July 20, 2012

Comic Con Recap: Friday

Hello again and welcome to my Day 2 Comic Con recap. Friday was the big day of the Firefly 10th anniversary panel. We knew it was a long shot but my friends and I were going to get in line to see if we might get in. We’re not the types to spend the night so we just got there somewhat early. Unfortunately, as suspected, the line was crazy insane so we gave up.

Instead, I went to the panel Art of the Thrill Kill which featured authors Barry Lyga (I Hunt Killers), Michelle Gagnon (Don’t Turn Around), Johan Harstad (172 Hours on the Moon), Dan Wells (I Am Not a Serial Killer), James Rollins (SIGMA Force novels), Mark Z. Danielewski (The Fifty Year Sword, House of Leaves), and Chase Novak (Breed). I was pretty excited about this since I, like a lot of people, have a fascination with serial killers. There’s just something so creepy and compelling about them.

It as a really interesting panel and the authors talked about why serial killers are so interesting to people. I think Dan Wells was right when he said that serial killers are America’s monsters, our version of the boogeyman. Barry Lyga said that serial killers are very, very real and that America leads the world in the number of serial killers (not sure if this is true but that’s scary). All in all a really cool panel. I went to the signing afterwards and got a copy of 172 Hours on the Moon signed by Johan Harstad (which I have been dying to read) and an ARC of Michelle Gagnon’s Don’t Turn Around.

mark z. danielewski, jordan harstard, michelle gagnon

barry lyga & dan wells

Next Up was the Remixed Fairy Tales and Superhero Lore panel. There was a bit of a line for this one (fairy tales are popular) but we ran into Cindy Pon (The Silver Phoenix) and Marie Lu (Legend) in line and had a nice chat with them while waiting. The panel included Sarah Maas (Throne of Glass), Marissa Meyer (Cinder), Rae Carson (The Girl of Fire and Thorns), Paul Tobin (Prepare to Die), Tom King (A Once Crowded Sky), Michael Scott (The Enchantress), Tracy Hickman (Wayne of Gotham), and Cecil Castellucci (The Year of the Beasts).

I am a big sucker for fairy tales so this type of panel always interests me. It was really cool to hear from all of these authors how fairy tales and folk tales have influenced them. Most of them agreed that one of the benefits of basing your story on a well known fairy tale is that the reader is already familiar with the story and character. But the downside of that is that you need to be really original in finding a way make that story unique and your own.

After wandering around a bit it was time for the Epic Fantasy War Panel. Panel included Brandon Sanderson (Alloy of Law), Raymond E. Feist (A Crown Imperiled), Robin Hobb (City of Dragons), N.K. Jemisin (The Inheritance Trilogy), Christopher Paolini (The Inheritance cycle), Rachel Hartman (Seraphina), Patrick Rothfuss (KingKiller Chronicles), Heather Brewer (The Legacy of Tril), and Lynn Flewelling (Casket of Souls). This panel ended up being more about fantasy than fantasy war I think but was still really cool. The authors talked about their methods of research, which included books, consulting the experts and visiting locales. Heather Brewer said that when she wrote The Legacy of Trill, she bought two wooden swords and beat the crap out of her husband. She wanted to know what it felt like to hold and swing a sword since she was writing about her character who did the same. She needed that visceral experience. And N.K. Jemisin said that she visited Hawaii (lucky!) and visited various volcanoes for research.

A Soldier’s Duty by Jean Johnson – military paranormal romance!My last panel of the day was What’s Up with Penguin. I always have fun at the Penguin panel learning about their upcoming releases. There are always drawings for book giveaways, too, but I never win. They showed us the gorgeous new cover to Patricia Briggs’s next Mercy Thompson novel, Frost Burned. I am so sad I didn’t snag a picture in time but it is so beautiful and I can’t wait to get it. A couple of books I am looking forward to after the panel:

Fated by Benedict Jacka – This is the first book in the series which came out this year. It’s been compared to Harry Dresden.

I will leave you with some random pics from the day. Recaps for Sat and Sun coming soon. If you want to see all of my pics, I do have a FB album for the whole thing here. Thanks for stopping by!