Leave Your Spanedx At The Door: Bristol Comic Con

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Welcome to the 33rd edition of “Leave Your Spandex At the Door”

As previously reported, Dave Graham and I have spent the last few days in Bristol for the 2004 UK Comics Festival which run from Friday to Sunday the 30th of May. This was my first ever con experience, and I must say it was simply phenomenal. A bonus column is likely to pop up during the week with a detailed account of what we saw there, accompanied by our exclusive con photo diary. Keep checking the main site for updates on that.

Until then though, I have put together a rundown of the panels that were held during the con by the major publishers.

THE MARVEL COMICS PANEL

Marvel, following a long-standing tradition it seems, decided not to bother with a British conventions this year. Without any editors or other higher-ups present, the burden of carrying out the panel was left in the hands of a group of relevant new-comers into the Marvel family: David Hine (DISTRICT X), Mike Carey (upcoming ULTIMATE ELEKTRA), Tony Lee (X-MEN UNLIMITED #1), and Staz Johnson (SPIDER-MAN). David Finch was also expected to be in the panel, but decided to stay put in his signing table, where he had remained the whole day, churning out some incredibly detailed convention sketches.

I missed the start of the panel as I was stuck in queue for a Dave Gibbons sketch, but I did manage to get there with a scant 10 minutes delay. No announcements of any kind were made during the panel, as noone from Marvel had seen fit to give the creators present any news or directions. It eventually came to the point that Rich Johnston (LYING THE GUTTERS, the best damn online column out there) had to step up and join the panel, to help answer the audience’s questions. Although he has never been in cooperation with Marvel, Rich still had a good grasp of the company’s going-ons to answer most enquiries.

David Hine was the most forthcoming with details about his new DISTRICT X book, starring Bishop of the X-Men in a Marvel Knights book. The first issue went on sale last week to encouraging reviews. David revealed that Bishop will be getting a new love interest during the first year of the book. He also joked about bishop’s new power to change haircuts in the blink of an eye (concerning the different looks that he will be sporting between this book and Uncanny X-Men) and proceeded to poll the audience about our preferred Bishop ‘do. I rather liked his dreads to be frank. He finally revealed that his book won’t feature any other x-men characters, and he will be dealing with some real life situations, involving prostitution and drugs. He will be introducing a new hallucinogenic drug called the “Toad Juice” which is extracted from a new mutant to carry the name “Toad”. David got the idea from a special species of frogs that that produce hallucinogenic substances on their skin. Tony Lee commented about expecting to see Bishop licking the Toad on an upcoming issue’s cover ;-)

Tony Lee doesn’t have any new projects to announce with the publisher […yet. It was implied that he had some things in the pipeline – Dave]after his solo Sage story in X-MEN UNLIMITED #1 (go buy it, damnit!) but he expressed an interest in doing POWER PACK: THE END. “It’s not going to be pretty”. Although he was obviously fooling around, this columnist wouldn’t mind giving good money to see that on the shelves! :-)

THE DC COMICS PANEL

Not much going on here either. DC had a lot of creators present, but the staggering majority (well, all of them actually) were Vertigo people. So, who was in the DC panel? Bob Wayne (DC VP), Scott Dunbier (Wildstorm exec editor), Bob Schreck (Bat-books editor), Barry Kitson (EMPIRE, LEGION OF SUPERHEROES) and special guest-star Dave Gibbons (THE ORIGINALS). I might be forgetting someone, but I didn’t keep notes, and it was pretty uneventful.

What did we learn?

-There is a KRYPTO kids cartoon in development. Some members of the Legion of Super-pets just might pop up. I’m personally rooting for Streeky the cat.

-Barry Kitson and Mark Waid are determined to make their new run on the Legion a looooong one, staying on for at least 2 years. Barry explained their approach to past Legion continuity but I admit I didn’t quite understand if they’re rebooting or not. They aim for a new reader-friendly book in any case.

-Dave Gibbons has signed an exclusive contract with the editor for 2 years. The first project to be released under the new contract is THE ORIGINALS. More details on that in the Vertigo Panel run-down.

-When asked to comment on the Catwoman movie, Bob Schreck replied “Yes. I. Am. Looking. Forward. To. The. New. Movie. With. Catwoman.”, in a robotic accent and the whole room burst in laughter for quite a long while.

-Alan Moore is writing League of Extraordinary Gentlemen III, and there’s a guarantee that when the first issue ships, the next one will ship a month later. But what about the one after that? Alan is also set to return on Tom Strong for some new stories.

-DC will no longer work with Micah Wright no any projects (wonder why?), and Scott Dunbier announced that the last issue of STORMWATCH isn’t going to ship. Then again, he had changed his mind during Sunday’s Lying In The Gutters Live Show, so draw your own conclusions.

-When a fan asked Bob Wayne to “uncancel” WILDCATS, Bob Wayne commented “But we just went through all the trouble of canceling I, why change our minds now?”, or something to that extent. Memory’s rusty. He further added that if everyone who had sent an angry email at their offices had been buying 2 copies of the book, it might have been saved. Uh-huh…

THE VERTIGO PANEL

The best panel in the con, although considering the competition, that’s not saying much, is it? In attendance: Bob Wayne (DC Vice-President), Dave Gibbons (THE ORIGINALS), Andy Diggle (THE LOSERS, SWAMP THING), Jock (THE LOSERS), Mike Carey (MY FAITH IN FRANKIE, HELLBLAZER, LUCIFER), and Mark Buckingham (FABLES).

The panel kicked off with Bob Wayne going through a series of slides and repeating some previously released updates on their upcoming projects, and giving the mic over to the panel of creators to give individual updates.

What we learnt:

-The first DOOM PATROL (Grant Morrison DP that is, none of the new sissy stuff) trade is getting a new printing, with 3 extra pages of story that were left out in the original printing. If sales on the two trades go well, a third trade will be greenlit.

-Dave Gibbons talked about his upcoming OGN, “THE ORIGINALS” and signed out ashcans with preview pages. The format is 160 pages, in black and white. It will be “mod in tone, but in a god way, not like Austin Powers”. Gibbons added that it’s “autobiographical to an extent, based on some things that happened when he was growing up, but mostly trying to capture what it’s like to be young.” He has handed in the pages to DC and it’s scheduled for an October release.

-Y THE LAST MAN is going strong, and starting a new storyline in which Yorrick searches for forgiveness from the Catholic Church.

-When a member of the audience asked about the possibility of a “Chubby Da Choona” (from SEAGUY fame) plush toy, Bob Wayne replied they hadn’t even considered it up till now, but it’s something he’s sure Grant Morrison has.

-WE3 features the ultimate cyborg assassins; armed with missiles, poison gas, state-of-the-art computer technology and unbreakable exo-skeletons: a dog, a cat and a rabbit. This is the second announced project by Grant Morrison, with art by Frank Quitely.

-Mark Buckingham announced he is doing a fill-in issue on THE WITCHING, the new Vertigo title that is released next month. He will be drawing issue 5, which is the Halloween issue, and it focuses on the cute cat that is seen on the cover of the first issue. No plans for a cute cat plush toy here, either.

-The first issue of THE WITCHING will fea
ture a LUCIFER cameo, as he is apparently the mystery Vertigo universe guest-star mentioned in the solicits of the series.

-BOOKS OF MAGICK: LIFE DURING WARTIME goes on sale in July, with the announced team of Neil Gaiman on co-plotting duties and Ci Spencer on writing, and Dean Ormston on art. The book is set in an alternate reality, where the realms of Faerie and Earth overlap. The covers for the series are by Frank Quitely.

-HELLBLAZER #200 is the culmination of Mike Carey’s run so far. It’s double-sized, featuring art by Leonardo Manco (who is set to take over the art chores on the book after this), Steve Dillon and Marcelo Frusin. In the issue John Constantine revisits his past and some of his key relationships. Although it has the feel of the movie “Groundhog Day” at first, it’s not the same deal here, as the readers and Constantine realize after a while. The issue will “set up future plotlines that will change John’s world”

-VERTIGO will release a CONSTANTINE movie adaptation, with possibly Mike Carey on the writing chores. .[I’m pretty sure that both Mike and Bob Wayne implied that they were getting someone else to do it, but you were the one with the notebook (mine, I might add) – Dave]

-Andy Diggle commented that working on SWAMP THING is “mildly terrifying”, as he has to follow on Alan Moore’s footsteps. SWAMP THING was originally planned as a mini-series, but due to its success it has been turned into an ongoing. Because of his heavy workload, Andy Diggle won’t be able to continue as writer after the originally planned 6 issues, so Will Pfeiffer will be stepping in, as of issue 7. His first issues will be drawn by Richard Corben, and Enrique Breccia will return for issue 9 and onwards.

-On FABLES, the 8-part “March of the wooden soldiers” will continue in issue 26 which will contain one extra page of story and an 8-page free preview of THE WITCHING. The issue features a huge battle, and Mark Buckingham spent 6 weeks on it. Having seen the black and white art for the issue at Mark’s table in the con, I can attest that it’s truly spectacular work, perhaps his best to date! [Damn right. Some great art in this issue – Dave]. Following the end of this storyline, Mark will take a 2-issue leave off the title, being replaced by Tony Akins for the “War Stories arc, showing what Bigby Wolf was up to during WWII. Mark returns in issue 30 for a 4-parter: this storyline will be quieter in tone, showing the aftermath of the War of Fabletown. Each issue will take place in one season over a year. We will finally see the results of the Fabletown election, the birth of Snowwhite’s child / children / puppies / ??

-Everyone in DC is very happy with how HUMAN TARGET is faring. In the new storyline Christopher Chance will be crossing the border, for a 2-parter set in Mexico.

-Andy Diggle and Jock explained that the new 4-issue arc in THE LOSERS is a flashback titled “the pass” and reveals what exactly happened during that fateful mission, and will connect plot threads from all the issues up to now. The first trade is doing so well that it has gone back to press for a second printing. The second trade will be released in November.

-100 BULLETS #50 is the half-point of the 100-issue epic. DC is promoting the book by sending extra copies to retailers. This issue is designed to be an deal jumping-on point for new readers, and writer Brian Azzarello will be showing some “mercy” (as Bob Wayne put it) to the readers and will start revealing some more info from the characters’ past.

-There isn’t going to be a sequel for Mike Carey’s fan-favourite MY FAITH IN FRANKIE mini-series, but the creative team on the mini (Carey, with sonny Liew and Marc Hempel) would love to work together again on a new project. The trade for the mini is going to be in a “manga format”: digest-sized, in black and white. Dave Gibbons revealed that he had sent a fan-letter to Mike after reading the first issue of MY FAITH IN FRANKIE.

-Mike Carey continued by revealing what is in store for LUCIFER. Following recent events in the title, the Silver City is falling apart now that Yahweh has left the building. In the storyline starting with issue 51, Lucifer goes on a quest with Michael and Elaine Belloc to deal with the situation. The coming year will see a lot of characters from the first years returning, as Mike wants to give each character of the amassed 50-plus member cast of Lucifer their closure before he wraps it up. The book is still set to wrap up at issue 75, two years from now, with the big climax storyline kicking off at issue 60. It starts with the end of the Universe and escalates!

-When asked about the possibility of seeing more SANDMAN PRESENTS minis, Bob Wayne turned over to the panel and the audience, asking for a show of hands on whether people wanted more of them. The “yes” crowd was (unfortunately) far outweighed by the negative sentiment majority.

-There are no immediate plans for releasing Steve Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen’s acclaimed “IT’S A BIRD” OGN in softcover form.

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Coming up mid-week: Diary of a Greek in a comics con, or: “When Manolis stomped Bristol”
As always, I’m waiting for your comments through email or in the official LYS@D discussion thread.

Manolis Vamvounis
a.k.a. Doc Dooplove

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ah, the good old Dr Manolis, the original comics Greek. He's been at this for sometime. he was there when the Comics Nexus was founded, he even gave it its name, he even used to run it for a couple of years. he's been writing about comics, geeking out incessantly and interviewing busier people than himself for over ten years now and has no intention of stopping anytime soon.