Saga, vol. 1, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Anika

by Sigrid

Saga is one of the best science fiction stories I’ve read in the past few years. Not merely the best in comics, mind you, but simply one of the best.

I’m not going to recite the plot, here. But there will be spoilers.

the cover of the graphic novel Saga

People argue, constantly, over what science fiction is. Over what it should be, what it’s for. I believe that science fiction is a set of rhetorical tools used to examine stressors in the human present-day. We take a thing that concerns us and we look at it obliquely, we look at it askance, we fictionalize it until we can see the threads of possibility removed from the mire of immediate circumstance. All fiction does this, of course. It’s one of the things fiction is for. Science fiction is one set of tools for the job.

a panel from Saga, a character on the toilet

Saga uses those tool brilliantly. The nature of humanity is prodded and questioned in the various aliens, particularly Prince Robot IV. Friendship is interrogated in the relationships between bounty hunters. Love is examined and defined as the young couple, Alana and Marko, carve (sometimes literally) a new life for themselves and their infant in this war-riddled universe.

a panel from Saga, a character and his large pet cat

But a story isn’t merely a collection of deep, self-important themes. A story must be told through specific characters about whose fates we, the readers, care. And the characters Vaughan and Staples have created are fantastic. They are richly imagined takes on archetypes. This is important. We need the archetype so that we know something of where we stand in this science fiction setting. Yet we need this particular rendition of the type to be new and fresh in order to make the story worth the time spent reading it. To call Saga “Romeo and Juliet in Space” gives you some, limited, information. But that does nothing to tell you how likeable, strong, and engaging Marko and Alana are.

a panel from Saga, Marko and Alana

Saga is a story about parenting, about how having a kid is an undiscovered country that no-one can explain to you ahead of time.

Saga is a story about the rank stupidity of war, about how self-sustaining cultures of conflict can be.

Saga is a story about principles, about what we do for them, with them, and what having them does to us.

Saga is a wry, quirky, flippant surrealist story about the possibilities of the Science Weird literary subgenre.

Saga is a brilliantly-realized work of serial graphic art, full of stunning visuals I hadn’t known were missing from comics until I saw them.

Saga is laugh-out-loud funny.

Saga is a train-wreck story of fore-ordained doom from the first lines of narration.

I highly, highly recommend you give Saga a try. (The first volume is available as a collected edition both in print and digitally.) It may not be to your taste — it is strongly science fiction, it is strongly visual, it does not stop to explain anything you might not get right away. Nonetheless, I ask you to give it a chance. Vaughan and Staples are telling a story of astonishing scope and depth, of intimate detail and nuance. You, Gentle Reader, will want in years to come to have known about Saga from the beginning.

a panel from Saga, Alana and her baby, the words "I want to show our girl the universe."

Fantastic Fangirls Scribble in their Vampire Diaries

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Caroline

This Thursday marks the season 4 premiere of The Vampire Diaries, a show that doesn’t always seem to get the geek cred it deserves. Today Caroline, Gabby, and Ali get together to talk about what they like about TVD, what they expect from the new season. . .and what the hell happened last year, anyway?

Caroline: There aren’t that many long-running TV shows that I keep up with these days, but The Vampire Diaries is one that I’ve managed to stick with. One of the reasons, as I mentioned in our most recent podcast, is that it requires exactly the amount of attention that I’m willing to devote to it.

First of all, as we all know, the CW network is basically an employment agency for extremely attractive men and women, and TVD certainly holds up its end. You have your dudes with great abs and broody faces, your women with amazing hair and perfect complexions, and basically everybody is either in high school or is a vampire.

Spoilers are behind the cut, but first, enjoy this picture of Ian Somerhalder holding a cat. (Thanks, Internet)

Continue reading →

Expectation of Endings

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Anika

As I said in my recent post about Once Upon a Time I don’t believe in happy endings. In life I follow The Last Unicorn school of thought: “There are no happy endings because nothing ends.” In fiction, my reaction to series finales runs the gamut.

Law and Order was cancelled after the (20th!) season finale had been filmed, it became the series finale, and while a good episode, it was not a good send off.

Hellcats was also cancelled too late to film a finale. The end of that show is an absolute train wreck. I still haven’t recovered.

The final episode of House M.D. was brilliant, but I haven’t seen more than a handful of episodes in between it and Dr. Cameron’s last appearance a year and a half before. I’ve never seen the series finale of E.R. and thogh I did watch for years after Julianna Margulies’s departure, Carol Hathaway’s last regular episode serves as my finale for that show.

The truncated last season of La Femme Nikita rushed to tie up loose ends and when it couldn’t it blew them up, sometimes literally. But I love the ending. I love imagining Nikita turn Section into a power for good. Battlestar Galactica’s last season also felt rushed, random, and explosive. I found its finale to be equal parts bittersweet and infuriating.

I fell asleep halfway through Star Trek: Voyager’s final episode. I had a high fever, I was legitimately delirious with exhaustion and infection. I’ve never seen the ending.

Now I’m looking forward to two more series finales. Fringe is an esoteric science fiction crime drama. Gossip Girl is a sensational teen romance melodrama. It’s honestly a toss-up which is more fantastic but they both take place in a heightened reality and revolve around a close knit circle of eccentric characters. Both shows might have been cancelled last season, but were instead given a shortened final season. Ten episodes.

Serial fiction works best with definitive start and end dates. Especially end dates. I’m sure everyone can name a television or comic book series that was cancelled abruptly and “too soon” — but I bet everyone can also name a television or comic book series that was drawn out and went on “too long”. It is, of course, a matter of opinion. But it is also an ailment. And I believe, pretty strongly, that limited series are the cure.

The television landscape is already changing. “Seasons” are fluid (Doctor Who recently had its “Fall season finale” after 6 episodes). Summer is no longer a dead zone, it’s when USA and TNT kick into high gear. Series and seasons launch throughout the year. With DVR, On Demand, Hulu, Netflix, and channel apps, television episodes can be watched whenever and wherever and however the viewer wants to do it. The studios and stations have very limited control over how their series are watched. When they try to wrench it back we get an HBO and Game of Thrones situation. But even these squabbles are proof the concepts are evolving. Fringe and Gossip Girl were not cancelled, they were given ten episodes.

Comic books are harder because the audience is so much smaller and the financial stakes are so much higher. Serial fiction of any kind becomes formulaic because once it attracts a fanbase it wants to keep them. It makes business sense. But convoluted continuities scare away new readers; limited series could target them, and grow the audience. I believe that was some of the thought behind the DCnU and Marvel NOW! but I’m unconvinced it isn’t more of the same. End dates are important.

The creators behind Fringe and Gossip Girl know these final ten episodes are the final ten episodes. They have the opportunity to tell one last story. The characters and universe are established, they know exactly how much time they have to tie up loose ends or present new ideas. When something ends often dictates how it ends. I expect Fringe and Gossip Girl to end well. Not “the way I want it to” (I don’t believe in happy endings!), not even, necessarily, the way the showrunners want it to. But with closure. With thought. With purpose.

A series being created or presented under the constant shadow of possible cancellation is never going to be as good as one that is considered safe OR one that is ending on its own terms. No one wants something they love to be cancelled. But it’s so much worse without even the possibility of a proper goodbye.

Meet the New Fangirls: Gabby

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Anika

by Gabby

Television has been my introduction to geek and popular culture, and television remains my boyfriend.

Right now, though, I’d like to talk about my introduction to my lover, comic books.

When I was a first year Psychology student, I’d sometimes visit my dad in his office in the science building. On his bookshelf, I spotted The Sandman: Book of Dreams. I started flipping through it, and my father looked up.

“It’s really good. You may not understand much if you haven’t read The Sandman comics. Here, try Stardust, it’s written by the same author of those comics.”

So I read Stardust and started delving into Neil Gaiman’s work. I did everything backwards; reading Anansi Boys before American Gods, and reading The Sandman: Book of Dreams before The Sandman comics. But I was hooked.

The first time I walked into a comic book shop, my palms were sweaty. It was a little hole in the wall in Moncton, New Brunswick, in what passes for its downtown. I remember my voice cracking as I asked for “Prelude and Nocturnes”. The owner smiled, grabbed it for me and said this:

“I hope to see you again.”

And boy, did he see me again.

When I figured out that one of my favorite TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was continued in comic book form over at Dark Horse, TV shows and comics started weaving themselves together, establishing a comfortable polyamorous relationship with my life.

a photo of Gabby reading a comic in a library

Reading Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men and repping for the Ottawa Senators (Re: Lockout: my heart, it is broken).

As for me? I am just starting a Master’s in Social Work where I will be paying specific attention to linguistic inequities and women’s issues. Somehow I have found myself being an assistant for a professor who covers neither of these topics, but I’m fine with this. Diversity is my slice of paradise. I have been known to multitask; throughout University I held down a 20 hour/week job, made time for a boyfriend, friends, a full-time course load, maintained a relationship with my family, volunteered as a Big Sister for Big Brother Big Sister and as a dog walker for the SPCA, had yoga classes and STILL managed to watch at least 10 hours of TV per week. I hope to maintain this crazy (but fulfilling) lifestyle in my new city (Ottawa) this year.

My taste in various media spans all genres, mirroring my frantic life. At bedtime, my father would read The Hobbit to me one night (I remember asking him: “Are there any women in Middle Earth?”) and my mother would read Anne of Green Gables to me the other. I think this directly translated to my tastes later in life; I can wax poetic about Dawson’s Creek as much as I can Battlestar Galactica. Similarly, I appreciate comedy in my drama, and science-fiction in my romance. In terms of superhero comics, being a Smallville fan in my youth skewed me towards DC and Superman, but lately I feel Marvel appeals to me more. I’m currently up to and catching on Marvel’s Heroic Age. Being the Joss Whedon fan that I am, I have a weakness for Kitty Pryde, so early Uncanny X-Mens are also on my roster. In addition, I’ve returned to my roots and I’m reading John Byrne’s run on Superman.

a photo of Gabby reading comics in a library, in sepia tone

These Buffy Omnibi are actually pretty bad. In an awesome way.

A couple disclaimers:
1) I *love* suggestions. I’m always looking to expand my horizons, so if you think I should be watching or reading something, please let me know (in the comments or on twitter!).
2) I have a tendency to fall hard and fast for whatever media I’m consuming. This means I’m not a great critic. But I love sharing my enthusiasm and explaining where it comes from. I’m all for civil debates, though! So if you think I shouldn’t like Buffy for sociological reasons, I’ll be glad to hear them out.
3) My first language is french. C’est avec plaisir que je discuterai avec vous, chers francophones, si l’envie vous prend!

Finally, I’d like to sum up, in one word, my hopes and dreams for TV, comics and movies: DIVERSITY. And because I don’t abide even by my own rules, I’ll add: continued and further diversity in, amongst others, gender, gender roles, sexual orientations, sexual identities, cultures, places of origin, languages and ethnicities. In short, media to which myself and the people I love can relate.

a photo of Gabby pointing a television remote at the camera

What Could Have Been: Dredd

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Anika

by Anika

This post contains spoilers.

It’s Fall, and series premiere season. Recently I saw a really great pilot for a new science fiction story about a handful of heroes fighting for justice in a dystopian future. It was the kind of story that creeps up on you as you’re watching — I didn’t love it, but I’m excited to see what they do next now that they’ve established the universe and introduced the main characters.

It was called Dredd.

Judge Dredd, standing in front of an American flag

Unfortunately, I wasn’t watching the pilot of a television series, I was watching a film. As a film, Dredd disappointed me. I didn’t hate it, it wasn’t even “bad”. It was okay. Just disappointing.

My number one complaint is the effects. I did not see the film in 3D as it was, in theory, intended to be seen. I don’t have strong opinions either way about 3D but I think in this case I’m happy to have avoided it. I disliked the gratuitous gore and the effects for the sake of effects in 2D; in 3D I would have hated them. In particular the slo-mo effect — in which the action is slowed down and a sparkly spectrum follows all the motion in the shots — nearly ruined the entire experience for me. Someone might consider it clever to have written what is actually a very pretty special effect into the plot: “Slo-Mo” is a drug that slows down one’s perception of time passing. But coupled with the schlocky horror film blood slinging and funky “this will look cool in 3D” camera angles that cleverness is tainted. There is a lot more style than substance in this film. And I didn’t like most of the style.

But what bothers me most is that the gimmicky effects covered up a very interesting universe. Unlike 1995′s Judge Dredd, which takes place in a flashy future with flying cars and robot food, Dredd takes place in a grittier, creepier version of now. There is a sense of realism that gives the action of the story weight. And in my viewing the effects got in the way of that. I expected a violent film but the violence came off as “shocking” rather than serving the story. And when the slo-mo effect happened three times in the first twenty minutes I started to worry I was watching a 70 minute movie stretched out to two hours by way of shiny sparkly effects.

In another situation I would just say, hey, it’s not a movie for me. But I want to watch the television series. I was drawn to the characters and the universe. Judge Anderson is exactly the kind of character I love: a little girl with a big gun. She’s magic, she’s damaged, and she has something to prove. And the relationship between Anderson and Dredd is not unlike that of Logan and his various teen girl sidekicks in the X-Men comics and films. He’s her teacher and he starts out with low expectations, but as the film progresses he comes to respect her and even rely on her. And she’s a mutant, a powerful psychic. But we barely get to know her so it is more the idea of her that I love, not the actuality of her.

a still from the film Dredd; Judges Anderson and Dredd in a medical bay

Dredd doesn’t have as much charisma as Logan, or as Stallone’s take on the character in the previous film. I don’t fault Karl Urban, it was clearly a story choice to have Dredd be a badass wall of a man, stop. He is faceless (Dredd does not take off his helmet for the entire film) and nearly nameless (he is more often called Judge and his given name is never said). The problem is that the audience is not told until the third act that Dredd is an atypical or notable judge. Until that point he could be anyone and it is difficult to be invested in a character that has no identifying traits.

Finally there is Lena Heady and her band of baddies. As with Anderson and Dredd, I really like the concept of her character. I’m a little tired of the former prostitute backstory but her troubled youth creating a maniacal sociopath reminded me of O-Ren Ishii, for example, and Lena pulled it off. And the execution of her character design was very well done. Lena Heady is gorgeous but Ma-Ma is a battle scarred psychopath. She’s incredibly ugly and yet still beautiful and that effect I loved. But she is the least realized character in a filmful of unrealized characters. Ma-Ma is basically a female Joker, right down to the scars, and I’ve never found him to be a compelling villain. “Mad and violent” are character traits, not character. And her minions were equally thin.

a still from the film Dredd; Ma-Ma looking at the camera

By the time credits rolled I wanted more, and the studio would likely call that a success. But I wanted more because the film felt empty. It felt like watching potential be squandered. The ideas are so good. The cast is diverse and capable. A television series wouldn’t have the budget for all the flashy effects. I want that series, not this movie.

Q&A #174: What comic book characters should body-swap for a day?

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Anika

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What comic book characters should body-swap for a day?

ALI

Emma Frost and… well, anyone really.

I’ll be totally honest, most of the time I hate Emma. But in that “I love hating you” kinda way! She’s just so deliciously self-centered and vain. Because of that, she would absolutely HATE being in someone else’s body. But what would really wind her up is knowing that someone else was in hers–soiling it with their inferior presence.

And that would just be hilarious to read.

a comic scan of the character Emma Frost

CAROLINE

Batman and Superman!

Now that I write that, I have great confidence that in all the years of “World’s Finest/Detective/Action” comics, this story MUST exist. Somebody in our audience can probably tell me about it, but it’s not one that I’ve run across before.

The reasons are obvious. Batman has always been famous as the character who wins every time in spite of his total lack of powers. Supes, on the other hand, has the classic gentle, aw-shucks personality, in spite of his great power. So what would happen if they were reversed? Would Clark’s sweetness be as easily maintained when he didn’t have the knowledge that he could beat everyone with one hand behind his back? Would Bruce find a better use for Superman’s extraordinary power (as he has probably secretly always suspected he would?)

I don’t know the answer to this but suddenly I really want to find out!

SAM

Pre-reboot Ollie Queen and Dinah Lance. This may be a far out reference, and I know it’s not entirely applicable, but to me they’ve always been the Nick and Nora Charles of the DCU.

So what about you? What comic book characters should body-swap for a day?

Some Thoughts on J. K. Rowling’s “A Casual Vacancy”

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Jessica

Disclaimer: I’ll go ahead and say going into this that I’m biased. I’ve been a Harry Potter fan for 12 years (God I’m old), and I have no doubt that this will likely affect my opinion of The Casual Vacancy. I wish that I could make this a completely neutral review, but alas, I’ll go ahead and say that reading TCV, at least in terms of general prose style, was like hearing a bedtime story from your mom. The story may be different, but the teller is the same, even if it is weird to see words like “penis” and “fuck” and know they came from the same woman who created the character of Luna Lovegood. It’s hard to hide J.K. behind the setting of a sleepy English town.

SPOILERS FOLLOW!

I found The Casual Vacancy to be infinitely compelling. Even though realistic fiction is not a genre I usually partake of (except in my literature classes), I found myself taken in by the story of Pagford, and was loathe to put it down. I’m not sure if countless re-reads of the HP series has ingrained in me an appreciation for J.K.’s prose style, or the book is actually just that good. Also, it may have just been in my mind, but I’m pretty sure that the font in TCV is the same one used in the Scholastic versions of HP. Or at least something very similar.

I will admit right from the beginning that part of the joy of reading the novel, for me, is in realizing just how great of a person Rowling is. I think one of my favorite parts of the novel was a sentence where one of the characters, Samantha, is reminiscing about when she was young and thin. This is by no means an unusual sentiment in novels featuring middle-aged women, but right near the end, Rowling sticks in that Samantha’s thin ideal was a size 10. I’m sure I don’t have to explain why this is refreshing—even though there are some women who naturally have slim physiques, there is an overwhelming number of others who feel infinitely inadequate when confronted with a constant media barrage of skinny models. Rowling posits an alternative ideology, a reassurance—size 10 is normal. In fact, it goes even further; size 10 is not just normal, but desirable, ideal. This wasn’t a crucial moment in the plot, it wasn’t overtly didactic, but I found it a moment of beautiful humanness, a subtle, unsolicited message that will reach millions of readers. There were many moments in the novel that stood out like this to me—moments when, without trying, Rowling addresses typical insecurities with unflinching compassion. Can you like a book just for doing that? I did.

But the best part of the novel, by far, is the characters. In many ways, everyone in the novel seems to be more fully fleshed out than most characters in Harry Potter, but that might just be because you are privy to everyone’s internal thoughts. Each character is utterly convincing, to the point where you recognize them. You’ve met these people–they’re your mother-in-law, your brother, your neighbor (sometimes even yourself)—and I think the narrative is all the more rich for that. Rowling crafts an arc that culminates in disastrous events, but the reader isn’t left wondering why characters acted the way they did. Each personality is crafted so meticulously that I was completely convinced that things couldn’t have unfolded any other way. Characters also proved to be the only thing I particularly didn’t like about the book; some of the people were just not very pleasant. I guess it’s a good thing if the worst thing I can say about the novel is that I didn’t like some of the people who live in Pagford.

To finish up, I feel I must address a question I was curious about before reading The Casual Vacancy: just how adult is J.K.’s adult book? The answer: very. I guess I was expecting something “adult” in the way that, say, The Da Vinci Code is “adult”—a plot that involves grown ups doing normal(-ish) things and then something unusual happens to them. TCV, on the other hand, involves death, rape, mental illness, lawsuits, abuse (both physical and of drugs), self harm, social workers—the list goes on and on. And it seems that part of the point of the novel is that, in fact, nothing particularly unusual does happen—its impact lies in the fact that these dark things happen all the time, and are a part of everyone’s lives. Somehow it works though, and I found myself intrigued anyway, even though I could probably find similar problems just by scrolling through my inbox.

I also think (to my chagrin) that part of the compulsion of TCV lies in a human desire (or just my desire? I hope not…) for gossip. Pagford is a small community of people, and several of those people’s deepest secrets are bared completely for the reader. It’s vicarious revelation of all the secrets you’ve ever wanted to know about pretty much everyone you do know. I guess the catch here is that, by the last page of the book, you rather wish you hadn’t wanted to know those secrets in the first place.

And there you have it, a totally biased, starry-eyed review of The Casual Vacancy. Have any of you read it yet? Were you able to apply a more critical eye than I was? Are you totally disillusioned? Tell me all your thoughts! I am dying to talk about it and no one I know has finished reading it yet!

Skipping to Conclussions: The Lady Expendables

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Ali

by Ali

In geekdom, we see a lot of teasers. Sometimes it’s just an image or the name of a creator, other times it’s a trailer or a simple tag line. Whatever it is, it’s meant to get a reaction from you and start a discussion. Inspired by the anticipation and buzz caused by these teasers, we at Fantastic Fangirls present Skipping to Conclusions in which we speculate about the comics, movies, TV shows, or whatever we’re excited about but hasn’t come out yet.

A little over a month ago it was announced that an all-female version of the action franchise The Expendables was in the works. And there was much rejoicing!

Since then we’ve found out that Michelle Rodriguez doesn’t think she’s done enough action movies to star in the franchise (file under: WTF) and that both Gina Carano and Katee Sakoff have officially been added to the cast.

Also behind the project are, what sounds like, an enthusiastic producer and screen writer. This is sounding less like a pipedream and more like something that’s actually going to happen. Which means, I’m getting excited. And whenever I get excited, I like to speculate!!

SO! What we do know is that the production team behind the yet-to-be-named, all-woman action movie is not the same as the group that put out The Expendables movies. So while I was hoping to see a flick in the same universe, that’s unlikely to happen. But I really love the older, rag-tag band of “heroes for hire” and I really, really hope they find a way to keep that part.

Fantasy casting is probably the most fun part of speculating. HuffPost Woman has a really great line up. The Expendables crew was 6 guys with a few cameos and bad guys. To keep things short I’ll list out my favorites for the rest of the team (since Sackoff and Carano are already in).

1. Sigourney Weaver
Seriously, how do you do this movie without Sigourney Weaver?!

2. Linda Hamilton See above note.

3. Gina Torres Big. Damn. Hero.

4. Lucy Liu Elementary, my dear Watson.

How about you guys? What are your predictions for lady Expendables movie?

Fantastic Fangirls Podcast: 2.1: Who’s Afraid of Fake Geek Girls?

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Caroline

The Fantastic Fangirls podcast returns, and Caroline, Anika, and Sigrid talk about whether girls fake their geekery (and whether they should) and get around to discussing some of our own histories of fakery. We also talk about things we’re looking forward to, on this site and elsewhere.

For one great perspective on the Idiot Nerd Girl Meme (pictured below):

. . . see this post by Jess of Active Voice. Other items mentioned in the podcast are Stumptown and Fistful of Rain by Greg Rucka, New York Comic-Con, and The Vampire Diaries.

Comments are open below, and feel free to share some of your own takes on faking it!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

(Mis)Adventures at MorrisonCon

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Ali

by Ali

This weekend I went to fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada for MorrisonCon–a unique comic convention celebrating the work of comics rock star Grant Morrison. I was mostly there for fun, but I had the pleasure of doing a little bit of reporting for MTV Geek.

I’ve gone to at least a dozen comic conventions in spots all over the country. But MorrisonCon was a very different kind of con, and I was a little bit intimidating being there in a more professional capacity.

My personal goal for the show was to present myself like this:

I felt like this:

But in actuality, I probably looked like this:

But that’s way more than enough about me. You’re here to learn about MorrisonCon.

SATURDAY

I wasn’t really sure what to expect. The show was always meant to be an intimate affair with easy access to the creators; but it was also an exclusive and closely curated show. It had a lot of potential to be pretentious. And I am so very, very happy to report that it was nothing at all like that (ok, maybe Morrison’s spoken-word performance was a bit on the self indulgent side). MorrisonCon was incredibly laid back and chill, which made it a lot of fun.

Saturday was my “panel day”. The panels were really awesome because the stage was set up like a talk show instead of traditional con panels. There were big cushy couches and people just kind of passed their microphones around. Basically, if Grant Morrison had late night talk show, this is what it would look like.

Speaking of G-Mo, late last week I found out that I would be interviewing Grant Morrison for MTV Geek about his long-awaited Multiversity project. This is pretty much what was running through the back of my head all day Saturday: AAAAAAAH!!! I’M INTERVIEWING GRANT FREAKING MORRISON!!! Several happy dances and a minor nervous freak out later, I think I handled myself pretty well in the interview. He’s, unsurprisingly, a super cool guy who just adores comics and superheroes.

Back to the panels! The conversations were loose and funny and interesting, and all over the place in the best way possible. The afternoon went from a lively and hilarious conversation about zombie movies with Robert Kirkman and Max Landis to a more quiet and heady conversation about science and religion in fiction with Jonathan Hickman and Jason Aaron. I mean, how awesome is that!

Grant Morrison on the couch with Chris Burnham and Frank Quitely
photo by Pat Loika

At one point, during the conversation about comics and movies, Max Landis totally fanboyed out about The Boys–he was having ALL OF THE OPINIONS. But it was kind of awesome and adorable to see someone on a panel get that worked up and passionate about something (btw, because I had to google him, Max Landis is the dude who did that hilarious Death and Return of Superman video. apparently he did that Chronicle kids-with-superpowers movie too.)

Anyway!

The only problem I had with the programming–and really the only problem I had with MorrisonCon on the whole–was it’s serious lack of women. All of the creators and special guests were men. Kirsten Baldock, one of the event organizers, moderated a couple panels but she was the only female presence on the stage. MorrisonCon could have been a fantastic opportunity for “panel parity”–i.e., having as many women on a panel as men. Like I said, I go to a lot of conventions so I know that this hardly ever comes close to happening. But for a show that was so different from everything else out there, it would have been really nice to see at least a couple female voices.

The day was incredibly awesome but a bit overwhelming. I must be getting a bit old and curmudgeonly because after grabbing dinner with a big group of friends, I pulled a Rory Gilmore and went to my room to read by myself for a bit (as opposed to mooning over Jess until Dean breaks up with me at the 24-hour dance marathon). But I made myself go down to the club for the afterparty since that was part of what this con was all about. There was dancing and expensive drinks and shenanigans, but after an hour I swapped out the raucous club for a quiet chat about comics with friends over bourbon.

@acomicbookgirl and me at a fancy party
photo by Pat Loika

SUNDAY

We got free breakfast Sunday!! No matter how old or curmudgeonly I get, I will always love free food.

Sunday was a pretty short day for me. My flight back home to New York was at 5pm so I passed on most of the panels. I spent the majority of the time lounging around the, er, Lounge area and checking out/plotting to steal all of the gorgeous art in the Salon. And I was able to sit down with Frank Quitely and a few other fans while he sketched the Flash for my friend Chris. You know, as you do. (squeeeeeeeeeee).

Easily the coolest part of Sunday was the Sketch Jam with Chris Burnham. If you’ve never seen one of these, they set up a projector so that everyone one can see what the artist is drawing as they’re doing it. I’ve seen them done at other cons before and they’re always really cool. Random sketch books (a.k.a. the amazing hard-cover programs for the con) were chosen from the audience and you got to ask for anything you wanted. My book was the last one to be chosen (again, squeeeee). But this being MorrisonCon and the morning after a late night for a lot of people, the sketch requests were a bit out there. For example, Wolverine doing coke off a hooker’s butt, new Batman villain Professor Pyg dancing (in a thong and heels), Judge Dredd on the toilet, Grant Morrison as Doctor Who, and Wonder Woman (fresh after killing someone, complete with blood and eyeball splatter). I very nearly asked for Princess Leia strangling Jabba the Hut because Burnham is stellar are drawing disgusting details, but I went with an old iFanboy running gag, Post-Coital Thor.

The post-con blues (or connui) hit as soon as I got into the taxi to the airport. MorrisonCon truly was an experience like no other. It was zany and fun and thought-provoking and just plain wonderful. I have no idea if they’re doing this next year, or even how they replicate this. But if they do, I am there in a heartbeat.