I think a few of you noticed, but my page was kind of goofy for about a day there. I guess I screwed something up pretty good. Thanks, Derrick, for coming along and fixing things like you always do. Anyways, here are some pictures from the convention for your viewing pleasure, or disgust, pick one. I’ve got a few of the city, some from the San Diego Zoo, a couple from Tim and Eric’s Awesomecon, and one of what my hair looks like in the morning. You can look through them here or virtually thumb through them over on my Flickr page. You get some more information on that page, and you can comment on individual pictures if you like, but there is an extra click involved. So I understand if you don’t want anything to do with that.

SUNDAY

The last day of the con. I made the last of my purchases today (rest assured the amount of comics bought over the weekend was far more than excessive), then headed to the world premiere of Sockbaby 4 with Doug TenNapel, Jon and Dan Heder, and Doug Jones (Pan’s Labyrinth). It was goofy and silly – certainly the best of the Sockbabies so far. After that the convention was basically over, so we took the bus to the beach. It was too chilly to swim, but we figured we should at least go to the beach, since we’re in California and all. From that experience my feelings of how crappy the Houston area beaches are were reaffirmed. Tomorrow we head back home, it was a fun trip while it lasted. Keep your eye out for my “Who I Met” post, along with a photo post and follow ups about if the comics I bought were any good or not. Sound exciting? No? Yeah, I understand.

MONDAY

I’m sitting in the airport terminal waiting for my flight. Good trip, all things considered. The fun stuff will be posted later.

FRIDAY

The exhibitor hall got some more attention from me today, at least until the Craig McCracken (Powerpuff Girls, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends) panel. Tom Kenny (Mr. Show) was there as a voice actor, so that was cool, and McCracken was awesome, but way to much time was wasted with the three girl Powerpuff Girl voice actors, who just made cute voices while little kids sqwaked in glee. The good outweighed the bad, but it was not the high point of the week. Luckily the Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics, Zot) panel wasn’t too long after that, and that was fantastic. McCloud is a great speaker, plus he’s funny. His presentation was more than enjoyable and the Q&A session was interesting. I talked to some more peoples today, but again, I’ll talk about that later. They’ll be a whole separate post for “people I saw.” Promise.

We had dinner in Little Italy, a magical part of San Diego where the trick is everything is pasta and it all costs about twice as much as it should. It was good though, at least better than the sandwiches I’ve been eating back in the hotel. There are plans for tomorrow. Let’s see how they go.

SATURDAY

Went to the Bryan Hitch (artist of The Authority, The Ultimates and others) panel today, which turned out to be surprisingly entertaining. He went on and on about how great working with Warren Ellis is, which is cool because he seems to be made out to be a big jerk most of the time. The Fables/Bill Willingham panel was awesome too, it made me wish I had read more of Fables so I’d have some up to date questions to ask. Like every day I met and talked to lots of cool people, but the highlight was probably the Doug TenNapel (Earthworm Jim, The Neverhood, Iron West) get together on the seawall tonight. We talked about everything from comics to movies to religion to jerks in the industry. Nice guy, I’m looking forward to the Sock Baby 4 premiere tomorrow. More to come!

So here’s a day by day break down of what I did in San Diego for the first two days. The goal was for me to post these daily from my hotel room but internet is ten bucks a night, so yeah. Forget that. You’ll just have to live with bulk posts. More later!

WEDNESDAY

I woke up early today. Five am early. Plus the time change added an extra two hours to the day, so it was a long one. A long one that can best be described with one word; walking. We checked into the hotel after landing and decided to go get some food then head to the zoo. We walked to a foodery then to the closest bus stop before we realized that only a few of us had exact change, so the bus was, unfortunately, not an option. We decided to walk, thinking it wasn’t that far. Turns out it was pretty far. Or at least, it felt like it was pretty far. San Diego isn’t the most hilly city in the country or anything, but it’s not short on the inclines, especially compared to the completely flat Houston area landscape I’m used to. The Zoo was awesome and lots of fun, and also very huge. We saw a good part of it but after a while our feet and our legs were begging us to leave so we did. Wednesday is preview night, so after getting back to the hotel we head downstairs to the convention center to at least pick up our entrance badges. I knew the line would be long but wow. It wrapped all the way around the gigantic convention center, weaving back and forth on the convention center lawn, then down some street. Just walking to the end of the line had to be half a mile or so. The line, however, was briskly moving so we essentially walked to the end of the line then walked with the line to get our badges. The shocking momentum of the line was explained to me when I walked into the room where badges were being given out – there were a lot of people giving out badges. Rows and rows and rows of people on computers yelling for the next in line.

Anyways, preview night was open for just a few hours, so I walked the exhibitor hall, which is staggeringly huge. Every time I’m in there I’m lost. It’s by far the biggest single room I’ve ever stepped foot in. Each exhibitor pays a price for a space in the hall, some have smaller tables, some very large booths. It’s anyone from independent artists to Warner Brothers, DC Comics, and the Sci-Fi channel. Booths are flashy and big and often have people dressed up around them to attract viewers. There are thousands of these booths. The number is in the fifty-three hundreds, to get a little more specific. I met some artists and writers, some really nice, some obviously annoyed with the fact that they’re surrounded by nerds. I’ll go into the specifics of who I met a little later.

THURSDAY

First thing in the morning I traversed the exhibitor hall again, bought some comics and things, and met some more people and got them to write their names in a book and draw me little pictures. Again, I’ll go into more of that later. Before noon we went to Will Wright’s panel for Spore, which was absolutely fantastic. He’s a smart, funny, entertaining speaker and I don’t think there’s a person who was in that room (there were tons of people in that room) who isn’t going to buy that game now. I had watched panels online with him before and enjoyed them quite a bit, so I was thrilled that I was able to see one live. There was then some food eating and more exhibitor hall traversing. More people met, more pictures and names written in my book, &c, &c.

We went to dinner at some place in the Gas Lamp Quarter and it got me thinking. Going around San Diego, It’s crazy to see how much of an event this thing is for the whole city. There’s signs everywhere, people are talking about it on the radio, locals are bitching in the grocery store about how they always hate Comic-Con time because down town gets so crazy, people are dressed up goofy parading around in the streets, rickshaws are carrying around nerds to here and there… it’s really quite something. I’ve been to a few, pretty large conventions in Houston, but nothing like this. The outside world is oblivious to what happens in the convention centers of my Texas hometown, but Comic-Con is so big it can’t help but spill over to the general populous with its influence, good or bad.

After dinner we headed back to the convention for a late night “Kung Fu Extravaganza.” Some Kung Fu doctor/expert guy was there showing clips from old goofy ass kung fu movies he deemed were awesome. They were pretty entertaining, and for some reason the creators of Kung Fu Panda were there (who were actually pretty cool, but I’m still going to skip out on that one thank you very much), although after an hour and a half of that coupled with two days of walking around I decided to call it a night.

You may have never heard the name Scott Campbell. But if you’ve played Double Fine’s Psychonauts or been paying any attention to the still-in-development Brutal Legend, you know what he’s done. Scott Campbell is the art director over there at Double Fine, in addition to being a graphic artist and comic book writer/artist. His work has been published in Hickee and Flight. In addition, Mr. C. is the man behind the alternate DVD cover for the Documentary King of Kong. Scott was nice enough to answer some questions for me about… things.

MG: Thanks for doing the interview! I hope the questions don’t put you to sleep. And if they do you can always just punch them instead of answering them. Always a good alternative.

SC: Man, that’s an awesome reaction. Punching them. I’ll probably just hug them though.

MG: What got you into doing what you do now? Or have you always wanted to be an art director for a video game studio/comic book writer/artist?

SC: Well, I went to art school to study children’s book and comic illustration. I never planned on getting into games, but after school you sometimes end up where you end up.. and I ended up at Lucas painting backgrounds for Star Wars kids games at a company called Lucas Learning. Because that was such a small company, I was able to do a lot of stuff, like concept, paint and everything across the board. So I started Art Leading projects there and met Tim Schafer at that time. When he left Lucas to start Double Fine, I came on to help as Art Director. And that is that awesome story. Alongside all of this I like to keep busy with extra curricular things.. to keep well rounded and exposed to all types of mediums. Hickee Comics is something we started back at Lucas and that has held us together and involved with the comics scene ever since. I used to be part of an art collective that threw shows in San Francisco, but painting for galleries only started full force a few years ago. But I enjoy it very much. So yeah, I didn’t totally expect this path, but I have super enjoyed this awesome path.

MG: What comic book writers and books do you enjoy reading, indie or otherwise?

SC: I used to collect comics as a kid so I have grown up with John Byrne, Mark Silvestri, Jim Lee, and Neal Adams and those guys that did X-men. But now I’ve gotten more of the indie sorts of books by Grahm Annable, Souther Salazar, Chris Ware, James Kochalka, Sam Henderson, Jeffery Brown, Jaime Hernandez, and all those dudes. And I do very much love Mike Mignola. Oh, and I love French artists like Lewis Trondhiem. And just recently, I’ve gotten super excited about Geegar.

MG: Three favorite books? Movies? Musicians?

SC: Oh, man. these sorts of questions are hard. I am glad you gave me three. Books: Martian Chronicles, Harry Potter, Shogun. Movies: Fistful of dollars, Planet of the Apes, Star Wars. Musicians: Daftpunk, Bjork, David Bowie.

MG: What project that you’ve been involved with have you been the most proud of?

SC: Psychonauts was the most work I’ve put into anything and the project that I have been most excited to speak of. It was the first big project that I completely cared about in it’s entirety. Tim and the whole double fine team is so talented and fun to work with. Together we have been enjoying the warm reception of that little dude. Psychonauts. Or maybe it is a female game. I don’t know. bad for me to assume.

MG: How is development of Brutal Legend coming along? Is it being you guys’ second project together making things more difficult or less so?

SC: More difficult in some ways because it is a next generation title and we have to relearn all these new techniques for making it look and work smash hittingly. But easier in other ways because our team is so solid and work together so nicely. We went through some rocky roads and intense times with Psychonauts and we have definitely learned from that. and most everyone is still together so I think that is a good testament to how things are going. P.S. the game looks beautiful. I freak out every day.

MG: Your art is often nauseatingly cute. (in a good way!) Is this a style you’ve always preferred to draw, or did you grow into it later?

SC: I actually went to school to learn how to be a solid draftsman. I wanted to draw and paint ultra realistic. But as I neared the end of my tenure at school, I realized that I enjoyed painting and drawing things that made people laugh and enjoy themselves and get happy at shows. I like to see people spend a lot of time into front of my stuff and point at it and get excited. That for me is more enjoyable to see than a finger to the chin and a furrowed yet impressed brow. But also, I will say that perhaps my art compliments what I do at work. Brütal Legend is intense! Thus my outside paintings are quite adorable. So I can hug them.

MG: If you could choose the subject of Double Fine’s next game, what would it be?

SC: Oh, that is totally top secret.

MG: Is the Nucleus Gallery ever going to do another run on those ninja shirts you designed? Those sold out ridiculously fast. I hope you’re raking in tons of cash from that one.

SC: Thanks, for noticing. They actually just put up new versions! They are red like blood. You should get one! And then I will rake whatever cash is there on the ground.

MG: This is kind of a standard interview question and for that I apologize, but what’s on the horizon for you? What new projects are you working on and what’s coming up that you’re excited about?

SC: Brütal Legend of course and future Double Fine projects. And book publishing.. graphic novels and children’s books. Some projects are on the horizon, but I can’t discuss them just yet. I love top secret things.

MG: Lastly, and obviously most importantly, what is your favorite type of sandwich? LEAST favorite type of sandwich?

SC: Best: club. Worst: dirt sandwich.

MG: Thanks for your time, Scott! Greatest of luck with your comics, art directing, and sandwiching.

SC: Ok, thanks! see you!

Check out Scott’s blog
Buy Scott C. art prints at the Nucleus Gallery
Scott’s comic at Double Fine
Scott’s Myspace

Me being very mean to Mario Kart Wii over at n-philes.

My Smash Bros. Brawl review at N-Philes got a little attention from IGN. Of course any flattery I might have felt is quickly destroyed via a few pretty mean comments, but hey I’ll take what I can get.

Here’s a little of what they said.

It might seem a little late to the game but Nintendo fan site N-Philes has posted their review of Super Smash Bros brawl. Their review stands out against other fan site reviews as it discusses very specific issues such as Clones and the changes between Brawl and Melee that have been a source of discussion for our community.

My review for the new Smash Bros. is up over at n-philes.  You can look at it if you’d like.

From here on out I’ll probably be using my blog over at n-philes more often when I feel like talking about video games. I’ll link from here when I post something that might be of interest. My first post is up, and is on the subject of video game news and why I care less now than I ever have. If that sounds like something you’d want to read, go for it. It’s right here.

It seems like there are things in some games that are there just to piss me off and make me want to stop playing them. Things that should be easy, but are not. I’m not talking about a boss that’s so hard to fight it isn’t fair, or a level that seems nearly impossible due to an overwhelming amount of enemies. I’m not talking about games that require you to have lighting quick reflexes. I’m talking about some stupid stuff here.

Take for example, Harvest Moon – the farming simulator for my favorite game system of all time; the Super Nintendo. I like Harvest Moon. It’s a chilled out game where you harvest some crops, raise some cows, and marry a bitch of your choice. But right now it’s pissing me off.

Now I haven’t played the SNES version of Harvest Moon in ages, and I will admit that I’ve spent much more time with the GameCube version of the game than any other one in the series. So when the SNES game launched on the Virtual Console for the Wii this week, I was intrigued. It’s a game I like and a version that I haven’t played as much as I have the others, so even though it’s older I figured it would still feel somewhat fresh to me. Sounded like a nice pleasant waste of eight dollars if I ever heard one.

At the very beginning of the game this little jerk shows you around. One of the first things he does is take you to the town that neighbors your farm so you can meet the townsfolk. You know, figure out where shops are, get to know who’s who in town, figure out which chick seems the most bonesawable to you, that kind of thing. No problem. I wander around the place for a while talking to the people that look important. I visit all the shops. I read all the notes in the shop that give you farming tips. After a little while I’m ready to get back to my farm and get things started. I go and talk to the little jerk, who is blocking the way back to my farm. “I suggest you listen to the villagers a little more,” he says. Alright. Sounds like this is one of those games where I have to talk to everyone before I can get started, ala Animal Crossing. Actually, this is probably where Animal Crossing stole the idea from. Annoying, but doable. I start at the top left hand corner of the town and systematically go from house to house talking to everyone along the way. I miss no one. Finally, I set off back to the little jerk blocking the way to my farm.

“I suggest you listen to the villagers a little more.” What. The. Hell.

I go through the town again, rummaging through everyone’s personal things, reading everyone’s diary, everything. I talk to everyone for at least the third time. They all say the same tripe they said the first time. I approach the jerk. Let’s try this again.

“I suggest you listen to the villagers a little more.”

Now I’m just pissed. My TV is still on and that little jerk continues to taunt me. “I suggest you listen to all the villagers a little more.” His taunt will forever echo in my nightmares.

I hate him.

I’m sure I’ve just missed someone or something somewhere. Something stupid, no doubt. I almost don’t want to figure out what I missed, because when I do I’ll probably just be even more perturbed at the fact that I had missed whatever it was so many times over, even though whatever it was it has been right in front of my face the entire time. This type of thing, overlooking something stupid but retardedly vital, is something that happens to me more than it should in games.

Oh, look at the time. I’m almost late to my appointment of drowning myself in the bathroom sink.