Up and ready to roll in the morning, none the worse for wear. It was a hearty hotel breakfast of omelet and bacon and potatoes and more bacon. Friday is typically the busiest day for me inside the actual Con and this year was no different.
FRIDAY - DAY TWO
THE 2013 BLACK PANEL (5AB) After getting shut out of "The World's End" panel, I was wandering the hallways when my ears perked at the sound of James Brown coming from one of the rooms and my decision was made. The Black Panel is hosted by Michael Davis and featured more mainstream entertainers with comic ties like Wayne Brady and Orlando Jones ("Sleepy Holllow", "Black Dynamite"). It also featured more comic and music creators like Tony Rich, David Walker and Tatiana El-Khouri.
The panel used to be about finding more outlets for African American creators in comics. By 2013, I'm proud to report that this panel is more of a celebration of successes. With only one woman on the panel, I thought there needed to be more of an acknowledgement that African American women need to be brought along in the movement, but it's still great to hear the successful stories and the upcoming projects.
The star of the panel is the host Michael Davis. He works for Motown Animation and was one of the founders of Milestone Media (Milestone Comics debuted over 20 years ago to a market without mainstream black superheroes). Michael was in charge of what devolved quickly into a part roast, part party, part comedic free for all. He was part the blame himself but the room was eating out of his hands. I just don't see enough panels that the crowd and the guests interact like they did here. At one point, Michael left the stage to go sit in the front row to let one of the attendees keep hosting. The chaos only multiplied as the great Reginald Hudlin (producer of "Django Unchained") came out of the crowd to speak.
These types of panels don't break any news. They don't tell the crowd about upcoming projects. But it's the kind of panel that needs to be programmed more by the Con. It's folks who bring us entertainment that we love who look like they are having the time of their lives. I left that room laughing and feeling like I had just dropped in on a party not a panel.
SPOTLIGHT ON JOSE DELBO (4) I will freely admit that I didn't know the work of Jose Delbo before this Con started. But it follows my unconventional convention thinking - I like to go see the older artists and creators to hear stories of the "old days". Jose is an Argentinian artist who worked on old Dell titles like "Monkees", "Mod Squad", "Twilight Zone" and the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine". I didn't know until this panel that he was one of the first artists to work on "Transformers" and "Thundercats".
Jose is elderly and often had to have the questions repeated to him. Yet he rewarded me with a few gems. I loved the story of him getting excited at a convention when a young fan asked him to draw Raphael and he started drawing the artist, Raphael, before the disappointed child told him it was wrong and that he wanted a Ninja Turtle. His insights into the early years of Transformers in the United States was interesting. For an artist, keeping the details straight of all the robots was a challenge that as an older artist, he didn't realize the attention to his art that young fans of the TV show and toys would pay. I will keep going to see these older artists because I never fail to learn.
SUPERMAN: THE POST-CRISIS ERA (5AB) After John Byrne rebooted Superman in 1986 and eventually left the titles a couple years later, the four Superman titles became essentially a weekly title, telling stories that were linked across the four books. Few comics have been able to pull off having multiple editors, writers and artists work to tell a cohesive story, including the Death of Superman and Funeral For a Friend stories.
This panel was more about the process and less about the stories. That was a good move for the discussion. I think the uniqueness of what they were doing wasn't in killing Superman, it was in the partnership that just doesn't work usually. All of the creators were there, including Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, George Perez, Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove.
The story that stays with me was how John Byrne essentially went out in a blaze of glory and had painted the creative teams into a corner. The solution was to bring Superman back to Earth and make him more human. And as they tried to get back to him having a "weakness", the only natural outcome of that was to kill him. That act was not the real story, the creative teams really took off after that event. I can't imagine in the days before e-mails and Internet that these guys kept so organized. These glimpses behind the scenes of comics that you read 20 years ago is just the type of thing I like to hear.
THE X-FILES w/CREATOR, CHRIS CARTER (5AB) I missed the "X-Files" TV show reunion the previous day. I knew that would be one of the most desirable panels of the weekend and didn't even attempt it. I knew that this comic based panel hosted by IDW was one that would hold my interest. Mainly I was interested in hearing creator Chris Carter talk about the print future of the show. To my pleasant surprise, the panel was hosted by one of the Lone Gunmen, Dean Haglund. The biggest bonus was the appearance of the very beautiful Gillian Anderson.
The panel was about the launch of a new Season 10 comic by IDW. The continuation of a Sci-Fi TV series has proven successful for "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer". The comic series will bring back to life the Lone Gunmen and the tease photos look like the Cigarette Smoking Man is coming back in one form or another too.
Once the panel was opened up for questions, you can guess that most of them were aimed at Gillian. What I appreciate more than anything is how she embraces the fandom. She didn't have to show up at a panel on the comics. She doesn't try to distance from being Scully; she is perfectly happy to answer questions about her character, even though she didn't create it. Just to be in the room with Gillian and Chris gave me plenty of pleasure for what they did for my love of Science Fiction on television. They made me actually think of going out to get a comic book based on the series.
SNOOPY: A RETROSPECTIVE (28DE) While half of the attendees of the Con were sitting in Hall H watching the "Game of Thrones" panel, I sought out one of the smallest panel rooms in the Convention Center. Those who know me would have known exactly where to find me. It's hard to imagine an hour about a cartoon dog, right? It turned out to be a very entertaining hour amongst other Snoopy fans. Hosted by Damian Holbrook (TV Guide writer) who turns out to be a very passionate fan of Snoopy, it also included Gary Groth, Nat Gertler, Lex Fajardo and Paige Braddock - all people who are involved with the archive releases or the new comics from Kaboom.
Discussions of Snoopy's history is unique. He started as a regular dog in 1950. He was initially on all fours like a normal dog but once he was taught by Charlie Brown to stand, he never went back down to four legs again. Over the years, Snoopy adopted a number of personalities - the flying ace, an astronaut, a writer, Joe Cool and a beagle scout leader. The discussion could have been a little more philosophical for my taste. I want to delve more into why the dog became the star of the comic strip. Every other character in the strip, TV specials and movies was based in reality. Snoopy was Charles M. Schulz creative outlet and I want to know more how that evolved. And could we have discussed Flash Beagle a little more?
A CELEBRATION OF WALT KELLY'S 100TH BIRTHDAY (8) The other huge reprint releases in my life is the "Pogo" titles coming from Fantagraphics. As a huge fan of the comic strips, I was anxious to see how many other fans would show up the the 100th anniversary of his Walt Kelly's debut of the strip. The panel was hsted by Mark Evanier and included Kelly fans, Jeff Smith ("Bone"), Paul Dini ("Batman"), historian RC Harvey and Maggie Thomson. I was most excited to see Walt's daughter, Carolyn, but she was sick and couldn't make it.
Instead, what worked was each of the panelist telling their recollections of their first encounters with the series. Most of the stories are similar, similar to mine too. Everyone got the comics or read the strip when they were too young to understand it but realized that it was a great strip. Then later, they were able to get the dialect and humor and references.
"Pogo" is a unique strip because it's never been the most popular strip but it is the most respected. This happened because it never talked down to its readers. Kelly expected his readers to be readers of the newspaper - he referenced current events but didn't take the time to explain them. The strips worked on multiple levels. You can just look at the pictures and get the humor or the cute animals. You can read the words and laugh at the brilliance of his use of language and sly references to current and past events. But what really pays off is when you can combine the two and get a message on a whole different level.
Hearing how passionate these creators that I respect are for a title that I like makes me feel even more satisfied about my choice of reads. The collections make me want to learn more about the history of the era to delve even deeper into the humor. I can't wait to go back next year and hear Carolyn's stories of her dad on top of what I learned this year.
MAKING ROGER RABBIT: 25TH ANNIVERSARY (6BCF) It's funny to revisit a movie that you loved 25 years ago but haven't really revisited since. I saw "Roger Rabbit" on opening weekend in 1988 and I've probably only watched it all the way through once since then. This panel brought together most of the animators and Charles Fleisher (the voice of Roger Rabbit). The panel was kind of like a live action version of Blu-ray extras.
I really need to revisit this film. The stories mainly revolve around the fact that this film was led by the vision of one man - director, Robert Zemeckis. The studio didn't think the film would do any business and other companies were initially reluctant to give permission for the use of their characters. Only after Warner Bros saw the first test reels did they offer any characters Robert wanted to use. The film is so much of Robert's vision that no one from the studios have pursued a sequel until Zemeckis is aboard.
The animation clips are incredible when you consider the very basic animation styles they were employing. It was the late 80s but the animators weren't doing different techniques than filmmakers from the 50s and 60s. I don't know if it would have the same charm today. I feel like computers would make the animation mix with the live action too flawless. That's my worry about any talk of a sequel. They ended the panel by saying just as much - sometimes a movie can just stand on its own and doesn't have to be a franchise.
ADAM & JAMIE LOOK TOWARD THE FUTURE (6BCF) The "Mythbuster" crew is back again this year. But it was just Adam and Jamie this time around with Wil Wheaton as the host. Compared to previous appearances, this panel was much less a promotion of the show - although we did get a preview of the "Breaking Bad" themed episode. It was a revelation to hear them talk about their passion which is science and curiosity. They've seen the world beyond their show. The duo has launched Tested.com which is essentially a tryout website for the type of myths that they investigate on the show. But Tested.com is more crowd sourced. They see a future where the experiments they do are played out more online with hours of footage where they can only show thirty minutes on the TV show.
The best stories to come out of the panel were more organic. They took a question on the tools that they modify to talk first about the crazy rules that were in some of their contracts and the types of tools they are trying to market to home improvement stores. The topper for me was their own enthusiasm still over the work they do. Adam told the story of getting a call in their office from a scientist who was on the Space Station. Getting a call from actual space is pretty cool and they still get giddy over such details. This is the type of panel that gets me enthused to watch a TV show that tires me out sometimes - it's nice to see that passion from people doing the same job for so many years.
WORST CARTOONS EVER (6BCF) This might be my ninth straight time seeing this program. This year marks the tenth anniversary of Jerry Beck's program. As a celebration, Jerry showed more of a "Best Of" program. I appreciate seeing some of these shorts again like Johnny Cypher and Paddy Pelican but while they aren't that good on the first run - some of them didn't play so great the second time around. It's still a program I look forward to each year, I'll feel better next year to get back with the new old stuff. And Friday ends on a comfortable note, headed into the busy Saturday.
The busiest day of the Con was just what I hoped it would be. In between all these panels there was meeting with the SHARKNADO director, crab cakes, a whiskey at my favorite new bar and people watching of the highest degree. The night ended with meeting new friends and hanging with the Aw Yeah boys at the Hilton bar and sharing some awesome stories. Fun times again.
Stay hard.
Shawn Bourdo
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