I’m pleased to report that the Dark Matter signing was a rousing success. I actually made it to the booth on time, people actually showed up, and nobody standing in line stepped up to my counter to order a milkshake and fries. I met some great fans, chatted Stargate and Dark Matter, signed a few comic books, and gave away some swag. The winners…
Tiffany and David – winners of the SG-1 100th episode commemorative picture frame and keychain.
Sharon – winner of a signed copy of Resurgence (including sarcastic commentary). Finally! At least one person in Stargate garb. Including P-90!Lucas – winner of a signed copy of Quest I (including sarcastic commentary).Becky – winner of a signed copy of Resurgence (with sarcastic commentary) for her mom, Margo.Eric, winner of the Atlantis box set.Gary – winner of the Stargate match sticks (for his son, Thomas – a.k.a. Rodney McKay Jr.).
And some of the others who swung by to say hi –
FranciscoBobChris – blog regular Lisarrr’s brother!KaraMatt and JayJessie and Nathan – a couple of Dark Horse boys.Robert
Apologies to those whose pics I failed to snap (or whose photos didn’t do them justice). And thanks to everyone who came by. Also, a big thanks to the following people –
My ace editor, Patrick Thorpe.Dark Horse Comics’ awesome Publicity Coordinator, Aub Driver.And the woman who worked incredibly hard to plan, coordinate, and execute not only my signing but all of the Dark Horse Comic Con happenings, the amazing Kari Yadro, Dark Horse Events and Community Manager.
After the signing, Akemi and I walked the floor one final time.
Some of my favorite sights of my last day at Comic Con:
Steampunk chic.Fried shishito peppers at Nobu.My peanut butter sundae at Ghirardelli’s.Excelsior, true believer! It’s (almost) Stan Lee!Akemi rushed over to have a picture taken with these…er…things. Anybody?The Dynamic Duo.The Dynamic Duo II. SPOOOOOOON!He Man?Not sure. But I’m willing to give the comic book a shot.Lou Anders introduced me to the incredibly talented Dave Seeley.
Again, not sure what she’s selling – but I’m getting one.Poison Ivy and Penguin take down Robin.Space Invader Zim(?).Akemi and her buddy Spongebob.Again, not sure what she’s selling…etc.Trigun’s Vash the Stampede.Mike (left) and Gary of Spike and Mike’s infamous Festival of Animation.The crowds have been crazy.
We ended up back at Nobu for dinner where we were seated next to the friendliest family. We ended up striking up a conversation and chatting up through most of the meal. Husband David is a former professional basketball player now in business with mom, Estela (who, upon hearing I liked tongue tacos vowed to make me the best lengua I’ve ever had!), and wife Sofia who owns her own fashion boutique in town.
Fun pictures, thanks for sharing! I like the one with Akemi and her square, yellow friend. Also, say hello and Rock Chalk Jayhawk to my friend Kevin at Hallmark (those pink and green rabbity things, aren’t they from Hallmark?).
Looks like a lot of fun was had. You deserve some R&R!
@anybody – In the sixth picture down (the one with Gary – winner of the matchsticks) is that Sean Koo (@scoobykoo) in the back on the left, wearing a red shirt?
Thanks Joe for all the fun pictures from Comic Con. I’m glad the signing went well and hope you and Akemi had a great time. Yay for Lisarrrr’s brother making it over to the booth.
Thomas “Rodney McKay Jr” here… Thanks so much! Stargate has influenced me so much, and I am anxiously waiting to read Dark Matter. I guess I am pretty close to Rodney McKay (minus the narcissism and slight social-ineptitude), and am quite the technology geek, with me following the electrical engineering and computer science career path due to my interest sparked by SG1 and Atlantis. Now that I do work for the US Army (Not the USAF, haha) at a research lab at MIT, it excites me what possibilities there are, and how they relate to science fiction, including Stargate. While Star Trek had what would now be considered not very realistic tablet computers (PADDs in TNG, DS9, and Voyager), SGA had McKay and crew carrying around HP Tablet computers in 2004… 6 years before the mass commercialization of tablets by Apple and other manufacturers. In a semi-similar way, Star Trek was the spark for the development of many technologies such as the cell phone (leading to the Motorola StarTac), and now to real tricorders (Which is this years Qualcomm X Prize is about, which I am planning on competing in). The greatest thing about science fiction, and why I think it is crucial for intelligent science fiction like Stargate needs to continue is perfectly summed up by what Grell (the counterpart of Teal’c in Wormhole X-Treme) said in at the end of “200”…
“Science fiction is an existential metaphor, that allows us to tell stories about the human condition. Isaac Asimov once said: ‘Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all.'”
Obviously I’m a pretty big geek on the “hard” science side and science fiction, and the biggest propellant for me in both has been Stargate series, thank you so much! It was great talking to you yesterday, and I hope to be at SDCC next year. (Shameless self promotion: I microblog a lot using Twitter, @trsohmers, and my website is http://trsohmers.com…maybe I’ll be showing off my own version of Orlin’s self built Stargate in a few years :P)
I sense a theme in your pictures of “salesladies”. And the best we female followers get iis a scrawny he man? Ah well, you are forgiven. The swag, the pictures, and the comments make up for your minor obsession. Hope the trip home is pleasant, safe, and speedy. And anyone on the east coast doing Shore Leave the first weekend of August? finally broke down and got my membership.
@Michael A Burstein: I like the ice cream sundae one too. I guess that’s my weakness. 🙂
@Joe, thanks for putting the pic of my brother up. Maybe, if Dark Matter gets made into a series, you could come to Dragon Con. :::hopeful grin::: If you did, I would make a point of coming to meet you. Have a great time in Las Vegas.
Super cool pictures! Before I read the caption under David and Tiffany’ picture, i was staring at David thinking ‘boy, he looks familiar’. Pretty neat. Good to see Lisarrr’s bro. Lisa, looks like Chris accomplshed his mission. Got your Dark Matter copy in hand – signed I’m sure. Love your shirt Joe. It is one of your signature Mallozzi looks. It is either that or black shirt and black pants. Glad you had a good time. Everyone looks like they did. Thanks for taking us along. On to Las Vegas!
@Ponytail: He emailed me a pic he had taken of Joe. Said Joe had told him that he usually didn’t take good pics (guess that’s why he’s always behind the camera, LOL), but this one was pretty good.
Aww, makes me sad that you only had one person show up in SG garb! Like I said before, I would’ve loved to have been there in my screen-used SGA uniform, complete with tac-vest rig and P90. In fact, I bought it at the Propworx auction in Seattle, where I met that guy David who won the set visit. He told us all about it at their second auction where he showed up in a “You Are Here” shirt. Great guy. Wish I had his “funding”.
Glad you had a great time! ComicCon can be scary for some. What was the temperature like in there? Was it pretty cool? How was the smell?
Thanks for sharing the photos. A crazy adventure for sure. Congratulations to all the lucky winners!! Enjoy your down time now in ~Vegas~ more food pictures.. yeah!! Yum the p-n btr sundae!
Hoops and Yoyo! Akemi, I like them, too. They are such a stitch, and mascots of Hallmark e-cards & greeting cards. Love them. Let’s see if I can do this without it going huge. Hoops and Yoyo want to know “Do you like waffles?”
Glad you and Akemi had a great time! Hope you didn’t get too stuck in traffic on the way out…
But what happened to the “big” Stargate announcement that was supposed to happen at SDCC? We’ve been waiting for several months now and no news at all!
For your next mailbag,I was wondering if you ever ate at Jiro’s in Ginza Toyko. That famous and very expensive sushi only restaurant all the master chefs are raving about
Thank you for the signature and of course the script Joe (even if I did have to share); it means so much to me to be able to have had the pleasure of meeting you in person and being able to shake your hand, and of course for your reminder to stop being a lurker on here 😉 Hope you enjoyed the rest of the Con and thanks once again!
Really great meeting you and Akemi, Joe! Glad you had a great time at the con, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us and sign copies of Dark Matter. Now let’s get that TV show made!
Yep! Hoops and YoYo! My family has been getting each other those cards for awhile. I have the CD and their manners book. Saving those for teaching. Glad to see you had a good time. Someday, my husband and I need to go. Take care!! 🙂
Now I’m falling in obsessive love with the red t-shirts, the Cassaday-designed ones. I’d wear those designs screen printed on red velvet, framed over a sequined evening gown. They are too elegant for t-shirts. And the irony (for those familiar with the poem) is I would have read more on CNN.com by now if I weren’t trying to track down the t-shirts.
My daughter Becky just got back from Comic-Con with the most awesome gifts for me – your Dark Matter series, (signed) and a Stargate Universe script signed for me! Thank you both. You for being so generous to your fans, and to Becky for being such a great kid. I can’t wait to read everything.
There are rumors on some forums that his new scifi-series could be a new stargate series. I don’t think so but i’m sure, you know more on that? Big Thanks on your answer.
Looks like a good time was had by all. That shake is incredible.
I survived the desert, the storm which tried to take out our shade structure, the fuel station work and a preti nasti sunburn. There’s an article about what we were doing (but not the drugs, I’m too damn old for recreational medications):
Great to finally meet you after reading your blog for so long! Thanks so much for the signed Dark Matter #1 and the annotated SG:U script (which I haven’t read yet but will soon, promise!). Hope Con didn’t leave you too exhausted, although if your next blog entry is any indicator, you’ve recovered pretty quickly. (I’m still sore from wearing that desert offworld outfit for two days, and my feet still haven’t forgiven me.)
Oh, did you and David Blue ever manage to hook up? Just wonderin’….
Nope Joe, that’s Earthworm Jim. A cartoon series from the mid to late 90s, and a videogame series. The main character is obviously called Earthworm Jim.
I remember the series in general as it was around a little bit before, possibly early 90s, when I was younger and at the kind of age where it’d be okay to watch lol.
Anyway happy to hear your Comiccon experience was positive Joe, sounds like you made a lot of people happy, that’s good.
The green and pink “things” are Hoops & YoYo, a cute, fun duo that Hallmark created for a line of funny cards. Cheesy and almost annoying, but they always seem to bring a smile.
It was great to see you again and to meet Akemi in person. Tiffany enjoyed chatting with her about Tokyo and food in general. 😛 Thank you again for the random draw prize; it was nice to see so many other people lined up to meet with you.
What does it say about me that of all those pictures, the one I keep coming back to is the ice cream sundae?
Fun pictures, thanks for sharing! I like the one with Akemi and her square, yellow friend. Also, say hello and Rock Chalk Jayhawk to my friend Kevin at Hallmark (those pink and green rabbity things, aren’t they from Hallmark?).
Hey Joe
Looks like a lot of fun was had. You deserve some R&R!
@anybody – In the sixth picture down (the one with Gary – winner of the matchsticks) is that Sean Koo (@scoobykoo) in the back on the left, wearing a red shirt?
Elminster
Thanks Joe for all the fun pictures from Comic Con. I’m glad the signing went well and hope you and Akemi had a great time. Yay for Lisarrrr’s brother making it over to the booth.
Thomas “Rodney McKay Jr” here… Thanks so much! Stargate has influenced me so much, and I am anxiously waiting to read Dark Matter. I guess I am pretty close to Rodney McKay (minus the narcissism and slight social-ineptitude), and am quite the technology geek, with me following the electrical engineering and computer science career path due to my interest sparked by SG1 and Atlantis. Now that I do work for the US Army (Not the USAF, haha) at a research lab at MIT, it excites me what possibilities there are, and how they relate to science fiction, including Stargate. While Star Trek had what would now be considered not very realistic tablet computers (PADDs in TNG, DS9, and Voyager), SGA had McKay and crew carrying around HP Tablet computers in 2004… 6 years before the mass commercialization of tablets by Apple and other manufacturers. In a semi-similar way, Star Trek was the spark for the development of many technologies such as the cell phone (leading to the Motorola StarTac), and now to real tricorders (Which is this years Qualcomm X Prize is about, which I am planning on competing in). The greatest thing about science fiction, and why I think it is crucial for intelligent science fiction like Stargate needs to continue is perfectly summed up by what Grell (the counterpart of Teal’c in Wormhole X-Treme) said in at the end of “200”…
“Science fiction is an existential metaphor, that allows us to tell stories about the human condition. Isaac Asimov once said: ‘Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all.'”
Obviously I’m a pretty big geek on the “hard” science side and science fiction, and the biggest propellant for me in both has been Stargate series, thank you so much! It was great talking to you yesterday, and I hope to be at SDCC next year. (Shameless self promotion: I microblog a lot using Twitter, @trsohmers, and my website is http://trsohmers.com…maybe I’ll be showing off my own version of Orlin’s self built Stargate in a few years :P)
I sense a theme in your pictures of “salesladies”. And the best we female followers get iis a scrawny he man? Ah well, you are forgiven. The swag, the pictures, and the comments make up for your minor obsession. Hope the trip home is pleasant, safe, and speedy. And anyone on the east coast doing Shore Leave the first weekend of August? finally broke down and got my membership.
Congrats to the winners!! 😀
And congrats to you, Joe, for a successful signing and trip to Comic Con. Enjoy your R&R! Remember, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! 😉
das
@Michael A Burstein: I like the ice cream sundae one too. I guess that’s my weakness. 🙂
@Joe, thanks for putting the pic of my brother up. Maybe, if Dark Matter gets made into a series, you could come to Dragon Con. :::hopeful grin::: If you did, I would make a point of coming to meet you. Have a great time in Las Vegas.
The pink and green guys are Hoops and Yoyo, Joe. 🙂 The sundae looks delish, getting me one next time we’re in Miami…yum.
Looks like you guys had a great time! I loved Dark Matter I hope a lot of people there enjoyed it as well!
i think the “space invader zim” is supposed to be Earthworm Jim. 🙂
Super cool pictures! Before I read the caption under David and Tiffany’ picture, i was staring at David thinking ‘boy, he looks familiar’. Pretty neat. Good to see Lisarrr’s bro. Lisa, looks like Chris accomplshed his mission. Got your Dark Matter copy in hand – signed I’m sure. Love your shirt Joe. It is one of your signature Mallozzi looks. It is either that or black shirt and black pants. Glad you had a good time. Everyone looks like they did. Thanks for taking us along. On to Las Vegas!
@Ponytail: He emailed me a pic he had taken of Joe. Said Joe had told him that he usually didn’t take good pics (guess that’s why he’s always behind the camera, LOL), but this one was pretty good.
Aww, makes me sad that you only had one person show up in SG garb! Like I said before, I would’ve loved to have been there in my screen-used SGA uniform, complete with tac-vest rig and P90. In fact, I bought it at the Propworx auction in Seattle, where I met that guy David who won the set visit. He told us all about it at their second auction where he showed up in a “You Are Here” shirt. Great guy. Wish I had his “funding”.
Glad you had a great time! ComicCon can be scary for some. What was the temperature like in there? Was it pretty cool? How was the smell?
Oooh, gotta go. SG1’s 2010 is on!
-Mike A.
that peanut butter sundae looks good. how was it?
Thanks for sharing the photos. A crazy adventure for sure. Congratulations to all the lucky winners!! Enjoy your down time now in ~Vegas~ more food pictures.. yeah!! Yum the p-n btr sundae!
LOL, well at least your tastes vary… whips and innocent looks, lol. And Akemi says you are buying nothing!
Oh what great fun. I mean that in such a deeply awed way, but words are failing me.
Hoops and Yoyo! Akemi, I like them, too. They are such a stitch, and mascots of Hallmark e-cards & greeting cards. Love them. Let’s see if I can do this without it going huge. Hoops and Yoyo want to know “Do you like waffles?”
youtube.com/watch?v=Xp9kNepzNu8&feature=related
Have fun in Vegas!
Glad you and Akemi had a great time! Hope you didn’t get too stuck in traffic on the way out…
But what happened to the “big” Stargate announcement that was supposed to happen at SDCC? We’ve been waiting for several months now and no news at all!
For your next mailbag,I was wondering if you ever ate at Jiro’s in Ginza Toyko. That famous and very expensive sushi only restaurant all the master chefs are raving about
Thank you for the signature and of course the script Joe (even if I did have to share); it means so much to me to be able to have had the pleasure of meeting you in person and being able to shake your hand, and of course for your reminder to stop being a lurker on here 😉 Hope you enjoyed the rest of the Con and thanks once again!
Really great meeting you and Akemi, Joe! Glad you had a great time at the con, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us and sign copies of Dark Matter. Now let’s get that TV show made!
The Neil Gaiman t-shirts should be at Comic Con by now.
http://cbldf.org/homepage/threadless-releases-neil-gaiman-comics-on-tees-for-comic-con-international-2012/
I’d get the one on the bottom, but that hand with the nail would scare kids. Maybe one of the red ones.
Michael A. Burstein: Thank you for the laugh this morning! My twitter avatar is a Ghirardelli sundae 😉 .
Congrats to all the winners!
I love the pictures Mr. M. and have fun in Vegas!
Safe travels…
Yep! Hoops and YoYo! My family has been getting each other those cards for awhile. I have the CD and their manners book. Saving those for teaching. Glad to see you had a good time. Someday, my husband and I need to go. Take care!! 🙂
Now I’m falling in obsessive love with the red t-shirts, the Cassaday-designed ones. I’d wear those designs screen printed on red velvet, framed over a sequined evening gown. They are too elegant for t-shirts. And the irony (for those familiar with the poem) is I would have read more on CNN.com by now if I weren’t trying to track down the t-shirts.
My daughter Becky just got back from Comic-Con with the most awesome gifts for me – your Dark Matter series, (signed) and a Stargate Universe script signed for me! Thank you both. You for being so generous to your fans, and to Becky for being such a great kid. I can’t wait to read everything.
Hey, I just saw the Comic Con video interview with Chris Judge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uElvcz7_frU
There are rumors on some forums that his new scifi-series could be a new stargate series. I don’t think so but i’m sure, you know more on that? Big Thanks on your answer.
Huzzah for the winners! So many happy faces!
Looks like a good time was had by all. That shake is incredible.
I survived the desert, the storm which tried to take out our shade structure, the fuel station work and a preti nasti sunburn. There’s an article about what we were doing (but not the drugs, I’m too damn old for recreational medications):
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54484552-78/element-burning-festival-organizers.html.csp
And a shot of me sitting down, which is oddly flattering and unflattering at the same time (with old lady cleavage, where did I get that?!):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rvanbree/7580404538/in/photostream
I do love my Japanese fire fighter’s jacket!
Great to finally meet you after reading your blog for so long! Thanks so much for the signed Dark Matter #1 and the annotated SG:U script (which I haven’t read yet but will soon, promise!). Hope Con didn’t leave you too exhausted, although if your next blog entry is any indicator, you’ve recovered pretty quickly. (I’m still sore from wearing that desert offworld outfit for two days, and my feet still haven’t forgiven me.)
Oh, did you and David Blue ever manage to hook up? Just wonderin’….
@Space Invader Zim
Nope Joe, that’s Earthworm Jim. A cartoon series from the mid to late 90s, and a videogame series. The main character is obviously called Earthworm Jim.
I remember the series in general as it was around a little bit before, possibly early 90s, when I was younger and at the kind of age where it’d be okay to watch lol.
Anyway happy to hear your Comiccon experience was positive Joe, sounds like you made a lot of people happy, that’s good.
The green and pink “things” are Hoops & YoYo, a cute, fun duo that Hallmark created for a line of funny cards. Cheesy and almost annoying, but they always seem to bring a smile.
Sounds like everyone had a terrific time, and I spotted @ScoobyKoo in the picture with Gary.
Hi Joe,
It was great to see you again and to meet Akemi in person. Tiffany enjoyed chatting with her about Tokyo and food in general. 😛 Thank you again for the random draw prize; it was nice to see so many other people lined up to meet with you.
We hope to see you again soon!