A few things have developed in the wide world of comics that I feel have fallen through the cracks like sweat beads on a fat woman — I’m here to divulge an opinion on such topics.

I hope you sweaty slobs had a good time at San Diego Comic Con last weekend.  It seems that Benjamin found himself staring into the diamond mines of a certain White Queen and for that reason alone, I wish I was there.  Save the gloriously revealed breasts and asses that abound in perfect curvature and a few little nuggets of news I have to admit that I’m not too jealous of missing out.  SDCC is, like an old man on blue pills, getting too damned big.

Guaranteed to make you hard as a diamond.

You may have heard that Mark Ruffalo and Joss Whedon have jumped onboard the Avengers movie as Bruce Banner and Director respectively.  I’ve gotten a few emails asking me my thoughts on this announcement and here it is: F*ck yes.  Something about Norton has never vibed with me — I think it’s his voice, he sounds like one of those guys who enjoys being right a bit too much.  Ruffalo on the other hand has always been a pleasure to watch on screen but still hasn’t quite cracked into the “A-list” status — hopefully this does it for him.  As far as Whedon is concerned: If you have any doubts about him as an artist you either (a) haven’t seen his writing/directing or (b) where a helmet with a tendency to drool on yourself.

Anything with this is good.

Dexter is coming back for season five — surprise?  Not really.  Season 4 ended with a bang bigger than Rosie O’Donnel’s prom night and buzz has abounded ever since.  If you haven’t already caught up with seasons 1–4 in preparation for this magnificence, sham on you.  I hope your genitals fall out and you cower in shame for your television-transgression for the rest of your days.  Hopefully [SPOILER] we see Ms. (fun-to-watch-her) Benz a bit despite her demise because Dexter’s sister can’t hold the show’s “hot” on her 45 pound shoulders…

Whoever took this off the show should be Dexter’s next victim.

In Bat-related news: a day or so before SDCC it was announced that the Riddler IS in fact the new villain for Nolan’s upcoming trilogy capper.  Several people have thrown Joseph Gordan-Levitt’s name out as a potential candidate and whilst I think he could pull it off, I’m still rooting for Mr. Jonathan Rhys Meyers to don the enigmatic role.  Even more interesting is this interview with Aaron Eckhart at SDCC where he says he WOULD come back as Two-Face if Nolan asked him to.  Another interesting tidbit is this interview where ex-Nolanite Robin Williams declared that he would work with Nolan in anything at all — Ventriloquist anyone?  No matter who plays what I think we can all rest assured that Batman’s third date with Nolan will be the sweet, sweet love-fest we’ve been waiting for (knock on wood), right?

Before I go, I’d like to mention a not-so-clever poke at Comic Con fans by none other than the proof that accidents happen, the incredibly unfunny, Carlos Mencia George Lopez.  I’ve had a few people ask me to defend our geekdom.  While it’s no secret that I have my own problems with cosplay gone wrong, something about Mr. Lopez’s Comic-Con Captions segment irked me.  Most of the jokes were particularly unclever and revolved around the typical comic books nerd’s virginity — maybe that’s what bothered me: the lack of actual, clever humor.  I’ve never seen Lopez Tonight.  To be honest, when I heard about it I thought it was a joke (it’s on TBS, right?).  I’m not sure if the Comic-Con thing was a fluke or something — maybe he’s funny most of the time.  But after looking him up and realizing that he was in Marmaduke, The Spy Next Door, Beverly Hills Chihuhua and the upcoming Smurfs, I actually felt bad for the guy.  Don’t waste your time with anger nerds.  We may have given George Lopez a failed opportunity at humor one night, but he’s been giving us humorous moments of failure for his entire career.

Mr. Wolff

PS: Go buy MYTHOI you silly twat.  Here.  Or here.

This is taken strait from their site: “Faericon brings magic of Faerieworlds, the West Coast’s premiere mythic music festival, to the East Coast. Array yourself in your most beautiful faerie finery, don your wings, gather your friends and family and cross the threshold! Once inside, you will find the largest gathering of faerie artists and authors in the world who look forward to meeting you, amazing, magical apparel, beautiful jewelry, mysterious masks, handmade crafts, fashion shows, performers, musicians, storytellers, exhibitions, panel and workshops.”

You had me at Faericon but I will stay to see my friends and family cross the threshold. Right? I mean come on who wouldn’t want to don their wings and release their inner faerie that shines in all of us. So Faericon started because they wanted to bring the magic of Faerworlds to the east coast.  I was like what there is another con that spawned this con and then I saw the videos for Faerieworld.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The event looks crazy with Ents and giant Centaurs walking around. Maybe this is what hippies have transformed into. From the looks of it there seems to be a pretty decent amount of people that participate in this thing. They have live bands and other performances. There is a full vendor section so you can swap incantations and buy the latest in Faerie gear. They also have the typical Con costume contest. I think I have seen most of the same people appearing at the SD Comic Con.

All in all it looks pretty interesting and I am pretty sure that if I was in the area I would definitely go and check it out. It looks like a people watchers paradise. The whole thing probably smells of patchouli and sage, which unlike most people, am completely fine with. If you need more info check out their sites: Faeriecon.com and Faerieworlds.com.  You will find a lot more info, photos, videos, and Faerie products that should satiate your interests. Until next time, Street Fece out!

We arrived at Ben’s brother’s place, who had been kind enough to offer up his couch for our resting, but upon arrival we realized that there were cats present, two of them.  As Ben and I both suffer from a disease called allergies that usually ends with us killing cats, we thanked his brother and found accommodations elsewhere — at 12:30am.  Most places were booked for either APE or the Treasure Island Music Festival and if they weren’t booked, the price was a mere $250.00 per night and nobody had rooms for both that night and Saturday night, just one or the other.  So right about the time we began discussing the legitimacy of sleeping in Ben’s car right outside of the Concourse (where APE is held) we got a hold of the greatest man in San Francisco: Gandhi.  Not that Gandhi.  Our Gandhi is the late-night concierge at a hotel without a name in an alley behind a bar in the Mission District.  And bless Gandhi for all time because he got us a room for both nights, under $100.00 per night, free valet and only 2 blocks from the Concourse.

SF Concourse: where red paint goes to die.

The only other thing we did that night warranting any recognition was to make a brief appearance at the ISOTOPE party (thanks Amir Malekpour) featuring Dean Haspiel, (THE QUITTER, OPPOSABLE THUMBS, AMERICAN SPLENDOR, and THE ALCOHOLIC).  Ben and I both agree that it is one of the coolest comic book shops we have ever seen and if you are ever in the San Francisco area, stop in and say hi to James Sime, the super-friendly owner.  The whole thing is 1-part comic book store, 1-part nightclub, and 1-part design — just go, trust me.

Isotope: The Geek’s Nightclub

Ben and I awoke on Saturday, trudged down to a coffee shop and made our way towards APE.  And what did we think?  It was awesome.  If San Diego Comic Con is meant to blow your mind with all the million-dollar bells and whistles, and Long Beach Comic Con is designed for the more intimate encounters with industry professionals, then APE is a secret fort where only fans congregate to go over their own good ideas and opinions on art, writing and everything mainstream.  Sure, people are there trying to sell their product, but at APE you can talk to them and find out why…  Writers grill each other on the presentation of information and misinformation, Artists trade work with each other and discuss their inspirations, while Publishers peruse through the aisles, taking it all in and maybe picking up some new talent…  It’s very neat — like the Swap Meet of Comic Cons.

APE from entrance: Left

APE from entrance: Center

APE from entrance: Right

Obviously, since it’s cheaper than some of the other cons, there are a lot of people presenting who, well, maybe shouldn’t.  But what’s great about APE is that they can!  One man’s Koontz is another man’s King!  Right?

Well Ben and I went through every single booth, one at a time, over five or six hours and met some great people, many of whom you will probably hear us mention in the future… or now.  Like John C. Narcomey Jr. from High Tower Comics, or Russ Kazmierczak Jr. and Brent Otey from K.O. Comix.  All good people, with good products, so check ‘em out when you get a chance…

High Tower makes death pretty.

Check out the blog — Nice guys!

After the convention Ben and I went back to the hotel, vegged out with some Dexter episodes and cleaned up before jumping into our favorite out-of-town-convention activity:  Drinking.  Luckily, the bar next to our hotel was fantastic:  Bloodhound.  This bar was perfect for us.  Good beer?  Check (and served in mason jars).  Nice people?  Yup.  Environment?  Got that too.  We moseyed down, caught the end of the Angels/Yankees game (and sighed when the Yankees won — damn them), had a few beers and talked to some, uh, interesting (?) people.  Then it was time for sleeps.

Drinks, Games and Entertainment!

We’re not going to APE today.  Instead we’re going to head home.  APE is a doable-in-one-day kind of event as it doesn’t have much change from one day to the next and is more for floor-walking than anything else.

We had fun and we’ll definitely be back next year…

James Ninness

Yesterday was day one of the first ever Long Beach Comic Convention and it was great fun!  The whole thing started off with Ben and I begging our drive at 7:00am, which is the worst time to ever hit the road to go anywhere…  After making our way as far as Orange County, we stopped at Alberto’s in Garden Grove and devoured the best California Burritos either of us has ever had!  Then we meandered up the 22 towards Long Beach…

Long Beach Convention Center

One nice thing about being an “Industry Professional” is that you get to go down to the convention floor three hours before the general public.  We did.  It wasn’t worth it…  With the Convention starting at 3:00pm, there was nothing set up or ready for display at 12:30pm when we got there.  It was a bit of a disappointment, but not one we were willing to let ruin our glorious burrito-aftermath.

Our “Preview” Time…

At three there was a ribbon cutting ceremony with Jeph Loeb, Stan Lee and some politician…  Apparently the county of Los Angeles and the city of Long Beach made yesterday (Oct. 2, 2009), “Stan Lee Day!”  There was a laundry list of accomplishments listed for Stan “changing the face of comics” and his work with The Hero Initiative.  It was a nice start.  Then Stan cut the ribbon and the crowds flooded downstairs…

This guy did something awesome — but we don’t know what.

Jeph Loeb, writer of Batman’s “Long Halloween”

Stan “The Man” Lee

“Excelsior!”

Obviously people had been busy since we last journeyed to the convention floor…  Nintendo had the most impressive area with six wii stations and a very large DS area — not to mention some not-ugly girls walking around putting leis on us…  We got to check out Punch-Out, Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Wii Sports Resort — they were all impressive.

Nintendo — Left

Nintendo — Center

Nintendo — Right

Atomic Comics shared a corner spot with Golden Apple to create the next largest section.  As soon as you walked onto the floor you were greeted by their spokeswoman: Wonder Woman (who was beautiful and gave us a bunch of invites to a party that night…).

Apparently “married” means I get to hold the camera…

While walking around the LBCC one can’t help but over hear people referring to the convention as a “return to comics.”  It’s true.  Even the setup for this convention requires you to walk through the GIGANTIC artist’s alley to get back and forth between the various vendors.  There are no movie studios, toy companies, or people hawking software…  LBCC really does put comic books on a pedestal for the weekend and leaves it at that.  Personally, I can’t help but compare it to the San Diego Comic Con (I’ve been there so many years…), and here’s the best comparison I can give you:  If the San Diego Comic Con is a wild orgy of all things “entertainment” with random people and things touching, feeling and groaning, then the Long Beach Comic Con is a small, candlelight dinner for you and comics.  It’s a softer setting with more intimate opportunities and a much better way to shop, learn and talk with more industry professionals than you could ever try to get at SDCC.  I highly recommend going to both, but for the true aficionado, LBCC is the place to be.

“aficionado” — this guy was soo excited…

So, who did we get to talk to?  Doug Mahnke.  Joe Benitez.  Ruben Martinez.  Joel Gomez.  Lord L Mesa.  R.C. Young.  Brian Haberlin (or at least, the guy at his both who we think was Brian…).  And we literally “bumped” into Thomas Jane, who is much smaller than we thought he’d be, but nonetheless impressive (side note:  go see HUNG now).  I also believe that I offended an talented artist named Oliver Nome.  You see, I don’t know nearly as much about art in comics as Ben.  So, while perusing Oliver’s portfolio, I noticed that one of them had a note reading, “Inked by Rich Friend.”  I asked Oliver why he was advertising his “Wealthy Buddy.”  I think he thought I was making fun of him, when in truth, I had no idea that Richard Friend is a famous inker…  Oops.  Sorry Oliver!

And like all Comic Cons, there were costumes…  Some great.  Some not.  But here are the ones we liked the most (aside from the above featured Wonder Woman):

Shrimps! Shrimps! Shrimps!

HOT Batgirl! …and batman… (and Malcolm X?)

More hot-Batwoman! ..and batman…

SNIKT!

Unenthusiastic Green Lantern

This guy’s awesome! Saw him at SDCC!

Gotham Sirens, minus Catwoman…

After the convention we tried going to the Golden Apple/Atomic Comics party, but it was a bit too loud for us and the drinks were way to expensive ($6.50 for a Heineken), so we made our way to the Auld Dubliner.  It was a great way to end the day and I can guarantee we’ll be there again tonight.  Beer makes everything better…

That’s it from Day One!  We’re on our way now to Day Two, which should prove to be more exciting than the first as it is a Saturday and there are a ton of sessions we’ll be attending.  Until tomorrow morning,

James and Ben