Well, I’m home, and not only am I home, but I worked today, and I worked hard. This was difficult considering that our flight was delayed five-hours yesterday, and I got home at 10:00 P.M., not the original 5:00 P.M. that Southwest promised. However, the delay was well worth the trip…
Where to start?
I guess because I promised Ronell I would chime in on my “but” on Ms. Marvel, I’ll start there: so, on the plane to and from Seattle, I totally caught up on the new Ms. Marvel from Marvel Comics (thirteen issues up to this point). I love the characters, and I love the story, but in the middle of the thirteen issue chunk, the story lost a bit of its punch for me, and it became a bit (for lack of a better word) slow? I was still enjoying it, and I will FOR SURE keep the trade on my classroom shelf, but the story fizzled a bit, and while it steps up in issues twelve and thirteen (and hopefully from here on out), the middle chunk will keep me from actually teaching it. I will totally recommend it, and I know Marvel does not put out books for teachers to teach (and that really sucks), but for a few issues, it lacks the forward movement of…let’s say Fraction’s Hawkeye or The Secret Avengers, both stories I would teach.
With that out of the way, Kamala Khan is a fabulous character! I can see this book opening up a whole new audience to comics, and if you ask me, this is what Marvel does exponentially better than DC. If it’s character you want, maybe you do teach Ms. Marvel. Either way, read it! It’s very fun, and let me know if you agree or disagree with me on this.
What’s next?
I ate a lot of great food in Seattle. I mean I live in Chicago, and we have amazing cuisine, but damn, Seattle! Every street smelled amazing…even when the food smell mixed with the garbage and B.O. that comes with big cities. My wife and I went to Portage Bay Café for breakfast on Friday, and the French toast is life-changing. Seriously, you can go to Seattle just for the French toast at Potage Bay. I also embarked on a food-tasting tour of Pike Place Market: a two-hour tasting of the amazingness that is Seattle. I had the absolute best chowder of my life, and that barely topped the first chowder I had in Seattle three years ago. I did go to a BBQ place that was pretty good, but our server had never heard of burnt ends, so I don’t know how much they really know about BBQ in Seattle, but it was still pretty darn good (doesn’t get a damn).
ECCC
My Emerald City Comic Con experience was top notch! Out of all of the conventions that I’ve been to across the country, I think Seattle had the largest percentage of cos-players, and they brought it! Props to you costume makers of Seattle…
We presented on Saturday, and in preparation for our presentation, I met Meryl Jaffe outside of the convention, and we proceeded to hit the room and get settled. We had an early presentation slot, so we wanted to make sure we beat the rush. Our panel, as you can see from the pic below, was packed with comic all-stars: Otis Frampton, Mike Maihack, Royden Lepp, Nick Dragotta, and Kaza Kibuishi…Meryl moderated. We presented on the non-fiction push in comics and its affect on the creation process and the classroom. While we strayed a bit from the topic, we still had a very successful panel, and I am very fortunate to have presented with such amazing talent!
I also made some new friends after the panel, so that’s always cool too!
After the panel, I hit the show floor, and the artists that came out to play were no joke. I almost walked out of there with a couple hundred dollars worth of prints, but travelling with prints across the country scares me a bit. AND unfortunately, none of the peeps that I really wanted to buy from will be at C2E2 this April in Chicago, so I’m a bit bummed.
However, I did meet a very cool artist named Travis Hanson (book below), and I had to buy a book of his work because the fantasy, child-like wonder of the art really impressed me, and I know that my students will dig it. Check out this guy’s work if you get a chance!
Other than that, I bought my wife a Mr. Sparkle shirt, and I picked up a couple of back-issues that I needed.
This show totally got me in the mood for C2E2 though! And I hope to meet up with as many cool comics peeps that I can in Chicago…
Keep reading!
Eric
@comics_teacher
mr.kallenborn@gmail.com