Comics
Christine Mulligan voices her side from the Mid Ohio Con adventure.
Check out the side column for more.
On a side note, December 8th is my new day to look forward. The Batman Danger Girl crossover is coming out.
The art by Lenil Yu looks fantastic, but J. Scott Campbell is doing a cover for his creation as well, and who knows, we may finally get to see him draw Batman.
I told Christine this weekend I could die a happy man if that happened. I love Batman, and every creator I like has done his rendition except for J. Scott. He just about got his chance about 10 years ago when Gen 13 was a hit and he was on it. There was talk and I think prelim art for a Batman crossover, but that was before Wildstorm was part of DC and I am sure politics for love of their respective characters killed the idea.
Mid Ohio Comic Con – Thoughts & Reflections
First of all – Jeff in no way ruined Stuart Sayger’s cool artwork for me (you big goofball!). I think I was just tired & hungry so that makes me extra emotional & girlie. We were standing at the Adam Hughes table having this discussion played out about the “real” value (cost) of original artwork vs. the emotional value of the artwork. It was actually a classically great moment because my clever closing argument was “Man, if only I had a Diet Coke I could think more clearly”.
Then, like a magic genie granting my wish, there was Allison (Adam Hughes girlfriend and one of THE nicest people you could ever hope to talk to) extending a hand with a beautiful icy cold can of Diet Coke. She said they still had a ton in the cooler & would never be able to finish them all. I very gratefully offered her a granola bar I had in my bag to say thanks. She passed it on to Adam so he would have the strength to complete Jeff’s “Oh Baby, Baby” piece of art. So you see it all worked out great! And, Jeff, don’t discount my tenacity – if I want that Wolverine painting I will still find a way to get it.
Second on my list – could you PLEEEEEZE post more pictures of me looking FAT and freakish? ‘Cause I just can’t get enough of that. Okay I’m done with my girl stuff – on to the Con…
With everyone around me in a mad dash to see Adam Hughes I had to unique opportunity of being third in line to meet the great John Byrne. I have always found his writing to be clever and very funny. I’m a huge Sensational She-hulk fan too.
Now, since Jeff came clean with his Brittany fetish I will also admit my moment of humiliation. A friend at work asked me to have a copy of Wonder Woman signed. The cover showed W.W. herself grimacing in some apparent pain or distress. My friend wanted me to have him sign it “Feel the Byrne” – and, God help me, I asked this man I idolized to do it. Let’s all take a moment to be embarrassed for me… But, heck, I was being a giggling schoolgirl around him anyway so why not just ice that cake. Mr. Byrne (look I can’t even call him John!) was exceptionally nice about everything. It was a pleasure to get to shake his hand & talk to him.
But the supreme “What a Nice Guy” award has got to go to Jeff Smith. The “Bone” series is very family friendly – I’ve read it to my kids. The people in front of me brought their son & daughter. The son had made some original sketches of the characters & they were even wearing T-shirts he created featuring the “Bone” characters. You could tell Jeff was delighted. It was fun to watch. He took his time with everyone & was always pleasant. He signed my “Bone – Vol. 1” and made it out to my daughters. He included the sweetest sketch of the main character, Fone Bone. You should have seen my girls faces light up they saw it – grins from ear to ear. This was something really special to take home from the Con.
Talking to Stuart Sayger was a blast! I had already purchased the first two issues of his self-published book & loved them. I was so tickled as I walked past his booth & it slowly dawned on me that I knew (and loved) this guy’s work. His style is really unique & I could look at it endlessly. If you haven’t had the opportunity to check out “Shiver in the Dark” go out now & demand it from your local comic shop. I got issue 3 of the series & two of his sketchbooks. He was nice enough to sign everything & even threw in a little sketch for me. It is SO cool!
“Nice” seems to be the key word for our fabulously fun Mid-Ohio experience. We met some of the nicest people, didn’t we Jeff? As Jeff mentioned earlier we bonded early on in line with David & Jason. That led us to further bonding with David’s extensive circle of (again) super-nice friends. I believe we are now invited to David’s Christmas party – I hope that all works out. Going out to dinner with our newly acquired friends was the perfect end to the day.
I have to stop now & give props to Jeff for going to Allison on behalf of Jason. Jeff risked his place in line for his sketch (which was the whole original driving point for our journey) in order to make sure Jason was treated fairly. Good job Jeff! And the great thing is, you did the right thing & you both got your sketches. I’m glad your altruism was rewarded.
I’m a true believer now folks. My first con & I am officially crossed over to the dark side now – full on geek & proud of it! Here’s what I understand now that I didn’t before I went to Ohio. Before I went I thought it was all about the crowd – I’ll just say it – hanging out with a bunch of weirdos. But weirdos aside (and yes they were there too), it’s really about getting to hang out with the artists. What an amazing energy there was in the artists’ room! I was hesitant to approach
the tables at first but I warmed up quickly as I saw repeatedly how open & friendly everyone was. Soon I was flipping through sketchbooks, chatting with the artists & best of all – watching them work.
I watched Talent Caldwell sketch & Andy Lee paint amazing watercolors. I chatted with Jeffery Moy about his sketchbooks & took home one of his prints of the baddest Josie (sans Pussycats) I’ve ever seen. I totally want to be on his sketch list sometime. And what can you say about Skottie Young? I was so impressed with him – talk about original, imaginative work! I got a Harley Quinn sketch from him that I could not possibly love more. What a neat thing to be able to share that creative energy for a while. I know Jeff & I were just buzzing with it all the way home.
Thanks Jeff for suggesting this trip – I think this may just be the beginning of our adventures. I’ll try to seek treatment for my crippling for my Diet Coke addiction before our next journey. J
Later!
Mid Ohio Comic Convention!
Well, I am back. The Ohio Comic Con was a total blast, much due to the company I was with, Christine Mulligan.
The plan, like I posted here, was to leave at 2 a.m. Saturday and get to Columbus OH by 5 a.m. to get in line early enough to get a sketch from Adam Hughes. Christine wanted to meet the legendary John Byrne, so she was cool with that. On Friday night I headed off to sleep at 8 p.m. trying to get a reasonable night’s rest. Staying up until 2 a.m. usually squashed that idea. I rolled around in bed until about 9:30, got up, watched some TV hoping to fall asleep, but didn’t and long and the short of the story was that we overslept as Christine was left outside. Bless her soul, she was understanding, and we were on the road at 2:30 a.m.
If you aren’t familiar with Adam’s work, here is his most recent cover on Tomb Raider 47.
We got there at 5:30 with what looked like no one in sight. However, there was one guy in line already named Jason. We hung out until 6:30 playing cards until another guy came down, David. Then there was really just us four until 7:30 – 8 a.m. and then the place got crazy, even more so then last year. It was uncomfortable at best. Here is a photo before the third line in the middle began and all of the dealers with their huge carts and everything started pushing through the crowds. That is David with
his back to us.
When they finally let in the advance tickets holders, we ran for Adam’s table. There were about 8-10 exhibitors in line but I managed to get up to sixth in line, and Jason was 12th. I wish everyone was honest, and I don’t know that anyone there wasn’t so it was hard to be that far back after getting up so far in line and arriving so early. I talked to Allison (Adam’s girlfriend and manager) and Adam about making a switch if necessary to make sure Jason got his sketch since he truly was before me and she appreciated the honesty.
Christine and I then met Jeff Smith from Bone, who was really awesomely nice, doing free sketches for these two children who were in front of Christine that were big fans of his wildly popular self-published book “Bone”. This is the best picture I got of them.
Then we kind of wandered around and did different things, checking out other artwork and doing a little bit of shopping. At 1 p.m. we went to the cover artist panel with Adam Hughes, Greg Horn, Talent Caldwell, and Skottie Young (A phenomenal cast). I asked a good amount of questions about programs for art creation and the politics of editors and getting your first work. Here is the best photo, my crappy little 2.1 MP camera.
We periodically checked in on Adam, and then decided to get sketches from Skottie Young since his list was open for Sunday and we were going to be around. We also talked with Stuart Sayger who we found out Does “Shiver in the Dark” and is a local Indy artist. He was really cool, talented and great to talk to about his experiences in self publishing as well.
We got invited out to dinner after Saturday’s show with our new friend David and the people we met through him including Andy, (girl) Dan, and Kevin and what ended up being a table of 12 people. These guys were awesome and actually go to a ton of shows, the pinnacle being Dragon Con in Atlanta.
We drove up to Mansfield to stay with a friend for the night, had some wine and got relaxed and had a good night’s rest, and for me, it was after being up almost 24 hours and at my old age of 25, that isn’t as easy as it used to be.
On Sunday when we got back into town Skottie Young had our sketches done. (See photo in Photo Diary section). Adam was drawing for A.C.T.O.R which is a benefit for older artists and he had gotten through a couple more sketches that morning.
We did some more shopping, I traded for some new books and we hung, relaxed and read for awhile. Then on my way back in I traded for nearly $90 of books since the show was getting near the end, dealers were more ready to deal. It was about 3:40.
We got to Adam’s table and he started my sketch. He finished up at about 4:30. He is my beauty. I am really happy with it, I know that a lot of comic geeks and most macho men out there will laugh their tush off, but here is my “Baby one more time” Britney in the classic school girl outfit. I think she has occasional catchy music mixed in with a bunch of crap. But you gotta give her credit for selling it and she is truly an “entertainer”. I wanted to give Adam something unusually instead of the myriad of Tomb Raiders and Wonder Women that are out there that he draws every day. The inscription actually says “First and Last Sketch of Britney Spears. 1 of 1. AH!”
So only two years of trying and I was successful, but I definitely go for the gusto and learned from my mistakes so I could get this before I lost interest and without paying X amount of dollars over many years trying to get it.
So that was it for the weekend except for the trip home which we made immediately after that. I think we’ll go next year, Christine was a blast to hang with and she had a great time at her first convention.
As a final note, I apologize to Christine. She was about to buy this rockin piece of original art. But I opened my big fat mouth, voiced an un warranted opinion, and kind of ruined it for her and made her sad. So, as I said earlier today, I am sorry. I try my best not to do that, and it never fails that I always mess something up. Hopefully we can still do this next year.
Crossgen Entertainment is officially finished.
I read online last night that Disney of all people bought the publishing rights to all of Crossgen’s characters, including all of their characters that are in development for movie treatments.
Crossgen busted out of the gates five years ago with a fresh approach, a slew of books, and a solid base of creators looking to take on the big guns. They expanded quickly over the coming years and attracted more and more talent. But the books were fantasy in nature all based around this “sigil” symbol that gave it’s wearers unique powers. You know, swords and swashbuckling types of books, which really isn’t what I was into so I probably didn’t help their cause much. I did read Sojurn for awhile, which is where Greg Land really blossomed into the hot talent he is today.
But about a year ago the publisher quietly stop putting out books and we started to see their creators pop up back at DC and Marvel. Word later was that they had run out of money and were bankrupt.
So, farewell to them. Another sad story on the war ridden roads of the comic industry. Maybe someday we’ll see another publisher make it for an extended period of time, but for now I would say, probably not.
Identity Crisis 6 escalates to the seventh and final issue.
The story continues. I give this issue a 3.5 of 5 stars. The art still isn’t all that great, minus the Michael Turner covers, but the thing with great stories is that the art can sometimes take a back seat for necessity. You would prefer the stories to come out on a regular monthly basis then to be delayed for a long time because of great art. Those long pauses can kill a good story.
So we start off seeing some iconic imagery with Robin kneeling over his dead father which carries over to visions of Bruce Wayne over his dead father. Then more discoveries are made about the murders. Flash keeps pressing Green Arrow for answers about who else he and the other JLA members had brainwashed with the help of Zatanna. During the fight in the last issue with Deathstroke, Flash had seen visions from Dr. Light of the members that were present when they had during the brainwashing.
Green Arrow had only mentioned seven, but in the vision Batman was there. He is reluctant to tell Flash what happened but when he threatens to go off and talk to Batman, GA tells him that there was a second vote that night on what to do. The crap hits the fan. The other member had voted to take Batman’s memories too.
He had taken care of Sue Dibney but he came back in the middle of the brainwashing and went byserko, obviously, it’s Batman. They voted to take his memory of the event, knowing it was the only solution from breaking up the league permanently.
At the end, we are left with a cliffhanger. During Sue Dibney’s autopsy, it was found that she was already dead before she was burned horribly on one side of her body. Well, as they look closer it seems she died of a blockage of blood to her brain. That is why none of the league members could figure out how someone broke the defenses, the intruder was but the size of a molecule. And that man was small enough to stand on Sue’s brain and block the bloodstream.
That man is Captain Atom, and we have to wait until next month to find out what happens.
The Mid Ohio Comic Con is quickly approaching!
I ordered my tickets on Friday and am all set to go to the Mid Ohio Con for a second year to see if I can get a sketch from one of my favorite artists, Adam Hughes.
My plan of attack right now is twofold, to save money, but to get there early enough to be very close to the beginning of the line. Those who order advance tickets online get in a half hour earlier then the rest of the attendees, so that is a nice benefit. But I was naive last year in thinking that that would be enough. I was only a handful of people back from the front of the line, but still I was over 20th down his sketch list which anything over 12 is usually not going to get one.
So I will be traveling probably at about 2 am over to Columbus Ohio to try to get in line at about 5-6 am. Then I should be there early enough to get a great spot in line and a chance at a sketch.
I am also pumped because I have found someone down here that is also into comics just about as much as me, and she really wanted to go. Christine Mulligan will be my partner in our day of what will most likely be adventure and strung out fanboys. But it will be cool to finally have someone to talk to about this as we walk around.
Identity Crisis is a must read!
Identity Crisis, a new event involving the DC characters by writer Brad Metzler is a book that I had thought about picking up, but really looked like most of the other dribble that comes out in the comic world. But Christine had the first five books that are out so far, and she let me borrow them. There is never any harm in giving it a try then. (The cover to issue 6 picture here on the left, with Batman holding his hands.
It blew me away, and has hooked me. I can’t say that anyone who doesn’t read comics this would necessarily be a great pickup point, but I have seen articles in main stream press on how big of a deal this seven part mini series has become.
I ignored the hype, and the enticing Michael Turner covers, who is usually a touch overrated, and opened the first book on Saturday. The story starts out with a bang, a great mystery. A DC character that I had heard of in passing, Elongated man, is the main character. Brad Metzler does this great job of getting you introduced to this character quickly, and then all of a sudden, the tragedy drops.
You get a sense that this Elongated Man loves his wife very dearly, so when she is murdered, burned beyond recognition, you begin to ask yourself, what would you do?
People think that comic books are all a bunch of super heroes flying around saying stupid crap. When in fact today’s comics are based in reality, with real emotions and decisions under some exaggerated circumstances of course, but a relatable human emotion none the same.
Things snowball from there. A dark secret is told as the supposed identity of the killer is revealed to be Dr. Light. It seems that Dr. Light found Sue Digby, Elongated Man’s wife, many years ago unprotected. Well, he didn’t kill her, instead he did something worse. We see a very delicately treated scene where you connect the pictures that he rape’s her!
Well, the Justice League doesn’t know what to do. They know this evil man will come after her later, having found her once, to kill her. She won’t ever be safe. The moral dilemma. They decide to wipe his mind, which spawns lying among the team, hatred, and many other problems that come with evil.
As the story escalates, another wife of a super hero barely lives through a hanging. Superman is nervous, and so is Batman, who is always so calculating and composed that it seems like no one is safe. Lois Lane then receives an anonymous note that they know who she is and that she is next. Also, as issue five leaves it, Tim Drake’s (Robin) dad has been attacked and apparently killed. So not only is it shocking, it is affecting some major characters, not just those that we could care less about.
That is where the books have left off. No one knows who is doing it, and there are no clues. They can’t figure out how this killer is getting past the defense systems that are alien in nature. No normal man could get through them.
Only time will tell. Keep posted here as I review issue six which is due out the middle of November.
