It’s ME. It’s HIM. It’s T-I-M.
So we’re HERE it’s the week of the glorious stupendous and uber exciting SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2017!
Will I be there? Nope.. First time in around five years I’ve not attended. “..But Tim WHY!?” –you ask me because you care so much.
First off, thanks for asking that sure means a bunch. Second of all you got to understand the last few years I lived as a writer/producer in the City of Angels was hard on me. Spiritually, artistically, emotionally, etc and I desperately needed a break for my financial life and my sanity. So after some soul-searching and bumps in the road I’ve landed in Idaho. I know.. IDAHO! Such a change from Los Angeles’ red carpets and after parties.. and I knew if I was to start over I needed a cold break which meant no CONS for a while. I resigned myself to this, but then I saw an ad: TREASURE VALLEY COMIC CON. Oh snap! A Comic-Con and it’s near me. As a writer for FirstComicsNews I HAD to attend.
The event lasted a weekend but I only attended on Saturday July 8th 2017 because of the drive from where I stay in the mountains (I live/work in a tiny town, think: Northern Exposure) and the drive each way was like hour and a half down a mountain. When I got to the parking garage area and left my car I was excited, I was reminded of all the events and conventions I’d attended over the last few years. Some good, some bad but a constant thrill was always the people I’d meet. Con People are MY People so I was digging meeting the Idaho variation. There was supposed to be a bus that would cart us from the parking garage to the event shuttling free all day back and forth. I was joined by a man and his young anime-obsessed daughter who reminded me she was underage when I asked to take a pic with her. Relax guy. I explained to him its normal for folks to want to take pics with people who dress up. We all didn’t expect the shuttle to literally be a school bus but that’s what it was.
To say the Con was small is an unfair comparison considering this was YEAR ONE for the con. Look back at pictures of the first SDCC events because they were small too. This had booths, pseudo-celebs doing talks and photo ops, comics being sold and writers hocking their wares. It did its job and I had a blast listening to a regular from the first season of THE FLASH and talking with him, Todd Bridges, a live prowrestling event by WRESTLE CLUB, and attending a speaking engagement on all things horror/comedy put on by bestselling author MichaelBrent Collings.
Also just like at the more established ones we had local shithole companies that have nothing to do with comicbook/horror/fantasy/sci-fi culture trying to catch the crumbs from the table – for example: local sweatshop call center SYKES which screws over its employees hardcore and pays them garbage was there as a “sponsor” I had a talk with their rep Aaron about why his company operates out of the 7th circle of Hell. He was kind enough and understood my past experiences with them. I worked there when I first moved to town, so I know firsthand. But I digress as this is par for the course at all cons there’s always a local biz trying to be “cool” but they aren’t anywhere near NERD-culture cool. Attending this event (TVCC) was the sandwich which will hold me over from not eating the full meal (SDCC).
I’m very happy to see it in Idaho and I will support any future events they do. Great job guys!! Also I saw this note in a write-up on the event..
“Some celebrities include Margot Kidder, who played Lois Lane in the original “Superman” films, Todd Bridges (“Diff’rent Strokes”), Rick Cosnett (“The Flash”); artists Keith Tucker (“He-Man” and “The Real Ghostbusters”) and Bob McLeod (“Wonder Woman” and “Detective Comics”); horror writer Michaelbrent Collings and…”
My friend and fellow Horror Writers Association member MICHAELBRENT COLLINGS said this about being looped in with the others- “I AM A CELEBRITY, ALIKE IN STATUS TO 1978 LOIS LANE, A DEAD GUY ON THE FLASH, AND “WHATCHOO TALKIN’ ABOUT” GUY. FEAR ME AND WORSHIP!”
Haha. Sweet.
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OKAY OKAY OKAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!
So I begrudgingly saw IT. I saw it.. so shut up.
No not Stephen King’s IT but “it” as in SPIDERMAN-HOMECOMING.
What I liked:
The pacing was outstanding, I was reminded of GOTG in how it raced along. It grabs you and moves fast, I appreciate that. Today’s fan base is of a vine generation, we want it fast. Gimme Gimme Gimme. They delivered on that.
It was also really funny in parts, not just lame or try-hard but legit LOL moments I appreciated as a guy that was a touring headlining standup for a decade.
The moments with Spiderman on the airplane legit had me terrified. I know it’s a dramatic reenactment of ritual and the GOOD guy will win but clinging to a plane at that altitude with no parachute was nuts; pure adrenaline.
What I hated:
The name on the marquee is SPIDERMAN not IRON MAN. Now I’m not going to be one of those guys that complain that it was too much Iron Man in the film; no that was tastefully done. I’m saying the ^*%#%!! suit Peter Parker wears has become a damn Iron Man computer suit and this killed my suspension of disbelief. A talking computer in his head and all these web combinations; Pa-leeze.. If it’s this easy then put all the lame avengers in a suit with a talking computer, right Hawkeye?
Hey ah- ever heard of a SECRET IDENTITY I mean by the end of the film 5 people know who his real identity is and one can have him killed anytime he wants. DaFuq? Gawd I hate that about these movies. Has there EVER been a superhero that didn’t blow his secret identity?
Some reviewers said they hated how an underage girl did “F Marry Kill” with the Avengers names but I didn’t care, I chock it up with “Penis Parker” lines or Aunt May’s near F-bomb.. It’s the year 2017 so get with the times. Kids aren’t the Beaver anymore.
Rating out of 10:
I know its fashionable to go with the trends but I don’t agree that this is the BEST SpiderMan movie ever or even since Doc Ock’s appearance, nope I liked Andrew Garfield and I NEVER ever EVER agreed with the hate dishes out on Amazing Spiderman 2. The arguments people hated it for are the reasons I loved it. Too many badguys (it’s a Comicbook movie!), etc.
For this most recent incarnation I give it a good: 7 out of 10, worth seeing, worth taking kids to but its not GREAT and at parts this Parker is behind the times in his thinking. Like a 1970s kid in a 2017 world. Oh and I sincerely hope “Karen” gets a computer virus..
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OVERALL THOUGHTS ON MARVEL TODAY:
Here’s something nobody ever talks about. Let me start out by saying I love MARVEL. I’m a MARVEL fella but there’s always room to improve. Heck- I didn’t move to Idaho to attend therapy, church, and a 12-step program weekly because I’m a saint.
Here’s a major gripe I have with them and it has never been addressed.
Marvel’s female heroes (or villains for that matter) are not allowed to have the same sexual appetite as their male counterparts. Don’t agree? Here are three examples:
1. Marvel films begun really kicking ass with Marvel’s Iron Man in which a rich playboy Tony Stark beds a reporter and in the morning Pepper makes the “taking out the trash” comment. Trash- really? Why, because she decided, as an adult, to engage in consensual adult sexual fun? Why is she the BAD one out the two of them and he’s just cool?
2. GOTG was an amazing film and James Gunn (whom I’ve had the pleasure of hanging with through our mutual friend Lloyd Kaufman) did a rockstar job with it but.. early on if you recall a purple alien girl wakes up on his ship after a night of nookie and he doesn’t even remember her name or that she was there at all. Gee- how cool right? This is how we know he’s the Fonz of the movie, because he treats woman like sperm holders.
3. You may be thinking to yourself, holdup big guy.. maybe you have a point with the Marvel Cinematic Universe but thank goodness there’s the glorious bastion of R that is Netflix for people like Jessica Jones to be free to fuck. Really, Is she? I believe she was used by a mind-controller for his sexual desires and then she had sex with the one black hero (Powerman Luke Cage) that would go on to be her number one love interest. No one-done for fun, no nookie for the sake of nookie.. that’s not equal.
I’d like to see Captain Marvel have some dude wake up at her place and have our heroine not remember who he is. That’s when I’ll know its equal playing ground ladies, just my thoughts.
Til next Time, I’m T-I-M in the land of rednecks, LDS, and potatoes
Saying, “MAKE MINE SEXY MARVEL!”
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