Philadelphia Comic Con - Day Three

Another good day at the con. Here are a few observations about this year’s Philadelphia Comic Con:

~ As my buddy Ray noted, booth babes are back. There are the Suicide Girls of course. I’ve never been able to figure out what that is all about other than hot scantily clad women posing and vamping. This year there is also the massage station manned by hot female masseuses. To me, this seems like a step backwards. Just as we guys are finally getting our female significant others to come to these things, we are presented with a reason for them not to let us come. Not cool. Well, cool, but not cool.

~ I’m not a drinker so maybe this has been going on for a while and I just haven’t noticed, but has beer always been available at the comic con? It just seems like another bad idea to me. If you think a fat sloppy fanboy in a makeshift Batman costume arguing post-Crisis continuity is annoying – wait until you get him drunk.

~ There's a secret phenomen that happens at all comic book conventions late in the afternoon on Sundays, and Wizard World Philly is no exception. The dealers drop their prices, sometimes drastically. The thinking being that what they sell, they don't have to carry home. Lots of deals happening here today.

~ Friday after the show I went to the store and bought a whole package of hot dogs, a package of hot dog rolls and a Coke for the same price I could have had one dog and soda at the Convention Center. Wow. This is like going to the Wachovia Center or seeing a movie at Loews.

~ Oh my god oh my god oh my god! I saw the Batmobile, the real Batmobile!

~ Linda Hamilton does in fact have an identical twin sister who is local to the area. My question is – does she come to conventions and pretend to be her sister? I swear I saw a much younger looking Linda Hamilton on Friday than I did on Saturday. Just wondering.

~ Can someone tell me where they are giving away Stormtrooper armor? They must be giving it away because the Stormtroopers are everywhere. I think they are multiplying because there are more at the con everyday. I certainly hope they all used the little Stormtrooper’s room before the con because those things must be hell to take off. And doesn’t wearing a Stormtrooper costume sorta promote fascism anyway? Think about it. You know I’m right.

~ Khoi Pham is not only the nicest guy in comics, a featured guest at this con, and one of Marvel’s ‘young guns’ from last year, but also one of my favorite artists. I think he should be entered into the pantheon of great Avengers artists – along with Byrne, Heck, Buscema, Yu, Cho, Brown, Cockrum, Adams, Epting and the master of them all, Perez. Take a look at this terrific Mighty Avengers page I am now the proud owner of, and tell me otherwise. The dude rocks.

Thank you to Jerry Milani and all the folks at Wizard for putting up with us, our not-so-complimentary reports and of course for hooking us up with press passes. Thank you! Next year’s convention is already planned and scheduled for June 10-12 2011 – save the dates!

Pepsi Throwback

When I first heard of this I was intrigued and had to find some. Pepsi Throwback is basically Pepsi Cola with sugar instead of the corn syrup normally used. Supposedly it tastes like Pepsi used to back in the day, before the Health Nazis ruined everything that was tasty in this country.

Just for the record, Pepsi Throwback is a different formula than the sugar-for-corn-syrup variation that is kosher for Passover once a year. It should be noted that while I’ve never noticed a taste difference between kosher and regular Pepsi, there is a significant and yummy difference over at the Coca-Cola camp. Kosher Coke rocks.

After much searching I finally found some Pepsi Throwback at a local Wawa. At the first taste, it was as if it was 1975 again and I was drinking from a swirled glass bottle. The taste was a rush of flavor, flavor I hadn’t had in decades – now this was Pepsi! I really did not expect the taste to be so different and exhilarating.

A second gulp and a third made me a bit dizzy. This stuff was out of the range of Jolt and perhaps more Red Bull. I was surprised. Great for a sip, but not for a whole bottle. Bring on the regular Pepsi. For those who enjoy the Throwback, it’ll be out there throughout April. And for the record, a Mountain Dew Throwback is also available, but my mind boggles at what that tastes like... possibly a twenty-four hour sugar high per ounce...

The Big Contour

The change has been gradual over a couple months but now it's fairly complete and I defy you to find the old-style two-liter bottles of Coca-Cola anywhere. In my opinion, this is a bad thing.

The 'contour bottle' (tm) has long been a trademark of the Coca-Cola, for over ninety years as a matter of fact. Whether they ever trademarked it or not, the instantly recognizable package can not be mistaken for anything but Coke. They currently use it for all sizes of their plastic bottled containers - most recently as its two-liter size.

Coca-Cola claims it "offers a significant advantage for consumers beyond its classic good looks -- it is also easier to hold and easier to pour." I must disagree. Among the problems of this new bottle is the much smaller lip under the cap that makes it harder to grip than previously. The contour bottle is only easy to hold when one can grasp it with one hand, in my opinion, and that's just not possible with the two-liter version.

My main gripe with the new two-liter contour is that it is almost one to two inches taller than the old standard bottle used for soft drinks. This makes it impossible to store vertically in my fridge, and I imagine, most refrigerators. It's also too tall to fit in the fridge door.

It's my hope that Coke will go back to the standard bottle, or at least give consumers a choice. After all, they have corrected mistakes before. Remember New Coke? Bottom line, I love Coke, and I prefer Coke, but I don't mind Pepsi... and Pepsi will fit in my refrigerator door...


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Super Bowl Aftermath: Commercials

Despite one of the better (or at least more interesting) commercials this year being banned from being broadcast, there were still a few ads that stood out during this year's Super Bowl.

The main idea is to surprise, entertain, and most importantly let the viewer remember the name of the product when it's all over. I mean everyone remembers the amazing Big Brother commercial from 1984 - but come on, who remembers what they were selling?

Let's start with a good one from Doritos that aired early in the game...

It met criteria by making me laugh and I knew what they were selling. On the bad side, there were a few that creeped me out. Like the NBC ads for "Heroes" where the casts of that show, "Medium" and "Chuck" lipsynced to an old Motown tune. As a matter of fact, all of the commercials for NBC shows were pretty bad, and disrepectful to the shows themselves. Were they trying to turn folks off?

None of the Coke, Pepsi or Budweiser ads did anything for me, and that "Pepsuber" bit not only made me not want to drink Pepsi but also stop watching "Saturday Night Live." Speaking of bad commercials, what was up with that Cash4Gold.com one with Ed McMahon and MC Hammer? Was that for real, or just a cruel joke?

A joke that worked and that I loved was Alec Baldwin for Hulu...

My absolute favorite of the night however was the CareerBuilder.com commercial with the fuzzy logic ad...

Although I could see it getting very annoying if it starts playing repetitively in general circulation.

So anyone know who won the game?