SDCC@Home: Friday: Planetary ‘Shopping’ Devastation, The Evolution of 'Battle-EVE’ and Comics are the 'DNA' of Hip-Hop.
Joseph Watkins (Da Watcher)
Friday’s events had me in a state of flux. As with any Friday at a con, my adventures usually involve shopping for Funkos, cosplay awesomeness and of course a panel or two. With COVID-19 making the physical presence obsolete, Captain Internet came in to save the day with virtual viewing pleasure. It’s amazing how technology has changed. When I was growing up, AOL instant messenger and a phone line made you a boss. Now, even with the most primitive of cell phones, you have the power of the world at your finger tips.
Planetary ‘Shopping’ DEVASTATION !!!
Trying to stay true to my values, I proceeded to look for any exclusive Funkos. Little did I know that I missed the opening ceremony……and the amazing low prices. The virtual release party which was scheduled for Wednesday 4 PM threw me for a loop: One, it was PST, so my time was 7 PM, two, it was posted on my company’s Instagram for days and three, I simply just forgot. I guess I’m not worthy this year.
But….feeling confident, I thought I could still get them if I went to the local retailers. I wasn’t trying to be greedy, I only wanted Super Sayian God Goku and Bakugo, from one store, Hot Topic. Armed with my credit card, I went to the website and typed the famous four letter word into the retailer’s search bar….
G……O……K……U
It came up, Hallelujah!!! Super Sayian God Goku in all its ‘pouncing form’. I scrolled down to click the ‘Add to Cart’ and I proceeded to hit enter, then all of a sudden….nothing.
It’s not working….IT’S NOT WORKING……WTF…….NOOOOO!!!!
I looked at the small fine print: OUT OF STOCK; I then searched for B…A….K….U….G….O….
OUT….. OF…… STOCK!!
Gun, POINT. Head. SHOT……GONE…ALL GONE……
Defeated, but not out, it looks like I’m going to have to wait a couple of months to try to grab’em. Still, that didn’t stop me from journeying into SDCCs virtual store.
SDCC, so loyal to pop culture, created a virtual shopping experience that allowed customers to purchase merchandise online. Located in the virtual section of SDCC, this section allowed every vendor to showcase their wares, with additional links to their websites and content.
One legendary figure I was able to glimpse and buy was the Limited Naruto Kurama By the Toy Company, Toynami, Inc…... Joy!!!, I checked to see if it was still available……YES!!! PayPal guided my fingers as I purchased this lovely token. I would have purchased more, but there was one thing that affected my purchasing decisions….Shipping; that invisible drainage on anyone’s wallet.
The Evolution of 'Battle-EVE: Charlize Theron
This heading doesn’t give the credit it’s due to the career of Famed Female Action Hero: Charlize Theron. Interviewed by IGN’s Terri Schwartz, Charlize dropped some serious GEMs on being a female in an action role. One notable feature about Charlize is that she takes risks and always reaches for the Gold. From playing Æon Flux to The Old Guard's Andromache; Mad Max: Fury Road's Furiosa to Atomic Blonde's Lorraine Broughton, she continues to set the bar high for the female protagonist. When asked about the roles she’s attracted to, her response was one for the ages:
“I think in general, I’m intrigued, by, I guess the messiness of being a human, especially a woman and I think, that for me when we talk about representation, not just racial representation and cultural representation, but female representation, I remember vividly just feeling such a lack of watching conflicted women in cinema. I felt like there was a part of me being an actor that [was] so unbelievably jealous of people like Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro who got to play all these really ‘f*cked up people’ and women very rarely got a chance to explore that, and it was like there was this arid fear of putting a woman in circumstances where she might not shine and it was, I do believe, you know society, has us still somewhat in the Madonna Whore Complex Box; like we can either be really good hookers or we can be really good mothers but anything in between, people are sometimes not brave enough to want to go explore [that] and it’s so sad to me because the richness of those stories are not actually only great; [but their] entertaining stories to tell [and] great movies to make, but it’s a disservice to women in general. We are more complicated than those two things and we can be so many things….” - Charlize Theron
In 2020, Charlize’s words speak volume as she recognizes the need to have more female action protagonists in multi-faceted roles. Going beyond the typical character of housewife and the cash-chasing hooker; Charlize’s drive to create a multitude of female roles that future actresses can portray demonstrate why she is considered one of the most influential actresses of all time.
IGN’S Editor in Chief of Entertainment, Terri Schwartz interviews the Famous Charlize Theron. by IGN.com
Comics & Hip-Hop
My last panel, in the spirt of the Source magazine, received 5 MICS. Hip-Hop and Comics: Cultures Combining. Moderated by Patrick A. Reed, the panelists included in the discussion were:
Headed by some of the culture’s greatest musicians, comic creators, and visual artists, they were examining the cross-generational impacts comics and hip-hop had on pop culture. in summation, comics are the DNA of Hip-Hop.
David F. Walker, writer, filmmaker and publisher, best describes the essence of Hip-Hop and Comic books and his take on the crossover:
“Hip-Hop was created out of, for lack of a better term the scraps or the discards of the elements, whether it was taking [music] samples [or] break beaks and mixing them. It was taking things that already existed and finding a way to create art within it and in a lot of ways comics was the same way because, comics was an industry that was made up primarily of people who were rejected for one reason or another in the early days in the 30s. Rejected from more traditional illustration jobs or more traditional writing jobs, in that regard comics is sought of this rogue industry for people that really had no place to go and in some ways hip-hop was this rogue artistic expression of people who had no other options, no other place to go and they were making something with what they had and I just find it interesting that comics and hip hop are essentially born out of the same set of circumstances…..”
-D. Walker
A GEM in its most simplest form. The origins of Hip-Hop, with its melodic notes of intricacy, was formed through the collections of various sampling and spoken word. This vanguard forever changed pop culture by influencing the way people dressed, spoke and danced.
Comics, by definition has also paralleled pop culture as well, through their imagery and wordplay they’ve created a multi-billion-dollar industry that has garnered political movements, new ideas and provided a futuristic view into many aspects of human ingenuity. Focusing on just hip-hop artists and pop culture, now, more than ever, the incorporation of comics and anime’ into artist’s verses and attire is ever present. From Megan Thee Stallion dressing up like Todoroki, from My Hero Academia to the mentioning of Professor X and KRS battling each other mentally; the amalgam of these two genres are only getting started and will be here till the end of time.
Hosted by Patrick Reed, Various artists discuss the cultures of Comics and Hip Hop - SDCC International
Revolutionary Insight
Today’s journey from home was definitely an opportunity to explore exclusives, learn about the rise of the female action hero and listen to the vets in the comic and hip-hop community discuss how two genres of creativity are necessary conduits of each other. While the ‘gems’ are forever ingrained in the technological ecosystem of the internet, the aspect of still not being at SDCC 2020 physically still lingers in my soul. It’s okay though. As I visited each panel, I still felt as though I was physically there somehow. Maybe I was too involved today?, Maybe I’m just psyching myself out?, or maybe, just maybe, I missed cons so much I didn’t mine being in front of my computer to get 3/4ths of the physical experience.
While I wasn’t there physically to see the panels first hand, SDCC did provided me an opportunity to glimpse the future of pop culture and I must say…
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!!
