From: Glans Glennis <[lf 7 z] at [midway.uchicago.edu]>
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 95 16:09:37 CDT
Subject: SDCC (Was Re: Kitchen Sink signs a deal with Capital???)

- -Poster: Glans Glennis <[lf 7 z] at [midway.uchicago.edu]>

> -Poster: CH <[C W H 93001] at [UConnVM.UConn.Edu]>
> 
> The Capital exclusive may have something to do with Ocean Capital,
> the investment group which bought KSP out.  Can anyone find out the
> terms of KSP's deal with Capital?  Is it a brokerage deal, like the
> recent Diamond exclusives, or not?  Is KSP seeking a controlling
> interest in Capital?  What's going on?

Nope, it was purely Denis' idea as I understand it.  Out of all the
people at the Cap City conf in Chicago, he's the only one who followed
through.  Sad, eh?  Well, I think so, anyway. :-) Seriously, the game
talked by just a whole a lot of people was they were going with
Capital, but they were all waiting on Image and Dark Horse to go
first.  And nobody expected the left turn...  On the other hand, lots
of small guys said they were going to stay non-exclusive in San Diego
after the bombs dropped.  Image and Dark Horse shocked me because I
just don't understand why they'd trust Diamond with that much power
over the market.  I know I sure as hell don't. >B^)  I have no idea
whether KSP is seeking a controlling interest in Capital or not, but I
kinda doubt it.

Well, haven't seen much here in the way of reports on San Diego, so
what the Hell.  I posted this to one of the newsgroups, and I know
lots of my comix@ buddies don't do news.  Plus Marvel was in the
subject line and mebbe you killed it. >B^) It's really long and rambly
and has lots of schmoozing bits, so delete now if your threshold is
low for that sort of thing.  To paraphrase M.Chary, this is not a
report. :-)  (and apologies to jrd, sorry I missed seein' ya, guy).

- ----------
In article <[D C nB 3 t 5 Gv] at [festival.ed.ac.uk]>,
Paul O'Brien <[p--b] at [festival.ed.ac.uk]> wrote:
>THIS IS WHAT WE MEANT BY ABUSE OF POWER.
>Do you get the point now?
>
>My current feelings on Marvel are really not easy to describe past
>"fuck the lot of them."

Almost as good as good as the shirts the Boneyard Press guys, dawg
love 'em, were wearing at SDCC, which said in words that could be read
from opposite ends of Soldier Field: "Marvel Can Suck My Cock".

But what I want is a shirt that says "I Survived The Motown Party."
Absolutely amazing.  I showed up to a ridiculously long line for the
elevator, as one was out of order, the other only working
intermittently, and the stairs couldn't be opened from the stairwell.
These were great -- no knob, no keyhole, nothing.  The elevator came
once in the half-hour we waited and we just missed getting on.  Thank
God -- this is important later.  So finally, someone from Motown
convinces them to let us walk the stairs with a security gaurd armed
with walkie-talkie.  Only nine flights since the "party" was on the
top floor. :-) We finally arrive topside, get that door open, and only
20 minutes later succeed in getting a drink, when Michael Davis
launches into Diamond Appreciation Day.  Lemme 'splain.  Apparently
only three people in history have won this Motown Appreciation
thingie: Barry Gordy, Stevie Wonder and Stevie Gieppi.  Yup.  So they
awarded that with much pomp and under pretty horrid circumstance.
Well, the only reason I had attended this was to hook back up with the
crew I'd left in Tijuana earlier -- being Kurt and Eric of Chicago
Comics, Terry LaBan and Jill Thompson, and Pete Coogan and fiance
Debbie, in order to rescue my partner Wes from the closing Convention
Center.  And I couldn't find the gallery with Mary Fleener's opening a
little earlier so it was this "party" or nuttin'.  Fortunately, the
former four showed up at this point (we still dunno what happened to
Pete and Debbie or how we managed to miss each other >B^), and I said
hello-goodbye (they were going off the Film Threat anyway), downed my
screwdriver, headed off in search of the chimerical freight elevator
with Joe "Silly Daddy" Chiapetti and his mini-crew, and got the Hell
Out Of Helliah.  Finally reaching the street I couldn't help but
notice the several fire trucks blocking my parked car.  It seems the
group that I watched get on the elevator were only just now getting
extricated from it. :-/ So I drove Wes up to LA, slept a few hours at
his sister's place, drove back to SD the next morning, fully
re-charged! >B^) But, ahem, the name of this hotel was Bristol Court,
and if ever you are silly enough to stay at this place, tell them I
hope they burn to ground having first forgotten to pay the insurance
premium. >B^)

Well I'm here now, and I'll never get around to doing a *real* report,
so here're some rambly random highlights.  Arrived late Sunday night
to LAX, eventually drove down to SD and found Wes's cousin's place
around 3 am or so (a resident who works at UCSD Med Center so we
barely saw him, lives in Mission Bay mere blocks from Pacific Beach
and looks like Brad Pitt.  I hate him.  :-) A highlight that has zero
to do with the Con was listening to "Dr. Pitt"'s roommate (who's from
Egypt), argue with his new girlfriend (who's from Lebanon), over whose
dialect was correct and superior to the other.  Since I've worked in
both Egypt and Syria (very similar to Lebanon dialect... uh, they
sound a lot alike) I got to be arbiter.  I never had so much fun!
Yalla habeebi!  Ah, young love...  Monday am checked in at the Expo,
which went real smooth -- the Con organization throughout was superb.
So we did the Internet panel at 10:30am to a surprisingly full room,
considering the Expo floor didn't open 'til Tuesday.  That was with
Janet Tait (who did the SDCC web pages and is on the Con staff) and
Mimi Rosenheim of BankAmerica, and it went well.  After that, there
really wasn't much to do since the Expo floor wasn't open yet, and
looking through the program, the panels were all pretty much aimed at
retailers.  So we skipped out until Wednesday, and did San Diego
things 'til then.  Fish tacos, micro-brews, lots of beach time, stuff
like that.  Wednesday was great for going around the booths, seeing
stuff, meeting people and rapping, 'cuz there weren't very many people
there yet, mostly just people in the biz.  But that was also when I
hooked up with various and sundry Chicago and net.cronies.  My vote
for Coolest People I Met @ SDCC '95 goes to Ziggy of Kitchen Sink and
Martha Thomases of DC, both of whom I'd love to have a beer with
sometime.  (If you get the impression I only go to these things to
find old and new drinking buddies; no doubt. ;-) And everybody should
buy Stuck Rubber Baby, they had the whole thing there and IMO you
won't regret it.  'Nuff said.  Feeling beach withdrawal again, we took
the world's coolest bridge over to Coronado Island with Wes, Kurt and
Eric, and vegged for a while, then had a great dinner at a local pub.
I'm convinced that the cure for con-center-itis is some serious beach
time. >B^) I think Wednesday was also the Diamond Gala and all the
distributor high weirdness.  But that wasn't nearly so weird as the
world's worst Jimmy Buffet cover band nor all the begging of red
tickets (which enabled one to escape the ridiculously high prices of
the cash bar) from various DC folk milling around with them in their
pockets.  It was sad, really. >B^) >B^) Still, it was a huge turnout,
and it was fun rapping with new and old friends, whilst drinking
heavily to forget distribution weirdness, not to mention avoiding Tom
Fassbender's big mama cigars on the smoking porch. (jes' kidding, Tom
:-) Also where I saw a lot of net.ters, amongst them Tom Galloway,
David Goldfarb, Troy McNemar, Pete and Debbie, Steve Lieber, Sidne,
Johanna (who actually liked the band, but we love her anyway ;-).
Probably others I'm forgetting.

Thursday I spent much of the day walking through artist's alley,
rapping with everyone.  Also I think Joyce's Activists! panel was that
day, and I finally got to meet Tim Stroup of the Grand Comics
Database.  Back to Coronado Island 'cuz Ziggy clued us in on great
fruit drinks and sunsets at the Coronado Del Mar, a gorgeous hotel
where lots of films were made (like Some Like It Hot, the Stunt Man,
and tons of others) and L. Frank wrote like six of the Oz novels.
After that we went to James Owen's pizza party for a little while
(thanks James!) where we hooked up with Minneapolis folks from
Dreamhaven and Comic Book College, and then on to a wonderfully
bizarre film called "The City of Lost Children" (in Glenn's butchered
French I guess that's something like "le cite des enfants perdus", won
something at Cannes, by the director of "Delicatessen" only lots
better, starred Ron Perelman, out here at Christmas), that was
courtesy of the great folks at Kitchen Sink also.

Already talked about Friday, so when I got back to San Diego (which
took forever due to construction and heavy traffic) on Saturday,
finally found a cheap hotel, and made it back to the Con it was
already kind of late.  But I had nice chats with lots of people I'd
been wanting to meet.  Missed Scott Gilbert at Einstein (caught up to
him later), however I did talk to Teri Wood and the Strange Attractors
guys and several others.  Unfortunately, Eddie Campbell was busy
talking to Neil Gaiman, so I never did get to meet him, dagnabbit.
Missed Andrew Vachss, too. :-( Bought a Pirate Corp$ page for way too
little money, talked briefly to Matt Wagner, talked to Harvey for a
while when I couldn't find Joyce once again.:-) And Sam Henderson and
Stephen Blue, lots in the small press booths, some others at the big
booths.  Back in the alley at day's end to meet up with Joe Chiapetti
for dinner, and there was Scott, which was great 'cuz I was going to
be really unhappy if I missed him altogether after years on the comix
list and gutters list and the like.  Scott's new book "It's All True"
(collection of "True Artist Tales") is just out with the help of a
Xeric grant, and it's a damn fine book, so pick it up, slackers!
While waiting for Joyce, I had a fascinating time listening to Harvey
talk to Scott about various things for a bit while the con people
tried to get us out of there. :-) Scott's also doing some AS with
Harvey I think. [ahem, feel free to jump in here Scott :-) ] So then
Joe, Scott and I went off for Indian food with Arielle Bordeaux (who
had a new Deep Girl she self-published) and her friend Lisa
Onamoto(sp?).  Lisa does some pretty nice minis, which I unfortunately
didn't make it home with.  But the address was the Berkeley Comic
Relief, where she works.  Somehow I lost Scott when we left his hotel,
terribly ironic since the restaurant was just up the street and we
just didn't realize it. :-( (I'm good at this -- just ask Mike Chary
:-) I got money at that Horton Plaza mall thingie and now I know why
they call it Escher Plaza.  They should shoot the architect.  ;-) Joe
went off to a bonfire at Ocean Beach with several of the mini guys,
Scott had gone to the Roger Corman party, and Arielle, Lisa and I went
to the Fantagraphics party.  Well I guess it was FBI, Hypno Magazine
and Last Gasp, and the gate went to the CBLDF.  This was probably the
most fun for me, it was at this sort of combo bar and driving range
club close to the harbor.  There were three bands, lots of friends,
and just a really fun atmostphere.  'Course Jeff Mason thought it was
lame, but what does he know. >B^) We found Scott G. again, and Pete
and Debbie were there, and I met Jeff (who talks just as fast as Mark
Nevins, or close anyway... >B^).  We were going to head over to the
Dark Horse party, but that got aborted.  And just as well too, because
as things slowly wound down, it was a good place to be.  Award for
Best Person To Sit On Astroturf and Drink Flat Icehouse With
definitely goes to Marc Arsenault of Wow Cool, I had a fine time
rapping about nothing in particular with him.  So we ended up sitting
in various circles on the astroturf, smokin' (well I was anyway :-),
drinkin', rappin', and jammin' on James Brown.  In our circle was me
and Marc, Tom Fassbender, Nick from DC, Paul Pope, (the guy from
Dreamhaven and I'll be damned if I can remember his name. :-( Really
nice guy though.) and it was a good end to the Con.  Paul made a
comment on how thoroughly sick he was of getting asked what he was
working on, and I had to laugh knowing I'd asked easily dozens of
people this very thing who were probably just as thoroughly sick of
answering it.  :-) Like I say, you gotta hit the beach a bit. :-) Back
to LA the next day to turn in the car and argue bumper scratches,
convince Southwest that I did indeed switch my flight from Saturday to
Sunday and they damn well were going to let me on the plane, and
finally back to horridly humid Chicago.

What did I buy... Never did make it to the dealers' section (not that
I had any money...) so mostly I came home with ashcans and minis and
things like that.  Well I bought the kids decopagued frogs in
Tiajuana, but besides that I mean. :-) These were way cool, they play
different instruments, and Terry LaBan and I got a deal by getting 5
altogether.  He got the best one which plays violin. ;-) What little I
did come home with was good though.  Picked up Matt Feazell's Ert!,
Magic Whistle #8 by Sam Henderson, Hutch Owen's Working Hard by Tom
Hart, the aforementioned True Artist Tales by Scott Gilbert.  All that
stuff is highly recommended.  Also got Charles Vess' Book of Ballads
and Sagas ashcan and that looks really promising, and Stephen Blue's
Red River which I liked, and a Larry Marder Beanworld ashcan which
features the return of the Big Fish (among other things).  Plus a
Beanworld action figure, natch. :-) TOTB will be back in a big way
with a 64pp.  standalone tentatively called "The Float Factor".
Lessee, sketches from Teri Wood and Drew Hayes, a Too Much Coffee Man
mouse pad that rocks, bunches of pins for the kids, a Vess print from
the Expo.  And this guy at Einstein's had a great idea.  He reduced
18pp. down on a single piece of 11"x17" that you could fold over.  A
nice chunk of preview that didn't cost him so much. :-) Anyway, the
book is called Ehlissa, the creator is Angus MacLeod, and his press is
Highland Graphics.  It's an interesting tale if you're into fantasy,
and it's well-drawn.  He also has a web page which is...
	http://www.taisbean.com/commercial/Ehlissa/home.htm/
(but I'm suspicious of the last slash... :-)

Well eleven days to the Chicago I.C.E. Spirits stop and counting, huh?
;-)

Pax ex machina,
Glenn
......................................................................
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"I don't mind company, because company's alright with me every
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   --- Aretha
[g carnagey] at [uchicago.edu], if you must know
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