Location: San Diego Convention Center
Attendance: No numbers have been officially been released as of yet, but I think it's safe to say it's 130,000+ which is maximum capacity as usual.
157 Photos
Preview Night (Wednesday)
I discovered the convention was nice this year and began professional registration earlier than the usual 3pm start time. I got there a little after 3pm and had no troubles getting a badge for myself and a guest. Friends of mine got their badges prior to 3pm.
I didn't bother to spend time trying to find a line up inside the convention for when the doors opened, instead I hung around Horton Plaza doing some shopping with some friends. We got there a bit after 6pm and there was no problem getting in quickly.
I spent much of preview night around the golden/silver age dealers area. I did not see that many people in costumes that night, but there were a few. One thing I did notice was a number of people wearing google glasses. It will be curious to see if they pull together some sort of comic con experience out of them.
One difference I noticed was the first aisle 100 was a blank wall with people looking at the back of aisle 200 booths, with 1 exception, who may have regretted not changing their set up. There were 2 upsides to this, 1st it was a very quick way of walking from the back to the front of the hall, 2nd people were using the plugs on the wall to recharge their electrical devices. The using of plugs to recharge phones/tablets/laptops was a constant thing I saw throughout the convention.
Thursday
When I took the shuttle bus to the con I found they made a nice improvement of putting handles on the seat of the bus. This allowed people to ride while standing up which meant more people on the bus. Before if you couldn't sit you didn't get on and people would have to wait for the next bus. In years past I felt sad for folks who likely waited 10-15 minutes for the shuttle only to find out it was full and they would have to wait for the next one. That said, I was only on a bus with seat handles once. The rest of the time it was sit down travel as usual. The other big improvement was the 24 hour running of shuttle buses, with one coming around every 15 minutes (roughly) from 8am to midnight on most days.
As usual, my reason for going to the convention was to cover panels. The first panel I hit was:
How
to Get News Coverage for Small Press Publishers (50:52, 46.5mb)
This was moderated by Rik Offenberger from the First Comic News website.
On the panel was Albert Ching (Newsarma), Glenn Hauman (ComicMix), Tanya
Tate (Justa Lotta Tanya), Rich Johnston (Bleeding Cool), Alan Kistler
(AlanKistler.com), Heidi MacDonald (The Beat), Chris Thompson (Pop
Culture Hound), Holly Golightly (Jim Balent Studios), Josh Waldrop (M1W
Entertainment), J.C. Vaughn (The Scoop) and Bryan Young (Big Shiny
Robot). The group was there mainly to answer questions for
creators/publishers in the audience. They started off by going down the
line to explain the best way to be contacted if you are looking to get
your work promoted. They also gave advice on what not to do like using
exclamation points in a press release. They had talked about when not to
be contacted (e.g. right now, as they are at a convention and theirs are
piling up) and how much lead time is required for types of coverage.
Kickstarter was a big topic as everybody gets swamped with pleas to
promote Kickstarter campaigns and why they rarely do them. They also
talked a bit about sending them PDF files. About 100 people were in the
audience.
Immediately after it was the:
Dan Parent Spotlight (46:48, 42.8mb)
This was an interview of Dan Parent by Rik Offenberger and Chris
Thompson. Parent started by talking about reading comics as a kid, how
we went to the Kubert school and how that lead to a job in the Archie
Comics production office. He said he worked there for 10 years getting a
good on the job education, including the switch to a more digital form
of producing comics. He talked about pitching stories while at Archie
and how many of them were rejected at first (and for good reason).
Eventually he started getting stories approved and he talked about some
of the stories that got a lot of mainstream media coverage. Regarding
stories they talked about the move to doing longer stories and using the
Parent characters more. Regarding art Parent talked about working with
Dan DeCarlo and drawing clothes on the female characters. They also
talked about the Veronica solo series he pitched and has been successful
with Archie and the Kevin Keller character and how he came about. His
work outside of Archie was talked about, including Felix the Cat, Barbie
Comics, Carney Comics and Bratz. The audience of about 30 people asked
questions about Archie's Madhouse, his favorite Archie characters,
artists outside of Archie he's currently reading. Dan mentioned Archie's
50th Anniversary year is coming up. Some outside of comics stuff has
come up, including his being on the Weakest Link and Who Wants to be a
Millionaire TV shows. He also told a funny story about being in Tijuana
once.
Roman Dirge REBUILT! (42:40, 39.0mb)
This was moderated by Titan Comics senior editor Steve White. The reason Roman was "REBUILT" was due a bad accident he was in about a year ago.
He was hit very hard by an SUV and said they measured the distance he
flew to be 15 feet. His leg was broken and had to be reattached to him.
He has lost some of the bone in his leg and now needs a walking stick to
get around. Roman talked about the time it took him to recover. He says
since being hit has made him more motivated to get work done. He showed
art on 3 new projects he is currently working on, this including a
graphic novel called Monocle, a superhero book called Stringbean (it's
very dark and strange) and a TV show called Battleboy. He had also
talked about Lenore and upcoming plans for her and any other media
possibilities with the character. He revealed that other strange things
have been happening to him that could have seriously injured or killed
him since the accident.The audience of about 100 people asked questions
and received some Lenore related merchandise for doing so (mugs and
t-shirts).
Between panels I had spent some time at the dealer booths looking for comics I wanted to buy. Typically what I buy (Harvey books among other things) isn't that plentiful at the con, but I found a lot more this year than I normally do. I did have a surprising moment of talking to a dealer who asked "Who?" when I mentioned Harvey Comics. Having to explain Harvey Comics and their characters was a constant theme this convention, mainly for people outside of it who wanted to know what I collected.
8th Annual All Star Podcasters Panel (53:35, 49.0mb)
On this panel was a who's who of long running podcasters. Moderating the panel was John Siuntres (Word Balloon), on it was fellow podcasters
Brian Christman (Comic Geek Speak), John Mayo (Comic Book Page, Heidi
MacDonald (Publishers Weekly Comics World), Jimmy Aquino (Comic News
Insider), Conor Kilpatrick (iFanboy) and Ben Blacker (Nerdist). The
group had talked about digital comics and argued about digital vs print
sales. They had also talked about comic book movies. Heidi brought up at
the big 2 are not creating major artists anymore. They also talked about
'event' comics. The group talked about sponsorships (one major sponsor
was there in the audience) in terms of making money from the podcast,
the length of their shows, how open podcasting is now and how
professional one has to be to do the show. The group ended the panel by
talking about what comics they are enjoying now. Pat Loika was also
supposed to be on this panel, but did not show up. There was about 40
people in the audience.
I came in about half way into a Cosplay Panel where 4 experienced cosplayers were giving advice on those cosplaying, particularly for costume contests. They had shown slides while they were talking and had handed out a tips sheet. There was about 150 people in the audience. The last panel I attended on Thursday was:
Family Feud: The Comics Blogging Panel (53:38, 49.1mb)
The panel was moderated by a very hungry Tom Spurgeon (The Comics
Reporter). On the panel was Heidi MacDonald (The Beat),
Tony Isabella (Tony Isabella's Bloggy Thing), Alexa Dickman (Ladies
Making Comics), Rich Johnston (Bleeding Cool), and Graeme McMillan (Many
different sites). There was a very large audience and Tom joked about
the panel being a pre-show for the next panel (Mega64: Decade of
Perfection) which got the audience laughing. The group introduced
themselves particularly to the crowd who were not familiar with them.
Tom had received some questions from his readers and asked them. Among
the topics talked about writing in a way to generate hits from search
engines, (eg using words like exclusive, which generate traffic) or
topics that they might not normally cover and how it may compromises
their writing. Lots of discussion was around those that have writers
contributing to their blog. Among the topics for them were letting
contributors develop their voice, how much they pay their writers and if
it's hypocritical to write negatively about companies exploiting their
talent while they pay their own writers little to nothing. The amounts
being paid to contributors was revealed and what other forms of
compensation they are getting. For those that work (or had worked) in
print how writers got paid was discussed. The group also talked about
creator rights issues, gender issues, creators in need and they also
took questions from the audience. The audience (like last year) gave a
large applause to the panel, in spite of just sitting through it so they
could be in the room for the next one.
I was really happy about being able to meet Tony Isabella at this last panel. I have been "online friends" with Tony for many years, but never met him in person. One thing I heard him talk about repeatedly over the convention was about how happy he is with his life, which was really nice to hear. Quite often with older creators who were screwed in some ways you think they're unhappy about life or the comics industry. Tony wanted to make it clear he was very happy and wouldn't change his decision to work in the comics industry. He explained the positive aspects to working in the industry made up for the negative ones.
Friday:
Right away I went to the:
Tony Isabella Spotlight (51:39, 47.2mb)
Mark Evanier interviewed Tony about his career in comics. They talked
about his getting involved in comic fandom, his comic reading as a kid,
particularly FF annual #1, his love of giant monsters, his living in New
York City and the seedy hotel on Times Square he lived in. He spoke
about his editorial work at Marvel, writing books under tight deadlines
when other people blew them, his favorite artists to work with, in
particular Frank Robins and Eddie Newell, him getting a chance to work
with Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby. Tony revealed that he wrote a large,
multi issue Captain America story only to later find out that Kirby had
already been hired to take over the book after a few issues. He also
spoke a bit about co-writing with Bob Ingersol. He said said he would
have loved to have more time on Daredevil and Ghost Rider. He said his
original champions pitch was Iceman and Angel buddy book with them on
the road getting involved in certain situations. Said he would still
liked to have written that. Tony also won an inkwell award for his work
in comics and Tony gave his love to the convention for having him as a
guest. There was about 40 people in the audience.
Next panel was:
Jose Delbo Spotlight (52:58, 48.4mb)
Moderated by his daughter/agent Silvana Frontera. Jose talked about
differences between European and US comics. How he worked on superheroes
except for the Flash. He didn't want to draw him. He loves doing
Westerns and the Lone Ranger in particular. He did a number of other
media type adaptations over many years, including the Beatles Yellow
Submarine, Monkee's Comic Book, Transformers and NFL Superpro among
others. He said he liked working on the Monkee's because he can be
comical and not be so strictly on model as he was with other books. Jose
revealed that his father wanted him to be a lawyer and was worried that
he would be poor as an artist. When he got his first cheque he gave it
to his father and he never cashed it, he saved it as a symbol of his son
having made it and making good living. Jose talked about learning under
Carlos Clemen (a famous Argentina artist). He would move to Brazil to
work. His wife had a uncle who was an US citizen and asked him if he'd
like to come to USA, he said yes and came over. He also told a story
about almost getting drafted to go to Vietnam, he told them he was
married with 2 kids and they put him at the bottom of the list to put
into service. He said he is happy for comic book conventions because 8
year olds do not know what comic books are, that blew his mind and he
knew comics were in trouble then. He said he finds artists today too
similar in style and colourists don't believe that white is a colour. He
talked about his love of Joe Kubert and working as a teacher in his
school. He talked about his former Dell editor/writer DJ Arneson [Note:
I was the one that asked him, since DJ Arneson did an interview with us
and mentioned Jose Delbo]. He said Dell/Western destroyed all the
original art, but he knew a kid who spoke Spanish in the production dept
and he snuck him some of his art back, he mentioned getting some of his
Turok art, but he didn't get any of his Lone Ranger which is
disappointing for him. He also said credits were not allowed in those
books but he would sneak his name in the rocks of Turok. Jose was asked
about his relationship with editors. He mentioned Paul Levitz came by
and asked him how he was doing earlier which he thought was very nice.
He told a funny story about a kid who wanted a transformers sketch at a
convention but he couldn't remember how to draw the character. As he was
drawing the kid kept correcting him and a reporter was nearby and wrote
a story in the paper about a kid teaching him how to draw, which was
embarrassing at the time. He said when he was drawing Transformers he
was given the toys to help towards reference but he had to keep his
grandkids from playing with them. He felt the superheroes today have
bodies that are too super. Said Superman gets his powers from another
planet and doesn't need Arnold Schwarzenegger's body and Batman is an
intelligent detective. Said they have him flying and super strong now.
In regards to working digital, he only uses computers for reference
photos. Regarding inkers he liked, in named Al Williamson in particular.
He said for a while he wasn't inking his work and Al called him and
asked why. He said he didn't know why and it wasn't his decision, but he
would ask that his pencils would go to him. So he called his editor and
asked for Al and then Al got Transformers pages to ink. Al hated them,
only did 5 or 6 pages and quit. Jose would have liked to ink his own
work but he couldn't justify the time to do it. He mentioned doing some
work on a new Transformer book but couldn't say what. Jose also got an
inkpot award from the Comic Con organization. There was about 40 people
in the audience.
I saw part of a Arcana's Steakpunk Originals panel where they talked about the Wizard of Oz being the original steampunk. They are doing a book that takes place 100 years in the future where the "gifts" given (heart, brains, courage) have turned into curses as the 3 are characters are effectively immortal. They gave away for free the first chapter of the book in comic book format to those there (but mentioned they were selling them at their booth).
After the panel was the first of the 3 tribute panels I attended. We had some real industry giants pass away over the course of the year. The first among them was:
Kim Thompson Tribute (46:55, 42.9mb)
Kim Thompson was a long time co-owner/editor of Fantagraphics who
recently passed away due to cancer. On the panel was Eric Reynolds, Gary
Groth, Diana Schutz, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez. Gary talked about Kim
first getting involved with Fantagraphics. Diana talked about first
meeting Gary and Kim. She said Kim would later reach out to her and
other women, asking them to contribute to the Amazing Hero magazine,
which was very rare at the time. Hernandez Bros and Eric talked about
meeting Kim and working with him. Gary talked about how he, Kim and
Harlan Ellison met in order to try and make up after the lawsuit, but
Harlan did not like Kim's review of Frank Millers work and they instead
got into a huge argument over it. Diana talked about working with Kim
over the last few years doing translations. Gary talked about how they
all lived in the Fantagraphics house and Kim used to regularly work in
his bathrobe. He would always be wearing shorts or sweatpants unless it
was something super formal. Gary said Kim had knowledge about what was
good cartooning. The group talked about Kim not having any guilty
pleasures and loved Brian De Palma movies. They all said he was always
working, including late at night or very early in the morning. Gilbert
thinks there would be no Vertigo or many independent publishers around
if it was not for Kim's groundbreaking work with Fantagraphics. Eric
talked about Kim championing some artists, including Jason which he
wasn't convinced would do so well.
Immediately after there was the
Carmine Infantino Tribute (49:22, 45.1mb)
On the panel were Jon B, Cooke, Elliot S! Maggin, Paul Levitz, Martin
Pasko and moderating the panel was J. David Spurlock. Carmine Infantino
was a long time extremely important artist, editor and publisher, much
of his work for DC Comics. Elliot talked about Carmine patching up the
many fights he and Julie Schwartz had. Both he and Martin said Carmine
wasn't pretentious. Elliot told a story about Carmine and Julie getting
into an argument and Julie said "I was here before you and I'll be here
after your gone!" and Carmine just laughed, he didn't let stuff said
during heated arguments bother him. Paul talked about how after the 1966
Batman show started to drop in ratings nobody at DC had any idea of
where to take the company. Carmine provided DC with a direction and
really experimented in ways that publishers didn't do prior to that.
Today publisher's experiment the ways Carmine did back then, trying all
sorts of new ideas with different creators. Martin talked about
Carmine's cover design and David said all the DC covers were pretty much
laid out by Carmine from when he was art director and on up. David
mentioned that as Carmine moved up the ladder at DC, he kept doing his
old jobs. One time an Human Resources person within the company was
reviewing who did what within the organization and they told Carmine he
did the work of 5 people. David revealed that Stan Lee had offered
Carmine a job in the mid 1960s and DC promoted him in order to keep him.
Martin and David talked about the many behind the scene changes that
Carmine was responsible for that he doesn't get credit for, both small
and large. David said one of them was ordering his artists to update
their swipe files so that females were not drawn with 1950's style
clothing anymore. They talked about how many artists got their start at
DC comics, with Carmine liking their art and telling editors to get the
artist a script. Paul talked about how when Carmine took over, he broke
down the BS formality at DC at the time and made it much more open and
about creating good comics. He said Carmine made DC more open to fans
and solicited their opinions, much more than Marvel did at the time.
Elliot talked about him suggesting DC do a Superman movie and writing a
pitch, Julie disagreed, thinking superheroes were over. Elliot went to
Carmine and he sent Elliot and another writer to talk with Mario Puzo
about it. Paul revealed that in the early 60s, Carmine won the best
artist in fandom awards 4 times in a row and people don't realize how
popular he was with fans during that time. David said Carmine really
went to bat to hire Kirby back, despite resistance within DC and he went
to bat for many other artists as well. David and Martin said Carmine was
really influential and that Bernie Krigstein and John Romita learned
from him. There was 100 people in the audience.
Next panel was:
Jeffery Brown Spotlight (49:18, 45.1mb)
This was moderated by Leigh Walton. Jeff talked about getting into
comics, his autobiographical books and how they started. He said people
in his life don't appear to be too bothered by their depiction because
he makes himself look very unflattering. He talked about the style of
art he chooses for which project. He talked about Bighead and how it
came about. Leigh gave the reason for the small sized Jeffery Brown
books and why they are all different sizes. They then talked about his
Star Wars books, Darth Vader and Son, Star Wars: Vader's Little Princess
and they revealed a new Star Wars: Jedi Academy book and showed a video
trailer for it. His next autobiographical book is about his wife's
pregnancy and his relationship with his father. His father is a minister
but he is no longer practicing religion. They talked about his use of
colour on the books. They gave a handout showing a sample of his
upcoming work to those the audience that asked questions. Jeff revealed
he wants to do a book about the business side of comic art. He is also a
teacher and those types of questions get asked a lot by his students.
There was over 100 people in the audience.
Between panels I had a walk around artists alley and saw they put carpet in the area, which was fantastic. I got to catch up and meet some pro's I regularly see at conventions. I did notice the small press/self publishers area behind the Gold/Silver area did not have carpet on the floors. Walking through that area it seemed a little strange that it was split off from Artists Alley as some of the people there were self publishers. I'm guessing they pay extra to get a table in that area, but it seems strange they don't have carpet there.
That night I went to the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards 170 Photos
Full 2013 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards (2:40:55, 147mb)
The 2013 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards was held in the Indigo Room
at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.
The welcome was done by Jackie Estrada, Eisner Awards Administrator.
Among the presenters are Kayre and Bill Morrison, Maurice LaMarchie,
Lauren Tom & David Herman, Chris Hardwick, Milestone Media founders
Denys Cowan, Michael Davis and Derek T. Dingle, Edward James Olmos,
Becky Cloonan, Ellen Forney, James Marsters, Robert Ben Garant, Thomas
Lennon, Neil Gamian and Jonathan Ross. The Bill Finger Award was
presented by Mark Evanier. The Spirit of Comics Retailer Award was
presented by Joe Ferrara. The Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award was
presented by Ruth Clampett. Maggie Thompson did the Memoriam. The
Winners can be found at the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards page
Saturday:
Joe Kubert Tribute (48:58, 44.8mb)
Moderated by Mark Evanier. On the panel was Sergio Aragonés, Paul
Levitz, Marv Wolfman, Tom Yeates, Jon B. Cooke and Russ Heath. The
panelists signed 3 books about Joe Kubert by Bill Schelley which would
be auctioned off for Hero Initiative. The panelists talked about Joe and
what they liked about him. Sergio was always amazed on how fast Kubert
drew and he was drawing realistically. Paul said his funeral drew such a
large crowd they had to borrow police from 2 nearby towns, considering
the burial was done by Jewish traditions (where it's done fairly
quickly) it was an amazing crowd of people that showed up. Many more
would have showed up if there was more notice. Marv talked about Joe
teaching him about how to pace a story by taking one of his stories and
ignoring his art direction and drawing it his way. He said Joe went over
the art and explained what he was doing and why and that was an enormous
eye opener for Marv and it taught him a lot about writing. Marv also
told a story about art that needed to be inked right away to make
deadline and the only pen in the area was a lettering pen, which has a
very fat nub and is not something you draw or ink with. Joe made that
pen sing and did a great job of inking despite the tool not being fit
for the job. Marv also talked about when he was an assistant editor
under Kubert he would often have to completely re-write Bob Kanigher
stories for Joe. Tom Yeates said he met Joe before he started the school
and connected with him right away, Joe then called him up when he was
starting his school. While Tom was there he started getting work and
tried to draw like Joe in terms of surface detail, but found it wasn't
working and he learned from Joe about the under the surface detail that
makes his drawings work. Jon talked about Joe using the school to give
back to creators as Joe had started when he was 11 and learned from
multiple artists while sweeping floors at a comic sweatshop. Russ
mentioned Joe gave hard back slaps and told some funny stories about
Joe. He also said that inking Joe was very hard. Sergio told a funny
story about how Joe said he was going to take his 5 kids, wife and
mobile home and go on vacation. Sergio told him he should go to Mexico
and drew him a map of Mexico and everywhere they should go and how they
would get there. A few months later Joe told Sergio that he had actually
used his map to go into Mexico and thanked him for it being so accurate.
Sergio was stunned that he would go into Mexico with his family just
based on his drawn map. Mark Evanier told an early San Diego con story
about Joe doing a fund raising sketch for the con and a friend of his
was too late to bid on it and lost it (price $300), Mark talked to Joe
and he quickly did another sketch that was even better than the first
one and the winner of the previous sketch wanted the new one instead.
Marv and Paul said Joe was also a very good businessman too, something
that was pretty rare back in those days.
I came in part way on a Roy Thomas spotlight panel. Roy told a story about the Vision. Said he was originally going to just bring back the original Vision but Stan wanted a new character and also wanted him to be an android. Roy went ahead and did it, but decided to give him a red face because it was a colour that wasn't used that much. Stan didn't like it but Roy told him Martin Goodman was wrong about Spider-Man, he was wrong about Visions red face. Stan let it go and the Vision became a popular character.
Russ Heath Spotlight (55:38, 50.9mb)
This was moderated by Mark Waid. Russ talked about where he grew up and
his early influences. He mentioned his father was a cowboy among his
many other jobs, but as a result he watched a lot of western related
serials. His father would tell him that if the actor was wearing a
flowery shirt or something that the character wasn't a real cowboy. Russ
took from that that when writing/drawing fiction you need to be true to
whatever you are depicting. He said he got started in comics when at 16
his father took him to Holyoke and he was given a script, but was told
he couldn't draw it in pen. He had to buy a brush and after a few days
he figured out how to use it. This stunned Mark as some artists take
years to figure out how to use a brush. Russ talked about joining the
air force. He mentioned he was in and out of high school as he did not
have good marks. He said prior to drawing for a living he was a
lifeguard and ran a scuba diving club. He did some advertising work, but
then had a wife and kid and needed more money. The advertising paid $35
a week, he was looking for work during lunch hour and found Stan still
working. Stan offered him $75 a week to draw for him, which he did. Russ
liked doing westerns but didn't like doing Batman because of all the
straight lines on the buildings. Said he knew Harvey Kurtzman from
Marvel as he was doing the 1 page Hey Look! gags. They had lunch
together a couple of times and that lead to Harvey giving him some work
at EC comics. Russ talked about Kanigher and not in a positive way. He
said he was also friends with Ross Andru and Gray Morrow. He talked
about moving to California in the 70s and working in animation. He also
worked on Annie Fanny for Playboy while in the Playboy mansion. He was
going to quit Annie when Hugh called him up, doubled his salary and
offered to pay him to move to Chicago, which he did. He also told a
funny story about sabotaging Will Elder's paint pants. He talked about
Archie Goodwin and said he was a very good editor and visual writer. He
mentioned on an script Archie drew stick figure layouts of his story.
Russ didn't look at them and drew his own stick figure layouts. When he
was done he compared the two and found all but 1 of the layouts matched
exactly and there was about 40 panels. Of newer artists he likes Adam
Hughes. Russ also answered questions on National Lampoon, inking Micheal
Golden and other artists in general. He also told about becoming fast
friends with Dave Stevens when they worked together at Hanna-Barbera. He
said they both caused chaos there.
One of the more elaborate booths at the show this year was one based on the prison in Walking Dead. There were 2 fences with Zombies in between them, banging the fence and trying to bit people that got too close. A part of the booth was also the watch tower.
Gerry Conway Spotlight (53:09, 48.6mb)
This was Conway doing a Q&A with the audience. Among the topics he
answered questions on were the creation of the Punisher, the bridge Gwen
Stacy was thrown off and the snap sound effect, how he got into Marvel,
DC comics being like Mad Men TV Show in the 60s, how he broke into DC
comics, how he then got into Marvel comics and some of his reasons for
going back and forth between the companies. He revealed after Gwen's
death he didn't read any fan mail or do conventions for a long time, why
Gwen never came back, the Clone storyline, villains who were often throw
aways like The Grizzly, the issues comics are facing today, how Phantom
Stranger at DC was his first regular gig, his moving into writing TV and
films. He also said that after writing Law and Order Hollywood thinks he
can't write superhero movies. He is now writing a YA novel, he also told
a funny story about the Spider-Mobile, both how it came about and it
coming back one day in an unexpected way. There were about 100 people in
the audience.
I walked in part way on the Monsters of Alt Comics panel moderated by Keith Knight, on it was Stephen Notley, Ted Rall and Shannon Wheeler. Shannon talked about getting into the New Yorker and he gave some of his cartoons to pass around the crowd. The group gave advice on getting started in cartooning and advised against only going for print as a source of income. They said to make cartoons for themselves and try to find a market for them, not trying to make cartoons for the market. They also advised that distinctive artists stick around while bland artists can get work for a while, but most of them eventually go away. Ted talked about Journalism and said sources outside of the country of origin are usually the most objective. He gave an example about the US killing a large number of Afghan POWs after Sept 11/2011 that has little to no coverage in the US but has been reported (with lots of proof) by Al Jazeria, European and British journalists. They also gave what books they are doing that will be coming out soon.
That 70's Panel (1:20:25, 73.6mb)
Moderated by Mark Evanier. On the panel was Tony Isabella, Val Mayerik,
Elliot S! Maggin, Martin Pasko and George Perez. They talked about their
1st pro sale, when they felt they made it, "Oh Wow!" moments on working
with their heroes. They explained was different about their generation
from the previous one. Martin talked about a sad story of meeting a poor
Bill Finger who told him to "always get the credit." The group talked
about royalties. Mark Evanier told a funny story about being the 1st
person to use express mail for DC. The group talked about how express
mail changed the industry in both good and bad ways. Mark also told a
funny story about being in a strip club with other artists that were
also using Fed Ex. The group also talked about sexism in the industry
back then.
Something I and others reporting on the con noticed this year was a drop in cosplayers at the convention this year. I'm not sure why, but I think the increased difficulty in taking pictures of them on the floor is one and the anger generated by clogging the aisle when it does happen might play a part. Plus the huge demand of people wanting to take pictures of them all the time, making it difficult to for them to do anything but pose for people at the show. In years leading up to the this show I've come across more cosplayers who ignore you and quickly walk away when asked for a picture.
The Best and Worst Manga in 2013 (47:47, 43.7mb)
Moderated by Deb Aoki, on the panel was Brigid Alverson, David Brothers,
Chris Butcher and Shaenon Garrity. The group talked about the best manga
in various categories and where it could be bought at the con (or seen
online). They were fairly quick as they ran through the titles and Deb
had a dinger if the people talked too long. They had all taken turns
talking about their favourite books, sometimes 2 people would talk about
the same book. They had pointed out that Fantagraphics is not publishing
any bad manga right now. When they went through the worst list some of
the best books were on that list too which generated a crowd reaction
and debate among the panelists. They also had an under rated section
too. Towards he end they were short of time and really rushed through
the last of the books. You can find this list online here.
Sunday:
The convention was selling a new Gray logo shirt, but instead of selling it at the convention, they had a booth displaying the merchandise and redirecting people to the Manchester Grand Hyatt. It was confusing to find the room as it was in the basement, the signage around the hotel did not indicate this anywhere. I had gone there Sunday morning and found the grey logo shirt was sold out. I wasn't that surprised as I noticed a bunch of people wearing it at the show.
Comic Arts Conference Session #22: Superman On Trial: The Secret History of
the Siegel and Shuster Lawsuits (50:36, 46.3mb)
Moderated by Heidi MacDonald, on the panel was Jeff Trexler and Brad
Ricca. They talked about how the lawsuits became part of the superman
mythos now. Ricca talked about how Donenfeld actually had published the
Lone Ranger but the creator took it back and thinks that had a lot to do
with Donenfeld wanting to own and keep Superman. The group talked about
what if scenarios. Jeff talked about the early 90s settlements between
Siegel and Shuster families that are at this time in effect (and might
remain that way). Brad also talked about Joe Shuster's last years and
how it wasn't all doom and gloom. He had been married once (but
divorced, his wife was into a cult) and had a girlfriend. Also on the
panel and spoke towards the end was Peter M. Coogan, who said he had
some some research for the DC side. Also in the audience was Wayne
Smith, Senior Vice President, Senior Litigation & Chief Patent Counsel
at Warner Bros. Entertainment Group of Companies and Lillian Laserson,
Senior Vice President and General Counsel of DC Comics Inc. Lillian gave
a what if scenario at the end of the panel believing that if Siegel and
Shuster not sued DC in 1947 they would have been treated the same way
Bob Kane was treated and Bob died a very wealthy man. [Jamie's note:
This is bullshit in my opinion and other comic historians I've talked to
also do not agree with this scenario.] There was about 60 people in the
audience.
On a personal note, it was nice to finally meet Jeff Trexler, many years ago he mailed me the Transcripts of the 1954 Senate Subcommittee on Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency, which is a popular feature of my comic history website.
I walked in part way on an IDW Kids Comics panel. There were lots of kids in the audience, which was about 200 people. They talked a lot about My Little Pony and there was a child writer on the stage. Everybody on stage gave our who their favorite Pony was. People who asked questions were given comic books. They also had people hand out TMNT turtles FCBD books at the end of the panel.
Jerry Ordway Spotlight (52:36, 48.1mb)
DC Editor Mike Carlin moderated the panel and joked at the beginning it
was the spotlight on Dan Jurgens panel (who was in the audience). Jerry
talked about where he grew up, his doing finishes on other artists
pencils, getting penciling work, also inking John Byrne's pencils,
always needing to be working and says it throws you off your rhythm to
take a few days break. He talked about periods where he got really
swamped, one time he had to do Fantastic Four, Superman and Crisis of
Infinite Earths #5 at once. He talked about working on the Superman
relaunch with Byrne and Marv Wolfman. How he took an active role in
plotting Superman, then took over writing it. Carlin said the 'weekly'
Superman books were a real team effort where everybody pitched in, he
mentioned Roger Stern was really strong and keeping continuity straight
and clear for everybody across all the books. Ordway revealed that Byrne
was originally going to do Shazam. He had done colouring for the books
and used watercolour on the covers. He also explained his process for
creating a comic. There was about 40 people in the room.
Immediately after was:
Dan Jurgens Spotlight (52:53, 48.4mb)
This was also moderated by Mike Carlin, who again joked this was the Jon
Bogdamov panel. Jurgens talked about growing up in a small town and
occasionally hanging out wiht Curt Swan. He loved the 60's Batman TV
show and was introduced to comics by seeing his friends read some after
it. The first comic he bought was Superman. They talked about his
family's reaction to becoming an artist. He said when he was a teenager
he loved Simonson's Manhunter and wrote and drew a Manhunter story. He
sent it to DC and somebody sent it to Simonson. Walt wrote Jurgens a
letter asking if he could keep the story in exchange for a Manhunter
drawing. He agreed and Simonson sent him a really great full colour
large sized drawing. Jurgens revealed he showed his work to Mike Grell
when he was in the area, and Grell suggested him to DC as a replacement
for him on Warlord. DC had him and another artist do a 5 page tryout and
he won the job. He talked about how he got to start writing and how he
got the Superman job. He also talked about the creation of Booster Gold.
They then talked about the Death of Superman and one of the reasons it
was done was do to a negative reaction to not getting to do the Lois
Lane marriage and the popularity of Image Comics. They said that all the
drew designs for Doomsday and voted and Jurgens design had won the vote.
They talked about the major media coverage the story got and how they
originally planned to bring Superman backed got changed to something
more epic in nature. The destruction of Coast City was volunteered by
the editor of Green Lantern who very much wanted to tie into what was
happening with Superman. Louise Simonson suggested doing the different
Superman when they did the return and Jurgens agreed to let his Cyborg
version become the bad guy. Jurgens talked about what it's like seeing
Booster Gold on TV and also his Marvel work. Along them was Superman
with long hair after he returned, the red underwear, if death of
Superman will be adapted into other media Armageddon 2001 with Monarch
and working digitally. He says he still sends the physical boards to
inkers to work on and will continue to do so until he can't any longer.
There was about 40 people in the audience.
And the very last panel I attended was:
Fans vs Pros Trivia Challenge (47:43, 43.6mb)
The fans were Peter Svensson, David Oates and Tom Galloway and the pro's
were Len Wein, Elliot S! Maggin and Martin Pasko. The question asker was
Derek McCaw. I was asked to be the official score keeper. The topic was
characters celebrating their 50th anniversary. Tom Galloway was in top
form this panel and answered a lot of the questions single handedly. Len
answered some correct questions on the Pro side and Elliot S! Maggin
answered one question in a hilarious, not the answer we were looking for
way, but we took as true. All throughout the panel the jokes were flying
fast and furious. In the end the Fan side one 360 to 110.
Normally towards the end of the show I go around and ask comic dealers and some artists alley creators how the show went for them, but I did not have time this year as the Trivia panel ended 20 minutes before the show closed, and that was because they ran out of questions. I have heard 2nd hand reports that mid-sized publishers (eg, Boom!, IDW, Dynamite, etc..) did very well at comic con, with some books selling out.
I personally had a fantastic time at comic con and got to meet a number of people who I 'knew' from online for many years. In particular was Tony Isabella, Steven Grant and Jeff Trexler. I am a bit young to grow up enjoying the work of Elliot S! Maggin and Martin Pasko, but I found them to be smart/interesting/nice people and enjoyed their contribution to the many panels they were on. It was also nice to meet Jose Delbo and talk (briefly) about DJ Arneson too.
I attended a LOT more panels this year than in years past, just because there was a lot more panels I was interested in. I was able to squeeze in visiting 99% of the exhibitor floor and actually did a lot more buying this year than I normally do. As always, I'm looking forward to next years show. Just before the show ended a young guy walking by turned and said to me "Comic Con should be every day!" and I can't blame him for feeling that way.
