From: [m--el--y] at [iron.helios.nd.edu] (michael kelly) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc Subject: CHICAGOCON: Sunday Update Date: 6 Jul 1994 20:09:48 GMT Chicago Comicon Update: Sunday 3 July 1994 Due to my late Saturday night, I don't bring myself to consciousness until about 10:30 am. I spend the next hour packing my gear and washing up. 11:30 am: I manage to check out. The hotel Sofitel is nice enough to have provided a wonderful buffet brunch: shrimp, turkey, roast beef, as well as a great selection of fruits and breads. No coffee in sight, so I duck out back to the con. Noon - 1 pm: I do a quick browse of the dealer's room, but nothing catches my eye. I finally see Vampirella, and boy was I flustered. I zip over to the artist's alley again in an effort to catch Larry Marder, but only his wife is there. She promises a Tales of the Beanworld (#22) will be published by next spring. I silently wonder to myself if she realizes it is July.... I do one last fly-by of the DC area, but there is no one I want to talk to. Dean Motter is nowhere in sight, and I am heartbroken. I waste some more time watching the Technocomix(tm) VR combat. I swear I've seen this VR setup at some other company's demo. 1 pm: I watch "The Mask" electronic media packet. Mildly entertaining, especially when thedog was interviewed. This doesn't take the entire hour. I see some Vertigo fanboys queuing up to get their free Vertigo surprise outside the next room. I blow by them and endure sitting through a Marvel presentation. The horror, the horror. The worst moment I saw was when someone asked if Northstar and Hector had some sort of relationship. (gack) 2 pm: While I would have liked to go to the Don Thompson memorial, I decide to suffer through the Vertigo panel. Iain Bertram and I sit down front, and watch Lou Stathis make an idiot out of himself as he hosts fellow editors Shelly Roeberg and Julie Rottenberg, as well as Marc Hempel, Guy Davis, Jill Thompson, Jon Ney Rieber and Pete Milligan. Stathis insults Ted McKeever until he shows up. This panel was almost as painful to sit through as the Marvel one before it. Stathis repeated his refrain, "We like twisted shit at Vertigo." Shelly Roeberg used the word "kewl" (trust me, I could hear the 'k') in every two out of three sentences. Somewhere in here the editorial staff made a disparaging remark about Karen Berger, although I doubt they realized it. The remark went that there was a joke around the Vertigo office that right now everything was "TK -Totally Karen" and that the situation would be changing as the current editors developed a little more. [editorial comment: *Excuse* me ?! Karen Berger has been giving minimal editorial guidance over the past two years! Either this remark indicates that the idiotic assistant editors, whose credits include running most of the Vertigo projects into the ground, were feeling the heavy hand of KB, or those same assistant editors somehow think they stand a chance of matching Karen's past work for DC. I am *very* afraid for Vertigo.] I tried wherever possible to point out my keen awareness of Garth Ennis' shortcomings as a comic writer. My callback from the audience "Won't Garth's new book have any drinking in it?" was met with snickers from the panel. Similarly, Iain and I provided a short burst of clapping when it was announced Ennis was leaving Hellblazer with #83 which was met by some interesting looks. Stathis seemed shocked, Thompson and Milligan smiled. (I couldn't catch Guy Davis' look.) When Stathis mentioned that there would be a new writer for Hellblazer after Eddie Campbell's three issue run (85-87, after a Delano one-shot) I coughed out "Guy Davis". Shelly and Julie seemed to indicate that we had guessed correctly. (again, I couldn't see Guy) Ted McKeever had to catch a plane, so Lou asked if anyone had any questions. Since no one else was going to say anything, a bunch of us (Myself, Iain, and someone in the back) shouted out "Metropol". Lou wanted to know what we wanted to know, and we all shouted "we want more!" Ted is planning to do another arc in the Transit, Eddy Current, Metropol storyline for Vertigo in about 14 months. The Books of Magic is *hot* *hot* *hot*. Jon Ney Rieber didn't seem comfortable talking in public, but his description of upcoming arcs, as well as another project for Vertigo sounded fascinating. I couldn't really see him that well either, which is probably why I confused him with Gary Amaro later! Grant Morrison's Invisbles was hyped. Jill Thompson was perfect when she pointed out the coloring flaws in the presentation copy. It was pretty clear that the editors (Stathis especially) needed to be knocked down a peg. Too bad Harlan Ellison wasn't in the room. There was lukewarm response from the audience for books such as Animal Man, Black Orchid, Doom Patrol and Vamps. DP is cancelled, Black Orchid is on the way out. Animal Man gets a new creative team in a few months, so all you Delano despisers will get your wish...but Stathis will still be editing it (muahahaha). I *really* wanted Dean Motter to be here. Oh well. Mark Buckingham will be doing the regular penciling on some title, I forget which one. Doesn't matter to me, I'll buy it! Delano will have a miniseries to play with. I'm somewhat excited, but I haven't forgotten "World Without End". Art Young (yay!) will be providing about 4 projects for Vertigo, but I forget what they are. Be sure to look for about four more "Vertigo Visions" in the next six months. One was going to be a Milligan vision, as I recall, so it may not be too bad. Alissa Kwitney's name was mentioned only once, in connection with the "Dreaming" series. They mentioned that they were going to try to put all of the Vertigo books into TPB form (Yeah, right, I'm going to rush right out and buy the Rachel Pollack Doom Patrol hardcover as soon as it hits the shelves.) Stathis made a veiled reference to the Titan reprints in the UK, but I don't think he quite knew what he was talking about. He also didn't know how many Swamp Thing TPBs were available in the US. Shade will continue for the foreseeable future, with at least the next six months of stories planned. Sandman's finale issue number is drifting. I'm personally betting on #76, only because it reminds me of a favorite Three Stooges joke: Curly: What is the number of the last issue of Sandman? Moe: Seventy-six. Curly: That's the Spirit! The panel went on for almost the entire hour. Iain griped to them that he felt that Vertigo was becoming a new EC horror type imprint. The panel disagreed, as do I. Vertigo certainly has its share of gore, but for the most part the Vertigo books are much more poorly written than your average EC horror tale. Also, most of the EC stories had interesting twists to them, and some of them even had a point to make. In the case of "Two- Fisted Tales" we actually got to see how a great writer/artist/ editor like Harvey Kurtzman could shape a book into a masterpiece. As far as Iain's remark goes, the panel actually didn't try to rebuke his claim, unless you count snorting through one's nose as a rebuke. They mumbled a few words, but I couldn't make sense of them. All-in-all, I enjoyed the writers and artists much more on this panel than I did the editors. The editors monopolized the time, and often didn't say much more than the average jo could learn from the current Diamond Previews. Remarks by Stathis that "Vertigo is primarily a writer driven imprint" reflect an editorial oversight that will ultimately be harmful to Vertigo. Julie Schwartz,at another panel, pointed out that it is the combination of writer, editor and artist that make a book great. 3 pm: The Vertigo hell ends with everyone getting a metallic cover Books of Magic #1. I was hoping for a Hellblazer myself, so I could demonstrate what a true ritualistic sacrifice looks like. [But Mike, tell us how you *really* feel] Greg, Iain, Chris and I duck out for lunch. They show me what Mr. Rib 'n' Beef looks like. Not a bad place, but limited veggie fare. We discuss the various successes people had hunting for back issues. It seems Zot!s are becoming hard to find. We solemnly reflect upon our days at the 1994 ChicagoCon before returning to the Hotel Sofitel. I pick up the baby, and hit the road back to Fermilab. On my way back I wish I had written down the meter scheme to "Conversational Scrabble".... Thanks to everybody who made the ChicagoCon a true blast for me. I realize tyg hasn't figured out who owes what for the hotel bill, but I don't think even the room service and parking charges can take away from the fun I had there. I think I may be returning to the Con scene after an absence of almost ten years. As always, if any rac.ers want to get together near Chicago, I'm more than happy to try and be part of it. Special thanks to Glenn Carnagey for doing almost all of the organizing for this year's get-together. Thank you Iain for reserving the rooms, and thank you Tom for paying in advance for them. I hope everyone found something useful in my con reports. I realize that part three turned into a Vertigo-bash, but hey, I call 'em like I see 'em. Thanks for reading through it anyway. -- + Mike Kelly, Notre Dame Department of Physics [m--el--y] at [doc.helios.nd.edu] + + + + Oh, and never mind the words, just hum along and keep on going. + + - Ian Anderson +