SDCC Day 3

Posted on July 20, 2019 at 9:01 am

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.

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Festivals

SDCC Panel on Women Rocking Hollywood

Posted on July 28, 2017 at 7:06 pm

My friend and fellow critic Leslie Combemale hosted a panel of women directors at Comic-Con and I wrote about it for rogerebert.com.

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Directors

Composers at Comic-Con: On “Black Panther,” “Evil Dead” and “Scooby-Doo”

Posted on July 26, 2017 at 2:20 am

For Where to Watch, I wrote about some of the composers for movies and television I saw at Comic-Con.

The crowd was especially excited to hear from Ludwig Göransson, who is scoring Black Panther. He met director Ryan Coogler at USC and worked on his student film, and then again on “Creed.” For “Black Panther” he spent a month in Senegal and South Africa, recording rhythms and instruments, and played some of what he recorded for the film score.

A highlight of the panel was the discussion of rejection. Tyler said it was an chance to hold onto a rejected idea and use it again later, and Isham quoted director Robert Altman: “Any time someone rejects something, its an opportunity to make it better.”

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Composers

Comic-Con: Days 3 and 4

Posted on July 25, 2017 at 2:21 pm

I attended the designer/illustrator panels: storyboard and pre-viz artists, costume designers, and production designers and interviewed the composer for the “Evil Dead” series, “Riverdale,” and “Dear White People.” I wandered into a room at random and it turned out to have Vincent D’Onofrio and Meat Loaf talking about their new SyFy series, “Ghost Wars,” followed by a panel with David Duchovny on his new Audible release, X-Files: Cold Cases. I attended Leslie Combemale‘s sensational “Women Rocking Hollywood” panel of women directors, including Angela Robinson (“Professor Marston and the Wonder Women”) and Gina Prince-Bythewood (“Cloak and Dagger,” “Beyond the Lights”). I’m not saying it was the only panel where the participants thanked the organizer and each other, or that only women do that, but it was the only one I attended where that happened. Saturday night, of course, is the annual costume competition, the SDCC Masquerade, this year featuring the Game of Thrones characters singing their version of “Hamilton.”

I talked to Seth Rogen, Eliza Coupe, and Josh Hutcherson about their new series, “Future Man,” coming to Hulu November 14. And I attended one of the most popular panels at SDCC, the legendary “Starship Smackdown.” Good to see the bullet rocket get so much love. Thanks to all and can’t wait for next year!

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Festivals

Comic-Con 2017: Day Two

Posted on July 22, 2017 at 1:56 pm

My second day at San Diego Comic-Con 2017: I saw the actors from the new Amazon Prime series “The Tick” in a press room, and then interviewed Joseph LoDuca, composer for all of the “Evil Dead” movies about how to create scary sounds, Kris Bowers about composing for the “Dear White People” series, Rachel Keller about acting on “Legion,” and Blake Neely about writing music for “The Flash,” “Arrow,” “Supergirl,” “Riverdale,” (including the musical episode of “Flash”). I saw Donald Faison moderate a panel about “Buddy Thunderstruck,” the stop-motion animation series about the adventures of a dog driver and his ferret mechanic, a panel of storyboard and pre-viz artists from movies like “The Matrix,” “Game of Thrones,” the Marvel movies, and the Jackie Robinson movie, “42.” The topics ranges from the most practical (“Can he raise his arms in that uniform?”) to the most conceptual (the reality levels for fantasy vs. the real world).

Of course I also so some great costumes, and I will be posting photos later. To the guy I thought at first was a cop, until I saw the smushed silver disks on your chest and realized you were Terminator 2: well played, sir. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to take your picture.