the happy mania

True to form, I found my plans altered because I wasn't prepared. Although I had spoken to a volunteer about the internet connection at the Moscone convention center, I still had trouble connecting to the public wifi. Had I decided to test it out the day before, I would have figured a fix and continued on my merry way live-blogging. Alas, I like to fly by the seat of my pants (and I do mean pants) and cursed my stupidness.

Luckily the Chuck panel started, and I sat in rapt attention as a sweet trailer of upcoming Season 2 moments was played. We have explosions, super sekrit spy moments, hawt women in various states of undress, and Chuck's dad. And guess who that is played by? C'mon. No? Two words: Quantum Leap.

AW YEAH TITANS CHUCK!

( MOAR LULZ UNDR KUTZ )

Let's get some things out of the way:

1) For those worried about Kate Spencer after Manhunter was canceled: she will be Gotham's new DA. I know. My heart just about skipped a beat when I heard that.

2) New Doom Patrol title written by Keith Giffen, with a 10pg co-feature of Metal Men added at the back of the book that is penciled by Kevin Maguire and written by JM DeMatteis. I know. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

3) Blackest Night 0 will be DC's offering for Free Comic Book Day. Sadly, Hal Jordan isn't dressed up as Rainbow Brite on the cover. Geoff Johns is writing, and Doug Mahnke is on art duties *whistles*

4) Gotham City Sirens is a team up of Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn. Bad news: Dini says this Harley is not the Harley of the DCAU or her previous comic incarnation. It's not a fluffy Gotham Girls-esque title, as he intends to take it to darker places. For me, these characters aren't simple villains so I trust Dini. The news means my interest in the book hasn't wavered.

5) A lady went up at DC Nation panel to ask some questions. When mentioned she had them written down, it turns out her out-of-town boyfriend had asked her to ask the questions for him. We gave her a round of applause. Love: it makes you do nerdy things.

6) My question was whether we'd see Captain Boomerang II (Owen) and the new Suicide Squad soon. The answer was that we'll see half of them. Huh. Well, as long as we FINALLY see Owen meet Bart. Or am I jumping the gun in thinking that?

7) Green Lantern movie trailer: Yawn, it's Hal Jordan. *looks at watch* Oh, it's his origin story. *looks at screen* Damn, look at those cheekbones! You could cut glass on those corners. *sigh* I think I just lost interest in the GL movie. From the perspective of the company, I understand why the origin instead of something like Sinestro Corps War (please please please!) but I've already seen a GL origin story in New Frontier. I don't know, I guess I was just excited at the possibility of Guy, Kyle, and John when we're just getting more Hal-love. *mopes*

8) After the WW movie, I saw a kid with his Daddy, who had dressed up in a Wonder Woman homage. Shirtless (and ripped, too), with a red cape, golden lasso, and red boots to die for. I loved, loved his costume.

And finally, the WW movie:

( They said it couldn't be done. Were they right? MAJOR SPOILERS )

tl;dr: An enjoyable, entertaining movie. It's heavy on awesome action sequences, which are not at all gratuitous or overly bloody but isn't for the little kids (rating is PG-13). If you are watching for Diana and the Amazons being kick-ass, and either don't care or don't know Steve Trevor then I would rate it an A.

Since I take umbrage at Steve Trevor's transformation into Nemesis-lite, though I think everything else is awesomeness, I'm giving it a B+.

I'm posting this from Groundwork in Hollywood, in the company of parlance and her writing group. I've actually managed to pull out 600-plus words for the unnamed ficlet, which is great, but I've also drunk too much coffee and feeling a bit sick. *blergh*

Since I won't have the time to post this later tonight, here's the rest of my writeup on Wondercon:

( There I go again with the rambling... )

I'm not sorry to say this, but CNN is absolutely shit. Ever since Fox News came on, CNN's dumped its formerly formidable news coverage in favour of shitty opinion programs masquerading as journalism. Nancy Grace, for fuck's sake. What the hell makes her deserving of air time? Speculating on live television on whether Britney Spears is mentally deficient? Damn, it makes me depressed.

I know this is probably old news for those who have cable, but I don't and it disgusts me. Not only that, I remember the days when CNN actually had journalism credibility. When I wanted to be the next Christiane Amanpour and put my life out in a war zone in order to broadcast the unseemly truth. God, but MSNBC was a welcome respite. Even when it's as sloppy and concentrated on US-centric news read by pouty female newscasters who think it's the height of hilarity to put on a horrid accent and impersonate the French premier, it's still miles better than the drivel put out by CNN. Anyway, enough with the evils of cable news rant.

( Day 2 in San Francisco )

Hello everybody! A day back in LA and I'm still trying to get my bearings straight. San Francisco seems like a lifetime ago...

Wondercon was much fun and I've learned quite a lot. Despite myself, I used to think comics was one of those things people churned out without much regard. That's my fault, as I realised I now almost specifically read only comics in the superhero genre. These tend to seem like it caters for the juveniles who enjoy big breasts and people punching dinosaurs. When I had access to the LA Public Library system I'd read the early Miller stuff, but the more 'indie' ones too - Terry Moore, Clowes, etc. The Central library in downtown had a great selection of collected Kirby stories from Fantastic Four and Fourth World, and I'm sure I browsed through them fairly quickly. Eight years later and I'm less inclined to read stuff like DMZ and Crumb's works. I can't exactly pinpoint why, but I hope it changes.

I never once stop to think about what makes up these books. Inking, colouring, the paper it's printed on... that's what I've found out about from attending the Wondercon panels. What I concentrated on before was writing, since I had always reckoned on becoming a serious writer. That sort of coincided with a long held teenage dream to set up my own comic company, but now I scratch my head and wonder 'who's going to figure out the necessary day-to-day duties of creating a comic book?' Since learning the core basics, I'm definitely eager to learning more about the industry, even if nothing comes out of it. And not just the material costs of the production, but the history as well. I sat at the Jack Kirby panel and listened to these artists rhapsodise about his work and the massive influence he still has today. I was amazed that these guys remember a particular splash page Kirby made decades earlier, and that they could still explain why it captivates them still. This is the sort of moment that's gotten me itching to read and learn more.

For the next couple of days I'll be uploading pictures and writing up my notes on the Wondercon days. Heh, if you're not that keen on hearing me blag on about things someone said about their work in comics that I found interesting, you may want to avoid me for a while. I have LOTS of material, believe me. Pages and pages.

And now to play catch up on my f-list. Eeek.