From: [m--kb--y] at [maple.circa.ufl.edu] (Holy Moley!) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc Subject: Heroes Con News ([P--r--z] at [Image], O'Barr) Date: 21 Jun 1994 06:27:05 GMT This didn't show up the first time I posted, so here it is. If there's two copies floating around, I apologize! Plus, I hope I'm the first to break the news about the new George Perez comic book for Image -- more info later on... Okay, I was at Heroes Con 94 -- this was my first time at Heroes Con and here are some of my impressions about the show. What I think may be totally different than what other people think, but FWIW, here's some of the stuff I remember. The line to pick up badges and materials for folks that pre-registered was much too long on Friday morning. Fortunately, my friend had pre-reg'ed thru the mail and never got anything. He called earlier that week and was told everything was cool; our badges would be waiting at the show, and all we had to do was tell them we were pre-registered. Since we never got anything in the mail, we went to the window where you could purchase tickets on the day you go (which had no lines) and got our badges right away! The only advantage to pre-reg'ing this year was getting badges early, but it wasn't much of an advantage since the line was so long! My friend and I just got lucky. The dealer's room looked pretty decent. It was actually two rooms large. There were two large exhibit halls separated by a common hallway. As far as I could tell, you could get just about any kind of comics and related merchandise you wanted from Batman #1 to full-size Vampirella door posters to Jack Kirby original artwork to ashcan editions of your favorite comics... and even bargain overstock comics. Unfortunately, I never bought a single comic the whole show, but someone did give me a free one. My friend and I got invited to play poker with one of our dealer friends, who we turned down. Unfortunately we learned the next day that if we'd accepted, we would've gotten to play and schmooze with Jim Lee and Brandon Choi. ARG! Stupid stupid fanboy creatures... =) I did get to argue the merits of a John Byrne original art page with Jim on Sunday tho, and he was a pretty cool guy (short tho; I'm 5'6" and he's probably a few inches shorter than me). Went to portfolio review Saturday. It was set up terribly. The sign up for Saturday's session was at 3:30pm which was smack dab in the middle of Jim Lee's seminar on "How to draw the Wildstorm way". For any aspiring artists who wanted to catch Jim Lee, that meant losing out on signing up for Saturday's portfolio review session. Plus, you only got the chance to talk to one editor because of the number of participants and time restraints. Being an inker, I wanted advice from Bob Layton but ended up talking with Michael Eury of Dark Horse (who was still a pretty nice guy and apparently a fan of Chris Sprouse's work). Oh yeah, I didn't check out Jim Lee's seminar since I have no aspirations to draw like him, but I did see him thru the glass showing how to draw the standard Wildstorm arm. Artist's alley was very crowded. Jeff Smith was extremely popular and other than Jim O'Barr and Jim Lee had the longest waiting lines. The Gaijin Studio guys were quite popular (Hughes, Story, Hamner, Pearson, and Phillips) and at times it was impossible to get close to see what they were drawing or signing. I was the sixth person on Adam Hughes sketching list and he didn't get my sketch done until the very last hours of the last day! Tony Harris was extremely cool -- his portfolio was brimming with incredible vampire and werewolf artwork. Charles Vess had some incredible paintings with him; he also showed me the originals to the stories he's been doing for DHP and they were absolutely incredible! George Perez was clean shaven and super nice. It was disappointing for me to see that the line of fanboys wanting George's signature was much smaller than that of Joe Quesada's. However, it was a treat to see the pages from the Avengers vs. JLA book that George had worked on. They were quite incredible. It appears that Rob Liefeld has purchased all the originals for his collection, the lucky dog! George Perez's creator owned project called The Gladiator (or featuring him, I'm not entirely sure) was negotiated at the con by Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld (tho I never saw Rob there) and on Saturday he said that Image was going to publish The Gladiator. The other company vying for it was Malibu's Bravura, but I guess Image gave him too good a deal to turn down. Anyhow, I have no doubt that when it comes out it will be VERY cool. George will be returning to writing on that project. Jim O'Barr had an enlightening video and interview session. His explanation of Brandon Lee's shooting goes like this: the dummy bullets (so called blanks) are shell casings loaded with cotton instead of lead slugs. When they're fired, the cotton shoots out and is disintegrated by the force of the shot. Supposedly many of the times when Brandon was shot and his hair is flying back, it's from the force of the air and disintegrating cotton that's blowing his hair back. For close up shots (I guess those involving showing somebody loading a gun), the crimped end of the casing is loosened as well as the lead slugs. One of these lead slugs supposedly came loose and lodged into the barrel of one of the guns and wasn't noticed. The next time the gun was fired, the lead slug shot out and ripped through Brandon's stomach. O'Barr said that scene was the last scene to be filmed that involved any shooting at Brandon. Also, all of the loft sequence (I guess O'Barr means the return after rising from the grave and the scene with the girl where she runs into his arms) was shot with Brandon's double. The only computer trickery was half a second where Brandon's face was super- imposed on his double's body in the loft -- a friend and I figured it's at the end of the make-up scene where he's framed in the circular window and his face is lit up for just a second by a lightning strike. O'Barr appeared to be very upset about Brandon's death; he said they'd grown to be good friends in the time O'Barr spent on the set of the movie. As for a sequel to "The Crow" the word is NO. The company that bought "The Crow" had bought an option to do two more movies based on the Eric character but with the understanding that Brandon Lee would play Eric (that's what O'Barr said). Seeing as how Brandon is no longer available, any sequels have been scrapped. O'Barr's next project "Gothic" is a comic book and screenplay which he's working on simultaneously. If you want the FF movie a few dealers had it for sale on VHS for $20 to $60. It's very cheesy, but that's why I like it. Johnny's "flame on" is pretty cool -- neat computer graphics, and boy can the actress who plays Sue Storm scream! Vampirella seemed kinda bored or jaded about the whole con scene but she still smiled when asked to pose for photos. The Saturday night party was extremely lame. There was no hall where it was held -- it was in the hallway between the two exhibition rooms, which is narrow and long. It might've been okay, but the DJ was spinning un- exciting oldies. Not oldies that were classics, but tired 70s crap. A friend of mine checked out a club across the street but found out that a fair amount of the folks there were gay and not being gay himself, left. There's basically nothing to do within walking distance of the Holiday Inn. It's part of the building where the con is, so it's very convenient. You could stay inside the whole time going from your room to the show without ever stepping outside. However, the pool (deepest depth was 3'6"), hot tub (which was only tepid), and fitness center (there's no way to get a decent workout on the machines there, I tried but failed) were a major disappointment. There is a chinese restaurant downstairs some where around the base of the building which is pretty good tho. Anyhow, that's enough babbling. Any questions or comments, drop me a line... See you in San Diego later this summer! --m. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As long as it's hot and wet and goes down the right way it's fine with me. -- The Duchess of York, Fergie, on tea. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please direct hate mail, love letters, or e-mail to: [m--kb--y] at [ufcc.ufl.edu] ======================================================================== From: [gt 5400 d] at [prism.gatech.edu] (Patman) Subject: Re: Heroes Con News ([P--r--z] at [Image], O'Barr) Date: 21 Jun 1994 03:48:03 -0400 Holy Moley! <[m--kb--y] at [maple.circa.ufl.edu]> wrote: > I did get to argue >the merits of a John Byrne original art page with Jim on Sunday tho, and >he was a pretty cool guy (short tho; I'm 5'6" and he's probably a few >inches shorter than me). Jim Lee is around 5'3" tall. All the Image guys like to collect John Byrne original art. At the Diamond Retailer's Seminar, Byrne's art dealer was showing the Image guys some of Byrne's pages, and I think a few of them bought some of the pages. Jim Lee admitted to aping John Byrne when he first started drawing. Hell, I'll admit to aping Byrne when I first started drawing too. > Being an inker, I wanted advice from Bob Layton but ended up >talking with Michael Eury of Dark Horse (who was still a pretty nice guy >and apparently a fan of Chris Sprouse's work). Oh yeah, I didn't check >out Jim Lee's seminar since I have no aspirations to draw like him, but >I did see him thru the glass showing how to draw the standard Wildstorm >arm. Well, you should have listened to what Jim was saying, rather then just watch him draw the arm. At the time of Jim drawing the arm, he was explaining shadows and light sources, line weights, shadings. Jim was not there saying "this is how I draw the standard Wildstorm arm." Jim wasn't interested in having people draw like him, but rather have people develop their style and to do so takes practice...daily, not weekly. Jim stressed that the artist should be more concerned with drawing things that pertain to the world he/she is trying to create when drawing comics. Jim doesn't rely on references anymore since referenced drawings have a way of sticking out in the artwork. Jim also said stressed that the artist needs to learn and remember how things look at any angle and be able to retrieve that image when you need to draw it. This takes daily practice. All in all, the Jim Lee art Q&A session was informative. I was surprised at how fast Jim sketched things on the easel. I have my doubts if Rob Liefeld could have done a competent job since he'd have to whip out his trusty light table and use onion paper... > Artist's alley was very crowded. Jeff Smith was extremely popular and >other than Jim O'Barr and Jim Lee had the longest waiting lines. The You had to redeem a blue ticket to get another ticket to get a spot in the autograph line for the Jim Lee line, which was very long. It seemed that Jim spent all his weekend signing comics. Jeff Smith had a line that had fire marshalls rearing their safety cautious heads with "limit 2 items for signatures". Jeff was a great guy, did neat sketches when he had time, posed for pictures, and was gracious to all fans big and small. James O'Barr was a moody signee. He had bodyguards at his table and a line to wait for an audience for him was created by a carpet split near his table. >Gaijin Studio guys were quite popular (Hughes, Story, Hamner, Pearson, and >Phillips) and at times it was impossible to get close to see what they >were drawing or signing. I was the sixth person on Adam Hughes sketching >list and he didn't get my sketch done until the very last hours of the last Yes, the Gaijin Studio corner of Artist alley was always flowing with fans and many were hovering around Adam Hughes' table the most. > Charles Vess had some incredible >paintings with him; he also showed me the originals to the stories he's >been doing for DHP and they were absolutely incredible! The Vess paintings were nice. The Dave Dorman lines were busy too. The John Romita, Sr and Jr, lines were really long. Their line would have moved faster, but whenever someone would bring up a comic for them to sign, the Romita's would sit there and compliment each other on how great a job they did on that issue. Louis Small Jr. was busy doing commissioned sketches most of the weekend. He does nice stuff (most of the requests being Vampirella-related). > George Perez was clean shaven and super nice. It was disappointing for >me to see that the line of fanboys wanting George's signature was much >smaller than that of Joe Quesada's. George's autograph lines were never more than 15 people deep, and it was easy to ask him questions since he was never covered up too much at his table. The Quesada lines did get long when he signed, but his popualrity was not as high as it was in the previous years when he was putting out comics...though he and Jimmy Palmiotti promised to announce their latest project in Wizard. >pages from the Avengers vs. JLA book that George had worked on. They >were quite incredible. It appears that Rob Liefeld has purchased all the >originals for his collection, the lucky dog! George Perez's creator Actually, Rob asked to borrow the JLA/Avenger pages, then after getting the pages, he asked George what the pages would cost him. George mulled it over and asked for an obscene amount of money and Rob paid the asking price. That was that. >owned project called The Gladiator (or featuring him, I'm not entirely >sure) was negotiated at the con by Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld (tho I never >saw Rob there) and on Saturday he said that Image was going to publish >The Gladiator. The other company vying for it was Malibu's Bravura, but >I guess Image gave him too good a deal to turn down. Anyhow, I have no >doubt that when it comes out it will be VERY cool. George will be >returning to writing on that project. I was under the impression that Gladiator would be published under the Continuum Comics (the guys who brought you the Dark) banner. Maybe George did get some good news from Image over the weekend. > Vampirella seemed kinda bored or jaded about the whole con scene >but she still smiled when asked to pose for photos. And posed she did! > Anyhow, that's enough babbling. Any questions or comments, drop me a >line... See you in San Diego later this summer! Next stop for me is Chicon (tentatively), but unless I turn up a free trip to San Diego this summer, I'm stuck on the east side of the US. -- Patman - All opinions are mine, not Ma Tech's. "I checked over the ComicFest Debate rules, and I can't find anywhere that it says, 'Loser gets to debate John Byrne." -- John Byrne's response when asked by Dragon Con to consider debating McFarlane this year. ======================================================================== From: [m--kb--y] at [maple.circa.ufl.edu] (Holy Moley!) Subject: Re: Heroes Con News ([P--r--z] at [Image], O'Barr) Date: 21 Jun 1994 20:10:45 GMT [gt 5400 d] at [prism.gatech.edu] (Patman) writes: ><[m--kb--y] at [maple.circa.ufl.edu]> wrote: >All the Image guys like to collect John Byrne original art. At the >Diamond Retailer's Seminar, Byrne's art dealer was showing the Image >guys some of Byrne's pages, and I think a few of them bought some of the >pages. Jim Lee admitted to aping John Byrne when he first started drawing. Yeh, the Extreme studios guys bought something like $15k worth of Byrne (and a few other artists) artwork around the time of Wondercon. Too bad the Image guys and Byrne don't seem to get along that well. >All in all, the Jim Lee art Q&A session was informative. I was surprised >at how fast Jim sketched things on the easel. Like I said, it would've been nice to go, but I was more interested in signing up for portfolio review. It just was not fair to those who were interested in hearing Jim's seminar, since they were basically excluded from Saturday's review session. >I was under the impression that Gladiator would be published under the >Continuum Comics (the guys who brought you the Dark) banner. Maybe >George did get some good news from Image over the weekend. No, I think they were sponsoring because he'd been inking a bunch of their covers, but I specifically asked him about when the Gladiator book would be coming out and where. On Friday, Perez said that Bravura and Image were the ones he was thinking about and he was waiting to talk to Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld who both wanted to talk and negotiate with him personally. On Saturday when I talked to him again, he said that it's going to be an Image book. I dunno any more specifics than that, but I think it'll be pretty good for the book since Image seems to grab more shelf space and is usually more heavily ordered than a lot of the Bravura books. It might feel kinda strange after George drew that "Hulk bashing Spawn" illo for Peter David's BID column... but then again, Perez did do the first Spawn pinup that shows up in Spawn #1... --m. Please direct hate mail, love letters, or e-mail to: [m--kb--y] at [ufcc.ufl.edu] ------------------------------ End of COMICS-L Digest - 23 Jun 1994 - Special issue ****************************************************