Letters to the Editor
-
Carol's "real life comix"...
...are always the best ones... the Klingons would only have stopped to frag his ass...
-
Okay, I Have to Ask...
Who is the woman hawking her wares?
I see the Comic-Con still has its T&A. I once interviewed for a job there while sitting next to a woman dressed as Vampirella, whose costume is essentially a strip of red ribbon.
-
Ms. Lay, sorry I missed you.
I went there from Orlando, to cover the con with a friend. We were run ragged. I saw Keith Knight's booth, but not yours.
Heck, we barely saw a third of the things we wanted to see. Despite membership limits, and selling no tickets for Saturday on-site, the place was packed like a boxcar taking Jews to Auschwitz. Ugly metaphor, but entirely appropriate. (And yes, it smelled like that boxcar had been used to carry cattle before Jews. People joke about the way we geeks smell, and sadly it isn't an incorrect stereotype.)
We have our own fantasy: being journalists on the Web. But at least we have no pretensions about the possible outcome of this fantasy. We do it for the love of it, not out of any illusion that we'll be paid, or even read.
Heck, as everyone knows, in a few years writing will no longer be a paid profession for anyone. Everything will be out there on the Web, no one will buy books or magazines, dead-tree publishing will die, and writers will all need two or three real jobs to survive - as Bush says, "isn't that typical American." Steven King will have to become a greeter at Wal-Mart. And anyone who says otherwise is a liar or on drugs.
At any rate, having gone to these since 1999, we've decided this is our last one. San Diego Comic-Con costs too much for too little worth. The con committee screws attendees on hotel accommodations, the con and the city can't handle the mobs, and they won't move it out of San Diego to a decent place like Vegas (where they have hotel space, and the semi-nude women are paid professionals).
So we'll go to conventions where they care about the attendees; not as glamorous or show-bizzy but gentler and more intelligent. We people at Cartoon Geeks recommend that you do the same, avoid San Diego and go to smaller cons where you can live, breathe and actually eat real food. And where people will like you, even without silicone double-D's.
-
Sex sells
...and you're selling it. I notice you have no problem dissing the masculinity of "fake" Klingons to sell your comic...
-
San Diego's Comic Con
Dang! Carol Lay was there? And, so was Keith Knight and Rueben Bollings?
That does it, next year I have to go. I hope I'm not required to dress as a Klingon or paint myself blue.
-
Shameless
What I came away with:
The woman sitting next to Lay is shamelessly hawking her wares by shamelessly hawking her breasts. Got it. We also know the woman is empty-headed by her overuse of the word "awesome", her lack of concern over the possible death of someone in the parking lot and her declaration of her own genius because she thinks she's about to strike it rich -- ostensibly because of the aforementioned breasts, rather than actual talent. Check.
We'll never know who this bubblehead is, because why give her a free plug? (After all, isn't she about to hit the big time?) Perversely, this makes me want to know who she is all the more.
I agree wholeheartedly with Lay's sentiments. There's few things more annoying than toiling away, trying to make your own niche in the world of comics and illustration while a person who clearly doesn't deserve it gets the breaks.
Still, it's precisely what I love about her work that's also unsettling. I identify too much of myself in Lay -- annoyed, frustrated, sometimes cynical to an unhealthy degree. Looking into a funhouse mirror is pretty damned disturbing. I'd love to have Lay's talent... but not her bile. The woman sitting next to her was annoyingly bubbly, but maybe optimism, in small doses, ain't such a bad thing now and then.
-
The saddest part of conventions like this.
I went to a horror convention last year. Lots of people in costumes, which I liked. Lots of eye candy, which I liked. Neat stuff to buy, celebs to meet. Good so far. What was sad, though, was seeing has-beens sitting by themselves at tables, waiting to be noticed.
Case in point: there was Erin Grey, who I used to have the hots for when she starred in Buck Rogers. Nobody was going up to her, so I stopped by, said hi, told her I was a fan of her and the show, and then awkward silence. I didn't want to buy an autographed photo or any other chochkas. She didn't know what to say. So, I asked her what she was doing, and she said she was doing small movies and shows (that's good), and then, a fumbled parting.
Well, maybe an Erin Grey fanatic showed up later. I hope so, anyway.
-
Sorry I missed you!
I did talk to Keith Knight, but this was the third time I met him and/or his wife (who is absolutely lovely, by the way, just utterly charming -- and Keith's not bad, either), so that's old news. But I've always wanted to meet Carol Lay. I should have done my homework better.
I thought this was the least chaotic Comic-Con I've ever been to, but maybe I'm just getting used to them. But now that they're selling out that venue and getting a hotel room within months of the event is impossible, something has got to give. Since the industry's all coming down from Hollywood already and movies and tv is the reason why Comic-Con has exploded, why not just move the thing to LA? I'd love a twenty minute commute to the con, as opposed to having to spend hundreds of dollars just to be there even overnight.
-
Reality
I think Lay is commenting on the differences between fantasy and reality... a re-occurring theme. Inside the conference, people, including the young woman next to her, live in a fantasy land. Outside the conference, regardless of their looks, people are people.
She doesn't mention this, but there's an interesting meta to this... the winner of the Eisner for a reality-based graphic novel was Alison Bechdel, who's spent a couple decades sitting in Lay's seat at various conferences.