From: [brian vickers] at [isd.jpl.nasa.gov] (Brian Vickers) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc Subject: YACE: Yet Another (San Diego Comic) Convention Experience Date: 26 Aug 1993 06:02:55 GMT BACKGROUND INFO: This was my third year of attendance. I arrived early Thursday morning and left late Saturday night. I was not there Sunday. I stayed in the Double Tree both Thursday and Friday nights. COMPLAINTS: -- Organization This was the worst organized SDCC I've ever been to. I can't really say whose fault it is I can only say what I experienced. On Thursday, I went to a panel entitled "The Secret Identity: Is It Necessary in Modern Comics?" The Events Guide said that Norm Breyfogle, Louise Simonson, Len Strazewski, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman were to attend. Of these five Louise Simonson was the only one who showed. (Len Wein showed up 35 minutes late.) On Friday, I went to see the "Star Trek: The Next Generation/Deep Space Nine Slide Show." When I and a couple of hundred others got there, the panel hadn't arrived yet. I waited 35 minutes before I left. (Some of my friends decided to wait and later told me the panel did eventually show up. It seems that they were told they weren't supposed to be there until an _hour_ after the scheduled starting time!) Also on Friday, I wanted to see the "Ultraverse: A Look at What's New at Malibu," but again, the entire panel didn't show up. I think this one was officially canceled, because while the audience was waiting, a Con worker came in and picked up all of the name cards from the panel tables and simply left without a word. (I stopped him in the hall outside and asked him if the panel had been moved or re-scheduled and I was given an, "Uhh. I don't know." I asked him to use his walkie-talkie and find out. He radioed in, asked, and the reply from his supervisor/organizer was, "Uhh. I don't know.") -- Presentations In previous years, when presentations (slides, films, overheads, etc.) were made, the projection screens were high enough for the entire room to see. The largest rooms even had dual projections. No so this year. Not only did the large rooms only have a single screen, but in every presentation I attended the screen was about one foot off the ground and far to the left side of the room. This was very annoying as only the people in the first few rows of the left side of the room got a full screen view. Everyone else had to make due with the top have of the screen. -- DC Yes, this is a complaint about the publishing company. They held five panel discussions ("The Return of Superman," "Knightfall into Knightquest," "1993 and Beyond," "Vertigo: Ideas in Motion," and "An Open Editorial Summit: Exploring DC Continuity"). In each of these panels they decided (in their infinite wisdom) to give away a premium comic book to either the first 500, 1000, or 2000 attendees depending on the panel; Batman 2000, Superman 1000, the others 500. Normally giving away promotional items is no big deal, but the problem this time was ONLY those first X number of attendees were allowed inside! Even if you didn't want the premium comic, you couldn't get in. This of course was compounded by the fact that the rooms in which the 500 attendee give-aways were held in only had about 450 seats! Can you say "Standing Room Only?" It was the stupidest arrangement I'd seen at the Con. Now add my previous gripe about the presentations and you've got the makings of a real fun time. :P -- Exhibit Hall While this years Exhibit Hall had more square footage for dealers and publishers, someone decided that ALL of the dealers should be on one side of the room while ALL of the publishers should be on the other. In theory this sounds like a good idea. In practice, however, it is not. Imagine if you will the DC booth, the Marvel booth, the Image booth, the Valiant booth, the Malibu booth, the Dark Horse booth, , the Defiant booth, the Harris booth, the Penthouse booth, and several other small publishers, all sharing the same two-and-a-half aisle space. You couldn't walk on that side of the hall without body grease. This co-location was of course compounded by the fact that each booth was offering the usual autographs, promotional materials, and cheesecake. -- Con TV In recent years, the "Con Hotel" offered an in-house TV channel that was programmed by the Con organizers. It ran 24 hours a day and consisted of stuff like Astro Boy, Gigantor, goofy "B" grade films, etc. Not this year. No Con TV. -- Japanese Animation & Films Each year, there are films that run 24 hours a day and Japanese Animations (dubbed, subtitled, and neither) that run 20 hours a day. Yes, they were on again this year, but I was really disappointed with the selections. There wasn't a whole lot of current/new stuff shown, and this year's movies chosen to represent the "themes" weren't all that interesting. -- Speculators It was pathetic to see all of the people buying multiple copies of a first issue of a comic (or any comic for that matter) and then hearing them tell there friends what a great deal they got because the Wizard Price Guide says they were worth twice that much. -- Masquerade The Masquerade, while scheduled to start at 8 pm, started about a half hour late but still took the full two hours. It annoys me that there were so many people/entries bucking for the $1000 Defiant prize. IMO, there shouldn't be "company established" prizes where if you have the best costume of "our" published character then you get "our" prize. (Okay, enough of the whining. On to the good stuff.) PRAISES: -- Comic Prices I was able to leave the Con with about 200 comics for which I paid less than $70. I found several $0.25 and 5/$1.00 bins and was able to pick up an almost complete run of Alpha Flight, Suicide Squad, Ms. Marvel, and Dragonlace for pennies. Additionally, I found old (1970s) issues of JLI/A, LSH, and GL in these bins and bought them for their nostalgic reading. Oh, I almost forgot. The only Image titles I read are Spawn and Savage Dragon but I was able to find nearly every other Image title ever published for under a dollar. (Most were around $0.50.) I bought them so I can see what I'm (not) missing. The same was nearly true for the last year or so of Valiant books; all going for about a dollar. So now in addition to my usual reading of Archer & Armstrong, I can read the Harbinger, Turok, and HARD Corps back issues that I bought. -- Panels & Presentations Of the panels I attended that actually had people show up to, one of the most enjoyable was "Writing in an Art-Oriented Business." Present were Mike Barr, Mark Evanier, Len Wein, Peter David, Steve Gerber, and Marv Wolfman. If you've been reading other people's Con experiences, you've already read about this panel. It was full of jibes, quips, and (mostly) good natured ribbing between the panelists and about artists in general. The bottom line here was, if you don't want the artist to screw with what you write, collaborate better. Period. One of my favorite things to see each year is the "Esoteric Comics" slide show presented by Scott Shaw. If you've never seen this, I strongly encourage you to do so. The entire show consists of slides of strange and silly comic book covers over which Scott Shaw narrates. It's nothing short of hilarious. Other good presentations included Friday's "Spotlight on Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics Slide Show" and the Defiant panel on Thursday. Both were very informative and entertaining. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES: -- Jim Shooter As stated earlier I attended the Defiant panel on Thursday. Jim Shooter was the host/moderator and was very well received. Additionally, I went to his "How to Create Comics Seminar" which was also a fund raiser for the Comic-Book Legal Defense Fund. A $5.00 donation was required of each attendee. The seminar itself was very good, and while I have no complaints about the seminar (it was probably the best I've ever been to), I was able to generate a hypothesis regarding Mr. Shooter. I don't think he realizes how easy it is to misquote him or quote him out of context. During his three hour lecture I was able to get these damming quotes from his seminar, "I taught Frank Miller how to write," "Joe Orlando spits on Jack Kirby's career," and "Archie Goodwin is not a genius." You see, he would say something like "Doing such and such is like spitting on Kirby's career," and then a few minutes after forgetting what he said earlier he would say "Joe Orlando does such and such." Put to together you get the second quote above. It amazed me that he didn't realize what he was saying, then I realized maybe that's why he pisses other industry people off so much. I mean if Frank Miller, Joe Orlando, or Archie Goodwin were to think that he said those things intentionally, they would be justifiably angry. Just a thought. -- Trivia Contest Once again the Black Ink Irregulars put on a good show, and once again there was a team of "Young Punks" who thought they were hot stuff and who promptly got squashed. Sample questions should be available to avoid this kind of embarrassment. -- Previews There were previews of Stallone's "Demolition Man," Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas," Spielberg's "Animaniacs," Baldwin's "The Shadow," ABC's "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," NBC's "Sea Quest DSV," and upcoming episodes of Fox's "Batman: The Animated Series," and "Model by Day." An equal mix of good and bad all around, I think. -- Things I Wish I Could Have Gone To There was another fund raiser ($10.00 a person) for the Comic-Book Defense Fund on Saturday night. It was a non-SDCC sanctioned Cherry Poptart look-alike contest at the Hotel San Diego. I couldn't go because it conflicted with Scott Shaw's Esoteric Comic slide show. All the "Women's" panels. Again, just too much conflict. All the stuff on Sunday. :( Well there you have it. Another SDCC gone by. Unfortunately, I forgot to register there for next year, oh well. For those of you who have never gone, it really is a lot of fun as long as you're with friends. Just remember, always pre-register and if you can only come on one day, make it Saturday. -- Brian [brian vickers] at [isd.jpl.nasa.gov]