 |
| Blue Bottle Coffee. Simply the best...better than all the rest. |
Next we went to find my brother, who was in the city at The Grove, which is at 3rd and Mission, but I thought that he meant the grove of trees and grass at the Moscone Center, and not The Grove cafe. Amy and Jeff mocked me for this slight, but that is okay...the emotional pain of being mocked is gone now. Another side note is that The Grove is a cool all-day cafe and the monstrous breakfast burrito and large squeezed-as-you-watch orange juice solidified my decision to have breakfast there on Saturday. Damn. I had just eaten and here I was planning the next breakfast.
We then went to the Metreon to visit a comic store that used to be there, but aside from the movie theaters and the food court, the Metreon is a fucking graveyard. Every business that was there...gone...vanished... abandoned years prior. It was all fairly disappointing so we left to go to Whole Foods to pick up some sandwiches before the Wondercon doors opened and we were left to the mercy of food vendors selling Doom Dogs, and Green Lantern Pizza or whatever over-priced chow they were forcing upon starving attendees. *Side note three: At Whole Foods we met a woman with a French Bulldog named Taj who was loveable and cute and more importantly could say, "I love you," even though he sounded kind of like he was underwater, but hey, a talking dog is a talking dog. Adorable, weird, made our day.
After picking up our food, we rushed to the Moscone Center and were overwhelmed by the vastness of the showroom floor and everything on display. We spent a brief amount of time roaming the aisles, but we had a Terry Moore panel to attend and rushed off to get a seat. The best way to describe Mr. Moore's inspirational panel is through various snippets of quotes:- "You do best what you do most."
- "Tap into your heart for success."
- "You can't have a life and be the best in the industry"
- "Good writers tend to be an asset to society, not an acid."
- "We are a little too focused on business and politics, " as a society we need more room for art.
He also stated that he started Strangers In Paradise at the age of 36 and after many years as a musician, he spent 11 years in video editing, which he grew to hate, and then found his way to comics. To Mr. Moore, drawing and art are a lifestyle that consumes most of his time, and he does not consider what he does a career. One bit of advice that really struck home with me was, "Don't wait, start now and grow up in public," meaning get your work out there as soon as possible and not let the work languor but grow and improve in front of an audience. The other thing that I found interesting and will be a part of a future The Brutal Circle post, was his mindset about all of his work. "Inside me is a steel tower that really believes I can do it." Moore took a few moments to mention his next project, Rachel Rising, a horror story that I cannot wait to read come July. A great panel and a great start to Wondercon.Afterwards, Amy split off and Jeff and I attended "That '70s Panel" with Mark Evanier, Mike Friedrich, Paul Levitz, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. The group each took a moment to describe how they got started in comics, their biggest disappointments and the point at which they felt they had made it. This too was a great panel as Jeff and I had grown up reading these peoples' amazing works with Len Wein's Swamp Thing
, and Paul Levitz's Legion of Superheroes primarily "The Great Darkness Saga
" being some of my all-time favorite works. One bit of advice from Mark Evanier was that he never focused all of his energy in comics and maintained more of a portfolio approach to his work with comics, books, TV and animation writing to protect him from having all of his eggs in one basket. Paul Levitz notably said, "You get work not because you are a brilliant writer, but because you help someone (editor) out with a problem they have." Mike Friedrich stated that in his career, "I wrote for me as the letter writer. I wrote for continuity and character development." |
| Archaia reigns supreme |
at a 50% off trade paperback booth, which later ended up biting me in the ass as the book was missing the final seven pages. Archaia ended up having the best booth and the best deals by far. For free Amy and I left with a bunch of Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard
issues, Cyclops #1-3 and a bunch of other stuff as well. They also had two sales "Buy one hardcover, get one hardcover free" and the even better "Buy two hardcovers, get three hardcovers free." Out of control and not to mention that they had a ton of hardcover samples that they were selling for $5.00 each that Amy ended up buying for her classroom. Jeff and I decided to split the deal and he bought The Secret History Volume One
, and got the The Secret History Volume Two
for free and I bought The Secret History Volume One and took The Killer Volume One
and The Killer Volume Two
for free.  |
| Nonplayer. Just buy it! |
After some further showroom floor combing and gawking at the cosplayers, we decided to take in the "Spotlight on Robert Kirkman" panel, which was entertaining and taught me that I need to catch up The Walking Dead as soon as possible. One thing that was made perfectly clear was the absolute insanity of some of the people asking Kirkman questions. I mean, seriously, "What do you plan to happen to Rick this summer? You've put him through some pretty bad stuff, but can you tell us what is going to happen next?" No, you knucklehead, he can't tell you what happens next. If he did, what fun would there be in reading his book? Get real people.
 |
| Friday on the showroom floor. Not too crowded. |
Day two tomorrow...
by Jim Butcher and narrated by James Marsters aka Spike from 
. Despite our interest in the book, the drive seemed to last forever until right around Gilroy we were near starvation and believed that we could find something good to eat near the outlets; we were wrong. We ended up driving around labyrinthian outlet parking lots and had great difficulty escaping. I could have sworn I saw a half-bull, half-man running after us, but it was probably just the hunger. We eventually settled on Applebees, which wasn't terrible, but they are a chain and being uppity Santa Barbara snobs with a dislike of crisco-infused fried foods we were not happy with the choice. I can only hope that there are some decent locally-owned restaurants hidden somewhere in the depths of the town that is Gilroy.
The Amulet Vol. 2 "The Stonekeeper's Curse"
- Written and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi, published by Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic. Last week I began with the first volume of the wonderful 
series, and sure enough I had to immediately have more. I ran to the closest Borders to pick it up--no where else in town had it in stock--and rushed home to read. The book continues where the first left off, only with even more beautiful artwork and a driving story that had me plowing through the pages. Emi, Navin and their entourage of robots continue the search for a cure to the poison that threatens to kill the children's mother who was poisoned by a monster that looked like a cross between a squid and a frog or yak or something along those lines. The group takes their robotic house (you just have to see it) for aid and meet new character Leon 
continues to be one of my top three comic books being published along with 
and 
. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Thankfully, I also was able to read...
The Amulet 
, and I do agree somewhat, that is where the comparison ends. Both throw mystery and intrigue into their stories at a fast past, but where Lost lost its direction over a couple of seasons, 
does not read that way. I can tell with each minuscule reveal that Spencer knows what he is doing and has an end in sight. Everything is in here for a reason and more questions will be asked before they are answered, but unlike Lost I believe all will be revealed in time. I continue to love this book. RECOMMENDED.
from the beginning of the series and I think you will be hooked. It is refreshing to find something so new and unlike anything on the racks. And always remember, "Axe Cop saw a cup of water sitting at the next table. So he drank it...and it screamed," and that is only the first four panels of page one. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.