From: [o--b--t] at [ix.netcom.com] (Michael R. Grabois) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc Subject: CON: It Ain't Rocket Science (Mike G's 1997 San Diego report) Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 06:28:43 GMT Ok, I have two real good reasons this is being posted more than a week after the con ended. First, I spent a few days in LA after the con visiting friends, and I didn't get back into town until last Thursday. Second, my computer was fried when my house took a lightning strike a week before the con, and I didn't get it back until Saturday. Anyway, on with the show.... Wednesday, July 16 (day 0) "Hi, Peter? Glad to meet you..." I had to wake up at 4:30 a.m. to catch my plane out of Austin, 150 miles away from my home in Houston. I decided that driving 2-1/2 hours each way was worth saving $160 in plane fare. I'm not a morning person. Due to a number of factors (some my own, some not), I made the plane just as they were closing the door at the gate. Five minutes later we were taxiing. After an otherwise uneventful flight, we landed in San Diego. I stepped off the plane and decided I wanted to stay: the weather was at least 20 degrees cooler than Houston, with a corresponding drop in humidity. At the luggage pickup I ran into George Perez, who I almost didn't recognize due to his now-white beard. George was saying, by the way, that Marvel had already decided to start the "Heroes Reborn" series over at #1, since longtime fans would pick it up anyway, and the lower numbers wouldn't intimidate new readers like high numbers might. On my way to the car I saw the newly-slender Mark Waid and the lovely and talented Devin Grayson. After checking in at the hotel, I made my way to the convention center to help Sidne and Chris set up the Atlas booth. It was an interesting sight, watching everyone unpack their booths and boxes. Fortunately for Chris, I was watching his pallet of stuff when a clueless forklift driver came screaming (for a forklift) around the corner and bashed into someone's stuff, some of which tumbled off onto Chris' pallet, which then tumbled onto me. I was able to keep most of the boxes from spilling out, and there was little damage. Still.... Using the dealer badge holder Sidne gave me proved very handy then and later on, when trying to get in and out of the dealer room. During the setup and badge pickup, I ran into Jeff and Phil Moy, Cory Carani, Kurt Busiek, Rich Johnston (who gave a live Rich's Rumblings), Roger Stern, Tom Galloway, David Goldfarb, and finally roommate Troy McNemar. While looking the place over, we noticed that Artists' Alley was upstairs and outside; that, I figured, was a horrendously lousy out of the way place for it. It was, but as we found out later it was only the overflow. After a quick dinner, we headed over to the Hyatt for the Diamond Party. Other people I saw for the first time this year: Elayne Weschler-Chaput with her writing partner Robin Riggs, in town more as pros trying to sell their proposals than as fans; most of the Herd: Roger Price, Bob Ingersoll, and Tom Zahler (fellow Herd-member Tony Isabella was back home in Ohio at the Corman party); Ed Douglas, who now has relatively normal-length hair and no sunglasses; and other pros including Chris Claremont, Steven Grant, Maggie Thompson, Tom DeFalco, Jim Valentino, and Bob Wayne. I went up to Peter David (with others watching him for a reaction) and introduced myself as Christian Viola. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to take my nametag off. D'oh! I had occasion to ask him about this event later. We finally decided to head upstairs to the bar when the party was shutting down. More names to drop: Howard Porter (who looks way too young), Mark Millar (ditto), Grant Morrison, Dan Raspler, the smartly-accessorizing Heidi MacDonald, and Paul Storrie. As we were leaving Glenn Carnagey called me over; good thing he recognized me, since I would have missed him. Sadly, that was the only time I saw him the whole weekend. Made it back to the hotel and crashed around 1:30 a.m., after 23 hours awake. Thursday July 17 (day 1) "The online people want him out? That's it, he stays!" Being so tired, Sidne and Troy let me sleep, so of course I overslept and didn't make it in until about 12:30. There were some trucks outside the hotel, which I found out were part of a shoot for the "Silk Stalkings" tv show. Never saw anyone. I spent the first few hours just casing the place, seeing who had good deals on stuff I was looking for. I picked up a couple of Silver Age JLA issues for real cheap (around $3 each). The first panel I made was discussing why the Legion had remained popular over the years. Moderator Tom Galloway took a survey as to how long the people had been reading; there were quite a few who said they had been with the Legion for over 25 years. The panel included Randy Duncan, a comics scholar; Brent Frankenhoff, CBG columnist; and late additions Roger Stern, Carmela Merlo, Jeff Moy, and Cory Carani. I guesstimated about 80 people were there. Discussion topics included why people thought the Legion was popular, what they liked about it, their favorite stories, and what they thought was the "defining moment" for the Legion (both the Computo and Legion Chain Gang stories got high marks here). Carmela related how they created LSH 50, the Mordru finale: Tom McCraw provided the plot, which she fleshed out and would normally give to Roger to expand. Instead, Joe Edkin helped out in between, and then Roger took it. Scripting was similar, after the art was done. She said it was like their own little Legion putting the book together. In discussing the v4 LSH stuff, Roger said one of the reasons he didn't like it was that "I hate reading about people with lives worse than my own." After an hour or so into the 90-minute panel, it turned more into a discussion of the current series with the creators, but no one seemed to mind. Among the recognizable faces in the crowd who I hadn't yet met this year: Liz and Kynn Bartlett, Andrew Woodard, Sheryl and Sidra Roberts (both there for their first SD con), Joe Morano, John Sardegna, and Kevin Gould; among the faces I didn't recognize but now I was able to place a face with the name were Dan Williams, Craig Hyde, Steve Mohundro, and David Snyder. An interesting anecdote from Roger concerning Magno: he was originally conceived to be killed off in the Mordru storyline, but as time went on, the creators began taking a liking to him. They were still ambivalent about keeping him in, but what made their minds up, says Roger, was the online reaction to him. Roger joked that they said "The online people want him out? That's it, he stays!" I'm not entirely sure he was joking, though... They do have plans for the Time Trapper "down the road", and once the whole team is reunited, they plan some single issue stories for a while. So there I was, talking to someone, when I happened to spot Kevin Gould looking at some artwork. Ordinarily that wouldn't be a big deal, but the page he had was one I had been specifically looking for for nearly 20 years. It was an otherwise unspectacular Curt Swan page from "Superman" 247 (which featured Superman and the Guardians of the Galaxy on the cover), but the thing was that that was the first piece of artwork I remember seeing, way back around 1980 or so at a con in New York. I had never seen original artwork before (I recall seeing a huge pile of it on a table), and I'm not sure why that page stuck in my mind. Strangely enough, I bought that very issue at that con. So since then, I had kept my eyes open for that page, just in case it ever showed up again (I didn't buy it at the time, since it probably cost $25 or so, way more than I had). And there it shows up in the hands of someone I know, who said he bought it at a con in Houston. Sadly, he didn't want to sell it. But at least it's in good hands... Next item for business was the Am/Am Trivia contest (as opposed to the Pro/Am contest), featuring yours truly on the Black Ink Irregular Farm Team for the first time, along with fellow rac'ers David Goldfarb, Troy McNemar, and Jim Murdoch. We whupped up on our first foe then handily beat our second for yet another title. David finally had his third win, and was proudly banned from future contests. Congratulations, David! By then it was time for dinner, and we coincidentally ran into Diane Levitan, who now lives in the area and goes to school there. We dined at the Spaghetti Factory, discussing everything from my blown out computer to the Russian space station Mir to the state of X-books until they kicked us out. We tried to go to the Friends of Lulu party, but some didn't want to pay a (suggested) cover charge, so we dropped off Diane there and headed down to the Westin lobby for beers and chairs, both of which were welcome. Then we called it a night. Friday July 18 (day 2) "Was that before Crisis? I'm older than I thought!" No one wanted to buy any of the stuff I had to sell (some action figures and some comics), so I had to lug the stuff around. In the meantime, I was picking up some great deals on Silver Age DC stuff: a coverless "Flash" 119 (original series) for $2.50 and "80-Page Giant" #2 featuring Jimmy Olsen for $5. In mint condition, they would have set me back $375. I saw Sergio Aragones and finally got a copy of "Sergio Destroys DC" that I missed the first time around. A number of dealers had their big sale prices out already, which they usually saved until Sunday: I picked up reading copies of a Starman/Black Canary "Brave and Bold", a "Jimmy Olsen", and the "Showcase" issue with the first appearance of the ever-popular B'wana Beast, not to mention a few more JLAs, all at 70% off and none more than $5. Another table had a stack of Star Wars cards from the original series; fortunately, I had my want list with me, and I managed to finish off the red, yellow, and green series with most of the orange, for only a dime apiece. Yeah, it's fanboy stuff, but I have had my set since I bought them new at the 7-11 for something like a quarter a pack. I also finally got to pick up a copy of the "Bill Sienkiewicz Sketchbook", which I had never seen before (and got for less than cover price!). Troy and I went to the Babylon 5 panel. It wasn't as packed as usual, but that's probably because there were two identical panels scheduled. Among the highlights were the blooper reel for season 4, previews of the upcoming episodes and movies, and the bombshell that Claudia Christian had left the show. For more on all of that, see the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated newsgroup. The other panel I went to was the Pro/Am Trivia match, featuring the Black Ink Irregulars (Tom Galloway, David Goldfarb, Jim Drew, and Jim Murdoch) against the Purple Pros (Mark Waid, Len Wein, Kurt Busiek, and Roger Stern). In a closer match, the fans won 195-160, with topics ranging from the early Silver Age to Crisis. That leveled the playing field a bit -- the pros were definitely weaker on the later stuff. In fact, some were even weak on the stuff they wrote: Tom Galloway, for example, buzzed in on "Which member of the Seven Soldiers of Victory died..." and got the correct answer (Wing). "Wait a minute," said Len Wein, "I wrote that story!" Len missed another question on "name the character whose first line was this...", which turned out to be Nightcrawler from "Giant-Size X-Men" which Len coincidentally wrote. Roger Stern was perplexed on a couple questions, which prompted the line, "Was that before Crisis? I'm older than I thought!" There was good-natured ribbing on all sides, and I hope Mark Waid didn't bruise his head from repeatedly banging it on the table when he knew an easy answer but wasn't allowed to say it (like "what name did Comet the Super-Horse use when he was human?"). Galloway didn't help matters much: he bought 5 copies of Liefeld's "Captain America" #1 to wave at Mark to distract him. I don't know if it worked, but the fans won... Not sure what next year's topic will be; Mark suggested only Superman stuff, while Tom countered with only Len Wein stuff. The group split up after that, some leaving for dinner before the Eisners, others leaving for the Legion dinner. I finally met up with much of the crowd I knew from Compuserve, including Jack Curtin, Carl Pietrantonio, Paul Storrie, Paul "Zeus" Grant and son Phillip, and Brian Saner-Lamken and new wife Ellen. I tried to make plans for after the Legion dinner with them. Finally, the time came for the Legion dinner. Troy and Sidne spent a lot of time and aggravation setting the whole thing up, and it was appreciated by everyone there as there were few problems. There were 37 people who signed the guest list (name, email address, and Legion code name), although spread out among 4 tables it was kind of hard to talk to anyone else not at your table. As the Legion Dinner gets more publicized, it's getting harder to plan it. With next year being the 40th anniversary of the Legion, we'd like to do something bigger, but planning it will be a nightmare. We started a new SD tradition (maybe) of giving out door prizes; this year, they ranged from promo cards to weatherbeaten back issues (I contributed a copy of "Superboy" 98, featuring the first appearance of Ultra Boy, which cost me all of a dollar) to the grand prize of a fantastic customized Apparition action figure, complete with blister pack, donated by Klordny APA'er Brad Horning. During the meal, a few attendees decided to MST3K-ify copies of Liefeld's "Captain America" leftover from the trivia contest. The new and improved versions were of course far superior to the originals. And much funnier, too. Afterwards, we made it back to the Marriott lobby for a post-dinner chat, where Joe Morano showed off some of his older items including the DC Superstars package (which I unfortunately missed out on when it was originally announced - - my letter and check were returned, while Joe got his stuff), some "Amazing World of DC Comics" issues, and a couple issues of the old "Legion Outpost" fanzine. Being a night owl, I went up to the Hyatt bar to see who was there after the party broke up, and wound up having a drink with Rich Johnston. Among other things we discussed were how fascinated British and Americans are with the other's accent. In England the American accent, according to Rich, is exotic because it represents Hollywood, which is mostly what they see of us. I tried out my fake English accent, but either it was so bad or Rich was joking, but he said he couldn't tell when I was trying it or not. Oh well, at least he bought me a beer (I still owe you one, Rich!). Lesson: never try to fake an accent to a native. Saturday July 19 (day 3) "Matt, you've gotten me into a lot of trouble...." I passed up the Star Wars panel in order to go watch and listen to the voice actor's panel. This featured four men and one woman (none of whose names I can recall), but they included the voices of Pinky, the Brain, and Smurfette, among many, many others. It's always fascinating to watch the people behind the animated voices (and voiceovers) shift personas in front of you. I didn't learn much, but it was fun. Of course, by skipping the Star Wars panel I missed the allegedly first-ever showing of the Biggs/Luke sequence that was cut from the beginning of the movie. Oh well, maybe next year. Next, I hit the Golden Age panel. What a treat to see the stars of yesteryear (and often still this year!) shining for an appreciative audience. This year's panel included George Tuska, Marie Severin, Dick Ayers, Ramona Fradon, Al Williamson, and Bob Haney. Topics ranged from discussions about working at EC and working with Stan Lee, to the creation of the Doom Patrol and Metamorpho, to the artists just relating their favorite stories. So then it was back to the dealer room. I finally found a copy of the first Bill Sienkiewicz "Vampyres" portfolio, which I had never seen; they had the second one too, but I passed it up in order to hopefully get a better deal on Sunday. (Unfortunately, it was sold out by Sunday). I finally managed to pick up an "Astro City" 1/2 in a roundabout way: my local comic shop dealer sold me an extra copy of the new JLA #1 at cover price right before the con, so I figured I'd take it with me for trade bait. A few dealers there would only give me a few dollars credit towards the Astro City issue (which was selling for anywhere from $10 to $15, vs. $15 to $20 for JLA #1). But I did find one guy who traded it straight up. We both got a good deal: I paid less than "cover" for the Astro City issue ($3 in P&H plus the cost of Wizard itself, around $4.50 or so), and he got to replace a $10 book with a $20 book (which is what I later saw it for). I was happy, he was happy, and it was a really good story. Got the last two issues of "Marvels" I had been looking for forever, at only $3 each; the Kirby "Manhunter" story in "First Issue Special" for a whopping 90 cents; and a couple of early Legion "Adventure Comics" issues. Still on the hunt for more Silver Age JLAs. I also started looking for some "hot" issues I had missed: "Resurrection Man" #2 (featuring the JLA), "Ka-Zar" #1, JLA 4, and "Leave it to Chance" #3. The prices on these were higher than any of the books I had bought so far! Strolled down Artists Alley, ran into Steve Mattson (who remembered me from last year). We discussed "Superboy and the Ravers" a bit: he said that he thought issue 20 would be the last, far enough away that the plots can be wrapped up. He's still hoping for a "Dial H for Hero" mini or regular series, and/or something to keep the Sparx/Hero thing around. He was disappointed about the cancellation, especially with other titles selling lower, but realized that there's no way the market would support three Superboy books and also that the Superboy/Impulse/Robin book would certainly sell more than the Ravers book. Such is life in the comics biz. Steve also wanted to tap my rocket scientist knowledge by asking how feasible it would be to go back to the moon if we wanted to get there quickly. Saw Matt Wagner, and had him autograph a copy of "Mage II" #1. I started off by saying to him, "Matt, you've gotten me into a lot of trouble..." He looked a bit wary. I continued, "Now I can't use the excuse 'I'll get to it when Mage II comes out!' any more!" He laughed at that, and said we surely wouldn't have to wait 10 years for Mage III. In fact, it'll be out next summer... Saw Peter David at the Claypool booth. I asked him about our encounter the other night, where I introduced myself as Christian Viola, about whether he might have believed me if I hadn't forgotten to remove my nametag. He said he figured it out pretty quickly: I'm too old to be what he thinks CMV's age is, in the wrong part of the country, and frankly, Peter didn't think CMV had the guts to walk up to Peter at a con anyway. Now, that's a meeting I'd like to see. The Spotlight on Joe Straczyinski panel ended the day, and for a guy who says he's shy about speaking in public, he sure had those 3000 people practically eating out of his hand. He tells a great story, and had some great ones to tell, in particular about his old friend Harlan Ellison. Warning to the wise: never piss either of these men off. See the B5 newsgroups for more info. Time to head over to Horton Plaza (aka Escher Mall, aka Fast Food of All Nations) for the annual Compuserve dinner. Nice to see so many new and familiar faces at the table. Among those in attendance were Markus "The Teeny Bopper" Hopper; Sytse Alegra and his girlfriend Yvonne, all the way from Amsterdam; San Francisco shop owner Brian Hibbs; Mike and Diana Okimoto; Carl Pietrantonio and his new bride Olga (sheesh! They came to the con on their honeymoon!), Brian Saner-Lamken (aka "Blamken") and his new wife Ellen, both of whom I finally got to sit and talk with for the first time; the ever-present Paul Storrie and Ed Douglas; Paul and Phillip Grant; John Sardegna and Josh Macy; and I'm sure a few others who will hit me for not remembering them. Conspicuously missing in action for most of the weekend was Sgt. Lucio "the Stinky Peon" Perez of the SFPD. Next time anyone sees Carl (who's a Border Patrol agent in Laredo), ask him about the time he asked to see Neil Gaiman's Green Card. Unfortunately, this was pretty much my only chance to see these guys en masse, as we weren't able to hook up for a post-con dinner on Sunday. Sadly, Craig "Mr. Silver Age" Shutt couldn't make it this year. After the party broke up, I joined a table full of rac'ers right next door. We got some ice cream, dropped our purchases off at the hotels, and met back at the Hyatt for the con's Star Wars party. As con parties go, it was typical -- loud music, bad acoustics, and people dressed up in costume. In fact, we made fun of a bunch of Stormtroopers who rode the escalator in front of us - one was wearing white pumps, and another was wearing what looked like white patent leather shoes. But the rest of their costume was great... I think we spent all of about 10 minutes there, mostly looking for other people. We managed to find Sheryl and Sidra Roberts, and then decided to bail for (yet again) the Top of the Hyatt. OK, so here we are (me, Sidne, Troy, tyg, Davids Goldfarb and Snyder, Andrew Woodard, and Jon Serota), and we bring along a mother and her teenage daughter. Into a bar. But it was OK, since (a) her mother was there and (b) she didn't have anything stronger than a Coke. Besides, a 5-year old came in later with his parents. Scrounging up a table and chairs proved most difficult, with the bar being so packed. I also wound up talking to Paul Storrie, Ed Douglas, Trisha Mulvihill (who I hadn't seen since the 95 con, and I think we had time to say about 2 sentences to each other), and "Shazam" artist Pete Krause, who's a nice guy. Strangely, the bar started kicking us out at 1:30, and locked the doors behind us at 1:45. I guess they're serious about closing time around there. Sunday July 20 (day 4) "Next year in Jerusalem..." Sunday's always the toughest day for me. I've been on my feet since Wednesday, and this is the last day to look for bargains, so I spent all day shopping. By the end of the day, I had amassed a pretty good Silver Age haul: a couple of (reading) copies of a early 60's "Action" for a buck each; two Legion "Adventure" issues; the aforementioned "Brave and Bold", "80 Page Giant", and "Flash"; 14 issues of JLA between #15 and #69, for an average of $3.25 each; and the Jimmy Olsen #100 and B'Wana Beast "Showcase" for $2.50 each. Another interesting item I picked up for a buck was the original Olshevsky Spider-Man Index from 1976, which I've seen for $20 in other comic shops. And I finally broke down and spent too much on 3 of the 4 "hot" issues I had recently missed (JLA, Ka-Zar, and Resurrection Man), but nobody had "Leave it to Chance" 3 for under 10 bucks. Fortunately, I managed to escape without any major impulse purchases. I saw John Ostrander at the Lulu booth (Sunday? Saturday? It all starts to blend together...) and we talked a bit about Grimjack. He said he was surprised at how many people STILL talk about that series. The question of rights to the character, he said, are being resolved, and John (Ostrander, not Gaunt) has lots of stories about Gaunt to tell. Soon, hopefully. Then I brought up what was for me a bit of an awkward subject - his late wife, Kim Yale. I told him how I had followed her progress for the last couple of years on Compuserve's Comics and Animation Forum, and offered words of encouragement when I could. But I told him I found it a bit awkward and impersonal, though, to pass words of condolence through the computer when a close loved one dies after such a long and public illness. Well, it was for me, anyway, and I told him how inspiring her fight was and how moved I was to read of its conclusion on CSi and in CBG. Finally, I mentioned that the one time I had the chance to meet Kim was at the 1995 con: Kim passed by, I noticed the name on the nametag, and said "oh, I'll stop by and say hi later". Of course, I never did get to do that, and the next year Kim was too sick to attend. As John said, he's found that you have to live for the moment and appreciate what you have when you have it, since you don't know when you won't have it again. After that, I did some last minute power shopping, and then it was a wrap. I had told a number of people to meet out in the lobby for dinner after the con was over, then we'd make plans to go somewhere, but only Jim Drew and Joe Morano were there. After helping Sidne and Chris pack up their booth, Tom Galloway joined the three of us over at Dick's for dinner. I was disappointed; the waiter was surprisingly not rude. And then that was it. I went back to the hotel and crashed for a bit, then hiked over to the Hyatt one last time to see who was around. After seeing no one I knew, I headed back down, but ran into Elayne and Robin coming out of the elevator as I was getting in. So I changed my mind and let Robin buy me a beer. We discussed life at the con, how their pitches went, the state of my computer, and Frank Miller's Eisners speech. A nice relaxing end to a hectic con. The worst part about it, though, was not being able to say goodbye face to face to a lot of people. Plans to meet fell through, schedules conflicted, and people had other plans. It always leaves a bit of melancholy feeling, knowing you won't see them in person (for the most part) until next year at this time. It's just like Passover, where you make the vow, "Next year in Jerusalem." Monday July 20, the aftermath Some general rumors, ruminations, and rumblings about this year's con, in no particular order: 1. There were a LOT of people there with various parts of their bodies pierced. At least the parts we could see; in particular, I noticed a huge amount of people, male and female, with nose rings. Have comics become that counter culture? Is the "goth" style really that prevalent among comic readers? 2. Surprisingly, I didn't attend any of the comic publishers panels this year. The last two years I went to the DC panel at least, and made at least one Marvel sponsored panel. This year, none. And I didn't really notice it until the end of the con. 3. The DC booth finally gave out Legion pins. Yahoo! 4. Silver Age stuff is easy and inexpensive to find, as long as you're looking for reading copies like I was. The higher quality stuff is still out of my price range. I didn't pick up anything for more than about $7 this year, whereas last year I shelled out over $100 for a couple of early key Legion issues. It's not that my tastes have changed much, I guess I'm more willing to go for the lower grade copies in order to get something fun to read. Well, I'll eventually get to read them. 5. I had some time to kill Monday so I got on the trolley for Tijuana. I figured I'd look for a leather jacket while I was down there. Man, what an armpit of a city that place is. The largest open-air flea market, is the first thing I thought of. There was one guy who literally made me flinch from his stench - I don't think he had seen a shower in months, much less a toilet. Yuck. On the bright side, I did notice that more people at the con appeared to take showers. And I did get a jacket. 6. I heard a rumor that starting in 2000, the Wizard Chicago Con will be moving its dates to go head-to-head with San Diego. The rumor is that they're going to try to force SD out of the Big Con business. We'll see what happens if the publishers are forced to choose... and table prices are going up by as much as 20% next year in SD. 7. I overheard one dealer say to another that his Sunday sales beat his already high Saturday sales. 8. Yet again, I found myself drawn to the DC booth. Maybe cause I'm a bigger DC fan than Marvel fan; maybe because it was one of the biggest booths; maybe because I knew more people there. Maybe all of the above. We missed DCOJohanna Draper this year, who now gets paid to attend the con. Unfortunately for us, she and boss Greg Ross split the cons, one going to Chicago (Johanna) and one to San Diego (Greg). Next year they'll swap; next year, maybe I'll finally get to have that dinner at the sleazy bar with Johanna. :) All in all, I had a great time. It's always fun to see friends you "know" from online but have never met, or only meet once a year. That's a bigger part of the reason I go now. I'm among fellow comics geeks where we can be geeks and not have anyone look at us funny for being geeks. Well, not TOO funny. -- Michael R. Grabois | http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mgrabois Houston, TX | [o--b--t] at [ix.netcom.com] CI$: 74737,2600 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark.