Note: I found this super old draft and decided to publish it as is. How much has changed in 15 years? Guess I’ll find out in a few weeks. . -7/10/2025
I survived the first day of the San Diego Comic-Con – yay!
Meme: “Remember when MTV played music videos?”
No, MTV did not have a presence at SDCC (that I know of), but it has been used as an example in several conversations of television channels that do not live up to their names. On the trolley to the Convention Center, I overheard some guys were chatting about tv channels about gaming, like G4 and Spike. At the con, there was grousing about the (lack of) science fiction on the SciFi/SyFy Channel both before and after its name change.
Of course, many people were once again decrying how Comic-Con isn’t about the comics anymore.
Lines
The lines were long this year. For the most part, they were well designed with lots of tents for the outside, until Sunday when the rules seemed to change. One guy told us that if you left the line for any reason, you would lost your place and have to go back to the end of line. Bah!
On Friday, I spent over 3+ hours in line for Ballroom 20 which is longer than the train ride from Los Angeles to San Diego. I felt compelled to stay in that room for at least as long as I spent in line. Luckily, I was interested in the panels in that room once I made it in: EW panel, True Blood, and the TV Guide Hot List. While in line, I missed The Big Bang Theory (which was one of the hottest properties this year), Caprica, the Joss Whedon Experience, Bones, and other stuff. Of those, people were most excited about BBT and JW.
I didn’t go into Hall H this year. Yes, I wanted to see some of the panels, but I just couldn’t handle the line after Ballroom 20.
Girl Power
I went to a bunch of lit and writing panels. The io9 panel was fun. It was great to put faces to names. Also, the first item lauded was Warren Ellis’ Freak Angels.
Despite all of the geeks are girls too, the media still needs to catch up. Girl geeks are finding their moment in the sun offends me, especially the line:
“I’m hearing from a lot of women who read it with their boyfriends,” [Blair] Butler says. “I think more guys like being able to share that experience.”
NOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooo!
After the ### panel, I had thought about revising my rant. Maybe it wasn’t necessary any more. Girls were accepted in comics as readers, creators, and purveyors.
And then there is this Best Buy/Geek Squad commercial:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFe_641Gbog]
Later came the “Kiss Them or Kill Them panel.” I thought it would be philosophical in nature about violence, writing attack scenes, and villainy. Nope, Mysterious Galaxy should have gone with the title “slayer or lay her?” (Yes I still love the -er jokes.) it was the paranormal romance/urban fantasy panel and really about sex with monsters. Most of the authors were women with 2 token men, one of whom writes under his initials. I think that this replicates the secrets of the 19th cenutry romance fiction industry when authors had to be perceived as “female” to get publishes. On the flip side, the next panel on “Twisting Genres” was mostly male with one token female (Naomi Novik.) I don’t want to be noticing this type of gender and genretyping in the 21st century!
