I arrived early on Wednesday for the annual gathering of true believers. There was plenty of time to go get some fish tacos and a whiskey. First met up with Smits (first of Gen X and now of Aw Yeah) and we knocked out a few more drinks at Dick's Last Resort. Eventually made our way over to the Marriott to discover my new favorite outdoor bar in San Diego and meet up with Steve and Gordon and Lorna. Just time after that to go grab badges before night plans.
Night plans on Wednesday included a concert with one of my youthful favorites, Adam Ant. I was impressed on a couple of levels - one that the crowd, even the young ones, seemed to be so familiar with his work and two, that he went so deep into his catalog. It was a perfect appetizer for the nostalgia that happens during a Comic Con weekend. Awesome night of music and fun with old friends.
THURSDAY - DAY ONE
CBLDF: BANNED COMICS (24ABC) I love going to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund panels. There are all kinds of challenges to creators and publishers. What happens is that if it isn't in my own backyard, it's easy to ignore censorship going on around the country, even though it affects the access you might have to books, games and movies in your city.
Charles Brownstein led a great discussion about the current status of banned and challenged titles, most of these at libraries. The best part of the panel for me was talk about why graphic novels get banned more often than prose titles, video games and movies. The theory is that, since the reader controls the pace of reading, the static image is seen as more offensive. From the point of view of the person challenging titles, the graphic images on the page are more offensive than what may only be 15 seconds in a film or in a paragraph of text in a book.
The list of banned titles is varied. In the past couple years, "Bone V.4" was challenged because Smiley Bone smokes a pipe and Lucious sells beer. These simple offenses have got work by Maurice Sendak and Dragon Ball challenged because of nonsexual child nudity. The "Amazing Spider-Man Revelations" title by Straczynski was challenged because Mary Jane wearing a bikini top and short skirt.
Other titles get banned because of bad language even when dealing with legitimate teen issues. The book "Side Scrollers" was on a Summer Reading list as an important piece about bullying. A nonparent from the school brought a complaint that was later overturned because only parents of children in the school can bring complaints about a title. Well reviewed titles like "Persepolis" and "Blankets" have been banned because of language, not content. One father went so far as to call the police on a high school teacher who let a student read "Ice Haven" by Daniel Clowes.
The second most challenged title is an award winning book "Color Of Earth". Despite being well respected in the literary world, it gets challenged because of casual nudity. There are surprising challenges because of subject matter to "Sandman" and "Maus" (banned because it tells the account of the Holocaust that parents found disturbing).
The undisputed King of Banned Books is Alan Moore. The perennial leader in challenges is "Watchmen" and "Batman: Killing Joke". Recently a librarian wanted a ban on "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier". She accomplished it by checking out the book for a full year, essentially taking it out of circulation and limiting access to it. When she was fired for this censorship she went to her local TV station to tell them of the filth in their local library. The result was death threats to the library Director and not any backlash on the librarian. Alan Moore's modern horror comic, "Neonomicon" was signed out of the Adult section of the library by a parent for their child who then wanted the book banned when they discovered the nudity and violence in the book.
It's important that fans of this medium are as aware of what is going on behind the scenes as they are aware of what new releases are coming out. We've got a great resource in the CBLDF that monitors the challenges around the country. I need to catch up with this through the year instead of waiting for the Con each year.
CARTOON NETWORK: ANNOYING ORANGE (6DE) i don't even know what to say about this show. In one way, it's very similar to what I consider the current "house style" of CN shows. It's a combination of music and animation and live action and talking fruit and musical numbers. It's a strange combination of "Children's Hospital" and "Aqua Teen Hunger Force". i really reached the point through the sample episode that I lost track of which fruit was which fruit and was just plain annoyed.
DC DIGITAL (6DE) This has been the year that I've really adopted the digital comic. A majority of my purchases have been of the digital variety. But most of the time I'm searching out comics that I've seen in-store or read about on review sites. The next generation of comics have already arrived and I was ignorant to the fact. This panel addressed the Digital Only titles that DC is publishing that don't even get published in print form (at least not at the same release date as the digital versions).
DC has a new initiative to release a new title each day of the week. I think it's a brilliant idea because you get a new title no matter what day you log on and if you are a fan of a title, you get a weekly fix. The titles that looked the best were the "Tiny Titans" inspired title of "Lil' Gotham" and "Justice League Beyond" (from the "Batman Beyond" universe). The panel was little more than a commercial for each of the seven weekly titles but I'm fascinated with the digital movement. I think the ability to release these digital only titles is a cheaper way to try out new characters and concepts. If they take off online, then you can invest in a print version and you already have issues ready to go.
WE STILL LOVE THE '80S: 1983 (5AB) After the 1982 panel last year, I knew this was going to be right near the top of my list. It's a simple concept - bring together some writers of films and magazine articles and have it moderated by Geek Magazine publisher, Mark A. Altman. 1982 might have been a great year for genre films but 1983 was much more than just the year that McNuggets were introduced.
The panel works best when showing a trailer and then talking about the film. It's amazing to see how far we've come just in trailer technology since 1983. Films discussed included "Risky Business" and the terrible "Jaws 3-D". A majority of the hour was centered around "Return Of The Jedi" to no one's surprise. It was definitely the tentpole film of the year and the one most anticipated. In 1983, there wasn't the Internet or the proliferation of entertainment shows and magazines to get info about the new Star Wars film. For most of us, you saw the trailer and then went to go see the movie not knowing too much more about the film.
The film that captured the zeitgeist of the era was definitely the Clint Eastwood, Dirty Harry sequel - "Sudden Impact". For some reason, in the middle of the Reagan era, the phrase "Go ahead, make my day" became the catchphrase of the year. Looking back people might think it would be quotes from "Scarface", the DePalma drama with Pacino. But that film didn't find an audience for years. It wasn't until it had played on cable and VHS that it became a cultural touchstone.
The year featured a Bond battle between Roger Moore in "Octopussy" and Sean Connery in "Never Say Never Again". Neither film was anything that Bond fans like to rank among the better entries, so no one was a winner in this battle. The better thriller of that year was "Blue Thunder". The Roy Scheider film about a futuristic helicopter used to spy on citizens. The plot resonates with today's audience and shows that not all of 1983 films seem dated.
The fun of discussing these older films leads off on great tangents and I'd sit through a two hour panel. There wasn't even time in this panel to discuss "Vacation", "Krull", "Psycho 3-D", "War Games' or "The Right Stuff". I'm already anticipating the 1984 discussions next year.
ANYTHING GOES - JOHN BARROWMAN (INDIGO) There hasn't been a panel better title than "Anything Goes" here. Take the bisexual, recently married to a husband star of "Torchwood" and "Doctor Who" as Captain Jack Harkness and as the Dark Archer on "Arrow" - add his sister and new husband to the mix. Put them onstage and give John a mike and you get sixty minutes of lunacy that is a top five panel that I've ever attended.
It's hard to do this panel justice if you weren't there. John had the audience in his hands from the very first moment he stepped onstage. He let loose with sexual innuendo, singing (a little Katy Perry) and just hilarious storytelling. The chemistry between John and his sister is amazing and even with hundreds of people at the panel - it felt like we were all just sitting around having a beer on a patio.
It was the perfect end to a first day. Sitting there laughing and knowing that real people with funny stories and just flat out charm are why we are attracted to science fiction on film and television. And all I could do was smile and know that this is why I keep coming back - to capture sixty minutes of magic.
And so the night at the Con ended. There were more street tacos, some Happy Hour whiskey and then hooked up with Chris and the Aw Yeah boys at a little wing place called Hooters. The highlight of that evening had to be the waitress that had a bit of hula hooping while pouring our beers from a pitcher. Another great night with friends topped off the first full day of the Con and set up for the two busy days ahead.
Stay hard.
Shawn Bourdo
No comments:
Post a Comment