animation, comics, exhibits, events, etc!

In Ramblings of a Fanboy, regular contributors and guest writers alike take a look at modern fandom through the lens of their own behavior and obsessions.  This week, Matt. Murray, SAC’s Chairman and President, talks about the amp up to next week’s San Diego Comic Con.

So, this is my first year going to San Diego Comic Con.  The Big Dance.  The Nexus of the Entertainment World.  And yes, I must say that I’m rather excited.  My bank account, however, isn’t.   As of the publishing of this piece,  SDCC is less than a week a way, and by the time I get there I’ll probably be broke from all of the pre-orders and advance solicitations for merchandise that I get bombarded with from various exhibitors that I’ll be seeing out there at the “Nerd Prom.”

This past weekend dropped $31.00 pre-ordering, Comic-Con: 40 Years of Artists, Writers, Fans and Friends, the 40th Anniversary commemorative book that they’re hawking at the official Comic-Con International website.  I figured that I was going to pick it up at the show anyway, so I might as well save myself the additional $9 (+ CA sales tax!!!) that I would have to hand over at the show itself.

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On alternating Fridays, Michael Carlisle examines the world “outside” sequential art to find… more sequential art. Expect mathematics, a bit of madness, and a dash of pessimistic optimism.

“I think that adaptation is largely a waste of time in almost any circumstances.” – Alan Moore⁶⁶⁶

Non-exhaustive list of forms of the mythos known as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

• radio series (1978, 2003)
• book series (1979-1992)
• BBC TV miniseries (1981)
• text-based video game (1984)
• comics (1993-1996)
• movie (2005)

Remember the first time you said something to the effect of, “No, they can’t remake [adapt] THAT! I love that!”

If you’re reading this, you probably don’t, since it’s happened so many times you’ve either been worn down, grown accustomed to it, or, possibly, screamed in righteous Fan rage every time.

Part of the notion of “sequential art”, art in sequence, is the idea of a sequence of art. If we consider a piece of art (not necessarily “sequential”) as an individual entity, then a remake or adaptation of that particular work creates (or adds to) a particular sequence of works sharing characters and/or certain other plot elements. This sequence, if it becomes large and/or popular enough, gains its own name: canon^19.95.

These two notions²,

• REMAKE: an art work which heavily shares recognizable plot sequence and elements of a previous work in its medium.
• ADAPTATION: an art work which heavily shares recognizable plot elements of a previous work in its or another medium, usually with significant stylistic or other changes.

have covered a large share of popular culture over the last 100 years. My
esteemed smurfologist colleague waxed frustrated on this topic recently, in regards to a specific plague of adaptations called the “comic book movie”.

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by Lee French

Comic conventions are a central part of my fanboy experience. I remember first reading all of the exciting announcements about artist appearances at the San Diego Comic Con in the pages of Wizard Magazine in the ’90s. Of course, I was a teenager then and I didn’t have the funds or the daring to fly to a city on the West Coast by myself. Now, I make it to at least two major cons a year and several smaller ones.

I attended my first San Diego Comic-Con in 2005. At the time, my older sister was living in Escondido, just north of San Diego, and rather than getting a hotel closer to the Convention Center, I saved some money by crashing on her couch. Then I spent some of that money on cab fare to get to and from the Con each of the four days—and, of course, swag.

SDCC floor crowd

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