While Mr. Glynn and several other colleagues and creators gear up for the illustrious Reuben Awards banquet in Los Angeles this weekend, I'll be staying in the midwest consoling myself with prodigious amounts of BBQ and other refreshments. And even though I won't be at the Reubens, I'll always have my memories of Comic-Con.
Comic-Con, whether it's San Diego, New York or many of the other satellite conventions, takes all kinds. Like the storm trooper above, for example, who was doing triple-duty as a comics enthusiast, costumed entertainer and crossing guard last April outside the Javitz center. Or this sword-bearing InuYasha outside a Hell's Kitchen McDonalds. If you look closely, you can see that the woman looking out the window doesn't quite know what to make of the situation.
Although it continues to grow each year, New York Comiccon still seems like a more intimate event than the giant one out in San Diego. In San Diego the gaslamp district is literally overrun by freaks, kids, acned manga princesses, 12-year-old Sith lords, paunchy superheroes and people who would probably be wearing a cape anyway. The San Diego event has a glizy Hollywood feel to it, with tons of movie stars, video games and all the pop-cultural cotton candy one can imagine. The New York event, by contrast, is only visible immediately surrounding the Jacob K. Javitz center. Once you've walked a few blocks away, the crowd fades quickly from sight, like an isolated enclave of freaks in the much larger freak colony that is New York City.
And yes, the event can be quite productive from a professional standpoint, if for no other reason than you get to check out a lot of stuff and meet a lot of the people in the industry. People have asked us before why syndicates don't have a larger presence at these things. But the truth is, we are there, even if we prefer surveying the premises behind mask and cape rather than sitting behind a booth.
A few other memorable images from Comic-Cons past...
-- A fat Boba Fett eating a
burger in the Javitz Center food court, all by himself and looking very tired
-- Along the train tracks outside the convention
center in San Diego, a large crowd gathering to watch as a man in a superman
outfit "held up" a BNSF train that was stopped on the tracks
-- A zombie walk through San Diego's gaslamp
district with probably close to 100 people (errr…zombies) taking part
So if you're going to the Reubens this weekend, have a great time. And if you wind up going to Comic Con this summer or anytime in the future, watch-out for zombies, sword-bearing wizards and superheroes-gone-wrong. And be sure to send us pictures.
Happy Memorial Day weekend.
-LW
