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Men in plaid ECCC’13

by @AmyChu

Day 1

After an exciting first day at Emerald City Comic Con on Friday, a sea of attendees flooded the many downtown venues around Seattle’s Washington State Convention Center. But the place to be for the evening was the bar of the Sheraton hotel where many of the comics professionals gathered.

ECCC, like Heroes Con and Baltimore Comic Con, is a creator favorite because of its focus on comics over video games and other flashier media. So it’s not surprising that the large space quickly filled up with an impressive roster of talent. I spotted “I, Vampire” writer Josh Fialkov in a distressed Green Lantern tee from his expansive collection of shirts (I don’t believe I’ve seen him wear the same one twice.) While many readers are sad to see the end of “I, Vampire” in April, Fialkov will be going green and red soon, taking over “Green Lantern Corps” with artist Bernard Chang, and also the “Red Lanterns” series.

Fialkov introduced me to the tall, familiar looking gentleman on his left. I noticed him on my flight earlier because he resembled a junior version of “Locke & Key” writer Joe Hill. He was, in fact, James Tynion IV, the rising star for DC’s “Talon” and Scott Snyder’s backup writer for “Batman.” Tynion is taking over “Red Hood and the Outlaws” with issue #19 in April.

By now the bar was packed and everyone was having a good time. I did a sweep of the room with Dynamite Founder and President Nick Barrucci. Barrucci and Dynamite generated a fair amount of buzz earlier in the day by revealing fan favorite Gail Simone as the new writer for a relaunched “Red Sonja.” Simone was previously exclusive to DC making the announcement even more interesting. Amidst the sea of beards and plaid, clean shaven Jim Zub stood out, happily socializing. The creator of the brilliantly hilarious Skullkickers series has also been working on a Dynamite title, the fantasy “Pathfinder.”

Near the elevators, I ran into Marvel’s peripatetic talent scout C.B. Cebulski and his wife Mutsumi returning from dinner. They had been in Seattle since Wednesday, taking advantage of ECCC to adventure through Seattle’s culinary landscape. For foodie nerds, Cebulski’s blog Eataku is an invaluable resource for convention eats as well as drinks. I offered him the Flying Monkey Dogfight Pale Ale to try. The Flying Monkey was the official convention beer by a local microbrewery American Brewing Co. I have seen C.B’s encyclopedic beer knowledge in action before and was curious to hear his rating. Cebulski took the glass, and like a pro beer taster, swirled and smelled before sipping and pronouncing it to be “good.” Whew.

By 11 pm you couldn’t swing a cat without hitting an Eisner or Harvey winner like Jim McCann and Janet K. Lee whose “Lost Vegas” seemed to be selling briskly over the weekend. Or Francesco Francavilla whose beautiful creator owned pulp action comic “The Black Beetle” with Dark Horse has been flying off the shelves. Mark Brooks, exclusive artist to Marvel, seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. Lately, he’s has been busy with covers for Marvel and enjoying the creative control of doing all the pencils, inks and colors himself.

Tynion and I went in search of Scott Snyder and finally spotted the writer of the moment off to the side. Batman: Night of Owls trade may be #1 on the New York Times hardcover graphic books bestseller list, but here he was, staring glumly at a glass of water. By the time he arrived, the bar was so packed, it was impossible to get the bartender’s attention. I left as they strategized what to do.

Day 2

On Saturday the star of the show was the sun, making a rare appearance for Seattle, and brightening the convention mood even more. After the show floor closed at 8 pm, I walked back to the Sheraton with artists Derek Fridolfs, Dustin Nguyen, and Peter V Nguyen. I asked Peter what was up with all the female fans stopping by his table. He told me his secret: his Nightwing prints were very popular with the ladies and he was half seriously considering doing Gambit next.

At the Sheraton bar I ran into Vertigo’s Mark Doyle, editor of Saucer Country, New Deadwardians and their hit American Vampire. He introduced me to Brooklyn based artist Robbi Rodriguez. Rodriguez is working on a new series for Vertigo, “Collider” involving physicists investigating bizarre anomalies. Soon we were joined by artist Andy MacDonald, the artist on the new Yen press graphic novel Zoo by James Patterson. He and I compared bourbon and scotch notes as the DC folks decamped for their dinner.

The bar lobby was bustling, this time with more fans. Comics pros who were tied up at company dinners or up in their hotel rooms busily working on commissions started trickling in again. The Marvel crew finally returned from their event – I gave Marvel editors Sana Amanat and Jeanine Schaefer the seats vacated by Doyle and Rodriguez. Amanat, who edited Marvel Illustrated and several of the Ultimate Comics for Marvel, has been busy with “Captain Marvel” and the hit “Hawkeye” with Matt Fraction and David Aja.

Before long it resembled the previous night’s crowd again. Everyone seemed to be having a great time. For the first barcon of the year, it was an auspicious start.

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It’s almost time for the “The Amazing, Awesome IDW Panel” at the Emerald City con.  We’ll be liveblogging it.

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Our cast: Denton Tipton, Joe Harris, Michael Walsh, Mike Costa, Phil Hester and Livio Ramondelli.

Harris on X-Files – He’ll be re-establishing and updating the mythology arc.  There will be some monster of the week, too.

They had a conference call with Chris Carter this week.

Michael Walsh is the artist.  He’ll be starting next week.

“Color Me” Treasury edition of My Little Pony #1 is on the way.  All the covers will be included in the treasury edition.

They will be reprinting a lot of DC’s Cartoon Network books and then doing new material.

Power Puff Girls will be the lead-off book.  Samurai Jack will follow.

Transformers Monstrosity  is the sequel to the Origin of Optimus Prime.  12 part digital series, debuted on Friday.

TMNT will be their FCBD book, based on the Nickelodeon cartoon.  There will a series for cartoon continuity in July.

Also a Judge Dredd FCBD book with the classic strips.

“City Fall” is the next big “regular” TMNT arc in May.  Metteo Santa Luco (sp?) is the new artist.

Star Trek – prequel mini-series will lead into the new movie.

GI Joe – 3 news series.

*GI Joe by Van Lente and Kurth – the main team after being exposed to the world
*Special Missions – Chuck Dixon / Paul Gulacy
*Cobra Files – Costa/Fuso

Costa on Cobra Files – continuing the story from the Cobra book.  All 3 books in the relaunch have a personality.  GI Joe is the “superhero” book.  Special Missions is the S.E.A.L. special ops book.  Cobra Files is black ops.

It will have double agents inside Cobra trying to take it down.  It’s about espionage and the emotional consequences.  Flint is the only real good guy in it.

Creator owned books:

Half-Past Danger – 6 issues by Stephen Moody.  WWII pulp with dinosaurs.

Wild Blue Yonder – 5 issues in June SF with air pirates

The Colonize – 4 issues in April – Zombies

Monkeybrain’s Edison Rex in print in June.

Phil Hester will be writing THUNDER Agents.  The artist hasn’t been determined yet.

Hester – He’s approaching it as something that’s happening now, but has a classic look to it.

Q&A

Q: How do you approach licensed projects?

A: By finding creators who are passionate for the property.

Costa – He has much better working relationship with Hasbro than he’s usually seen with licensed comics.  He’s not sure he could his story arc on the main title, but as a side book, he’s given some freedom.

Q: How is the X-Files starting?

A: It’s tied to the past and they’re forced back into the field. Doggett will appear.  Chris Carter signs off on them.

Q: How did Cobra Files get set in Vegas?

A: It was inspired by a Elmore Leonard novel.

Q:  Chris Carter’s involvement with X-Files?

A: Harris is writing it, Carter is providing feedback.

Q: What license would you like to do?

A: Tipton – Thundarr
Harris – X-Files
Walsh – He was looking to do some horror
Ramondelli – Transformers
Costa – Transformers or Blake’s 7
Hester – THUNDER Agents or Kurt Russell (Snake Plissken/Big Trouble in Little China) comics

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It’s almost time for the ”Marvel: The Next Big Thing” panel to start at the Emerald City con.  We’ll be liveblogging it.

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Our cast includes, Mark Waid, Sam Humphries, Joe Keating, Matt Fraction, Kelly Sue DeConnick,  Sana Amanat, Gerry Duggan and Brian Prosehn (who is late).

DeConnick – Crossover event with Captain Marvel and Avengers Assemble is coming up.  In May, there’s no Captain Marvel.  The story will start with “Enemy Within #1.”

Keating on Morbius – For the first 5 issues, he’s re-establishing who Morbius is.  In 6&7 will start reintegrating Morbius into the Marvel universe and will crossover with Superior Spider-Man.

Gerry Duggan – The president storyline ends with #6.  #7 is a standalone issue.  Deadpool interacting with Tony Stark in the “Demon in a Bottle” era. With #8 things get a little more horrifying.  Superior Spider-Man will turn up in Deadpool.

Fraction – Goth kids join the Future Foundation.  The Thing returns to Yancy Street.

Humphries – West Coast Ultimates are coming up.  Ulitmate Wonder Man, Vision, Black Knight and friends.  X-Force and Bishop will clash in the tunnels below LA.  We’ll see where Bishop was in the future.  Then all 3 Fantomex’s together.  Then a big villain enters the book (familiar to X-fans).

Waid – In the next few issues, the mastermind who’s been messing with Daredevil will be revealed. Hulk will have a Walt Simonson arc fighting frost giants.  Thor will be in it.  Possibly a Hulk/DD teamup.

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It’s almost time for the Star Wars In Comics Panel to start at Emerald City con.  We’re going to be liveblogging it.

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Our cast: Jeremy Atkins, Randy Stradley, Brian Wood, Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko.

Wood Star Wars – His book takes place a week after the first film.  The Rebellion is trying to regroup, so is Vader.  The Rebels think they have a spy in the group.

Hardman on Legacy – It’s in the (Star Wars) future.  Ania Solo is running a junkyard on a moon and comes into possession of a lightsabre, which opens a door to trouble.

It’s the Legacy time period, but starting in a different place and will be introducing a lot of new characters.  Old characters will be popping, but Ania Solo is the focus.

Stradley on Dark Times – It will establish where K’Kruhk was during Star Wars, followed by a Darth Vader Arc.

On Dawn of the Jedi – The invasion is on the way and we’ll see where the Jedi came from.

Q: What does Disney buying Star Wars mean for Dark Horse?

A (Stradley) – He was in Korea at a seminar giving a speech about Star Wars comics when he found out.  He had to rewrite the speech a bit.  So far, it’s been business as usual.  To date, Disney hasn’t had a discussion with Lucasfilm’s licensing people about the comics.  He should hear something this year.  But nothing has changed.

Q: [to Wood] Did you have any trepidation coming into writing Star Wars/clear direction coming in?

A: No.  It’s the Star Wars he knows.  At the beginning, he was just trying to make Stradley happy.  About a week before the first issue came out, it sunk in and then he got a little nervous.  He’s trying not to think about it too hard.

Q: [About Legacy] Anything you’re specifically trying to do?

A: Pulpy science fiction.  See different parts of the galaxy.  Make something that “feels like Star Wars.”  Friends and loyalty themes.

Q: [To Stradley]: Where did you want them to take the stories?

A: They picked the directions he wanted without prompting.  In Empire, which is most people’s favorite Star Wars film, they’re not saving the galaxy, they’re saving each other.

Q: [To Wood] How are you using Leia?

A: She’s young, and she has a sort of official high profile position, but she’s also a bad ass and a pilot.  He wanted to have both sides.

Q: [Legacy] Both series are focusing on strong female characters.  Did other comics inspire you for that?

A: Possibly more from outside comics.  They wanted to avoid the “fake bad ass.”

Q: Sometimes titles have long runs.  Some go away and then come back.  How is that organized?

A: It’s hard for a creative team to work on a monthly series.  Especially artist.  Sometimes you need fill-in artists.  With Legacy, Ostrander wrote everything but there were fill-in artists.  With Dawn of the Jedi, Jan takes about 6 weeks to draw an issue, so there will be arcs.  Jan is always drawing, but it’s scheduled to account for that and leap frog.  In other cases, artists will switch off.

Q: Is Invasion coming back?

A: Right now it’s not.

Q: What’s coming up for Wedge?

A: Wood read the X-Wing novels, so Wedge is top tier and will stay in the story.  His conflict is dealing with Luke as an upstart figure.

Q: With new movies on the horizon, the cannon could change.  How does that effect you?

A: Dark Horse has already dealt with this sort of thing, especially between the prequel episodes and with the Clone Wars TV series.  That’s just how it happens.

Q: Han and Chewie have their own thing going on.  Will they interact with everyone else?

A: Not for the first 6 issues.  They will after the first act.

Q: Will there be gangster elements in the comics?

A: Wood will have some underworld elements.  Bounty hunters.  Han in the Imperial Center underworld with the sanitation workers.

Q:How do you keep the emotional integrity when the series span such large time periods?

A: [Wood] I’m in a specific time period, so it’s much easier.  It would be harder for the other writers.

[Hardman] It’s just about keeping the tone.

[Stradley] A lot of things have been established.  He tells writers to ignore the background, just don’t contradict it.  Don’t write a Wikipedia article and repeat all the established information.

Q: Lots of different people have different kinds of licenses (like games).  Does Dark Horse ever communicate/collaborate with other license holders?

A: Occasionally.  They’ve cross-pollinated the novels with Del Rey.  They have given character specifics to a game company at least once.  Not that often, though.

Aaand… that’s a wrap.

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It’s almost time for the  ”Dynamite is Ready to Explode” at the Emerald City con.  We’ll be liveblogging it.

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Our cast: Nick Barrucci, Matt Wagner, Gail Simone, Mark Waid, Brandon Jerwa, Robert Napton, Chris Robeson, Ron Marz, Mark Rahner, Francesco Francavilla and Eric Trautman.

Gail Simone is getting into the Red Sonja spirit by carrying around a sword.

Trautman is working on a Lady Rawhide book.

It took about 2 years to negotiate with the various rights holders to get the Masks crossover together.

Shadow: Year One is expanded to 10 issues.

Q: Will Red Sonja will have a humorous side?

A: Yes, but it Sonja won’t be the one cracking jokes.

Q: Where are Project Superpowers and Kirby: Genesis standing?

A: Right now Kirby: Genesis was hurt by two spin-offs, so it’s return is planned, but it’s a ways out.  Barrucci is talking with 2 people on the panel about a new edition.  The third edition needs to work or it will be time to shelf it.

“Super cool” Army of Darkness announcement for C2E2 or SDCC?

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It’s almost time for the “From the Pages of Hellboy” panel at the Emerald City con and we’ll be liveblogging it.

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Matt from Multiveristy is running the panel.  Our cast includes, Mike Mignola, Scott Allie, Tyler Crook and Dave Stewart.

All Q&A panel!

Q: Hellboy 3 happening?

A: No news.

Q: What’s coming up for Hellboy?

A: Hellboy in Hell is an ongoing series.

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It’s almost time for the “DC Comics the New 52″ panel at the Emerald City con and we’ll be liveblogging it.

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The lineup – Larry Ganem, David Finch, Scott Snyder, James Tynion, Jeff Lemire, Ray Fawkes, Ethan Van Sciver, Gail Simone, James Robinson, Brian Buccellato, Kevin Maguire and Matt Kindt.

More creators than space on the stage.

“Trinity of Sin – Pandora” series by Ray Fawkes and Daniel Sampere announced.

She opened the box that let out all the sins, but maybe the game was fixed.  Now she’s angry and she’s going to “kill and kill and kill.”  She thinks she’s been set up and will kill them to get what she wants.

Finch on JLA – He’s more a fan of this book than some things he’s work on in the past.

Kindt on JLA backups – Martian Manhunter is harder to write than Superman.  Backups feed into the main story.

Snyder on Batman – almost verbatim, the same speech from yesterday.

Tynion on Talon – New arc starting.  More of a supporting cast now.  More exploration of the recent history of the Court of Owls.

Tynion on taking over Red Hood & The Outlaws – He wants to tell a big story that uses the potential to go into crazy directions.  It’s a strange mix of characters, since they come from different genres.

Cheshire will be making her New 52 debut in the series.  Hugo Strange will also be turning up.

Kyle Higgins on Nightwing – Nightwing is moving into Chicago, Higgins can’t say why yet.  It’s the big opus story.  There will be worldbuilding.  All the heroes in the city are dead now and he’ll run into that mystery.

Snyder on Swamp Thing – Big change on the way out and Charles Soule will pick up the change and run with it.

Lemire on Animal Man – New arc about Buddy as a celebrity.

Lemire on Constantine – I’m just co-plotting.

Fawkes on Constantine – It’s Constantine navigating the world of superheroes.  About how dangerous it is to be a magic user in the DCU.  He’s no longer living in London.  He returns to London in #3 and everyone there wants him to die because of [unnamed event].  He gets involved in something big after that.

Lemire on Green Arrow: He wants to build a mythology around Oliver Queen’s past and the island.  He also wants to bring back some Green Arrow villains.

Van Sciver on Batman: The Dark Knight – Writer Hurwitz chose the Mad Hatter, his least favorite Batman villain, so he got to reconfigure him. #18 will have a life-changing decision for Bruce Wayne that DC almost didn’t let them do.

Simone on Batgirl – A new female Ventriloquist is turning up in #20.  Everything comes to a boil in #19 (after Fawkes… ?fill-in issues?), and is the culmination of the Simone’s original arc.

Simone on The Movement – “Completely and totally different.”  Brand new characters.  It’s a superhero adventure comic.  Young dirt poor kids made about corruption.  It’s set in the DCU and is very diverse.  Artist Freddie Williams II thought it felt like a creator-owned comic.

Robinson on Earth-2: The current arc is about Doctor Fate.  He’s building towards a major DCU event in 2014.  A new Batman for Earth-2 debuts in the Annual.  This Batman “will be a major part of the DCU as things unfold.”

Booch on Flash – The Trickster is coming up.  “Who is the Reverse Flash?” will be the next major arc.  No Wally West questions will be answers.

Kevin Maguire has resigned from Worlds’ Finest .

Ah — Stephanie Brown questions banned.

Q & A:

Q: Anymore Starman-related mini’s?

A: The Shade didn’t sell very well.  He’d like to pitch a series with the Immortal characters like Shade, but with Batman as the selling point.

Q: In the New 52, Batman didn’t seem to get a reboot – why was that?

A: Snyder – They had the option to reboot, but they liked it as it was.  Although, going forward they did change a few things.

Q: A Comment – why didn’t you have season 2’s and start at #1s again after the zero issues.

A: They _do_ plan on having Septembers being big deal months in the New 52.  Hints for something BIG in this September.

Q: More stuff like Strange Adventures?

A: Time Warp from Vertigo.

Q: What happened to Booster Gold?

A: Stay tuned.

Q: Earth-2 solo book spin-offs?

A: Stay tuned.

Q: New Atom comic?

A: Stay tuned.

Q: What’s happening in the Batman & Robin – will Wally West be the new Robin.

A: Stay tuned.

Q: More plans to mix the “dark” heroes with the DCU.

A: Big storyline in the JL universe is coming up.

Q: Who’s the new Question?

A: Isn’t that the question?

Q: Will you ever release a comic with Damien as the Batman of the future.

A: Sure? Maybe in the future?

Q: Are we allowed to ask about Cassandra Cain?

A: Yes.

Q: Are we going to see Cassandra Cain again?

A: I’ll make a note that the reception to the idea was positive.

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We’re a few minutes away from the “We Are Boom!” panel starting.

We’ll be liveblogging, so get ready to start hitting refresh.

Filip Sablik is saying he had the wrong impression of Boom! when he started working there, so this is about explaining to everyone else how Boom! works.

Ross Richie says he started Boom! because Keith Giffen told him he should publish comics.  Richie used to work at Malibu before Marvel bought them.  They started in the spare bedroom of Richie’s apartment.

Matt Gagnon is the EIC.  He was working at Meltdown Comics (retail).  Richie asked him join early on.

Editor Shannon Watters had been a copy editor at TokyoPop, but was in marketing when she joined BOOM! as an assistant editor.

Adventure Time was constructed specifically to get people outside the DM mainstream involved on the creative side.

All-ages is now a direction Boom! is exploring.

Sablik is using the panel as an opportunity to introduce the Boom! staff.

And now the story of Sablik getting recruited.  Interestingly, 15 minutes into the Panel, Adventure Time is the only current title that’s been mentioned.  The panel is closer to a recruitment video than a traditional comic panel, thus far.

Now a retrospective of creators they’ve worked with.

A video of Paul Jenkins talking about getting creative freedom at Boom!.

Now a Mike Carey video.

Brian Stelfreeze video.

Mike Kunkle video.

All basically the same video, all ending with “I am Boom!.”

Now pictures of fans, emphasizing they cross demographic lines.

They got the Garfield license because Jim Davis liked the Rescue Rangers comic Boom! did when they had the Disney license.  He approached them.

Now the mission statement “Core to our belief”… they think that established creators don’t always have the right venue, due to the ebb and flow of the market.

[That might be a dig at DC and Marvel.]

Stelfreeze has a new book that isn’t announced yet.

Another mission statement – they’re building the comics company of the future.

Now bullet point “beliefs” recapping the panel.

A very unusual panel.  It really seemed like a recruitment drive more than a convention panel.

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It’s almost time for the Skybound: On the Rise panel at the Emerald City con.

We’ll be liveblogging it, so get ready to start hitting reload.

Our cast: Charlie Adlard, Ryan Ottley, Brandon Sieffert and Joshua Williamson.

A new character named Ezekiel will be coming to Walking Dead.

There’s now a walkingdead.com website.

Ottley is told to wait for the Invincible website.

Angstrom Levy will be returning to Invincible soon.

Joshua Williamson and Goran Sudzuka (sp?) have a new book from Skybound.

“Ghosted”  Ocean’s 11 in a haunted house, instead of a casino.

Our “hero” has been hired to steal a ghost, so he puts together a team of psychics/magicians.

The artist is already working on issue #5.

Covers by Sean Phillips.

It debuts in July.

Witch Doctor: Malpractice will have a tpb in June.

Thief of Thieves will have Andy Diggle writing the third arc.

Clone starts a new arc in April.

There’s a Superdinosaur cover with Superdinosaur in a tux and pistol ala 007 that’s pretty cool.

Q & A

Q: Is Invincible Universe replacing Guardians of the Globe.

A: Yes.  It spins out of Invincible 100.

Q: Do you feel “dickish” that you promised the death of everyone in Invincible 100 and nobody died?

A: Plenty of people died.

Q: Are the Mauler twins coming back?

A: One of them was in Guardians of the Globe.

Q: [Ryan]: Who’s your favorite character design improvement?

A: Octoboss

Q: [Ryan] Any design regrets?

A: A few.  Shapesmith.

Q: Is the [Invincible Universe] a mini-series?

A: Ongoing.

Q: Will there be another Walking Dead series?

A: Adlard – No.

Aaaaaaand…. that’s a wrap.

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It’s almost time for the Pint O’ C.B. panel at Emerald City Comicon and we’re going to be liveblogging.

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Our Cast: C.B Cebulski, Sam Humphries, Cullen Bunn, Mark Waid, Daniel Way, Jeanine Schaeffer, Matt Fraction, Sana Amanat, Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan.

Ah… no Marvel PR on the panel…

Q: How do portray heroism in your titles?

A: Way – The best way is to show some contract.  Show what is not a hero.

Humphries – Look for strength to match your challenges.

Waid – Put characters in situations where they have to make choices between bad options.

Posehn – “We write fart jokes and puns.”  He approaches it like an action movie.

Fraction – It all changes with the character. At a certain level, its about doing the right thing.

Bunn – He lets the characters guide him.

Amanat – A hero is someone who puts other before themself.

Q: Will you nice to Spider-Man for a change.

A: Schaefer – Liked the Spidey beat down in AVX, because it defined his “don’t back down” character.

Q: With the rise in digital comics and female readership, how hard or easy is it to have minority characters

A: Amanat – When I edit books, I edit from my perspective as a Muslim woman and editor for the perspective of someone outside of comics.  Comics can be exclusive.  Sometimes being inclusive will upset people used to the history of the character.

Fraction – It’s hard.  You used to hear girls and kids didn’t read comics, but you’d see them reading manga at the bookstore.  The DM has moved for a long time like it just serves white males.  There’s a ground-up movement that’s been starting in the last few years.  Making things available (like digital) is the first step in changing.

Way – At Marvel, we write to a broad market.  Anyone can write to a specific market, but if that market doesn’t have enough buying power, it doesn’t work.  The leveling of the playing field is in digital and making it available.

Waid – Some places, there just aren’t comic stores.  Digital is every where and iPads are everywhere.  Share your digital codes if you’re not using them.

CB – Digital sales are growing fast and driving graphic novel sales .

Way – We need to figure out how to monetize digital and get better printed trades.

Humphries – There’s a big change coming, in terms of accessibility.  If you’re accessible, you’ll be left behind.

Q: How do you balance continuity when one character is in several titles (like Wolverine)?

A:Schaefer – It’s the editor’s job.  They have a chart of where and when Wolverine is.  There are a lot of spreadsheets and a timeline of Wolverine’s life.

Way – It depends how you define character.  Writers may define character as how the character is in a particular book (he might act differently in a different book).  Consistency is more important than continuity.

Fraction – Continuity is the devil.  It makes for bad stories.  It’s trivia.  Consistency is important.  The rest is ultimately trivia.

Bunn – As a fan he loved continuity, but a some point he backed off it and just enjoyed the stories.  As a writer, he likes the shared universe, but if he obsesses over it, that obsession shows up I the story a bit too much.

Way – You end up reading the footnotes, instead of the novel.

Fraction – Morrison’s Batman is predicated on EVERY Batman story happened.  What does that do to your mind?

Q: (To Way) Was it your decision to make the Thunderbolts wear Red?

(To the rest) How do you handle Deadpool?

A: Way – Most of the characters already had a red motif.  Deadpool has a really wide definition of who he is as a character.  You can do almost anything with Deadpool.

Q: As writers, if you could write any book what would it be?

Way – That’s a loaded question.  Everything is a possibility, you need to narrow the field to probability.  When you think about a dream job, it’s always a qualified answer.  I’d love to do it “if this, if this.”

Humphries – Devil Dinosaurs

Posehn – Batman Vs. The Blues Brothers

Bunn – Rocket Racer

Humphries – You tend to love a book because of who was writing it.

Way – Getting what you want means you’re done and nobody wants to be done.

Schaeffer – From the editorial side, she always wanted to work on X-Men.  It’s scary but fun.

Q: Have you ever wanted to write a novel with the comics characters?

A: Posehn – What’s a novel?

Q: Who does the character-based Tweets?

A: It’s the X-office.  It’s the characters tweeting.  It’s crazy.

Q: What’s coming up in Hawkeye and Spidey?

A Fraction: #9 is issue #8 from the women’s perspective.  #10 is the guy who’s doing to kill Hawkeye.  #11 “Pizza is my business” Pizza Dog solves a murder.  #12 Clint’s loser brother moves in.  A sign-language issue is coming up.

Spidey is the Superior arc.

Q: In Ultimates, Captain America was a bit of a dick.  Was he softened for President Cap?

A: Humphries?  No.  The process actually started after Millar.  Cap isn’t a mellow character, but he’s calmed down a little after getting used to the new time period.

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The Internet has changed everything for the funny book business; we all know that for the most part. It can either make or break your comic book career that probably hasn’t even started yet. The internet has 24/7 access to creators and publishers. What kind of impact is that having on the industry as a whole?

As an audience member pointed out, it was a panel full of women. Panelists were made up of Alison Baker, Kelly Sue DeConick, Jen Vaughn, Shannon Watters, Emi Lenox.  They all brought very insightful and personal stories about how they work and conduct themselves online.

Kelly Sue talked about how she met her hubby on a comic book forum, and threw a big “L” on her forehead. She also mentioned that the internet is a big distraction for her. She spends her time on dozens of websites, answers the same set of questions sent to her from various sites and spends time with her family. She doesn’t know if all the time she spends shamelessly promoting and fan interaction is translating to her less than stellar Captain Marvel numbers.

Veughn and Watters find particular internet groups and websites to promote the KaBOOM and Fanagraphics books. MonkeyBrain tries unconventional websites and tries to avoid going to the same comic news outlets.

One of the highlights of this panel was Alison announcing that she launched a new comic today on MonkeyBrain that you can read for free, right now.

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We’re a few minutes away from the Official West Coast Fables Panel kicking off and we’ll be liveblogging.

Get ready to hit refresh.

The West Coast Fables Panel has moved to ECCC from SDCC because Willingham is just tired of the crowds at San Diego.

Mark Buckingham is only going to the Fabletown and Beyond convention in Rochester, MN in a few weeks.  Apparently, it hasn’t been promoted terribly well and Willingham is stumping for it.

He’s opening his own bar for the convention.  Just for 3 days.

Sean Williams (who’s writing the third arc of Fairest): It’s a new character, Nalayani, a Fables character from India.  It takes place in the present.

This arc will feature a Maharajah who has appeared in the background in Fables and will be a prominent character in the main book in the near future.

Barry Kitson, who’s done 3 pages of Fables in the past, has just finished Fairest #14.  He’s just drawn his first naked woman for the book.  He’ll also be drawing Fables #130, which will be called “Junebug.” This will foreshadow the next “really bad thing” scheduled for a couple years down the pike.

Willingham has three people from the audience singing Barry Kitson a “congratulations for drawing your first naked lady anthem” for a chance to win a free copy of the Werewolves of the Heartland GN.  It’s… unique.

Jess Nevins will be writing a Fables Encyclopedia.

The Fairest in All The Land, OGN.  The Magic Mirror decides to explain what his standards of beauty are, through a series of stories.  It’s due out for Christmas.

There will be a Fables video game.  Telltale Games will be at the Fabletown convention to talk about it, though.

Also at Fabletown, Shelly Bond will be reviewing artist portfolios.  The best one gets to draw a Fables story.

Q&A

Three people will get guaranteed truthful answers.  The rest… it might be true, but might be sarcastic.

Q: Where’s the cool bar at ECCC?

A: The Sheraton Fountain Bar is where the pros are hanging out.

Q: Are the image of the Blind Mice inspired by an old Walt Kelly comic?

A: He doesn’t know.  Jill Thompson was the artist on that.

Q: Will he use Peter Pan?

A: Peter Pan isn’t in public domain in the UK because of its relationship to the children’s hospital.  He’d wanted to use Peter Pan as The Adversary, but didn’t because of that.  Peter Pan is now in public domain, but he doesn’t have a story right now and DC was nervous about being the first company to use Peter Pan.

Q: Which character under copyright would you like to work with?

A: The cast of Narnia.  Tarzan is only partially in the public domain and thus problematic.

Q: Do you ever feel trapped by your own story on how to continue?

A: To continue?  No.  Trapped because he killed off a villain too soon?  Yes.

Q: The event with the Unwritten is _not_ a reboot of the Fables universe?

A:No. “We’re not going to Stephanie Brown it.  We might Jason Todd it a little.”

Q: What’s the draw to working with Bill?

A (Barry): Bill frees my artist soul.  There aren’t that many comics he can’t wait to read and Bill writes one of the ones he does.

Q: When is Robin Hood showing up?

A: He’s dead.  He died in the Last Castle.  He might have something in mind.

Q: Who’s your favorite character to draw?

A: Sadowski – he gets to draw the first gay Fable, plus the Maharajah is fun.  Kitson – Rose Red.

Buckingham based Rose Red on his wife.

Q: When are we going to see Bigby face Dracula?

A: I had no plans for that.  There are probably too many vampires stories for him want to do it.

Q: Where did Fables start?

A: The first origin was Fractured Fables on Bullwinkle.  His mother explained the concept of public domain characters to explain why the Bullwinkle fairytales were so different from the originals.  Since he had been dropping fairy tale bits in his superhero stories, when he was at a low point in his career, he decided to pitch a full-on fairy tale series.

Q: What is the extent of mundy influence on Fable mortality?  What’s the limit?  (Could Prince Charming reconstitute himself after being blown up because he was popular.)

A:  The theory is the more the mundy’s believe in/are aware of you, the more powerful you are.  It does, but it’s not the only factor.  For instance, Prince Charming was able to drag the bomb over while already been hurt enough for a normal person to die.  It’s really about the creation of secondary belief, a Tolkein concept where you’re into the story enough to accept what’s happening.

Q: Will the Fabletown con include a day trip to Story City?

A: It’s a good idea that hadn’t occurred to him.  He doesn’t think there’d be time with the schedule.

Q: Will the Literals or something like them return?

A: No.  It would overbalance the story, so the story could only be done once.

Q: Any advice for a write to make her artists’ life easier.

A: Only put one action in each frames.

Try and encourage your artist to use their imagination.

Have a back and forth discussion about the art, especially if it’s a new artist.

Aaaaaaand we’re out.

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While I suspect the answer is “make comics on your own and hope somebody likes them,” how to break in is a common question and the Breaking Into Comics the Marvel Way will be kicking off in a few minutes and we’ll be liveblogging.

Get ready to hit the update button.

Our cast of characters: The ringleader is C.B. Cebulski.  C.B.’s the talent scout Marvel and had been hanging out in editorial suite for quite awhile.

The panel is: Sam Humphries (Sacrifice / Uncanny X-Force), Cullen Bunn (Sixth Gun, Fearless Defenders), Shawn Crystal (Deadpool), Christos Gage (Avengers Academy /First X-Men), Joe Keatinge (Glory, Morbius), and Matteo Scalera (Secret Avengers)

Matteo Scalera is taking over art on a book that they can’t talk about yet.  Hmmm…

Shawn Crystal also has something going on he can’t talk about.  Hmmm….

Good news: it’s easier than ever to break into comics.  Webcomics are easy.  POD is cheaper.  It’s easier for writers and artists to hook up on sites.

Bad news: it’s even harder to get paid.

Sam Humphires: He had 2 short stories published in 2011.  (He was in the audience for this panel 2 years ago.)  He wasn’t getting any bites from publishers.  He decided he was just going to put out Our Love is Real and Sacrifice.  Publish it himself.

It showed that he could actually make a book.  Steve Wacker saw Our Love is Real, gave to it Axel, Axel liked it and called him.

Everything happened because he just went ahead and make it.

CB: Just because you don’t have a job doesn’t mean you don’t have work.  You can show people your dedication by just doing it.

Joe Keating: Eventually he got to the point he felt he needed to write comics.  He got a gig flattening colors in Photoshop (which he had to learn).  Then he got in the business side.  Eventually he decided to just pitch a couple books.  Hell, Yeah came first.  Glory next.  Steve Wacker tweeted that he liked Glory.  Keating contacted him and said he liked Marvel.  After some conversations, he got some Marvel gig.

He agrees, just make comics.

Cristos Gage: He was writing Law & Order: SVU and had met Jimmy Palmiotti.  Jimmy got him a meeting with Dan DiDio.  (This was just prior to all the film/tv guys started doing comics.)  He pitched Deadshot.  By coincidence, they were looking to set up Deadpool for  Secret Six.  Then he did a Spider-Man Unlimited and it built from there.

Doing it when you’re not getting paid sets you apart from people who don’t.

“Editors don’t have jobs to give you, they have problems for you to solve.”

He got a Civil War one-shot because Millar was sick and they needed to fill in a book.  It’s important to show you can deliver on time.  Putting a comic out on time online is showing you can behave like a pro.

Cullen Bunn: He wasn’t having luck with comics, so he turned to prose.  Eventually, he was working in a comic store with Brian Hurtt.  He pitched The Damned to Oni with Hurtt, who’d been doing some work with them.  It came out, then nothing happened for awhile.  Eventually, he pitched The Sixth Gun and _that_ got him attention.  Eventually DC contacted him via Twitter for a Superman/Batman arc.  Jason Aaron distributed Sixth Gun inside Marvel and that got him editorial attention at Marvel.

He was working a full-time job, but was still writing (~sounds like about 5 hours/day).  He was attempting not to be the bitter writer.

Matteo Scalera: he was in Italy, so it was a little different.  His style didn’t really fit in with Italian comics, so he started posting art online.  Just post your best stuff.

He started getting small jobs in Italy after being seen.  That got him contacted for Hyperkinetic for Image.  That project was what he showed C.B., which C.B. liked.  That got him into the “Chesterquest” contest.  Eventually he started on Deadpool.

“Once you start working with big companies, don’t take it for granted.”

Be aware how good you are and keep evolving your style.

CB: It’s not so much about breaking in, as it is staying in.

Shawn Crystal: “Become very familiar with The Wire.”  (The HBO show.)  It’s about you wanting in one way, but reality is another way.  (It’s a classic scene and you should watch The Wire regardless of whether you’re trying to break into comics.)  It’s about not being the bitter unsuccessful creator.

Go to conventions and get to know people.  Become part of the community.  Creators expose each other’s work to the rest of the community.

C.B. – He finds the most writers and artist through word of mouth.

Matteo – That’s what he did in Italy and that’s basically how he did it.

Shawn – He was a cartoony artist trying to break in while hyper realism was in fashion.  At the time, he thought he was getting blown off.  When Deadpool came out, that was when he got the call.  Wolverine wouldn’t have been a good fit, but Deadpool was.  Know where your work fits.

Q&A time

Q: The value of Kickstarter?

A: A valid tool, but it’s just a way to help you do the work/get the work out there.

Make sure you put your name out in every possible place.  Brand yourself.

Do the comic you want to do.

Don’t get hung up on where to do the comic (Kickstarter/web/whatever), just pick one and make something.

Q: How much continuity do you need know to work at Marvel?

A: You should know the basics, but it’s the editor’s job to keep track of the continuity details.

Q: Is there anything you shouldn’t do to make people say “oh my god?”

A: Don’t ask for too much money on Kickerstarter.

Don’t be too pushy.

Do NOT tag people on your art on Facebook.

Q: Is it possible to get too much exposure too early.

A: You have to know yourself and your limits.  It’s also bad if you’re _too_ humble.

You can’t believe the hype about yourself.  Never compare yourself (i.e. I’m better than XXX, you can compare your style as a point reference).

[Yup... you should should probably just go make some comics.]