Toronto Comic Book Expo 2004
Date: August 27th to 29th.
Attendance: 28,000
Last year: 19,000 to 20,000 - Major Increase!
This year I went up with a group of friends on Friday, stayed overnight at a
hotel and went home Saturday night. We had decided we were going to spend
part of the time visiting a comic shop inside Toronto.
We left around 12:30pm from Kingston and got to our Hotel around 3:00. We
got some food and then went to the con We arrived there around 4:20 thinking
much of the line/crowd would be gone, but we were wrong. I left and stood in
line for my Press badge, which was unusual as normally their would be only
two or three people in front of you. I would discover that the PR line and
the media line got all mixed up (many others did as well). I would soon get
my badge, but it would at least a half hour before I got into the con itself
as there was a huge line up to get in. There was security around to prevent
people from butting in line at least up close to the escalator up to the con
floor.
I walked around for a while taking pictures, greeting people, doing a little
shopping. When shopping I look for the 40 off trade area's and there was
only a few to be found. Thankfully I was able to get some good books out of
the ones that were there due to getting in earlier than most. Bargain
hunters typically wait until the last day but by then the really good stuff
is already gone.
My friends decided they had enough of the line up and quickly left to visit
Toronto area comic shops. They were used to line ups but none that size.
They came back around 8:30 that evening, got their one day ticket and used
it on Saturday.
While looking around I notice the "sword/knife" booth had a bunch of police
tape around it and police there taking notes, talking to people. I asked one
of the crowd what was going on and they said the booth was being busted as
some of the stuff they were selling was illegal in Canada. I started taking
pictures and one of the women running the booth told me to "Get Lost...
please." I just circled around and took pictures with other folks doing the
same thing. One woman told me "I've been waiting for this to happen for 5
years." Indeed this was a surprise as this booth has been a regular since
I've been going to cons. This would become a story in the news media soon
afterwards.
The comics section at the con this year was reduced, Anime was just as big
if not bigger. Horror made a big splash and there was some sci-fi stuff
there. The studio's like Aspen and Dreamwave had their big booths as always.
There was miscellaneous stuff there line a line of X Box consoles for people
to play, home made horror movies, an animation software demo, special
effects things - particularly a full female body corpse, naked and slightly
cut up. This was censored the next day with bowls overtop the naughty parts.
I got pictures of it when it was uncensored though.
Artists and stars were placed all over the con floor. Usually they are in
one area. I know some of them were unhappy as they weren't getting the foot
traffic they normally did. They really squeezed stuff in with usually open
area's now filled with tables. Ty Templeton was stuck behind the escalator
but he moved closer to where the other artists were by Saturday.
I left and went home around a bit after 8pm. Got home, got off my feet for a
bit. Watched some Star Trek, showered, got some supper and went to sleep. My
friends came in later, woke me up in the process and we all slept until 6:30
am.
In a half hour we were all ready and out the door. One really bad thing
about Toronto is trying to find a place to eat breakfast. We walked around
down town for a half hour before finding a place that was open. But it was
worth it. A place called Marchi's that was great, but different. When I go
up there next year, I'll have my breakfast there.
We arrived at the con at 9:00 to get in line for the 10:00 opening. Even
then, I wasn't able to get in until 10:45. In 15 minutes was a panel I did
not want to miss. George Perez showing how he drew the Avengers.
George was left to himself pretty much. He showed up, with nobody at the con
to help him, the audience told him how to use the machine that was already
set up for him. All he had to do was start drawing on paper. George
presented himself and went right away working on stuff, showing how he does
profile and the differences between Captain America and Superman. He talked
about Byrne's way of doing the Superman S and that was two fishes, which got
some laughter. He mentioned Captain America has 4 points on his wings. He
also talked about having to make Superman's curl look natural and not tacked
on.
He mentioned he hadn't worked in 6 months, due to hurting his hands and the
success of JLA/Avengers. The audience laughed when he said he thinks about
going to work again, then he gets another huge royally check and then
decides he doesn't need too. He said he's never been not working for this
long in his entire career. What hurt his hand was drawing JLA/Avengers #3
where there was 200 characters. He said with issue #2, he made a check list
of all the characters that he was going to draw and after submitting it,
they told him he forgot 5 of them. He had already had the artwork
professionally scanned in and everything. He had to do and overlay and draw
the other 5 characters, send it in and they digitally combined the two and
put it in.
George told a story about when he was working on Teen Titans, his wife asked
Marv Wolfman for an easy cover to draw because George was working to hard on
them. Marv came up with a simple two earths colliding and a couple of head
shots. George couldn't just pick two heads so he did 98 of them!
He said he never thumbnail sketches covers, which drive editors nuts because
they like to play around with those thing before drawing them. He says he
frequently changes his mind when drawing the covers and mentioned his one
idea for a JLA/Avengers cover was to have everybody fly out you.
George talked about perspective and how it was hard to keep it while
drawing. He said he always draws his backgrounds first so he has a sense of
proportion to use first. He says outer space drawings are very hard because
they have no background. He has to use the characters themselves for the
perspective and proportion. Wasp, he said was hard as she is very small but
has to draw her up close to see her and make everybody else look normal
sized by being way behind her.
He mentioned he loves drawing capes as they fill in room and he doesn't have
to draw other characters in them. He talked about Batman's cape, being big
and this is the reason why Batman works alone and nobody stands beside him -
his cape is too big.
George said he got a fan letter once from somebody happy that he made 6
different types of curly hair when he was doing Wonder Woman. He went on to
talk about making every character different and giving them their own body
language. He mentioned giving Wonder Woman Roman/ mythological curls and
Scarlet Witch gypsy curls He also said that when he's drawing female
characters, he spends half his time drawing their hair.
George pressed on that there should be normal people around to make the
super characters look super. He said for every Superman there is a Clark
Kent. He believes too many characters are drawn muscular. He joked the Hulk
keeps getting bigger and bigger because everybody else does and Hulk is
supposed to be the strongest of them all.
Somebody in the audience asked him about his lines showing up when it gets
reproduced into a comic book. He joked that before people said he was
masterbaiting on the page as he was drawing details that nobody would see
and enjoy other than him. He says the reproduction technology has finally
caught up to him and now all his little lines now show up on the page. He
says a good colorist helps out by using lighter colours on smaller
characters so everything shows through.
George was asked about what pen he uses, he said he uses the 104 pen because
it's the finest pen. He also said he's very double jointed and needs to feel
he resistance of he pen on the paper. He says he can't use a brush for that
reason and admires people who is able to use one.
He talked about how drawing keeps him socially active as he's always
thinking, talking out what the characters are doing and saying.
George stressed that you need to learn from real life. Real people. He talks
about how he goes back to his old books to look stuff up and is still
learning from them. He used a muscled suit as an example of somebody who
learns by their favourite superhero artists and not going beyond that. He
says you need to learn from real life. Says digital cameras area godsend for
this stuff. He says that there are a lot of educational material out there
to help people today.
He mentioned that with one book he deliberately made a character left handed
so they would have different body language and keep himself "in the scene"
as it's easy to forget about that stuff when working on a page.
George finished up by talking about why he loves doing team books. Says he
always tried to do them, despite it being more work for the same pay vs a
solo title. George likes team books because if he gets board of drawing one
character he can just switch and do another.
The panel ended with an applause, everybody was happy and throughly
entertained for the hour. Afterwards George talked with fans, posed for
pictures and more. He was great.
Immediately after this was the Cup of Joe (Quesada) panel. It filled right
up, with people standing in the back and sitting on the floor. Joe Quesada
had editor C. B. Cebulski with him.
Joe starts off telling us he does these panels for the fans, because when he
was a fan he had wanted to talk to the EIC and wasn't able to. The panels
was strictly him answering questions. Somebody asked him about getting a
sketch, he says he stopped doing them 8 years ago because of Ebay. He says
it rubs him every wrong way to take something given for free and sell it on
Ebay.
He was asked about She Hulk, he said said it's going 12 issues for sure and
maybe more after that.
Somebody asked about Garth Ennis doing Ghost Rider. Joe was like "Garth
Ennis?" not admitting anything. He did say Ghost Rider fans would be very
happy come 2005.
He said there was no immediate plans for Agent X.
A fan said he was offended by the anti-French line Captain America said in
the Ultimates book. Joe personally apologized, but said you will always
offend somebody and that line was very memorable. He says Marvel likes to
push the envelope and take chances, sometimes they go too far. C.B. Cebulski
said Mark Millar had a signing in France a month after that was published
and his appearance didn't go so well.
Somebody asked if Marvel was going to follow DC in lowering the prices on
their TPB's. Joe said he's divorced himself from the Trade Department and
has no knowledge of that stuff. He wasn't even aware DC had lowered their
prices. He mentioned 4 years ago they didn't have a TPB department and today
they've got a lot of trades and are about as good as many publishers, but he
stressed that the TPB department are two people. He said people with
questions on trades should go to his message board and ask them there as one
of them hang out there and does answer questions.
Joe said Epic is dead. He said the Max line was never intended to be a
permanent line, just a place where they could publish great stories that
can't be done in Marvel Universe proper. He said it will be used on maybe
one title a month on books that warrant it like Supreme Power. He mentioned
a Dr. Spectrum book is going to come out from there next.
Joe says he knows nobody believes him but Identity Disk was not meant to
cause confusion with Identity Crisis. He says the original name for Identity
Disk was The Sixth. He said a similar name was going to be used, but story
was about an Identity Disk so he suggested they change it to Identity Disk.
He said that it came out the same time DC's Identity Crisis was coincidence
and he laughed at it.
Being in Canada, somebody had to ask about Alpha Flight. A fan wanted to
know why it was done the way it was and why Marvel doesn't get a Canadian to
write it. Joe said they wanted Alpha Flight to be different and not have it
be exactly like the X-books. He says doesn't look at peoples nationality
when accepting proposals. He says he looks for the best proposals, he said
Lodbell did the proposal and he liked it and that's the way it works for
every project.
Joe was asked about the Chicago incidence between Bob Wayne and Bendis and
his reaction to it. Joe said there are people at DC he does and doesn't
like, but he puts that aside in order to make sellable comics because the
comic industry needs as many of them as they can get. He thinks it's a
disservice to put personal stuff in front of the lively hood of retailers
and the enjoyment of fans.
Joe said NYX will end with issue 7. He says going to selfishly end it there
as those characters he feels a personal attachment to and doesn't want
anybody else writing them.
People asked about Runaways. C. B. Cebulski said the Digest Sized books are
doing very well and Runaways will continue thanks to the fans. He said the
series is going to 18 issues, then 2nd season starts with the same creative
team.
Joe talked about how he has to be careful in how he exposes new writers to
fans. He says if they get too much work right away people will turn on them
viciously thinking they are getting favourable treatment. He says Robert
Kirkman is exclusive to Marvel, but can do other work and they will be using
him on books.
He said another new writer that they've yet to publish is Greg Pak. He said
he's been dicked around by Marvel and if he was him he would have quit by
now. He said he's written 6 different things that will never see the light
of day because of legal reasons. He did say he is working with Greg Horn on
a Pheonix mini series.
Joe said the Icon line is not meant to compete with Image. Joe says he likes
Image and that's where a lot of new talent comes from and where talent
develops and finds their voice. He said he personally helped JRJr get
started at Image by calling them and getting them to take on Gray Area.
When it comes to killing characters, Mark Millar wants to kill everybody. He
says once Mark wanted to kill Black Widow and Joe said in response, "Okay, I
get to kill Jessica Jones."
Joe hates alternative covers and held off on doing them as much as possible
but when everybody else does them, he has to do them too in order to remain
competitive. He says retailers and fans want them so their doing them. Joe
thinks variants hurt lower tier books, because everybody has their budget on
what they're going to spend on comics and when a variant comes out people
will buy that instead of trying a new title or will drop a series in order
to get the variant instead. He also said that retailers vary quite
differently on how they want them solicited. He says some like the variants
rare, others want them 50/50, there is no pleasing everybody.
Quesada explained that Dead still means dead. He says the only way somebody
comes back is if they come up with a really good reason for it, make use of
the character and comes up with a clever way of bringing a character back.
He said Josh Wheldon did that for Colossus. He mentions having to fight hard
on many people who wanted to bring Colossus back. He also wishes he could
get Josh for longer than a year but he's very busy with Hollywood stuff.
He mentioned they have regular "fun" meetings with marketing as everybody
has their own ideas on how to sell comics and everybody butts heads.
Marvel is the only company accepting submissions now, as long as people sign
the release and follow the guidelines. He says nobody will rip you off. He
said if somebody suggested using an idea and ripping off the writer, Joe
would immediately fire them. Marvel now has dedicated people for reading
submissions and they give the really good ones to him for review. Joe also
said they've gotten new writers from it, Greg Pak being one of them.
After the show, Quesada and C. B. posed for pictures and chatted with fans.
After the panels I wandered around for a bit taking pictures, doing a bit of
shopping. It met up with internet pal and message board regular Dwight
Williams and bought his first pro work - a title called Evening Shift. The
place was jammed. I couldn't help but notice there were very long lines to
get up the escalator throughout the day. I didn't eat a single hot dog
because the stands outside all had long line ups.
I then went up to Paradise Comics and got my prize. A few months ago I went
to the Paradise Comics Toronto Comic Con and donated to ACTOR. I ended up
winning a statue of Death from Neil Gaiman's Sandman. While there I chatted
with the owner Peter and bought the Todd McFarlane Visionaries: Spider-Man
Vol. 2.
I then went back to the con. Talked with Peter Laird and got his e-mail
address. If everything goes good we'll get an interview done soon.
I also chatted with a number of comic dealers and artists. Some of the
dealers said it was a bad show for them. More people coming through, but
less sales. Most were happy and say they were doing as good or better than
last year. Everybody liked the more people, but would like it to translate
it into sales. There was a general feeling that Anime was taking over the
con. One retailer reduced his tables from 5 to 3, next year he thinks he'll
reduce again to 2. He says there is a lot of dumping going on at the con and
thinks that's all it's going to be used for in the future.
I went around and saw Cirroc Lofton, saw him chatting with fans about a DS9
film. One won't be done (according to Michael Dorn at this con). And Cirroc
said every time he asks about it he's told it won't be done for budgetary
reasons. He really wants them to do one and do one soon ("before I lose more
hair" he joked). He thinks now that the ST: TNG is done with films they
should move on to DS9.
There was a panel with LeVar Burton and Michael Dorn. Originally it was
supposed to be Patrick Stewert but he had to postpone coming to Toronto at
the last minute. He said he will make his next public appearance at Toronto
in a month or so. Everybody that came to see him got rain checks to see that
show. People were happy seeing Worf and Geordi though. The two were very
entertaining and the fans rarely asked any stupid, geeky questions.
We left at 6PM on Saturday. Usually I like being at the con on Sunday's for
the deals but I got about 12 good trades for good prices. I suspect those
showing up Sunday's looking for cheap books will find fewer good ones worth
purchasing ;)
I strongly suspect the amount of people that came to the con took everybody
by surprise. Next year they are going to have to get more space and hire
more staff to deal with the people. One thing they got right was the
Advanced Tickets people has much smaller line ups this year. Still it was
way too many people for the space provided. I already know some folks that
won't go to this con because of the crowded atmosphere and if it gets worse
I'm afraid more people will skip this con for the others that happen in and
around Toronto. Especially comic book fans as that section feels like it's
shrinking with more Anime and now Horror getting space.
I'm happy there was somebody else driving me home because this con took a
lot out of me. I enjoyed my time there though.
Check out the pictures I took at the con. I've got pics of cops busting the
sword booth, naked & cut up dead ladies, comic book pro's, people in
costumes and more.
Regards,
Jamie Coville
2004-09-19
http://www.TheGraphicNovels.com
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