Here's Gilbert Hernandez in his historic signing of a copy of his book for me last Friday. I confessed I hadn't read any of his work but a lot of his brother's. "He is your brother, right?" I asked, "Jaime Hernandez?" suddenly unsure if Jaime wasn't his cousin. Gilbert confirmed, yes, Jaime is his brother.
He was selling two books, he told me one was about himself as a kid, the other was about himself as a teenager. He told me they needn't be read in any particular order, I chose the one about himself as a teenager, Bumperhead. I'm only about a third of the way through--I haven't had a great deal of time for anything--but so far I quite like it. Although he told me the book is about his own youth, the characters make reference to modern things such as iPads. But there is a keen and delightful insight into human nature in the renderings of people that feel like genuine reflections on friends and family.
After meeting Hernandez, I went upstairs and made this:
Boba Fett? Boba Fett? Where? Well, his likeness is kind of in this thing I made during the Star Wars origami panel that preceded the Joe Johnston panel. Chris Alexander, author of the book, conducted the lecture and taught us how to make Boba Fett and a light sabre with specially coloured paper he handed out to everyone in the room. I completely failed at the light sabre, much to the amusement of the girl sitting next to me who looked about fifteen or sixteen. Both her origamis came out precisely perfect, my Boba Fett by comparison, I observed to her, looking like a crumpled napkin. It turns out I'm not cut out for precision creasing:
I still maintain I make a damn fine paper throwing star.
The lightsabre was basically a tube so I tried to teach the girl the magic trick that was in every crappy magic book I read as a kid where you keep both eyes open, look through a paper tube with one eye and, with the other, look at the palm of your hand you have placed alongside the tube. It's supposed to make it look like there's a hole in your hand. Judging from the puzzled look she gave me when she tried it, I'm not sure I managed to convey the concept.
After the Joe Johnston panel, I ran into these two:
If there was one trend I saw at this year's Comic Con it was female Lokis. I saw maybe twenty Lokis, one was male.
Often they were with boyfriends dressed as Thor but sometimes they were paired with female Thors.
I asked one of the female Lokis why I was seeing so many women dressed as the male character, if it was a meme or something, and she simply said, "Loki is really popular." Another one I asked was genuinely surprised I had seen so many.
I'd remarked in previous Cons on the number of women dressed as the Doctors. While I do occasionally see men dressed as female characters, I have the impression that the women dressed as men were doing so as more of a pure expression of love for the characters, women cross-dressing even now much less taboo.
This woman was dressed as a male character from the television series Hannibal:
I've never seen the show so she explained to me who she was and recommended the series to me.
This woman was dressed as a male character from the series Supernatural:
She told me she made the wings herself and they actually folded and unfolded.
For the record, here's the one male Loki I saw:
Well, I have a lot yet to do to-day and I'm running late. I leave you with this crowd shot and a challenge--find the female Loki in this picture!
Twitter Sonnet #251
Ultimate trolleys bear the second stops.
Tiny lattice ticks to the lazy slush.
Emerald monocles misplaced the old strops.
Shield and swordless concrete echoed the hush.
Slow orders tip the cheese buttons downward.
Ragged black teas divide the whole and woods.
The birth of Venus was water powered.
Painted clouds'll cling to the paper goods.
Circles question basil on the bedsheet.
Cool blues panic slowly by the mirror.
Inert hungers are pushed up by black peat.
Grey flooded night sounds drank by the hearer.
Flashes of elephant surprise the mouse.
Careful guesses ran into the quiz house.
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