SDCC Wrap-Up thread!

Media Outlet Comic Book Forum
1

Alright, just got back from comic-con. I had an absolute blast. It was so great seeing so many famous people, artists and writers I respect, tons of street fighter stuff (and I mean TONS… it seemed like 1/2 the retailers had something Street Fighter for sale) and a bunch of surprises.

Highlights:
-Being able to buy the Shin-Akuma Bust without entering into a raffle like I heard mentioned.
-Getting a raffle ticket with the shin-akuma bust, then coming back at 6:30 only to catch a chun-li door poster tossed into the crowd.
-Staying for the drawing, only to be the FIRST ticket called, and winning an Akuma Nuby PS2 Controller.
-Getting art done by my favorite two artists, a Sagat by Arnold Tsang and a Ryu by Alvin Lee.
-Buying the Akuma Limited print, and having it signed by Arnold Tsang.
-Watching the ultimate street fighter panel, and getting a glimpse at how many people are honestly pushing street fighter as best they can.
-Meeting Seth Green, and getting his new comic “The Freshman” signed (Dude, read this comic, it’s original and funny)
-Watching Kevin Smith talk for an hour, was like comedy hour, and was incredible.
-Getting to see Stan Lee talk again, even in his old age he still has his wit.
-Tons of free stuff, from stickers to anime to manga to PS2 demos of Marvel: Rise of the Imperfects, even very nice tote bags.
-Lots of great costumes

Low Points:
-Finding out my Shin Akuma bust had a broken belt : (
-All the people who like to try and cut into a line you’ve been standing in for an hour
-The serenity/Slither panel. Since I was going hoping to learn something about serenity, I was sadly left out. That panel was for fans already, and not for people trying to get introduced to the movie setting.
-The fact that the street fighter panel room was so empty, wtf was up with that? I literally saw Street Fighter stuff for sale everywhere, and everyone was reading SOMETHING street fighter
-The fact that there wasn’t a proper preview of the Street Fighter Anime, just some clips and the head of the company talking over the clips. If the movie was completely done, as he said, show us a scene!
-Street Fighter is going to be sold pretty much through Blockbuster. The Card Game, the Anime, the Controllers, the TPB’s, etc etc. They want to make blockbuster “Your one stop SF shop.” But, who the fuck wants to go to blockbuster? Not me, personally. But, I suppose if it exposes SF to more people, I’m all for it, but PLEASE, for the love of god, do not make it Blockbuster Exclusive.
-The trolley. Everyone tries to get on it at the same time. You’re standing around for 15 minutes, waiting for a trolley to come. Then, when it comes, you cram like sardines into a trolley car with 5,000 other comic book dorks. I wished they would have put more cars on the tracks : (
-The thousand of middle aged, ugly women who feel the need to show as much skin as possible. shudder

Weird:
-Watching Seth Green stop his signings to call a little girl dressed up as Elektra over for a photo op.
-Watching somebody pass Udon artist “Arnold Tsang” a copy of “Ode to the 2 hit combo” burned on a CD
-The tons of SOTA SDCC exclusives… glow in the dark blanka? wtf!!!
-Watching 10,000 people stand in line to try to get into Hall H, wrapping around the entire courtyard outside, when there are already 6,500 people packed inside.
-Black Dude,dressed up a a goofy looking superman, with a huge bulge in his pants.
-SF vs MK card game?!?!?! Blockbuster exclusive?!?!? Designed by the inuyasha card game people?!?!?

2

Dude that was me, haha. What’s wrong with trying to show people some other aspects of Street Fighter? I don’t know if you remember, but a long long time ago, SF used to be a video game. I also talked to Ken for a while and gave him a couple of those CDs to give to the Japanese artists, but i bet they’ll get lost in all the commotion. Still worth a try, right? I can just imagine them going, “I didn’t know Americans played Street Fighter …”

I was only there for Saturday and most of the day i was going back and forth between the Udon booth asking for Erik and trading rounds with omni/dogface/Cole on the SF Ultra-arcade machine. Mostly we were playing SFA2/SFA3 and the emulation speed was weird as hell, but still fun. I wound up buying $250 worth of stuff and getting two sketches. The panel was pretty awesome, and i’m excited about all the stuff they’re releasing in October. The Blockbuster exclusives deal does sound a bit iffy, but the guy representing BB seems to be a real SF fan so that gives me a bit of confidence.

3

Haha, if I had known it was you, I would have introduced myself. There definitely wasn’t anything wrong with it, I thought it was pretty cool. Not EVERYTHING in the weird section is bad, hell sometimes the weird is what makes comic-con so greaht. However, it would have been a bit weirder though, had it been some random SF fan passing it on to them instead of you or some of the other people who worked on it.

4

You make me loathe living on the east coast.

5

There was one thing i thought was funny. The SOTA booth was selling their convention-exclusive variant colors for 20 bucks and when i was walking around, i noticed another booth that was selling the same figures for 40 bucks. I feel bad for the guys that bought that before finding the SOTA booth.

Also, the SF Minimates promo artwork is fucking awesome. I would pay money for just the poster. The minimates themselves get my vote for best SF merchandising idea ever. I’m gonna get a couple of those just to hang on my car mirror (one at a time, but alternating them now and then for variety).

Pimp Willy: At one point, i was standing next to the line to get Alvin Lee sketches (and there were like 10 people in the line) and i told my friend that we probably know everyone in the line by SRK nickname.

6

SDCC was GREAT!!! The UDON booth was the best… my cousins and I jus stayed around that area the most… we got 8 SHIN AKUMA busts, 3 were Master Goken… we got sketches from UDON artists LIKE Omar and Christine Choi(defintely some of the high points of SDCC), and WINNING 2 of the 3 raffle prizes… I gave my tickets to cousin cuz I had to leave but he called and told me I won… So I told him to get the big joystick for me and the SDCC Exclusive SF book… what a great event… Hope to see the UDON booth next year…

7

Majestros, Willy: If I had known you guys were there, I would have introduced myself, too. Next year we need to wear something that identifies SRKers to each other.

8

Many thanks to the Udon team. I had a great time at SDCC. I was the first winner on preview night and got Mr. Ikeno to sketch Chun-Li in my SF Eternal Challenge book. I bought an Akuma bust on Saturday and stuck around for the raffle. After over a dozen no-show winners, I won the last SF joystick which all the artists were kind enough to sign. It was a lotta stuff to lug home but well worth it. Ya ta!

PS. I picked up the Chun-Li / Mai two pack as well as a glow-in-the-dark Blanka from the other vendors. And that’s just the SF related items…

9

SDCC was great this year, got to meet a lot of fun people. I spent most my time promoting my book Sharknife, but also spent a lot of time with my Udon comrades.

High point: Meeting my favorite capcom artist, Ikeno.

It was so awesome, yos. Basically perfect situation. Erik was talking to the capcom dudes (ikeno and shinkiro and 2 other guys) and once I was introduced, one of their translator fellows did me the honor of translating everything I had to say to Ikeno. I got to tell him how much I liked his work, and I got to give him a copy of my book, Sharknife. He looked over it, and some other sample drawings I had, pointing out various stylistic nuances, muttering things in Japanese-- his translator turned to me and just said “He really likes your work.” I was stunned!

After that some chit-chat went around, and I even mentioned something about there NEEDING to be a new Street Fighter game… It was hard to read the Capcom guys, they stayed very tight lipped and didn’t indulge me at all on the topic :] I hope they have something good planned…

Later, I was able to get a sketch by Ikeno-- Since sketches by the official Capcom artists were rare, it was quite a moment to be around when I layed my sketchbook down for Ikeno to grace. I called out “DANTE!!!”, everyone around the booth was like “AWWWWW SHIEEEET” and Ikeno’s head drooped. Clearly, Dante is a character he both loves & hates to draw. He then asked “1, 2 or 3?” (which Dante version) and I quickly said “THREE!!!”. He got halfway done with a side-veiw profile sketch, erased it entirely, and looked perplexed. I quickly pulled out my copy of Devil May Cry 3 (that I had on me) and was like “NEED REFERENCE?”-- Ikeno giggled and looked at the game. He opened it up to look thru the booklet-- mentally, I was thinking “oh god, now he’s gonna see how crappy american game booklets are” and sure enough, he turned to shinkiro, pointing and laughing at the suckiness of the american game booklet. I wonder if they ever seen it before? I guess not.

Anyway, after that he busted out the magic and gave me this http://www.reyyy.com/sass/dante.jpg

AND signed my copy of DMC3 :]

Anyway, some people may wonder how I, such a low-level Udon player, got hooked up with such an awesome sketch… Well, people hanging around the booth while I was there MAY have seen the project I will be working on… Wish I could tell you guys. Maybe Erik will spill it soon :]

Oh, I dunno if he frequents these forums, but I would also like to thank the guy who helped me translate “Please read my book, Sharknife” to Ikeno right after I got my Dante sketch. That was very helpful. It reminded him that I gave him a copy of my book, and he even said “Sankyuu” and gave me a thumbs up. hahahaha

OH, and just as another fun tidbit, while I was chatting with one of the Capcom dudes about Devil May Cry, he was quick to mention how dissapointed they were with the 2nd… but were curious how much I liked the 3rd. And of course, as anyone who has played DMC3 knows, it fucking ruled. And I told him so. Anyway, it’s just cool to me that the Capcom guys are so realistic about their product, and value the input of their fans.

Let’s hope they ARE working on a new Street Fighter!!!

10

So they do value our input…great…maybe…

And man, that Dante sketch looks damn good! I’d have opted for Vergil (Dante sucks compared to the superior brother that is Vergil).

It actually looks like Ryu in my opinion. Just with long hair.

Excellent, though. You guys are so damn lucky.

11

Cosplay! Go on and dress up as a Street Fighter. I did at the last comic con I went to. I really wish I was in America so I could have gone to SDCC, it sounds like it was awesome. Did anyone take any photos? And did anyone get the exclusive Cannonspike Cammy figure? I’m so jealous of you guys.

12

That is so awesome, thanks for sharing!