7/27/2009

Flight home.

Had to leave San Diego at 10pm.

Now I've been stuck in Washington DC since 5:30am (that's 2:30am to my system right now).

Either way it's too early...

7/26/2009

Leaving the Con...

We're out of here--let's go eat.

Sunday

Man--this place is STILL busy.

More Saturday Night

After we left the Devil's Due party it was back to the Hyatt. Saw Justin and Hunter, Rashad, Bob Shreck and lots others.

Saturday Night

John, Mark (who went to the Tron 2 expo), Anthony, and I went to the Devil's Due party. Ran into Rebecca and Jon (it's been a delight hanging with them), Dave V., Ben Frisch, Becky and the crew.

7/25/2009

Mmmmm....

Nap time.

Plans...

John making plans for the evening. It was a busy day for sure... Got lots done. Tired now.

Saturday

Got up early this morning. Had breakfast against my better judgement.

We're walking the floor taking care of business. Got Kristie a good birthday gift (I think).

Friday Recap...

Yesterday (friday) wasn't very eventful. John Lowe came in around 1pm. We got Ray off to his flight on time. Tried to get some other folk for Comics Art Forum. I had to move my stuff to a new hotel--so that was fun.

After the show John and I took a nap at the hotel. We went back out to the Hyatt--the place to be--just long enough for John to ditch me for a party that I would have thought I would have been invited to.

I officially hate this.

Today I'm not even sure what sort of programming I'll go to. I'm sure there's something that I'll want to go to. Saturday's are always so crowded though.

7/24/2009

Stan Sakai

Planning for the Tokyo trip with Stan Sakai and his delightful wife Sharon.

Lowe Arrives

"John Lowe Descending an Escalator"

College Comics

Here's a panel on whether or not a college education is good for a comics career. Of course we should be on this panel--as usual we dropped the ball.

7/23/2009

Green Lantern: First Flight

Bad charcter design. Huge shoulders, tiny heads, and a complete ignorance of the principles of animation.

Horrible storytelling. Horrible story.

A curious amount of foul language throughout for a cartoon that appeals to kids. Very violent as well. Gross violent.

I find no merit in this stuff.

If this is in anyway faithful to the character, story, and/or tone of the comic then this is some of the worst, most stupid crap I've ever seen. I'm embarassed to have seen it.

bruce_timm.jpg

Nancy got us in.

Bruce Timm led thw crowd in the Green Lantern oath--which Ray (and the rest of the 4000 people in the crowd) knew.

Now if only I gave a crap about Green Lantern...

Show's Over for Thursday

Now we wait to see if Nancy can get Mark and I into the Green Lantern (zzzzzz) with her and Ray.

If not, what will I do?

jason and kazu

Got to see Kazu, Amy, and Jason at the Flight booth.

Rob

The Pitching Hour

This panel sucks so far...

Bill Peet

For Donnie.

More from the Disney panel

Disney Master Class

glen keane, eric goldberg, tom sito, ruben procopia

Neil_Cohn.jpg

It was worth it to wait for Cohn's presentation.

Ray gave up before the end of the first guy. And I can't really blame him.

comics_music.jpg

Argh. I though that Cohn would be next and I could alway ditch the last speakee if he wasn't good--but they're saving Cohn for last.

I fear theory and discussion of the mechanics of comics relies too much on McCloudian ideas... Maybe not.

This guy is overcompensating for the dullness of the previous speaker by speaking awkwardly emphatic--a sort of strange evangelical/professoral tone.

A bit boring...

This fellow (forget his name) is giving a presentation that is just reading his thesis (I suppose) on the film adaptation of 300.

I'm sitting in on this panel because I want to see Neil Cohn (who is next, and is a much better speaker).

But now I've got tos et through this poor example of public speaking.

Next year I'm gonna make Fish come out here and present his thesis...

SCAD needs to be much more involved with this conference, but we didn't get any proposals in on time...

Rashad's first on-site interview

Just after I gave Rashad the little recorder, he spotted Joe Quesada and Mark Millar and got a quick little quote. It was actually Ray that spotted them.

The view in the morning.

7/22/2009

Preview Night crowd

2 hours before opening...

Ray at the hotel

We're booked in the hotel.

Doing Paperwork in San Diego Airport

My flight was delayed on the second leg, now I'm hanging out trying to take care of paperwork business while I wait for Ray.

Saw Rashad and Tabitha when I got here. Sanford Greene was on my flight this morning--he's got a nice new artbook this year.

Just keeping my eye out...

7/21/2009

SDCC 2009 prep.

I'm going to test out using my phone to update this blog while on my trip to San Diego for Comic-Con International 2009.

My plane leaves at 5:30am, so I should be there by 4:30, so I should leave home by 3:45, so I should wake up at 2:45. That's 6 hours from now.

We'll see how it goes...

7/15/2009

Jeremy.

It's been a few weeks since Jeremy's death and I still haven't come to terms with it.


I only knew Jeremy for about 3 years (at the most). That being said, Jeremy and I became very close over the past two years. He and I had a lot in common and found early on that we worked very well together. But I think Jeremy worked well with most people.

He was always willing to step up and help with anything that our department, SCAD, or I needed. He was proactive and never seemed content waiting around for someone else to have an idea about what to do. He setup and ran our website and he created and ran our twice weekly podcast. To the online comics community, he was the face of our department.

In TN at the funeral his father talked about how Jeremy worked too much, just like he does. e would like to second the notion that Jeremy worked so hard because he loved what he was doing. He loved teaching and working with students, he loved this department, he loved comics, and he loved working for SCAD. I know what it's like to wind up in a job that's too good to be true, because I too love comics and I love teaching, just like Jeremy. I don't think there's any way that Jeremy could have been any happier.

Jeremy's biggest dedication in the department was getting our student's online. I would argue that the majority of students in our department who have a webcomic (and that's a lot), do so because Jeremy helped them get it online. He would schedule one-on-one extra help sessions with students to help them get their website up and running. You can ask any of his students and they'll tell you that he was always available. He encouraged everyone he taught or worked with.

He was great at what he did and we all depended on him.

The best Jeremy stories one the ones that he would tell.The Parliament Funkadelic story or the the little boy who wanted some honey for his toast. He was a great storyteller.

I have only really truly laughed at a webcomic online twice, and both were Jeremy's. The first was the when he doodled over Lindsay's sketch of airplane passenger exercises and the other was when he wrecked the bathroom at the library in Lacoste. I would not be able to show either of those comics to my mom--but they were funny.

I have heard people talk about lost friends and loved one that I did not know and have often wondered to what degree their words were inflated or obligatory. But having known Jeremy, I know that every nice things that is said is both true and heartfelt.

Anyone who knows me knows that I can complain about anything. I am a self-proclaimed fussbudget. Jeremy wasn't like that. I believe that I can easily say that Jeremy is the only person who never complained to me about anything and I never complained about him.

He was level-headed (evidenced by the time he was able to safely maneuver a bus full of kids in France whose breaks had been sabotaged, traveling at like 50-60 miles an hour he was able to weave through a roundabout and plant the bus up against a guardrail) and his demeanor commanded a great deal of respect.

In fact that's my only complaint about Jeremy. He always dressed so nice it made the rest of us look like slackers. 'Cause he was never a slacker.

-------------------
Most everyone knows there will be an anthology in memory of Jeremy Mullins. We will also do a website that features the comics. We want to open it up to anyone who would like to participate. The book will be released at SPX in September. The book will also be available online. All of the proceeds from this publication will go toward the Jeremy Mullins Memorial Scholarship.

The guidelines are as follows:
- the story must be about Jeremy somehow
- the art should be in your own style
- Black-and-white art
- no more than 6 pages (single image illustrations are fine).
- quality: your art should meet Jeremy's class standards--so don't turn in crappy art
- standard comic book size (10x15 panel area on 11x17 -- or proportional)
- Scanned @ 300dpi, Tiff format.
- due date: AUGUST 1st

Send submissions to:
David Allan Duncan
Norris Hall
548 E. Broughton St.
Savannah, GA 31401

or email to: daduncan@scad.edu

In addition to this publication, we will be putting a color collection of Jeremy's comics together.

Any questions or concerns let me know.