Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Caramba!! La Sol in San Diego Otra Vez!!

I spent this weekend en un Comic Con locura. First I worked late, hauled butt home to pack on Friday night, caught the late business class car on Amtrak down to San Diego. I got to my least favorite city in the world at 1:00 a.m. and had to grab a taxi to San Ysidro because my oldest boy had fallen asleep and couldn't pick up his mom. This is the boy just home from his Westpac and exhausted from dealing with a year and half old wild boy named Maximus (I call him Maximus Cuticuss because he's so damned cute) and a very pregnant wife with a new little girl to be named Zoey due July 31 st so he had good reason not to drive into SD to pick up La Loca Mama Sol at the train. I go to this convention every year and every year I say I'm not doing it again. I hate the crowds, I'm an L.A. girl that gets wigged out about pretty much everything San Diego. It's a mad house este Comic Con but it's my industry (animation/entertainment/publishing) so go I must.

I met up with my comadre Sarah Baisley, the very fabulosa Editor in Chief of AWN.com which is a pretty terrific site if you're into animation. They have EVERYTHING you ever wanted or needed to know about animation and tons of stuff you didn't even know to ask about. Check them out. They are padrissimo. Of course, since I no longer work for them, they are missing the Sol factor. Still, it's the best place to go to check out animation whether you're a fan or in the biz or just a regular person. Once you check it out, you'll be addicted. They keep 11 years of content all online, all accessible and all free! Chingao estan pero locos! Must be why I love them. So Sarah and I went to panels and had a great time finding out about all the new shows. One show in particular, I thought was great and of definite interest to readers of La Bloga.

The Show is called El Tigre - Created in Flash animation. It is Nickelodeon's first Flash production. According to the creators, they are really pushing the technology. The show is exciting and very well done. It has a heavy Mexican influence, using earth tones and bright "Mexican" colors like deep reds and rich purples. It has a very surreal version of Mexico with Day of the Dead characters, music, parties and dancing. The bit that was screened was very funny. It has a 2D look – very cartoony. There are some characters with heavy Mexican accents. The creators are from Mexico and pay homage to the culture as well as a tribute to Mexican surrealists. The gags and timing were very good. The co-creators, Sandra Equiha and Jorge Gutierrez are a married couple who have been together 14 years. The two main characters in the show are modeled after their childhood selves. Both Sandra and Jorge grew up in Mexico and are movie lovers. They love movies, especially "movies about Mexico but a crazy version of Mexico " and wanted the show to have that over the top feel.

News about production and artists/creators websites listed below:

http://www.fulanita.com/ - Co-creator of El Tigre

http://super-macho.com/ - Co –creator of El Tigre

In the assorted panels and on the floor, I found lots of interesting little tidbits, like Guillermo Del Toro interviewing director Alfonso Cuaron, on his new film Children of Men. Check out the trailer at http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=10035. Oyes, Del Toro and Cuaron are funny - I loved when they turned to the crowd at the panel and said "We both have our green cards"!

Robert Rodriguez was there with his compa Quentin Tarantino to talk about Grindhouse which looks intense. Jesus, Maria y Jose! Rose McGowan wears a machine gun for a leg in that movie!! I can't wait to see it.

I missed the Fantagraphics 30th Anniversary Panel and was pissed because Gilbert Hernandez was there reminiscing about the good old days of Love and Rockets. He and his brother Jaime started the alternative comic back in the 1980's. Fantagraphics started publishing the Hernandez Brothers work in 1982. It continues to be published every four months.

After all the panels and the madness of walking the floor and spending lots of money on Alan Moore's Lost Girls (it's research people! Research), I went with Sarita to the Writers Guild Party and got attacked by mosquitos who were after my wine. Cabrones! Other than that, it was fine and the wine was good. Met some nice people. Edward James Olmos from Galactica was at the DC big bash at Tesoro but I didn't go so, poor Sol. (Note to DC: Invite La Sol to all your cool parties so I can write nice things about you). I didn't get to go to the Rogue Pictures party at Stingaree either and I really wanted to because Guillermo Del Toro was there. I did however, go for drinks to the most amazing restaurant Dussini in their loft bar. Que padre! I had a champagne raspberry mojito and Sarah had the pomegranate margarita. We hung out in the beautiful bar and had fantastic appetizers and drinks till 1:30 a.m. and then headed back on the shuttle to the hotel. Check it out at Dussini.com


Sunday - more locura estilo it could only happen to Sol.

I woke up early and it was already hot as hell and muggy to boot. I showered and got dressed (not in a storm trooper uniform) and headed out to the Con. I was supposed to meet my son, daughter in law and grandson at Tin Fish at 10:00 a.m. but of course, nothing went right and I sat in the sun waiting for over an hour. I finally got disgusted and went over to the convention, stood in line for a half hour at Starbucks and got a latte. I ventured back out into the sticky sunshine to wait some more. We finally got together and my grandson loved the Lego Batman. He kept saying "Oh Wow!" Like I said before, the kid is cute. It was hard on the first time Con going parents though and they quickly had had enough. We headed back on the trolley to San Ysidro and that was one crazy adventure in discomfort. It was hot and sticky, we had loud drunken people sitting behind us and it was hot and sticky. Did I mention hot and sticky?

It's good to be home and done with Comic Con.


On another note, Xilonen is this weekend. For information on what Xilonen is and where - see below.

This festival will be held at: Wittier Narrows Park, California. From 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday Jul. 29, 06. Exit from the 60 Fwy. at Santa Anita-South and follow the signs

We will start with a ceremonial run to recognize historical sites around the park;
Followed by a ceremonial Aztec dance and babies welcomed into the tradition.
We welcome flowers as an offering to the altar
Info: (626) 862-7276 or (213) 481 8265
Visit: http://www.danzacuauhtemocbp.org/ E-mail: Cuauhtemocbp@aol.com

-- Gina

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

For the longest time, I have read and collected comic material. In the 50's I would abscond into the depths of my underworld surrounded by Blackhawks, Donald Duck, Amazing Stories and Superman! The basement was my fortress of solitude. With dirt floors and natural sandstone walls, you had to go outside and enter through one of those cellar like puertas. My hoyo,had a single light hanging from the floor, and was one of two chambers. The other occupied by an octopus like furnace, with its tentacles thrusting into every cuarto de mi casa on the West Side of Kansas City. It was down here, where I stashed boxes of comic books procured from David's Mexican Tienda. Don David always maintained stacks of used comics in the corner of his store, making them accessible to esquincles looking for fantasy and action! So after my daily fill of Hopalong Cassidy, and the Mickey Mouse Club,on the black and white, I would grab my Cub B.B. gun (a constant companion) and squirrel my way down to my cueva and my cache of comics! Forgive me for going into this nostolgic episode, but reading the adventures of "La Sol", I connected with her, also being an afecionado of contemporary animation (as my Son is),built on a lifelong attachment to comics.

Manuel Ramos said...

Cool report, Gina Sol. You are our woman on the scene, and what a scene you describe. I agree with Jose Chato's excellently expressed sentiments - I enjoy comic books, graphic novels, illustrated literature of all sorts. Check in tomorrow for more along these lines.