Posts Tagged ‘Appearances’

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Love That Dirty Water

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

For those of you who might be attending the Crusin’/XL’S concert Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Muscatine, the venue has shifted from the Riverfront to the Muscatine Community College parking lot (due to flood conditions downtown). This will be a terrific, once-in-a-lifetime event for ‘60s garage band fans! Here’s some love we got from the Quad City Times.

We are back from the San Diego Comic Con and are exhausted, so our update will be brief.

However…for you guys who stop by for the weekly update, I did daily updates at the con, so scroll and see much cool stuff featuring the likes of the Riff Trax boys, Patton Oswalt and Tommy Wiseau.

Some wonderful reviews popped up while we were away, including this one about THE BIG BANG on Kindle.

Jeff Pierce at the Rap Sheet was kind enough to include THE BIG BANG among his favorite reads of the first half of 2010. He also mentioned the Nate Heller novel, FLYING BLIND, as a candidate for one of the best crime novels ever.

Another great BIG BANG review, and a really smart one I think, focuses on the audio book version read by the legendary Stacy Keach.

M.A.C.

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Comic Con Update #5

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Our last day at the con was fun, and saw both Nate and me snagging some bargains, but the crowds remained heavy — used to be Sunday was a light day at the San Diego Comic Con (I mean, Comic Con International), but no more. For the first time in all the years I’ve attended, I never made it around the entire room. The middle section, with the Hollywood stuff, was really clogged.

Bill Plimpton

I ran into some interesting people, like the genius animator Bill Plympton (pictured here). I stopped by a table to say hi to actor Thomas Jane, who judged the con film festival with me two years ago, and he didn’t remember me at all — I said hi, anyway. As always, I tracked down Maggie Thompson of the Comic Buyer’s Guide, and had a short but lovely conversation with one of my favorite people in comics fandom. Also talked to the con’s head honcho, old friend Jackie Estrada, and we discussed the possibility of a return of Seduction of the Innocent, not at the humongous San Diego affair, but possibly a WonderCon. Bob Chapman of Graffitti Design fixed me up with some great t-shirts, and I had a promising meeting with the Titan folks about future projects.

There are rumors that the con may leave San Diego, but I hope that never happens — it’s a lovely city and the kind where you can get away from the con and really enjoy yourself. We will be back in Iowa before you know it, where heavy rain is threatening the upcoming XL’S/Crusin’ concert for Great River Days…but word has it the show will go on. Stay tuned.

M.A.C.

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Comic Con Update #3

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

Scribes Awards 2010

The Scribes Award and tie-in panel went very well — nicely attended, and with fun acceptance speeches and a lively panel. Thanks to my cohort Lee Goldberg for co-hosting. I’ll try to post the winners tomorrow.

Nate and his girl friend Abby met Tommy Wiseau, the writer/star/director of the cult fave movie THE ROOM. He was friendly and intense and the signing (on the con floor, unofficial) was everything Nate had hoped it would be.

Tommy Wiseau & Greg Sestero

After a fabulous Brazlian steakhouse dinner courtesy of Vertigo/DC (and editor Will Dennis), Barb, Abby, Nate and I saw Patton Oswalt at the House of Blues. Almost all new material, and plenty of off-the-top-of-his-head comic con commentary (Patton is a longtime comics fan who I met briefly several years ago). He is my favorite comedian — Barb and Nate, too. Abby is a new recruit in the Oswalt Army. A long, brilliant show.

M.A.C.

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Comic Con Update #2

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

The dealer’s hall floor still overwhelms me — I haven’t yet walked the whole thing. But I continue to find things to buy, like the latest ON STAGE collection and several half-price Jack Kirby hardcovers. Lunch today with Ken Levin, my comics agent and Hollywood guy, exploring possibilities for Mike Hammer on TV and various comic book projects. The vampire detective meeting went very well, and I spoke with several other editors, including Ed Schlessinger, my old CSI editor, about possible new projects.

Most fun moment was spending time with the Riff Trax boys, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. I’ve gotten to know them in recent years and I always look forward to seeing them again — they are nice, down-to-earth guys and as funny in person as on TV. Nate and I love the Riff Trax crew — both their commentaries on new movies but also their collections of “classic” shorts with their MSTK riffs.

RiffTrax & MAC @ Comic Con 2010

Nate is very envious of my spotting Simon Pegg and Nick Frost of HOT FUZZ and SHAUN OF THE DEAD fame. They were very nice, absolutely regular blokes, and we spoke for five or ten minutes, in part about Simon’s Scotty role in STAR TREK. I admitted never having driven into Riverside, Iowa (future birthplace of Captain Kirk) despite it being (a) about 25 miles from my house and (b) having played with Crusin’ at the Riverside casino several times.

Also did an IDW panel about adapting TV and movies into comics (my connection being the CSI graphic novels). A good panel with reps from Dr. Who, Star Trek and True Blood. Not well-attended, though. The big Hollywood panels really swamp the actual comics panels. That’s part of the changing face of comic con that I am not wild about.

M.A.C.

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