Bongo Beat 7/29/10

BONGO GETS THE BEST OF COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL SAN DIEGO

The giant Bartman statue has been crated up and shipped back to Bongo HQ, our prized convention acquisitions have been shown and sufficiently bragged about, and we’ve just folded our seventh load of laundry! Comic-Con is beginning to fade into a warm, fuzzy, (yet slightly sticky) memory for Team Bongo, so before it’s gone from our collective con-addled memories, we’d like to share some of our favorite things about this year’s con!

1. A fan in a knitted Zoidberg mask.

2. Giant things. (There's something comforting in knowing we’re being watched over by giant-sized robots and aliens.)

3. Seeing the faces of little kids light up when we gave them our cool (in more ways than one) HarperCollins Comic Book Guy fans.  

4. Saying hi to people we’ve known for years but only see at Comic-Con.

5. Stepping into an elevator and seeing a celebrity, then realizing they're trapped with you for the next few minutes and they'll have to talk to you whether they want to or not.

6. Two words: CON DOGS!

7. The free ice cream truck. (The ice cream was free, not the truck.)

8. Visiting the various artists in Small Press and Artists Alley areas, like Sergio Aragonés, Dean Yeagle, Jim Silke, Cat Staggs, Andrew Pepoy, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Connor, Jim Mahfood, Stan Sakai, and Scott Shaw!.   

9. A cute little infant dressed in an excellent Nibbler costume. 

10. Greeting old school Bongo fans who hadn't come to Comic-Con in a while.

11. Giving out copies of the new Delivery-Boy Man comic book.

12. Seeing our friends and Bongo cohorts Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson win an Eisner Award (actually, Jill won two!) for Beasts of Burden.

13. Watching Stan “The Man” Lee sit in the giant golden Thor throne, then immediately seeing a sea of cameras appear above the crowd to photograph him. 

(And, of course, as he exited, he called out "EXCELSIOR!")

14. Seeing floating bubble people drift past our hotel windows. (You had to be there!)

15. People in fantastic costumes roaming the aisles. (The amateur photogs who stopped these costumed fans for a snapshot tended to slow down traffic, but sometimes it was worth it!)

16. Selling out of our convention-exclusive issues of Comic Book Guy: The Comic Book #1, and Futurama Comics #50.

17. Seeing fans react to the clip shown at the “Futurama” panel which features the Planet Express crew visiting Comic-Con 3010.

18. Seeing fans react to the live “table read” by voice actors John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Phil LaMarr, Katey Sagal, Lauren Tom, and Billy West, and Executive Producer David X. Cohen at the “Futurama” panel. 

19. Seeing Matt Groening present clips from upcoming “Simpsons” episodes and answer questions alongside Executive Producer Al Jean, Executive Producer Matt Selman, and Supervising Director Mike B. Anderson on the “Simpsons” panel.

20. Did we mention CON DOGS?! 

We could easily add another twenty favorite things about the convention, but alas, the piles of scripts and art pages that have been patiently waiting on our desks are calling out to us. We’d better get back to work or we won’t have anything to promote at next year’s Comic-Con!