Monday, July 24, 2006

Mark's Home!

Amtrak ran a bit late but the train was way more comfy than flying...and given how long in advance airlines want you to check in now, not that much longer. Hey, how about driving? Nope, no way, forget about it. The older I get, the less I like to drive anywhere and especially long trips. So the train was jes' fine for us.

What to say? I liked the Hyatt a lot more than Heidi MacDonald but she's basically right about everything else. The big story was, of course, the teeming mass of humanity (I'm being a bit loose with the language here) that descended — or in some cases, tried to descend — on the convention center. A tip for next year's con: Register in advance or don't go.

And by the way: I'm not sure that there isn't some convention rule against this but if there isn't, I'm going to throw out a free idea by which someone could make themselves a ton o' money: Sell bottles of water cheaper than the convention center vendors. Your basic 16.9 ounce bottle of Crystal Geyser drinking H2O (those little bottles that all say they're filled by someone named "CG Roxane") sell for about 25 cents each at the market near me and they're even cheaper at Costco. Those are retail prices but even if you paid that, you could sell them for $1.25 each and make a tidy profit, even after paying for your table and a couple of tubs of ice. The concessions at the convention center were getting $2.50 for a bottle of water...and it was even worse than that.

You get in line, wait five or ten minutes and finally, when you reach the front, you say, "Two bottles of water, please." And you figure they're going to hand you, for your five dollars, two of the 16.9 ounce bottles they have on display. Logical, right?

Only they don't do that. They hand you two twelve ounce bottles of Dasani...which, first of all, isn't as good a drinking water (purified as opposed to natural spring). And secondly, instead of getting 16.9 ounces for your $2.50, you're getting twelve ounces. For two and a half bucks, they can't give you the slightly larger size which costs them maybe two cents more? Plus, of course, it's sort of misleading advertising...and you'll usually go along with it because you're thirsty and tired and you need to be somewhere for a panel and you don't really want to spend another ten minutes in line to see if the next vendor over has larger bottles. (Based on my unscientific survey, they did not.) In a hall where one could find plenty of rip-offs, this was the rip-offiest.

Hmm...I think I just complained about that for more paragraphs than it's worth. But that's sometimes the kind of guy I am.

I'll write more after I unpack.

• Posted at 5:47 PM · LINK

Real Early Monday Morning Con Blogging

This year's Comic-Con International is a thing of the past. Some thoughts in no particular order...

• A tip I should have given you was to wander way, way, way down to the end of the hall that included the area known as Artists' Alley. Lots of talented creators — including some real veterans — were there, most selling published art and sketches. It was the part of the con that most felt like a COMIC BOOK convention.
• Some woman was heard incessantly on a very loud, piercing public address system, making unnecessary announcements and scolding people who did naughty things like pulling a wheeled suitcase through the hall. (John Romita, a legendary comic artist in his seventies, told me he was admonished twice for this.) I know the lady was only doing her job but ten more of those announcements and I think someone would have formed a posse to hunt her down.
• Stop complaining that the food that's available in the convention center sucks. It's supposed to suck so you'll go out instead and patronize the local merchants. It's only there for people who really, really can't get away and have to be satisfied with sucky food.
• Why is it I couldn't locate the ten or twelve people with whom I had to talk business but I couldn't take twelve steps without running into Len Wein?
• The surgeon who performed my Gastric Bypass Surgery has a long waiting list and is in no need of more patients. But if he ever is, he could find plenty of candidates by setting up a booth at the con.
• Shopping carts. We need shopping carts. And one of those services like they have in some malls where when you're done shopping, you take all your purchases to them and they deliver everything to your home for you.
• I attended the first San Diego Con in 1970. There were fewer people there that year than I saw lined up yesterday to get into the DC display area.
• There were some great panels and presentations at the convention...and I'm not just talking about the twelve I was on. If I hadn't done them, I could have found way more than twelve I wanted to attend.
• It's always nice when I get to meet a veteran comic artist I've never met before but whose work I've always admired. Everett Raymond Kinstler is a charming, classy gentleman.
• Please, people...and this isn't just about parties at comic conventions. It applies to all parties everywhere. If people are going to be standing around talking, we don't need music. We really don't. You can never hear it and it always makes it harder to hear the folks you want to chat with. I especially feel sorry for live musicians, sitting or standing there, playing their hearts out...and no one can hear what they're doing well enough to enjoy it.
• Kyle Baker is brilliant. Everyone should buy his books.
• There were lots of other brilliant creators in that hall. I'll try to mention some more of them in the coming days.
• Hotels in San Diego must all be fabulous. At the Quick Draw! panel, looking for a "pet peeve" to use as the basis of a cartooning challenge, I asked anyone in the audience who had poor accomodations to raise their hands. In a room of several thousand people, no one did.
• Remind me to tell you about the gorgeous, stunningly-built super-heroine parading through the hall...who I think was a guy.
• Lastly: I'm weary, I'm tired of fighting my way through crowds, my feet hurt, I spent way too much money...and I can't wait 'til next year. If you weren't there this time, you might want to block out July 26-29 on your calendar. And start looking for a hotel room now.

• Posted at 12:46 AM · LINK