SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2011

SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2011

If you’re reading this sometime between Thursday July 21, 2011 and Sunday July 24, 2011 I’m either on a train or in the midst of a massive crow of my fellow comic, television, movies, video games, and internet fans.

I’m here pushing my way through to network with other professionals in those same industries.

It’ll be a struggle as it is every year, but I seem to survive.

For most of America who don’t go to such conventions, the most they’re ever going to hear about or see on the news are hundreds of people dressed in crazy costumes. Some you might recognize like Storm Troopers and Slave Girl Princess Leia, or characters from Japanese anime. The proper term for all that is Cosplayers.

What you’ll also see are promotions for blockbuster movies and television shows. These have taken over a lot of the con over the years. The annual invasion of San Diego by Hollywood.

Some people feel the con has lost its luster and become too big, gotten away from the heart of what started it all: comic books.

Well, that part is true, at least to some degree. As large as the con is, comic books take up a very small portion of the massive convention center.

But I want you to take a look at the whole. What are comic books, television shows, animation, movies, books, manga, video games, roll playing games, even Legos, have in common? They all originate from the imagination; whether it is the writer and artist who first came up with a costumed character that would go on to have a special effects extravaganza movie, or the fan who falls madly for the star faring pirate, or shirtless vampire, or school uniform wearing anime idol. The imagination fuels even the programmer who makes your avatar’s sword the power to destroy the great dragon boss.

It all begins with the story, no matter in what form it is written. The 160,000 expected visitors to the con would have nothing to do if someone hadn’t first conceived of the stories, which they have come to honor.

Fandom keeps those stories alive. The Cosplayers continue the stories of their characters. It’s marvelous, and wonderful. Every story lives for four special days.

I am a storyteller, and at San Diego Comic Con International, I stand among my brethren.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity

HALLOWEEN – I’m dressing up like a Missed Deadline.

Do you remember the very first costumes you wore for Halloween?

I’m not meaning the ones your parents may have put you in when you were an infant. “Oh, isn’t that a cute little pumpkin.” The ones you chose yourself.

Do you remember those plastic sheet costumes? Even as a little kid I thought they were dumb (forgetting itchy and hot). I wanted to be Superman, not wear a picture of Superman. The plastic mask was bad enough, with that dry rubber band to hold it on. We all knew it would never survive the night.

Even though I had seven years of marching in my elementary school’s Halloween costume parades, I only remember maybe three of the costumes from back then. I was Dracula twice, (and a magician using the same outfit), and The Mummy.

After Elementary school I don’t believe I put on another costume. I was picked on enough in High School; I didn’t need another reason, (see last week).

But I did go to one Halloween party during college dressed as Doctor Who. Or as close to being dressed as Doctor Who as I could.

(Has anyone else noticed how writing about Doctor Who confuses the grammar checker in your word processor?)

Back then I was a big Tom Baker years fan of the show but also liked Sylvester McCoy. So my costume, which was thrown together from clothing I had, became a merger of the two. I even took the time to draw red question marks on my shirt collars as was worn by Peter Davidson, Collin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy. Really wish I could have had McCoy’s umbrella. At the time that would have been cool.

No one, absolutely no one, knew who I was dressed as. And so ended my Halloween costumes.

Now I keep thinking about being invited to a Halloween party and dressing up. Times sure have changed since school.

Back in school, High School and even college, no one would have shown up with a Superman t-shirt, and yet now its very common to see such a shirt around town, or a Batman, Flash, or Green Lantern (even a Darkest Night) shirt. For girls the Supergirl or Wonder Woman logos aren’t all that rare.

On top of that dressing up as different characters isn’t all that rare.

When I first began to attend the San Diego Comic Con, there would be dozens of people dressed up for the Saturday night Masquerade. Now those costumes are out the entire con every day.

Not only at the Con but also because of Anime strong influence on American popular culture, cosplay has become a regular part of lie as well. I’ve seen girls wearing catgirl hoods around town.

Then there is Steampunk, which I’m only beginning to learn about, but has some of the most fantastic costumes. Though based on a alternate world where technology took a different turn, there is still something solid and real about the costumes. As wild as the costumes are, they might be something I’d be interested to slip into sometime, if I could afford it.

If not that then I might dress up as Doctor Who again, this time David Tennant or Matt Smith. I think I look like Tennant when he was wearing the pajamas.

Or I’ll just dress up like this Deadline I’m just barely going to make.

One last thing before I sign off.

The webcomic I write with Shannon Muir: FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY, is included in a collection that is published. “Webcomics: What’s Cooking” Is a cookbook produced by webcomic creators and it will feed the hungry in both Canada and the U.S. Preorders open up Friday October 29, 2010. http://tgtmedia.com/preorder/

Help Flying Glory save the world in a real way.

Trick or Treat

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden