" for a 12-second segment, and even though most of the staff (even the ones who dressed in costume) had little to no idea what went on at Comic-Con, there was a buzz at the station because THE Stan Lee was coming in later that morning for his own segment.

Anyway, I crossed paths with Stan The Man early on Friday morning when I was running around seeing folks in the Marriott. While waiting at the elevator bank for a trip down to the lobby, Lee and a young man who I have to assume is one of his POW! Entertainment employees came around the corner and stood next to me. They were talking about another of the countless interviews he'd done for the show.

"So how'd that piece for the newspaper go," Lee's aide said.

"Oh, pretty good. Pretty good," he chuckled in reply.

"Do you think they'll run it tomorrow?"

"I don't know. Probably they will. They get those newspapers out pretty fast these days."

"Do you think they'll run it on the front page?" asked the young man, kind of half checking his Blackberry.

"I don't know about that. Maybe they will. Maybe it'll be on the front page," said Lee, absent-mindedly staring at the floor. Then, he sort of mumbled more to himself than anyone else "Maybe they'll put Obama on page two!"

God bless you, sir.


1. Charlie & The Waitress

You'll never hear me complain about this really, but experiencing Comic-Con as a working reporter is a marathon of running about to the point of exhaustion each and every day, staying out late socializing and forgoing sleep and most meals in the name of work and/or partying. And hey, the negative effects the show takes on your body and brain won't ever outweigh how awesome it is to get paid to party for free at the Scott Pilgrim affair or chat up Kieron Gillen on camera or just plop down in a panel room and hang off Mike Mignola's every word. The job is fucking great, and I won't deny that. But I can't gloss over how bedraggled you end up being by week's end either – mostly because said bedraggling led to my most bad ass celebrity encounter of the show.

Saturday night, despite my extreme exhaustion I found myself in a state of total insomnia after nabbing a few hours of fitful sleep (Comic-Con fucks with your circadian rhythm like whoa) and was wandering about the lobby of my hotel into the wee hours trying to occupy my mind. After chatting up the similarly unsleepy Mike Choi and hacking my way through a draft of my Jeff Parker Red Hulk interview (which I'm still not sure is AT ALL readable but whatever), I was heading back to my room for a power cord at around 4:00 AM when I ran into a problem at the elevator bank.

A young lady and I had both pressed the button to head up to our rooms, but after moments of waiting the only doors that opened were to an elevator containing a cleaning lady, hard at work on her hands and knees scrubbing the entryway to the lift. After a moment of awkward silence, the girl said to me, "I'll just wait for the next one" and I agreed. As the doors slid shut, we hit the up button again and the down button (a trip down would be just one floor before going back up) and waited patiently for a ride that wasn't being waxed for tomorrow's guests.

And thank the Lord we did because moments after that, the husband and wife team of Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis (also known as Charlie Kelly and the waitress from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia") walked right up next to me.

Now, I'm not sure how familiar all of y'all are with the series, but I'm a big "It's Always Sunny" supporter in part because I think Day's Charlie character is primed to go down as the first truly great sitcom character of the 21st Century. Some day we'll talk about Charlie Kelly in the same way we do about Ralph Kramden, Arthur Fonzarelli, Latka Gravas and Cosmo Kramer. Dude is that funny and that unique. So needless to say, the second the pair of them turned the corner and came my way, I started to freak out a little.

And as I sat there debating whether or not to say anything, of course the elevator door that opens ready to go down a floor is the same one where the cleaning lady continued to scrub at the brass step into the unit. After everyone stood there for a minute, the woman looked up from her task and kind of waved us towards the elevator, to which Charlie replied, "Really? Well, yeah okay...it's only one floor down. Come on everybody!" and kind of skipped over the woman into place.

Once we were there, shoulder-to-shoulder with the cleaning lady still scrubbing the elevator's bottom, I couldn't help it and I turned with as much restraint as I could to tell them both how much I loved the show. As the thanked me, Charlie's hand shot right out to shake mine, and he pulled me in a bit with a sly 4:00 AM grin saying, "Did you have a good night tonight, man?"

"Yeah, I had a pretty good night. Now I've just got to get through tomorrow so I can catch my plane back to Chicago."

At this point, Charlie broke out into song in a way which I can only describe as "total Charlie" where the lyrics were "Ohhhhh, he's flyin back to the Ol' CHI-TOWN!" and I had to literally bite my tongue to stop from bursting out laughing. Ellis dragged her (somewhat faded) husband to their room a few floors later with a tossed back "Good night." And with the grin on my face, it was pretty certain that I wouldn't be getting any sleep that last night of the show.

I wish you could've been there with me.

**********

Honorable Mention:

All right, I know this has been going on for a while, and I've used up all my semi-interesting celebrity stories, but I've got one related anecdote I thought I'd share for posterity's sake.

As I said in my "What I Wrote" roundup, the CBR coverage of the whole Hall H eye-stabbing was a really harried and surreal experience all around. Though one humorous bright spot to that sad incident came as I rushed over towards the Hall H doors in hopes of getting word from con officials or the police on what exactly had happened.

After I arrived on the scene and fell into a photo of the suspect doing a perp walk, I made my way over to the big glass doors for the hall where a few journalists and some of the Marvel Comics staff arriving in bewilderment for their own delayed movie panel were milling about. After tapping on the glass and getting the attention of a con staffer, I asked whether a statement would be released, who with the police might go on the record, etc. He didn't seem to know but told me that they'd start letting folks into Hall H in a few minutes so maybe I should wait around.

As I stood there trying to call the San Diego Police's media line, I felt a gentle tug at my sleeve. I turned to find an older woman with red hair and a smile on her face. "Excuse me, young man," she said. "I was wondering if you could help me?"

"I can try," I said. "What can I do for you, ma'am?"

"You see, I'm Mark Ruffalo's mother, and I'm trying to figure out where the Marvel panel is."

At that moment, a gentlemen with the lady started to whisper "He can't help you!" in her ear and pull her away as I thought, "Oh fuck! This poor lady has no idea someone's been stabbed in the eye with a pen! She just wants to see her son become the Hulk!"

Luckily, I was able to wave down Marvel's C.B. Cebulski and Mike Pasciullo who put her in the hands of who I'm pretty sure was Marvel Studio's PR contact Melissa Zukerman. I heard later that she was front and center for her son's big moment. Not a celebrity sighting really, but a sweet lady all around.

Her kid's SUPER dreamy too, right?


See you next year!

Ben's SDCC 2010 After Hours Adventures pt. 1

By now you’ve read a zillion and one reports on last week’s San Diego Comic-Con International—including mine and Kiel’s—giving you all the details on the panels, announcements and other spectacular happenings during the show itself. But haven’t you been yearning to read about what a legitimate comic book professional does after the convention hall closes its doors to the public each evening?

Well, in that case, I wish you the best of luck finding a legitimate comic book professional to spin those yarns for you.

In the mean time, here’s what I did during the late PM and early AM hours of my San Diego experience.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 21
It’s tough to have a fuller day that I had Wednesday, as it was wake up at 5:00 AM or so Eastern time, get to Newark Airport, hop on a six-hour plane ride to San Diego, check into my hotel, grab a bite, book it to the convention center, then help assemble the Marvel booth and hobnob with fans and pros for a bit during Preview Night (“hobnob” really meaning tell people where stuff is and keep them off Odin’s throne until it’s all set up).

By 9:00 when the show floor closed, I and the rest of my posse were pretty wiped, so we made the easy beeline to the Tin Fish across the street to score some quick grub before passing out. In this case said posse consisted of myself, Ryan Penagos, John Cerilli, Marc Strom, our photographer Ryan Russell and illustrious Spider-Man assistant editor Tom “The Third Ashmore” Brennan (so called because a fan mistook him for Shawn Ashmore one day of the show and acted awestruck for 30 seconds or so before realizing who he actually was and complaining about Brand New Day).

I am much in Mr. Penagos’ debt for introducing me to Tin Fish last year, as it’s not only conveniently located a literal stone’s throw from the show (I mean, you need to put some heft into your throw, but still), but also boasts great eats and a pleasant outdoor seating area where you can really enjoy the great San Diego weather and get a neat view of the goings on around the Gaslamp District. Dinner was a good chance for me to bond with Mr. Brennan, who would become the Toejam to my Earl as the weekend went, learning a bit more about his mystery-enshrouded personal life and explaining to him why San Diego is pretty much my ideal dream city to live in some day.

But as much as I enjoy hanging with T-Bone, the highlight of Tin Fish is without question its grilled calamari, which I waited 12 long months to experience once more. Calamari is absolutely delicious and among my favorite things to eat, but most places you can only get it fried as an appetizer, which makes my mouth happy, but not my stomach; Tin Fish has an awesome version sans deep-frying which serves as a satisfying and scrumptious meal accompanied by awesome waffle fries.

We got back to the room about 11:30 and while Ryan P. opted for bed, I headed over to the Hyatt bar to meet up with Rickey and Kiel real quick. I actually ended up bumping into Todd and Dawn Nauck, two of my favorite folks in the comics world, and chatted them up after our usual greeting which consists of a hearty handshake for Todd and kiss on the cheek for Dawn that I assure her is “an East coast thing” (this year I finally confessed it is not). Things actually got pretty fast and furious for me as seemingly everybody I knew from Kevin to “Big” Jim Gibbons to ComicsAlliance’s Laura Hudson to more ex-Wizard chums converged on where I was standing and Megan also called to say goodnight, so I was multitasking and socializing like a champ. I hung around way past my bed time and offered up a prayer that I’d be able to wake up a few hours later.

THURSDAY, JULY 22
First real night of the con, I got a dinner invite I could not—and would never want to—pass up from the Naucks to sup with them as well as cosmic writing dream team Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning as well as their erstwhile Guardians of the Galaxy artist Brad Walker. As DnA were late arrived from England following a delay in their flight while Todd and Brad (and Dawn) had better things to do, restaurant arrangements were left to me—the fools.

Luckily I had a lull in liveblogging a panel and free Wi Fi to spare, so I figured out that the Hyatte, where they were all staying anyhow, had plenty of places to eat, including Redfield’s Sports Bar, where we ended up.

When I got to the lobby, Todd and Dawn were running a bit late, so I killed time with the space cowboys and officially met Brad for the first time. A few minutes later, we were joined by a slightly shaken Nauck duo who had just spent an hour dealing with hotel security after a flyer for some video game party (or something) was left on their bathroom mirror and the bell desk knew nothing about it; turned out to be a kinda crappy viral stunt perpetrated on most of the major hotels housing con guests (Ryan and I got one in our room but rather than reacting sensibly like Todd and Dawn, just left it on our mirror for two days because we’re lazy).

Redfield’s was nice and laid back, the only downside being there weren’t any real tables so we ended up at the (pictured above) thing that Dan and Andy christened “Odin’s [some British word I don’t remember].” Actually, that wasn’t a downside, it was awesome.

Brad and I both ordered Kobe beef hot dogs that have probably ruined regular hot dogs for us for the rest of our lives they were so good (it’s worth noting this did not prevent me from having several more convention center hot dogs over the course of the show as they along with soft pretzels composed the bulk of my diet). As for entertainment, that was provided by the Brits, who are just friggin’ hilarious, Andy in particular (I don’t think Dan would take offense at my saying so as he seems quite content in his role as straight man to Andy’s manic stand-up). They had us all rolling, especially Dawn, who had heard tales from Todd of their humor, but was witnessing it for the first time in person; getting Dawn’s attention by yelling “Dawn! Dawn! I believe Andy is telling a joke!” became a running gag for the weekend.

Incidentally I also got to hear a top secret DnA pitch that could have been and would have been awesome on a major character that made me hope someday the stars will align because it would be so so cool.

Relatively early night after spending a bit more time with just the Naucks and seeing Mike Carlin for the first time in a couple years, during the course of which I learned there is a 25-year-old Secret Wars promotional video haunting the Marvel offices that must be mine.

To be continued...

San Diego: What Rickey Bringed Home

Okay, I'm STILL beat from San Diego cause I'm old and weak and drink too much beer alone in the dark. But check this out:

Here’s what I brought home from San Diego Comic Con 2010!
San Diego can be hard to weather - especially when it comes to making time (and room in your luggage) for crap you get at the show. I’m generally buying less and less comics stuff for myself anymore, and that frugal sense extended to SDCC where I bought a lot less this year than in the past. Even still, I picked up a handful of neat stuff, so I thought I’d share it all with you.

GENERAL FREEBIES!

(pictured above; clock-wise from top left)

• CONVENTION EVENTS GUIDE - The swollen listing of panels this year had a “modern” Peanuts cover by Chris Tirri. My pack rat side usually prods me hold on to all the con booklets from shows I’ve attended, but I’m running out of room for growing monsters like this.
• CONVENTION BOOK - This year, the convention’s features magazine had short bios on featured guests, a section of fan art dedicated to DC’s 75th Anniversary, obituaries for industry members who passed this year and a neat cover by Ivan Reis.
• GREEN LANTERN 3-D MASK - You can never have too many 3-D masks around the house. This one’s tied to this game and was given out at the DC booth. Looking forward to re-reading Superman Beyond with these babies.
• DCU ONLINE KEYCARD & LANYARD - The Hyatt had room keycards dedicated to the upcoming DC Universe Online game and Sony handed out lanyards at our booth where a playable demo was available. If you haven’t seen it, PLEASE GO SEE this cinematic trailer for the game. It’s got the coolest fight I’ve ever seen starring DC characters. 100% goosebumps.
• ETERNIA PINE DEODORANT - Mattel was handing out these mini-deodorants themed after Moss Man at their booth!
• STARRO MASK - The coolest freebie on the floor was probably this life-size foam-rubber mask from Mattel based on the classic mind-controlling JLA villain. Mattel had a special Starro con exclusive, too, that came with 4 tiny Starro squids you could put over any 6-inch action figure’s face!
• FOUR MINI-COMICS BY KAREN KNIGHTON - I’d never heard of Knighton before, but these four minis (Days, Found, Naps., and Places To Look If You Have Mislaid Your Ear) all bounce between story books and dreamy storylines. Some use onion paper, allowing for backgrounds to be re-used over and over. These are cleverly designed minis I’m glad I randomly found.

SCOTT PILGRIM (and other Oni stuff) MADNESS!

(pictured above; clock-wise from top left)

• PENG! - I used to have a copy of this fun Corey Lewis super-kickball book, but I lost it. I grabbed a new copy while in line to purchase Scott Pilgrim vol. 6.
• SCOTT PILGRIM SHIRT - This was the new “Scott Scott Scott” shirt made just for the show. I haven’t unwrapped it yet. Cat-hair issues.
• SUPER PRO K.O.! - Also while waiting in line to buy Scott pilgrim vol. 6, I browsed this new Oni title from Jarrett Williams about bonkers wrestlers. It was bubble gum-popping with PHUN, and I was sold after a quick flip-thru. I was so pumped, I also bought...
• SUPER PRO K.O.! PINS - Just a set of five vibrant buttons spotlighting characters I’m certain I’m gonna fall in love with. I like how Oni packages their button sets like they’re handmade baggies of four-color drug wowness.
• SCOTT & RAMONA BRACELETS - One came free with the book. The other I got to complete the set.
• SCOTT VINYL STICKERS - New design! I grabbed 8.
• SCOTT PILGRIM VOL. 6 - Not pictured ‘cause my girlfriend snagged it as soon as I got home so she could read it. I haven’t seen it since.

QUICK NOTE: It was cool to see the Oni booth ALWAYS busy as con-goers bombarded the place to pick up the final Scott Pilgrim volume like it was the final Harry Potter installment or something. The DC booth was diagonal to Oni’s and I never didn’t see it stacked with rabid fans. Yay!

FANTAGRAPHICS AND PORN!

(pictured above; clock-wise from top right)

• YOUNG LUST #2 - I’d heard of this underground sexploitation/romance parody comic before, but never seen a copy until this one. And only a buck! Rad Bill Griffith cover.
• PRISON PIT VOL. 2! - Johnny Ryan’s ultra-violent tale of one madman’s bloody path of rage as he fights to survive a dangerous realm filled with monsters and murderers is short on words and tall on action, and volume 1 was one of my favorite books last year. This was a SDCC debut and I happened to wander over and buy it when Ryan was signing. See what he drew in my copy below in red sharpie!
• FANTAGRAPHICS FREEBIES - When you buy anything at the Fantagraphics booth, they give you a bag filled with freebies! Here’s what I got this year when I picked up Prison Pit: FUNNY BOOK - I feel like I’ve never seen this Free Comic Book Day 2006 Fantagraphics issue. POSTCARD PACKS - Three sets of 10 postcards featuring art from Hate, Krazy Kat, and Basil Wolverton. POPEYE MINI-COMIC - Contains the Plunder Island story.

(above: what Johnny Ryan drew in my Prison Pit vol. 2)

BUENAVENTURA AND SPARKPLUG!

(pictured above; clock-wise from top left)

• PAPERCUTTER #13 - Matt Wiegle! I grabbed this newest issue fo the damn-it-it’s-sooo-gooood anthology at the Sparkplup booth!
• THE NATURAL WORLD #1 & #2 (pictured backwards) - Damien Jay’s work caught my attention with Papercutter #10, so when I saw these first two issues at Sparkplug, I was giddy. The screen-printed issue #2 cover is SO NICE.
• DO NOT DISTURB MY WAKING DREAM - Collected random strips and drawings from Laura Park, who I also (weirdly...) first heard of from a Papercutter issue (#6). This was one of my two purchases at the Buenaventura booth, who were (sadly) holding a final sale at the show.
• CLUTCH #19 - This little brick is supposed to be the final issue of one of my favorite diary comics ever EVER. Clutch McBastard, the creator of the series, collects randomly unpublished entries from over the years here. So great to have a new issue in my hands, but so sad to see the series end.
• BEAT OF THE TRAPS: LOST DAILIES - I didn’t know this, but Jonathan Bennett’s Kramer’s Ergot 7 story was actually a full-color “Sunday” strip ending 6 “daily” four-panel strips. He approached the project like a syndicated comic, with each daily strip at 4 panels and recapping the events of the previous day’s strip in the first panel. The daily strips, though, were dropped from Kramers, so Bennett collected them here in this mini-comic. I’m thirsty for more Bennett material, so finding this at the Beunaventura booth was perfect.
• IN THE TALL GRASS #3 & #4 - Another book/creator I’ve never heard of, Tessa Brunton’s In the Tall Grass caught my eye with it’s full-color covers pasted to brown grocery bag paper. Flipping through, this strip cracked me up, so I bought both copies Sparkplug had.

10 BOOKS FOR A DOLLAR!

(pictured above; clock-wise from top left)

I passed a booth on Sunday that had dime books. I fumbled through all their long boxes and grabbed the following stuff! I tried to only grab things that aren’t collected elsewhere in an efficient manner...

• SPAWN/WILDC.A.T.S #1-3 - Just the first 3 issues in a 4-issue mini written by Alan Moore. Bonkers.
• DEATHLOK ANNUAL #1 - Cover by Joe Quesada! Story about Deathlok being unlocked in time.
• WOLVERINE: THE LIST #1 - Jason Aaron writes a story revisiting some of Grant Morrison’s ideas from New X-Men with art layouts by Esad Ribic! I didn’t buy it in stores when it was released cause the price was steep and there was a back-up I didn’t care to own. Look closely at the last page for some Deathlok stuff.
• SLEEPWALKER #1 - I dunno. Fuck it.
• BRUTE FORCE #1 - Animals in bio-mech suits that let them shoot guns and karate chop bitches! Kangaroo on a scooter with sunglasses! pew-pew!
• MARVEL FANFARE #40 - Mazzucchelli cover and 14-page story inside!
• ALL-STAR SQUADRON #36 - I needed it.

ULTRAVERSE: 10 FOR A DOLLAR!

(pictured above; clock-wise from top left)

Still at the dime book table...

• PROTOTYPE #1 - None of the Malibu stuff has been collected, and I’ve never tried it before.
• FREEX #1 - Free card inside!
• FIREARM #1 - James Robinson! Cully Hamner!
• PRIME #1-11 and Infinity - Of all the Ultraverse stuff, I always thought I’d like this the most. And even if it’s collected, I got a good chunk here for JUST over a buck.

RANDO BOOKS

(pictured above; clock-wise from top left)

• MARVELMAN PRIMER - A booth was selling this new issue for a dollar. SOLD.
• THE REIGN OF MEGAMIND - I’m not a huge fan of Dreamworks’ CGI movies, but this special promo based on the upcoming film has a John Cassaday cover, is written by Joe Kelly, and features art from some of the Dreamworks designers. Pretty.
• THE AVENGERS #13 - The Heroes Reborn Universe isn’t something I’m terribly interested in, but I love WildStorm, and I know the 13th issues of the Heroes Reborn titles combined to tell a so-far-uncollected 4-parter guest-starring the WS characters before the HR Universe was swallowed back into the regular Marvel U the following month. Another dime book, this kicks off my quest to find the other three parts...
• TOMORROW KNIGHTS #1 - Lookit that fucking cover. And the bad guys are called The Reamers.

And that's it. I'll be back asap with an update on my Watchmen sketchbook. Check out my pretty useless Flickr set from the show between now and then, though.

A Marvel-ous San Diego

Well great a job as he did, I can't just let Kiel take all the spotlight for San Diego Comic-Con International coverage, now can I?

One of my favorite things about conventions is getting to really feel a part of the larger family/team/insert-term-here that is Marvel Comics/Entertainment. Admittedly working away in my corner office with the rest of the Digital Media Group's content division (wow, that sounded delightfully corporate) I sometimes lose sight of being a member of this larger whole that also includes the boys and girls from editorial, marketing, etc. as well as all our great creators. When you're forced to pull together for a mammoth happening like SDCC though, that sense of camaraderie with the peeps you're in the foxhole with really comes back to the fore, and the best part is when you remember how much you like a lot of those folks.

I think more than any show since I started at Marvel, this one was the one where I really bonded with many good people outside my department, and a major goal of mine is not to let those relationships die on the vine going forward. I'm so fortunate not only to have the job I do, but also to work with some incredibly fun, dedicated and talented individuals, so I'm glad I get the wake-up calls to appreciate all that now and again.

Whenever a show goes well for Marvel, it's mainly due to two dudes: Mike Pasciullo and Tim Dillon. They organize the crap out of everything and also coordinate things like massive golden thrones from big deal movies being the centerpiece of our booth and attracting mucho traffic. Once again, them boys outdid themselves this year.

Closer to home, my digital posse annihilated the con this year in the most positive of ways. We put out over 60 pieces of content between news articles, videos, liveblogs, interviews and much more--for real, you can check it all out here at our hub page. For a team of ten on-site staffers plus less than half a dozen freelancers, that's pretty dang impressive to my mind.

Shout-outs to my writing crew of Jim Beard, TJ Dietsch, Tim Stevens and the CKT's own Kevin "MIA" Mahadeo as well as newly-minted Marvel.com west coast assistant editor Marc Strom. Kudos above and beyond as well to our tireless video team of Alex Kropinak and "Fast" Eddie Bursch who did insane hours at the show and produced some beautiful stuff. Applause to our photographers Judy Stephens and Ryan Russell who were snapping away all weekend; Judy's pic of the Avengers cast even landed in New York Magazine! And high fives to my editorial compatriots John Cerilli, Ryan Penagos and Harry Go, plus our lovable adopted PR queen Margarita Vaisman and comics' toughest on-site reporter, the incomparable "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels. Oh, and of course big thanks to that dreamy Tom Brennan, just because.

And what was I up to at the show? Well, here's the short version...

-My primary responsibility was to liveblog a solid half of the panels Marvel held. I was generally paired with Strommy, but once in awhile Harry subbed in, and for the Marvel Digital panel it was all three of us. In all cases, I took the role of color commentator (ala Jerry "The King" Lawler, whom I met at the show) while my counterpart did play-by-play.

-The sole exception to that set-up was one of my very favorites panels of the show, Marvel Writers United, featuring Brian Bendis, Mark Waid, Matt Fraction and Chris Claremont, for which I flew solo. It was a similar "let it all hang out and talk about writing, influences and comics" panel with Geoff Johns, Brad Meltzer and Judd Winick back at SDCC 2004 that firmly cemented my decision to do this for a living to begin with, so revisiting that experience after a fashion was an awesome trip.

-Another huge treat for me was getting to watch and liveblog two episodes of the upcoming Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes animated series. For real, guys, this show is going to be amazing. I don't say this lightly, but I really do believe this will be Marvel's Justice League Unlimited, and you won't find many bigger JLU fans than me. It just had the humor, the action, the larger sense of continuity and so many cameos, which is a lot of what I loved about JLU. As a bonus, I got to sit next to Chris Yost, who wrote both eps and gave me little easter eggs as we watched. On my other side, screaming like a 13-year-old girl at a Miley Cyrus concert, was Jim McCann, and seated behind us was Chris Cox, the voice of Hawkeye--so cool!

-Also really enjoyed in particular the Women of Marvel panel, where Kathryn Immonen, Marjorie Liu, Laura Martin, Christina Strain and the aforementioned Judy Stephens spoke eloquently and entertainingly on gender roles for both characters and creators in comics. It was a little strange to see Arune Singh moderating such a lineup, but my man was another SDCC MVP for sure and really came into his own on this show; I'm proud of him.

-I can't forget the Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions showcase if only because seeing Stan Lee and Dan Slott share a stage was a joy to witness (Slott was still geeking out during our flight back to Jersey).

-Aside from panels (and there are many great ones I didn't list above), I also got to do some video hosting, which is always enjoyable for me. Fun fact: I acted all the way through college and would have double-majored in theater and English had a favorite professor of mine not smartened me up to the idea it was better to focus on one over the other, so I really like being able to get back in front of the camera on occasion. Reuniting my tag team with Mr. Daniels was a highlight, as was myself and Penagos attempting to push through the delirium of close-of-show Sunday insanity.

-I also helped facilitate for the second year in a row Todd Nauck sketching WWE Superstars, in this case the Bella Twins; there's already a video up on WWE.com and we should be posting one of our own shortly. Todd is probably the legit nicest guy in comics and one of the people who really made my weekend along with his beautiful wife Dawn, and the Bellas turned out to be incredibly kind, gracious and enthusiastic, so it was great to link them up and I hope we get to do more with both parties in the future.

-Oh, another unique bit of fun for me was getting to interview the editor-in-chief of the Guinness Book of World Records, who was on hand to present Chris Claremont with a plaque commemorating X-Men #1 from 1991 as the best-selling comic of all-time. That one's not online yet either, but I'll link as soon as it is and you can witness me trying to scam my way into history by setting a world handshake record and learn the current record for most Mars bars eaten in one sitting.

So much more went down over the week, but I've already got an essay here, and some stuff is best left to me and the eyes and ears of San Diego. Thanks so much to everybody who made this probably my favorite con ever!

San Diego: What Kiel Wrote!

San Diego, man. Woof. What a long, strange, tiring, exciting, stabbing thing. As normal, I thought I'd take the massive gap in posting the collective Cool Kids underwent because of the show as a cue to fill up our corner with some ego stroking in the form of posting all that I wrote over the past week for CBR. But before I got to patting myself on the back, I wanted to note the following:

1 - For all my coming congratulatory bullshit, there is absolutely nothing that I did this weekend or ever will do at any show that will hold a candle to the unstoppable reporting prowess of Team CBR. At the end of the weekend, our on site panel coordinator – and all around chipper dude – Seth Jones sent out a text to the 30+ staffers we had on site thanking them for their hard work, and in it he said simply, "Best crew ever...I want you ALL back next year!" I couldn't agree more. At the risk of sounding like a total dickcheese, I take an extreme amount of pride in the fact that CBR probably covers this show with more depth and passion than any other media outlet – not just comics press or nerd press but ALL press. If you doubt me, check out our Comic-Con coverage index where the team delivered more reporting on panels than you can even imagine with more pouring in every day for this week and likely into next. Having so many people who were professional, timely, thoughtful and smart made what little I had to do administratively a breeze, and I swear to God I've never seen Jonah Weiland so laid back around late July ever. Thanks so much to everyone who kicked in.

2 - Holy fucking shit, Robot 6 and Spinoff Online! I would honestly be a hot mess if it weren't for the ladies and gentlemen behind those blogs, you guys. Every time I had some con-related news come across my desk last minute where we were all freaking out, I'd e-mail the Robot 6 crew and they'd not only respond immediately with a "YES!" but in some cases would actually say, "We were already chasing that." Can you fucking imagine how awesome those guys are?!?! They broke a lot of news on the show itself all by their lonesome and gave more better round ups of the breaking news of the show than any blog on the internet. Amazing, amazing, amazing, A-MAZE-ING, you guys.

And Spinoff? I can honestly say that when Jonah and I dreamt up the idea of a bigger media blog for the CBR network while doing drunken girly phone chats one night, there's no way we imagined it'd be as strong as its been in its brief life under Graeme, Kevin, Josh, Erik Jeffrey and the rest of the crew. We wanted to make a place on CBR that could expand out our coverage of other media that our readership seems to dig without sacrificing one iota of our comics coverage or comics focus, and I think we've done exactly that...and when I say "we've done" what I mean is "they've done, but it's so nice they put my name on that site too." Super aces, bros.

3 - Finally before I link to something that more than three of you want to read, I just wanted to say that I got back from this San Diego more excited about my working future and my future in general than I've felt in a long time. So everyone who hung out and said nice things and kept my positivity up all weekend...basically to all my friends at the show: THANK YOU. I went into this year's show not knowing what experience I wanted from it but walking away with the best one possible, and that was hella keen.

OK, so...content!


* I don't want to foist every piece of pre-con news that I worked on upon y'all, but in the ramp up to the show, there were a few legitimately newsworthy stories and/or just plain fun interviews I got to do that were tangentially tied to the con. For one, I was happy (and a little surprised) to be the only person to reach out and get comment from Jimmy Palmiotti and Larry Young as two of the principals in this coming Kickstart Comics company that's going to be hitting comic shops and Wal-Marts later this year. I know a lot of people throw automatic sneers at any company run by Hollywood folks, but my view is always that if someone is paying creators to get comics done, printed and sold, they deserve a shot to talk about that process in a forum where their potential readership can come and get facts on the product.

On the flip side of that particular story, it was nice to speak to Mark Waid and Matt Gagnon about their changing roles at BOOM! Studios. For being a place whose name carries "the S word," BOOM! has pretty much proven its commitment to comics first, and I'm always glad to see more healthy players of that stripe in the market.

Finally, there were a shit ton of product announcements and product announcement interviews from me in the ramp up to the show, but if I had only one to steer you towards, it'd be this one with Scott Snyder on his upcoming Detective Comics run. I don't know how well it reads through in the final copy, but I haven't spoken to any creator who was as flat out enthused over his new gig that Snyder in I don't know how long. It's nice to see new guys who are fucking hungry in comics, you know?


* Once I landed in San Diego on Tuesday morning, things pretty much started to fall on me left and right. For one, Jonah hatched some hairbrained scheme to get me onto the floor of the show before it opened (my brief photo set is here), and I'll admit it was kind of fun in its fake clandestined-ness. I think aside from all the other awesome perks, fans who want to become professionals should chase that brass ring with the knowledge that when they get that coveted exhibitor badge, there are few things more creepy awesome than walking the floor of Comic-Con when it's totally fucking empty of people.

The other major bit of Tuesday insanity for me was the fact that despite traveling to the show on little to no sleep, I'd committed to doing the latest of our new "Marvel T&A" column for the Friday of the show. We didn't want to miss a week so early in our new weekly column for any reason, so I called up Tom Brevoort from the Taxi stand of the San Diego airport for what I thought would be a ten minute "what do you do when everyone else is at San Diego?" chat and ended up with over 40 minutes of Q&A. If you're at all interested about the inner workings of Marvel Editorial over the product discussion these things usually gravitate towards, you may want to check that out. Also: Brevoort owes me a dollar for including that "T&T" gag in there.

* Once CCI gets underway, the majority of my time doing "live reporting" – that is to say I cover some of the bigger publisher panels as they happen while trying to lose neither my mind or my tenuous wireless signal. I can't complain about it really as doing a panel live means one hour of stressful typing followed by zero work on my part. It's honestly a sweet gig, and I hope that in the rush to catch as much of the news and quote people as accurately as I can, what I produce somewhat resembles readable prose rather that some kind of strange fanboy bulletpoints that need to be decoded by the message board kids. Anyway, the lion's share of these reports included: The first DC Nation panel, the Geoff Johns spotlight, the Marvel Avengers comics panel and the famed Cup O' Joe panel.


* And as part and parcel of that panel coverage, I also spoke to writer Jeff Parker about his plans in taking over Marvel's Red Hulk character with his "Atlas" artist Gabriel Hardman. To be honest, I wrote that story from a couch in the lobby of my hotel at four in the morning during a night of restless, stressful insomnia, so if it makes no sense please don't blame Parker.

* In between that, I found a moment to interview DC co-publisher Dan Didio about the whole "Alan Moore doesn't want Watchmen back or to write a sequel" thing. I mean, I got as much out of DDD as he was willing to give on the subject at least. I honestly don't know what to make of that whole story or even if it's that big of a story, but I'm always interested in hearing the big whigs talk about their big plans – even in vague terms – so it was an interesting thing in that respect at least.


* The other big chunk of my week was spent diving head first into Scott Pilgrim madness. It's kind of insane to me that one of the first things I did as a web reporter on comics was to interview Bryan Lee O'Malley about the release of the series' third volume, and since then the bond I've made with those books and that particular piece of my work life has been an incredibly satisfying and...I don't know? Humbling? experience. I'm going to miss waiting for new books in that world terribly, and I can't think of a better way to have ended my run following them than by live reporting on the star-studded movie panel and then on O'Malley's own comic-themed spotlight.

* I should also mention even though they're not up that for the first time this year, Jonah tapped me to do some of CBR's "Boat Show" video interviews. I hadn't done anything of the sort since the very end of my Wizard tenure where the process of talking to people at the New York Comic Con was as humiliating and degrading work experience as I've ever been through and made me want to stab an ice pick into my inner ear so I wouldn't be able to stand up straight in front of the camera anymore. Anyway, doing it for CBR was a much more pleasant experience, and in the weeks ahead you can all be on the lookout for video of me embarrassing myself in conversation with the aforementioned O'Malley, writer Kieron Gillen and the tag team supreme of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.


* If I could point you towards just one thing I wrote at the show you should check out (or the one thing you probably already have), it'd be my writeup of Grant Morrison's spotlight panel. Jonah very smartly didn't make this one a live affair as trying to encapsulate Morrison's thoughts on the fly would do the writer and his fans a real disservice. I hope I was able to cram as many of the interesting ideas, news and quotes I heard in that hour into my final report. and if nothing else it seems to be getting linked around a lot, for which I'm very grateful.

* Saturday evening at the show, some poor kid in Hall H got stabbed in the eye – a fact I learned while sitting in another panel taking notes, which I then had to leave to rush across the con to cover. Incidents like that are never the most pleasant things to write about, but I hope the report I filed with quotes from the police and Comic-Con's David Glanzer helped keep discussion of the event grounded in fact rather than wild speculation, despite the highly surreal factor that came in when I was asking questions of said police alongside local news stations, Entertainment Weekly and the Washington Post. Of course, that wasn't nearly as surreal as typing up said police quotes about the stabbing while sitting next to Todd MacFarlane on the couch on the CBR Yacht a half hour later. Saturday was fucking weird, man.

* I wrapped my on site reporting of the show with a brief chat with Glanzer about some of the events and issues that had sprung up during the week, and you can read that here. I hope to get David back on the phone for one more Con wrap-up talk this week, and I'll have two more panel reports hitting in the days ahead: A Mike Mignola spotlight and one about Paul Dini and Phil Hester's respective new Cartoon Network projects. Please be on the lookout for all of that in the days ahead, and see you next year!