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Jim Lee and Alex Ross, Moderator Dan Didio
Jim and Alex completed a cover for Wizard X magazine. It was their first collaboration. Brian Cunningham had asked Lee to participate. Jim Lee was in Italy at the time, and did his part there. He then Fed-Exed his art to Alex Ross to paint. Alex had sent Jim an oversized piece of paper, that was really thick. Lee complained in good humor that the paper was too big, and he didn't know the word for scissors in Italian and they were expensive anyway, so he drew his part and shipped it back to Alex. Alex contended jocularly that it was a challenge to paint all the way to the margins because Lee didn't give him any margins. Lee confided that Alex Ross has no email address, but his wife does. Much hilarity ensued.
Alex said that it was the first time he worked with an Image era penciler.
Lee admitted that he was penciling Superman in his hotel room currently. He reported that he hates a monthly schedule but has a 3-4 month lead currently. Jim stated that he would have never drawn X-Men had he known how much easier it was to do a single character book.
Alex Ross announced a new project that he is going to be doing entitled "Justice," which is going to be a bi-monthly Justice League tie-in book. Alex joked that he was going to be "a tracer," working with penciler Doug Braithwaite. He said that he wanted to do a monthly book, but if he was doing the penciling, the book would end up being too cost prohibitive and would eat up too much time. As it is, Ross says, he'll be cutting down on his convention time and will spend more time at home painting this bi monthly comic in the company of his dogs. Ross says this comic will feature the JLA he likes versus classic JLA villains. Alex admitted to the audience that Jim Lee was an inspiration to Alex to try to do a regular monthly or bimonthly book.
Jim Lee says he is obligated to attend a lot of conventions and that he spends a lot of time in the air. Jim, Alex and Brian Azarello attended the Padres/Cubs game the day before Wizard World started.
Alex Ross confided that he had been approached by Joel Schumacher to do costume sketches for the final Batman/Robin film. Alex states that they never quite hooked up and that he might have been able to prevent the horrid nipple costumes if they had actually made contact. Alex said that he's hoping that Brian Singer will call him about Superman.
Jim Lee admitted that Krypto is terribly difficult to draw, as is Superman. He said Daredevil is the hardest character to draw for Marvel. He stated that the reason for this was that both Supes and Daredevil are just human forms, and that there is no margin for drawing error.
Alex Ross said that Spiderman is the hardest character to draw due to the difficulty of making it look like there was a face inside of the soft mask. Jim Lee chimed in that indeed Spiderman was "a pain in the butt to draw" due to all of that webbing.
Jim Lee liked the full script approach that DC uses. He said it was nice to be able to draw characters with the facial expressions and the actions that matched the script. He admitted that sometimes the word balloons and the art didn't match when doing comics the Marvel way.
Both Alex Ross's and Jim Lee's favorite Green Lantern is Hal Jordan.
On responding to a question from the audience, Jim and Alex said they would collaborate on a Superman/Batman story arc "as long as Krypto wasn't involved."
Jim Lee said his influences are John Byrne, Frank Miller, and George Perez. On the fine art front, Jim said that he liked N.C. Wyeth and sons. Jim said that he likes looking at art in general. Alex Ross says that his influences are Norman Rockwell, Salvadore Dali, Bernie Wrightson, Neil Adams, and George Perez.
Jim said that his goal in doing 12 month runs on a certain character is to make a difference in the character.
Star Wars Panel
Unless you have been living in a cave somewhere, then you know the final Star Wars movie is entitled "Revenge of the Sith."
There are a lot of Star Wars DVD merchandise coming soon. Ewoks, Droids, and the 2 tv movies should be out on DVD shortly.
In September, a 4-disc set of the first 3 films will be released. The 3 films have been cleaned up, and digitally remastered, with full commentary by the people involved. On the 4th disc, there will be 3 featurettes, and discussion of the Star Wars legacy.
On September 21st, the Star Wars Battlefront videogame for X box will debut.
SpaceWars Galaxy, An Empire Divided Expansion Pack should be out in a couple of months. The title will be "Jump to Light Speed" and will feature over 100 space missions. There will be a Clone Wars game called Star Wars Public Command forthcoming. It will be "a creepy game," a shoot-em-up for one person.
THX 1138, George Lucas's first SF film, was restored will be re-released in limited theaters on September 10th. The DVD will be released September 14th. (Editor's note: I suggest you rent the movie before you buy it. I found it incredibly boring the first time I saw it. In fact, I suggest you go read the source book for the movie; THX 1138 by Ben Bova. While it's depressing, I found it much better than the film. Just my opinion, though.)
Cartoon Network will be running season 3 of Clone Wars starting next Easter. These will be new 12 minute episodes. 20 episodes of this series will be coming to DVD soon.
The Star Wars con, Celebration 3, will be April 21-24 2005 in Indianapolis, Indiana. For more information, you can visit the George Lucas fan club site at:
http://www.starwars.com/hyperspace/
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