Today has been a long one, but I wanted to put down my thoughts about Comic-Con so far and give them to you. If I don’t, I’ll get too far behind and then it’ll be bad for everybody.
First, I want to say that this is the most organized the Con has felt. Press badge pickup was supposed to start at 3, I arrived to get in line to pick up my badge at 2:30 and I was surprised to find that there wasn’t a line because they were actually ready early. This is a first for all of my Comic-Con experience. There were still some issues herding people into Preview Night on time, but that’s probably because this was the craziest Preview Night I’ve ever been to. It was wall-to-wall people and I’m not the only one who commented that this felt more like a Saturday afternoon than a Wednesday night.
I finally made it in and found myself walking by the Marvel booth. It is decked out like a S.H.I.E.L.D. set of some sort with a huge “The Avengers” logo across the top. I’ll have pictures tomorrow. Sadly, even Moses couldn’t part the masses for me to get closer there. I did find myself in the DC Booth though and found myself talking to Judd Winick. He intimated that it was a possibility that we might see Slam Bradley at some point in the relaunch of Catwoman he’s writing. I then ran into Gail Simone. I asked her how much crap she’s gotten about Stephanie Brown and the Batgirl controversey at the convention so far to which she replied, “Well, I just got here, so none yet. Why? Would you like to give me some?”
She’s very funny and great and I hope to be talking to her more in the future about the Batgirl relaunch.
I found myself wandering the halls with Jimmy Martin (from Television’s The Big Movie Mouth-Off) and came across the exhibit for the Star Wars Blu-ray. First, a representative from Lucasfilm let me play with their new app (that we reported on earlier) that gives you a sneak peak to just a taste of special features you’ll be getting on the Blu-ray. For those who haven’t downloaded the app, it gives you a brief behind the scenes look at every film in the Star Wars saga and gives it to you in pretty stunning detail. It has moving menus, video and interview segments, archive photos, and more than I had time to explore in ten minutes.
Then I was ushered into a bunker where a General Doddonna looking fellow was giving a briefing. There was a massive HD monitor set up over the top of a rebel briefing pedestal, much like the one tracking the movements of the Death Star in A New Hope. We were then treated to an abridged presentation of the Battle of Yavin in full 1080 resolution and I have to say it looked absolutely stunning. There were some Special Edition shots included and they seemed to match even more flawlessly than before in high definition. It was really something you just need to see to believe. It’s going to be a stunning looking set. In fact, I was able to handle the box and the concerns over the art, both inside and out, are pretty unfounded. It looks much more well designed and good looking in person than the screen captures could ever lead us to believe.
September can’t get here soon enough.
By that time, Preview Night was over and I was on my way back to my hotel room to crash. But not before filing this report.
Until next time…
Be sure to check out Swank’s books, Lost at the Con and Man Against the Future.