Long Beach Comic Con Day 1

Attended day 1 at Long Beach Comic Con today. It was impressive first day. Met several artists and writers walking the exhibit hall. Bumped into Thomas Jane (HBO's Hung, Th Punisher) before his 3d film screening and also talked to some comic book shop owners about he future of the industry.

After a quick opening ceremonies, we were on the exhibit hall floor perusing booths and already getting
issues signed. I got to meet Mike Mignola who created Hellboy. He signed several Hellboy and BPRD items for me. When I asked about his return to Hellboy he filled me in on the coming year. Hellboy will have several small series over the first half of 2011, including a surprise guest writer that hasn't been announced yet. Hellboy: The Fury, a new chapter in the ongoing series will hit next summer and then Mignola will return full time to artistic duties! Should be a good year for Hellboy fans.

Next Hotshot and I got to speak Joel Gomez, a great artist that has worked on The Brightest Day series variant cover. He's putting some finishing touches on a large poster with all the characters that should be out soon - he said he's finishing up the corners and the whole thing has his sorta dollar bill like layout to it (referring to the corners, not  a green lantern dollar bill thing).

Next on the comic book celebrity list is Jeph Loeb. Jeph Loeb has been a part of many things in comics, including comics, novels, and tv shows. I had him sign my Superman/Batman: Public Enemies trade paperback and asked a couple questions. He said that he thinks the final season of Smallville is awesome. He won't be working on the show at all but is working on Marvel TV now. When I pressed about the rumors of an Incredible Hulk tv show, he told me that's just a story on the "'net" and not to believe what we read until he announces it (sounded like Hulk wasn't high on his list).

For Panels, the schedule was kind of light. Sat in on a session to talk to comic book shop owners from So Cal and Las Vegas. Quick thanks to Carr from Earth 2 Comics in Sherman Oaks& Northridge, Derrick from Comics Oasis in Vegas, and Thomas from Beach Ball Comics & the Comics Corner Store in Anaheim. They talked about the work to open a new store and touched on lower issue prices and digital comics. The lower cost of about 25% of the industry's comics will hopefully get Fanboys back to buying more of the books that thugs scaled back on in recent times. Digital comic books are not marketed very well and therefore don't offer much competition to hard copies of books. They suggest having the digital comics be a tool to drive people to comic stores to buy the actual comic books.

Finay, we attended 2 film screenings. The first was for DC Comics' Secret Origins: The Story of DC Comics. Secret Origins is narrated by Ryan Reynolds and has interviews with some of DC's best and brightest. It was a very enlightening way to learn about DC and had alot of laugh-out-loud parts. The second film was Thomas Jane's directorial effort, Dark Country 3D. If you like the Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock, 3D, or all of the above, then you need to find a sreening of his flick. Made by Sony Home Video, Jane said they had to invent alit of the technology used to make this 3D film that was the first ever shot completely digital. It was made 3 years ago on a $3 million dollar budget. Jane has taken the film to a couple 3D film feasts already and hopes to get it out on DVD/Bluray eventually. We'll have more coverage on this movie after the con.

All in all, it was a GREAT day 1 and we can't wait to get back for the rest o the weekend. Stay linked into Brightboy Adventures for continuing coverage and pictures from the weekend.