Fear and Loathing in San Diego: The San Diego Comic Convention Day 4 "That day of wrath, that dreadful day, when heaven and earth shall pass away. What power shall be the sinner's stay? How shall he meet that dreadful day?" This is it! The last day, and I can't say I'm not looking forward to it. This has been the most fun of any Con I've been to, including my first, four years ago. But it's been five full days of nothing but comics and the occasional bad tasting movie. I'm looking forward to work tomorrow! Not. The Sidekick Syndrome The Desert Peach and Winnie the Pooh have something in common, besides both being drawn by Donna Barr: they're versions of Don Quixote and Pancho Sanchez. The aristocratic leader and the earthy sidekick. The Desert Peach and Udo, Pooh and Piglet. One could, I suppose, add Batman (millionaire) and Robin (acrobat), but the writers have never run with it. How to Sell Comics "I had one in the 25 cent bin nobody would buy, so I pulled it and put it in the 75 cent bin and it flew." Nobody did that with Desert Peach 11. Although I did manage to find Kid Eternity 3 finally. Gee, is that how it ends? Kewl! And you'll no longer recognize me by just my Suicide Squid t-shirt. I'll be wearing a Desert Peach pin to the more formal con functions next year. "I read banned books," courtesy of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Once again, the address of the CBLDF is CBLDF, P.O. Box 693, Northampton, MA 01061. T-Shirts are $20.00, in large or extra large. Buttons are $2.00. And, of course, you can just send them money if you don't want any products. If you really don't want any comics, don't send them any money at all. It'll all work out in the end. Suicide or Murder? Revolutionary Comics is obviously part of Cartoonists Against Crime: With art by Peter Mullins, they'll be marketing "the comicbook that reveals the secret surrounding Marilyn's last days." And, of course, you can purchase Marilyn Monroe trading cards to go along with it. Revolutionary Comics is a San Diego based company that is "unauthorized and proud of it" and does many unauthorized biographies of celebrities and rock stars. And a free Metallica comic! Cool! "Welcome to San Francisco, Dudes! Hey, you made the right decision... coming here! L.A. just wasn't ready for anything as revolutionary as Metallica- -but they will be!" Could the same be said for San Diego and Comics? The Adolescent SuperCon Los Angeles is hosting a very special comic convention for women who wear underwear with their earrings, and pose in front of television screens. Should be a con of limited application, but it'll probably overflow. The 20 Most Powerful People in the Comics Industry The free 'Special San Diego Comic Con Issue' of Comic Book Collector is a god-send! Not only does it tell us the twenty most powerful people in comics, it also tells us why mutants are so popular! And, of course, what everyone's been waiting for, Behind the Scenes with Jim Lee. Hey, if it's what you've been looking for, it's only $2.50. And for an extra 50 cents, you'll get the question to the answer. Supreme Burger Yes, even Jack-in-the-Box is getting into comics. The freebies table held coupons for a dollar off their Image- based burger, the Supreme Burger. Is this before or after the current issue? Flying Buffalo Steve, the Assistant Director of Flying Buffalo, is willing to look at art samples. Flying Buffalo will be coming out with a new Grimtooth's traps, Grimtooth's Traps Bizarre. Wayne West was editor on their Cityscapes book of maps for modern games. Flying Buffalo created play-by-mail games twenty years ago. I asked about the rumored Dark Tunnels & Trolls. There may well be something big in store for Tunnels and Trolls next year. If you're a fan of the old Monsters! Monsters! game, Ken St. Andre's fevered imagination is working on something for you. Scott, asked about what it's like to do art for Flying Buffalo, says that it's been a lot of fun. They've been right up front, and right there with payments. Gaming art holds an advantage over comic book art. Where comic book art comes out monthly and disappears, gaming art stays much longer. Steve pointed out that there's stuff done in 1981 that's still in print. On being editor, the projects are almost solely by committee. There are lots of meetings to make sure the product is coherent. It's a big challenge on products such as the Maps or Traps books. Dave Arneson, co-creator of the original Dungeons and Dragons, is a friend of the owner, and is a really nice guy. He's "like Linus of Peanuts." I Wear My Sunglasses at Night Nancy Collins' next novel will be out in October in England, and June of 1994 in America, from ROC. It's called Wild Blood, and it's a "grunge rebel novel, a coming of age story of a boy in Arkansas." It also includes punk speed metal werewolves. It's set in the same world as her 'Sunglasses' novels. "It's my own personal view of how things work, and even when I don't set a book in there, it ends up in there." Wick, her upcoming comic from DC, will also be basically in that world. Malfis will be popping up now and then, possibly in Wick. She may be getting Dark Horse to do adaptations of her 'Sunglasses' books, and her novel In The Blood. Nancy has been hanging out at the Coney Island Freak Show, helping them film snake eating habits. You can watch her work for 25 cents at Coney Island. She's friends with the tattooed man, and with the husband of Nellie the Peach, who's down to 500 pounds. She was 800, but had to lose weight: she was suffocating herself. "Most are self-made freaks. Very few born freaks except for midgets are allowed to show themselves nowadays." Does this look like a job tailor made for Dan Quayle, or what? An interesting story involves Edison: back at the turn of the century, he used to electrocute elephants at Coney Island, during his fights with Nikola Tesla over the future of electricity. Thomas Edison owned the patent on Direct Current electrical production; Nikola Tesla had just developed Alternating Current, which could be sent over longer distances much more efficiently. So, Edison tried to prove that Alternating Current was too dangerous for general use, by selling it as a means for executing criminals: the electric chair. Networking An internet user and a Compuserve user were present for this panel. There are a good 150 professionals on the Compuserve Information Service, in comics and animation. The various comics sections, including humor, pro, and Japanese animation, run about six to eight hundred messages a day. There are few electronic fanzines. When you're computerized, things happen too fast. There are APAs, such as the Legion APA on the internet. Compuserve is a fairly effective tool for networking among professionals. When Steve Gerber and Elliot Maggin were in the TSR line of comics and needed some stories, they used Compuserve to ask various professionals if they wanted to work for the TSR line. Professionals are comped in Compuserve. This is cost effective, because it brings in the fans. They do have to contribute on a regular basis. If you're using Compuserve, there is a shareware alternative to the Information Manager that most of the Compuserve users at the seminar preferred: TAPCIS. Compuserve is different than the Internet. You just don't do things in a real-time basis when you're on Compuserve's 'pay as you go.' The nets are a resource both for stored information and for advice. When Walt Simonson wanted to include some Congressional hearings, he asked lawyers and staffers on Compuserve for information. He rewarded many of the respondents by making them senators and representatives. Paul J. Grant became Chairman of the committee. John Ostrander used various Compuserve experts to find information about ordnance. J. Michael Strazewski used GEnie to heavily push Babylon 5. Summer School Master Classes If you're going to be in Los Angeles on September 1, head down to the Golden Apple between 6 and 8 PM. Trina Robbins will be there pushing her wonderful A Century of Women Cartoonists. They laughed when I put my hat on, but when it got me free comics... The nice lady handed me this free premiere issue because of my wonderful hat. God knows why she also handed one out to everyone else at the Con today. It's called The Funny Papers, and it's vaguely okay, but not much better. This is what they're aiming for, in fact: "Our intention is to avoid insulting and unfocused humor that uses coarse profanity, scatalogical references, and derogatory content aimed at race, religion, or lifestyle. Every article considered for publication will be discussed by our editorial staff. Our aim is to be funny, non- offensive and non-threatening." Sounds like they're about 40 years too late. Perhaps they could run for public office. Grave of the Fireflies "They should have had their whole lives ahead of them." Grave of the Fireflies is a Japanese animated film with English subtitles, based on a story by Akiyuki Nosaka. "It is a testimony of the human spirit that shines ever brighter in the face of adversity." Gee, the art looks nice. I'll wait till it comes to the books. Knight Rider 2099 Bilson and DeMeo are at it again. The creative team of the Flash television show and the Rocketeer film bring us Viper. "It's the near future and the city's been overrun by a powerful crime syndicate. The law's last hope in turning the tide of crime rests in a remarkable top secret pursuit and capture vehicle and the three individuals who join together to become the driving force behind it." Nice pun, but it's far too original an idea to succeed on television. Color My World Crime! Free Mark your calendar for October and December 1993. I must say I've misjudged Cartoonists Against Crime. In October, founder Adrienne Sioux Koopersmith will lead her organization into the heart of Chicago and wield pencils, inks, and paints against crime. It's a battle to the finish, and we all know that the pen is mightier than the sword. They'll be drawing their deadly cartoons to disarm criminals of knives, clubs, and firearms, so that we'll no longer feel it necessary to go armed for protection. Wow! More Strained Brains Steve Gerber, Chris Ulm, and Roland Mann will be appearing at the Lavacon on November 19 to 21, 1993, at the LAX Hilton, Los Angeles, California. "$15 Gets You Everything!" Woah! Do you have to have your raccoons spoon fed to you? Mu Press is publishing Cathy Hill's Mad Raccoons #3. Mu's address is 5014-D Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105. You can order it from Diamond or Capital as well. It's "The Meaning of Mud: The Legend of Princess Ringing-Tail." Hybrid Monthly Hybrid Monthly is a 50 cent newspaper covering "Comics, Video Games, Other Cool Stuff." It might actually be a useful mag. This issue covers Atari's new $200 64 bit entertainment system, an article about "how to turn a work of art into a chunk of meat, The Marvel Way," a description of just what the hell POGS are and where they came from, and, Ooh! Aah! a centerfold of Prophet by either Talman & Dre, Panosian, or Rob Liefeld. You can reach Visionary Publications, the publishers of Hybrid, at P.O. Box 3692, Santa Clara, CA 95055-3692. The Magian Line Yes, this Neil Gaiman fan club is old news. For those who haven't heard of it yet, it includes a quarterly newsletter, an annotated bibliography, a previously unpublished script from Sandman, and "surprises." It's $10 for US residents, $12 US for Canadians, and $15 US for everyone else. Send it to MAGIAN LINE, P.O. Box 170712, San Francisco, CA 94117. The Horsy Set Centaurs Gatherum is "the premier magazine of Centaur art and literature." Those Centaurs must be pretty prolific, they've been at it for ten years, producing "over a thousand works of art and writing." For a sample issue and further information, send $2.00 in US funds to Victor Wren, P.O. Box 1347, Claremore, OK 74018-1347. Dr. Xyclops Wants a Mate! Is it an Australian comic? Vanguard is bringing out Tales From the Edge, and this issue the creators are Marshall Arisman, Pat Boyette, J. David Spurlock, and Barron Storey. "Dr. Xyclops wants a mate! And Rick Montana, the Space Cowboy, is powerless to stop him!" It's $2.95 from your comic book store. The stories are Spurlock's Rick Montana, The Space Cowboy; Storey's AKA Assinada; Arisman's Frozen Images; and Boyette's Stinger Ray. Just Imagine! Just Another Autobiographical Comic... Gary G. Sassaman has obviously not been listening to Mark Evanier. Innocent Bystander makes a nice flyer, whether it's a good comic or not. The coupon on the back is "Yes! I can't live without another autobiographical comic in my life! Enclosed is $2.00 and 2 29 cent stamps! Send me my copy of the special, limited-to-200, signed-and-numbered, 20 page ashcan preview edition of "Innocent Bystander" and let me know when the real thing is ready!" And send it to Innocent Bystander, 121 Academy Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15228. Capitalization optional. Jazz Age Catalogue Hi, Kathy! I haven't had a chance to read the issue of Jazz Age Chronicles I found at the con, but if any of y'all are interested in either the Chronicles or anything else Ted Slampyak has done can write him at 1232 Oriole Drive, Bensalem, PA 19020, or call him at 215-245-5398. Gossip from the catalogue includes squelching the rumor that Malibu wanted Jazz Age Chronicles. The Jazz Age Chronicles Hiatus mini-comic is no longer for sale, as it's going to be appearing in Caliber Press' Negative Burn anthology. It's nice anthology, by the way. Flaming Carrot appeared in the last one. And he's just brought out a new mini-comic, Enemy Terrayne, starring Suzi Romaine. It's "007 meets Bugs Bunny." It's $1.00, postpaid, or 50 cents with another book. And he's sold out of Jazz Age Chronicles #6. You can get the Jazz Age Chronicles t-shirt $25, large or extra large, and original art. Dark Fantasy Sneak Preview Dark Fantasy Productions is presenting four comics: Kid Danger, Steelborn, Dark Fantasies, and Bunraku. Kid Danger claims to be a 1990s hero written in the Golden Age style. Actually, the preview looks interesting instead, although they will need to do a little better proofreading on the dialogue. Artists M. Mills and E. Olive have a strong grasp of simple dramatic layout. Artists Needed! Desert Dreams Magazine is in search of talented artists who are proficient in water color, airbrush, acrylic, etc. (also cartoonists). The type of work needed is artwork inspired by a romantic poem, quote, or literary work, 2-4 pages in length. Southwestern flavor - regional identity preferred. No nudes, or cartoons: a series of one panel pieces satirizing romance and relationships. Rough sketches can be submitted by fax at 602-581-5044. Please, no originals! How you're going to fax your originals, I dunno. "The Valley's Romantic Sourcebook." System Shock Tuscany Press is coming out with a ten issue limited series: System Shock, "Graphic Tales of Horror, illustrated by top Hollywood F/X designers Miles Teves, Bruce Fuller, Tommy Lee Edwards, and David Urban." System Shock #1 includes stories by Dan Simmons, Richard Laymon, and John Skipp. Future writers will include Robert Bloch, Bruce Sterling, Nancy Collins, Brian Lumley, George R. R. Martin, and more. That Silly Stuff In The Back Of Your Throat Stinking Studios is publishing "Phlegm: You don't have to be an idiot to like Phlegm!" It's by C. Baldock, and it'll be $2.00. Dark Horse Grendel Tales: Four Devils, One Hell should have shipped on August 17. It's a six issue series. "In the post-apocalyptic world of the future, the Grendel clans are taking over -- much to the dismay of a certain private eye who's been called in to investigate a murder, an investigation that takes him to New Orleans, where he finds himself smack in the middle of not one, but four Grendels... and devils they are, indeed! It's written not by Matt Wagner but by James Robinson. The art is by Teddy H. Kristiansen. That Dreadful Day "That day of wrath, that dreadful day, when plot and growth shall pass away. What title shall be the reader's stay? How shall they meet that dreadful day?" Remember that I've given lots of addresses for people wanting to buy or sell. I've met none of these folks. Most of them aren't even booths at the con, they're fliers at the freebie table. Don't trust it just because I said it. And here's one rumor we can put to rest: Donna Barr is not the head of a lesbian Dungeon & Dragons cult. Good night, Troma.