Date: Wed, 30 Mar 1994 09:31:18 -0500
From: [m--s--r] at [engin.umich.edu] (Steve Maser)
Subject: Re: The Comics-L list


Motor City Comic Con -- Saturday report

So, I went to my first-ever comic book show where there were honest-to-god
professionals.  I had a blast.  Even though I've been reading comics for
over 15+ years, this was my first chance to ask questions face-to-face
of some of the creators of some of my favorite books.  I wasn't expecting
this to be as much of a thrill as it was.

I only went one day (Saturday), but they had some great panel discussions
that I got to ask questions at, so I did:

Panel 1:  "Women *IN* Comics:  Are they big enough for you fanboy?"

This panel was *supposed* to feature Adam Hughes, Howard Chaykin and some
other male writer/artists.  The only person to show up was Kim Yale (who
was *not* listed on the panel.)  The moderator (some guy from Wizard comics)
came in after about 15 minutes and said Hughes and others weren't going
to come and that Chaykin said "no way in Hell would he be there..."  So
I left.  One interesting comment from Yale.  She asked "Is anyone reading
Catwoman?"  Nobody raised their hands.  She then interpreted it as people
not taking the art seriously, but not that people just didn't like the book
or the character...


The next panel:  "Meet George Perez"

One of my all-time heroes.  He was just bubbling with enthusiam.  A great guy
who just seems to have lots of fun.

He is planning a "Giant-Man" mini-series as an homage to the giant-monster
movies of the '50s.  He said Tom DeFalco would absolutely *not* let him have
Hank Pym get remarried to Janet Van Dyne.  Perez said he would let the
characters get together and do *everything* but get remarried.

He said he is *finally* getting the art back from the aborted "Teen Titans"
graphic novel *and* the JLA/Avengers crossover.  He said that the JLA/Avengers
cross-over kept being considered for many years and that DC was close to
publishing it as one half of a two-part story (the second part featuring the
current lineups), but that didn't go anywhere.  He mentioned that he'd like
to be able to distribute this artwork (maybe as xeroxed copies) but that he
could not sell it for a profit.  He should receive the art back this week, so
if you see him somewhere in the future, ask about the xeroxes!  I got to
shake his hand later -- a *huge* thrill for me.


Panel 3:  "What's coming up in DC"

The real presenter wasn't there, so Green Lantern-editor Kevin Dooley spoke
for a while.  Mostly he rambled on about Zero Hour and Green Lantern.  Nothing
really new came out of this ("heroes will reappear, some will die, some will
be changed forever, etc.")  It is a story about time, so they will be popping
characters in and out of different time eras.  He *implied* (but I didn't
hear anyone ask directly) that this might be used as the out to bring Bruce
Wayne back to full strength and/or bring back Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.

I didn't get to ask him if that meant they would reinstate a normalize Hal
Jordan...  He said that the deconstruction of Hal Jordan was actually a
natural possible progression of the character (the "it's always the quiet one"
arguement) and that they needed to do something to bring interest back to
the book.  Surprisingly, GL #48, 49 and 50 were *not* way overpriced at any
of the dealers tables.

I left this panel early to go to:


Panel 4:  "Meet John Byrne"

SPOILER:  As mentioned in another article:  Sathanas *is* Hilltop.  He didn't
leave this for open interpretation ("Did I hit you over the head with a hammer
enough to drive this in?")  And Jazz's baby is *dead*, gone, never to return
and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.

"Danger Unlimited" started out as "Fantastic Four 2099", but Marvel didn't
want what Byrne was going to do with it.

JB has a new book coming out called "Babe".  His "She-Hulk" book for Dark
Horse.  But not as over-the-top as She-Hulk was.

Not much new information came out of this panel.  Mostly, he talked about
things I had already heard about:  How "2112" was the blueprint for Marvel's
2099; how much he dislikes Image in general, etc.

One thing he wanted to do with Superman, but couldn't, was how he wanted to
introduce Kryptonite as a deadly element to Superman:  He wanted a pregnant
*Lara* to arrive on Earth, give birth to Kal-El and then die from exposure
to Kryptonite.  This was the only thing he was really kept from doing.

An entertaining panel, but nothing extraordinary.


Panel 5 (for about 5 minutes):  "The Costume Contest".

3 "Deaths", two "Wolverines" and nothing out of the ordinary.


Panel 6 (my last one):  "Meet the Ultraverse creators"

There were only about 15 people in the crowd (as opposed to about 115 for
John Byrne), but I got to ask questions to Len Strasewski, Steve Englehart,
Aaron Lopresti and Kyle Holtz (forgive my spelling).  This was fun.

Some spoilers:  Larry Niven's contribution to the Ultraverse has not yet
been revealed.  It's some kind of huge two-sided disc in space where all the
aliens and magic of the Ultraverse comes in.

There will be a team book coming out with 6-issue arcs with different creators
called "Ultraforce".  First arc has George Perez art (yay!)

All the "Zero" issues will *not* be offered again in any form.  The "Firearm"
video should be finished and released RSN.  Malibu is giving this Universe
a *big* advertising push.

I also saw the CD-ROMIX version of Prime.  It was a lot better than I thought
it would have been.

In general, these guys look like they are having a *lot* of fun with these
books.


Other general things:

I asked the Fantagraphics rep if IRONWOOD was still going to finish.  He
said "yes".  But, when you're dealing with Bill Willingham, you can't tell
when it will come out.

There was a guy in a Spider-Man suit.  There was *supposed* to be a guy in
a Cyclops suit, but maybe he was only there Friday or Sunday.

I saw "Flaxen".  Big deal.

The small press guys -- and they were mostly male -- looked like they weren't
getting many visitors.  The Detroit News did an interview with a "lonely"
Don Rosa.  I can appreciate who he is, but I don't read the Duck books (which
I *should* I guess), so I didn't visit him.

I was going to say "hi" to Steven Lieber and tell him I "saw" him on the
newsgroup, but he wasn't at his space when I had the chance to shake hands.

I asked Steve Englehart if the head of the Secret Empire *was* Richard Nixon.
He said yes.  I asked him if there were plans to follow that up in the Cap
book as to how it affected the rest of the world.  He said he couldn't
remember what he was going to do 20 years ago and that the Secret Empire story
was his only way of working Watergate into the book.

I told Len Strasewski that I really enjoyed his JSA book.  He said thanks and
go tell DC that...

And George Perez's fingers are *really* double jointed.

Big lines to get books signed by Joe Quesada (sp?) and John Romita Jr.

Dealers seemed like they were trying to dump stacks of Image books.

Somebody was selling copies of Marvels #4 (maybe Kurt Busiek brought them?),
so it must be coming out soon.

All in all, I had a great time and I wish I would have prepared more
questions for people.

 Steve Maser                       | Thinking is man's only basic virtue,
 Senior Computer Systems Specialist| from which all the others proceed.
  at [m--s--r] at [engin.umich.edu]         | -- Ayn Rand