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I went to Supanova on the weekend in Sydney. It was an interesting affair, my first con since one in the mid/late 90’s. The thing that really hit me was the smells. It was like an International House of Food, that has gone off five months after a zombie apocalypse. I have no idea why people would walk around stinking so much. I wonder why comics are such a sneered at medium and this is exactly why. The readers fit perfectly into the stereotype. Smelly, sweaty nerds in costumes. I’m all for people expressing themselves, and the bloke who dressed as Ledger’s Joker looked so fucking awesome that I was amazed and impressed with his effort. But the guy who leant over me to grab a comic and absolutely reeked of B.O. was not impressing anyone.

Comic readers need to get out of the basement and shower once in a while. I am a huge comic nerd but I still shower twice a day, brush my teeth, exercise daily and can talk to women. There is no need to fit the complete stereotype. Ugh, rant over.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Ryan’s brain…

I bought some trades while I was there. Robert Kirkman’s Capes, Eric Powell’s Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities and the first American Virgin. Also picked up the one Cap issue that was missing from my Streets of Poison run, only the best Cap run from my childhood!

Then I met Ben Templesmith

and completely nerded out. He was such a nice guy, but then again, he’s Australian, how couldn’t he be? He is also the genius who drew 30 Days of Night. He shook my hand, said g’day, and we had a quick chat. I barely knew what to say, I was honestly flummoxed. He was nice enough to sign two free issues of Dead Space and a poster for me, then I got a photo with him, and once I figure out how to get photos on here I will put it up. But until then, click here for it on my Flickr. My net sucks ball and so cannot currently update pics, but soon…

It was absolutely amazing to meet this guy. He’s a great artist and, now I know, a really pleasant bloke. I can only hope and dream to work with him in the future.
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Been writing on and off this week, but work is totally screwing with me. Parent interviews and late afternoons completely screwing with my system. By the time I ride home, go for a run, do a circuit, shower and do the dinner thing it’s usually closing in on 9. Lame. So have knocked a few pages of the purloined idea out, a few chapters of Bobsy and printed off some stuff to go over in the hols. I made some revisions to The Choice That Had To Be Made and that took a whole night. Taxing, but glad it’s done, just wanna read it now in one go and see if I do want to print it…
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Finished Mister B. Gone. I liked it. It was some of the lightest stuff Clive Barker has ever written, but it was really readable. I always wanted to go back to see how it ended. It was a really effective story, and just really makes me want to go and read his Abarat books now.

I’m currently reading The Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, and it’s not too bad. It’s well written, full of laughs and nice short chapters that I can chew through quickly. I’ve never thought that I would read it, but a friend strongly recommended it, and I trust his judgement.
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I still haven’t written about The Incredible Hulk yet, which I have seen. So, in a nutshell, I liked it. I thought it was a thoroughly enjoyable movie. Hulk hulks out and the fights kept me going. I don’t wanna hear anyone piss and moan about how the Hulk looks so fake. You show me what a real one looks like in the wild and we’ll compare. I thought the Hulk looked good, and as good as it is ever going to look, he is a giant green musclehead, after all. And I don’t wanna hear anyone tell me it’s not as good as Iron Man. Of course it’s not as good as Iron Man. That’s because Iron Man is inherently a much more interesting character who so much more can be done with. I like the Hulk, don’t get me wrong, but there’s only so much you can do with him. He’s never going to be a Spider-Man type movie because he’s not that sort of character. Some of the best Hulk stories lately seem to be Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, two storylines that I don’t expect to see made into movies.

I think Hulk works best as a story device, and so, his presence in an Avengers movie would probably be perfect.
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Seven working days until sixteen holi-days. Am very very keen to get some lazy days in.

Posted on June 25th, 2008 by ryan
Filed under: books, comics, movies