Day two at the 2006 SDCC (a.k.a. the San Diego Comic Con) was a bit more relaxed than day one. Most conventioneers have gotten past the initial rush of visiting all the stands on display and the big crush of people that always shows up for Saturday has yet to arrive. Some of this report will be hearsay since I spent much of the day preparing for / nervously awaiting an interview with a Big Important Movie Star for an upcoming issue. (I won't say who, but anyone with a con program should be able to put two and two together.) I did arrive in time for a panel entitled "Spider-Man: Then And Now," which assembled Stan Lee, artist John Romita Sr., current Amazing Spider-Man writer J. Michael Straczynski, and Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada. (I think John Romita Jr. was there too but, having accidentally gone to the Hellboy Animated panel first by mistake, I missed the introductions. Hellboy Aniamted looks kind of neat.)
I was mostly there to see Lee who remains remarkably spry for a man of… what is he? 103? He's still funny too, even if it's obvious he's told the same stories a billion times. The best moment came when a fan referenced a recent story in which Spider-Man was badly beaten and lost an eye in a fight to which Lee replied, "I don't know what the hell you're talking about?" Then he turned to Quesada and said, "You had Spider-Man lose an eye?"
Because of the interview, I missed some panels I would like to have attended, like the premiere of the new NBC series Heroes, which an A.V. Club adjunct member assured me was "strong." I also missed the Battlestar Galactica panel, but heard that Edward James Olmos assured fans he would never tell them to "get a life." (Thanks, Admiral Adama!) I did make it to a retrospective for Warner Bros. animator Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League, etc.), but I've gone on about my love of his stuff in this space enough.
So, sorry, today was kind of a wash in terms of reporting stuff. But in my next report I'll include lots of photos of strange exhibits and strange exhibitors and try to have some adventures I'm allowed to write about. I can offer you this, by way of compensation: A baby dressed up as Yoda.
—News round-up: There will be a Superman Returns sequel in 2009.
—Otherwise pretty slow. Wildstorm is doing comics versions of Friday The 13th and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Why can't I care?