Tag Archives: browncoats

WonderCon Highlights!

Posted on by under Books, Buffy, Pop Culture, Whedonverse

My husband and I are regular attendees of San Diego Comic Con. This year, we got to experience WonderCon at its trek down to Anahiem. In one word: it was awesome. I wouldn’t really say I’ve actively been bothered by the ever increasing amount of people that attend SDCC, but it was quite the pleasure to attend a smaller con where we weren’t crammed in like sardines. And I didn’t miss the presence of the big film companies and television networks. Goodies still abounded!

Peter S. Beagle

During my time at the Con on Friday and Saturday, I got into a few good panels, including one with Peter S. Beagle for The Last Unicorn, Felicia Day for Geek & Sundry, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt for Looper. I also caught just the last few minutes of a panel with Maggie Grace for Lockout. Of course, with the way news spreads these days, the big panels I’ve mentioned are already old news by the time I’m writing this. So the links I’ve included will give you good overviews of the panels. I would just like to say: my adoration for Felicia Day increases year by year, and I love what she’s doing with her new YouTube channel; Joseph Gordon-Levitt is wonderfully down to earth and encourages that people don’t have to just do/be just one thing in their lives; Maggie Grace is so stunningly beautiful in real life that the cameras can’t even capture it.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Maggie Grace

You may have noticed though that I didn’t have an article to link to for The Last Unicorn! I’m surprised this didn’t earn any considerable coverage. Aren’t all kids from 80s, like myself, excited about this?? The panel was wonderful, Beagle is amazing, and I can’t believe what the legal battles have been like! He’s working with a good team now though and they’ve got the rights back for the original film. What they’re doing can’t even simply be called remastering. They’re adding cells, revising cells, all kinds of wonders! To sum up some of the most important tidbits, I simply offer what I was live-tweeting during the event:

The rights for The Last a unicorn have been basically in turmoil for years. Beagle’s got em back!!!

Two Hearts! Who knew there was a Last Unicorn coda?!?

Tour upcoming with Peter Beagle for Last Unicorn in theaters!!!!

“It’s not real until there’s a lunch box.” Peter S Beagle, re: upcoming merchandising of Last Unicorn

Last Unicorn soundtrack illegally released in Germany. They never had the rights. Real soundtrack will be released!

Animation history. Regenerating Last Unicorn. More frames per second, new backgrounds. Re-record soundtrack to meet surround sound.

“I never thought of the book or the movie as for children.” Last Unicorn, Peter S Beagle

Some crazy German owns live-action rights to Last Unicorn & hasn’t done anything. In 2015, rights go back to the US company & should happen!

One last tidbit for my fellow Last Unicorn fans. Here’s a short vid I shot of Beagle discussing when he originally wrote the story:

 

I also saw a panel with Milla Jovovich promoting Resident Evil 5. I haven’t seen any of the films, but the 3D scene I watched from the upcoming film absolutely KICKED ASS! It was a full scene, not just a trailer. Jovovich was in all black in an all white room fighting about a dozen zombies. The 3D was spectacular. She completely kicked ass. It was a visual delight.

And finally, I went to the Mike Mignola panel with my hubby, the world’s biggest Hellboy fan. You can read his write up here on the blog for his podcast, Monkey in the Cage.

In addition to the panels, the other great element of Cons exists on the showroom floor. There’s more goodies to buy than you could ever afford! And there’s artists. Lots of brilliant, wonderful artists manning their own booths, ready to sell you original prints and autograph them for you. I think that’s one the best gems at a Con. It’s fun to see artists you already know and enjoy, but it’s also fun to meet new artists and discover new work!

One of the first artist I saw at the Con was Nidhi Chanani, whom I first discovered at last’s years SDCC. I purchased a small piece from her and had it autographed. Her artwork is so happy, beautiful, and inspiring that I’m on her e-mail list for my daily Nidhi fix. ;)

Nidhi Chanani "Reading Light"

I also visited one of my other favorite artists (whose booth I’ve stalked at Comic Con for years), Lynn Hunter. I picked up a small original illustration, and we also had a great chat about her upcoming work, including an alphabet picture book for children.

Lynn Hunter

Then I had the pleasure of meeting Georges Jeanty, one of the artists for the Buffy comics. I just so happened to be wearing my Nikki the Vampire Slayer tee. He rightly assumed that was my name as well, and asked if I had seen the recent cover with Nikki Wood on it!! I’m a bit behind on the comics and actually hadn’t see. I gave the appropriate fan girl squee, bought it, and had it signed.

Georges Jeanty

Buffy Season 9

I visited the California Browncoats booth and got this new piece: a bracelet that holds a USB drive! I didn’t hesitate to spend the $25 for it because I can always use more Browncoat memorabilia for my wardrobe, and the money they raised this year is going to Equality Now.

My inner child was delighted at the Immedium booth. I had the pleasure of meeting Jennifer Wood, designer and illustrator. She lives in close enough proximity to the university I teach at that she said if we could work out schedules next time I’m teaching children’s lit., she would come talk to my class! Amazing! Her new book The Year of the Dragon looks adorable! (Though I’ll confess to spending money frugally at the con and not indulging in it… yet. I really could have spent my whole budget at this booth). The other great person I was pleased to meet at this booth Oliver Chin, publisher of The Octonauts (and author Tales from the Chinese Zodiac). Who knew my niece’s favorite TV show was first a series of books?!? Great stuff! Beautiful illustrations! And such friendly artists!

A few other goodies:

NASA was there promoting Venus Transit.

I learned about Kite Readers, Interactive Children’s apps and eBooks, and I am completely enamored!

My husband bought a piece of Hangboy art, and I also got a lovely free postcard for my astrological sign, Aries.

And now I’ll just post a few links for you to peruse of different artists and things that I stumbled across during my time on the Con floor. Enjoy!

Bugs & Plush (toys)

kamiArt Studio

the art of Brittney Lee

art by Mike Yamada & Victoria Ying

Monster Buddys (toys)

Tomboy Teez

Little Vampires by Rebecca Hicks (vampire products)

Assault on Ultima Thule: “A Board Game of Epic 1930s Pulp Action.”

Karen Luk, artist

Deanna Rene Adona (art)

Steam Crow, illustrated monsters

Imaginism Studios (art)

The Plagued (zombie comic)

The Art of Eunjung June Kim

Woolbuddy: Handmade Cuties (super adorable!!!)

Kill Shakespeare (comic)

Kapibarasan (capybara love!!)

PCA/ACA 1

Posted on by under Buffyverse, PCA, Pop Culture, Whedonverse

Here’s my first of several posts on the wonderful presentations I heard last week at the Southwest Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association conference. I hope y’all enjoy! My original idea was to write about every presentation on every panel I went to, but once I got home and settled in and looked at all my notes, I realized I listened to 48 presentations!  Kind of impossible right now to write on ALL of them, so I’m just going to write about the highlights of each day.

Wednesday night at PCA was a delight – there were three Whedon panels back to back to back in one gloriously large, though freezing cold, conference room: Science Fiction & Fantasy: The Works of Joss Whedon; Power and Whedon; and Sex and Whedon.

Alyson Buckman kicked off the night with her great paper ” ‘Ship like this, be with you ’til the day you die’ : Place, Time & Subjectivity in Firefly.” To quote Alyson, it is important to note that “Serenity is a place, not just a space.” She shows us how Serenity is truly home for each of the nine main characters who become, in varying ways, physically and emotionally rooted to the ship.  Alyson discussed the effects that changes in time and place have on the characters throughout the series. In explaining this impact and the power of returning to proper place, Alyson used a poignant example from the episode “Safe” : River explains that when the cows were inside the ship, “They weren’t cows . . . Now they see the sky and remember what they are.”

Then in the paper “Buffy, Bahktin and the Blogopshere: Heteroglossia and Reflexivity in Fan Blog Discussions,” Susan Fanetti touched on the fun world of rewatching and discussing Buffy. She focused primarily on Nikki Stafford’s Great Buffy Rewatch, Myles McNutt’s Cultural Catchup Project, and Noel Murray’s Buffy/Angel Blog. I will admit I’m not familiar with McNutt and Murray, so I couldn’t honestly appreciate her dissection of the work they’ve done. I do believe, though, that she was holding up Nikki Stafford as the ideal model, especially considering that Nikki’s blog contains spaces for old and new viewers, allowing individuals to watch along for the first time and remain spoiler free.  On a related note, I will add that I’ve been re-watching Buffy with the fun hosts of Potential Cast.  I’ll confess it’s more difficult (time-wise) to keep up with blogs (I realize the irony of writing this in a blog), but I always have time to listen to the potentials in the car.

In “Pryde and Prejudice: The Origins of Buffy in the X-Men,” Dale Koontz discussed the appeal the X-Men mythos has always had to outsiders (a group Buffy‘s Scoobies definitely identify with!). She also pointed out that X-Men has always had an inclusion of strong female characters; they have been equal partners to males. Dale then examined the inspiration Kitty Pryde had on Whedon’s Buffy. Sure made me wish I was more well-versed in the X-Men! At the very least, I must read Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men. In her conclusion, Dale argued that the characters from both verses often demonstrate that having both knowledge and love leads to success.  And, furthermore, they show us that “maturity comes with knowledge of loss,” something we’ve definitely seen our dear Buffy come to grips with.

Lewis Call gave the fascinating presentation ” ‘Love Keeps her in the Air’ : Radical Erotic Pluralism in Firefly.” Pushing up against the work of Gayle Rubin, Lewis examined the “honest desire” of the characters in Firefly.  Ultimately, Lewis argued the following for each character: Wash desires Zoe and commitment; he wishes to be dominated, and she wishes to be dominant. Mal is dominant and attracted to other dominants. Inara wants monogomy with Mal, but her dishonesty about this prevents it. Simon has an unnamed and incestuous desire for River, therefore self-sabotaging his relationship with Kaylee. River’s desire is sensual, not sexual; she is most connected to the ship. Kaylee has a carnal relationship with the ship. Book chooses celibacy, demonstrating that the series endorses all types of sexuality, even re-channeling desire. And Jayne? Well, who could he love but Vera??

Finally, AmiJo Comeford also developed a compelling argument in her paper: ” ‘I’m Ready to Wake Up Now” : Pregnancy and the Absence of Female Desire in Angel.”  She pointed out that the three primary pregnancies in the series (both of Cordy’s and Darla’s) were demonic and supernatural, and demonstrated maternity as disjointed from desire.  Even the pregnancy in the season 2 episode “Judgement,” these characteristics are present.

Now I’d like to take a minute to note that I am really moved/touched/amazed by the way we all connect so instantaneously through our shared fandom. It’s like we all have this history of a shared experience, even if we’ve never met. It’s like meeting someone through a mutual friend:  Oh, you know Spike? So do I! To an outsider, this may sound a bit nutty… but I see the Whedonists reading this nodding their heads in agreement.

“We’ve done the impossible, and that makes us mighty.”

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