Comic-Con Sunday Recap
Up, pack, and off to breakfast at the Walker House. You have to stand in line, but it’s worth it.
10:45 Nathan Fillion’s panel for Castle was only in the third-largest room so I wasn’t planning on getting in, but I passed by an hour early to confirm the line was really long (and a lot of people weren’t getting in). The Supernatural panel was also this morning in Hall H. Love the show, but not enough to stand in the line as long as some fans did. So I went to…
11:00 Allen Gregory panel – This is a new Fox animated show from Jonah Hill (Superbad), David Goodman (Family Guy), and executive producers Andrew Model and Jarrad Paul. The ten-minute exclusive clip was hysterical. Allen Gregory is an adult mind in a child’s body, with a gay father who has a live-in boyfriend. The pilot shows Allen Gregory’s first day of elementary school. It’s unclear if he’s that worldly or just out of this world, but it’s laugh out loud funny.
12:00 Speculative Fiction: Space Odyssey, Alien Encounters and Future Worlds panel – Authors speaking included Greg Bear, Vernor Vinge, Gini Koch, and Timothy Zahn, and several others. There were a lot of brilliant science fiction writing minds on this panel, but it moved a bit slowly, honestly. Still, it was great to hear a lot of the same ideas I believe about writing science fiction coming out of the mouths of some of the most successful writers in the genre.
1:00 The art of Dave Seeley – I wandered a bit more looking for artists and artwork I liked, still hunting for the cover of my dreams for my upcoming novel (or at least an idea of where to start). Then I ran across Dave Seeley’s booth – cover artist for Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor and the Enemy Lines duology, among others – and got to chat with the artist himself. If I had a high mark for who I’d want to do my cover art, Dave would be it. He was a bit surprised when I asked about Blood Oath by name, and in fact had a print of it available. So I walked away with the Blood Oath print and the Rebel Stand print, and some encouragement to aim high.
2:00 Cover Story: The Art of the Cover panel – Sitting on this panel were some famous names in comics. The moderator talked about the history of comic books covers. It used to be that the Powers That Be thought the cover had more power to sell a product than what was inside, and covers were often made before an idea for the story was even fully sketched out. Then that conventional wisdom changed, and covers got weaker. Apparently the pendulum is now swinging back the other way. Another factor contributing to the generic hero poses we see more and more of lately is the need to get cover art out with the publisher’s catalogues well ahead of the book – something Star Wars fans are pretty familiar with.
3:30 Finally, I figured I should brave Hall H for a full Comic-Con experience. With the con winding down, I was able to walk right into the Always Sunny in Philadelphia panel and stay for the Sons of Anarchy panel. Nothing spectacular to report from either, but the casts of both shows are quite personable and comfortable on stage. For those who watch SoA, the new season starts with the Sam Crowe gang getting released after spending the past 14 months in jail.
4:45 Back to the fulfillment room with my goodie ticket from the Allen Gregory panel. Got a nice ballcap and a pin.
5:15 My last meal down in the Gaslamp District. The staff at the restaurants and bars are so welcoming and appreciative of the Comic-Con guests. I was told that Comic-Con is the biggest convention to hit San Diego by a factor of four.
7:00 Well, it’s been great, but the airport shuttle is almost here. Farewell, San Diego!
Check out the tweets and also Facebook for pictures.
Tricia Barr's novel, Wynde, won the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Award Gold Medal for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Ebook. She was also part of Silence in the Library's successful all-female creator science fiction and fantasy anthology Athena's Daughters, which is available now. For excerpts and tales of her adventures in creating a fictional universe, hop over to TriciaBarr.com.
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