Comic Book Resources

SDCC - PART the SECOND

Dear lord… the delay between posts has been unforgivable. While things have been hectic and busy beyond belief, and I’ve been plagued by sickness, I still can’t believe it’s December. My apologies (and embarrassment) at the long delay, and my appreciation to Jonah and the CBR guys for not yanking the Blog before we had a chance to wrap up the outstanding ones!

So, where was I? Ah yes, the San Diego Comic-Con.

Friday night I actually chose to try and make a smart decision showing foresight and such by getting to bed at a decent hour. Leading up to the SDCC, I had been getting an average of 3-4 hours sleep a night, and knew that Saturday’s schedule was packed solid, so without at least some semblance of a ‘normal’ amount of sleep, I ran the risk of the panel on Saturday having me look like a Robert Kirkman character. (the Walking Dead type, not Invincible, mind you). So, with a 4:30am wake-up call, I crashed at 10pm on Friday, as the 200 things on Saturday’s schedule danced through my head like moshing sugarplums hopped up on methadrine.

Part of the reason for getting up at an hour that even roosters think is too early was in order to get a much-coveted parking spot in the actual Convention Center parking structure. By the time I drove into downtown it was about 6am… and the parking structure was full. Luckily, parking structure nearby was open, and was mostly-empty so, after parking, I set the alarm on my phone for 7am and took a cat nap (Unless, that is, you caught me drooling in my sleep and then I will state for the record that it was not me, and I never slept in the car.)

 

The Line outside the Convention Center at 7am a good two hours before the doors even open!

 

The doors to the Convention Center open at 7:15am for exhibitors, to allow time to set up, get caffeinated, and pray to whatever deities you think might save you from the onslaught of people. Let me tell you this, the convention floor, without the throngs of people, is a surreal and somewhat disorienting sight. When most of your time on the floor like a participant in the soon-to-be-an-olympic sport, geek slalom, having the same space be largely absent of any people makes you feel like you’ve just stepped onto the set of some sci-fi/comic-themed horror movie that you are the star of. Like I Am Legend, except with more action figure displays, and less loaded firearms.

Having sold through most of the copies of CBT that arrived on Friday afternoon, I set up the remaining boxes and display, as well as the SDCC-exclusive prints, and started texting people to let them know where to be and at what time for the panel. Most of the time, having a cell phone is a pain in the ass… you never have ‘down’ time when people can contact you at any given moment, but I honestly could not imagine having to pull off the logistics of Saturday without it. We had a limited number of ‘creator passes’ for reserved seats in the audience at the panel that had to be given out, plus tracking Tori’s status as she came down from Los Angeles, while at the same time making sure the panel members and moderator Douglas Wolk knew where and when to meet before the panel. As I wrapped up, I got a call from Tori’s managers John and Chelsea that they were safely at the room in the adjoining hotel, and after making sure the table was staffed, passes handed over to distribute to the creators, and all the millions of other little things to be done, I headed over to the room.

Let me tell you a bit about nerves. Usually, I don’t get them. Chalk it up to be jaded, or cynical, or just plain Gomer Pyle-style levels of clueless, but really in most situations, I don’t get nervous or jumpy. On the rare occasions that I do… two things happen. I chain smoke, and I babble. For someone who talks a lot to begin with, to define your level of talking as ‘babbling’, that’s saying something. It’s a fact that Tori and her manager John know about me, having been friends at this point for decades, so when I walk in the door, yabbering away like my jaw is about to come unhinged, they looked at each other and pointed towards the balcony and told me to ‘relax and have a cig’.

It’s good to have friends. Even better to have friends who know just what to say when you need it.

While I was committing acts of lung damage, Tori and her stylist were getting her ready. I had seen her outfit a few days earlier when we were shooting all of the promo videos, and my goal in buying an outfit for the panel was driven by the thought that (while I knew I couldn’t hit the RAWK level she was bringing to the game) I could not look like my typical scruffy self. I had gone clothes shopping before driving down to SD, and settled on some high-end, but still semi-casual gear that I felt looked ‘right’. However, standing next to Tori, after we were both dressed and ready to go, I still felt like I had just rolled out of bed. The call came that the ‘handler’ was downstairs to escort us along the ‘UBER SEEKRIT’ route to the staging area and greenroom, so after quick hugs all around and blessings, we were off.

I’ve attended the San Diego Comic-Con since 1987… back when it was small, I remember when I moved to the convention center, I’ve explored all of the parts of the building. I know it like the back of my hand.

Or so I thought…

Our handler took us on a path that I’m fairly sure involved ‘the Spice’ and folding space or somesuch extra-dimensional trickery because I can tell you with confidence that the route they took us on… the tunnels and elevators and paths they guided us through… they simply do not exist. One minute we’re at the back of the building, the next we’re walking through places I can’t describe, only to magically emerge through a door next to the staging area. Puzzled and confused, I asked one of the security detail “What just happened?!” He looked at me deadpan and said “We brought you to the waiting area”. Well, they can be cagey like that if they want, but one day, I will learn their dark, interdimensional secret and then…

*ahem*, yes, anyways… at the holding area.

The last panel I was on at SDCC was at least 15 years ago. It was just after it had moved to the Convention Center, and (if memory serves) it was with Reed Waller, Matt Wagner and John Romita Jr. discussing ‘drug use in comics’. There were maybe 30 people at most in the audience, so really I had no idea what to expect for the panel in terms of logistics, crowd turnout, or what it would be like. After being escorted by the handler to the holding area, we were told to wait in the green room until they sent someone to get us. This is where David Mack, Ted McKeever, Kelly Sue DeConnick and Elizabeth Genco would meet up with Tori, myself and Douglas Wolk in order to run through what we wanted to make sure we covered on the panel. I felt slightly sorry for Douglas… he’s a nice guy, and having to moderate Tori and I, who both have a tendency to ramble, go off and tangents, and generally practice the fine art of circumlocution… well, that’s kind of like asking someone to herd elephants with a squirt gun. Tori and I agreed that if I started to ramble, she’d kick me under the table (my idea) and just as we got the details sorted, we happened to look around a bit. Within talking distance in the green room were a bunch of familiar faces. Hugh Jackman, Summer Glau, Shirley Manson from Garbage and a bunch of actors who I recognized, but couldn’t tell you who they were. Ted and I commented to each other that you could see everyone in the room, about 3 dozen in all, trying to be very subtle as they glanced around trying to figure out who was who… a very surreal Entourage/the Player kind of moment made even moreso because, in my head, I still think of Comic-con as being the event it was back in the old civic center days… about 50k people at most… mostly comics, and not the big Hollywood event that it’s become. (Yes, it’s true, I live in a town called Denial.)

 

The Panel - Douglas Wolk, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Elizabeth Genco, Tori, me, and David Mack. (you can see Ted McKeever’s chin sticking out behind Kelly Sue…)

The Convention organizers signaled for us to come with them and we followed as a group, through the back entrance to the room. There was a small curtained wall partition, separating us from the audience, so we had no idea what size the room was, or how big of a crowd turned out as Douglas Wolk took the stage in order to introduce the panel and each of us one at a time, leading up to Tori as the last one on stage. Douglas said my name, and I walked out taking a little wave to the audience, hoping my face didn’t stop smiling as I thought ‘holyshitlookatallthepeople’. Somehow I made it to the middle of the stage without tripping and turned to wait for Tori… I had thought the applause was loud before, but when her name was announced, the place erupted. All my panicky tension started to melt away and I couldn’t stop grinning at Tori as we sat down.

I say something that makes Tori crack up.

The panel was great, and Tori didn’t kick me under the table (although she did put her hand on my forearm at one point to let me know, ‘Rantz, you’re rambling’). We had 40+ creators who worked on comic Book Tattoo attending SDCC, and trying to decided which four should be on the panel took more time and discussion than the book did in many ways. The book was as good as it was because of everyone on it and, while I knew from a practical stance that we had to limit the number of people on the panel, I really wished that everyone could have been on it, just so the audience could see, all at once, this mass of talented people, knowing this was only half of the people involved on the book!
We wrapped up with a brief Q & A, and then were lead off the stage, and back to the holding area for a minute, not even really getting a chance to say goodbye to everyone on the panel before our handler whisked us off to the ‘press area’.

The press area further proved that there’s some interdimensional portal technology and trickery going on behind the scenes at SDCC, because those rooms DON’T EXIST! You’re guided through doors that aren’t there, and immediately are confronted by a line of paparazzi photographers, lined up that you have to walk past to get to the interview areas. As you walk past, the flashes pop, and the photogs yell out ‘Tori, over here, this way!’ (or in my case ‘who are you?!’) hoping to get a better angle or shot. Once you’ve run the gauntlet of photogs, there’s a series of curtained off areas for interviews. It’s the closest thing to a press junket that comics has, as the person being interviewed sits or stands in front of a wall emblazoned with the SDCC logo, various press come in one at a time, introduce themselves and try to ask as many meaningful unique questions as is possible in the 10-15 minute time limits. At the same time, there are at least 10 other interviews going on in the other curtained off areas, so there’s a constant mumble in the BG as actor X tells interviewer Y the reasons that movie Z ‘radically changes the genre’. In rapid progression, we were interviewed by MTV, Verizon’s VCast, G4, AOL, and a half dozen others. Immediately after the interviews was the signing in the Sails Pavilion, so I quickly ducked out to have a cig while Tori and her managers wrapped up the interviews and got something quick to eat.

CBR’s own Jonah Weiland interviews Tori in the SDCC Press area

Once again, the handler took us through the secret paths within the Convention Center, leading this time to the autograph area. The security and convention personnel in charge of the signing already had people lined up and ready to go… after conferring with me so that they’d know how to check whether or not people had their ‘pass’ to get into the signing. Tori’s managers and I noted that the line looked significantly longer than the amount allotted, and we had a hard time limit, so I started walking up the length of the line, checking people’s badges. We found a dozen or so people standing in line because without the signature on the backs of their badges, and most of them, when they realized they’d been busted, got out of line without comment. However there were a few who tried to BS, saying that ‘someone else’ at the Image booth had told them they could get in the line, which was complete crap… as noted previously, I signed the back of every badge that would get in to the signing, so when confronted with that fact they sheepishly made some excuse and got out of line.

Tori in the Sail Pavilion autograph area signing copies of Comic Book Tattoo

The rest of the signing went without incident, except for Joel Stein’s appearance. Joel writes for Time magazine and has a thing on HBO where he interviews celebs and people on the street, and in the middle of the signing, his crew asked if he could talk to Tori and I on camera for a minute. I’m a fan of Joel’s writing, and a huge fan of HBO’s shows, so we agreed with the condition that it be SHORT, otherwise we’d run out of time for the signing. Joel started off asking questions about the book, and when I explained that each story was the artist and writer’s interpretation of the song… what it inspired in them, and that we didn’t censor their take on the songs, he asked ‘so what if my interpretation was a naked women with huge tits, and a lot of guns?’ I noted “Well, if that was the kind of work you were known for doing, I wouldn’t have asked you to be in the book in the first place.’ Which Tori followed up with “That wouldn’t be very clever would it? And we all know you’re a bit more clever than that Joel!” which made me laugh. We wrapped up with Joel asking “OK, so if I’m an HBO viewer, and I haven’t read any comics, where should I start?”> I thought for a brief moment and then said “Jason Aaron’s Sclaped series. For folks who like the Wire, the Sopranos and such, it’ll be right up their alley… great gritty crime and modern noir with excellent flawed characters!’ So Jason, if Scalped becomes an HBO series, I’ll email you so you can make sure I get my cut… ( kid, I kid…)

Tori with CBT Cover artist, Jason “Stuntkid” Levesque

Immediately after the signing, we had a very quick meet and greet for the CBT creators who wanted to meet Tori. Originally only a dozen or so creators had expressed interest in this, but by the time rolled around, we had over 30 of them, which meant that we had to go through a very quick line, in order that we didn’t violate our time limit. After the creators had met Tori, we gathered in the area just outside the Sails Pavillion so that we could get videotaped interviews with each of the creators, talking about their stories, and their creative process. (What could those interviews be for, I wonder…?) and after a couple of group pictures, Tori and I were off again.

Panel and signing successfully behind us, it’s time for the VICTORY MOSH!

Once we were settled in, back at the room, we talked a bit about how it went, what we thought went well, what we thought should have been better or different, but overall, we talked about how great it felt. Comic Book Tattoo… the project that had started at the previous SDCC with an offhanded comment to Image, was now in the world, we’d launched the book at SDCC, and the reactions bore out our feelings that this was something special. Over the next two days, I had discussions with a number of ‘big name’ creators, who talked to me about how much they loved the book, and asked why I hadn’t invited them to be a part of it. It was flattering, but I’d always laugh and point out that ‘well, before this came out, if I had approached you, would you have been able to imagine it’d turn out like this?’ Almost all of them said no, they wouldn’t, but were quick to note that, if I did something like this again, that they were ‘in’.

NEXT UP: The POST-SDCC PROMOTION & the ORIGIN OF THE SPECIAL EDITION.