WWLA 08: FLOORBUZZ

[MattBrady]

by Vaneta Rogers

While many of the people sitting on the panels at Wizard World L.A. were generating a lot of buzz among fans, there was plenty of other news being shared at the con that didn't quite make it into the big announcements. We talked to some of the creators in Artist's Alley and others walking on the con floor to find out what they're working on.

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David Finch told us he just got the first script of Ultimatum two days ago from Jeph Loeb, and said he'll be starting the interior work for the comic when he gets home from the con.

"It's great," he said, adding that Loeb is definitely playing to his strengths as an artist. "I'm afraid to say too much. But he introduces a lot of characters in the book, and there's a lot happening in the first issue. And everybody's reacting to what's happening in different places in the world. And every introduction of every character is just -- it's like the hero moment. Spider-Man is just presented in, I guess, the way you would expect and want Spider-Man presented. Or like, he's got Thor and Valkyrie practicing with their swords, and that's such a great way to introduce them. I could just imagine Thor and Valkyrie shopping at the supermarket or something like that. So everything is so much fun for me to draw.

"It's going to be very exciting to read, as long as I don't blow it," he said, adding the negative to his excitement that seems a necessity for artists who are the harshest critics of their own work, which Finch is. "The script is great, and the story is great, so I'm hoping people like it. We'll see."

The writer said he's doing an Avengers/Invaders cover as well. "I haven't drawn it yet," he said. "I did the layout. It's got both teams. It's got Captain America and Iron Man back to back, and then the respective teams are coming out behind them. I wanted to present them all together, having the readers see them together on one cover, but I didn't want them mixed into one team, because they're not. So it was a bit of a challenge to put that one together."

What about the four-issue arc of Wolverine that he was doing with C.B. Cebulski that he told Newsarama about in September?

"That's on hold right now," he said. "I have most of an issue done, but I think if there's a lull in Ultimatum and I have a little bit of time, I'll be able to do it then. Otherwise, we'll do that story when I'm done with Ultimatum. I'm having a great time with it. It's a great story, but right now it's on the back burner for a little bit."

He's also doing an album cover for Disturbed which will come out in June. He just turned out a version that got approved with some changes. "That was a great project," he said, but added that it's pretty much finished.

"It's looking like my slate is pretty much clear, so I can concentrate on Ultimatum," he said.

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A lot of faces were seen walking around the con floor even though they didn't have official appearances scheduled. We saw Paul Jenkins, a Marvel writer who hasn't had a lot of comics recently and has been disappointing loyal Newsarama readers of his Flogging a Dead Horse column (don’t worry – he’ll be back son-ish, though).

However, Jenkins said he's too busy working on the Tatua movie that Newsarama reported on last year when Jenkins was promoting it at San Diego Comic-Con. In fact, he's directing the film now.

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The next day, we ran into Chris Moreno, Jenkins' co-conspirator... er, we mean, co-creator on the humorous series Sidekick from Image, as well as the wacky back-up stories in Marvel's Front Line comic last year. Moreno was another of those creators who just happened to be in L.A. and stopped by unscheduled. So we asked what's up, and sure enough -- he's conspiring with Jenkins again, but this time on that Tatua movie.

"I'm working with Paul on his movie project," Moreno said. "I just moved out here about seven months ago. It was something I thought about doing out here and getting started on some concept art and storyboards. Why not try to get started on some movie stuff? But me and Paul just want to work together on stuff, whether it's comics or movies. And I'm sure we'll be doing some more Sidekicks eventually."

He also has a five-issue mini-series coming out from IDW, although he couldn't announce it yet. Moreno will also have a short in the Outlaw Territory anthology coming out from Image.

And fans of his six-page Sanz Pantz: Ninja Platypus story in the first PopGun anthology from Image in November will be happy to know that there will be a Volume 2 of that anthology, "and I'm going to have a new story with Sanz Pantz in there," he said. "I'm going to try to keep those going."

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Another face in the crowd who wasn't an official appearance at the show was Darwyn Cooke, who couldn't talk to us about any of his projects as we caught him talking with Dan Didio and Bob Wayne in Artist's Alley. In fact, we were asked to kindly walk away far enough to not be within hearing distance, so something is obviously brewing for Cooke at DC.

However, we did hear Didio invite Cooke to stick around at the con for the Countdown panel later that day, which he did, and he announced that he'd be doing an issue of Jonah Hex with Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. For Cooke's comments, we have full coverage of the panel.

We also snapped a picture of the three of them as they posed with Mike Kunkel, the Herobear and the Kid creator who is doing DC's upcoming kid's title Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam.

Kunkel showed Didio the hand-made decoder he made to give away to one lucky fan at the show. For every personal appearance Kunkel is doing this year, he's hand-making a one-of-a-kind decoder to give away at each show.

What's a "decoder, you ask? (So did we.)

"Back in the old days, there was a code that was in the comic so you could find these secret messages. And we're going to do it for our version of Captain Marvel too. It's like Christmas Story. So somewhere in one of the books, it will say, 'drink your Ovaltine,'" he laughed. "I will use the code in different spots in the issues and give the kids the opportunity to find the code."

The creator was giving out bookmarks that had the code on it, although the code can be figured out pretty easily because it's basically the alphabet turned backwards. But the nostalgic-looking, one-of-a-kind decoder makes it quick and easy to decode it, so fans can get a chance to win it if they see Kunkel at San Diego Comic Con, Free Comic Book Day at Atomic Comics in Phoenix, or a number of other cons he's hoping to attend this year.

We also overheard the creator talking to Didio about the scheduling for the new series, which we confirmed later with Kunkel as being July. "That's what we're shooting for," Kunkel said. "You already heard what it is. You heard Dan and I saying it will be monthly and will be ongoing. We want it out before San Diego Comic Con, so it will be either the first or second week of July and I'm totally excited about it."

What will happen in the first couple issues of Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam?

"The first story arc is actually the return of Black Adam," Kunkel said. "It introduces him in the world and his relationship with Billy. Theo Adam is a young punk bully kid. And it's also Billy and Mary's world. It's what it's like to have these powers and be a kid. If you were given this magic word, what would you do with it? So it's all of our sort of imaginations and what we would do with it."

What's his favorite thing in the first couple issues he's finished?

"One of my favorite things in it is Billy being Captain Marvel, but not in a situation where you'd expect him to be Captain Marvel. That's all I can say about it," he said. "I think what I love about all of it is that I'm getting the chance to let you know the characters. So when he's Captain Marvel, he's still Billy, but you know Billy much better. He may have the wisdom of Solomon when he's Captain Marvel, but he still has the brain of a kid, so he has the impulses of a kid. He's not dumb and he's not dopey, but imagine you had all the knowledge in the world, but you still made a bad decision. It's fun. And I love his relationship with Mary. It's basically my son and daughter. So that I'm enjoying."

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We found artist Joe Benitez at a table in Artist's Alley and talked to him about his new job as artist on the new Titans series by writer Judd Winick for DC Comics. Benitez will be taking over the penciler job with Titans #2 after Ian Churchill did Issue #1, "but I guess he busted his shoulder," Benitez explained.

"I have to draw Vic [Stone, Cyborg] in a makeshift little wheelchair thing," he said. "Apparently something happens in issue #1 to him, but that's all I can say. The story is that things are happening to the Titans, and they're trying to find out who's causing the drama. It's all about them trying to find out what's going on and why some of the Titans are getting killed off."

Wait, did he say "killed" off? "I can't really talk about it," the artist said.

Benitez said he's excited about the project because he's never drawn the Titans before. "It's a lot of fun. I like Starfire. I like Nightwing. I mean, the characters have a slight edge, so they're pretty fun to work on," he said. "Starfire's probably my favorite. It seems like there's more to draw there. Nightwing is essentially a dude with a black unitard. Beast Boy, I guess, has some quirkiness. I guess Cyborg would be fun to draw, but I haven't been able to draw him in his full gear, because he's handicapped right now. But he's a favorite of mine since I was a kid. I haven't had a chance to really sink my teeth into his character, but I'm looking forward to it."

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Artist Arthur Suydam had his usual crowd at his table, including a fan who had customized figures of Marvel characters as zombies, inspired by Suydam's covers.

Now that the Marvel Zombies 2 mini-series has finished up, the artist is still doing Moon Knight covers, and he's talking to Marvel about taking over as cover artist on the Punisher series. "I'm looking for that," he said, adding that he's never painted Frank Castle before. "My approach to those covers is going to be to try to do them like 1950/1920s pulp covers. So that's what I'm going to be shooting for."

The artist also said the Mudwog series he's been doing for the last 20-plus years for Heavy Metal magazine is being collected for his U.S. fans, and he's finishing up Mudwog II right now. "The first one was collected in Europe, but it never came out here before," he said.

"I've been working with Heavy Metal since the '70s, since they came over and stole me away from DC Comics," Suydam explained. "What happened is the production designer for DC Comics happened to also be the production designer for Heavy Metal," the artist explained. "As soon as I started working for DC Comics, he thought I'd be a good candidate for Heavy Metal. So I stopped working for DC and I've been working for Heavy Metal ever since."

The artist also does covers for Savage Tales and Red Sonja for Dynamite and had several issues at his table, showing fans how some of the Savage Tales covers featuring Red Sonja wrap around to the back of the comics.

Dynamite will also be publishing a zombie-based series by Suydam that is tentatively titled Skin Deep, which he's writing and illustrating. "It should be out in the summer sometime," he said. "I came up with this story way before zombies were so big. It's very different from the other stuff that's out there. It's very, very different."

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Joshua Williamson, writer of the comic Necessary Evil, was at a table in Artist's Alley. The ongoing series is published by Desperado Publishing, and Newsarama previewed the comic in January, to positive response from readers.

"Necessary Evil is about a school for supervillains," Williamson said. "It's about two brothers whose mom was the greatest supervillain of all time. After she dies, they realize there's this whole other world they never knew about it. They end up getting enrolled into the school for supervillains so they can learn how to get revenge on the superhero who killed their mom."

Four issues of the series are out now, and issue #5 comes out this week, Williamson said, with a new artist named J.C. Grande filling in for a couple issues. A trade that comes out in May will collect the first five issues of Necessary Evil.

Williamson also has a book coming out from Image/Shadowline called Dear Dracula. The art is done by Vicente Navarrete, the inker on Necessary Evil.

"It's an all-ages book about a little boy who writes to Dracula for Halloween instead of Santa Clause for Christmas," Williamson explained. "He writes to Dracula asking if he can turn him into a real vampire for Halloween."

Dear Dracula will be published in an 8" x 8" size, "the same size as Mouse Guard," Williamson added, referring to the popular series from Archaia Studios Press. Dear Dracula will be a 48-page, hardcover original graphic novel coming out Sept. 3. "Right in time for Halloween," he added.

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We found Jimmy Palmiotti walking through the convention floor, talking fast and making deals, as always. Does this guy ever sit still?

When we asked about Countdown, we found out the writer, who co-writes his Countdown issues with Justin Gray, is finished with his work for the weekly DC series. And how does it feel to be finished?

"It feels faaaaantastic. Justin and I finished our last four issues, which were #8, #9, #10 and #11, I think. So we're now, like, out of Countdown-land and back into Jonah Hex and finishing up Uncle Sam. We won't be doing any crossovers anytime soon," Palmiotti said. "We finished up Terra, and hopefully it will be coming out soon. Amanda [Conner]'s doing the last issue now.

"And then we start our secret project with Amanda," the writer/artist added with a smile.

We asked: Are the rumors true? Could the initials "PG" be involved in this secret project from Gray/Palmiotti/Conner?

"It's PG-rated," he said with a smirk. "And it's got a couple little R's in it. And it's fun."

The writer said he just recently finished up the Doc Walloper with actor/filmmaker Ed Burns for Virgin Comics. And he's still doing Painkiller Jane for Dynamite.

Palmiotti and Gray are also writing "two video games," he said, and they recently wrote a Nickelodeon Speed Racer cartoon. "The Speed Racer cartoon will be three shorts that connect onto a DVD, and the DVD comes out when Speed Racer comes out," he said. "It's for a very young age. It's for ages 8-12, so it's for a younger audience."

Will the Speed Racer show appear on the network? "I think so," he said. "But all I know is they're collecting the three and releasing them on disk."

Always looking for some new information, we asked if he's talking to DC about any new projects now that his Countdown commitment has ended. "Oh, I'm always talking to them about stuff," he laughed.

But as we talked a little more, we found out Palmiotti's working on a project with artist Phil Noto that he couldn't name. "We don't know how it's going to be formatted yet; we don't know where it's going to be. It's a Superman/Supergirl thing. Phil's drawing it, and it's beautiful. He's taking his time, because it's one of those projects that it doesn't matter when it's done. When it's done, it will see print. And it's stunning."

The writer is no stranger to the Supergirl, having written an issue of the title where Terra was introduced. "We did the one issue with Amanda, and I love Supergirl. I live with a Supergirl, so it's easy to write Supergirl."

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While Palmiotti was out and about, we found Conner holding down the fort at their table in Artist's Alley. She confirmed that she's getting close to finishing the Terra mini-series written by Pamiotti and Gray.

"As soon as I get home -- probably even before I get home -- I'm going to start the very last issue of the series," she said. "I just love Terra. She's a new Terra. She's actually very pure and good. Superman is her idol and she's always trying to do the right thing. She's a great character."

Does working and living together after all these years still have all the charm it used to?

"No, it's still fun. But you know, the only time we ever bicker is over work. We don't bicker over money or anything like that," she laughed. "But every once in awhile, with work, it's like, 'Wait a minute! It has to be like this! No, it has to be like that! But we usually get over it pretty fast."

And could we get any information from her about the "PG-rated" project that Palmiotti mentioned? "It's coming up for DC, and I'm not allowed to say anything about it until they announce it," she said. "I don't know when they're announcing it. It's a series. And the good thing is that Jimmy and Justin will be writing that one too."

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Colorist Christina Strain was in Artist's Alley and confirmed that she's already going to be working on the new Runaways issues by writer Terry Moore and artist Humberto Ramos while concurrently finishing up the Joss Whedon/Michael Ryan run on the title.

When asked if she can tell us anything about what's coming for the Runaways, all Strain would say is: "There are definitely some things in there that I can't talk about."

Is it true that the team might change during Joss Whedon's last issue?

"I can neither confirm nor deny that," Strain said with a laugh. "I can say that there are certain pages from Humberto's pages that we can't show yet, because it would spoil things. Take that however you want to take it. I can also say that Humberto's done the first issue entirely, so it's completely penciled, it's in the process of being inked, and I'll be coloring it -- so it should ship on time in the fall. One thing we want to do is stock up on a few of them, not that we're afraid we'll be late. But we're just getting ahead, which is good for me because I'm getting married soon and I'm going to take some time off. So it's probably going to come out in the fall, and it will be monthly! In fact, I'll probably have the first issue of Humberto's run finished at the same time I have the last issue of the current run done.

"I'm very excited about it because Humberto's work looks fantastic," she said. "He's drawing it similar to how he was doing X-Men, but he's doing a really good job of getting the characters' personalities down. Everybody's really distinctive. He captured their personalities really well. So I'm very excited, and I have some interesting ideas about how I'm going to do it. And I'm kind of referencing Carlos Meglia for the coloring stuff. So I'm going to go for this kind of animated look."

Strain said she's also working on Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers, Young Avengers Presents #3 with Mark Brooks, and Avengers: Fairy Tales #3 with Takeshi Miyazawa.

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Moose Baumann, a colorist best known for his recent Green Lantern work, had a "Will Work for Food" sign on his table, which was not only a joke for the creator, who's known for his tongue-in-cheek humor, but he hoped to emphasize that he's looking for more coloring work right now. Baumann's wife recently went through surgery during her battle with breast cancer, but the colorist is hoping to get back on track with coloring work now.

The colorist is currently working on only one project for Marvel, the Iron Man: Legacy of Doom mini-series, by writer David Michelinie and penciler Ron Lim. The four-issue mini-series starts in April. "It's a blast," he said. "The art's a lot of fun. The whole book has a really great old-school feel to it. I told [inker] Bob [Layton] that this is the Iron Man that I grew up with. And it's a lot of fun."

And will Green Lantern fans be seeing any more of his work on that title soon? "That's not up to me," he said. "That's up to the powers that be."

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Michael Golden was sketching at his table and displaying some of the issues for which he's done covers recently for DC and Marvel.

We asked if fans of Golden's work will be seeing any interior work from the artist soon? "We're talking about doing some interior work at Marvel," he said. "Mostly, my time has been consumed by creator-owned projects. I'm going to do an ending for Spartan X, and I've got Tenuki on the horizon, and a couple of things after that. And I've got a coffee table book that I'm designing. Just so many things that I'm not sure I can list them all."

The artist just had a collection of his art published by Vanguard Productions called Excess: The Art of Michael Golden, as well as a Modern Masters: In the Studio with Michael Golden book from TwoMorrows Publishing. "We're talking about now doing a full, big-scale, real honest-to-God coffee table book instead of just an art book," he said.

Among the work he's doing for Marvel are the covers for New Exiles, the ongoing series written by Chris Claremont.

"It's fun because they're actually the characters I've always drawn, but there's this new spin on them," Golden said. "That's what the New Exiles comic is about. So it's actually interesting to get these synopses from Chris about characters I thought I knew, but then we do something new on them. But it's a lot of fun to do them in a new context. What I'm trying to do with the visually is do updated covers that are compatible with all the other covers that the new guys are doing, but still try to keep that old-school feel to it -- that sort of dynamic that was part of comics when I came in the industry. That's what Chris is doing with the writing as well. And it seems to be working because they keep selling out. So he's doing it right and I'm trying to do him justice."

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Micah Gunnell was at the Aspen booth, signing issues for fans and doing sketches, and we found out that he's got a Marvel series coming up soon.

Gunnell said he's finishing up the last issue of Shrugged, the series from Aspen that he draws, and is now working on a one-shot for the Aspen Showcase series that focuses on a character from Soulfire named Benoist. "This is sort of his origin story and tells how he got his cybernetic arms," Gunnell said.

He's also doing a couple more Heroes stories that are being published on the NBC.com website's graphic novels section for the TV show. "I'm not sure, but I think the last one they had was called ‘History of a Secret,’ introducing this new character named Abu Aswan. So I did that one, and then I did another one after that which was ‘War Buddies.’ It was Linderman's past. And then I just did another one that's about Ben Franklin and how, apparently, he's tied in to the Heroes."

By being involved with the graphic novels produced for the series, does Gunnell get to know the secrets of the series before the rest of us?

"Some of it. Not too much," Gunnell said. "A lot of people ask me, 'Oh! What's going to happen next?' And I'm like, I don't know! I just get the comic scripts."

The artist said he loves the show and watches it on DVD sets. "I don't like having to wait for the next episodes!" he said.

Does he change his style for the Heroes comics versus his work on Shrugged (which we thought we noticed)? "Yes. Definitely," he said. "With Shrugged, it's a light-hearted comic with comedy and stuff. I have kind of a light-hearted style anyway, but I definitely play more to that when I'm drawing Shrugged. If it's more serious, I'll use more black, but I don't hardly do any shadows on that series. But I'm starting to make some changes to my style now that Shrugged is almost over.

"I know the next project I'm going to be doing is a little more serious," he said. "So I've changed some stuff based on that."

Next project? "Yep. After this one-shot is finished, I'm going to be doing something for Marvel," he said. "I can't say anything about the Marvel project. But after that, I'm going to be doing a brand new series at Aspen that will be written by Vince Hernandez and Frank Mastromauro. I'll be doing the art and some of the creative stuff too, I think. But that's going to be fun.

"I can't really reveal anything about it yet, but it's definitely much, much different from Shrugged. It's a lot darker, so it will be interesting to see how people react. I think people think of me as more of a cartoony artist, with light-hearted art, and say I can't do a serious book, but I think they'll be surprised by the next series."

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The Aspen booth was also where artist Michael Turner was scheduled to appear over the weekend, but he had to cancel his appearance due to health problems associated with his continuing battle with cancer, which Aspen detailed in last week's press release updating the status of his Soulfire series.

However, fans were surprised by the artist when Turner showed up on Saturday to sign for about 45 minutes at the Aspen booth. According to the creators at the booth, Turner really hated to miss the show after having said he would be there and hates disappointing his fans. So he made the extra effort to at least show up for a little while, and fans were lined up in appreciation of any time they could get with the artist.

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J.T. Krul was at the Aspen booth as well, talking about his work on Soulfire Volume 1, which has been delayed because of Turner's health, but he said he's already working with the artist on Volume 2 so it can come out as soon as Volume 1 wraps up.

Ale Garza will be the artist on Fathom Vol. 3, which will debut with a #0 issue in May and will come out over the summer.

"We had a dry spell because Frank [Mastromauro] wanted to guarantee shipping on all the titles, so we put a lot of things on hold until we were sure we could delivery them when promised," Krul said. "We've ramped up the stuff we have done now to make sure that we had at least four or five issues in the can before we solicited the first issue. So it's a little bit of a lull right now, but by mid summer, we'll really be churning them out."

For Fathom fans, we asked what would be happening now that Volume 3 is finally hitting. "Everybody is in Volume 3," Krul laughed. "Everybody that was ever in Fathom is in this series. The Black, our big presence in the storyline, will become a big focal point for the story going forward. There are a lot of big changes for the story going forward. There are a lot of big changes coming for the characters and the world in general. It will be really excited. And Ale is doing a good job. It will be really cool."

The writer also does work on the Heroes graphic novels that we talked to Gunnell about earlier. "I think I'm doing some more down the road, but we haven't really talked about that," he said. "That was a really different project, but it was a lot of fun. So I enjoyed it. I did three of them. It's been great."

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Another creator had to change his plans on Friday, when DC writer Geoff Johns was scheduled to briefly appear one day only at a signing and panel but had to cancel the appearance because of a death in his family. Although Johns was not on the official program, convention organizers issued a press release last week informing the media that he would be appearing for just a couple hours on Friday afternoon, and Johns posted about it on his website.

Johns came to the convention just before his scheduled appearance and signed comics for a few lucky fans who found him at Ethan Van Sciver's table in Artist's Alley as he visited with the artist with whom he's supposed to be doing a secret project later this year. But then Johns had to suddenly leave the con.

The writer issued an apology to his fans on his website forums, as well as on his myspace page, for having to miss the scheduled appearance.

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So to get the scoop on the secret project that Johns and Van Sciver were talking about at the con, we caught up with the artist at his Artist's Alley table on Sunday.

"It's awesome," he said of the new project, adding that he spoke to Dan Didio earlier at the con and he thinks the first issue will hit in December this year or January 2009. "I spent the entire show talking to Geoff about it -- at least Friday, because Geoff had to leave early on Friday -- but I had a nice lunch with him and we discussed particulars, and I got excited about stuff."

Can the artist tell us anything they talked about? "The story we talked about focuses on one character that Geoff loves so much that he was specifically telling me details of the costume that are important to him, which is neat," the artist said. "He showed me, he was like, 'This is the way this goes,' and he drew a little sketch for me. He said, 'This is the way I want it. It's important for us to have that.' But we're both really excited because the book really is a dream book."

The artist, who drew the first issue of the Sinestro Corps War -- a Special that was published in June -- said this time around, he's doing the whole Johns-penned series without help. "I'm going to draw all of it. I promise. There will be no fill-ins or anything by anyone else. No other outside contributions," he said.

Will he still be able to be a part of Blackest Night, the Green Lantern event coming up in 2009? "Of course!" Van Sciver said. "That's my baby. I was there at its inception, and a lot of the ideas are my contribution, and it's important to me that I see it through and make sure it matches what we originally thought about. So I'm going to be doing design work, and I'll be a big part of doing the interiors as well."

Fans can next see Van Sciver's interior work in Justice League of America #20, an issue that Newsarama reported about in August after having previously caught Van Sciver walking across the San Diego floor the month before, talking with JLofA writer Dwayne McDuffie about how much he likes to draw Wonder Woman and The Flash.

"Literally, I have one and a half pages left to draw of that JLA issue. I'm almost finished. I've got to rush and get it done," he said. "Look, I'll even show you. I know this isn't good on your written story and I can't give them to you to show people, but I don't say these things lightly. I mean what I say. Here we go. There's a finished page. There's an almost finished page. This one not so much. This one we're almost there. So what? One and a half pages?"

So yes, we can confirm that not only does the artist have one and half pages left to go, but also that Van Sciver is a horrible tease.

But we can also tell you that the pages that were quickly flashed to us look as impressive as Van Sciver's art always looks, and they center on Wonder Woman.

"This the first time I've really gotten to draw Wonder Woman," he said. "I mean, Geoff knows I love her, so Geoff will write her into certain scenes for me, but it's one or two panels, you know? Actually getting to draw what is ostensibly a Wonder Woman story is a thrill. I love it. I'm very excited.

"She needs to look good," he said of drawing Wonder Woman. "And she needs to look tough but demure. You need to make her look strong but innocent, and not worldly and not affected by the world that man made, you know?"

Does the artist have any more news about the Plastic Man project that he confirmed to Newsarama in December had been approved by Dan Didio?

"DC is really on board about that now," Van Sciver said. "But you know, it's terrible -- I wish I drew faster. Every time I sit down and start thinking about Plastic Man, something else comes up that seems like I need to do that even more. I had another idea about a DC event featuring another DC character that I love even more than Plastic Man. So I talked to Geoff about it this weekend. So I don't know.

"But I'm talking to a specific writer about doing the Plastic Man series. A very, very big name, who I think would be perfect for it. But like anything, when it's meant to happen, it will happen. I found that last summer, I really tried to push it and force it to happen when DC wasn't completely ready to do it yet, and it wasn't the right time, so it didn't happen. Someday. Eventually."

Did the writer have anything else he wanted to talk about?

"Scientology," Van Sciver said, using his oft-used deadpan face that makes it almost impossible to tell if he's serious or not. "I'm thinking about becoming a Scientologist. It is literally the most irritating religion that you can possibly be. Everyone hates it. And I love that. I really want to be a Scientologist so that people can tell me that I'm a fool and be like, 'Don't you understand? It's just a tax shelter! It's a fraud!' And I can say, 'I don't care. I believe in the alien and the volcano.' I work for DC Comics. I believe in weirder things than aliens in volcanoes. So I might as well subscribe to Scientology."

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Standing and talking to Ethan Van Sciver was another person who's associated with the Green Lantern Corps, writer Sterling Gates, who Newsarama found out last year ended up working in comics after accidentally running into Geoff Johns at a comic convention. As a result of the chance meeting, Gates worked with Johns on the Blade television series and other movie projects, and later wrote stories in the Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman Prime issue and the Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files last year.

Currently, Gates just finished the two-issue fill-in on Green Lantern Corps that focused on the Alpha Lanterns, which DC representatives are saying will play heavily in Final Crisis.

So how was it working on the Green Lantern Corps issues?

"It was great! Nelson's very fast and very talented. It was his first major publication that he'd penciled for DC. He'd done a couple short stories for Marvel. And so it was his first big DC thing. And we also got a great cover on #22 by Rudolfo Migliari, and it's his first DC work as well. And it's a beautiful cover of Boodikka as an Alpha Lantern. So I was very blessed and fortunate to have some great artists on that."

Does Gates have anything in the works?

"Nothing I can talk about," he said, then added with a laugh: "It's a secret."

We then asked Gates for a picture, which he thought was a good idea, since everyone online seems to think he's a pen name for some other writer. No, we can confirm -- Sterling Gates is a real person; he's not a made-up name by an established writer. And here's the photo to prove it.

-----

Tommy Castillo had a table on Artist's Alley where he displayed a huge wall of his paintings. The artist is currently doing all the covers for the titles published by Big City Comics, and he's the artist on Tempest for Big City as well, which he's co-writing with publisher Jeff Kaufman.

"It's a wonderfully horrible vampire book where they basically gave me the run to go free with it," Castillo said. "All hell breaks loose, and it's unique because the whole book is completely oil painted. And it was great because I got to revamp the whole thing. They gave me full rein to go nuts. And it's pretty much crazy."

The premise of Tempest is that a lawyer is also a vampire. "So one is a blood-sucking monster, and the other one is a vampire, you know?" Castillo laughed. "He's trying to track down a serial killer who is murdering children."

Castillo showed a painting of the serial killer that served as a two-page spread in the comic, where he's revealed in clown make-up. "Basically, what happened is that the longer this serial killer is able to keep killing children, the longer the gates to hell stay open. So coming through the gates of hell is everything that my dark little imagination can pour out," Castillo laughed. "And at the same time, our hero's dealing with the fact that he doesn't want to be a vampire, doesn't want to be a vampire, and when he blacks out, any and everything happens."

Doing oil paintings for book is time-consuming, Castillo admitted, but he said he's able to do an entire comic in 30 days. "We're shooting for it to come out every six to eight weeks," he said.

-----

We found Philip Tan at his Artist's Alley table doing sketches and couldn't get an answer about what he's doing now that he's done with the Spawn: Godslayer comic for Image after his two-year run on Spawn.

Tan could only say that it was something big and exciting that his fans will love. He said it won't be announced for a little while, but he said, "It's going to be the biggest project of my career. But unfortunately I can't talk about it."

We got the feeling it's for one of the major publishers -- probably DC, since the artist is listed among the people doing art for DC Universe #0, the 50 cent comic by Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns which comes out on April 30.

We asked: Is it something coming out soon?

"The project will be coming out this summer," Tan said. "I've been doing a lot of research. My editors, the writer and I were having so much fun trying to come up with the right approach and styles and what-not. And I'm very deep into working on the project already. And it's been really, really exciting."

Newsarama Note: we originally stated "Micah Wright" above. We meant Micah Gunnell. We apologize for the confusion.

[dmarvp]

2nd post !!

Wohooooooo !!



ps: couldn't resist it , and yeah that's 2nd post !! fist reply !!

[Tomwaitsfan]

Johns and Van Sciver are obviously working on Aquaman!!

[Sam Little]

Very excited about EVS on Plastic Man.

I miss Finch on a Bendis book. Hopefully Ultimatum will be okay. Kinda wish Bendis was writing it. Actually, I kinda wish Bendis and Millar were still writing the entire Ultimate Universe. Well, Ellis could help out too. Nothing wrong with a little bit o' Ellis.

Why am I not the king of the world?

[grphxkindaguy]

"Scientology," Van Sciver said, using his oft-used deadpan face that makes it almost impossible to tell if he's serious or not. "I'm thinking about becoming a Scientologist. It is literally the most irritating religion that you can possibly be. Everyone hates it. And I love that. I really want to be a Scientologist so that people can tell me that I'm a fool and be like, 'Don't you understand? It's just a tax shelter! It's a fraud!' And I can say, 'I don't care. I believe in the alien and the volcano.' I work for DC Comics. I believe in weirder things than aliens in volcanoes. So I might as well subscribe to Scientology."

LOL

Awesome, just....AWESOME!!!

[grphxkindaguy]

"Newsarama Note: we originally stated "Micah Wright" above. We meant Micah Gunnell. We apologize for the confusion.

When I read Micah Wright's name I was like WTF?!? This guy is back in comics?!?

I'm sure Mr. Gunnell greatly appreciates the correction!

[Slick]

Originally Posted by Tomwaitsfan

Johns and Van Sciver are obviously working on Aquaman!!

That or the return of Barry Allen are the only rumours I've heard of for their new gig....

[Kelson]

I should bookmark this article so that at the next con I go to, I'll be able to recognize some of these people by sight! (Most of the Artists' Alley tables didn't have signs.)

[TheMaxx]

Originally Posted by Sam Little

Very excited about EVS on Plastic Man.

I miss Finch on a Bendis book. Hopefully Ultimatum will be okay. Kinda wish Bendis was writing it. Actually, I kinda wish Bendis and Millar were still writing the entire Ultimate Universe. Well, Ellis could help out too. Nothing wrong with a little bit o' Ellis.

Why am I not the king of the world?

I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling this way.

[TedKordLives]

Originally Posted by Tomwaitsfan

Johns and Van Sciver are obviously working on Aquaman!!

I don't know if you were joking when you said this, but if this is the case, I will vomit with excitment.

[TheGrayHulk]

We asked: Are the rumors true? Could the initials "PG" be involved in this secret project from Gray/Palmiotti/Conner?

"It's PG-rated," he said with a smirk. "And it's got a couple little R's in it. And it's fun."

"Two little R's"? Power Girl and Red Robin??


Also: Palmiotti always looks like a guy from the Sopranos.

[TedKordLives]

Originally Posted by TheGrayHulk

"Two little R's"? Power Girl and Red Robin??


Also: Palmiotti always looks like a guy from the Sopranos.

Probably more like Powe"R" Gi"R"l.

[Zechs]

Moose Baumann, a colorist best known for his recent Green Lantern work, had a "Will Work for Food" sign on his table, which was not only a joke for the creator, who's known for his tongue-in-cheek humor, but he hoped to emphasize that he's looking for more coloring work right now. Baumann's wife recently went through surgery during her battle with breast cancer, but the colorist is hoping to get back on track with coloring work now.

The colorist is currently working on only one project for Marvel, the Iron Man: Legacy of Doom mini-series, by writer David Michelinie and penciler Ron Lim. The four-issue mini-series starts in April. "It's a blast," he said. "The art's a lot of fun. The whole book has a really great old-school feel to it. I told [inker] Bob [Layton] that this is the Iron Man that I grew up with. And it's a lot of fun."

And will Green Lantern fans be seeing any more of his work on that title soon? "That's not up to me," he said. "That's up to the powers that be."

I hope your wife gets better Moose and I can't wait to see your colors in that Iron Man/Doom mini. I bet the Lim's pencils will be even greater under your colors.

Hmm hey Moonbeam what's Moose's greatest food weakness? If he attends WWC '08 and still has that sign up someone should take him up on that offer.

[caats19]

Originally Posted by Tomwaitsfan

Johns and Van Sciver are obviously working on Aquaman!!

that was my reaction!!!! it wouldn't be barry, why would they need to discuss the suit in depth? WOOOOOOOOOOO

[TheMightyGeek]

Totally agree. Moose needs more work. Moose's colors are too good to only be on one book.

Demand more Moose!

[Little John]

Finally a release date (or thereabouts) for the new SHAZAM! series by Mike Kunkel.

I am really looking forward to this series as Captain Marvel is one of my favorite characters and I am not a huge fan of the recent direction this family of characters has taken. This looks like a back to basics approach for the character and an overall fun book.

I was also one of the lucky winners of a Captain Marvel Transpositioning Decodifier at the recent Atlanta Comics Expo. It really is very cool that he is making these for the fans. It now sits in my home office as one of my most prized comic items.

Mike is one of the most gracious creators in the business and truly enjoys interacting with fans. It's nice to see him back on the pages of Newsarama discussing this series. I would love to see more coverage as we get closer to the release date.

[Ken B.]

Give Moose Baumann work. His coloring in Metal Men is phenomenal.

And Dave Finch really has done nothing for the past 6 months outside of covers and one issue of Fallen Son. That's a waste, Marvel.

[grendel824]

Originally Posted by grphxkindaguy

When I read Micah Wright's name I was like WTF?!? This guy is back in comics?!?

Actually, he is. And while he was a gigantic jerk, he was a pretty good writer, so I was torn over his firing and the abrupt ending of his Stormwatch book. Just because a guy acts like a jerk doesn't mean he should never ever get to work again. And it's not like he did anything to me personally (I will never give Rick Veitch my money, for instance), so I'm going to hope he's learned his lesson and might check out his next piece of work.

[beta-ray]

Great article, always love reading this kinda stuff.

Seem like a bunch of cool folks there. Golden interiors? Sounds good!