Welcome back! I’m still going on about Comic Con, and this time I’ll be talking about some of the booths I saw. From the massive television screens from the big booths to the wares displayed by vendors and the sketches done by artists. Here we’ll also get to see a few more folks in great costumes and a slew of Batmobiles!
The Weta display as part of the amazing Hobbit stuff going on had these guys standing in all their terrifying glory. Fret not, though, they also had Dr. Grordbort’s Infallible Aether Oscillators at your disposal in case they were to become real. What? I can’t be the only one afraid of inanimate creatures coming to life to destroy us all, I refuse to believe that. They had the Puppet Master puppets on display, that is based on that fear. Don’t judge me, possibly non-existent judgmental reader.
Marvel had all the Iron Man armors on set with the latest model rotating in the middle. The new armor doesn’t necessarily wow me, but that could be due to my love of shinier versions, or at the very least freakishly clunky like the Mark 1. If it’s the rumored Extremis armor, though, then I’m intrigued, always found that to be a fascinating development. Seriously, though, missed opportunity with no shawarma stand.
The Girl Genius booth was around, if you haven’t had a chance to check it out, that comic has great art and an amazing world of mad Science. It’s a steampunk (or gaslamp fantasy as they prefer) story about Agatha Heterodyne and her realizing her family legacy, as created by Kaja and Phil Foglio. Go check it out. The booth had books, pins, and squishy wrenches for sale. Come in costume and you automatically won an award for being so cool. I got one years ago for showing up in a modded tuxedo.
Kris Straub and Scott Kurtz shared a booth again this year. Kris had the final book of Starslip as his new item, and Scott had his Dungeons and Dragons motivational skill posters. I hope Kurtz can do the whole set of skills, I’d love to see an Arcana one. Straub (creator of Candle Cove amongst other works) was nice enough to take a pose for the picture. You should really go read both these guys’ works. I enjoy PVP and Chainsawsuit a lot. Now that Starslip is over I’ll probably marathon the whole series.
The DC booth was left open for folks to walk around in, and they had these outfits on display. I’ve been hearing good things about the Arrow pilot for CW’s new show about Green Arrow, which has me kind of excited since I really do love that character and had my doubts about the show. I took the picture of Nite Owl II’s snow gear since I love that character a lot, even though I’m sort of neutral toward the film. The DC booth also had their new fighting game up for play, 8 out of what looked like 24 characters were playable. I’m excited that I can play as Batman, Flash, Nightwing, Harley, Cyborg, and Wonder Woman. I hope Green Arrow and Batgirl will be announced at some point.
The Activision booth got taken over by Deadpool as his posters and image were splattered all over. They had video of his new video game on display, with Deadpool doing all sorts of Deadpool chaos. I wonder how they’ll keep things interesting with Deadpool’s super regeneration. Will it play as a better version of that recent game Never Dead, where you can still fight as a severed head? That’s a very Deadpool way to fight, but make it a good game instead of what Never Dead was.
Rob Schrab was on hand, and if you don’t know who he is, you should learn. He wrote Scud, the Disposable Assassin, and he’s worked on such shows as The Sarah Silverman Program, Community, Parks and Recreation, Childrens Hospital, and more. I was able to buy a copy of Drywall’s origin story, I read that thing when it first came out, and am so glad to have a signed copy of it. Such a wonderful, sad story for a fun character. Go give Rob your money.
So this is Mechanic Anna by Thomas Gianni. Gianni explained that she is a Rosie the riveter type (sold) who loses her arm in a work accident and gains an experimental replacement intended for soldiers (double sold). Now she’s gotta deal with an attack on the United States Eastern Seaboard by Nazis (triple sold). So yeah, I’m getting this comic when it comes out sometime this fall. I suggest everyone do the same. This print was ten dollars, huge, bagged and signed, that’s a great deal.
Okay, so for my final booth I picked not really a booth, but a pavilion. You see, to celebrate Batman and Dark Knight Rises coming out, all the Batmobiles from the 1966 show on up were brought out and put on display. That means all the film versions as well. You could get super close to them and it was amazing. So here they are in chronological order, the many Batmobiles of Batman as seen on television and film.
The 1966 Batmobile was out in full glory and it was a sight to behold. You could see the parachutes in the back ready to launch. I could have probably written an article for each Batmobile on display.
The Burton version was here, and I felt like a kid staring at it. If you grew up in the late 80s to 90s, you saw this thing everywhere in posters, toys, and commercials. This was the toy I played with in school, having it hidden in my desk.
Say what you will about the Schumacher Batfilms, but I liked the design of this Batmobile. This one looked like it could have come out of the comics. I also remember really wanting to win Taco Bell’s contest to get this thing. It would have been the coolest thing to win that back then.
My only regret was not seeing this one at night since it glows like Vegas. I mean, it was really shiny and the lights were there to make it a spectacle. The thing does look like it could have won some weird races against some neon gangs. I wish a neon gang would have shown up to take pictures with it.
They had both the original Tumbler and the completed one for the new films. I wonder if in their desire to make this thing as realistic in its capabilities as possible, if they made this as armored as it would be in combat?
Finally, we get to the most recent car in Batman’s collection. I stared at the front end for a long time trying to see how those wheels become the Bat-Pod. They didn’t have that on display, because then that would open the entire can of worms that is the other vehicles we’ve seen with Batman on screen. Either way, this was an amazing opportunity to get to see these cars in person.
From the look of it, that’s the end of the booths segment for my look back at San Diego Comic Con. Next up, we’ll take a look at the panels I saw. You’ll notice the return of some faces from the people article. See you next time!
Alexander Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
