Aside from an excellent exhibit floor, WonderCon had several panels every hour and we ended up attending several on Friday and Saturday. On Friday we checked out a session on the pre-visualization of hit Wolverine movie Logan where guests discussed creating a non-superhero movie starring superheroes and how writer/director James Mangold pushed them to "make it real". Which is kind of weird when you think of it since the dude has a metal skeleton and another guy can control people with his mind but whatever. It did push the crew to be more creative and not fall back on tired tropes or exaggerated action sequences with lots of explosions. After that it was a celebration of Buffy and Angel to celebrate 20 years with a preview of an upcoming oral history book from genre writer and super fan Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross. This was a fun panel as the two talked about how they ended up writing a book on Buffy (their publisher wanted another book after their Star Trek themed oral history, anniversary was coming, one of their favorite shows) and the good old days of genre journalism of the 80's and 90's with Fangoria, Starlog, Cinefantastique and Cinescape. Gross told a funny story about looking up Joss Whedon and calling him and the young writer being so thankful of the early support. In the years to come, Whedon would make himself available to Gross for hours at a time for interviews but when Whedon landed The Avengers, the accessibility ended.
The Arena was pretty quiet and media presence was limited in general with only Warner Brothers putting on a studio panel that filled up quick as Annabelle 2 and Wonder Woman were previewed. But the cast and crew of Archie showed up to a full house with Luke Perry looking very scruffy and not knowing how to handle social media while the kid who plays Archie started talking and freaked everyone out. Turns out he's from New Zealand and has the accent too boot.
Jim Lee's WildStorm celebrated 25 years with a large panel of artists, writers, inkers and contributors. Highlight tidbits included learning that Lee now has 9 kids from two wives and that WS started off in a one bedroom apartment, then two bedrooms then an actual studio in a bank building. Lee and long time inker Scott Williams argued about who would pay for the fax machine and realized they needed assistants and finance people to actual run a company. It was a very familial atmosphere as Lee encouraged young artists to strive and become the next themselves, not a copy of him. Many were away from home for the first time and lived in a nice apartment in a nice part of town that was soon trashed and dubbed the "Crack house". Lee helped the young guys with money, buying cars, bailed them out of jail and to save time, hired someone to come in and cut all of their hair at the same time. Apparently they all got sweet bowl cuts. There was mention of Brett Booth who unfortunately couldn't attend, Damme it! I asked Lee if between WildCats toys, a video game and animated series if a film was ever seriously considered. He responded that it never got past the pitch stage and it would have just been too big a project for the pre-X-Men and Spider-Man era.
We caught the tail end of Valiant's panel on digital offerings that includes a Ninjak web series then sat in for the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary. Cleaned up versions of old games are on the way as well as additional upgrades to latest release Street Fighter V. E-gaming league, the Capcom Cup is also in full swing with hundreds of thousands of dollars up for grabs. I'd love to check one of these events some day to see some bitching gameplay and epic smack talk.
After revisiting Divine Right I hopped into some Backlash, the badass, mutagen enhanced soldier turned Stormwatch combat instructor. Before receiving his own monthly series, The Lash was teamed up with fellow resident masked deadly smartass Grifter from WildCATS for miniseries The Kindred. You see both Backlash aka Marc Slayton and Grifter aka Cole Cash were part of Team 7, a covert ops action squad that were exposed to the Gen Factor, a crazy, pink, radioactive type dealy that gave them all powers. Backlash is able to turn into mist and utilizes psionic whips to take fools out or swing over stuff while Grifter got the short thrift as his powers of telekinesis waned but he ages slowly and heals fast. But he's a deadly sharpshooter and was trained by an alien warrior so it all works out. Exposure to the Gen Factor gave Team 7 powers but also made some of them mad and commit suicide. Tapping into "The Rush" accelerated the mental and physical deterioration.
Hitting stores in 1994, four part The Kindred follows former teammates turned bitter acquaintances Backlash and Grifter as they attempt to rescue their former leader John Lynch and his assistant Alicia Turner. They've been kidnapped by a villain called Bloodmoon and taken to Caballito island. Lynch and Turner are put on trial as we learn that Bloodmoon is actually Robert Diaz, a thought dead member of Team 7. Injured and left to die, Diaz washed up on Caballito island where he was taken in by The Kindred, human/animal hybrids resulting from secret experimentation done by Lynch's contemporaries at International Operations. Basically The Kindred are the results of an early version of the Gen Factor so it's Lynch's and I.O.'s fault times two. It's action and one liners galore as Backlash goes in with the troops, Grifter turns up, they're captured, they escape, they rescue their comrades and shocked to learn that Diaz is still alive. Grifter tries to help his former friend but after so much pain and the mental derangement of the Gen Factor, Diaz is hearing none of it. After lots of bloody battle and explosions, Grifter has the chance to save Diaz after a bridge collapses but Backlash can't hold up the two of them and forces Grifter to let go, essentially killing Diaz a second time. While Backlash and Grifter begrudgingly team up for the series, by the end Grifter is back to thinking that Lash is a self centered @$$hole only looking out for himself.
As if you didn't know, I love 90's comics. The supersized bodies, egos and action all make for some fun and intense reading. With a globe spanning security force, secret mission backstory, genetic experiments gone wrong, hostile buddy dynamic and exotic locales, you really got a lot of bang for your buck. Sure it's overblown with the action, one liners, muscles, hot babes and all but that's the point, it was the action decade! You get Grifter talking about someone suffering from lead poisoning after shooting them, quoting John McClane as he swings in shooting, scantily clad, uber buff men and shapely women and oh so many masks with exposed hair. The layered and intricate backstory adds history and heart to the goings on but never gets too confusing between I.O., Team 7 and whatnot. Jim Lee and Brandon Choi provide story details while Brett Booth gives it all a kinetic and violent edge with lots of destruction, physical dust ups, fire and more destruction. This is also the series that sees Backlash jump kicking a man-bear as the Island of Dr. Moreau influence is used to excellent effect. Next time we dig into Backlash's ongoing series!
Oh man the 90's, the most action packed decade in comic books! I grew up during the Image Comics boom, reading and collecting the science fiction tinged and kinetically violent WildC.A.T.S., Brigade and Backlash and later thanks to .25 bins picking up runs of Prophet, Youngblood, Cyber Force, Savage Dragon and more. I'm not sure when I grabbed Jim Lee's Divine Right: The Adventures of Max Farady but at a recent show picked up the first several issues in a collected edition for a few bucks. I have the entire run sitting in storage halfway across the country which was not going to help me after getting hooked again. For any comic book fan, Jim Lee is one of the luminaries; his crisp, exciting art coupled with his nice guy attitude has served him well from being a young upstart at Marvel to laying claim to the highest selling comic book issue of all time to creating imprint Wildstorm at Image, selling that to DC and now running the shop as Co-Publisher. DC has recently re-released Divine Right in a graphic novel and included several tie-in issues along with some sketches from the man himself. It's on Amazon but if you're reading this from the west side of Los Angeles, check out Pulp Fiction on Sepulveda where most graphic novels are 30-50% off.
Starting in 1997, Divine Right introduces us to Max Faraday, a part time pizza delivery guy and college student with a hot older sister and thinks he's cool but really isn't best friend. Always on the internet, Max has struck up an online relationship with Susanna Chaste but never met her in person. Remember chat rooms from the 90's? Phew, flashbacks! One night, Max randomly downloads the Creation Equation, a mystical formula that goes way back and from beyond our universe. Basically, Max has downloaded the powers of God but doesn't know it. Soon enough he's being chased by aliens and rescued by members of The Fallen: Brande, Tobruk and Exotica; wizard, warrior and babe types who know all about the Creation Equation. International Operations, Wildstorm's version of S.H.I.E.L.D., gets involved so we get universe familiar faces John Lynch and Caitlin Fairchild along with the members of Gen 13, along with former agent resurrected from the dead Christy Blaze helping to guide and protect Max. It's only a matter of tick tocks before members of The Rath catch up as of course they have their own nefarious plans for using the power of God.
Reading Divine Right again after all these years was at once familiar and nostalgic while at the same time exciting, fun and surprising. You get 1997 style chat interfaces, computer windows and comic book-ness, you know, all dudes are super buff and chiseled, all women are super hot, big action scenes and one liners. There's a lot of juvenile humor and male fantasy turned on it's head while providing several strong female characters. What surprised me was how deep the story goes into the Wildstorm universe and in watching Max change as a character. He starts off innocent and kind then when corrupted by power and threatened by evil, he suddenly feels he knows what's best for the entire planet, becoming an "evil" force himself. I also didn't remember it drawing in so many characters from the Wildstorm U like Gen 13 and Lee's awesome super powered team WildC.A.T.S. but it all fits tightly together since the CATS were always fighting alien warlords and whatnot.
Lee writes and pencils here with assists from the likes of Scott Lobdell, Carlos D'Anda, Albert Deschesne, Rachelle Brissenden, Richard Starkings and Scott Williams to create a big, exciting and vibrant tale of huge adventure, faith, love and action that takes us from a crappy apartment to an alternate version of Heaven and back again. There's character and ideas layered deep throughout as each issue starts with a passage from the bible as well as one from Max's personal slacker manifesto, recurring bits like Whak! cola are a nice touch as are the fantasy sequences that turn out to be horrible nightmares. The detail and scope in Lee's work is always impressive as each panel is filled to the brim with characters in ornate costumes, giant vistas and of course, action. This is what I feel comic books were made to be, larger than life, epic adventures that explore life's themes with manly men and womanly women. It's a fantasy, it's a break from reality so let's really revel in it and go for it. Next up, rereading some WildC.A.T.S. and Backlash!
Phew, what a day! After a morning workout it was off to the Washington State Convention Center via a parkour inspiring shortcut. Emerald City already had the doors open and we waltzed right onto the show floor. It's a little confusing as the show takes up no less than 10 separate sections of the multi-story center that is actually on two sides of the street. On the floor we passed artist Thomas Overbai who we've seen at multiple shows and picked up his postcards based on movies like Predator, Blade Runner, Leon and whatnot. His new stuff wasn't up my alley this time out though. Walking around we ran into IDW Transformers comic book artist Livio Ramondelli, who attended the Sunbow Celebration. This was after chatting with Michael Bell at the airport Thursday and we'd run into several other California based convention folk which I guess had to happen after traveling to 9 shows in a year. Nice to see the guys from Cape and Cowl again as well, see you in Anaheim for WonderCon next week!
I hope people took the time to walk around as there was a lot to see. Artist Alley, a section for writers, comic books on comic books, video games, celebrities, a small arcade, board games, toys and so much more tucked into every nook and cranny. Since we're flying, can't grab too much but ended up with a short stack of comics including Jack Kirby's Kamandi the Last Boy on Earth, some Liefeld X-Force and the collected first half of Jim Lee's "crazy sexy alien prophecy pizza boy slacker" adventure Divine Right along with an awesome figurine of Dolph Lundgren as Ivan Drago from Rocky IV. Funko's were everywhere as usual and a surprising amount of paper dolls you could put together yourself from Big Trouble In Little China to Street Fighter to Marvel regulars. I was surprised that we didn't see very many 8-bit magnets as I was looking to add another Chrono to the fridge. Publisher wise Dark Horse and BOOM! seemed to have the biggest presence on the floor while mother f*cking Valiant is back apparently. Remember them? They did X-O Manowar, Bloodshot and NINJAK! It was just announced that the Valiant library is headed to the big screen so there were a couple panels to reintroduce the universe to con goers as well as unveiling them to the uninitiated.
Panel wise only checked out a handful today due to timing; How to Make Beer Money With Zines and spotlights on actors Hayley Atwell and John Wesley Shipp. Zines was interesting and entertaining as writers and married couple Amanda Meadows and Geoffrey Golden explained how you can self publish a zine on your favorite subject then through friends, comic stores, conventions and online you can make enough bucks to buy yourself beer on a regular basis. Would you pay 3 bones for Dammaged Goods in Zine form? Yeah I dunno either, I can barely keep up here...The Main Hall hosted Captain America and Agent Carter actress Hayley Atwell who was only in town Friday. The room was packed and a giant space, making me think there was a couple thousand in attendance. Grant Imahara from Mythbusters and those McDonald's videos moderated a pretty breezy affair basically highlighting that Atwell kicks ass, is an icon and role model and how the success of Captain America: The First Avenger and ensuing fan reaction lead to the ABC show. It sounds like season 2 is in the works with Atwell open to having a romantic subplot as round 1 was more about the grief of losing Steve Rogers aka Cap. Even though Chris Evans didn't appear on the show itself, shooting in Los Angeles meant the two spent much time together drinking beer, playing video games, eating pizza and competing in charades. Interesting facts and revelations also included that Carter's hair is a wig and that she might have a cameo in Ant-Man. Atwell's also great at catching grapes in her mouth and accidentally kicked various stunt men in the balls at least 6 times during production. Many a young goer professed their admiration for Atwell in playing a smart, physical and capable character and the Shakespearean trained actress took it and responded marvelously with charm and grace.
There were more than a few persons in Agent Carter cosplay which might have been the most popular of the day. A few Banes were seen, one Jack Frost and lots of Jayne's and Mal's from Firefly. Pilot Snoopy was a great one as well as TARS from Interstellar and one Dum-Dum Dugan. The one panel I really wanted to check out was John Wesley Shipp: Back In a Flash, a spotlight on the Emmy award winning Broadway actor who came to pop culture prominence as Barry Allen aka DC's The Flash for one season in 1990 then played James Van Der Beek's dad on Dawson's Creek. This might have been one of the greatest panels I've ever seen as Shipp was quick witted, intelligent, caring and sincere. Originally studying music and theatre before dropping out to pursue acting in New York, the Norfolk, Virginia native ended up on daytime television during it's heyday and won back to back Emmy's which made him a Jeopardy question. After playing a good guy for years, Shipp found notice and critical acclaim as an abusive husband and psychopath. Upon landing in Los Angeles and being approached for The Flash, Shipp was at first reluctant but was urged to read Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo's script which fused superheroics with real emotions. Shipp spoke fondly of current Flash Gustin Grant as being a terrific actor and person with their scenes always being so powerful because it's two people just being truthful.
Shipp was also complimentary of former co-stars Amanda Pays and Mark Hamill, both whom appear on the new series. He did address the fact that Pays and Hammill play their former characters while Shipp plays a new character, Henry Allen aka Barry's dad aka he's playing his own father. But there was talk of going all out with the time travel and multi universe angle of the comic books so maybe Shipp will rightfully appear as The Flash in some capacity in the future like we all want to happen. For the Q&A portion, Shipp actually came down from the stage to face his audience which was a nice touch. For the Dawson's Creek fans, Shipp talked about shooting it in a tiny, remote town with four very smart young actors and having lots of fun boating and jet-skiing on the weekends. Working with Hamill was a treat as the show was long and difficult shoot so to have someone so enthusiastic coming in to bring the energy back up was fantastic. Touching on the art-deco motif of the show, Shipp talked how the production directive was to highlight the 40's - 60's and 90's while skipping the 70's and 80's. Shooting in rough parts of Los Angeles at a 1920's building meant putting down plywood boards to cover feces and syringes. Shipp was pleased to see the current Flash show handled so well as it's reached critical and commercial success. The 90's show garnered such acclaim from its first press screening that CBS became overconfident and plopped it down against The Simpsons and The Cosby Show so it was on the cusp of commercial success but fell short. Much more was discussed but it was just a great time because of Shipps enthusiasm and attitude. Sleep fast and see you tomorrow!
Hello hello, Dammaged Goods coming at you live style from beautiful and green Seattle, Washington for this year's Emerald City Comicon! The event has sold out with attendance jumping a full 10,000 and expected to hit 80,000 attendees. We hopped a Virgin flight up yesterday afternoon and saw none other than voice of Duke and Prowl from G.I. Joe and Transformers as well as Sunbow Celebration guest Michael Bell in the terminal! Mr. Bell is working on a voice acting workshop and will be a guest at ECCC all weekend with a panel on Sunday. Our flight was filled with something like 60 Australian teenage middle schoolers who were traveling the northwest. I bought tix months ago and snagged Main Cabin Select which puts you right behind First Class. There's free booze and food but here's a tip, order as soon as you sit down because they ran out of Jack Daniels and Glenfiddich quick!
Landing in Seattle it was beautiful and pushing 70 degrees as we walked to the convention center to get my press pass and then around the Pike district for happy hour and supplies. I had scouted out RN74 on my Happy Hour hunt and as soon as we sat down we spotted some copper cups filled with Downtown Donkey's, their version of a Moscow Mule. Two of those please! But with Jameson. Alas, disappointment, it was literally a cup full of crushed ice and just really sour. Would have been better off going across the street to YardHouse because I know their mules are excellent. Food was good though, Deviled Eggs, Chinese Pigs in a Blanket, Sliders and the especially the Duck Fat Fries. Crisp, delicious with three dipping sauces, mmmmm. On Thursdays they also have oysters on the shuckin' shell but I've never had good experience with raw ones. Nice joint, good food but a little pricey for what we got.
Meeting up with some friends over in Belltown near the Space Needle we hit up tiki themed dive bar Lava Lounge. Apparently Ginger Beer is big in Seattle with many local brands. But they're like pop, not alcoholic like Crabbie's so no black out juice tonight...They had Street Fighter II: Championship or Turbo Edition in the back but I didn't get a chance to play. Right next door was Shorty's a Coney Island style joint with pinball machines as tables, who knows how old hot dogs on a 7-11 style roller thing and a room full of pinball machines along with a back room bar with awesome Captain chairs.
I tried my hand at X-Men because it had Jim Lee art but there were some old school ones like Centaur as well as Indiana Jones, Wizard of Oz and The Walking Dead machines. Cool spot. Again, Ginger Beer as a mixer versus a double booze hit. Then it was off to dinner at Buckley's, a sports bar with TV's at your table. A little much but people be loving that sportsball. A great kick off evening to what is sure to be a fun weekend. Pumped to see the exhibition floor and panel with The Flash John Wesley Shipp!
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...
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.
Here we go boys and girls, it's officially time for Comic-Con! Got down to San Diego early and walked around town seeing crews set up Vikings, Assassin's Creed, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more exhibits outside the convention. Lord of the Rings' Sean Bean's face was plastered on the side of the Marriott hotel to hype new show Legends and while Boromir is probably a cool guy, it would have been cooler to see Michael Biehn's face blown up to 50 feet...Checked in for volunteer duty and then picked up badges over at the Town & Country. Preview Night was a bit crowded at the start but an hour in the herd started to thin. Right away I saw Rob Liefeld walking the floor, his Image compatriot Jim Lee being interviewed at the DC booth then old school badasses like Walt Simonson and Jim Steranko meeting the fans. Of course my phone decided to crap out just as I was walking in so photos will be at a minimum until tomorrow. You always notice certain things at Cons and tonight it was an abundance of women dressed as Nintendo's Mario and Big Trouble In Little China! Picked up a Lo-Pan Express themed shirt as well as some issues of the new comic series by BOOM! The Goon artist Eric Powell was selling #1 at his booth and was super cool as I grabbed a quick signature. Lionsgate was handing out posters for Divergent, Hunger Games and of course, EXPENDABLES 3! Stars Dolph Lundgren, Wesley Snipes, Kellan Lutz and others will be signing tomorrow at 4:00PM. Think I'm just gonna rock my custom Dolph shirt, get to the front of the line, get a fist bump and move on.
People are already lining up for Hall H which makes no sense as tomorrow's offerings are pretty not once in a lifetime with DreamWorks animation, The Giver, Paramount, TV Showrunners and 1966's Batman TV show on deck. I made a $10 bet that I would be able to walk in to Hall H at 2:00PM for Paramount's showcase of what I'm sure will be Ninja Turtles then maybe this weekend's Hercules starring The Rock and maybe Interstellar and/or The Terminator reboot? Panel wise I'm looking at a day full of randomly awesome topics like music in film and tv, pitching, science fiction in media, Dark Horse's Predator and Aliens comics, everything 90's and movie trivia!
Now time to buy a Lamborghini and call it Michelangelo!
Where were you in 1992?! I was a precocious youth in the Middle-East of America, talking trash and reading comic books. Marvel titles like Captain America, X-Men and The Punisher were favorites during the age of the rising superstar artist a la Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Ron Lim and the like. In that fabled year, a group of 7 artists and storytellers had enough of being exploited by The Man and not seeing any kickback from the myriad of merchandise hitting shelves adorned with their artwork and original characters. Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri, Rob Liefeld and Whilce Portactio went off to set up Image Comics, a creator owned venture that would house each of their signature banners. Titles like Liefeld's Youngblood, Larsen's The Savage Dragon, McFarlane's Spawn and Lee's WildC.A.T.s sold 100's of thousands of copies instantly making their creators rich and powerful in the process. Image horned in on mainstay Marvel and DC's business while branching out into video games, toys, cartoons and even a live action movie (Michael Jai White as Spawn!).
One of my favorite books from the time was Lee's WildC.A.T.s which concerned alien races fighting each other through the centuries and galaxy before ending up on Earth. The Kherubims were immortal-esque and possessed various mental and physical powers while maintaining a human appearance. Their foes the Daemonites were gnarly creatures who could control the human mind and take over their bodies to use as a camouflaged host. From here, Lee co-created StormWatch, a covert crisis-intervention squad composed of super beings who operate from a space station. The team's combat instructor? One Marc Slayton aka Backlash! Introduced in 1993's StormWatch # 3, Backlash became an instant fan favorite due to his Spider-Man verbal quips meet Wolverine gruffy badass mystique. Proficient in hand to hand combat, Backlash was also able to conjure up "psi-whips", energy projections that are used to grab an opponent, give them a shock or as a regular ol' rope and grappling hook. Later we find out that Marc had been part of Team-7, a black ops outfit that was exposed to the Gen-Factor, a mutagenic chemical that unleashes latent powers. Even later we find out that our pal Slayton is Kherubim! See how this stuff all fits together?
In 1994, Backlash was given his own series that ran for 32 issues. Whereas StormWatch saw him training new recruits and beating up loudmouths, his own series saw him on the run. For love. See, his ladyfriend Diane is taken over by a Daemonite called S'ryn and when Marc exorcises the foul beast, Diane goes into a coma. On the hunt, Backlash needs some help infiltrating the Cabal, a Daemonite syndicate that experiments on humans, giving them powers and bio-metallic suits. This leads him to Amanda Reed, a former prostitute turned Cabal member now locked up in Purgatory Max, a facility for super beings. Backlash breaks Taboo out and the two hunt down S'ryn while getting cozy with one another, know what I'm saying? After all is said and done and Diana recovers, she dumps Marc for taking the vigilante route! Heartbroken and alone, ol'Lash receives a panicked call from Amanda who is now being hunted down by a posse of super cops and needs some help.
Like all Image comics, Backlash is big, colorful, loud and action packed. All the men are hyper muscular while the women are 90's hot hot hot! Super powered heroics meets alien invading horror? What?! A shadowy covert ops military past and thought dead comrades coming back to haunt you? Serious?! 90's style hard ass one liners (a ticket to dream land is a fist in the face!). Check. Near overly complicated shared universe, secret big brother watching organizations and 3,000 year old aliens? Check yes! Backlash's smart mouth and alien/mutant powered enhanced stinging fists are a nice combo and the story's on the go kinetic style makes it pretty fast and fun reading. Artist and co-creator Brett Booth's art takes a page from the Jim Lee book of epic, sweeping, detailed and exciting pencils and splash pages. As Lee said, everyone in the 90's looked like they were flying even when they didn't' possess the power of flight which gives the character an exhilarating, "leaping into action" feel versus the talking heads standard that took over comic books in the early 2000's after the X-Men movie and 9/11 turned everything serious and booooooring.
Next Friday, Anaheim hosts WonderCon for the third year. Originally held in San Francisco's Moscone Center until remodeling sent WonderCon down to the land of Disney. Even though construction is over, apparently Comic-Con International (CCI) and Moscone couldn't come to terms on dates for the show. While they'd like to get WonderCon back to San Fran, for now, we get to enjoy two huge comic and media conventions in Southern California. The difference between something like WonderCon and Emerald City Comicon is that CCI is a non-profit organization celebrating the creative arts. While celebrities are on hand for signings, panels and greeting the fans, WonderCon isn't based around the business of exploiting them for profit. Instead, you have a plethora of exhibiters hocking swag and memorabilia while programming runs the gamut of animation, film, comic books, writing, LGBTQ, self-publishing, cosplay, copyright law, advertising, music, editing and much much more.
In 2012, WonderCon played like San Diego Comic-Con light as studios trotted out their early summer pictures such as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Prometheus, Lockout and Battleship. Of course, none of those films did particularly well so 2013's show saw a marked decrease in studio presence. NBC's Hannibal was heavily advertised but I don't recall any tent pole flicks making the rounds. Even without the media hype, WC still brought in a healthy 56,000 attendees over three days. This year, Batman's anniversary is getting the spotlight with numerous panels on the comic book and it's creators as well as the premiere of a new animated film. DC superstar artist Jim Lee will be on hand to wow audiences with his quick pencil skills and general nice guy-ness. Media wise, studios are coming back as Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century Fox, TNT and Sony will all be on hand to show off their latest projects. I'm thinking we'll see sneak peeks of Godzilla, Edge of Tomorrow, Jupiter Ascending, X-Men: Days of Future Past, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes amongst others.
To knock it up another notch, there's usually a few surprise screenings around town, the local theater offers Con goers special prices and WC itself has secured discount tickets to Disneyland and Medieval Times. We've signed up to take a Walt centric tour because it's not like we won't already be walking around enough but hey, be a Doer!
Today, two friends expressed their surprise to me that a third Expendables movie was in the works. I explained to them that Mel Gibson, Wesley Snipes and Harrison Ford were joining the 80's and 90's cinematic tough guy party and how I was pumped for all the press coverage August of 2014 is sure to hold. It reminded me of the awesome summer I had in 2012 when The Expendables II was being released. My birthday fell during San Diego Comic-Con where I saw some of my favorite actors and movie icons like Sly, Arnold, Dolph, Jackie Chan, Michael Biehn, Michael Jai White and Thomas Jane among many others. I almost ran into my favorite comic book artist of all time, Jim Lee, as we both entered a room for a panel about himself. Things were just coming up Milhouse, know what I mean?
In August I attended two firsts, a movie premiere and a taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. My friend is a die-hard Stallone fan and got a hold of some premiere passes. We jetted over to the Chinese Theater in Hollywood and got in line with some other action fans, tourists and people who randomly had passes. I was wearing one of my custom WWJCVDD? shirts while my friend donned an Expendables tee from the first movie. Maybe it was the power of our combined shirts but a security guard approached us and told us to follow.
We ended up being taken onto the black carpet and placed in the arrival zone across from all of the press. How cool is that? We were going to get to see all of the arriving stars and guests which would include new villain, Jean-Claude Van Damme! A few random actors walked the carpet to little fanfare then a handful of returning Olympians from the London Games showed up, donning their medals and all. They came over and asked how we got such good seats for the star gazing and were very down to earth.
After a while, things got serious as the main cast was starting to arrive. I believe Dolph Lundgren was the first and he came over to sign autographs and take photos. He would soon be followed by Stallone and Arnold who also came over to shake hands and greet the fans. Mr. Van Damme did a few quick interviews before being whisked down the carpet as the fire Marshall began threatening to close down the parade if it didn't clear out. While waiting I ended up recognizing Van Damme's assistant and we chatted about the movie he recently directed, insane travel schedules, etc. Since the media outlets were more interested in talking to the household names, I had the chance to talk to Universal Soldier co-star Tiny Lister about that awesome 90's action flick as well as Ralf Moeller, who also appeared in Unisol and showed up with friend Arnold and his sons. Moeller seemed genuinely surprised I recognized him but was cool enough to talk action movies with me for a few.
Chuck Norris and Terry Crews were on hand but stuck to the press line and didn't make their way over. By now the sun had set and the Marshall really wanted the carpet cleared. The press crews started to pack up as Jason Statham showed up and just hung out talking to fans and not giving a Damme about the movie playing inside. Unfortunately the theater was packed so we didn't end up seeing the flick that night, we just had to settle for seeing all the stars up close.
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Shipp was also complimentary of former co-stars Amanda Pays and Mark Hamill, both whom appear on the new series. He did address the fact that Pays and Hammill play their former characters while Shipp plays a new character, Henry Allen aka Barry's dad aka he's playing his own father. But there was talk of going all out with the time travel and multi universe angle of the comic books so maybe Shipp will rightfully appear as The Flash in some capacity in the future like we all want to happen. For the Q&A portion, Shipp actually came down from the stage to face his audience which was a nice touch. For the Dawson's Creek fans, Shipp talked about shooting it in a tiny, remote town with four very smart young actors and having lots of fun boating and jet-skiing on the weekends. Working with Hamill was a treat as the show was long and difficult shoot so to have someone so enthusiastic coming in to bring the energy back up was fantastic. Touching on the art-deco motif of the show, Shipp talked how the production directive was to highlight the 40's - 60's and 90's while skipping the 70's and 80's. Shooting in rough parts of Los Angeles at a 1920's building meant putting down plywood boards to cover feces and syringes. Shipp was pleased to see the current Flash show handled so well as it's reached critical and commercial success. The 90's show garnered such acclaim from its first press screening that CBS became overconfident and plopped it down against The Simpsons and The Cosby Show so it was on the cusp of commercial success but fell short. Much more was discussed but it was just a great time because of Shipps enthusiasm and attitude. Sleep fast and see you tomorrow!
Here we go boys and girls, it's officially time for Comic-Con! Got down to San Diego early and walked around town seeing crews set up Vikings, Assassin's Creed, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more exhibits outside the convention. Lord of the Rings' Sean Bean's face was plastered on the side of the Marriott hotel to hype new show Legends and while Boromir is probably a cool guy, it would have been cooler to see Michael Biehn's face blown up to 50 feet...Checked in for volunteer duty and then picked up badges over at the Town & Country. Preview Night was a bit crowded at the start but an hour in the herd started to thin. Right away I saw Rob Liefeld walking the floor, his Image compatriot Jim Lee being interviewed at the DC booth then old school badasses like Walt Simonson and Jim Steranko meeting the fans. Of course my phone decided to crap out just as I was walking in so photos will be at a minimum until tomorrow. You always notice certain things at Cons and tonight it was an abundance of women dressed as Nintendo's Mario and Big Trouble In Little China! Picked up a Lo-Pan Express themed shirt as well as some issues of the new comic series by BOOM! The Goon artist Eric Powell was selling #1 at his booth and was super cool as I grabbed a quick signature. Lionsgate was handing out posters for Divergent, Hunger Games and of course, EXPENDABLES 3! Stars Dolph Lundgren, Wesley Snipes, Kellan Lutz and others will be signing tomorrow at 4:00PM. Think I'm just gonna rock my custom Dolph shirt, get to the front of the line, get a fist bump and move on. 
