Usually, I am off of work for Comic-Con. I take the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off, so I can dedicate all five days to the convention. Of course, this doesn’t stop me from occasionally catching up on work on Thursday and Friday morning in the Hyatt Bar lounge, when needed. For the most part, however, the five days of Comic-Con are all mine, to enjoy the convention full time.
This year, however, I am working from home, and attending ComicCon@Home in my home office, where I am also busy with work. Still, even with the day job responsibilities, I was able to sneak in some of the day’s events.
By events, I mean panels. All of the panels this year are YouTube videos on the San Diego Comic-Con Channel. All of the panels I have seen have been pre-recorded events instead of live streaming. The benefit of this format is that all of these panels are available for all to watch, no attendance required.
I watched the following panels, some reporting on each below:
- So you want to make an Action Figure, a Conversation with today’s Indie Toy Makers
- IDW: G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes with Rob Liefield
- The New Mutants
- Humanoids Legacy
Also, a number of companies have deals and exclusives available for order on their websites, so that can be worth hunting down.
So You Want To Make An Action Figure
This panel featured some people from Amazo Toys, Super 7, Chicken Fried Toys, Zica Toys, and The Fwoosh. I was interested in this panel, due to my recent interest in Action Figures. This panel covered some of the development of these various lines of toys, and some of the challenges of making an independent toy line.
This was a panel that made me wish there was some interactivity to these panels, because I would have loved to hear about the process of actually developing the action figure sculpts, how to get them prototyped, and getting them actually produced.
The trouble with watching panels like this is discovering new toy lines i didn’t know about, those Dime Novel Legends figures look pretty cool!
G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes with Rob Liefield
I randomly caught a Rob Liefield panel a few years ago, and his energy and enthusiasm is contagious.
In this panel, he talked about the influence G.I. Joe has had on him, and how much of a fan he has been throughout the years. G.I. Joe had a direct influence on X-Force, and Snake Eyes had a direct influence on Deadpool.
I find his enthusiasm for his projects infectious, and this made me excited about his current Snake Eyes mini-series. Listening to Rob talk about the development helped get me in the mindset for this series, which seems to be about having a good, awesome time with these Joe characters, just like we did when we played with these toys when we were kids.
The New Mutants
This panel started out highlighting the obscene number of times this movie has been delayed, and acknowledgement that this movie might actually be cursed.
The panel featured the director and the cast, and they reacted to fan artwork, and in turn, talked about their characters in the film and what they brought to the role.
They also brought in Bill Sienkiewicz for a few minutes to showcase some new artwork for the movie that features the characters in the actors likeness. The director acknowledged the impact Bill had on the series, and said that the Demon Bear saga was the primary influence on the look and tone of the movie.
They also showed the first scene of the movie, which consisted of Dani Moonstar waking up in her home, with some sort of disaster occurring around her. It seems clear, as the scene develops, that it is an attack by the demon bear.
The movie looks, well, so-so. But when they showed glimpses of Magik showing up with the Soulsword to take on the Demon Bear, well, I want to see that.
What was interesting to me about this panel was that it was essentially a Hall H panel, which I never attend. The Hall-H Con is something I have never done, because I am far more interested in all of the other things going on at the con. This year, there is no line for Hall-H, so now’s the time to see what all the hullabaloo is all about.
Humanoids Legacy
This panel featured Mark Waid, Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Russell, and Tula Lotay talking about the impact and influence that the comics published by Humanoids has had.
I recently read The Incal for the first time, it is some strange stuff. Very imaginative, and very different from typical American comics.
The panelists reflected about the comics published by Humanoids, that they push the art and story in comics in new, interesting directions than American comics do.
Timing wise, this was a great panel, because there is a Humanoids Humble Bundle that will allow you to get most of the books discussed in this panel for just a few bucks. I got it, it seems worth it.
Purchasing
The other great Comic-Con tradition is shopping and purchasing.
I have noticed a few companies with deals and exclusives for Comic-Con, it can just take some digging. I have a weakness for the Bandai “Movie Realization” Star Wars line, that reimagines Star Wars characters as Samurai. I have a few of them, and there is one or two I have had my eye on. Bluefin essentially had a two-for-one deal, which was a bit too good to pass up, so I have a couple more Samurai on the way to add to my shelf.