San Diego Comic Con 2025

 I checked off two items from my bucket list in the past thirty days: attending San Diego Comic-Con and visiting Scotland. Interestingly, the most common question I got asked about each of these wasn't the reason for my visit, nor was it something I did out there. Most folks who have a peripheral knowledge about Comic-Con ("civilians", as my friend the illustrious Satya calls them) asked who I was going as. Most folks who know one particular thing about Scotland asked which distillery I was visiting. While I wasn't there to cosplay or tour a distillery, both trips were amazing, and I'd love to go back.

 My visit to Comic-Con was all thanks to my buddy Satya, who is well-known to pretty much all the dealers out there, as well as to quite a few of the major artists. There was a long line of people, rivaling the one for George Lucas, waiting to get face time with the illustrious one and I imagine offer him multi-million dollar deals for his prized comic art collection. I had to beat them off with a rolled up poster so that the man could negotiate a copy of the first page art for the comic book you've never heard of but would have watched the movie version. To be fair though, Satya says his collection is small fry compared to those of the passionate folks he hangs out with.

Satya negotiating one of his multi-million dollar deals

 

 So anyway, since I had a dealer pass courtesy Satya's friends, I was able to get in early Wednesday afternoon before the civilian throng arrived. This turned out to be a huge deal, as I could saunter along the entire Con (as we in the industry call it) and look at all the unsullied booths without having to fight through hordes of plant zombies. That said, we were asked to not loiter in front of bigger displays like the Star Wars area or the DC booth, and were specifically told not to buy anything as it would put the general public at a disadvantage. However, that changed from 6pm when the hall was open for preview, and the masses started trundling in.

Alright, about cosplays. Sure enough, they were on full display throughout the Con. People outside the venue without tickets like this guy in a Deadpool costume driving around the block every ten minutes, to Ninja Turtles lining up to enter the venue, to these ladies who were apparently a version of Red Sonja far removed from the Brigitte Nielsen avatar I knew from my childhood. And oh, those plant zombies showed up too.

  You also had the usual bunch of religious folks protesting outside the venue, as comics are obviously bad for you and a sure shot way to get you into hell. This cosplay didn't make me smile as much as the others, strangely enough.

What was the best part of the Con? I'd like to think there were two - first, all the panels I attended were awesome, with some great discussions. I loved listening to these artists talk about their inspirations, their creative processes, what worked and didn't work for them. Their interactions with each other, responses to the audience questions, and just being a regular person geeking out at a convention, happy to be among like-minded souls and interacting with fans made them seem approachable and... human.

Panel with Eddie Campbell, Craig Thompson, Lee Marrs, Thien Pham, etc

Panel with David Dastmalchian, Eric Powell, et al

  I looked up books written by authors I hadn't heard of before, and have been reading them after getting back. I loved Thien Pham's Family Style, and was floored by Harold Schechter & Eric Powell's Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? The movie versions of the Ed Gein story (Psycho, Texas Chainsaw..., etc) pale in comparison to his real life.

 The second highlight was one of the main reasons I attended SDCC: getting to meet some of my favorite artists. I loved taking pictures with them, interacting with them, and getting their books autographed. Some of these were easy enough, but others required spending money AND standing in lines to get a chance at standing in lines to get their signature. 

Lunch with the incredibly talented Craig Thompson of Blankets fame

With Brian K Vaughan, he of Saga, Y: The Last Man, Paper Girls, Runaways & more

Daniel Clowes, creator of Ghost World, Monica, etc 

With the awesome Emil Ferris, of My Favorite Thing Is Monsters

 I didn't tell my kids about this earlier as I wanted to surprise them with the actual signed comics. So getting Brian K Vaughan, Bryan Lee O'Malley, and Neil Druckmann's signatures for Rachu, and the legendary Frank Miller for Karan was absolutely the highlight of my Comic Con.

Neil Druckman

After getting Frank Miller's signature

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life! 

Brian K Vaughan apparently knows me very well

With Tom King, writer of the Vision books and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

Jeph Loeb signing (and doodling) Hush for me

The doodle bit is interesting, as it's an additional little gesture from the artist towards the fan. As I understand it, the vanilla signature on a book is the baseline. Artists often prefer that you ask to make it out to someone, as then the chances of you trying to sell the book with the signature on eBay are low. The next best thing is to get an additional little doodle on the page, which adds pizzazz. You can see some of these in the pics above.

The artist who drew my favorite Alan Moore comic, From Hell, Eddie Campbell

 I got back home with a suitcase full of books, a long list of comics to read, and a heart full of thanks to Satya and his friends, who were kind enough to accommodate a wide-eyed civilian in their midst for a few days at this mecca of geekdom.

A Love Reaction

 What compels me to write? When do I put fingers to the keyboard and start typing with gusto, words flowing out like water bubbling through that broken pipe which you've been meaning to fix but never got around to and now it's too late and your kitchen is flooded and oh, hell. 

When I was young, it was mostly love. The feeling you feel when you are going to feel a feeling you've never felt before. I wrote pages after pages, not necessarily about love but because of it. Because of the high I used to feel after meeting her between scoops of ice cream, meeting her between rows of books, meeting her at bus-stops, walking through narrow streets sprinkled all over that tiny hometown of mine. 

If not love, it was reading. Which is a kind of love too, of course. Love with words, with dialog, with the process of creating worlds which take you away for a few hours. Worlds of horror, of mystery, of intrigue, of castles filled with incredibly funny Earls, secretaries, and butlers. My writing at the time echoed Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, Agatha Christie, Arthur C Clarke, and every Indian english reader's constant source of amusement, PG Wodehouse. It was terrible writing, now that I look back at it, but it flowed. 

It changed later though, after several years. Especially after my daughter was born, which was peak blogging era (LiveJournal, sigh). I wrote about emotions, about her growing up, about what we learned, my wife and I. Strangely enough, my son's birth a few years later was peak social media. It was Facebook, it was Instagram, it was Twitter, and Whatsapp. Which meant I have fewer videos and pics of my daughter compared to my son, but more words for Rachu than Karan. Not quite sure how I feel about that now.

So, what compels me to write? At this age, at this moment, I think it's the opposite of love. Not quite hate, but anger. Bitterness. Sadness. Frustration. With the world, with politics, with the irrationality that surfaces every day. With the unfairness of it all. And the realization that it's here to stay and there's little I can do about it. 

Other than write.

Father's Day

Thirteen. She's thirteen now. I have no idea how she grew up so fast. From that evening when she was born, through her first day at day care, the first time she was injured, her first day of school, her first birthday party, her first movie, book, toy, friend...I remember them all. More firsts await her, await me, as she lives her life.

Lives her life on her terms, making her own choices.

Father's Day wasn't just yesterday. It started thirteen years ago, when she was born. Every day has been special, every day has been this father's day.

Happy birthday, sweetheart.

Back to school

Rachu started 'proper' school today. She's done with the Montessori levels and has entered Std I. I dropped her off to school in the morning; she was dressed in her new uniform, complete with a school belt and tie. Damn, she's growing up faster than I'd want her to.

Kiddie Tales Vol 4

It helps having your parents over to babysit your kid, especially during the long summer holidays. One problem though is that the kid gets influenced quite a bit by the grandparents. Having your child go through the usual Ramayana-as-told-by-grandma routine is to be expected, of course. What one doesn't expect though is to see the kid look at a spoonful of salt and go,"Oh, King Lear!". Not to mention said kid lifting left arm and pointing out,"Biceps, triceps and deltoid!".

Deltoid, indeed.

Rachu

Everyone was interested in watching Rachu's reaction when she saw me after I got back. Whether she'd jump around, yell, be angry, etc.

She was asleep when I reached home - my flight got in at around 4am on Monday. All of us were downstairs, Kichan and Seena about to leave for work, when we heard sounds of her waking up. We all ran up to the bedroom and I lay down beside her. She slowly opened her eyes, looked at me and then said she was hungry. I replied and cuddled up with her. She looked at me again, hugged me tight and started sobbing. Sobbing like an adult, not like a two year old child. Slowly, everyone left the room. I don't remember the last time I felt so depressed.

She still appears to feel I will leave her - started crying when I carried my parents' luggage to the car, thinking I was going too. Cried buckets today when I dropped her at school, something she hasn't done in a long time.

It's not easy being a dad. It's way tougher being a two year old kid.

Baby update

This kid really has an attitude. She is very miserly with her smiles and doles them out only after a lot of coaxing. Picture a visitor looking at her for the first time - typical visitors are female, about 40 and bring dresses as gifts. Said visitor goes :"Rachu baby !! Agoo-goo-goo-gooo !". Our heroine lifts one eyebrow three millimetres and ignores the visitor. The tenacious sort among the visitors repeats the goo-goo routine. Rachu looks at her out of the corner of her eye ('chirayal' in malayalam) and sneers at her. She then turns her head away and mulls over the Kashmir issue. Most people give up at this point.

She can stare at the fan for hours, ruminating over how it works and its place in the grand scheme of things. She would much rather prefer looking at it than at her parents, not to mention friends and relatives. Maybe she will grow up to be an electrician. [insert 'fan' jokes here].

On the other hand, she is happiest in the morning when she wakes up, after her feed. She likes being held close to my body, happy with the warmth and comfort I guess.

Of promotions, houses, boys, office space and baby girls

Sindha got promoted ! There she was, moping around at home post-delivery, wondering if her job would still be there when she returned to the college. Her principal calls up yesterday evening and congratulates her on the delivery, and extends it by saying "I've recommended you for the post of lecturer" ! Now she hasn't yet seen anything in writing and is not very clear on what this 'recommending her' means, but it does look likely that she has been promoted. This is good. This means a bunch of things, the biggest of which is that we don't need to think of returning to Kerala any time soon. All right !

I've given the legal papers of the site to Biju Small, a lawyer friend of mine. The Small is to differentiate him from another Biju, Biju Large. Now Biju Large gets his name not because of his size, but from a term commonly used in relation to measures of alcohol. But I digress

I also plan to show my dad the site and if possible, take an architect friend of his along. If all the above people certify that the property is good, we will go ahead. Should be able to decide in a week or thereabouts.

ARR's Boys is good. It has a very youthful, peppy feel to it. Catchy tunes, cheesy lyrics as always. Then again, I'm getting old.

Two new additions to my divx collection - Raiders of the Lost Ark and Office Space. I haven't seen Office Space yet, but had a peek at the first 10 minutes and liked it. I can see why its supposed to be a modern cult classic (if that phrase exists).

Rachana looks set to be a mimicry artist. She makes all kinds of sounds both asleep and awake. Grunts, sighs, tuneful moans and what have you. She has an interested look on her face when I play music, especially ARR (or so I would like to believe). She also seems to mistake me for the WC; she waits the whole day for me to get home and take her in my arms, especially after I've had a bath and changed into clean clothes. Maybe its my singing to her which does it.

Baby stuff - be warned !

First, thanks a million for all the wishes. Megha seems to be the name of choice for most l-jers. Actually most people I know prefer Megha to Rachana. However...Rachana seems to fit, somehow. Kichan and Sindha have already started referring to her by that name. So even though the jury is still out, inside sources reveal that Rachana Madhav is very likely to be the eventual winner

GK Vale screwed up my photo cd ! The pics arrived as hard copies yesterday but the jpgs cannot be read ("Can't read file header !"). Damn. Need to go shout at them and get this resolved. Too many folks - relatives and friends - waiting for the pics.

The baby wakes up every hour on the dot at nights. Sindha and I are having a lovely time. The sequence goes like this:

1. "Waaa-haa-waaa-haa"
2. Cotton, warm water, new nappies, baby powder.
3. Soiled nappies go into two buckets - one for the ..er..#1 and the other for #2 (or both #1 and #2)
4. Feed starts, wait for some time
5. Burp. Wait. If "Waaa-haa-waaa haaa" then repeat step 4
6. Back in cradle, parents back in bed. zzzz.
7. "Waaa-haa-waaa haaa"...and so on.

I'm back at office, catching up on email and struggling to stay awake.

Crib of the day: Indiatimes hasn't shipped The Book yet. Why am I not surprised ? Sent them a stinker. Maybe I should have gone to fabmart like I used to.

Baby girl !

Sindha delivered a baby girl at 8:15pm on Friday, the 20th of June. Both mom and daughter are doing fine. The daddy, too.

I'll put up a detailed post later - suffice to say that the last three days have been extremely hectic and a bit tense. She went for her regular checkup on Wednesday evening. The doc found that her BP was high and promptly admitted her into Chinmya Mission Hospital. We waited for a day without doing anything and another day with Sindha in labour. High BP, some minor bleeding and a scan that revealed that the baby had the umbilical cord around her neck forced the doc to go in for a Ceasarian section. Luckily everything went smoothly after that and the baby was delivered without any problems. Both sets of parents were here, which was good too.

Sindha is tired and a bit weak. She expects to be discharged by Tuesday. The kid is keeping us awake at night, as expected. Haven't yet finalised the name, but its most likely to be either Rachana or Megha. I'll put up pics when I get a chance

How do I feel ? I don't know, really. It hasn't yet sunk in, I guess. However it felt good to be with Sindha and the baby, cuddling together and looking into each other eyes.

We are three now.

Name Game - latest results

Mythili is leading, closely followed by Rachana, Megha and Nandita.

The boys section is lagging behind, mainly due to a strong feeling from the mom-to-be that its a girl. The only names in contention are Manav and Siddharth (common, but the name I like the most).

Thanks a whole bunch for all your suggestions, good people of L-J. Sindha and I spent half of Saturday mulling over the list.

On the work front, I think I've played my cards right. Time will tell.

Name game

Rachana, Megha, Keerthana. Manav, if its a boy. But then Manav Madhav doesn't sound too good.

Maneka Gandhi's book isn't helping any. We have reached the stage where we think Pinky is a better name than any of those mythological ones. Ghatotkacha is out. So is Avalokitheshwari.

Suggestions ?