Pete’s best of 2012

Music, movies, games, events, and other assorted nerdery. These are the things that made my year in 2012, in no particular order.

SDCC 2012: Musical Moments

Being a music geek, I made sure to fill my Comic-Con week with great shows. I’ve already covered Friday’s Dethklok performance, but would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about seeing The Bouncing Souls on Wednesday and a Zelda symphony concert on Thursday.

The Bouncing Souls & The Menzingers

“East Coast! Fuck You!”

In lieu of preview night events, Xtine & I headed to the House of Blues on Wednesday night to catch The Bouncing Souls, who were touring in support of their latest album Comet. I was also excited for opening act The Menzingers, who’ve put out one of my favorite albums of the year, On the Impossible Past (album reviews coming in future posts).

Though not actually part of Comic-Con, the show was a great kickoff to our ‘con week. We only caught a few songs of The Menzingers’ set, but fortunately they included my 2 favorites, “The Obituaries” and “Gates”. The Souls played selections from throughout their catalog along with several fresh tracks from Comet, on a stage littered with old TV sets tying into the theme of lead single (and opening number) “Static”. Between fist-pumping to “True Believers” and singing along to “Hopeless Romantic”, the only thing missing was my favorite old-school track, “I Like Your Mom”. They closed out the encore with their latest single “Ship in a Bottle”, which merited its own banner.

Symphony of the Goddesses

After running around the ‘con all day Thursday, my siblings and I attended the San Diego Symphony’s performance of The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses at the Embarcadero Marina Park behind the convention center. Interpreting Koji Kondo’s well-known musical scores from across the Zelda series, the concert consisted of 4 movements accompanied by video screens showing footage from the iconic games. Before the show started there was a costume contest (of course, this being comic con, there must be cosplay); the winner was the postman from Majora’s Mask.

Owners of the original NES cartridge should recognize this image from the instruction booklet.

The opening number set the tone by highlighting the major themes of the series, with the audience erupting in cheers at the familiar sight of Link obtaining a wooden sword from an old man along with a cautionary “It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this.” The first movement took us through one of the most popular games ever, Ocarina of Time. Movement 2 covered The Wind Waker, with conductor Eimear Noone using a Wind Waker replica as her baton. Movement 3 was the darker-themed Twilight Princess, which I’ve owned for several years but haven’t yet got around to playing. The final movement was probably my favorite, taking the 16-bit era A Link to the Past and reinterpreting its chip-tune soundtrack with a full orchestra. The “dark world theme” was particularly powerful coming through all those instruments.

Of course, everything in Zelda comes in threes, so there were 3 encores. Each covered a specific piece from one of the games: There was “Ballad of the Wind Fish” from Link’s Awakening, “Gerudo Valley” from Ocarina of Time, and finally the theme from Majora’s Mask. It was a great event, and being on a lawn full of cheering Comic-Con attendees made it very communal, with a tangible sense of excitement among the fandom.

Next up: The conclusion of my Comic-Con coverage, with a Venture Bros. signing and some Spider-Man comics.

SDCC 2012 floor roundup

As July gives way to August, Comic-Con fades further into the rear-view mirror and the memories must be shared before they become just a fuzzy amalgamation of bright colors and assorted cartoon characters. We’ve already written about The Venture Bros. panel and the Dethklok show on the Midway, but I wanted to share some of my other experiences in and around the exhibit hall.

As usual, there were many random entertaining displays in and around the convention center area. Just walking around the Gaslamp one might encounter Jabba the Hutt’s sail barge, a Frankenweenie tent featuring a garden of deadly plants, a zombie escaped from Petco Park, or pedicabs styled as chariots representing Once Upon a Time. Inside the exhibit hall were displays featuring Castle Grayskull, a trio of trolls from The Hobbit, all 7 Iron Man armor suits from the films, and James Bond’s Aston Martin V8 Vantage (Series 2) from 1987’s The Living Daylights.

My favorite display was located outside, on the lawn in front of the Hilton Bayfront, and consisted of all the Batmobiles from every Batman film:

Left-to-right & top-to-bottom: Adam West Batmobile from 1960s “Batman” TV show & film, Michael Keaton Batmobile from “Batman” (1989) & “Batman Begins” (1992), Val Kilmer Batmobile from “Batman Forever” (1995), George Clooney Batmobile from “Batman & Robin” (1997), Christian Bale “Tumbler” Batmobile from “Batman Begins” (2005) & “The Dark Knight” (2008), Tumbler from “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012)

Then, of course, there were the cosplayers. In addition to the many Lady Lokis, here are a few of my favorites spotted amongst the throngs:

L to R: Viserys & Daenerys Targaryen, Galactus (note tiny herald off of left shoulder), Zatanna & green power ring-endowed Green Arrow, Sally & Richard Impossible with Dr. Venture

A Doctor-ific group of Whovians

We had some additional fun at the Nintendo Gaming Lounge inside the Marriott next door, where Xtine tried out Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance while dozens of fans lined up to meet the voice of Mario. We also witnessed a dance floor of nerds, gamers, cosplayers, and kids dancing along to “Rock Lobster” as they tried out Just Dance 4. It was a room of pure enjoyment, complete with bean bag chairs and a celebration of Kirby‘s 20th anniversary.

That’s all I can remember for now. Tomorrow I’ll wrap up my ‘Con coverage with a Zelda orchestra concert, a VB signing, and catching up with Spider-Man.

Review – Xoc: The Journey of a Great White

Comic-Con is full of pleasant surprises. Example: While wandering the floor and visiting the Oni Press booth, I came across the graphic novel Xoc: The Journey of a Great White by Matt Dembicki. The book intrigued me, since my job revolves around the teaching of marine science and conservation. I purchased it and was rewarded with an entertaining, well-informed, and conservation-aware tale of one of the ocean’s most well-known but least-understood predators.

Xoc (pronounced “shock”, an ancient Mayan word for “demon fish” and possible origin of the work “shark”) compiles in a hardcover volume a series of comics published by Dembicki over the last several years, all comprising a single narrative. The story follows Xoc, a 17-foot great white, as she migrates some 2,300 miles from her feeding grounds at California’s Farallon Islands to the warmer waters of Maui to give birth. Joined by an injured loggerhead sea turtle following the same migratory route, Xoc encounters many exotic sea creatures along the way, from deep-sea anglerfish to a sperm whale locked in combat with a giant squid. She also struggles to find prey to sustain her through the journey and deals with threats both natural–such as defensive dolphins and aggressive killer whales–to man-made–such as islands of marine debris and shark-finning boats.

The book is more than just an illustrated nature documentary, though. Dembicki gives Xoc and her turtle companion dialogue to help build their personalities (insomuch as a huge shark can have personality), and builds pathos for the characters so that I really cared about seeing them reach their destination and felt a sense of urgency when they were in peril. And if you’re any of my coworkers, the ending–though well set-up–will likely give you a serious case of sadface. It’s visually interesting, too: Not only is the marine life well-drawn and true-to-life, the panels are divided and arranged creatively so that, during those long stretches of journey when there isn’t much action and the narration captions take over, the pages are still visually intriguing and draw the eye to the artwork.

What struck me most about Xoc was the accuracy of the scientific information and the conservation topics interwoven throughout. Dembicki obviously did his homework: Xoc detects the weak electrical charges generated by other animals; She seeks out the weakest prey; She navigates by the sun and by the earth’s magnetic fields. The man-made threats she and her turtle companion face are very real: The wasteful practice of finning–removing the valuable fins while throwing the rest of the shark back to die–kills tens of millions of sharks annually. Masses of marine litter such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch entangle and are ingested by marine life, and leach harmful chemicals into the water. Loggerheads and other sea turtles mistake drifting plastic bags for their jellyfish prey and ingest them, impacting their digestive systems and eventually killing them. At the end of the book Dembicki covers these and other conservation topics, including the Shark Conservation Act signed into law by President Obama last year, and provides sources for more information on sharks and their conservation.

Xoc not only entertains, it educates. What’s more, it encourages comic book readers to learn and care about marine ecosystems and the animals that live there. And for a medium generally known for superhero stories, that’s pretty fantastic. Xoc was available at Comic-Con but is officially released July 25th, at which point you can order it from Oni Press. Or you can preorder it now from Amazon.

Additional Xoc links:

• Free preview of the first 20 pages
• Dembicki’s Xoc blog
• Xoc Pup, a free 8-page online comic telling a short story of Xoc’s pup

Dethcarrier

Dethklok in the hangar of an aircraft carrier. Totally f’ing metal.

On Friday night of Comic-Con Xtine and I got to attend the Adult Swim-hosted Dethklok concert on the USS Midway aircraft carrier. I got in thanks to my spot-on Dr. Rockzo impression. After making our way past the Klokateers guarding the entrance, we were led up to the flight deck where docent Bob explained how the aircraft are launched, something I was actually interested in since my great-grandfather was captain of a pretty famous carrier during WWII. Then, to the foreboding sound of orchestral music piped over the deck, Dethklok arrived via helicopter.

The show itself took place in the hangar deck, which is filled with old planes on display since the carrier, decommissioned in 1992, is now a floating museum. I’ve lived in San Diego my whole life but had never been on the Midway before, so I was excited just to see inside, no to mention see the world’s best cartoon metal band–heck, one of the world’s best metal bands, period–play. For  live purposes, Dethklok is Metalocalypse series creator (and voice of Nathan Explosion, Skwisgaar Skwigelf, and Pickles) Brendon Small on vocals and guitar, backed by professional metal players. In between songs the band would disappear while animated segments played on the screen behind the stage. My favorite was probably band mascot Facebones telling the guys in the crowd how to not be douchebags to the ladies.

“This song is called ‘Murmaider’. It’s about mermaid murder!”

About halfway through the set I had to get out of the crowd. Having a death metal show in what’s basically a big metal box with no a/c is a recipe for sweat, especially if you’ve been on your feet at the ‘con all day. I decided to hit up the free libations at the bars further back in the hangar. This turned out to be a great decision, because a number of the creative teams from various Adult Swim shows were hanging out back there. I got to meet Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick and writer for Supernatural (among other awesome credits; he looks like a psychedelic Jesus btw). Even cooler was that I got to meet and briefly chat with Doc Hammer, co-creator of The Venture Bros. He gave me multiple hugs for writing the Wikipedia article on his band, Weep, and is a very intriguing, animated individual and snappy dresser.

After the Dethklok show we hung around for the after-party featuring Girl Talk. I got into one of Adult Swim’s parties last year which also featured Girl Talk, and it is an experience to behold. If you haven’t listened to this DJ mashup schizoid genius before, all his stuff is available on his website on a pay-what-you-want basis. I highly recommend the 2010 album All Day (as a friend put it at the time: “Not as much energy, lower bpm, but Rihanna over Fugazi”).

Girl Talk mashing it up. Not pictured: toilet paper cannons.

Unfortunately we had to ditch out during Girl Talk to catch the last trolley of the night. Even so, this was easily the best experience of the entire ‘con for me and reaffirmed why Comic-Con is so great: Despite all the hassles of registering, transportation, crowds, endless queues, etc., you can still find yourself in randomly amazing circumstances, such as meeting the creators of one of your favorite TV shows in the belly of an aircraft carrier while a cartoon death metal band performs live behind you.

Team Venture at SDCC 2012

Doc and Jackson at the Venture Bros Panel, 2012.

The Venture Bros panel took place inside the Hilton Bayfront Hotel outside the convention center on Friday morning, 11 am. Lucky for me, I had stayed in the exact same hotel the night before, so I was given the luxury of rolling out of bed at 10:30 and still managing to get a decent seat. I should note that Pete had been there earlier, waited in line for the both of us, and I totally mooched a seat off him.

The panel was Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick just talking at us for about 5 minutes and then answering questions for the next 25. The show is currently in production and hasn’t been on air since 2010, unless you count the Shallow Gravy video special which aired in 2011. If you doubt me, check the history of episodes aired here. The panel audience was full of VB cosplayers and fans, so the show doesn’t seem to be losing any momentum between seasons.

Go Team Venture!

Now for the main juicy tidbits! There is a promise of a Halloween special coming up this October. It won’t be the start of the actual season though. They are signed on to do season 5 and 6, with season 5 currently in production and the scripts for season 6 already beginning to be written. They seemed to have season 6 all planned out, but of course offered no spoilers. Which reminds me, why do people always ask spoiler-related questions at panels? Especially ones that are infamous for never giving anything away? It’s a wasted question! Although it does bring up interesting banter in response, such as Doc and Jackson claiming Dr.Girlfriend was killed off screen in a very descriptive, to the point of disturbing, sequence which involved a lot of blood, a dart, and a punctured trachea.

They showed us a reel of storyboards dressed up and edited in Doc Hammer’s unique fashion. The material was ridiculously hilarious, including pop culture references such as Game of Thrones, Clash of the Titans, The Crow and Rocky IV. They also noted that there would be an hour long special between seasons 5 and 6. As for the usual and expected random conversation, Doc briefly talked about his penis before recollecting the interesting and enjoyable experience of sitting on a swing sideways. Jackson and Doc, relieved by our acceptance of just storyboards and sound, joked that perhaps they should just release that and save the money they would use for production on a summer home in the Hamptons. None of us would be invited.