Everyone told me San Diego was amazing, and that everyone would be there. I just shrugged it off. “Yeah yeah, I’m sure you’re right. I don’t really care. I just want to show my portfolio to people.” But I quickly found myself awe-stricken by so many great artists, just around everywhere. They’re all doing signings. They’re all hanging out at booths. They’re all giving talks at panel discussions. They’re all making sketches. They’re all visiting. You just stumble onto them, wherever you go. I found myself getting really into hunting down particular people. What was craziest, you get the program, and it lists where a few people are and you get so excited to see they’re all around somewhere, but it can’t possibly list everyone and where they all are, so you wind up finding people in places you didn’t even expect. Because everyone is just there, if not at a particular table, at a particular booth, then somewhere, just hanging out with someone.
We found a Sam Kieth panel listed in the program book. We wanted to meet him, because he was a friend of a friend of mine, and I figured that would get me an in. We sat in the very front, and then followed him afterwards, among a mob of fans, and met him. My relationship with Sam has developed too much to get into here, climaxing with him asking me to do the art for his “Ojo” book. I’ll write about my experiences with him later, when I can really go into detail.
Stumbled onto a Mike Allred signing at the Marvel booth. Waited in a very short line. The little boy in line in front of me handed Mike an X-Men book, and Mike was trying to explain to him, “I’ll sign this if you want, but I didn’t draw any of the art in it.” The poor, cute little guy didn’t seem to understand. Finally it was my turn, and I shook the hand of one of my favorite artists, Mike Allred, and told him I didn’t bring anything for him to sign, but just wanted to let him know how much I loved his work. He said he didn’t want me to leave empty-handed, grabbed a brochure advertising upcoming Marvel projects, including his X-Force book with Wolverine, and signed it for me. I couldn’t read him very well. He had a look like maybe I said something that annoyed him, but I couldn’t tell. I thought later, maybe it was just such a surreal, senses-assaulting environment, he just was getting frazzled. I still thought the experience was really special, not only that he was at this convention and available to his fans, but that he made sure I had something to take with me.
Went to an X-panel, which was hilarious. Joe Quesada had just started putting all these amazing indie artists on all Marvel’s books, and it was really shaking things up, and I thought the results were magnificent. So this panel had Mike Allred, Grant Morrison, and Joe Casey from the “indie” school, and Chris Claremont and others from the mainstream, classic school. It was a peculiar audience, because half were hip, cool-looking college kids dressed like hip, cool-looking college kids (which is what I wished I was), and half were freaky nerd kids in Punisher costumes and other comic-nerdy get-up, with lacking social skills (which I was and certainly would have been at a con like this, if I’d only known of such a mecca). The cool kids were asking questions about indie guys on mainstream books. The geeks were asking specific questions about X-continuity and X-believability.
Chris was brand new getting back onto the X-books, and I think this was pretty exciting for everyone who grew up with him, including me. He was constantly making interjections and cornball cracks to be funny, which I didn’t enjoy as much. I love, LOVE his books, and admire his career and what he’s done for comics very much. I grew up with all his eighties stories, and revered all the seventies issues, which were too hot and popular and expensive for me to ever find or afford. What I appreciated most about him was when he talked about his career. That was great to hear. He acknowledged that in the early eighties, there were a lot of great comics coming out. He said when Frank Miller was on Daredevil, and Walt Simonson was on Thor, those great books were really putting the pressure on him to create the best work he could produce as well.
Grant said that superhero costumes originally stemmed, way back in the late ’30s-early ’40s, from entertainment, specifically circus acts and strongmen. In today’s society, that flashy, showy attitude isn’t quite so practical. However, a costume can still have a function, if it’s worn as a uniform. A symbol of recognition, like a police officer, or garbage man. Brilliant, I thought. And that’s what he did with his X-books. He ditched the corny, bright-colored spandex, and gave the X-Men uniforms.
Some nerds in the con started asking questions about X-continuity and character development. The “indie” panelists would answer these questions by saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Finally, one nerd asked, “How do you expect us to take your treatments of the X-Men seriously when you break all these rules?” Joe Casey masterfully replied, “How do you expect us to take ANY of it seriously?” The implication being, it’s all just comics. It’s all fun. The idea that people are running around in costumes and masks, doing good, and fighting each other, kind of throws the issue of “seriously” out the window. You know, like, there’s a man flying through the air in his underpants, and beating up someone who must have the ultimate insecurity complex, because he won’t rest until everyone on earth or in the galaxy will bow down to him, even though he’s also in his underpants. As if that abstract concept – “ruler of the galaxy” – would be good for anything.
Mike Allred spoke a little about how his first X-issue caused the Comics Code support banner to be removed from the book, because the story ended with a disturbing, violent image. Mike said he thought it was great. They were afraid it would affect sales, but the book was so hot it sold out fast and went immediately into a second printing. Hurray for the indie-guys shaking up the system, and making work that angers, frustrates, and confuses people!
In the panel, a few nerds wanted to know why these indie artists couldn’t just follow a little continuity, and be true to the characters of the stories. New X-Editor Axel Alonso spoke out that there are half a dozen X-books that already do that. If that’s what you want, the indie guys aren’t taking that away from you. They’re just trying to offer an alternative. Bravo, I say!
After the panel, all the artists dispersed, and I was surprised to see Grant Morrison was hanging out in the hall, visiting with anyone who came over to talk to him. I thought that was so great, and he was so friendly and appreciative of his fans. I waited patiently in his huddle, got to the front, and told him I don’t always agree with his politics (Why do I say things like that?), but I think it’s a blast that he’s shaking things up with mainstream comics. He said, “Yeah, you take the children sweetly by the hand, and lead them into a dark, scary place.” He was really excited about doing the X-Men. He said, “Yeah, it’s the X-Men, man!” as if he couldn’t believe he’d landed the best Marvel gig of them all. He was such a treat to visit with. He’s so friendly, and seems to genuinely love just taking as much time as is needed, being there for his fans, and visiting with his fans.
Found Tim Sale in artists alley, and was nervous to approach him again, after our first meeting (at Wondercon), when I suspected he thought I was accusing him of being a Frank Miller hack.
I opened by asking him what his favorite film noir was, and that got him talking. He said he was a Burt Lancaster fan and loved “The Killers”. He said he also really liked Barbara Stanwyck. He recommended watching “Sorry, Wrong Number,” which I hadn’t yet seen. This noir angle gave me an in. It was an in I continued using whenever I saw him. A couple years later, I was able to tell him that a two disc “Killers” set was just released on DVD, a Criterion double-feature disc with the Ronald Reagan/Lee Marvin film as well as the original Burt Lancaster film.
He said of the Long Halloween sequel that he never had much interest in doing a gangster comic, and didn’t even want to do a Long Halloween sequel, but that Jeph Loeb came up with a story, more character-driven, that surprised him, because it interested him in doing a sequel. And then up walked Jeph, so I was able to get them both to sign my Long Halloween issue I’d brought.
Man, by the end of the con, my feet were killing me. We must have walked miles and miles during the course of the convention, back and forth, and back and forth, and back. Over and over. I was paying for it within a few days. I learned the advantage of insoles, and that helped, but so much damage had already been done. Also luckily, our hotel had a hot tub, and we spent our nights soaking and rubbing our feet.
I’ll tell you what I think is so amazing about the comics industry. In Hollywood, how likely is it that you can go to annual conventions and meet all your idols, and it may be a long wait in line, but you can just walk right up to them and shake their hands, and tell them how much you appreciate them?
This convention, I began to realize how, even though they’re superstars to me, in the real world, they still have their civilian lives. Their “secret identitiies”. They can go to the grocery store and no one will recognize them or care who they are. They probably appreciate getting a little praise and recognition at conventions, but then being able to go home and live normal lives. They don’t mind being so accessible, because it’s not an imposition to them. What a great industry, that fans have that access to their idols.