Is D23 is better than SDCC?

I couldn’t help but think over the weekend that D23 sounded like a much more fun place to be than San Diego Comic-Con.

Think about it: All the big announcements that used to happen in Hall H of San Diego that had the loudest echoes in the con hall, on the internet, and in the mainstream media happened at D23 already.

I get the feeling that Disney will now pack up the Marvel booth and head down the street a bit from Anaheim to San Diego to set it back up and do all the same announcements again, though maybe without quite so many of its stars.

Maybe we’ll get to see that early “Avengers” footage after San Diego Comic-Con. I’d bet they didn’t post it on-line already in the hopes of getting a second bump out of it in San Diego. After that, there’s no need to keep it secret.

As someone who likes the Disney theme parks and animation, in general, there were a bunch of major announcements at D23 that would never happen at San Diego. I’m excited for the next family vacation to DisneyWorld to see all the new stuff — or, maybe the trip after that. It’s going to take some time to build all that stuff out.

The cosplay at D23 was also fair more obscure and niche. People dressed up as forgotten supporting characters from movies you know and love. They were props on rides in DisneyWorld, come to life. They were characters from the original DuckTales. I saw a picture of a Webbigail cosplayer, for goodness’ sake!

You almost have to be in on the joke to get any of the cosplayers. At Comic-Con, you get the 100th Spider-Man variation and random anime characters you don’t know, but have seen carrying around the same oversized props a million times.

Also, it’s a convention filled with Disney people, not comics people. They’re equally obsessive, but just a little bit nicer about it overall. Comic fans are far more cynical.

There is a down side to all this, though. I’ve read plenty of reports from people on the scene that crowd control and organization was pretty dismal. Long lines, people near front of lines not getting into rooms, etc. San Diego has that kind of thing pretty well nailed down. People complain every year and there’s always one or two issues, but they’re running hundreds of panels over four days. Nobody’s perfect.

D23, from what I’ve seen, is a little simpler, but far messier. That’s incredibly strange from something run by the Disney folks, who are usually the most organized at handling long lines.

But, most of all, I’d want to be at D23 to jump into the DuckTales money bin.

Now, if we can just get some more comic book artists to attend D23, I could feel less guilty about writing all this.

Valerian movie is this week

The “Valerian” movie comes out at the end of this week. Early reviews have been mixed, but I’d expect nothing less for a movie like this.

It’s the kind of thing that’s going to be polarizing. Some will go for the craziness of it and the special effects and the comic book tie-in factor. Others will go in with a natural aversion to this type of movie and lump it in with “Transformers” instead of letting it stand on its own.

C’est la vie.

In the end, it’s going to kill in the European box office and make its money back, whether the American box office gross tanks or not. (I don’t think it will.)

I hope it’s popular. I hope they can justify a sequel. There’s a lot of great material in those 21 books to mine for future movies. It’s such a fun series! I’m only sad that I’m down to the last four books I have left to read to complete the series.

I’m reviewing them all over at PipelineComics.com, so look over there for what you’re missing if you’re not reading them yet.

Random Quick Thoughts On Recent News Bits

ITEM! Dynamite announced a new “Barbarella” project from writer Mike Carey. They didn’t announce an artist. Look at the current Dynamite line-up of books. Do you have any faith that they’re going to find an interior artist that will excite you?

No, neither do I.

ITEM! DC announced “Gotham City Garage Sirens,” a digital series turning their characters into motorcycle gang characters.

Of course they did. It was the next logical step, right?

Dan Panosian’s promo image looks great. They’ve had success with this formula with the Bombshells books, so it might just be crazy enough to work.

The part where this project looks to make a lot of sense is when you see who’s working on it. Amongst the creators named in the first announcement is Lynne Yoshii of the DC Talent Development Workshop.

Digital-first offshoot projects like this can be a great training ground for such new and developing talent. We don’t have anthologies anymore for newbies to learn their craft, but digital efforts like this could be an option to fulfill the same role, yet be updated for the modern business climate.

That is, anthologies never sell. Maybe this will.

ITEM! Ragman is returning to the DC Universe. Given the character’s history of success in the direct market, I hope you all enjoy these six issues.

ITEM! Marvel is doing Lenticular covers. As someone who spent the 80s collecting baseball cards before moving to comics in 1989, the thought of these covers make me wonder who owns Sportflix these days. With a little digging, it looks like Donruss bought that line, and then Donruss went under and was bought by Panini. Yes, Panini. That’s the same company that publishes Marvel Comics in Italy, and who Marvel used to own.

Everything comes full circle.

ITEM! I love squirrels, so I’m all for a Secret Squirrel comic, especially if it looks as good as that art Dan DiDio teased.

When can we get a solo Augie Doggie series, though? And is Todd Klein available to create the logo for it? I want to see him draw my name.

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