002 - The Pros and Comic-Cons of SDCC

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, everybody. My name is Bryce Rankins and you're listening to episode two of Sneaky Geek. [00:00:11] Speaker B: You're listening to sneaky Geek. Sneaky Geek is your podcast to help you slip past the intentional and accidental gatekeepers of today's geek culture. From sci-Fi to fantasy books to video games and everything in between, we're here to educate, celebrate, and contemplate all that the geek world has to offer. And now, Bryce Rankins and Brian Romero. [00:00:40] Speaker A: Hi, everybody, and welcome to Sneaky Geek, where you're going to find all of the different ways you can get past gatekeepers and other obnoxious fellows in your geek community so that you can enjoy stuff without feeling judged. Today we are joined by Brian Romero. [00:00:53] Speaker C: Hello. [00:00:54] Speaker A: And Stephanie Tuch. [00:00:56] Speaker B: Hi. [00:00:57] Speaker A: And they both joined me, or rather I joined them at Comic Con this year. And each of us has our own comic Con experience. Level of experience. Yeah. And I'm definitely like level one for sure. And you guys have run up those ranks for a long while. Kind of. Stephanie, you worked comic Con for a while. [00:01:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. No, this was my first year attending as a normal person. As a normal person. [00:01:25] Speaker C: And I was the opposite because I've gone the last five or six years and this was my first year working. [00:01:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. We switched places this year. [00:01:32] Speaker C: Yeah, we did. [00:01:34] Speaker A: How many years did you work? [00:01:36] Speaker B: I think it was about five. I sold comic books. [00:01:41] Speaker A: Okay, and you did this through like an independent guy? [00:01:45] Speaker B: Yeah, he actually sells comic books out through his house or something. He only does conventions and then he'll sometimes have a comic book yard sale from his garage. [00:01:59] Speaker A: That's kind of neat. Yeah, that's super cool. And you did that for how many years? [00:02:02] Speaker C: Four years. [00:02:03] Speaker B: Five years. [00:02:03] Speaker A: Five years. Five years. So this is your 6th year at Comic Con? [00:02:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:06] Speaker A: When was your first con? [00:02:07] Speaker B: Oh, I can't remember. It was when the first Captain America movie came out. I remember because I met Chris Evans that year. [00:02:14] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:02:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:02:15] Speaker A: What con was it? [00:02:16] Speaker B: Comic Con. Wait, oh, you mean like first actual convention ever? Yeah, it was anime Expo 2006, I think. No. Yeah, I can't remember. It was the last year I was at Anaheim, that's what. [00:02:30] Speaker A: Oh, wow. I think that was 2006, 2004, I think was my first anime expo. And that was my first official con. And that was when it was in the Anaheim Convention center still. And then I went again as an adult relative term in, I don't know, whenever I went with you, I guess. [00:02:51] Speaker B: I think that was like 2010, 2011, something like that. [00:02:54] Speaker A: And then, Brian, your first convention, it. [00:02:56] Speaker C: Was the Bakersfield Comic Con at Stockdale High School inside their cafeteria. [00:03:02] Speaker A: Wow. [00:03:03] Speaker B: Wait, Bakersfield Comic Con has been around that long? [00:03:05] Speaker A: 20 years. This is their 20th year. Yeah. Shout out to Bakersfield Comic Con. [00:03:09] Speaker C: Your 20th year. [00:03:09] Speaker A: Is this year. [00:03:10] Speaker C: Doing up big now? Wow. They've moved through the ranks. [00:03:13] Speaker B: Nice. I should go check it out. [00:03:16] Speaker A: So Bakersfield Comic Con. [00:03:17] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:03:18] Speaker A: Was your first one, and then you went to Comic Con for the first time in 2003. Wow. [00:03:23] Speaker C: It was right when they were in the middle of filming episode three. We went on Star Wars Day, and they showed a behind the scenes thing where everybody saw the first deal of, or the first shot of Hayden Christensen in the Vader get up. And it was pretty awesome at the time. And then like a year later, it. [00:03:43] Speaker A: Wasn'T a year later, he healed. No. And felt those knees dramatically. [00:03:51] Speaker C: That's another podcast that is guaranteed. But it was cool because we walked right up. We paid $20 to get in, and then we were just in the convention. It was still at the San Diego convention Center, which was cool, but they had a bunch of stuff set up. I remember going and playing Jedi Academy at the Lucasfilm booth, which was rad. I had a couple of cool panels with the book authors, whatever books that were out then. And then 501 showed up to escort some of the Lucasfilm vps in before they showed the behind the scenes footage, which was cool. But, yeah, it was a good time. [00:04:30] Speaker A: That's awesome. And that's one of those things that's really cool, too, because the 501 is made up entirely of fans. [00:04:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:04:36] Speaker A: And I think that I have friends. [00:04:37] Speaker B: Who are in the 501. [00:04:38] Speaker A: I do too. [00:04:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Nice. [00:04:40] Speaker C: I don't. [00:04:41] Speaker B: You do what? [00:04:42] Speaker C: Probably do. [00:04:43] Speaker A: Joanna Rogan is in 501. Silver Wolf's daughter. Shout out to my comics. [00:04:48] Speaker B: Just meet my friends. [00:04:50] Speaker A: We have friends in the 501. I'm sure the cool thing about 501 is that they're all a bunch of fans, and if they were working in that kind of. Is that nice thing about Comic Con, specifically, where it's almost a celebration of the fans as much as it is of what they're a fan of. [00:05:04] Speaker C: Right. [00:05:04] Speaker A: Which is kind of neat. Like art is finished by the artist kind of thing. Okay, so you worked for five years and then finally got to come as a normie. You went for six years. Six years. Five or six years. And now you went as an employee. [00:05:19] Speaker C: Worker there. [00:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Which was cool and different. You were not distributing comics. You were working in a booth for big, old. [00:05:26] Speaker C: It was kind of small. It was big. [00:05:28] Speaker A: It was small. It was big. It was small. [00:05:30] Speaker C: There was a lot of going on. It was a medium sized. It was just right. [00:05:35] Speaker B: Yes. [00:05:35] Speaker A: Goldilocks, the booth. [00:05:37] Speaker C: Yeah. But, yeah. So it was cool. It was interesting being on the other. [00:05:40] Speaker A: Side because you totally work for. [00:05:43] Speaker C: Yeah, totally. [00:05:45] Speaker A: I'm going to beep it out, which is super cool. Right. And everyone would be super jealous of you if they knew that. [00:05:55] Speaker C: Right. [00:05:56] Speaker A: Which they don't. Censorship win. I might cut that whole thing out. I don't know. Okay, so you worked at a booth this year, and you got to see some of the most intense chaos because your booth was located pretty much in the middle. [00:06:14] Speaker C: Right in the middle of everything. So, like, when DC had their big old surprise with everybody, there was yelling and screaming in a mass rush. [00:06:25] Speaker A: When Marvel had theirs, you had a. [00:06:26] Speaker C: Big sort of thing. [00:06:29] Speaker A: Boom. Studios was right around the corner there the whole time. [00:06:33] Speaker C: Yeah, Alex Ross was pretty close there, and he always has some cool stuff because Alex Ross. [00:06:37] Speaker A: Come on. [00:06:38] Speaker B: And his booth really stepped it up this year. [00:06:40] Speaker C: Yeah, it was way different than the. [00:06:41] Speaker B: Last couple of years. I know. The past years, it was just like four tables or something that created a square and you just walk straight up like. Yeah, it was like a mini art gallery. [00:06:51] Speaker C: Yeah, it was really. Yeah. [00:06:52] Speaker A: So for those of you who don't know, Alex Ross is a comic book artist who has by far some of the most gorgeous and hyper realistic art you're ever going to find. He does a lot of really beautiful covers. He's done some really great stuff for DC and Marvel. [00:07:08] Speaker C: Kingdom come pretty lately. [00:07:09] Speaker A: Kingdom come was a gorgeous piece of work. [00:07:15] Speaker C: He's been doing avengers the last year. [00:07:17] Speaker A: Really? [00:07:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:07:19] Speaker A: And he's just incredible. He's an incredible artist and he's so incredible that he gets his own booth instead of just an appearance or a. [00:07:27] Speaker C: Small, little table in Artist alley. [00:07:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Did anybody go to Artist Alley? I didn't get to go in. [00:07:33] Speaker B: I went to go see. Oh, I met Jim Chung. [00:07:37] Speaker A: That's right. You met Jim Chung. [00:07:38] Speaker B: Jim Chung. And I went to Patrick Biestro's, like, and got one of those cute little drawings. [00:07:47] Speaker A: Okay, so you met Jim Chung. You met. [00:07:50] Speaker B: Oh, I didn't meet Patrick Baestro, but he was at the booth and I got one of his drawings. And that was really cool. It was the one with all of the different superheroes and just kind of from different women, girls from nerd fandom with, like those, what is it? Those pussy hats or whatever, you know, the pink ones during the women's rally that was going on March. Yeah. [00:08:15] Speaker C: Okay. Very cool. [00:08:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it's super cute. They all had signs. [00:08:19] Speaker C: I didn't go to. Sorry. Yeah, no, I didn't go to artist Alley, but one of my family members was over there, Tess Fowler. She's got a cool new book starting up. At least I think she was over there. I don't know. She came and visited me and Chris, her awesome husband, who's my actual cousin there, but they do a bunch of cool stuff, so. [00:08:39] Speaker A: Your cousin was. My cousin. [00:08:40] Speaker C: Was, yeah. Yeah. She has a new book coming out. Go check it out later. [00:08:45] Speaker A: Cool. So we all had our own different comic con experiences. What was your absolute favorite part of Comic Con? [00:08:54] Speaker C: Mine probably work in the booth and then seeing all the fans come around and being excited for what was going on, that was kind of a cool perspective to see from the other. [00:09:05] Speaker A: Right. Right. [00:09:07] Speaker C: What about you, steph? [00:09:08] Speaker B: Getting to meet Jim Chung and shopping? Yeah, I got to do a lot of shopping this year. [00:09:13] Speaker C: I didn't get to do any shopping. [00:09:15] Speaker B: I don't actually usually shop at Comic Con because I'm so busy working that I buy, like, one or two things and somehow always pick up a bunch of free things. But this year, it was like, buy all the things. I was just like, whatever, charge it. Yeah. [00:09:29] Speaker A: My credit cards went right back up. [00:09:30] Speaker B: At the end of Comic Con. [00:09:31] Speaker C: I guess that was a good thing about me not buying anything. I didn't get to charge my credit card too much. [00:09:36] Speaker A: Nice. [00:09:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:09:38] Speaker A: My favorite part, I think, has to be the people I met while I was at Comic Con. I mean, I saw so many cool things. I saw Stan Lee come out and say excelsior and be very sweet, and I saw artists for comic books that I just absolutely adore. I saw cosplayers that I absolutely loved. But I think the best part was I came into a panel late, and I sat down next to somebody, and I talked to her about what was going on and what I had missed. And when we got out, she was like, let's go hang out real quick, and I can show you all the things that they talked about that you didn't get to see. And I found out that she missed the panel that I went to two days prior. So we kind of just exchanged what we saw at the panels while we walked around and shopped. It was super cool. And then we went to the Estelle sing along. [00:10:23] Speaker B: Yeah, that was really cool. Going to the Estelle sing along. [00:10:26] Speaker A: Yeah. So Estelle is a character in Steven Universe, and she's also an actual pop singer. Yeah, she's an actual pop singer. So is Dee Dee magnal Hall, who also plays a character in Steven Universe. She was in a small, inter ethnicity boy girl band called the Party, I believe. I'll fact check that later. You know what? If I'm wrong, tweet at me. So Estelle sang american boy, and she actually performed american boy at the sing along, but she was performing a song that she sings in Steven universe because it's a musical show and everyone loves it for its music. It's nominated for an Emmy for its music. Very cool. Yeah, great. [00:11:09] Speaker B: Not just for its mUsic. It has really good story content. [00:11:12] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. But specifically nominated for their very awesome musical episode. [00:11:17] Speaker B: They do have awesome music. Very catchy song. [00:11:20] Speaker A: Not to go into, like, super bitch about everything mode, but what didn't you like about comic con? [00:11:25] Speaker C: As usual, there's too many people. That's been the major concern for a lot of people. And I know a lot of the old school people from the, they're like, oh, comic con used to be super small. Yeah, it's very cool. It's grown to this huge thing that pretty much includes almost everybody and everything pop culture wise, which may or may not be part of the problem. But there's a lot of people, and you're going to have to line up an hour and a half, 2 hours before a panel. You want to see hall h people lined up a full on day before. [00:12:03] Speaker B: You basically have to stand in line just to stand in another lIne. [00:12:06] Speaker C: Yeah, that hapPens. Or just walking around. There's so many, like, working in one of the booths, I ended up seeing somebody have a panic attack because there's so much going on. And it was intense. Yeah, that was diffErent. It was interesting. [00:12:25] Speaker A: Yeah. How about you, steph? [00:12:26] Speaker B: I agree with Brian. Lines, PeOpLe just. And although it sucks because all of the exclusives, I felt, like, sold out almost InStANTLy, some places weren't as good about distributing it as others. [00:12:40] Speaker A: You told me you showed up within the first, like, 20 minutes and all of their things were gone. [00:12:44] Speaker B: Yeah, for several DiFFEReNt things. One of the places I went to, I wanted to get this cute little bunny rabbit thing that had Wonder woman's tiara. [00:12:57] Speaker C: Okay. [00:12:57] Speaker B: And I got there literally first person at that booth. I ran up there and they were just like, oh, yeah, we've been sold out since Friday. I was like, I didn't even come on Friday. That's awesome that you guys sold all of your product in two days. But it would have been nice if. [00:13:12] Speaker A: They could have distributed. [00:13:13] Speaker B: Yeah. If they rationed it out so that people who didn't or who couldn't have gone on Tuesday and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and had gone Saturday and Sunday. If they could have gotten to their product, too. Like, if I had known, I would have just legitimately preordered it online. But I wanted it to be part of the con experience. And apparently that was the wrong way. [00:13:33] Speaker C: To go, although technically, I guess it is part of the con experience. [00:13:36] Speaker B: Missing out it is. [00:13:38] Speaker A: The con is full of FOMO, and you spend a lot of time, I realized this year, worrying that you're missing something that you really wanted to see. On that note, the art and origins book for Steven Universe was selling out every day. I went on Saturday morning, I want to say, at like, 1030, they already sold out, but they said, we sold out of today's stock, we will sell more tomorrow. Because they wanted to make sure everybody was. So I like that they planned it that way, and they were able to tell me that. And I happened to know somebody who was inside, and he said, hey, as soon as the exhibit hall floor opens, I'm going to have a badge, but can I come buy this for this guy? And he did, and it was really, really cool because Dave did that. So thanks, Dave from the future. So, Dave, what was your favorite part about Comic Con? [00:14:28] Speaker D: My favorite part of this year's Comic con is that I found several books that I had been looking for. Unfortunately, I did not really work my budget properly. See, this year, I was going to try something different. Usually I just take my budget and I dole it out across a couple, across the divide it equally for the days of the show, and then I just try to get as much bang for my buck as I can. So inevitably, I end up coming home with this giant ass stack of comics, not counting the stuff I bring home for the Ziglitz. So this time I thought, you know, there are a couple of higher end books on my list that I'm looking for. I'm going to look for those. I'm going to get those. And if I come home with three or four books, well, okay, I did not do that. [00:15:25] Speaker A: You did all that and you. [00:15:27] Speaker D: No, I did not come home with the higher end stuff. I came home with the big ass stack of comics again, and I'm like, son of a bitch. The thing was, I found a bunch of, well, almost all of the higher end stuff that I was looking for. The problem is, it's higher end. So I found most of the high end books that I wanted, but I was already accumulating this mass of other things that I wanted. I wanted amazing Spiderman 125 and 126. I think it is the mark of the man wolf. There was a romance comic. Young romance. Young love. It was young romance. And while romance, first of all, as I've gotten older, I'm finding myself exploring genres outside of superheroes. I've been doing that for a while, but I'm developing a fondness for westerns, for example. [00:16:28] Speaker A: That's not surprising with your love of kung fu. Yeah, fair. [00:16:32] Speaker D: But I'm also intrigued by some of the romance comics, like some of the classic ones. I'm on a couple of Facebook groups for comics from various eras. Know people will post covers, know there was one that was posted. I think this one was young love or secret love or something. But the title of the story was my mother, my rival. I'm like, that sounds interesting. So as I was revising. [00:17:03] Speaker A: How can you not, right? [00:17:05] Speaker D: So as I was revising my want list for this year, heading into Comic Con, I was going through the database program that I use that basically, you go through. And do you have that? Yeah, I got that. Yeah, I got that. It has all the information. You just go, click, click. So I just go through the entire database. Do I want that title? No, I don't need anything from that title. Do I want stuff from that title? Blah, blah, blah. So I come to young romance. I'm like, okay, I'm intrigued. And I'm flipping through, and they have cover images of everything, almost everything. And there's this one where this dude's throwing his game at a nun. I'm like, well, okay, I can't resist that either. [00:17:54] Speaker A: It's too funny. [00:17:56] Speaker D: But I found that one. But it was like $85, and I didn't find it until the last day. And by the last day, my budget was all shot to hell. So maybe next year. [00:18:08] Speaker A: And that's one of the other beauties of Comic Con. [00:18:10] Speaker D: There's always next. [00:18:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Dave, what was your least favorite part about Comic Con? [00:18:18] Speaker D: I'm always tired of the a. That's a necessary evil. And I get that there is. On some level, I feel like there's. I want to clarify that this is solely my opinion. Nobody else's. This is my. [00:18:45] Speaker A: No one else can think like Dave. You hear me? [00:18:47] Speaker D: That's right. [00:18:48] Speaker A: No one else. I'm pointing a very serious finger at this microphone right now. [00:18:52] Speaker D: I just want to make it clear that this is my opinion based on things that I've observed over the last several years and things that I've. [00:18:59] Speaker C: Decades. [00:19:01] Speaker A: What? [00:19:02] Speaker C: Decades? [00:19:03] Speaker A: Yes, decades. [00:19:07] Speaker D: Anyway, this is my opinion. Nobody else's I feel like comic Con is systematically trying to price itself out of the reach of basically comic book dealers. Guys like us who sling comics, they have. This is the first time in eight years, I think, that they haven't increased the booth prices. [00:19:36] Speaker A: Wow. [00:19:36] Speaker D: And they're expensive, I imagine. Well, I know that there have been a few dealers who didn't come this year who have been coming to Comic Con for a long time, because what they're making versus what they're spending to be there, the math doesn't work for them. That, I guess I don't understand why Comic Con has made some of the choices they've made. Because they've got millions in the bank. Millions with an s? [00:20:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:25] Speaker D: Almost tens of millions. So it's not like they need to say, like, they've needed to increase the price. And they're a nonprofit, so for them to have that kind. [00:20:41] Speaker A: Oh, you didn't know that? [00:20:43] Speaker D: They're a nonprofit. And so for them to have that kind of financial backstop, I guess, seems. [00:20:54] Speaker A: A little more for profit than nonprofit. [00:20:57] Speaker D: I was going to say shady, but sure. Well, but it's all in the bank. As near as I can tell, they don't seem to spend it on anything. This is the money above and beyond the running of the show. [00:21:12] Speaker A: Right. [00:21:12] Speaker D: I mean, I understand you need to have a certain cushion for unforeseen things, and yet it definitely feels like they're pushing the mom and pop comic booths out. [00:21:33] Speaker A: Oh, good point. Thanks, Dave from the future. So, regarding my least favorite part about Comic Con, the thing that bugged me the most, again, had to do with the line situation. But it wasn't that there were so many people. It was the ways people tried to get around it, I felt, were super shady. People would get bathroom passes and say, hey, I'm leaving my stuff inside. I'll be back before the end of the panel. And then the next panel would start, and a line of people with bathroom passes from the previous panel. [00:22:04] Speaker C: Normally, they're pretty good about watching those, and they'll have different colored bathroom passes for each panel. So if they try that, they're like, no, get out of here. [00:22:12] Speaker A: But at the indigo room, 25 people in. And it made me realize how quickly irritable I can be around large crowds when people start intentionally sabotaging everybody else's good time for their own enjoyment. So eventually, I did get into the panel, which was nice. But, I mean, being at the front of the line, not being good enough is not okay. I understand when a panel is full, but when you watch a line, a literal line of human beings just parade through and you're stuck there. That can really stink. So it sucks that you have to kind of see that part of the human condition, but at the same time, Dave lost his wallet and somebody got it back. [00:22:53] Speaker C: To know that's really cool with everything still in it. [00:22:57] Speaker A: Maybe you have thousands of people there. The chances of that happening could have been so low, but we're really good ones. You going to go back? [00:23:05] Speaker C: Where are we going? [00:23:06] Speaker A: Are you going to go back to Comic Con? [00:23:07] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, I think so. Yeah. It was really cool working it this. [00:23:12] Speaker A: Year either way, Normie, or as a. [00:23:14] Speaker C: Worker, I'm kind of down for both. [00:23:16] Speaker A: Maybe you try to do, like, a. [00:23:18] Speaker C: Split shift, maybe if they'll let us. But now that I've done it working, I can pace myself better. As we said in the booth, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. [00:23:29] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. It takes a toll on you every year. [00:23:32] Speaker C: Two weeks later, and I'm barely leveling. [00:23:35] Speaker B: Seriously? Yeah. After I would finish working Comic Con, I'd be, like, dead. I'd be so exhausted. Because I think when people think that the con is over because it ends, like, what, like 05:00 on Sunday? No, because we have to break down everything, too. And then that takes forever. [00:23:53] Speaker C: Early set up for the day. [00:23:55] Speaker A: Yeah, after it closed. [00:23:57] Speaker C: There's a lot of behind the scenes stuff that go on that I think a lot of people don't realize. [00:24:01] Speaker A: After it closed down, I had to stand outside because my phone died and I was waiting for Brian, and I knew I had to wait for him to get done. And so I ended up becoming this unofficial doorman for everybody. And they'd be know all these guards would be like, hey, hey, you can't go. And I'm like, I'm not. I'm just being this guy right now until my budy shows up. But it was really cool. It was really cool to see all these people coming in and out. And I heard one guy say. He said, I'm never doing this again after this experience. This was just awful. And I just turned and I said, I'm really sorry. I hope you change your mind. And he kind of looked at me like, maybe I will. That's funny, because for a brief moment to see, he kind of was like, I never thought of. Like, I'm not thinking about everybody else right now. I'm thinking about me. And I hope maybe he does come back. [00:24:46] Speaker C: Did you say that? And people ask me all the time, how do you feel after it. And do you really want to go back? I'm like, honestly, I look at it like Vegas. You're there. You really want to go. You get there. You do everything. Sunday comes around. You're like, I'm exhausted. I hate everybody. I'm tired, a little bit hungover. I just want to go home, and I don't want to do this for a long time. And then a week later, you're like, you know, that wasn't that bad. And then two or three months later, you're like, winter tickets on sale. When are we getting our badges? And then you're kind of ready to roll again. [00:25:20] Speaker A: Yeah. I definitely was not prepared for the physical toll it took just as going as a civilian this year with the outside world, the inside, a lot of walking inside, a lot of walking outside, and the waiting in the heat. And it's muggy in Sandy. [00:25:35] Speaker C: It was really humid down there this year. [00:25:37] Speaker A: Yeah. But you know what? When I left, I was like, that was incredible. I do want to do it again because I wasn't crushed by that. But I've had experiences where I've been to that point where something actually bad happened during those things. Anime expo. I had a really rough time one year, and sometimes that bad experience can linger. Being just exhausted is one thing, but when something you don't want to happen happens, that can linger. But there comes a point where your brain forgives the universe and says, that doesn't mean everything in the future is going to be that way. I think that's something about Comic Con that I. [00:26:12] Speaker C: Those bad experiences that you do have don't outweigh the really good ones that you have. [00:26:16] Speaker A: Not the people that I met. Not running into Steph, not being able to come and do giveaways at your booth. Nothing like that. [00:26:24] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. Every year, I feel like I hate Comic Con. I want to go back again, and then I always end up going back, because then I think about. Because the things you usually end up remembering, even if I'm like, oh, it's just lots of people, long lines, it kind of sucks. But then you remember the specific things you remember are always the good things. It's like, oh, last year I actually got the thing I really wanted, which was like this cute Conan stormtrooper pop toy. [00:26:48] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:26:49] Speaker B: The one thing I wanted, and I got it. And it's almost like, for me, it's kind of funny. I feel like Comic Con has this sort of magical thing where that one thing that I really want, I always. [00:27:00] Speaker A: End up getting when we started about a week before we left for Comic Con. I sent a group message to Amir and Tate and Brian, and I said, these are the two panels I absolutely must find a way into. Everything else is gravy? And Tate, like, made it freaking. [00:27:20] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:27:21] Speaker A: Like, he was like, we are getting you into this panel on this day. We will do know he finagled the whole thing just to make sure that I could have, because this is my con mitzvah as a. Like, I've never done this before and not at this level. Oh, my gosh. You walk into anime expo, and you're like, wow, that's a lot of boots. [00:27:36] Speaker C: He's a pro now. Yeah, he's got it down. [00:27:38] Speaker A: You walk into comic con, and you're like, what is this crazy, disneyland, like, hodgepodge madness that I've just walked into? It's amazing. [00:27:46] Speaker C: Yeah. Did you guys go outside a lot? What did you guys see that was cool out there? [00:27:51] Speaker B: Oh, I took a picture on the legion swing. Oh, I wish I did that with my friend. We took photos there, and then we went to go check out that x gene. [00:28:00] Speaker C: I really wanted to do that. [00:28:02] Speaker B: Unfortunately, they were closed for the gifted. Like, when we were gifted, we couldn't do the whole experience, but they let us take photos in the tube thing. [00:28:10] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:28:10] Speaker B: And then they let us take this one photo. I think we spoke about this before, where it was like, the whole thing was, like a genealogy thing or something, so they would do a whole family workup and stuff for you. But the interesting thing was that part wasn't what told you if you were a mutant or not, to check the X gene. The part where it does it, which we actually got to do, was they took a photo of you, and it says, like, mutant, whatever. [00:28:41] Speaker A: Does it give you powers? Like, a power set? [00:28:44] Speaker B: No, but apparently the top part, it's like, if it's white, you're not a mutant, and then if it turns blue, then you're a mutant. And I took two photos with my friend. His name is JJ, and both of them were white, and I blame him. I was just like, I swear to God, I'm actually a mutant, and you're just ruining it for me in the picture. Like, I want to go back and take a photo without you. [00:29:06] Speaker A: I'm not a mutant. [00:29:07] Speaker C: This is crap. [00:29:08] Speaker A: Like, when you get off of the star tours, and you're like, I know. I was the rebel spy, and I don't know what they were thinking. I appreciate that other guy taking it for the team. [00:29:17] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:18] Speaker A: Outside, I did not get to do a ton. I didn't go because outside, you can do without a pass, which means you're competing not only against comic Con growers, but the rest of San Diego and its visitors. There's people who travel to San Diego to just do the outside of comic Con. [00:29:32] Speaker B: Yeah, because they don't have to pay for it. Or sometimes it's just they want to do Comic Con, but they can't, and they couldn't get in. So they're just like. [00:29:40] Speaker A: I imagine those are the same people who were sleeping in tents on the side of the road because I drove by some tents on the way out, and I was like, those tents are really nice for being part of a tent city. This is a little weird. And then when Comic Con ended, I watched all these people collapsing them with, like, swag bags. And I'm like, oh, my God. You were homeless for a weekend so that you could go to Comic Con? Yeah. That's insane. [00:30:01] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:30:02] Speaker A: But parked it outside, I saw this family in San Diego sleeping on a curb every night, and I thought to myself, that is so tragic. But now I'm wondering if maybe that wasn't tragic at all. And their parents were just really obsessed with Comic Con. [00:30:14] Speaker C: They're basically just camping. [00:30:17] Speaker A: Hopefully. Please. Oh, and if they're not, I hope them the best. I did, however, get to see the Sci-Fi channel pep band perform, like, imperial March and other cool stuff. And then I saw a viking funeral procession where they had, like, a mockup corpse that looked pretty realistic and walking. [00:30:36] Speaker B: Know is that it was a real corpse. [00:30:39] Speaker A: And all these guys just walking in, like, full on viking gear and then sneaking behind them was a guy cosplaying as death Note. He got me from Death Note. So it was cool to see the outside. It was cool to see how many people like my shark week bag. I got a swag bag outside of. [00:30:57] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, don't give out stuff out there. I got a reptar bag a couple of years ago. [00:31:01] Speaker B: That's awesome. [00:31:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:02] Speaker B: Oh, my God, I'm jealous. What was it? Shark week bag or whatever? It was a little sad. It's like a seal looking all scared above shark. I was like, what? [00:31:11] Speaker C: This is too real. [00:31:12] Speaker B: Yeah, they gave it to me, and then I was like, do I really want this? This is so sad. [00:31:16] Speaker C: If you do, because it's free. [00:31:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:18] Speaker A: What was your favorite booth? [00:31:19] Speaker C: Favorite booth? Oh, man. I don't like, there were so many really cool ones. Like, Marvel always has a good booth. [00:31:31] Speaker A: Yeah, they do. [00:31:31] Speaker C: DC's booth is typically pretty cool, too. [00:31:34] Speaker A: Theirs was really neat. [00:31:35] Speaker C: They had all the Justice League's uniforms and stuff. Star wars booth, I wasn't too impressed with this year. Normally it's really cool, but they just had some basic. [00:31:45] Speaker A: The big box. [00:31:46] Speaker C: Yeah, the big box. [00:31:46] Speaker A: Big box looked pretty cool. It was almost like they were trying to promote too many things, so it felt a little confused. [00:31:53] Speaker C: Yeah, they have a lot of stuff going on. [00:31:55] Speaker A: They have a ton of stuff going, which is cool. But the Star wars booth had some really cool stuff. [00:32:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I bought a little java coin purse from them. [00:32:03] Speaker A: Oh, cool. [00:32:04] Speaker B: I know they were trying to sell me an ewok one because they saw my ewok backpack that I had with me, and I was like, that's weird. Having an ewok head and an ewalk head backpack. I don't know. I was like, that's weird. And then I was like. And it was just like, they're like, oh, it's cute because it's smaller. And I was like, it's not that cute. And then I looked up, and I was like, I want Jabba. He's so ugly. [00:32:26] Speaker A: That's cute. [00:32:27] Speaker B: I like that one. [00:32:28] Speaker A: Jabba's like a slug version of a terrier. [00:32:30] Speaker B: It's perfect because he's protecting my money. [00:32:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I got a hot on the case. [00:32:35] Speaker C: Well, what was your favorite booth? [00:32:38] Speaker A: I saw Stan Lee at Marvel. That was really cool. I don't know. That can be topped, but as far as conceptually, I think I liked the concept of the mystery box booth just because everyone's walking around with these boxes with these weird shapes. And there's this one. [00:32:59] Speaker C: There's a bunch of different mystery boxes. [00:33:00] Speaker A: There's one particular booth that had a Nintendo controller booth with Nintendo themed prizes. Inside Steven Universe, they had a me seeks box with Rick and Morty swag inside. They had, I think, a portal one put, like, valve stuff inside, and that one was really, the concept was really cool. And I got a mystery box for Steven Universe, and I have all this cool Steven universe stuff. [00:33:23] Speaker C: And you hear all about that in our Steven universe episode, which we will talk about later. [00:33:27] Speaker A: But as far as the favorite booth that I got to visit, I think it's got to be Marvel. [00:33:33] Speaker C: Yeah, they always do it up. [00:33:35] Speaker A: There were giveaways. I got to meet the guy who voices soldier 76, and he recorded the sound clip for my new comic Con friend, Shannon. You're awesome. I met a ton of other people. I got to meet a ton of people who were working at the booth because they were just all so freaking cool. And it was like, oh, hey, I know this guy now. And then suddenly, the web of who I knew working the booth because I walked past it so many times. I'm a marvel. You make friends in a DC guy. You do. And they were really got, you know, a lot of cool swag from them. But more importantly, it's just a good vibe going down at the booth. I think that was really nice. Yeah. I guess it didn't have to be Marvel or Dave's Booth, which is really cool. Which isn't Dave's booth. It's actually Dave what's his name. Right? Yeah. [00:34:25] Speaker C: You're always there. [00:34:26] Speaker A: You were there the whole time. What was your favorite booth? Dave from the future. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Okay. I'll allow it. We recorded this way earlier. Spoilers. Spoilers. Yeah, I mean, I saw Dalek with speakers on it for its little balls. That was Lego, I think. The Lego booth, maybe. [00:34:45] Speaker C: The Lego booth is always pretty cool. [00:34:47] Speaker A: I mean, the full scale Luke Skywalker. [00:34:48] Speaker C: Like, from episode seven. [00:34:50] Speaker A: I don't even know. I still can't choose which booth I like. [00:34:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:54] Speaker A: That's the thing about Comic Con, too, is this Fomo thing. And I think I want to talk about that before we go to these messages, this Fomo thing. So, the thing about Comic Con is that you'll never see everything going. [00:35:07] Speaker C: You won't Comic Con, ever. [00:35:08] Speaker A: You have to look up online and. [00:35:10] Speaker C: Do the edge just like a normal person. [00:35:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Whether you're working in a booth or whether you're walking around or whether you're not there at all, at the end of Comic Con, you have to go through and go, what did I miss? [00:35:20] Speaker C: Because there's a lot. [00:35:21] Speaker A: Because there's a ton. And in that vein, if you can get to the thing you care about the most, like, a week and a half later, you're not even bothered that you missed it. You're like, well, I found out later, like everybody else did. It was cool that I got to see the Inhumans end of the Inhumans panel. It was cool that I got to check out some of the more technical side of comics panels or not panels, but booths. But I got to go to the Steven Univers panel I cared about the most. I got to go to the sing along, which I hadn't planned on at all, which was gravy. [00:35:59] Speaker C: Right on. [00:35:59] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. When I saw that they were doing that, it was like, oh, my God. I have to do this. And my friends were, well, they don't watch Steven universe, and they don't really know who Estelle is. So I was just kind of like, okay, I hate doing things on my own. I went on my own. I was just like, no, I'm going to that. [00:36:19] Speaker C: That's what you got to do sometimes. [00:36:20] Speaker A: I hate doing things on my own, too, which is why I made comic con friends on Sunday. But at the same time, being on my own, wandering as much as the hate being on my own, I do like being amongst people. [00:36:33] Speaker C: Yeah, it kind of lets you explore, have a little mini adventure. [00:36:35] Speaker A: You can have little tiny conversations. I met a Steven Universe cosplayer while getting a comic book signed, and we made brief friends. Then we met up again at the Estelle thing, just ran into him. So that was really cool. But I think the fear of missing out fades that time. You're like, oh, I'm missing the Rick and Morty panel. But then, yeah, everybody misses everybody. [00:36:57] Speaker C: Miss Rick and Morty. [00:36:58] Speaker A: But then you come back later and you learn everything that everybody else learned, and you've had all these other exciting experiences. So what you had is obviously going to stay in your brain a lot better than what you didn't have. And if it is staying the other way, then maybe you should talk to somebody about that. We'll be right back after these messages. [00:37:17] Speaker C: We have messages. Hey there, pop culture geeks. Do you like one season tv shows? Do you like drinking games? Then join me, Mitchell Thompson, and my co host, Molly Sanchez, as we drink our way through some of the best and worst tv shows to never make it to season two on our podcast. Failure to launch. [00:37:36] Speaker A: Failure to. Failure to. [00:37:43] Speaker C: Available anywhere. Podcasts are served. [00:37:48] Speaker A: And we're back after those messages. [00:37:52] Speaker C: The thing with cons is they're starting to be the popular thing to do. Yeah. And so a lot of people are starting to go now, which is kind of cool. [00:38:01] Speaker A: And I think, like most things, they expanded to a point where they expanded in the wrong way, which is when we had things like pretty little liars and Big Bang theory on theory. Big Bang theory is at least somewhat nerd related, but I'm sorry, these types of shows really don't have a place at a comic convention, I don't think. And now they've narrowed it back down to Sci-Fi fantasy and things related to comics. So, like, Riverdale's not really Sci-Fi fantasy, but it is. They have an entire brand of comics. Archie comics is a huge thing. So if Riverdale comes on there, okay, but, like, pretty little liars had no place. So for a long time, I refused to go to Comic Con because I didn't want to go to tvcon, pop culture Con. But now, when you're going around San Diego, all the banners for Comic Con say, celebrating the popular arts. So it's, like, straight up, it has become a genre of art as far as they're concerned. And if it fits within that genre of art, of something that relates to, in some way Sci-Fi fantasy, or some relation to sequential art such as comics, then I feel like then it fits in there. So, as much as I hate how much it's just tv and that there's not as much comics as there could be, I also really love that there are these adaptations of comics happening all over the place, and there's a place to actually celebrate those things. [00:39:36] Speaker C: At the Comic Con. [00:39:38] Speaker A: At the Comic Con, which was my big beef with it. And now they've resolved said beef, which. I appreciate it. [00:39:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:39:48] Speaker A: So, giveaways. Comic comics versus not comics. They're not really giving away a whole lot. [00:39:58] Speaker C: There's a lot of panels. [00:39:59] Speaker A: Panels was actually what my brain was. [00:40:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:01] Speaker A: So there was a ton of panels. [00:40:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:05] Speaker B: The good panels were, like, on Thursday and Friday or something. That's what my coworkers are telling. [00:40:10] Speaker A: Really good panels on Thursday. [00:40:11] Speaker B: And Friday was Friday. [00:40:13] Speaker A: Steven Universe was Friday. [00:40:15] Speaker C: There's some Star wars ones on Friday. Star wars is typically. Or Friday is typically the Star Wars day. [00:40:19] Speaker A: I feel like Defenders was also, I think, Thursday. [00:40:22] Speaker C: I think it was, too. [00:40:23] Speaker A: But there were some good ones, so. [00:40:25] Speaker B: I didn't even try and go to any. [00:40:26] Speaker A: You didn't do any panels? [00:40:27] Speaker B: No. [00:40:28] Speaker A: So I'm the only one here who did any panels, then? Those room was just as big as hall h. I feel like the lines for the indigo room. [00:40:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:36] Speaker A: That's the half a mile one besides hall h, I would say. Yeah, we saw. [00:40:43] Speaker C: A couple of years ago, we saw the Firefly reunion panel in there. There was a community panel. There's an avatar panel. And it was packed. [00:40:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:53] Speaker C: I didn't get to go to this year because I was busy working, which I was kind of bummed about, but. [00:40:58] Speaker B: I was busy shopping. [00:40:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I did get to go. I went to the last half of the Inhumans panel, which then told me that I could go see basically all the clips from the Inhumans panel in a tiny pop up theater over at Horton Plaza. So I then went and got free food and watched the opening clips from the inhumans, which we'll get to in a minute when we talk about previews. But I saw the Steven Universe panel, which meant I saw all the previews for save the light, the new season, and as well as, like, a clip, which is really cool. And I got to see a live singing of AJ and Estelle singing here comes a thought with Rebecca Sugar playing on the ukulele. [00:41:45] Speaker B: Oh, cool. [00:41:46] Speaker A: I have it on video. I'll show you later. And then I didn't do any panels on Saturday. And then on Sunday, I did the art and origins book for Steven universe, which was cool, but not nearly as exciting or as fun as the pop up concert, which we both went to. [00:42:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:07] Speaker A: Which is another aspect of Comic Con that's really, really neat. We'll come back to panels, but everything outside of comic Con, there is almost. [00:42:15] Speaker C: More to do outside of Comic Con. There is inside the last few years, because badges are so hard to get. I'd only get, like, a Thursday badge or a Thursday and Sunday. So Friday and Saturday are obviously harder to get because those are typically the bigger panels. Right. But there's plenty of stuff to do outside. There's a Game of Thrones kind of experience, they call it, and it's different every year. One year, you put on the oculus, and they put you inside the lift going up the wall, and you go up the wall, and it was nuts. And you can go, like, a 360 view. You're looking everywhere, and you get to the top, and it rushes you forward to the edge, and you're like, holy crap, this is really tall. But you're looking around like, oh, this is nice and pleasant. And then there's, like, a fireball coming because there's a war. And then you get hit, and then you fall, and then you like, holy crap. And it was nuts. And then you're like, okay, you're done. [00:43:06] Speaker A: VR is crazy. Like that. [00:43:08] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:08] Speaker A: Game of Thrones VR. [00:43:10] Speaker C: Yeah. This year, there was a Westworld experience, too, with. I don't know about with. I didn't get to go, this is outside. This is outside in one of the hotels. But there's always other random kind of Netflix panels. Yeah. The last couple of years, there's been an obstacle course. Last year, you can get a free shave with a straight razor. [00:43:35] Speaker B: Oh, that's so weird. So random. [00:43:37] Speaker C: Yeah, right? It was for. I can't remember what they were advertising for, but it was there, like, Luke cage or. [00:43:44] Speaker A: Barbershop. [00:43:45] Speaker B: Yeah, something pops. [00:43:47] Speaker A: Barbershop. That's so cool. And what was really cool is how into it the whole town is, too, because, like, gaslamp corridor is filled with shit. We had the Netflix experience, which had a stranger things. They had the upside down. They had a defenders experience as well, right? They had Kong, Skull island. They had all this other stuff that we've just talked about. They had the gaming experience. A bunch of little stuff for little kids, too. Plus all the shops have specials. Even businesses had like pow and kapow and wham just posted in their offices on the cubicles. The whole town's into it. They're having a blast. [00:44:24] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, they make them a lot of money off of it. Like the whole town. [00:44:28] Speaker A: Now they're making a lot of money off of it for another reason, is this is something you can do at Comic Con without paying for comic Con, which means the line to the stranger thing exhibit could take 4 hours. [00:44:38] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, we stood in line. Well, I crashed with my cousin x because he'd stayed in line with some of his friends that didn't get badges for the Game of Thrones thing. So we'd kind of hop in line. But no, last year, we probably stood in line for a good 2 hours, and they were in line for a couple hours before that. [00:44:56] Speaker A: Because you're competing not only against comic Con goers, but you're competing against people who couldn't get into comic Con. That means you're competing against pretty much. [00:45:02] Speaker C: The world, everybody else. [00:45:04] Speaker A: And then there's cosplayers outside. That's a big thing at anime expo, is like, you can go to anime expo and spend four days having a blast. Never walk in the exhibit hall, right? Because you're taking pictures with cosplayers. You're hanging out, watching. There's meetups and all. [00:45:21] Speaker B: Make a lot of friends. [00:45:22] Speaker A: I made some really good friends at comic con this year, and I did not expect that. I kind of kept to myself, but on my day, by myself, when I went into the Steven universe art and origins panel, I got in late, and when I sat down, I sat down next to a girl, and I started asking, like, okay, what are we doing? What's happening? What's been going on? And she was like, oh, we're talking about the book. And I was like, oh, cool, I bought that yesterday. And I pulled out the book. She didn't have it. So she went through with me page by page and said, on this one, this is what Rebecca was talking about. [00:45:53] Speaker B: And on this one, oh, wow, that's really cool. [00:45:55] Speaker A: Ian was talking about, which was so cool. And then it was kind of like, okay, so you're going to that Estelle meetup later, right? And she was like, yeah, I'm like, we're comic con buddies. Now let's go through the whole place. And I bought my comic Con mystery box for Steven Universe, which was super cool. They were all over the place. [00:46:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:14] Speaker A: Instead of getting free things, you pay $35 to get a bunch of random things. And there was some cool stuff in there. I got my pin quota filled. I got as many as I really would want. I got some figurines. I got a mug. I got a shirt. There's lots of really cool stuff. [00:46:40] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm not a fan of those boxes. I like to know what I get exactly. Like, I don't like the surprise. [00:46:46] Speaker A: I get that. [00:46:46] Speaker C: Yeah. Blueprint's been iffy lately, from what I've heard. [00:46:51] Speaker A: I think if I was to do it regularly, I would want at least to be told, you're guaranteed to get this, this, and this. If you say you're going to get a shirt, a pop figurine, and some buttons, and then maybe three or four other items, I don't care how big or bad the other four items are, I want to know that at least I'm making, if I'm spending $35, I'm going to get a $15 shirt and a $20 pop figurine and then some other stuff. Right. I want to know that I'm at least getting my money's worth, and I want to know that I'm doing something somewhat wise with my money. But in this case, I knew that almost every single one of them had a lion piggy bank, and I really wanted a big lion piggy bank, which it was in there. And I knew they would have a couple of items that weren't Steven universe related. And the items that I got, only two of them were really that great. I'll probably sell the other one. But it was fun because people were carrying it around. It was like, oh, what'd you get in your box? What's in the box? What's in the box? I think people made what's in the box jokes all weekend. [00:47:59] Speaker C: Yeah, I think I did that, too. [00:48:01] Speaker A: Yeah. But I did, like, a tiny unboxing video just for the heck of it with my new comic Con friend. And then when we were at the Estelle concert, which was this crazy, super positive experience, which kind of felt a little bit like a weird musical gay pride rally. [00:48:16] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:48:17] Speaker A: We all got shirts that said, I am made of love. [00:48:21] Speaker B: I got there a bit late, so the guy was telling us that all he had was a children's small left, and I was like, just give it to me. I don't care. [00:48:30] Speaker A: I'll cut it up. [00:48:30] Speaker B: It's fine. No, it's fine. It actually fit. I was like, yes. [00:48:34] Speaker A: I got there, like, an hour and a half early, but they were trying to cover as many logos as they could. And the back of my head is all over that video because I was in front of the camera. [00:48:46] Speaker B: You're so lucky you can't see me at all. I'm, like, completely hidden by the sea of people because I was too short to see anything. And all those taller people would just kind of crowd in front. [00:48:59] Speaker A: Yeah. I stayed toward the back because I knew all the people in front of me, and they would have been very mad at me if I decided to stand in front of them. [00:49:06] Speaker B: I mean, I was a little lucky. There were some people who were in front of me who were a lot taller, but they were, like, asking me to go in front of them because they felt so bad for me. And I heard them talking about me. I'm like, right. I'm just, like, right in front of them. And they're like, she's so little. I feel so bad for her. I would hate to be her. And I'm like, I'm right here. I can still hear things. I just moved in front of you. [00:49:28] Speaker A: Make some friends, meet some nice people, have them talk shit about your height. So, yeah, outside of Comic Con, super cool. Inside of Comic Con, the panels were great. At Comic Con, there was a lot to do as far as purchasing stuff. [00:49:47] Speaker B: And there was a lot of waiting online. [00:49:49] Speaker A: A lot of waiting in line. [00:49:52] Speaker B: That's nothing new. [00:49:53] Speaker A: Yeah, that's nothing new. But I met some cool voice actors. I met the creator of the writer of Sailor Moon Crystal. I met Brock. I talked and hung out with those two people. I met a woman who's working on the new dark crystal show for Netflix and just hung out with these people. There's so many people from the film and comic industry that one of them is bound to work on something that you are interested in. And what's so cool is because there's so many, the big, big ones take away a lot of that celebrity problem for a lot of the little ones. When I met the sailor Moon Crystal woman, I talked to her about voice acting. I was able to have just a kind of one on one conversation about who she likes as voice coaches, who she vouches for, who I should go to so I could be vouched for. And I don't think you get that ability to do that at maybe smaller cons all the time. If they're the only person there when they're no longer the big, big voice. But at the same time, I've been to a really small convention where there was maybe five guests total. And of those guests, three of them I wound up talking to after the convention was over, like over Twitter and know pros and cons. But it's cool that there's just so many of you. Did you meet anybody, like, relatively important? [00:51:20] Speaker B: Oh, I actually met Jim Chung. He did the art for young Avengers. I was so excited to meet him. I actually had decided beforehand that he was like that one person that I really wanted to meet at Comic Con this year. So I looked it up to see where his booth would be and stuff, and fortunately, he listed on his instagram. And I was like, oh, thank goodness. That makes it so much easier. [00:51:47] Speaker A: Right? [00:51:47] Speaker B: So that was like one of the first things I tried to do was just went over there. I had, like, issue eight of children's crusade with me. Yes. Very specifically that issue. And I went up to him and I asked him to sign it, and I flipped to the page with Dr. Doom. Yeah, he was just like, looked at it and I was like, can you sign this page? Because specifically, it's like this little drawing of him. He's smiling, but it's like a ditto face. You know what I'm talking about? You know what I'm talking. [00:52:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I've read. I don't remember. [00:52:22] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. If you. [00:52:23] Speaker A: Dr. Doom has a ditto face. [00:52:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I was dying when I first saw it. I was like, what is going on with his face? And if you actually look at Jim Chung's art for the smaller, like, when the characters are smaller in size, they're very straight faced and very simple, like just two dots and a line or something. But this one, he happened to be smiling and so it looked like ditto. And so I went up to Jim Chung and I was like, can you sign this? And I specifically had him sign that page. And his response was just, oh, my gosh. He's like, it's come back to haunt. [00:52:57] Speaker C: Me because he knows what he did. [00:53:00] Speaker B: Yeah. And he was like, I get asked about this page all the time. And I was like, oh, really? Yeah. But you're the first one who's asked me to sign it. And I was like, yes, first for something that's awesome. And I got to take a picture with him. It's not that, but it's around that. It's before that page, I think. I think that's later on. Yeah, that's later on, because when he grabs all that power, right. [00:53:29] Speaker C: If you haven't read young Avengers, go read it. It's fantastic. All of it. [00:53:35] Speaker A: If you haven't read pretty much Marvel comics from 2005 to 2011, it was just such a good time period. You got young avengers, you got runaways. Runaways. You got m day, civil war, secret invasion, siege. Siege. [00:53:54] Speaker C: All the X Men events second coming. [00:53:58] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:53:59] Speaker A: Tons of stuff for X Men. Not that Marvel ever pushes that sort of stuff, but, like, they do now for X Men anyways. Crazy awesome. Yeah, so that's cool. Jim Chung, like, that's super met. [00:54:11] Speaker B: He's super nice. Apparently, he's british. I did not know that. I was actually surprised because he's kind of more soft spoken, and so at first I didn't notice, and then I was like, wait a second, he's british. It took me a second, but he was super nice. He took a photo with me. He did, like, a little sketch of Jean Grey for me. [00:54:33] Speaker C: Yeah. So cool. [00:54:34] Speaker B: Nice guy. And then I posted the photos on Instagram and tagged him, and he responded and was just like, it was so nice meeting. [00:54:41] Speaker A: Jim Chung's really good at that. Amir, who will be on the podcast probably in either next episode or the one after that. He actually corresponded back and forth so that he could improve his art, because Jim Chung was kind of helping him, mentoring him a little bit with some of the art he was doing, because Samir is a fantastic artist. And when that episode drops, I'll probably put some work of his actually on there. [00:55:04] Speaker C: Yeah, we will. [00:55:04] Speaker A: So good. But Jim Chung is super good about that sort of thing, which is really, really nice, because a lot of people aren't. A lot of people aren't. A lot of people are, and sometimes they are, but they're just, like, so exhausted from the con. I've heard that Peter Mayhew is one of the nicest guys around, but when I met him at Wondercon, he was really gruff with, you know, everybody was like, that's so weird that you had a bad experience. You must have just been having a really bad day, which happens and which know I'd love to meet him. Have I have an autographed picture of Chewbacca, which is pretty dang cool. So, yeah, you meet a ton of cool people. I met Rebecca Sugar, who I was really excited about it. Poor Rebecca Sugar is so socially not the type of person to just jump out in front of everyone and start talking. She's very, quite, very reserved, quite the introvert. And she's walking with Ian and they're rushing to get back into the con, and they've clearly just left. They're trying to cut through the crowd without being seen too much. Her signature curly hair is being covered up by an okko like hat. And I walk up next to her and sidle up, and I'm like, hey, listen, I just want you to know that I really appreciate everything that you do. I'm going to try to keep this down low because I don't want you to be spotted by anybody. But I choreographed a dance to here comes the thought. It was for, like, a full workshop. It was really awesome, and I just wanted to thank you for the inspiration because it's fantastic. Which I could have gone on and gushed for, like, hours about how much this show means to me, but I just said that, and I was like, okay, keep on sneaking on. And she was like, thank you. Have a good day. And she walks away. And then my new friend Shannon jumps in, and she's like, I love you, just so you like, I just want you to know I love you, and I love what you do. And I'm like, jen. And I just got through being sneaky. This poor woman needs to get to the con. She's trying to mean Rebecca Sugar is just exploded. She freaking filled the indigo hall. There were people in Steven Universe cosplay quarter mile away in that line to the indigo room, and they weren't getting in. Those poor people. Oh, God, those poor, poor people. But I did. [00:57:13] Speaker C: What? [00:57:14] Speaker A: You can't see me flailing my arms around, but I am, and it's very facetious. So what happened in what was announced at Comic Con, that's really important because we've got a little bit of time left. I don't know. [00:57:25] Speaker C: I missed a bunch of news because I was working. It's always kind of funny, though, when you're at Comic Con, you still have to catch up on the Internet later with everything you miss, because that's so true. You still end up missing. [00:57:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:37] Speaker C: But I remember one day, it was after the Marvel panel. We got done working the big Marvel panel. The big Marvel panel in hall h, and we shut down the booth. Everybody's like, okay, everybody gather around. We have the new stuff on the iPad from the Internet, because that's how we find all our stuff. So we watched the Thor trailer, which was awesome, dude. [00:57:56] Speaker A: The Thor trailer. I do not watch trailers. Like, rule number four, you don't watch trailers if you're going to watch it anyway. But I caught this trailer. It is so good. Like, pause this podcast. Open up the Thor trailer. Pull over to the side of the road. [00:58:09] Speaker C: We'll wait. [00:58:10] Speaker A: We'll wait. Dude, wasn't that. [00:58:17] Speaker C: And that, like, that last part there with the Hulk. [00:58:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Didn't watch it. I won't spoil anything. [00:58:23] Speaker C: But finally, man, oh, man. [00:58:25] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. [00:58:27] Speaker C: Take a drink, because that is just. [00:58:29] Speaker A: Yeah, man, that was intense. So good. And then let's see. The Thor trailer dropped. Was there a new black panther spot? [00:58:38] Speaker C: So they showed footage from Black Panther. They showed, like, a little lead up sizzle reel to ant man and the. Actually, I don't think they started filming yet, so we'll just kind of. [00:58:50] Speaker A: No, but they announced that Michelle Pfeiffer. [00:58:52] Speaker C: Michelle Pfeiffer is going to be Janet Van Dyne. [00:58:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:55] Speaker A: The original wasp, which is cool. Interesting, because she's sort of trapped as an ethereal person in a microverse of sorts. [00:59:03] Speaker C: Yeah. There was also. [00:59:05] Speaker A: Ethereal is even the right word. Sure. Yeah. [00:59:08] Speaker C: We'll make it work. [00:59:09] Speaker A: It works. Don't disagree with me ever. [00:59:12] Speaker B: Okay. [00:59:12] Speaker A: Disagree with me. Seriously. Correct me if I'm wrong. Leave it in the comments. Yes. [00:59:16] Speaker C: But they also showed the same footage they showed at D 23 for Infinity. [00:59:21] Speaker A: War, which just happened. So people are catching up. [00:59:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:59:25] Speaker A: Infinity War information. So there was that. [00:59:28] Speaker C: And I want to say that was. [00:59:32] Speaker A: The big Marvel panel. [00:59:33] Speaker C: That was the big Marvel panel. [00:59:34] Speaker A: They showed the first episode of Defenders. [00:59:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:59:36] Speaker A: Which is apparently really good. [00:59:39] Speaker C: Yeah. Surprised everybody with that one. They also did the clips from inhumans. [00:59:46] Speaker A: Inhumans. So inhumans trailer looks really dull. Like, heads up. I've seen the clips. There are four of them that we watched in a little pop up theater. It is a beautiful because it's filmed on IMAX cameras in Hawaii. In Hawaii, which is also beautiful and be far more interesting. And in humans panel, the guy who's playing Maximus is, like, approaching the show very differently than when he played Ramsey. He said originally he thought it was going to be a very Ramsey Bolton style character, and he realized as the time was going by and he was kind of talking about it with Jeff Loeb and kind of figuring out where he was standing, that this was a very different character. And he says he compared it to Shakespeare. He compared it to Macbeth. And I think that's super cool because it means he's actually putting a lot of effort into it. The woman playing Medusa really likes that she's a strong female lead, which, go figure. Marvel's full of them. But she was also saying it's really cool because she's a strong female lead who is still under a man, but because of her translation skills, she can kind of throw his weight around in order to throw her weight around, which comes up a lot in the show. So I think that show is going to be a lot better than it's been advertised. It just hasn't been given the exciting treatment that it deserves, frankly. But I'm sure it'll disappoint a hell of a lot of people when they get into the IMAX theater and realize they're watching an ABC show and not watching some sort of a Marvel movie. A Marvel movie. Because it was announced that there was going to be an inhumans movie and then there wasn't, and now there's an inhumans show, but it's still in the theater. Someone's going to get confused. Someone's going to whine. It'll happen. [01:01:41] Speaker C: Welcome to the Internet. [01:01:42] Speaker A: Welcome to the Internet. So that was Marvel. They did know. They released all that. DC released Justice League trailer. The Justice League cast came and hung out at the DC booth. [01:01:53] Speaker C: The trailer was pretty cool, too. [01:01:55] Speaker A: Yeah, the trailer was intense and then. [01:01:59] Speaker C: Randomly funny, but, like, good funny and. [01:02:02] Speaker A: Not like we've recorded these later because we accidentally advertised it as a comedy funny. They announced black lightning and did black lightning stuff. Steven Universe showed a bunch of clips from the upcoming season because they're in the middle of a hiatus, which they seem to be every, like three weeks. [01:02:23] Speaker B: Yeah, seriously. [01:02:24] Speaker A: Like, you get three weeks of Steven Universe and then suddenly you have to wait four know, people will be like, oh, I waited so long for gravity falls to come back and it's like, yeah, but did you do it like seven times? Did you. Over in the panel, what other major announcements came out of Comic Con this year? Star Wars Battlefront's getting that book bad. [01:02:52] Speaker C: Just came out yesterday. [01:02:53] Speaker A: Just came out. They were selling early copies of it at Comic Con. [01:02:56] Speaker C: They were. I'm trying to think what star. They showed some of the new toys that are coming out. Not so much for the movies, but just updates to the black series figures. [01:03:06] Speaker A: Which are pretty cool. And what's cool about a lot of toys when they announce the toys early is it kind of gives you an insight into what might happen in the movie. [01:03:15] Speaker C: Yeah, that happened last year for rogue one. [01:03:16] Speaker A: Rogue one. [01:03:17] Speaker C: A lot of information they showed. [01:03:19] Speaker A: I feel like Bodhi and K Iride. [01:03:23] Speaker C: The last Planet of the movie with the big old battle. [01:03:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:03:26] Speaker C: And the new at 80s. They showed those there, premiered those there, which was really cool. As I was walking by, I had no idea what it was. What is this. He's like, oh, so we get to premiere this, and the guy went through everything. And I was just, yes, please. [01:03:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. That was last year's. [01:03:43] Speaker C: Last year's Comic con. This year, I didn't get a chance to walk around the Star wars toys too much. I did see a Darth Revan and I saw an ahsoka, but I think those are already out. But I know there were some other updates. There's a qui gon jinn, which was cool. What was really awesome was the Marvel Legends figures. I don't know if you saw that, but there's a big diorama. They always do a big diorama of something. And this had basically every fighter fighting aim. Maybe, I can't remember, but every figure was in a cool little position in a pose or, like, getting stomped on or getting punched or getting laser blasted, something. But it was huge. It was probably a good ten x, ten foot. [01:04:35] Speaker A: Wow. There was a full diorama of old action figures fighting each other. So they had, like, ultimatum. Magneto was in there. They had, like, the same thing. [01:04:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:04:47] Speaker A: And they had characters fighting each other in a bar and all these other buildings. And some people were sitting and watching. Two characters were dancing. It was really fun to watch kind of in character too. Yeah. [01:05:01] Speaker C: There was a good 100 figures in there. Yeah. [01:05:03] Speaker B: I feel like I missed this. [01:05:05] Speaker C: This thing was massive. [01:05:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's cool because they always do it. [01:05:08] Speaker C: Last year was similar. So the first year I went to Comic Con in three, it was just before episode three came out. [01:05:16] Speaker A: And so ten stars. Kevin Smith. [01:05:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:05:20] Speaker A: You really love that movie. [01:05:21] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:05:23] Speaker A: Whatever. It led to the Clone wars, which. [01:05:26] Speaker C: Was great, which actually, that's what the diorama was. It was the battle of Genosha, but then in toy form, so it had all the Jedi and probably a hundred clone troopers, the different kind of clone troopers in this diorama thing. And it was so freaking cool. [01:05:43] Speaker A: Arc troopers, shock the troopers, stormtroopers, and every troopers. That's awesome. Yeah, that's super cool. Well, that's pretty much comic Con in a nutshell. You meet people, you get cool, free stuff. You buy cool, not so free stuff. [01:05:59] Speaker B: Mostly. You buy stuff. Mostly cool stuff. [01:06:02] Speaker A: You have to buy free stuff. [01:06:04] Speaker B: Especially now. [01:06:06] Speaker C: You get to meet some cool people. [01:06:07] Speaker A: Meet cool people. And not just people who are important and famous, but, like, people who are important into you. And not just like two of the people I met at Comic Con I'm still talking to. So you meet cool people, you get cool stuff, you get to learn around a lot. And if you're really good about it, you get to see stuff before everyone else does. And sometimes it's really nice to be the guy who holds the spoiler key. On the subreddit for Steven universe, I was God for, like, a day. What happened? The stream went out, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, I know all the details. What do you want to know? I am the man with the answers. Yeah, I drink, and I know things. [01:06:51] Speaker C: The shirt I wanted to get and I didn't get a chance to. [01:06:55] Speaker A: That's okay, because shirts at Comic Con are pretty much available everywhere except for this guy. I'm sure I can. But you know what? It's probably more than it was at Comic Con. There were some really cool shirts at Comic Con, too. There was really neat stranger things shirts. They were all, like, set up advanced dungeons and dragons. [01:07:15] Speaker C: That's what they put out, too. They put another trailer for Stranger Things. [01:07:18] Speaker A: Stranger things trailer looked crazy. [01:07:21] Speaker C: And the thriller music in the background. [01:07:24] Speaker A: Was just spot on because it's coming out Halloween. Yeah, we'll have an episode about that. And then the other big Netflix thing that was not american comic related was, sorry, we're going right back at the end of this. But death Note. We're getting a live action death note that is based on the anime. They've got this great cast. It looks like nobody in there really disappointed me. Between the two of you guys and myself and everyone listening, some of the cast in the earlier scenes in Inhumans were not as good of actors as I would have liked them to be. This seemed like it was a solid acting choices, which Netflix sometimes likes to give episodes to directors that don't necessarily know how to handle that sort of situation. And then you wind up with episode six of Luke Cage, which will probably come up a lot in this podcast, because the episode with the girl whose father is kind of a drug addict and used to be a big baseball guy, it's the stupidest episode of anything Marvel ever, and that includes shield, literally. It's the worst. It's awful. And if you liked all of Luke Cage, you're lying or you fell asleep. [01:08:47] Speaker C: Should we get more into that in our defender? [01:08:48] Speaker A: Yes, we will, because Luke Cage pisses me off. He's a great hero, and he's fantastic in every show he's in. Except Luke Cage, actually. He's great in that, too. Until friggin'episode. This is a different conversation for how. [01:09:03] Speaker C: Fired up he gets. [01:09:04] Speaker A: That's Comic Con in a nutshell. A really, really big hour long nutshell. [01:09:13] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:09:13] Speaker A: Plugs. What are you reading right now? [01:09:17] Speaker B: Totally awesome. Hulk and trying to start silk, but I haven't gotten to the realms. I haven't got around to that yet. [01:09:24] Speaker A: I have a bunch of silk. [01:09:26] Speaker B: I'm so behind on everything. [01:09:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:09:29] Speaker B: There's so much to read. [01:09:30] Speaker A: There's so much to read and so much adulting to do in the meantime. [01:09:32] Speaker B: I know. Seriously, responsibilities. [01:09:36] Speaker A: Ugh. Awful. And, Brian, what are you reading right now? [01:09:39] Speaker C: Reading all sorts of things, but I just picked up a bunch of DC books because I hear Batman's been good. Always been a fan of Batman. [01:09:45] Speaker A: Batman's great. [01:09:47] Speaker C: But they're leading to the dark knights. [01:09:52] Speaker A: Metal knights. [01:09:52] Speaker C: Metal knights. Dark metal knights. Dark metal knights of dark. [01:09:56] Speaker A: Dark. [01:09:56] Speaker C: I don't know, but basically it sounds cool. [01:09:58] Speaker A: It's like you say, dark. [01:09:59] Speaker C: Yeah, it's like a multi evil multiverse of, like, dark Batman. [01:10:05] Speaker A: DC multiverse. What? Yeah. [01:10:11] Speaker C: Sounds cool to me. So I got a couple books and check it out. [01:10:13] Speaker A: Right on. What are you reading right now? I just started reading american gods because I hear there's a tv show on it. Oh, yeah. And unlike Game of Thrones, which has vexed me for years to read through american gods, I'm just flying through that book. [01:10:29] Speaker C: There's only one book, which is. [01:10:30] Speaker A: Well, there's only one book, which is nice, but it's also like Game of Thrones, the end of the prologue. You're like, ooh, what's going on? This sounds interesting. End of page three of american gods. You're like, I need to know everything that's happening in this story. There's no questions answered. [01:10:50] Speaker C: And I only haven't finished the audiobook because the reader is really kind of boring. But I hear there's a better version, which I need to go find and finish it out because I don't like starting something and then just stopping. [01:11:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:05] Speaker C: Hence why it took me a year and a half to finish the Game of Thrones book. [01:11:10] Speaker A: Speaking of audiobooks, I'm listening to a new dawn right now, which is the prequel Kanan and Hera meet story, Star Wars Rebels of Star Wars Rebels. And it is pretty good. So, like, it starts off. The book starts off. This is audible, and it immediately starts playing the Star wars soundtrack. And you're like, I am going to love this. Every fight that involves a lightsaber. There's lightsabers. There's lightsaber sound there in a spaceship. [01:11:36] Speaker B: Pretty cool. [01:11:36] Speaker A: There's spaceshipy sound. [01:11:38] Speaker C: Oh, it's so cool. [01:11:38] Speaker A: They're at the bar. There's mumbling. Basic in the background and not so basic. I mean, I didn't hear anybody going much of a. But you know what? That's okay. It's so good. The guy who's reading it is fantastic. [01:11:50] Speaker C: He's done a lot of Star wars books, and he's really kind of ruined other, like, audiobooks for me because he's so good. [01:11:56] Speaker A: Yeah, he kind of spoils you. So when you go to a new audiobook, you're like, what is this? Yeah. Speaking of other audiobook readers, though, I'm really excited for that Ahsoka book. I think that's what I'm going to go for, that one or thrawn, now that I have so much driving time because I live in Los Angeles, where there's traffic. Where can I find you on the Internet to follow and stalk and hear and see your lovely face? [01:12:24] Speaker B: Well, I guess just my instagram. [01:12:27] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the one that they should probably find you on, the one that's public. [01:12:30] Speaker B: I don't think anyone would be able to spell it. [01:12:32] Speaker C: We'll post. It's fine. [01:12:33] Speaker A: We'll post it. [01:12:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:12:34] Speaker A: What is it? [01:12:34] Speaker B: Srelokai. [01:12:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. [01:12:36] Speaker B: Spell that sreylokai. Okay. Yeah. That's cambodian. [01:12:44] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that makes sense. [01:12:45] Speaker B: It means moon girl. That's awesome. [01:12:48] Speaker A: Have you read any moon girl? [01:12:50] Speaker B: No. What's that? [01:12:51] Speaker C: Double dinosaur? [01:12:51] Speaker A: Moon girl. Oh, moon girl and devil dinosaur. [01:12:54] Speaker B: No. [01:12:57] Speaker A: Fighting a good fight. [01:12:59] Speaker C: I think she does end up becoming a human. [01:13:01] Speaker A: If she does, it's probably intentional. She is in charge of her biology. She gets to make that decision. Plus devil dinosaur, because devil dinosaur is great. Where can I find you, Brian? Well, what do you want publicly, people looking at you don't. [01:13:16] Speaker C: I'm on Twitter every once in a while at Shield agent B Rom, but even then, I'm not allowed on that much. [01:13:23] Speaker A: Yeah, you're really not on Instagram, all that? Oh, yeah, you are. [01:13:25] Speaker C: Every once in a while now I'm so busy driving because, hey. [01:13:31] Speaker A: I'm in the same. [01:13:32] Speaker C: You're in all sorts of things. Oh. [01:13:34] Speaker A: As far as social media. [01:13:35] Speaker C: Yeah, you're in all the things. [01:13:37] Speaker A: I'm in all the things. I have a website, but it's not working right now. But I'll get it up later. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter at. At. Bryce Rankins. That's B-R-Y-C-E-R-A-N-K-I-N-S. So thank you, everybody, for listening to us for this last hour ish. Maybe hour and 15, I hope. [01:13:58] Speaker C: See how it goes in post. [01:13:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:14:00] Speaker A: Maybe hour, maybe 45. Minutes. Once I cut all the ums out I'm sure it'll be 15 minutes long. So thank you guys very much. Join us in two weeks on the Thursday again and we will be talking about the defenders because it will have come out by then and it's going to be exciting. [01:14:19] Speaker C: We're totally going to record it and. [01:14:20] Speaker A: Totally going to record it on time because we are responsible individuals and it's on the whiteboard. And it's on the whiteboard which makes it official. [01:14:27] Speaker C: Right. [01:14:28] Speaker A: We should probably cut it. Cut what? I'm going to cut it now pressing the spacebar. [01:14:35] Speaker C: Are you, are you sure? [01:14:38] Speaker A: I don't know. I'm basically going to record enough of us doing this until when I so I can cut it in post and go. That was the point where it was just too. Is it here? It might be. Here we go. [01:14:48] Speaker C: Another couple of seconds though. Now we're.