reason.com
In which, Andrew and Tracy step out of their comfort zones and into Dude’s, discussing the 1st Amendment and free speech–both what it means to us, and what it means in the context of comic books and broader geek culture. A little heavier and pithier than our normal podcast topics, this one is timely given the current climate of the geek community.
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) is fighting the good fight against comic book censorship, a problem that has plagued the industry for decades. In order to better educate myself, and by extension Therefore I Geek’s readership, I am starting a periodic series in which I will read all of the books in the CBLDF’s list of banned book case studies and discuss them. These blog articles will take the opportunity to evaluate the material on its own merits, as well as in the larger context of censorship and why these books were banned. To kick off this new series, I’ll be discussing Brian K. Vaughan’ Pride of Baghdad.
In March of 2003, a US led coalition began airstrikes in preparation for the invasion of Iraq. As a result of the airstrikes, four lions from the Baghdad zoo escaped from their enclosure and began wandering the streets. Pride of Baghdad tells the story of these lions, using their journey as an allegory for discussing the invasion itself and exploring the some of the philosophy that surrounded it. At the time the book was published in 2006, the war’s outcome was far from clear, as a civil war was just beginning and the book makes no attempt to predict the future beyond the obvious idea that no matter what the outcome, things will never been the same in Iraq. Continue reading
Filed under Andrew Hales, CBLDF Response, Comics
Day 2 has come and gone and the intensity has stepped up. The show floor was already much more difficult to get around, but was also populated with some awesome cosplayers. Every year the various new and unique costumes never cease to amaze me.
Shiny!
Day started off pretty low key with some video game demos.
Don’t they look intense?
The pre-alpha of Dungeon Defenders II looks pretty amusing. It’s a nice mix of tower defense, action adventure, and rpg. After that we got some time in with Total War: Rome II. If my computer can support it, this game will be dangerous. I don’t even know how many hours of my life I lost to playing the original Rome but it has to be a lot and this game takes everything that was great about the original and improves upon it. (For the record, I DO know I’ve spent 230 hours playing Total War: Empire) Finally, near the Rome demo was competitive StarCraft II. For those of you who don’t know, the original StarCraft was hugely popular in South Korea and they still have intense competitions. I’ll admit that I had no idea what I was watching. These guys were playing so far above my level that I just couldn’t keep up. Not surprising, the Korean player won the match.
So very British.
After the video games, I was off to get autographs. First on the agenda was Mr. C-3PO himself, Anthony Daniels. He is a very nice, and proper Englishman. While waiting on line I had a great conversation with a man from Colombia. Events like this are a fantastic way to meet new people from all over the world. After Mr. Daniels I was off to meet Chase Masterson of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Lately Chase has been running the Anti Bullying Coalition, which she founded. Earlier in the day I wandered past their booth with a couple of friends. While my friends stopped to do something at the booth, I was just standing around, minding my own business when I was approached by a familiar looking woman who immediately introduced herself and went to talk, very excitedly and passionately about the organization’s anti-bully campaign. It took me about thirty seconds to realize that the woman who had introduced herself was Chase Masterson. She if officially tied with Adam Baldwin for nicest person I’ve met at a con. I now have a lovely signed photo of her as well, which makes me a very happy man. Lastly was a surprise autograph from a guy named John Morton. For those of you Star Wars fans out there he played Dak, Luke’s gunner at the Battle of Hoth who gets killed in the first ten seconds or so. He also happened to be in the Boba Fett costume in some of the Cloud City scenes. We had a nice little conversation about working for our mutual employer, the Navy.
Having successfully completed my Friday autograph mission, I joined back up with some friends and wandered around the floor until the Venture Bros. panel. We were hoping for something a little more than last year but were unfortunately disappointed. This panel has become a staple of our comic con experience since year one when they were in one of the small rooms and there were chairs available when we walked in fifteen minutes late. Now the guys are in the IGN Theater and it’s a packed house. What disappointed us, however, was that they had no new material to show off, which, given how inconsistently the show comes out now, is not the first time. The panel rather quickly became an audience Q&A. Although those are fun, it has been six years of the same questions, sonwe decided we could do without and left.
Our last panel of the day was the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s The Secret Origin of Comics Censorship which was a fascinating look into the history of how censorship in comics got started. Dr. Carol Tilley presented a history of the censorship of comics, including many letters written in response to Dr. Fredric Wertham’s testimony to Congress. It was very interesting to hear her read the letters, mostly written by teenagers who were comic fans and disagreed with Dr. Wertham. The two most stunning things to me were the fact that the Comic Code was still in effect (albeit to a limited purpose) until 2011 and that there was such a considerable network of people involved in trying to bring censorship into comics.
Almost forgot, we saw Whoppi Goldberg out on the con floor.
Never know who you will see at NYCC.
For Day 3, I will be joined by our Editor, Tracy, who is attending her first convention. Be brave. Please feel free to share you NYCC experiences with us and follow us on Twitter for more up to date information about the goings on at NYCC.
Filed under Andrew Hales, Comics, Events, Geek Life
Day 1 of New York Comic Con is over and this year is already shaping up to be one crazy year. Preview day has been one of my favorites for the last few years because it gives you a chance to cover the entire floor show with fewer people and really get a good feel for what’s out there before the craziness that is Friday and Saturday. With the addition of Thursday Only passes this year, preview day was a bit more challenging due to the increased number of people. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they did these passes because that’s how I got in (maybe next year I won’t procrastinate about buying a four day pass), but it did increase the difficulty in moving around.
The view from my spot in row seven. There were several more rows after me.
Despite the increased population, I managed to cover the entire convention, moving at a brisk pace. Its great to see both old and new faces. I’m certain that Harvey Yee’s Rare Comics has been at every convention I’ve ever been to. Rooster Teeth and Cyanide and Happiness are both here and already had noticeable lines forming at their booths. All the major comic publishers had sizable booths which of course were already becoming traffic nightmares. I’m very excited to see that an increase in the quality of the small press this year. I’ve already picked up two different small press comics. One is a science fiction piece and the other is set in feudal Korea. Two very different books, but both appearing to be of quality.
Artists Alley looks really good this year with many big name artists (I already bought an Humberto Ramos print) as well as some really good looking, though less well known artists. I’ve already got a mental list going of prints I want to get. I’m thinking this year might be a Star Wars year.
Ramos is one of my all time favorite artists.
Looking ahead to Day 2, I’m planning to get started with some autographs and then the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s panel on the secret origin of censorship in comics. Day 2 will also be much more social as most of my friends will be showing up, so I’m anticipating some additional crazy thing to happen.
Stay tuned for more NYCC coverage and for those of you here with us, don’t forget to let us know how your con is going.
Filed under Andrew Hales, Comics, Events, Geek Life
 | Walter on Editorial | Six Reasons Supern… |
 | Rosie M. on Editorial | Editing 101:… |
 | Ariane on Editorial | Editing 101:… |
 | drew on Editorial | Six Reasons Supern… |
 | Richard H. Randall on Gene Roddenberry’s Visio… |
Therefore I Geek 