S.G. Browne

Another year, another San Diego Comic-Con.

I say that like I’ve been going all my life, or at least since 1970, when the first incarnation of the event took place at the U.S. Grant Hotel. Back then, the one-day convention drew 145 attendees. This year, the number of attendees was closer to 145,000.

I’ve only been twice, in 2009 and this year, but I think one of the most enjoyable aspects of Comic-Con is that you have nearly 150,000 people in one place bumping into one another, waiting in line, crowding into limited spaces, and no one has an attitude. Everyone’s happy to be there. It’s like one big family.

But to be truthful, if you’ve never been to Comic-Con, it’s kind of hard to explain what to expect. It’s like the Matrix. No one can tell you about it. You have to see it for yourself.

However, for the uninitiated, here’s a sampling of what you would have found during the four-day event at the San Diego Convention Center:

• A harem of slave Princess Leias
• A battalion of Klingon warriors
• Multiple Spidermans and Batmans
• Lines of fans waiting for an autograph from George R. R. Martin
• Panels on LOST, True Blood, and Family Guy
• A William Shatner Star Trek documentary hosted by Kevin Smith
• Full-contact medieval armor battles
• A mechanical shark ride
• And Conan O’Brien marching through the Gaslamp Quarter

Personally, I had the chance to meet a lot of great people, spend time with friends, do a couple of signings, and sit on a panel with six other authors discussing the challenges of having a relationship with someone who’s not human. Most of the standing-room-only crowd was there to see the next panel for the Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time, but it was still a fun and lively panel.

A special thanks goes out to Penguin, Mysterious Galaxy Books, and Geekscape for their support and general awesomeness. See you next year!

For the past month I’ve been working on a collection of short stories that I plan on releasing as an e-book sometime later this year. Some of the stories were written between 1997-2004 and some of them have appeared in anthologies and collections, but never before have they been collected together. And several of them are brand spanking new.

The collection will include the following:

“A Zombie’s Lament” – My two-thousand-word short story about a newly reanimated corpse that was the genesis of Breathers.

“Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel” – One of my newest creations, a cautionary tale about what happens to a writer when he purchases words from a drug dealer.

“Dream Girls” – A futuristic story about sexual obsession, extraterrestrial intelligence,the death of Marilyn Monroe, and the assassination of JFK.

“Softland” – A family of luck poachers living in central California deal with the consequences of their actions. This story spawned my next novel, Lucky Bastard.

“The Sodom and Gomorrah Shore” – The Seven Deadly Sins in the original reality television show, set back during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. This one was written after Fated.

“Zombie Gigolo” – The shortest story in the collection, this took third place in the Gross Out Contest at the 2008 World Horror Convention.

There are four other stories, including “Dr. Lullaby” and “My Ego is Bigger than Yours,” both of which are sneak peeks of two novels I’m currently writing. The collection will also include an introduction and author notes for each story so you get some kind of background information on how the stories came to be written.

I’m excited to have the chance to share these with everyone, so I’ll keep you posted as to when you can expect the collection to be available. And thanks for reading!

I’ll be attending Comic-Con in San Diego from July 21-24 and will be appearing at the following signings and panels:

THURSDAY, July 21
Signing: Geekscape Booth (#4016)
1:00pm – 2:00pm

I’ll have bookmarks, postcards, and a limited supply of 11″ x 17″ posters of Breathers and Fated that I’ll be giving away. While I won’t have any novels with me, feel free to bring along your copy and I’ll be happy to sign it. You can also purchase Breathers and Fated at the Mysterious Galaxy Booth (#1119)

SATURDAY, July 23
Panel: Room 6A
1:45pm – 2:45pm

Vampires and Others – How to make a relationship work when you or your significant other lack a pulse, or face other mortal-challenged issues.

Relationship advice from: Patricia Briggs (The Mercy Thompson series), Nancy Holder (The Crusade series), Linda Thomas-Sundstrom (The Golden Vampire), S.G. Browne (Fated), Clay & Susan Griffith (The Vampire Empire series), and Christine Cody (Bloodlands).

Autograph session for the panel to follow:

Signing: Autograph Area 8
3:00pm – 4:00pm

At this point I don’t anticipate any additional appearances, so if you’re at the convention on Thursday and/or Saturday, swing by the Geekscape Booth or the panel and say “hi.”

When I saw the slate of films scheduled to be released this summer, I found myself filled with anticipation for more than a dozen upcoming movies, including Super 8, Green Lantern, X-Men: First Class, Horrible Bosses, Cowboys & Indians, and The Tree of Life. While I haven’t seen all of these films yet, I have to say that so far I’ve been underwhelmed.

Super 8 was fun and entertaining, but I felt it lacked the emotional resonance of the Spielberg films to which it paid homage. Horrible Bosses wasn’t nearly as funny as I’d hoped it would be, especially considering the cast. And while I appreciated the acting and what Malick was saying in The Tree of Life, if I want to spend half an hour watching the evolution of life on Earth, I’ll turn on The Discovery Channel.

Maybe it’s because I have a subscription to Entertainment Weekly. Maybe it’s because I’m too familiar with the actors and directors. Maybe it’s because I read and hear too much hype about these films so that by the time I actually see them, they can’t possibly live up to my expectations.

I remember going to see movies and not knowing anything about them except maybe a little word of mouth buzz. I didn’t know anything about films like Big, The Untouchables, or Beverly Hills Cop before I saw them other than who the stars of the films were. I had no idea what the movies were about or who was directing them or what critics were saying. I don’t even remember seeing any television commercials. Or billboards. Or ads on the sides of buses. I just went to see films and enjoyed them without any preconceived notions.

I didn’t even have any expectations when I went to see Star Wars for the first time in 1977. And I didn’t have a clue what Raiders of the Lost Ark was about until I saw the film on video a year after it left the theaters. But today, the advertising is impossible to miss.

I don’t know if the saturation of information and hype is partially to blame for my less-than-enthusiastic response to some of these films, but so far the best movie I’ve seen this summer has been Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, which had no significant marketing or hoopla surrounding it but which was a fun, intelligent, and creative film. And which should at least get Allen an Oscar nomination for Best Original Script.

As this is Independence Day here in the United States, I thought I’d celebrate in blog style by reviewing Independence Day, my favorite of the patriotic/Fourth of July themed films. Yes, I realize I’m shunning Born on the Fourth of July, The Patriot, and the grandfather of patriotic films, Yankee Doodle Dandy, but I wasn’t alive in 1942, I though The Patriot was a little self-indulgent, and I was never really sure if I liked Born on the Fourth of July. So the decision was pretty much a no-brainer.

Which, I realize, is what many people felt about Independence Day. It lacked smarts and was just a silly disaster film that disappointed all of those expecting something more serious and heart-pounding and terrifying. But I wasn’t one of those people. I just wanted to see the White House and New York City get blown up and I wasn’t disappointed.

Yes, Independence Day is a bit of a throw back to the disaster films of the 1970s, with a bunch of human interest story lines that can detract from the action, but I’m a fan of Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith and their banter in the alien spacecraft still makes me chuckle.

I admit that there was a significant cornball-factor, especially the characters played by Judd Hirsch and Randy Quaid. Not to mention the inspirational speech delivered by Bill Pullman. But Brent Spiner as the crazed research scientist was delightful and the special effects were a lot of fun. So if you’re in the mood for some good old-fashioned alien-invasion, blow-up-the-world fun, give this one a look. Or watch it again for the first time.

And if you want to blow off watching the fireworks and make it a double feature of guilty pleasure patriotic disaster films, throw on Armageddon and get your Aerosmith on.