MEGA CON 2007: DAY ONE & DCU PANEL

[MattBrady]

by Todd H. Latoski

Well, another year of MegaCon has arrived, and nothing was able to keep fans and celebrities alike from attending Florida’s premier comic and sci-fi convention. Ticket sales increased again this year, according to Beth Widera, the convention director. Cold weather aside (for Floridians, anything below 60 is cold), the number of attendees was up from last year, and she couldn’t be more pleased.

Media guests this year included Sean Astin, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy; Mary McDonnell and Jamie Bamber from Sci-Fi channel’s hit series Battlestar Galactica; Kevin Sorbo, best known for his role as television’s Hercules: Lou Ferrigno, known far and wide as television’s The Incredible Hulk; and convention attendees got treated to not just one, but two Lois Lanes – Noel Neill and Margot Kidder. The lines for autographs were long, but well worth the wait for many fans.

George Perez was in attendance, as usual, and had some great tidbits to share. Still exclusive with DC until 2010, he said he is more than half-way through the art on the third issue of Brave and the Bold, which is his first monthly title since he worked on Solus with Crossgen. Because he is working on a monthly title, he is cutting his convention appearances after April of this year. He did let us in on the fact that he has done the cover for issue #4, which features Supergirl on a “space cycle” with Lobo in tow. Perez added that he has no idea what the story is at this point – he’s not involved in the plotting; rather, he’s just asked what characters he would like to draw. Mark Waid and the writers are the ones who handle the story, which is similar to the way he worked with Kurt Busiek on the Avengers for Marvel. And for fans who weren’t aware, Brave and the Bold will be skipping a month after every third issue, giving the series 10 issues per year – which is exactly what George is contracted to do for DC each year. For George, he said this is a perfect schedule, as it gives him plenty of time to get the art out on time, plus it will allow him to spend more time with his wife over the next year and a half, which his work and convention appearances has not allowed him to do.

Another fan-favorite artist, Phil Noto, was making a lot of fans happy with sketches that he was doing for them at the show. He indicated that he has three more issues of Jonah Hex coming out after the current one, but after that, he’s not sure what he will be doing. He’s freelance, not exclusive to any company, so while he’s been working on Jonah Hex, he’s also been doing some video game designing for Sony. If given an opportunity, Phil said he would love to work on “Superman or Black Canary. Like a retro-seventies Black Canary. That would be fun!”

Drew Geraci was pounding out the sketches and autographing comics for lines of fans. Currently, he is still working on issues of 52, but recently he signed on to ink Carlo Barberi’s pencils and become the regular art team for Gen 13 beginning with issue #8. In his “spare time,” Drew is working on his own creator-owned book called Hot Wire, which is a super-hero book that he describes as being Entourage meets The Sopranos meets Behind the Music. He has a lot of enthusiasm for rock-n-roll, and to have a super-hero that will be in a rock band is going to be a lot of fun for him. He plans to draw it in a looser, more impressionistic style. He does have one or two interested publishers, but couldn’t announce who at this time. Drew said that Chuck Dixon (who was seated next to him at the table), was a very good advisor on the writing aspect of it and thanked him profusely for his support. He also said that he and Chuck and are working on a 5-page “Kirby” monster story that will benefit those comic creators that suffered from the fiasco with Tight-Lipped Entertainment. They are donating the work to an anthology to be published, the proceeds from which will go to paying those creators who never got paid for their work with TLE. The character in their story is named “Bah-Dah-Bing.” After having some health issues a couple of years ago, Drew said he feels strong and healthy and ready to get to work!

Eisner Award-winning Darwyn Cooke was full of jokes as he talked with fans. Right now, he’s still exclusive to DC, and writing and drawing The Spirit on a monthly basis is pretty much taking up all his time. So, while he won’t be doing a lot of other work, Darwyn pointed out that this book will never be late – the book will come out every month the way it’s supposed to. “Maybe some of my fellow creators might want to take note of that strategy,” he joked with a wink. “But I love them all!” When asked about the New Frontier animated movie being made, Darwyn asked, “They’re making a movie?!?!” After the laughter faded, he admitted he has been a big part of the production and has been working very hard on it. He said the animation looks “really spanking” and that no one will be upset with the work, as the story really comes through well. “I was stunned at what I saw,” Darwyn said. While he couldn’t go into any more specifics, he did say that Warner Bros Home Video are shooting for a fall release.

Big City Comics was represented at the convention by Mario Gully and his new collaborator, Jeffrey S. Kaufman, Jr. The two said they’re having a blast working together on Ant, and they announced that Ant’s origin will finally be told, with the set up having begun in issue #9, and will continue through issue #12. The story will be strong and dark and reveal her connections to the heroes and villains recently seen in the series. They also are working on two other projects, Totem and Tempest. Tempest is a vampire saga that Jeffrey described as Highlander meets Law and Order meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series has been submitted to Image. Totem is a series that will take a look at what really makes a person go out and risk his life every day for others. Image will not be doing Totem, but it is being shopped to other publishers. And for those dying for an exclusive from Mario Gully, here it is – he announced that he will be drawing a 6-issue run for Marvel in collaboration with writer Roy Thomas! He couldn’t announce the title at this time, but he is very excited, having wanted to work at Marvel for the longest time.

Lots of Indy publishers were showing their works. One of them was Cyberlight Comics, which can be found at http://cyberlightcomics.com, a web-based comic company that has been producing titles for over four years, with everything from manga to goth to action to drama. They are currently producing 20 comics online, with at least one or more being updated weekly. Another up-and-coming company was Imperium Comics, which can be found at www.imperiumcomics.com. Their flagship title, Trailer Park of Terror, is a horror anthology in the vein of Tales from the Crypt, with usually three to four short stories per issue. The series features Norma, your not-so-typical hostess who is an undead resident of the trailer park, as well as her zombie friend Marv and her demon friend Ray-Bob. The series has been on-going for four years now, and with only 11 issues under its belt, it is spawning a feature film that is being directed by Steven Goldman. They are also in the middle of publishing a four-issue mini-series titled called Pierce, a story of a dead mob assassin who has come back to solve his own murder. More information about the two series and the movie can be found at their website.

What’s New in the DCU – the DC Panel

Senior Editor Mike Martis headed up the DC Universe panel at MegaCon this year. With him were Jimmy Palmiotti (whose own brand of humor kept everyone in stitches), J.G. Jones, and Ethan Van Sciver. They were armed and ready to take questions from a room full of fans who wanted answers!

A question was directed at Jimmy Palmiotti about the future of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters – are we getting anything past this eight-issue run? Jimmy said that the guys at DC are definitely on board for more, possibly another mini-series. Dan Didio said, since this is the start of the convention season, that DC will gauge the fan’s demand for it throughout the season, and fan reaction will form the basis of whether we will see more issues of the Freedom Fighters. DC does look at message boards, Palmiotti noted, such as Newsarama and others for fan reaction, and the creator urged fans to make their voices known. Palmiotti did said that issue #8 is not the last time we will see the team, and that they are planning ahead with the group. He admitted that this story was always planned as an eight-issue mini-series, particularly because many people felt these were second-string characters that couldn’t sustain their own title. Palmiotti said he, Justin (Gray), and Grant (Morrison) all felt differently. They tried to include some of the history in the mini-series, as well as introduce the team to a new audience, and so far, so good. A trade collecting the series will be out three to five months from now.

Of course, as Palmiotti pointed out, the comics industry is a business, and it all boils down to sales. So many series have been done where people love it, but the sales were not enough to sustain it. The sales on Freedom Fighters are right on the border, so it’s up to the fans to demand more! Mike confirmed that the editors do pay attention to the fans when they voice their likes and dislikes!

While on the subject of the Freedom Fighters, a question was raised about how Freedom Fighters fits into continuity with other titles, such as Checkmate, since both of those titles have different Presidents running the country. Jimmy was quick to respond that, “Greg Rucka’s book doesn’t count!” This brought laughter from the audience, and Jimmy seriously said that a lot of this will be explained “real soon.” He did state that the Freedom Fighters mini-series was actually written a long time ago, even before the Battle for Bludhaven, which explained why Bludhaven felt, to some fans, odd, since they had to fit continuity from tons of other titles in the story, plus include the lead in for the Freedom Fighters. “It is something we are working on,” Jimmy said, “as far as keeping continuity right. But it also has a lot to do with something that’s coming up, as far as why there are different people and why there are different things. It all gets explained. When you read Freedom Fighters, that’s the present. When you read Greg Rucka’s book, that’s the present. It is explained. But if I say what it is, it actually will ruin a lot of stuff.”

Mike and Jimmy then discussed a bit about what sales keep a title going, and what sales warrant a cancellation. For main titles (i.e., Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, etc.), 30,000 – 40,000 is considered a healthy book. If you get around 20,000, it becomes borderline, and if it hits 10,000, then it’s in trouble. But projects that are in a different genre (such as Vertigo titles, the Warner Bros books, or Jonah Hex), DC doesn’t expect sales to be as high as some of the flagship super-hero titles. The trades make money that help level off the sales from some of the non-super-hero titles, since the expectation of those non-genre titles aren’t as high as the main super-hero titles.

Another fan asked about the upcoming All-Star Batgirl project. Would the Batgirl in this new title be older than Dick Grayson, as she was originally portrayed, rather than the younger version we’ve seen in recent years? J.G. Jones, who was quick to point out that he was just the artist, so all he had to do was draw her! But he did let on that Geoff John’s vision of her is that Barbara Gordon is just out of high school, a young girl who comes to the city. J.G. said that his approach is more of a “teenage girl coming to the big city for the first time” angle rather than the “Oooo, I’m scary! I’m bad” that’s the Batman premise.

This talk about the All-Star Batgirl raised a question about Adam Hughes’ All-Star Wonder Woman title as well. Needless to say, with the talk off the All-Star line, a fan raised the issue of the extreme lateness with some of the titles (citing the obvious one of All-Star Batman). After a brief hesitation, Jimmy said that perhaps it’s due to the perfectionistic nature of some creators, such as Adam Hughes, who is an extreme perfectionist who will not let anything be short-changed on his work. Many of these “top-ten” artists tear up page after page because it is not the way they want it, and they keep at it until they get is exactly right. Mike added that with Adam Hughes, they are specifically not soliciting the All-Star Wonder Woman title until he has it ready, so that Adam has the opportunity to take his time with it and make it the book he wants it to be. Jimmy threw in that when a story is complete and we look back at it, we don’t remember the delays, but rather, we remember what an amazing story it was. He suggested that for the books that are delayed, it’s a great opportunity, while you’re waiting for the books, to go out there and try something new.

A question was raised about the upcoming cancellation of Manhunter, since there was talk from the panel about DC listening to the fans. Marts reminded them that Manhunter was saved from cancellation, but apparently sales did not increase enough to warrant the title continuing beyond its five-issue extension.

Several questions concerned the 52 series and how it was mapped out and when was it decided to expand the series with the World War III specials. Mike and J.G. stated that there was intense planning that went into the series, with editors coordinating which artists got which work. Mike commended the four writers of the series, for the effort they put into it, plotting and planning ahead. Jimmy indicated that some of the stuff he has worked with Geoff Johns on now has to do with the last couple of issues, but it was all mapped out over a year ago. It was a very tight timeline to have it plotted and written. “Of course,” Jimmy laughed, “wait until you see the daily comic we are coming out with next year.” With regards to the World War III specials, it was only recently that DC decided to expand the story into separate specials because they realized they would not be able to cram everything into the regular series, even if they did the last few issues double-sized.

A question about the rumored Countdown weekly series went unanswered, but another question about that picture that DC let out with some rather unique takes on their characters brought up some interesting discussion from the panel. If you read books over the next year to year and a half, the panelists said, readers will get they answers they are looking for. The picture pertains to a lot of different books, and Ethan Van Sciver did confirm that Green Lantern Annual #1 will have some answers. Jimmy liked the little Atom hand sticking out from the ground. When asked about whether the Statue of Liberty being destroyed was from the Kamandi series, all the panel members were quick to respond, “No, it’s from Planet of the Apes!”

The DC question/answer session couldn’t have been completed without someone asking about the “secret code” that revealed that the multiverse still exists. When asked if they could tell fans anything at all about that, the panel responded, “About what?”

A fan then asked if, now that Hawkgirl has taken over Hawkman’s title, are we going to see Hawkman getting his own title again? Jimmy Palmiotti gave one of his devious smiles and said, “I’d like to do that!” On a more serious note, fans were told they could find Hawkman in Justice Society of America.

The question of whether or not any of the 52 star characters will start coming back into the DC Universe any time soon was answered with, “Those who survive.”

Whether there were any characters that DC now regrets killing during Infinite Crisis and its companion series was met by J.G. Jones with, “I regret not killing more!”

Ethan Van Sciver admitted to still working on creating the Sinestro Corp. “There are 7,200 of them!” he sighed. “It’s a blast, though. Unlike the Green Lanterns, who are unified only through their great will-power, the Sinestro Corp. has the one distinguishing feature that they are able to instill fear. So all of them are horrific, scary monsters unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. I think it’s going to be a lot weirder than I think people are expecting when they see the whole team.” A more cryptic announcement was that readers should not be surprised to see some of the members of the regular DC Universe get offered a Sinestro ring!

The panel went on to add that with regards to the Monitors who have been appearing in a few titles, they will become very important over the next several months.

With regards to why Amazon Attacks was not solicited as originally planned as one of the Infinite Crisis companion series and changed to come out after 52 ended, Mike said it was primarily for story purposes. With what the writers wanted to accomplish with the story and where they wanted to take the characters, they realized it was becoming a different piece than what they had originally thought, so they decided to change the timing on it.

When asked about what characters to watch out for in 2007, each panelist had their own thoughts:

J.G. Jones – Pickles McGuire, and his sidekick, Gherkin

Jimmy Palmiotti – Jonah Hex (and another one that he couldn’t announce)

Ethan Van Sciver – Kyle Rayner

Mike Marts – Jimmy Olsen (“and you think I’m kidding?” Mike said….)

It was announced that there would be more Annuals coming our way as stories warrant them, but there were no specific ones mentioned. Jimmy, needless to say, suggested doing a “weekly Annual.”

Final questions asked were:

Will we see more of the “Bleed” from the recent issue of Ion: YES.

Will the JSA be a part of World War III: YES.

Will we ever see the last part of the Alan Heinberg Wonder Woman story now that it has been bumped from issue #5: AT SOME POINT

When will we see the search for Ray Palmer: NEXT QUESTION.

And this barely scratches the surface of the talent at MegaCon this year! Sunday will hopefully see news from Brian Pullido, Jimmy Palmiotti, Dick Giordano, and many others.

[Drcharles]

Still no definite answer on "CountDown", and why all the big mystery on Ray Palmer/The Atom ?
Very confusing....
and why not just reinstate Hawkman back to his own comicbk.....???????
Do not understand.

[Ricochet2099]

Geoff John’s vision of her is that Barbara Gordon is just out of high school, a young girl who comes to the city. J.G. said that his approach is more of a “teenage girl coming to the big city for the first time” angle rather than the “Oooo, I’m scary! I’m bad”

I'm really looking forward to this series, All Star Superman is pretty much the only regular DC title I buy and I'll be adding this to my list

[MichaelH]

Originally Posted by Drcharles

Still no definite answer on "CountDown", and why all the big mystery on Ray Palmer/The Atom ?
Very confusing....
and why not just reinstate Hawkman back to his own comicbk.....???????
Do not understand.

Countdown will probably be officially announced next week at NYCC. I'm excited that there is hope for more Uncle Sam And The Freedom Fighters. Hopefully the trade will sell enough copies to warrant another series.

[Teambrian]

Geoff John’s vision of her is that Barbara Gordon is just out of high school, a young girl who comes to the city. J.G. said that his approach is more of a “teenage girl coming to the big city for the first time” angle

Geoff John's vision sounds hot. I think I've seen a couple movies that start this way.

[Marc_Spector]

Maybe they should have taken a few of those issues of 52 that didn't have jack squat happen in them so they wouldn't have to "beat Marvel" in the let's see who can get a World War book out first this year.

[NatePetrelli]

Brave and the Bold skipping a month after every 3rd ish?eeks

[Happyhatter]

So no information on my pal Aquaman.... argh! The only real interesting news to me was... ugh, more annuals... hopefully i'll get an Aquaman Annual

[BanMan]

The only thing I'm really taking from that is...the Sinestro Corps thing. I'm probably looking forward to that more than anything out of DC in the coming year.

[Sean Walsh]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

When will we see the search for Ray Palmer: NEXT QUESTION.

So either they're not answering (again).............



.......or Renee Montoya will be looking for him.

[jedifish]

More Freedom Fighters please.

And how about a monthly for Ray Terrill.

[mike101]

Uncle Sam and the Freedon Fighters - Different Presidents both in the present - about as official confirmation that the multiverse exists as I need.

[ME5]

Hello.

Finally, DC has come up with a way to ensure a star artist can work on an appropriate schedule. I am very happy with 10 issues of Perez goodness, and wish Marvel and DC would do this with all of their slower stars.

Be Well...

[Scarlet Mage]

DC reads the message boards here? Good. NEVER have that team of Freedom Fighters EVER appear in print again. Thank you.

[Jor-L]

Geoff's a cool guy and all but I honestly don't think he's "All Star" enough to be the man behind "All Star" anything. He's simply too mediocre right now. Sorry Geoff fans.

That said, I won't be buying All Star Batgirl because I don't think the character deserves an All Star book.

[OM]

Originally Posted by Drcharles

Still no definite answer on "CountDown", and why all the big mystery on Ray Palmer/The Atom ?

...Because he's secretly Monarch

[TheWay]

I went to Megacon again this year. It's the only real convention I get to that is here in Florida. I wish it would get more support. I haven't heard much about it until this report. We hear all about the Wizard cons and Heroes, etc. but Megacon gets no love.

That said Megacon is a lot of fun. The star guests are always great for sci-fi fans. They have all kinds of gaming events, anime shows, and this year they had a battle arena which stayed very busy. You could pick the (nerf style) weapon of choice and battle for bragging rights.

I'm surprised this report didn't mention more of the artist guests such as David Finch, Steve McNiven, Brandon Peterson, Tim Townsend, and Randy Green to name a few. I was also surprised that TopCow and Image didn't have a booth. Even in spite of the lack of support this con has gotten lately from comic publishers, TopCow has always had a booth.

I know that Crossgen kind of pushed the other publishers out a few years ago, but hey, it's been a few years. Come on back. I want to see a Marvel, DC, Image/TopCow booth next year. There are plenty of fans here. The numbers are growing for attendance and if locals new that the big publishers were coming in support the turn out would be even greater.

I also realize that now the New York con is scheduled at practically the same time and that its too much for most to attend both. I wish the dates for the two show were taken into consideration and spaced a bit. I would think Florida's weather would be a draw for the winter. So maybe push it up to January.

That's the end of my griping. I had a great time this year as always!

[grphxkindaguy]

Originally Posted by NatePetrelli

Brave and the Bold skipping a month after every 3rd ish?eeks

even w/that skip month, I don't see how Perez can keep the pace up...

is he also inking his own pencils?

[R.McKegan]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

Will we ever see the last part of the Alan Heinberg Wonder Woman story now that it has been bumped from issue #5: AT SOME POINT

So wait, the current arc of Wonder Woman won't be finished before the next one starts? I hadn't heard this. First I'd heard of this. Wow, that's really crappy news. I know there have been terrible delays but to not finish the story...couldn't they have given it to another writer to finish off?

[yorick]

Originally Posted by jedifish

And how about a monthly for Ray Terrill.

seconded. A new The Ray series would be great.

[holtom2000]

the part where they say the editors read comments from fans on message boards. they might read, but they sure don't listen. if they had they'd stop hiring unreliable creators who have no business being put on a monthly title

[Zeodiego]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

Whether there were any characters that DC now regrets killing during Infinite Crisis and its companion series was met by J.G. Jones with, “I regret not killing more!”

i was blaming the wrong guy all along, it is not he buttler, J.G is the killer!!

sorry dan it was not your fault you where influenced.

[gwangung]

Originally Posted by holtom2000

the part where they say the editors read comments from fans on message boards. they might read, but they sure don't listen.

Given a lot of the tripe put out here, can you blame them?

Gotta be a full time job trying to sift the wheat from the chaff...

[HourmanLives]

Originally Posted by Scarlet Mage

DC reads the message boards here? Good. NEVER have that team of Freedom Fighters EVER appear in print again. Thank you.

Haha, are you kidding me? This Freedom Fighters book is one of the best ever printed.

And yes.

I know there have only ever been two runs done.

[transmetro]

Originally Posted by Scarlet Mage

DC reads the message boards here? Good. NEVER have that team of Freedom Fighters EVER appear in print again. Thank you.

I agree. They should work on keeping Manunter around.