THE BUZZ FROM THE FLOOR @ PITTSBURGH COMIC-CON 2006

**MattBrady** · 04-24-2006, 10:21 AM

by Vaneta Rogers

At this weekend's 13th annual Pittsburgh Comicon at the Monroeville ExpoMart, the floor buzz seemed to concentrate on a variety of new mini-series spinning out of the year's big events at DC and Marvel.

Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner announced that they will be working together on a mini-series for DC later this year -- Palmiotti co-writing the series with Justin Gray and Conner providing artwork.

"It's a female character who's going to first appear in the 52 series," Palmiotti said, unable to go into more detail than that. "Our book is going to explain why she's there."

Will it be a familiar DC character? "Yes and no. She'll be familiar in one aspect and a totally new character in the other," he said with a smile.

Palmiotti, who already has quite a full plate doing Heroes for Hire, Jonah Hex, Freedom Fighters and a variety of other projects, said he and Gray are writing this new series with Conner's strengths in mind. "Her strengths are characterization, interaction and a sense of humor, so the book's going to be that type of comic. There are a lot of guest stars -- Power Girl, the Titans, everybody's in it. So she's getting to draw everyone, and I think everybody's going to be happy to see her drawing Power Girl again," he said, referencing the artist's work with the character last year on the launch of JSA Classified with Geoff Johns.

Conner was attracted to this new project because she trusted Palmiotti to write a story she'd enjoy drawing. "Jimmy knows what I like to draw," she laughed. "Cute girls, stuff that has a lot of personality where you can get into the hero's head without all the throwing down with supervillains. I think it's going to be a lot of fun."

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Mike Oeming says he's got "something huge coming" from Marvel in September, but he can't announce it yet.

Is it Thor? "No! It's not Thor!" he said adamantly. "But I can say it kind of spins out of the tail end of Civil War."

And his response to the rumor of a Beta Ray Bill series to follow up on the success of the Stormbreaker mini-series he wrote about the character for Marvel last year? "No, but Beta Ray Bill will be coming back and he will be around in a regular series. But it's not his own book," the creator said.

Yet he did confirm what has been reported in the past about Ares once the Oeming-penned mini-series ends -- "the character is joining a major Marvel group."

Besides his work with Marvel and Icon, he's working as artist and co-writer on a new creator-owned "cop noir" series for Image that will come out in September that he promises will appeal to fans of the Powers title he draws with writer Brian Michael Bendis.

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George Perez is finally working on pencils for the new Brave and the Bold title for DC Comics, a series that was announced almost a year ago. Delayed because of the artist's work on the Infinite Crisis mini-series and writer Mark Waid's involvement in the weekly series 52, the series seems to be back on track now. Perez said he's gotten the first script, and it features a Batman and Green Lantern team-up.

"Mark has found an ingenious way of doing the old formula but working within the climate where everything has to be considered for trades," Perez explained. "I think people will really enjoy it."

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Artist Arthur Suydam has gotten a lot of attention from fans lately for the covers he created for the well-received Marvel Zombies mini-series. And what does he think of the fan response? "It's a big surprise, a huge surprise. It's been really terrific. Every show we go to, it sheds more light on just how popular the book is," Suydam said.

While he couldn't officially announce what he'll be doing next, the artist said fans of the Zombies comic might have hope for more. "We're in discussions to do a number of projects for Marvel, and they are talking about what may happen in the future with the Zombies characters. It remains to be seen," he said.

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Howard Chaykin has two new mini-series that will be announced soon -- one coming out from DC that may please Green Lantern fans, and another mini for Marvel. And surprisingly enough, he's even doing some work for Brave and the Bold that "people will be hearing about soon, but I can't say more than that."

Until then, Chaykin is keeping busy with a variety of current projects. The creator is finishing up the pencils for the last half of Issue #54 of Hawkgirl, working on scripts for Bite Club: Vampire Crime Unit (which he co-writes with David Tischman), and just finished the art for New Avengers #21.

What happens in the New Avengers issue? "Everything," the creator joked. "It's a Cap story. There are a couple things at Marvel that I really adore. Cap is one. Iron Man is another. But getting to direct Cap was great, and getting to work with Brian [Michael Bendis] was as well."

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Artist Michael Turner, who will provide variant covers for Marvel's event, Civil War starting next month, was on hand at this year's convention and provided artwork for the official T-shirt being sold for the event to raise money for for charity. The Pittsburgh ComiCon has raised over $200,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation through its fundraising events over the years.

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Mike Deodato, coming off a four-issue story arc as penciller for New Avengers, said he's been given the opportunity to work on a Marvel book of his choice that he couldn't announce yet, but would be able to talk about soon.

Deodato said his work on New Avengers with Brian Michael Bendis has been a lot of fun, especially creating the Collective character, who inherited all the powers that mutants lost during the Decimation event.

So is it going to take the entire New Avengers team to take down this powerful new Collective character? "Oh, yeah. The whole team, 60,000 zombies, and this huge army," he laughed. "I am enjoying working with Bendis a lot. He's a mix of Bruce Jones that I worked with on Hulk, who really knows how to build suspense, and [J. Michael] Straczynski that I worked with on Spider-Man, who knows how to work with the psychology of characters and their dialogue. Bendis has these two qualities in one. And he knows how to make it look like a big action movie."

The creator and his booth-mate Will Conrad both traveled from Brazil to Pittsburgh for the show -- quite a trip for a comic book convention -- but the artist said it's worth it. "My work is published here in America, so my public is here," he said. "We're staying here in the U.S. for a month and a half just to meet our fans, so we can attend Pittsburgh, then Detroit and then Philadelphia."

"I'm going to spend a month and a half with this guy," Conrad joked. "Oh boy."

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Conrad, who just finished working on some She-Hulk fill in issues, said Dark Horse is talking to him about the possibility of another Serenity series from Joss Whedon -- welcome news for fans of the TV series-turned-movie-turned-comic -- and he's got more work for Marvel coming soon.

The artist joked that his work on She-Hulk was difficult to draw because there was a lot of artwork of "the inside of a courthouse, the outside of a courthouse, and more inside of a courthouse. No, but it was nice because it also gave me a chance to draw pages with all the Avengers, and some historical stuff, and of course I got to draw Thing and She-Hulk herself, so it was great," he said.

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Artist Talent Caldwell has started working on Gen 13 with writer Gail Simone, a title that comes out in September from Wildstorm.

The artist says he thinks Gen 13 fans will be pleased with the comic. "It's different, but it's the original cast, so people should be happy about that," he said.

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Penciller Jamal Igle said he's finishing up Firestorm #27, an issue that obviously has a lot of action in it. "It's kicking my butt a little bit," he laughed. "There are a lot of characters. Firestorm
started out pretty simple, but with this issue, my hand cramps and I slam my head against my lightboard. But it will be a lot of fun for the readers, because there's so much going on."

As for what's next for the artist -- there's a dream project with a favorite DC character that he's been wanting to do since before he signed his DC exclusive contract, and he's hoping it comes through soon. "It's one of those projects that, if I do it, I could die happy," he said.

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Darryl Banks, best known for his work on Green Lantern and now mostly working as an illustrator, said he's enjoying what's happening with the Green Lantern mythos. "I think it's great -- especially Hal coming back, because people have been wanting to see that for a long time and it has fantastic artwork," he said.

As for the return of the Green Lantern Corps itself, Banks said it was something that almost had to go away for it to be appreciated. "Just like any character that's been around for awhile, you need to shake things up to keep things from becoming stagnant. So it had to go away so that people could miss it. And now it's back, so now that's why it's so popular.

"If it never left, I wonder ... would it be as popular and as big as it is today?"

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Tommy Castillo said he's working on a film for Universal Studios with George Romero. While he couldn't officially announce the subject of the film, he didn't think fans would have to guess for too long to figure it out. "Well, if you know about George, you can pretty much guess," he said. "We worked together on Toe Tags and became friends. And we wanted to collaborate on another project and wanted to do it as a comic book, but we sat down and looked at it and decided to go with it as a film."

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Brian Michael Bendis told fans he's excited about Ultimate Power, the event he's working on for release at the end of 2006 in which the Squadron Supreme and Ultimate comics crossover. The writer is creating the story with J. Michael Straczynski and Jeph Loeb, each writing three issues for the event. "Just about everybody who is anybody will show up in the book," Bendis said.

And to those who are afraid the combination of these two universes will eventually lead to a crossover between the Ultimate books and the regular Marvel universe? Bendis got scientific on the subject, pointing out the difference between dimensional jumping and jumping between whole universes, noting that Ultimate Power is being approached as a dimensional jump as opposed to a melding of universes. "In the Ultimate universe, there's already been a lot of dimensional stuff. And Squadron Supreme, it really is an Ultimate book already. If you look at it -- it's so good -- JMS does some awesome stuff in there -- but it's already the ultimate Squadron Supreme. So it does kind of fit very well into the dimensions that Mark was playing with, with the zombies for example.

"So there's no science there, if you look at it that way, for universe jumping, as far as melding the Ultimate universe and the '616' universe (as us nerds like to call it)," he explained. "And really, I mean, can you think of any story between the Ultimate universe and Marvel universe that needs to be told that wouldn't just be a disaster?"

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Artist Randy Green is working on a two-issue story for JLA: Classified, something that has been tough for him, having been away from regular comics work for awhile. "It's been slow going," he admitted, pointing out that his editor is being very patient with him. "I haven't been
working on anything regular, so this is great. I haven't done anything at DC for a lot of years."

Fans of his past work on Witchblade will also be pleased to hear that his work will be among the pages of the title's 100th issue. "The way they're working it is that there will be flashback pages, and some of the former artists who have worked on Witchblade will be featured," he said.

CylverSaber · 04-24-2006, 10:41 AM

Why no reporting on the Spider-Girl news?

EmeraldGuy32 · 04-24-2006, 10:42 AM

YAY! big Oeming project = happy EmeraldGuy32!

dpg · 04-24-2006, 10:45 AM

I have gone since the beginning and this con gets smaller and less fun each year. I am amazed it is still going.

Yeah I know... kinda negative ain't it?

arthur · 04-24-2006, 10:49 AM

It seems there weren't any really big news announced at Pittsburgh. Another Serenity series would be cool though.

bob_at_york · 04-24-2006, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CylverSaber

Why no reporting on the Spider-Girl news?

what news?

haverchuck · 04-24-2006, 10:55 AM

that's some good reporting moonbeam

kingofcities · 04-24-2006, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattBrady

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Penciller Jamal Igle said he's finishing up Firestorm #27, an issue that obviously has a lot of action in it. "It's kicking my butt a little bit," he laughed. "There are a lot of characters. Firestorm
started out pretty simple, but with this issue, my hand cramps and I slam my head against my whiteboard. But it will be a lot of fun for the readers, because there's so much going on."

As for what's next for the artist -- there's a dream project with a favorite DC character that he's been wanting to do since before he signed his DC exclusive contract, and he's hoping it comes through soon. "It's one of those projects that, if I do it, I could die happy," he said.

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Can't wait to hear what this is!

As long as he isn't leaving Firestorm!

Stormbreaker · 04-24-2006, 10:57 AM

I'm glad to hear that Beta Ray Bill's gonna be in an ongoing, but it won't be his own? I wonder whose it shall be...Hopefully not a new Thro Corps. I never read the original, but the premise seemed...not so good. And I'm still curious as to which team Ares will join upon the conclusion of his mini. New Avengers seems a distinct possibility, but I don't think it'll happen for some reason. But hey, I wouldn't mind being pleasantly surprised by that.

EDIT: Hey! This is my 300th post! YAY!

jeremyohio21 · 04-24-2006, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CylverSaber

Why no reporting on the Spider-Girl news?

i was there, and the spider girl stuff was all canceled, the writer guy canceled.

this was my first con, and i had a blast. i hear that it was much bigger, but to me it was still pretty huge.

and i got to meet some of my fav creators and signed stuff, and i got batman sketches from Angel Medina and greg horn, and a batman commission from Michael Turner.

so, i thought it was fun.

plus, Bendis told me a bunch about the Spider-Woman ongoing, i can't wait for that!

ejulp · 04-24-2006, 10:59 AM

"Deodato said his work on New Avengers with Brian Michael Bendis has been a lot of fun, especially creating the Collective character, who inherited all the powers that mutants lost during the Decimation event."

eff beans, wish there woulda been a spoiler, i didn't read that issue yet

KyleCowstar · 04-24-2006, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bob_at_york

what news?

http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stori...rgirlpanel.htm

"Hope dangles on a string,like slow spinning redemption"

kingofcities · 04-24-2006, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattBrady

"It's a female character who's going to first appear in the 52 series," Palmiotti said, unable to go into more detail than that. "Our book is going to explain why she's there."

Will it be a familiar DC character? "Yes and no. She'll be familiar in one aspect and a totally new character in the other," he said with a smile.

coughbatwomancough

bob_at_york · 04-24-2006, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KyleCowstar

http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stori...rgirlpanel.htm

"Hope dangles on a string,like slow spinning redemption"

thanks!

ejulp · 04-24-2006, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KyleCowstar

http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stori...rgirlpanel.htm

"Hope dangles on a string,like slow spinning redemption"

i guess possible spoiler for issue 100

good news from that link
i used to buy that series for my sister when she was younger
back in the teens and twenties of that book (of course i'd read them before giving them to her lol)
it was a solid read
and
tit can pry be re-adapted a bit for the new female manga audience
(by re-adapted i don't mean ameri-manga-ized per se)

bishop-m · 04-24-2006, 11:17 AM

I look forward to more Beta Ray Bill!
Oeming is such a great writer/artist! I can't wait for his new Image project!

HeX111 · 04-24-2006, 11:17 AM

oh... and since Moonbeam didn't mention it... Bendis mentioned, during his panel, regarding the "Ultimate Invasion" story... there IS no Ultimate Invasion story... and that the book he is working on with Silvestri is going to be something altogether different...

I am MODOK · 04-24-2006, 11:17 AM

The show was a little smaller than what I was expecting. I guess I've been spoiled by Wizard World and Charlotte...

Hunter · 04-24-2006, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingofcities

Can't wait to hear what this is!

As long as he isn't leaving Firestorm!

From what I recall from talking to Jamal a few years back, this'd be Superman.

Ricochet · 04-24-2006, 11:35 AM

great article Vaneta

avengingtitan · 04-24-2006, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattBrady

Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner announced that they will be working together on a mini-series for DC later this year -- Palmiotti co-writing the series with Justin Gray and Conner providing artwork.

"It's a female character who's going to first appear in the 52 series," Palmiotti said, unable to go into more detail than that. "Our book is going to explain why she's there."

Will it be a familiar DC character? "Yes and no. She'll be familiar in one aspect and a totally new character in the other," he said with a smile.
.

BATWOMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sequart · 04-24-2006, 11:39 AM

Quote:

"And really, I mean, can you think of any story between the Ultimate universe and Marvel universe that needs to be told that wouldn't just be a disaster?"

Amen to that, brother!