Extreme Panels: Prophet

One of the terrific and unexpected buys from Big Red Comics' Extreme 25th Anniversary signing was a vintage copy of Rob Liefeld's "immortal warrior traveling through time" Prophet, collecting the first 7 issues of 1994's visual and violent series. Liefeld created and wrote the series with Dan Panosian handling art for the first 4 issues and Stephen Platt coming in for number 5. I had recently picked up a remastered Youngblood hardcover where John Prophet, a former homeless man turned into a super soldier that goes into suspended animation, wakes up in the modern age with a passion for God, wielding two swords, purple tights and headgear you're not sure the purpose of. Now starring in his own series, we catch up with Prophet and his little gun toting, doesn't wear a shirt but has shoulder holster straps everywhere, Kirby, as they try to reestablish contact with D.O.C.C. (Direct Orbiting Command Center). Somehow the source of Prophet's info and power, while lots of government types want to get Prophet under their control.

There's a lot of violent nightmares and flashbacks along with ol' John constantly quoting the bible. You get a run in/crossover with Bloodstrike and peeps from Prophet's past thought long dead. Dan Panosian's art is pretty clean with muscles galore along with two page action spreads aplenty. But things get knocked up a notch when Stephen Platt takes over with much more mayhem (guys get machine gunned in half) and little details like shell casings or lots of little sinewy lines EVERYWHERE. Platt's work is quite grand in scope and the era's abundance of ear antennae, shoulder pads and giant guns never looked better. The series would go on for another 4 issues before being relaunched several times through today. It was recently revealed that Liefeld bought Platt a car to lure him from Marvel's Moon Knight and paid him $40,000 an issue. But deadlines were always missed with Platt giving everything he had making for dynamic pages if not a release schedule you could set a clock to. Years on, Platt distances himself from Liefeld while the Rob has no issue explaining that it was entirely the artist's fault.

(Pre)Con-Man: Extreme Studios 25th Anniversary Signing

This past weekend, Comic-Con International's WonderCon returned to Anaheim after a brief stint in Los Angeles last year. Anaheim is great site for hosting cons due to it's proximity to Disneyland that provides a fantastic infrastructure of highways, roads, hotels and eateries. Even though the show started on Friday, we booked a suite at the Double Tree (gotta love WC pricing!) on Thursday so we could hit Disneyland before all the Spring Breakers showed up. A random Facebook post alerted me of something truly comic book distinct, a 25th anniversary signing of Rob Liefeld's Image Comics imprint Extreme Studios!

Liefeld and Jim Lee's WildStorm studios were the two Image brands I grew up on with multiple runs of Extreme's Youngblood, Brigade and Prophet being part of my collections around the country. I had just purchased the new hardcover edition of Youngblood (forgot to bring it) and was brought back to the 90's in your face showcase of muscles, exposed hair, hot bodies and being superheroes in a media obsessed society. Big Red Comics is located in picturesque old town Orange complete with roundabout and multiple eateries, bars and antique shops. There was already a line down the block but store staff walked the queue explaining how things were going to work. Once inside, you could buy an Extreme Yearbook with bios and artwork from all of the guests along with other titles and rarities like store only Youngblood #1 or Prophet graphic novels collecting the first seven issues. More and more guests showed up and raffles kept the atmosphere light.

The guest list was IMMENSE with Jeff Matsuda, Dan Fraga, Andy Park, Shannon Denton, Chap Yaep, Todd Nauck, Marat Mychaels, Norm Rapmund, Art Thibert, Danny Miki, Matt Hawkins, Dan Panosian, Shelby Robertson, Jon Sibal and Karl Altstaetter. I had already had a brief fanboy moment with Prophet's Dan Panosian at February's Long Beach Con so it was cool when he walked up next to us in line and sighed about Los Angeles traffic making him late. The signing was kind of what you made of it, chit chatting with each guest, I wish I had read the yearbook before meeting everyone! But stories of being 19 when they joined and it mostly being a blur or talking animated X-Men as someone moved into film and TV after comics. Panosian said there would be an anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con as there wasn't one at WC while I talked to Matt Hawkins about The Image Revolution being the best documentary of the four he did interviews for. Rob Liefeld was gracious, thanking us for showing up and waiting, ready to sign whatever I wanted. He flipped through the Prophet trade, laughing that he found a box of them so they were vintage!

To cap off a great event, O'Hara's Pub next door had $6 Jameson's...and we still had Disneyland later that evening. Wonder Con 2017 was shaping up nicely and it hadn't even started.

Con-Man: August Overload

It hasn't even been a month but San Diego Comic-Con seems like a distant memory. Fortunately there are several shows big and small in August to keep us busy. Sadly, I've already missed two of them! This past Sunday saw two shows on opposite sides of the city take place. The one closest to me that I somehow didn't know about, was Carson's inaugural YesterCon, a celebration of comics, movies and cartoons from the 80's and 90's. Exhibition space sold out while guests like Michael Bower (Salute Your Shorts), Hank Garrett (G.I. Joe), Larry Houston (X-Men Animated), Townsed Coleman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and several Power Rangers met the fans. It looked like a decent sized show with plenty of vendors, a mini arcade and panel space. I still can't believe I didn't know about the show and it was only a few minutes away! Over in Claremont by Pomona is the bi-monthly Packing House Comic Book & Collectible Show. There's free admission and parking with the next show scheduled for September 27th.

A show I won't be missing is this weekend's ScareLA: the Haunt, Horror & Halloween Convention. While I'm not a huge horror guy, it's always fun to check out a new show. Plus it's in picturesque Pasadena where Bot-Con was. In it's third year, ScareLA showcases local haunted attractions, make up and decorating classes, exhibition floor with 150 vendors, speed dating, hours of panels, screenings, nighttime concert and a live exorcism?! Also this weekend north of Los Angeles is Stocktoncon where Pop Culture will be celebrated through comics, gaming, exhibitors and guests like Ken Shamrock, Tone Rodriguez, Ron Lim and Koko. B. Ware?!

The weekend of August 14th - 16th will be a big one for Orange County as Disney's D-23 Expo takes over the Anaheim Convention Center. This will also be a first for us with awesome talent like George Lucas and John Lasseter attending, panels on attractions, Imagineering, The Muppets and A Goofy Movie 20th Anniversary Reunion! Now that Star Wars and Marvel are under the House of Mouse, expect some news and appearances for upcoming films like The Force Awakens and Captain America: Civil War. Unlike this year's WonderCon and Star Wars Celebration at the Anaheim Convention Center, it looks like you can't walk the exhibit floor with booze... Just up the street in Orange, you can hang out with Cable, Deadpool, X-Force creator and O.C. native Rob Liefeld at Big Red Comics on Saturday from 2:00 - 5:00PM.

If that weren't enough, the following weekend there's Nerd Con in Escondido north of San Diego while staple Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention welcomes Agent Carter Hayley Atwell on Sunday the 22nd near USC and downtown. It's been a while since I checked out the LA Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi Con so it will be interesting to see how things have changed or stayed the same. Past guests include Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Bolo Yeung, Jackie Chan, Vin Diesel, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Arnold Schwarzenegger!

To wrap things up, Anaheim hosts Anime California on Friday - Sunday, August 8.28 - 30th. Anime and video games are the prime focus here with Artist Alley already sold out, fan-run panels lining up, concerts, cosplay and the SCR e-gaming tournament where video game athletes battle it out in Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and many more titles.  While Sunday August 30th is the San Fernando Valley Comic Book Convention that touts $5 admission and free parking. Phew! See you at the show(s)!

Con-Man: WonderCon 2015 Sunday

Although total attendance for WonderCon is less than half of San Diego, the great alternate show still managed to sell out 3-Day badges as well as Saturday. I always tell people who are discouraged by the coordinating commitment that is SDCC to check out WC as it's a fantastic show in it's own right with plenty of swag, comics, art, games, panels and special events to keep you busy with little of the headache. Sunday we rolled in for the annual Nerdist panel as they keep expanding and have recently moved into new office space. New shows, podcasts, even an improv class is on the way. We found some better convention center food near the arena with sammiches and fajita bowls next to burgers and hot dogs. Some more walking around the floor led to more flipping through comic boxes where it became Liefield Sunday with a haul of The New Mutants as well as finding the last issue of the 2004 6-part mini-series relaunch as well as the Shatterstar mini-series. Back to the Arena we went to catch WB's The Flash panel that had cast members Danielle Panabaker, Candice Patton and Carlos Valdes joined by executive producer Andrew Kreisberg. A cool sizzle reel played first showcasing some end of season craziness featuring the Rogues teaming up as well as Gorilla Grodd and another crossover with Arrow. The panel was a lot of fun and they mentioned an Easter Egg I missed. Apparently in a recent episode where you see The Flash fighting Professor Zoom with his mom in the middle, the Flash emblem has a white circle around it versus Gustin Grant's current red. What does that mean? That there's still a mighty big chance that John Wesley Shipp will be revealed as an alternate Flash from the 90's show and give us what we all want! YESSSSSSS!

Some fun cosplay included a Predator and a female Terminator along with a first sight for me, U.S. Agent! When Captain America gave up the mantle under government pressure, Johnny Walker stepped in, a former pro wrestler who had been suped up by the Power-Broker but was also kinda crazy. When Steve Rogers battled and defeated Walker for the title, Walker donned the black Captain outfit Steve adopted during his non-Captain America crime fighting. Thus becoming The U.S. Agent, a more aggressive and maybe psycho version of Cap who would butt heads with Cap's buddy and West Coast Avengers leader Clint Barton aka Hawkeye. The dude was surprised as nobody knew who he was but he looked great. Coolest swag of the day had to have been the comic book and movie themed rugs that included Cap's shield, the Millennium Falcon, Han frozen in carbonite and Space Invaders. I feel like we should have picked one up cause it would have really tied the room together...

Some more walking around Artist Alley and we decided to call it a day. It was another great show and some big news hit at the very end as Comic-Con International announced that they would be moving WonderCon to the Los Angeles Convention Center in 2016 over the March 25-27th weekend. This year that would put it up against Seattle's Emerald City Comicon on the west coast but ECCC is expanding to 4 days in '16 and moving to April 7th-10th. It'll be cool to have WC in downtown but I dunno, Anaheim's a lot easier to get around than downtown. There's also only 5,000 some hotel rooms within walking distance of the convention center compared to 13,000 in Anaheim and 11,000 in San Diego. There's not much to walk to as L.A. Live will quickly be overrun and the surrounding area doesn't make you feel uber safe as gentrification is butting up right into Skid Row. It's only a one year contract though as Anaheim is scheduled to undergo renovations and expansion. The show has moved before, starting in Oakland, moving to San Francisco then down to Anaheim. It will be interesting to see if there's an uptick in Hollywood studio presence since it's literally in their neighborhood. Until then, see ya in San Diego!

Con-Man: WonderCon 2015 Saturday

A little late but here comes my wrap up of Saturday at WonderCon this year. Last year Saturday was packed, like felt similar to San Diego packed. With organizers expecting 60,000 attendees this year I was prepared for the crush but honestly it wasn't too bad. The first panel I wanted to check out started at 10:00AM, same time the exhibit hall was supposed to open, but by the time I got there at 9:45, everything was flowing. In a new development, turnstiles and gates were installed outside the convention center so the religious protestor types couldn't mingle too much with attendees. I wonder what their schedule is like, I mean there's crowded sports events every weekend, do they show up to those?   

Superman: The Richard Donner Years Celebrity Super Reunion kicked things off with a massive guest list that included actors Margot Kidder, Valerie Perrine, Diane Sherry, Marc McClure, Jack O'Halloran and Aaron Smolinksi. Sarah Douglas got a flat tire on her way while producer Ilya Salkind was running late and eventually missed the panel. CapedWonder founder and Superman expert Jim Bowers co-hosted and there were several behind the scenes photographs projected to go with the panel. Apparently a book is in the works so I'll be sure to keep my eye out for it. Much love was directed to Donner for making the crew like family during their years together and for being an excellent director who handled each actor individually. Kidder was told to cut loose while Superman Christopher Reeve needed more precise direction which Donner provided. A great story came up when Marlon Brando thought the crew could use a rest but the producers balked at the cost it would take to do so. When pressed for the day to day cost of the shoot, one of the producers answered $350,000 to which Brando said he'd pay. Not sure if that day off actually happened...It was a great panel made even better by a video of Donner who couldn't attend because of Easter weekend and family commitments. A very heartfelt tribute to the films, cast and crew, Donner is always the man.

I wanted to check out Capcom's panel but it was filled and a line had already formed for the session afterwards featuring some podcasting type. That is one of the frustrating parts of these big shows, you never what kind of crowd is going to show up for a panel and then you get people just waiting through one for another. Anywho, some more walking around the floor followed and it wasn't too bad. Maybe the aisles were bigger so there was only congestion in a few spots. Walking around Artist Alley I spotted Captain America and Silver Surfer artist Ron Lim as well as his 90's Marvel mate Rob Liefield. Lim is one of my favorites as I grew up on his Cap work, I wish he would sell some postcards, buttons or some kind of swag so I could support him. Maybe I'll commission a full on Cap sketch to go with the quick freebie he did for me at another show. It was time for Warner Brothers' panel in the arena. Last year WB, Fox and Universal trotted out the likes of Bill Paxton, Gareth Edwards, Simon Kinberg, Gary Oldman, Andy Serkis and Luc Besson but this year film was way subdued with only WB showing Mad Max clips and San Andreas. The Mad Max scenes and trailers look great though; visual, violent and a bit weird. San Andreas director Brad Peyton and lovely co-stars Alexandra Daddario and Carla Gugino were on hand to discuss the film but energy was really lacking. The trio talked about a lot of the practical f/x employed but watching the clips it still looks like a CGI fest and I can't say I'm all that pumped for the flick. Just me? Afterwards we met up with The Arnold Fans maestro Randy who was in town for WonderCon and a fan meetup. It was great to chat with him and here's hoping we collaborate on something in the future.

The bar at the Hilton was SLAMMED so we headed to the Marriott for some snacks and dranks. A couple of whiskey gingers, mac n' cheese and a burger later we were energized to hit the floor again. We checked out Inside The Writers' Room, a panel assembling scribes from shows like Hannibal, The Big Bang Theory, Terminator, The Flash and Firefly. It was an informative session talking about what exactly is a writer's room, how it's good to either know what you want or what you don't want, having to recast actors, writing for certain actors, feeding you formulaic stories without making you feel it's not (cough, Mad Men, cough) and whatnot. We snuck out towards the end to check out Tarzan, John Carter, Doc Savage, The Shadow and Alley Oop: The Martian Legion Arrives! A look at the work of Edgar Rice Burrough's and a new book featuring his most famous creations along with other popular pulp heroes. Burrough's set up shop outside Los Angeles and the town of Tarzana was born. The ranch is now an archive as Burrough's threw nothing out, including a letter from Theodore Roosevelt denying Burrough's membership to The Rough Riders! Several Burrough's projects are in the works as the Tarzan live action movie is in post production, a TV mini-series is in development and a new novel by comic book distributor Jake "Buddy" Saunders is ready for release that teams up John Carter and Tarzan with The Shadow and Doc Savage?!

Even more walking around and we hit up some dolla, dolla bins, ya'll where I picked up some awesome Wonder Man, Incredible Hulk, Sgt. Rock and The Shadow comics. Also got one of those little Mystery Sci-Fi figures looking for The Rocketeer but got a frigging E.T., Damme it! Better luck was had with some Avengers mini bobble heads where we got Captain America, naturally, cause I'm charmed. A fun but tiring day, apparently we walked about 7 miles, phew!

Cable Sunday: Paneled Goods

After picking up the collected Cable: Classic at Long Beach Con and a fistful of X-Force from Earth 2's parking lot sale, I was ready to strap on my shoulder pads and pack my belt and suspender pouches full of 90's action awesomeness. The 90's are dubbed the most action packed decade in comic book history. And for good reason. With splashy, vibrant, kinetic art from the likes of Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Mark Silvestri, Ron Lim and a host of others ruling the sales charts, the 90's became the era of the artist. Men were hyper muscular and women super impossibly hot in poses looking like they were always flying and action that screamed spectacle and splash pages. Created by Louise Simonson and Rob Liefeld, Cable was to be a "man of action" and opposite to the wheelchair bound, tolerance spouting Professor Charles Xavier from the X-Men. Cable: Classic collects his first full appearance in 1990's New Mutants # 87, two part series Blood & Metal and the first four issues of his own ongoing series.

The action starts with a force from the Mutant Liberation Front storming a secret facility to bust out some captured young mutants. After the super powered strike force of Wildside, Forearm, Reaper, Strobe, Tempo and Thumbellina take out the facility guards, from nowhere a huge man decked out in giant shoulder pads, future guns, a metal arm, spiked bracelets and a big scar over his eye appears. This is Cable, time traveling soldier from the future. We don't get too much of his personality besides being a hardass tracking down the same mutants the MLF is after. We're introduced to the armored, masked and spike covered Stryfe, leader of the Liberation who is out to prove mutant superiority over humans by breaking into their facilities after his demands are not met. Cable nearly takes out Stryfe's group single handed but ends up losing his mechanical hand and the MLF breaks out the mutant captives.

From there we move into 1992's two-shot, Blood & Metal from Fabian Nicieza and John Romita, Jr. Here, we go back in Cable's past as a member of the Wild Pack, also known as Six Pack along with Domino, G.W. Bridge, Garrison Kane, Grizzly and Hammer. The bandanna wearing, shoulder pad suited and heavily armed unit lands in Iran, wasting a ton of hostile locals about to execute some hostages. That's just a cover though as the hardcore group is actually there on behalf of a rich corporation and blow up a competitor's building. Cut to years later and the team has been disbanded, some members being permanently injured from a job Kane believes Cable turned on them and left them to die. Cable tracks a team of MLF'ers stealing artifacts from various parts of the world and across numerous centuries on Stryfe's behalf. After getting caught in an explosion on the botched mission; Kane is now the armored up, metal armed, hand disengaging Weapon X and tracks Cable down to his safe house in Switzerland where the two brawl through the house and outside in the snow, hitting each other with trees. Kane joins Cable in his quest to stop Stryfe from collecting the artifacts on the condition that the future warrior help their wheelchair bound former comrade Hammer. Cable had to shoot Hammer in the back on the disastrous mission to stop him from jeopardizing it. That's leadership, kids. The two jump to the future where Kane is made whole again with the intention of bringing back some technology to make Hammer walk. I really dug Blood & Metal, John Romita, Jr's art is very clean and dynamic. The over the top costumes actually look somewhat practical and streamlined here versus Liefeld's early mish mash of pads, bracelets, belts, pods and ammo. The black ops style military group was a key theme in the 90's with many of your Image Comics being based on military teams who imploded on that one bad job and how members come back to haunt the others years later after feeling betrayed or left behind.

The action was pretty interesting as you had guns and mutant powers, robot soldiers, mech suits, ninjas and the Silver Samurai! Cable is fleshed out here as being a tough leader who makes decisions for the best of the mission rather than his team leading to future conflict. Then throw in his turtleneck lounge attire when at his tech loaded safe house and you get more than just some brooding grunt. I'm still not exactly sure what Stryfe's endgame is but you see that he and Cable are spitting images of each other, clones, twins or something or other. All of this Six Pack stuff comes back to haunt Cable in his ongoing series as G.W. Bridge went on to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. and was sent to capture his former teammate, Hammer becomes a revenge seeking threat and Cable totally makes a chick cry after they got busy when he thought she was someone else...Key phrases like "stab his eyes" (son of a bitch?) and "body slide by" (call for teleport) are prevalent.

Over in 1991's X-Force # 1, Cable is now leading the former New Mutants as their own unit of part rebels, part heroes consisting of the flying Cannonball, strong man Warpath, wolf like chick Feral, explosion tossing Boom Boom and bred to be a warrior alien Shatterstar. It's all action for the first 21 pages as X-Force locates and attacks a Mutant Liberation Front base, again confronting Stryfe but losing him, again. Hands get chopped off, bodies are slashed, POONTH! shots are fired, Stryfe teleports and X-Force body slides out. We learn that in addition to Cable's mechanical arm and battle experience he actually has some telekinetic powers as well. It's interesting to see how Rob Liefeld's artwork changed between New Mutants and X-Force as I think it got worse. I'm not sure if he was working under a deadline or just tried to do too much but X-Force # 1 just isn't as clean as his previous work, everyone has angry expressions on their faces and nobody has pupils. Meaning it's just a bunch of slanted white eyes...The haircuts are 90's atrocious mullets or big square do's and body language has become increasingly awkward. While Romita, Jr was able to streamline and make the outfits look somewhat plausible, Liefeld draws Cable with outrageous dimensions, outlandish shoulder pads, arms and thighs three times the size of his head making it look like a guy in an exo-suit of sorts. Still you get lots of action and banter with appearances from Juggernaut, Black Tom Cassidy and Spider-Man in the first half dozen issues. Cable's purpose is more or less highlighted when he states: "We're here to do what the police and the Avengers-types are unwilling to do -- put an end to this situation -- cold, hard and mean!" Superb.

X-Force # 1 was packaged with a limited edition trading card and became the best selling comic book of all time with a staggering 5 million copies sold. Liefeld was featured in a Levi's 501 jeans commercial directed by Spike Lee where he talks about drawing comics since he was 7 years old and never receiving any formal art training. X-Force's record would soon be broken by Jim Lee and Chris Claremont's X-Men # 1 which sold over 8 million copies with it's gimmick of having 5 different covers. Liefeld, Lee and many of Marvel's other superstar artists would then disband from the mother company and form Image where they could have more creative freedom and own the rights to their characters and art. Liefeld's Extreme Comics would produce best seller Youngblood and land the young artist on Dennis Miller's late night chat show. Brigade was another super powered team oriented book with a Cable looking leader where several of the characters die in the first issues through getting their intestines punched out or fingers sliced off. Liefeld would be kicked out of Image/resign after consistently late shipping books and poaching talent from other in house banners. In 1996, Liefeld and Lee returned to Marvel to help launch Heroes Reborn where Captain America, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four and The Avengers all died in a universe shaking battle and be brought back in new, alternate reality universes. Cable would pop up there too.

In 2004, Liefied and Fabian Nicieza relaunched X-Force with Cable still hanging/training/banging with Domino but being haunted by Skornn, a long dead being that feeds off mutants like humans eat cows. Warrior from another planet/time/dimension Shatterstar is training with some monks but signs up for some mindless violence because that's what he does. You see, Cable was originally sent back to our time from a thousand years in the future to stop some kind of catastrophic mutant event. But even all those years ahead, mutants and mankind are still at odds. Some ninja looking baddies from the future aka Agents of Humanity show up looking for The Five Fingers of Annihilation sword, the only weapon that can defeat Skornn, it's up to the reunited Cable, Domino and Shatterstar to stop them. With jump kicks, double bladed swords and punches to the face. In subsequent issues we catch back up with Cannonball, now living a peaceful life on a farm in Kentucky while Tabitha Smith aka Meltdown and formerly known as Boom Boom along with Warpath rejoin the team. Liefeld's art is substantially more palatable years on with cleaner lines along with less ridiculous body shape and sizes. Backgrounds are a little plain or non-existent but pupils are more frequent and hair styles are much better. A scene from the future takes on an ethereal and shiny quality with coloring that looks more akin to paints than vibrant and smooth computer coloring. While the story jumps back and forth between eras, it never gets too confusing or clunky.

Phew! Some fun reading with lots of ads for Marvel shirts and toys that made me miss my awesome double sided Jim Lee X-Men shirt from 4th grade. It wasn't as extreme as Brigade though as those comics just got me amped up and the test (testosterone) flowing making you want to lift weights and punch holes in walls. Until next time, body slide by one...

Sherman Oaks Saturday: Earth 2 Comics & The One Up

Wow what a week! Started a kick ass new gig all while going into the final days leading up to the Sunbow Animation Celebration double feature of The Transformers and G.I. Joe: The Movies, fighting a cold and planning another big movie night. Saturday it was off to Sherman Oaks to check out a parking lot sale of comics with thousands of issues advertised for a buck a piece. Earth 2 Comics is located right on Ventura Blvd off the 405 a few minutes from The Galleria. The Galleria? John Conner alert! I think that was Glendale actually...Anyways, it was already a bustling scene
with people elbow to elbow skimming through books. Toys, calendars, figurines and more were also on sale but I was more there looking for issues. After whetting my appetite with some Cable (Body slide by one) from last week's Long Beach Comic Expo, I was hoping I'd run into some more 90's action and was not disappointed as I scooped up some of Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza's X-Force from 1991. Also grabbed were several issues of Nick Fury: Agent of Shield, some more 80's Captain America that I already have in boxes in Ohio, Sgt. Rock and a couple of random issues of West Coast Avengers with interesting covers. There seemed to be a lot of DC for sale and I hauled up a few issues of The Flash written by the TV writing duo of the 1990 show, Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo. If you bought 20, the price went down to .50 cents so it was money well spent. The staff there were all super cool and say they hold the sale a couple times a year so we'll be sure to come back.

Since we were already in The Oaks, we cruised down to The One Up for a midday cocktail and some more brawling action following up on The Punisher mayhem from a few weeks ago. It was barely noon so the place was empty but with Space Balls on the tube and a Jameson Mule aka Dublin Donkey in hand, it was time to check out what other oddities and classics the 400 game emulator had in store for us. I really hoping for Aliens VS Predator so I could be video game Arnold aka Dutch but with a metal arm and fight xenomorphs. Alas AVP was not included but 1991's forgotten yet awesome side scrolling beat'em up Knights of the Round from Capcom was. I remember playing the crap out of that game as Lancelot, Arthur and Perceval. We settled on Cadillacs and Dinosaurs for the sheer WTF value as it's a beat'em up but with a story involving cars and dinosaurs. A comic book series turned cartoon, the Capcom arcade game came out in 1993 where you play as the hyper buff dude Jack Tenrec or hot diplomat Hannah Dundee along with fast fighting Mustapha or heavy hitter Mess O'Bradovich.

Like Final Fight or The Punisher, you roll down the streets of some crazy city where dinosaurs have been hunted and modified, becoming violent tools of gang warlords. Using your fists, feet, uzi's, shotguns, knives and TNT, you fight your way through various parts of The City by the Sea and a nearby jungle. The game had a BLARING rock and roll soundtrack and was really, really loud. But fun to button mash and brawl. It was surprisingly violent with dead dinosaur carcases, being able to use swords to hack peeps and of course shoot them with a variety of firearms. One stage you're driving a Caddy and literally trying to mow down the baddies in your way. Road rage! It was a fun morning before we needed to head to Hollywood for the big show...

Con-Man: Long Beach Comic Expo

After a night of birthday celebrating it was down to Long Beach for the Comic Expo on Saturday. This is usually the smaller of the two LB shows but this year expanded so much that they had to move it to another section of the convention center. There was some science technology summit or other happening where LBCC usually is so we were around the back by the Performing Arts Center and Aquarium. Replica cars from Knight Rider, Jurassic Park, The Blues Brothers and Back to the Future welcomed you, it was a breeze to grab tickets and head inside. Right away we saw one Lance Henriksen at the non-RAW, RAW booth with The Lone Gunmen actor Dean Haglund along with a local artist. I immediately searched the floor for NECA's new Bishop figure and took it over to Mr. Henriksen to sign. Having already bought his book last year, The Lance was still just too Damme cool and gracious, chit chatting about Alien 5 (He hasn't heard anything) and how he actually hadn't seen the new figure yet. Again, just a great guy and here's hoping I put together an event he can attend. Why was it the non-RAW, RAW booth? Well convention specialist Mike was on hand, the RAW Studios banner was up, but neither Messrs Thomas Jane or Tim Bradstreet were attending. The Jane is still shooting new show The Expanse up in Canada while Bradstreet was also out of town. Here's hoping the duo return to Long Beach soon as their previous years have been outstanding with screenings and panels.

From there we walked the floor which was nice and padded with carpet checking out comics, toys, arts and crafts, Big Trouble in Little China ReAction figures and Funko's were around. I recognized some vendors from previous shows, guess we're becoming regulars huh? The floor boasted over 165 exhibitors and artists but strangely didn't feel much bigger than previous shows. Star Wars Laser Tag was set up in the back, there was a signing area where Futurama's Phil LaMarr and martial arts heroine Cynthia Rothrock were set up near a new addition, video games projected on a big screen. Street Fighter and Super Mario Brothers action ensued. Writing legend and X-Men mainstay Chris Claremont showed up and had a line at his table the entire day.

11:00 AM marked our first and only panel of the day, G.I. Joe Cartoon Voices! Hosted by combat fatigue clad Flint aka Bill Ratner, the panel included Keone Young (Storm Shadow), Hal Rayle (Deep-Six), Mary McDonald-Lewis (Lady Jaye), Jerry Houser (Sci-Fi) and Neil Ross (Shipwreck). There was a great camaraderie between the actors and they started things off with a reading of a funny G.I. Joe skit where Cobra ninja assassin Storm Shadow is actually trying to help the Joes. The panel included much talk of working for Wally Burr who would push his actors to provide a realistic, non-obvious cartoony performance in sessions that went 7-8 hours versus the typical 4. Basically if you didn't leave blood on the music stand, you weren't doing it right. Burr also strove for authenticity and instead of having an actor play ethnic, he'd just go out and get a person from the community aka Asian or black characters being played by Asian and black actors. Many a tale spoke of Megatron voice actor Frank Welker who would help the young guys while also being able to give you the sounds of a rocking chair or a male or female dolphin! Lewis was proud that her character wasn't fetish-ized and her action figure was the first female toy to have short hair. Lewis was great, very cool, very smart and just a ball of fire. She made sure everyone was involved during the panel and offered some terrific insight into being a positive force in the world. This was Houser's first time at a convention and he was really funny with a voice you swear you recognize but don't know why. Rayle went into Deep-Six and I immediately thought he was doing Charles Bronson, which he was! Rayle based the voice on Bronson as Tunnel King Danny in The Great Escape.

There was some enlightening stuff like the script girl encouraging the cast to buy Hasbro stock as the toy giant knew FCC regulations were changing so the cartoons could have commercials for their products during the run-time essentially make it a 30 minute advertisement. Ratner said if he would have invested $1,000 dollars in 1985, it would have been worth $28,000 just a few years later. Jokes about their figures selling poorly leading to being featured less on the show were common place during sessions of 10-12 voice actors. Houser said Sci-Fi was really good at sitting still in silence...I asked when the panel realized they had jumped generations and started going to cons with Lewis and Ratner saying they'd only known about the show's impact in the last ten years. Frank Welker couldn't make it but doesn't believe people still love the shows 30 years later. Rayle has only been going for a few years and is headed to Australia for a show soon. A few passionate fans spoke of their love for the show and Lewis shared that the percentage of first responders and EMT's in the Joe community is extremely high when compared to the rest of the population. She and Ratner also attended the official G.I. JoeCon where they watched the new live action movies and Lewis mentioned that there wouldn't be cons for those in 30 years. Young was asked about working for supposed tough guy writer-director Kurt Sutter on Sons of Anarchy to which he responded he'd worked with guys like Billy Wilder so Sutter was nothing and that was the point of being a professional. I ran into Young in the hallway after and asked him about Surf Ninjas, he said it was a lot of fun and they shot it in beautiful Thailand. On and on it went, just a really great time, lots of laughs, stories and heart. If that weren't enough, Neil Ross gave next week's Sunbow Celebration a shout out, Yo, Joe!

It was off to get our Dublin Donkey's on across the street at The Auld Dubliner and next door to collectible store Geeky Mamas where they have an awesome selection of toys old and new, accessories and clothes. I totally meant to get a Transformers or Joe shirt for next week but didn't see any good ones...Back at the show we walked the floor some more, checking out artist alley and digging through random boxes. That Hashtag Show is coming to Sunbow Celebration and I introduced myself, cool guys who like Long Beach the same as I do for it's chill vibe, guest approachability and nice surrounding area. Grabbed a few Captain America Annuals and Sgt. Rock issues from a 3 for 1 booth as well as a collection of time traveling mutant soldier badass Cable for a solid $5! Created in "1990, the dawn of the most action-packed decade in comic-book history" by Louise Simonson and wunder-kid Rob Liefeld. "Body-Slide by one". I would have liked to stuck around to see Claremont's panel, it had been a full and fun day so we headed home. Just when I thought Long Beach Con wasn't evolving, they shut my face by putting on a terrific show. Here's hoping to an even bigger one in the fall. Bring on Emerald City!

Grudgement Day: Con-Man

I'm trying to think what my first Comic Convention experience was, I believe it was a small show in my hometown at a local hotel meeting room or Elks Lodge.  I must have been in middle school because my dad took me and patiently accompanied me as I checked out the tables full of back issues.  There were a few artists set up for meeting fans but I didn't know who the heck they were yet.  I picked up a short stack of comics and happily went on my way.  The regular flea market and toy shows at the Fair Grounds always had comics for sale but they weren't the main focus.  The Mid-Ohio Con in Easton was a decent sized show at the Hilton, I hear they moved to a bigger venue then were acquired by Wizard World in 2010.  A little history shows that Mid-Ohio Con used to be held in my hometown in the early 80's complete with guests like John Bryne, Frank Miller, Stan Lee and Kevin Eastman!  In 2004, my friends and I attended our first major show, Wizard World Chicago.  Mind you, this was when Wizard was still a magazine and not some company that randomly ran conventions and held stake in a now defunct MMA league.  My buddies and I drove from Ohio to Chi-Town, riding the train, eating pizza and breaking door frames in our hotel with a chin up bar (yup, I was working out on any schedule in any situation even back then).

Wizard World Chicago was a lot of fun.  The floor seemed pretty big and I picked up all kinds of good swag like a Jack Kirby Captain America trash can, lots of comics, probably a bust or two and then we saw him, mother fucking Rob Liefeld had a table and was doing sketches.  I don't recall programming being much in those days at WWC so we plopped down in Liefeld's line to get an original piece of art.  Well, we learned the hard way that a guy can only sketch so many sketches in an hour and we were way back in line.  We ended up getting some comics signed and chit chatting with the former Marvel superstar artist and creator of X-Force turned co-founder of Image Comics.  Since we weren't coming back the next day, Liefeld told us to e-mail him and he'd send us something.  10 years later and I'm still waiting.  Plus he was a dick on Twitter and friends with a negative neckbeard movie "critic" so my days of supporting him are long gone.  Unlike Jim Lee who is just the coolest, most random guy you could ask for in the industry.  He brought Mrs. Fields cookies to the audience one time, changes up his panel focus every time and generally loves to spread the gospel of comic books.

Today, Wizard Magazine is no more but Wizard World Conventions are EVERYWHERE.  Literally.  There are 25 shows across the country with a focus on celebrity signings, cast reunions and of course, comic book writers and artists.  It's where Pop Culture comes to life says their website and what gets the most real estate on said site?  The revolving list of celebrities you can pay to meet.  A guy from the Harry Potter movies, someone from a 90's TV show, a Star Trek cast member or 7, etc.  There's Admission then there's VIP Admission so you can bypass lines, hobnob with guests and get the best seating at panels for an upcharge.  What's wrong with all of that?  Technically nothing, more comic conventions are a good thing.  I travel to 8-10 shows a year but haven't been to a Wizard World since Chicago.  These are no longer comic book conventions, they're pop culture conventions.  Having attended shows big and small, happy and sad, I consider shows like Wizard World and Salt Lake City new-age types with their focus on celebrities to bring casual fans in then include comics, artist alleys and special events.  It's a nice mix for the most part as you can go see one of your favorite actors at a spotlight panel then look around the floor for comics and swag.  Artist Alley is always fun and I've met a couple of cool peeps who get to make a living doing what they love.  Most of the time they're selling personal takes on beloved genre movies and TV titles rather than hocking their own comic book or creations though.

So what's the point of all of this?  I dunno, I just feel like all this prodding of fans for more and more dinero is not good for the convention scene and why Comic-Con International's San Diego and Wonder Con remain by far the greatest example of a show.  Why?  Because they're a celebration of the popular arts.  They produce 3 solid shows a year and aren't trying to take over the world. They're non-profits but provide the absolute best experience one could ask for, as long as you're ready for the crowds and lines.  Once inside, your ticket grants you access to every event and can keep you busy from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM if you've got the energy.  No Paid Events, no Additional Ticket required, none of that.  Wizard World and SLCC are businesses out to make money and are now using their size to pummel fans and competition alike.  For example, fan clubs used to get free tables at WW shows to boost awareness and raise money for charity but now they have to shell out hundreds of dollars just to get a space.  Kind of tough when you're not there to sell merchandise.  Then there's the cases of Wizard World moving into new territory in what seems like a bid to dominate the local scene, which they deny.  Take for example Minneapolis, Minnesota where Wizard World scheduled their show two weeks before long running local non-profit SpringCon after failing to acquire the brand.  However, SpringCon claims the beef gave them a boost in public profile, similar to what Salt Lake received when San Diego sued them.

But doesn't the abundance of shows give more awareness to the peeps over in Artist Alley?  Yes, I'm not saying WW is evil or should hold less shows, I just wish we got more variety.  I fear we're getting into cookie cutter conventions here so one show will be like any other just in a different town.  The same celebs tour the country at these shows, selling the same things, telling the same stories.  More crowds for celebs means more foot traffic for Artists but when you're making the lions share of profits from selling prints, magnets and stickers based on someone else's ideas, I figure you might get tired of it, like a talented band who can only book gigs doing covers of well known groups because no one will pay them to play their own material.  Whereas Comic-Con boasts over 1,000 panels with 100's of guests/speakers from fans to professionals covering just about every topic known to man like writing, drawing, painting, collaborating, social themes, legal advice and how-to, Wizard Shows maybe eek out a few dozen panels, most of them spotlights on well known celebs or artists. 

Oh well, maybe this new abundance of shows will help ease the crowds in San Diego.  With an attendance cap and Hollywood interest waning, it'll be nice for us die-hards if there's a few less people cramming the aisles.  I'd like to see specific subject shows grow like the He-Man/She-Ra Power-Con (which couldn't make it in New York), Bot-Con, G.I. Joe Con, Austin's Mondo Con and am looking forward to Los Angeles' latest, Comic Arts Los Angeles, a free event to promote the world of comic books, graphic novels and the creators behind them.