Action Report: HeroesCon 2008, Part Two

I went to this year’s HeroesCon with $150 in my pocket and a mission to buy one comic book. Specifically, this one:

 

 

I left with nine dollars and didn’t have it.

That’s right: Wild Dog Special #1, which, while I’ve read it, is the only part of the Wild Dog saga that I don’t actually own. Unfortunately, the only one I could find was $2.50, and seriously, there is no way I’m paying that much for it, especially since I passed up on getting it last year for two bucks flat. It’s the principle of the thing.

Admittedly, I probably could’ve found another one, but I was busy with other stuff. And what, exactly? Well, thanks for asking, rhetorical question!

Friday began with Team Hard Ones heading out from Chad’s place for the drive up to Charlotte, rocking out to the mixtape Jay made for the first issue. One thing about my friends: We are some mixtape-makin’ mofos. The Hard Ones has a grand total of six pages in the can, and we’ve got soundtracks for at least the first three story arcs. Suffice to say that when Chad says it became a singalong to “Mama Said Knock You Out,” he’s right.

Once we were at the con itself, I found Fraction to say hi–’cause, you know, we’re best friends until the end of time and space–and then spent the rest of the day bumming around the con, shaking hands and handing out ashcans.

In addition to the guys I talked about last night, I also got the chance to say hi to Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, the guys behind the great supernatural noir thriller, The Damned, and Rob Osborne, of The Nearly Infamous Zango. All three of those guys were not only really nice, but also took the time to thank me for writing good reviews about their comics, which I wouldn’t have done if their comics weren’t already, you know, really good. So that was pretty nice.

Also, at one point, a man dressed as Dashiell James pulled an ashcan out of a racing helmet and asked if I wanted to read about NASCAR Heroes, a question to which the only possible answer is “Of course!” Seriously, say what you want about the comic and how they are not very good, but that’s a sales pitch that’s hard to turn down.

After the show closed, though, the area around the Charlotte Convention Center went from hosting the industry’s most family-friendly convention to the scene of the kind of sweet-ass bacchanalia that you can only get from a crowd that’s really into the Justice League.

For my part, the evening started in the hotel room, where I mixed up a Wake-Up Call (Kahlua, Cream Liqueur, Vanilla Rum and a Starbucks Double-Shot) to recover from a long day of conventioneering and Dr. K pointed out that the actual name of that drink is something that ends in “-tini.” I told him that if I was going to make a Girl Drink, I should at least be allowed to give it a manlier name. It was then decided–and this took me, Dr. K, Chad, Trey and Jay–that by that rationale, a Strawberry Daquiri with extra whipped cream, cherries and a pineapple stick should be called a Cock Sword Machinegun Pickup Truck Volume 2: The Metal Years. Tell your friends!

After that, it was down to the bar in the hotel lobby, where I talked to Fraction about obscure Punisher characters and learned that Rick Remender (writer of Fear Agent) is probably one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. This, of course, led to gambling on the street, and that in turn led to… something that I cannot talk about. I will say this, though: You know how they say that the only things that happen after 2 AM are either legendary or horrible?

Sometimes, they’re both.

Also, at one point, Dr. K, Brandon and I walked up to Jann Jones–the DC editor in charge of their kids line and the upcoming Ambush Bug: Year None–to ask where our Showcase Presents: Sugar & Spike was. Well, that’s what Dr. K asked. My question, after she told us that it didn’t look likely, was “Well do you like money?”

But more on that in a second.

On Saturday, HeroesCon was packed, and after briefly krumping my way through an impromptu dance battle with Matt Wilson’s crew, I made time to hit up the DC Nation panel, which, with the exception of finding out that Matt Sturges was going to do a story about an outdated super-hero-themed mini-golf course in Blue Beetle, was just lousy.

Be advised, the following section contains my opinions on The Industryâ„¢ and while I’m a reader and a retailer, I’ll be the first to admit that I only know, at best, a very small part of what goes on behind the scenes, and this is really just armchair quarterbacking. So, you know, grain of salt and all that, and feel free to skip it and come back after the next picture.

 

 

Now, I don’t have the hate for Dan DiDio that you see from outraged fans who need a figurehead on which to pin their frustration over having their fan-fiction invalidated, but there are a couple of things he said that bothered me.

The first was when he said–and these are as close to his words as I can remember–that the DC characters are “bulletproof”; Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman were here before anybody working there was and they’ll be there after they’re gone, and so their job–and this, I do remember–is to act as “stewards of these great characters.”

Now, the first part of that, I have no problem with whatsoever, but it’s the bit about stewardship that sets me off. If the characters are as bulletproof as he says–and they are–then they don’t need caretakers. They need someone who’s going to take them out to the back yard and blow them up with firecrackers.

Instead, it seems like DiDio and a lot of the creators at DC are overly concerned with doing the same thing that we’ve seen again and again and again in an effort to keep things just the way they were when they were kids, and while that’s a problem in the comics industry as a whole, it’s inescapable at DC.

And when they do get someone who wants to take their indestructible toys out and have some fun with them, they end up shooting themselves in the foot in an effort to squeeze every last bit of nostalgia–and, not coincidentally, money–from the characters. If they’ve got Grant Morrison writing Final Crisis and he wants to open it with the dirty, gangland style murder of the Martian Manhunter to illustrate a more brutal wave of super-villainy with a callous disregard for life, then why do we need an oversized one-shot by Peter Tomasi that’s all about what the Martian Manhunter was doing ten minutes before he was killed?

And Death of the New Gods, which was meant, according to DiDio, to be the “last great adventure” for the New Gods before they were reintroduced three weeks later… well, let’s just go to Grant Morrison’s interview in the latest Comic Foundry for this one, shall we?

“Back in 2006, I requested a moratorium on the New Gods so that I could build up some foreboding and create anticipation for their return in a new form… instead, the characters were passed around like hepatitis B to practically every writer at DC to toy with as they pleased, which, to be honest, makes it very difficult for me to reintroduce them with any sense of novelty, mystery or grandeur.”

Another example: Infinite Crisis and Civil War. Don’t get me wrong, Civil War was not very good, but at least it’s a story, more or less. Infinite Crisis, on the other hand, is just a pointless, navel-gazing exercise in dragging things back because the average reader would rather have familiar mediocrity than forward momentum.

And that’s why you get the Groundhog Day that is the DCU. How many re-told origin stories have we gotten in the past year? How many are completely unnecessary because of books like Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn and Batman/Huntress: Cry For Blood? I mean, he opened the panel by asking us about “Batman R.I.P.,” and asked us who we’d want to see in the costume if Batman actually died. But here’s the thing: We’ve already seen what happens when Dick Grayson becomes Batman. It was called Prodigal, it was written by Chuck Dixon, and–surprise!–it was not very good. We’ve also seen what happens when a darker, edgier character becomes Batman, which was called Knightfall, which we’d already seen the first time when it was called Blind Justice, and guess what? That ain’t so great either, and the first time around, it had the advantage of being fresh.

Then again, judging by the excited crowd response when he asked who wanted to see Jason Todd as Batman, I guess the public gets the comics they deserve.

So yeah, all that from five words. It’s decompression, folks!

Second problem with DiDio: The guy just doesn’t listen.

Now this one, I don’t even really blame him for, because I’m pretty sure that if I had to listen to people asking the same questions over and over at every convention, I’d shoot someone in the face. Seriously, you can ask any question you want to the guy who runs DC Comics. You can ask for Hitman trades, you can ask if there’s any progress on that Suicide Squad Showcase, whatever you want. And instead, we got “when’s Vampire Batman coming back?” and “What’s your favorite color lantern?”

Willickers.

To be fair, though, there were a few good questions, like the guy who asked if James Robinson’s Justice League was going to involve Jack Knight at all, but for a lot of the questions, he just skipped over pretty relevant parts to give a very dissatisfying answer. For example, one guy asked “What’s the status of Superboy?” Clearly–clearly–this guy is asking about the legal case that prevents DC from using the character, which is a shame because there are so many great stories that could use a reprint. DiDio’s response, in total: “Still dead.”

Ditto for my question, which was this time phrased as “I’ve got two questions: First, do you like money, and if so, where’s the Sugar & Spike Showcase?”, which got us called out by Jann Jones for asking her in the bar the night before. DiDio’s explanation–which no doubt resulted from residual confusion over being asked about the current status of Arrowette–was that they weren’t going to do one, because DC is very protective of the characters and they don’t want anyone else messing with Sheldon Mayer’s creations.

Well dude, neither do I! I don’t want new stuff, I want the old stuff in an affordable reprint! And if I’m the only one, then why the heck was there a guy on Aisle 800 selling the digests for sixteen bucks a pop?!

Like I said, I don’t hate the guy, and his answers are a hell of a lot better than the ones I’d be giving if I had to deal with people who wanted Spoiler to come back to life to be their magical imaginary girlfriend, but it all added up to a pretty frustrating hour.

Huh. Didn’t mean to go all crazy like that. Suffice to say that I’m pretty sure we can all agree that the best thing to come out of the DC Nation panel was this:

 

 

A sketch of ROM by Jay Potts, artist of The Hard Ones. And I know: I was surprised I didn’t have reference material either.

Also of note on Saturday was the fact that the Charlotte Convention Center was also hosting a car show sponsored by DUB Magazine. Dr. K’s got the skinny on that–right up to the report on confiscated firearms that Chad overheard, which was my favorite part–but I’ve got to say that I really regret not just buying a Cadillac, as I could’ve easily had some D’s thrown on that bitch.

Sunday was a lot more laid back–as it usually is–and so I’d set aside that day to go after sketches, talk to people and spend the last of my cash, and I’m glad to report that I was pretty successful on all three counts.

For the sketchbook, I was able to net an absolutely gorgeous One-Punch Goldberg (from Biff Bam Pow!) by the hilarious Evan Dorkin

 

 

…and a lot of other great ones, one of which may–may–have included OMAC riding Devil Dinosaur. Just sayin’.

I also got to talk with some of the guys from Oni Press, who were just amazingly friendly. I mean, I know I’ve said that before, but you’ve got to believe me: everyone was that nice.

They even went so far as to briefly introduce me to Chris Schweizer, who has a book called Crogan’s Vengeance that should be solicited in today’s Previews that looks like it’s going to be absolutely amazing. He also gave me a copy of his Smokers of the Marvel Universe print, which is now hanging in my office.

As for the shopping, well… I had to fill that Wild Dog shaped void in my heart somehow.

 

 

Highlights include both trades of Dr. McNinja–sadly unavailable from Diamond or Amazon–which I bought from inker Kent Archer and Freddie & Me by Mike Dawson, both of whom were nice enough to do sketches in the books. I also picked up a short stack of singles that will most likely find their way to the ISB before too long, including the issue of Josie and the Pussycats where Josie gets possessed by the Devil.

This, for those of you who were wondering, is probably the greatest comic book of all time.

So all in all–and despite the diatribe about DC that represents the most text I’ve written at one time since I dropped out of college–it was a great con and a great weekend.

 

 

Now if you’ll excuse me, this run of Punisher 2099 ain’t gonna read itself.

47 thoughts on “Action Report: HeroesCon 2008, Part Two

  1. Wow, that Sugar & Spike answer really doesn’t make any sense. Does he not realize that Showcase Presents is a line of reprints? I didn’t care before, but I’ll jump on the “Anti-Didio” bandwagon now if it makes a Sugar & Spike reprint even minutely more likely. Is there a petition I can sign or something?

  2. I want a S&S showcase. Or a Archive. Or, even better, PUBLISH THE 280+ PAGES OF MAYER SUGAR AND SPIKE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN PRINTED IN AMERICA in any damn form you chose!

    (Note 280 pages is, at worst, a low estimate: That’s only 35 stories; and I’ve heard that Mayer did as many as 100 once surgery let him draw again.)

  3. “Instead, it seems like DiDio and a lot of the creators at DC are overly concerned with doing the same thing that we’ve seen again and again and again in an effort to keep things just the way they were when they were kids, and while that’s a problem in the comics industry as a whole, it’s inescapable at DC.”

    Thing is, it seems like you can’t raise an eyebrow around the old internets without running into a bunch of bloggers or forum posters or whatever who want things to go back to/stay the way they where when they were kids, so it seems a little unfair to talk down to people working for DC to do the same. I mean, c’mon. How many people did you see being against that whole Spider-Man deal with the devil refutting the single Spidey stuff with “Spider-Man’s been married for as long as I’ve been reading, and it works! Fuck Quesadilla in his mexican ass!”? 99% of the complaints aren’t just “you fucked up my fanfiction,” but “you raped my childhood!”

  4. Well, to be fair, part of the reason why they rebooted Spider-Man back to being single was because that’s the way it was when *Quesada* was a kid. But that’s neither here nor there…

    Never give up hope, Chris! Some day the Wild Dog Special will belong to you. And God willing, everyone else as well.

  5. @JDude: Part of the problem with teh interwebs in general is the massive f’ing hyperbole involved. Peter is married and has a “miscarried” kid, so he’s going to be a senior citizen in like two years omg and that’s crap and blah blah blah. And that’s bad. Oh and by the way, buy Spiderman: Reign.

    …I guess that wasn’t the internet so much as Joey Q. But to be fair, editors and writers are just as bad as fanboys about “their” characters 7 or 8 times out of ten. Maybe even worse – they can make fanboy fantasies reality. And that’s annoying, because yeah, I like characters the way they are, but also, there’s a difference between progress and a retcon. And between a retcon and oh hey, look, it’s Hal Jordan, saint of DCU.

    But that’s not what I was gonna say (and really I could go on for quite a bit about that one)

    I don’t see the beef with the MM one shot, unless you don’t like MM. Tomasai is a good writer – I haven’t read anything from him that isn’t at the very least competent, and he’s definitely the best Nightwing writer since..probably since Dixon left (I mean, cmon, Devin “self-insert” Grayson?)

    And further, if the stuff with the Final Crisis and New Gods is such a big deal (and it’s not, it really sucks) – why wasn’t there a fit when DotNG came out? And where else, other than DotNG and Countdown to FC have they even shown up? And I’m sorry, but introducing the New Gods as a bunch of gangsters (and hey, for a company trying to introduce positive minority characters, THERE’S A GREAT MOVE) doesn’t deserve grandeur. The Dark Side Club? It’s crap.

  6. “Does he not realize that Showcase Presents is a line of reprints?”

    Or maybe he just, I dunno, misunderstood the question.

  7. I’m sorry, I’m still HYPNOTIZED by the guy who is the size of a bus in that photo of you at the top.

  8. Well, I think the Sugar & Spike question might have been misheard. I was sitting about halfway up from you and I did’t hear it all that well. I did hear your first part quite clearly, and my hearing is not the best, but it is a thought.

    I thought he did a pretty good job of answering and a pretty good job of dodging, to be honest. He gave me a straight up answer about the “weird” titles I asked about, and a respectful one about Mike W. Barr (that magnificent bastard), for example.

  9. everybody is missing the big news.

    “a Strawberry Daquiri with extra whipped cream, cherries and a pineapple stick should be called a Cock Sword Machinegun Pickup Truck Volume 2: The Metal Years” is the greatest thing you have ever written.

    You are God and I claim my £5.

  10. I’m with Luke on this one, I was closer to you than Didio was and I could barely hear what you were asking. That’s the problem with those big conference rooms and no mikes.

    C’est la vie

    As for the “stewards” thing, I think he was trying to say that those characters are timeless, but someone has to be around to take care of their legacy, just like someone has to take care of the Lord of the Rings or Dune (bad job on that one) now that their creators are no longer with us.

  11. NOBODY wants new Sugar & Spike stories. NOBODY.

    S&S is one of the few titles I’d spring for a hardcover full color Archive edition for (is that an awkward sentence or not?). Sure, I’d be happy with a Showcase Presents too. But really- someone who is connected (and I know they read this blog) needs to email someone who is connected stat and clear this up!

  12. Maybe we’ll finally get some collected Sugar & Spike out of DiDio and Co. if we severely beat it out of them. Seems to be how they like their comics at DC these past few years, so who knows, maybe it’d work.

  13. Is that AFRODISIAC!?

    Ever since reading Street Angel I’ve been simply dreaming of becoming a billionare so I could commission a full print run for that character.

    If there is a comic for him, you need but tell me how I can lay my hands on it. Money, murder, whatever – all things are secondary to reading Afrodisiac.

    Tell me how, Mr Sims! Is there any way I can legitimately acquire this awesomeness?

  14. I’m with Luke on this one, I was closer to you than Didio was and I could barely hear what you were asking.

    Well then he should’ve asked me to repeat the question. Not my fault I was a little tipsy from all the CSMGPTV2TMYs.

  15. “And I’m sorry, but introducing the New Gods as a bunch of gangsters […] doesn’t deserve grandeur.”

    Yeah, Kirby must be spinning in his grave over the New Gods characters being portrayed as gangsters. He never would have portrayed them that way at all, ever, in his very own comics that he created and drew himself. Nope.

  16. How many people did you see being against that whole Spider-Man deal with the devil refutting the single Spidey stuff with “Spider-Man’s been married for as long as I’ve been reading, and it works! Fuck Quesadilla in his mexican ass!”?

    Is this a trick question? Because, uh. I saw plenty of that. Just ask Mike Sterling.

  17. Nice OPG sketch. Here’s one I got back in ’06. Also, here are the sketches I got in Charlotte; there are three right now, and I have to scan six more, including a beaut from Amanda Conner.

    I wish I had more fun. I mean, I can see why Heroes Con would kick ass…it’s at the intersection between the big cons and indy shows. Problem is, I like getting cheap recent comics at the cons (only got one on the cheap, Superman/Batman Annual #2), and I like getting sketches for free. Between the flight, hotel, paying for sketches (which were all worth the dough, don’t get me wrong), meals, snacks, and a morning where I had to pay $20 for a breakfast bar only because I refused to wait 30 minutes for pancakes . . . really, I question if it was worth it. Still, compared to my last con that I flew for (Canadian National Expo ’07), where I lost my sketchbook, camcorder and sanity in one day, Heroes Con was better. I just don’t know if I’d come back. And yeah . . . I regret not chatting up people at the Westin. I’m just weird.

  18. “Vampire Batman.” Sweet Christ. I went to one DC Nation panel about a year back, and almost set myself on fire when the Q&A started. These are truly the comics we deserve.

  19. <>

    I understand how those awesomely named drinks can catch up to you, believe me.

    That being, said its entirely possible he simply misheard, and answered the question he thought you’d asked. Besides, he made it clear during the panel that they were the wrong people to ask about collected editions, since that was handled by a different department.

  20. I was respdoning to:

    Well then he should’ve asked me to repeat the question. Not my fault I was a little tipsy from all the CSMGPTV2TMYs.

    in the comment above at #23

  21. Luke McK,

    I was there and purchased a copy of the Afrodisiac for the mere price of a single dollar. I can attest to the fact that it was a life-transforming event for me and firmly believed that it would remain the most incredible piece of sequential art ever committed to paper until the Sun exploded and extinguished all life on Earth…

    Then I saw Afrodisiac Vs. Dracula –
    http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/06/comics_meat3.html

    And then I saw Afrodisiac Vs. A Sexy Venusian Bent On World Domination and a P-Whipped Richard M. Nixon – http://jimrugg.com/advenus.htm

  22. Yeah, Kirby must be spinning in his grave over the New Gods characters being portrayed as gangsters. He never would have portrayed them that way at all, ever, in his very own comics that he created and drew himself. Nope.

    Well played. Very well played.

  23. Yeah, but you’ve got to admit that he does that with a lot of questions. And it doesn’t change the fact that Showcase: S&S would be a license to print money.

  24. As for the “stewards” thing, I think he was trying to say that those characters are timeless, but someone has to be around to take care of their legacy, just like someone has to take care of the Lord of the Rings or Dune (bad job on that one) now that their creators are no longer with us.

    Yeah, but the way I see it, nobody has to do that, either. The only “legacy” that needs to be maintained for any work of fiction is making sure that it stays in print so that people can enjoy it. There can be as many new Dune or Lord of the Rings stories by Kevin J. Anderson–or new Indiana Jones movies or new Star Wars crap1 or whatever–as you want, but nobody’s making you read them, and the fact that they exist is never going to change the original works, as long as they’re around.

    The only thing that really matters is telling a good story, and that’s often overlooked in favor of maintaining or regressing the status quo. I’m no big fan of characters returning from the dead, but if every resurrection was as good as Brubaker and Epting’s was for Bucky, with the same kind of fresh take and skillful execution, then I wouldn’t have a problem with it at all.

    1: Yes, I realize I say this as someone who can’t stand anything Star Wars-related ever since Episode 3 came out. My hypocrisy knows no bounds.

  25. Yeah, Kirby must be spinning in his grave over the New Gods characters being portrayed as gangsters. He never would have portrayed them that way at all, ever, in his very own comics that he created and drew himself. Nope.

    This is why Mark is my #1 Hero Forever.

  26. I’m new to your blog and just wanted to say hey and thanks for the HeroesCon review.Come see my wee blog sometime and count me among your many readers. :)

  27. Chris, teach me your budget-fu. I am going to Wizard World Chicago with $650, and I know I will have to break out the plastic. Teach me! I am a sad, overspending fangirl!

  28. Chris, teach me your budget-fu. I am going to Wizard World Chicago with $650, and I know I will have to break out the plastic. Teach me! I am a sad, overspending fangirl!

    Start by having a job at a comic book store where you can get comics and trades dirt cheap.

    Failing that, here’s what I do: I don’t pay more than a dollar for single issues (which is handy, because I’m always looking for stuff like US 1 or Power Man & Iron Fist) and I save the big money for buying books directly from creators. This year’s big expenses were the two Dr. McNinja trades ($30 total) and Freddie & Me ($20), and both of those came with sketches and an opportunity to talk to the creators.

    Also, about sketches, I try not to pay for them if I can avoid it. Er, which is to say, I try not to get sketches from people who are charging, not that I grab my sketchbook and run to avoid paying.

    I’ve only paid for two (not counting Kyle Baker, who was doing a sketch if you bought anything, or Andy Kuhn, who was doing them for donations to the Hero Initiative), and I love them both, but those are special circumstances. On the whole, though, it’s a good idea to find out who’s sketching and what they’re charging before you make any commitments.

    Of course, there’s nothing wrong with paying for a sketch if it’s what you want, and if I had the money, I’d be getting commissions from Cliff Chiang like it was going out of style, not to mention grabbing every mini-comic I could get my hands on. But, well, I can’t imagine even having $600 to blow at a con (see earlier comments re: job at a comic book store), so I try to keep it on the frugal.

  29. Sounds good. I was just gonna go with the deep v-neck shirt, but I’ll give your tips a try.

  30. Well, while I’ll admit that I want the Titans back from when I was a kid, there’s a distinct difference – the Titans, as written by Devin Grayson, DIDN’T SUCK, whereas from all objective standards Judd Winick’s Titans DO suck.

  31. I really found Grayson’s Titans run underwhelming. They seemed to wander in focus and shy away from action. Winnick’s Titans comic really does suck though. Much of it is due to the terrible Joe Benitez art which reveals every flaw in the writing itself.

  32. Devin Grayson’s run on Titans featured Marilyn Manson as a demon named “Goth.” And that isn’t even the WORST part of her run.
    What I’m trying to say is, as bad as Winick’s run on the title may be, it still has pretty fucking far to go before it becomes worse than Devin Grayson’s run.

  33. “Now, I don’t have the hate for Dan DiDio that you see from outraged fans who need a figurehead on which to pin their frustration over having their fan-fiction invalidated, but there are a couple of things he said that bothered me.”

    Not my fanfic! Nooo!

    My dislike of DiDio stems largely from the abundance of really bad stories. Not that all comics are gems. But since DiDio took over, DC has abandoned the already frustrating “summer event cross over” and it seems like nearly every title, particularly the “big three” are endlessly part of an ongoing, un-ending summer event that has lasted for years now.

    To be fair, I’ve not read anything from DC since Infinite Crisis that wasn’t A) Hellblazer; B) All Star Superman; or C) Brave & The Bold.

    DC seems to be burning itself out. Set me straight if I’m wrong here…

    “Then again, judging by the excited crowd response when he asked who wanted to see Jason Todd as Batman, I guess the public gets the comics they deserve.”

    Sigh. Pretty much.

  34. Mr Sims said:

    “Seriously, you can ask any question you want to the guy who runs DC Comics. You can ask for Hitman trades, you can ask if there’s any progress on that Suicide Squad Showcase, whatever you want. And instead, we got “when’s Vampire Batman coming back?” and “What’s your favorite color lantern?”

    Yeah, not all people usually go to comic book conventions panels to turn them into an inquisition. They’re there to have fun and get to know the speakers better.

    As for Didio, from personal experience and talking to the man directly. I find him to be very social and friendly. Of course not always do I agre with the decisions but hey! No biggie! I always keep that in mind before trying to pull a 200pg investigation report.

  35. To be honest, I can be a bit of a wuss about asking questions. My question to Didio at Wizard World was about the future of Ryan Choi, because with Ray Palmer back in at least one book, I worry about Ryan. And while I am aware that DC’s got problems, I still buy their books. So maybe I’m part of the problem.

    Good memories…let’s see…well, there was the time I met an Ice cosplayer. Finding out from Tony Harris that Uncle Ben has a mustache in With Great Power because he’s based on Stan Lee. Having Evan Dorkin explain that he does free sketches because he wouldn’t want to get paid if he screwed up (not evidenced by this lovely sketch of Devil Puppet). Spending too much time playing video games on emulation software, since there weren’t any demos to play like at the bigger cons (especially at Wizard World and the Hulk game, where I could tear up New York something fierce). And I got this kickass freebie from Roger Langridge featuring the Doctor and some critters he met this season. I just figured that I tend to dwell too much on the negative, so I’d go over the positive.

  36. “Yeah, Kirby must be spinning in his grave over the New Gods characters being portrayed as gangsters. He never would have portrayed them that way at all, ever, in his very own comics that he created and drew himself. Nope.”

    I said it didn’t deserve grandeur, not that Kirby wouldn’t have done it. And it doesn’t deserve grandeur – one reason being it’s just a poor man’s Jack Kirby writes the New Gods as gangsters. The way it’s being portrayed thus far isn’t awe inspiring, and I guess Grant would have a point there, if he weren’t behind some of those same portrayals. Give me Starlin writing the New Gods any day over this.

  37. Hey, I’ve got that issue of Wild Dog! I’m more than willing to part with it, though…