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The main parts of Part 3 (and a short outline): click on these to jump to each section.
IntroductionAt last, you're ready to leave. Or are you? Last minute details can cause real problems. And especially if you're going to a big con, you can't just flop down and sleep when you get there. If you're going to enjoy every bit of the con, you don't want to wait in lines (or what Disney and the British call queues). Here are time-tested strategies for avoiding long queue waits. Departure for the Con: Last Minute DetailsIf your home will be unoccupied during your con trip, try to take care of minor details. It doesn't hurt to have a trustworthy friend check your house; give her a house key and the phone number of your hotel so you can be reached in emergency. Ask her to pick up newspapers and (if you trust her enough) your mail. If you're going to be away for only a week or so, don't worry about stopping your mail. If no one will be there, leave a radio playing, and perhaps a light on a timer, so your house will look occupied to casual thieves. Make sure your power, water and other utilities are paid. There is nothing worse than returning to a dead house with spoiled food in the frige, and unable to take a shower. (Don't ask me how I know - I just know.) Go through your packing list one last time. These are the things you're most likely to forget:
If driving, make sure your car's properly equipped. Make sure you have a map. If you don't have a map, get on your computer and go to the MapBlast web site at http://www.mapblast.com. This useful web site create detailed driving maps - even step-by-step, close-up picture directions. While they don't mark the places where highway construction will cause you trouble (only AAA's Triptych does that) they are very, very good. Put your soda, bottled water, or whatever you're drinking on the road in the refrigerator to cool off overnight. Then...get to sleep. Sleep is your rarest commodity at a convention; stock up the day before. September 11th Alert: Empty your pockets. Make sure you are not carrying any sharp objects or objects that can be considered weapons. Sounds silly, but people and planes have been held up for hours because they forgot about their pocket knife or nail file. Driving There
Pack your stuff in your car. Put your drinks in the ice chest, cover the drinks with the ice from your refrigerator's ice maker, make sure all doors and windows are secure, and leave. One of the oldest sayings about driving is true: the mileage you get before noon is the most important mileage. It's largely psychological. As the day begins, you feel more energetic. After the sun hits its zenith, you are bound to start feeling sleepy. If you get most of the day's travel done before noon, you can cruise all afternoon. If you are driving alone, plan to stop once every 60 to 90 minutes for a break. The greatest danger of long driving is highway hypnosis. The second greatest is trying to bull your way through highway hypnosis by force of will. Your taxes pay for the rest stops on the Interstate Highway System - get your money's worth and use 'em. Many of these are very nice places, with clean restrooms, tourist information, and little parks and picnic tables. I have only seen a few that were horrid places (in Ohio, where chemical outhouses replaced toilets, and that was years ago). You also have the option of stopping at filling stations and stores. (As a matter of style, you might want to drink water instead of all that soda, even if you think you need the caffeine to stay awake. It will wash the toxins out of your body.) If traveling with someone else who can drive, you can drive in shifts. Some hardy souls have done driving on four-hour shifts and run continually. This gets them to the con quickly - and physically and mentally exhausted. Unless there's three or more of you driving, you should plan to stop at a hotel someplace along the way at least once every travel day. If you plan to sleep while your partner drives, use earplugs and an eyeshade. Flying ThereThanks to September 11, you must get to the airport at least two hours before your flight is due to depart. Besides the old problem of getting bumped, you will be subject to bag searches, and your luggage will be searched more thoroughly. It's a pain, but don't complain about the wait or the searches. Complaints will make you look suspicious, they may pull you aside for longer checks and it will be worse.
You are allowed to check in bags at curbside once again. However, you must present a government photo ID with your ticket; either a valid state driver's license or a valid passport. If you're too young to drive, you can apply to your state driver's license office for a photo ID that validates your identity. You will also need to show the photo ID with your ticket when entering the gate area. I recommend you take one or two brand new books that you have never read, and prepare to wait. And wait. And wait. Mind you, some airports have good non-ripoff shops which are good time-killers. One of the great joys of going to the GEN CON Game Fair in Milwaukee is the Renaissance used bookstore located in the Billy Mitchell Airport. It's a branch of a large used book store (located within walking distance of the convention, by the way) and it always has a good assortment of books of all varieties - at bargain prices. Last year, I recommended buying a can of soda and taking it on the plane. I no longer recommend this. This will look suspicious to the bag check people, sad to say. However, you can take a plastic bottle of water in your carry-on bag. You are now limited to one carry-on bag, with perhaps one purse or small bag in addition. I must take a medical machine (a CPAP for my sleep apnea) but they'll be tough on anyone without such a special requirement.
Before you take off, if you use them, put in your Earplanes earplugs. Besides preventing ear pain, they reduce the whine of jet engines without plugging your ears up. You can still listen to music or the pilot's announcements without the noise. You can leave them in throughout the flight, or pull them out when the plane reaches cruising altitutde. Bring out your audio tape or CD player only when the pilot turns off the seat belt sign and you're in the air. These electronics interfere with the airplane's own telemetry. And never, ever listen to radios or use cel phones on an airplane. Radio receivers generate their own radio frequency signals, making them dangerous to the plane's avionics systems. Only listen to audio tapes or CD's in flight when the pilot gives permission. Once you arrive, go straight to the luggage carousel. When watching for your bag, remember that many bags look alike. At the biggest airports, you may have to prove your possession of the bag (show an ID that matches the tag on your luggage, sometimes stapled on your boarding pass). If you ignored my advice in Part 2 and don't have wheeled luggage or a luggage cart, rent one of the airport's luggage carts. The cost is terrible, but it's better than having your arm fall off from dragging luggage. If you did your homework, you'll know how to get to the hotel; either you have a rental car waiting or a courtesy van or limo to take you to the hotel. If you end up renting a car at the last minute, don't be surprised if you have no choice. (Once, four friends and I and our luggage had to fit into a subcompact, riding with our suitcases on top of our laps - even the driver. Never again!) If you take a courtesy van, prepare to tip the driver for the trip and his help in unloading your bag. One dollar per bag is good, and an extra dollar for better service is a nice touch. Even if you're short on cash, get used to tipping people who help you. They will be friendlier to you and may help you in unexpected ways. Get Ahead of the CrowdGet to your hotel, check in, make sure the hotel's housekeeping department has brought up any foldaway beds you ordered, and drop your bags in your room. Then immediately grab your convention confirmation letter, go to the convention center and sign in. Most large conventions open their registration the evening before the first official day of the con, so that early arrivals like you can pick up your badge and program book. Some cons run this early-bird pickup as late as 7 or 8 PM (confirm this through the con's web site). If you can get your paperwork taken care of a day early, you won't have to wait for two hours or more in the lines the next day. You might have to delay or even abort this trip, if you have to wait for other people to check into the room with you. Sometimes I have had to make multiple trips to the airport in my rent-a-car to pick up people arriving on other flights. Always make sure everyone in your party understands when, where, how and if they are to be picked up. While heading to the convention center, spot any restaurants and shops on the way. You want to locate three things: a good sit-down style restaurant, a standard-brand fast food restaurant that serves breakfast, and a drugstore. These will be your lifelines at the con, so fix their locations in your mind early. Specific advice: at GEN CON in Milwaukee, there are many good restaurants surrounding the MECCA center. A five minute walk will take you to the food court at the downtown mall. Also, right across from the MECCA arena is Major Goolsby's, a sports bar that's a known hangout for gamers. At Dragon*Con in Atlanta, you can walk from the main hotel to the food court at a neighboring mall. Two blocks away from the San Diego Comic-Con is a Ralph's supermarket, open 24 hours, with deli sandwiches, and good restaurants in the tourist area called Gaslamp Square across from the convention center. When you get to the con, look for any important notices. Sometimes there are special events before the convention officially opens. For example, at GEN CON, there is a big meeting of RPGA Network gamers scheduled in a ballroom before the con's official opening. At Comic-Con in 2002, people with pre-registration could get their passes and visit the dealer's room the night before the official start of the convention. This was much less crowded, and with greater opportunities for rare buys, than the rest of the convention. Set up your personal schedule.Once you get your name badge and program book, have a nice meal, go to your room, open up the convention program and start studying. Despite years of work and lots of advice, con program books are confusing. This is because there are so many things to do at a major con, there is no simple way to present them all.
Go through program the book with a pencil or highlight marker and mark all the events that interest you. Then sit down with a pencil and paper and write out your chosen events, in order of day and time. Write out all the location information as well (which room, which building or hotel, et cetera). (All this writing-out is not necessary if the convention program has events sorted in day and time order. Just mark it up in your program book.) Take a look at the maps of the convention rooms and see where you have to go. This may sound like foolishness to you. It is not. At one convention where I volunteered, I spent most of my time telling people that no, you can't register for the convention here, no, you must go to another building, and yes, this is how you get there from here. If you want to get through your convention with minimal hassles, know where everything is and how to get there. Now, prioritize the events you've marked. What are the things you must see? What would you like to see? Don't immediately cross anything off the list; if one event is too full you will want the alternative event. This paper will be your guideline to the convention. It is far better than halfway-recalling an event and having to flip through the program book in a busy hallway. In the case of gaming conventions, you may have to purchase tickets for events. If you were smart (and the con organizers permitted it), you've pre-registered for some of these and you already have the tickets. If not, you'll have to wait in line to purchase tickets tomorrow - just make sure you know what you want to purchase. By the end of this process, you will know what you want to do on your first day of the con, and where you have to go. Now, you can shower, shave and go to sleep. (Shaving the night before saves you time in the morning.) The First Day
Wow! Have you ever seen so many people? All of them in your way! This always happens at the biggest cons. The only thing that can minimize the time you spend trying to get into events is the prep work you've done the day before. Before you leave your room, always take one multi-vitamin each day of the con. This, plus regular hand washing, is your only preventative from catching the various colds and diseases that pass among conventioneers. You should have been taking vitamins at least two days before the con to build up your body's nutrient levels. Although it's not recommended by doctors, one person I know recommends taking two multi-vitamins and a Tylenol each day of the con as a "super preventative" of trouble. If you are carrying a lot of things on the convention floor, it's best to have a wheeled carry-on bag. If not, at least take a briefcase, backpack or tote bag. Take snacks, any necessary books or items, a can or two of soda, rain gear in case the weather looks bad, and make sure you have space for extra stuff you might buy. No matter how busy your schedule, always try to eat one full sit-down meal each day. Your body needs the nutrition, and your mind needs the "down time" from all the excitement. Violate this rule and you will wear yourself out. Also, try to get a solid eight hours of sleep a night. I have heard of people who, having run twenty-four hours straight, have fallen asleep standing up in elevators. This lowers your resistance to colds and flu as well. Handicapped and Special Needs PeopleIn the beginning, fandom often took special care of people in wheelchairs, the blind and folks with other special needs. For years, an organization called Electrical Eggs (for "electrical legs") tried to organize specific help for these people. I haven't heard of the organization in years; perhaps the callousness and greed that has entered American society has strangled it. But not the spirit! An exemplary organization at the Dragon*Con convention in Atlanta called the Access Department continues the work. It should be the model for every genre convention - in fact, every convention or gathering of any kind. Their web site is currently at http://members.aol.com/handicap access/ and they do wonderful work. (The rest of us can learn from their "Ten Commandments (Plus One) for Dealing With Disabled People.") However, most big cons still maintain some kind of help for people with special needs. Some volunteers perform signing duties at larger panels; some escort the blind around conventions that are confusing to the sighted; some provide special seating for physically disabled people. If you have special needs, contact the con early and find out what services are available. And if your local con has no help of this kind - organize it yourself, and make your needs known to the con organizers. One woman I know, who was confined to a power wheelchair, had trouble convincing the convention staff to let her use the freight elevator. It was the only way she could get onto the convention floor. She had to scream and holler at the convention organizers, threatening a lawsuit about the Americans with Disabilities Act, and finally got access. Especially if there is no one there to help you, know your rights and insist upon them. Carry information about the ADA if you must. On one occasion, I helped push this lady's chair up a steeply inclined ramp when her batteries ran low. If you see a person at a con who seems to need help, first ask if they would like some help, and if they agree, then help. After playing heroes in role playing games, or enjoying the stories of heroic characters, it's only natural to wish to be a hero yourself. But it's also heroic to let the person do it himself if he can; he wants to be treated like a person, not a burden. Remember the old story about the Boy Scout who helped the little old lady cross the street, even though she didn't want to go. PanelsGenerally speaking, a panel has a group of knowledgable experts talking about a primary subject. For example, a panel might be entitled "Star Trek Movies: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." It might feature people like Peter David and Diane Duane, writers of many Star Trek novels; Walter Koenig, the actor who played Chekov on the classic series; Michael Dorn, who played Worf; and Arne Starr, movie publicist. They'd pose questions about the Star Trek movies, disclose their favorites and least favorites, and answer questions for the audience. Depending on the panel subject, there might be 50 to 100 audience members. Note that I said "knowledgable experts." At smaller cons, and sometimes even at larger ones, people are drafted to talk about subjects to fill up the panel. Sometimes the knowledge isn't great. The first time I spoke on a panel, I was seated with some animation greats - people who can actually draw and write and whose names appear on the credits of great cartoons. They didn't know me from Adam. But I could talk, sometimes even intelligently, and ever since I've been invited back to do panels. Panels are often free-flowing. Fans can ask questions of all kinds. Many times the fans steer the conversation into strange areas. But whatever happens, it's the most mentally intoxicating experience you may ever know. And it's usually over too soon; every panel I've ever attended has always been shooed out of the room so the next panel can take place. As an audience member, please be considerate. Try to avoid jostling for space. If possible, arrive early. Also, if there are seats available for handicapped people, please leave them open until the panel is under way. Think about your question before you talk. Some people get flustered and bothered because they're in the presence of people they consider royalty. One of the benefits of being in genre fandom, that isn't available to fans of other kinds of celebrities, is that you can often deal with writers, artists and actors people on a human level. This is tremendous power. Treat it well. When You Meet A Celebrity
Remember that Walter Koenig is not Pavel Chekov, navigator for the Enterprise; he is the actor who played Chekov. Later he played Bester on Babylon 5. Actors like to be reminded that they are human beings and not the parts they play. They also like to be told that they are versatile, and that they're not tied to one medium or one genre. On one of his rare convention appearances, Brent Spiner was quite pleased when an audience member reminded people that he not only played Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, he played a sleazy lawyer on the comedy Night Court and was hilarious. Remember to separate the role from the person playing it. Although our celebrity culture often treats them like it, celebrities are not Coke cans. Remember they're going through more trouble than you. Not only are they in a strange city where people charge too much for food and sinus medicine, they've got to be courteous to people who, many times, aren't courteous in return. And at the end of a long, tiring, annoying day, they may really feel like throwing intrusive fans over the tenth-floor balcony. Don't hassle celebrities and don't stalk them. If you encounter celebrities in a con, I recommend you simply smile, nod and say "Hi." Acknowlege their humanity and the stress they're under, and don't intrude.
You will forget the celebrity's real name. It's natural; you don't always use it in everyday conversation. You will also be in awe of them; I know I am.For instance, when I was writing this, it took me five minutes to remember the name "Walter Koenig." I've been in the same room with the man twice. We never exchanged words, because the only thing I could tell him is "You do good work," which he hears a thousand times a day anyway. That's the reason I say "Hi" and nothing more.(For that matter, how many of you know his name is pronounced "Kay-nig" and not "Ko-eee-nig?" Don't risk making that kind of mistake if you don't have to. Just say "Hi.") On the other hand, once you've met the celebrity a few times or done some personal business with him, a little talk might be okay. I was impressed with how writer Peter David handled his hunger when he arrived late at one con. He ordered pizza - for everyone in the room, about fifty people, and at the hotel's exorbitant price. I complimented him on it when he signed some books for me, and told him how generous and selfless he was. That's the sort of thing a celebrity should hear. Maybe someday, I'll be in a position to buy pizza for him. (Yeah, right.) Presentations
I define a presentation as an event where one or two people are demonstrating something. There isn't as much audience interaction as with panels; the person doing the presentation is doing most of the talking. For example, Arne Starr brings lots of video clips and trailers of upcoming movies and TV series, and passes along celebrity gossip in between tapes. He answers questions, but not many; the clips are the main thing. Presentations often have big audiences; at San Diego's ComicCon International, an auditorium with six big projection TV screens was set up for an audience of around one thousand, and it wound up standing-room-only for events like the Lord of the Rings preview and Warner Brothers Animation's sneak previews. Many times the material shown at conventions is for viewing only. At that Warner Brothers presentation, we were told to point our cameras away from the video screens; they did not want any images from their projects to be recorded. If we tried to tape it, we would be kicked out of the convention and our films and tapes confiscated. When the guests say this, obey this rule. Don't try to cheat. It will be a mob scene when the presentation ends. Accept it. Either wade in with the rest of the mob heading towards the exits, or sit and wait until the room clears. Next time, the last installment (I think) - all kinds of gaming, the end of the con and your inevitable return home. The legal stuff: This document is Trademark 2002 by Thomas E. Reed. Permission is granted to distribute this document by any means, provided that the document is not altered or edited in any way, and that the entire document is distributed, including this copyright notice.All opinions, evaluations and descriptions of persons, places and commercial entities expressed herein are those of Thomas E. Reed, and do not reflect the official positions of any other entity. Use this information at your own risk and discretion. No warranty or guarantee is expressed or implied by this information. This information is as complete and as thorough as possible at the date of publication.The author welcomes suggestions, comments and other information concerning this document, or individuals' general experiences at genre conventions for inclusion in future versions of this document. Contributions should be generic in nature (i.e. not relating to a specific convention or entity) and should offer helpful advice about convention attendance in general. Contributions to this document will be accepted at the discretion of Thomas E. Reed, and may be edited for clarity or length. Comments and contributions accepted for publication in future versions will include the contributor's name (if desired). Send contributions or comments via e-mail to the author at hatemail@off-model.com for information.
Some Little Comments about Comic-Con 2002There are a lot of things available at a big con like Comic-Con. Here are a few of the smaller ones that aren't available generally. Hellsing - The Anime Flavor of the Month
Despite the great interest in anime, only two or three new anime videos are released each year. It is a small market after all - even though buyers of anime video are the most loyal customers of video stores. So, there is only one big splash per company at Comic-Con. For Pioneer, the big splash was Hellsing. It's a terrible name for the title, obviously derived from the name of Dracula's foe in the Bram Stoker novel, Van Helsing. This is one of the things that bothers me about anime; the Japanese creators of anime generally know nothing about foreign culture and inevitably mangle it. American otaku can make all the excuses they want, because the business doesn't work both ways; they revere Japanese culture and hate people like me who haven't studied it in minute detail. But Japanese creators and translators can play with ours like infants in a mudhole. And as will become evident, the creators of Hellsing have screwed up much more vampire lore. Okay, given that bad start, add my natural reticence about vampire stuff in general. I tell this by way of complete disclosure; thanks to bad incidents in my life, I am extremely sensitive to sadism. And nearly all horror movies made since 1970 are nothing more than sadism. Given these two strikes, it may surprise you that I rather liked Hellsing, at least the one episode that was shown in the anime rooms at Comic-Con. Vamp on a Leash
The story is cobbled together from all sorts of sources; The X Files, Forever Knight and espionage stories. In the first episode, we meet a blonde woman who works for a supernatural assault agency - which apparently operates independently of, and often against, the Vatican. She is called in by the government when vampire outbreaks occur. It seems that a vampire has adopted the identity of a priest, killed his parish and decimated a SWAT team sent in to investigate. Now, too late, they send in their ultimate weapon; a vampire under some sort of compulsion to work for the Hellsing organization. The vamp is named Arucard. Okay, that's what "Alucard" sounds like when pronounced by native Japanese, so stop giggling, okay? And you spell it backwards, just like was done in the Universal movie Son of Dracula from the 1940's. Alucard is dressed in an atrocious red outfit (half Vincent Van Gogh, half Pilgrim, with a big floppy tie) and goes in. One police officer is still alive from the troop; it's that traditional teenage girl from anime with the squeaky voice. She's scared and crazy with fear, seeing her fellow officers turned into murderous zombies. (In this mythology, vampire victims are only zombies. They don't turn into vampires unless it is willed. That makes a degree of sense, since the controlling vamp would have less competition for the blood supply.) She runs into Red and freaks out, and runs into the church - into the arms of the evil vampire priest. Arucard comes in for the showdown. The vampire priest orders his zombies, who fill the church pews like undead Baptists, to blow Red to pieces. In a grisly scene he's macerated by a hundred machine guns. (Where did they get the guns? Don't ask.) But his blood congeals and he re-forms his body. His speech, translated from the Japanese, seems to indicate that he has his own sinister reasons for helping humans. But overriding that, he hates "upstart" vampires like this one. When the vampire priest uses the police girl as a shield, Arucard explains the situation to her. He will shoot the vampire through her. The shot will kill her too. In her sole moment of heroism, the girl agrees to her sacrifice. (Of course, in the time it took for this conversation, the vampire priest could have come up with half a dozen escape solutions. Perhaps this lousy timing works in Japanese drama, but it's horrible to American eyes.)
Red takes his shot. The vampire priest disintegrates from the special silver-pointed explosive bullets. The girl is dying. Red bends over the dying girl and turns her into a vampire - the pupils of her eyes turn red. Taking her body outside to his blonde-haired boss, he recommends that the girl be assigned to their organization. What Sucks (in good and bad ways)It's that girl that interested me the most. The concept of a squeaky-voiced anime girl playing a "good" vampire reminds me of the character from the Dork Towers comic book: Gilly, the Perky Goth. (Which makes as much sense as a "good" vampire, happy genocide or Republican charity, but there you are.) The only related character in anime, Vampire Princess Miyu, is closer to a true fictional vampire. While she stops other vampires, she doesn't care how many living humans get killed in the process. At the end of the story, in the trailer for the next episode (which I didn't get to see), the new vampire girl shows up in "super-deformed" comic style. Are they going to make her a perky goth too? I can't find out until the DVD goes on rental - which will probably never happen this year. Complaining about plot holes in anime is as pointless as criticizing Swiss cheese for its holes. Especially for the introductory episodes of anime series, the plot is an excuse to build up big antagonists for the protagonist to take out in a big climax. This particular series, from the sample episode, places style above plot logic more than most. Which is okay; The X Files was mostly about style too. My only real complaint is that the main character vampire is straight out of the original Vampire Hunter D. He has the same antique/fantasy clothing style, even though he is supposedly roaming contemporary London. He gives the same chest-pounding "I am the baddest dude in the afterlife" speeches. What astonished me was the amount of PR Pioneer raised for this interesting, but conventional, anime release. For this one DVD with three episodes, they built a huge styrofoam Gothic castle with computer-controlled Varilights, Rosco smoke generators and a big coffin with the Hellsing logo on it. Passing by the styrofoam tombstone with the grim "prayer" on it, I always cheerily cried out, "And have a nice day!" Anime - the Biggest Thing That Isn't Happening
Speaking of anime, there were plenty of people selling it at Comic-Con. But the release of anime is so cautious and slow that it's a wonder the genre hasn't died. Only now, about five years after it first hit the United States, is Ranma ˝ being released in DVD format. The first TV series, the Hard Battle series and a few movies are now out on DVD. They are released in expensive form, too; only three episodes per DVD disk. The Ranma series is internationally loved as the funniest and most romantic of all anime stories. What held them up? That's begging the question, of course. What held them up is their tenuous hold on the limited anime audience. If Ranma was a popular TV show, as popular as, say, The X Files, the DVD's would sell for $15 each, with perhaps four episodes per disk. But by appealing to the small audience that knows anime, they can charge $30 each for three episodes, release them agonizingly slow, and keep the fans panting for more. They might make more money with the $15 DVD's than the ones at $25. But they're firmly convinced that they have a minuscule audience of fanboys, they can't give them what they want at a cheap price or on schedule, and they are afraid to risk their companies on reaching a mass audience. One thing is breaking this wall of indifference; the release of anime series by Cartoon Network, who two years ago introduced people to the name Tenchi. Admittedly, the series Tenchi Muyo, Tenchi in Tokyo and a few of the Tenchi movies wasn't much. But now, the Tenchi series are available reasonably on DVD - and poorer folks can even tape them off cable. This unashamed release of anime started with the Sci Fi Channel, who years ago ran a block of anime movies, including Robot Carnival and Vampire Hunter D, and then programmed a Saturday morning block of anime movies. That has stopped - sadly, since the anime they ran hasn't been seen since. And the big success story was Pokémon, which put relatively kid-friendly anime in front of kids regularly. But there's more anime available that a general audience would love, and the companies are sitting on it. There was a big poster for Lupin the 3rd, the story about a quasi-comic jewel thief and his James Bond-style adventures around the world. The Lupin series and movies have been licensed to FunImation, the company that releases the Dragon Ball series to America. But there was no hint about when, if ever, we can see legally released Lupin episodes in America, or whether someone will broadcast them. Or whether working people can afford them. And the video companies wonder why video piracy continues. The Most Fun Panel of All
Most panels are stiff. The one that wasn't, not surprisingly, was run by black people. It was a gathering of the artists and writers of Milestone Comics. This was the comic brand created by black creators like Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan and others. Ten years ago, when the comic book boom was in full swing, their Milestone titles were released by DC Comics. When the boom ended, so did Milestone. But not entirely. The line came back to life, in reprints at least, with the Kids WB show Static Shock! It is still the top-rated show on Saturday mornings (they hesitated to say that some weeks it might drop to #2) and it's one of the best animated series in existence. What was fun was not the minor revelations about licensing of Static Shock toys and merchandise, or the revelations of what's coming in the series. Cowan ran the panel in a light-hearted, fun manner. Every once in a while he started a Farrakhan rant - "it's the white man who's held back the series" - then saying, "Naah, I'm just kidding..." A little kid, apparently hopped up on sugar, was rolling around on the floor in the front row. Cowan noticed this and tried to talk to the kid occasionally. He didn't stop him rolling around. He eventually wondered about a parent that would let a kid loose like that, but again, it was in fun. When he started taking questions, he began, "Gotta have the first question from a black guy," and then grudgingly accepted the first hand that went up, from a white guy. He was courteous, but he also had fun with a lot of the people there.
He interrupted the panel when Maggie Thompson entered the room to take pictures. Thompson is the publisher of Comic Buyers Guide, the weekly newspaper for the comic book fan and collector. She's in her 60's, a thin, energetic woman, and she was playing reporter herself because no one else was available. The Milestone crew greeted her warmly, posed for pictures with her and gave her applause. Cowan also noted that the audience was about one third black, two thirds other races, and noted that it was a tribute to the books he and his partners published. It proved that the Milestone comics were not "black" stories, but well-written stories that just happened to feature black characters. (Of course, it was a small room, holding perhaps fifty people, but it was people who wanted to be at a con early Sunday morning.) Understand that at most panels, the speakers are corporate people who aren't used to talking to the public, and who fear losing their jobs if they say something wrong. There are also artists and writers, generally introverted folks who don't often talk in public. That tends to make many con panels stiff. The Milestone crew, especially Cowan, were a breath of fresh air. And a lot of fun. Food: Where is it?It was mostly across the street, down a few blocks to Ralph's supermarket, or across at the Gaslamp Square, the touristy restaurant/bar district. I am used to convention food being lousy and being weird, but at least I'm used to it being nearby. Aside from two overpriced hot dog stands, the San Diego Convention Center had...nothing. Oh, there were plenty of snack foods. There were four Mrs. Fields stands, selling those overpriced defrosted cookies. There was a Krispy Kreme donut stand, which proves there is civilization in San Diego at last - even though their donuts were pre-packaged and had coupons no good for anyone out of town. The one promising place, that looked like it might be selling tacos, only sold Industrial Nachos - warmed up tortilla chips doused with a plastic-looking cheese sauce. No protein. Two years ago, I remember stands for Chinese food and barbecue. Not great, and selling at high prices, but it was possible to get a meal with some meat and the promise of veggies without leaving the con. This year, there was nothing. This situation is intolerable, especially since this is a large convention in a city (rightly or not) known for its food. Comic-Con isn't to blame; the San Diego Convention Center is. You do not feed a huge crowd - estimated between 50,000 and 75,000 - with small-scale food service. You do not ban outside catering services with high prices, which was apparently done at this con. And you do not run a convention center where the only "real food" offered is hot dogs, which are as hard to find as they are to digest. |
