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Comic-Con 2009: Convention Report: Day 2
LEGENDS OF THE BRONZE AGE GATHER FOR A “THAT ’70s PANEL” AT COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL FRIDAY. FROM LEFT: MARK EVANIER, MIKE ROYER, MARV WOLFMAN, DOUG MOENCH AND ELLIOT S. MAGGIN.
(Photo by Andrew Wahl)
SAN DIEGO — Your Comics Bronze Age editor started his day with the “Spotlight on Gene Colan” panel. (Actually, it started in the MTS cattle cars, but I already covered that on my Twitter feed.) I made it to the panel on time; Gene Colan wasn’t so lucky. A scheduling snafu made for an odd two-and-a-half hours, one that saw the Colan session and “That ’70s Panel” merged together, Mark Evanier spending most of the time stuck on a cell phone, and a cast that eventually grew to include Evanier, Colan, Marv Wolfman, Mike Royer, Doug Moench, Elliot S. Maggin, Steve Leialoha and Nicola Cuti hold court before an appreciative crowd of old-time fans. I covered this event for Comic Book Resources and will add a link here when my story goes live. *** UPDATE: The Gene Colan/“That ’70s Panel” story is live at CBR.
There were several tidbits from that morning session that didn’t make my story. I offer them here:
• Evanier has a theory that the best comics are made by people who are friends.
• It was Evanier’s recommendation that got Royer his first work with Kirby.
• Moench said that Colan’s “pencils struck fear into the hearts of inkers.” Royer shared that sentiment: “I would have been scared to death” to ink Gene.
• Wolfman and Colan teamed for a Tomb of Dracula spoof in Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #11.
• Colan used to do work under the pen name Adam Austin.
• Wolfman: Both Colan and George Pérez are gifted at working from plots instead of scripts.
• Moench had his best working relationships with artists Paul Gulacy, Bill Sienkiewicz, Kelly Jones and Mike Ploog.
• Maggin said Mike Grell once brought samples into DC while Julie Schwartz was in the bathroom. “For years later, I claimed I discovered him.”
• Maggin also said he didn’t get along with Curt Swan until after they stopped working together.
• Cuti sang the praises of Charlton editor George Wildman, who helped bring superhero-type books back to the company. “I thought that was a resurgence of a new Golden Age at Charlton.”
• Evanier said that Jack Kirby’s move to the West Coast proved that the “world (of comics) didn’t end at the Hudson River.”
• Evanier repeating a quote from the King: “The Kirby tradition is to do something new.”
• Royer once got a mortgage on a letter from Western Publishing saying “We set our clocks by Mike Royer.”
• Moench believes “royalties killed the deadline,” allowing creators (he blames the artists) to make enough off of just a few issues a year to get by.
After the marathon morning session, I disappeared to Comic-Con’s press room, where I was able to find quiet, cool and a desk. I finished and filed the story during the “Care and Feeding of a Series” panel. Sadly, that means I only listened to that panel with one ear. I can tell you Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer is pretty damn funny, but not much beyond that.
The final event of the day for me was the “Underground Comix” panel with Denis Kitchen (who I’ll also be covering for CBR Saturday), Trina Robbins (DON’T call her a cartoonist; she’s a writer now), Lee Marrs (of Pudge, Girl Blimp fame) and librarian James Danky. (William Stout joined the panel late.) Sadly, the panel focused more on comix recent acceptance into the mainstream culture, and offered little behind the scenes dirt from back in the day. The best bit from this panel was a quote from Trina Robbins, explaining her love of comics: “The combination of words and pictures are the perfect communication.”
That seems like a good note to end this Convention Report on. Time to jump the train and head off in search of some more perfect communication.
Tags: • Denis Kitchen, • Doug Moench, • Elliot S. Maggin, • Gene Colan, • Lee Marrs, • Mark Evanier, • Marv Wolfman, • Mike Royer, • Nicola Cuti, • Steve Leialoha, • Trina Robbins, • William Stout, Comic-Con 2009, Convention Report Discussion
One comment for “Comic-Con 2009: Convention Report: Day 2”
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I was happy to see a one-on-one panel with Evanier and Colan at the ‘07 show–Gene was a fascinating interview, even if his memory of the old Marvel bullpen was a bit spotty. I really liked his description of being an obsessive movie watcher in those days, taking in picture after picture to see how they composed scenes, how smoke rolled through the frame, how characters moved through space. He also told an amusing story about how Stan used to act out his scripts, jumping up on desks and flopping on the floor as the various characters. If you haven’t seen it, you should pick up a copy of his recent Captain America story (#601)–Cap and vampires in WW2. The problems he always had with anatomy are maybe a bit more pronounced now, but he’s still a master of mood and his page/panel design is as dynamic as ever.