Comic Con Recap

GQ and I went to the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) this past weekend. It's something I've been looking forward to for two years; ever since the last time I was there.  There are so many things I love about it and so many things that get me all crazyexcited.  Everything from the airplane ride out there - look, those people are from Cartoon Network - look, that guy has a Green Lantern shirt like yours - I wonder how many of these people are Cos-Players - to getting the pass & my swag bag to actually getting to go into the Exhibit Hall and see the cornucopia of things I love; comic books, super heroes, TV shows, movies, art, toys, t-shirts, movie props, and more.

I thought about and did write a post about how it wasn't what I really thought it was supposed to be.  I titled it, "The Dream Is Over". (Sheesh, talk about melodramatic). It didn't turn out like it did the first time GQ and I went, but you know, almost nothing is the second time around. I couldn't even really bring myself to take 1,548 pictures of all the people dressed up in their Cos-Play. I LOVE SEEING PEOPLE IN THEIR COS-PLAY OUTFITS!!!!So what's the deal?

I forgot about one very important aspect.  There are also 100,000+ others that are just as, if not more, excited as me. And we're all together in a space that, truth be told, isn't that big.  I mean the San Diego Convention Center is big. Don't get me wrong. Actually it's huge.  The problem is that Hall H, which holds approximately 7,000 people, has 15,000 - 25,000 people that want to get in it.  Ballroom 20, which holds 2,000 has 5,000 people that want to get in it. Clearly A LOT of people are not getting into those rooms.  Not only are they not getting in, they're standing in line waiting to get in for hours. HOURS. GQ stood in line for more hours than I'm willing to put down here.  It was not such a great experience for her, but going to SDCC you know you're going to wait in lines. As I've said, there are over 100,000 people there, and out of those 100,000 bunches and bunches want to see the same thing you want to see. So, a lot of people were probably disappointed that they didn't see what they wanted to see.

Personally, I went to several much smaller panels. Panels about comic books. That's a decision I made earlier this year when we bought our tickets.  Last time we went I stood in those lines and saw some great movie and TV previews, and got to see some cool, and not so cool, Hollywood stars and it was fun. It was more than fun actually because it was a new experience.  However, I wasn't ready to have that particular experience again. I saw some artists, writers, editors, and big-wigs from both Marvel and DC comics, and that was awesome for me. I was really happy with the panels I attended.  I got to go onstage during one of the Marvel events that I attended and preview an Infinite Comic. Infinite Comics are Marvel's next step in digital comics. I used to have a subscription to Marvel Digital Comics, and it was a huge collection of old comics that Marvel had gotten scanned into digital form. Infinite Comics are comics actually made for the digital format. They're very, very cool.  My only complaint about my panels is that sometimes there were two going on at the same time, and I had a hard time deciding which one to go see. Not a  bad complaint, I know.

The guy with the beard is Ultimate Spider-Man artist David Marquez.

The big guy there is the Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Comics (WHAT A GREAT JOB!!!)

Coming in October, Avengers Babies vs. X-Men Babies

The exhibit hall is my favorite part of the SDCC experience.  It has everything that I really love. It's the saying, "a kid in a candy store" except that I'm not a kid, and the candy store is more like a giant toy store. It's a world made for me.  The only thing lacking is good pizza, good coffee and drinks served with ice. Now, realistically, this year it was really overwhelming for me.  There were just too many people, and I don't know if there were more vendors or exhibitors or what, but it was full-on nuts in there. The pic above is GQ and me going into the exhibition hall after waiting for 3 hours with a young woman who was there for the SDCC exclusive toys. ESPECIALLY THE MY LITTLE PONY, and that's just one of them.

American Dream - Huzza Huzza!

These two folks are OMG DJ Judy and Agent M. They also get to work in super-awesome positions at Marvel Comics. You should look them up on Tumblr.

Do you know who that guy up there is?  If you said Gene Simmons of KISS you'd be right because that's exactly who it is! He was signing autographs for the Archie Meets KISS comic books. I asked the guy next to the guy with the glasses if I bought a comic could I get an autograph, and he gave me a look like one of Santa's Elves gives Ralphie in A Christmas Story when they're in the mall visiting Santa and said, "Yeah, if you go get in that line. Way. Back. There."

One of the other comic book panels that I sat in on was DC writer, Scott Snyder.  He is the current writer of Batman and American Vampire.  He's co-writing American Vampire with Stephen King.  Yes, that Stephen King. He writes comic books, too.  Scott Snyder just finished Batman - Court of Owls and is getting ready to reintroduce The Joker to DC after a 10 year absence. His plan is to make the Joker so severe and so crazy that no one will want to write another Joker story line for 20 years.


The last panel I will talk about is the Marvel Television panel.  I heard about how The Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes is being transitioned into Avengers Assemble! which will be closer in spirit to the Avengers movie.  Head of Marvel TV, Jeph Loeb, asked the audience no less than three times if they had seen The Avengers. He's clearly very pleased with its success, as is the rest of Marvel. I heard about Ultimate Spider-Man cartoons that are on Disney XD tv and got to see a special screening of a not-to-be-seen until September episode where Loki turns Spider-Man into a pig - Spider-Ham.


The guy in the picture below is Bryan Lee O'Malley. He's the author of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series, Lost at Sea and his new one coming in 2013, Seasons. I got an autographed copy of the Evil Edition of Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life as well as a signed print from Seasons, of which there were only 200 copies.

So what's my overall take? Well, when it was all going on I wasn't sure that it was so great, but having just reread this post I think I had a pretty great experience.  I do wish GQ had had better luck with what she was going to see. I think the problem is that this thing is just getting biggerer and biggerer and biggerer, and that's not necessarily a good thing.  This is only my second time going. GQ's been three times, and in that time period it's gone from 'Wow! This is kind of nuts.' to 'Holy crap! This is INSANE!' 


Will I go back? I'm not sure.  GQ and I discussed trying out NYCC and seeing what that's like because it's put on by the same people, but it's either September or October in New York, so... Of course Marvel did announce the sequel titles to both Thor and Captain America which I would really be interested in seeing those panels, but I am really not interested in getting in line at 3 in the morning so I have a chance to see them 12 - 14 hours later.  I don't think I am willing to make that sacrifice. Of course, to quote Chuck Berry, "you never can tell."


Here are more pics from the trip - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4367938163656.2182720.1444012690&type=3&l=8e7204a4a6

Comic Con!

So GQ and I are leaving tomorrow on a jet plane heading to San Diego for Comic Con 2012. If you're not hip to it then the best way to describe it is a gathering of Pop Culture - TV, movies, comic books, video games, toys and more.  Here's some shots of my first time two years ago - SDCC 2010.  


The Girls are staying behind with Grandma & PopPop hoping to get some good Cousin time in, and hopefully see the new Ice Age movie.


This is my second time going, and I'm excited SUPER EXCITED! When I got back from my first time one of the teachers I work with asked me how it was, and as I started to blather on about it she asked, "You want to live at Comic Con, don't you?" And you know what? I do!


So, I've got to finish packing and try to print out the schedule so I can read it on the plane and make sure I have enough batteries for my camera and clean my man room in case the dog/house sitter decides to sleep down here b/c it's the coolest room in the house (both types of cool).


I'll be posting stuff as often as I can.  If I don't come back it's because Comic Con doesn't make you sign something like they do at Disney World stating that "I acknowledge that I do not now, nor will I ever, reside permanently in the Magic Kingdom." and I've found a way to enter that world and not come back.


That wouldn't happen. I'd never leave the Girls, Marley and The Puppy Without a Name behind. GQ? She'd move in too if she could, so if one of us goes, we both go.


Speaking of GQ, she's just released her second novel this year (I KNOW RIGHT?!?), FanGirl! You can get to it here - FanGirl!
I'm amazingly impressed and proud of her.  It's a great story.  Much different from Wraith, her first novel.  It is in the YA field, and not yet available as a paperback or in Nook format, but both will be forthcoming.


Okay, peace out y'all. I'm going to finish packing and then be too excited to sleep.

Two Books Not Reviewed

I just finished reading two books, How To Be Good by Nick Hornby and The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. After reading so many books on my Kindle, well my Kindle app on the iPad it's kind of nice to hold a real book. 


Similarly to how I did not review The Avengers because there were already so many great reviews of it, I am not going to review these books.  I'm just going to give my thoughts on them.  I was going to review them, but I have a problem being too wordy, and this would have been too long, and blah blah blah.

How To Be Good  

For those of you not familiar with the name Nick Hornby, he is the author of About a Boy and High Fidelity.  Both of these have been turned into movies starring Hugh Grant and John Cusak, respectively.  Hornby is a British author and his books are very British. I totally love this, but then again I love many British things; although not the food.  Anyway.

I like the book, but the ending is a bit of a downer, and that caught me off guard. Overall I'd give it a B-. If you really liked the two I just mentioned and are looking for a similar book you're not really going to find it here. If you've never read Hornby before this might not be a bad starting point and then go to his others.  Here are some real reviews of it, if you're interested. 

British review from The Guardian

The New York Times On The Web review

The main thing I took from this story is that wanting people to do more to make the world a better place is all good and fine, but there's only so much you can do to change people.  I know GQ lives with this problem living with me and my recycling habits obsession. Reading this story has made me realize that I can do all the recycling I want, and encourage The Girls to do it, too, but trying to make someone do what I think is best doesn't really work.  Same thing with the character David in this book.

He wants the world to be a better place and begins to impose his desire on his family, regardless of how this makes their life more difficult than it already is.

I can see how this is similar to how people feel when others are wanting them to give more money or time, recycle more and waste less, etc.  Of course these are things that everyone should  do, and most are things everyone  could  do, but forcing people to do those things typically only makes you feel better.  A lot of the time it will make the others feel hostile toward you or whoever is doing the forcing.

The Fault In Our Stars

I love John Green's books.  I think John Green is an entertaining, funny and original author. He has a Tumblr that has some good stuff on it. Plus he and his brother have a very funny video blog. 

Again, not going to review it because you don't have that much time to read all my words. I give it a solid A. Here are some real reviews.

Really Ravishing Review

Good Reads

Here's what I love about John Green, and all of my favorite authors really: The characters.  I am able to connect to them immediately.  I may not always like them, although I did very much so in this story, but I can always find something with them that I can relate to.  

The main characters in this story, Hazel and Augustus, are great.  The side characters are as well. Isaac, their friend is one of my favorite minor characters I've read in a long time.

This story deals with cancer and cancer victims. This includes their family and friends.  Because John Green writes YA and juvenile fiction the characters are of course young. All three suffer from one form of cancer or another.  

Since the story is from Hazel's point of view you don't necessarily get a great point of view of the parents, but you the hopelessness they feel because of what their children are suffering is pretty evident.

I can't even begin to imagine how devastating it would be to have a child with cancer.  My mom is a breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with it when I was 12, I think, and I was not told a lot about what was going on.  I used to be bitter about that, but now I understand that it would have freaked me out completely and just given my parents one more thing to worry about.  

Having a parent with cancer is one thing. Having a child with it, or any other disease is another, and I am amazed at the strength parents have to deal with it, and hope and pray it is something that GQ and I never have to deal with.

I'll be honest. I cried a little reading this book. Luckily I was at the pool sweating in the crazy heat so the few tears that escaped were probably just another salty liquid streaming down my face.  Wearing sunglasses helped too, I'm sure.  Actually, it's not too unusual for me to shed some tears if a book is really good.  If you know me you know I'm a pretty sensitive guy.  Medication helps me not be a quivering mess of a sensitive guy.  

So, there you go. Two books. One just okay and one really great one.  If you're looking for something to read you won't have wasted your time with either of them.

Happy Reading

Three Things

                            Someone's Got It Worse Than You

Several things have made this clear to me recently.  I am a pretty optimistic guy, but I still get bogged down sometimes thinking - gah! This SUCKS! Luckily though, I am also a fairly reflective guy (a recent acquirement, reflection).  

So, as I was sitting in the Emory University gymnasium the other day after three or four hours I was all, Man, this is going to be TERRIBLE.

After the 11th hour I was still thinking that, but then I noticed that there were LOTS of other people that had been there as long as I had.  Then as I was leaving after 12 hours I noticed that some of those people were STILL there and weren't going to be able to leave for at least another hour.

Add to that the fact that it was 106 outside and I got to spend all day in a very air conditioned building with the Girls cheering them on, I decided that it wasn't all that bad.

                                       Orange Juice With Pulp

You know what they don't sell in stores? Orange Sauce. It would be like apple sauce except it would be made with oranges. They don't sell that. Do you know why they don't sell it?  Because it would be GROSS!!!!

 

Recently I was on a trip with some friends and we bought some OJ, and we weren't paying attention because that's what we do - Not Pay Attention, and we got the OJ with "Lots of Pulp". It was very disappointing the next morning as I was pouring my OJ to see orange sauce come sludging out of the container. I tried to drink it and it nearly choked me it was so thick with pulp.

The container has a picture of a man and a little girl.  The man is laughing as the little girl drinks her juice.  I'm sure it's supposed to be the dad having a good natured, early morning laugh with his daughter as she enjoys her juice, but really what it comes down to is more like this:

                    Uncle Larry laughs at Becca as she drinks a glass of sludge.

My buddy decided to try and strain it with the coffee filter.  My initial reaction was great! Ugh, that's going to be the worst tasting OJ in the history of ever. But, he was taking the initiative where I would have just not drank it.  He poured some in and it just sat there. Do you know why it just sat there instead of filtering through the filter? Because it was 99.8% pulp and 0.2% juice.

I decided to go with this plan, and I scooped out spoonful after spoonful of orange sauce so the delicious pulp-free OJ could go into the container. 

It took forever.  However, I am proud to say that I was able to get three big glasses of OJ out of it. And it didn't even have a coffee taste.

Orange sauce. Gross.

                                           Super Heroes

The Avengers. The Amazing Spider-Man. The Dark Knight Rises.

The first one has already proven to be awesome (over $1 billion worldwide - that's INSANE), and in my opinion, the other two are going to be awesome also. I don't think they'll do as good as The Avengers, but the Batman one could.

Anyway, I've been reading some articles on what super heroes should have their own movies. I won't go into the whole list, I'm just going to focus on the one that makes me scratch my head in wonder.

Dr. Strange.

You're probably not familiar with Dr. Strange.  He's not your typical super hero.  He is The Sorcerer Supreme. So he does magic The Magik. You wouldn't understand The Magik.  I don't.  Captain America doesn't.  The only one that does is probably Dr. Doom and people from other dimensions.

So there's all this talk about a Dr. Strange movie.  I don't know why. I really don't.  I love super hero movies, but I wouldn't go see Dr. Strange. Even though the one picture I've seen of speculative actors to play him would be my celebrity doppelganger, Patrick Dempsey.

The Fandom says they also want a Justice League movie.  The Avengers movie got made, so why not a Justice League?  Because that would just be a copy cat knock off, that's why.  Marvel spent years building the roads and bridges that lead to The Avengers. If DC was going to do an JL movie they would have had to started several years ago.  

As it is now, they can't even get Superman out.  Henry Cavill's going to be too old to do a sequel, not to mention a JL movie by the time they get it out. Plus there's the whole thing of Batman. He's part of the JL, but it's Batman, not The Dark Knight.  This Batman has to work with people.  I can't see The Dark Knight working along side Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, & Aquaman.

So, DC, I don't know.  They probably just need to focus on getting Superman out so they can keep a franchise going once Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight series comes to an end.

In Their Sites

Here's the thing; sometimes you encounter people that no matter what you do, no

matter how much you stay out of their way they have you in their sites. There's not an

explanation that works, there's not any way around it. It's just so.

Of course there are always reasons that they have for keeping you in focus. The

problem, well, one of the problems is that there are always more interesting things to

look at or focus on. Seriously. However, they don't want to focus on those things, they

rants want to focus on Y.O.U.

What can you do about this? Nothing. Abso-damn-lutley nothing.

I've tried. You've tried. We've all tried.

So what is it about you that's so damn fascinating? Should you even worry about that? I

say you shouldn't. You've got your thing going on, they're the ones that clearly are

lacking enough actual excitement in their life. You carry on. Does that make it easier?

Unfortunately it doesn't. I wish it did, but it doesn't.

Some people are better than others about ignoring it than I am. They're lucky. Or.

Maybe they're just used to it. Whichever, I could use some of their ability.

Of course, there's always the possibility that you aren't the one their focused on. Boy,

that'd be quite the kick in the pants. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course they're watching

me. And you. Definitely you. Awesome attracts attention like nothing else.

Don't Box Me In

The Family recently spent time with someone that made me think about the boxes we find ourselves in. Different people want us to fit into different size, shape, or types of boxes, but really we are in charge of  that , or at least, we should be.

When I was a kid I know that an empty cardboard box was about one of the best things I could have to play with. I'm pretty sure this holds true for kids today, too.  I know it does with The Girls. The possibilities are endless as to what that box is and what it can be.  Calvin and Hobbes 

I have gone out of my way to bring boxes home for the Girls to play with and the reaction has always been similar: excitement. It's exciting to think about the possibilities of what they can do in the box, what they can put in the box, where they can put the box, and so on. Crayons, markers, tape, scissors, glue and more change those boxes to ANYTHING they want them to be, and I love it.

When we grow up though the box changes. It becomes a metaphor. It changes from what can't it be to what YOU are supposed to be.  Think about it, you probably have a job description. That's a box that you are in. Unfortunately the possibilities are more limited with it than they were when you were a kid. Not always, I know, but a lot of the times they are.

Our lives and how we live them are also Boxes, and most of the time we have complete say as to the size, shape, and type of Box we have. 

Most people respect your Box. You make your choices and you live with them. Everything's all good until someone tries to make you fit into the type of Box they think you should be in, or vice versa.

As I said, we recently spent time with someone who has a very rigid Box. EVERYTHING is where it should be at all times, and if it isn't it get puts there or it Becomes An Issue. He likes to impose his Box on others with little regard to what others' Boxes may be like.  In his mind all Boxes should be the same; there's no need for other sizes, shapes, or types of Boxes. In his mind there are a finite number of Types of Boxes.

We heard several times how someone has a "problem" because he or she didn't fit in a certain Box. This person feels so strongly about this that he gets MAD and cannot discuss why it might be okay for their Box to be different. It's not really up for discussion.   "That's ridiculous." or "That's just sad." were two of the phrases we heard to describe someone else's Box. These weren't people that were trying to force him to accept something else. These people don't know, or care what he does, or what his Box is like, but that's not the way it is with him. This, of course, is wrong, but getting him to see this is futile.

Me, I try to keep my Box as open as the cardboard boxes from my childhood. I don't always succeed. It's flexible so if I push against a wall it bends out. With a really good Box there's a really sturdy foundation that will hold it together even with some pushing.  My Box has gotten broken a few times from pushing on a wall too hard. It has a bunch of tape on it keeping it together, but it's good. I like it.

How about your Box? Do you like yours? Do you think others should have a Box like yours, or are you okay with everybody's Box being different?

The Girls often have different ideas of what the cardboard boxes I bring home will be, and sometimes those ideas change rapidly over the course of a couple of days. A lot of times they're different from what I think the boxes could be, but that's what's great about cardboard boxes. 

What their Box will be like as they get older is similar; it is a limitless possibility and it may not always be what I think it could, or should be. My job is to try to make sure that their foundation is strong enough to allow the walls to bend out far enough without breaking.  Or at least provide them with a good roll of tape.

 Don't Box Me In

Micronauts!!!

Micronauts. That's what this post is about.  If you're not familiar then you may want to spend some time on the link back there.  Or this one Mego Micronauts.  Of course, you might not care, which is completely beyond my understanding, but we all have our hangups  I suppose.


So recently Coco and a friend were playing in my room while I was wasting skads of time on the Internet busy working at my desk.  They were exploring my Top Shelf Items.

• Simpsons toys from fast food restaurants
• Vintage McDonalds mini-racers
• Captain America puzzle
• Ralph Malph
• Lucha Libre Wrestler collections
• Micronauts Pharoid
• GI Joe

They were fascinated by the Micronauts.  Rightly so.  So they asked about them, and I proceeded to tell them all about these little guys and how much time I spent playing with them when I was their age. They were hanging on every word of my story demanding to know more about them, so I Googled it and found the sites above, as well as this one - More Micronauts

I spent almost an hour pouring over these sites and looking at all the toys that I had as a kid remembering how much time I spent playing with these little guys.  I think I've mentioned before how I may have been spoiled with the amount of toys I had as a kid, but none of them ever went to waste. I PLAYED all the time with my toys. Probably much longer than I should have. (hello 12 year old Thomas playing with action figures).  I don't know how I managed to end up with so many different sets, but I suspect that they were not as popular with most kids and that my mom got them at the JC Penny Outlet Store. I don't care. It was awesome, and they kept me entertained and happy for years.


Anyhoo, about 8 years ago I sold 99% of these things to former students of mine.  Students that were of a similar mindset to me at that age.  I did not want these beloved toys going to Goodwill to sit there, neglected, or picked up by a collector who wouldn't play with them.  

It was great. Showing the kids which parts went together, and how you could interchange so many of them. It made me really happy to know that they were going to get a new life.  Just like Woody & Buzz did at the end of Toy Story 3 - 

That's good stuff right there.  


Here are some pics of the ones that I kept.

The Evil Antron

Membros

Antron and Membros have glow in the dark brains!

Pharoid. It's a case that hold the Micronauts.

This is the one that I have left. He's a Space Glider

The chrome coating has faded off a little bit of his gliding wings.

I always thought that this guy looked like Parker Stevenson from The Hardy Boys TV show