September 2008

Al

I've been going to San Diego ComiCon fairly regularly over the last few years. If you have any interest in what popular culture has in store for everyone,  it's a venue the will put you in the front row of the onslaught. New books debut, authors have signings, panels meet and discuss topics  and many studios roll out sizzle trailers, and tow in panels of stars and filmmakers to test the reception in the cavern of Hall H.  If you want to start buzz this would seem to be the place.
San Diego Comicon line.

And at the end of the day the Bud Plant section of the main floor has been known to become an animation reunion site.

Initially a quiet pleasure, I began to encourage others to go and meet up. At first I would approach the subject apologetically, expecting it would register off the geekiness scale even for most people in animation, and was gradually assured that it had widespread interest.   

Comicon - a caricaturists' wet dream. Sketch by Al Holter.

With my daughter, Emma, at an age to appreciate the experience I suggested she plan on it and bought her a four day ticket back in February. Since the Con has grown to draw 120,000 it's impossible to get single-day tickets.

Of course, Emma's schedule began to fill in to blot out a few days, what with a play rehearsal on Thursday and acting as Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor at Theatricum Botanicum up in Topanga.

So Friday Emma and I went to Comicon. She said she'd give it a one day chance, and only return if it was "cool".

Emma and a dreamy dude from "Twilight".

We started out with a check in the plus column when she spotted a chance at a poster for Twilight. I was also made aware by Emma that Twilight (a book series she'd followed)  was to be given proper attention (the fourth book and film arrive shortly).

Later, Emma spotted Ray Bradbury, ran to a booth and bought an autograph book and  hussled  a signature and photo(top of page). He's 88 now.
 
As we stepped away a guy passing by asked her who the old guy was. Emma told him, and he said, "What's he done?" 

Stunned, Emma named four books and the guy shrugged and wandered off. 

Oh well.

I am so very proud of Emma's deft Bradbury response to the uninformed guy. Flaubert wrote that the best part of travel is the quiet preparation at home and, to me, she certainly made her quiet hours of reading pay off on this trip, certainly in that round.

Beyond being a fan at a convention with his kid, but rather as a father leading a daughter through a door to a wider public, there's always a hope, when you see your child's life unfolding so rapidly, that you'll be able to seed the ground of her interest with something nourishing. To make things available that might open avenues, spark ideas or somehow landmark a point in time for memory to pivot on. Maybe all of those things.

Frankly, I'd have really been crushed if she'd dismissed this whole episode as a waste of trees, gasoline and electricity. Granted that not everything everywhere
is great and sometimes you have to sort through to find good stuff, but I think she was able to see past any chicanery and flimflam coming at her and be excited
about new discoveries and connections.

At 7p.m., as we did the exit shuffle arm in arm through the crowd , I heard her say,"I love you Daddy. Thank you."

In case you're wondering, we both plan to return next year.

Emma

My view on comic books, to begin with, derived from my dad's career in animation. I adored the 'Peanuts' comics that were in the paper everyday, but besides that,from my childhood on I despised comic book stores. Whenever we were in the vicinity of Santa Monica and my brother and I were behaving badly our PUNISHMENT was to go to Hi De Ho Comics.

So my idea of ComiCon was just booths filled with old 1940's Superman comics, you know, things I wasn't interested in at all. I know my dad had gone a couple of times and when he came to me with the idea of going I was semi-reluctant. It was the weekend near my camp's production of the Merry Wives of Windsor. I had been going to the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum for a couple of weeks and I wanted to be prepared. But Dad convinced me to just go for one day and maybe go back for the Saturday because he explained to me that that was the main day when everything exciting happened.

I agreed to go for one day but only go back if it was cool.

We got up really early on Friday and we drove all the way to San Diego. As we walked into the convention center from the parking lot I saw that everyone wasn't in costume like I'd presumed. When we got into the entrance I saw people getting in a line leading twenty feet to a poster of the movie Twilight (Those books are my life!!).

I grabbed Dad and dragged him over where we stood in line for vouchers to get posters for the movie. These weren't small posters. They were posters the size you see in bus stops. I also got to take a picture with
Bella and Edward's cutouts. An awesome beginning.

Then I noticed the sheer mass of the people there. Everyone was heading in different directions
especially near the Warner Brothers booth, near the middle of a football field sized hall. A crowd gathered around a man in a wheel chair and they were taking pictures of him. I recognized him at once. I had seen him at the L.A. Book Fair...it was Ray Bradbury,
the author of one of my favorite books and movie, Fahrenheit 451!

I had planned on buying an autograph book to begin with, but now I had a perfect reason. I ran over to a booth and bought one. My Dad and I got a picture with the 88 year old author and I got his autograph.

As we moved away a guy asked me. "Who's that?"

I said, "Ray Bradbury, the author."

The guy still looked confused. "What has he written?"

"Fahrenheit 451...The Veld". He still looked very out of it and confused.

I told my Dad and said "You'd expect people here to know who Ray Bradbury is."

We got in line for Hall H and we literally sat in there for five hours-no joke. We saw the Kevin Smith panel (he swore a lot!), The Spirit panel, trailers for movies that are going to come out in the next year. It was so much fun. The whole entire day was great.

When we got home I started looking through the scheduling program for Saturday. And I found that there was a Heroes panel in Hall H the first thing in the morning. I was cutting it close, my play performance was early Sunday and we got home near 1 am on Friday.

But it was so worth it. Dad dropped me off to get a spot in line wile he went to go park the car. The line snaked around near the front of the building yesterday but this time it went around the entire building, past the Marriot Hotel next the Convention Center, and past to the end of the Marina. But we still managed to get in.

The "Heroes" crew, Hayden Panettierre, center.

We saw the first episode of the new season!!! It doesn't matter if there are 6500 other people, I was in the same room with Milo Vetimiglia and Hayden Panettierre!!!!!
He's so gorgeous and she's so pretty. It was so awsome. Dad said I should make bets with my friends on what was going to happen in the first episode.

Gorgeous Milo, second from right.

Later that day I went to a room, 7AB, where Milo Vetimiglia was premiering his comic book project he'd collaborated on. I sat in the the room for two hours, through two panels, just to get a good seat. The first hour I was in the back, the second hour I was able to move to the tenth row and right before the next panel I was in the fourth row (!) and as he walked in we exchanged glances and he SMILED at me...AHHH!!!! Hayden and Zachery (who plays Syler in 'Heroes') were all there like, ten feet away from me.

After the panel I tried getting out of the row so I could get his autograph (I had an issue of Entertainment Weekly that had Milo and Hayden on the cover) and to sign my magazine, but he basically dashed out of the room the second it ended. I felt really disappointed but I still I got to see them in person which was still cool.

Overall Comicon was a hit. It was quite an experience and quite a good one at that.

Emma in a room with a bunch of guys.

Photos and artwork in this article are the property of Al Holter.

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