By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/30/2015
Autograph authenticator Steve Grad has a collection of 100s of Star Wars cards signed by the original cast, and he’s posted a gallery on FB, with more to come. But I think this one by Mark Hamill may be the best one of all. Although these are pretty good, too. More in the link.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/23/2015
We’re less than a month away from the second annual Doctor Who Comics Day on August 15th, and if our SDCC exclusive details on Paul Cornell‘s four Doctor series (not to mention the book’s first six pages) aren’t enough to get you vworping with excitement, check out the recent updates to the tumblr Titan has set up for the occasion. There you’ll find a trailer for the five-part crossover arc (which kicks-off in connection with the Doctor Who Comics Day celebration) featuring Doctor’s Ten through Twelve, their companions, and The War Doctor.
The four Doctor series is illustrated by Neil Edwards (Assassin’s Creed) and officially debuts on August 12th, but you’ll only get the chance to meet Doctor Who comic creators and artists if you drop by a participating store the following Saturday for Doctor Who Comics Day. The tumblr has a list of of the talent you can catch at in-store signings, as well as a peak at the local cosplayers scheduled to appear. Not enough? Most stores will also feature Doctor Who themed giveaways, contests and games.
My favorite two variants so far:
A Bohemian Rhapsody inspired Forbidden Planet exclusive cover from Joshua Cassara And Luis Guerrero:
*and*
This lovely nod to the season five episode “Vincent and the Doctor” from David Carr for Twilight Comics:
By: Katie Eller,
on 7/14/2015
Daniel Radcliffe has shown his good humor this week at San Diego Comic Con. While officially there to promote Victor Frankenstein, he hasn’t shied away from media interviews and selfie shots.
The photo of the Con so far has been Maisie William’s Instagram post of herself with Hannah Murray, Daniel Radcliffe, and Jenna Coleman. Nothing makes fandom swoon like a Game of Thrones/Harry Potter/Doctor Who meet-up!
Also, Daniel Radcliffe has done some brief camera interviews while in San Diego. Talking to Extra, Radcliffe confirms that a cameo in Fantastic Beasts is highly unlikely. Considering the action of the new film takes place decades before Harry Potter is even born, this isn’t surprising.
Radcliffe also shares his excitement for Victor Frankenstein, calling it a “buddy-adventure movie, but with a lot of, like, you know, dissection of animals and stitching them back together to make new improved animals,” since Frankenstein and Igor’s projects involve a lot of animal re-composition as part of the larger storyline.
In another interview, Daniel Radcliffe jokes about his Rear of the Year award. To E!, he glibly says, “Oh, yeah, I’ve been campaigning for years.” Radcliffe then gives a mock acceptance speech for the award, saying that he’s honored– and we’ll all get to see more of his backside in the future.
To read more about the Instagram photo, see here. To read the article from E!, see here.
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By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/12/2015
If you’re into cosplay, Saturday night is made for fighting the lines to get into the annual masquerade contest. Here are a few backstage pics from the show, along with a few other shots.
If you attended any of the panels I moderated, you know that my themes this year were community and personal connection. The above candid of what appear to be a mother and son is probably my favorite scene of the show.
As you know, guys have a proclivity toward taking pictures of cosplaying women in revealing garb, with little regard for who these women are as people. A pic I didn’t get: a young woman in an artful Poison Ivy costume who explained her costume to the photographer with a rather revealing statement: “I’d rather wear this every day than be slinging coffee.”
Captain America stopped by lunch on Saturday afternoon, and judging by the detail on the costume he wasn’t a cosplayer but the real Captain America.
The good folks at Comic-Con let me join the lucky few Jimmy Olsens and Peter Parkers who get to go backstage the shoot posed photos after each entry performs their routine. Before the show, however, cosplayers who aren’t part of the contest can have their photos taken as well. Harley Quinn dazzled the photographers with an array of poses …
… and afterward she handed out business cards – turns out she’s a talented seamstress, designer and costume fabricator. This is the case more often than one might guess — cosplay is often a marketing tool as much as a form of self-expression, an aspect of the culture that your typical “babes of cosplay” photo essay tends to miss.
The daughter of Batman and Poison Ivy enchants the photographers. Kids open the annual cosplay masquerade contest.
Princess Anna of Arendelle. This is where being in the photographer area was rather illustrative vis a vis the real culture of cosplay. The cosplayers weren’t told to strike a sexy pose — the repeated requests were for them to show the fabric details, construction, and in many cases, lighting and other tech that didn’t show up all that well on my iPhone under bright lights.
Fabric on display – cosplayers are asked to pose front, back, side to side, in angles highlighting key details, and finally, in whatever pose happens to be their favorite.
This looked great, but when the head came off it looked like the costume had almost killed the wearer. These things are hot and heavy.
The Transformers Bumblebee cosplay was a technological marvel to behold – and so tall that it couldn’t fit in the photographer staging area. As a result, we could photograph only the folks who made it work.
Minecraft 3D.
This costume was clever and funny – the Barbie doll was a fantastic touch. After the photographers called out for poses highlighting particular aspects of the design, one called out, “Show us your teeth!” — to which the cosplayer deadpanned: “I don’t have interesting teeth.”
There were a number of other costumes worth highlighting, but like most of the other folks I know here, I’m beat.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/10/2015
Want to know what comic-cons are really about? Get these books.
In my previous post I talked about the importance of community — it is central to proper understanding of ethics, and as such it is essential to a fan life well-lived. As an influx of new people explore the comics universe, the risk of losing sight of what connects us beyond passive viewing increases and the importance of learning from our history only grows.
That’s why Jackie Estrada’s Comic Book People is so vital – and if you’re at San Diego Comic-Con, you can get the hot-off-the-Kickstarter second volume at the Exhibit A Press booth, #1909 (aisle 1900, near the Lobby B2 entrance).
If you’re new to comic-cons there might be a temptation to think that books filled with photos of people from the ’70s and ’80s (vol. 1) and ’90s (vol. 2) are just for people who went to conventions back then, but as Don Draper would say, this isn’t nostalgia; it’s a time machine. The genius of these books is that you are in many ways their target audience — in addition to names and photos, Comic Book People explains who these people are and why they are important. Not only will this help you discover stories you might have otherwise missed, but they show you a world-shaping network as it grows. These folks built a global pop-culture empire that made billions and changed lives, inspiring an intensity of personal connection that rivals if not transcends that found in other art. Know them and you’ll understand the world you’ve just entered; follow their example and you’ll create a world that today exists only in dreams.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/9/2015
Many of the fans packed into Hall H on Thursday waited overnight on the street outside of the San Diego Convention Center for their chance to catch Peter Capaldi’s first appearance at SDCC since becoming the Twelfth Doctor on Doctor Who. Capaldi himself had visited the line for Hall H earlier in the day, embodying the goodwill actors portraying the Doctor have shown fans going all the way back to the classic series era.
Headoverfeels.com creators and editors Sage Young and Kim Rogers held their spots in line for 21 hours, with only one break to rest at a nearby friend’s house. “We had an amazing time,” Rogers said of the nearly day-long experience, “we thought it would be miserable but it was a gorgeous day. We had food, we had friends, and we knew we would have an amazing seat.” The pair ended up being some of the first 100 people let into the massive 6,500 seat hall.
If the fans were tired from their line-waiting experience, their enthusiasm was undimmed as Capaldi took the stage with co-stars Jenna Coleman and Michelle Gomez, who portray the Doctor’s companion Clara and long-time nemesis The Master respectively. The stars were joined on the panel by showrunner and long-time Whovian Steven Moffat. Chris Hardwick of The Nerdist and Talking Dead moderated the hour-long discussion.
Hardwick kicked things off by commenting on Capaldi’s take on the Doctor’s newest regeneration, saying: “I love that you’re kind of cranky and intense.”
Capaldi replied: “I think he [Steven Moffat] just saw those qualities in me, and just cast me.”
For his part, Moffat explained that writing for the different Doctors wasn’t what made them unique, saying: “On paper the Doctors are actually quite similar, it’s what the actors bring to it.”
Putting on the mantle of a character that’s over 50 years old is no simple task. “Did you feel the weight of Who immediately?” asked Hardwick of Capaldi, who is still in the midst of filming the show’s ninth season.
“It’s in my bones, it’s the only show I’ve followed since I was six years old,” said Capaldi, who then referenced his first appearance on the BBC series in the rebooted fourth season. “I thought that would be the only time of being in Doctor Who.” He then related how excited he was to be on set while David Tennant was playing the part of the Doctor’s Tenth incarnation, asking: “‘David! David! where’s the TARDIS?’ I got quite teary.”
Coleman revealed that her character, Clara Oswald, companion to both the Eleventh and and Twelfth Doctors, “has a rule that that she gets dropped off 30 seconds before she left. I think she’s a bit of a control freak.” Coleman then added that “This series she’s more head first into the TARDIS,” and would be spending more time on-board the Time Lord’s time-traveling spaceship.
Following “Death in Heaven,” the finale episode of season 8 which saw Gomez’s character seemingly de-materialized in the final moments of the show, there was much in the way of fan-speculation that we hadn’t seen the last of The Master’s game-changing female regeneration known as Missy. Her appearance on the panel confirmed the theories correct.
When Hardwick asked Gomez’s approach to playing Missy, she replied: “Luckily I never know why I’m saying what I’m saying…the writing is all there for me. It’s just a thrill to turn up and get this opportunity to be The Master, it’s still ‘pinch me?’” Gomez further explained her take on the long-running character, saying: “I think he or she or it is the best friend you love to hate…the rules don’t apply to her and that makes her really fun to play.”
Moffat agreed with Gomez’s assessment of the Doctor/Master relationship: “They are friends, which is terrifying. It’s like a friendship between a vegetarian and a hunter.”
Gomez added: “It’s this great friendship that just went wrong. And we’ve all had those…and you’re trying to get in the way of me destroying the universe,” she said, looking to Capaldi, “which I have to do! We both kill a lot of people, he feels bad about it, I don’t.”
Capaldi expounded on his feelings regarding the character of the Doctor: “ I think he doesn’t know who he is, he’s always scrambling around trying to figure out who he is…he’s a constantly growing character.” Echoing a debate his Doctor has with Clara’s love interest Danny over his military past, Capaldi continued: “He’s not a soldier. He’d rather sit at night in a car park looking at the stars than be blowing up Daleks,” before adding: “I like blowing up Dalek’s.”
Though Capaldi felt his Doctor was still mostly a “bohemian/philosopher/rebel time lord,” Coleman was asked about her character’s trouble with the transition of the Eleventh into the Twelfth Doctor.
“She was familiar with how it was working,” said Coleman, “then suddenly your best friend changes his face and who knows what to trust anymore? It’s changing all the rules basically.”
Hardwick inquired after the health of Twelve and Clara’s relationship, asking: “Are they okay now?”
Coleman felt they were, saying: “They’ve found their groove, eating up all of time and space with reckless abandon.”
A never-before seen trailer for Doctor Who’s upcoming ninth season was then shown, which announced the return date of the series as September 19th and ended with a shot of highly publicized guest star Maisie Williams squaring off with Capaldi’s Doctor. The Doctor clearly recognizes Williams’ mysterious character, saying, “You?”
To which Williams replies: “What took you so long, old man?”
When the lights came back up, Moffat explained he could say no more about the episodes featuring the actress, best known for her work on Game of Thrones as fan-favorite character Arya Stark.
Capaldi told the crowd about the first moment he felt he was really the Doctor: “I think it’s when they threw a rubber spider in my face and said: ‘fight it!’ I said, it doesn’t work, where’s the operator? And they said: ‘there is no operator, it’s just a big rubber spider. Fight it!’”
Coleman was asked about her character’s difficulty in returning to a normal life after adventures on the TARDIS, to which she answered: “I think it becomes addictive and I think that’s the problem.”
Pondering the fact of the TARDIS’ “bigger on the inside” feature, Moffat said “I used to wonder why the Doctor didn’t use that more? ‘Don’t believe I’m an alien? Look at that!’” When the crowd didn’t react, he continued: “I guess that was just me, then. My Mom was right I should have got a girlfriend instead. Applause for my imaginary girlfriend!” The crowd offered some, and over the sound of the clapping Moffat teased: “Virginity kept me pure.”
The Doctor, for all his humanity, often fails to understand human nature. This seems particularly true of Capaldi’s incarnation, with Coleman commenting: “Clara teaches him how to interact with humans more this season…helps him with his social skills, makes him more of a welcome party guest.”
Speaking again of the Doctor/Master relationship, Moffat said: “This is not new, the Doctor and the master being friends.” He explained he recently went back and viewed “the Delgado and Pertwee episodes.” Said Moffat: “One of them wants to blow up the world the other one wants to stop it, but they don’t let a little thing like that get in the way.”
When the panel opened up to questions from the audience, one came from a young boy who thanked the panel for helping him with his “Make-a-wish.” Moffat seemed visibly moved in recognizing the child, who asked what Capaldi felt was iconic about this Doctor.
Capaldi answered: “Eyebrows.”
Hardwick extended the question to the other actors on the panel, and when Coleman balked at answering, Moffat chimed in with: “Eyes, huge eyes!”
Gomez added “Lips. Obviously.” She then talked of her kiss with the Doctor in episode 11 of last season, asking fans to decide who was kissing who, saying that if they watched it back again: “Peter is — there’s some suction there…what you couldn’t see was I was also holding Clara’s hand.”
“That’s hot!” a fan cried loudly from the audience.
Another fan asked of Moffat what literature he drew most from for inspiration. Moffat answered: “Doctor Who is what made me wanted to be a writer…. I was so inspired by Doctor Who.“He added: “Every screenplay William Goldman has written is great, and if you want to know about comedy writing read Neil Simon.” He later added: “For the record, I do anything for a laugh, I’m a tart.”
When the panel was asked to describe their character’s perfect day, Gomez replied she thought Missy would start her day with a croissant and some tea before saying: “And then slapping Wonder Woman in the face.”
One of the final questions asked if the panel had any advice for aspiring actors. Gomez said: “My agent calls me the roach because I keep getting squashed like a bug and coming back,” before encouraging the audience: “just never give up. This world is abundant, there’s enough for everyone.”
As the panel drew to a close, Capaldi reflected on his first SDCC experience: “To come here and find this warmth and affection for something I’ve been following since childhood is extraordinary….I feel the warmth of the full 50 years pointed right at me.”
Hardwick closed the proceedings by showing a trailer for the recently announced Lego: Dimensions video game featuring a Lego version of Capaldi’s Doctor interacting with Lego Batman and character’s from the Oscar nominated The Lego Movie. Hardwick also announced that his Nerdist network would be broadcasting a TV special titled Doctor’s Finest on August 15th, showcasing the Nerdist’s top 8 favorite episodes of Doctor Who hosted by Youtuber Hannah Hart.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/29/2015
EventBrite, the ticketing agency, caused a lot of talk last year when they released the results of the first survey of convention attendees with breakdowns on gender, spending and more.
They’ve done another survey this year, and the results are even more detailed. Rob Salkowitz has done a round-up over at ICv2 but the Beat has also been given an exclusive preview of some of the data on safety at the con.
The survey was done to provide greater insight into the multi-billion dollar fandom events and convention business, and surveyed 2165 total respondents over two weeks in May. Respondents were drawn from Eventbrite users, with a few from external respondents via social media. 94% of respondents attended a fan event or convention in the past 12 months, While the poll did not cover sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, it delved into gender, and the news is that as far as men and women go it’s now even steven. Also, there is far more gender diversity among purchasers of indie/alt.comix than among regular comics. And that attendees of Tabletop/role-playing games felt less safe than any other kind of event — perhaps because fans of these are actually USED to acting out? Just a guess there.
SO MUCH TO CHEW ON. For breakdowns read on:
•
• Last year, in a survey using the same methodology and roughly the same sample size, the overall gender breakdown across all fandoms was 46% female, 54% male, but was 50/50 under age 30. (the survey did not provide a non-binary/other option in 2014)
• This year, gender identity breakdown across all responses was 48.9% female, 48.7% male, , 2.4% non-binary/other
• Fandom as a whole is trending female, with women very slightly outnumbering men in our overall sample.
• Under age 40, it’s 50.8% female/46.1% male/3.1% non-binary/other
• There are hardly any significant attitude or behavior differences expressed between male and female fans across most topics polled.
…but gender gaps remain across specific fan interest areas.
• Despite the overall trend toward women across all fan interest areas polled, no individual fandom is close to 50/50
• Tabletop and role-playing gaming and comic book fandom are where the boys are, clocking in at over 62% male.
• Female fans flock to anime/manga, science fiction and genre/comics-based media.
• Fans identifying as “non-binary/other” are most likely to be found in Alt/small press and anime/manga fandom.
Cosplayers are Intense Fans, Spenders, Frequent Con Attendees
• 499 respondents, or around 23% of our sample, identified themselves as serious cosplayers and/or people who attend shows just to engage in cosplay
• The highest percentage – 29.4% – identified themselves as primarily manga/anime fans. 21% are fans of comic and genre-based media, and 17.7% science fiction and fantasy fans.
• More than 85% of cosplayers are under 40, with nearly 60% between the ages of 23-39.
• Cosplayers are predominantly female (62.5%), with 32% male and 5% non-binary/other
• Only 30% of cosplayers report spending less than $100 at shows. Most (42.7%) spend between $101-250, consistent with the spending patterns of non cosplayers.
• Cosplayers go to more cons than practically any other group. 64% of serious cosplayers attend 3 or more fan events per year. More than 27% attend 5 or more fan events per year.
Cons Generally Make Fans Feel Safe and Welcome
• When asked “In general, do you feel the fan events you attend do enough to make all attendees feel safe and welcome,” 7.2% of respondents (143 total) said no. 92.8% said yes.
• Anime/manga and toy/collectible fans seem to feel their events do best, with fewer than 5% feeling unsafe.
• By far the worst fandom for safety is Tabletop/role-playing games, with around 17% of fans in that category answering “no.”
• Videogaming fans (mostly male fandom) response is at about 10%; comic and genre-based media (the most female fandom) is around the same.
• There were few statistical differences between how men, women and non-binary/other genders answered this question.
• Among those who feel unsafe and unwelcome:
o 53.5% are female, 45.1% are male, 1.4% are non-binary/other
o 20% are serious cosplayers. 44% do not cosplay at all.
o 40% have been going to cons for more than 10 years
o 35% spend $250 or more
o 85% go in groups of two or more, including family
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By: Matthew Cheney,
on 6/20/2015
So when you ask some of your questions, you're asking them to a person who's long dead. You're asking them to a person that doesn't exist. But people make that mistake about me all the time.
—Bob Dylan, 2012
 |
| Don Hunstein; Bob Dylan, New York, 1963 |
"He and I have been through a lot together and he doesn't know it," she said. "He doesn't know I exist. Can you see how that would be frustrating? I don't have any grandiose idea that because he's affected me he's going to care. I just think it's not fair that it's a one-way relationship." She wasn't delusional. She didn't think he was going to ask her out on a date, or invite her to his home. But if he did she would have to drop everything and go. "I don't think he's Jesus, I don't think he's the messiah. He's just a human being. But he's filled with poetry."Or another fan, one that Dylan seemed to occasionally pay some attention to:
"I think it's a wonder he shook my hand. I don't want to speculate," he said. But a few minutes later he stopped midsentence and looked me in the eye. "I take that back. I do have a theory, and I happen to think it's right. I don't think it, I know it. I think he's got a problem similar to my problem: being misunderstood, being misjudged. People take me the wrong way. I suspect it's because they don't listen to the words I say."Fans may want to distance themselves from religious fanatics, but theirs is still a religious position — fan as worshiper, artist as God — and as various people have pointed out over the years, there's a secular religiosity that such fervent fandom satisfies. The fan is created in the god's image, the god in the fan's. I could be the one guy; He and I have been through a lot together; I think he's got a problem similar to mine. Throughout its history, the word fanatic possesses a religious connotation, and a fan, of course, is a type of fanatic. We don't worship gods that seem alien to us.
What must it be like to be Dylan, the music writer Paul Williams once wondered, and carry around "the half-formed dreams of millions on your back"? Dylan always had been afraid of his followers, and Williams could understand why. "Their relationship with him is so intense, they expect so much, and more than once over the years they've turned really nasty when he chose to deliver something other than their notion of who 'Bob Dylan' should be." Williams wrote that in the aftermath of the first gospel concerts in 1979, but he just as easily could have said it after Another Side in 1964, Newport in 1966, Nashville Skyline in 1969, Live Aid in 1985, or London in 2009. So many controversies. So much disappointment. Dylan acted entirely unfazed: "Oh, I let you down? Big deal," he said once. "Find somebody else." More than one fan really did wish he had died in the motorcycle wreck in 1966. It would have been better that way. He'd have been frozen in his glory. Instead he got old. He kept putting out new records and doing shows. He kept confounding.One of the effective choices Kinney makes is to set the book up as a kind of biography. It generally, though not slavishly, follows Dylan's career from the early days to later. The Dylanologists become a kind of cast of characters, moving in and out of the narrative. These two structural choices sometimes can be frustrating or feel a bit strained, but nevertheless give the book a unity and sense of narrative momentum that wouldn't otherwise be available. I expect readers' interests will ebb and flow depending on which types of Dylanologists they themselves find most interesting, and it's also likely lots of people will want to know more about particular people and less about others, making it difficult to say the book is entirely satisfying, but Kinney's interest is not so much in individual manifestations of Dylanology, but in how the idea of Bob Dylan gets kaleidoscoped through the many different ways of hearing him, seeing him, loving him, and hating him. I'm Not There did something similar in a more abstract way, and it might make a good companion piece with The Dylanologists, certainly more so than any conventional biography, which can really only tell us so much, and very little of what truly illuminates the work. Whether The Dylanologists can illuminate the work depends on what you desire for illumination. Certainly, it illuminates the quest for illumination.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/7/2015
There were quite a few announcements the NYCC Special Edition Marvel panel. We learned of the fall launch of a new line of $1 comics featuring women of Marvel, saw new pages from the upcoming Lando Calrissian limited series, and were told of a new post-Secret Wars Iron Man series from Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez.
But perhaps the most interesting moment of the panel was when Bendis, speaking on the dais with Marguerite Bennett (A-Force) and Charles Soule (Inhumans: Attilan Rising), said that Secret Wars was “never planned to be a reboot” to the Marvel Universe, and that “no continuity would be damaged or reversed.” Bendis explained that Secret Wars was always meant to be part of on-going continuity.
Bennett received loud applause when speaking to a fan during the Q & A portion of the panel who asked her what advice she had for women and girls interested in the comics industry. “Don’t be scared,” Bennett replied, “I’ve had one of the worst weeks of my life with hate mail and it doesn’t matter.” Bennet said she would “prove through her work, I’m not going anywhere.”
Sound issues plagued the presentation, which alternately found Bendis yelling into his mic and audience members having to approach the panel and speak into their mics to be heard over a panel in the adjacent space (separated only by a curtain).
Keep reading for panel exclusive images of forthcoming series, including those never before seen pages from upcoming Charles Soule penned series Lando!
The new “True Believers” line of $1 comics debuts in September 2015, and will feature a women of Marvel theme for it’s first 10 issues.
Marvel also showed art from their forthcoming variant covers, including several images from an upcoming line of Manga variants. A House of M variant cover was shown, drawn by Katsuya Terada (Blood: The Last Vampire).
Marvel’s variant announcements continued with images of a line of variant covers honoring the fast-growing cosplay scene.
Artist Alex Maleev joins Soule for the upcoming Lando limited series. Soule said the series would have “a lot of twists and turns” but that it would be the charming, “smarmy” Lando we all know and love, as Con-exclusive images were shown on the big screen.
“New Armor, new villains,” promised Bendis of his upcoming Invincible Iron Man series, scheduled for release following Secret Wars. He promised the series’ first issue would have a “whopper of a last page,” and reveal the identity of Tony Stark’s biological parents. He also confirmed that, despite internet rumor, it was indeed Stark inside the Iron Man suit. Though he wouldn’t confirm how many limbs Stark still had following the events of Secret Wars.
When a fan approached the panel to ask “how important are the X-Men” after Secret Wars, Bendis joked, “it’s almost like Marvel is screwing around with people who have X-Men paranoia.”
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 5/26/2015
Back in November, queer nerd organization Geeks OUT launched a kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of a convention by queer nerds, for queer nerds. A month later they’d far exceeded their $15k goal, raising nearly $20,000 to make their con a reality. I spoke with Joey Stern about what led him start Geeks OUT, how that led to Flame Con, and what queer geeks and their allied communities can expect from New York City’s first ever LGBTQ comic convention on June 13.
Edie Nugent: Tell me a little about your role at Geeks OUT and how you got involved with the organization.
Joey Stern: We founded Geeks OUT in 2010 after New York Comic Con. There was only queer panel that year and it was so packed that you had to stand in the back just to be there.
We wanted to make an organization that connected these fans, and gave them a more than once a year event to gather and see each other. We also wanted to make NYCC a gayer place, so we held events and parties as we fund raised to get enough money for a table.
It was really intense, but a year later, we debuted at NYCC with monthly queer comic/geek events and a table where people could come and find a group for themselves.
Nugent: So how did you decide to make the leap from that to putting on an entire convention?
Stern: We and the board of Geeks OUT felt like it was a natural progression and an opportunity to introduce an existing queer audience to amazing queer and ally artists and creators.
There’s so much out there now, it’s really hard to find a lot of the stuff that’s made for you, and Flame Con offers a connection for people and creators to meet and find new passions.
It also creates connections and empowers queer fandom, which is an important part of what we do.
Nugent: Why do you think comic book fandom appeals to the queer experience?
Stern: There really is no art like Comic Books. It’s not only informative, but it offers a lot more context for the writers’ words than traditional books do (or paintings offer on their own). They also have an indie experience, and like queer culture, were for a long time considered the realm of weirdos and freaks.
Comics in general are often about exploring new worlds and future tomorrows. And I think that idea is really appealing to anyone who has experiences of being on the outer edge of polite society.
For me, the X-men’s construct of creating new family, and finding friendship with people like you was really informative.
Nugent: You really leveraged queer fandom to launch Flame Con, raising almost $20k for the event. Were you surprised by how much support you received?
Stern: Yeah! Oh man, it was terrifying, we were worried the whole thing was going to fail, but people really came out to support us and this effort. It just shows how vibrant and important this community is.
Nugent: Do you think recent media attention on sexual harassment at cons, especially of cosplayers, helped identify a real need for a more progressive type of con experience?
Stern: Sure! But I think a lot of that work has been done by cosplayers coming to the media. It’s been really amazing to see people having that conversation and pushing for safer spaces (and to see cons, like NYCC respond positively to those changes).
Nugent: What are some programming highlights from Flame Con that you’re excited about?
Stern: We’re excited to be putting on all sorts of programming – hopefully something for everyone! A panel about writing for LGBT teens hosted by award-winning author David Levithan, a Q&A with Steve Orlando, writer of DC’s upcoming Midnighter series (DC’s first ongoing title to feature a gay man as a lead character,) a great panel on queer horror with Mark Patton, star of the infamously queer Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge and Cecil Baldwin, voice of the hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale, a panel about looking at Sherlock Holmes from a queer perspective, a discussion with some up-and-coming industry pros about costume design, and lots more. We’re really packing something interesting into every minute of this con! There’s also a performance from Sarah Donner!
Nugent: What makes Flame Con different from other cons that aren’t queer-centric?
Stern: It’s tailored to its audience. All Gender bathrooms, queer artists and creators taking center stage, and panels that are not Gay 101, but a bit more focused.
Nugent: How so?
Stern: Bigger cons have panels focused on Gay Artists, we have panels focused on writing Gay Sherlock Fan Fiction.
Flame Con is a one-day event on June 13 in Brooklyn. Here’s a complete list of guests appearing at the con. For more information check out their website and their Facebook page.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 4/10/2015
Doctor Who is here to stay…at least for the next five years. Whovians around the world have reason to celebrate today, as the BBC reported executive producer Steven Moffat’s comments to Doctor Who Magazine that the rebooted series would do a “minimum of 15 years” in total. Ben Stephenson, BBC’s outgoing head of drama commissioning was even more optimistic, saying: “As long as the people looking after it are passionate about it… there’s absolutely no reason why it can’t do another 50 years.” This announcement comes on the heels of the new series’ 10 year anniversary, celebrated by fans across the world. The show’s popularity has led even mainstream outlets like MTV News to cover the anniversary, ranking the modern episodes in order of quality.
When the modern version of the series went on the air in 2005, Doctor Who was largely unknown to mainstream America. The adventures of the time-traveling, two-hearted alien known only as “The Doctor” were confined to PBS rebroadcasts of the original or “Classic” series, which was produced by the BBC from 1963-1989. Low production values and the show’s undeniable Britishness were barriers to crossover success in the States, though a cult following developed among science fiction fans who grew up watching the series.
That all changed in 2010 when BBC America licensed the show for broadcast in the United States. Instead of waiting months for rebroadcasts of episodes, they now waited weeks. Perhaps there is no better bellwether of the shows immense Stateside popularity than the town of Denton, TX. Local comic book store retailer Tim Stoltzfus of More Fun Comics lobbied to nab an exclusive cover and won. Titan Comics released 29 variant covers for Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Issue 1 and among them was a cover featuring the TARDIS parked outside the Denton County Courthouse.
Local Denton artist Jake Ekiss drew the exclusive cover.
The recognition drew the attention of Denton Mayor Chris Watts, who drew up a proclamation declaring April 4, 2015 “Dr. Who Day” in Denton. Local Whovians attended a reading of the proclamation in front of the courthouse where local a local cosplay group erected a TARDIS prop. Brothers Travis and Tom Huston attended the ceremony, dressed as the Eleventh and Tenth Doctors, respectively. Tom, 12, liked seeing “so many Whovians,” while Travis, 9, said: “there aren’t many great shows on like it, our whole family watches it together.” Both brothers agreed it was “really awesome that our courthouse is on the cover.”
Geronimo and Allons-y! The Huston brothers dressed as their favorite Doctors: Travis, age 9, as Eleven and Tom, age 12, as Ten. Photo by Cristy Flowers Huston.
Likely the Houston brothers are among the fans excited for the upcoming three Doctor issue to be released on May 2nd, Free Comic Book Day. Check out the cover and preview pages below:
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 3/30/2015
Yesterday The Mary Sue published an article noting that for-profit comic-cons might be violating federal labor law by not paying minimum wage to workers improperly classified as volunteers. However, a recent case involving Major League Baseball shows how commercial comic-cons could beat the tag.
The use of free labor by for-profit companies has become a hot issue in recent years. Internships have become a particularly touchy topic – class action lawsuits by former interns have prompted some companies to end their unpaid internship programs, although there are at least a couple high-profile cases on appeal in which companies are challenging the Department of Labor’s standards for determining whether an intern is actually an employee.
Given how costly it can be for a company to fall afoul of federal law on this issue, it is indeed prudent for the companies that run comic conventions to assess whether it is legal for them to use unpaid volunteers. This is especially conventions run by for-profit companies, since charitable nonprofits enjoy a special exemption from minimum wage and overtime requirements in regard to volunteers. The Mary Sue has once again performed a service to the community in calling attention to this important issue.
With that in mind, in making this analysis it’s important to be aware of both the law’s requirements, the specific practices of each company, and the exemptions that are available outside the one given to charities.
First, since conventions produced by ReedPop — NYCC, ECCC, C2E2 — were mentioned in the post, it’s worth noting, as several “volunteers” have stated in the original comments thread and a related Reddit thread, that ReedPop pays volunteers minimum wage as official crew. Calling people volunteers in this context is a great way to foster a sense of community and community — one of things for which Lance Fensterman and company are to be commended is the way that they have fostered this communal sensibility while maximizing return on investment.
But not every for-profit comic-con that brings on volunteers gives these workers compensation – in fact, depending on the convention, you might actually be required to pay a fee for the privilege of helping the company out! Although this may seem on its face like a violation of federal law, there’s a legal loophole that has enabled countless commercial businesses to use volunteers in the standard sense of term.
Over the years the federal Fair Labor Standards Act has accumulated dozens of exemptions for a wide range of ventures, from homemakers making wreaths to C-level executives. For a company that operates a program taking place within a limited period of time during the year, there is one exemption in particular that catches the corporate attorney’s eye: minimum wage and overtime requirements do not apply to “any employee employed by an establishment which is an amusement or recreational establishment…” that operates no more than seven months a year or meets a financial test as to revenue generated at different times of the year. (29 USC 213(a)(3))
There are several cases that show how a commercial comic-con can take advantage of this provision, but the ruling perhaps most on-point was issued just a year ago in the Southern District of New York – coincidentally, the same federal district in which the New York Comic-Con takes place. Chen v. Major League Baseball Properties was brought by a former volunteer for the 2013 All-Star Week FanFest at the Javits Center (!), and the volunteer made arguments similar to those made in the intern lawsuits: volunteers at the event met the criteria for employee status, and thus Major League Baseball should have paid them at least minimum wage.
Major League Baseball — and the court — disagreed. As the court observed, although Major League Baseball operates all year long, Department of Labor regulations distinguish an entire enterprise from an “establishment,” which specifically refers to “a distinct place of business.” The exemption was put in place to accommodate seasonal ventures employing people for discrete periods of time in activities that might offer “non-monetary rewards.” The court concluded Major League Baseball’s FanFest was analogous to the amusement and recreational activities in view when legislators originally enacted the exemption, and the plaintiff’s federal as well as state law claims were summarily dismissed.
The plaintiff has appealed the district court’s ruling – in fact, it was argued in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today, March 30 – but as noted above, there are a number of cases in other circuits that have reached similar conclusions. What’s more, even if the appeal succeeds, the main case being cited in opposition focuses on aspects of one baseball team’s operations that are distinguishable from a comic-con. For instance, while the team in question utilized its stadium for events throughout much of the year, comic-cons typically take place in rented facilities for discrete periods of time.
The analysis gets somewhat trickier for an entity operating multiple conventions. For instance, let’s assume that Wizard World doesn’t pay its volunteers — there’s nothing about compensation in the volunteer information packet, at least; Wizard World volunteers don’t even get munchies or parking reimbursements. The fact that Wizard World operates year-round could be grounds for arguing that the seasonal establishment exemption doesn’t apply, but there are also clever counter-arguments and organizational strategies that could persuade a court to disagree. Others have tried and succeeded with even more daunting facts – which, on a related front, is why the NCAA doesn’t have to pay taxes on ads sold for March Madness.
The seasonal exemption has long been a lifeline for companies offering an opportunity to volunteer for ventures that operate on a limited-term basis, such as amusement parks, outdoor swimming pools, Oprah’s Life You Want Tour, and New York Fashion Week. If you are an unpaid commercial comic-con volunteer who believes a lawsuit for back wages would be a clear home run, expect Major League Baseball Properties and cases like it to be deployed to strike you out.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/13/2015
When people talk about saving John Constantine, usually it’s a hopeless task, as the scouser magician’s soul has long been consigned to hell for his many sins on earth. But another campaign to save Constantine is under way—and this time it’s fans attempting to keep his TV show going past a 13 episode commitment despite middling ratings.
Arrested Development has plans for a fifth season on Netflix, Twin Peaks will see you on Showtime twenty-five years from the 1991 series finale, and Yahoo Screen will bring Community closer to its promise of #sixseasonsandamovie, airing new episodes this spring. It’s a golden age of fan campaigns with the ability to resurrect dead and mostly-dead shows with measurably vocal fan bases. It’s a golden age fans of NBC’s Constantine are counting on, as the last of the series’ 13 episode initial run airs this Friday, February 13 at 10pm. The network has halted any further production on the show, prompting fans to organize on Twitter and Facebook under the hashtag #saveconstantine in support of its renewal — whether on NBC or another network entirely.
Fan campaigns to save television shows are nothing new, with the late sixties fan campaign to save the Star Trek original series largely credited as the first of its kind. Still, there does seem to be a trend in the growing power of fan campaigns to have an impact on programming, even those who represent much smaller audience shares than the high-profile efforts of yesteryear, prompting fledgling networks to pick up where network and even cable channels have left off.
So what does all this mean for fans of Constantine, starring Matt Ryan as trench-coated demon hunter John Constantine? Do they feel a campaign to save the show, based on the long-running DC/Vertigo series Hellblazer, has a better chance of being saved now than it would have 10 years ago? “They definitely are more successful — especially with social networking being the way it is,” said Breanna Conklin, who has been active in the campaign to #saveconstatine since NBC confirmed in late November they would stop production on the series. “I am in a few nerd groups on facebook. You’re able to spread the word to like minded folks and your friends within a few seconds. Social media gives awareness that wasn’t available to us ten years ago.”
The #saveconstantine effort began to gain momentum when a slick-looking website, saveconstantine.com, went up in December. In addition to links to the petition and fan communities, saveconstantine.com offers a detailed description of the importance of the recently introduced Twitter TV ratings model from newly-formed group, Nielsen Social. An off-shoot of the more traditional Nielsen ratings, Nielsen Social “identifies, captures and analyzes conversation on Twitter in real time for every program aired across over 250 of the most popular U.S. television networks, including Spanish language networks, as well as over 1,500 brands” according to the company website.
The challenge for Constantine fans is to ensure that their awareness of the need to campaign for the continued life of the series is leveraged in a way that speaks both to NBC and their advertisers. It’s not enough to simply prove there’s interest in Constantine from the hallowed 18-49 age demographic; advertisers need to ensure that ad placements can actually have an impact on that demographic. As television consumption proliferates on an increasingly diverse group of content platforms, strong same-day viewing ratings don’t necessarily show advertisers that their ads will be seen instead of fast-forwarded on a DVR viewing post-broadcast.
It’s a challenge the organizers of the #saveconstantine effort hope to meet by being better educated on the increasingly complex world of network tv ad buys. “It’s a big group effort,” said Allison Gennaro, one of the campaigns many organizers. A fan of the Hellblazer comics, Gennaro became involved in the campaign upon hearing “NBC had capped the airing to just 13 [episodes],” which she took to mean the show was “in trouble” but also that the “ratings might not be meeting the NBC demo of choice.” Hoping to convince NBC not to cancel the series, the #saveconstantine organizers publicized a petition for the show to get a second season across social media platforms in late November. The petition cites a “38% bump in the ratings and an 87% viewer retention rating (after Grimm) with the introduction of The Spectre” as evidence of the viability of the series which currently boasts over 20,000 signatures.
The description on saveconstantine.com explains the impact live tweeting Constantine episodes can have on the Twitter TV ratings. The site believes the live tweets “denote that a show has a consistent and loyal audience,” and may show advertisers they “are being rewarded for their investment in the network…so if you want to save Constantine, please watch, tell your friends, and tweet.” Gennaro cultivated a group of Constantine fans through a mailing list to help push the #saveconstantine hashtag and live tweet campaign. “We even threw Friday night twitter parties before the show to trend and gain attention,” she said.
Fan campaigns of the past relied on letter writing, placing ads in trade magazines like Variety, even buying billboards to plead for their respective shows. While Constantine fans have also employed letter writing and email to NBC executives in this campaign, their informed approach in targeting advertisers and leveraging their consumer power is in step with more recently successful ‘save our show’ campaigns. In 2009, Wendy Farrington began a campaign to save another NBC series with supernatural overtones: Chuck. Her game-changing approach acknowledged the fact that the show enjoyed better ratings on off-network viewing platforms and galvanized fans of the series to support a major advertiser of the show, Subway.
According to a 2014 article by Christina Savage for Transformative Works and Cultures, which examined fan-run ‘save our show’ campaigns, on the day of Chuck’s season finale hundreds of fans went to their local Subway and bought a $5 foot-long sandwich featured on the series via product placement. They then left behind comment cards explaining their purchase was in support of Chuck. Savage explained that by “focusing on Chuck as a business transaction, fans used their knowledge of the industry” to support their effort. Shortly thereafter, NBC ordered 13 more episodes of the series. Savage wrote: “co-chairman of NBC Ben Silverman said that this campaign was one of the most creative he had seen, and as a result, Subway would increase its presence within the show.”
John Constantine may not eat at Subway, but fans of the demon exorcist are invoking similar brand marketing powers with their #saveconstantine efforts. Only this time, the fans themselves are the product. By targeting Nielsen’s Twitter TV ratings specifically, Constantine fans “become valuable social ambassadors for programmers and advertisers alike as they amplify content and messaging through their social spheres,” Nielsen Social wrote in a an article posted in September. But will it be enough to push NBC to order another season of Constantine? Could it make the show attractive enough to warrant a rumored move to sister-network Syfy, which has released several high-profile interviews with network executives seeking to return the channel to it’s Sci-fi/fantasy genre roots? NBC president Jennifer Salke told IGN in January that “we wish the show [Constantine] had done better live. It has a big viewership after [it airs] in all kinds of ways and it has a younger audience, but the live number is challenging.”
We spoke with Dr. Balaka Basu, a professor specializing in pop culture and fan studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte about the viability of the type of campaign #saveconstantine is waging. “Campaigns helped to save Chuck and Roswell, and gave Firefly fans closure in the less-than-successful Serenity,” she said. “ I think the key was demonstrating an understanding of how television economy works. With Chuck, for instance, fans literally gave their monetary support to the chain sandwich shop Subway…this demonstrates a comprehension of the relationship between advertisers and television producers.”
Fans like Miguel Gonzalez Cabañas, who lives in Madrid, show the global reach of the #saveconstantine fan efforts. He calls Constantine “the best series with a paranormal plot” on television. He, along with Allison, Breanna and the thousands of other fans who make up the campaign to #saveconstantine will be redoubling their efforts tonight: tweeting their support for the show before, during and after the season finale. But beyond the comic book fanbase, beyond charismatic lead Matt Ryan or the show’s arcane mythology: what is it about Constantine, or any other fan-campaigned series, that produces this kind of fan advocacy? “Whether it’s a show like Constantine, where many fans came into the show already in love with the character,” says Dr. Basu, “or shows like Buffy and Angel, where they were allowed to fall in love over the duration of the show, it’s really when the characters feel like real people that you don’t want your relationship with them to end, ever. And that’s been true since the days of Star Trek.”
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 1/27/2015
In 2015, BOOM! Studios celebrates 10 years of publishing comics, and to commemorate this milestone, the publisher has assembled what it considers to be its top 10 moments of the past decade—all highlights that contributed significantly to the company’s founding, rise, and continued growth. Straight from the mouth of BOOM! it reads as a chronological time line of the publishers history.
December 2004: Comics writer Keith Giffen, in Los Angeles for a comic book convention, has a beer on a Saturday night with Ross Richie and pushes Richie to start his own comic book publishing company.
June 2005: The first BOOM! Studios book, Zombie Tales #1, ships (6/29/2005), showcasing work from Mark Waid (Daredevil), Keith Giffen (Future’s End), and Dave Johnson (100 Bullets). BOOM!’s focus on original content over the next decade spawns bestsellers like Irredeemable, The Woods, and Lumberjanes as it launches the careers of next-generation talent like Rafael Albuquerque (The Savage Brothers, American Vampire), Emma Rios (Hexed, Pretty Deadly), Aaron Kuder (Key of Z, Green Lantern: New Guardians), Jordie Bellaire (Malignant Man, Captain Marvel), and Russell Dauterman (Supurbia, Thor), among many others.
December 2006: BOOM! Studios publishes its first licensed comic book, Warhammer: Damnation Crusade #1. BOOM! goes on to work with some of the biggest brands in the world, including 20th Century Fox, Disney, Cartoon Network, MGM, Peanuts Worldwide, Paws, and The Jim Henson Company.
July 2007: Mark Waid is named Editor-in-Chief and goes on to become the company’s Chief Creative Officer, contributing numerous original titles to the company’s lineup before returning to freelance writing in December 2010.
March 2009: The first KaBOOM! (previously BOOM! Kids) comics, Incredibles: Family Matters #1 and The Muppet Show Comic Book #1, ship (3/25/2009). BOOM! Studios is the first Disney licensee to be granted the ability to generate new canon material for any Pixar property.
January 2010: Voted on by comic shop retailers, BOOM! Studios wins its first “Best Publisher Under 4%” Diamond Gem Award for 2009. It is awarded this honor four more times since, earning the award five out of the last six years. The publisher wins its first Harvey Award for Roger Langridge’s work on The Muppet Show Comic Book (8/28/10) that same year and its first Eisner Award for Shannon Wheeler’s I Thought You Would Be Funnier a year later (7/22/11).
June 2013: BOOM! Studios announces its acquisition of Archaia (6/24/13) (publisher of titles like Mouse Guard, Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand, and The Killer), adding the company as a wholly-owned imprint alongside its other imprints, KaBOOM! and BOOM! Box, and expands the range of diverse content Archaia publishes.
August 2013: “2 Guns” opens in theaters (8/2/13) starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. The film is based on the BOOM! Studios five-issue series created by Steven Grant and illustrated by Mateus Santoluoco.
October 2013: BOOM! enters into a first-look deal with 20th Century Fox for feature films (10/2/2013) and then signs a first-look deal with Fox for television the following year (8/20/2014).
February 2014: Former DC Comics President & Publisher Paul Levitz joins BOOM! as a consultant and a member of the Board of Directors. Levitz categorized his role as the voice of experience that says, “Well, we tried to attack that problem this way [at DC Comics]; it didn’t work that way. Maybe times have changed, but let’s think about what the issues were and try to find a way around what the dilemmas were.”
As for the future, Boom! Studios has an entire year full of announcements lined up and are already off to a great start with their new book Burning Fields. It looks like the next ten years could be even bigger for the little publisher that could.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 1/15/2015
By Bruce Lidl
Lost somewhat in the initial burst of news from last week’s ImageExpo was the announcement of a new Image Humble Bundle offering, beginning that morning and lasting until January 21. The “Humble Image Comics Bundle 2: Image Firsts” is a massive collection of digital comics that can be purchased for whatever price the consumer chooses. Included in the basic bundle are the beginning issues of a number of recent series, including Alex + Ada, Deadly Class, C.O.W.L., Elephantmen 2260 Book One, Minimum Wage, God Hates Astronauts, Genius, and Satellite Sam. Paying at least $15 also gets you the slightly higher profile titles The Manhattan Projects, The Wicked + The Divine, The Fuse, Velvet, Sex Criminals, Wytches, The Walking Dead Vol. 22: A New Beginning (#127-132), The Fade Out #1, Nailbiter, Stray Bullets, Southern Bastards, and Shutter. And finally, a stretch price of $18 brings The Walking Dead Compendium One (#1-48), East of West: The World, and Saga Book One (#1-18). For anybody at all interested in Image brand comics, the price truly cannot be beat, especially as the retail price of the comics would be over $300 according to Humble Bundle. Also, purchasers are strongly encouraged to mark a portion of their price paid towards charity, in this case the comics creator focused Hero Initiative. As of this evening, the Image bundle has generated almost $318,000, with over five days left to go.
The current offering is the third Humble Bundle to include Image titles. The first time Humble Bundle included any digital comics was the Image bundle in April 2014 that generated almost $400,000 revenue in two weeks, with titles including Saga, Walking Dead, Fatale, Invincible and Chew. Image imprint Skybound also did a special Comic-Con Humble Bundle in July 2014 as well, which was almost entirely Kirkman based titles such as The Walking Dead, Invincible, Thief of Thieves, and Super Dinosaur. That bundle alone generated $232,000.
Other comic publishers that have released Humble Bundles since April include Dark Horse, Oni, Dynamite, BOOM!, IDW, Top Shelf and Valiant. According to Kelley Allen, Director of Books for Humble Bundle, comics publishers are eager to work with them, and she has a number of ebook and comics bundles planned in 2015 alongside Humble Bundle’s traditional gaming focused offerings. The average revenue number for the comics based bundles so far has been $288,000 for the 14 day period. According to Allen, non-gaming bundles allow Humble to “break out from their core gaming audience” but from the comics perspective, they can also create “enormous crossover” by getting great comics in front of the very large Humble Bundle community. With a very clearly defined, and devoted, young male demographic, Humble Bundle chooses comics with both a logical appeal, like Transformers, Star Wars and The Walking Dead, but Allen also curates high quality titles that may stretch demographic borders. She “pushed very hard” to include titles like Sex Criminals in the latest Image bundle, trusting the Humble Bundle audience to appreciate an outstanding title, even without prior awareness.
While the Humble Bundles may help expand the reach of digital comics, they are also helping to encourage comics publishers to feel comfortable with forgoing DRM protections for their products. Humble Bundles, regardless of content, gaming or ebooks, do not use Digital Rights Management anti-copying technologies, both for philosophical reasons and from a practical standpoint. As Allen pointed out, why use DRM when the consumer could theoretically decide to purchase the content for one cent in any case? Even Dark Horse, which has been very reluctant to forgo DRM generally, was convinced to try not using it for their big Star Wars themed Humble Bundle in October and was rewarded with sales over $375,000 for the two week offering.
Fundamentally, the Humble Bundle “pay what you want” approach reflects exactly the insights independent game developers have learned over the years in regards to digital sales. Since their products are almost universally available to be pirated, often in formats that are actually *more* user friendly than the official versions, game creators have learned to embrace the concept of giving customers compelling reasons to purchase, in the recognition that they do not have to anymore. Distribution options like Steam and Humble Bundle provide explicit value beyond what a pirated version can give, whether through ease of use, personal connection to the creators, community recognition, charitable giving, etc. The Humble Bundle experiment really leverages the unique potential of digital distribution, as the pay what you want model could not really scale in a system that necessitated fulfillment and postage charges. With this almost “donation” type model there is no extra expense for the seller after the first sale, everything after that is essentially “profit.” And the possibility that the new readers exposed to the material may become fans, and go on to make further purchases, even print purchases in local comic books stores, only heightens the value of the Humble Bundle offering. We are likely to see a number of interesting comics based bundles in 2015 and we will learn if this kind of non-traditional sales can become a significant portion of publishers’ revenue, in much the same way digital has already established itself recently.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 12/8/2014
That is certainly not a headline I ever thought I would write. Thousands of people attending MidWest Furfest, a large gathering of Furry enthusiasts, were forced to evacuate the Hyatt Regency O’Hare hotel when chlorine gas was found on the 9th floor of the hotel. 19 people were hospitalized, complaining of dizziness, while investigators found chlorine powder in a 9th floor stairwell. Authorities believe it was a deliberate attempt to cause harm.
The incident happened around 12:40 a.m. at the Hyatt, at 9300 West Bryn Mawr Avenue in Rosemont, according to a statement from the Rosemont Public Safety Department. First responders were called to investigate a noxious odor that was spreading across the ninth floor of the hotel, where a high level of chlorine gas was discovered in the air, the statement said.
Nineteen people were transported to nearby hospitals after complaining of nausea, dizziness and other medical problems, according to the statement. All people inside the building were temporarily evacuated and sheltered at nearby facilities, including the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center.
At around 12:45 AM on Sunday, December 7, the Hyatt Regency O’Hare received a complaint of a chemical odor on the ninth floor. Following a 9-1-1 call, first responders determined that a container with a chlorine-containing chemical was broken there. At 1:10 AM the entire hotel was evacuated, first across Bryn Mawr Ave. in front of the Hyatt as per Rosemont Fire Department’s standard procedures, then when it became apparent that the wait would take longer the Stephens Convention Center was opened to provide warmth and shelter to our guests. A full HazMat response was called in at that time.
In the course of investigating the scene, the Rosemont Police Department determined that this was a criminal act and began investigating it as such. This delayed allowing our guests back into the hotel. Midwest FurFest is deeply thankful for the cooperation and patience shown during this time, and please know that everyone was working to get you back into the hotel as quickly as possible. At 4:21 AM the all-clear was given and we worked with the Hyatt staff to return all of our guests to the hotel in the quickest and safest manner possible.
Rosemont Public Safety has reported that nineteen people who complained of nausea and dizziness were transported to local hospitals. Because they were transported after the hotel (including Hyatt staff) was evacuated, we do not have any identification of these individuals. We have been informed by the Hyatt Regency O’Hare that some of those individuals have been released as of this morning.
As we wake up today we want to continue to provide the best possible convention that we can, despite the trying circumstances. The convention will be running on a full normal programming schedule today. We ask you to continue to be patient, and remember that the volunteers who make Midwest FurFest happen intend to give 110% to make sure that the fun, friendship, and good times of Midwest FurFest 2014 overshadow last night’s unfortunate incident.
To dispel rumors: Because this was an unforeseen possibly criminal act, Midwest FurFest will not be offering refunds, nor will the Hyatt Regency O’Hare be comping any rooms. Any further questions should be referred to [email protected].
That said, it seems the show went on and good times were had. And just to add the final soupçon of irony, the furries who were evacuated to the Donald S. Stephens center found a dog grooming show going on. When Furry meets furry…
During the @midwestfurfest hotel evacuation, this kind officer posed with me for a photo! HAWWW! (©@Karwood) #MWFF pic.twitter.com/J0dZb6u4Tw
— Rucio MWGF Donkey (@RucioDonk) December 7, 2014
by Edie Nugent
From L to R: Diana Pho, LeSean Thomas, Alice Meichi Li, Daniel Jose Older, I.W. Gregorio and Tracey J. John
The main stage spectacles of NYCC saw panels filled with celebrity actors and moderators alike, whipping thousands of screaming audience members into a frenzy. No less intense or enthusiastic, however, were the panels scheduled towards the end of the night in the smaller conference rooms at the Javits Center. Once such panel —Geeks of Color Go Pro —filled its room to capacity with a diverse audience of fans and comic book industry hopefuls cheering just as passionately as fans in the rooms twice its size.
“Don’t be afraid to challenge the status quo,” declared Tracy J. John, writer for such marquee video game franchises as Oregon Trail and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This comment, which came later in the proceedings, proved to be a kind of mission statement for the panel as a whole. Moderated by Tor Books editor Diana Pho, the panel participants represented a diversity of gender, race, and sexual orientation.
Pho opened by asking the panel to tell their “origin stories,” referring to how they arrived at their current careers within an industry that has long suffered from a dearth of diversity. Tracey J. John kicked things off, saying: “a long long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…I went to NYU and got a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies.” She went on to say that she garnered an internship at MTV News, which led to a job working for MTV.com. “We wrote about these things called ‘music videos,’” she joked. This job placed her in the perfect spot to capitalize on her World of Warcraft addiction when MTV looked to launch a video game focused section of its website. She recalled thinking, “whoa, I can get paid to write about video games?” She later turned to freelance work for Wired, NY Post, and Playstation Magazine. Desirous of a more stable paycheck, she turned to a job at Gameloft and worked in game development. Recently she decided to shake things up again, and has returned to freelance work.
I.W. Gregorio, who claims she’s still getting used to being addressed by the pen name her day job requires, opened by speaking the question on the minds of many an audience member: “How did a urologist end up being a YA author?” She went on to explain she felt the better question to be “why would an aspiring author become a doctor?” She spoke of her racially isolated childhood where she knew immediately she wanted to be a writer, but felt family pressure “like a lot of kids of color” to enter either law or medicine to be deemed a ‘success’ culturally. Her talents in math and science led her to choose the path of medicine, “enough people had told me that I wanted to be a doctor that I ended up being one.” She did attempt, in her words, to “try to have my cake and eat it too” also studying English while in college. She went on to pursue medicine and take a 10 year break from writing before her passion was reignited during her residency. She is, however, grateful to be a doctor because it “enables my writing career…and gives me a lot of stories.” She described how her new book None of the Above was inspired by an intersex teenager she treated during her residency.
Daniel Jose Older, author of the upcoming Half-Resurrection Blues, the first book in what is to be an ongoing urban fantasy series for Penguin Book’s Roc imprint, began by saying that Gregorio’s story “actually really connects to mine. In 2009 I was a paramedic and community organizer doing work on gender violence and intersections of racism. I was trying how to figure out how to have a voice and what that meant as a writer.” He explained that he loved Star Wars and Harry Potter, but that he and the kids of color he was working work didn’t see themselves in those stories, “and there was a disconnect.” This inspired him to “sit down and write Shadowshaper which got picked up by the folks at Scholastic that put out Harry Potter, so it was this really big dream come true.” He went on to explain that the process of publishing that first work took over 6 years and that “publishing will make you learn patience” which drew a big laugh from the crowd. He continued to work on stories during that time, and work on adult fiction, which led him to Half-Resurrection Blues, due out in 2015. He explained that his background as a paramedic directed inspired the new book, saying: “a lot of this comes from being on the front lines…dealing with life and death.”
Author Alice Meichi Li knew she wanted to be an artist since the age of five. “I grew up in a Chinese restaurant in a really rough part of Detroit,” she said. She explained how this kept her indoors for her own safety, drawing on the back of the placemats of her parents’ restaurant. She also felt pushed towards a career in more economically dependable fields like law, medicine, or IT technologies. “When faced with the prospect of applying for college, all I could think about was arts school. I was in Army Junior ROTC and my Staff Sargent saw some of my art and he said: what are you doing here? You should be taking art class, you should be pursuing this.” She eagerly took his advice, worrying her family regarding her future. As she graduated High School at the top of her class, they told her she should be making “six-figures somewhere”—not becoming a starving artist. She conceded that’s “pretty much what happened” to the amusement of the audience, “I did have to end up balancing a day job,” with her art career, working at the well-known comic book store Forbidden Planet. “But I was doing Artist’s Alleys and that’s how I made a lot of my connections. If you’re trying to be an artist in comics that’s pretty much your best bet.”
“Everybody’s got all these cool stories,” remarked Black Dynamite producer and director LeSean Thomas. “I was born and raised in the South Bronx, John Adams projects at 152nd Street,” some in the crowd applauded at this mention—then laughed as Thomas joked that he was in the part of the Bronx that exists “past Yankee Stadium” where most New Yorkers’ familiarity with the Bronx begins and ends. “I grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons, reading comics books, “ he recalled, saying that he felt comic books was a more realistic career path for him, as the tools used to produce comics were more affordable than that of cartoon animation: “they don’t sell light-boxes at the bodegas,” he quipped.
Thomas ended up in a High School arts program called Talent Unlimited. Following High School he took a job at a sporting goods store to make ends meet. While working there, he was spotted sketching by his store manager whose wife worked at a children’s accessories company. The company quickly employed him to work on designs for accessories featuring licensed characters. Through his work there, he met Joe Rodgers who mentored the young artist and eventually Thomas “became a flash artist/storyboard artist on this web-cartoon called WorldGirl, and it got picked up by Showtime, I think it was the first cartoon to get picked up by a major network.” His success there led to his meeting Carl Jones, who moved to Los Angeles and teamed with The Boondocks creator Aaron MacGruder on the now famous Cartoon Network series based on MacGruder’s comic strip of the same name. “He needed people who could understand Hip-Hop culture, Anime, and social political racial satire, and it was very hard to find that kind of talent in Hollywood,” he paused as the crowd laughed before putting it bluntly: “let alone somebody who could draw a black person.” This led him to move to Los Angeles to work on the show, which he feared would soon be canceled due to its controversial and sometimes “wildly inappropriate” content.
The series proved a critical and ratings success for Cartoon Network, and Thomas felt liberated by the mostly black racial makeup of The Boondocks’ creative team. “I grew up in a society where the White male was the dominant character…to be able to work on a show where my boss was Black, the characters we were creating were Black and we were saying the things we wanted to say without caring what other people thought, Black or White, was really liberating and was one of the best experiences for me.” He went on to comment that his experience working on The Boondocks “catapulted his career,” gave him the chance to move overseas, and opened many career opportunities for him-not the least of which was his teaming up producer Carl Jones to produce the Adult Swim series Black Dynamite. He noted how rare it was to have three shows in a row to his credit that found him working under Black people, on shows starting Black characters: The Boondocks, Legend of Korra, and Black Dynamite.
“I guess I should pitch in about myself, and I thought: oh, I’m the moderator—just sit here and look pretty,” joked Diana Pho, before continuing: “I grew up in New England, in a very White town. I was always the only Asian girl in my class and my family is from Vietnam: no one knew where Vietnam was, because actually in my High School they never talked about the Vietnam War.” This statement elicited shocked sounds from the assembled crowd, but also some knowing murmurs that appeared to understand all too well the sort of erasure her statement described. Pho explained that she found escape from her outsider status through books, especially science fiction and fantasy novels. While studying English at college, she knew felt her options for employment were limited to work as a teacher, continuing her studies of Russian-her minor field-in order to obtain her Master’s Degree in it, or something else. “I chose something else,” she said, “and that was publishing.”
She explained she felt publishing to be a small field, insular in nature-and a field where it “has to do with the connections you make, that’s what I learned” and mentioned that her first job involved editing test books for college admissions for a summer. “What it did provide me was internship experience in marketing,” Pho remarked, explaining that this led to her getting a job with Hachette Press. She worked there in sales and marketing for several years before a colleague recommended her for a position at the Science Fiction Book Club making catalogues. She ended up following this with a Master’s in Performance Studies-doing her thesis in Steampunk performance-and graduated to assume her current role at Tor Books.
The panel then opened up for questions from the audience where Pho asked that the questions be “tweet-sized” to try and get to everyone’s question , but the line for the microphone grew long enough that the panel was forced to wrap up with audience members still on line. When asked: “what was one thing that you wish you knew when you started out that you know now?” Gregorio explained that as a representative of the We Need Diverse Books campaign (weneeddiversebooks.tumblr.com) “I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that there are obviously challenges for diverse authors, the first book I wrote had and Asian-American multicultural protagonist-and three different editors said: oh, it’s too similar to another book with an Asian-American character.” She explained that she knew other authors of color who had run into enough of the same problem that they feared they might have to only write about White characters going forward. “The We Need Diverse Books campaign is most effective because it’s been showing the gatekeepers that they are wrong. Fifty percent of children in schools today are children of color, but only ten percent of books have minority protagonists.” She also called upon the audience to open up their wallets and support works by authors of color and/or featuring main characters of color.
John added on to Gregorio’s comments by telling the audience to not be afraid of the status quo, and gave an example of her work in gaming journalism. “Things that I did…aside from asking the questions I needed to do my job, I’d throw in some poignant questions, I’ve asked Shigeru Miyamoto: why does Princess Peach need saving again? Didn’t she get some self-defense classes by then? Or the developer of a family game why there wasn’t an option to be a Black person, they just had different tans? Ask those kinds of questions. It can be intimidating: Oh I have this opportunity to interview a game developer, I don’t want to screw it up. I’d say ask the normal questions and then save those for the end.”
“When you’re starting out as a writer there’s a lot of advice given out to you, like: you have to build your platform, you have to network! And there’s this very common, very White Western narrative of breaking out as an author. Where you’re that singular rocket ship that flies away to become famous overnight…what it requires us to do, especially as writers and creators of color, is to really reimagine what success means to us anytime we’re entering into any kind of project or career.” He went on to emphasize the need to build community, outside of a “putting points on your resume” style of thinking. “What will sustain you is unity. That’s what will have your back when things are hard, and things will be hard.” He noted that more than fans, writers need people who will tell them the truth-people who will give them the “hard critique.” He also said he wanted to shout-out to: fanbros.com, nerdgasmnoire.net as well as blackgirlnerds.com, saying of the organizations: “these groups are collectives of people of color, proudly nerds, proudly of color, talking about racism, talking about Sleepy Hollow. We need to talk about these things because that’s community” to many loud cheers.
Li wished to add “a piece of advice I hear a lot: you are the average of the five people you interact with most in life. So if you have a bunch of people who are ambitious, who are trying to do what you’re trying to do you’re going to kind of automatically get lifted up with them. So you want at least three of them to be in a place where you aspire to be. I add that you should look for someone who is: 1) an older mentor, to get advice from, 2) an equal, that you can be a comrade-at-arms with and share you career path with and 3) someone you can mentor, because you can learn a lot from teaching.”
“The thing that I wish I’d known before getting into animation, that I do now is that all the animation jobs are in California,” said Thomas, to the laughter of the crowd. Thomas clearly meant the comment seriously, adding: “I wouldn’t have stayed in New York as long if I’d have known there were no real animation jobs in New York the way there are in California…I probably would’ve made my pilgrimage a lot sooner.”
Another attendee asked how the artists dealt with accusations of racism. “I just got called racist the other day, so that was fun,” recounted Older, saying that because the bad guys in a recent story were White he had the accusation leveled at him. “There’s no easy answer, but you have to go with your gut and trust your instincts because when the shit flies, you have to be able to stand up for your work. I know what I did in that story—and I have much worse stories about White people than that,” he said, laughing.
Gregorio added: “publishing is a team sport, you’re going to have editors and marketing people-they’ll catch anything really bad. And also you have to realize we’re all going to get criticism. Haters are gonna’ hate, it’s alright!”
A reporter asked if the panel felt any responsibility towards social justice storylines. Thomas replied, “You know on Black Dynamite me and Carl Jones, the executive producer, always used to joke that we were like social workers in animation, not to belittle social work, but we liked to joke that because we were one of the few [shows] that touched on those issues. The most important thing for us is that it has to be funny, that’s the golden rule. The second rule is that it has to be genuine. If it’s honest, if it comes from a good place there’s always humor in it….and the third is to make people uncomfortable, not in a negative way but to make them think outside what they normally expect.”
The final question came from a Bleeding Cool reporter who asked, “Why are we still having this conversation? I feel like we’re constantly having the same conversation: do you see an end to it, do you think? Where we’re not going to need to have ‘Geeks of Color’ in the corner at 8:00pm?”
“So you’re saying Geeks of Color needs to be at noon, is what you’re saying? I agree I think it should be much earlier.” Thomas joked.
Pho added: “we’re going to keep having this conversation until we hit critical mass,” she explained that critical mass was not when people stopped asking questions, but rather that “we need a critical mass of answers from all over the place, not just from us but from you guys—not just from you guys but from everyone at this convention, and not just this convention—about how pop culture functions, how media functions…we all have to hit that critical mass point and that’s when the conversation stops.”
“I feel your point a lot,” Older added, indicating the reporter, “we do need this and part of the reason is the industry is still very racist, still very White, and so we need to have these conversations…the job and the struggle and the challenge for us is to push the conversation forward so it’s not so circular. So that’s why we need diverse books, which is such an important way to get everyone together. We need to talk about power analysis.” Older also stressed that he felt there were necessary conversations that weren’t had before this generation of creators and it was important to recognize: “we’re here because the folks before us fought their fight, so we’re fighting our fight for the next generation of artist of color, writers of color…and that involves getting together and having ‘geeks of color’ panels which makes people uncomfortable, which is good, as it should.”
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 10/12/2014
Signs aren’t the only thing greeting attendees at the entrance to New York Comicon. Amidst the registration booths and all too quickly emptied bins for lanyards ReedPOP has its own boutique, featuring the geek-chic fashion of Ashley Eckstein’s Her Universe line.
Her Universe has become a significant presence at both the San Diego and New York conventions, which in turn reflects as place as a market leader in pop-culture inspired fashion. I had the pleasure of speaking at length with Ashley back at SDCC after her successful geek couture fashion show, and as an attorney I have to say that she is a role model for anyone who wants to incorporate copyrighted and trademarked material in their line. In a world where “it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission” has led any number of creators astray, she has from the outset been conscientious (and ambitious!) in licensing characters for Her Universe clothes.
But that’s not the only way in which Her Universe reflects the better angels of geek community’s nature. Besides integrating the participatory spirit of comics-related media discussed in my last post, Ashley has also been a prominent advocate of geek fashion’s capacity to empower those who wear it, both through her clothes and her anti-bullying activism. Create, speak, show others who you are with fear – where the less imaginative may just see licensed properties, her community sees freedom woven into her designs.
Which brings us to the future of geek couture and its role in the community’s future. Walk around San Diego and New York Comic-Cons and you’ll see expressive fashion everywhere, from handcrafted TARDIS earrings and comic-related t-shirts carried in the ubiquitous TARDIS bag to sophisticated cosplay and brands such as Her Universe itself. As the Her Universe show embodied back at San Diego, the key to the future is to go beyond prints and other reproductions of licensed material to transformative geek-inspired design – in fact, for a useful indication of where things are going, watch the development of the co-branded Marvel line announced last July.
As I discuss in my Fashion Ethics, Sustainability and Development class for the Fashion Law Institute, when we wear clothes we wear ourselves – our values, our aspirations, our communities.* It should, then, come as no surprise that when we look at geek couture, we see the future.
*Check out Professor Susan Scafidi’s “Fashion as Information Technology” for more on this.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 9/22/2014
On Friday, the long running—22 years!—Brian Bendis message board shut down with the above message, and al of its archives went with it.
The Bendis Board was especially busy in the golden age of the message board (1998-2004) and hosted forums for many comics pros, including Gail Simone, David Mack, Kelly Sue DeConnick. I guess some of that will be available on the Way Back Machine, but with the CBR boards being scrubbed, the Bendis Board going away, and rumors of several other foundational message boards being shut down, a lot of comics history is vanished in a way that print just doesn’t offer. As I’m always reminding people, THE INTERNET IS NOT FOREVER.
Former forum member Albert Ching has a good look back including the reminder that it was an incubator for a whole generation of comics pros who posted and became friendly there, including Nick Spencer, Charles Soule, Joe Eisma, Joshua Hale Fialkov and Kody Chamberlain. A refugee message board has been set up here, according to comments.
I was active on the boards for a little while before time ran out, but there were some good people there…and some jerks, as always, but mostly good times.
Anyway, the Powers TV, er, filmed entertainment show, is in the works with Sharlto Copley as Christian Walker and Susan Heyward as Deena Pilgrim. I know Copley won;t be using that super South African accent he had in Elysium, but I can dream on. “My WAFF.”
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 9/5/2014
There’s a new show on the Nerdist Channel called ‘Just Cosplay’ and I was given a sneak look at the first episode, live now. It features Stella Chuu at Emerald City as she goes around cosplaying as Kabuki from David Mack’s series of the same name. The series will follow popular cosplayers and show how they make their costumes.
I have a short tolerance for video but I watched this all the way to the end. Chuu is industrious and looks amazing. Her choice of the 90s indie icon Kabuki—and her quest to find anyone who recognizes the character—is a real sic transit gloria mundi thing, but when was the last time an issue of Kabuki came out anyway? Anyway, I also enjoyed the glue gun and sewing machine scenes in this show.
Nerdist is launching another cosplay show, Origin Story, which premieres on October 24 and is described as “mad-libs on meth” and stars Andrew Bowser. OK then.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 9/3/2014
I’m addicted to Russian dashboard camera videos. The best ones have loud Russian disco playing, but they are pretty much all good, revealing a sullen post-modern, post GTA world of grey skies (occasionally streaked by shocking meteors), endless snow, brutalist architecture and of course, bad driving. Why Russians love dashcams so much isn’t quite clear but it has something to do with police brutality.
Anyway, the above video is staged, I’m 99.99% certain, as a car stops after being cut off and a mascot brawl ensues. Even if it is phony, it is still funny as heck.
Oh and if you want to see more Russian dashcam videos, here’s an example of a monthly compendium. In internet speak, what happens at 2:57 will blow your mind!
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/8/2014
[Ed. note: Chandler Banks is a 17-year-old cosplayer/journalist who went to Comic-Con for the first time this year, and agreed to share her experiences with us. Although folks in the comics business have our own dread and anxiety about The Big Show, it's important to remember that for many people, it's a magical experience. I'm sure you'll be as fought up in Chandler's enthusiasm as I was.]
Before SDCC this year, I was a long-time nerd that had never been to a convention. And man, did I pick a hell of a con to start with. As a 17-year-old girl bound to a dinky little knee scooter for the weekend thanks to a recent ankle surgery (if you’re reading this and you were there, yeah, that was me), I knew I had a weekend ahead of me that was as exciting as it was daunting. I had a general idea of what SDCC is about, but in the end it was bigger and better than I had imagined in just about every way.
WHAT BLEW MY MIND
• The size. I live in New York; I’m no stranger to grand scales. But the image of SDCC that I had built up in my head was nothing compared to the view in the exhibit hall alone. Art, comics, collectibles, apparel, further than the eye can see. It’s its own world that’s so easy to lose yourself in for the weekend.
• The cosplays. I, like most people, got to the exhibit hall early in the morning before it opened so as to get my badge as early as possible. I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of pictures of to-die-for cosplays online, but seeing all of them in the flesh (or paper mâché) is entirely different. Honestly, I wish I would’ve alotted myself more time for open-mouthed gaping on the sidewalk.
• The great outdoors, but with free wi-fi. When packing for the con, I asked my convention veteran friends for advice. They told me two things: Leave room in your luggage, because you’re going to buy a ton of merch’, and if you’re sleeping out on the Hall H line, pack as if you’re going to spend the night in the woods because it’s like camping just nerdier.
• Speaking of friends, I got to meet my GISHWHES (Greatest International Scavenger Hunt The World Has Ever Seen) team for the first time. They’re even cooler than I thought they’d be, and they’re really my closest friends that are into comics and “fandom” the way I am. I had my friends and was surrounded by a whole slew of people with the same interests as me for the first time. Talk about liberating!
• This is the first time i’ve seen any big celebrities in the flesh. I gave Mary J. Blige’s dad a ride home from Dunkin Donuts once (he turned out to be pretty cool), but that’s about it. This weekend I got to see these people that I’ve respected and admired for so long up close and personal. Once it actually hit me, it was surreal.
• Contrary to what the internet made me dread, no thirty-something-year-old guy in a My Little Pony shirt and a matching fedora pointed to my Captain America shirt and declared me a fake geek girl. At least not to my face.m
• San Diego! I had only been as far south as Santa Monica in the past, and boy San Diego was a very pleasant surprise. The Gaslamp Quarter where the Convention Center is located is gorgeous, and there are plenty of off-site SDCC activities around in case you somehow tire of the exhibit hall and the panel rooms.
• Speaking of off-site, I’m going to take a second to gush about The Nerd Machine. Run by Chuck’s Zach Levi, for the past few years they’ve been offering the Nerd HQ experience for free. This year and the last it was held at the beautiful Petco Park (about a five minute walk from the Convention Center). The popular events there include Conversations for a Cause panels and Smiles for Smiles photo ops, both fairly priced and the proceeds of which go to Operation Smile. I went to the Supernatural panel this year, and it may have been the highlight of my already amazing weekend. It’s much more intimate than the Hall H/Ballroom 20 panels I attended since the room seats around 300 compared to Hall H’s ~6,100. The actors are more relaxed like this, tickets are sold ahead of time so there’s guaranteed seating. No camping out! Just get there in time for the panel if you have a ticket, and if you couldn’t get one they usually let around 50 people in for standing room. If any celebrities you’re interested in ever have a Nerd HQ Conversation, you won’t regret going. Or maybe just use the beautiful Petco Park as you and your friends’ home base and hang around the gaming gallery. They also have some pretty killer merch’.
• You never know who you’re going to see. Stephen Colbert surprised everyone as the moderator for the Hobbit panel. I accidentally got on line for a George RR Martin signing. Aisha Tyler surprised us as the moderator for the SPN Nerd HQ Conversation (I sat two feet from her. /screams). You can meet and chat up with comic industry legends (I got a Thor drawing signed to me by Neal Adams). There was a guy hanging around the Hall H panel that I suspected was Osric Chau from Supernatural (because that’s exactly the kind of thing he would do, so naturally, I took a selfie with him. Spoiler alert: it was actually Osric Chau.
• The whole atmosphere surrounding the event. Now here’s where I get really sappy: As great as it was to see all the work that artists and fandom merch retailers etc. brought, my favorite thing about SDCC was the overall atmosphere of the convention. It’s not about bringing a wad of cash to California to buy all the merch you could get online just sans shipping, it’s not even about looking at all the cosplays (although don’t get me wrong- those seriously kicked ass). Because everywhere you go, you’re reminded that the industry could not and would not exist without the love the fans bring to the table. At every Hall H panel I saw, an actor or producer would set time aside to personally thank the fans for keeping them going, and express that they only hope that they deliver material worthy of them. Everyone’s there to immerse themselves in an environment built on and for an appreciation of art in some form(s). I met a couple that was going on their 8th year in a row attending together. They weren’t particularly die-hard fans of anything, they just liked what the convention is all about. It’s different things to different people at different points in their life. It’s seeing a community that otherwise lives in your laptop laid out before you. I must have turned to the crowd and declared “these are my people!” to my friends three times before they told me the joke was getting old (that didn’t stop me from doing it twice more, mind you).
BE PREPARED FOR
• Waiting in line. This is where it’s extremely handy to come with friends. If you’re in one of the bigger “fandoms” and know , it will probably have its panel in Hall H
• Poor health and hygiene. Everyone has a different experience, but as a first time con-goer I got absolutely caught up in doing as much as I possibly could before the convention ended. I got in late Friday night, slept in my hotel room. Them by 7:00 am Saturday I was getting my passes and going to the exhibit hall and queueing up for a panel in Ballroom 20 and then finagling my way into Hall H and freaking out over the Marvel panel’s SDCC exclusive footage and running out of Hall H to battle to get back in line for Hall H (hello darkness, my old friend) for Sunday’s Supernatural panel and trying to sleep while reveling in my own sweaty filth and getting a surprise cup of coffee from Misha Collins (he was wearing a wolf t shirt and a cupcake apron and he handed me a cup and suddenly I was someone who drinks coffee) and then going back to the exhibit hall (I could’ve spent all weekend in there and not seen anything) before having to run across the street for a Nerd HQ panel and going back to the exhibit hall to soak up as much as I can before it closes until next year, and THEN maybe stopping to realize that you haven’t eaten or slept* or maybe even breathed in 48 hours.
• To clarify: I wouldn’t change any of that for the world. Just be prepared for it is all.
• *DISCLAIMER: there are plenty restaurants and sleeping accommodations in San Diego, and I’m a girl that loves her food and sleep. But my friends and I were simply too busy to even remember that hunger and sleep-deprivation were things.
• Line drama. For the smaller halls, this isn’t real an issue, but I’ll give you a rundown of how Hall H works. SDCC’s getting bigger each year, so the infamous Hall H lines get more hectic each year. The line for Saturday’s panels included big hits like Marvel and The Hobbit, so the line started at 11:30 a.m. on Friday. People start forming “unofficial” lines off-site as early as they could so they can be at the front, and those lines get dispersed until such a time that security declares it time to select an unofficial line to be the official unofficial line that will be the line moved to the tents on-site where the official lines stay for the night. One security guard will tell you you’re on the right line, then another security guard will come along an hour later and tell you you’ve been on the wrong line this whole time. Sorry, bud. It’s just as confusing and chaotic as it sounds. Worth it? Totally.
• Spending money. I spent all of mine. I would have spent more if I had more. I needed to buy all the things.
• A lot of walking. Especially since I was handicapped for the weekend, it takes its toll. Wear comfy shoes, unless comfy shoes don’t go with your cosplay. Then you work that cosplay.
WHAT I’M TAKING AWAY FROM THIS
I want to go back next year. Seriously, if you have the chance, go. I was anxious about going on one leg, but I’m so glad I didn’t let that stop me. What a wild ride.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/22/2014
We know Comic-Con is a crowded, tumultuous place, with a noise level akin to being sucked through a jet engine and a similar toll on the body. But perhaps there are a few peaceful eddies and tranquil pools where you may find a moment to relax…and learn something. We’re not saying the following panels are bad—in fact among them are the best—but for various reasons they may be less frantic or stress inducing. BUT see the end of the list for the surprise twist that will bring a tear to your eye!
THURSDAY
1:00pm – 2:00pm
A Mercs Life For Me: What It Takes to Be a Mandalorian Room 29A
James Sebree (San Diego chapter leader), Sal Attinello (Manda’galaar), Todd Mullin (Haran’galaar Clan), and Quinn Pendleton (member approval rep.) discuss the ins and outs of the Mandalorian Mercs Costuming Club. Topics include introduction to costume construction, overview of member requirements, and getting your costume approved. Also, Loren Toy (Manda’galaar) on 3D printing for costuming, and Kristina Schlosser (Haran’galaar clan) and Erica Heinrich (Manda’galaar) on building a custom female Mandalorian.
1:45pm – 3:15pm
Comic-Con How-To: Gray Scale Copic Markers Room 2
Adam Hughes will use the warm and cool gray Copic markers to render the tones on a drawing. Fellow artist Allison Sohn will narrate the process while Adam draws. Hughes has been working in comics for over 25 years. Some of his work from the past year includes a story in Batman Black and White as well as the covers to the Vertigo series Fairest and the Dark Horse series Rebel Heist.
3:00pm – 4:00pm
ComicBase User Group Meeting Room 29A
Attention all comic collectors! ComicBase, the world’s premiere software program for managing comic collections, will be holding their annual user group meeting with creator Pete Bickford. This once-a-year presentation will discuss the latest features and news about ComicBase and Atomic Avenue.
4:30pm – 5:30pm
Entertainment Weekly: The Visionaries Hall H
A discussion between a couple of blockbuster directors on the art of filmmaking and a wide-ranging discussion about the future of film.
4:30pm – 5:30pm
Thunderbirds at 50 Room 8
As Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s iconic Thunderbirds series turns 50 next year, Jamie Anderson (Anderson Entertainment) executive producers of the new Thunderbirds Are Go series Richard Taylor (Jane and the Dragon, The Wot Wots, LOTR), and Giles Ridge (Harry Potter: Behind the Magic, The Illustrated Mum) talk about heritage programs, and the importance of remaining true to the ethos that made the show so successful first time around. Join the Thunderbirds team for this Q&A, moderated by head writer of the new series Rob Hoegee (Slugterra, Generator Rex, Teen Titans).
6:00pm – 7:00pm
Batman ’66 Hall H
Holy Bat Panels! Get all the details on the most anticipated home entertainment release in fanboy history when Warner Bros. Home Entertainment reunites pop icons Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar on the Hall H stage for a Bat-tastic look at Batman: The Complete TV Series. The actors behind Batman, Robin. and Catwoman, along with moderator Ralph Garman, will give you an inside sneak peek at all the exclusive content within this blockbuster home entertainment release, as well as exhibiting dazzling HD remastered footage from the landmark series. Batman: The Complete TV Series will be released in November 2014.
FRIDAY
11:00am – 12:00pm
The Official Aspen Comics 2014 Panel Room 9
Frank Mastromauro (co-owner), Peter Steigerwald (co-owner), Vince Hernandez (VP, editor-in-chief), Mark Roslan (VP, director of design and production), David Wohl (Executive Assistant: Iris), J. T. Krul (Jirni), Siya Oum (Lola XOXO), Scott Lobdell (Superman), Paolo Pantalena (Jirni),Giuseppe Cafaro (Fathom: Kiani),Jordan Gunderson (EA: Assassins), Lori Hanson (EA Assassins), and Beth Sotelo (Fathom) will reveal upcoming Aspen titles as well as projects on the horizon. They will also hold a Q&A session with fans. All fans in attendance will receive a gift courtesy of the publisher.
1:30pm – 2:30pm
Game Your Brain to Superhero Status Room 24ABC
National Geographic Channel’s Eric LeClerc (illusionist, Brain Games), David Rees (Going Deep with David Rees), Tony Gonzalez (The NFL Today analyst, You Can’t Lick Your Elbow), and Dr. Armand Dorian (ER physician, You Can’t Lick Your Elbow) join together for a series of interactive experiments that will mess with your mind and show you that what may seem superhuman is actually within your reach.
3:30pm – 4:30pm
Women Below the Line Room 26AB
Sheyne Fleischer (assistant editor, The Bachelor, Hells Kitchen), Tess Folwer (writer/illustrator Game of Thrones Exclusive Animation, Rat Queens), Alicia Minette (prop fabrication: Sushi Girl, Man at Arms), and Aubriana Zurilgen (creature creation: Steve Wang’s Creature Workshop, MasterFX), will explore the nontraditional roles of women in the comic and entertainment industries. Female editors, illustrators, prop fabricators, and creature creators will relate their success stories and how to follow your dreams in the industry, while exploring gender roles in the creative professions. Moderated by Glenn Freund (League of S.T.E.A.M.).
5:00pm – 6:00pm
Hermes Press: A Celebration of The Phantom, the First Masked Hero Room 9
Be the first to see the premiere, concept, and design of Peter David and Sal Velluto’s New Phantom comic book series together with a multimedia presentation about the history of the The Ghost Who Walks. Sal Velluto (The Phantom, Flash, Justice League Task Force, Black Panther), the artist for the new series, will discuss the direction and philosophy of the book and show off artwork from issue #1. Daniel Herman (publisher, Hermes Press), Graham Nolan (Batman, The Phantom, Rex Morgan, M.D.), and Thomas Andrae ( Batman and Me, Creators of the Superheroes, Walt Kelly: the Life and Art of the Creator of the Art of Pogo) will discuss the history of the character, the classic strip and comic books, and the all-new version (which brings back the classic Phantom) of this iconic character.
5:15pm – 6:15pm
Celebration of 24-Hour Comic Day Room 18
This year marks the 10th anniversary of 24-Hour Comic Day. Come by and help celebrate! Participants will reminisce about past years while also discussing how to make October 4, 2014 the best 24-Hour Comic Day ever. (This panel is open to all Comic-Con attendees.)
6:35pm – 8:05pm
The Musk of Tusk: An Evening with Kevin Smith Hall H
After all the interesting and exciting movie panels are over, Hall H belongs to a middle-aged man who once worked with BatFleck! Ask ComiKev questions and get ready to say #WalrusYes as Kev premieres the trailer to his first film in three years: the twisted, transformative tale of Tusk! Wrap up a busy Friday with the Clown Prince of Comic-Con!
7:00pm – 8:00pm
Simpsons Collectors Group Room 29A
Simpsons collectors of the world, unite! Take a break from the busy Comic-Con floor and get a chance to meet some of your fellow collectors of Simpsons merchandise from all over the country. Meet the other Simpsons collectors you see on the message board and put faces to names. This gathering, hosted by the staff of the SimpsonsCollectors.com website, is a great chance to network with other collectors and share your experiences in the hobby with others.
8:30pm – 9:30pm
Klingon Lifestyles Room 6A
Klingons, weapons and ohhhh, yes there will be live action bat’leth sword battles. Come join the fun and mayhem for the 21st annual Klingon stage play. Watch the Stranglehold Klingons travel to distant worlds to bring glory back to the empire! Enter the Trek costume contest-prizes awarded for best dressed, largest red shirt group, and more. All alien races welcomed. If you love stage plays and love SWAG even more, come and support the only live-action Star Trek fan-based play to boldly go where no play has gone before!
SATURDAY/
1:00pm – 2:00pm
Little Lulu and John Stanley Fan Group Room 29A
One of the most memorable kids’ comics ever created (yet with remarkable “all-ages” appeal), Little Lulu has generated a worldwide fan following. Learn more about this classic comics character and the renewed interest in the other delightful works of the great John Stanley, and join in for a scripted reading of a Golden Age Little Lulu story. All are welcome!
8:00pm – 9:00pm
Science in the Stories of H. P. Lovecraft Room 4
Iconic weird tale author H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), in his introduction to the story The Call of Cthulhu wrote: “We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we s Hall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” Was he right? A panel of scientists and Lovecraft experts will discuss the science behind Lovecraft’s stories and what modern research has revealed about humanity’s place in the cosmos. With Cody Goodfellow (Deepest, Darkest Eden: New Tales Of Hyperborea), Shane Haggard (Chemistry instructor, San Diego City College), Leslie S. Klinger (The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft), Andrew Leman (The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society), and Lisa Will, Ph.D. (astronomy and physics professor, San Diego City College). Moderated by Aaron Vanek (The H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival and CthulhuCon-Los Angeles).
SUNDAY
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Dr. Zhivago’s Innovation in Education: Basic Cartoon and Animation Using Vector Graphic Tools for Kids Room 30CDE
Dr. Marie Zhivago (professional cartoonist and published children’s book author) and Dr. Eric Banatao (principal of Eastlake Elementary School, Chula Vista, CA) discuss how students learn basic cartoon and animation using an industry standard vector-based app and software on iPads and computers. Kids learn early how to use current technological tools to help stimulate and develop young artist’s creative imagination. Join Dr. Zhivago and Dr. Banatao for this Q&A session.
12:00pm – 2:00pm
Ball-Jointed Dolls Collectors Group Room 29A
Doll owners and enthusiasts discuss the world of ball-jointed resin dolls from companies such as Elfdoll, Volks, Fairyland, Iplehouse, and many others. This year artist Bo Bergemann of Bergmann Dolls will talk about sculpting and manufacturing BJDs. You’ll also have the opportunity to learn the basics about BJDs and pick up tips on customizing, maintaining, and photographing these beautiful dolls. Share the beauty of your own unique doll, or just see the many dolls on display. From tiny to towering, it’s a great opportunity to experience the different types of dolls in the world of BJDs. Make new friends, both real and resin!
12:30pm – 1:30pm
Comic-Con How-To: Building Your Fandom Armada Room 2
Let’s discuss relationships and fandom. Bring your OTPs, gather your Armada, and cross over into an expert presentation by two DeviantArt masters, with Kay Purcell (damphyr) and Aun-Juli Riddle (aunjuli), as they help you navigate more ships than have ever crossed the worlds of fandom.
4:00pm – 5:00pm
Disney Pin Trading: Past, Present, and Future Room 29A
Back for a second year at Comic-Con is Pin Pics, an exclusive insight into the world of Disney Pin Trading. Lead panelist Barry Koper (Disneyana expert) will take you back to the beginning of the Disney pin-trading hobby.Anthony and Samantha Medina (Pin Pics presidents) will take you through modern trends in trading and discuss the future direction of Disney pins as collectibles. Jennifer Colyn (Pin Pics event director) moderates, followed by Q&A. All pin traders, Disney enthusiasts, and collectors welcome.
And now a serious note: although I started this column as a bit of a laugh (and to spotlight the many archaeological layers of the Con) the RSVP system on the website allows you to see how many people intend to attend each session. And even things like Disney pin collecting got more than many many deserving comics panels. I won’t go into details or hold anyone up to embarrassment. I was disheartened to discover this, although not that surprised. But even though comics are once again the low man on the totem pole of the party they started, I do think the above list gives a little idea of the variety of fantoms that Comic-Con embraces. It’s a big tent, yes, and right now some people are sleeping in that tent waiting for a panel in Hall H.
What about it? Do you go to comic-con for the ball jointed doll panel or John Stanley? We’d love to hear from you.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/2/2014
As long as we’re harkening back to the internet of 10 years ago, as we are in this AMAZING THRILLING BEAT 10TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL, one of the great hallowed traditions of the internet came under fire yesterday, with TCJ.com co-editor Tim Hodler wonderedif TCJ.com should turn off comments and encourage a “letter’s page” instead. Oddly, this inspired a flurry of comments. The “letters page” idea goes back to Blood & Thunder the letters page on the old print Comics Journal where industry titans would throw rocks at each other. Seriously these are a goldmine of Bronze Age defensiveness and invective. Would the same spirit be upheld in a world with instantaneous communication in every medium known to humankind? Not sure.
The tcj.com comment crewe is also a throwback to the original TCJ.com message board, a brutal, often trollish place. No quarter was asked, none was given on the TCJ boards. You had to live by your wits, and the same old arguments would break out on a weekly basis. Despite all this, it still qualified as social media for its day and fostered an indie comics community that survived and migrated, Elfquest-fashion, to a greener more temperate clime.
The jury still seems to be out, but while the TCJ comments maintain occasional flashes of brilliance and information—less since the death of Kim Thompson—they are also home to a nest of internet trolls, some of them ported over from the old system.
This whole argument seemed to kick off some STRONG feelings on the webz! I see a whole bunch of folks were mixing it up on Twitter but to be honest, I was watching the Belgium-USA game and missed whatever started it. I do know the vastly male make-up of the comment crewe was dissed by some, some upheld the smattering of good info, others thought killing it all would be a mercy killing. And some people suggest moderation — I’m pretty sure the current boards are moderated, but it only takes a few rampaging wackadoos to throw everything off kilter. People used the phrase “pap pap” and that’s always funny.
There was also this suggestion first voiced by
Oliver_C says:
Don’t ditch comments. Moderate, limit and up/down-vote them.
Sub-reddit then! And Hodler replied:
We actually had upvoting in comments when we first relaunched the site, and it was wildly unpopular with readers. I wonder if things would be different now.
I’m partial to comments, as you can see from this site, but only MODERATED comments. I check the comments here four or five times as day and have banned several people for being asshats. I’ve toyed with putting in the Facebook comment system but it hardly seems necessary right now. My vote for TCJ? Better modding. But if there isn’t time for that, try letters to the editor. It worked for Ben Franklin.
UPDATED: And Dan Nadel has announced the new policy and it’s EXACTLY WHAT I SUGGESTED!
Well, we certainly got a lot of comments about our comments. Here’s what we’re going to do until Monday, which will satisfy no one but ourselves: We will now moderate all comments and filter out anything we don’t find in some way productive or entertaining. We will be stringent about this, and thus will delete many of the types of things (Lee/Kirby nonsense, obvious bad-faith arguments, blatant trolling) argued against on the thread. Take into account that we are both devoted Howard Stern listeners (for you non-Americans, Howard Stern is a figure of wisdom and devotion who functions for many of us as a kind of benevolent spirit guide), so our standards are pretty enlightened. After Monday we’ll either decide to continue this policy or shut down the comments all together. How’s that for an anti-climax?
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/2/2014
A line of kids to see nonagenarian Stan Lee.
So BookCon was, like the very first New York Comic-Con, a raging success that caught everyone by surprise. It may be surprising that so many thought the idea of putting some of the world’s most loved authors in front of an audience would be a questionable venture, but whatever the doubts, it worked. Ticket sales were “limited” to 10,000 and I think they all showed up at once at 9 am on Saturday morning.
I got to the Javits Center about 11 am, and people were already complaining about the lines and disorganization — apparently the entrance queue filled the entire downstairs hall, and the fire marshal shut things down at one point. I managed to get into the Stan Lee panel by flashing my Publishers Weekly badge, but when I left around noon, the entire area to get into the Hall E panels was cut off and no one could get into the staging area any more.
If it was a scene reminiscent of the first NYCC where state trooper has to shut things down and Dan Didio, Frank Miller and Kevin Smith all got locked out of their booths, it was reminiscent in another way: the people who attended were there because they has a passionate connection with the material and the people who created it.
The halls were jammed and bustling with excitement. Some of the comics publishers who were there complained that they hadn’t been fully briefed about what was going to happen and didn’t have enough material to sell. Another said they sold out by 11:30 am. For con-hard veterans this was a walk in the park.
The most amazing moment came when I went to the “Special Events Hall” at the Javits—the equivalent of Hall H—to see the Blockbuster Reads panel with James Patterson, Daniel “Lemony Snicket” Handler, Rachel Renee Russell and Rick Riordan interviewed by Jeff Kinney. The room was packed, and there was an electricity in the air as the event approached, completely similar to the feeling in Hall H. When the authors came out they were greeted by screams and every time a book was mentioned there was more cheering. The attendees were sitting reading books, reading Kindles, writing reports.
I loved it. I didn’t find this a great experience because it was shifting the veneer of celebrity to authors, but because there was clearly such a strong engagement with readers who loved the books these people had created. I didn’t stick around for John Green, but apparently that was even more fervent.
And a word about that audience: according to one exhibitor I talked to it was 10-to-1 girls and women. “This is YA con,” author Scott Westerberg told me. And that’s exactly what it was, showing that the audience for stories told in book form is is still there as of 2014, despite all the gloomy predictions.
The show was not without other problems, as enumerated in a Vulture story by Boris Kachka
It was a good thing because, as McDonald says, “it was hairy today with ten. Believe me, we have a lot of work to do for next year.” Fans took their cues from shows like Comic Con, lining up so early for panels that organizers quickly lost control. By 10:45 a.m., the lower level was cordoned off. From the escalators above, the group waiting to see Stan Lee looked like a refugee camp. McDonald regrets front-loading most of the big stars and putting them in too-small conference rooms. “You want to fire the cannon right away,” he says, “but maybe next year there’ll be a little more staggering.”
Things eased up later in the day, but in front of the main events hall — host to Amy Poehler and Martin Short, followed by a slate of blockbuster children’s authors and the biggest draw, The Fault in Our Stars author John Green — the line turned into a roped-off swarm. Screaming teenage girls knocked over a barricade. Parents crowd-surfed out while the children remained. “It’s got to improve,” says McDonald. “But who wants to keep doing the same thing and not get better at it?”
As with the first NYCC, I think the ReedPOP folks picked up on industry misgivings about the enterprise, and perhaps underestimated the excitement. As a couple of people told me, the event was a success in spite of itself.
But, to be fair, nothing quite like it had ever been done before. There are book fairs which tend to focus on literary books, and comics, SF, Horror and Romance events which focus on certain genres. BookCon was aimed squarely at the most popular and populist area of the book world.
PW has the inside story on the machinations between the publishing world and BookCon, which will go to four days next year:
Prior to the show, publishers were concerned about the about the “gear shift of “publishers looking forward to the fall while the aspect for consumers is now,” as Liz Psaltis, director of marketing for Gallery Books and Pocket Books put it. But Psaltis, echoing the sentiments of others, was elated to be experiencing a real opportunity to “hand sell books and talk directly to readers.” Ellie Berger, president of the Scholastic trade division, was happy with the initial BookCon, but said Scholastic will make changes for the 2015 event. “Next year we’ll be more strategic, based on the experience today. There are more kids, librarians, and educators today than the last two days, a very different crowd that we’re glad to see,” Berger said. With so many young women in attendance, Harlequin had a busy BookCon. “It’s fantastic. This is a great way for our fans to meet our authors, and we brought 12 authors today, from romance to teen novels. It’s very different today, with more of a buzz about the books that’s so contagious. I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s inspiring to see how passionate the young readers are.” said Harlequin’s Michelle Renaud. Little, Brown gave away 500 copies of Michael Kortya’s The Prophet, to fans. “It’s been great to engage with readers directly. We really feel like booksellers, handselling,” said Miriam Parker, online marketing director for Little, Brown.
Most traditional publishers would rather walk barefoot over leprous vipers than face their customers. Once again, to be fair, their view may be colored by the fact that at BEAs most of the “power readers” tended to be older and extremely….eccentric. The younger, crowd that actually attended BookCon was a far cry from Power Reader day, and rather than being a dreaded chore, filled you with hope for the future of reading.
But given the long argument about opening BEA to the public, I think it’s fair to say that publishers will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into this world. But it will happen. I made a little video of the two sides of the show on Saturday:
Which side are you on?
Some more photos:
I’m sure Torsten will have full coverage of this, but the LONE Starbucks at the Javits has now been converted from a kiosk to a built in, and the former kiosk area is now a carpeted seating area. Still looooong lines though.
Print Ninja was just one of MANY companies that were there to offer author services and try to service te growing self-publishing and crowdfunding areas.
This is the poster that Scholastic offered for Sisters, which has a 200,000 print run.
Lerner Books was promoting Three-Story Books: Birdcatdog
Want
Carol Burrell of Abrams and librarian Karen Green beneath the eyes of Wimpy Kid.
Blockbuster Reads with Jeff Kinney, Rick Riordan, Rachel Renee Russell, Robert Patterson and Daniel Handler.
Illustrator Bob Staake signing!
This was the scene in Hall E outside the panel rooms. Soon after the Fire Marshal didn’t allow any more people into the area. This is a similar situation to what happens at NYCC nearly every year, and it needs to be carefully addressed.
This was the real dark side of BookCon, incredibly long lines for he ladies room. This one was about forty people. I even tried using my go-to-secret piddle bathroom, and there were 50 people who also know about my secret goto piddle bathroom. At one point they literally turned a men’s room into a ladies room to accommodate the line.
Once you finally did get into the bathroom this darkly genius promo greeted you on every stall. I got two post apocalyptic words for you: night soil.
One last gri,
Mark Hamill has always been one of us, way, way, way before it was trendy to do so. I love that he got to be the lead in the most beloved geek movie of all time.
That last one is great. I’ve often wondered how the actors really felt about George’s writing.