Update Magazine 2007 #3 - (now Comic-Con Magazine) by Comic-Con International

UPDATE

Your Complete Guide to Comic-Con International

JULY 24-27, 2008

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SAN DIEGO

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Exclusive World Premiere at WonderCon!

JUSTICE LEAGUE and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and ©DC Comics

An Open Letter to All Comic-Con Attendees, Exhibitors and Professionals If you were a part of the San Diego Comic-Con International in 2007, you already know it was the most successful year ever for the event. With 125,000 attendees, professionals and exhibitors at the show, Comic-Con topped all previous records for attendance. More importantly, for the first time ever, memberships for Comic-Con sold out on a number of days. Initially, four-day memberships sold out, quickly followed by Saturday one-day memberships, then Friday, and finally Sunday memberships as well. Because of concerns for overcrowding, Comic-Con limited the number of memberships sold. What this means is that we were not able to sell any four-day or one-day memberships for those days at the door. Online registration is open now. Because of this, we expect to sell out of all memberships—four-day and one-day—prior to Comic-Con. If you want to attend the show, it’s important that you register now. We expect registration to sell out again this year and at this point in time, we do not plan to sell any attendee membership badges onsite at Comic-Con 2008 for the convention. As we continue to work on issues of crowding and space, Comic-Con’s primary concern is safety and your experience at our event. We strongly urge you to register online now, where we are currently offering four-day memberships. It’s fast, easy and the best way to get your information to us correctly and quickly. Visit www.comic-con.org to register online. For those of you who prefer to do things via paper, you’ll find our Multi-Purpose Form on the inside back cover of this publication. One-day memberships will be available online as we get closer to the event. And while we have your attention, we’d like to clear up a rumor that keeps circulating each and every year. We are not moving out of San Diego for the foreseeable future. Comic-Con has signed contracts with the San Diego Convention Center through the year 2012. For the next five years (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012), we will be at “home” in beautiful San Diego. No matter what you hear elsewhere—and a lot of you have heard this—San Diego is Comic-Con’s home for at least the next five summers. Without your incredible support and enthusiasm, Comic-Con would certainly not exist. We thank you for your continued attendance and participation in this event. Stay tuned, because as someone once said, “you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!”

Photo by Jerry Shaw

Photo by Barry Brown

Contents

page 10

page 28

page 38

An Open Letter to Comic-Con Attendees 1 Cover Story/New Frontier 3 WonderCon 2008 8 --Special Guests 10 --Pre-Registration Form 12 --Volunteers/Headquarters Hotel 13 --Hotel Form 14 APE Alternative Press Expo 2008 15 Comic-Con 2007 Recap 16 --Introduction 16 --Attendee Interviews 17, 31, 51 --Comics Programming 18 --Many Faces of Graphic Novels 20 --My Dad Makes Comics! 24 --Spotlight on Adam Hughes 28 --Science Fiction Programming 32 --Film Festival 32 --Hollywood Programming 34 --Television/Animation Programming 36 --Masquerade 38 --Eisner Awards 40 --Eisner Retailer Award 42 --2008 Eisner Retailer Nomination Form 43 --Artists’ Alley/Art Auction/Art Show 44 --Anime/Gaming/Films 46 --Autographs/Portfolio Review 47 --Exhibit Hall/Exclusives 48 --Swag 49 --Volunteers/Blood Drive 50 Comic-Con 2008 53 --Special Guests 54 --Volunteers/Icon Award 56 --Multi-Purpose Form Inside Back Cover San Diego Comic-Con International is a nonprofit educational corporation dedicated to creating awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular art forms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art and culture.

Comic-Con International P. O. Box 128458, San Diego, CA 92112-8458 Fax: 619-414-1022 • Comic-Con Hotline: 619-491-2475 www.comic-con.org Comic-Con International: San Diego 2007 Update #3 Published by Comic-Con International. All material, unless otherwise noted, is © 2007 Comic-Con International and may not be reproduced without permission. All other artwork is ™ and © 2007 by respective owners. Printed in Canada.

Back cover photo by Adrian Velazquez

Board of Directors President: John Rogers Secretary: Mary Sturhann Treasurer: Mark Yturralde VP, Events: Robin Donlan VP, Exhibits: Beth Holley VP, Operations: William Pittman Directors at Large: Frank Alison, Ned Cato Jr., Dan Davis, Luigi Diaz, Eugene Henderson, Martin Jaquish, James Jira Executive Director: Fae Desmond Director of Marketing and Public Relations: David Glanzer Director of Programming: Eddie Ibrahim Talent Relations Manager: Maija Gates Guest Relations: Janet Goggins Exhibits Manager: Justin Dutta Exhibitor Sales and Customer Service: Rod Mojica Exhibitor Registration: Sam Wallace Professional Registration: Heather Lampron, Anna-Marie Villegas Eisner Awards Administrator: Jackie Estrada Assistants to the Executive Director: Lisa Moreau, Matt Sousa Assistants to the Dir. of Marketing and PR: Damien Cabaza, Christopher Jansen Assistant to the Director of Programming: Tommy Goldbach Office Manager/HR: Sue Lord Office Staff: Patty Campuzano, Ruben Mendez, Glenda Moreno, Colleen O’Connell Events: At-Show Newsletter: Chris Sturhann Films: Josh Glaser, Steve Brown Gaming: Ken Kendall Japanese Animation: John Davenport, Josh Ritter Masquerade: Martin Jaquish Technical Services: Tristan Gates Exhibits: Art Auction/Artists’ Alley: Clydene Nee Art Show: LaFrance Bragg Autograph Area: Katherine Morrison Convention Services: Taerie Bryant Exhibit Floor Manager: Andy Manzi Operations: Archivist: Eugene Henderson Disabled Services: William Curtis Hospitality Suite: Mikee Ritter Logistics: Dan Davis Materials Chief/Blood Drive: Craig Fellows Registration: Frank Alison, John Smith Volunteers: Luigi Diaz, Jennifer Diaz Information Coordinator: Bruce Frankle Update: Editor/Designer: Gary Sassaman Contributors: Richard Andreoli, LaFrance Bragg, John Davenport, Fae Desmond, Jackie Estrada, Craig Fellows, David Glanzer, Martin Jaquish, Clydene Nee

Darwyn Cooke’s epic story comes to life in brand new DVD animated movie!

Cover Story

Justice League: The New Frontier Exclusive World Premiere at WonderCon!

It was a match made in heaven: an epic story told by a popular creator featuring the comic characters he most loved as a child. Darwyn Cooke’s DC: The New Frontier won the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series in 2005 and two more in 2007: Best Graphic Album— Reprint and Best Publication Design for its “Absolute” edition. It’s the decade-spanning story of the dawn of the DC Silver Age interwoven with American and world history from the end of World War II through the 1950s and up to the dawn of JFK’s own “new frontier.” It tells the tale of the birth of the new DC heroes, including Flash, Green Lantern and the formation of the Justice League of America. Along the way, we meet some of DC’s other heroes, the Blackhawks, the Challengers of the Unknown, and the Martian Manhunter, as they stand alongside the company’s mainstays, Superman, Batman and Robin, and Wonder Woman. The story makes the jump to DC and Warner Bros. Animation’s ambitious new series of direct-to-DVD animated films as Justice League: The New Frontier. Based on the graphic novel by Darwyn Cooke and written by Stan Berkowitz, the film includes an amazing array of actors, including Kyle MacLachlan as Superman, Jeremy Sisto as Batman, Lucy Lawless as Wonder Woman, David Boreanaz as Green Lantern, Neil Darwyn Cooke’s cover to Patrick Harris as Flash, plus Miguel Ferrer, John Heard, Phil Morris, Kyra DC: The New Frontier, Vol. 1. Sedgwick, and Brooke Shields. The film is directed by David Bullock. Justice League: The New Frontier has its exclusive World Premiere at WonderCon, February 22-24, at Moscone Center South in San Francisco. The DVD goes on sale nationwide in the first quarter of 2008, sometime after WonderCon. Both creator Darwyn Cooke and executive producer Bruce Timm are special guests at WonderCon 2008 (see page 10 for more details). We talked to Cooke, DC Comics President and Publisher Paul Levitz, and DC Senior VP—Creative Affairs Gregory Noveck about this new animated film and its World Premiere at WonderCon.

Cover Story

Darwyn Cooke on The

New Frontier Comic-Con talked to Darwyn Cooke for our last issue of Update, about his work on DC’s new series, Will Eisner’s The Spirit. Portions of this interview were featured on our website (www.comic-con.org) as part of an extended talk with Darwyn. CCI: You worked in animation for a number of years, including Warner Bros. Animation. What’s it like going full circle and coming back to work on New Frontier? Darwyn: It was pretty weird, in a good way. It’s been probably seven years since I worked with the guys at Warners’ and I still have a lot of friends there. My time there was great and I got to know so many of the guys who ended up working on The New Frontier, so it was like old home week. It was a lot of fun. CCI: New Frontier is an epic work. How much of it will we see translated to the movie version and how difficult was it to let some of the story go? Darwyn: It’s like a lot of things: it feels a lot worse than it is at first. We were all pretty daunted by trying to compress this material down to a 70-minute video. But Stan Berkowitz did a great job of objectively going through the story and finding out what needed to stay and what could go. The screenplay he pulled together did a very good job of that, so it was just a matter of us playing with it a bit more. It was really kind of difficult and hard to let go, but in the end we were all pretty amazed at how much of the story actually made it into the video and how much does feel like the book. CCI: New Frontier is very much of a particular era, the late 1940s through the 50s. Is that maintained in the movie? Darwyn: We certainly did our best and there were some hilarious moments when the prop

designers were designing things like pink telephones from 1959. So yeah, we had notes for them (laughs), but all in all the entire crew really embraced the challenge of trying to put that together. And our partners overseas will let us know if we’ve succeeded or not, but what we tried to do with it is not to use any techniques that will make it clear that this was made after 1955. We want it to feel like it was made with the resources and technology available at the time. Granted we are using digital to support what we’re doing everywhere we can, but we want it to look traditional. So in everything from the color palette on down, I think we’ve done pretty good in scoring it. I did design most of the characters so I was able to control the wardrobe and things like that. I think we got it. I mean, until you see the footage you just don’t know. CCI: New Frontier included a lot of history and social issues. Will we see that transferred to the movie? Darwyn: Again, we were in a tough spot because we had to cut so much material. But it’s incredible how much we’ve managed to maintain. It’s in short bursts, but we’re using devices like Batman looking through an old style microfilm catalogue, so we get these slides that roll by with Rosa Parks, or the Russians, and all this kind of material that we’ve used as much as we can for backstory. And I really think it all comes through pretty clearly. CCI: The new DVD films are not part of the same continuity that’s in the Justice League TV series? Darwyn: The fact that this was going to get to stand alone is what made it really exciting, and that they wanted it to look like the book is like, “Wow, what a great opportunity.”

Cover Story

Paul Levitz DC Comics’ President and Publisher on the company’s new direct-to-DVD films with Warner Brothers Animation CCI: DC has had a long history of turning their characters into animated properties. Now you’ve entered the arena of direct-to-DVD movies. What does this kind of format offer for you, storytelling wise, and why now? Paul: I think what’s different now, with direct to video, is you walk away from the “this is for little kids only” label. We have a lot of history in animation going back at least to Batman The Animated Series in the early 90s of shows that attracted significant adult audiences and got great receptions from them because they simultaneously worked for kids and for adults. But the direct to video form for the first time really allows you to do that consciously rather than just the creative people kind of sneaking it through. The other thing that changes in the process (is) because you’re not advertising supported but you’re entirely customer supported, you get a real orientation of what it is people most want to watch. And with our audience, that leads us logically to the conclusion that what they would like to watch are our classic stories, our important stories, done in ways that are faithful to the comics material themselves. CCI: Part of the allure of the series of new films is its basis in classic DC stories yet the first film, Superman Doomsday, was very different than its comic book source material. Are these stories just jumping-off points for the movies or will we see more faithful adaptations in the future? Paul: I think it will very much vary project by project. Doomsday was kind of a bridge project. It had been started in development before we came to all of the conclusions from a marketing standpoint that we’re now operating with. First of all, I think you have to look at the story itself. “The Death Of Superman” story is so lengthy, so complex in its twists and turns

because of how it was originally told (with) literally hundreds and hundreds of pages of comics material. There were a lot of barriers in doing that as a faithful literal adaptation, no matter what you did. New Frontier is a case where the body of the material is more structured to be a single story. It wasn’t about doing periodical comics with a kind of “Perils of Pauline” moment intrinsic to it the way “Death of Superman” had been. So it was a little easier to look at that and see how true to the thing we can get this to be. We still have to make a lot of changes to make it suitable for the medium. It wasn’t written to be an hour-long animation, it was written to be a 400page comic, but I think it’s a lot closer to the source. (But) I think everyone will have a slightly different opinion of that. For Darwyn, that’s an enormously emotional question because there are little moments that mattered a tremendous amount to him that either got picked up or didn’t as the structure changed. For those of us who loved the original and have had a chance to see this, I think we feel it is very, very true to the spirit and the magic of the original, and the visual style has a tremendous relationship to Darwyn’s style of drawing the comic. Nonetheless it’s a different thing. It has to be a somewhat different thing for it to succeed on its own terms. CCI: Comic-Con hosted the world premiere of Superman Doomsday in July. WonderCon will do the same for Justice League: The New Frontier in February. How important are these convention screenings for you? Paul: I think it’s a great moment. When I went out there at Comic-Con to introduce Superman Doomsday and you had, over 4,000 people in Ballroom 20, that’s an enormously infectious moment. If you’ve got something that works, that’s a tremendous group of people to get caught up in the fire of it and get the word out. An extended version of this interview appears on www.comic-con.org. Art ©2007 DC Comics

Cover Story

Gregory Noveck DC Comics’ VP of Creative Affairs on The New Frontier ... and Beyond CCI: Superman Doomsday was an epic story, told by many people in its original comics presentation. New Frontier is also an epic story, but it’s the vision of one creator, Darwyn Cooke, paying tribute to the comics he loved as a kid. How true to his story is the final film? Gregory: Let me answer that in two parts. The original Superman Doomsday wasn’t actually Superman Doomsday. It was “The Death of Superman,” “A World Without Superman,” and then “Return of Superman,” from which we then adapted and then drew storyline and a set of characters, and obviously lost a lot of characters and material. But that ultimately became Superman Doomsday. know it’s hard, it’s period but there are things I think New Frontier is New Frontier. As opposed to I can do to adjust it,” and I said I wanted to keep it being an inspiration of, or a near adaptation of, we period. So at that point I think he probably really did really tried as best as possible to reflect the look, believe me. the tone, the setting, the characters, and obviously From that point on we kept saying that this is that storyline that Darwyn had in the book. really happening and he got very involved. He was Obviously, to get 400 pages of material that we’re very involved in a lot of the character designs. He trying to condense down to 72 or 74 minutes not did a fairly strong polish on Stan Berkowitz’s script, everything that is in the book is in the movie. which even though Stan did a phenomenal job of Having said that, I will say that virtually everything adapting the material, Darwyn had an eye for certain in the movie is in the book. things that he wanted to emphasize which I think were CCI: Since Darwyn Cooke got his start in right on. animation, how involved was he with the production He has been consulting all along the way, so he’s of New Frontier? been very involved. He is as involved as he wants to be and we certainly want him to be as involved as he Gregory: He was very involved. Initially, this can. started when I read New Frontier and just fell in love with it. It was really some of the best CCI: Your secret weapon in this new series of directcomic book storytelling I had seen in 10 years, in to-DVD movies seems to be Bruce Timm, who has particular in dealing with the Justice League and an been involved in virtually every DC to TV animated “origin of Justice League” type story and setting. project since the early 90s. How important is he to So, I really fell in love with it and when we started this new endeavor? talking about doing the DC Universe Gregory: Very, very important. Bruce is two things: animated line of movies, this was the first he’s a fan and he’s a perfectionist. As a fan he really thing that I said we had to do (as) a wants these things to be good, he loves these things. Justice League story. As a perfectionist he hates everything, (laughs) Luckily people agreed, so when I nothing is good enough, not his own stuff, not called Darwyn to let him know anybody else’s stuff. Citizen Kane, maybe, is decent. and said, “Hey, you know we’re So he’s crucially important. He and I have gotten going to do this line of animated into some very heated, but very good discussions, movies,” and he said, “Uh-huh,” creative discussions about where to emphasis certain and I said, “We’re going to do things, where to push certain things. I think only when New Frontier,” and he said, “Uh, you’re really passionate about something creatively okay.” I don’t think he believed me. can you get into that kind of a deep, strong discussion So I told him that we were seriously on various points. So he’s crucially important, not to going to do this, and he replied mention extremely talented. something like “Oh, okay, great, look I

Gregory: At this point, crossing my fingers, it seems to be quite successful. I can’t really reveal any numbers or information, but I will say that so far, so good, everyone involved seems to be very, very happy. I think that Duane (Capizzi) and Bruce really did a great job with it. I mean when I look at the fan reaction online a lot of the negative reaction seems to be that we didn’t follow the “Death of Superman” storyline so closely and frankly I think we elicited that reaction by mistake in the way we positioned it and the way we marketed the piece by saying it was an adaptation of “Death of Superman.” Really, we probably should have said it was an inspiration, or it’s an interpretation of the story, but it ain’t the comic that people will remember from years ago. My favorite part of the piece is that middle act, when Superman’s gone and how all the different characters are reacting to the idea of the world without Superman. We also thought it would be important that the relationship More exclusive scenes from Justice League: The New Frontier, between Superman and Lois Lane featuring Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Hal Jordan. Be was still in the early stage and among the first to see it at WonderCon in February! that there would be hurdles to overcome. So the idea that she knows exactly who a half of stuff to come out. We have a little bit of he is, and he knows she knows exactly who he is lead-time before we really need to make a decision but won’t admit it, we thought was a very adult and of what will come after that. But certainly, right now, mature theme in a piece like this. and if results from Doomsday are any indication, we’re definitely going to do more. CCI: Some of the other direct-to-DVD movies I would love, personally, to expand beyond the announced are Wonder Woman, Batman Anime, and core DC brand, maybe find a couple of Vertigo titles, Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (Editor’s note: none WildStorm titles, or lesser known characters in the of these are official titles). Is there anything else in DC Universe, but having said that, I don’t know if the pipeline that you’re considering at this point? we’ll be able to. But I’d love to. I think that would Gregory: There are a lot of things in development. be fun. It’s just a question of which scripts come when and An extended version of this interview appears on our which sorts of things are ready. I mean with those website at www.comic-con.org. that you’ve mentioned, we have about a year and Art and characters ©2007 DC Comics; Scenes from Justice League The New Frontier ©2007 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.

Cover Story

CCI: As we conduct this interview, Superman Doomsday has just come out. Do you have any idea at this point of how successful it is?

WonderCon 2008

WonderCon: The First Major Comics Convention of 2008! Northern California’s comics convention tradition returns to San Francisco! WonderCon celebrates its 22nd year as Northern California’s most popular comics and pop culture event with a return to Moscone Center South on February 22-24, 2008. The February date solidifies WonderCon’s status as the first major convention of the year in the United States. Plans for next year’s show are already in the works, with ten incredible comics guests lined up (see pages 10-11 for details). In addition to the announcement of the World Premiere of DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation’s Justice League: The New Frontier (see page 3), WonderCon is working on another great schedule of exclusive programs. The event will once again include major comics publishers such as DC Comics, Dark Horse, Image, Top Cow, Aspen, IDW, Boom! Studios, and SLG Publishing. In addition, we’re talking to the major Hollywood studios and television networks about once again being a part of WonderCon. Coming off its biggest year ever in 2007, with 20,000 attendees and a record number of exhibitors and programs, WonderCon continues to grow. Last year’s event saw increased interest from Hollywood, with movie panels devoted to 300 (with stars Gerard Butler and Lena Headey, and director Zack Snyder, and 600 lucky attendees saw the movie in IMAX a week before it hit theaters), Ratatouille (director Brad Bird and Patton Oswalt, the voice of Remy), Resident Evil: Extinction (stars Ali Larter and Oded Fehr), and special Sunday TV panels devoted to Jericho (with stars Skeet Ulrich and Ashley Scott), Drive (Nathan Fillion) and TV Guide’s look at genre TV (with Jeph Loeb of Heroes, Billy Campbell and Ira S. Behr of The 4400 and sci fi icons Richard Hatch and Chase Masterson). Comics-oriented panels dominated the schedule, including spotlights on each of WonderCon’s special guests, publisher presentations, and popular panels such as “Cover Story: The Art of the Comics Cover.” 2008 promises to offer more along those same lines. WonderCon’s headquarters hotel this year is the San Francisco Marriott, located just a few short blocks from Moscone Center (see page 13 for more information). WonderCon Yep ... it was that busy in 2007! takes place in one of the most beautiful cities Isn’t it time you paid WonderCon a visit? in the world, with plenty of other attractions including shopping, museums, restaurants and nightlife, to make your convention experience even better. If you’ve been to WonderCon in the past, you know it’s one of the most fun and fastest-growing events on the convention calendar. And if you haven’t visited yet, this is the year to do it! Check www.comic-con.org for breaking news on WonderCon, including the complete program schedule and exhibitor list, as we get closer to the event. Make WonderCon 2008 and February in San Francisco your first convention of the New Year! Actually, we think these guys captured Boba Fett at WonderCon.

Photos by Barry Brown

WonderCon 2008

WonderCon: The Gang’s All Here! San Francisco’s most popular comics event offers full convention experience! In addition to a giant Exhibit Hall and a program schedule featuring the best and brightest in comics, movies and television, WonderCon offers fans an incredibly complete convention experience. From anime to gaming to a fun night at the Masquerade (see the sidebar article below for more details), WonderCon has it all! WonderCon Anime

In 2007, WonderCon screened close to 60 different anime titles in its all-day (and into the night!) anime screening room. Most of the major U. S. anime distributors—including AnimeEgo, ADV Films, Bandai, FUNimation, Media Blasters, The Right Stuf, and VIZ Media—offered a diverse and popular schedule of titles. Anime returns to WonderCon in 2008 with another incredible schedule of screenings. WonderCon Gaming

Gaming returns to WonderCon in 2008 with its own special area in the Exhibit Hall. Bring your own favorite games to play in this relaxed atmosphere that caters to both the newbie and seasoned player. Gaming at WonderCon is the perfect opportunity to take a break, have some fun, and sit a spell before heading back to shopping or that must-see program. WonderCon Other Events

The San Francisco Bay Area Children’s Film Festival returns to WonderCon in 2008 for its second big year! This great program of films from around the world takes place all three days of the convention and

is the perfect family-friendly destination. In 2007, the Festival showed animated, live-action, and documentary films suitable for all ages and offered hands-on workshops on topics such as animation. 2007 also saw the first-ever WonderCon/Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Blood Drive. Coordinated by the Heinlein Society, the one-day event collected 74 pints of much needed blood for Bay Area patients. The Blood Drive returns in 2008. WonderCon also features a great Autograph Area, which features some of your favorite celebrities from movies and television. Participating stars in 2007 included Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson, Sara Karloff, Richard Hatch, Chase Masterson, Noel Neill and many others. The Autograph Area returns in 2008 to WonderCon! Best of all, your one-price membership gets you access to all of the above*! Register now online at www.comic-con.org (click on the WonderCon section on the first page to enter the official site), or use the pre-registration form on page 12 of this publication. Three-day and one-day memberships are currently available online and in select Bay Area comics shops (a complete list is on our website). *Please note: access to all programs and events is on a firstcome, first-served basis. Your membership badge does not guarantee a seat in programs or events nor an autograph from a specific celebrity. Seating is limited and subject to Fire Marshal regulations.

Suit Up! The WonderCon Masquerade returns for its fourth big year! The fourth annual WonderCon Masquerade, the live on-stage costume competition, returns to San Francisco’s Moscone Center on Saturday night, Feb. 23. Costumes of all genres are welcome, from original designs to re-creations from comics, anime, movies, TV, fantasy art, history and more. (Please note, no purchased costumes are allowed.) Special WonderCon trophies will be presented in several categories, and there will be company-sponsored prizes as well, Best Novice winners: “Electro & including DC Comics bestowing a special DC Direct Collectable to Black Cat”, made and worn by Ron Smith and Denise Lombard. the best re-creation of their characters, and Lucasfilm Ltd. once again offering rare items from the Lucas Archives for the best recreation from the Star Wars universe. Award-winning artist & writer Phil Foglio of Studio Foglio will be returning to serve as the Master of Ceremonies for the event, and the audience will be treated to special live entertainment during the judging intermission. Admission and participation is free with your WonderCon membership. To receive complete Masquerade information, including a contestant entry form, visit the WonderCon section of the www. comic-con.org for a download, or email the Masquerade Coordinator at cci-info@comic-con.org (please type “WonderCon Masquerade” in the subject line). Photo by Barry Brown

WonderCon 2008

WonderCon 2008 Special Guests Another incredible line-up of comic luminaries descends on San Francisco! In its 21-year history, WonderCon has brought some of comics’ leading writers and artists to the Bay Area and 2008 continues that tradition for year 22. The following special guests are confirmed for WonderCon 2008, with more to come! Sergio Aragonés The world’s fastest cartoonist celebrated the 25th anniversary of Groo in 2007 with a new mini series for Dark Horse. Sergio Aragonés has also been named as part of the new writing team on DC Comics’ Will Eisner’s The Spirit, along with frequent collaborator Mark Evanier (also a WonderCon 2008 guest).

new audience, Darwyn Cooke is best known for his magnum opus, DC: The New Frontier. That amazing multiple Eisner Award winning series is about to make its mark as the second in a series of animated features produced by DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation, which has its World Premiere at WonderCon. Mark Evanier He writes comics, animation, and television and when he’s not doing that, he blogs. Mark Evanier’s latest include a return to Groo and an upcoming gig writing DC Comics’ revival of Will Eisner’s The Spirit, both with Sergio Aragonés. His new book, Kirby: King of Comics, a massive art book, is due out from Abrams Books in early February 2008.

Kurt Busiek One of the most popular writers working in comics

Sergio Aragonés

Becky Cloonan

today, Kurt Busiek’s resumé includes the megahit JLA/Avengers mini-series with George Pérez. His most recent work has been as the writer on Superman, a continuation of his famed creatorowned Astro City series, “The Dark Age, Book 2,” and a return to Dark Horse’s Conan series, for which he won a 2004 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue. Becky Cloonan First coming to the attention of comic fans everywhere with Demo, her collaboration with writer Brian Wood, Becky Cloonan is one of the rising stars of comics. Her current work includes drawing the Vertigo series, American Virgin, written by Steven T. Seagle, and her own Tokyopop series, East Coast Rising, which was nominated for a 2007 Eisner Award for Best New Series. Darwyn Cooke Just finishing an incredibly successful run introducing Will Eisner’s The Spirit to a whole

Darwyn Cooke

Steve Leialoha One of comics’ leading inkers for over 30 years, Steve Leialoha joins fellow Fables-teller Bill Willingham as a WonderCon special guest. Leialoha started his career in comics with Star*Reach, produced by Mike Friedrich, one of the founding fathers of WonderCon. His work includes inking many Marvel Comics titles and an over 50-issue run as part of the Fables team for Vertigo. Tim Sale The Eisner Award winning artist just had his biggest year ever! Tim Sale provided the incredible paintings for the NBC smash series, Heroes, further cementing its amazing storyline as a live action graphic novel. In frequent collaboration with writer Jeph Loeb, Sale has produced definitive additions to the legends of Superman and Batman for DC comics, and SpiderMan, Hulk, and Daredevil for Marvel. He is currently wrapping up drawing a story arc for Superman Confidential, written by fellow WonderCon special guest, Darwyn Cooke.

Bruce Timm In a relatively short period of time, Bruce Timm has become a legend in animation. Starting with his work on Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, Timm has been a part of the DC Universe’s jump to animation ever since, including Superman: The Animated

Tim Sale

Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited. In 2007, he produced, co-wrote and co-directed the first in a series of DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation direct-to-DVD films, Superman Doomsday. His comics work includes the Eisner Award winning Batman Adventures: Mad Love, and the mini-series, Harley and Ivy. Bill Willingham Coming up on 25 years of working in comics as both a writer and artist (his first major series, Elementals, debuted in 1984 from Comico), Bill Willingham won two Eisner Awards (Best Short Story and Best Anthology) in 2007 for his writing work on Fables, the popular Vertigo series. Willingham has also written DC Comics’ Shadowpact and is currently writing a mini series featuring the DCU villains, titled Salvation Run.

WonderCon 2008

J. Michael Straczynski Most famous for his work creating the hugely popular sci fi TV series, Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski recently added to that series’ legacy with the release of The Lost Tales, which he wrote, produced and directed. He’s currently wrapping up a 6-year run on Amazing Spider-Man and relaunching Thor for Marvel. In the past year, he’s written three films for major studios: World War Z for Paramount/ Brad Pitt; Goliath: The Story of David for Universal/ Akiva Goldsman; and Changeling for Imagine Entertainment, which is being produced by Ron Howard, directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring Angelina Jolie. His new Marvel Comics series, The Twelve, debuts in 2008.

Check www.comic-con.org for updated information on WonderCon’s special guests!

J. Michael Straczynski

Bruce Timm

WonderCon 2008 Fast Facts WonderCon 2008: February 22-24, 2008 Moscone Center South, 747 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 Hours: Fri., Feb. 22: 12:00-7:00 PM; Sat., Feb. 23: 10:00 AM-7:00 PM; Sun., Feb. 24: 11:00 AM-5:00 PM (Additional programming hours on Friday and Saturday nights. WonderCon Masquerade: Saturday night, Feb. 23, time TBA.) Memberships (Register online now at www.comic-con.org) Adult 3-Day: $30.00 Advance/$40.00 Onsite Junior/Senior 3-Day: $15.00 Advance/$20.00 Onsite Adult 1-Day (Fri./Sat. Only): $12.00 Advance/$15.00 Onsite Junior/Senior 1-Day (Fri./Sat. Only): $6.00 Advance/$8.00 Onsite Adult Sunday: $10.00 Advance & Onsite Junior/Senior Sunday: $5.00 Advance & Onsite Children 11 and under free with adult paid membership Headquarters Hotel: San Francisco Marriott, 55 Fourth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 See pages 13 and 14 for complete details.

W O N D E R C O N

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Pre-Registration Form FEB. 22-24 • MOSCONE CTR. SOUTH • SAN FRANCISCO Mail to: P. O. Box 128458, San Diego, CA 92112-8458 Or fax to: 619-414-1022 • www.comic-con.org

Full Membership At-the-Door Prices Adult (18+) 3-Day Membership

$40.00

Junior (12-17) or Senior (60+) 3-Day Membership

$20.00

Children 11 and under free with paid adult membership

Pre-Registration Prices

(Please check one only)

Must be postmarked by FEBRUARY 1, 2008

Adult

(18+)

3-Day Membership

$30.00

Junior (12-17) or Senior (60+) 3-Day Membership

$15.00

Children 11 and under free with paid adult membership Note: All prices subject to change. Only one membership per form please. This form may be copied. No e-mail registrations will be accepted.

Forms postmarked or faxed after February 1, 2008 will NOT BE PROCESSED.

One day memberships available online at www.comic-con.org and at select Bay Area comics shops now.

Online registration available NOW at www.comic-con.org

First Name

Last Name

Company Name Address City

State

Phone

Fax

Zip

PAYMENT TYPE Check or Money Order

Visa

MasterCard

Credit Card Number Signature

Expiration Date

Do not write below this line. Office use only.

FOR OFFICE USE ONLY

2008 Badge # ___________________ Check # ________________________ Total Amount $ __________________

American Express

San Francisco Marriott provides a beautiful home away from home! The official WonderCon 2008 hotel is the San Francisco Marriott, located just a few short blocks from Moscone Center, at 55 Fourth Street. This beautiful hotel is just steps away from the city’s top attractions, including the famous Cable Cars, world class shopping (Union Square and the new San Francisco Centre), The Metreon, and museums such as the Cartoon Art Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. A limited number of rooms at the convention rate are available starting Wednesday, February 20; that special rate extends through Monday, February 25. The special WonderCon rates are $169 (single/double) and $189 (triple/quad). Call the San Francisco Marriott at 1-800-228-9290 or 1-415-896-1600 to make your reservation. Be sure to mention “WonderCon 2008” to receive the special rate. We’ve included a handy form (on page 14) to help you. Please have all the information requested on the form ready when you call to make your reservation, or you can fill out the form and fax it in to 1-415-486-8153. For more information on the San Francisco Marriott, visit www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/sfodt-san-francisco-marriott/

WonderCon 2008

WonderCon’s Headquarters Hotel

WonderCon Wants You … to Volunteer! People power and teamwork make the show a huge success! It’s true … we couldn’t do WonderCon without YOU. Volunteers make the show the success it is and you can be a part of it, too. Volunteering for WonderCon is a great way to meet fellow fans and get a free one-day membership pass for the day you volunteer. You must be at least 16 years old, but no specific skills are needed, and you can get in for free for as little as one three-hour shift! And of course you can volunteer all three days, if you’re made of sterner stuff! The best way to register to volunteer at WonderCon is to do it online. Complete information is available at www.comic-con.org/wc/wc_vol.shtml. If you volunteered in 2007, we ask that you register online again for 2008. It’s fast, easy and painless.

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San Francisco Marriott Reservation Request For Hotel Reservations call:

1-800-228-9290

1-415-896-1600

or fax this completed form to:

1-415-486-8153

Mention group name “WonderCon 2008” to get the special rate! The San Francisco Marriott looks forward to welcoming you! In making your reservation, we request that you guarantee your arrival by either: 1. Calling the reservation numbers above (please have credit card info ready). 2. Enclosing a check or money order covering the first night’s stay—room and tax charges. 3. Noting the entire number of your major credit card below (American Express, Diner’s Club, Discover, MasterCard or Visa). Be sure to include the expiration date and the cardholder’s signature. NOTE: Deposits will be refunded only if appropriate cancellation notification is given by 6:00 PM on the scheduled arrival date. The San Francisco Marriott regrets that the hotel cannot confirm your reservation without one of the above guaranteed methods.

Group name: WonderCon 2008 • Meeting Dates: Wed., 2/20-Mon., 2/25/08 Guest Name ______________________________

Group Room Rates*

Company _________________________________

__ Single/Double: $169/night + tax __ Triple/Quad: $189/night + tax

Address __________________________________ City/State ________________________________ Zip Code _________________________________ Daytime Phone ___________________________ Arrival Date ______________ Time __________ Departure Date ___________________________ Sharing with _____________________________ Check/Money Order enclosed for _________ Credit Card

(please check one)

__ American Express __ Discover

__ Diner’s Club __ Mastercard

__ Visa Credit Card # _____________________________ Expiration Date___________________________ Cardholder’s Signature __________________________________________ (Your signature authorizes the San Francisco Marriott to charge the above account for one room night if the appropriate cancellation notice has not been given to the San Francisco Marriott by 6:00 PM on the scheduled arrival date.

Check in: 4:00

• Check out: 12:00

(please check preference)

*plus tax (14%) subject to change without notice

Request Room Type: __ One king bed __ Two double beds __ Non-smoking room __ No preference Special requests accommodations: ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ Roll-aways and suites are available. Call Reservations for details! Help us help you!

Room Reservation Deadline: JANUARY 29, 2008 A limited number of rooms have been reserved for selected dates February 20-25, 2008. Reservation requests are accepted on a first come, first served basis. Once the room block has been filled, rooms may be available at the hotel’s best available rate. Rooms may be available after the cut-off date, but not necessarily at the group rate. To help expedite your reservation by phone, please have available: • Bed type preference • Day and time of arrival • Credit card to be used for payment

San Francisco Marriott • 55 Fourth St. • San Francisco, CA • 94103

It’s November. School has settled into work, work has fallen into a pre-holiday funk, the days are shorter, the nights are longer and winter is looming. What can you do—where can you go—to get away from it all? Join us at APE, the Alternative Press Expo, as it moves to the fall! APE celebrates its 15th big year in 2008 with a move to November 1 and 2, still at The Concourse in San Francisco! The most popular show of its kind in the country, with over 300 exhibitors and 4,800 attendees in 2007, APE features an incredible gathering of the very best in indy, alternative, and self-published comics, books and ‘zines, with some of the best writers, artists and creators in the industry. Fall is one of the best times to visit San Francisco. APE is just as famous for what happens after the show closes each day, with numerous parties, gallery openings, signings, plus the always-stellar San Francisco nightlife. And it’s Halloween weekend! It’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world … don’t you deserve a little fall vacation to the Bay Area to celebrate the spookiest of holidays in style, plus get a chance to pick up some of the best comics? Can’t wait until fall of next year for your indy comics fix? We can help you there! Visit WonderCon in February at the Moscone Center, where there’s always lots of great comics of all kinds or visit Comic-Con in San Diego in July, the biggest comics and pop culture convention on the continent, packed with publishers from around the world! Then joins us in November for APE at The Concourse in San Francisco! We’re currently working on details for APE 2008, including the special guest list. Visit www.comic-con.org for updated information!

2008 Alternative Press Expo

Alternative Press Expo November 1 and 2 at The Concourse in San Francisco!

APE

APE Moves to Fall in 2008!

Comic-Con 2007

Comic-Con 2007: It’s A Wrap! A look back at what you missed at the best Comic-Con International ever! The party’s over. Comic-Con seems like a faraway dream, something some of us did on our proverbial summer vacation. 125,000 attendees, exhibitors and professionals were at Comic-Con 2007, a new record for the show’s 38-year history. Beyond that record-breaking statistic, for the first time ever Comic-Con sold out of four-day memberships, and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday single-day memberships. If you weren’t registered in advance for those days and showed up at the door to purchase a membership, you were out of luck. Even if you were there, no one can possibly see all of Comic-Con. Over the next 30-plus pages, we’ll take a look back at the show that was, through photos by our great team of photographers, panel transcripts, interviews with actual attendees by our roving reporter Richard Andreoli, and much more. For some of you, Comic-Con 2007 is a memory; for others who have yet to experience the wonder that is the continent’s biggest and best comics and pop culture event, here’s just a taste of four incredible days in July with 125,000 of your fellow fans.

Photo by Kevin Green

The Attendees

Fantastic Fans! Who: Alicia Miller and Christopher Forsberg Why: First people in line for onsite registration, Comic-Con weekend When: Thursday, 12: 30 AM Why did they get in line so early? Because Saturd ay memberships sold out ! Christopher: We hea rd this rumor that there mig ht be three-day [membershi ps] available, and we we re hoping there might als o be a chance of four-days bei ng sold early, so we had to be here ﬁrst. Why didn’t they pre-re gister? Christopher: Becaus e we’re stupid. You can quote

me on that, too.

What did they do for all those hours? Alicia: We hung out and tried to nap a litt le bit. When did the next gro up arrive? Alicia: Around 4:20 AM. WEAKLINGS! Christopher: There is a gratiﬁcation to bei ng the ﬁrst ones her Alicia: I like looking e. at everybody as they come in with their cos tumes. What’s your plan of att ack once you get ins ide? Alicia: Scoping out all the new stuff in the [Ex hibit] Hall. Christopher: Anime , manga, video games. Alicia: Tonight, we’ll see if there are any goo d movies showing in If there aren’t, then the [Manchester Gra we’ll be sticking around nd Hyatt]. in the anime rooms. Christopher: We cou ldn’t look at the entire schedule online becaus this year. We’re not ma e we weren’t pre-regis king that mistake aga tered in. What will you do tom orrow morning when you don’t have to get Alicia: We’ll get here in line so early? before the Con starts , but not too early. We Christopher: We wa want a little bit of sle nt all four days, and ep. if we get it, then we’re going to sleep.

Alas, four-day memb erships were not sol d onsite, and we nev and Christopher’s we er learned how that impacted Alicia ekend. But let this be a lesson for you: pre -register for Comic-C on 2008 NOW!

Interview photo by Barry Brown; background photo by Kevin Green

Comic-Con 2007

The Programming Report: Comics Comics dominate the Comic-Con program schedule! For 38 years, Comic-Con has had one central thought in mind: comics are cool and everyone deserves to know this. This is the one thing that motivates us each and year and is, in fact, the essence of our mission statement. Each year, Comic-Con invites an incredibly diverse list of guests with comics in mind. That guest list includes creators from all areas of the world of comics: mainstream, alternative, graphic novels, web comics, Golden and Silver Age, newspaper and editorial cartoonists, international artists and more. In 2007 special “Spotlight” panels focused on Alison Bechdel, Allen Bellman, Dan Brereton, Daryl Cagle, Darwyn Cooke, Guy Delisle, Paul Dini, Roman Dirge, Warren Ellis, Mark Evanier, Renée French, Gary Friedrich, Christos N. Gage, Rick Geary, George Gladir, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Adam Hughes (a partial transcript starts on page 28), Joe Jusko, Miriam Katin, Mel Keefer, Scott Kurtz, Joseph Michael Linsner, Joe Matt, Lily Renée Phillips, Mike Ploog, Paul Pope, J. Michael Straczynski, Ben Templesmith, Roy Thomas, Morrie Turner, Mark Verheiden, Matt Wagner, J. H. Williams, Kent Williams, and Brian Wood. The comics programming didn’t stop with those special guests, though. Major publishers such as DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse, Image, Aspen, IDW, Oni Press, SLG Publishing, Bongo, NBM, Boom! Studios, Archaia Studios, Avatar

Press, Archie Comics, TwoMorrows Publishing and much more held numerous panels focusing on their current and upcoming titles. Popular creators such as Jeff Smith, Terry Moore, and Eric Powell all discussed their fan-favorite creations and plans for the future. The graphic novel was featured in a number of daily events, including “The Many Faces of the Graphic Novel,” (a partial transcript starts on page 20), “Reality-based Graphic Novels,” “New Faces in Graphic Novels,” and “The Graphic Novel Explosion.” Manga and anime were featured with panels from VIZ, Tokyopop, CMX, Seven Seas, Yen Press, Broccoli Books, ADV, and Del Rey Manga. Popular panel host and moderator Mark Evanier returned in 2007 with a record-breaking thirteen panels, including one about some guy named Mark Evanier (in which he was interviewed by good friend and writer Paul Dini). His other events included the traditional Golden and Silver Age of Comics panel; Quick Draw!, the rollicking live cartoon improv, once again with Sergio Aragonés and Scott Shaw!; a celebration of Groo’s 25th anniversary, also with Sergio; “Cover Story,” with a who’s who of cover artists; “Marvel in the 60s and 70s;” the annual “Jack Kirby Tribute;” “Cartoon Voices I and II,” featuring some of the leading voice actors in animation; and a plethora of Spotlight panels where he interviewed special guests. The comics program schedule continued with panels on newspaper comics, then and now, including

Left to right: Comic-Con special guest and graphic novelist Miriam Katin with her Inkpot Award; Hollywood superstar Nicolas Cage and his son Weston came to the event to talk comics, including their own, Voodoo Child; and cartoonist/special guest Joe Matt at his Spotlight panel.

Katin and Matt photos by Adrian Velazquez; Cage photo by Kevin Green

Comic-Con 2007 Greg Rucka (standing) answers a fan’s question at the DC Universe panel, while (l to r) Gail Simone, Kurt Busiek, Ivan Reis, and Paul Dini look on.

a look at the incredible groundswell in reprinting classic comic strips, a celebration of the 100th birthday of legendary cartoonist Milton Caniff and the 60th anniversary of his creation, Steve Canyon, a National Cartoonists Society panel that looked at how cartoonists deal with daily deadlines, and a panel dedicated to editorial cartoonists. Web comics were represented with special guest Scott (PVP) Kurtz in two panels, plus panels from online comic giants such as Penny Arcade, Dumbrella and Keenspot. And one of the most fun panels of the weekend, “My Dad Makes Comics,” featuring the children of famous cartoonists Scott McCloud and Matt Wagner, is featured starting on page 24. Comic-Con’s educational mission was well represented once again. Numerous workshops and seminars were presented in Comic-Con’s newly enlarged classroom (seating over 300) and included such topics as storyboarding, mold-making, life drawing, comic art style, animation, the popular “Comic-Con Law School,” podcasting, sculpting, how to pitch to Hollywood, and even retirement advice for comics professionals. The classroom was turned over to the kids on Sunday, as part of ComicCon’s long-running Kids’ Day programming, with hands-on drawing workshops featuring Star Wars and a class conducted by indie comic greats including Scott Morse, Ted Naifeh, and Nick Bertozzi. Kids’ Day also included numerous panels just for the younger attendees, including special presentations by Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and a full-day of film screenings from the San Diego International Children’s Film Festival. The Comic Arts Conference returned for its 15th year and presented an expanded

slate of programming with sixteen panels over the four days of the event. And Comic-Con also presented Shannon Wheeler’s Too Much Coffee Man Opera in three free performances open to show attendees at the Horton Grand Theater, just a few short blocks from the Convention Center. The complete Comic-Con 2007 program schedule is still available online at www.comic-con.org.

Comic-Con special guest Joe Jusko was a part of programming at the event and produced this stunning Batman painting for the Art Auction (see page 44 for more details.)

Comic-Con 2007

Exclusive Panel Excerpt!

The Many Faces of the Graphic Novel No matter how many comic books are turned into feature films and television shows, it is the graphic novel that has truly promoted comic storytelling as a legitimate literary art form. These books come in numerous shapes, sizes, and formats, and the topics journey well beyond collected series or standard super-hero fare. To honor these works, Comic-Con brought together six creators who represented various aspects of the medium. Moderated by Mark Siegel from First Second Books, the panel included Jeffrey Brown (Clumsy, Incredible Change-Bots), Becky Cloonan (East Coast Rising, American Virgin), Renée French (The Ticking, The Ninth Gland), Jim Ottaviani (Cowboys, Bone Sharps, and Thunder Lizards, Two-Fisted Science), Andy Runton (Owly), and Doug TenNapel (Creature Tech, Gear). Here are some highlights from that event.

Moderator Mark Siegel

Jeffrey Brown

Mark: Each one of these creators holds at least one genre of the graphic novel. Andy has the children’s comics category, Jim has non-fiction and scientific comics, Doug for wild speculative fiction, Jeffrey for his autobiography, among other things, Renée for strange and beautiful tales, and Becky for these ethnic, manga-influenced fictions. Right there at this table is a great case to be made for the fact that graphic novels [are] an almost unlimited, endless, and unexplored format. So I think [we] start with, what is the graphic novel? Jim: I’ve been using the graphic novel for about ten years to tell true stories about scientists, and for me that’s quite natural. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of being exposed to scientific publications, you notice they’re full of pictures. Seriously, you can’t crack open a journal of differential equations without running across figure after figure and graph after graph—using images to communicate scientific ideas and concepts. What I try to do is also communicate about the lives of the scientists who actually make these discoveries. It’s a really wonderful and enjoyable fit between subject matter and form. Renée: I’m not as articulate as Jim and that’s kind of why I do what I do, because I mostly make pictures. I like to tell stories but I’m not really that good with

20 Photos by Barry Brown; French photo by Kristian DeLeon

Becky Cloonan

Renée French

words, so by putting pictures together in a book you can make a world and tell the story you want. Jeffrey: I try not to think too much about what defines a graphic novel. A lot of my work so far has been autobiographical and I think using the form of comics for personal stories just makes sense [because] you can pack in a lot of emotion in a very small space. Andy: I didn’t really set out to do graphic novels. I’d always read comics as a kid, I loved animation but I didn’t really have the patience [to do it], and when it came time for me to tell my own stories, all that stuff that I loved got combined into this. What drew me to these thicker books was that I knew it wasn’t going to be “to be continued.” It’s a fully contained story, [and] I still consider graphic novels to be longer format comics. Becky: Graphic novels are a little [intimidating to create]. At about 170-pages each they’re really hard to get through. I feel like we work and work and when it comes out it’s like a drop in this giant ocean. So I’m leaning towards the shorter graphic novel, something that’s like 60 pages. Doug: For me, the graphic novel represents freedom for the creator. I come from a lot of different

Jim Ottaviani

print a $30 book is not proportional. I don’t know how much it would cost, but [say it costs] $3 to print a $30 book and $2 to print a $10 book, so you make more on those bigger books. In the end it pays off, but a 300-page book may take 3 years to make, and all that time you’re not getting any money. So that’s a big investment if it doesn’t work. Audience question: What got you into graphic novels? Jeffrey: I grew up as a Marvel kid and I really

Andy Runton

to compete with other forms of media. Those of you who have read my graphic novels know that the subject matter is very different then the subject matter in the TV shows and videogames I’ve made, and it’s because [with] the graphic novel, no one ever said no. Mark: What are the constraints of the graphic novel from a creator’s standpoint? Doug: Financial is the biggest constraint. I can spend 6 months on a graphic novel and some of us will make $3000. But I’m a sole provider for a family of 4, I have a house payment, so I can’t do that all the time. You do own the intellectual property, or at least a chunk of it, so if something gets made [into a movie, TV show or game] then you’re doing good. Andy: I can talk about the constraints in terms of my publisher, Top Shelf. It doesn’t do a lot of floppies, which are single-issue [books] with no spine that aren’t considered graphic novels. Floppies don’t have a shelf life. They are up for a certain amount of time and then disappear, whereas graphic novels have a spine and they’re on a shelf. So you have to have enough pages to [make] a spine. Financially speaking, the more pages you have, the thicker the book, the more money you’ll make because you can [print] a $30 book versus a $10 book. The cost to

Comic-Con 2007

disciplines of mass media. I make video games, movies, TV shows. Of all the mediums, the graphic novel is by far the freest, and part of it is because printing books is a lot cheaper than producing a television show. There’s less power struggle over getting it out to the audience because if any publisher wasn’t willing to publish one of my graphic novels, I can self publish it or put it out on the Internet. Whereas, I can never reach ABC’s audience, I can put out a video on the Internet, but it would look very different than one of ABC’s shows. But for each of us, the basic work that we do is professional enough

Doug TenNapel

wanted to draw comics. By the time I got into college I’d started reading alternative comics like Eightball, Acme Novelty and Julie Doucet’s work. I was at art school and thought I was going to be a painter, grew disenchanted with fine art, so I started drawing graphic novels. Andy: I was also a big Marvel kid, then right in the early 90s, the X-Men “Inferno” series got so crazy and I got so frustrated that I just gave up. When I got back into comics with Hellboy, I only bought graphic novels. Becky: I’m a Marvel kid, too, but I started picking up manga when I was in high school. I went to school for animation and after a few really near misses I got sick of trying to look for a job and went into comics. I actually started working with Tokyopop because they approached me [to do] a graphic novel. Audience question: Where do you see the industry heading? Andy: The cool thing about Comic-Con is everybody here is a misfit, but misfits are becoming the culture. So I don’t know if [the industry] is expanding because of that, but we’re getting more readers because what we do is becoming more acceptable. Photos by Barry Brown

Comic-Con 2007

Jim: I got a call from an editor wanting me to do some work, and it was because of a book I did years ago. This editor was probably 15 [back then], but what has happened is that there has been enough good work done [over the years] and we actually held on to some readers by virtue of the graphic novel form. And now the 15-year-olds who dug Creature Tech or Owly are assistants to editors [and effecting change]. That’s the future I’d like to see, and I’m really happy that I’m already seeing it. Becky: So many [mainstream publishers] are hopping on. So many of my friends have gotten publishing deals, it just seems like it’s going to bring comics more into the mainstream and makes them more readily available. If we can get kids reading them now, they’ll grow up and they’ll remember that they read comics, give comics to their kids and so on. Mark: The chain bookstores are also starting young graphic novel sections so there’s evidence [of change]. And as a publisher we certainly want to contribute to that. Andy: That’s the thing, pictures were for little kids and you wanted more and more words as you got older because that made you an adult. But we don’t really age that way anymore. It’s like Jeffrey’s [autobiography] books. These are issues I’m dealing with but it’s in a comic book. We don’t mind seeing pictures and it’s great because that means [graphic novels] can be serious books. Special thanks to Gina Gagliano of First Second Books for her help in producing this panel. An extended version of this panel is available at www.comic-con.org.

Comic-Con 2007

Exclusive Panel Excerpt!

My Dad Makes Comics! Ever wonder what a career in comics looks like from a kid’s eye view? Comic-Con did, and at a special Sunday Kids’ Day, we assembled four fantastic young people with first-hand experience on the subject. The speakers included Brennan (16) and Amanda (14) Wagner, children of Matt Wagner (Grendel, Mage), alongside Sky (14, moderator) and Winter (11) McCloud, daughters of Scott McCloud (Making Comics, Understanding Comics, Zot!). Here are some of the fun things we learned as the event began calmly and then quickly descended into hilarity. Sky: How is it different to have a dad who makes comic books as opposed to any other jobs your friends’ parents have? Winter: It definitely pays the bill, that’s for sure. Sky: “The bill?” Winter: The bills. Anyway, it’s really fun to have my dad making comics because I get to go to places and most of my idols make comics or TV shows. So since my dad makes comics about making comics, usually they know who my dad is. So I can [say], “Hello, I’m Winter McCloud, Scott McCloud’s daughter.” And they’ll be like, “Oh my God, it’s an honor to meet you!” Sky: Really? I’ve never gotten that reaction. (audience laughs)

Brennan: [My dad] works in the basement, so I get to see his whole process and how he makes them, which is pretty cool because I’d like to do that someday. Amanda: It’s kind of cool going to Comic-Con and watching him [work] downstairs in the basement. Winter: Really quick, I just want to add something onto what I said before, and that was that my mom used to do a little bit of local theater and so I do know what it’s like to also have different parents who don’t make comics. I think I’m chasing my mom’s career more than my dad’s. But it’s really awesome to have a dad in the biz. Sky: That leads to another question. Have you guys considered making comics as well or would you like to pursue a different career when you grow up? Winter: I want to go after my mom’s career because I’ve always wanted to be an actress. Sky: Yeah, you’ve sort of already answered my question. Winter: And I want to be a fashion designer, too. Brennan: It’s cool because he’s a freelance artist so he doesn’t really work for anyone, he doesn’t have a boss, he makes his own pay, he doesn’t have to listen to anyone and their instructions—except his lovely editor, Diana. So I’d like to follow in his footsteps.

Moderator Sky McCloud (left) pauses while little sister Winter makes a point.

Photos by Barry Brown

Comic-Con 2007

Winter: A.K.A. Joss Whedon. Sky: … yet I try not to use that. Do we have any embarrassing stories for the benefit of the audience? Winter: I have a lot of embarrassing stories about me… Sky: (interrupting) No, not those! Audience Question: Have you guys been placed in any of your dad’s comics? Brennan: Most of you have probably read Mage, and you know that the main character, Kevin, is based on [my dad]. Most of the characters are based off real people in his life. My Writer/artist Matt Wagner’s children, Brennan and Amanda. sister and me will be in the upcoming installment of Mage when it comes out. We’ll be very Amanda: Uhhhh, no. I can’t draw, so if I was in the little, though. And I think I was put in issue 100 of business I would pretty much not work. Usagi Yojimbo, in the back. It’s kind of subtle but I was Sky: I would like to write and direct television when definitely there. I grow up and I’m drawn to the storytelling element, Amanda: I was not in Usagi. I was left out. which is probably passed down from my family. I think that comics make for a very interesting way of Winter: In Understanding Comics… telling stories, but I don’t think the stories I want to Sky: Wait, you were not in Understanding Comics. You tell are in that form. It’s not how I want to see them. did not exist. You cannot answer this question. Winter: Her idol is Joss Whedon. Winter: In Making Comics, I—the beautiful, wonderful Audience Question: Bruce Sterling once told me me—there are quite a few characters who are based on that no matter how cool, edgy and hip you are, your me and then even more that are based on … (gestures kids will think that you’re boring and normal and toward Sky). embarrassing. Audience question: Do you guys read comics that Sky: Totally. aren’t by your dad? Brennan: I guess that holds true. I don’t really see Brennan: I read whatever I can get for free. I like to him as that cool. He writes comics and stuff, but he’s think of myself as an avid reader of comics. Not so just my dad. much prose novels. I’d like to read more, but I never get around to it because I’m always reading comics instead. Amanda: Yeah, I think the same thing. You know, I I like a lot of stuff that Dark Horse makes, indie comics. want to think of a really embarrassing moment that my dad gave me, but I can’t think of one. Which is Amanda: I don’t read comics. They look cool, though. kind of lucky. My mom gives all those to me. Sky: A lot of the comics in our family get passed Winter: My dad is very embarrassed whenever we around, and there’s some that we all really love. want to use his name to go see Matt Groening or Basically, Winter’s and my job is to find the good something. manga and bring it back to Daddy and he’ll give us all the good American and Canadian comics. Our favorite Sky: I’d be embarrassed, too. I hate when you guys one right now is Scott Pilgrim, which is from Halifax. do that. Winter: If you get to see your idol just by saying, “Hi, my dad is Scott McCloud,” that’s pretty awesome. Sky: See, my biggest idol in the world knows who daddy is …

Audience question: When your dad is not drawing comics, what does he do around the house? Brennan: My dad likes to cook a lot. I don’t know if any of you have read it, [but] he published a short issue of his where he gave a recipe in comic book format. He really likes to cook.

Comic-Con 2007 Sky and Winter’s proud parents, Scott McCloud and Ivy Ratafia, look on from the front row.

Sky: My dad hasn’t passed the macaroni and cheese level of cooking, that’s about as far as he goes. Amanda: My dad likes to read a whole lot. He’s also home alone because he works at home, and he’s always talking to our cat. It’s kind of weird. (At this point, convention attendees begin flooding into the room.) Sky: Is there a really popular panel next, because I’m thinking not everyone’s coming to see us. Winter: Raise your hand if you’re here to see us. (A large portion of attendees raise their hands.) Amanda: We’re so cool!

Winter: Fables? Never heard of it. (More laughter and applause.) Audience question: Who’s crazier, your mom or your dad? Winter: My dad. Sky: My mom. Brennan: Actually, neither. My Aunt is definitely crazy. Amanda: Yes, she’s a little crazy. Winter: (to Sky) Can I ask a question? Sky: (nervously) Okay…

Winter: Raise your hand if you came to see the next panel.

Winter: (dramatic pause) What is your favorite color?

(Another large portion of attendees raise their hands.)

Sky: This is why you’re not the moderator. Okay, so why don’t we say one final thing about life as the child of a comic book artist.

Sky: You guys are uncool. Audience question: Whose idea was it to do this panel? Were your parents messing with you or what? Sky: This is actually my idea, I’m sorry. But see, we have such big crowds that [the Comic-Con people will] think we can do this in the future and get some more people. So every year you can get a different perspective on what it’s like. It’ll be like Pokemon: collect them all. Winter: What’s the panel after this? Audience: Fables.

Winter: Having a comic book artist as your dad is not that great. Burn! Amanda: Having a dad as a comic book artist isn’t that much different except he lives in the basement. Brennan: I’d just like the opportunity to say please stop by my dad’s table and buy plenty of things so that I can get a 10% commission. Sky: Thank you and have a good con. An extended version of this panel appears on www.comic-con.org.

Comic-Con 2007

The

Secret of

Comic-Con special guest Adam Hughes talks about his 20-year career in comics A Adam Hughes is one of the leading comic book artists working today. He started his professional career during the independent comics boom of the 1980s, and worked his way from small black and white titles onto more mainstream books. When a gig at Comico eventually led to being hired by DC to work on Justice League. Hughes quickly became known for creating covers that sold issues, and his ability to depict female characters with incredible strength alongside gorgeous femininity landed him memorable runs as the cover artist for Wonder Woman, Catwoman, and Tomb Raider; more recently, Hughes illustrated the Star Wars-themed cover for Comic-Con’s 2007 Souvenir Book. During a special “Spotlight” panel on Hughes, Comic-Con awarded him an Inkpot Award for outstanding achievement in the comic arts. Here are some highlights from that event. Scott Klauder of Sideshow Collectibles, for which Adam has designed a series of statues, interviewed Adam. On his 20-year career in comics, Hughes said, “I’ve rounded a strange career corner where I’ve now got this weird, and I think rather undeserved, respect. I’m reminded of a John Huston line in Chinatown: ‘Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.’ I guess I’ve made tenure. People are required to like me now.” When did your artistic career begin? I opened up one of my diapers and said, “Oh, look, the MTV logo.” (The audience laughs.) No, my mom had some artwork from when I was five-years-old, drawings of Spider-Man, Batman and Robin, and shows nobody remembers, like Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and Ultraman. We only had one other artistic person in my family—my uncle—and he was one of the first people that showed me art. He taught photography at the Smithsonian, and that’s only because he went to Da Nang, in Vietnam, for 20-months and got to come

back and go to college. My uncle would visit with cigarettes, a Manhattan, and Percocet, and actually sit there and say (in a gravelly voice), “Hey, yeah, you ever heard of perspective?” I was six. “Here, I’m going to draw you a barn in perspective. Now go get me another Manhattan.” So ever since I was a little kid I learned to draw and mix cocktails. Do you use Photoshop? Not when I was six, no. No, I mean… I haven’t touched real paint in, I don’t know how long. In 1996, I was doing a book for Jim Lee called, Gen 13: Ordinary Heroes. [They] put me up in a furnished apartment in La Jolla, California, and an office overlooking the ocean. I didn’t have a car, so I used to lurk at WildStorm Effects where they do the coloring, and they showed me the basics. Do you have any preliminary sketches for your All Star Wonder Woman work? Absolutely not. I can’t keep a secret. When I finish something, I want to show it to my friends, and I felt that this would be the one time I should shroud myself in complete Pentagon secrecy. I’m not going to show anybody anything until it’s ready to come out. I want my All Star book to ship every thirty days, [so] I want all six issues in the can, done, and then we

Comic-Con 2007 start putting the first issue out. That way, you guys get your comics each month. (applause) Now I can’t control the people at DC Comics. I could finish the first issue and they could say, “Great! Solicit!” But my girlfriend came up with the most fantastic thing I’ve ever heard. My contract says that I have to deliver six issues, written, penciled and inked, of All Star Wonder Woman. It doesn’t say in what order. My girlfriend said I should do issues 2 through 6 and then give them the first issue when I’m done. That’s magnificent! I went over the contract with a lawyer friend of mine and he said, “You can actually hand them in in any order you want.” Are you changing Wonder Woman’s costume? I don’t think there’s a need when you’re doing something new to just be different. My approach to Wonder Woman on this project is kind of the way Bruce Timm [and] Paul Dini did Batman The Animated Series in the 90s: they took the best of everything that was fun about Batman. That’s what I’m doing with Wonder Woman. I get to tell her origin again, which I think is one of the most enjoyable aspects of her character. I’m going through every version of her sixty-year history and taking the best bits for myself. [Her costume] is going to look a lot like my covers. I think the guys at DC Direct will like my All Star Wonder Woman because there’s going to be enough costume changes to warrant a line of action figures. Talk about your redesign of Wonder Woman’s hair in the regular Wonder Woman series.

I was doing the covers of Wonder Woman for four and a half, five years. Walt Simonson came on the book for six months and one of Walt’s stories was that Wonder Woman went undercover, so she cut her hair and put on glasses. And I have never talked to more reporters in my life than the month Wonder Woman’s haircut premiered. One of them was all very Rona Barrett, gossipy. “So Wonder Woman’s haircut! What gave you the idea?” This was March 2003, and I actually said, “Didn’t we just invade another country? Isn’t there something slightly more newsworthy than the haircut of a 60-year-old cartoon character?” And she was like, “So, short hair?” What inspired you to draw her lasso like you did on those covers? When I was working on the first few Wonder Woman covers, I realized [she] runs around with a quart of over-cooked pasta hanging on her hip. That was really putting me to sleep, so I thought, I like art nouveau, and I studied art nouveau when I was doing Ghost for Dark Horse. So what if I did a cover where the wind was catching the lasso and it was creating an art nouveau shape behind her? And when I was doing it I thought, “Oh, yeah!” So I’ve never drawn the noodles on her hip ever again. Will other DC heroes appear in All Star Wonder Woman? Absolutely not. One of my main problems with Wonder Woman is that she only seems to be defined

Comic-Con 2007

by her relationship to Superman and Batman. I want to show that she can float her own book and only needs her supporting cast: Steve Trevor, Etta Candy and her mother. My theory on any story is that the villains and sidekicks should be neat enough that they could float their own books. Steve should be a cross between young Steve McQueen, Race Bannon and Sam Shepard’s portrayal of Chuck Yeager from The Right Stuff. I think the idea of a princess from a mystical island in the Mediterranean coming to the United States, and her guide to the world of men is this laconic cowboy poet right off a Marlboro ad, is interesting. And unless I screw up completely, there will be more romantic tension than any cruddy Shakespeare story. We know what your covers look like. What can we expect from your interior work?

Above, Adam’s stunning Star Wars cover for this year’s Comic-Con Souvenir Book celebrated the film series’ 30th anniversary.

I’m going to be writing, penciling and inking All Star Wonder Woman but Laura Martin, the award-winning colorist of Ultimates and Authority, and Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, is coloring the book. Laura is one of the people from WildStorm Effects that taught me how to color on the computer, so it’s like Luke Skywalker asking Yoda for help on a project. I know I can’t make every panel look like one of my covers. It can’t be that lush, otherwise it would take ten years. So we’ve come up with a unique compromise where it will have my cover color style but the rest is more graphic, a little more abstract, comic colors. An extended version of this interview appears on www.comic-con.org.

The Attendees

The Super Sages! son

Who: Shane and Lisa Nel (Married 3 1/2 years)

Attending Comic-Con

a’s 5th Shane’s 15th year; Lis

From: San Diego, CA Where: Waiting in a line

d at 5:45 AM. They arrive g kin par d goo re early to sco H ll Ha in t spo ly ear and an ood for Comic-Con’s Hollyw . ing mm gra pro

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] panels in Hall H fs. With the [Hollywood and we’re big movie buf ics com h bot up our time so we t ng lec itti col spl Shane: We tar Galactica— we’re tles Bat s, roe He s., Bro r and Ballroom 20—Warne hibit Hall floor. more time out on the Ex nd spe and se tho see can gons and faeries, ’t find in San Diego. Dra unique, things you can ng thi any nd a Japanese for fou ng we ppi k sho bac Lisa: I love nd here. A couple years fi can I go Die San in find States. When I saw it I and art supplies I can’t couldn’t buy them in the you e tim t tha at and ,” art pen set called “Copic e to have it!” hav I , God my “Oh d, sai we’re talking about here every morning, but g at home and driving yin sta ’re some of the later we oy r enj yea y, s Shane: Thi the downtown vicinit in y sta can we so r yea next [getting a hotel room] ut driving. don’t have to worry abo so ing mm gra pro ht nig lamp.

Lisa: Party in the Gas

do it the first day, get it the Con. [We] generally at hip ers mb me r’s t yea Shane: We bought nex ney. paid and save some mo are all good with ly. The seats as a whole panels is to show up ear on] ic-C Com g ly. As of a half [bi ear for up w My advice front, you’ve got to sho up se clo be to nt wa if you Center. those big screens, but back of the Convention had wrapped around the line H ll Ha the , ago r hou Make a ’ll meet if you split up. up, figure out where you gro ge lar a lfire hurry. or s hel a kid in e be Lisa: If you hav t. You don’t have to ng snacks, and be patien bri , day the for n pla t. tentative r on today, so be patien be here tomorrow or late Everything’s going to Shane: And have fun.

Interview photo by Barry Brown; background photo by Kevin Green

Comic-Con 2007

The Programming Report: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Traditional areas of Comic-Con programming see record-setting audiences!

Mega-popular author Laurell K. Hamilton (left) made her first appearance at Comic-Con, while one of the convention’s favorite guests, Ray Bradbury, returned for another visit.

An important part of Comic-Con’s programming schedule includes some of the world’s best science fiction and fantasy authors and artists. 2007’s guest list included the dean of American SF writers, Ray Bradbury, once again holding court with his good friend, movie legend Ray Harryhausen. In addition, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Laurell K. Hamilton, David Morrell, Rowena, and F. Paul Wilson were all featured in Spotlight panels as special guests. Many of these guests also participated in a popular series of programs that included topics such as villains, urban fantasy and paranormal romance, storytelling with and without pictures, technology, and where some of those very dark ideas come from.

Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival 2007 Award Winners The Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival returned in 2007 with a schedule of 55 indie genre films. Seven of the films were deemed best in their categories by celebrity judges Max Allan Collins, Thomas Jane and Sean Rourke, with an additional “Judges’ Choice” award given to the film deemed to be “best in show.” Those films are: Action/Adventure: Razor Sharp; Animation: Fission; Comics-Oriented: Rocketboy; Documentary: Moebius Redux; Horror/Suspense: Eli; Humor/Parody: Zombie Love Science Fiction/Fantasy: Man vs. Woman; and the Judges’ Choice Award: Moebius Redux. Comic-Con would like to thank the filmmakers who participated in the Festival, the judges, and the following companies who offered prizes for the award winners: FX Home, The Hollywood Reporter, New York Film Academy, and Write Brothers, Inc.

CCI: IFF Now Accepting Films for Comic-Con 2008! Comic-Con is now accepting films for the 2008 Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival (CCI: IFF). This festival features the very best in indie genre films. There are seven categories to choose from: Action/Adventure, Animation, Comics-Oriented, Documentary, Horror/Suspense, Humor/Parody and Science Fiction/Fantasy. Each year, Comic-Con chooses a panel of industry judges to view the films. Awards and prizes are given out at Comic-Con for the best film in each category and a special “Judges’ Choice” award for the film deemed to be the best of the festival. Download the official rules and entry form at www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_iff.shtml The deadline for entering films is MARCH 1, 2008.

Hamilton photo by Adrian Velazquez; Bradbury photo by Barry Brown

San Diego’s Longest-Running Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention!

CONDOR XV Feb. 29-March 2, 2008 The Handlery hotel & Resort Hotel Circle, San Diego ANIME • ART SHOW • CONCERTS • DEALERS’ ROOM GAMING • MASQUERADE • PROGRAMMING

Guests of Honor

TIMOTHY ZAHN STAR WARS Novels

ellen muth DEAD LIKE ME

COMPLETE INFORMATION:

www.ConDorCon.org

Comic-Con 2007

The Programming Report: Movies 2007 was one of Comic-Con’s most star-studded years!

Left to right: Steve Carell and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson made a surprise visit for Get Smart; Kate Beckinsale poses next to the poster for Whiteout, which recreates the famed graphic novel’s cover.

Hollywood once again visited ComicCon with open arms, bringing some of the best and brightest south to San Diego for the four-day event. The first day started with a bang, with Paramount Pictures and Lionsgate boldly going where no fan had gone before: Hall H on a Thursday! Paramount led off with a two-hour extravaganza that included Andy Samberg (Hot Rod), JJ Abrams (for both his untitled project, sometimes called Cloverfield, and the new Star Trek movie), Neil Gaiman (for Beowulf and Stardust), and Jon Favreau, introducing the first footage from Iron Man, which brought down the house. Also making an appearance via satellite, live from Hawaii: Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Shia LeBeouf and the exciting introduction of Karen Allen joining the cast of the new Indiana Jones film. Lionsgate ended the day in Hall H with Jessica Alba and Dane Cook from Good Luck Chuck, Peter Fonda and Ben Foster from 3:10 to Yuma, and Tobin Bell from Saw IV. Other Thursday movie panels included Fanboys with stars

Kristin Bell (Veronica Mars) and Dan Fogler (Balls of Fury) and Comic-Con welcomed legendary horror filmmaker George Romero as a special guest and featured him in a Spotlight panel interviewed by zombie-master Max Brooks. On Friday, Warner Bros. opened the Hall H doors with a surprise appearance from the cast of the 2008 film Get Smart: Masi Oka, The Rock, and Maxwell Smart himself, Steve Carell, took the stage to thunderous applause. WB continued with stars Ed Burns and Shannyn Sossamon for the thriller One Missed Call; producer Joel Silver, star Kate Beckinsale and graphic novel co-creator Greg Rucka for Whiteout; and director Zack Snyder to talk about his next film, Watchmen, along with cast members Jackie Earle Haley and Malin Akerman. Other Friday panels in Hall H included Clive Owen for New Line’s Shoot ‘Em Up; a look at the 300 DVD with Zack Snyder and Frank Miller, plus the 25th anniversary director’s cut Blade Runner DVD with legendary director Ridley Scott and stars Sean

Left to right: Jessica Alba and Dane Cook talked about Good Luck Chuck; SNL’s Andy Samberg gave us Hot Rod; Shoot ‘Em Up’s Clive Owen; and Blade Runner director Ridley Scott discussed the 25th anniversary DVD release of that ground-breaking science fiction film.

Carell/Rock and Beckinsale photos: Albert Ortega; Alba/Cooke photo: Austin Gorum; Samberg and Scott photos: Tina Gill; Owen photo: Tom DeLeon

Comic-Con 2007 Left to right: Robert Downey Jr., director Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Terrence Howard brought Iron Man to Comic-Con and gave fans the first look at scenes from the movie; Downey on stage during the Marvel Studios panel.

Young, James Hong, and Joanna Cassidy; Lucasfilm’s 30th anniversary of Star Wars; and Kevin Smith, who showed the pilot of the new TV series Reaper, which he directed. Also on Friday, director Rob Zombie talked about Halloween and director Frank Darabont and star Thomas Jane talked about their Stephen King adaptation, The Mist, both from Dimension Films. Saturday dawned with a pleasant yellow glow as The Simpsons took the Hall H stage. Matt Groening and company talked about the new movie, which opened in theaters Comic-Con weekend. They were followed by Rogue Pictures and Focus Features, which showcased Balls of Fury (with Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, and Dan Fogler), and The Strangers (with Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman). Disney • Pixar was next with an exclusive look at the new Chronicles of Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, and Pixar’s 2008 release, WALL•E, the animated story of a robot. Marvel Studios took the stage with a starstudded look at two of their 2008 films, The Incredible Hulk (with Edward Norton and Liv Tyler and director Louis Leterrier) and Iron Man (with Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard and director Jon Favreau). Saturday ended with Screen Gems’

Resident Evil: Extinction (with Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter), and Columbia Pictures’ 30 Days of Night (with producer Sam Raimi, director David Slade, star Josh Hartnett, and graphic novel creators Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith). Columbia also brought the cast of Superbad, along with producer Judd Apatow and co-writer/star Seth Rogen, to end the day on a high—and funny—note. On Sunday, Nicolas Cage and his son Weston took the Ballroom 20 stage to talk about their new comic, Voodoo Child. Additional movie programming that day included a look at two new films, Right At Your Door, and Dragon Wars, plus Heroes star Milo Ventimiglia and Alyssa Milano talking about their thriller Pathology. Over the four-day weekend, Comic-Con attendees were treated to other Hollywood-oriented programs including 90-minute seminars from the Costume Guild, Local 790 of the Illustrators and Matte Artists, and the Production Designers Guild talking about the craft of making movies. Friday was once again Star Wars day, this time in celebration of that ground breaking film’s 30th anniversary.

Left to right: Matt Groening visited on the opening weekend of The Simpsons movie; Liv Tyler and Edward Norton talked about The Incredible Hulk; Heroes’ villain, Zachary Quinto, was announced as the new Spock in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek film, and Leonard Nimoy joined him on stage to give his blessing. Iron Man, Quinto and Nimoy photos: Albert Ortega; Downey, Groening and Hulk photos: Tom DeLeon

Comic-Con 2007

The Programming Report: Television and Animation The small screen comes to Comic-Con in a big way!

The gang’s all here! The cast of Heroes at Comic-Con 2007.

Television once again came to Comic-Con in 2007, bringing a treasure trove of panels and pilots for new fall series and much more. Three popular series that got their start at ComicCon returned this year. Lost, with producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, and surprise guest star Harold Perrineau, took the giant Ballroom 20 stage late Thursday afternoon. Heroes returned with the entire cast in tow, plus creator Tim Kring, executive producer Jeph Loeb and comic superstar Tim Sale, for a standing-room-only panel on Saturday. (Yes … we learned our lesson. Next time Hall H is for Heroes.) Jericho, saved from cancellation by its fantastic fans, returned on Sunday with stars Skeet Ulrich, Ashley Scott, and Lennie James. The networks stole a page from all three of these series, which debuted their pilots at Comic-Con months before anyone saw them

on network TV. This year, Comic-Con had five new major series pilots that lucky attendees got to see: the new NBC series Chuck and Bionic Woman; ABC’s Pushing Daisies; the Kevin Smith-directed Reaper on The CW; and the Fox series, Sarah Connor Chronicles. Each of these pilot screenings also included talent from the shows. Other TV panels included a look at the new BBC America hit series Torchwood; USA’s The 4400; ABC Family’s Fallen and Kyle XY; CBS’s Moonlight; Fox’s 24, Family Guy, and American Dad; and The CW’s Supernatural and Smallville. Even Comedy Central’s Sarah Silverman got into the Comic-Con act with a Saturday night, no-holdsbarred panel. Crossover movie/TV/comics talent such as Matt Groening (who talked about the return of Futurama in a series of new direct-to-DVD

Left to right: Skeet Ulrich and Ashley Scott thank their fans for saving Jericho; Katee Sackhoff and Michelle Ryan showed the world premiere of the new Bionic Woman show; and Chi McBride talked about his new show, Pushing Daisies, also premiering at Comic-Con.

Heroes photo: Tom DeLeon; Jericho and McBride photos: Tina Gill; Bionic Woman photo: Kevin Green..

Comic-Con 2007 Left to right, Masi Oka, Adrian Pasdar, Greg Grunberg, and Sendhil Ramamurthy at the Heroes panel.

movies), Joss Whedon, and J. Michael Straczynski discussed their latest projects, including the latter’s new Babylon 5 DVD movie, The Lost Tales. SCI FI Channel presented panels devoted to their popular series Stargate: Atlantis, Eureka, Who Wants to be a Superhero?, Battlestar Galactica, and Flash Gordon, in addition to offering special Friday night screenings of new episodes of Eureka and Superhero. TV Guide’s “Hot List” (including Bionic Woman star Michelle Ryan, Heroes’ Tim Kring and Masi Oka, The 4400’s Billy Campbell and Ira S. Behr, and Jericho’s Skeet Ulrich), and “Super (natural) Women” panels were popular destinations for attendees The cartoon community was well represented with numerous panels. The Spectacular Spider-Man presented a first ever look at the new Kids’ WB series (which debuts in March 2008). WB Animation presented The Batman and Legion of Super-heroes and Sony brought back cartoonist Aaron McGruder to talk about the new season of The Boondocks. Cartoon Network featured Ed, Edd, and Eddy, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, The Grim Adventures of

Billy and Mandy, Class of 3000, My Gym Partner’s A Monkey, and Ben-10 in individual panels. Nickelodeon showcased their shows, The Mighty B!, Making Fiends, Avatar: The Last Airbender, El Tigre, and their new CG projects, Back at the Barnyard and Tak and the Power of Juju. Classic cartoons that many of us grew up watching on TV also were present with panels devoted to the new DVD release of Popeye, a Hanna-Barbera retrospective, and Filmation’s popular animated and live-action shows, Isis, Jason of Star Command, Bravestarr and more. Possibly the biggest animation-oriented event at Comic-Con this year was the world premiere of Superman Doomsday, the first in a series of new direct-to-DVD films from DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation. Bruce Timm anchored this special Thursday night event in Ballroom 20, with two screenings that presented the film to over 6,000 lucky fans, who got to see it months before it came out. In addition, Lionsgate debuted their new Marvel Comics DVD movie, Doctor Strange, to a capacity crowd on Friday night.

Left to right: Lucy Lawless on TV Guide’s “Super (natural) Women” panel; Lena Headey and Summer Glau showed the Sarah Connor Chronicles pilot; and fan-favorite Joss Whedon talked about comics, TV, movies and much more in his Q&A presentation on Saturday. Heroes photo: Kevin Green; Headey, Glau and Whedon photos: Barry Brown

Comic-Con 2007

Puttin’ on the Ritz! Comic-Con’s Masquerade continues to pack ‘em in!

1 Comic-Con 2007’s Masquerade Costume Competition, sponsored this year by GameTap, was the big event Saturday evening, with 49 entries in the show, making a total of 150 great costumes crossing the stage. Ballroom 20 was packed for the event, as were a number of overflow areas featuring live broadcasts of the show. The Masters of Ceremonies were award-winning artists and writers Phil Foglio and Kaja Foglio, and the panel of judges included theme park entertainment designer and former Broadway performer Diane Duncan, Dragon Dronet and Wanda Piety of the Renegade Effects Group of Hollywood, costume and prop-maker Max Cervantes of the Lexington Scenery Model Shop, and workmanship judge Jeanne Clason, a highly experienced convention costumer herself. Live entertainment was presented during intermission by the JING Institute of Chinese Martial Arts & Culture, and Cinema Insomnia host Mr. Eric Lobo and his troupe of performers. Congratulations to all the winners, and our thanks to all that competed, donated prizes, and judged, to the many performers of the JING Institute, and to Phil Foglio and Kaja Foglio of Studio Foglio for being terrific Masters of Ceremonies. An especially big thanks to the event sponsor, GameTap, whose website features an ever-expanding playground of video games from the arcade classics to console and PC hits. Visit them at www. gametap.com. 2007 Trophy Winners:

Best In Show: “HCC: Five Star Stories,” worn and made by A.J. Wu, Aimee Steinberger, Judith Grivich, Cheryll Del Rosario, and Tristen Citrine, with help from the HCC Transport Team.

Best Workmanship: “Doctor Who And Dalek,” worn by Robert and Li Kovacs, made by Robert Kovacs. (Photo below on right.)

Best Original Design: “Indian Medusa,” worn, designed, and made by M. Alice LeGrow.

Judges’ Choice: “World Of Warcraft—Raid Bosses,” worn and made by Maryssa Morris, Nessa Rigby, and Matt Miller.

Most Humorous: “Pinky And The Brain,” worn and made by Michael and Jennifer King, made by Jennifer King.

Best Re-creation: “Beetlejuice - Carousel & Hammer Hands,” made and worn by Mark Sherman.

Best Presentation: “Greasy Potter,” worn and made by Courtney Lorenz, Suzanne Beaudoin, Mike Beaudoin, Jennifer Dupray, Michelle Dupray,

2 38 Photos by Jerry Shaw

Most Beautiful: “Dawn And Death: From The Ashes,” worn and made by Dany Slone and Darieum Pagani. Best Novice Entry: “Jadis, the White Witch (from The Chronicles of Narnia),” worn and made by Avril Novelich. Best Young Fan: “Raiden vs. Reptile in Mortal Kombat,” worn by Rameal and Ry’n Nabeeh, made by Maria Nabeeh.

2007 Company Prize Winners Frank & Son Collectible Show, of Industry, CA, cash prize of $1,000 plus a solid crystal trophy for Audience Favorite: “Pinky and The Brain,” worn by Jennifer and Michael King, made by Jennifer King. DC Comics, $300 cash for Best DC Comics Re-creation: “Sandman: Dreams of Gaiman”, worn and made by Leah, Lily, Max, Dave, Taylor, Katie, Emily, Cameron, and Robert. Lucasfilm Ltd., special collectibles from the Lucas Licensing archives for Best Star Wars Costumers: “Desert Denizens of Tatooine,” worn by Gabriel and David Biffath, made by Gabriel, Robin and David Biffath; and runner-up “Rebel Dreams,” worn and made by Caitlin and Rogue Shindler, Cordelia Willis, and Kelly Bolton. Comic Gallery Stores of San Diego, $125 cash to their favorite entry: “Greasy Potter;” and $75 to their favorite Young Fan: “Batgirl”, worn by Arianna Muennich, made by Cynthia Muennich. Century Guild, choice of $200 in cash, or $500 in booth credit to Best Portrayal of Elements of Fantasy or Art Nouveau: “Indian Medusa,” designed, made, and worn by M. Alice LeGrow. Anime Pavilion, $150 booth credit to their Favorite Anime Costume: “HCC: Five Star Stories;” also $50 credit to runner-up “Lady Catarina from Trinity Blood,” worn and made by Jennifer Jaegg; and $40 credit to the best young fan anime costume, “Raiden vs. Reptile in Mortal Kombat”. Lynn Perry of Dark Desires, $150 cash to the Best Costume Inspired by Horror or Other Dark Genres: “Beetlejuice—Carousel and Hammer Hands.” made and worn by Mark Sherman. ConDor and Conjecture, San Diego’s annual science fiction conventions, presented to the Best First-time Solo Entry a “Con-Tour” prize package, consisting of memberships to Conjecture VI in 2007, ConDor XV in February of 2008, and Comic-Con International in 2008,

Comic-Con 2007

Eric Matias, Eric Craig, and Ryan Toner.

Honorable Mention For Textile Craftsmanship: “Charm Lord Orlouge (from Saga Frontier),” worn and made by Anne Kirn. Honorable Mention For Construction: “VR-52 Battler Cyclone,” worn and made by Blair Heald. Honorable Mention For Creativity: “Josie and the Pussycat Dolls Revue,” worn by Selina Kyle, Felecia Hardy, Kitty Pride, Cheetara, Gem Amtonelli, Josie James, Tony, Felix, and Cheshire; made by Liz Wellington, Laura Koyle, Jaime Coyle, Nathan Pata, and Mal Keller.

plus $100 in cash, to “Beetlejuice—Carousel and Hammer Hands”. The Testmarket Evolution, $100 to what they deemed the Best Anime Costume: “HCC Five Star Stories;” and $100 to the Best Video Game Costume: “Bright Side of Silent Hill.” worn and made by Kim Smith, Heather Knight, Rosie Heinberg, Laura Scoby, Jesse Saxon, Lauren Blakely, Sherri Tague, Diana Lebeda, Thea Teufel, and Evan Przydzial. AgentSakur9 Entertainment, dedicated to quality coverage and images of Cosplay and costuming on the Internet, bestowed a $200 award and a trophy for the Most Outstanding Costume, “Beetlejuice—Carousel and Hammer Hands”. Committed Comics, $200 to the Best Young Fan portraying a comic book character: “Boba Fett from Return of the Jedi,” worn by Mitchell Peters, made by Mitchell and Jon Peters; $100 to their choice for Best First-time Entry: “Huntress,” worn by Tiffany Valverde, made by Xavier Valverde. Capcom, the international video game publisher and developer, $250 Best Buy certificate plus a gift pack of their video games and figurines, to the Best Video Game Character: “VG Ultimate Battle,” worn by Rook Kelly, Dan Greenblatt, Joey Hall, Preston Hall, C.J. Thomas, and Lauren Dunn; designed and made by Rose Xavier, and Lauren Dunn, and D.J Surfrat. The Costume Designer’s Guild, Local 892, the organization of professional motion picture costume designers, a “Guided Set Visit” for two to a Hollywood soundstage or location shooting of a current TV series or film, plus $100 cash, to their favorite entry: “Amaterasu, Where Are You?” worn and made by The Anything Goes School of Masquerade Arts: Wayne Kaa, Henry Lee, Lance Ikegawa, Lydia Chen, Michelle and Kimberly Kwon, Amber Dawn, and Jackson Cole. Mattel and Hot Wheels, a prize pack of special collectibles worth over $300 to the best costume from the Batman universe: “Batgirl,” worn by Arianna Muennich; made by Cynthia Muennich.

1 39

Comic-Con 2007

Eisner Awards Shine Spotlight on Comic Industry’s Best

Left to right: the evening started with a kiss (and the kisses came on comin’) as MC Bill Morrison welcomed The Go-Go’s Jane Wiedlin on stage to help with the festivities; Eisner winner Alison Bechdel; Best Writer recipient Ed Brubaker accepts his award; and 2006 Hall of Fame winner Ramona Fradon picked up her trophy and was gallantly escorted across the stage by Sergio Aragonés.

The 19th annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards were handed out on Friday, July 27 at Comic-Con in a rollicking, fast-paced ceremony MC’d by Bongo Comics’ Bill Morrison, aided onstage by actress/ musician Jane Wiedlin of Go-Gos fame. (A complete list of winners is featured on the next page.) Presenters ran the gamut from Eisner nominees such as Gaiman, Bechdel, Pope, Thompson, Eric Powell, and Ellen Forney to TV celebs Tom Lennon and Robert Ben Garant of Reno 911, voice actors Maurice LaMarche (Pinky and the Brain) and John DiMaggio (Futurama), stand-up comedian Brian Posehn (The Sarah Silverman Show), and BBC talk show legend Jonathan Ross. All the presenters were brought on stage with specialized theme songs, a new element to the awards. Bechdel and Forney celebrated the record number of female Eisner nominees by re-creating the famous Madonna-Britney Spears kiss. Eric Powell and copresenter Dwight T. Albatross delighted audiences with their suggestions for spicing up the Eisners, including awarding wrestling-style belts to the winners. Lennon and Garant had the audience in stitches by talking about how Hollywood shouldn’t be co-opting the comics at Comic-Con (“It’s all about the comics!”) and then plugging their film Balls of Fury. And Jonathan Ross capped the night by emulating Bechdel and Forney’s smooch, planting a big kiss on a very red Neil Gaiman. Sergio Aragonés once again presented the Hall of Fame awards. Dick Ayers, known for his Silver Age western and war comics art, was present to accept. Also inducted into the Hall of Fame were Ross

Andru & Mike Esposito, Wayne Boring, Robert Kanigher, Joe Orlando, and Ogden Whitney. Ramona Fradon, who was a 2006 inductee but wasn’t on hand to get it, received her award a year late, to a standing ovation. Among the other awards given out over the evening were Comic-Con’s Clampett and Manning awards. The Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, presented by Bob’s daughter Ruth, went to Neil Gaiman for his years of work raising money for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and other causes. The Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award was presented to David Petersen, writer/artist of Mouse Guard, published by Archaia Studios Press. The third annual Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing was presented by Mark Evanier and Paul Dini to seminal DC writer Gardner Fox (accepted by Roy Thomas) and to Archie Comics and Sabrina co-creator George Gladir, who was on hand to receive the award. Maggie Thompson once again handled the special In Memoriam salute. The major sponsor for the 2007 Eisner Awards is mycomicsshop.com. The principal sponsors are Century Guild, Comickaze, Diamond Comic Distributors, Gentle Giant, and Quebecor. Supporting sponsors are Alternate Reality Comics (Las Vegas), Atlantis Fantasyworld (Santa Cruz, CA), Comic Relief—The Comic Bookstore (Berkeley, CA), comicsunlimited.com, Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff (Concord, CA), Golden Apple (Los Angeles, CA), Isotope (San Francisco), and Strange Adventures (Halifax, Nova Scotia). Ballots were tabulated by Mel Thompson and Associates. Jackie Estrada is the Eisner Awards administrator.

40 Morrison/Wiedlin photo by Adrian Velasquez; Bechdel photo by Tom DeLeon; Brubaker and Fradon photos by Tina Gill

Best Short Story “A Frog’s Eye View,” by Bill Willingham and James Jean, in Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (Vertigo/DC) Best Single Issue (or One-Shot) Batman/The Spirit #1: “Crime Convention,” by Jeph Loeb and Darwyn Cooke (DC) Best Continuing Series All Star Superman, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (DC) Best Limited Series Batman: Year 100, by Paul Pope (DC) Best New Series Criminal, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Marvel Icon) Best Title for a Younger Audience Gumby, by Bob Burden and Rick Geary (Wildcard) Best Humor Publication Flaming Carrot Comics, by Bob Burden (Desperado/Image) Best Anthology Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, by Bill Willingham and various (Vertigo/DC) Best Digital Comic Sam and Max, by Steve Purcell, http://telltalegames com/community/comics samandmax/issue-3 Best Reality-Based Work Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel (Houghton Mifflin) Best Graphic Album—New American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang (First Second)

Comic-Con 2007

2007 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards

Best Cover Artist James Jean, Fables, Jack of Fables, Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (Vertigo/DC) Best Coloring Dave Stewart, BPRD, Conan, The Escapists, Hellboy (Dark Horse); Action Comics, Batman/The Spirit, Superman (DC) Best Lettering Todd Klein, Fables, Jack of Fables, Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall; Pride of Baghdad, Testament (Vertigo/DC); Fantastic Four: 1602, Eternals (Marvel); Lost Girls (Top Shelf) Special Recognition Hope Larson, Gray Horses (Oni) Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism Alter Ego, edited by Roy Thomas (TwoMorrows) Best Comics-Related Book The Art of Brian Bolland, edited by Joe Pruett (Desperado/Image) Best Publication Design Absolute DC: The New Frontier, designed by Darwyn Cooke (DC) Hall of Fame Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Dick Ayers, Wayne Boring, Joe Orlando Judges’ Choices (2): Robert Kanigher, Ogden Whitney Other Awards: Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comics Writing: Gardner Fox, George Gladir Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award: David Petersen, writer/artist of Mouse Guard Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award: Neil Gaiman

Best Graphic Album—Reprint Absolute DC: The New Frontier, by Darwyn Cooke (DC)

Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailing Award: Earth-2, Sherman Oaks, CA (see next page for details)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips The Complete Peanuts, 1959–1960, 1961–1962, by Charles Schulz (Fantagraphics)

Inkpot Awards: Allen Bellman, Renée French, Gary Friedrich, Adam Hughes, Miriam Katin, Mel Keefer, Joseph Michael Linsner, David Morrell, Lily Renée Phillips, Mike Ploog, Dan Vado, Mark Verheiden, F. Paul Wilson

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books Absolute Sandman, vol. 1, by Neil Gaiman and various (Vertigo/DC) Best U.S. Edition of International Material The Left Bank Gang, by Jason (Fantagraphics) Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan Old Boy, by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi (Dark Horse Manga) Best Writer Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Daredevil (Marvel); Criminal (Marvel Icon) Best Writer/Artist Paul Pope, Batman: Year 100 (DC) Best Writer/Artist—Humor Tony Millionaire, Billy Hazelnuts (Fantagraphics); Sock Monkey: The Inches Incident (Dark Horse) Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team Mark Buckingham/Steve Leialoha, Fables (Vertigo/DC) Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art) Jill Thompson, “A Dog and His Boy” in The Dark Horse Book of Monsters; “Love Triangle” in Sexy Chix (Dark Horse); “Fair Division,” in Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (Vertigo/DC)

Neil Gaiman and the BBC’s Jonathan Ross were amongst the evening’s big hit celebrity presenters. Photo by Tom DeLeon

Comic-Con 2007

The Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award

Each year, Comic-Con honors retailers from around the globe with the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, named after the visionary creator of The Spirit. Will wanted to acknowledge the important role that comic retailers play in the industry and how they nurture the relationship between the creators and their readers. The award is given to retailers who have done an outstanding job of supporting the comic medium in both the industry at large and their local community. (See the “Call for Nominations” ballot on the next page for a complete list of criteria for the award and the opportunity to nominate your choice for 2008.) The 2007 recipient is Earth-2 Comics of Sherman Oaks, CA. The nominees for the award are selected by a group of industry professionals and facilitated by retailer Joe Ferrara (Atlantis Fantasyworld, Santa Cruz, CA), a past recipient. This year’s committee included Joe Field (Flying Color, Concord, CA), Ryan Claytor (Elephant Eater Comics), Dave Hawksworth (Diamond Comics Distributors), David Gabriel (Sr. VP, Publishing Sales and Circulation, Marvel Comics), and Richard Neal (last year’s Spirit Award winner, Zeus Toys and Comics, Dallas, TX). The award was presented at the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards on Friday, July 27. Earth-2 Comics was established in 2003 by entertainment industry veterans Carr D’Angelo and Jud Meyers. Both were lifelong comic book fans and named the store Earth-2 after the home planet of the legendary Golden Age heroes from DC Comics. CCI: What does winning the Eisner Award mean to you as retailers? Jud: Comic book retail stores represent a small, but

Photos by Carr D’Angelo

growing part of the worldwide retail environment. To be recognized and placed in the company of some of the best comic stores in the world is a great honor for us. We have a great passion for our product, our store, our employees and our customers. CCI: How is Earth-2 involved in your local community? Jud: We work with teachers at local high schools (and colleges), helping them put comics into the curriculum for their special education readers. We give “textbook” discounts to teachers and students who use graphic novels as tools for their class projects. We’ve given thousands of dollars worth of product to our local children’s hospitals, helping sick kids to revitalize themselves through the joy of comics. Currently, we’re helping to build a library for the Penny Lane Youth Foundation Orphanage. We’ve raised thousands of dollars for the project (which is nearly built) and plan to keep the shelves fully stocked with comics, graphic novels and young adult books. CCI: Someone walks into your store who has never read comics and is interested in getting started. What do you recommend? Carr: If they watch Heroes, we might show them one of the great Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale books like Spider-Man: Blue or Batman: The Long Halloween, great stories that don’t require you to know decades of continuity. If they’ve been reading about graphic novels in the New York Times Book Review, then we might suggest American Born Chinese or Fun Home or Persepolis. We work hard to match the book to the customer because we want them to enjoy the experience and come back for more. An extended version of this interview appears at www.comic-con.org.

Call For Nominations The Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, presented under the auspices of Comic-Con International: San Diego, is given to an individual retailer who has done an outstanding job of supporting the comics art medium both in the community and within the industry at large.

GUIDELINES

for nomination include: • Any retailer established in business for at least two years is eligible to be nominated. • Anyone—retailers, professionals, fans— may place a name in nomination. • A panel of industry judges selects a group of finalists to be subjected to an in-depth examination based on the award criteria. • Winners will be announced as part of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards at Comic-Con International 2008. • Previous winners are not eligible for nomination.

CRITERIA

for judging include: • Support of a wide variety of innovative material. Providing opportunities for creators’ material to reach buyers; stocking a diverse inventory. • Knowledge. Working to stay informed on retailing as well as on the comics field. • Community activity. Promoting comics to the community; maintaining relationships with schools and libraries; keeping active in social, business, and arts community organizations. • Quality of store image. Innovative display approaches; using store design creatively. • Adherence to standard ethical business practices.

2008 SPIRIT OF COMICS AWARD NOMINATING BALLOT I place the following name in nomination for the 2008 Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award. I understand that only retailers whose business has been established for at least two years are eligible for nomination and that any nominees found not to adhere to standard ethical business practices will be disqualified. PLEASE PRINT OR TYPE

Retailer’s Name________________________________________________________________________ Store Name____________________________________________Store Phone #____________________ Complete Store Address__________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ PROVIDE BRIEF STATEMENTS HOW YOUR NOMINEE EXCELS IN EACH OF THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES. USE ADDITIONAL SHEETS IF NECESSARY.

Support of a wide variety of innovative material ______________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Knowledge_____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Community activity______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Quality of store image____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Additional comments_____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

BALLOTS MUST BE RECEIVED BY APRIL 18, 2008 • Mail to: Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, c/o Comic-Con International, P. O. Box 128458, San Diego, CA 92112 or fax to: 619-414-1022

Comic-Con 2007

The Art of Comic-Con Three important parts of the event help give Comic-Con its distinctive artistic ﬂavor! One of the biggest components of Comic-Con is its focus on comic art. Each year, the event hosts three separate areas that showcase art at the event: Artists’ Alley, the Art Auction, and the Art Show.

Artists’ Alley Each year, Comic-Con’s Artists’ Alley remains one of the most popular destinations in the Exhibit Hall. Filled with some of the best known artists in comics, selling everything from original art, sketches, and exclusive limited-edition prints and sketchbooks, Artists’ Alley gives the Comic-Con attendee the chance to interact with some of their favorite creators. At left, comic book artist Bob Hall at his table in the ComicCon 2007 Artists’ Alley.

Art Auction

Above, Star Wars artists Tom Hodges and Matt Busch donated this “Clone Wars” piece to Comic-Con’s Art Auction.

Photos by Clydene Nee

Over 100 artists contributed art to the Art Auction this year, which moved to the Sails Pavilion upstairs next to registration. Jim Lee’s piece, which included Batman, Catwoman and Poison Ivy, brought in the highest price ever for the Auction at $5,100. This is the fourth year in a row that Jim’s art has been the top seller. Comic-Con special guest Joe Jusko contributed a Batman painting—one of the very few Batmans the artist has ever painted—which brought in $2,700 (see page 19 for a photo of Jusko with his painting). New contributors to the auction included Jay Anacleto, (a piece from his book Aria), and Leinil Francis Yu, (a fully painted Hulk). Other contributing artists included Sue Dawe (a fully painted and color pencil Boromir— Sean Bean—from Lord of the Rings); and Matt Busch and Tom Hodges (an original Star Wars Clone Wars piece). Many licensed Star Wars artists (including Dave Seeley, Cat Staggs, and Jerry Vanderstelt) donated prints from Star Wars Celebration IV and

For many Comic-Con attendees, the Art Show is one of the first places they visit. Situated right next to the registration area, this oasis of art gives Comic-Con attendees their first look at the wonders to come. In 2007, the Art Show experienced its biggest year ever, with close to 25 new artists participating in the event, bringing the total number of artists to 149. 1,731 pieces of art were displayed, and 547 were sold and went home with their new lucky Two of the impressive series of statues by William C. Mang, which were owners. The art included part of Comic-Con 2007’s Art Show. many originals, prints and computer-generated pieces celebrating some of Comic-Con’s special themes and anniversaries, including the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. Once again, 3-D art objects, such as jewelry, costumes and clothing, woodcarvings, and sculptures, all figured prominently into the Art Show. In addition to hosting displays for the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame and the nominees for the 2007 Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards, the Art Show also was home for 21 original paintings from the Family Guy animated TV series, part of a world tour by the ACME Archives Group. Another impressive 2007 addition was a series of stainless steel sculptures by William C. Mang, four of which were 6’ tall and weighed over 300 pounds each.

Comic-Con 2007

Art Show

Celebration Europe. Original sculptures were also donated by Brandon and Jarrod Shiflett (an Incredible Hulk piece), and Angela Talbot (a very lifelike Poltergeist piece titled “Cain”). Comic-Con wishes to thank all the artists and companies who donated to this year’s Art Auction. Their generous contributions raised over $24,000, which is used to defray the costs of assistance to attendees with special needs. These services include sign language interpreters for the deaf. Comic-Con deeply appreciates the contributions of the artists who donate both their valuable time and art and to the fans who bid on this work.

At right, artist Ken Meyer Jr. working on a Harry Potter piece for the Art Auction. Meyer created the piece “live” in the Sails Pavilion while Comic-Con attendees watched. Art Show photo by LaFrance Bragg; Art Auction photo by Clydene Nee

Comic-Con 2007

Anime Sets the World on Fire! Comic-Con fans treated to screenings of new and upcoming releases! 150 different Japanese animation titles were screened at Comic-Con 2007, an incredible schedule that featured old favorites, new titles and recent releases, plus a great selection of previews of upcoming titles. Anime fans at Comic-Con were treated to four full days of screenings in three different rooms. Those popular upcoming titles included first looks at Guardian of the Sacred Spirits, Story of Saiunkoku, Air TV, Innocent Venus, Magikano, Project Blue, Pumpkin Scissors, Red Garden, The Wallflower, Tokyo Majin, Welcome to the NHK, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Karas 2, School Rumble, Witchblade, and The Third: The Girl With The Blue Eye. Comic-Con insiders know that all the major anime companies offer an incredible assortment of old and new titles at the event and this area of programming continues to gather new fans every year. In addition to the screenings, many of the biggest anime and manga companies were present in ComicCon’s Exhibit Hall, including ADV Films, AnimEigo, Broccoli Books, Dark Horse Comics, Funimation Entertainment, Media-Blasters, Seven Seas Entertainment, Starz, Tokyopop, UDON Entertainment Corp., and VIZ Media.

Gaming Continues to Evolve at Comic-Con! Convention within a convention more popular than ever! The world of gaming continues to be an important part of ComicCon each year. 2007 saw massive participation in Comic-Con’s two gaming outposts, on the mezzanine at the Convention Center and at the Marriott Hotel next door. In addition, EVOWest 2007 was held during Comic-Con, across the street at the Omni Hotel, offering videogaming fans some awesome opportunities to strut their stuff in tournament style action. Once again, numerous tournaments took place at ComicCon, including those devoted to Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, Tekken 5, and Anachronism. Both the novice and seasoned player were able to participate in gaming, with demos and other fun events held both in Comic-Con’s designated rooms and at booths in the Exhibit Hall. And gaming was well represented in the hall with both traditional RPG and collectible card and videogame companies, including Blizzard Entertainment, Capcom, Chessex, Crystal Caste, EA Mythic, Foundation 9 Entertainment, GameTap, Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, Hidden City Games, Konami, NCSoft, Pokemon, Press Pass, Privateer Press, Score Entertainment, Shadowstar Games, Sony Playstation, TC Digital Games, Telltale Pokémon was just one of the Games, THQ, and Wizkids. popular gaming destinations at Comic-Con!

Films: For Your Eyes Only! Comic-Con’s film screenings rock into the wee hours of the morning! It’s an annual rite of passage for most Comic-Con attendees: staying up late to watch movies with a few hundred of your newest close friends! Comic-Con’s film program once again offered a great schedule of genre-related films to keep con-goers up all night, at both the Convention Center and the Marriott Marina and Hotel, ComicCon’s official headquarters hotel. 2007’s schedule included a zombie night (Night of the Living Dead, Land of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, and Night of the Comet), a salute to those popular Disney swashbucklers with the first two Pirates of the Caribbean films, and a special emphasis on comics-related super-hero films (X-Men, Superman, Hellboy, Ghost Rider, etc.). As always, these films are included free with your Comic-Con membership, but you have to be a pre-registered four-day member to get the schedule in advance … just another great reason to register now!

Photo by Tony Amat

Comic-Con 2007

Eyes on the Prize! Comic-Con’s Portfolio Review offers advice … and maybe your big break! Many people come to Comic-Con each year looking for that big break in comics or related pop culture industries. The place they start their journey is Portfolio Review, located next to the Autograph Area in the Sails Pavilion. There they find numerous companies searching not only for comics’ next superstar, but also looking for artists for animation, manga, game design, action figure sculpting, storyboards, and much more. In 2007, the following companies took part in Comic-Con’s Portfolio Review: Arch Enemy Entertainment, The Boondocks, Cartoon Network Studios, CinemaGraphix Entertainment, College for Creative Studies, Dark Horse, Digital Manga, Go! Comi, High Impact Games, High Moon Studios, IMPACT Books/F+W Publications, JMP Creative, Lucas Licensing, Marvel Entertainment, McFarlane Toys (seen at right reviewing a portfolio), Midway Games, PicturePlane, QEW Publishing, Secret Level, Smorgasbord Productions, Tokyopop, and Wizards of the Coast. Some companies were actively seeking new employees; others offered a helpful hand with an honest evaluation of portfolios. In addition to this list, many companies also looked at portfolios at their booths. (DC Comics offered a mandatory portfolio review seminar on Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings, which helped explain exactly what they were looking for). Next year, bring along your portfolio and put your best foot forward. You never know … that big break could be waiting for you at Comic-Con!

I Know That Dude! Comic-Con’s Autograph Area showcases celebrities galore!

Comics superstar Warren Ellis made a rare Comic-Con appearance. He’s seen here in the Autograph Area, signing his new book, Crooked Little Vein, which debuted the week of the event.

For many Comic-Con attendees, the Autograph Area represents a veritable convention in a convention. Here’s the chance to meet and greet one—or more!—of your favorite celebrities and get their autograph on that special item. This year, the star-studded line-up included luminaries such as author Holly Black, actors Claudia Christian, Kathy Garver, Richard Hatch, Herbert Jefferson Jr., Kelli Maroney, Denny Miller, Erin Moran, Mike Nelson, Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson, Katey Sagal, Marc Singer, Brinke Stevens, wrestler Rob Van Dam, Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go’s, and FX legend Stan Winston. In addition, the Autograph Area served as “signing central” for Comic-Con’s incredible schedule of programs and special events. Some of the guests and panel participants signed in the Sails Pavilion after their programs, and many signings had special free and for sale items that you could have had signed right before your very eyes. Ray Bradbury, Darwyn Cooke, Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, Laurell K. Hamilton, Stan Lee, Todd McFarlane, R. A. Salvatore, and J. Michael Straczynski all took time to sign for their fans in the Autograph Area in 2007. Portfolio review photo by Kevin Green; Ellis photo by Adrian Velazquez

Comic-Con 2007

Comic-Con’s Giant Exhibit Hall! 460,000 square feet of pure pop culture pleasure!

We could fill an entire issue of the Update with just photos from the Exhibit Hall, but here’s just a few from 2007: Top left: the giant DC Comics booth; bottom left: many mateys shivered their timbers when they saw this giant recreation from the Pirates of the Caribbean; and above: the Lucasfilm booth was a treasure trove of cool stuff, including an exhibit of Darth Vader helmets all dressed up.

Action Figures in Action! Comic-Con was THE place for exclusive items and special programs! Comic-Con was once again a giant hot bed of exclusive action figures and items, many of them appearing only at the 2007 event. The list is too numerous to mention here, but at least 31 companies featured close to 100 exclusive items (that we know of—the number could actually be much higher!). Beyond the great exclusives in the Exhibit Hall, Comic-Con featured many special programs devoted to the world of action figures and collectibles. Hasbro discussed their Marvel, Star Wars, and Transformers lines; Sideshow Collectibles took attendees from “concept to collectible”; DC Direct talked about its upcoming World of Warcraft series; Diamond Select Toys offered info on its popular Minimates; and Mattel, McFarlane Toys, and Shocker Toys all presented their own panels. Once again, Action Figure Insider took us “behind the plastic” with some of the most popular sculptors and designers in the action figure biz, and Action Figure Times also held a company-crossing event. The world of action figures was action-packed at Comic-Con 2007!

This set of Marvel Zombie Minimates from Diamond Select Toys was just one of the many exclusive items available at Comic-Con!

Only at Comic-Con: hoist that goodie bag and fill it up!

Comic-Con 2007

SWAG: Stuff We All Get!

All that stuff seen above? Given away FREE at Comic-Con! And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Each year, Comic-Con features an incredible amount of totally free stuff. It starts with that first trip around the massive Freebie Table upstairs in the Sails Pavilion, right next to the registration area and Art Show. Attendees start to load up the minute they come in the door! It didn’t stop there! Down in the Exhibit Hall, many companies offered free posters, flyers, bags, masks, t-shirts, and more stuff than you could possibly carry home in one trip. This year’s most visible freebie was this giant cloth bag from Warner Bros., big enough to place a small-sized person inside (if you so desired, and yes, we saw this happen), or make into overalls or a chic dress (as enterprising attendees, like the young woman at right, promptly did!).

Comic-Con 2007

Volunteers Make the Comic-Con World Go ‘round! It’s true … we couldn’t do this show without you! Close to 1,300 volunteers helped make Comic-Con 2007 a huge success. The idea is simple: you volunteer three hours of your time and we give you a free one-day membership on the day you work. Those hearty souls who worked shifts on all four days got a special bonus, the exclusive Comic-Con Volunteer T-shirt, not available anywhere else. This year’s edition featured exclusive art from the Comic-Con world premiere of Superman Doomsday (pictured above). What did all those people do as volunteers? The jobs ranged from making sure the Freebie Tables stayed stocked and neat, to working with the Programming room staff as runners, with numerous other duties in between. No experience is necessary—all you have to be is 16 years of age or older—and many volunteers who like their jobs go on to become volunteer staff members, dedicated to various departments during the run of the event. 2007 was Comic-Con’s best year yet and volunteers helped make it happen. See page 56 for information on volunteering for Comic-Con 2008!

Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive Sets New Record! Comic-Con donors help save lives! In 2007, the Robert A Heinlein Blood Drive expanded to cover all four days of Comic-Con International. This year’s response was phenomenal. Once again, Comic-Con attendees generous donations made the Blood Drive the second largest in San Diego County. The San Diego Blood Bank collected a new record: 841 pints of blood, which beat last year’s Comic-Con record by 249 pints! Since its inception in 1977, the overall total for the Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive has been 6,468 pints. Comic-Con wishes to thank the following companies and organizations who helped make the 2007 Blood Drive so incredibly successful: Diamond Select Toys provided donors with exclusive and limited Buffy, Dawn, Wesley, and Spike figures from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Jean-Luc Picard from the “Tapestry” episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Tokyopop donated advance copies of Trinity Blood: Rage Against The Moons by Sunao Yoshida, published for the first time in English. Yoshida’s novels inspired a gripping manga series and one of the most anticipated anime releases in recent years. The Heinlein Society supplied donors with a heart-shaped cloisonne SF lapel pin. Comic-Con International provided a large variety of graphic novels, comics, and other freebies for the goodie bags. San Diego Blood Bank furnished donors with a free Blood Drive T shirt. Exhibitors and Comic-Con staff donated prizes for the Donor’s Drawing that was held each evening. Winning numbers were posted at the Blood Drive Booth in the Sails Pavilion. Among the dozens of prizes given away each day were free passes to the San Diego Zoo, signed books, collectibles, and other wonderful prizes.

The Attendees

The Volunteers! Who: John Dejesus and Joe Ramirez Where: In line for on site volunteer registratio n; they didn’t know on e another until we too k this picture. Why: Volunteers ro

ck!

How many years ha ve you guys volunteere d? John: Four years, and I’ve been atten ding for eight. I’m he the full four-days. re for Joe: This is my seco nd year. I’m here jus t for today but I’d co even if I wasn’t getti me to Comic-Con ng a free pass [for volunteering]. Why volunteer? John: I wanted to ge t in when I was six teen and had a blast programming, so I [working in] just kept coming ba ck. Joe: I know there’s a lot of work involv ed in running the co to help out. n, so I want What are you guys into at Comic-Con? John: I’m here mo stly for movies, anim e, manga, games, tra any games. ding card games— Joe: I am a comic bo ok collector. I’ve be en collecting X-Men Marvel. for years. Mostly Why didn’t you guys pre-register to volun teer? Joe: It completely slipped my mind, bu t I really wanted to though I’m not pre-r do this. So even egistered I just decid ed to go ahead and do it onsite. John: I’m kind of su rprised that Saturd ay sold out, Friday’s go there are more volun ing to, and now teers. [Next year] I’m going to sign up ea have to go through rlier so I don’t any additional head aches.

Interview photo by Barry Brown; background photo by Kevin Green

The Board of Directors, Committee and Staff sincerely thank the following sponsors

for their support and partnership of the 38th Comic-Con International.

Comic-Con 2008

Comic-Con 2008: July 24-27! Register online NOW for next year’s show!

Comic-Con 2008 is closer than you think! We’re already working on next year’s big event including a great initial lineup of special guests (see pages 54-55 for more details). ComicCon 2007 featured over 360 separate programs totaling over 450 hours over the four-day weekend, and that’s not counting other areas of programming such as anime, film screenings and gaming! 2008 will be another big year for Comic-Con, its 39th, to be exact, and it’s important you register now if you’re interested in attending. Visit www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_reg. shtml to register online. We’re currently offering four-day memberships, which include Preview Night on Wednesday, July 23. (Single day memberships will be available only online as we get closer to the event.) 2008’s dates are July 24-27 at the San Diego Convention Center in beautiful downtown San Diego, one of the country’s best vacation destinations. Don’t miss out! Register now online for the quickest and easiest way to get your membership or send in the Multi-Purpose Form on the inside back cover of this publication. The Masquerade returns to Comic-Con in 2008. Interested contestants can obtain complete information and an entry form by visiting www.comic-con.org or by emailing the Masquerade Coordinator at cci-info@comic-con.org (please type “Comic-Con Masquerade” in the subject line).

Comic-Con 2008

Comic-Con 2008 Special Guests Once again, Comic-Con presents an incredibly diverse guest list including writers and artists from the worlds of comics and science fiction/fantasy/horror. The following special guests are confirmed for ComicCon 2008, with many more to come! Sergio Aragonés The world’s fastest cartoonist returns to ComicCon as one of the show’s most popular guests. Sergio Aragonés continues to tell the tales of his wandering barbarian, Groo, and has recently become the newly named co-writer on the DC Comics series Will Eisner’s The Spirit, along with collaborator Mark Evanier. Frank Beddor Writer/producer/actor Frank Beddor’s second novel in the New York Times best-selling “Looking Glass

Frank Beddor

Ed Brubaker Ed Brubaker had the comics story of the year when he killed off Captain America, a move that got much attention in the mainstream media. His career includes a long stint with tBatman of characters, including the award-winning Gotham Central, along with Greg Rucka and frequent collaborator Michael Lark. And Brubaker’s three monthly Marvel titles—Cap, Daredevil, and his creatorowned Criminal with Sean Phillips—garnered him the 2007 Eisner Award for Best Writer.

Brubaker photo by Tom DeLeon

Howard Chaykin In 2008, writer/artist Howard Chaykin celebrates the 25th anniversary of his groundbreaking comics creation American Flagg! Chaykin’s 30-plus years in comics has seen him relaunch such seminal characters as The Shadow and Blackhawks, plus

Ed Brubaker

Trilogy,” Seeing Redd, has just been published. His film producing credits include the hit comedy, There’s Something About Mary, and the Looking Glass story has made its mark in comics, too, with Hatter M. Beddor’s re-imagining of the Alice In Wonderland story continues this Fall with a lavishly illustrated scrapbook, Princess Alyss of Wonderland, due out in November.

Eddie Campbell For over 25 years, Eddie Campbell has gathered an international following for his work, along with nearly every honor in the comics field, including the Eisner, Ignatz, and Harvey Awards. He co-created and drew From Hell with writer Alan Moore, and his other works include the Eyeball Kid, Bacchus, and a number of books featuring his autobiographical character, Alec. His latest work includes a pair of graphic novels for First Second: The Fate of the Artist and The Black Diamond Detective Agency.

Eddie Campbell

launch—along with writer Roy Thomas—the comic version of Star Wars. His career also includes work in television (including The Flash and Viper). Recently, he’s worked for DC (Challengers of the Unknown, Hawkgirl), Vertigo (Bite Club, American Century), and Marvel (Blade, Wolverine). Kim Deitch Regarded as one of the godfathers of the Underground comix movement, Kim Deitch’s illustrious career in cartooning has covered 40 years. Beginning with the East Village Other in the late 60s, Deitch, the son of famed animator/illustrator Gene Deitch, has continued to craft elaborate graphic novels around some of his passions, including silent movies and Waldo the Cat. Recent works include The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Shadowland, and his latest graphic novel, Alias the Cat. Mark Evanier Writer for comics, animation and television, blogger, panel moderator and now biographer! Mark

Paul Gulacy Best known for his incredible run on Master of Kung Fu in the 70s, Paul Gulacy’s 30+ years in comics include work for all the major companies, including DC Comics, Marvel Comics and Dark Horse. Gulacy’s stylish, detailed, and cinematic art has graced such characters as Batman, Catwoman, The Terminator, and James Bond, among others. In addition, Gulacy drew one of the first American graphic novels, Sabre, written by Don McGregor, and first published by Eclipse Comics in 1978. His latest work includes two Marvel mini series: Squadron Supreme: Hyperion vs. Nighthawk, and Penance: Relentless.

Kim Deitch

Comic-Con 2008

Evanier’s latest book is a massive art tome devoted to his mentor, friend and one-time employer, (Jack) Kirby: King of Comics. Evanier returns to ComicCon to moderate another slew of panels, including— undoubtedly—a tribute to Kirby and the ever-popular “Quick Draw!”

the Year. His work includes Hominids (Hugo Award winner for Best Novel), The Terminal Experiment (Nebula Award winner for Best Novel) and his latest, Rollback, published in 2007. This is his first appearance at Comic-Con. Joe Staton Prolific and versatile, Inkpot and Eisner Award winner Joe Staton has, since 1971, drawn everything from The Incredible Hulk, to Scooby Doo, to Classics Illustrated, including two strong runs on Green Lantern. In the early 70s, Joe co-created E-Man with Nicola Cuti at Charlton Comics. Joe is also credited as co-creator of The Huntress, The Omega Men, and several members of the Green Lantern Corps, all from DC. In addition to the return of E-Man from Digital Webbing, Joe is also doing a Femme Noir mini-series with Chris Mills from Ape Entertainment and is taking his shot at re-imagining the Archie gang.

Robert J. Sawyer

Joe Staton

Bryan Hitch British artist Bryan Hitch is most famous for his work on Marvel’s The Ultimates, along with writer Mark Millar. His American comics work includes JLA, and his co-creation (with writer Warren Ellis) of WildStorm’s The Authority. One of the most popular artists in comics today, Hitch has reunited with Mark Millar to take over Fantastic Four for Marvel in 2008.

Ethan Van Sciver Ethan Van Sciver is best known for his work on the mini series that brought back Hal Jordan, Green Lantern: Rebirth. He’s also penciled Superman/ Batman and is the cover artist on the special issues introducing readers to the new Green Lantern nemesis, The Sinestro Corps. In addition to being one of DC’s top cover artists, Van Sciver has produced work for Marvel Comics, most notably on X-Men.

Robert J. Sawyer Hailed as the “dean of Canadian science fiction” writers, Robert J. Sawyer is a Hugo and Nebula award-winning author. The only writer in history to win the top science-fiction awards in the United States, China, France, Japan, and Spain, Sawyer has also won a record-setting nine Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards (“Auroras”). In 2006, his novel, Mindscan, won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (the world’s top juried prize for Science Fiction) for Best Science Fiction Novel of

Connie Willis One of the most honored science fiction writers of the 80s and 90s, Connie Willis’ awards include nine Hugos and six Nebula Awards. Her work includes Lincoln’s Dreams, Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and her latest D.A. (in collaboration with J.K. Potter), and The Winds of Marble Arch. This is her first appearance at Comic-Con. More guests are coming to Comic-Con in 2008! Visit www.comic-con.org for updated information!

Comic-Con 2008

It’s Never Too Early To Volunteer! Sign up NOW online to be a part of Comic-Con 2008! You can volunteer now for Comic-Con 2008. It’s a great way to see the show for free by working a simple three-hour per day shift; the day you work is the day you get in for free. Those who work all four days get the limited edition Comic-Con Volunteer T-shirt (see page 49 for a look at 2007’s exclusive shirt; each year’s is different and highly collectible). Volunteers must be at least 16 years of age. You can sign up online to volunteer for Comic-Con 2008 at www.comic-con.org. Just follow the simple directions. If you’ve volunteered in previous years and wish to do so again, we ask that you please register online for 2008.

Comic-Con 2008: July 24-27

Breaking News!

Neil Gaiman Receives Comic-Con Icon Award on National TV! As this issue of the Update went to press, famed comics/movie/fiction writer Neil Gaiman was poised to receive the second annual ComicCon Icon Award as part of Spike TV’s Scream Awards. This award show acknowledges comics as an art form and an important part of pop culture. Comic-Con awards the Icon Award to those individuals or organizations that are instrumental in bringing comics to a wider audience, the hallmark of the event’s mission statement. Gaiman, whose work includes the award-winning Sandman series of comics, the books American Gods and Anansi Boys, and movies based on his works Stardust and Coraline, is also the writer of the CGanimated Beowulf due in theaters in November, and scheduled to bring his own Vertigo character, Death, to the big screen. Frank Miller was the recipient of the first Comic-Con Icon Award in 2006. Complete coverage of the Icon Award will appear in the next issue of Update in early 2008.

San Diego Convention Center Gaiman photo by Tina Gill

Save Time! Register ONLINE!

MULTI-PURPOSE FORM San Diego • July 24-27, 2008

WWW.COMIC-CON.ORG For Pre-registered Membership • Art Show • Masquerade • Volunteers • Disabled Services

If you plan to volunteer, please DO NOT SEND MONEY. Fill out your name and address below and check the volunteer information box.

P. O. Box 128458, San Diego, CA 92112-8458 • Fax: 619-414-1022 • www.comic-con.org Pre-Registration Prices Four-Day Memberships (check one) Must be postmarked by JUNE 18, 2008

Adults

$75.00

Juniors (12-17)

$35.00*

Seniors (60+)

$35.00

Active military with ID can pay the Jr./Sr. price. This deal does not extend to dependents. Note: All prices subject to change. *Children under 12 free with PAID adult membership.

Need Info?

(check as needed)

Please send me information on exhibiting in the Art Show. Please have your Disabled Services Department contact me about my special needs. Please send me a Volunteer application and information. Please send me information about participating in the Masquerade.

Only full (4-day) pre-registered members can attend Preview Night. No onsite registration will be available for Preview Night—only badge pickup for pre-registered full members. BADGES WILL NOT BE MAILED OUT IN ADVANCE. All pre-registered badges will be available for pickup at Attendee Pre-Registration in the Convention Center’s Sails Pavilion (Upper Level), beginning Wednesday, July 23 at 4:00 PM.

Only one membership per form please. This form may be copied. Forms postmarked or faxed after June 18, 2008 will NOT BE PROCESSED. No email registration will be accepted. Sorry, NO REFUNDS after June 18, 2008.

PLEASE CHECK ONE:

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FOR OFFICE USE ONLY 2008 Badge # Check # Total Amount $ Junior (12-17)

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Comic-Con International P. O. Box 128458 San Diego, CA 92112-8458 www.comic-con.org Comic-Con International UPDATE #3 • 2007

Inside:

The Comic-Con 2007 Recap Plus WonderCon 2008!

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION US POSTAGE PAID COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL