Tagged: San Diego

The Big ComicMix Broadcast’s Home Game!

The Big ComicMix Broadcast’s Home Game!

We can’t deny it – we at The Big ComicMix Broadcast have a bad case of San Diego on the brain this week, but why not? The nation’s biggest tribute to comics and pop culture starts in just days, but here’s a few things to occupy your browsers until then:

  • Hipflask and Comiccraft have A PREVIEW OF ELPHANTMEN #10 on their site, and they will be offering samples at their booth in San Diego. While you are there, it is a quick jump over to see all the great fonts offered by Comiccraft – yowzer!!
  • Burger King’s SIMPSONS promotional site is the place where you can submit photos of you or your friends and be transferred into Simpsons characters – which is much cooler than being an M&M!
  • To relive your fond memories of great 90’s Nickelodeon TV like CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL, SALUTE YOUR SHORTS and more, check out the music video from the band XYZ Affair. See if you can spot the former Nick Stars in there.
  • TokyoPop continues to add new episodes of their anime series like I LUV HALLOWEEN, RIDING SHOTGUN and A MIDNIGHT OPERA;  there are links to get soundtracks and books as well.
  • Check out that limited edition sketchbook offered by Bill Sienkiewicz . It goes on sale at ComicCon on a first come basis.
  • Finally – for all things ComicCon, there’s one place to go – the official site of course: http://www.comic-con.org/

The Big ComicMix Broadcast will be back here on Tuesday, we clear off the desk with our rundown of new comics and DVDs, talk to one of the people who helped form comics fandom and then pack our bags for the west coast! See you then!

Baseball and comics go together

Want to excite that baseball fan whom you’d like to drag along to the Comic-Con International in San Diego next week?  Tell her or him that Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling will be there, or at least his company will.

On his blog 38 Pitches, Schilling links to a Businesswire story about his 38 Studios corporation having a San Diego presence.  It should come as no shock that one of the company’s executives is noted baseball fanatic and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, but it may surprise some folks to see fantasy author R.A. Salvatore’s name in the mix as well.

McFarlane and Salvatore will be a the 38 Studios booth in Hall C, Booth #2601.  Don’t miss your chance to ask Todd about those valuable baseballs he owns, and whether he’ll be looking to purchase the ball from Barry Bonds’ #756, which may well be a reality by this time next week.

E3 Gaming Con Secrets Revealed!

E3 Gaming Con Secrets Revealed!

A new week for the Big ComicMix Broadcast and some good scoops fresh out of the top-secret E3 Gaming Con, as well as a peek at the future of DC’s The Brave and the Bold and your wallet at war with tons of new comics and DVDs out this week – we are guessing you will surrender on this one! Then we toss out a few more San Diego tidbits and even subscribe to that X-Files 2 movie rumor!

The truth is still out there – but you have to PRESS The Button to get it!

Bid on dinner with Joss Whedon at Comic-Con

Bid on dinner with Joss Whedon at Comic-Con

There are some parties at San Diego that are impossible to get into. Sometimes, it’s better to get into a nice quiet upscale dinner, and even those can be amazing — I happened to be at one two years ago where the food was great and the stories were stunning.

But this might be the topper for the year: Joss Whedon (Astonishing X-Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Captain America’s surrender in Civil War) is auctioning off five seats at a dinner table with him at the San Diego Comic-Con this year. Bidding is up to over $4000 a seat with a week to go. Here’s a link to one of the seats, but check on eBay as there are five separate ones and eBay didn’t set this up as a Dutch Auction.

Dinner will be on July 27th in San Diego, and 100% of the proceeds will go to benefit Equality Now. Here’s Joss making a speech for them:

Hat tip: Heidi MacDonald.

Veronica Mars Goes Wild

Veronica Mars Goes Wild

 Over at www.eonline.com/gossip/kristin someone on DC’s staff spilled the beans about the fate of the beloved Veronica Mars.

During a chat this week : "Jonathan in New York: I work at DC Comics, and you’ve got some big love here. There’s a bunch of us who take your word for gospel, and though it’s already sorta out there, we just wanted to send some info your way on the Veronica Mars comic books. They’ll be published by our WildStorm imprint, which is based in San Diego, and R.T. [series creartor rob Thomas] is looking to be firmly on board. We’re even hoping for a late fall release of the first issue. Hopefully, more to come…Keep up the good work!Jonathan, we love you. Tubers, buy DC Comics."

No doubt there will be more about this at San Diego next month.

BEA Day 2 pictorial

BEA Day 2 pictorial

I’m getting way too old for this.  Nonetheless, had I the energy to walk around and the time to have planned ahead (a must!), I would have loved Book Expo America even more.  It’s been at least 15 years since I’ve been to this trade show (the last time I attended it wasn’t even called BEA), and it’s as exhilarating as ever.  Whoever believes nobody has any interest in books any more needs to be dragged to this show.

The ComicMix contingent was out in force for this one.  Pictured here are Mellifluous Mike Raub, Head Honcho Mike Gold, and Spin Queen Martha Thomases.  Not pictured are Kai Connolly and Glenn Hauman.  Expect any info from these folks to be far more valuable than my meager photos, as they got info and interviews galore.

More than ever before, comics and particularly graphic novels are firmly ensconced in the pantheon of publishing, and enthusiastically accepted by show attendees.  Lots of emphasis was put this year on graphic novels for kids, and Harold Buchholz and Jane Fisher were doing their part to expand that — do check out their Kids Love Comics website!  I also had my photo taken a bit later with Harold and Colleen Doran, who warns me it’ll be up on her site when she gets home.  It was terrific to see so many Team Comics people at this show!

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Scribe nominees announced

Scribe nominees announced

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers has announced the nominees for the first annual Scribe Awards, honoring excellence in licensed tie-in writing for books published in 2006. The 2007 Scribe awards will be given out at a ceremony at Comic-Con in San Diego.

Their first annual Grandmaster Award, honoring career achievement in the field, will go to Donald Bain, author of the Murder, She Wrote novels and the ghostwriter behind Coffee, Tea or Me and other bestsellers.

The nominees are:

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Dennis O’Neil: The Fanatic Conclave

Dennis O’Neil: The Fanatic Conclave

File this under: If the tail wags the dog for long enough, does the tail become the dog? Part I.

But first, a little reminiscence.

I had been in the comic book business less than six months, maybe not much more than one month, when I attended my first comics convention at the invitation of Flo Steinberg, known as “Fabulous Flo” during Marvel’s formative days. The event was held in the gym of the McBurney YMCA on 23rd Street in Manhattan. The guest of honor was Buster Crabbe. I don’t think I’d seen any of his filmed work yet, but somewhere I’d learned that he had done some comics-derived movie serials and that made him a celebrity and I guess I was impressed, not having met many celebrities.

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