A much less frantic day than yesterday. I buzz over in the morning to the airport where I pick up a rental car for my trip up to Los Angeles. I used to fly into LA, rent a car, drive down and then back. I don’t know what I was thinking. The cost of parking the car alone is $200, plus I don’t do much driving during the course of the convention, so it’s a waste of money. This time I flew into San Diego and am flying out of LA (Burbank, actually) and so am just renting at the airport and dropping it off in Burbank. Simple.
My first panel is at 11 AM. It’s on “Halo.” I’m on it at the request of the “Halo” folks so I can talk about my “Halo” limited series, which I do. I have to say, working with the “Halo” folks was a pleasure. If there were things in my scripts that they didn’t like or didn’t think worked, they didn’t simply say, “No.” Instead they say, “Here’s why it doesn’t work, and here’s how you can fix it.” Incredibly knowledgeable and utterly on top of all aspects of their universe.
As I walk across the street, a short guy in sunglasses and a wool hat says, “Now is when I run into you?!”, pumps my hand, says it’s great to see me, and keeps going. It takes me a moment to process that it was Seth Green.
I have a signing at the Marvel booth at 1 PM. I run into old Internet friend Kathy Li, and she in turn is able to have me rendezvous with Maggie Thompson, who I have not managed to catch up with the entire weekend.
I cannot believe how many people in the course of the day tell me they thought I did a great job at “Quick Draw.” First of all, I thought I did a terrible job, and second, how many people were at the dámņëd thing, anyway?
The Pro/Fan Trivia contest is at 3 PM and I’ve agreed to MC. Yet again, Mark Waid–probably the strongest member of the Pro team–bails at the last second, leaving Kurt Busiek and Len Wein high and dry, with an audience member attempting to fill in for Waid. But Waid’s absence is sorely felt as the fans beat the pros in a match that (all parties agree) would have been handily won by the pros had Waid been there since a number of questions would have been in his wheelhouse. As for the questions themselves: ghastly. Incredibly picayune, not particularly entertaining. Good trivia has you going, “Oh, oh, I know this! I know this!” These just mostly drew confusion and blank stares, and not all the attempts at humor I generated could hide that. If the same person is writing the questions next year, they can get someone else to moderate.
I head out to LA, making my customary yearly stop at Disneyland. It’s the first time I’m able to wield my handy dandy Disney employee pass, so I get in free. I could go to California Adventure, where I’ve never been. But it’s no fun going somewhere new in Disney if I have no one to share it with, so I decide to wait until I can go with my family. I buy a new suitcase, which I’m gonna need in order to bring home all the sway I acquired at the convention.
PAD
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Have you met Seth Green before, or was it another “when-did-I-become-famous-on-the-red-carpet” moment?
Either way, cool that he’s a fan.
We first met Seth, Matt and Tom at the New York Comic Con a couple of years ago. They knew who Peter was and he knew who they were. We went and played table tennis with them.
Since then we have done a number of conventions together and it is always fun getting together with them.
Ooch. Really too bad to hear about the questions at the Pro/Fan match; I have fond memories of the competition the couple of years I participated way back when. Can you give an example of a really awful question from this year?
For example, in Superman #76, the first story to team Superman and Batman (by this point, I’ve learned my lesson from some interrupts, and am not hitting the buzzer with the signature event of the story, namely Clark and Bruce having had to room together in a stateroom, both are changing into their secret ids in the dark, and a flash of light through the porthole reveals them to each other), has them both on a cruise ship; what was the name of the ship? (paraphrased from memory)
Probably the scariest bit with the overly obscure questions was how close I got to naming the disco in which the Teen Titans first met Lilith.
Seriously, while I appreciate the effort folk put into writing the questions, this probably was the last Pro/Fan unless we can get the questions back to a reasonable level of difficulty. Based on experience, I only know of three people who seem to be able to write a whole match worth of good* questions; Craig Shutt, who does the Chicago matches, Jim Hey, who used to do San Diego but doesn’t want to any more, and, well, myself (wrote questions the year the Pros played the folk from the short-lived Beat The Geeks tv show; my main challenge that year was coming up with a format where the Geeks would actually score some points, given that the show’s resident Comic Book Geek’s response to the first question asked him on the show, Give the title and issue number of Blade’s first appearance, was “Werewolf by Night” rather than “Tomb of Dracula”; I could forgive a wrong issue number, but Blade killed vampires, not werewolves).
*Good involves several levels. It has to be at the right level of difficulty; not too easy, not at the “OK, Waid would know that Superman question but no one else would”. It should have a certain narrative to it, rather than just “What is the Mirror Master’s real name”. It shouldn’t be misleading in the sense of causing someone to reasonably buzz in early but not yet know what the question will actually be (1-2 of those in a match is OK, but not a majority). Etc.
Peter did a great job as moderator, complete with wearing one of the paper Galactus hats that Hasbro had been passing out.
For example, in Superman #76, the first story to team Superman and Batman (by this point, I’ve learned my lesson from some interrupts, and am not hitting the buzzer with the signature event of the story, namely Clark and Bruce having had to room together in a stateroom, both are changing into their secret ids in the dark, and a flash of light through the porthole reveals them to each other), has them both on a cruise ship; what was the name of the ship? (paraphrased from memory)
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Oh, that IS awful. Yeah, you don’t go with trivia that’s so esoteric that people say “who the hëll would WANT to know that?”
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Glad to hear that it was a different group writing the questions; I believe Jim was the one writing the years I played/watched in the match, and those were usually pretty fun. (I still remember the one about why the Avengers were surprised to see Doom on their trip to Latveria…)
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I hope something works out to make a better bit next year.
Peter–I didn’t “bail,” trust me, and I’m sorry the message apparently didn’t get to you as it should have–some stupid scheduling drama totally beyond my control snarled everything up at the last second. Thanks to you and the others for playing through. Would have loved to have been there, trust me. Who else knows the S.S. Varania from memory?
John Wells.
Which was part of the problem. I soldiered on as best as possible as Fake Mark Waid, but like the last time I played that role in the 2008 challenge, Wells wrote questions targeted at you and only you. Who else would gather that the reason British fans would be upset at the issue where Brainiac 5 introduces the flight rings was due to him making an obscene gesture in a single panel?
Thank you again for safeguarding my Hercules page. Meeting you made my Con and then not losing that page saved my Con. You are two times my hero and for that I am grateful.
Well, I’ll say again what I said then: The real “hero” was the fan who found the artwork sitting on the floor in front of the signing table (outside of my sight line) and handed it to me. He could have walked off with it and none of us would have been the wiser. He was the honest individual who gave it to me for safekeeping. If there is anyone to whom you should be grateful, it’s that fan.
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PAD
I always refer to those sorts of trivia questions as, “Name the Dog Questions.” I took an English Lit course that a good 50% of every quiz consisted of questions like, “What was the name of Elizabeth’s dog?” or “What was the name of Frank’s younger brother?”
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I could see it if the dog, or the child, did anyting plot relevant. But, this professor was far more interested in forcing us to memorize random trivia about the books he assigned than analyzing the plots. She claimed it was to prevent us from reading the Cliff’s Notes. I think it was so she could feel smug and superior.
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I like trivia questions that are more along the lines of, “Name the three Hellfire Club guards who Wolverine killed in The Dark Phoenix Saga.” Because not only were those guys plot important in future X-Men and New Mutants storylines, but the incident garnered some fan reaction in the letters pages.
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Another along the lines of really obscure, but had an effect on the story or the fanbase is: “What was the only statement uttered in John Byrne’s silent Batman story?”
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One of my favourite kinds of question is one that tells a bit about the situation as well as asks some trivia. Such as, “If an original character debuts in a licensed book, the character will belong to the owner of the license. What title did the Transformers character CircuitBreaker debut in to ensure that Marvel retained the copyright?”
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Theno
You auditioning for the job of question writer there, Theno?
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Actually, I was hoping to start a trivia exchange among the regulars.
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But, now I’m wondering how a person might get that gig. It would be fun.
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Theno
“Name the three Hellfire Club guards who Wolverine killed in The Dark Phoenix Saga.”
Cole Resse and Macon?
Goes to google.
Ðámņ I was right.
I realise it’s impossible for me to prove that but yipes.
I know the Circuit Breaker one, but that’s it. (It was Secret Wars II.)
“What was the only statement uttered in John Byrne’s silent Batman story?”
Commissioner Gordon: “Get out.”
John Byrne later noted that if he’d seen the layout of that story on the page, he’d have left that out as well.
I remain,
Sincerely,
Eric L. Sofer
The Silver Age Fogey
x<]:o){
A lot of teachers do that. They have a point to a certain degree but it should not be 50% of the questions. My teacher usually did 25% of the questions that way. Also, there is a difference between something that is not in the Cliff’s note and something even a person that read the book would not remember.
Sorry I missed you this year – they kept me running the whole time.