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Thursday, July 29, 2004
Comic-Con Fan Report part 6 (barely)
Part 5 (and you can work backwards from there)
Yesterday and today has been busy as Hell (with emphasis on the word “Hell”) for me with family stuff. I usually try to post daily, but I had to skip a day, as well as miss out on a really good eBay auction. I’m afraid this post isn’t even much in the way of compensation for a missed day as it is pretty short. I promise you folks, Saturday is next and it’s a real good one what with The Simpsons panel and Sin City. I’ve even got an odds ‘n’ sods piece to finish it all off. So here we go with what some call “The Oscars of comics.”
Eisners
Award shows, well, they aren’t for me. While I know the people behind it only want to honor great works in comics of the last year (at least that’s what I hope the awards are about) I just can’t hang with the idea of creating some type of competition for any art form. Still, this is the comics awards show so I thought I would enjoy it a little more. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
In fairness, it wasn’t entirely the fault of the show and its directors. After being cooped inside the Convention Center for 12 hours straight and living only off of hot dogs and bottled water, my oh so sensitive body was giving out. I still managed to get in two hours of the ceremony in and some of it is pretty entertaining and/or interesting.
For where the fan seats were I got a pretty good seat. Only a little to the speaker’s right of the podium and in the second row. Of course if you’re a fan of elbow space, and I am, this seat turned out to be not so hot. Since many fans going to the Eisners and other events at the Con have bags and what-not with them I wish they would put a little space between seats. Oh, what the Hell am I complaining about?
Jackie Estrada had a few nice words about the history of the Con before introducing the night’s keynote speaker, Michael Chabon. I enjoy Chabon’s stuff alright, so I wanted to hear what he had to say. His speech was about how, now that the comics audience is mostly adults, there should be comic books out there for the kids. I think he made some good points especially on how if you want to get kids reading comics, perhaps there should be more comics starring kids and not just as sidekicks. He made it clear that he didn’t think that the kids of today will automatically think comics are “corny” or “out of touch.” He knows it is a powerful enough medium to entice readers of all ages. I think Chabon has something of a case although while Chabon mostly talked about the content of comics, I would place most of the blame on comics losing kids on greedy publishers and lazy retailers. In fact we see in manga a whole new world of comics that isn’t under the thumb of Marvel or DC (at least not yet) nor usually bought by kids in comic book stores. Every generation has its own memories of comics for them to wax nostalgic on in their future years. For the baby boomers it’s Schwartz-era DC and Lee-era Marvel. For my generation it’s the Image explosions of the early-90s. I don’t doubt in the future we will hear young adults say to one another “hey, do remember reading Love Hina?”
Hmmm, that was more analysis than reporting wasn’t it? Sorry about that, folks.
After Chabon’s speech Will Eisner himself spoke a few words. He, along with everyone else it seems, has an opinion on the large New York Times piece about graphic novels that ran recently. Seems Eisner didn’t have much use of the article’s inference that cartoonists come from a strange and dysfunctional background. Later Walt Simonson, along with his wife Louise, would present. Simonson added to Eisner’s dissent when he talked about how his friends Howard Chaykin described him as “the Andy Hardy of comics.”
The ceremony plodded along. And along. And along. And aloooong. As my body got sicker from today’s endurance test of poor ventilation systems my mind started to get weary of so many, well, award show stuff! Still, I thanked myself for staying put when I heard the greatest acceptance speech to any award there has ever been.
The wonderful and talented Chipp Kidd received his award for his work on the Alex Ross art book. He made a little joke than thanked a few people. Then he said, in complete and utter seriousness, this:
”I want to share with you something I overheard today. I thought it was so amazing and so profound. I overheard somebody exclaimed on the floor ‘if you like zombies, and you like Jesus, you’ll love Zombie Jesus.’ Thank you.”
Chipp Kidd, I love you. I love your designs for so many great books. I love your enthusiasm for comics. And with that speech I just plain love you. You are the man.
I knew the show wasn’t going to get much better than that. After that speech it was all over for me. My body was going to give out, and the fact that I had filled it with a few Heinekens might not have helped. I caught the Pink Line back to my little inn and promptly gobbled down some Pepto-Bismol and fell asleep, dreaming about the wonders that Saturday will hold.
Won’t you join us for them?
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