My Top 5 Comic-Con Celebrity Sightings: 2010 Edition!

Just like last year, Comic-Con 2010 ended up being a hyper-real parade of strange late night encounters with people most of us would vaguely describe as "famous." I'm not the kind of dude who watches TMZ or clicks to People.com in my spare moments, but even I got a little giddy during the show when I'd bump into Jerry O'Connell while heading to dinner in the Gaslamp or bump into Matt Groening and the cast of "V" in my hotel lobby (though part of that giddiness was obviously sleep deprivation).

Though aside from the "aww shucks! weren't that neat?" aspect of bumping into celebrities at The Big Show, I think the thing I like the most about rubbing elbows with minor TV stars and other people too pretty to be nerds is the fact that Comic-Con somehow becomes the ultimate equalizer in terms of how we interact with the people we usually only see on Letterman. The Hollywoodization of San Diego doesn't just mean that these celebs get big panels where their names are cheered for. It also means that they have to share the same hotels, restaurants and pedicabs as people who come to the show to dress up like Power Girl or buy slabbed issues of My Greatest Adventure. And even with the supposedly awesome yet inaccessible studio parties, I think seeing a celebrity at Comic-Con is more like seeing a celebrity at Taco Bell than anything else. Let me show you what I mean with my Top 5 famous folk sightings from this year's show...


5. Erik Estrada

After the first day of the show, Rickey came out to the CBR Yacht after his stint at the DC booth so we could live the glamorous dream of eating Subway and buying beers at Ralph's together. But before we took off on that envy-inducing adventure, we took a quick walk from the slip where CBR's boat was docked to my room at the Marriott Marina Hotel. That path took us just past this spaceship-shaped, Hawaiian-themed restaurant called Ray's. And as we strolled past, Rickey looked up and declared, "Erik Estrada!" and sure enough, the "CHiPS" star was standing by the hostess table being rapidly circled by his nine children (okay, maybe not that many, but there were at least four of them, and they were ALL bouncing off the walls).

As we moseyed on by, I couldn't help but notice that the double E seemed to be quite exasperated with the wait staff. In my mind, I imagined him going, "Look man, I know it's busy here, but I was fucking Ponch...can't I just get goddamned table?!?!" Maybe it was going easier than it looked, but it didn't look that easy on the dude.

In any event, I was glad when I heard that Estrada got some love from members of the Scott Pilgrim cast later in the weekend.


4. LeVar Burton

When I told people that we had LeVar Burton out to the CBR boat for a video interview, they'd do one of two things: sing the theme from "Reading Rainbow" or go "Did he wear a barette over his eyes?" That's about as clear a nerd divide as one can get when you think about it. And really, I'd wondered a little myself whether the real guy was more the imaginatively happy man whose word I didn't have to take for it when it came to picture books or more the no-nonsense problem solver that was Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge.

Though as it turns out, the real LeVar Burton is more like when he shows up on "The Soup" or "Tim & Eric" – a boisterously loud and kind of bonkers joker who doesn't sit still and loves ever minute of it. While most of the staff sat below deck during the on camera CBR interviews, we might as well have been lounging beside him on the captain's chair during his chat with Jonah (which you can see here) as Burton was cracking jokes and rocking the complimentary CBR kazoo at full volume the entire time he was aboard. After the shoot was done, Burton bound down into the cabin for the briefest of moments and declared in the cartooniest pirate voice imaginable "I's just wanted to see what the crew in the bowels of the ship was like. ARRRRRRRRR!" before shooting back up the stair and out of our lives.

I won't lie. It was pretty rad.


3. Donald Glover

Like I said, I've never been really high on trying to get into the big Hollywood parties like the infamous EW shindig or whatever, but one exception I used to make was getting to the United Talent Agency party because the booze was free and it was co-sponored by Oni Press so I got to hang with cool comics people of my acquaintance while gawking at movie stars. This year, the UTA party went on its own way and the Oni crew had their own Scott Pilgrim-themed shindig sponsored by the Toronto Tourism Board. That was great for a few reasons:

1 - As I made my way to the location of the Oni party, I just happened to bump into the Man of the Hour himself – Bryan Lee O'Malley – in the middle of the street. When I asked O'Malley if he was coming from or going to his party, he said, "Going to...follow me!" From there on out, I was led to the entrance where a quick "He's with me" from O'Malley got me a VIP pass and direct entrance into the party (thanks again, dude). I've got to say, for all the bitching I've done about people cutting to the front, acting like a big whig myself for five minutes was kind of awesome.

2 - As expected, the event was chock full of cool people to hang out with. Off the top of my head, I can recall chatting up Matt Loux, Abbie Denson, Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, Doug Sherwood and Chris Butcher, and I KNOW there are people I'm forgetting who I'll want to add back in later. I don't care what people say about comics people getting pushed out by Hollywood – I fucking rocked out with some of the best comics folks I know that night, thank you very much.

3 - At one point in the evening, I came across Oni Editor-in-Chief James Lucas Jones and his super keen wife Jennie (who was MEGA helpful all weekend whenever I was covering Oni and Scott Pilgrim stuff or just bumming around near their booth), and it just so happened at that moment they were hanging with "Community" star and would-be Spider-Man Donald Glover. I snapped the above photo and chatted up the trio for a minute, and while I didn't really get to talk much to Glover in any real way, I have to say that the company he kept made him A-list in my book. I mean, I'm pretty sure dude was the only star in attendance at that party, meaning he bailed on the flashier UTA gig to drink with a cabal of cartoonists and Canadians. Gold star for Donald Glover.


2. Stan Lee

I'm sure EVERYONE who spends some time wandering around Comic-Con gets a Stan Lee sighting at some point – the Man is everywhere at the show! – but it can't be said enough that if anyone from the comics side of the aisle whose crossed over into the broader celebrity, it's Lee (pictured here being awesome thanks to UGO and Robot 6). On Thursday morning, I got dragged to the local Fox affiliate at 5:00 AM to be their "Comic-Con expert" for a 12-second segment, and even though most of the staff (even the ones who dressed in costume) had little to no idea what went on at Comic-Con, there was a buzz at the station because THE Stan Lee was coming in later that morning for his own segment.

Anyway, I crossed paths with Stan The Man early on Friday morning when I was running around seeing folks in the Marriott. While waiting at the elevator bank for a trip down to the lobby, Lee and a young man who I have to assume is one of his POW! Entertainment employees came around the corner and stood next to me. They were talking about another of the countless interviews he'd done for the show.

"So how'd that piece for the newspaper go," Lee's aide said.

"Oh, pretty good. Pretty good," he chuckled in reply.

"Do you think they'll run it tomorrow?"

"I don't know. Probably they will. They get those newspapers out pretty fast these days."

"Do you think they'll run it on the front page?" asked the young man, kind of half checking his Blackberry.

"I don't know about that. Maybe they will. Maybe it'll be on the front page," said Lee, absent-mindedly staring at the floor. Then, he sort of mumbled more to himself than anyone else "Maybe they'll put Obama on page two!"

God bless you, sir.


1. Charlie & The Waitress

You'll never hear me complain about this really, but experiencing Comic-Con as a working reporter is a marathon of running about to the point of exhaustion each and every day, staying out late socializing and forgoing sleep and most meals in the name of work and/or partying. And hey, the negative effects the show takes on your body and brain won't ever outweigh how awesome it is to get paid to party for free at the Scott Pilgrim affair or chat up Kieron Gillen on camera or just plop down in a panel room and hang off Mike Mignola's every word. The job is fucking great, and I won't deny that. But I can't gloss over how bedraggled you end up being by week's end either – mostly because said bedraggling led to my most bad ass celebrity encounter of the show.

Saturday night, despite my extreme exhaustion I found myself in a state of total insomnia after nabbing a few hours of fitful sleep (Comic-Con fucks with your circadian rhythm like whoa) and was wandering about the lobby of my hotel into the wee hours trying to occupy my mind. After chatting up the similarly unsleepy Mike Choi and hacking my way through a draft of my Jeff Parker Red Hulk interview (which I'm still not sure is AT ALL readable but whatever), I was heading back to my room for a power cord at around 4:00 AM when I ran into a problem at the elevator bank.

A young lady and I had both pressed the button to head up to our rooms, but after moments of waiting the only doors that opened were to an elevator containing a cleaning lady, hard at work on her hands and knees scrubbing the entryway to the lift. After a moment of awkward silence, the girl said to me, "I'll just wait for the next one" and I agreed. As the doors slid shut, we hit the up button again and the down button (a trip down would be just one floor before going back up) and waited patiently for a ride that wasn't being waxed for tomorrow's guests.

And thank the Lord we did because moments after that, the husband and wife team of Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis (also known as Charlie Kelly and the waitress from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia") walked right up next to me.

Now, I'm not sure how familiar all of y'all are with the series, but I'm a big "It's Always Sunny" supporter in part because I think Day's Charlie character is primed to go down as the first truly great sitcom character of the 21st Century. Some day we'll talk about Charlie Kelly in the same way we do about Ralph Kramden, Arthur Fonzarelli, Latka Gravas and Cosmo Kramer. Dude is that funny and that unique. So needless to say, the second the pair of them turned the corner and came my way, I started to freak out a little.

And as I sat there debating whether or not to say anything, of course the elevator door that opens ready to go down a floor is the same one where the cleaning lady continued to scrub at the brass step into the unit. After everyone stood there for a minute, the woman looked up from her task and kind of waved us towards the elevator, to which Charlie replied, "Really? Well, yeah okay...it's only one floor down. Come on everybody!" and kind of skipped over the woman into place.

Once we were there, shoulder-to-shoulder with the cleaning lady still scrubbing the elevator's bottom, I couldn't help it and I turned with as much restraint as I could to tell them both how much I loved the show. As the thanked me, Charlie's hand shot right out to shake mine, and he pulled me in a bit with a sly 4:00 AM grin saying, "Did you have a good night tonight, man?"

"Yeah, I had a pretty good night. Now I've just got to get through tomorrow so I can catch my plane back to Chicago."

At this point, Charlie broke out into song in a way which I can only describe as "total Charlie" where the lyrics were "Ohhhhh, he's flyin back to the Ol' CHI-TOWN!" and I had to literally bite my tongue to stop from bursting out laughing. Ellis dragged her (somewhat faded) husband to their room a few floors later with a tossed back "Good night." And with the grin on my face, it was pretty certain that I wouldn't be getting any sleep that last night of the show.

I wish you could've been there with me.

**********

Honorable Mention:

All right, I know this has been going on for a while, and I've used up all my semi-interesting celebrity stories, but I've got one related anecdote I thought I'd share for posterity's sake.

As I said in my "What I Wrote" roundup, the CBR coverage of the whole Hall H eye-stabbing was a really harried and surreal experience all around. Though one humorous bright spot to that sad incident came as I rushed over towards the Hall H doors in hopes of getting word from con officials or the police on what exactly had happened.

After I arrived on the scene and fell into a photo of the suspect doing a perp walk, I made my way over to the big glass doors for the hall where a few journalists and some of the Marvel Comics staff arriving in bewilderment for their own delayed movie panel were milling about. After tapping on the glass and getting the attention of a con staffer, I asked whether a statement would be released, who with the police might go on the record, etc. He didn't seem to know but told me that they'd start letting folks into Hall H in a few minutes so maybe I should wait around.

As I stood there trying to call the San Diego Police's media line, I felt a gentle tug at my sleeve. I turned to find an older woman with red hair and a smile on her face. "Excuse me, young man," she said. "I was wondering if you could help me?"

"I can try," I said. "What can I do for you, ma'am?"

"You see, I'm Mark Ruffalo's mother, and I'm trying to figure out where the Marvel panel is."

At that moment, a gentlemen with the lady started to whisper "He can't help you!" in her ear and pull her away as I thought, "Oh fuck! This poor lady has no idea someone's been stabbed in the eye with a pen! She just wants to see her son become the Hulk!"

Luckily, I was able to wave down Marvel's C.B. Cebulski and Mike Pasciullo who put her in the hands of who I'm pretty sure was Marvel Studio's PR contact Melissa Zukerman. I heard later that she was front and center for her son's big moment. Not a celebrity sighting really, but a sweet lady all around.

Her kid's SUPER dreamy too, right?


See you next year!

Pimping My Stuff: The Faster Times

I'll make this quick, but I've got a new side gig!

As of yesterday, I'll be blogging about movies and other pop culture goodness for my old buddy Adam Wilson's site, The Faster Times.

My inaugural post is the first in a three-part series on why I do believe Rocky is the greatest film franchise of all-time. And I do.

So please, go give it a look, scope the rest of the site, and hopefully I'll see you over there as well as back here!

Ben's SDCC 2010 After Hours Adventures pt. 1

By now you’ve read a zillion and one reports on last week’s San Diego Comic-Con International—including mine and Kiel’s—giving you all the details on the panels, announcements and other spectacular happenings during the show itself. But haven’t you been yearning to read about what a legitimate comic book professional does after the convention hall closes its doors to the public each evening?

Well, in that case, I wish you the best of luck finding a legitimate comic book professional to spin those yarns for you.

In the mean time, here’s what I did during the late PM and early AM hours of my San Diego experience.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 21
It’s tough to have a fuller day that I had Wednesday, as it was wake up at 5:00 AM or so Eastern time, get to Newark Airport, hop on a six-hour plane ride to San Diego, check into my hotel, grab a bite, book it to the convention center, then help assemble the Marvel booth and hobnob with fans and pros for a bit during Preview Night (“hobnob” really meaning tell people where stuff is and keep them off Odin’s throne until it’s all set up).

By 9:00 when the show floor closed, I and the rest of my posse were pretty wiped, so we made the easy beeline to the Tin Fish across the street to score some quick grub before passing out. In this case said posse consisted of myself, Ryan Penagos, John Cerilli, Marc Strom, our photographer Ryan Russell and illustrious Spider-Man assistant editor Tom “The Third Ashmore” Brennan (so called because a fan mistook him for Shawn Ashmore one day of the show and acted awestruck for 30 seconds or so before realizing who he actually was and complaining about Brand New Day).

I am much in Mr. Penagos’ debt for introducing me to Tin Fish last year, as it’s not only conveniently located a literal stone’s throw from the show (I mean, you need to put some heft into your throw, but still), but also boasts great eats and a pleasant outdoor seating area where you can really enjoy the great San Diego weather and get a neat view of the goings on around the Gaslamp District. Dinner was a good chance for me to bond with Mr. Brennan, who would become the Toejam to my Earl as the weekend went, learning a bit more about his mystery-enshrouded personal life and explaining to him why San Diego is pretty much my ideal dream city to live in some day.

But as much as I enjoy hanging with T-Bone, the highlight of Tin Fish is without question its grilled calamari, which I waited 12 long months to experience once more. Calamari is absolutely delicious and among my favorite things to eat, but most places you can only get it fried as an appetizer, which makes my mouth happy, but not my stomach; Tin Fish has an awesome version sans deep-frying which serves as a satisfying and scrumptious meal accompanied by awesome waffle fries.

We got back to the room about 11:30 and while Ryan P. opted for bed, I headed over to the Hyatt bar to meet up with Rickey and Kiel real quick. I actually ended up bumping into Todd and Dawn Nauck, two of my favorite folks in the comics world, and chatted them up after our usual greeting which consists of a hearty handshake for Todd and kiss on the cheek for Dawn that I assure her is “an East coast thing” (this year I finally confessed it is not). Things actually got pretty fast and furious for me as seemingly everybody I knew from Kevin to “Big” Jim Gibbons to ComicsAlliance’s Laura Hudson to more ex-Wizard chums converged on where I was standing and Megan also called to say goodnight, so I was multitasking and socializing like a champ. I hung around way past my bed time and offered up a prayer that I’d be able to wake up a few hours later.

THURSDAY, JULY 22
First real night of the con, I got a dinner invite I could not—and would never want to—pass up from the Naucks to sup with them as well as cosmic writing dream team Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning as well as their erstwhile Guardians of the Galaxy artist Brad Walker. As DnA were late arrived from England following a delay in their flight while Todd and Brad (and Dawn) had better things to do, restaurant arrangements were left to me—the fools.

Luckily I had a lull in liveblogging a panel and free Wi Fi to spare, so I figured out that the Hyatte, where they were all staying anyhow, had plenty of places to eat, including Redfield’s Sports Bar, where we ended up.

When I got to the lobby, Todd and Dawn were running a bit late, so I killed time with the space cowboys and officially met Brad for the first time. A few minutes later, we were joined by a slightly shaken Nauck duo who had just spent an hour dealing with hotel security after a flyer for some video game party (or something) was left on their bathroom mirror and the bell desk knew nothing about it; turned out to be a kinda crappy viral stunt perpetrated on most of the major hotels housing con guests (Ryan and I got one in our room but rather than reacting sensibly like Todd and Dawn, just left it on our mirror for two days because we’re lazy).

Redfield’s was nice and laid back, the only downside being there weren’t any real tables so we ended up at the (pictured above) thing that Dan and Andy christened “Odin’s [some British word I don’t remember].” Actually, that wasn’t a downside, it was awesome.

Brad and I both ordered Kobe beef hot dogs that have probably ruined regular hot dogs for us for the rest of our lives they were so good (it’s worth noting this did not prevent me from having several more convention center hot dogs over the course of the show as they along with soft pretzels composed the bulk of my diet). As for entertainment, that was provided by the Brits, who are just friggin’ hilarious, Andy in particular (I don’t think Dan would take offense at my saying so as he seems quite content in his role as straight man to Andy’s manic stand-up). They had us all rolling, especially Dawn, who had heard tales from Todd of their humor, but was witnessing it for the first time in person; getting Dawn’s attention by yelling “Dawn! Dawn! I believe Andy is telling a joke!” became a running gag for the weekend.

Incidentally I also got to hear a top secret DnA pitch that could have been and would have been awesome on a major character that made me hope someday the stars will align because it would be so so cool.

Relatively early night after spending a bit more time with just the Naucks and seeing Mike Carlin for the first time in a couple years, during the course of which I learned there is a 25-year-old Secret Wars promotional video haunting the Marvel offices that must be mine.

To be continued...

Captain America & Black Widow in The Nanny Diaries

A random thought struck me this morning that this totally happened:

Chris "Captain America" Evans played the male romantic interest for Scarlett Johansson in this 2007 kinda-romantic comedy that I totally saw because Megan wasn't feeling well and I wanted to cheer her up (and she really wanted to see it). I am now replaying as many scenes as I can remember in my head with Evans' character as Cap and ScarJo's as the Black Widow.

It occurs to me that now that more or less the entire Avengers cast is out there and it's a pretty diverse group of actors, this type of thing could become a regular occurence as I scan through the film archive of my brain, and that makes me somewhat excited. I am a man of simple pleasures.

San Diego: What Rickey Bringed Home

Okay, I'm STILL beat from San Diego cause I'm old and weak and drink too much beer alone in the dark. But check this out:

Here’s what I brought home from San Diego Comic Con 2010!
San Diego can be hard to weather - especially when it comes to making time (and room in your luggage) for crap you get at the show. I’m generally buying less and less comics stuff for myself anymore, and that frugal sense extended to SDCC where I bought a lot less this year than in the past. Even still, I picked up a handful of neat stuff, so I thought I’d share it all with you.

GENERAL FREEBIES!

(pictured above; clock-wise from top left)

• CONVENTION EVENTS GUIDE - The swollen listing of panels this year had a “modern” Peanuts cover by Chris Tirri. My pack rat side usually prods me hold on to all the con booklets from shows I’ve attended, but I’m running out of room for growing monsters like this.
• CONVENTION BOOK - This year, the convention’s features magazine had short bios on featured guests, a section of fan art dedicated to DC’s 75th Anniversary, obituaries for industry members who passed this year and a neat cover by Ivan Reis.
• GREEN LANTERN 3-D MASK - You can never have too many 3-D masks around the house. This one’s tied to this game and was given out at the DC booth. Looking forward to re-reading Superman Beyond with these babies.
• DCU ONLINE KEYCARD & LANYARD - The Hyatt had room keycards dedicated to the upcoming DC Universe Online game and Sony handed out lanyards at our booth where a playable demo was available. If you haven’t seen it, PLEASE GO SEE this cinematic trailer for the game. It’s got the coolest fight I’ve ever seen starring DC characters. 100% goosebumps.
• ETERNIA PINE DEODORANT - Mattel was handing out these mini-deodorants themed after Moss Man at their booth!
• STARRO MASK - The coolest freebie on the floor was probably this life-size foam-rubber mask from Mattel based on the classic mind-controlling JLA villain. Mattel had a special Starro con exclusive, too, that came with 4 tiny Starro squids you could put over any 6-inch action figure’s face!
• FOUR MINI-COMICS BY KAREN KNIGHTON - I’d never heard of Knighton before, but these four minis (Days, Found, Naps., and Places To Look If You Have Mislaid Your Ear) all bounce between story books and dreamy storylines. Some use onion paper, allowing for backgrounds to be re-used over and over. These are cleverly designed minis I’m glad I randomly found.

SCOTT PILGRIM (and other Oni stuff) MADNESS!

(pictured above; clock-wise from top left)

• PENG! - I used to have a copy of this fun Corey Lewis super-kickball book, but I lost it. I grabbed a new copy while in line to purchase Scott Pilgrim vol. 6.
• SCOTT PILGRIM SHIRT - This was the new “Scott Scott Scott” shirt made just for the show. I haven’t unwrapped it yet. Cat-hair issues.
• SUPER PRO K.O.! - Also while waiting in line to buy Scott pilgrim vol. 6, I browsed this new Oni title from Jarrett Williams about bonkers wrestlers. It was bubble gum-popping with PHUN, and I was sold after a quick flip-thru. I was so pumped, I also bought...
• SUPER PRO K.O.! PINS - Just a set of five vibrant buttons spotlighting characters I’m certain I’m gonna fall in love with. I like how Oni packages their button sets like they’re handmade baggies of four-color drug wowness.
• SCOTT & RAMONA BRACELETS - One came free with the book. The other I got to complete the set.
• SCOTT VINYL STICKERS - New design! I grabbed 8.
• SCOTT PILGRIM VOL. 6 - Not pictured ‘cause my girlfriend snagged it as soon as I got home so she could read it. I haven’t seen it since.

QUICK NOTE: It was cool to see the Oni booth ALWAYS busy as con-goers bombarded the place to pick up the final Scott Pilgrim volume like it was the final Harry Potter installment or something. The DC booth was diagonal to Oni’s and I never didn’t see it stacked with rabid fans. Yay!

FANTAGRAPHICS AND PORN!

(pictured above; clock-wise from top right)

• YOUNG LUST #2 - I’d heard of this underground sexploitation/romance parody comic before, but never seen a copy until this one. And only a buck! Rad Bill Griffith cover.
• PRISON PIT VOL. 2! - Johnny Ryan’s ultra-violent tale of one madman’s bloody path of rage as he fights to survive a dangerous realm filled with monsters and murderers is short on words and tall on action, and volume 1 was one of my favorite books last year. This was a SDCC debut and I happened to wander over and buy it when Ryan was signing. See what he drew in my copy below in red sharpie!
• FANTAGRAPHICS FREEBIES - When you buy anything at the Fantagraphics booth, they give you a bag filled with freebies! Here’s what I got this year when I picked up Prison Pit: FUNNY BOOK - I feel like I’ve never seen this Free Comic Book Day 2006 Fantagraphics issue. POSTCARD PACKS - Three sets of 10 postcards featuring art from Hate, Krazy Kat, and Basil Wolverton. POPEYE MINI-COMIC - Contains the Plunder Island story.

(above: what Johnny Ryan drew in my Prison Pit vol. 2)

BUENAVENTURA AND SPARKPLUG!

(pictured above; clock-wise from top left)

• PAPERCUTTER #13 - Matt Wiegle! I grabbed this newest issue fo the damn-it-it’s-sooo-gooood anthology at the Sparkplup booth!
• THE NATURAL WORLD #1 & #2 (pictured backwards) - Damien Jay’s work caught my attention with Papercutter #10, so when I saw these first two issues at Sparkplug, I was giddy. The screen-printed issue #2 cover is SO NICE.
• DO NOT DISTURB MY WAKING DREAM - Collected random strips and drawings from Laura Park, who I also (weirdly...) first heard of from a Papercutter issue (#6). This was one of my two purchases at the Buenaventura booth, who were (sadly) holding a final sale at the show.
• CLUTCH #19 - This little brick is supposed to be the final issue of one of my favorite diary comics ever EVER. Clutch McBastard, the creator of the series, collects randomly unpublished entries from over the years here. So great to have a new issue in my hands, but so sad to see the series end.
• BEAT OF THE TRAPS: LOST DAILIES - I didn’t know this, but Jonathan Bennett’s Kramer’s Ergot 7 story was actually a full-color “Sunday” strip ending 6 “daily” four-panel strips. He approached the project like a syndicated comic, with each daily strip at 4 panels and recapping the events of the previous day’s strip in the first panel. The daily strips, though, were dropped from Kramers, so Bennett collected them here in this mini-comic. I’m thirsty for more Bennett material, so finding this at the Beunaventura booth was perfect.
• IN THE TALL GRASS #3 & #4 - Another book/creator I’ve never heard of, Tessa Brunton’s In the Tall Grass caught my eye with it’s full-color covers pasted to brown grocery bag paper. Flipping through, this strip cracked me up, so I bought both copies Sparkplug had.

10 BOOKS FOR A DOLLAR!

(pictured above; clock-wise from top left)

I passed a booth on Sunday that had dime books. I fumbled through all their long boxes and grabbed the following stuff! I tried to only grab things that aren’t collected elsewhere in an efficient manner...

• SPAWN/WILDC.A.T.S #1-3 - Just the first 3 issues in a 4-issue mini written by Alan Moore. Bonkers.
• DEATHLOK ANNUAL #1 - Cover by Joe Quesada! Story about Deathlok being unlocked in time.
• WOLVERINE: THE LIST #1 - Jason Aaron writes a story revisiting some of Grant Morrison’s ideas from New X-Men with art layouts by Esad Ribic! I didn’t buy it in stores when it was released cause the price was steep and there was a back-up I didn’t care to own. Look closely at the last page for some Deathlok stuff.
• SLEEPWALKER #1 - I dunno. Fuck it.
• BRUTE FORCE #1 - Animals in bio-mech suits that let them shoot guns and karate chop bitches! Kangaroo on a scooter with sunglasses! pew-pew!
• MARVEL FANFARE #40 - Mazzucchelli cover and 14-page story inside!
• ALL-STAR SQUADRON #36 - I needed it.

ULTRAVERSE: 10 FOR A DOLLAR!

(pictured above; clock-wise from top left)

Still at the dime book table...

• PROTOTYPE #1 - None of the Malibu stuff has been collected, and I’ve never tried it before.
• FREEX #1 - Free card inside!
• FIREARM #1 - James Robinson! Cully Hamner!
• PRIME #1-11 and Infinity - Of all the Ultraverse stuff, I always thought I’d like this the most. And even if it’s collected, I got a good chunk here for JUST over a buck.

RANDO BOOKS

(pictured above; clock-wise from top left)

• MARVELMAN PRIMER - A booth was selling this new issue for a dollar. SOLD.
• THE REIGN OF MEGAMIND - I’m not a huge fan of Dreamworks’ CGI movies, but this special promo based on the upcoming film has a John Cassaday cover, is written by Joe Kelly, and features art from some of the Dreamworks designers. Pretty.
• THE AVENGERS #13 - The Heroes Reborn Universe isn’t something I’m terribly interested in, but I love WildStorm, and I know the 13th issues of the Heroes Reborn titles combined to tell a so-far-uncollected 4-parter guest-starring the WS characters before the HR Universe was swallowed back into the regular Marvel U the following month. Another dime book, this kicks off my quest to find the other three parts...
• TOMORROW KNIGHTS #1 - Lookit that fucking cover. And the bad guys are called The Reamers.

And that's it. I'll be back asap with an update on my Watchmen sketchbook. Check out my pretty useless Flickr set from the show between now and then, though.

Art Attack: October 2010's coolest covers

Trick or treat! Time for the 25 comic book covers for October 2010 that caught my eye through artistic brilliance, provocative design, etc.

Yeah...that's all I got. I'm still tired, folks!

ACTION COMICS #894 by David Finch

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #647 by Marko Djurdjevic

ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS #5 by Kaare Andrews

DEADPOOLMAX #1 by Kyle Baker

DV8: GODS & MONSTERS #7 by Fiona Staples

GREEN ARROW #5 by Mauro Cascioli

INVADERS NOW! #2 by Alex Ross

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #31 variant by Salvador Larroca

IRON MAN LEGACY #7 by Juan Doe

iZOMBIE #6 by Mike Allred

JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #12 by Kevin Maguire

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #6 by Yildiray Cinar

LOKI #1 by Sebastian Fiumara

METALOCALYPSE/DETHKLOK #1 by Eric Powell

SCALPED #42 by Jock

SECRET AVENGERS #6 variant by Amanda Conner

SHADOWLAND: MOON KNIGHT #3 by Francesco Mattina

STRANGE TALES II #1 by Rafael Grampa

SUPER HERO SQUAD #10 by Leonel Alexis Castellani

THE THANOS IMPERATIVE #5 by Aleksi Briclot

THOR: THE MIGHTY AVENGER #5 by Chris Samnee

TRON: THE BETRAYAL #1 by Salvador Larroca

ULTIMATE COMICS THOR #1 by Carlos Pacheco

UNCANNY X-FORCE #1 by Esad Ribic

THE UNWRITTEN #18 by Yuko Shimizu

I don't know how onboard I am with Green Arrow's new direction (I'll certainly give it a shot, but I liked the "Arrow Family"), but man, Mauro Cascioli's covers really grab my attention.

One new direction I am very much digging is Paul Cornell's on Action Comics, and I must say David Finch's covers really do give it that extra zing.

And hat tip to my man Alejandro Arbona for at least in part coming up with the clever vampire variant to Invincible Iron Man #31 as perfectly brought to fruition by Salvador Larroca.

Paragraph Movie Reviews: The Baxter

If you don't have plans to see this movie, you can check the spoilers here and then come back.

It's not easy to come up with a clever take on the worn out genre that is the romantic comedy, but I proclaim this movie a success in that regard. Writer/director/star Michael Showalter's premise of following the jilted "other guy" from every other romcom who gets shoved aside so the destined lovers can get together in the end is a unique one with plenty of material to mine. Showalter's goofy charm is perfect to propel an off-center protagonist like Elliott Sherman and he does a good job balancing the quirky sense of comedy he and his "State" buddies generally bring to their work with a full-on send-up of what you'd expect from typical movies of this fare, tongue firmly in-cheek and overselling the dramatic moments hilariously. Fantastic supporting cast as well, particularly Justin Theroux who does brilliant over-the-top parody work as the "right guy," milking his character's oversensitive monologues and breathless admissions of love. You can see Elizabeth Banks beginning to come into her own as the amazing comedic actress she is today here, not quite fully as developed as she'd soon become, but showing signs of greatness in her more manic scenes. Michelle Williams isn't out-and-out hilarious, but she's cute, which is really all that's asked of her. Great cameo work by Peter Dinklage, Michael Ian Black, Paul Rudd, and David Wain, who gets perhaps the funniest scene in the whole film, fill things out. My issues with "The Baxter" would be that it could maybe stand to lose at least 20 minutes or so, as the plot meanders in the middle somewhat, killing time to get us to a destination we've already caught a glimpse of. Also, as funny as most of the movie is, there are times where Showalter and company botch the transition between touching and absurd, which can be a bit awkward. Mostly a solidly entertaining romp with lots of heart and more humor though; I'd recommend it.