SDCC '08 Recap

(Pictures by Charlie Chu)

SDCC Bullet points!

• Roomed with Shawn Crystal (thanks, Shawn!), Jason Latour, Andrew Robinson (if you can score Andrew's ANDROX sketchbook, DOO EEET!), Hunter Clark and Johnny Depp.


• Many meetings and greetings from Hollywood folk, in the wake of Billy Smoke, the Leading Man and Hawaiian Dick. Some renewed interest in Dick. Some possible interest in Jackie Karma from an interesting lead. Lots of genuine love, of course.


• Ran into tons of old friends, of course. Flew out with Haun and Peck. Flew back with Peck and Parks. Also on the flight were KC con promoter Chris Jackson and Diamond sculptor Rudy Garcia. Seth Jones was on hand covering things for CBR, as was Mar Harris. Never did see Jonah.


• Met J. Torres's baby, and, yes, it is the cutest thing in the world. Good to see he and his wife, Young. Missed Rick Cortes, though. Bummer.


• Dinner with the Oni gang on Thursday, which included political chatter with Joe Phillips, and included a bunch of my favorite folks, from Chris Mitten to Rick Spears to Robbi Rodriguez to Chuck BB to Brian Hurtt to Cullen Bunn (and wife). And, of course, James Lucas Jones, Joe Nozemak and Randy Jerrell.


• Special thanks to Oni's media mavens Eric Gitter and Peter Schwerin.


• Fucked my knee up playing softball for DC against Marvel. Yes, we lost 16-6, but I was three for three with three RBI. So don't blame me.


• Got to see Jai Nitz strike Joe Quesada out in slo-pitch softball.
• Ran into Hawaiian Dick co-screenwriter Mark Swift and had a nice chat.


• UTA party Friday night with many of the Oni folk (including Jamie McKelvie and Kieron Gillen). Sarah Silvermen, Stan Lee, and two Napoleon Dynamites were on hand.


• Karaoke with the Wildstorm gang. Christos Gage finally drove us out of the bar.


• Signed with Black Vault artist Nelson Blake 2, who's a great guy.


• Nice meeting with my DC lifeline Mike Siglain. Hopefully things work out on THAT PROJECT.
• Erik Larsen: "What you should do with your next Image book is think about what people want to read and do that." Thanks, Erik.


• Lunched with Casey Blue artists Carlo Barberi and Jacob Eguren and editor Ben Abernathy. Again, great guys all.
• Met Dan Curtis Johnson finally. Brain was scrambled by that point, though.
• Also met Ryan Kelly for the first time. Been a fan of his since Local first debuted.
• Had planned on chatting with Ben Templesmith about things, but ended up just bumping into each other on the con floor, as usual. Email it is.
• Played softball with Randy Green, and ran into him several times (often with super nice guy Andy Yates). Good guy.
• Found out Ted McKeever's a prince of a guy.
  
• Chatting with Darwyn Cooke and James Sime together in the middle of the Hyatt bar was a high point. Darwyn's...well...Darwyn, and James greeted me with a warm hug and a high five. Love those guys.
• Picked up the Pulp Tales anthology, which featured the debut of Bluejacket.


• Saw John Layman stone sober on a Friday. Then I saw him on Saturday...
• Someone remind Cory Walker that he's a genius, please. Also, he wrote a song about me.


• Nick Derington's Tiger Fighter is genius.


• Also thanks to the Top Cow gang: Mel, Filip, Matt and Rob. And Chas!


• Ivan, Kristyn and Andy finally showed up.
• Simon and Pat hanging in the Hyatt bar.
• Chatted with lots of other good people I don't see enough: Josh Fiaklov, Andy Kuhn, Phil Hester, Kody Chamberlain, Francesco Francavilla (and his delightful wife), Joe Keatinge, Eric Stephenson, Jim Valentino, Jimmie Robinson, Mark Englert, Tim Seeley, Chris Burnham, Robert Kirkman, Jason Aaron, Fraction and DeConnick, Scott Kurtz, Neil Kleid, Marc Hammond, Chris Powell, Frank Cho, Jann Jones, Mark Sable, Ryan Ottley, Sam Humphries, Lea Hernandez, Chip Mosher, the Image office gang, and so on and so forth.
• Comic Book Tattoo ruled the Image booth. Nice work, Rantz!


• Chuck BB with the EISNER WIN! Followed by shots and pizza.
• Oni PR hawk Cory Casoni and Shawn Crystal saved me from jail by getting me a new badge before I tried to punch out an over-zealous badge monkey on Sunday. Temper, temper, Clay.


• Biggest moment for me was signing on Saturday afternoon with future Billy Smoke star Matthew Fox, who flew in to Comic-Con specifically to sign Billy posters with me at the booth. Great guy, and he's very into the project (his being there at all was proof of that). Eric and I are going to kick this thing in the ass and let Fox and his folks put together a killer flick. Also? Sitting next to Matthew Fox made me realize how out of shape I am.

My San Diego Schedule

If you're looking for me in San Diego, here's where I'll be:

Thursday, July 24
---
4:30: Softball (DC vs. Marvel)
Adams Rec Center
3491 Adams Avenue (corner of 35th Street)

Friday, July 25
---
2:00-3:00: Signing at the IMAGE BOOTH with Scott Chantler & Seth Peck.
3:30–4:30: Signing at the TOP COW BOOTH with Nelson Blake II

Saturday, July 26
---
10:00–11:00: Signing at the TOP COW BOOTH with Nelson Blake II
2:00-3:00: Signing at the IMAGE BOOTH with Scott Chantler & Seth Peck.
3:00–4:00: HERD IT THROUGH THE BO-VINE (Top Cow panel, Room 2)
6:30-7:30: Wildstorm panel

Sunday, July 27
---
2:30–3:30: Signing at the TOP COW BOOTH with Nelson Blake II (Jeremy will be there, too)

I'll probably be hanging around the Oni booth now and then, as well, helping out.

Comic Reviews!

Instead of hanging out at Steven Sanders' place with almost all of the Kansas City comics community, I'm stuck at home with kids, reading old comics through bleary eyes.

I thought I'd post some reviews of old comics I picked up in Chicago a couple of weeks ago. I loaded up on cheap seventies stuff, mainly, and thought I'd spit out some brief blurbs on a few of 'em.

FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL #5

Manhunter by Jack Kirby

So, First Issue Special was primarily a dumping ground for lousy concepts that had no prayer of being picked up, the one notable exception being Mike Grell's Warlord. James Robinson got some mileage out of the Starman character introduced near the end of the run. The book did feature a now classic Marty Pasko/Walt Simonson Dr. Fate story, and the Creeper and Metamorpho had showcases, but so did Lady Cop, the Dingbats, and the Green Team...

So, this is Jack Kirby reinventing his Golden Age Manhunter character, and it's better than you'd think it would be. Typical Kirby silliness opens the book, as the character waltzes into the "cave of Talking Heads" and battles a dude wearing a robe and a mask over his pinstripe suit. But from there Kirby sets up an interesting scenario...a society of manhunters, with the newest member being a young public defender who laments that society's "big fish" so often abuse the "little fish."

It's a fun little story, and I think it would have been a decent springboard for a book. Cool looking character, too.

FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL #10

The Outsiders by Joe Simon, Jerry Grandenetti and Craig Flessel

This book, on the other hand, is almost abstract in its awfulness. In a nutshell, a group of freakish looking characters have banded together (because they're all so ugly) to help other freaks.

The first freak rescued by the Outsiders in this issue is a baby with a GIGANTIC hard head, who speaks telepathically ("I'm Billy! Won't someone please help me?"). In this book, normal people react to freaks by attacking them with torches and clubs, you see. When Billy is set on fire, he uses his giant head to bash his way through a crowd and jump into a lake.

A trio of Golden Age creators must have thought this concept was out there enough to appeal to a new generation, but it's so laughably executed, it's hard to take it seriously as an attempt at crafting a hit. It's also highly enjoyable, thanks to the pure goofiness that drips off every page. I'm convinced the kind-of-keen Ernie Chan cover was designed the way it was so they didn't have to feature the completely ridiculous looking cast (which includes a scaly woman with flippers for hands and a twisted dwarf who drives around in his own funky bubble chair). Still, it must be read to be believed.

io9 asks me (and Millar) about terror in comics

I think Graeme's question is a little odd, which I suppose I address in my answer.

I also think it's odd that he thinks imagining the war on terror not stopping more attacks would have been "unimaginable" a few years back. I've never thought the "war on terror" was likely to prevent attacks.

Anyway, check it out here:

http://io9.com/5022322/sci-fi-terrorism-comes-to-comics

M. V. Carey was kind to me when I was a boy

Cleaning up the basement, I just stumbled across a letter written to me many, many years ago by author M.V. (Mary) Carey.

As a kid, I was a fanatical fan of several series (the continuity of series books always greatly appealed to me): Notably Lloyd Alexander's High King (or Black Cauldron) series, Hugh Lofting's Dr. Doolittle books, C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, and Willard Price's "Adventure" series. While I could never get into the Hardy Boys, I was a monster fan of the Three Investigators books, created in 1964 by Robert Arthur, but primarily written during my childhood by Carey.

When I was in fourth or fifth grade, my class was given the assignment of writing a letter to our favorite authors. Most kids wrote to Judy Blume or Beverly Cleary, but I wrote a heartfelt letter to Carey, explaining that I loved to write and draw, and that I one day hoped to write and draw comic books and maybe even write real books.

Virtually every kid in the class received very nice form letters from the authors they chose, but I received a lovely typed response directly from Ms. Carey, with specific advice on the craft of writing, and inquiries as to my hobbies and about the town in which I lived. Over the course of a couple of years, we exchanged three or four more letters, and each time she wrote to me without condescension, in a leisurely manner, sharing her impressions of the places I lived based on their names (we moved from Iowa to Texas during this period), and wishing me success with the detective agency I started with my friend Troy Petrick (C.L.O.Y. Investigations).

Over the years I'd occasionally stumble across one of Carey's letters, and each time I'd make sure I tucked the letters away in some corner for preservation. Finding this letter tonight spurred me to search for information on her life after she stopped writing the Three Investigators books (her last book was published in 1987), and I found what I was looking for:

MARY VIRGINIA CAREY
1925 - 1994

Personal: Born May 19, 1925, in New Brighton, England; brought to the United States in 1925, naturalized citizen in 1955; daughter of John Cornelius (an engineer) and Mary Alice (Hughes) Carey. Home address in 1993 was 3748 Birch St., Ventura, CA.

The entire entry can be found here: http://www.threeinvestigatorsbooks.com/MVCarey.html

Along with much biographical information, the entry includes this lovely quotation from Carey:

"Young people ask why I became a writer, as if it were something I decided. I didn't decide; it grew on me like ivy. When I was a child I liked to read to my friends, or to tell them stories. When I grew up I had several false starts before I found a job on a magazine and discovered that people who read and write are more fun than people who don't. I first wrote for profit at the Disney Studio. I worked on the Mickey Mouse Club magazine there. Suddenly I felt that I was ten again, sitting on the front porch telling stories to the other kids. Now that I am a free-lance writer, the sensation of reliving younger days is even stronger. I remember how it was when my brothers and I were small. We had no money because of that thing called a depression, but we had freedom. If there were wicked people on Long Island in the 1930's - people who might harm kids - we did not know of it. On summer mornings my mother could open the door and send us out to wander through the neighborhood and she did not worry. So long as we came back in time for lunch - and relatively clean and undamaged - everything was fine. We explored all empty houses, and all empty houses were considered haunted. We went out on the sound in a tiny boat which my second brother had salvaged from the beach after a storm. We had clubs with secret passwords. We watched the older people of the community come and go and I think we knew quite a bit about what they were up to - probably including things we were not supposed to know."

"And we read. We read everything we were supposed to read, and much that we weren't supposed to know about. We fished pulp magazines out of the neighbor's trash and learned all about Dr. Fu Manchu and Tarzan of the Apes and other super heroes. We also plowed through Dickens and Jules Verne and the Saturday Evening Post and Collier's and everything the librarian would let us carry home from the library. Today all of the reading and the roaming stands me in good stead. So does my habit of being not especially practical or brisk. People ask if I work for a certain number of hours each day. I admire people who do, but I must admit that I don't. Some days it seems more important to wander and watch, or to read. There is only one brisk rule that I do observe; if I plan to write today, I do not leave the house until I've written. I know that once I go out, I will stay out until dark, and then I will come trailing home, tired and probably hungry. I will have lost the day."

It's now been over ten years since Ms. Carey passed away, and I regret not being able to thank her for her kindness, and for the small part she played in shaping my own life.

Very brief WW Chicago recap

Had a nice time in Chicago this year. Lots of people dropped by to tell me they enjoyed the iFanboy podcast, which was cool. Moved a few trades, signed at DC a couple of times.

Editor Shannon Denton, Jeremy Haun and myself on the Wildstorm panel

Had fun hanging with Wildstorm editor Shannon Denton (with whom Jeremy and I shared a Wildstorm panel). Wildstorm is good people. Good to see Jim Valentino and Larsen again, even if conversation with Erik was interrupted Thursday night by a very drunk British artist. Obviously there was a pall cast over the proceedings with the word of Michael Turner's passing on Friday night. Shannon and I were chatting when Jim Demonakis leaned in with the news, having just received a phone call. The Aspen booth was understandably pretty somber for the rest of the show. Good news on Saturday for Eric Stephenson, stepping up as the publisher at Image. I don't think his job will change much, but it'll shift some, of course. Wish he hadn't missed his flight to the show. Also good to see the Top Cow guys, Rob Levin, Filip Sablik and Mel Caylo. I'm glad to be working with all three of them.


Dinner at Maria's, followed by drinks Thursday night at the amazing Hala Kahiki with Ande Parks, roommates Jason Latour, Jeremy Haun, Jason Hurley and Aaron Norton.

Shannon, writer Jai Nitz and myself bad-assing it up at the DC booth.

Bar conversation always highlights Chicago. Ivan Brandon and Brian Azzarello and I spent a while discussing the merits of the Office, and I caught up with Dynamite's Nick Barruci and Marvel's all-everything go-to guy CB Cebulski (I knew him when...). Saw old pal Seth Jones, heading up coverage for CBR. A big thanks to Crimespree Magazine honcho Jon Jordan and his wife, Ruth, for hooking me up with some great fiction and a spiffy Crimespree T-shirt (I wore it on Monday). Good to see Andy Kuhn, Phil Hester, Mellon & Hopeless, Norton & Seeley, BB & Stakal, Samnee & Bunn, and all the other cute couples in comics...

Anyway, it's always nice to hit Chicago.

Iron Maiden One from Top Cow

I'm doing a new book at Top Cow that, as yet, doesn't have a final title, but came to the Cow as Iron Maiden One. Five issue mini-series, with Nelson Blake II on art. There will be a preview issue ready for San Diego:

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/062808wwcbclaymooreironmaidenone.html

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080628-WWCIronMaidenOne.html

Billy Smoke news is out there...

Woke up today (after rolling in from Chicago in the middle of the night) to see that Variety had a piece on Warner Brothers and Matthew Fox being attached to Billy Smoke, an upcoming graphic novel I'm doing with Eric Kim for Oni.

When Hawaiian Dick was first optioned with Johnny Knoxville attached, it led to a ton of cheesy but entertaining headlines. A Google search reveals the same is the case here.

To whit:

Billy Smoke is Lost

Racer X Ponders Becoming Billy Smoke

"Lost' Star Matthew Fox spots "Smoke"

Fox Lights a Smoke

Where There's 'Smoke' There's Matthew Fox

Matthew Fox Inhales "Smoke"

Matthew Fox Smells WB's "Smoke"

Matthew Fox Spots "Smoke"

My favorite headline, though, is:

Lost Star to Play Unwritten Comic Character

Chicago is upon us...I shall be in attendance

Haun and I are heading out for Chicago in the morning, along with Hurley and A. Norton.

We'll be setting up shop in Artist's Alley, at tables 5200-5204, along with Jason Latour and Dennis Hopless and Kevin Mellon.

Sounds like I'll also be signing at the DC booth on Friday, from noon until one, and on Saturday, from 1:30 to 2:30.

And I think I'll be on the Wildstorm panel, which is on Saturday at 4:00.

The iFanboy discussion

Josh Flanagan and I discuss reviewers, the state of the industry, my work, and what have you.

I think it was a pretty good discussion. Josh is a good guy. Here's link to the podcast and the ensuing response from some iFanboy board posters:

http://www.ifanboy.com/podcasts/audio/06_22_2008_-_Special_Edition_Podcast_-_B__Clay_Moore

Mining the old properties, and more critical chatter

I wonder if anyone holds the rights to the Italian wartime hero Ciclone : l’Uomo d’acciaio (Hurricane : the man of steel).

Something vaguely familiar about the character, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

CRITICA!

Timothy Callahan posted a link to the Sequart website's discussion on the role of reviewers, sparked by the earlier post here:

http://www.sequart.org/columns/?column=2180

It's interesting discussion. I would like to point out yet again that I was in no way responding to specific reviews of my own work. Hawaiian Dick is generally reviewed favorably, and very often reviewed quite well (with well written reviews), as a lot of the reviews seem to come from non comic reviewers. I was just using that as an example.

In related news, I had a long conversation with Josh Flanagan from the iFanboy podcast, in which we covered a broad range of subject related to the industry, and, of course, my own books. Should be up Sunday, I think.

Blogcritics.com on Byrd of Paradise

A truly flattering review of HAWAIIAN DICK: BYRD OF PARADISE by author Mel Odom:

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/06/19/0117502.php

Thanks to old friend and voracious reader Chris Miller for passing it along.

Which actually reminds me of something. I've known Chris for about fifteen years, I suppose. We were both members of the Legends APA, which I joined while in college. Not long after finishing the first HAWAIIAN DICK book, I was talking to Chris at a Chicago area cookout during Wizard World, and he gave me his thoughts on the book. He enjoyed it, but noted that Byrd "didn't really do a whole lot." He just sort of fell into things as he went along.

Of course, that's kind of the essence of Byrd.

Father's Day 2008

OH, DADDY

Father's Day was Sunday. First one alone for my father, and I couldn't connect with him, leaving a message on his cellphone. That's not a completely bad thing, though, since it means he's keeping busy, living down at the lake now.



My wife got me my first iPod for my birthday in March, and it's a dandy. For Father's Day, the family gifted me a nifty Logitech speaker system for use with said iPod. Music is essential, you know.

BLUEJACKET

Uploaded the Bluejacket pages for Boom!'s anthology, and we're quite happy with the first foray into that world. Seth, Chris and I are all pretty devoted to the concept. Hopefully we can make it work. Nice little write-up on CBR:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16798

Bluejacket go Boom!

Despite having plenty of paying work to be doing, I've spent a chunk of the last two weeks focusing on a labor of love, in Bluejacket, which is a co-creation with Seth Peck and Chris Samnee.

Here's a very brief summary of the concept, which I did for a CBR piece to run soon. Make sure you do the clicky-clicky on the links, for more info on the characters:


Bluejacket is a guy who used his fists and the help of some specialized experts (his "Men of Adventure") to battle crime back in the thirties. At some point, he ran into something that turned him blue and seemed to have extended his life well beyond normal (a story yet to be told). His longevity led to the establishment of a Bluejacket "brand," and an operation that was once designed simply to support his fight against evil has blossomed over the decades into a huge corporation, which provides support, but also exists to turn a profit on the Bluejacket name. Bluejacket merchandise (toys, cereal, clothes), Bluejacket-related media (books, comics, movies, cartoons), Bluejacket theme parks...all of these are overseen by Bluejacket, Inc., and their current CEO, former Bluejacket kid sidekick Rusty Haynes. (The first Bluejacket series will examine what happens when business intrudes on adventure)

In recent years, Bluejacket has found himself spending more time on the business end than he'd originally intended, and he's working to get back out in the field with his Men of Adventure. Over the course of seven decades, a lot guys have worn the "Men of Adventure" tag, but his current crew is perhaps the sharpest ever, and includes the very first female Man of Adventure, in Dr. Nicole Shaw.

Bluejacket's Men of Adventure include pilot Ray Wilson, weapons expert Carson Hunt, researcher Simon Van de Kamp (grandson of former Bluejacket ally Merlin Van de Kamp), mythology expert Sardur Sandhu, and grifter/con man Jimmy Cotton. Their vehicle of choice is the world famous Aeronautical.


Here's a page from the debut story, which, as I've said, is slated for the Boom! Studios Josh Medors fundraising book, PULP TALES. Again, click for a larger view!

More Critical Chatter....

Chris Neisman passed this along, from the Around Comics forums, where Monster Magnet lead singer Dave Wyndorf is a listener and poster. I highlighted the key line for me:

"On the B.Clay Moore thing, sure he's pissed, can't blame him one bit. In the "no accountability" world of the internet, everybody's a DJ, everybody's a star and everybody's a critic.

As a working creator, it has to be frustrating to see his work "criticised" by amateurs and attention starved, reactionary morons.

Adept criticism is an art in itself. Opinions are just opinions. Sadly,the difference between these two gets fuzzier every day.

I wouldn't mind if he took shots at one idiot a day,every day. Criticise the "critics". See how they like it."

Stingray?

I almost forgot this one existed.

Got the letters on my little Stingray tale today, from Marvel editor Warren Simons. It's a trifle, but the Lee Weeks art is ace.

Here, I cribbed a panel just to prove it to you:

Criticism

If you're a comic book reviewer, ask yourself a question, and answer honestly: What do I hope to achieve with my criticism?

Do you just want your opinion noted? Do you wish to prove people wrong in their assessments of books? Do you hope to point people toward good work they may have missed? Do you hope to steer people away from books you personally don't like?

BJ is coming along

Ten Favorite Covers

Tim Seeley passed along a list he made for the Comic Buyers Guide, so I put together yet another list of covers I dig, and why.

So here it is.

Because I'm an obsessive list maker, here are ten of my favorites (with links). I'll stick to Silver Age and up, so I don't have to try to track down images of Golden Age Mac Raboy or EC covers. I could honestly list dozens of covers that I either love as art, or that hold a special place in my heart, but here are ten:

X-Men #50 (Steranko): This cover grabbed my attention when I was a kid first seeking out X back issues, and I still think it's really effective, especially coming in an era when there wasn't yet a TON of experimentation going on with Marvel cover art (DC was doing lots of cool shit):

Speaking of Mac Raboy, I love this Adam Hughes homage to Raboy's old Captain Marvel, Jr. covers:

Growing up, the Byne/Austin/Claremont X-Men is what gave me the biggest geek woody, so I have to include one cover from that run. Truth is, the best covers from Byrne's run were by Cockrum, but since this (#133) is probably the first "Wolverine unleashed" cover ever, I'm including it. This issue is where Wolverine really became Wolverine:

This is my favorite Kirby Thor cover, and I think he did his best cover work on Thor. Such a shame Vince Colletta inked so much of his run. Thor #142:

I'm a Blackhawk freak (always trying to get DC to let me do *something* with them), and there are a ton of 'Hawk covers I love, but I've always really dug this Pat Boyette cover, From Blackhawk #242. The last two issues of the sixties-era Blackhawk put them back in their black leather (they had been dressed as superheroes for a while before that), and told cool old school Blackhawk stories, with art by Boyette (who did most of his work for Charlton):

Some of my favorite covers of all time are Nick Cardy's Aquaman covers. Kind of ironic that DC had more interesting stuff going on with cover design in the late sixties than they do now.

Jerry Ordway's "painted" covers to the Power of Shazam! were favorites, too, especially in an era where early Image-inspired gritty bullshit was the norm. I love a bunch of 'em, but here's one of the best. Power! #8:

One of my favorite comics of all time is Peter Bagge's HATE! It's the ultimate ode to my generation. The lead character in HATE! was Buddy Bradley, who was introduced in "The Bradleys" stories in NEAT STUFF, and the cover to #15, in which Buddy leaves his family and curls up on a toxic New Jersey beach in his sleeping bag, is one of my favorites:

DC's mystery titles had a pretty great run of covers, including a lot of Neal Adams, Kaluta and Wrightson stuff. I love this Wrightson cover, just because it's the coolest looking zombie head this side of Tony Moore:

Ed Hannigan is one of the more underrated cover artists, doing a lot of really cool work in the late seventies and early eighties. He did some rad Batman covers, but I've always loved his Spec Spidey covers:

Hawaiian Dick Think

I've got a fairly audacious idea in mind for the next chunk of Hawaiian Dick.

Gonna try to map it out and chat with Eric Stephenson about it in San Diego. Over drinks, one would hope.

Also, unrelated...Billy Smoke picked up a potentially interesting project hitchhiker this week.