My favorite costume: Neo-Victorian biologist (at GeekMom)
Day 2: Again with the Quick Peeks
Things My Kids Can’t Wait to See at SDCC (at GeekMom)
The Streets of San Diego (at GeekMom)
SDCC Teen Comics Workshop (at GeekMom)—emphasis on art
SDCC Comics for Teens Recap (at GeekMom)—emphasis on writing
One of the best panels I attended at SDCC was Comics in the Library, moderated by Gina Gagliano of First Second Books, featuring four librarians from different parts of the country:
• Candice Mack, LA Public Library
• Mike Pawuk, Cuyahoga County Public Library (Ohio)
• Eva Volin, Alameda Library (CA) [Twitter]
• Gene Anbaum, Unshelved [Twitter]
This is a writeup of my panel notes. I was writing quickly, so it’s possible I’ve made mistakes below—my apologies if so!
From left: Candice Mack, Mike Pawuk, Eva Volin, Gina Gagliano. Sorry I didn’t get Gene Anbaum in the photo!
(more…)
There’s just always SO MUCH TO TELL, you know? Argh.
Okay, first: I went to five panels. I would like to recap each one. My recap of the SUPERCOOL Teen Comics Workshop is up at GeekMom. That leaves:
• Books vs. Graphic Novels and Comics—authors who write both talked about the differences.
• Comics in the Library—fantastic panel of librarians speaking about how they built comics/graphic novel collections in their branches.
• Comics for Teens—(not to be confused with the aforementioned Teen Comics Workshop). This one was all authors. Moderated by Scott Westerfeld. Excellent. (My GeekMom recap is here.)
• Disney/Marvel panel.
I don’t know which I’ll recap here, and which at GeekMom, but I’ll add the links to this post either way.
Now for my con diary. I went in alone on Thursday morning—Scott had a book deadline, and he was also celebrating not having to WORK at the con for the first time in five years. I had a full slate of panels I wanted to hit; of course I only caught two of them. You never get to do as much as you think you will. So much of the day is spent walking from one end of the enormous building to the other.
I started off with a tour of the floor. The crowds weren’t too heavy yet, and I half wished I’d brought some kids with me instead of saving their visits for the weekend, which were sure to be packed. (Indeed they were.) But I kept bumping into friends at their various booths, so it’s probably just as well my girls didn’t have to stand around and wait while I gabbed. Catching up with chums I pretty much only see once a year is one of the best things about SDCC, for me.
I ran into our pals Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman and snagged a copy of their kids’ comic, Jake the Dreaming, which I’m eager to read as soon as I catch my breath.
And right around the corner from them was my local author/illustrator friend Eric Shanower, whose graphic novel adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s The Marvelous Land of Oz (with gorgeous art by Scottie Young) would win an Eisner the next day.
I explored the booths for cool stuff and found a lot to fall in love with: the little marshmallow doll I mentioned at GeekMom, and some Gama-Go shirts, and about seventy-eleven books.
I restrained myself and didn’t buy the books: those things are murder on your shoulders by the end of the day.
I also didn’t buy these shoes.
I did buy this ninja kitty shirt, but it turned out to be too small so I had to give it to Jane. ::shakes fist::
I may have gone home with some Uglydoll loot. Uglydoll creator David Horvath was there, signing autographs. He and his wife seemed awfully nice.
I wandered the aisles, marveling at cool displays like this Lego Boba Fett.
By now it was well past noon, and I had to hurry upstairs to catch the Books vs. Graphic Novels and Comics panel. More on that later, I hope?
The charming Matt Holm, illustrator of Babymouse and Squish, was on that panel, which was part of why I wanted to go.
After the panel, back down to the main hall—this time to the Artists’ Alley end. Looked for some friends, found a few, gabbed awhile. Got hungry, devoured a pretzel dog. I don’t even like hot dogs, but this was delicious.
And then suddenly it was 4pm and I had to rush back upstairs to the Comics for Teens panel. I made it with five minutes to spare, and that’s where I encountered that wonderful Neo-Victorian biologist and her mom that I posted about at GeekMom. What’s funny is I was so enchanted by Linden’s costume that it took me a while to notice that the man she was chatting with was Scott Westerfeld.
Well, the teen comics panel—which Scott Westerfeld moderated—was really excellent. The panelists were Cecil Castellucci (The Plain Janes, Rose Sees Red), Hope Larson (Mercury, Chiggers), Gene Yang (Level Up, American Born Chinese), and Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole). Definitely more on that later. (Which means you’ll see this photo twice.)
And after the panel, I took my weary self to the trolley and made my way home to show the kids our loot. Scott and I were supposed to go back downtown for a party, but (shhh)…we didn’t.
I’m running out the door this morning, so no time to write. Lots to tell when life slows down next week, though!
When San Diego Comic-Con swallows up my life.
I’ll be posting about it as usual, both here and at GeekMom. And tweeting from the middle of the madness, no doubt.
I’m pleased that my cellphone photos will automatically upload to Google+.
As usual, I’m poring over the schedule, trying to figure out what panels to attend…got requests?
My posts on SDCC, all in one handy-dandy linkypost.
Photos of supercool steampunk wheelchair
Awesome sketch drawn for me by the incredible Fiona Staples
Books that caught my eye (part 1)
Books that caught my eye (part 2)
Again, quickly typing up my notes. These are things that piqued my interest and beg a closer look, when time permits.
No particular order here except the order in which I encountered them at the con. (UPDATE: this post got too long! So now it’s a Part One.)
• Owly (kids’ graphic novels, the one I saw was wordless and sweet, published by Top Shelf Press)
• Practically everything at the First Second (:01) booth made me drool—I was already familiar with these folks, having read (and been blown away by) Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese a little while ago. Gene was on one of the children’s graphic novel panels I attended at SDCC last year.
Gene Luen Yang and Jennifer Holm at SDCC 2009.
This year, “Urgent Request” from The Eternal Smile (written by Gene; illustrated by Derek Kirk Kim) won the Eisner for best short story, which is very exciting. To my amusement, at the very moment I was paging through Eternal Smile, I looked up and there was Gene with his family at the First Second booth. He and his wife had their three small children in tow—Gene was wearing the baby in a front-carrier, a heartwarming sight. We chatted briefly; it was a delight to meet them.
• Back to First Second Books. Other titles that caught my eye:
—Cat Burglar Black
—Adventures in Cartooning—we’ve checked this out from the library, big hit with my kids, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here before
—Foiled (Jane Yolen)—has been on my TBR list, even more appealing in person, wonderful art
—Tiny Tyrant
—The Color of Water
• Hill & Wang, an imprint of Macmillan. Boy was I impressed with these folks! They’re publishing nonfiction graphic novels on a somewhat stunning range of topics. Author Jonathan Hennessy gave me a copy of The United States Constitution—that’s right, it’s the Constitution in graphic novel form—and when I brought it home to Jane, she devoured it the next day. She’s raving about it; I’ll write more when I’ve had a chance to review it myself.
Other intriguing Hill & Wang titles:
—The Cartoon Guide to Economics. I went back to the booth on Sunday to buy this—I usually save my purchases for the last day so I don’t have to lug stuff around for too long—and dadgummit, it was sold out. But it’s on my list of must-haves for Jane. And I hear there’s a Cartoon Guide to Statistics on the way…
—The 9/11 Report. Scott bought a copy of this. He’s excited.
—The Stuff of Life, “a graphic guide to genetics and DNA” with art by one of my favorite Comic-Con pals, Zander Cannon. There’s a sequel on evolution forthcoming soon.
—Biographies of Isadora Duncan, Malcolm X, Ronald Reagan, J. Edgar Hoover, Che Guevara. We came home with the Duncan bio; Jane enjoyed it; more on that one later too.
—Anne Frank: The Authorized Graphic Biography. Arresting art. I’m eager to take a closer look at this one.
—The Beats, a graphic history of the beat poets with text by Harvey Pekar.
OK, that’s a lot for one post. More to come in a follow-up.
More on SDCC 2010:
A few photos
Photos of supercool steampunk wheelchair
Awesome sketch drawn for me by the incredible Fiona Staples
What I did at SDCC
Rick Riordan panel
LOST Encyclopedia Panel
Epic fantasy panel
Books that caught my eye (part 2)
I owe my daughter Jane a nod of thanks for this one. Sunday-morning-at-10:00 panels don’t usually make my list, but Jane attended Comic-Con for the first time on Sunday and she was especially keen to hear Rick Riordan speak about his Percy Jackson books. So in we went, bright and early, and snagged good seats about four rows from the front.
The interviewer was acclaimed Irish author Michael Scott, an authority on Celtic folklore and writer of the popular Nicholas Flamel series. Both Scott and Riordan had a wonderful rapport with the audience, showing genuine affection for their enthusiastic young fans. I so enjoyed the warmth, humor, and wisdom radiating from these two amiable authors. Michael Scott asked wonderful questions and could undoubtedly have gone on asking them for a good long while, but the queue of readers eager to ask Riordan their own questions was so long that Scott graciously turned the floor over to the fans about halfway into the hour.
I’m pressed for time today (this week, this month) so what I’m going to do is simply type up my notes. If any point is particularly interesting to you, leave a comment and I’ll try to expand on it there. (more…)
“So what do you do at Comic-Con, anyway?” a friend asked me. My con experience is generally quite different from most of my friends’ experiences there, the daytime parts at least. Most of my con pals are writers, artists, and editors who are there to work. They put in time at publishers’ booths, they sign books and do sketches, they speak on panels and meet fans and go to special events. For most pros, it’s a fun week, but a hard one too, often quite exhausting. People are usually pretty wiped out by Sunday afternoon. Even I am exhausted, and I didn’t have to work. As you know, I took a break from fiction writing with the last two babies, so I haven’t had any new books to promote in the past couple of years. (Though I suppose this is as good a time as any to tell you that I did get back to work in January, and I will have three new books coming out in 2012 and 2013. But that’s a topic for another post…)
At dinner with Babymouse author and utterly lovable person, Jenni Holm, and her delightful husband, video game developer Jonathan Hamel. My crazy gremlin smile is because that is how happy they make me.
Anyway, for me, as a pro who has been on hiatus, SDCC is kind of an ideal convention experience: I get all the fun of spending time with writer and artist friends, many of whom I only see once a year, and I get to explore the vendor hall and scout out interesting new books to read—which you know is pretty much my favorite pastime—but I am also free to attend panels all day long, if I wish. And I love the panels at Comic-Con. I love listening to other creative professionals talk about their work. The folks who speak on SDCC panels are some of the smartest, most talented, most interesting people I’ve ever had the pleasure to listen to. Comic book writers and artists, children’s book writers, science fiction and fantasy authors, cartoonists, editors…a feast for the curious mind.
So: I went to lots of panels, and when I wasn’t tweeting about them, I took copious notes in my notebook—notes I will shortly attempt to write up here, for my own records if nothing else. Here are the panels I attended; I’d love to know which ones you’d be most interested in hearing more about:
• “Once Upon a Time”—panel on high fantasy with authors Brandon Sanderson, Brent Weeks, Lynn Flewelling, Megan Whalen Turner, Christopher Paolini, and Patrick Rothfuss. SUCH A GREAT DISCUSSION! Topics: everyman vs. superhero; role of prophecy/destiny in fiction.
• Digital comics (this one turned about to be more about marketing than the creative and technical processes)
• Webcomics
• The LOST Encyclopedia
• Rick Riordan interviewed by novelist Michael Scott (EXCELLENT panel; I tweeted notes and took many more)
• “Entertaining One’s Inner Child”—panel of children’s graphic novel author/illustrators moderated by Jennifer Holm. The panelists were: Jimmy Gownley (Amelia Rules), Sina Grace (Among the Ghosts), Matt Holm (Babymouse), Adam Rex (Fat Vampire), David Steinberg (Daniel Boom), and Greg Van Eekhout (Kid Vs. Squid).
• Spotlight on the legendary comic-book writer and Batman editor Dennis O’Neil, moderated by my favorite man in comics, a handsome fellow by the name of Scott Peterson
Besides the panels, there were lunches and dinners and discussions that lasted late into the night. On Saturday evening a large group of children’s lit folks—authors, artists, and editors—met for drinks at the Hyatt and then a bunch of us drifted over to Buster’s Beach House for fish tacos and lively chat.
The lovely Raina Telgemeier, author/illustrator of Smile (the graphic novel Rose has read at least six time in the past four weeks), and her husband, cartoonist Dave Roman.
I’ll share my enticing book discoveries in another post; exploring the publisher booths occupied a considerable number of my hours at the con. And, of course, there was plenty of time simply to marvel at (and sometimes be overwhelmed by) the crowds—tens of thousands of creative, colorful comic-book fans, some of the most dedicated and passionate readers in the world.
More on SDCC 2010:
A few photos
Photos of supercool steampunk wheelchair
Awesome sketch drawn for me by the incredible Fiona Staples
Rick Riordan panel
LOST Encyclopedia Panel
Epic fantasy panel
Books that caught my eye (part 1)
Books that caught my eye (part 2)