Staring at the sky…

Compelling, confusing, and weird… or as Wizard Magazine would say, “Grant Morrison has done it again.”

In honor of the 666th issue of Batman, DC Comics let Grant Morrison do what is commonly referred to as “pulling a Grant Morrison.” That is to say, that they let him go strangely off topic, and show a future world where Batman’s son, with Talia, the daughter of Ra’s Al Ghul, has become the new Batman, and Barbara Gordon is the new police commissioner.

Much like Morrison’s last few issues on X-men, the issue makes next to no sense, because it clearly involves a lot of continuity that no one has written down (apart from, possibly, the strange voices in Morrison’s own disturbed genius brain). It’s like reading the 10th issue of a story arc, and not being able to get the other 9.

Some clear themes emerge from Morrison’s view of the future:
1) Shoulder pads will return
2) Batman dies
3) Damien, Batman’s son, does his best with what he has (which apparently includes an immortal soul).

Actually, on point 1, the costume looked an awful lot like the one in the “Countdown” preview art. Hmmmm. Perhaps I’m thinking about this too much.

Either way, the story is a lot of fun, and relatively easy to follow, and it’s always nice when Grant has someone to tether him a bit to solid ground, which Andy Kubert does fantastically in this story.

I just finished reading the first issue of “Zero Killer” from Darkhorse comics, and I’m going to review it, but first let me talk about myself a bit.

When I graduated from college, I was not expecting to enter the workforce. Being a physics major does very little to prepare you for it, because they kind of expect you to just continue on in school until you get a PhD or off yourself from frustration. Consequently, when I decided not to pursue further studies, in my early final semester, I had no idea what I would do. So i decided that I could draw, and I created a short sample to send to various comic book companies.

It was a 4 page “Flash” sample in which he battles Gorilla Grodd. In my youthful insanity this made perfect sense to me, despite never having read a Flash book, or anything involving Gorilla Grodd. I also decided it was a good idea to draw exactly 4 comic pages — the only 4 I’d ever drawn — and send them in, like a 5 year old might. Not exactly what one would expect from a rocket scientist, but hey.

So I sent them to 3 publishers: DC, Crossgen, and Darkhorse. I did not send them to Marvel, as it was the tail end of the 90s and I just couldn’t draw that many pockets.

So, DC sent me a form letter on DC Stationary, which was awesome.

Crossgen, in what I’m sure is a clear sign of why they went out of business, sent me a long hand typed letter from the head of the art department extolling the virtues of sticking to it, and how he had been rejected time and time again, etc. It was a very nice letter, and undoubtedly the best rejection letter I have ever gotten out of the hundreds and hundreds [Note: I used to laugh when I heard people say they could wallpaper their house with rejections -- I could wallpaper the Capitol building].

Then I got the Darkhorse rejection. Now, I feel privileged, because Darkhorse no longer sends rejection letters, due to the costs, and also it was a full letter, where so many I’ve gotten have been barely legible scrawled sentences on the other side of my query letter. But it was the single most evil thing I’ve ever gotten back from a publisher. I really want to find it, but it’s not in my rejection letter file [Note: actually it's my rejection letter and death file, where I keep rejection letters, and programs I get at funerals -- they just seemed to belong together, as it's a reminder of something you feel you should remember, but just don't want to] I’ve just discovered. The message of the letter was pretty clear — “You, sir, have no talent. You must realize this by now.”

Now, admittedly, I didn’t have any talent at the time, and to be honest, if you look at my work now (which is much improved, and not the first 4 pages I’ve ever done), I may be able to pull drawing duty on a small press book, but I’m not really ever going to be a big time player in the drawing world (I’m really a writer who draws, not an artist who writes). All the same, it came as a nasty blow at the time.

So, I’ve tended to avoid Darkhorse since. I am reading “Buffy” now, and will probably submit a project idea or 2 to the venerable independent company at some point in the future, but over all, there’s still kind a bad taste in my mouth because of that reject letter. I hope you take that into consideration as I write this very short review, because these creators had nothing to do with that rejection letter.

“Zero Killer” is set in a strange dystopian post-apocalyptic present. That’s right, no future for these guys. The apocalypse happened, and it happened on Nixon’s watch. This book sets up a number of very interesting possibilities, and seems like a combination of “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” and “Kamandi,” with the sensibilities of “A Boy and His Dog” thrown in.

The story seemed to start of slow, with a number of memes which will be familiar to anyone who is familiar with the post-apocalyptic literature of the last 50 years. Devastated city [Note: in what might be a little unsettling to some, due to the timeline of the apocalypse in the story, the Twin Towers are still standing, and are in fact the first image in the book], damsel in distress, the one good man who acts bad and is inevitable unbeatable, and the attractive woman who dominates something, and wears very little.

The art is great, and the all the elements are there. I think where they go from here is crucial, and it could be similar to Kirkman’s “Walking Dead,” which started in the same way with the zombie memes but kept going, or it could flounder. I’m hoping for the former, as I like what I’ve seen thus far, and it has great potential.

I hate to make this blog so comics heavy, but I haven’t read a novel all the way through in too long. I guess that means I need to take a long trip where I’m not driving. I have an Elmore Leonard book I need to finish. At any rate, this post is pretty much full-on comics. This is to say that the recently released “Sinestro Corps” one shot from DC is as steeped in CD comics continuity as you can possibly be. I am about to plunge the depths of my geekiness.

There are icons in comics, immediately recognizable to almost everyone in this country - Superman, Spider-man, Batman, the Incredible Hulk, and Wonder Woman, are the safest examples. And then there are the next rung down on the ladder, where they are recognizable to the general public, but they may not have been heard of by up to a 5th or a half of that public - The Flash, Aquaman, Iron Man, and [NOTE: don't send me hate mail, as he doesn't belong in this category, but he's in it -- maybe the publicity surrounding his death will change this] Captain America.

Green Lantern, is kind of in the second category, but still I don’t think that many people outside of comics fans actually understand the character, or know who he is. I say this because I’ve gotten strained and confused looks from people who knew about all of the other characters mentioned above, had read comics, and had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned Green Lantern. So already the story starts out without wide appeal to a general audience. That’s fine.

After “Green Lantern: Rebirth,” and the first New Corps miniseries, I feel like GL is ready to take its place as an actual character in the pantheon.

Then the book focuses on Sinestro, who is a purple David Niven, dressed as a court jester, who’s evil. One of the Iconic villains of the DC Universe, Sinestro has always been plagued by the least threatening appearance imaginable. Even Black Manta is a scarier looking character, and he’s Aquaman’s evil counterpart [NOTE: I grew up watching reruns of the old Aquaman cartoon, and even at the age of three, I knew he wasn't that interesting. I think Michael Turner figured it out -- the only way to make people really interested in an Aquaman like concept is to give it a female star. DC should totally do their own version of the Little Mermaid]. So they’ve given him a uniform now, which actually looks interesting, and functional, and makes much more sense than the purple and black get up.

And they’ve been giving him his own group of Yellow Lantern Corps over the past few months. This is perfect. He has always been the kind of character who wouldn’t have left and gone out on his own — he would have gone out and created his own gang, so he could be top dog.

And the characters have been compelling. In fact, this has been, admittedly, the only reason I continued getting the Green Lantern monthly. The story line hasn’t been doing much for me. I dropped the Corps ongoing. There’s too much in space based comics that conspires to make them boring. People writing them focus exclusively on elements that lose their luster quickly, and almost all space based characters are capable of flying without a space ship.

I haven’t seen a story set in space (other than some stories in Invincible) in a long time that actually showed the dangers associated with being there, or showed the majesty or shear size of it. And the only thing worse than a space based comic set in generic, uncompelling space, is a space based comic set exclusively on Earth, as Green Lantern has become.

So, while I haven’t been wowed by the current stories in GL, I felt excited about picking up this one-shot, and hopeful for the story it would bring.

I was beyond impressed. Even if my expectations had not be tempered by disappointments which came before it, I’m pretty certain I would have been extremely happy. It’s probably one of the best GL stories I’ve read in a long time.

It is also much more important than I thought it would be… see below for why.

[SPOILERS FOLLOW! BIG ONES! Also, I think I've done a pretty good job of summarizing several decades of important back-story].

So, I knew that Sinestro would be part of this, and I knew Hank Henshaw (the cyborg Superman who was created for the Death of Superman event that made all of the papers would be in it. [NOTE: for anyone who's reading and doesn't know, Henshaw destroyed Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern's home town during that event, leading Hal to go crazy, and become Parallax. As it turned out in the "Green Lantern: Rebirth" series, however, Parallax was just the embodiment of fear, who possessed Hal. This is important, as there's a quiz later]), as he’s in some of the released cover art.

This is, as I say, admittedly all pretty involved DC continuity stuff.

Then they took a step I wasn’t expecting, and the Sinestro Corps grabbed Kyle Rayner [NOTE: formerly the only Green Lantern, following Hal's killing of all the rest of the Green Lanterns while possessed by Parallax]. Kyle has recently become Ion. Ion is like the next generation Lantern, who has internal power and doesn’t need a ring (thereby saving him the need to get unsightly tan-lines on his ring finger). As it turns out, Ion is like Parallax — the embodiment of will power. So Sinestro rips the Ion entity out of Kyle, and replaces it with Parallax, turning Kyle into Parallax.

Now, we’ve gotten to the point where I am almost embarrassed that I even know this stuff.

Pushing past that, and going into even deeper territory, we come to Superboy Prime. I was wondering the other day if they were going to bring him back soon, or just wait for a couple of decades. Well, as it turns out, he’s back. Superboy Prime is such a complex concept, involving Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis, and the multiverse, that I’m not even going to try explain it… if you want to learn more, look here.

When I realized that he was being busted out of the Green Lantern prison, I thought that this would be the biggest single addition to this plot. I also thought this would be the weirdest addition to the story.

I was wrong.

[Mother of a SPOILERS below]

On the last page, you discover who is responsible for everything, and it’s the Antimonitor, who has apparently recently been reborn.

You don’t get much more geeky than that… the Antimonitor was responsible for the Crisis on Infinite Earths. This was single most important event in DC Comics history. Consequently, if you haven’t heard of it, I’m surprised you’ve made it this far. I’m not even going to link to it.

At any rate, this is big. It’s surprising. I highly recommend keeping an eye on the GL books for the next few months if you want to follow what’s going on in Countdown, or any of the other big books, because I’m pretty sure this is all going to meld together.

I want to give a quick plug to my “Pregn’t with Twins” co-creator, Casey Lunny’s new site Moving Delirium.

[NOTE: to be honest, if she hadn't taken the time to carry and birth her two little girls, there wouldn't be a strip... or it would have a different title, probably involving drinking].

There’s not a lot on there yet, but basically, Casey is doing pictures of robots doing unexpected things. For example, checking the community theatre bulletin board to see if he got the part in the new production.

I honestly had no idea she could draw.

My apologies to anyone I picked up as a reader thanks to the link from comicbookconventions.com. I’ve had a rather rough week and a half since I posted that painfully long post, and I hadn’t been able to really read anything, watch anything, or post.

Hopefully that will change this weekend, as I’m staying home for the first time in weeks, and relaxing.

Today I went and bought comics at the shop where I do such things (Big Planet Comics in Vienna, Va, if you’re curious, which I wouldn’t be if I weren’t me), and picked up Invincible #43 by Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead) and Ryan Ottley (the artist on “Invincible”… I should do more research). I love this series. I’m not sure what made me pick it up to begin with, but I started reading the trades a while back, and didn’t catch up with the regular book until after the 7th compilation.

Invincible’s the sort of book that you could give to almost anyone, if they were willing to read comics, and they would probably enjoy it if they gave it enough time. At first glance, it’s not really one of those ingenious works like “Watchmen,” which you can use to force anyone to take comics serious. It’s a book that doesn’t seem serious — just fun. A book that lulls you into believe it’s nothing more than a gleeful coming of age story following Superman, written by a Spider-man writer.

And then, out of no where, it hits you across the jaw, and you see that it’s not that. It’s far more complex. Our hero is the teenaged son of a man who has been sent to Earth to take it over, and is posing as the world’s greatest hero. Abraham Lincoln was actually one alias taken up by a Vandal Savage type character who now serves as the world’s second greatest hero. The government is neither evil nor benevolent, just self-serving.

[NOTE: I have become a huge fan of anything that focuses on Abraham Lincoln for no obvious reason. This stems from an episode of the original "Star Trek" I caught for the first time a couple of years ago, which began with "Captain, we're being hailed, by.... Abraham Lincoln." And there he was. I'm sketchy on the details, but I think he ended up fighting Kahless the Klingon Messiah, and Genghis Khan, and winning. This struck me as odd, given that the symptoms of Marfan syndrome, would likely prevent him from engaging in direct physical combat. All the same, at least he wasn't forced to tell them "Party on, dudes!"]

At any rate, last month’s issue of Invincible was a very good jumping on point, and except for the fact that we learned Invincible’s purple half brother is now capable of flying, it wasn’t really that useful of an issue. This issue was clearly a continuation of dealing with the past, and a set up for the future.

I won’t give away the ending, but I will say it made me smile.

Beyond this, I will say that I do not trust Thaddeus, the leader whom Allen the Alien reports to. It’s been revealed in an earlier issue that he is a Viltrumite (the race of conquerors who Invincible’s father comes from), and he’s only willing to share this information with Allen. He’s also now trying to get Invincible to come to see him. It seems suspicious. I’m pretty sure, though, that Kirkman must have something unexpected up his sleeve.

[NOTE: The following contains art by professional creators, which depicts images of copyrighted characters. As I own this art, now, I'm pretty it's within my rights to display it online, but if I am incorrect and you are the artist, or a representative of the artist or company, please email me, and the art will be taken down immediately. I have no desire to upset anyone with this act -- and would prefer to not be sued].

It’s a 3 hour trip to the city of beef and cheese by way of I-95 from DC, but it’s a trip I do not make often enough, clearly. Philadelphia is a pretty neat town (though admittedly, given how much I dislike DC, everywhere seems more interesting, except for Cleveland), and I don’t think you need a comic con to feel that way.

However, that’s why I went, and so, let me get down to my notes on the experience.

Friday:
We stayed at Club Quarters Philly, so our first task was to find the place. Let me just say that should you decide to visit Philly, and think this is a good place to stay, it is, but the directions they have on their site are reversed. What I printed said they were at the corner of 16th and Chestnut, when really they’re closer to 17th. It also said that the parking was at the corner of 17th and Chestnut, when it’s on the 16th side.

This tiny detail (when added to the 55 minutes we spent being lost, after making a wrong exit) added 58 minutes to our travel time.

Because of this, we were late in getting into the Friday festivities. We arrived in time to see the second half of the movie roundup, which went through the various movies that are coming out in the distant future, including Thundercats, He-man [NOTE: This film will be done without Dolph Lundgren], GI Joe, Avengers, etc. But I missed out on any other Friday panels.

The event is a lot smaller than the New York Con, much more intimate, as I had been told. All the same, despite this, the artist’s alley seemed to sprawl, where New York’s in hindsight seemed deficient. There were so many creators at the event that it definitely seemed more like a comic con.

So far as celebrities are concerned, while there were people like Lou Ferigno, Juliya, the original Lois Lane, the 76er cheerleaders, and Dirk Benedict, they were all scuttled over into a corner like second class citizens, compared to artist’s alley, which in New York was as cramped and crowded an affair as celebrity row was here.

One of the most fascinating dynamics I noticed was that while fanboys (and girls) were not shy about talking to and ogling alternative sex symbols like the Suicide Girls, who were in attendance, no one seemed to be visiting the 76ers’ cheerleaders. They seemed lonely whenever I walked by, and were generally wistfully looking over at Dirk Benedict’s booth which was across the way, clearly envying the Face’s ability to draw a crowd.

We spent a long time over at the Aspen table, as we were hoping to buy some Michael Turner art, as he is Ann’s favorite artist. It should be noted, however, that she went direct to the table, and made a face of displeasure unrelated to anything at the table, and somehow managed to get a death stare from the man himself, Michael Turner. As this blog has a readership of almost 2, and last I checked Michael Turner is not my mother, this is a long shot, but Mr. Turner, if you read this, please understand this was unintentional.

Overall, we spent a long time at the Aspen booth trying to find the right page that night, and initially figured we had no hope of finding anything we could afford. This was prompted by the cover to Flash 211 (the final post-production cover can be found here), the artwork for which consists solely of a picture of the Flash’s head, chest, and upper arms. This was priced to move at $2000. In Turner’s defense, his agent assures me that the purchaser also gets a signed full color print, which really would look awesome over any fireplace.

That night, we went back to the hotel at 6pm, after the con closed down (it’s an early night in Wizard World, apparently) and read the Wikipedia article on Philly cuisine, which spent surprisingly little time on cheese steaks. Thus began my entirely unsuccessful quest for Black Cherry Wishniak, which I really am interested in finding. If anyone out there knows where it can be found, please let me know.

Saturday:
Most comic book conventions seems to have their share of Princess Leia’s in the metal slave bikini from “Return of the Jedi.” For example, New York had a full 9, who travelled in a veritable horde of fan boy dreams. There’s another adjective I should probably add, but will not at this moment.

In Wizard World Philly, there was only one this year, but this just meant that she was even harder to avoid looking at. When you’re surrounded by 3 quarter dozen half naked Leia’s it just seems to be part of the natural order of things. One, however, makes you feel like you’re staring at the last of a dying species. It’s generally most fun at this point to watch the crowd, and see the reactions from everyone who passes - the women all looking upset, and the men all looking far less so. For a picture of what I’m talking about, you can see her the final post-production cover can be found here.

I definitely cannot understand the way that comic fans break down. I mean, I show up to a comic convention feeling 10 pounds overweight, and wishing that I could make it to the gym more than my customary 3 times a week (which admittedly I missed out on for a few weeks not so long ago). After half an hour in the room, I feel like Adonis and Hercules rolled into one. And yet, I still don’t feel like I would want to stand around with my ass hanging out for 8 hours (which is what so many of the females in attendance do). Granted, their willingness may be because they actually are in pretty good shape.

Leia, and several storm troopers were again running security (as in New York), and so that was the first sight I had upon entering on Saturday morning. This was followed by the sight of Ann dragging me to the first panel.

Christian Beranek from Silent Devil lead a panel on how to break into comics. Well, by panel, I really mean it was just him. All the same, it was good. Very good. He’s a guy who’s worked in a couple of different capacities in a couple of different places.

He had a lot of good suggestions, and information, including debunking the old story that you can copyright something by mailing it to yourself. Unfortunately, while this probably does prove something, it is not admissible in court. Therefore, it’s better to just pay the $25 to copyright something for real.

He recommended trying out Comicspace.com, which is like myspace, only comic related. He insisted that it was best to try out for contests given by companies like Topcow, Tokyopop, and Devil’s due, because it gets exposure. Anything that gets exposure works, and especially in comics which is such a close nit community. If you stick to it, you actually can get in.

His example of this I found very interesting, and wish that I had bothered to ask Bendis about when he walked close enough for me to trip him (this may seem like a pathetic thing to do to get someone’s attention, but I wear size 13 shoes, so it’s always more of a miracle when I don’t trip people). Brian Bendis drew his own stuff (which I knew), and would buy out a booth at the various conventions, and it took him something like 12 years to get the attention of the publishers. Of course, he now writes for every single book at Marvel, and may be re-writing the US constitution on December. So, that is, I hope comforting to people trying to get in by traditional means.

The basic idea is that you have to be there, and you have to be vocal, you have to talk to people, again, and again, and keep a thick skin, because you will probably be rejected time and time again. Too many creators aren’t talkative people. They’re shy, and that’s a problem — you have to be able to sell yourself.

Admittedly, this is a problem for me, though I’m pretty loud in general. I have a hard time so long as I don’t know what I’m trying to get out of the process. I also have a hard time dealing with one person. A large number is an audience, but a single person is a person, to me.

So, I personally decided to get a new table at the Small Press Expo in Baltimore. Tragically, they are all taken. So, maybe next year. Or maybe I’ll go to APE. Or, whatever. All the same, I want to get out there more, as soon as I have more material to show off. Doing a weekly web comic for such a small readership probably isn’t going to be enough — but I’ll get into that more below.

Encountering Angus Oblong

One of my all time favorite cartoons is “the Oblongs,” which was created based on the work of escaped mental patient and part time clown Angus Oblong. For those of you unfamiliar with Oblong’s work, it’s disturbing, but hilarious. He’s often compared to Charles Addams.

Now, he dresses as a very messed up clown in conventions, and so my first encounter with him was related to that. As I was walking up to his booth, a mother brought her daughter up and asked is she could take a photo with him. She put the daughter up on the table, where the little girl sat in the precious-little-girl-photo pose in front of Angus, who posed like he was Pennywise from Stephen King’s “It.”

Once this future topic for the girl’s therapy was over, I looked through his work, and found a couple of things I liked a lot. He was a bit busy, so I bought them, and nearly walked away, when he asked if I wanted the book I bought signed. I was a bit shocked — I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten this, and I totally spazzed out. Honestly, I’ve never understood people who freak out upon meeting someone famous, but my brain completely shut down when he asks, “do you have a favorite character?” I’m sitting there thinking “Don’t say Milo, that’s too easy,” he asks “are you familiar with the show?,” and Ann says to me, “You like the mom.” Which I do, but she’s not my favorite visually. So I turned to her and was like “I do?”

Either way, I’m just completely disoriented by this point, though I think still somewhat normal. Then he asks me my name.

Now, I know my name, and this has nothing to do with being flustered, but I actually had to think about this. I go by Schieber, but my first name is — well, I don’t have to spell it. So, even though only a handful of people call me by that name, I have to say it — and I’m not used to saying it. So, I seem even more like a dork in my mind.

But either way, I got my first sketch at a convention, ever, from Angus Oblong, and it’s pictured below.

Not that I plan to ever sell this, but I did of course ruin any chances I have of doing so. If I had instead said “Highest Ebay Bidder” is my name, but you can call me Hi, I think that would have helped insure me against tougher times.

All the same, as I say, this is something I do not plan to part with, and I think is now as valuable to me as my prized autographed collection of my favorite author Harlan Ellison books, which, I believe, nearly cost me my life [I filled out the order form for Harlan's book club while drunk on night in '96, and made a terrible joke related to the dedication -- thinking, I thought logically, that he wouldn't sign paperbacks. I got a hand typed post it from Susan, his wife, indicating some annoyance at my shenanigans, which was deserved I readily admit. She asked if I wanted the books signed or not. Given his reputation for ferocity and tenacity, I worry that I'm on a list of enemies and one day after the James Camerons and AOLs of the world are taken care of, I'm next].

This was then followed by the most pivotal moment of the trip. I Found a page by Joe Madureira, my favorite artist of all time. And, more importantly, it was a page from an X-Men issue (316, page 14 to be exact) that I poured over when I first got it. It is, admittedly, the most boring page from that issue, but it was much cheaper than the far more interesting page that was 8 times as much, so you know what? I don’t care.

Here’s a sample of the page, as you can see Banshee is preparing for the gym. That’s action!

DC Panel
After a particularly embarrassing moment, I picked up what was left of my dignity, and headed down to the DC panel. The main story was that they are introducing a new book staring Jimmy Palmiotti, called “Panty Patrol,” or something like that, I kind of zoned in and out.

Remarkably, this panel dealt a lot more with Marvel’s recent decisions than I expected, including some great quotes from Bob Wayne:

On the Death of Captain America -
“You’ll be amazed by the characters that feel bad ‘Oh, I feel so bad… I’ll have a splash page now.’”

Bob then went on to talk about DC’s plans, with similar backhanded comments like:

When the editor of JSA Classified was asked about Dr. Midnite, he took a swipe at the competition again -
“No ones gonna believe a blind superhero…”

When asked about when “All Star Batgirl” would come out -
“We didn’t manage to put out all star Superman and Batman as frequently as we’d like, so we’re holding off until we have a few issues, so we can disappoint you in the middle of the story, rather than the beginning”

Over all the most disappointing new from the panel was that Amanda Conner [whose work has only recently come to my attention] was not going to be able to make it, as she was under the weather. I’d hoped to get a sketch from her, and I still hope to at some point.

Bendis vs. Joe Q.
Joe Quesada, Marvel’s editor in chief, was interviewed by Bendis (who announced that he has just signed a new contract, in which he will also be writing all checks sent out from Marvel, as well as stories for the office stationary) for the Wizard website. I don’t want to give too much of the panel away, though I must say a few quick things:

1) I had no idea that Joe did not get into comics until he was 29 years old. His story is fascinating, even given that he got in with what seemed like relative ease, and I prefer to hear hard luck stories. I highly recommend that you read over it once it’s posted.

2) Joe also could tour doing just his impression of Stan Lee, which is, true believers, totally spot on.

3) Bendis has made the promise that “Spider-man will never kill someone with his bare hands just to get an erection.” Apparently this is true in both the regular and the Ultimate Marvel Universes. Anyone who says otherwise, is a bald faced liar. And Bendis knows from bald.

Sunday:

Sunday started off not with Leia, but instead with www.drunkduck.com.

Based on the panel, I am seriously considering posting on Drunkduck, in addition to my own site. I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to get more exposure, and I guess that’s it (well, either that, or I’ll need to start wearing my own metal bikini, and I hardly think a highly publicized trial for public indecency is good publicity, regardless of whether or not there is such a thing as bad publicity). Again, it’s important to get into some kind of community, and have people to interact with, and be someplace where you can be found.

If I do it, it will be in the next couple of weeks.

Other recommendations made include making sure to copyright everything, and ad a copyright and trademark symbol where possible. Trademarking itself is expensive, which is why it’s lucky Ann works for a law office that handles them, so I can find out how much it would cost. Copyrighting is pretty inexpensive, all things considered.

The entire panel more or less agreed that you have to make money through advertising, or merchandizing, though you can also work with paypal donations. The trouble with the latter is that if you are really successful, you have to figure out tax law in a hurry. It’s best to set yourself up as a corporation.

The point was made repeatedly that web comics are still growing in popularity, and that we have not reached their potential. Mobile content is really a growth industry, and one in which one could potentially make money directly, for example. All the same, there are many Web Comics creators who have readerships that dwarf those of the major comic companies (I myself have more readers than enjoyed the “Clone Saga” from Spider-man, but I doubt that’s the same thing).

We also discussed merchandizing, and in addition to Cafepress, they recommended www.spreadshirt.com. They recommended making your own merchandise, or researching and finding companies to produce merchandise specific to your concept. Should I make a stuffed Smokey the Monkey? A stroller decked out in skulls? I don’t know… I’ll have to think about it.

We finally, on the last day of the convention, after spending at least 30 minutes each day at the Aspen table, bought a page from Michael Turner. It was an earlier page — in fact, it’s inked. It’s page 12 from Witchblade 14.

Below is a link to a sample panel.

Ann also got the awesome dragon sketch below from Aspen artist Micah Gunnell sketch.

(Click the thumbnail)

As we were leaving, I did my part for the Hero initiative by buying the below sketch of Phoenix by Phil Noto:

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The basic idea, as I understood it, was that artists in the Charlotte Hero Con (which was also going on this weekend), were doing pencils, and then the pages were being brought up, and inked by artists at Wizard World.

You’ll notice that my sketch is not inked. I didn’t really think about this until I found this note on the back of the package.

I don’t mind, to be honest, and it was very amusing to find this, after the painful 5 hours spent doing the 3 hour drive back.

It’s been kind of a full weekend for me, between doing some emergency plumbing, finishing the art for the first issue of a project I’m working on for this web site (which I won’t be putting up for a while), finally sorting out how to hook my Wii up to the internet, and cleaning. Consequently, I have actually seen no new TV shows, movies, plays, nor have I read any new books save for comics, none of which seems to be pivotal enough to write about.

I’ll try to put together a review on the first 3 issues of the new “Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8″ comic series.

The only real news is that I have my tickets, and lodging set up for Wizard World Philly, which is weekend after next. I’m hoping to be able to do more at this convention than I was at the NYC one. And the experts’ opinions seem to indicate that this is the case.

The advice that was given at the “Breaking in to comics” panel mentioned in my first post, was that Philly’s Wizard World is really the best convention to go to. The logic was that it’s close to New York, but it’s not in New York, so while everyone from the Industry is there, other people tend not to be. It’s also comic specific, unlike the larger conventions (New York included).

I’ll definitely post notes on this convention in a couple of weeks.

“Ultimates 2,” issue #13, came out this week, a scant 4 months since the last issue, and only 3 and a half years since the first issue in this arc.

I would really like it if I were able to hold that against them, but I was just so glad to have it to finally read, that it was okay. In all honesty, while I understand the continuous argument that comic fans now expect more out of their art, and so it’s not easy to put the product out there in a timely fashion, it’s still pretty unacceptable. Comics are a constantly dying and returning art-form. Derided, even while the subject matter contained within them is turned into other entertainment properties; an old fashioned form of entertainment. In an era where technology has come so far, it must be possible to use it in a way that improves, not slows the release of the product.

And especially in the case of a series with a limited run [which "Ultimates" does in a way, as they chose long ago to do it in "seasons" of 13 issues], I have never understood the willingness of a publisher to throw away as much money as they do, by not producing the full run prior to release. It’s just bad business - if X-Men, or Detective Comics is a few months late, it won’t affect sales, because people have been reading those titles for years. If issue 13 of 13 is a year late, half your readership will not remember that the story wasn’t finished, and a good number of the people you want to start buying the book, will not be able to get the back issues, and will not buy the book. If you are on time, and meet expectations, you will reap rewards with limited series. Fail that, and you’ve given up on actual financial success for a project purely for short-term minor gains associated with getting the first book out the door.

You want to see proof? Wait until Kevin Smith’s “Daredevil: Target” issue 2 comes out, and see what sales on that are like.

So, it pains me, when I’m so very passionate on this topic, both from a fan perspective and a business perspective, to say this, but the issue was totally worth the wait, and despite the fact that it would have pushed the release into 2011, I think they should have made it longer, or included another issue. Or, better still, they probably should have included this issue directly with issue 12, which was far superior.

In the middle of the book is an enormous multi-page pull out which shows the battle to end all battles, and which is probably what took Bryan Hitch so long. I don’t think I could fit that many standard comic pages on my drawing table at one time, myself — I imagine he had to build a special drawing table just for that scene, and that must have taken time.

I wish more time was spent on the Hulk, who clearly has made a great deal of progress since being blown up. I can only hope that Jeff Loeb picks up on that, as he starts his run with my absolute favorite artist, Joe Mad. The ironic part is that Joe Madureira, whose 10th issue of “Battlechasers” is currently 65 months overdue (with caveats. admittedly — in that he hasn’t really claimed it was coming out since 2001), may actually end up being more on time because of the delays caused by Millar and Hitch.