Posts Tagged ‘travel’

This puppy was taken at the Use Hearing Protection event at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills this spring, where legendary Factory Records graphic designer Peter Saville made a rare United States appearance. That’s me, shockingly fist-less, on the left (duh) and Jason Feinberg with the crazy mutton chops on the right. I apologize, dude in the middle, who is a friend of Jason’s I just met that night and I have forgotten his name already. But he is from the U.K. and is cool.

I meant to write a review of the event post-mortem, but I never got around to it. Actually, I started writing a post about the whole Los Angeles experience, which is still sitting in my drafts folder entitled “L.A. Story.” One day I will finish it and post it. But the Q&A session was amazing, Saville is quite brilliant, and if you missed it, um, well, you missed it.

I packed so much into the quickly passing four days spent in the San Diego area this past weekend, I wasn’t sure where to start with my recap, so I’m going to let my poorly composed and intermittently shoddy camera phone photos help structure the tale of Comic-Con International 2009.

Due to a combination of other obligations and financial restrictions, Sara and I missed the preview night of Comic-Con (Wednesday) and the opening day (Thursday). We drove down in the AwesomeMobile Thursday afternoon, arriving at our hotel, a Courtyard by Marriott about 15 minutes from downtown San Diego, about 6 p.m. That’s the view from our room up above. Thursday night we took a winding drive on a search for food through University City and La Jolla, eventually ending up in Del Mar. Just in time to catch a pizza joint just as it was closing. Because in Del Mar, apparently pizza after 9 p.m. is just unheard of. (more…)

As I mentioned last week, San Diego Comic-Con starts next week, specifically July 22 (preview night) and runs through July 26.  It’s by far the most well-attended and media-saturated pop culture convention in the United States, a fact that has become both a boon and drawback for both creators and fans over the last few years. Sure, it’s great that the sequential art/animation/genre fiction industries are experiencing such popularity and growth. But it’s also created a clusterf*ck in San Diego for about a week every July, both in and around the San Diego Convention Center.

Unlike Las Vegas, San Diego does not have more than 100,000 hotel rooms within minutes of the convention center. Hell, it barely has 50,000 in the metro area. Rooms get reserved quickly and the ones left are pricey. I reserved mine back in the early spring, maybe even winter, and even then, the closest I could get to the center for less than $200 was a Courtyard by Marriott near the airport. By comparison, our last trip there in the spring got us a room five or six blocks from the bay with a towering view of the city for about $125/a night.

But I digress. While I was able to get my professional credentials for this year’s geekfest, I missed the deadline for a small press or Artist Alley table reservation. So, as described over at Pop! Goes the Icon, I’ll be wandering around the convention halls with a bag full of goodies, including the items found inside this box:

Yep, extremely limited-edition (only 50!) Comic-Con exclusive print samplers of The Utopian, ready for the unsuspecting public. These will be handed out for free to whatever suckers want them in San Diego, so if that’s you and you’ll be down there, I highly recommend letting me know ahead of time, and I’ll hold a copy for you to grab from me there. Otherwise, if you want a print edition of my ongoing webcomic, I recommend waiting for the official first issue this fall, which will have nifty bonus materials well worth the $3.50 cover price. More on that later.

Oh, you have been keeping up with the webcomic, right? Because some sh*t is going to happen next week you’ll need to be prepared for.

I will have other comic-related news to announce soon, including the next title from Pop! Goes the Icon. Stay tuned.

HEARTY DISCLAIMER: The girlfriend and I are in the middle of buying a house, and the lender is playing the shell game with the closing date. So there is a chance this whole trip could get borked, but I’m really hoping that doesn’t happen. If it does, I will make sure a deputy is down there to distribute materials, but I would like you all to pray to whatever god or demon you love that everything goes fine next week. Thanks for your support.

As I mentioned last week, San Diego Comic-Con starts next week, specifically July 22 (preview night) and runs through July 26.  It’s by far the most well-attended and media-saturated pop culture convention in the United States, a fact that has become both a boon and drawback for both creators and fans over the last few years. Sure, it’s great that the sequential art/animation/genre fiction industries are experiencing such popularity and growth. But it’s also created a clusterf*ck in San Diego for about a week every July, both in and around the San Diego Convention Center.

Unlike Las Vegas, San Diego does not have more than 100,000 hotel rooms within minutes of the convention center. Hell, it barely has 50,000 in the metro area. Rooms get reserved quickly and the ones left are pricey. I reserved mine back in the early spring, maybe even winter, and even then, the closest I could get to the center for less than $200 was a Courtyard by Marriott near the airport. By comparison, our last trip there in the spring got us a room five or six blocks from the bay with a towering view of the city for about $125/a night.

But I digress. While I was able to get my professional credentials for this year’s geekfest, I missed the deadline for a small press or Artist Alley table reservation. So, as described over at Pop! Goes the Icon, I’ll be wandering around the convention halls with a bag full of goodies, including the items found inside this box:

Yep, extremely limited-edition (only 50!) Comic-Con exclusive print samplers of The Utopian, ready for the unsuspecting public. These will be handed out for free to whatever suckers want them in San Diego, so if that’s you and you’ll be down there, I highly recommend letting me know ahead of time, and I’ll hold a copy for you to grab from me there. Otherwise, if you want a print edition of my ongoing webcomic, I recommend waiting for the official first issue this fall, which will have nifty bonus materials well worth the $3.50 cover price. More on that later.

Oh, you have been keeping up with the webcomic, right? Because some sh*t is going to happen next week you’ll need to be prepared for.

I will have other comic-related news to announce soon, including the next title from Pop! Goes the Icon. Stay tuned.

HEARTY DISCLAIMER: The girlfriend and I are in the middle of buying a house, and the lender is playing the shell game with the closing date. So there is a chance this whole trip could get borked, but I’m really hoping that doesn’t happen. If it does, I will make sure a deputy is down there to distribute materials, but I would like you all to pray to whatever god or demon you love that everything goes fine next week. Thanks for your support.

My view for four days. Well, add some rain and maybe a fire.

Yep, kids, I’m back from the wilds of Michigan. I spent four days in the middle of farms, lakes and various wildlife doing a whole lot of nothing. Well, that’s not true. I did drink a lot. And eat cake (it was my girlfriend’s birthday). And chuck wood. And draw. And write a bit. But mostly, it was nothing.

However, that’s not why we’re here. We’re here because this week’s episode of the internet’s favorite emo high school dramedy webcomic, The Utopian, is now live and available for your perusal. Even better, I got the hair up my butt to launch it on a brand-new website, so, yeah, go check it out: www.theutopiancomic.com

Here’s a totally out-of-context preview:

Jocks, murder and parties? GREATEST COMIC EVER.

Yeah, you can’t go wrong.

Peter Saville

Beverly Hills, specifically. On April 1 at the Paley Center for Media (465 N. Beverly Drive), legendary graphic designer Peter Saville will be making a rare U.S. appearance as he participates in a Q&A session with art expert Christopher Mount. The intimate forum affords guests an opportunity to interact with Saville, who was responsible for some of the most iconic album covers in modern rock, including Joy Division’s Closer and New Order’s Power, Corruption and Lies.

In recent years, Saville has worked in fashion and cultural advertising and branding, and is currently the creative director for the city of Manchester, the breeding ground for the bands and musical artists that would form the basis of the popular “Madchester” scene (somewhat summed up in the film 24 Hour Party People).

This should be a very cool event. Charlatans UK singer Tim Burgess is DJing the cocktail reception and limited-edition T-shirt and posters designed by Saville and L.A.-based artist Ramses will be available, based on Saville’s “Use Hearing Protection” designs. A number of prominent musicians and artists are planning to be at the event, and I’m lucky enough to be on the list for the Q&A, reception and after-party. So expect some post-event photos and words, though surely I’ll be Twittering the hell out of this thing.

If you’re in the L.A. area and are interested in attending, you can attempt to RSVP at the Use Hearing Protection website. And if you are going, be sure to look me up.

SFMoMA, viewed from Yerba Buena Gardens

A lot of people complain about the overcrowded, over-popularized atmosphere of San Diego Comic-Con, but after dropping in for about half a day on San Francisco WonderCon, I have to admit: I kind of prefer the hustle and bustle of America’s Finest City’s summer nerdfest.

As an editor friend noted, WonderCon is more of a true industry convention, where colleagues from different publishers can actually get together without the eyes of the world so intensely upon them. And admittedly, it was nice to be able to have quieter conversations and not wait in lines to meet with people. But the palpable energy of Comic-Con is truly a unique experience — one that, after some consideration, I’ll likely endure again this year.

Still, the three-day excursion to the Bay Area was good. Sara and I met up with her friends from Michigan, spent a too-short lunch at the Metreon with pals I hadn’t seen in easily a decade (super-couple Frank and Jill Beaton, down from Portland for the con) and enjoyed a tasty meal at Ponzu with another buddy and ex-Las Vegan, Leo (and his fab boyfriend). I spent some time exchanging comics industry and Vegas stories with Steve Englehart. Paul Horn and I finally connected and I picked up a collection of his engaging and funny strip Cool Jerk. I did more walking in three days than I typically do in six months — which was OK, aside from the vagrants, junkies and whores every 5 feet. Most of the photo-snapping was left to our party’s resident amateur shutterbug, Aaron, but I did capture a few moments from the “It Was the Age of Marvel Comics” panel, Alcatraz Island and Yerba Buena Gardens, if you’re interested.

I also did something this weekend I haven’t done in about four years: turned over a freelance assignment to another writer. Without going into details, a few other stories that should have been wrapped up weeks ago bled over into time set for this other story, which then crashed into WonderCon weekend, before which I had to scramble to tie up other loose ends. Thankfully, I not only had a star writer to pick up the ball running, but I also have a good editor who (I think) understands the circumstances (right, Michael?).

That being said, the results of tying those loose ends will hopefully make themselves evident sooner than later. Stay tuned, true believers, because as always, news is forthcoming.