I’m probably not your typical comic convention goer. I rarely go to the panels and I don’t have much to say to the big name professionals. I figure that I can find more news online than I’ll ever get at a panel, and as for talking to the pros, well I really don’t have much to say. That is I don’t have much that I can say in 30 seconds and not sound like a jerk. I do like to talk to some of the independent creators as they are generally more able to take the time to have a conversation.

So if I don’t like panels and I don’t talk to the pros, what do I go to a con for? That’s easy. The dealers room.

I love looking at, or even better, buying old comics. There is nothing like the feeling of being surrounded by tens of thousands of pages of newsprint all covered in super hero goodness. That’s getting to be a bit of a problem though as I’ve been collecting comics for around 30 years. The simple fact is that I have most of the books that have come out since the early 1970s that I’m interested in – at least the ones from DC or Marvel. That leaves either pre-1970s books or independents.

As most comic collectors know, as soon as you get to books that came out before 1970 prices start to go up quickly. There are a few series for which I’m willing to pay those prices, but not too many. Currently those include the Legion’s run in Adventure Comics and the original Teen Titans. For other books from this era I can only afford reading copies. I refer to these as my A list and B list, in that order.

When I’ve spent as much as I’ve allocated, or run out of things to buy from those lists, I move down to my C and D lists. My C list generally consists of books from the last 10 years or so that I somehow missed or had to skip for financial reasons. My D list is stuff that I don’t even know that I want.

The San Diego Comic Con is my main convention every year. This is true mostly because I happen to live near San Diego. It’s big. It’s generally convenient, and up until the last couple of years, it’s had what I wanted. I say up until the last couple of years because somewhere in that time span it changed. Now, instead of being a comic book convention it’s transformed into a media convention.

I’m not really interested in a media convention. While the dealer’s room has grown ever bigger, the amount of space given to actual comics has decreased every year, and nearly every year I’ve over-heard at least one or two dealers saying that they won’t be back. This is why I’ve started to branch out to other cons.

Last summer I went up to the Alternate Press Expo (A.P.E) in San Francisco. Having never been there I was hoping to find a lot of the smaller publishers. I did, but they were smaller than I’d hoped. Fortunately S.F. is a fun city all by itself so the trip wasn’t completely wasted.

So we finally get back to what started this rather long post. Wizard World L.A. Maybe I was expecting too much. I was hoping for a good sized dealer’s room devoted to mostly comics, instead I found maybe 20 dealers, and that’s probably being generous. Frankly I saw more dealers at local weekend conventions in the 1990s. I was disappointed to say the least.

Still, I had spent and hour and a half on the road to get there, so I tried to make the best of it. A quick once through showed me I’d have to dig to find anything, so dig I did.

From my A list I found one book. Teen Titans #26 in VF+ to NM- condition. Oh well, I moved to my B list where I had a bit more luck. An early Captain America, a couple of Jimmy Olsens, a Lois Lane, and three World’s Finests. Not bad, not what I’d hoped for, but not terrible either. It was time to hit the dollar tables and lists C and D.

A Justice League Adventures, a Batman Strikes, The Phantom #1 from Moonstone, 17 issues of the Savage Dragon, 4 issues of Invincible, 7 Manhunters, a Wonder Woman and two issues of the current Captain America series. Now this was more like it. Somewhere in there I also hit the treasure trove, 27 issues of the Justice Machine, but I’ll get back to that in a moment.

I did run into the writer of Bizarre New World, Skipper Martin, and gave him a little crap. Regular readers of this column will remember that I rather liked his first mini-series and gave it a good review. As a reward for that he sent me a preview copy of his new one-shot. I gave that a good review as well. Really, it’s good, you should buy it. So why did I give him crap? He linked to my review and spelled my name wrong, not once, but TWICE! He was suitable embarrassed when I introduced myself. Nice guy. Buy his book!

I also ran into one of the creators of Necessary Evil, another under-appreciated book from Desperado, and the colorist known as Moose! who was selling prints of Gary Frank Green Lantern art. I picked up one that had Hal, John, Kyle, and Guy charging up. Nice stuff.

So back to the treasure trove. Justice Machine. I’ll try and post more about this later as it deserves a full review, but for now I’ll just say that this was a great little series, at least what I’ve read so far, and it was almost enough by itself to have made going to this con worthwhile.

So all in all while Wizard World L.A. didn’t live up to expectations, it wasn’t the world’s worst con either. I managed to pick up some good books and met a couple of cool people. I’ll keep an eye on it and maybe try it again in a few years.

Keith

Well the writer/creator, Skipper Martin, apparently liked what I had to say because last week he sent me a preview copy of his new one shot, Bizarre New World: Population Explosion. My one word review?

Wow!

Now please understand that while I’m quite happy that someone thought enough of my scribblings to send me something of theirs to review, those freebies won’t influence my opinion. If I thought the book was crap I wouldn’t review it. If it was just okay, I’d say so and try to give some constructive criticism. This book wasn’t crap. This book wasn’t just okay. This book was great! In all honesty this was one of the most fun and best written books I’ve read in quite awhile.

At the start of the first mini-series Paul was the only person who could fly, by the time it ended, the whole world was taking to the sky. This story picks up from there. I don’t want to give too much away, because you really should read it for yourself, so I’ll just say that:

- The characters are all very believable.

- The art is well done.

- Paul gets a costume, but it’s not what you think.

- Although he would probably deny that he is one, Paul acts very much like a hero is supposed to.

If you like super-hero comics, if you like fun comics, heck, if you just like good stories, go to your local comic book store now and tell them to get you a copy of this book. It was in the February issue of Previews so it should be on the stands in April.

Order it now.

You won’t be sorry.

.

I first met Mr. Hamilton at the San Diego Comic Con where he had a small booth. He was both pleasant and passionate as he tried to sell me his labor of love. With a title like “Return of the Super Pimps” I had to give it a try. I picked up the first three issues and promptly forgot about them. Six months later, I found them on the bottom of my to be read pile. I wish I had found them sooner.

In one way I’m glad I waited. As it turned out, by the time I finished those three issues the fourth was just coming out. That meant I had one more issue to enjoy. It was the best of the bunch.

Super Pimps is as silly a book as you’d expect it to be from the title. It features practically every cliche you could think of from the black exploitation films of the 1970s, but it does so with a lot of heart.

The story goes that the man who would one day be the Super Pimp known as Blackbeard grew up in the Hood. As the descendant of the biblical Samson he found he had super powers. At first he took the easy way and turned to a life of crime, but he as he found others that had amazing abilities, they realized that they could become a force for good. Giving up crime, they became the Super Pimps.

The series actually takes place years later when the characters are coming out of retirement to defeat one of their old foes. I’d like to see them stick around so that I can see them fight such dastardly villains as Honkey Kong, The Mo-Foe, or One Bad Mutha.

All in all, Super Pimps is a fun book. If you don’t take your super-heroes too seriously, give it a try.

Return of the Super Pimps
Dial “C” For Comics
$2.99

The thing about comics, and super-hero comics in particular, is that they tell stories where the hero always wins. No matter the odds, no matter how fearsome the villains, no matter the consequences, the hero always, ALWAYS, beats the bad guys and saves the day. He does this not for money, not for fame, and not because it’s the easy thing to do. He does this because it’s the right thing to do.

Until now.

Until Amazing Spider-Man #545.

Until Joe Quesada, the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, decided that today, Spider-Man was going to act completely out of character and make a deal with the Devil.

Why did he do this? What reason are we given for Peter going against everything he ever stood for and making a deal with the devil? It wasn’t to save the life of his Aunt who’s been on death’s door for years and was, in fact, dead long ago before being brought back by another poor editorial decision. No, Peter made the deal because he couldn’t live with himself because it was his fault that she was dying. It was his fault because he was stupid enough to unmask in Civil War and his Aunt was shot as a result.

As a 43 year old fan I could talk about how I’ve grown up with Peter Parker and how I’m against any story that tries to alter the character’s history both arbitrarily and through a deus ex machina.

If I was religious I could talk about how nothing good can come out of making a deal with the devil.

I could talk about how incredibly short-sighted it is for an editor, or a corporation to undo a long standing marriage and forcibly restrict the growth of a character in some misguided attempt to make him more accessible to a younger audience. A younger audience who has largely never known the character to be unmarried.

I could talk about all of that and more, but I won’t.

Instead I’ll simply say that I don’t like this story.

The Peter Parker I’ve grown up with would never, Never, NEVER sell out to the devil. Period.

I’ll be amazed if this storyline isn’t undone within the next six months.

I waited more than 10 years for Hal Jordan to be vindicated. I don’t think I’ll have to wait that long for Spider-Man.

I’m sure the other side of Fallbrook was not so lucky. I’ll drive around later and see what’s what, but I know there were more than a few homes lost. I wish all of them my best.

My plan for the rest of the day is to unpack, get something to eat, keep an eye on the news – just in case – rest, and drink beer.

When I got done with dinner I went online and found that the evacuation order for Fallbrook was mostly lifted. The area specified is a little unclear, but I think it includes me. I will call in the morning to find out.

I am currently in Malibu, so I will not be going home tonight. First thing in the morning though. I’ll post again when I get settled.

The downtown area was not damaged by any fire. It still has power. Several stores are open. One of the gas stations had a tanker truck make a delivery yesterday. If it’s safe enough to bring a truck full of gasoline into the area, it should be safe enough to let us go home!

Arrrggghhhh!!

I’m not too concerned as I expect that the power has just gone out. I’m kind of surprised that it hasn’t gone out before this, but still… it was nice hearing that mechanical voice pick up the phone.

Another thing that is bugging me is that my news sources seem to have dried up. I was getting information from bloggers on the nctimes.com web site, but the one blog hasn’t updated since 8:20pm and the other hasn’t had anyone from inside the village from a while.

It’s probably nothing but…

I’m hearing that it might 2 days *at least* before they let us back in. There is supposed to be an update Thursday late morning/early afternoon, but who knows.

Things seem a bit better. The 5 South just re-opened. Fallbrook still seems to be there. More when I know it.

Update: 9:25 am. The machine still picks up. I’ve heard that some areas of Fallbrook are losing power, but this isn’t surprising. I’ve heard no info about flare ups in the area.

Update: 10:55 am. The machine is still picking up.

Update: 11:35 am. I still get an answer from my machine.

Update: 2:15 pm. The phone still works. I’m hearing we might be let back in somewhere between later today and all the way to Friday.

My answering machine still picks up as of 10:34 pm.

Update: 11:52 pm answering machine is still working.

Any one reading this? Feel free to reply. I’ve changed the settings for now so that you don’t have to register.

Update: 12:24 am Wednesday morning. The machine is still working.

Update: 12:56 am. My answering machine is still answering. There are people still in Fallbrook at the Albertson’s parking lot which is a mile or so from my house. They say they see a glow and heard an explosion on the NE side of town which is away from my house.

I’m running on fumes, but I can’t sleep. I’ll update until I finally go to bed.

Update: 1:30 am. The machine is still answering. Surrounding areas such as Bonsall, San Luis Rey Heights and Winterwarm on the north side of state Route 76 are being told to evacuate. They are being told to head W on 76. The problem with that is according to the chip site: DUE TO FIRE, NB 5 AT LAS PULGAS AND SB 5 AND BASILONE SHUT DWN. They will need to head south on some side roads.

Update: 1:49 am. The 5 shutdown is due to smoke from a back burn according to http://www.cpp.usmc.mil/ They say that there is no danger to the 5.

Update: 1:59 am. My answering machine is still picking up. The guy in Albertson’s parking lot says that it is quiet in the area and doesn’t mention anything new. I think I’m going to bed.

Update: 2:30 am. Haven’t made it to bed yet, but I’m going now. My machine is still working so I still have a home. The albertsons guy posted and said that all was quiet in my direction. We’ll see what the morning brings in three or four hours.

Update: 3 am. Answering machine still works. Going to bed. No. Really.