A large part of Day 2 is still a blurr.
I dressed as a casual Radagast the Brown from The Hobbit: An
Unexpected Journey. In the books, he doesn't quite fit in with the
social classes of organized society, and that's pretty much how I
felt that day.
- It was so crowded when we got there, I just stood on the second floor of the building listening to the geek fest around me and looking at the people below. I got into conversation with a legit Wonder Woman cosplayer. It was nice just to stand there and watch people together, point out some of the interesting costumes and talk about the type of manga we liked.
- Then we waited in line for “The Hobbit-Desolation of Smaug” preview (The one that was advertised to be in the previous day's panel by theonering.net. The preview was filled to capacity and most of the people standing in the general admittance line did not get in. That was a big disappointment for me because it was a special event and I missed it not once, but twice.
Nice thing though; Tinkerbell
recognized I was cosplaying as Radagast. :D
- We found a Steampunk workshop with Tracy Hickman (the same guy who did the lecture on “Four Stories in LOTR” He discussed the principles of the genre and ideas to get inspiration for writing. He suggested looking up old sci fiction and real-world science theories that didn't work, or didn't work the way they were intended to and “make them work”.
Heres' a few Notable Quotable's from
this workshop:
“Steampunk is about imagining the
future as it never was.” (Which is basically what I love about it.
I'm not as enamored by the vivid descriptions of leather and lack of
character development in some of the short stories though.)
“I get a lot of hate mail from
Science Fiction crowd telling me, 'that couldn't really happen.'
Guess what? I don't care!”
- I browsed through the vendors. Salt Lake City Strangers are a group of comic book Superheroes based out of Salt Lake and, apparently, the superheroes in the story are of the Mormon faith. The story starts out with something like a Bloody-Mary ritual in a graveyard that summons a zombie. It was pretty good. The vendor had a special offer: buy the comic book and get the cover illustrated for free. That sounded pretty good to me. I decided to have one of the “Strangers” punch Ed Cullen in the face.
- I tried to get into a workshop concept art for my favorite Disneyland attraction, “The Haunted Mansion”. Unfortunately, like the Hobbit preview, I ended up waiting in line only to be turned away at the door. :(
- I went to a workshop about design in movie sets and costumes. They discussed the importance of sharing the directors vision for the film in order to communicate the themes in the movie visually. They also discussed authenticity with period films.
“The worst culprit is Pirate
movies.” One of the panelists said, “It can be set in the 1700
and cover 100 years of fashion.” Including designs that hadn't evolved yet.
- One workshop titled “How to Win Writers of the Future” (Which is an amateur writing competition) had a group of panelists who pretty much gave conflicting advice. One illustrator said he won by submitting stuff that was all similar (Dragons and girls...sur-prise, surprise, surprise) the one panelist who was an actual judge said that they look to see that the illustrator can do all different types of objects, humanoids, plants, environments.
The rest of their advice was common
sense: “Don't submit porn”, “don't let your cat pee on your
manuscript”, “do your research”...because we sure aren't going
to give you any concrete information here.
What I learned most about this competition is
that there is no “right” way to win. The judge either likes your
work, or he doesn't. It was a nice place to sit, though.
- We also saw Ray Park, he's a stunt actor who played Darth Maul in Star Wars, Toad in X-Men, and Snake Eyes in G.I Joe (which I haven't seen yet). This was probably the best part of Comic Con so far. He was a really amiable guy and did a good job connecting with the audience, especially the kids.
I've always imagined it would be hard
for a “James Bond” type character to explain to his kids why he's
kissing all these girls in movies. Mr. Park had to do the same sort
of thing with Darth Maul when his kids were young. (He is arguably
the most frightening character in the prequel Star Wars series,
apparently one of his kids saw a picture of Darth Maul's face and
started screaming.)
“I never wanted to be the bad guy,
the bad guys get beat up, and they lose.”
He did seem proud of his work, though. And fortunately for him, he did eventually
get cast in GI Joe as a good guy. He says he likes sending his
children to school in merchandise with characters he has portrayed on
them. The best part? Because he's a stunt actor (and usually wears
prosthetics and makeup), he can maintain anonymity as well.
I have to admit, that would be really,
really cool.
At the end he brought all the kids up
from the audience and taught them a power stance. Oh, how I wish my
nephew was here!
- I went back to the vendors to see if my illustration for "Strangers" was done, it wasn't. I'll pick it up tomorrow.
- The last workshop I attended was with Anne Sterling, daughter of Rod Sterling: writer and host of “The Twilight Zone”. Anne Sterling wrote a book about her father in response to public opinion that her dad was this really morbid, tortured soul.
She explained, “My dad wasn't like
that at all.”
From what she shared with us, it
sounds like Rod Sterling was a really passionate and thoughtful
guy...who wasn't above playing the occasional practical jokes on his
fellow writers (The “Nightmare at 10,000 Feet” prank would have
been HILARIOUS!!!! Oh! If only the airlines would let people do that
today!!).
Anne's parent sheltered her from the
show as a kid, so when a classmate teased her with “What are
you?! Something out of the Twilight Zone?” she had no idea what it
meant. She watched an episode of the show with her dad for the first
time and was shocked to see her dad appearing at the beginning and
end of this really freaky story.
Later in life, she got more and more
interested in why her father would want to write using that show as a
medium.
A part of it was to address his views
on political and social issues that he thought were important:
“An alien can say things a Republican
or Democrat never could.”
Another reason was to come to terms
with unfulfilled dreams and unexplainable longings that really didn't
have any other outlet. Anne pointed out that a re-occuring theme in
his stories; a longing to return to simpler times, childhood, and a
state of innocence.
Rod Sterling knew some of his work was
controversial for his time, but felt like it was important for people
to hear. I personally think that's kind of the magic of writing and
reading. The messages in “The Twilight Zone” wouldn't be as
intriguing if they were explored in a different genre. “The
Twilight Zone” doesn't really explore answers or solutions as much
as it offers questions.
After that event, me and my group went
to Carl's Jr for dinner.
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