STICK A FORK IN ME…

Ugh.

I’ve tired of wandering around to promote myself and the site. I know it must be done; I need content; content brings readers, readers will bring advertisers when the time comes. But after a while, even someone with an ego the size of mine tires of talking about themselves. Hell, even typing this makes me want to smack myself.

Four panels yesterday. The blogger panel, which was fun. Spurge and Heidi are such wildly different people and are a combustible combo when in each other’s proximity. Next was IDW, supporting friends. Ryall is doing great there as EIC, and buddy John Layman had his SCARFACE mini announced. I’ve known about that one for a while, and it should be great.

Later in the day, it was BET’s animation panel. Reggie Hudlin is pushing hard to change the channel’s rep, and this was positive stuff. The highlight was a short piece called “Bid ‘em in” that dramatized a slave auction. It was a powerful punch to the gut. If the majority of their material is half as good, BET will be a huge force in animation for years to come.

The last panel stop for me was the art of Dan DeCarlo, put on by Bill Morrison, who did the book. Fantastic slides and stories, good fun.

Night saw dinner and drinking with friends, the way it should be. Back to the show…

/Mason

IT ALL LEADS TO FELLATIO RATHER QUICKLY…

Today’s quote comes from the genius of Brandon Jerwa. Funny guy, that Brandon. Good writer, too.

Thursday was Friday. That was the general consensus of the folks I polled. We had a Friday level of traffic, a Friday-sized crowd, and the Hyatt bar was at Friday fervor. The weekend may be fearsome.

Hit three panels. Del Rey manga, which was fun. Their e-i-c, Dallas Middaugh, has exactly the right attitude towards some of the mangas’ crazier plots. Sat in on Jimmy Palmiotti’s panel late afternoon. Jimmy remains one of my favorite folks in comics; good guy, works hard, and really cares. I’ll be doing a new interview with Jimmy this fall. Those are always fun.

Last panel was Random House’s graphic novel panel. More of Dallas, plus the discovery that Kazu Kibuishi’s name is pronounced “Kazoo”. I felt a twinge of sympathy for him at that moment. The FLINTSTONES must have made his life Hell.

Did a lot of catching up with publishers I know. One told me something very surprising; he said that last year was very “producer heavy” and lighter on the fan end. However, so far in the show, they weren’t as besieged by Hollywood as expected, but were surprisingly customer heavy. I liked hearing that.

Pressed the flesh with publishers I don’t know as well, trying to spread word about the new site. I’ve put in some good work so far. Ended the night with dinner and drinks with friends, the way you should here. Back to work now…

/Mason

GRANT MORRISON HAS A FIRM PIMP HAND...

...and other Preview Night notes.

S ix-year old children will go insane when "Hell's Bells" plays. I began my day at Petco Park, watching baseball. The Padres took a lead into the ninth, meaning Trevor Hoffman was brought in to get the save. The park goes insane when the song plays, including young kids. What a great Pavlovian response!

Registration this year was incredibly smooth. And if you had the barcode letter, you were gold. I was done in under five minutes, and I even needed a change in my info. Great job by the con folks.

Saw some familiar faces early. Laurenn McCubbin, Stephen Buell, Jeff Davidson, Rob Osborne, Ryan Yount, to name a few. But con is about seeing old friends, so the highlights involved John Layman and the genius of Matt Maxwell (who coined this post's title after I explained why I lack a firm pimp hand myself).

I think Top Shelf and Boom have good chances to make a splash. LOST GIRLS is now here and in print, and the package is incredible. Plus, Melinda Gebbie is here to sign them. Amano's HERO arrived at the Boom booth last night while I was visiting, and it looks gorgeous. Decent price point, too.

Off to the show!

THE WEATHER IS HERE, WISH YOU WERE LOVELY

San Diego, first full day. Taking my own advice, I arrived last night to stay a full week. Checked in, treated myself to dinner, and got a good night’s sleep.

Woke this morning and had a bagel on the patio of a nearby café. Enjoyed the breeze and the temps. Planning on hitting the Padres game tonight with Chris Allen, before all Hell breaks loose tomorrow.

The rest of the country is suffering stupid heat right now, Al Gore’s inconvenient truth rearing its ugly head. San Diego remains blissfully immune for now… the humidity is high, but that’s a fair trade. Hopefully the con a/c will be in top form, and we’ll shop and network in relative comfort. Won’t hold my breath, though.

Did my Ralph’s shopping today as well. 5 days worth of lunches for $8.65. Hard to beat that…

Sight of the day: a man exiting the Ralph’s garage in a car upon which he had painted/written some sort of manifesto. He was driving like an asshole (surprise,surprise), but I managed to catch something about Jesus being the defense attorney for the chosen somethings or other. Yeesh.

Con reports proper will begin Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Check back then…

Mason

Today at the main site... PENNY ARCADE makes my acquaintance, and the FRAGILE PROPHET tells my future.

Plus: read below for the CWR WEEKEND BLOG EXTRA!

/Mason

CWR WEEKEND BLOG EXTRA!

No reason just to use this blog as my news feed, right? Instead, I’ll be putting up new weekend content as often as I can, in this very space. Woo-hoo!

LOVE AND ROCKETS #16
Written and Drawn by Los Bros Hernandez
Published by Fantagraphics

I’ve made no secret out of the fact that I tend to prefer Gilbert Hernandez’ L&R stories over Jamie’s. It’s basically a question of the characters whose lives I find most interesting. However, that doesn’t diminish the respect and admiration I have for Jaime’s work. He’s every bit the amazing, talented genius that Beto is. And the lead story in this issue shows exactly why.

He takes his entire cast and puts them through an evening, viewing it through the eyes of one of the supporting characters. Yet, he manages, through body language and facial expressions, to tell everyone’s story effectively. By using this sort of “dual perspective”, he creates a near-perfect “slice of life night” that would tell even the newest reader who everyone is and why they react as they do.

The rest of the book contains even more fantastic goodies from both brothers, making this your usual excellent effort from the dynamic duo. Extra kudos for an outstanding cover that relates the theme of Jaime’s opening story in wonderful fashion.

DARK HORSE: 20 YEARS
Drawn by Various
Published by Dark Horse

This $.25 book offers up 20 cool pin-up style portraits of the characters that made Dark Horse the company it is today. Hellboy, Groo, Aliens, Grendel, Concrete… they’re all represented in these pages. And on the surface, that would be cool enough to get your two bits.

However, this book takes it one better. The primary creators do not provide the looks at their characters. Instead, there’s been some swapping, both direct and indirect. Stan Sakai draws SIN CITY; Frank Miller draws USAGI YOJIMBO, for instance. Then you get the train: CONAN artist Cary Nord draws ALIENS; CONAN is then drawn by Sergio Aragones; GROO then appears via Paul Chadwick; then we get CONCRETE done by Chris Warner; then Warner’s BLACK CROSS by Killian Plunkett, and so on.

I was a Dark Horse reader pretty much from the company’s inception, so this book is sort of an extra-special treat for me. I was buying DARK HORSE PRESENTS faithfully and marveling to the early appearances of many of these characters, plus many others, like FLAMING CARROT, HEARTBREAKERS, and HOMICIDE. So I tip my cap and send my warm wishes to the folks in Oregon for their first twenty years. Hopefully, the next twenty will be just as interesting.

/Mason