SPX - Small Press Expo is this Weekend. I will be there today. My Daughter and I are  volunteering from 3-7. Jaime AND Gilbert Hernandez will be there, among many other distinguished guests, and awesome smaller press comics' creators. Check out their site at http://www.spxpo.com/

The Infinity Con

ECCC 2012 was one of the best experiences I have had in a long time, and for someone who is wildly uncomfortable around people, the best part was being surrounded by like-minded friends that I generally spend my days with on the internet, but many whom I never expected to meet in person. Good people of varying levels of comic book geekery, but every one of them my type of people. One thing I was overwhelmed by was the sort of caring compassion and acceptance that is always a little bit of a surprise, but never ceases o make me feel better about the world that I am often fairly cynical about. Just a lot of nice people and a lot of fun.

The Convention itself was a good solid con, and I hope to write more about the experiences there somtime, but it won't be anytime soon

The Long Con, Part 4: Comics People

It's the week of the con now, and I have meaning to post this installment for a while. The problem is that I don't have a great deal to say. What I want to say is that I am super excited, and looking forward to meeting all sorts of cool creators, and getting them to sign things. I am pretty sure that if I take anything with me it will just be one or two books. Maybe I will try to get The Last Iron Fist Story signed by both Fraction and Brubaker, or something like that. A Mice Templar signed by Oeming and Glass would be awesome, or a Mouse Guard signed by Peterson. Those things aren't exciting me all that much at the moment, and it doesn't change my opinion about wanting to fly out to Seattle at all.

My interests go in very well defined waves at times. Often there is a har line between one thing and the next, and I will burn super hot on something, like comics, until I burn out and something else takes its place, like movies or video games. I have always been like this for the most part. Today, out of an acknowledgement of my waning interest, and an acceptance that it will cost a good bit of money for my oldest to start college this fall, I cancelled my folder at my local comic shop. I picked up 16 dollars worth of comics and thanked my friend at the store. I have just finished reading them, and enjoyed them, although nothing really blew me away.

Despite not having much spending money, I am still very excited to fly out to Seattle and attend ECCC. I am looking forward to reconnecting with friends, and meeting a bunch in person for the first time, but I am also excited about having time at a convention again to really just take the whole thing in. I want to see everything and engage, hopefully without annoying everyone.

Here are some of the guests I am pretty excited about:
Kurt Busiek - Astro City is just awesome comics
Scott Wegener - I have 3 Atomic Robo shirts, wish Clevinger was able to be there still
Adam Warren - Funny Cheesecake in a way that isn't insulting
Bruce Timm - Bruce Timm for crying out loud
Dan Slott - Responsible for so much that has been good and funny in comics.
Bill Sienkiewicz - I was a kid when he ruined New Mutants for me, but I later learned to appreciate his amazing work, und understand that other people would kill New Mutants for real, way worse than conceptual art possibly could.
Bryan Lee O'Malley - Neat guy, Scott Pilgrim is a masterpiece. look forward to anything he chooses to do.
Colleen Coover - blown away by her pieces in Girl Comics, love her art in general and need to pick up more of her work.

So there are folks I am happy will be at ECCC, just not sure how outgoing I will end up being, etc.

The Long Con, Part Three: The Guest List (media)

My primary motivation for going to Seattle to attend Emerald City ComicCon, isn't really the con itself, as I have mentioned in earlier posts. That doesn't mean I'm not excited about going to a big comic convention again. I'm as psyched about that as I am about seeing friends again/in person for the first time. In preparation for the big event, which is now less than a month away, I have been pouring over the guest list and trying to figure out who I am most excited to meet, and also, exactly what I want to take with me to get signed.

I've Never been super comfortable with celebrities at cons. I don't know what to do with them. I don't like having to pay people to talk to them, and that seems to be what media people at cons are there for. I don't have as much of an issue with artists and writers, because I like the product they create and can ask to have it signed and say hello while that is happening. I get that there isn't a connection created in that moment, and I don't care. I get something out of being able to thank people for the work they do, and that I admire. If I pay for anything, I can pay for something they have made, and artists will usually do a quick sketch of some sort under those circumstances. There is just no comfortable equivalent I can think of with actors. 30 or 40 bucks for a signature, 30 or 40 bucks for a picture. Not a single person there is worth that kind of money, when I could be spending that same money on comics, or food from local joints, or alcohol for my friends so they keep me entertained and forget they don't really know me.

All that being said, and despite a large group of entertainers I am pretty fond of: Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, George Takei, and Christopher Lloyd, the place I think ECCC looks strongest in regard to Celebrity appearances is in the Voice Talent that will be there. Batman, Bubbles, Pinky & the Brain,Bender & Fry, and Wakko Warner will all be appearing in voice form at least, and that is just a fraction of the great characters performed by that group. Maurice LeMarche is particularly interesting to me, as the 9th annual Rodney Dangerfield's Young Comedians special was kind of a milestone for me, and I remember how cool it was that the guy who did an almost entirely hack comic impressions set went on to do just an insane number of really great characters as a voice actor.

I'm not a very good stalker, and am intermittently shy in person, so most likely unless someone is really trying to attract people to them, I will not be meeting any media people while I am there. I go to these things in part to break out of my comfort zone, but most often I just retreat in horror to the heart of my comfort zone and comfortably avoid contact or interaction.

Also, Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith will apparently be in or around ECCC doing things for money as well.

The Long Con, Part 2: Why ECCC?

My friend that was helpful in cultivating my most recent comic book revival, and responsible for getting me to go to Pittsburgh ComiCon, kicking off the era of me going to cons, has a podcast. He and his friend and frequent collaborator actually have two podcasts, both of them very good. The first is called Sarcastic Voyage, and is a great mix of humorous chatter and funny bits on any just about everything. The second is Post Atomic Horror, and it is an ambitious Star Trek themed Podcast that started with The Original Series, and is working its way through lovingly irreverent recaps of  all the episodes of all the series', as well as the movies. Both podcasts are a lot of fun, both are on ITunes, and  neither are for the overly prudish.

My friend lives in Seattle, and I have wanted to get out there for Emerald City Comic Con for a while. This year is a big year for the podcasts, and He and his co-host have a lot planned for ECCC. One of the nice things about following his creative efforts is that it has afforded me the opportunity to interact online with a lot of other friends and listeners of the shows, and develop friendships with many others who have similar interests and sensibilities. This will be the largest 'meet up' that I have ever been a part of, and I am very much looking forward to it.

I went to Seattle, once before for about a week. It's a beautiful city, but I didn't spend a lot of time in the city itself, as I was attending meetings at Microsoft, and was staying on Lake Washington, but I had a car and drove around it some. This time I don't know that I will see a lot more of it, but we'll see.

My trip this year almost wasn't going to happen, but there were just too many people I really want to meet in person for me to miss it unless it would bankrupt us, and I don't think it will. I definitely need to budget carefully, but I don't think this one time will kill us. My Flight is booked, my hotel accommodations are handled. I am now in the early panic and planning stages, which I will continue to discuss in future entries here.

The Long Con: part 1 - An Introduction

I haven't been to that many comic conventions, and never until relatively recent. I've been to Pittsburgh, and Heroes in NC, and SPX in Bethesda. I only went to Heroes once, but it was with both of my daughters and was a particularly good experience for all of us. We stayed in a nice hotel, we took our Wii with us, we went to a couple Triple D restaurants, went to a movie, shopping, etc. and it was just great. My youngest met and hit it off with several of the creators at Top Shelf, and I got to meet Jaime Hernandez for the first time, and Matt Wagner signed a copy of Mage for me. SPX has been a pretty great show for me as well, and I have gone to it several times, including twice as a volunteer. My youngest went with me as a volunteer as well, and it's a whole different angle on comics. Even if you don't think of yourself as a traditional, or mainstream comics fan, I recommend attending a small press con at some point, and if they take volunteers, you should try it, at least once. The combination of DIY, Small publishers, students and collectives really creates a sort of festival feel. Everyone is accessible, and nearly everyone is excited to just get their work in front of people, and mix with fans of the medium, and even moreso to mix with their fellow creators. If your view of comics is solely Super Heroes from Marvel and DC, then you will either hate it, or it will open your eyes to what else is out there.

Pittsburgh Comicon was my first real comic convention, I went as a way to see one of my best friends from High School, and to meet in person and support a friend of mine that I had only ever met online. I know I have discussed some or all of this previously, but please indulge me. My first experience at a con was awkward. I was giddy, but nervous, and didn't feel comfortable approaching anyone. My friends had more experience than I did, and had some insight to things that was helpful, and I got the courage up to approach one or two people eventually, but mostly I just stared at people from 50 feet away.

I went to Pittsburgh a second time, and took my oldest daughter with me. This was still before going to Heroes with both of my girls, and the presence of one of my kids gave me at least a sort of borrowed courage to approach some people and engage them to some degree. We met Gigi Edgely and Marc Singer, and had a great time eating wasabi peanuts and talking toKristy Bourgeois and the Noses Optional crew. We also stayed for the cosplay roundup on Sunday before we went back home, and that was something that my daughter and I still reference 5 or 6 years after the fact.

This has all been a preface up to this point. This post is a kickoff to what I hope will be a series of posts relating to my anticipation of, preparation for, and ultimately attendance at: Emerald City Comicon 2012, which takes runs March 30 - April 1 in Seattle, WA. I have secured a place to stay and booked my flight already, so it is going to happen. I am very excited about this, and plan to share just about everything relating to it that I can, so we all have that to look forward to, apparently.

Taking Issue - Red Hood and the Outlaws #1

This issue has sparked a lot of debate. I tend to side with people who have in general been a bit disappointed with DC regarding the treatment of female characters, and the seeming lack of a serious commitment to better representing women in comics, both on the creator side of things, and the character side as well. There are a couple of questions that I kept in mind while re-reading this issue the five + times I have read it so far.
1. What(if anything) is wrong with this comic
2. Is this a bad comic
3.What(if anything) is wrong with the portrayal of Starfire in this comic
4. Who would like this comic

That's not everything I kept in mind, but I have read a lot of the discussions that have been written about this issue, as well as about Catwoman #1, I understand what people have expressed about the issues seeming to scream out that the female character is less important to the creators as a character, or as a woman, than they are as an object of titillation and male fantasy.

I think there is a lot to be said for trying harder, or at all, to put out well written comics that embrace the female characters they contain as full fledged characters, and give them the same sort of respect and complexity that other characters are given, rather than having everything focus on their sexualization and their role in fan boy wet dreams. I am not anti sex or sexiness, but the mechanical cheesecake posing, or the constant focus on t&a and forced emphasis on female characters as sex objects is a problem in my opinion.

That being said(and that barely scratches the surface of my opinions of the misuse of female characters by DC and the top few publishers in general) What about this issue over all, what about this title as an ongoing?

I picked this comic because the premise sounded cool enough. I have no history with Roy Harper, I am most familiar with Red Hood from the Under the Red Hood video and some appearances in Batman and Robin when I was picking that up before the relaunch. Starfire was a favorite of mine from when I was reading the New Teen Titans as a kid, and also, from her excellent re-imagining for the Teen Titans cartoon. I have friends who warned me about Scott Lobdell as a writer, but I am not sure if I have read his work before, so that was not a negative to me, Also, the art looked like it would be pretty good, and I will say, except for the awful Starfire posing, I think the art was pretty great. Starfire is a beautiful character with no problems about showing off her body, but posing her like a stripper just comes off cheesy and a bit cheap.

As far as the comic being bad, or the title striking me as a bad one, I am not willing to say that at this point. I am not sure that I will continue getting this, but this is a relaunch where some liberties have been taken with a lot of characters in a lot of different ways, some not for the better by many estimations. Here is what the comic seems like to me.

I think this comic reads like a modern, somewhat raunchy buddy movie. It has a great deal of the smug smirkiness and kind of fist-bumping frat boy smarminess, wrapped around an initial setup that involves a kind of cool, kind of far fetched prison break and doesn't make you think too hard. I really like Starfire as the heavy hitter in the group, and the boys acceptance/dependence on that is cute. The issue introduces and interesting character named Essence, that must have featured in Red Hood's past, but I haven't seen her before. It was not a bad comic as comics go, It was not even something that would cause the average comic reader with no built in feelings for the character of Starfire, to take much notice or offense to, beyond perhaps the insistence on meaningless sex with her sex partner's buddy.

I think if that is the way that her race is now characterized, then it was necessary to show it. It is character development to play it out. Humans aren't Tamaranians though, and unless the writer takes some time to show the effects that that sort of behavior can have on close relationships and fragile male egos, then I will say it was just a cheap thing to do to excite boys.

So, in closing, This wasn't that bad of a comic. It read a bit too much like a movie, with the posing in the water and all, but it was not without some fun. There are very real issues with DC editorial being oblivious and letting some terrible ideas and attitudes just walk through to print. A lot of people could benefit from reading and learning from the opinions of the folks who took the time to intelligently document their reactions and thoughts about the issue.