Jennifer Susannah Devore's Blog, page 2
November 29, 2017
The Electric Glow of Sex: JennyPop's Homage to A Christmas Story
We plunged into the cornucopia quivering with desire and the ecstasy of unbridled avarice.
- Ralphie, "A Christmas Story"
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All hail the electric glow of sex! In homage to arguably one of the most perfect Christmas tales, A Christmas Story: JennyPop's leg-lamp re��nactment at San Diego Comic-Con 2017.
Merrie Christmas to all!
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November 28, 2017
EuroPop: Slideshow 2K17
You know she sees the world through Pop Specs. Well, JennyPop has been on the road again and when she travels abroad, she sees Europe a tad differently. What is a Jenny's Eye View of Europe? EuroPop, bien-s��r.
(Psst, give it a sec to load. It's not populated with all 2K pix JennyPop took this trip; but there are raw-ther a few.)
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JennyPop's Amazon Author Page, to boot!
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Follow @JennyPopNet: Twitter and Insta
Update: More Pop Specs to come sometime in March 2K18! Paris, Venice, Prague and Vienna (again) on tap for February! Ciao, kittens!
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EuroPop: Slideshow
You know she sees the world through Pop specs. Well, JennyPop has been on the road again and when she travels abroad, she sees Europe a tad differently. What is a Jenny's Eye View of Europe? EuroPop, bien-s��r.
(Psst, give it a sec to load. It's not populated with all 2K pix JennyPop took this trip; but there are raw-ther a few.)
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Follow @JennyPop Twitter and Insta
JennyPop's Amazon Author Page, to boot!
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November 10, 2017
JennyPop: Branded
November 9, 2017
Four Hours in Iceland: Notes on Exhaustion, Brain Drain and David Sedaris
Four Hours in Iceland: Notes on Exhaustion, Brain Drain and David Sedaris
- loopy, jet-lagged scribbling journaled on layover at Keflavik Int'l Airport -
by Jennifer Susannah Devore
20 Sept. 2K17
1:45pm - 5:45pm
8dg C. (outside, duh)
How many degrees Fahrenheit are 8 degrees Celsius?
What is the Icelandic currency, and how much is it worth? When "nachos" cost 650kr, what does this mean, to me?
Beer and Brennivin is what this pub, Loksins, offers. What is Brennivin? (In fact, a vile schnapps-like fuel that tastes like Scope. Blech!) My Internet connection is failing; ergo, I cannot research any of this
After over two weeks in countries where we speak the languages - Austria (fluent German), Dutch (horribly spoken Nederlands, yet enough comprehension) and Belgium (fluent French) - it is v odd to not understand a bit of the native language, here in Iceland. Hungary does not count.
American football is on the pub TV: N.E. Patriots vs. N.O. Saints. Neither GarBear nor I care.
(Note: If my writing style seems odd, to those whom are more familiar w my sesquipadalian ways, my Baroque, verbal-flourishes, I am currently influenced, this trip anyhoo, by David Sedaris. I am reading Theft By Finding: Diaries 1977 - 2002; his natural, unpretentious, diary manner has affected Moi. (See? Moi. There is some of the old, less tired JennyPop!)
Brugghus must mean Brewhouse. I see some Dutch in Icelandic.
Sidan must mean Since. Drekkist means Drink (formal/plural/directive). Iskalt means Ice Cold. I think.
8 degrees Celsius, it turns out, is 0 degrees F. No, not F. 0 degrees C is freezing, 32 degrees F. I can't do the math right now. I'm tired.
@JennyPopNet / Twitter and Insta
amazon.com/author/jenniferdevore
July 31, 2017
She Can Kick ... and Punch! She's Fifty! A Batgirl Retrospective
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Batgirl: 50 Years Behind the Mask
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by
Jennifer Susannah Devore
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���She called herself Bat-Girl! Gosh, I wonder who she is?���
- Robin, Batman #139, April 1961
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Swooshing through an open window, Bat-Girl crashed the DC Comics clique in 1961. Resembling 1930s Norwegian, Olympic ice-skater Sonia Henie, she was more Madame Alexander doll than superhero. The first Bat-Girl, a.k.a. Betty Kane, was little more than a pretty, teenage nuisance and, according to Robin, ���an inexperienced girl bound to get hurt pursuing crooks���.
On her Fiftieth, Batgirl, and we, might reflect on her personal transformations. Along her journey, she has refashioned not only her hair colour, costumes and careers, but her secret identities. Batgirl's personalities number so many, a PhD candidate might deconstruct her mythology as a dissertation on ���Dissociative Identity Disorder in Pop-Culture���. However deconstructed, Batgirl's only constant is her utility belt.
In the Spring of 1954, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Juvenile Delinquency met in New York City to discuss potential, mental health effects from comic books on children. Publishers, police, psychiatrists, psychologists and teachers testified on the perceived detriments of, specifically, crime and horror comic books. Fredric Wertham, M.D., a German-American psychiatrist and contemporary of Sigmund Freud testified as a child-welfare advocate. Concerned with comic book sales to children under fifteen, Dr. Wertham argued the graphic, violent imagery therein would establish a pivotal step toward a delinquent life. Whilst some of his data was later scrutinized as skewed to support his thesis, Dr. Wertham's crusade against violent imagery indelibly changed the comic landscape.
Following the hearings, sensing impending, government intervention, the Comics Magazine Association of America drafted the Comics Code Authority (CCA): a proactive, self-regulating code of ethics. (Today, the CCA is arcane and inoperative. By 2001, only DC, Bongo and Archie Comics adhered. By 2011, all three had abandoned it.)
Dr. Wertham also saw a subtext of homosexuality in some figures. Enter Batman and Robin. Reacting to Wertham's accusation that the Dynamic Duo might share more than just a penchant for bodysuits and leg-days at the gym, Batman co-creator Bob Kane and artist Sheldon Moldoff created Batwoman in 1956: a sultry crime-fighter in a leotard and sporting a utility belt holding scant but lipstick, perfume and hair-bobs. Batwoman's role was to serve as a lust-interest for the, clearly, hetero Batman. Now ��� that leaves Robin.
In 1961, Batman's other co-creator, Bill Finger, collaborated with Sheldon Moldoff to craft a nice girl for Robin. If a bat-woman was good enough for Batman, a bat-girl was fine for Robin. Conveniently, Batwoman, a.k.a. wealthy heiress Kathy Kane, had a niece: Betty Kane. Instant Bat-Girl. Betty was the perfect complement to Robin, down to her matching red, green and yellow costume. Sadly, Betty's colour scheme, Scandinavian allure and dancer's legs weren't appealing enough. By 1964, she disappeared altogether, without any clarification.
The beauty of the DC Universe, is rebirth can occur as easily as a new narrative can be written. In January of 1967, Batgirl was respawned, sans hyphen, and christened Barbara Gordon in Detective Comics #359: ���The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl���. Barbara Gordon was no Shirley Temple doll in a cape. She was 5'7��� 126lbs of 38-24-36 funneled into black rubber and topped with cinnamon curls and rose-red lips. Unlike the bored, Kane heiresses, Barbara was a career librarian at Gotham City Public Library. Being Commissioner Gordon's daughter was equally poignant; as she was now a real player, a challenge and a prime target for Gotham villains.
As the TV medium reigned in the late-Sixties, and as Batman was an American staple, there was no better screen d��but for Barbara Gordon. In ���Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin��� (Batman S3e1), Batman got his first eyeful of gorgeous ginger, Yvonne Craig. Clad in purple-glitter latex, crashing the scene astride her purple-glitter motorcycle, Craig instantly joined the Batman roster of arousal-icons like Lee Meriwether, Eartha Kitt, Julie Newmar, Caroyln Jones, Joan Collins and Van Johnson.
Whilst comic books dutifully adhered to their authority code, so now did television. If the former endeavoured to shield children, the latter was just stupid. According to Frances Early's book Athena's Daughters: Television's New Women Warriors, TV superladies were disallowed ���real��� combat onscreen. If Batman borrowed moves from Bruce Lee, Batgirl borrowed from The Rockettes. Fight scenes consisted of only high-kicks to the chin, maybe followed by a pretty jet��.
" ��� her fights were choreographed carefully to imitate the moves of a Broadway showgirl through the use of a straight kick to her opponent's face rather than the type of kick a martial artist would use."
- Athena's Daughters
During the 1970s, with the exception of being relegated to high-kicks, Batgirl enjoyed some fruits of the Women's Liberation movement. Yvonne Craig's Batgirl recorded an ���Equal Pay for Women��� PSA and comic book writers promoted Barbara Gordon to head librarian at GCPL as well as elected her to the U.S. Congress in Detective Comics #422 - #424 (1972).
Throughout the Seventies and Eighties, Batgirl shelved a lot of books, made new friends and took out the trash in Batman Family Giant #9 (���Startling Secret of the Devilish Daughters!��� 1977), fighting all the daughters of Gotham's greatest villains. Life was good for Batgirl ��� until she met The Joker.
In the Spring of 1988, the joke was on Batgirl. Ka-Pow!!! The Joker took aim and Barbara Gordon was blasted right into a wheelchair. Allan Moore's ���Batman: The Killing Joke��� remains a tent-pole of comic book history. One gunshot to the spine and The Joker rendered Batgirl instantly powerless; however, the Barbara behind the mask was stronger than paralysis and soon thereafter fostered a new identity, and purpose.
With Batgirl incapacitated, Barbara Gordon's new identity bloomed as Oracle. Surfacing in 1989, in Suicide Squad #23, Oracle focused her energy on technology: aiding Batman, the Justice League and Birds of Prey behind the scenes. Confusingly, the Nineties presented Batgirl fans with two Barbara Gordons. Both Barbaras thrived, yet without the convenience of a multiverse mitigation.
One Barbara is still Batgirl, active on the streets of Gotham via ���Batman Adventures��� (comic books 1993), Batman: The Animated Series (TV 1993) and Batman & Robin (feature film 1997). The other Barbara is wheelchair-bound Oracle, confined to her underground lair, hacking government databases.
On the eve of Y2K, the batsuit hung empty. Fortunately, another girl too driven, too beautiful and too fit to be anything other than a superhero limbered up, brushed her hair one-hundred times and polished the utility belt. A new Batgirl, a.k.a. Helena Bertinelli, would serve a short but sweet tenure.
Formerly known as The Huntress in the Birds of Prey legend, Helena's Batgirl materialized in the No Man's Land story arc (specifically in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #120 in 1999). Like her predecessors, Helena was headstrong and too impatient to sport the utility belt. When Batman caught her sporting it too soon, not to mention having unwisely removed her mask in public, she received a paternal scolding about her carelessness. Maybe, he suggested, further tutoring from Oracle would serve the young Helena well. Pish tosh. What did Batman know?
Well, turns out Batman was correct. Helena wasn't ready and, within the same issue, Batman reclaimed the Batgirl costume from Helena and, humiliatingly, handed it over to another hottie, along with some sage advice.
���It is a sacred trust. Remember that. Honor it. You can change in the bedroom.���
- Batman, ���No Man's Land��� #120, 1999
The next Batgirl would reign until 2008. She should have been known as Radon, for her silent lethality; but she would be known as Cassandra Cain. C.C.'s father, assassin David Cain, raised her as a mute, to better hone her sensorial focus. He trained her in his likeness, to be an assassin skilled in martial arts, hand-to-hand combat, weaponry and explosives. Nevertheless, after her first kill, guilt-laden, she would spend the rest of her life in penance, making amends and fighting for the good guys. C.C. emerged in full regalia at the end of ���No Man's Land���, but her first call of duty occurred in Batman #567 (���Mark of Cain: Part One��� 1999).
Cassandra's Batgirl is not only remarkable for her muteness, but also the fact that she is the only Asian Batgirl. To that point, she is a rare example of an Asian, female superhero not drawn like a funhouse porn star. Not to be overlooked is her stature. At 5'4��� 110lbs., she is Lucy Liu-petite and the tiniest of all the Batgirls.
As if Batgirl's history isn't baffling enough thus far, C.C.'s muteness was never a constant. In 2003, she spoke to Oracle, wading into existentialism, with a former Batgirl no less, by asking in Batman #45, What is soul? C.C. would have nearly a decade to soul-search when, big shock, another chick was waiting in the bat-wings for the coveted utility belt.
By 2009, Batgirl's identity made a sizable change. At 5'5��� 142lbs of solid muscle, Stephanie Brown is the Ronda Rousey of Batgirls, minus the boxer braids. This Batgirl can twist Harley Quinn like a soft pretzel and emasculate Darkseid in a likely painful UFC match. Big Stephy buckled up the utility belt in Batman #4 (���Meet the New Batgirl��� 2009).
���What is your scene, baby? We just gotta know!���
- cover, Batman #4, 2009
Proto-Batgirl, Stephanie's scene was student-by-day, Spoiler-by-night. Stephanie is the daughter of the Cluemaster: the Homer Simpson of villains. Always a failure, the Cluemaster needed to be stopped, for his own dignity. What is a daughter's job if not to tell Dad his shirt is lame, his loafers look cheap and he's a bungling crook. Transitioning her good intentions to the Batgirl suit, Stephanie enjoyed a productive but limited run from 2009 ��� 2011 battling vermin like Scarecrow and Black Mask ��� when along came a writer, who sat down beside her and erased Big Stephy away.
Don't call it a comeback. Barbara Gordon is, and always must be, Batgirl. She knows it, you know it and, in 2011, the creators of The New 52 development knew it. The New 52 was to the DC Universe what the USB was to computers: a paradigm shift taming the chaos of everything that came before it. In this crossover thread, only The Flash seemed to know the Universe had been upended; to everyone else living there, life was as it always had been ��� totally different.
The New 52 Batgirl was once again Barbara Gordon, sans wheelchair. Suddenly, paralysis was a bad dream and in 2011 she had a new suit, a new nickname, Babs, and a new life as a doctoral candidate in library science. She also had a lot of energy to burn.
���It's a bit of a shock ��� Barbara Gordon leaping, fighting and swinging over Gotham.���
- The New 52 and Batgirl writer Gail Simone
After The New 52 titles retired in 2015, Batgirl, still Barbara Gordon, remained very active. In 2016, Babs moved to Asia for martial arts training in Batgirl Series #1. Naturally, as in Gotham, friends and enemies got in the way of her training and swept her up in the new adventures of old Batgirl. Stateside, she kept busy with grad school and her new girl squad, Birds of Prey.
So, what lies in Batgirl's future? Gotham gentleman Ben McKenzie (Jim Gordon) hinted, during an interview at New Orleans Wizard World in 2015 that Gotham writers ���hope to address��� Barbara Gordon as Batgirl ���in the life of the show���. Film-wise, Batgirl is currently shortlisted as a supporting superhero in Gotham City Sirens, Warner Bros' 2018 sequel to Suicide Squad. Elsewhere perched on a rooftop in Gotham waits the freshest, soon-to-be-named Batgirl.
In March 2017, Variety reported, "Batgirl is flying solo ... getting her own standalone movie from filmmaker Joss Whedon." Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, The Avengers) will write and direct the as-yet-untitled project, a Warner Bros/DC Extended Universe collaboration. While no lead actress has been tapped, what fans do know is - according to Whedon himself - Batgirl's Whedonesque lore will emerge from the most contemporary of storylines, DC's The New 52.
Perhaps, in the end, the many faces behind the mask are emblematic of society's evolving, oft confusing roles for females. For fifty years, Batgirl has fought for life and legend. Yet, why so many identities? Batman is Bruce Wayne: one man, one superhero, done. Was Batgirl initially such a stretch that she has needed constant inconsistency to sustain her appeal? Whatever the writers' motivations behind her metamorphoses, Batgirl's appeal, and utility belt, seem buckled up tightly within the DC Universe.
Contributor bio: Jennifer Susannah Devore authors the Savannah of Williamsburg series of 18thC. historical-fiction and The Darlings of Orange County contemporary-fiction. Currently, she is penning a mystery novel mis-en-sc��ne in California's Danish town of Solvang, is obsessed with ���Gilmore Girls��� and ���TURN���, and is being treated, unsuccessfully, for her Hello Kitty addiction.
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@JennyPopNet Twitter and Insta
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July 18, 2017
A Postcard From Visit California: Welcome to My House, SDCC 2017
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@VisitCA
#DreamBig
Can't make it to Com
ic-Con? Don't be sad! JennyPop's got you covered! All the dorky fun rages July 19 - July 23, 2017. For full posts, detailed accounts and, possibly, her Souvenir Book article, bookmark JennyPop.net for the in-depth, geeky, good times.
For up-to-the-moment action, Con-floor pix, JennyPop's IMHO snippets and this year's cosplay with cohort Eslilay Evoreday (as Archer's Lana Kane and Pam Poovey) follow @JennyPopNet on both Twitter and Insta! This is how you get ants!
Aside: Will JennyPop's seventh official SDCC Souvenir Book article be published? We shall see! Past published pieces include The Simpsons, Catwoman, Hellboy, Peanuts, Tarzan and Archie Comics. Read them all here!
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July 12, 2017
150 Years of The Gaslamp: From Horton's Hall to Hall H, SDCC 2017
"San Diego���s booming prosperity attracts unscrupulous characters ... This includes prostitutes and gamblers."
Unscrupulous is such a subjective characterization. Effervescent? Of course. Adventurous? Certainly. Creative? Sans doute! We, specifically of the Comic-Con ilk (as this post pertains to that segment of the San Diego populace) are merely carrying on Rabbitville's long-running, luxe and intricate tapestry of the curious, the frivolous, the entrepreneurial, the artistic, the devoted and the odd. We also like a good martini, an unobstructed sunset and free parking.
Chances are good, the Gaslamp Quarter's founding real estate developer, San Franciscan transplant Alonzo Horton, was probably on the hunt for the same things, sans the free parking. Like all wise civilizers, Horton understood development along the water was optimal and set out to establish a thriving metropolis. Others had tried, and failed: notably, fellow San Franciscan, William Heath Davis.
In 1850, Davis moved his family down from the northern Bay Area and into a "pre-framed lumber salt box house" on the San Diego Bay, one of San Diego's first residences. Davis attempted to build a waterfront town and began to develop land at the foot of what is today Market Street. Unlucky in the financial markets, an economic downturn that year drained Davis and halted his expansion. Soon, the proposed town was home to only a few fishermen, srcub oak and a lot of rabbits. So many so, San Diego earned itself the moniker of Rabbitville.
Fourteen years later, along came Mr. Horton, with better luck and deeper pockets. In a whirlwind of planning and expansion, 1867 - 1869, Horton buys nearly 1,000 acres along San Diego's waterfront, builds a wharf at the end of what he names 5th Avenue and, on March 24, 1869, sells $5K worth of commercial and residential lots in what he named, Horton's Addition ... today's Gaslamp Quarter. Within another year Horton builds a bank and the city's first pubic theater: a 400-seat lecture hall called, what else? Horton's Hall. (Today, San Diego Convention Center has Hall H, the venue for Comic-Con's most coveted and celebritous panels and screenings. Hall H seats 6,500.)
Wise civilizers also know, where there is prosperity and progress, there will come riff-raff. San Diego was (is) no exception. Waterfront boom and growth attracts not only the prosperous, but the downtrodden. Where do both ends of this social spectrum meet? In gambling parlours and bordellos, of course.
By the 1880s, as San Diego real estate tentacled north and east from Horton's Addition. The area below Market Street - the heart of today's Gaslamp -�� fell into gradual abandonment. The hip, wealthy and beautiful Victorians were moving to more luxurious and verdant communities like Banker's Hill, Cortez Hill and the quiet lots surrounding the, relatively new, Balboa Park. What was left in the Gaslamp comprised of mostly immigrants, family businesses, manufacturing, shipping, gambling and prostitution. The swath of land directly below the once-desirable Market Street became a redlight district known as Stingaree: a euphemism based on the profusion of stingray in the bay, and the after effects of patronizing Gaslamp girls. It is said you could be stung as badly in the Stingaree as you could in San Diego Bay.
Until 1912, when a police raid shut down the redlight district, the Stingaree was home and hovel to more than 350 girls working some 130 bordellos, including the then-mayor's favourite: Madame Ida Bailey's Canary Cottage, a pristine, yellow home with a white, picket fence, located at 530 4th Avenue. If men got too much sting at Madame Ida's, watering holes like First and Last Chance Saloon, Old Tub of Blood, and Legal Tender kept them drunk enough to be comfortable. If they had any cabbage left after the madams and the barkeeps, Gaslamp gambling halls were aplenty; some are rumoured to have been owned by Wyatt Earp. Interestingly, once the police raid wiped the streets clean of dirty girls, the U.S. Navy moved its West Coast liberty port from San Diego to San Francisco, based on a 779 to 17 vote taken by sailors aboard warships in 1913. Plenty of dirty girls up there, no doubt. Your Taft tax dollars at work.
1920 proves vital for San Diego's growing, Chinese population. The Chinese Benevolent Society is built "to protect the interest of all Chinese citizens in San Diego". Though they built much of the West Coast, laid the railroads bringing so much of America to the West, and worked the businesses and lands up and down California, the Chinese were oft treated with disdain and discrimination, including limited legal rights, like being disallowed to testify in court against a white man or woman. The Chinese Benevolent Society still stands today at 428 3rd Street and serves as a social place for myriad, Chinese holiday celebrations.
Like any metropolis, San Diego has wended through hills and valleys of prosperity, degradation, depression, restoration and gentrification. In the 1980s, many of the dilapidated, Victorian buildings were proffered new life as the Gaslamp Quarter was placed on the National Registrar of Historic Places (1980). In 1982, proprietors and landowners formed the Business Improvement District (BID) and christened the Gaslamp Quarter Association (GQA) "to protect and promote the historic district".
In 1990, the now-famous, Gaslamp Quarter Archway was built and erected by Pacific Sign Construction, Inc. and funded by redevelopment funds, managed by the former Centre City Development Corporation. The Archway cost $150,000 and weighs six tons.
Of course, waaaaay back in 1970, a twee gathering of thirty dorks (30!!!) met at the US Grant hotel to discuss, trade and buy comic books: baby's first Comic-Con. If you haven't endured enough history herein, enjoy my brief history of SDCC ... when you've finished here, of course!
Like Alonzo Horton, you'll likely find a good martini (best at Lou & Mickey's), only a slightly obstructed sunset (there are a lot more folks here than in 1867) and fat chance with free parking (Comic-Con or any time of year).
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The Gaslamp Quarter has successfully transformed into a premier shopping, dining, and entertainment neighborhood. With over 200 restaurants, bars, nightclubs and lounges, boutiques, art galleries, and shops to peruse, the Gaslamp Quarter has established itself both as the playground of hip, eclectic San Diegans and as an elite urban destination, or so boasts Gaslamp Quarter online.
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Can't make it to Comic-Con? Don't be sad! JennyPop's got you covered! All the dorky fun rages July 19 - July 23, 2017. For full posts, detailed accounts and, possibly, her Souvenir Book article, bookmark JennyPop.net for the in-depth, geeky, good times.
For up-to-the-moment action, Con-floor pix, JennyPop's IMHO snippets and this year's cosplay with cohort Eslilay Evoreday (as Archer's Lana Kane and Pam Poovey) follow @JennyPopNet on both Twitter and Insta! This is how you get ants! Don't care to go to the Con, but want to check out the Gaslamp during the zoo? Plenty to do in what S.D. Mayor Kevin Faulconer calls the Comic-Con Campus!
Aside: Will JennyPop's seventh official SDCC Souvenir Book article be published? We shall see! Past published pieces include The Simpsons, Catwoman, Hellboy, Peanuts, Tarzan and Archie Comics. Read them all here!
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Abyssinia at the Con, kids!
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July 10, 2017
SDCC 2017: Final Plans, MySched App and Yoda Slippers
One week out from San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC July 19 - July 23, 2017, incl. Preview Night, San Diego Convention Center)! If you're attending, most of your prep is likely finished: cosplay elements, travel and entertainment itineraries, recruiting a friend to watch your dog and feed your turtle. Of course, even with all your ridiculous-meticulous prep, so much of the unknown remains.
First things are first, whatever you do ... carry a travel-size deodorant in your bag. Trust me, Con days are long, active and exceedingly warm; you don't want to be part of the problem. Bring or buy a spare pair of shoes. Trust me here, again. I'm starting off with 5" OTK Lana Kane boots and will likely end up in Yoda bedroom slippers. Have Uber already loaded on your phone so you're not tempted to drink and drive in the evenings, or don't want to wait for a trolley. Keep emergency cabbage on-hand for those impromptu Meet & Geeks; you never know when a martini or espresso can turn into a networking opp! Now, after you're set with all that, it's time to tend to your curious self and schedule all those fab SDCC panels, conferences and screenings!
So, if, comme Moi, you're a somewhat frivolous Con-goer, you're happy to play dress-up, grab some Starbucks and roam aimlessly around the Con floor in search of merchandise, fun pix and always have an eye on the horizon: a night of cocktails and good cheer, all in costume, in The Gaslamp or on the Harbour.
If, however, you are panel folk, Comic-Con is serious business. There's no time to shop for Ewok wallets and Yelp which pub has both Guinness AND Stone on draught. Panel folk have work to do and there are not enough hours in a Con-day to attend everything they desire. Hoping for a seat in a Hall H event? Well, there's your whole day, maybe even an overnight, grass-sleep: one event, one long line and a lot of stinky Captain America tees.
What's the big deal about panels, JennyPop?
Excellent query, fair reader! It depends upon your pop culture fetishes, yet panels number in the hundreds and cater to every possible fetish and inclination. Some, like the 4-day Comic-Con Law School actually qualify for MCLE continuing education units. Besides panels, there are also autograph booths (bring money), film festivals, artist conferences, Portfolio Review and gaming tourneys. The Big Daddies all land, however, at Hall H: the largest venue at 6,500 seats with the grandest events and most celebrated names. (A nice facet of SDCC? It's not about only celebrity thespians; everyone involved with fave productions gets star-status! Yea, writers, directors, costume designers, set designers and producers!)
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Witness a random smattering of panels,�� screenings and Q&A sessions:
Warner Bros. film premiere: Deception
Once Upon a Time
Lucifer
Disney Manga
Comic-Con Film School
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 2oth Anniversary
Cosplay Makeup
My Little Pony
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Coveted Hall H events for 2017 include the following behemoths:
The Big Bang Theory: 10th Anniversary
Fear The Walking Dead
Game of Thrones
Westworld
Stranger Things
Twin Peaks
Doctor Who
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With a finite number of hours, and days, in which to play, you need a rock-solid plan. If you scan the Comic-Con Programming Schedule and find you only want to attend the panel Hey Arnold!: From Hillwood to the Jungle (Friday July 21, 2017 11:45am - 12:45pm, Rm 6A) it's a good bet you'll recall where to be and when to head that way. Move it, football head!
However, if you're a panel-obsessive, you'll need dedication, comfortable shoes (like running-to-catch-your-flight-at-a-changed-gate comfortable) and the official Comic-Con My Schedule app (MySched).
Besides laying out your personally designed schedule, MySched allows you to send the schedule to your preferred calendar-software, sends push notifications so you know when to start sprinting to the next ballroom, enables sharing so you can coordinate with fellow dorks, and synchronizes across multiple platforms and devices. To boot, you can filter and search within the app via celebrity names, show titles, company names, artists, writers, etc. If you miss a panel, it's nobody's fault but your own, kitten.
As a program reminder, if you are going to Preview Night (Wednesday, July 19th), you'll want to head straight to Ballroom 20 when the Con doors open. From 6:00p - 10:00p, Warner Bros. and SDCC will continue their tradition of PrevNight screenings. This year fans will see the pilot-screening of ABC's new crime-drama Deception, a new episode of Cartoon Network's Teen Titans Go! and sneak peeks of new TV series Krypton and Black Lightning.
Now, off you go, Earthlings! One week to go! Spit-spot, chop-chop, lots to do!
Make a fun night this weekend of cosplay dress-rehearsal for your significant other, or your cat: no loose strings or tatty corsets, unless you're going as a zombie. If you wear makeup, get quality lipstick, mascara and blotting papers; you can't be touching up all day. Get in your possession a nice stainless steel water bottle; plastic bottles are wasteful and nobody wants to wait in line for $5 water. Purchase or make your own water mister, using only quality water like Fiji or Evian; the occasional, cooling spritz on your face just might ward off your own Baby down! temper tantrum. Buy that travel deodorant for your bag (Do it!). Set aside those extra shoes and, finally, load MySched and the Comic-Con Official Mobile App on your phone ... both are free and avail for Android and iOS!
Abyssinia on the Con floor, kittens!
[image error]Can't make it to Comic-Con? Don't be sad! JennyPop's got you covered! All the dorky fun rages July 19 - July 23, 2017. For full posts, detailed accounts and, possibly, her Souvenir Book article, bookmark JennyPop.net for the in-depth, geeky, good times.
For up-to-the-moment action, Con-floor pix, JennyPop's IMHO snippets and this year's cosplay with cohort Eslilay Evoreday (as Archer's Lana Kane and Pam Poovey) follow @JennyPopNet on both Twitter and Insta! This is how you get ants!
Aside: Will JennyPop's seventh official SDCC Souvenir Book article be published? We shall see! Past published pieces include The Simpsons, Catwoman, Hellboy, Peanuts, Tarzan and Archie Comics. Read them all here!
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July 3, 2017
Mayor Faulconer Keeps the SD in SDCC, Through 2021
The thing about Comic-Con news, is that, for San Diegans, it happens to be our local news. Ergo, unlike those arriving in town for the yearly pop cultural extravaganza, convention energy heats up early for us local dorks, comme Moi,. Besides telltale banners around The Gaslamp District and the Harbor, and blocked-out hotels for miles, San Diego local news is covering tidbits and factoids almost daily. (Note: Local news generally bites. Yours Truly watches the first minute solely to see if there's a wildfire, Sharknado or Cloverfield monster headed my way. Good thing, because it appears a few threats headed here in about two weeks! Further, it appears they'll be returning every Summer, at least for a few years. (WooHoo!!)
On June 30, less than three weeks out from the 2017 Con, Mayor Kevin Faulconer spoke at the San Diego Convention Center, outside Hall H, home to the most coveted of SDCC panels each year. (2017 panels incl. Game of Thrones, Westworld and Stranger Things.) There, framed by San Diego's Tourism Authority CEO, Joe Terzi, and San Diego Convention Center's CEO, Rip Rippetoe, Mayor Faulconer ingratiated himself to Comic-Con's Dir. of Marketing and P.R., David Glanzer, under obligatory blue skies and soft breezes.
Mayor Faulconer proclaimed, "San Diego has always been the proud home of Comic-Con and we are extremely pleased that we can carry on that tradition of being the destination for the world's premier celebration of the popular arts. San Diegans can be excited to know that Comic-Con will continue to pump millions of dollars into our economy to support local jobs, street repair and neighborhood services."
Considering Comic-Con infuses approx. $135m into America's Finest City, and, as a by-product, generates $2.8m in tax revenues for the City, it makes sense to hold onto the Grandaddy of Cons as long as possible.
CBS News 8 - San Diego, CA News Station - KFMB Channel 8
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Can't make it to the Con? No worries! JennyPop's got you covered! SDCC fun rages July 19 - July 23, 2017 at the San Diego Convention Center.
Follow @JennyPopNet (Twitter and Insta) or right here at JennyPop.net for all the geeky good times, including this year's cosplay, with cohort Eslilay Evoreday: Archer's Lana Kane and Pam Poovey. This is how you get ants!
~Still nibbling fingernails~ Will JennyPop's seventh SDCC Souvenir Book article be published? We shall see! Past published pieces include The Simpsons, Catwoman, Hellboy, Peanuts, Tarzan and Archie Comics. Read them all here!
