Year: 2010

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

First, I neglected to mention yesterday that I attended the presentation of the “Young Justice” animated series. The audience reaction seems overwhelmingly positive, and I’m glad to hear it, because (and I am now free to mention it) I’m going to be writing several episodes for the series. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to reconnect with the characters, even if there are some differences between the guys I wrote and the new incarnation. I would love to tell you all about my first episode, but I’m afraid that it’s…oh, what’s the word…Secret.

Anyway, today is my roughest day in terms of commitments.

The day starts with the third and last signing with Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria, and rolls right into a signing at the Marvel booth. From there I have to high tail it to the Quick Draw panel. Every year Mark Evanier has both Len Wein and myself participate in “Hidden Words,” in which three words are put up on the screen, revealed to everyone in the place except the challenged individual, and then three artists attempt to convey–via drawing projected on large screens–what the words are. This year Mark has opted for what he calls a “steel cage death match,” with Len and I going head to head. The winner would be decided by audience applause, be declared the “King of Hidden Word,” and move on to the challenge round.

We are given a choice of four envelopes, some of which have easier words than others. Len chooses envelope #2, and I select #1. The good news is, envelope #1 has easier words than #2. The bad news is, whoever is in charge of the envelopes screws up and gives Len the words from #1. They’re challenging, but not overly so.

Mine are murderous. Eventually I get all three, but it’s a struggle. Furthermore, my heart isn’t really in it; I want the crowd to choose Len.

They cross me up and vote for me anyway. I don’t know whether it’s because they liked my efforts more, or are just anxious to see me suffer.

So we go to the bonus round. Some bonus. And then all three artists draw the first word, and it’s identical: A head shot of a cat. I almost fall over laughing. “Cat,” I say. Huzzah. Mark tells the artists to start on the next and before any of them draw a line, I say, “Dog.” Yup. So I figure Evanier would make the third one easy as well.

It was “Miscellaneous.”

Bášŧárd.

I move on to an IDW panel that’s somewhat less exhausting: Transforming Words to Pictures. The panel focuses on the differences between writing comics and novels. One panelist proudly says that she can write an entire novel in a mere four months. This draws oohs and ahhs from the audience. I figure this is not the time to mention I can write a novel in six to eight weeks typically, and I turned out my DS9 novel in fourteen days.

After that is the Disney Epic Mickey panel. It goes fairly well, I think, as Warren Spector runs footage and gameplay from the hotly anticipated game, while I discuss the Digicomics and adaptation of the game itself that I’ve written (accompanied by sample art on the screen.) One guy in the audience is dressed like Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, so that’s a good sign.

I attend the party for the Animators Guild, which my work on “Ben 10” qualifies me for. After that I catch the tail end of the Stan Lee documentary, “With Great Power.”

Then I come back to my room and collapse.

PAD

Pushing the outer limits of my stamina. Pain is well within the manageable level, but my endurance is not what it was. Keep trying to pace myself; handle the convention as a series of short sprints rather than a marathon.

Kicked off the day with a panel on the X-Men universe. A brief presentation is made of upcoming plans for the X-books and we field an assortment of questions. Nightcrawler’s fate seems to be of primary concern to the audience. It’s understandable. However when asked why such a move was made with the foreknowledge that it would probably make the fans irate, one panelist deadpans, “We don’t care about the fans.” It gets a huge laugh, as it was intended to, but it won’t surprise me if it gets reported somewhere as being a flat and serious assertion.

Another signing at the BOOM! table with Claudio Sanchez of Coheed & Cambria. The line remains steady and consistent for the entire hour. Buy some neat stuff at the WETA booth. For the first time in a long while, I actually leave the convention during the afternoon. Run some errands, do some shopping. Kathleen and Ariel love watching ‘Project Runway” and a sixth season contestant, Gordana, has a store nearby. Buy some stuff there for Ariel (nothing really there right for Kathleen.)

Heavy party night: First the Marvel party, followed by a part on a yacht held by William Morris to which I’ve been invited. Run into a variety of creators there, including Dwayne McDuffie and Glen Murakami of Ben 10, Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool, Marv and Noel Wolfman of, well, Marv and Noel Wolfman; Michael Uslan and son David, and I’m sure many others I just didn’t spot.

Don’t get back to hotel until 12:30. Need to get some sleep.

PAD

Easing into the convention. Spent most of the morning at the CBLDF board meeting. Ran into Len Wein in the lobby and helped him score a “Human Target” bag (there are about eleven different giveaway bags people receive at the convention) since Len created the character. Had an autographing at the Marvel booth that went well, followed by another autographing at the Boom table with Claudio Sanchez and the artists for his various comic titles.

As always, getting from one end of the convention hall to the next is an exercise in staying focused and not banging into people.

The IDW panel on transforming movies into comics went well, I thought. However the lengthy walk from room 9 to room 30, where the panel on Mythology in comics was being held, convinced me that attending the comic writing panel on Saturday would be futile; by the time I was introduced I’d have to leave in order to get to the “Epic Mickey” panel in time. So I reluctantly tell Andy Schmidt that I won’t be able to make it. He understands; we had no idea there would be that vast a distance between the two.

Run into Richard Hatch, who invites me to a gathering that’s being held by Rochester Electronics to promote “Captain Rochester” (google it and read up on it) and thank the various artists who had worked on a Captain Rochester card set. Reconnect with voice artist Tom Kenney, who was kind enough to call Caroline last year as Spongebob and pretty much raise her entire childhood to a whole new level. Chat with Neal Adams about a proposed project of his (I think it would be inappropriate to go into detail.) Mark Evanier, Sergio Aragones, retailer Bill Cole, a host of others are there. From there I head to the CBLDF bash over at the Westgate. Very well attended, which is nice to see.

Come back to my hotel and collapse. My knees are fine, but my stamina still isn’t where it needs to be.

PAD

Tonight is what’s called the “Preview” night at San Diego, a term that I really don’t understand. Everything is set up and ready to go; basically it’s just an additional day that starts at about 5:30. Every year I get pìššëd øff when the PA voice booms, “The dealers room will be opening momentarily,” and I shout, “No! If it were opening momentarily, it would then close up again the next moment. You mean it will be opening in a few moments.” But they never change it.

Walked around the dealers room, scored some neat items that I’m not going to write about because they’re surprises for my family. I sat at the Marvel booth for a while, signing–I swear to God–Peter David trading cards that will be given away tomorrow. Finally, I have my own trading card. All I need now is my own action figure. The Marvel booth has built a replica of Odin’s chair in the “Thor” movie. It looks freaking amazing. I have some shots of me sitting in it that I’ll post eventually.

A big hit item around the convention are Galactus hats being given out at Hasbro. Sure, they’re cardboard, but they’ll cool. Plus I find myself slipping into doing Elrod schtick from “Cerebus.” You know: “The reason ah know I’m right, son, is ah have a pointy hat! You can argue with me, but ya can’t argue with a pointy hat!”

I walk the dealer’s room until about 8 PM and then I feel my right knee starting to give out (since the surgery, something different hurts every day. Never the same thing. Today it’s the knee). I promised myself I wouldn’t push myself during the convention, and this seems the right time to stick to that. I bail, head back to the hotel, sitting in the hot tub for a while to ease the throbbing, then head back to my room and work. I have enough things in the hopper for the rest of the evenings that I can afford to take it easy tonight.

PAD

To some degree, I know this is an exercise in futility. One of my ten rules of San Diego is that a pro can post his schedule on his website; he can have his signing schedule up in lights at the Marvel Booth; he could take out an ad in the program book. And STILL people are going to say, “Where the hëll was (fill in the name)?! I couldn’t find him anyway!”

Nevertheless, hope–but not common sense–springs eternal, and so in that spirit, here’s my schedule for the con:

THURSDAY

1:00-2:00 ……..Marvel Booth signing, Booth 2329
3:00-4:00…….. Coheed & Cambria signing, Booth 2743
4:00-5:00 …….. Movies into Comics with IDW, Room 9
5:30-6:30…….. Creating The New Mythology, Room 30CDE

FRIDAY

10:00-11:00…..Marvel: X-Men, 10:00 – 11:00 AM, Room 6DE
4:00 – 5:00……..Coheed & Cambria signing, Booth 2743

SATURDAY

11:00 – 12:00….Coheed & Cambria signing, Booth 2743
12:00-1:00……..Marvel signing, booth 2329
2:30-3:30……….Words to pictures (novels into comics) Room 5AB (IDW)
4:30 – 5:30………Disney’s Epic Mickey, Room 9

(UPDATE) I will not be on the 4 PM Writing for Comics panel. The distance between the two rooms is simply too great to make my attending it reasonable, and I had committed to the Epic Mickey panel first.)

SUNDAY

11:00-12:00…..Halo Universe Panel, Room 32AB
1:00 – 2:00……. Marvel Booth signing, Booth 2329
300-4:30………Moderator, Pro/Fan trivia, Room 4