Kings have signed proclamations onto parchment changing history… authors have signed letters to lovers and moved the world… and Adam West, Batman from the 1960s television series, will sign anything for $30 at Comic Con and may change one fan’s life. The autograph is perhaps the oldest collectible in history. And some strokes of the pen are the most highly sought after at the San Diego Comic Con.
Throughout the weekend at the San Diego Comic Con the Costumes are key. Without these dedicated fans, heros, villains and innocuous sidekicks combined, the Comic Con experience would not be complete. Here’s to all the crazy and the brave…may your deodorant be plenty and your seams be strong!
Punches will be thrown. Kicks will connect. Backs will be smacked. It’s tense before the bout. And stepping into the ring wearing a rubber monster suit does not make it any easier. At Kaiju Big Battel (SIC)… there will be blood. It’s more than wrestling in monster costumes since the smackdown doesn’t just destroy the opponent, this match decimates a tiny model city built for destruction.
Kaiju Big Battel, an unofficial Comic Con event (open to the public of all ages), attracted crowds ready to witness live creature throwdowns inspired by old Japanese monster movies and TV shows. What might surprise you most about Tokyo-flavored wrestling match is that it is not a Japanese invention at all, in fact, it came from Boston, Massachussets. The ringmaster and creator of the live events and video series is the Boston-bred Randy Borden. He created the original event as performance art as a student. Randy describes its Japanese influence as, “…the cultural feedback loop. Japan takes American things and turns them into Japanese and we take them and turn them back. We go back and forth with things.” In a way, it’s like pop culture eating itself, vomiting and then… well, you get it.
“I’m an anti-social outcast character. I’m also an anti-family values guy and I was tired of all the kiddie cartoons,” says the legendary Spike of Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation. “My hero is Lenny Bruce and I’m put off by the hypocrisy of our society such as getting upset about nipples. Babies suck on those.”
The secret origin of Spike and his mini animation empire is not quite as dramatic as, say, being bitten by a radioactive Bugs Bunny, the beginnings of the fest grew out of boredom. “We put on the festival since there really wasn’t anything to do in Riverside,” Spike says. “The difference between yogurt and Riverside is that yogurt has an active culture. So we did these shows at the schools and it grew from there.”
Normally you wouldn’t think the words nerd and model go together, but The Suicide Girls and Comic Con go hand in hand. This is my second year at Comic Con with SG and I can only say that it’s getting better and better every year.
Last year, we had one booth. We were small, but we were mighty: posing for pictures, signing books, and selling memberships.
This year we’ve grown; now we’ve got two booths—one right across from the DC booth. (Location, location, location!) Even better, Suicidegirls.com had a contest for members (http://suicidegirls.com/boards/Everything+SG/303083/) allowing them to pick costume themes for us to dress up in at the booths each day. Ultimately, we dressed up as Tank Girl, Lost Darmites (in ACTUAL Dharma jumpsuits from the show), and Uhura . Rivaling booth babes at their respective booths, our costumes were pretty epic.
There are two misconceptions that I hear on the street and read in forums all the time. That should be dispelled. I think they’ll give you some insight in to the world that is “The Suicide Girls.”
Comic Con is all about the sneak preview, the exclusive, the rare variant, but the ultimate exclusive is the Special Preview Night. But throughout the con so many stories unfold.
“No one inspired me, I inspired myself.” This is the proud proclamation of one Tommy Wiseau, the writer, director and star, really the entire brains behind The Room. Maybe you’ve heard about this cult film and the crazy things people do when they see it. Maybe you’ve heard someone quote the movie casually saying, “Oh. Hi, Mark.” Or perhaps you remember the billboard of The Room featuring only Tommy’s pensive and pained expression looking down upon the traffic on Highland Avenue just south of Hollywood. It was in Los Angeles, that this phenomenon was born when midnight screenings of the movie erupted in chaos… much of it planned.
The next underground sensation is often discovered at Comic Con and plenty of candidates can be found in Artist’s Alley, or what is referred to at the con as “the ghetto.” Perhaps this name comes from the fact that these simple tables display the wares of hopefuls selling their paintings, drawings or toys in the shadow of the looming booths from major film studios hawking the next Twilight. But it’s in this creative shanty town that you’ll find the not-so-humble Morgan Phillips aka DJ SuperGenius aka the Sucklord, his preferred name. And he is the mogul and the mastermind behind all things Suckadelic. A New York-based artist who is mult-faceted. He makes music. He makes films. He makes toys based on his films. He rolls through Comic Con wearing a badass Boba Fett custom costume wooing the ladies… he is a ghetto George Lucas.
His Star Wars breakbeats CDs have sold over 1 billion copies… okay, not in reality, but in some imaginary universe. What is not imaginary is his love of fandom which inspired his music. These tunes could only have been made by a true nerd with a wealth of geek knowledge — someone who knows music as well as the origins of the Sandpeople. But how can breakbeat music that samples from the Star Wars films get noticed by fans, but go completely unnoticed by Lucas’ lawyers? “I’ve been pimping the Star Wars breakbeats for 10 years now and contrary to popular mythology, I’ve never received any cease and desist orders,” says the Sucklord, “I kind of sail under the radar. I honestly think that it’s so small and niche that it doesn’t matter.”
Everything the Sucklord does ties in: the music, the short films, even the toys which he makes himself. The spray-painted and moded action figures are kind of cheap-looking, but that does not mean they are not cool. “After trying to navigate the designer toy industry, I couldn’t crack in, so I decided to hand manufacture the stuff myself.”
Meet Ray Sumser, a twenty something artist in Residence at the Tannery Arts Center of Santa Cruz, California. He has not one, but two pieces of parchment from the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design (Alumni: Seth Macfarlane & Tara Packard) which state that he can color in the lines and direct nudie pictures. Whilst the letters B.F.A. may impress the bluebloods and those snobs over at Juggs magazine, I feel much as my wise grandfather used to say, “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine?” With this piece before me, “Comicosm”, Ray has shown.
Dark and sensuous, the art of R. Black has a look all its own. Immediately identifiable, the mix of futuristic vinyl with pulpy pinups entwine to create some of the most evocative poster work to date. Collectors can recognize a piece instantly, while the uninitiated just know they’re staring at a particularly striking piece of print.
R. has a keen eye for the avant-garde and his work shows that he has a mind and imagination made for creating provocative and intriguing pieces of futuristic art. In awe of his work, I had to stop and ask him more about his method, mind and motivation.
