Zailo.Com!

Finally. I am doing my annual San Diego Comic Con report. I don't know whether to write it as if anyone reading it already knows about Comic Con. Or if I should try to explain what it is about and how extensive it is.
And don't expect any photos this time around. I just didn't take any. That's not quite true. Besides some reference shots of buildings in the Gaslamp Quarter, Sally took one photo of me and writer Darren Gendron. Why not put that here.

Every other report I have read elsewhere since the con has said that there were a ton of freaks in costume running around the show. I don't know, maybe there was but I didn't notice. At least not that many. I do know that there are always a shit-ton of people who show up as someone(thing) else. I was talking with David Hahn at the show saying that at one time at these thing you would see people in their geek drag. But as they walked by you could see the shame in their eyes. Nowadays there is no shame. None. They love it. And personally I am torn whether to berate these people to get back in touch with life or sit back and enjoy the show. The worst/ best thing at these shows is the constant parade of people who you wouldn't let mow your lawn let alone be trapped in a building with. In costume. And even if I didn't notice if they were in costume or not there was whole grip of people this year. Usually Saturday is the most crowded. This year Friday was like Saturday an Saturday reached a whole new level of geek coagulation

On the business side of things I dropped off samples to both marvel and DC this year. Applicant, may I introduce hoops? Start jumping. I also dropped a bunch of samples to the other independent publishers I could find. I have the same complaint this year as last; when is this goth/blood/death shit going to end? Really, people. Sex is not violence and it is definitely not scary to me. And on a more than subject matter complaint, if these people spent half as much time learning how to draw as they do picking out their next piercing they would be superstars. Related topic: whiles waiting upstairs for portfolio review I noticed several people in wacky outfits but one guy in particular stood out more if only for his weirdness. He was decked out like some kind of futuristic punk-rock-pirate from a video game. So I am sitting here looking at this guy and wondering if he knows what he looks like. If I was an editor and this guy shows up looking like this and had a kick ass portfolio I would either think that this guy is so far removed from reality that even his throw-away ideas would be way outside the box and I have to hire him. OR (and I am leaning towards this one) I would think that this guy is so far removed from reality that he may not know how to use a phone. If I had to reach him, no matter how good his art was he would not be worth the headache to work with.
I did get to talk to an inker for DC who checked out some of the inking I have been doing for different people lately. He gave me some samples of other people to ink over and send back to him. I am not mentioning any names so as to not jinx the deal.

I also got to at least talk to a few of the people I only get to see at shows if not only San Diego. Which is always nice. I also picked up a few back issues I was looking for. I actually somehow lost my wants list in the binds of back issues and could not find it. I looked. I asked the vendor to keep an eye for it if anybody found it. I came back several hours later to ask if anyone had turned it in and as I am walking towards the booth to find him I spot it sitting on top of the bins. Somebody found it and set on tip of the books. Lucky me. I also picked up the book out by Vanguard of Basil Gogo's artwork. Suh-weet!

Overall San Diego Con is no longer a comic convention by any means. It is so more a video game, movie premier, toy show than anything else. And thusly it is starting to be much more work just to attend. But I am sure that I will continue for the foreseeable future.

posted by zailo @ 12:04 AM

Saturday, August 19, 2006