There's no mistaking that Comic-Con was the big story for last week and is still giving this week. Many of the comic book news sites are still digesting and generating content from news and interviews gathered at the big conference. Yep I was there but simply as a fanboy, not a blogger/journalist. At least not this time around.
Cool Stuff:
Booths, Booths, Booths: Man alive, that was an incredible expo floor. Disney, Lucasfilm, Hasbro, Lego and Mattel are the Top Five that stick out in my mind. Disney wins the big prize in my book. When you have a replica of the Black Pearl pirate ship from Pirates of the Caribbean sitting on top of your booth, you're assured a place at the top of my list. The mini-museum, with sand on the floors, within a cavern that was also part of their booth was a lot of fun to walk through. Whoever designed that booth deserves an award. I guess with Disney you should expect this level of quality and detail. The toy maker trio of Lego, Hasbro and Mattel offered up looks at upcoming toys, displayed many of their current offerings. Hasbro and Lego even had small toys stores for you to buy stuff from, really cool! Lucasfilm, was just an incredible booth, that included an illustrated timeline of the films, an art gallery of Darth Vader helmets, playable LucasArts games, loads of stuff. These corporate booths are a new experience for me at these shows, and I loved having there. They are one of the reasons I'll be coming back to this show.
Iron Man Preview & Stardust Preview
Both of these upcoming movies from Paramount have my interest locked. For Iron Man, the surprise preview on Thursday was incredible. Seeing the gun metal, original Iron Man armor on the big screen was great and Robert Downey as Tony Stark is perfect casting.
More surprising to me is Stardust. I'll admit I missed the boat on Neil Gaiman. To this day I haven't read single word the man has typed or written. When he wrote the Sandman series for Vertigo, that wasn't the kind of comic I'd readily pick up. I was solidly into superhero/sci-fi action. I've seen him interviewed now and then, and his concepts sound interesting, but life moves on and I forget things. But seeing a preview for a film on at least 6 large screen all at once, really brands a memory into my head. So I'll be picking up Stardust the next time in a book buying mood... its already on my Amazon wish list.
Autographs
Dave Petersen - Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Andy Runton - Owly, both guys are total creators of their books, holding the jobs of writer and artist. Though both are animal focused books they couldn't be more different and they both couldn't be more talented. If you haven't read Mouse Guard or Owly please check them out. I was lucky enough to meet both gentlemen at comic-con this year.
Costumes
The people watching that one could do at this convention was worth the price of admission alone. The caliber of costume is definitely a notch higher then at other cons. Loved seeing all the variety and marveling at the craftsmanship. My only concern are for those guys walking around in black leathery suits like Batman or Cyclops from the X-Men movies.
What wasn't Cool, this is a minor list because this con was awesome.
Convention center food
It can be summed up in one word, disappointing. Not that I was surprised, but they didn't even get our overpriced, freshly microwaved soft-pretzels correct.
Hasbro's Ticket System
Hasbro had a ticket grab to enter and buy somthing in their booth. Fred & I won this little game, but that's beside the point. I was even more burned when I saw the San Diego "Exclusives" online available through their online store. Maybe some one needs to remind Hasbro what a show exclusive is. If you are going to make people wait in line to wait in another line to purchase an exclusive, it better damn well be truelly exclusive.
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