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.

Of books, shows, and movies

I've been on a tear with books the past few weeks. Picked up some twenty-odd from the library; finished about half a dozen, DNF'd another four to five, and have the rest lined up on my to-read shelf. Jo Hamya's The Hypocrite and Ian Banks' The Crow Road were a couple of the stand-outs from this set. 

Doing something similar with shows as well, though they obviously take longer to complete. Carmy and the gang haven't moved much, but I have now fully caught up with them. Disclaimer was a disappointment, Blanchett notwithstanding. Restarted my Madmen odyssey too, as I have the AMC+ sub for a few more months.

The movie watching continues at the same rhythm, of course. Fridays, Saturdays, and other assorted holiday eves are spent going through my Letterboxd watchlist. Indian movies have been way better than most of the stuff Hollywood churned out last year, which is nice to see. Having said that, wound up 2024 watching Dune 2 for the third time, which was almost as enjoyable as the first. Movie of the year, for sure.

Mylib

Finally got around to cleaning up the library, after it was taken over by the kids.

My comics collection, soon to be enhanced after the flipkart order, now occupies its rightful space.


I also moved up the movies books a bit. I still don't like the way some of the shelves overflow, but it can't be helped till we move into the new house.

Couple of movies, couple of books

Don't get me wrong, I thought Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Hey-nonny-no was watchable. I did laugh at times, especially when Ratna Pathak Shah was around. The cameos were well done and some of the one-liners had zing. That said, I found the gang of friends quite insipid. Everyone in that group save Jai (Imran Khan) was one dimensional. I couldn't really figure out what made the group tick. Why was Aditi popular? What do the others do apart from hanging around the leads and singing chorus? Hmm. Pass, could do better is my verdict, Mr Tyrewala*.

Aamir, now. The movie, not the director/actor/producer/blogger. A bit fantastic, the way the protagonist gets into terrible trouble a few minutes into the film. However, the excellent direction, sets and acting make up for some of the harder to digest moments. The lead actor, Rajeev Khandelwal, seems to have had a blast.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Christian reading two books, each of which have the word 'God' in their titles, must be very devout and will pull you into church and get you baptised at the drop of a hat. Even if the books were titled In Spite of the Gods and The God Delusion. No one is safe.

*Which reminds me, I need to go to the gym.

RIP Clarke

He's on his way to Rendezvous with Rama, probably.

His three laws:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.


2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.


3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

I hope the David Fincher - Morgan Freeman film gets made.

Five of the best from my 2007

Movies: Taare Zameen Par, Ratatouille, The Rules of the Game, Knocked Up, Grindhouse

Books: We Need to Talk About Kevin, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Mahabharatha: A Modern Rendering, From Hell

Happy New Year, everyone.

What's up, d00d

I'm planning to go visit a few cities all over India, trying to get some quality .Net developers. Does anyone know good tech leads and development manager types who are interested in working in Chennai? Product dev work, satisfaction guaranteed. Please contact the undersigned.

In other news, I bought Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. Looks very promising. Have tossed it onto the Currently Reading pile, where it rubs shoulders with Stephen King's boring Lisey's Story and Lionel Shriver's intense We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Onam approacheth. Looking forward to the thadya.

Movies and books bought this time round

1. Raising Arizona
2. Ruthless People
3. Se7en
4. The Producers (the original, of course)
5. Assault on Precint 13 (ditto, ditto)
6. Deathtrap
7. Grease
8. Paris, Texas
9. The 3 Poison Ivy movies, in one DVD
10. Swimming Pool
11. Miller's Crossing

All at fairly good prices. I'm particularly happy with The Producers, Ruthless People, Deathtrap and Paris, Texas. Haven't seen them in local shops.

Books:

1. Twilight Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko. , thanks again for the tip. The books actually seem to get better as the series grows
2. Seven Habits of Highly Defective People - Scott Adams
3. My Wicked Wicked Ways - Errol Flynn
4. The Complete Stephen King Universe - Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden
5. Neruomancer - William Gibson. Got this and the Flynn for about a dollar each, gihahahaha.
6. Deathly Hallows - You know who.

I watched The Big Lebowski and downloaded Blood Simple too. Now for Barton Fink and The Hudsucker Proxy.

Deathly Hallows

Is very good indeed, but for the twee epilogue.

Thought of the day

You can keep your Atticus Finches and your Sidney Cartons. To me, Rabbit Angstrom is the most well written character I've ever read.

Flamebait #1

Neil Gaiman is overrated.

Disappointed in the New Year

The Manticore's Secret, Samit Basu's sequel to The Simoqin Prophecies, sucks. Meandering plot, too many characters and too many Pratchett plot devices. The first book had a large dose of Pratchett too, but at least the plot was well-knit and the humour shone right through.

Not a good start to 2006.

Does anyone ever read these subject lines?

There comes a moment every year in a man's life when he looks back upon the year that passed and dwells on the lessons learnt, thereby becoming a better person.

This is not one of those moments.

I started off 2005 by keeping a log of all the movies I watched. I grew weary of this after a few months; blogging became a chore. So now when I look back and try to remember the best movies of the year, I am at a loss. Very few linger in my mind, truth be told. Miller's Crossing is one for sure. Revenge of the Sith is another. Rajamanikyam, perhaps. A History of Violence, definitely. Also Before Sunset, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Black and Crash. Best of the lot? I'd say it's a tie between Miller's Crossing and A History of Violence.

Books read have been few and far between. My reading has really dropped off the past year, what with the new job and the travel. In fact, I can't remember a single new book that I read and liked enough to talk about here. Oh, maybe The Half-Blood Prince, what the hell.

I'm looking forward to some better reading in the new year though, after a few purchases I made recently - Dom de Lillo's Underworld, Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomincon, Akira Kurosawa's Something Like An Autobiography, Woody Allen's Collected Works, Samit Basu's The Manticore's Secret (not yet purchased, but consider it done) and John Updike's Bech: A Book.

On a different note, Rachu's favourite song these days (apart from her eternal #1, the song from Shrek, I'm A Believer) is a medly of two popular tunes. It goes:

Santa Claus is coming to town
Laughing all the way.

Indeed. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

Time's top 100 books

Time magazine has put up their top 100 books here. I've read only 24 of them, not good. On the silver lining side, there's a lot of good reading to look forward to.

Here we go again

Yet another painstaking journey. Yet another stop-over at the Chennai airport. This time round, they have free wi-fi though.

The Frankfurt airport looms ahead, grim and foreboding. Thankfully, I'll have just a couple of hours before my connecting flight to Houston.

Ammo packed: Jonathan Stroud's Ptolemy's Gate and Terry Pratchett's Going Postal. Should keep me alive till I reach Houston, hopefully.

Recap time

Since I have a few minutes free, thought I'd do a quick recap of what I've been reading these days.

1. Holes, by Louis Sachar - good, white heat read. Must look up the movie sometime - Sig Weaver, Jon Voight et al.
2. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl - mildly entertaining, this is Dahl wearing his books-for-kids hat.
3. Eragon, by Christopher Paolini - is there any fantasy novel that doesn't have a trace of Tolkien in it? This is not bad though, good enough to make me want to read the next one in the series (Eldest) just to know what happens. One can almost visualize the special effects laden movie waiting in the wings.
4. Heidi, by Johanna Spyri - groan.

TGIF

Office. Home. Office. Step out for lunch, step out for dinner. Home. Work till 2am. Back in office by 930am.

The thing is, I can get a lot more work done when I am here. I try not to think of Bangalore, family and other such minor details. I am becoming a machine.

Maybe this weekend will help. Plan to go for a movie today - whatever is running. I think I watched Mr and Mrs Smith the other day, but I couldn't be sure.

***

Work is great, though. Designing an organization, planning out processes, running recruitment, IT support - all the internal stuff. Then there is the customer facing part: working with CEOs and CTOs of small companies, helping them plan out a technology roadmap, convincing them about the India model and showing them how we can deliver value.

It's not that I'm not enjoying work. Just that there is so much to do.

***

I was able to finally find two books I've always wanted - Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club and Ed McBain's Cop Hater (the first book of the 87th Precint Series). Reading Fight Club is just like watching the movie - it's almost like the screenplay. Amazing writing.

As in Bangalore, all my reading is in the loo.

***

, thanks for driving me around last Sunday. It was great hanging out with you.

HP6

The world appears to be divided into those who think it's cool to read Harry Potter and those who think it's cool to diss him. Whatever.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive my copy on Saturday itself, through Fabmall. Nice. Very nice. I stopped trying to revise Order of the Phoenix and started the new one. Struggled with it right through Sunday, until I reached the last one-third when it suddenly looked up, reared it's head and bit me on the leg. I was forced to complete it today morning parked at the roadside, after dropping off Rachu at the creche. God-damn, the ending! I was reminded of two movies:



The first movie was Spider-man, for obvious reasons. The second, though I may very well be proved wrong, was Govind Nihalani's Droh-kaal. Book 7 should be interesting. Very interesting.


Update: Just saw this. Give the article a miss, check the picture on the page. I don't think anyone on the site's editorial staff knows this yet. These Mallus, I tell you!

Of Batman, a Birthday and a Book

Batman Begins. Boy, does he! One of the best comic book adaptations I've seen, this is THE Batman film. Why didn't they make this earlier? Die, Joel Schumacher, die!

***

Rachu is two today. Bought her a tricycle. She sits coyly on the side, like Victorian ladies on horseback.

Man, does time fly.

***

Started on Cloud Atlas a few days back. Begins well, but it's only been ten pages so far. I stepped out after the first two, to meet an old friend, Stephen King's The Dead Zone. This was my first King, read perhaps twenty years back: a tattered copy from the Eloor Library. I remember being impressed by the ending, which was 'Johnny Smith stood up'. A cliffhanger ending, which I love. I went on to become a King maniac and wound up buying almost all the books written by him.

Had the shock of my life when I completed re-reading it yesterday. The one I read long back was not the actual ending. The book goes on for a few more pages to wrap up - and it's no cliffhanger. Is this what they call irony, doctor?