Alan's USA Trip - Part 2: Comic-con 2010

Ok, part two of my update: Comic-con 2010...

It was an interesting and fun few days amongst, fans, friends, celebs, and in some cases all of those rolled into one. I was really lucky this year in managing to score an 'Exhibitor Pass' via a freind who had a stall (more about him later). This gave me backstage access and in some cases the ability to queue jump (very un-British).

However, in that capacity its a little harder to take pictures. Here are the rules of backstage/ professionals:

1) No pictures backstage because all materials (movie props etc) are copyrighted and celebs don't like it either.
2) Talks are again copyrighted and show officially unreleased material. Some people do sneek cameras in and later upload to youtube, but its considered very bad form. In extreme cases studios have pulled out of comic-con because of 'abuse' of this request.
3) Its pretty common that when talking 'business' you don't whip out your camera.

With that said I was able to take pictures in the craziness which is the main hall and a couple of friends did insist on me taking photos to show you all as a form of personal greeting to all CG Arts students at the UCA. Very decent of them.

An official estimate for the Comic-con week shows that over 125,000 people attended. This is the building that housed them all:



Doesn't look like it can house them all right. Well it does get crowded but generally speaking everyone gets on well and I have to say that there is often a great buzz in the air. I heard one guy shout "Comic book geeks unite!"...may be that sums it up? :) Sadly, I did witness one bad incident where a guy was stabbed with a pen because he wouldn't move. Bizarre! If you want to read more check it out here:

http://www.10news.com/news/24382617/detail.html?source=sand

Inside the main hall you can see how vast Comic-con is:



The numbers along the ceiling represent stand numbers. The fact theres a stand number well into the 2000's says everything. However, this is only the main hall and the event extends to three floors with classes, discussion panels, and talks. Everything from Paramount studios to new artists.

The main hall is where most of the people head to early in the day to make a dash for free stuff. For some people thats their only reason for going and they get pretty aggresive about it - Think January sales and old ladies! Its pretty funny watching people fight for ten minutes only to realise that they don't even know what they're fighting for. Often its just a sticker of R2D2. :)

Here are a pick of the key stands:


Stan Winston


Gentle Giant


Warner Brothers


DC Comics


Lionsgate

However, there was one that caught my eye. UCA and New Designers anyone?


Peanuts

Part of the magic and strangeness of Comic-con is the people who dress up. These generally fall into two catagories: The good choice brigade and the bad choice brigade. What I mean by this is clearly there are fans who see themselves as their comic book heroes but weigh 500 pounds. You could argue that everyone entitled to free expression, but when its wrapped up in spandex and in front of you I tend to disagree. One person who i'd loved to have photographed as an example of this unfortunately got away. A 'Catwomen' (Tim Burtons Batman) that had very little chance of cat like movement. Oh well, never mind, here are a few fans and entertainers I managed to photograph and couple from local news photographers:


Good Costumes


Worst Costumes

Picture marked A: Was taken by the local press. I was behind the photographer as it was taken.

Pictue marked B: I wasn't present when this was taken but I walked by this guy several times. He's a bit of a youtube celebrity by all accounts.

Check out the best costumes here:

http://movies.yahoo.com/photos/collections/gallery/2766/2010-comiccon--costumes#photo0

Having a background in Modelmaking I'm often drawn to the sculpture aspect of Comic-con. Studios such as 'Gentle Giant', 'Sideshow', and 'The Four Horseman' generally have great exhibitions of future products. Despite many of these being film/ comic based and really impressive I still like the 'fringe' products too. These are often the sleeper products that go under the radar but are great to look at:


Sideshow & Weta

The next picture is a shamless one for Phil who's a Superman fan (Don't think he'll mind me saying that). Yes its the Brandon Routh's Superman costume:


Superman Returns

Ok onto the movie related stands. Obviously there are loads of these alongside presentations and sneak peek trailers. A few too many to mention here. However the bottom of the list for me was 'Green Lantern' and 'The Green Hornet'. Both of these look like they are straight to DVD. A real shame for the Green Lantern given the names that have been associated with it over the years, such as Kevin Smith who would have done it justice I'm sure. Here are a few sci-fi / comic-book ones which may fair a bit better in the next 12 months:


Tron Legacy

My main pick is Tron Legacy. It seems like the right time to make this film given the point we've reached in culture and CG. The film requires us to start looking backwards to see how far we came in a short space of time. Check out the new Comic-con trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3320907289/


Thor

This film has me split in much the same way the comic book did. Norse god as a superhero? However, the visuals for Thor were always great. Does this mean we're going to get an eye-candy / no plot film?



This one is a bit of a prediction. There's been a lot of speculation around a Ghostbusters 3. Aparently there is a script, there is already a game, and now the Original Ghostbusters car appears at Comic-con. Hmmm...I smell a studio testing the waters.

A few more reveals here:

http://movies.yahoo.com/photos/movie-stills/gallery/2755/2010-comiccon-reveals#photo0

So finally we come to friends. Fristly, my good friend Matthew Spradlin. To give you some background information, Matt and I studied together at Gnomon and later worked together on several projects. Matt gave up CG some years ago to become a writer. This year has seen him write and produce a graphic novel 'Bad Kids Go to Hell' based on the movie 'The Breakfast Club', as well as having scripts accepted by the Sci-fi channel and several movie studios.


Bad Kids Go To Hell

Matt has agreed to come to the UCA and talk about his experiences, script writing, and his new comic. So watch this space guys!



This one is bit of a fan moment for me as I love the work of the animator Bill Plympton. I was lucky enough to meet him a couple of years ago. He was at Comic-con again this year promoting his new film 'Idiots & Angels' and agreed to say hi to you all (via a photo). A very nice guy.



Finally, a bit of a funny spot...



Well...thats it for now. I did see and do more at Comic-con but this is becoming a bit of a long post. My next venture is to Siggraph 2010 in L.A. and hopefully Gnomon if I get time too. Unfortunately, they close for Siggraph week so my window is tight this year before I fly back. No matter, most of the staff will be at Siggraph anyway so I will get to see them there.

Next update from Siggraph coming soon.