ONE WEEK LATER

This is something I've been thinking about doing for awhile. Kind of a review column. My gimmick? (for now) look at the covers of comics i read a week ago and tell you what i think from what i remember...

How well did they stay in my memory or did they pass into... OBLIVION??

THE BOYS #54

Finally this book is chugging again. Look for awhile it seemed it was turning into a long protracted what if superheroes would F*&^ and you could watch? *Yawn*

But now it's back to 'Hey if there we're super heroes you know that the military industrial complex would be all over that, and if you thought them screwing around with your life was bad now, wait till they have Captain America and Batman to mess with your head.

Avengers Academy #13

I like this book. Super-hero prom. Tigra and Pym get it on. Just all in all a nice solid comic about young super heroes who after this book goes away you'll only see in background shots of Big summer cross overs. or Double page posters in Avengers Annuals.

Fear Itself # 2

Look the the Prelude to this had me worried. I read it and thought 'Who Cares?'

But the the 1st issue came out, and I was much more excited, I thought 'Oooh what's next?' Obviously Marvel knew this too, since in this issue....

Thor gets sent to his Room, Magical Hammers are given to, well...

All the characters they've been showing you who get Hammers in the centerfold of all Marvel Comics the last few months, and oh a Major City may get destoyed, but hey New York got it's ass kicked in 'Civil War' and well it got better. So by the end of the issue i'm not eally going 'Oooh what's next?' But I will be buying issue 3, and well marvel knew that so... Move along nothing to see here, see you next month buddy.

MOON KNIGHT #!

OK I fell for it i was expecting something a little different like they said it would be.

Well, Uh, Bendis, Maleev, Nice art, nice dialog between two thugs so you can get to know them before they get capped, and...
Well, other than that, 'what if Spider-Woman had a sex and costume change and called herself Moon Knight?

X-Men PRELUDE: SCHISM # 1

Professor X recaps everything that's happened to the X-Men and Cyclops, while they all wait for something horrible that's coming, but no one will tell you what that is. Oh, and Wolverine doesn't like it. No Sir, not one bit...

OK that's it for this week, who knows maybe'll I'll keep this up, let me know if you want to see it again. I'll try to do more next time.
Hey 'Flashpoint' starts next week, will it hold in my memory for Seven Days?

THE CAPER

We touched down in San D. on Wednesday afternoon.

Already the town is in full swing for the Con. I'm not joking, there are banners hanging from lamposts and movie posters covering the sides of Hotels. There are rolling billboards and ads covering he sides of buses and the shuttles that move back and forth between the Con and the Hotels.

They don't play around.

So there we were checking into our hotel about four blocks from the Con.

Yeah that's right FOUR BLOCKS.

If you never done Comic-Con you don't know what a score that is. We booked in early March.

'For a Convention that doesn't happen til the end of July.' you say?

Yeah, 1st week in March. and by the mid March the town was booked SOLID. It's like the Scarlet Witch whispered 'No more hotel rooms.' Coming in is more of the same Planes, Trains, Buses, Cars, and Vans booked to bursting. And by nightfall restaurants and bars (especially hotel bars) standing room only. Look, the only people who drink more than Comic artists, fans, writers, and retailers are...

Well, come to think of it, Wolverine isn't real, and Artie Lange is in rehab so it's a moot point.

We dropped our bags off in our room and went o go pick up our Con passes.

Hey wait a minute, didn't you say the Con was SOLD OUT no more 4 day passes?

Well yes, I did. The four day w/preview night was sold out in Oct, and the rest about two weeks later, and the one day passes went blackout in April. But hey, no worries, we got ours in May.

See we got Comp. Pro passes.

About a year ago we started putting together a little webshow, a sit-com we call

'Forever Wednesday'

You can see it here http://watchforeverwednesday.com/

Go ahead, we'll wait.

So what do you think? Well tell your friends already!

(and if you weren't impressed? Keep it to yourself, alright? We're all friends here...)

Anyway thanks for taking a look.

So see we're Pro's just a litle bit of Internet Magic and we were in.

Comic-Con 2010.

Me, Gir, & The Hammer.

I wonder if anyone will notice.

READY FOR THE RUN

In a little over 3 days I’ll be in the fun and sun, the madness and the the thrill, the crowds and the crush.

Where did it begin?

Oh yeah, November…

On November 2009 Four day passes to Comic Con 2010 sold out. Surprising, well, more than a few people, myself included. I mean the con had stated to sell out lately, that wasn’t surprising but hey, selling out a mere 90 days after the close and a full 8 months prior to the doors opening in July of ‘10. OK that makes you stand up and take notice.

Now I’m the type that kinda likes to go into battle stations mode. So when it turned out that the passes gone I didn’t panic. Oh no, if anything I started to scheme.

To me the sold out really meant; GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER.

So, yeah, time to stop screwing around. So you going or what Sparky?

Yeah, I’m going.

Time to get the crew together.

1st things 1st, who was my partner going to be?

I like to have some type of a crew when I’m going to pull a gig or a caper I can’t help it, I have a heist mentality about things. So I need back up. For the past few years that means Gir, My right hand my filthy assistant, my monkey wrench for the back of your head.. (and bane of my existence.) Gir hinders as much as helps, but Gir keeps me focused, she can also clear an aisle with a glance and possesses stompy powers far above the mortal ken. She is also the bearer of the ring of Hangry red might.

Fear her.

Ok, so Gir.

Next, an established member of the tribe, but joining Nerd Prom for the 1st time The Hammer. The Hammer has wanted to make Comic Con for over 10 years now, this year it was going to happen.

Now we need just need the stunt.

You Can Fool Some Of The People...

And by 'some of the people' I'm talking about the registration staff of the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, who have seen it fit to dub, our very own Kate & Clark of 'Forever Wednesday' (watchforeverwednesday.com) as Creative Professionals and will be attending as guests at this summers' con!

Needless to say, we are very excited about this, and we thank the staff for giving us a little validation of our work, and we'll see you in SD in July!

Wow, has it been a year already?

Gee, I guess it has.
Well we're up and running, or at least getting prepared for the big race.
March and we've got our Rooms,Flights, and badges.
Yeah, we're set, Four months before there's even chalk outlines on the con floor, but we're ready.
Hey, you snooze, you loose.
And team Forever Wednesday, does not snooze, kiddies, we rule!

See you at The Fields in July.
We'll have a Guinness.

CLAWS AND MICE AND PRETTY THINGS...





Look, i'm an info junkie, every morning i awake roll over and turn on my Laptop, it's right next to me, like a techno teddy bear.(yeah, i know, sick, shut up.) And 1st thing i'm half awake and scanning, CNN, FOX, The BEAST, SLATE, HUFFINGTON, MINE, etc. etc.
Look kiddies, Daddy needs his feeds, and no sin is more unforgivable than being uninformed...

Oh and comic boards, CBR, NEWSARAMA, BLEEDING COOL, WHEN FAN GIRLS ATTACK, THE BEAT...
and we all now know the big news on Monday, was:

DISNEY
BUYS
MARVEL

Now i will admit at 1st i missed it, i was a bit too early with my scans, i was on my facebook page and getting ready to leave for work, when i got the news from a friend who scans the stock market. (That's right, the stock market, when Mickey and Wolvie decide to pop claws even Wall Street stops to take a look.)
So yeah, when my friends who know i like comics get ripples out there in the real world it's kinda a big thing. So when i saw it i quiclky posted back, and then i put it up on my LJ along with some links. But then i had to go to work, so now with 24 hours and all the internet howls behind me, may i present:

My Thoughts
About The
Marvel Disney
Alliance.

I'm fine, how are you?
No really, to me this is kind of like the 1st day after an election, the sun still shines, the birds still sing, there don't seem to be a noticeable amount of tanks driving down main street, and no brown shirts have asked for my papers, or wanted to know why I'm reading Supergirl instead of Wolverine, so I'm fine. Also I'm pretty sure they're not going to search my bag pull out my copy of Deadpool and rip it up while shaking their head menacingly at me and muttering 'Tut, tut, not acceptable'

Look I know Disney is a media/corporate/commershalism Juggernaut. It's big, it's scary and when it sneezes we all feel a breeze.

*Genzustite*

To me the outcry at Disney, is sort of like the outcry at the Catholic church from time to time, they're both big, easy, targets. You can throw stuff at them and scream and 7 out of 10 times, people will start to throw stuff with you. Not that they've really thought about it, no, just because; 'Well they MUST be bad, they're DISNEY, right? KILL THE MOUSE. KILL THE MOUSE!'

sigh

Yesterday, a person came into my shop and as he was making a purchase he asked me how I felt about the whole Marvel/Disney deal, and while the thing on my mind was what it would mean to bookstore distribution, (Not comic shop distribution, I'm pretty sure that won't be touched Disney proved that with BOOM and the Disney Ducks books) But Diamonds deals with stores like Borders for Marvel may become a thing of the past. And soon and that has the potential to hurt Diamonds bottom line. Which may lead to a reversal of their new publishing quotas for indie books, which could be a good thing in the long run.
But no, He wanted to talk about how Disney would ruin Marvel, and alienate their audience.
So I talked about the fact that while Disney has a lock on the little Girl Market with things like the Disney Princess and Tinkerbell line they've never been able to get a real foothold in the Little Boys market which they've been actively pursing with the Disney XD channel and Marvel is the perfect 'Touchstone' to open that market for them.
So then since I still wasn't sharing the Kool-Aid with him, he said he just saw this as an 'Eisner' type problem, how Disney would change the nature of the brand.
Oh I said, like when 'Eisner' came in and with Roy Disney at his side revitalized the Disney Animation dept. and gave us "The Little Mermaid', "Beauty and The Beast' 'Aladdin' and 'The Lion King'? After those big hits 'The Black Cauldron', and 'Oliver and Company', Disney had been lost in the woods since the minute after they made TRON.

Now I knew that wasn't going to make him happy. But i didn't care much, he had asked me my opinion and i gave it to him. He talked about the loss of quality animation, in the backgrounds of the movies since, 'Snow White' I countered with the backgrounds in 'Beauty and The Beast', and 'Aladdin'.

He argued that the movies were aimed at kids and not edgy, like 'Fantasia'
I countered that 'Fantasia' lost tons of money when it was released, and when they did 'Fantasia 2000' which had pieces inspired by Hershfield (Rapsdody in Blue) and the amazing 'Right of Spring' with the death of the Dinosaurs, It kind of died an awful death too. Along with the fact that 'Aladdin' was bascily a Looney Tunes cartoon ala Disney, and that in 'Lilo & Stitch' While the Marketing department, screamed to the public that Stitch was their edgiest character ever, the REAL Edgy chracter was Lilo, an outcast, a rebel, the first clinically depressed Disney Princess to grace the screen, and she was awsome in her fury, her sadness her refusal to conform, and her goal to make the world see the beauty she saw in what others saw as misfits, and we have not seen her like since.

Oh and that when they bought 'Pixar' they just let it be "Pixar'

Then he looked at me and said, 'Well, I just don't trust Disney.'

And there's the rub.
It's really not about the fear of what Disney will Do. It's about the Fear of what Disney might do in our heads. Walt and Co. have archived the what they set out to do, they are the stuff of legends, they are now the 21 Century Fairy Tale. Told and handed down from Generation to generation.

What they weren't prepared for, is that they're the Wicked Stepmother.

The Floor Show.

So once again the Con Main floor is gigantic.

We hit preview night, but really all it became was a sea of people hypnotized by flashing lights, shiney things, giant towering comic book icons, and wild eyed fans overcome by art.

We're through the looking glass people, this is hardcore, This Is COMIC CON!