San Diego Comic-Con 2014: Preview Night

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!

Nights of Wonder...Con! Jim Steranko

WonderCon 2013, Day 2, Spotlight on Steranko - "You know it?"

Inspiration.  It's different for everyone.  But when you see it, you know it.  Such was the case for Jim Steranko.  Already a fan of his work on Marvel's Nick Fury:  Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., seeing him live was a shock of the lightning.  Here's a guy that worked as a magician and escape artist before becoming one of the most influential comic book artists of all time.  And he only did 29 issues.  Later he worked for directors like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola.  At 70 something years old, he's busier than ever by his own estimation.

- Loves movies and would spend days and nights at the theater, brought that visual flair to comics
- Was on a hot streak one day in NY having sold his work to a small time publisher, then Paramount TV before deciding on a whim to visit Marvel and attempt to meet Stan Lee
- Chose Nick Fury because it was a title no one cared about and could go nowhere but up
- In those days, comic artist wages were shit.  Like below shit
- Fought with Stan Lee constantly who pleaded, "can't you just do it like Kirby or Romita?"
- Where Kirby worked in the moment of explosion, Steranko works in the tense moment before
- Left Marvel after one of his usual spats with Stan Lee.  Months later, Lee called and the two made up without an apology made by either side
- Stan Lee considers Steranko the son he never had
- Introduced over 100 never before seen artistic techniques to comics

The man was just brimming with enthusiasm, passion, knowledge, confidence and humor.  It's always refreshing and reminding to see a person who says what they feel and does what they say.  Everything isn't for everybody and that's just fine.