C2E2 Day 1 Part 1

Today marked the beginning of C2E2 for 2018.

The very first thing I did was make my purchase for the weekend. This year's purchase was Puerto Rico Strong: A Comics Anthology Supporting Puerto Rico Disaster Relief and Recovery. Normally I wait a while but I knew I wanted it and was worried it might sell out. This is the second year I have actually bought something at C2E2 but like last years "Love is Love" it is for a good cause.

Today I went cosplaying as The doctor and my first panel was "She's The Doctor: Regenerating a time lord" which explored what having a women doctor might mean. I loved the comment that it made sense because it was "statically improbable that the doctor would have been white and male after so many regulations." Which makes total sense as a comment when you think about it, it is like a family only having male children going back 13 or 14 generations. 

The Doctor fighting a dinosaur-like creature 

The panelists are excited about the possibilities for new types of stories such as having more female friendships. And while there is a deep hope that there is a more diverse writing staff behind the scenes the mere fact that The Doctor is Female is important. As one panelist said "You can't do what you can't see" and discussed diversity in other contexts and that she "Did not realize that I needed that representation, not just the next generation" 

Also, there was a comment about the importance of a diverse supporting cast so the lead does not have to carry all the diversity. And there was a real hope that the show does well consider female-led works carry more weight. if they do poorly it is blamed on the character being female, unlike male characters who get many more do-overs.

Next up was a panel with Mark Millar who was a nice guy (and had a sweet accent :) ). I am not as familiar with his work (except he seems to have written the comics that have become the Marvel Movie Universe) but it was still a fun panel. He discussed how growing up he brother told him that Batman/Superman were real historical characters so he became very invested in the stories. 

He also talked about how we are living in the world we always dreamed of where obscure characters are now in movies as big as or bigger than star wars (like Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy etc). He mentioned that all his work is based on something real (his life or the life of others).

He mentioned how you never know where a franchise will go saying one idea he had at 16, he pitched at 26, and came to be when he was 33. He is now working with Netflix who seems very hands off and always gives him lots of creative control. 

Next was Zoe and Wash from Firefly who acted like an old married couple in real life lol. They discussed how in the beginning they were basically given a short outline by Weadon but no script before they said yes. Wash pointed out that Firefly fans are different from other fans because when he forgot the exact wording of a line during the panel no one shouted out and corrected him like in other fandoms

Interesting Zoe talked about how she often felt she was in a caper show and the other characters we in a ship show because she was always on missions with the boys. There was a question about comfortable/uncomfortable costumes and Zoe mentioned roles where she had to be literally sewn into an outfit and cut out each night. Basically, women still have a ways to go. Funnily the characters that both Zoe and Wash would like to play more of are romantic roles. And both are surprised how long Firefly fans have gone on and how much charity work they do.

I went to a panel on video games in books (mainly because they were giving away free books) which was interesting and the take away was book allows readers to get inside the heads or the characters they play and allow for more emotional connection explaining the consequences of one battle on the characters.  

I also went to a great panel The Value of Mental Illness Finding Resilience in pain on superheroes and mental health. This panel with is the topic for C2E2 Day 1 Part 2.

Other notes: This year there are very few places giving away free books :( but I am still getting a good amount of free stuff including a cool signed poster for the American God's Comic.