by Gabriel Neeb
The 2012 Convention is winding up and news about who will attend next year is starting to emerge.
At the Fables panel in Room 6DE, Fables creator Bill Willingham announced that he would not be attending the 2013 convention. This was not unexpected given a convention dedicated to Fables will take place in (snowy) Rochester, Minnesota from 22 to 24 March 2013. As the majority of the panel was a celebration of the series’s 10th Anniversary, the atmosphere of the panel, panelists, and attendees was receptive and tranquil. So when Willingham announced that he would not attend in 2013, it came as a mild shock to the audience.
However, for those who follow Willingham on Twitter he revealed an incident which occurred around 4:30 pm where:
Some ridiculous bodyguard of some pissant little minor TV personality, I couldn’t recognize, just threw a hand in my chest, to clear the…
…path for his pissant little celebrity, who’s actually been on TV once. Dear pissant little wannabe celebrity, next time come heavy.
Later, Willingham was able to identify the “pissant little minor TV personality” as:
Okay, I found out the diminutive celebrity who needed the pushy bodyguard in order to feel adequate was some lost soul named Paul Scheer.
(I know, I’ve never heard of him either. Why did he need a bodyguard?)
Whether this incident was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” is unknown, but it seems reflective of some feelings of many long time attendees, that Comic Con has changed, and not necessarily for the better.
Paul Scheer has claimed on his Twitter feed, that he had no personal security and that:
Been wracking my brain. It might have been the SDCC security who we were forced to have. He was a dick. Not affiliated.
However intended, such a statement is a long way from any sort of reconciliation or apology. It is also a failure to acknowledge that whatever action that occurred against Willingham, was done on the behalf of Mr. Scheer.
Also unknown: will there be a Fables panel in 2013 at SDCC.
Well let’s not beat about around the bushes, we all know comic in comic con is just grandfathered in. The show has been co-opted for a long time, it’s become a massive business machine and I’m not really that surprised that the VIPs don’t necessarily have anything to do with comics. There are lots of people who go there just to see the movie and TV show panels and see previews, but they don’t read or care about comics or where so many of those ideas come from. I mean it’s marketed as a celebration of geek culture but it’s just a celebrity zoo, which is fine but I do think it’s time we change the name to reflect reality.
>> Kurt, the point isn’t that people ought to recognise Scheer’s celebrity, just that I think it’s stupid both Willingham and the writer of this article felt it necessary to say they hadn’t heard of him. Who cares? >>
I don’t care whether it’s someone I’ve heard of or not, myself, but the “Hey, you’re just not looking!” response seems to suggest that he should be looking.
>> So he is supposed to apologize for the behaviour of security personnel whom he didn’t ask for and who don’t work for him?>>
If someone assigned to follow me around and see to my security shoves someone else, I don’t care if I’m not paying the security guy. Hell, if a total stranger shoved someone out of my way because they felt that I was such hot shit I shouldn’t be bothered with peons, I’d make sure the guy who got shoved was okay, and apologize to him. The idea that it ain’t my problem if it ain’t my payroll seems pretty callous.
In any case, judging from their own later tweets, Bill and Scheer both seem to be laughing it off, so there doesn’t seem to be much need to get up in arms about it on either of their behalf.
But people have been griping about SDCC security for a decade or more; if there’s something that needs fixing, that’s where it is.
Wow…what a dick Willingham is
I have to assume Paul didn’t have control of this security personnel or wasn’t aware of any physical interactions being done on his behalf. Paul Scheer is an incredibly nice person.
I understand avoiding the con, as Comicon hasn’t interested me in a long time because of the Hollywood takeover, but I just don’t want people blaming Paul for Willingham’s avoidance of the convention, or people thinking Paul has a huge ego.
Paul’s right, San Diego Con security is mandatory even when the person doesn’t want it or need it and in no way is the person with it throwing their weight around. If the guard was a dick he should be called a dick and Paul called him a dick. Done and done.
The problem isn’t the celeb and if you’re heard of him or not but the disrespectful security and the con not having ways for people in panels to get to them quickly without disrupting things for folks on the floor.
And Paul’s work is well worth checking out if you like laughing and junk.
Word has it SOYLENT INTERNATIONAL will begin test marketing its delicious multi-colored food bars @ SDCC in 2013.
I’m friends with Paul Scheer and he’s a great guy. I’m friends with Bill Willingham and he’s a great guy. I’ve heard of both of them.
And I would shove either of them out of the way to meet George RR Martin. So there.
I don’t think Willingham is a dick. I do however think almost every security person has an over inflated sense of self importance.
George RR Martin
>>
That’s that guy who wrote SAND KINGS?
I’m really not surprised… Half of comics news is now dedicated towards blockbuster movies and stuff that has nothing to do with comics other than being on some sort of nerd periphery.
Comics has been mined for all its ideas from folks who have zero imagination and made them rich. We are all muddling around in a strip mine panning for scraps. Golden Age, Silver Age, Copper Age and now we’re scrounging in mud.
Willingham sounds like a macho ass, though. Thinly veiled physical posturing just sounds sad coming from an adult.
..every security person has an over inflated sense of self importance.
>>
I think there might actually be some who really do keep things in some sort of practical prospective.
I’d push over Ed Brubaker, Kurt Busiek, Paul Scheer, Bill Willingham, and George R.R. Martin for the chance to meet the actress who played Daenerys.
>> I would shove either of them out of the way to meet George RR Martin. So there. >>
I ran into George at the DC offices last time I was up there, and we were complimentary at each other. It was nice.
>> I’d push over Ed Brubaker, Kurt Busiek, Paul Scheer, Bill Willingham, and George R.R. Martin for the chance to meet the actress who played Daenerys.>>
That’s why she has security…
kdb
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Aaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
Kurt wins.