Friday, April 20, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
C2E2: What It's All About
C2E2 2012 was the best con experience I’ve had. Period. It was a perfect mix of comics and pop culture goodness, and good friends.
We’d originally planned to stay at the Omni because I have a bunch of free nights saved up from all the travel I do for work, but at the last minute (as in, the day before the con!) we decided to opt for convenience over saving a buck and were able to sneak into the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place. And it was the best decision we could’ve made. Being situated at the hotel attached to the convention center is brilliant, especially when travelling with a kid and when you’re bringing along some hardcovers for your favorite creators to sign. The ability to quickly run back to the room to drop off a weighty omnibus or have some quiet mid-day downtime is invaluable.
As I left Tracy and Jack at the car while I went to check in, Jack told me to get the highest floor I could so he would be able to see the city. At the front desk, I explained the kiddo’s request and he was rewarded when the clerk moved us from our 17th floor reservation to a room situated on the hotel's top-most floor: the 33rd. The city and lake views we were afforded were breathtaking: Lake Michigan, the museum campus, Soldier Field, the Chicago skyline lit up at night. Gorgeous!
I loved being on the con floor with Tracy and Jack, exploring vendor booths, discovering new artists and creators, bumping into friends and acquaintances we hadn’t seen in years and meeting up with folks we’ve only known online up to this point. The ReedPOP group does a great job putting on these shows (they’re the same folks responsible for our Star Wars Celebration V experience a couple years ago), and the venue was great. Nice wide aisles, big artists’ alley, and the one panel I attended was well organized and in a comfortable space.
Equally amazing were the after-hours: Dinner and drinks with good friends. My Chicago comics friends are the most genuine people. No pretention, just hanging out and catching up over good food, even better beer, enjoying great conversation and the love of comics that brought us together.
High-points abound, but most were intangibles. Things like sharing some beer with George, meeting and getting lost in a conversation about movies and music with Rich, running into Joe Quesada on the con floor and giving him a copy of Deus ex Comica and snapping a picture together, attending the wildly entertaining John Barrowman Q&A panel with Tracy (which was equally wildly inappropriate for Jack – thank goodness for iPad distractions), breakfast with Rick and Noelle and Alan, dinner with the Kramer’s and Seewald’s, seeing how excited Tracy was after meeting John Barrowman and telling us how she made him laugh, getting to spend some substantial time catching up with Zack, and hanging with Pat.
That’s not to say there weren’t some cool tangible takeaways from the con. I had Joe Quesada sign my “One More Day” issues and my badge, Jason Aaron signed my Ghost Rider omnibus, and Bill Sienkiewicz scribbled his signature on a couple of my original “Demon Bear Saga” issues of New Mutants. I was able to snag the last copy of Black Heart Billy that Rick Remender brought with him to the show, and pick up a couple of music-related comics (the Bandthology one-shot from my friends at King Bone Press, and the Pretentious Record Store Guy three-issue mini from Carlos Gabriel Ruiz). Zombies were ubiquitous (read: overexposed) at the show, but the only time I gave in was when Jack and I stumbled on illustrator Mike Roll’s table and couldn’t pass up Apooka (“The World’s Most Adorable Zombie”).
Luck put Mark Morales’ table next to Gabriel Hardman’s, and when I was talking with Gabriel about a commission, Jack was understandably transfixed by Mark’s work. When Jack asked Mark how much a sketch was, Mark told him it would be free for him. After some amusing negotiations between my 10-year-old and this amazing inker, they settled on a Punisher sketch. Ripped off in virtually no time at all, Jack was completely blown away by the piece and I was impressed with Mark’s generosity. I believe he knows he’s got a couple of fans for life with that gesture.
Plenty of people and events have been left off this list (Jon, Bobgar, Cam, Lawrence, the list goes on), but only because there were far too many cool people I was fortunate enough to hang with this weekend. (Not to mention all the people I missed. Yes, I mean you, Ryan.) I hope they all know how much I appreciate their friendship and camaraderie. Growing up, I had only one friend who shared my love of comics. Today, I’m fortunate to not only remain good friends with him, but to also have a wife and son and whole host of other friends who share in this remarkable geek culture.
(All photos by Adam and Tracy Besenyodi.)
We’d originally planned to stay at the Omni because I have a bunch of free nights saved up from all the travel I do for work, but at the last minute (as in, the day before the con!) we decided to opt for convenience over saving a buck and were able to sneak into the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place. And it was the best decision we could’ve made. Being situated at the hotel attached to the convention center is brilliant, especially when travelling with a kid and when you’re bringing along some hardcovers for your favorite creators to sign. The ability to quickly run back to the room to drop off a weighty omnibus or have some quiet mid-day downtime is invaluable.As I left Tracy and Jack at the car while I went to check in, Jack told me to get the highest floor I could so he would be able to see the city. At the front desk, I explained the kiddo’s request and he was rewarded when the clerk moved us from our 17th floor reservation to a room situated on the hotel's top-most floor: the 33rd. The city and lake views we were afforded were breathtaking: Lake Michigan, the museum campus, Soldier Field, the Chicago skyline lit up at night. Gorgeous!
I loved being on the con floor with Tracy and Jack, exploring vendor booths, discovering new artists and creators, bumping into friends and acquaintances we hadn’t seen in years and meeting up with folks we’ve only known online up to this point. The ReedPOP group does a great job putting on these shows (they’re the same folks responsible for our Star Wars Celebration V experience a couple years ago), and the venue was great. Nice wide aisles, big artists’ alley, and the one panel I attended was well organized and in a comfortable space.Equally amazing were the after-hours: Dinner and drinks with good friends. My Chicago comics friends are the most genuine people. No pretention, just hanging out and catching up over good food, even better beer, enjoying great conversation and the love of comics that brought us together.
High-points abound, but most were intangibles. Things like sharing some beer with George, meeting and getting lost in a conversation about movies and music with Rich, running into Joe Quesada on the con floor and giving him a copy of Deus ex Comica and snapping a picture together, attending the wildly entertaining John Barrowman Q&A panel with Tracy (which was equally wildly inappropriate for Jack – thank goodness for iPad distractions), breakfast with Rick and Noelle and Alan, dinner with the Kramer’s and Seewald’s, seeing how excited Tracy was after meeting John Barrowman and telling us how she made him laugh, getting to spend some substantial time catching up with Zack, and hanging with Pat.
That’s not to say there weren’t some cool tangible takeaways from the con. I had Joe Quesada sign my “One More Day” issues and my badge, Jason Aaron signed my Ghost Rider omnibus, and Bill Sienkiewicz scribbled his signature on a couple of my original “Demon Bear Saga” issues of New Mutants. I was able to snag the last copy of Black Heart Billy that Rick Remender brought with him to the show, and pick up a couple of music-related comics (the Bandthology one-shot from my friends at King Bone Press, and the Pretentious Record Store Guy three-issue mini from Carlos Gabriel Ruiz). Zombies were ubiquitous (read: overexposed) at the show, but the only time I gave in was when Jack and I stumbled on illustrator Mike Roll’s table and couldn’t pass up Apooka (“The World’s Most Adorable Zombie”).
Luck put Mark Morales’ table next to Gabriel Hardman’s, and when I was talking with Gabriel about a commission, Jack was understandably transfixed by Mark’s work. When Jack asked Mark how much a sketch was, Mark told him it would be free for him. After some amusing negotiations between my 10-year-old and this amazing inker, they settled on a Punisher sketch. Ripped off in virtually no time at all, Jack was completely blown away by the piece and I was impressed with Mark’s generosity. I believe he knows he’s got a couple of fans for life with that gesture.
Plenty of people and events have been left off this list (Jon, Bobgar, Cam, Lawrence, the list goes on), but only because there were far too many cool people I was fortunate enough to hang with this weekend. (Not to mention all the people I missed. Yes, I mean you, Ryan.) I hope they all know how much I appreciate their friendship and camaraderie. Growing up, I had only one friend who shared my love of comics. Today, I’m fortunate to not only remain good friends with him, but to also have a wife and son and whole host of other friends who share in this remarkable geek culture.
(All photos by Adam and Tracy Besenyodi.)Thursday, April 12, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Alive and Kicking
Billy Idol
02 August 2006: House of Blues, Cleveland, Ohio
Billy Idol is a living blueprint for VH1’s Behind the Music – culturally significant past (the Bromley Contingent), failed but influential first band (Generation X), solo superstardom, excesses that nearly killed him (motorcycle accident, drug overdose), clever comeback (The Wedding Singer bit-part), well-received new album (Devil’s Playground), and a sense of humor about his canon and place in history. Taking the stage with the partner in his most successful endeavors, guitarist Steve Stevens, Idol gyrated, teased, joked, and delivered the kind of show you hope for from an icon.
Idol has a funny habit of covering other artists’ songs, so it wasn’t surprising that the two hour set covered nearly every aspect of his career, and a few others’ as well. He has recorded tunes by the Doors, Simple Minds, and Mungo Jerry, and on this night he added a new one to the repertoire. If I told you he covered Van Halen’s “Jump”, what would your reaction be? Mine was much like the crowd around me: Nervous laughter at the opening keyboards, uneasy confusion that he was really going to do the song, and ultimately buying into it.
The run-through of Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime” was breezy and appropriate, much like the version found on keyboardist Derek Sherinian’s solo album, Blood of the Snake (with Idol on vocals and Slash on guitar). But the Doors’ “L.A. Woman” carried with it a drawn-out psychedelic freak-out jam in the middle, while Idol tossed logo-ed cloth Frisbees into the crowd, and those bizarre additions – my only complaints on the night – repeated themselves throughout the concert.
Along with an extended guitar solo centerpiece, there were far too many extended guitar solo jams added to various numbers. While Stevens is an undeniably exceptional guitarist, I would have preferred a more limited number of in-song solos and rather had the criminally absent “Cradle of Love” – and even Cyberpunk’s “Shock to the System” – in their place. The other complaint is really more of an oddity: Idol spent a large part of the night tossing sundry “stuff” into the crowd... things like autographed drum sticks and scraps of paper and the aforementioned cloth Frisbees (also available for sale in the lobby). He actually gave out an entire case of bottled water – one by one – over the course of a single song!
When he wasn’t throwing things into the crowd to the point of distraction, Idol had the peculiar habit of spending guitar solos at the back corner of the drum riser playing a single cymbal with intense concentration. Peccadilloes aside, the show and showmanship were fantastic. The classics were delivered with professionalism and a freshness that belied the age of both the songs and the performers. For a man who has notoriously abused his body, the former William Broad looks incredible. And there was plenty of opportunity to see it, as Idol stripped off his t-shirt after just two songs. It was the first of three wardrobe changes and chest-baring over the course of the night. Seeing him on stage – ripped abs, pumping fist, gyrating pelvis, signature sneer – it was hard to get your head around the fact that the man was just shy of 51.
After Idol turned to his musical soul mate and told him, “Steve, show ‘em what a hit song sounds like,” the crowd reaction to Stevens’ shredding opening guitar of “White Wedding, Pt. 1” packed storm surge intensity. Classics like “To Be a Lover”, “Rebel Yell” (introduced as “the new American anthem!”), “Hot in the City”, and the barely-contained raw energy of the Generation X nugget “Ready Steady Go” played equally well to the crowd. There was a strong rockabilly bent on much of the night courtesy of the song selection, and a bit of Spanish flair thanks to Stevens’ rendition of “Eyes without a Face” and his solo. But the evening never felt forced or like you were watching a “has been.” The show was fresh, fun, and (yes) vital.
Tommy James and the Shondells’ set closing “Mony Mony” helped solidify the genuine sense of fun and appreciation of the band. It’s a song that still plays well live, especially when you’re surrounded by 1,200 other people also screaming “Hey! Get laid! Get fucked!” at the top of their lungs in pure juvenile glee. All five band members strapped on guitars (drummer Brian Tichy handed off the sticks for duration of the song), and ended the show throwing up a wall of sound at the very lip of the stage. When the pulsating guitars were replaced by the crowd’s approval, and the rest of the band had made their way off stage, Idol stood alone, grinning from ear to ear, and sang a few a capella bars of “we’ll meet again some sunny day,” letting out a bit of a laugh as he made his way backstage.
(An edited version of this piece was previously published by PopMatters.)
02 August 2006: House of Blues, Cleveland, Ohio
Billy Idol is a living blueprint for VH1’s Behind the Music – culturally significant past (the Bromley Contingent), failed but influential first band (Generation X), solo superstardom, excesses that nearly killed him (motorcycle accident, drug overdose), clever comeback (The Wedding Singer bit-part), well-received new album (Devil’s Playground), and a sense of humor about his canon and place in history. Taking the stage with the partner in his most successful endeavors, guitarist Steve Stevens, Idol gyrated, teased, joked, and delivered the kind of show you hope for from an icon.Idol has a funny habit of covering other artists’ songs, so it wasn’t surprising that the two hour set covered nearly every aspect of his career, and a few others’ as well. He has recorded tunes by the Doors, Simple Minds, and Mungo Jerry, and on this night he added a new one to the repertoire. If I told you he covered Van Halen’s “Jump”, what would your reaction be? Mine was much like the crowd around me: Nervous laughter at the opening keyboards, uneasy confusion that he was really going to do the song, and ultimately buying into it.
The run-through of Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime” was breezy and appropriate, much like the version found on keyboardist Derek Sherinian’s solo album, Blood of the Snake (with Idol on vocals and Slash on guitar). But the Doors’ “L.A. Woman” carried with it a drawn-out psychedelic freak-out jam in the middle, while Idol tossed logo-ed cloth Frisbees into the crowd, and those bizarre additions – my only complaints on the night – repeated themselves throughout the concert.
Along with an extended guitar solo centerpiece, there were far too many extended guitar solo jams added to various numbers. While Stevens is an undeniably exceptional guitarist, I would have preferred a more limited number of in-song solos and rather had the criminally absent “Cradle of Love” – and even Cyberpunk’s “Shock to the System” – in their place. The other complaint is really more of an oddity: Idol spent a large part of the night tossing sundry “stuff” into the crowd... things like autographed drum sticks and scraps of paper and the aforementioned cloth Frisbees (also available for sale in the lobby). He actually gave out an entire case of bottled water – one by one – over the course of a single song!
When he wasn’t throwing things into the crowd to the point of distraction, Idol had the peculiar habit of spending guitar solos at the back corner of the drum riser playing a single cymbal with intense concentration. Peccadilloes aside, the show and showmanship were fantastic. The classics were delivered with professionalism and a freshness that belied the age of both the songs and the performers. For a man who has notoriously abused his body, the former William Broad looks incredible. And there was plenty of opportunity to see it, as Idol stripped off his t-shirt after just two songs. It was the first of three wardrobe changes and chest-baring over the course of the night. Seeing him on stage – ripped abs, pumping fist, gyrating pelvis, signature sneer – it was hard to get your head around the fact that the man was just shy of 51.
After Idol turned to his musical soul mate and told him, “Steve, show ‘em what a hit song sounds like,” the crowd reaction to Stevens’ shredding opening guitar of “White Wedding, Pt. 1” packed storm surge intensity. Classics like “To Be a Lover”, “Rebel Yell” (introduced as “the new American anthem!”), “Hot in the City”, and the barely-contained raw energy of the Generation X nugget “Ready Steady Go” played equally well to the crowd. There was a strong rockabilly bent on much of the night courtesy of the song selection, and a bit of Spanish flair thanks to Stevens’ rendition of “Eyes without a Face” and his solo. But the evening never felt forced or like you were watching a “has been.” The show was fresh, fun, and (yes) vital.
Tommy James and the Shondells’ set closing “Mony Mony” helped solidify the genuine sense of fun and appreciation of the band. It’s a song that still plays well live, especially when you’re surrounded by 1,200 other people also screaming “Hey! Get laid! Get fucked!” at the top of their lungs in pure juvenile glee. All five band members strapped on guitars (drummer Brian Tichy handed off the sticks for duration of the song), and ended the show throwing up a wall of sound at the very lip of the stage. When the pulsating guitars were replaced by the crowd’s approval, and the rest of the band had made their way off stage, Idol stood alone, grinning from ear to ear, and sang a few a capella bars of “we’ll meet again some sunny day,” letting out a bit of a laugh as he made his way backstage.
(An edited version of this piece was previously published by PopMatters.)
Friday, April 6, 2012
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