Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Looks like the TalkBack League of @$$Holes is branching out and taking the act on the road this week. We’ve got two different viewpoints on WizardWorld, including the view from a virgin.
Wait... how is that different than any other comic convention report?
I KID!! I KID BECAUSE I LOVE!! Seriously... before I insult the other half of our audience... let me hand you over to Ambush Bug...
Ambush Bug here, welcoming you all to the Talkback League of @$$holes very first @$$HOLES ABROAD! Column. Every now and then, we @$$holes like to shut off our computers, put down our comics, and venture out into the real world. This column will log our exploits and adventures as we spread that @$$hole goodness to comic book conventions and events near you and around the world.
After recovering from a night of vicious Independence Day sparkler fights and tequila shots, I dusted off my All Purpose @$$hole Press Pass (I made it myself with a green crayon and construction paper) and ventured to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, just outside of Chicago for the WIZARDWORLD 2002 Chicago Con.
This was my very first convention experience. Up until now, I have always enjoyed comics in the safety of my own home. I had heard all of the stories about serpentine lines of sweaty fanboys with multiple copies of number one issues, waiting to speak their prepared three words to arrogant creators who would rather be anywhere else, but for the most part, I still didn’t know what to expect when I entered the large auditorium.
My goal was report every last detail back to my fellow @$$holes and try my hardest to talk to as many creators as possible, to dig up some AICN-worthy scoops, and to spread that @$$hole love, baby; that sweet @$$hole love. So in I walked, pumped to take the convention bull by the horns and steer it all the way home and was smacked in the face with large flashing lights, brightly colored logos, and crowds of crowds filled with chubby guys stretched into tight spandex costumes of Spider-Man and Green Lantern, portfolio carrying hopefuls, neer-do-wells, and girls who really didn’t look like they wanted to be there. Tee shirts were the uniform of the day and attempts at individuality abounded. There were a few normal people there too.
After wandering around like an extra in a George Romero film for a while, I approached my first creator. And I picked a good one. I have interacted with Chuck Dixon on his site Dixonverse.com a few times and have been a huge fan of his work for many years. On his site, I found him to be a friendly, personable sort and discovered that, face to face, he’s just as cool. We could only talk briefly, but I got to tell him how much I loved his run with the Connor Hawke/Green Arrow character. He said that he has no plans for Connor at the moment, but would love to revisit the character at some point in the future and that I could enjoy some Connor-type kung fu in his latest series, WAY OF THE RAT. He signed my copy of WAY OF THE RAT #1, thanked me, and I was on my way. Out of all the exhibitor booths, Chuck’s partners in crime at CROSSGEN not only had the biggest booth, but it was the most fan accessible and spread out. One could easily make their way to CROSSGEN’s stable of talented creators. It was the best of the bunch.
DC’s booth ran a close second. I enjoyed watching trailers to the new STAR TREK film, WB’s new BIRDS OF PREY TV series, Eddie Murphy’s PLUTO NASH film, and MATRIX RELOADED while I waited to talk with Brain Azzarello (writer of 100 BULLETS and CAGE), and Damion Scott (artist for BATGIRL). The creators were mixed in with the crowd and you could just walk right up to them, which made them seem less imposing and more accessible. Azzarello said that those liking his MARVEL MAX CAGE series, will love the final issue, while those who are hating it, will hate him even more after reading it. I plan on reviewing the final issue when it is released, so we’ll see what side I lean towards soon.
The worst booth. MARVEL. I know this company is the biggest of the big when it comes to comics these days, but the creators were set apart from the crowd on a stage that was only accessible via a labyrinthine amusement park-like maze. I know some of my favorite creators like Jeph Loeb (writer for SPIDER-MAN: BLUE), Paul Jenkins (writer for PETER PARKER: SPIDER-MAN), and Bruce Jones (writer for HULK) were at the end of that long fan filled maze that poured out onto the floor of the showroom, but my dear departed Grandaddy always used to say, “Why wait all day in the long line for one ride on the Twirl de Loop, when you can whiz through the line at the Whip di Doo and ride it a few times?” Of course, near the end, he thought my dog was my brother, but this time he was right. I decided to take a pass on waiting in line at the MARVEL booth and spent my precious time elsewhere.
So I moved on to the Dealers Section of the Con which was just like any other flea market with half priced books boxes sporting so-called bargain prices and miscellaneous toy/video/t-shirt/gaming stuff a plenty. My personal quest to find a few back issues of Giffen’s SON OF AMBUSH BUG mini-series to complete my collection ended in failure. To my dismay, not one dealer carried the title. After cursing the dealers for their poor inventory, I mustered up what little dignity I had left and moved on to the Artist’s Alley.
On my way there, I ran into the booth of George Lowe, the voice of CARTOON NETWORK’s SPACE GHOST. I’m a huge “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” fan. Mr. Lowe worked the crowd like a pro, throwing out hilarious jibes and giving it his all. He is a true showman and a class act. You could tell he was really having a good time and so was the crowd around him. I sat back and enjoyed the show for a quite a while.
Then I ate a hot dog and soda. It was tasty.
Tom Savini’s booth was another highlight. On the table in front of me was Leatherface’s mask from TCMII, sculpted busts of classical monsters like Phantom of the Opera, and the cod-piece cannon from his role as Sex Machine in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN. He said he was currently working on effects for THE TED BUNDY STORY and that he was going to be a part of the new George Romero DEAD RECKONING project, but didn’t know if he would be acting in it or just supplying the effects-work. I also asked if Sex Machine would ever make another big screen appearance and he said that he doubted it. Just then, a little girl ran up to the booth, pointed at a photo of one of the effects guru’s many on-screen victims, and asked her dad, “Oh my gosh, Daddy, what happened to that guy?” Tom and I both laughed, taking great joy in the fact that he had corrupted yet another young mind with his beautiful works of gore.
The Artist Alley was a real treat for me. Rows and rows of artists and creators, eager to talk with fans and hock their product. I wandered the rows once to get a feel for the place, then went back to the booths that piqued my interest. Noteworthy artists included Jim Califore (who is a highly underrated artist best known for his work on AQUAMAN and DEADPOOL and a really decent guy) and Mark McKenna (best known as an artist on EXILES and a personable chap who sold me a print of MARVEL’s classic Western heroes). I also picked up the first two issues of Kagan McLeod’s INFINITE KUNG FU and read them on the train ride home. I’ll probably be reviewing these issues soon since I really enjoyed them. Plus they were a bunch of cool guys and Kagan McLeod gave me a sketch of a zombie for free.
The last artist in the alley, or first depending on which direction you were going, was Martin Nodell, the creator of GREEN LANTERN. He was a sweet old guy who is still very much in love with the comics industry. He accidentally signed my copy of GREEN LANTERN: BRIGHTEST DAY/BLACKEST NIGHT twice, but I didn’t mind. When I asked him about how he likes the evolution of the characters he created, he said that he was just glad that one of his creations is still around and popular.
Before I left the Con, I noticed the TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS booth and remembered some of my fellow @$$holes touting BOX OFFICE POISON as a wonderful slice of life comic and a powerful read. Tony Consiglio and Alex Robinson were really eager to talk and described their books with the sort of passion that only young creators have for their material. I bought Robinson’s BOX OFFICE POISON trade and they happily threw in Consiglio’s DOUBLE CROSS: MORE OR LESS comic and the BOX OFFICE POISON KOLOR KARNIVAL issue for free. Robinson told me to read it slow because it took him six years to write the 600-page trade. Consiglio told me the same, which was pretty funny because his book was only 64 pages. These were a bunch of great guys and I can’t wait to sit back and read their work.
I found that the people behind the scenes of these comics are just a bunch of guys like you and me. They are just lucky and talented enough to play with the heroes that we love to read about. I won’t go into specifics, but there were definitely a few creators who came off as pompous asses, but it was good to see high profile talent like Leonard Kirk (artist on JSA) and J.G. Jones (artist on WONDER WOMAN: THE HIKETEIA, a comic which I will be reviewing very soon) act down to earth and downright humble when praised about their work.
All in all, this was a great first con experience. I had been told to expect a lot of bad things from comic book conventions. Sure there were the usual crabby dealers and beautiful models who tried their best to act like they are actually “into” wearing costumes of G.I.JOE’s Baroness and the like. Sure the lines were long and some of the people were obnoxious and there were those who carried their life’s work in little black portfolios just waiting to be discovered by the industries top talent. There was a lot of business and a lot of hype. I went into the con with my own hyped-up hopes to talk to a lot of talent and uncover some cool news, but soon learned to sit back and just have fun with it. And I did. Because boiled down to its core, that’s what comics should be all about.
Fellow @$$hole, Sleazy G, was also in attendance at the WIZARDWORLD Con. He got to see a lot of the discussion forums that I missed . Here’s what he had to say about the whole thing.
Today, I went to my first convention. Ever. I’ve never gone to a comic book convention, or an Anime convention, or a Dr. Who convention. Having now been to one, I’ve got to say it’s pretty overwhelming. There was table after table and booth after booth of crap lined up, to the point where I didn’t really even want to go through it. Between the 10 cent comics, the rows of tables of tacky cliché pinups by so-called artists whose maturity arrested itself at the age of 12 (you know the ones—the ones with no pictures of a guy ANYWHERE, just cheesecake) and the badly dubbed video cassettes, I found little interest on the floor. Oh, sure, I was tempted by the vintage 60’s issues of Playboy, but if I want smut, I’ll buy it when there aren’t a bunch of 11 year olds trying to get a peek.
Since I was so overwhelmed by the amount of crap, but underwhelmed by the quality and appeal of most of it, I decided to spend most of my time listening in to a few of the panels that went on this afternoon. I’ll do my best to sum up what went on.
First up was the MARVEL MAX/ULTIMATE Line panel. It featured Bill Rosemann (Your Man @ Marvel), artists Jae Lee, John Cassaday, and Alex Maleev, MAX editor Axel Alonso, and EIC Joe Quesada. They jumped right in with a preview of things to come. PUNISHER goes bi-weekly in September with a visit from Wolverine and art by Darrick Robertson. SHANG CHI: MASTER OF KUNG FU, has a six-issue series coming by the classic 70’s team, Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy, but with a more adult edge to it. Oddly, there’s going to be a DEATHLOK book played for laughs for some reason, where he’s stuck with a pacifist’s brain and trying to protect a kid he wouldn’t mind offing himself. For reasons I can’t even begin to fathom, John Severin (one of the greatest artists of Western comic books ever, and in his 70’s by now) is being stuck with Ron Zimmerman on a tasteless RAWHIDE KID series which will also be played for cheap, raunchy laughs. Poor bastard.
Interestingly, Quesada then defended the recent outing of several superheroes, and explained it was serendipitous and not part of an editorial decision. He said CAPTAIN AMERICA will stay out permanently. He stated, perhaps rightfully so, that the “secret identity” storylines in CAP usually sucked, and ran the gamut from Steve Rogers as a cop to Steve Rogers as an illustrator for Marvel. He also joked that Cap was better served fighting real world threats than “Batroc Ze Leaper”, said in a cheesy French accent. John Cassaday said that what he and John Rey Neiber are going to strive for is Cap finally realizing that he’s fought his entire life to defend the American dream, but will never get to live it.
Over at MARVEL KNIGHTS, Stuart Moore has left his post as editor, and Quesada has taken that role back on. Somebody asked about the Neil Gaiman project with Andy Kubert. All we were told was that it had grown from six issues to eight and would not be seen until sometime next spring. MARVEL BOY 2 has just had an artist signed, so it won’t be ready until some time in 2003. Joe said there will in fact be both new heroes and villains introduced in the ULTIMATE line, which means it will start to diverge from the mainstream MARVEL UNIVERSE. Sadly, this will include Ron Zimmerman’s work in ULTIMATE STORIES. So much for keeping the ULTIMATE line small, tight, and top-notch.
Quesada admitted they kinda dropped the ball after BLADE II came out, but said that’s because nobody knew Blade was even a comic book character. Also, Joe doesn’t think horror comics work well, because it’s so hard to build up the sense of tension and timing that horror films rely on. Axel Alonso still thinks he could do it, but the time isn’t right yet.
Stuart Immonen will be the new artist on HULK for issues 44-49.
I asked about Ron Zimmerman, since there has been such a strong backlash against his work thus far. Axel Alonso said he “didn’t give a shit” about who Zimmerman was, because Axel hates Stern and his whole crew. He said he continues to work with Zimmerman because he has a genuine love of comics. Alonso also admitted the PUNISHER story Zimmerman did suck, but explained the circumstances. Apparently, Editorial was in a bind and called Ron up. He cranked out the PUNISHER story in under 24 hours, hence the low quality. As far as the Jay Leno story, Axel and Joe implied they got kinda screwed by The Chin. The reason Leno was included was so that he could then promote the comics on his show, just like the Kevin Smith appearance was supposed to. Sadly, none of that ended up happening. They were clearly not thrilled. They said, though, that Zimmerman had just blown off working for a high-profile sitcom because he loves writing comics so much. Bill Rosemann said Zim’s RAWHIDE KID was the best issue #1 he’s ever seen; I guess we’ll know this fall. He also said the work on Hank Kippel (is this the OWLMAN project?) was extremely good. Essentially, they said don’t hold your breath because Zimmerman ain’t goin’ nowhere. Frankly, I don’t buy it, but whatever. Hey, I love comic books too, and I’m pretty damned passionate about the characters—when do I get a year’s worth of writing assignments?
They also mentioned in passing that the MAX books are outselling the VERTIGO books 2 to 1, but there are still failures, like the recent BLADE and HOWARD THE DUCK series, which started out very strong but ended up in the red by issue six, so it will be a while before we see any more Howard books. (Sorry, Buzz).
After that I killed some time over on the floor and went to the VERTIGO panel. There was a lot less time for questions there because they talked about a lot more of the projects that were in the pipe right now. In attendance were Shelly Bond (Vertigo Editor in Chief), local heroes Brian Azzarello and Jill Thompson, artists Peter Gross and Colleen Doran, John Vanken (writer of the upcoming VERTIGO POP: TOKYO and VP: BANGKOK), Robert Rodi of CODENAME KNOCKOUT and cover artist Tim Bradstreet. It was hosted by Bob Wayne, who is their Head of Marketing or somesuch.
So here’s the deal: look for Mark Buckingham, artist over on PP:SPIDEY, to contribute the art for the second story art in the hot new FABLES series, starting on issue 6. The story is called “Animal Farm” and deals with all of the fairy-tale characters who can’t pass for human and therefore can’t live in Manhattan. They discussed a new series by Brian K. Vaughan which utilizes the age-old “last man on earth with all the women still alive” concept. It could work, but I have my doubts, which is too bad because Vaughan did some quality writing on the attempted relaunch of SWAMP THING.
A LOT of the projects they discussed were hardcover graphic novels. This is partly because 2003 is the 10 year anniversary of VERTIGO. Among the big event books are Jill Thompson’s book tentatively called “Eternal Horizons”, which will be a manga-style book which focuses on Death, Delirium, and Despair and how they deal with all of the souls freed when Lucifer abdicated his throne at the end of the SANDMAN storyline “Seasons of Mist”. Jill is drawing it and writing it with input from Neil himself. Should be B&W, 192 pages, and in an off-sized format similar to that used for manga overseas. There is also a huge HC project called SANDMAN: ENDLESS NIGHTS written as multiple short stories by Gaiman, with art by different artists for each story including Moebius and P. Craig Russell.
There’s also going to be a SGT. ROCK hardcover 128-page graphic novel. It’s got Brian Azzarello writing and classic ROCK art by Joe Kubert—the image they showed looked like perfect, classic ROCK art. Everything a real fan of this stuff would want. It’s due out some time next year, and Azzarello wanted to build up the diverse backgrounds of the unit members to show how they work together as a unit.
There’s also going to be a graphic novel called LOVECRAFT. The high concept here is that everything ol’ H.P. was writing about was real. He wasn’t writing fiction. This might be decent, but I’m a little nervous since it’s based on a Hollywood script currently in development. It’s got John Carpenter attached, though, so if he treats this like the culmination of his life’s work that it is, it might work. There’s also an original graphic novel by Warren Ellis due out, called ORBITER, with art by Colleen Doran. The art sample looked phenomenal, and it’s the tale of a space shuttle that vanishes and suddenly appears on earth 10 years later with only one surviving member and some sort of strange organic skin growing on the hull. Strangeness ensues. Colleen Doran went into great detail on the amount of research she did, both on the shuttles and on the comets that figure in to the story—it’s quite clear this is as personal a work for her as for Ellis.
For fans of Zatanna, there’s an upcoming ZATANNA one-shot written by Paul Dini. They wouldn’t say who the artist was, but they hinted that it was somebody who worked on KABUKI and SCARAB, so draw your own conclusions. It’s due out next year, with a cover by Brian Bolland, which, as Shelley pointed out, means it’s gonna be “pretty hot”.
Somebody asked about the difference between working for VERTIGO and working for MAX. Azzarello answered by saying that while it’s okay to work once in a while on MAX, and he appreciates what MARVEL is doing, VERTIGO is superior. The reason he gave was VERTIGO’s support of creator-owned books; he said he gets bored quickly on writing established characters created by others.
So then I killed some more time, and then I hit my last event of the night: a discussion with Geoff Johns, Leonard Kirk and editor Eddie Berganza. Instead of talking for half an hour and then taking questions, they decided to just field questions pretty much the whole hour, which was kinda cool of them. Here’s what we can expect in JSA for the next year to year and a half: an upcoming issue that focuses on Power Girl, as well as an Hourman issue. We’re going to finally find out why Alan Scott is vulnerable to wood, of all things. We’re going to get a storyline next year with Star-Spangled Kid front and center, as she begins to mature and grow into her own type of hero (shades of Jack Knight, the Starman who gave her the Cosmic Rod?). We’re also going to see more development on the new Crimson Avenger that he and Leonard Kirk created. When he was asked about Red Tornado appearing in JSA, he said “just wait”, which was his answer for a lot of things he didn’t want to ruin. He also said “Wait ‘til you see my Wild Dog—I’m not kidding.” We’ll be finding out the secret behind Wildcat’s nine lives, and Johns said that since he knows Dr. Fate and Black Canary have gotten short shrift, he’ll be working on that in the future. There’s also going to be a four part time-travel story built around Mr. Terrific. He said to expect re-appearances from Obsidian, Mordru and Vandal Savage on the villain front. He also said he’s a huge fan of LEGION, so we may see a crossover there.
On the FLASH front, he said Mark Waid had defined Wally West so well that he didn’t want to mess with it, which is why he had focused on defining the villains so well. Big developments should be coming up for Linda Park starting with the next issue—the final issue in the “Crossfire” story arc.
As far as HAWKMAN goes, he said the situation between Carter and Kendra will not be remaining static. We can expect big changes to occur in her relationship with Hawky every three months, in issues 6, 9 and 12. Johns said “this isn’t ‘Moonlighting’ here”, and indicated they wanted to keep the characters moving forward.
Somebody asked Eddie Berganza about Superman’s costume, and Eddie said the black “S” will soon be gone. A year after “OWAW” and 9/11, he said, it was time to begin to move on and get past the grief, and Superman getting the yellow “S” back was part of that.
I haven’t said anything yet, so I feel I should mention Leonard Kirk. He was very personable and funny, and one fan after another made a point of praising his art. Geoff was also very supportive of Kirk, mentioning some of his favorite pages from the last story arc in JSA and others yet to come.
After the panel, some of us waited around to talk to the guys. On the suggestion of a couple of the other @$$holes, I bought the first trade of Johns’ run on FLASH while at the show and got Johns to sign it. I mentioned AICN, and he said he loved the site and the comics stuff he read there. I don’t mention that to be cocky, but so that all of the Talkbackers know that the creators you love are reading what you say, so you are being heard. I think it’s great that kind of feedback gets to the creators so quickly. They’re savvy enough to realize, however, that the Interweb is full of a vocal minority, so they take our thoughts with a grain of salt, as they should. Johns also said it was the support of the online community that means we’re going to see a second trade paperback collection of his run in January, and I know I for one am really looking forward to picking that up.
Sadly, for reasons that were never explained, Stan Lee had to cancel his Friday night and Saturday appearances, so I didn’t get to see him. I couldn’t afford to wait around for two hours until the Wizard Fan Awards started because I had to get back into the city for my annual trip to “Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation”, so I didn’t waste any more time on the floor. If you haven’t been to a Con before, it’s worth considering, but keep in mind there’s a lotta crap to wade through on the floor; I’m the kinda guy who finds the panels far more interesting.
There you have it, folks. Two perspectives from the WIZARDWORLD Chicago-Con. Look for more @$$holes Abroad columns in the future.
