Gonna get my geek on
Thursday, April 10, 2008 
It’s official.
To celebrate my 40th birthday this summer I’m going to ComicCon in San Diego with a group of guys I’ve known since grade school. Kyle, Kev, Rey, Paul, Timm—I ain’t mad at ya, I ain’t got nothing but love for ya. Now if we could only convince Ragnar to fly out from Connecticut––yes, I have a childhood friend named Ragnar. With a name like Ragnar, you’d think he’d been born into a clan of Techno-Vikings, but his dad just liked the name. In fact, Ragnar’s brother is named Ed. **Scratching my head over that one**
If you’ve never heard of ComicCon, it’s the largest comic/sci-fi/gaming/entertainment gathering in the world. They sell out each of the four days—125,000 people each day. That’s a lot of pocket-protectors. If you put all the 20-sided dice in one room you’d create a geeky singularity so dense, not even light could escape. Or as my significant other likes to call it---Nerdgasm 2008.
Sure, there are the things you’d expect. Big premieres—like Superman Doomsday, Heroes, Lost and Battlestar Galactica––with producers, writers and cast members milling about. There will also be the perennial panelists, like Kevin Smith, Cory Doctorow and of course the venerable Stan Lee himself.
But what I didn’t realize is how many authors will be there speaking and presenting. Notables include: Neil Gaiman, Dean Koontz, David Morrell, Laurell K. Hamilton, Orson Scott Card, Frank Beddor and some guy named Ray Bradbury.
While my friends are checking out the Star Trek weddings and metal-bikini clad Princess Leias, I’m hoping to catch a few writing workshops—specifically regarding comics and graphic novels––a medium I’m earnestly trying my hand at. (I went to art school to become an illustrator, how I ended up a writer…)
Speaking of which, I had a small script accepted by Secret Identities, the first-ever graphic anthology of Asian American superhero stories, scheduled to be released April 2009—just on the heels of HOTEL. The publisher is The New Press, an amazing independent house, dedicated to cultural, educational and ethnic subjects. A heart-felt shout-out goes to editor Jeff Yang, for managing to squeeze a very square peg (that be me) into a very round hole.
Reader Comments (7)
I'm sure this will be old news to you, but I thought I would pass it on just in case...
I rented the "300" DVD last week, to christen my new blu-ray player. I enjoyed the movie alright, but it wasn’t, you know, great. (It is however beautiful to watch in high-definition).
What I found interesting were the extras available on the blu-ray disc. There was an hour (or more) of background on the Spartans, filming in green-screen, etc. What I found most interesting was the documentary footage that dealt with Frank Miller’s graphic novel of the same name.
Now I’ve never been much of a comic-book reader, or a fan of sci-fi movies. (Closest I got to a graphic novel was when I read Maus: A Survivor's Tale during college). But after seeing “300” and the background on Frank Miller, I think I might have to give his graphic novel a read.
So, in the off chance any of this is news to you, I suspect you will enjoy it. Especially if you plan to dabble in the graphic novel medium…
I'm dragging Mr. Jaye to a SF/F convention to during our anniversary this summer. I felt a little guilty about it since I'll be busy playing author lady, but he couldn't be more excited.