Wondercon and Beyond
ANAHEIM BOUND
Wondercon, the sister convention to Comic-Con: San Diego, took place this past weekend, and I was there on Friday and Saturday…although Friday was kind of a short day for me as the doors didn’t open till 11:30 – and I left by 4pm because that date was my birthday, and I wanted to get home in time for dinner.
Still, Friday was fun, and Saturday was funner (if that’s a word). I saw a lot of friends, had a couple of actual meetings, spent some money, and had dinner out with two of my best industry friends, Stuart Schreck and Vince Letterio.
As always, the list of people I missed was a lot longer than the list of people I hung out with. But I did get a chance to chat with: Michael Uslan, Mark Ditko, Mark Haynes, Stuart, Vince, Eddy Choi, Gary Sassaman, Dave Olbrich, Tom Mason, Kevin Kiniry, Richard Evans, Mark Waid, Danny Fingeroth, Stuart Ng, Kris Longo, Jeromy DeChant, Cat Nuwer, Clark Bull, and others.
Almost all of those conversations took place on Saturday. Even though I was there for much of the Friday, it felt like I hardly saw anyone. Go figure.
Kris Longo invited me to come along to a spotlight panel on actor / comics writer / horror icon David Dastmalchian, which I enjoyed a lot. The host had some great questions lined up, and David’s answers were pretty inspiring, to be honest. I will have to check out more of his work on movies like “Late Night with the Devil” in the near future.
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THE NICE PRICE
It’s hard for me to say no to books at 50 percent off, and lately I keep running into those opportunities, for reasons both good and bad.
First, sadly, Comics Factory on Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena is closing. I spoke with the owner, who says it was inevitable and seemed resigned to it. They had a huge selection of graphic novels priced at half off, so of course I picked up some books there.
Then cheapgraphicnovels.com launched its spring sale with books priced at half off, so I ordered a few titles from them.
At Wondercon I stopped at the Nuclear Comics booth, where I often paw through their books, and got a couple more half price titles.
Among the recent pickings: Four volumes of the hardcover Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers collections from Fantagraphics, and Marvel Epic Collections of Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. Oh, and the first volume of Space Boy from Dark Horse, a title that I’ve long thought looked appealing.
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CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET? HOW ABOUT THREE?
What else is going on? I am working on not one, not two, but THREE secret projects! What are they? They’re creative, they’re exciting, and they are different – but I can’t talk about them yet. If I can move them forward I will be thrilled! We will have to wait and see, so keep tuning in and I will talk about them all eventually!
That’s it for this week! Coming soon, I’m writing about the alchemical combination of creative teams and established properties, and a favorite, pretty recent era of animation.