MOSTLY NAKED NERDS: My Day at the Comicon, Pt. 1

Sunday, July 23, 2006


MOSTLY NAKED NERDS: My Day at the Comicon, Pt. 1

My good friend Zubin, who will be a groomsman at my wedding, has been after me for a couple of years to come down to San Diego with him and check out the annual Comicon convention. This is a gathering of fans of comic books, graphic novels, science fiction, horror and cult movies and television from around the world. In 2006, over 125,000 people were expected in Downtown San Diego for the four-day event. What follows is a chronicle of my one day at Comicon.

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11:38 a.m.
I head down to the main floor to get in line for Kevin Smith. Not only do Iwant to make sure that I am in line for Smith, but I know Zubin is a huge fan so chances are he'll be in line too. A woman wearing a micro-mini skirt with a tail sticking out the back and giant latex ears asks me if I know where the anime panel is. I have no idea, but I marvel that she was able to create such a realistic looking tail.

I arrive a bit too early at the hall where Kevin Smith is scheduled, but I am able to walk right in and sit in the back while the makers and actors from the upcoming film The 300 finish discussing the project. Adapted from a Frank Miller graphic novel (I have learned that Miller is one of the gods of graphic novel-dom), the project stars Gerard Butler as one of the leaders of a battalion of vicious but brilliant soldiers from ancient Sparta, the setting of the graphic novel and movie. The cast is very witting and charming, as they always are at this type of thing, but then Frank Miller says something that really resonates with me.



"I'm tired of movies that try to reassure us," he says gruffly. And indeed, after they screen a trailer from The 300*, there is nothing reassuring about this movie, which looks like a gory graphic novel sprung to life. It's dark, violent, unsettling and strangely sexy and it looks like it is almost certain to have an unhappy ending and nothing reassuring. Hollywood needs to make more movies like this, even in unsettling times. Suddenly, I find myself an unabashed admirer of Frank Miller.

http://rdonkey04.blogspot.com/2006/07/mostly-naked-nerds-my-day-at-comicon.html