I started off the day by attending the session called "The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation". Unfortunately, Ernie Colon (who worked on the 9/11 Report adaptation, as well as on the current Mendy and the Golem series) was unable to attend as he had intended to. Something that was not mentioned during the panel was that Slate would be presenting the entire content of the publication online for free. It may be viewed by going to http://www.slate.com/features/911report/001.html.
Next, it was off to the Family Guy / Americxan Dad session. Sinmce it started at 11:00 - and since the 9/11 session didn't end until 11:30 - I missed quite a bit of it. However, I was able to pick up a complimentary promotional keychain (American Dad on one side, Family Guy on the other) and was able to see clips from a forthcoming episode of AD and FG. It was fun!
A half-hour later was the "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?" session, which I did not attend. Below is the description of the session (from CCI's website) :
SCI FI Channel has joined forces with Nash Entertainment (Meet My Folks, For Love or Money, Who Wants to Marry My Dad?) and legendary comic book creator Stan Lee (Spider-Man, Hulk, The Fantastic Four, X-Men), to present an all-new competition reality series that challenges a lucky few to create their very own superhero and reward the winner with the best reality competition prize yet: immortality! All contestants need is an original idea, a killer costume, and some real superhero mojo. The winner walks away with his or her superhero character immortalized in a new comic book from Dark Horse Comics created by Stan Lee himself! The winning superhero will also be featured in an original SCI FI Channel movie. Get a sneak peak at Who Wants to be a Superhero? before its premiere on Thursday, July 27 at 9/8C! Panelists include Stan Lee, star/executive producer; Scott Satin, executive producer; and cast members Fat Momma, Cell Phone Girl, Major Victory, and Ty'Veculus. Room 6B
Given that description - and considering what else was going on elsewhere in the Convention Center at the time - you can understand why I didn't feel compelled to attend the WWtBaS session. I mean, I would feel compelled to attend it if one of the contestants was --- oh, I don't know --- pitching a Jewish superhero. But we know that such a pitch would be highly unlikely, right? RIGHT?!!!
Well, it turns out my assumption was wrong,
Fortunately, at least 2 other bloggers in the blogosphere have reported on the proposal called "Iron Enforcer".
Steven I. Weiss at Canonist writes :
In particular, for those of a Jewish bent, the Iron Enforcer, with a chai earring the size of a baby’s fist, seems to be the latest coming of the Golem, at least as far as brainpower is concerned. Indeed, besides being pectorally-challenged, Iron Enforcer comes across as quite the dolt. In the first episode, you can see the the gears in his head churning as he explains his gun to his fellow wannabes, asserting it’s “the most high-tech weapon…[pause to think]…to date.”
Of course, where else would an ignoramus superhero Jew focus his energies other than Israel? After explaining how he’s the perfect killer, he tells his fellow competitors “after I leave this house, I’m off to the Middle East.”
...
So, seeing as our guy has already put himself on Stan Lee’s bad side, the only question is what it’ll actually take for him to get booted off the show. My bet: the elderly comics star leans over his desk, removes his spectacles, looks Iron Enforcer up and down, and declares: “Too Jewish.”
From Eli's DearDiary.net:
Personally - I'm rooting for the totally buff, no nonsense anti-hero, Iron Enforcer. I think he's Jewish. He's got a "chai" earring, carries a massive gun, and wants to impose peace on the Middle East. Groovy.
My bext partial session attendance was the one where Neil Gaiman was in attendance. He was promoting a film adaptation of his comic series Stardust and I got to see a trailer for it, which looks quite good. I also passed off a Gaiman collection of short stories, which I had partially read (I very much enjoyed the wedding story and the old-lady-finds-Holy-Grail one was cute) as part of my international Bookcrossing effort.
I also dropped in on David Boreranaz's session, where he was promoting his current series "Bones", which I've never watched. The promotional clips looked intriguing, though. I enjoyed his work on "Angel" and "Buffy" as the brooding "vampire with a soul" and left a copy of a large-format Toronto Star "Starweek" TV guide with him on the cover. Maybe someone in that room will get it signed. I didn't stay long when I realized that I'd misplaced my comics wantlist (which I did end up finding ; it was at the last booth where I'd purchased comics).
Later in the day, I enjoyed learning about the "Masters of American Comics" exhibition, which is currently at 2 museums, one of them being the Jewish Museum in NY. I was among audience members who were disappointed to learn that Art Spiegelman was pulling out of the Jewish Museum show. I gave one of my business cards to someone in the audience who worked at a Jewish organization who seemed interested in the idea of a Jewish comics exhibition. It was nice to see the reproductions of material that will be in the exhibit, which was projected onto a screen for us to view during the panel.
I had intended to attend the Klingon Lifestyle Presentation, but instead decided to wait in line with my wife for the doors to open for the annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. We weren't presenter/sponsor level "VIP", but as a presenter ("professional") I was allowed to sit in the first group of rows for the audience, just past the round tables that were set aside for the true VIPs (and my wife had such a pass, too). So, it was nice to get seats so close to the front. It was also nice to not wait as long in line as the "regular" attendees and to get to partake of the food tables (though my wife is convinced that it was the pizza that made her feel sick the following day).
As it turned out, I sat close enough to the Two Morrows table that Danny Fingeroth saw & recognized me and called me over. Even though I didn't recognize him right away, he kindly gave me a copy of his latest issue of Write Now magazine.
As for the awards show, not much to tell really. Host Bill Morrison did a great job and you can see the winners list at the Newsarama site. Noteworthy for the fans of Jewish comics is that The Rabbi's Cat did win in 1 of the 2 categories it was nominated for (Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material) and PVP, which earlier this had a strip with the punch line "Superman is a Jewish conspiracy to convince Christians that Jesus was gay." won in the category Best Digital Comic. It was cool to see how elated Scott Kurtz was to get such recognition. Ironically, it had the sarcastic secondary punchline "Wow! We got another Eisner nomination in the making with this strip."
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