Emerald City Comic Con part three

I could do some very bad things with this picture in Photoshop.



Zenescope was there representin with some of their gals. I bought the zero issue of 1001 Arabian Nights: The Adventures of Sinbad.



Here's Arthur Suydam. He's the guy that's done all those wonderful zombie covers. His line was way too long so I didn't wait around for his signature.



Another guy that had a honking huge line was Ed Brubaker. It was OK for me because I didn't have anything for this Cap-killer to sign.



I would have picked up Arcana Comics' Dead Men Tell No Tales trade but I had already ordered it through previews. They had an early release for ECCC. I forgot to get this fine fellow's name (if you know it leave a comment please) but I encouraged him to check out the Stumptown Comics Fest because Arcana Comics is a Pacific Northwest Company (based outta' Vancouver BC). I hope they show up in Portland next year!



Good Bye ECCC. I had a wonderful time and I loved the new space for the show.



We caught a rainbow on the way back to Portland. Very colorful just like the comics I enjoy so much.


-Swinebread

Emerald City Comic Con part two

A mistake on my part was not attending more panels. I paid my 20 bucks to get into ECCC and I didn’t really take advantage of it. I guess I was a little too focused on getting creators signatures. The only panel I attended was DC Nation. I really wanted to hear what Dan Didio, Executive Editor of DC Comics, sounded like. He’s supposed to be the guy that’s ruining their whole line of characters right? ☺

It was actually quite a weird experience for me if the truth were told. I’d never attended anything like this. Being in a large room where the minutia of a fictional universe is being discussed was just odd. I realized I had no idea what was going on for the most part with the DC Universe. Not a surprise as I’m not reading most of their stuff. Maybe I was also taken aback at being out geeked by most of the folks there.

As for Dan Didio, I have to say he’s a pretty charismatic guy. He’s certainly knows how smooze a crowd and he has impeccable comic timing. His timing is so good I actually think he’d make a good standup comedian or actor. So maybe I was somewhat lost during the DC Nation Panel and haven’t agreed with many of his editorial decisions but he sure made the hour spent in the room quite fun.

CBR has an excellent rundown of the event here.

If you notice this section:

Didio’s next threw out a question to the audience: “How many people picked up €DC Universe’ #0.” While 90% of the room held their hands high, Didio playfully shot back with, “Why isn’t every hand raised?”

When a fan jokingly said that he didn’t purchase the issue because it didn’t have Ambush Bug in it, Didio pointed out that Stephane Roux just completed the latest “anti-inspirational” ad which will feature the character. He said it’s an image of Ambush Bug with the word “Unvictorious” underneath it, which seemed to please the audience.

That fan was me. That’s right. I’m a huge Ambush Bug groupie, so why not get this panel discussion off and rolling with the bug. I always assumed that the DC folks, including Dan, hated the character, so why not have a little playful sniping. What was funny was that Ambush Bug got mentioned several times throughout the event. So much so, that Dan stipulated that the last question could not be about Ambush Bug. I even got up at one point and asked couple of questions just so I could mention Ambush Bug again. The first question was just something so I could sound normal but the second question was “any chance of a Jonah Hex / Ambush bug crossover?” Dan seemed to get frustrated and cried “who would want to see that?!” Kurt Busick said maybe it could be Ambush Bug’s ancestor Bush-wacked. Heh, heh.heh It would be funny though as some sort of Joke I suppose. Hey Keith Giffen You listening?


Dan went into he audience several time to coach questioners to great humorous affect. This is the gal that asked about titles for new readers because most of DC's titles are too continuity heavy and confusing.

Heidi and James Meeley

I met up with Heidi and James Meeley from Comics Fairplay at the space goat booth. We had a great conversation about many aspects of comics and blogging. Our chat was one of the most fun things I did that whole day. Now that I know they like a good microbrew, I can’t wait for an enjoyable pub conversation between us. They said they were going to try to make it to Portland for the next Free Comic Book Day. Maybe they can take a trip sooner, but either way it will be fun to have them visit the city of roses and talk comics. They also introduced me to Laura “Teagan” Gjovaag of Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog. She was really nice and inquired if I was an Aquaman fan since she was. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I’m more of a Sub-Mariner kinda guy. Being really angry and kicking Nazi butt is more of my thing. Oh and the pointy ears too. Gotta’ love them pointer ears.

Michael Alan Nelson

I swung by the Boom Studios booth and said hi to Michael Alan Nelson. He’s the guy that’s been writing most of the Cthulhu Comics. I told him how much a mythos horror title was needed and that Fall of Cthulhu and Cthulhu Tales fit the bill perfectly. As you can see he’s got a Mohawk now. Michael was such a straight looking guy before; the knowledge of the outer void must be affecting his mind.

Jeffery Brown

Here’s Jeffery Brown. He’s signing my copy of Big Head. Jeffrey is most known for his autobiographical comics but Big Head was a nice departure. It’s a title that’s made deceptively simplistic looking. I think it’s great because it captures the magic and imagination of childhood while at the same time expressing the angst of adulthood. Plus, it’s really funny too. I recommend it to readers whose habits cross back and forth between mainstream and indy comics.

-Swinebread

Emerald City Comic Con part one

Well, I learned my lesson last time and so I’m going to post this in parts. I think my wrists will thank me for it.

Lady Bug and I drove up to Seattle in a one-day mad rush for the Emerald City Comic Con. The show has really grown by leaps and bounds and so this year’s con was in a larger venue, the Seattle convention center.

I had brought a ton of books and comics to sign but I did tell myself that maybe some of the lines might be too long and sure enough there were a few folks I didn’t have the patience queue for but there was so much going on it didn’t matter.


Here the entrance into the main showroom… kinda looks like the Superman movie’s fortress of solitude.

Bill Willingham

I lucked out when I had Bill Willingham sign my comics. For some reason there wasn’t a big line but while I standing there, with only a few folks in front of me, a huge gaggle developed. Bill’s gaggle was merging with the line for Ed Brubaker, which was creating a big mess. I took charge and said “hey, why don’t we shift this around the other way.” Bill thanked me for adjusting things and then proceeded to sign several issues of Shadowpact for me.

I asked Bill about the connection between the Villains and Vigilantes modules (Death Dual with the Destroyers and the Island of Dr. Apocalypse) and the Elementals. Basically, while he was trying to break into comics, Bill was doing art for Fantasy Games Unlimited and worked on a couple of modules. Around that time, He had created a portfolio containing generic superheroes that he sent to Comico. They liked what the saw and Bill had a new job. When he showed up at Comico’s offices, Bill asked what he was going to be working on and their response was something like “what? You’re going to work on the proposal you submitted to us.” Bill was like “oh, yeah, of course” so he took the generic superheroes and fleshed them out into the Elementals. Needing a storyline quickly, he grabbed the outline from Death Dual with the Destroyers and the Island of Dr. Apocalypse as he owed the rights to all the characters and the rest is history. Sadly, Bill says the Elementals will never be reprinted, as the guy that owns the rights to the stories is a complete jerk. Back when Image was flush with money in the ‘90s, they tried to offer the jerk a large sum for the rights, but he always kept asking for more. The Jerk has disappeared and Bill has heard he’s homeless now. Maybe he should have taken the deal.

Brandon Jerwa

Here’s the multitalented Brandon Jerwa, along with his band mate Jessica Blackshear from SD6. He’s been writing several of the BSG titles for Dynamite Entertainment. Brandon told me that they’ve had such success with the BSG season zero comic that they might extend the series. He wasn’t sure they would do a Capria comic book based on the upcoming BSG related show, but he did say that there is going to be a BSG comic with a different group of survivors. Basically, you’ll have you’ll the same cylon models but a story that’s centered on a completely different group of humans. Kinda reminds me of a Star Trek: New Frontier approach.

Brandon signed my copy of BSG Season Zero #1, which had a great photo cover of Jamie Bamber.

Since Jamie Bamber was at ECCC, I decided why not have him sign my comic as well. His line was small at one point, so I just walked up and marveled at how short and how handsome he was. I shook his hand and he had a genuine smile on his face. It was funny because I guess Jamie hadn’t seen any BSG comics before because he was very intrigued with the issue I plopped in front of him. He opened it up and looked at pages. He then said with disbelief “is that supposed to be Colonel Tigh?” pointing to a scratchily rendered image. He flipped another page and again with disbelief said, “is that supposed to be Eddy?” Remember, he’s asking these questions in a gentle British accent. He looked right at me pleading for an explanation. I just raised my hands in an “I don’t know” shrug. With that, Jamie said, shaking his head, “I love comic books” and signed the cover with his image on it.

I realized at that moment that Dynamite Entertainment had really blown it by not getting an artist for the BSG comics that could draw realistic representations of the actors. I think Jamie was actually offended that the characters and actors he’s so familiar with didn’t look as they should. In this situation, the negative stereotype of comics was reinforced because the folks at Dynamite couldn’t be bothered I guess. The stories are quite good, but most non-comics types will look at the art and dismiss the titles completely just as Jamie did.

Moving on, I asked Jamie a few more questions. He told me he has nothing lined up after BSG. He’d slightly prefer to do films to more TV but if a TV show had the same level of camaraderie as BSG came along, he’d jump at the chance. I asked what was the best part of being on BSG for him personally and he said it was working with and learning from such a great group of people. Finally, I thanked him for coming to Seattle and (because of some theater experience in my background) I told him the one thing you are supposed to say to compliment an actor. He really seemed truly touched by my expression of gratitude and I walked away feeling like I needed to talk to some women to shake off our man moment. (Oh and I’m not going to tell what I said, this is the Internet of gosh sakes, so do your own research). .

Phil Noto & Gerry Duggan

I was really eager to meet Phil Noto as I greatly enjoyed his work on Jonah Hex and his current work on The Infinite Horizon. Phil, come to find out, is a very quiet guy actually so I ended up talking to Gerry Duggan the writer for The Infinite Horizon. We discussed the apocalypse-light world of IH a little and also adapting the odyssey into a near future tale. Gerry mentioned his post-apocalyptic x-mas story The Last Christmas and I bought it from him on the spot. Santa fighting cannibals in bombed out cities? I had to have it. Lastly, I encouraged him to check out the Stumptown Comics fest in Portland. He seemed very interested in the comic creator centered event. Hopefully he’ll make the trek to Portland someday.

Rick Remender

Rick Remender and his wife Danni had just had joked about something that’s why they look kinda snarky in the photo. Maybe it’s was something about my geekiness? Heh heh. Regardless I let him know how much I was enjoying The End League and that I saw a huge improvement from issue one to issue two. I think we’re at the beginning of a very cool series. I also decided to give Rick’s XXXombies a chance too and picked up the first issue of that. Kieron Dwyer drew it so how could I not try it out?

Matt Maxwell

I came across Matt Maxwell by chance and found the cover art to his book Strangeways: Murder Moon very compelling. Matt was happy to tell me about it, basically it’s a cowboys and werewolves horror story. I threw out the term Weird West, and Matt joked that his book is listed on wikipedia under Weird West. He also, mentioned that he’s working on a new horror western and it will include vampires but it won’t be all Goth like Vampire the Masquerade. I mentioned that that’s a good idea because I’m really tired of the artsy bloodsuckers and that I prefer the monstrous type. He joked that Vampire the Masquerade was a lifestyle and not merely a game. I laughed and agreed. Needless to say, I bought his book.

Eric Powell

Here’s Eric Powell, creator of The Goon, and next him is one the Nashville Roller Derby gals that Eric has designed promotions for… That's pretty f***ing cool. I had Eric sign an issue of the goon, and the Devil Dinosaur one-shot for me.

Esteban Maroto

The fantastico Esteban Maroto, had a bunch of amazing art, including original pages from Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan. I really wanted one, but I was afraid to ask how much they were because I would embarrass myself if I couldn’t afford any of them. I had Esteban sign my copy of The Adventures of Red Sonja trade, which reprints a story he drew. I thanked him in Spanish.

J. Michael Straczynski

The lines were too long to meet J. Michael Straczynski, except at one point but then he had to rush off to a panel discussion, so I missed out. I wanted to tell him how much I enjoyed Babylon 5 and his current comic series the Twelve. I did learn that that he’s a very tall guy though. He’s friggin' huge.

Gail Simone

I had Gail Simone sign an issue of Villains United. I’m not reading her titles so I felt bad that I had nothing to ask her. Maybe I should have found out what Marvel character Gail would like to write if she had the chance, She-Hulk maybe?

-Swinebread

Off To Emerald City ComiCon

I'm leaving early in the morning so I'm posting my message now.

So much to see. So much to do. Plus, I gotta' drive 3 hours to get there and 3 hours back.

Regardless, I'm sure excited. ECCC here I come.


-Swinebread

Emerald City Comic Con

I was off on a daytrip to Seattle this last weekend for the Emerald City Comic Con (ECCC). The festivities commenced in Qwest Field (Seahawks Stadium) Event Center south of downtown just off of I5. Having the con in a new building (they blew up the Kingdome a few years ago) really provided a nice atmosphere for the event and the experience was a total contrast to the Portland Comic Book Show. This being its 5th year, it’s my understanding that ECCC keeps improving by leaps and bounds. Since Seattle is a city that people have actually heard of, there was an extensive list of creators, media guests, and exhibitors. Personally, I was just happy that there were enough booths and events to keep me engaged for a few hours making the drive up worth it.
This funny realization came over me as I was strolling through the crowded stalls. See, I was keen on talking to some of the media folks and artists but once I was there, I felt uncomfortable walking up to them when I had no intention to buying their stuff. It just seemed rude. All, I wanted was a moment of their time, but with other much more rabid fans shelling out huge piles of cash for signed pictures and sketches, it seemed pointless. Not that I didn’t have a good time mind you. It was just that I felt like more of an observer, which was surprisingly enough for me. Maybe it’s the filmmaker aspect of my personality. Dunno, I guess going to a con were they actually have a significant amount of famous folks made me really think about it for the first time.
The Boom! Studios booth was one place I didn’t shy away from. These guys are publishing the kinda stuff I wanna’ read. See, I’m kinda burned out on superheroes. Dark Horse, Vertigo and Dynamite Entertainment are wetting my appetite for other genres but its not enough. Boom! on the other hand, burst on the scene about 2 years ago with a concept to serve the fan with a need for alternative genres. They publish supernatural thrillers, adventure, sci-fi, and horror comics. Where others companies dabble, Boom! Studios delivers. Their current claim to fame is Talent, a paranormal comic, which has been optioned for a film. These guys are also publishing Cthulhu comics, so I’m pretty excited about what they have coming down the pike. I picked up Pirate Tales, Cthulhu Tales, Tag and Savage Brothers. The Engima Cypher looks really good too, but I was running low on cash.
I had a great conversation with Ross Richie the publisher of Boom! Studios. He spoke at length about his love for comic books and the need for his company in the market place. At first, he gave his standard pitch about why his company produces the kinda comics they do, but once he realized he was speaking to the converted Ross became much more relaxed. He loves working with guys like Keith Giffen, and pretty, much let’s them do want they want, what as novel idea. I tried to express my appreciation, rather poorly I might add, that finally somebody grasps that we really need more choices in our stories, and that Boom! is really filling that role. Ross understood and said that he knew there were readers like me out there. That’s why he started the company.

It was a pleasant surprise when I realized that Clint Hollingsworth the creator of the web comic, The Wandering Ones was at the con. I really enjoyed meeting Clint and his wife Susie. I like post-apocalyptic stories a lot, so it was wonderful to pick up a copy of the collected strips, as I dislike on-line orders. The Wandering Ones is a wilderness survival story set in 2066 with tribal survivors of a devastating plague hunting, tracking and fighting their way across the Pacific Northwest. The art reminds me of the roleplaying game Aftermath for some reason. I urged them to visit Portland someday if they could fit it in.

Feedback (Matthew Atherton) was there. He was the guy that won Who Wants to Be a Superhero He was by far the most popular media star, as he had a steady stream of fans all day long. Feedback was charging for photos so I had to stand back to get this shot. It was difficult as you can tell because of the crowd.

Here’s a shot of Margo Kidder and Peter Mayhew. One woman started to freak out because she had not realized Peter was at the show, and apparently she’s a big fan. She actually said “I’m gonna freak out!” I got out of the way quickly.

Some of the cast from Farscape made it to ECCC. Lani Tupu (left standing), Wayne Pygram (sitting) and Gigi Edgley (standing with sandwich right). I wish I was a fan of the show then I could have talked them, but alas, I’ve only seen a few random episodes of Farscape so I had nothing to say. Apparently no one else had anything to say either because their booth was pretty quiet. Lani was always on the phone, he must have been arranging his next gig, or making it look like he was arranging his next gig. Gigi was always eating a sandwich every time I walked by. She had a pleading look like “please let my finish this. I’m starving.” Seriously, there is nothing hotter than an attractive woman stuffing food in her mouth. I finally felt bad, so I went up to Wayne and thanked him for coming and told him enjoyed his work. Which is true as Scorpius was the coolest character on that show.

Twomorrows Publishing was there to my joy and regret. Joy because I love their books and magazines, regret because I couldn’t buy all of their wares. I did pick up Modern Masters Volume 07: John Byrne, Modern Masters Volume 08: Walter Simonson, and How To Create Comics.

Here’s some creators that I didn’t stand in line for:
Frank Cho

Brian Michael Bendis
Gene Ha

Here are those Star War guys again!



Here is the Top Shelf booth. Brett Warnock, their publisher, didn't want to be in the picture. See Brett! I didn’t get you in there.


I stopped by the booth of the folks that write the Comics Fairplay blog. We had a fun time chatting. I think they’re on to a great idea in terms of the right way for fans to participate in a con. Thanks for the free comic guys!


All and all I had a great time but before we (Me and my SO) left Seattle, we had to get some chow. The nice thing about the ECCC being at Qwest Center is that the Chinatown-International District is nearby. It’s only a few blocks away and really easy to get to with the pedestrian overpass. My SO hasn’t had any good Japanese ramen in a loooong time, so we finished up our trip by stopping off at a new shop called Samurai Noodle. Well the place was very busy and the food was excellent. So if your hungering for real Japanese ramen, Samurai Noodle is the place to go.

-Swinebread