Like so many other people who write about and work in comics, I’m in a tizzy getting ready to go to San Diego for Comic-Con International. Not only do I have to worry about all the normal travel stuff – Can I fit a week’s worth of clothes in a carry-on bag? How much knitting do I need for such a long flight? – but this year, I also have extra San Diego stuff to consider.

For starters, there are all the people I have a crush on, people I see only once a year, and try to flirt with in that awkward, married way that I hope is charming, but fear might be excruciating. Last year, there were painful moments when the people I only used to see once a year tried to remember who I was after not seeing me since 1999. Instead of flirting, they wondered why this gray-haired woman presumed to ask them about their exercise programs.

(If you’re keeping score, Neil Gaiman remains the champion of charming, deniable flirting. We can sit together with our spouses and children and he is so adorable that I believe that if we were only 30 years younger, childless and single, we could still make each other laugh.)

The Con has changed, and so have I. When you work for one of the Big Two publishers at a comic book convention, you feel important. You may be a cog in the corporate machine, but you have a hotel room at the main hotel, you have an expense account, and you have a recognizable identity.

However, San Diego is no longer a comic book convention but a multi-media orgy, and instead of comic book stars, there are movie and television stars. Ed Brubaker will be there, and that’s very cool, but Paris Hilton is going to be at a Lionsgate panel on Thursday.

And I no longer work for a Big Two publisher, but a plucky little upstart, so while people may recognize me (“Aren’t you that crazy lady who was hassling me last year), I’m sharing my hotel room.

Unlike last year, ComicMix has a booth this year, so you can stop by (Booth #2308, with Insight Studios and the fabulous Mark Wheatley of EZ Street and Hammer of the Gods 2), say hello, and meet some of the fine people who make ComicMix the place to be. And this is amazing and wonderful, but, like so many other amazing, wonderful things, this means more work for me. Mark Ryan and Mike Grell will be on hand to promote their new graphic novel, The Pilgrim. The previously mentioned Mark Wheatley will be there. Mike Gold, not only editor-in-chief of ComicMix but also a founder of First Comics and former big muckety-muck at one of the Big Two, is available. Jerry Carr and Allan Gross from Insight (and creators of Cryptozoo Crew) are fun guys. Michael Davis and Rick Marshall are funny guys who can draw a crowd. (more…)

While preparation for San Diego Comic-Con has been keeping most webcomic creators busy these days, there’s still a lot of news popping up that has nothing to do with how many boxes of t-shirts have been shipped to the West Coast. Here are some of the highlights:

Jill-of-all-trades comics journalist Laura Hudson recently conducted a really, really spectacular interview with Perry Bible Fellowship creator Nicholas Gurewitch for Publisher’s Weekly. In the interview, Gurewitch reveals some details about a potential BBC project involving PBF:

I‘ll be adapting a couple of the strips for the pilot, and I just got the news the other day that they wanted to make it longer because they liked the 12-minute treatment I sent. They want to make it a 30-minute pilot. I’m actually working with a British television company, Endemol Entertainment. A number of people there had ordered some prints from me, and apparently someone brought them into the office. It became known amongst them that they really liked the comic, and [making the pilot] was just a decision that came about organically because of that. They all realized they liked the strip, and said, “Why don’t we do a show?”

In more international news, Steven L. Cloud has left the country! The Boy on a Stick and Slither creator officially embarked on his globe-trotting "Mongol Rally" charity event this week. Once everything gets underway, Cloud has promised that you’ll be able to follow the adventure via Twitter. Be sure to check out my interview with Cloud for his thoughts on the event, and this Google Map showing the route they plan to take. (more…)

On the Cheap Ass Gamer E3 podcast, Robert “Shipwreck” Goode found out some great news from a PR rep for DC Universe Online, the highly anticipated comic book based MMO role-playing game. The game will be demonstrated at San Diego Comic-Con and the public can play it!

He also got some hands-on time with DCUO and reported it departs from the usual point-and-click play of MMOs like World of Warcraft. Playing more like a traditional PlayStation 3 game, he described it as an "action MMO."

Over at Massively.com, a gaming website devoted to all things MMO, they talked with the developer dynamic duo of SOE-Austin VP of development John Blakely and DCOU Creative Director Chris Cao.

Some of the highlights from that article include: 

• The storyline will explain why all these new heroes (you guys) start popping up.
• One PvP battleground is the "Tomb of Isis," which forces everyone to eventually team-up when a very angry Black Adam finds opponents fighting around his wife’s grave.
• The SDCC demo will be the “Brainiac Attacks!” event.
• Another event scenario will be “Thanagarians Invade.” Expect regularly released events, much like Warcaft holidays.
• They still haven’t finalized the business model (the cited reason why Microsoft canceled Marvel Universe Online). Play for free after buying the retail copy? A monthly fee? In-game ads plastered all over Metropolis? It’s anyone’s guess at this point.