So I took quite a few pictures this past weekend. If you're in one of these and want a higher-res version, email or message me or something. I reduced them because it was taking forever to upload.
If you're not down with the slideshow thing. Album link can be found HERE. I think the "View All" button does that too, but I don't know how to internet...
Things I learned at Comic-Con International 2013...
Jennifer Carpenter steals things. Specifically, she took "a lot of stuff" from the Dexter set after they wrapped shooting for the final episode. It was insinuated that she even yoinked the blood spatter paintings Michael C. Hall intended to take as souvenirs. In case you missed it the first time, she reiterated that she took "a lot of stuff". Also, she wants Deb to die because she does't want her in her head anymore.
"No I'm serious. I think I might be going to jail..."
Kevin Smith is one of the world's greatest motivational speakers. Nearly every person who came up to the mic on his Saturday night panel talked about how Lunchbox changed their lives in some profound way. Not bad for a man whose most famous on screen character is known for being silent. Snooch to the nooch.
Jim Lee is Stan Lee's son. The Marvel Comics Legend legally adopted the talented artist after his entire village was mercilessly fire-bombed during the Asian Pacific War of 1973, leaving young Jim as the only survivor. Thankfully the successful UN program known as "We are One World" connected the two of them and the rest is history.
The previous thing I said regarding the two Lee's is completely untrue. Every. Single. Word.
Something true. Jim Lee is a smart ass and his panels are highly entertaining, especially when you consider it's just some Korean dude drawing on an overhead projector. In high school we called that Physics class.
Oh crap, he's lost it...
...Never mind.
Neil Gaiman looks like Snape. I already knew this, but every time I see him in person, my brain treats it as new information.
American Superheroes are creepy as fuckall when done by a Japanese animation house. Although I definitely liked the flick, "Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox" took some getting used to in terms of visuals. Also, it apparently takes the Dread Pirate Roberts (Cary Elwes) voicing the character to make Aquaman bad-ass.
By Saturday night, the tents outside of Hall H smell like the camp of a mongolian raiding party, complete with horses, after riding day and night, unbathed for a week.
Any attempts by security to actively control a crowd of nerds is less effective than stepping back and letting said crowd of nerds regulate itself.
Steampunk is still gaining popularity. It's only a matter of time before suburban rich kids co-opt the movement into the more mainstream friendly, watered down, Steam Pop-Punk. I hope not. Here's some "Chap Hop". It's fucking weird. That makes it pretty cool.
Finally, I took like a billion pictures. Combined with the billions I've taken at comic-cons in the past, that makes for like, several hundred pictures. Look for full on photographic goodness next time as I continue the SDCCI 2013 post-game..
From the east they came... Long-haired wildmen, some with beards thickest about the neck area, bearing strange long boxes filled with their curious pictographic literature and detailed figurines of legendary heroes. Curious beings in elaborate garb and finery modeled from animated cinema orginating across the Pacific appeared in droves, some seeking not so much to witness the spectacle forming, so much as become the spectacle. From the North and East, South, and West... From all reaches of the globe they descended upon my coastal city like the Dothraki Horde. Artisans and merchants sold their wares in the grand hall. With them came the illusionists from the glittering, decadent metropolis to the North, seeking inspiration for their next work or an audience for their latest spectacle. For 4 days and 4 nights the festival continued and the City on the Coast pulsed with excitement. At the end of the fourth day, the festival ended and the curious visitors departed, some to far off lands, some to their normal lives within the city itself. As the doors to the grand hall closed, some already began counting the days until the next year, when it would all begin again.
I've always been a fantasy writer at heart.
Comic Con is here again. Pictures are coming... If it hadn't been for villainy, this would be my 15th comic-con in a row, but circa 2000 or 2001 some foolish manager decided I didn't need the day off. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti. Of course not. That would be awful. I hate liver. It tastes like its been used to filter blood toxins or something.
First off, today I learned that Jaegermeister means "Master Hunter". Actually, I knew a Meister was a master of something, but in the opening seconds of Pacific Rim, they define "Jaeger" as meaning "Hunter". It connected the dots for me. That has nothing to do with this movie review post.
Secondly, Pacific Rim is easily the most enjoyable thing I've seen on screen this summer. It might have something to do with being an 80's/90's kid who grew up watching Voltron, Robotech and the like, but judging from the reactions of the younger set in the theater, they were having a damn good a time watching giant robots throw down with giant inter-dimensional alien beasts for 2+ hours too. I suppose when all you've had in this genre the past few years was seen via a shaky, indestructible camcorder or involved Shia Labeouf saying "no" a lot, this was quite the treat.
The plot, if for some reason you were concerned with such things, is that monstrous Kaiju are coming to earth via a rift in the pacific ocean, wreaking havoc on mankind, and being total dicks to everyone they can get their semi-truck size claws on. They're each about the size of skyscraper and are really pissed off all the time. Humanity's (awesome) response to this threat is to build equally monstrous robots called Jaegers operated by two pilots who act as left and right brain lobes within the mechanical behemoth's skull.
It's pretty much a given that anything directed by Guillermo Del Toro will have a vast array of cool beasts and characters to look at, and he doesn't hold back here. In the blue corner, the Jaegers have cool names like "Gipsy Danger", "Cherno-Alpha", and "Striker Eureka", while their opponents in the red corner bear names like "Knife Head", "Trespasser" and "Leatherback". The level of detail and care put into designing these things, like everything else in the movie, is top notch, and they managed to give them individual identity without resorting to racist automobiles (I'm going to lay off the Transformers franchise now).
I saw the movie in IMAX 3D, which was worth the extra couple of bucks, even though it literally puts money in George Lucas's already fat wallet and I can see some people feeling a little bit like the early Jaeger pilots in some spots. Seriously, my eyes were watering from the insane level of stuff flying around during the battle scenes. There might have been blood coming out of my eyes. It was pretty rad. I theorize Del Toro wanted to make the audience get the full experience of being inside a massive robot that's linked to your brain and the brain of your co-pilot while a twenty-five-story Komodo Dragon is bitch slapping you with its tail.
In short. This was just all out fun. Strap in and cast off the chains of moody, introspective superheroes for a little while. Keep an eye out for homages to previous giant monster/robot films like Godzilla (and I swear the quick arm motions in one scene were straight out of Power Rangers). Speaking of which, I've heard there's an upcoming Godzilla movie... We'll see.
This is the emblem of the Molorhan Army. Never heard of the Molorhan Army? That's because the webcomic which features them, (written and drawn by myself) hasn't started it's run yet.
So yeah, this is a thing for me again. I say "again" as if there were any readers left after I abandoned my last blog at Ben vs. Reality. But now I'm older and/or wiser. Even nerdier. Is that possible? Yes.
This time's gonna be different, I tell ya. Regular updates and everything. I know I've said that before, but this time I mean it homie.
