SDCC Day 3

One difference from previous years — nearly every event I attended had someone say, “This is so timely” or “This is of course a metaphor for the political issues we face today.” Of course that has always been true one way or another in the world of science fiction and fantasy. But the heightened conversations about the political issues of 2019 make just about everything seem like political commentary.

I began with the annual Black Panel, moderated by Milestone Media’s Michael Davis, with Black Panther writer Don McGregor and RUN-DMC’s Darryl McDaniels, who told the group that popular arts like music and comics can make a unique difference in communicating and bringing people together: “The arts succeed where religion and politics fail.” He said that hip-hop was a response to the false narrative of disco, which made it look like New York was “Studio 54, diamonds, Bentleys, Rolls Royces, and sex. It took young brothers and sisters to tell the world. It was spoken creatively. We didn’t have to write about fun. We could write about the issues that affect us all.” He called on everyone there to participate: “Everything that was on that record is still happening. It’s your responsibility to tell the world what is going on.”

Women from the Costume Designers Guild appeared on a panel to talk about the “Doom Patrol” universe, and what made this presentation special was that it was like seeing each costume go down the conveyer belt from the head designer to all of the people involved in bringing that vision to life. As a fan of “Drop Dead Diva,” it was a special thrill for me to get to see the moderator, April Bowlby, who plays Elastic-Girl on “Doom Patrol” but to me will always be Stacy on “Drop Dead Diva.”

I attended press briefings for upcoming series “Boys” and “Carnival Row” (more on that coming) and panels on the history of EC Comics and cartoonists at MAD and the New Yorker (a surprising number publish in both).  Stay tuned.