Results tagged “comic con”

I am almost recovered from the San Diego Comic Con!

Almost.

Next year I think I am going to wear a mile counter on my ankle and find out how many miles I walk per day over the same ground—back and forth, back and forth.

At any rate, I still have a bit of news to bring to you all, and this one is about Terry Brooks. Like many authors who attend a Comic Con, Terry had a panel, had a signing or two and then had some meetings. The panels are always fun. They are made up of a large room filled with people from different backgrounds and reading experiences, and often their questions are even those I have not heard in my ten years as his webmaster.

Suvudu was there to tape the panel.

It comes to you in seven YouTube videos. The opening of the panel is Terry talking about Landover with his editor in chief, Betsy Mitchell, among other things. Later, after Betsy and editor Anne Groell talk briefly about what is coming from Del Rey/Bantam, Terry answers more questions from his fans.

Due to a down microphone, Betsy’s voice is a bit low, but you can hear Terry perfectly.

Hope you enjoy! And remember! A Princess of Landover comes out on August 18th!

Continue onward for the rest of the panel!

I am almost recovered from the San Diego Comic Con!

Almost.

Next year I think I am going to wear a mile counter on my ankle and find out how many miles I walk per day over the same ground—back and forth, back and forth.

At any rate, I still have a bit of news to bring to you all, and this one is about Terry Brooks. Like many authors who attend a Comic Con, Terry had a panel, had a signing or two and then had some meetings. The panels are always fun. They are made up of a large room filled with people from different backgrounds and reading experiences, and often their questions are even those I have not heard in my ten years as his webmaster.

Suvudu was there to tape the panel.

It comes to you in seven YouTube videos. The opening of the panel is Terry talking about Landover with his editor in chief, Betsy Mitchell, among other things. Later, after Betsy and editor Anne Groell talk briefly about what is coming from Del Rey/Bantam, Terry answers more questions from his fans.

Due to a down microphone, Betsy’s voice is a bit low, but you can hear Terry perfectly.

Hope you enjoy! And remember! A Princess of Landover comes out on August 18th!

Continue onward for the rest of the panel!

Memorials and Remembrances for Those Who Have Passed

Every year at the Eisners, the awards ceremony takes time to remember the writers, artists, actors, and other creators who have passed away since their last gathering. It’s always a somber time, but good in that it celebrates the work of all those people. Check out the video below

After the jump, a band of four is charged with getting the ceremony underway again after a somber memorials section.

In this edition of Suvudu & You at the Eisners, we’ll see the presentations for:

• Best Humor Publication
• Best US Edition of International Material
• Best US Edition of International Material-Japan
• The Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer
• Part One of the Hall of Fame Awards

Best Humor Publication, Best US Edition of International Material, & Best US Edition of International Material-Japan

I was sure that Wonderbread: Beards of Our Forefathers would be winning the Best Humor category. Shows how much I know, but what does that say about my sense of humor? Jason wins for best US Edition of International Material (no shock there), but he also has the best excuse for not attending the Eisners. Check out the video below.

Continue on after the jump for a look at the Russ Manning award winner and the first recipient of the Will Eisner Hall of Fame Award and Induction.

Today, Suvudu takes you back to the Eisner Awards to view the doling out and accepting of:

• Best Publication Design
• The Spirit of Retailing Award
• Best Archival Project-Strips
• Best Archival Project-Comic Books

The Spirit of Retailing award is one of my favorite awards in the Eisners. I just love the idea that, in the middle of this awards show honoring some of the best creative talent that the industry has to offer, the whole she-bang takes a time-out to honor the folks working in the retail trenches. Also, I love watching the store submission videos (for those who do submit them). We’ll also be seeing Mike Mignola pick up an Eisner for Hellboy Library Editions 1 & 2 (a sight that would be come a familiar one as the evening went on). Then, in video two, we’ll see the winners for the Best Archival projects (comic strips and comic books).

So sit back and enjoy Suvudu’s Sunday showing of the Eisner Awards.

Best Publication Design & The Spirit of Retailing Award

What’s on the docket in today’s videos? We’ll be watching the awards for:

• Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team
• Best Painter/Multimedia Artist
• Best Cover Artist
• Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
• Best Comics-Related Book

Presenting this round of Eisners are Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant (most notably from Reno 911 fame) and Blair Butler (G4 TV). So, picking up where we left off yesterday…

Best Penciller/Inker & Best Painter/Multimedia Artist

The hosts are egging the contestants on to “lose their #%@$” in order to secure a television deal with the Bravo network (they explain why that seemingly unlikely marriage could work here as well). Initially, they don’t have much luck inciting the craziness, and then Jill Thompson wins best Painter/Multimedia Artist and plays it up for the crowd. It’s fun stuff. Check it out below.

In honor of one of my favorite sites, Go Fug Yourself, and just because it’s Friday, I thought I’d do a Comic Con spin off called Go Frak Yourself (thank you Kyle for that amazing name).

Now, let’s have a look see at what this fellow is wearing. This is what I like to imagine he was thinking while assembling his outfit in the morning:

Okay, have I got enough feathers to outfit an entire flock of birds? Check! I’m not sure that this outfit is QUITE revealing enough so why don’t I just fasten my loincloth right up at my hip so I can give a little leg. Yes… yes… it’s all coming together! Ronaldo (don’t ask me why that name popped into mind), you’ve still got it, you old dog! But wait, maybe that leg is too bare. It really needs something. I know, I’ve still got some leftover feathers! Why don’t I fashion a LEG BAND?? NO ONE WILL EXPECT IT!! I AM GENIUS!

The following two videos deal with the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. It’s a prestigious award that honors the body of work created over a lifetime. This year, the decision was unanimous: Frank Jacobs, the poet laureate of and long-time writer for MAD magazine, and John Broome, a man whose work in comics during the silver age left an indelible fingerprint on many familiar characters, won the honor.

Curious about the Bill Finger Awards? Here’s a quick definition about them from Comic-Con’s official site:

The Bill Finger Award honors the memory of William Finger (1914-1974), who was the first and, some say, most important writer of Batman. Many have called him the “unsung hero” of the character and have hailed his work not only on that iconic figure but on dozens of others, primarily for DC Comics.

What it doesn’t say is this (Kyle’s addition): after creating Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman, Two-Face, the Bat Cave, the Batmobile, the Batplane, and the Batsignal, named Batman’s hometown Gotham City, and having an involved say in how Batman was shaped, Bill Finger was essentially screwed out of the credits for Batman. For years, his contributions went unrecognized. So, the purpose of the Bill Finger Awards is to recognize great comics writing, attempting to ensure that past writers get their due.

Murphy Anderson Accepts the Award for the Late John Broome

John Broome helped make comics what they are today. At the very least, he helped to forge the stories of many characters we know today. His resume included work on The Flash, Green Lantern, and “The Justice Society of America” to name just a few.

Terry Brooks went to the San Diego Comic Con to speak on a panel about his forthcoming book A Princess of Landover and hold an autograph session for his numerous fans.

I wasn’t going to let him get away with such an easy time of it!

Terry joined me for an interview early Friday morning at the convention center to talk about the sixth installment in the Landover series, how his convention was going, what he has planned for the next two years of writing, and a hint or two about Book #4 in the Genesis of Shannara series.

Here is that interview.

Disregard the bald man on the right. He doesn’t know what he is talking about!

A Princess of Landoer will be published on August 18th, along with two Landover omnibuses and the newly revised The World of Shannara guide.

And to read an excerpt from A Princess of Landover, click HERE!

It’s one of the biggest events going on during Comic-Con: the Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards, or “The Eisners” for short. It honors some of the best of the best working in the industry and pays tribute to the most well-known of names (like Mike Mignola) to the integral but sometimes overlooked comics workers, like those nominated for Best Lettering. It’s an opportunity to celebrate, educate, and have a little fun.

So why is so little written about them?

Well, here at Suvudu we’re trying to bring the Eisners to you in a big way. We ran a shakedown of many of the Eisner categories, we tabulated our results, and we filmed the ceremony. Now it’s time to bring the show to you. This year’s show brings some humor to the preceedings as well as a few of those big names. It was an interesting awards ceremony and now it’s your turn to see how it all went down.

With that in mind, let’s start the show. And the nominees are…

Patton Oswalt Presents the Best Publication for Kids & Best Publication for Tweens/Teens

Patton Oswalt opens the awards with a touch of humor and some minor difficulty with name pronunciation. We can’t fault him there. Check out the awards and speeches in the video below.

Awe, isn’t Pat cute when he looks adoringly at his fans?

The other gentleman in the photo overheard Pat and I talking, looked down at our badges, and then stopped to tell Pat how great a writer he was and that Pat could take as long as he needed to make Wise Man’s Fear the best book it could be.

Pat glowed, so happy to hear such sincerity about his work, and he signed several books for the fan and his family.

As I promised yesterday, here is the post containing Part III and Part IV of the San Diego Comic Con Patrick Rothfuss interview!

In these parts, Pat talks about how editing is going on Wise Man’s Fear, rewriters, milk-fed veal, how many people have read the first draft of Wise Man’s Fear, the release date of Wise Man’s Fear, what he’s reading and recommending right now, his soon to be published not for children children’s book, who he has met at Comic Con, and a last message to the fans.

Click through to watch and listen to Part IV!

Comic Con is for old friends.

Sometimes I force my old friends to work!

I’ve known Patrick Rothfuss since almost the moment of his debut publication—and in some ways even earlier. His agent, Matt Bialer, had been telling me for months leading up to the release of The Name of the Wind that he had found a great author. “Just wait until you read it, Shawn. It is going to blow you away.” Matt, as usual, was right.

So when Pat came to Seattle for NorwesCon, we had to meet.

And after getting to know him better and having many shared similarities in our lives, it’s been great fun watching him grow from debut writer to successful and working writer!

I chained him to the Suvudu booth at the San Diego Comic Con and wouldn’t let him go until he had given me an interview. We thought it would only go 10 or 15 minutes. Turns out Pat had a lot to say about his debut, its sequel and what his life is like now.

Let’s get to it then!

Part I and Part II of the interview we conducted are posted in this article. He talks about his initial thoughts on Comic Con, his panel and the definition he has for urban fantasy, the structure of his trilogy and the future, the interesting story he wants to write when he is a stronger writer, his craft of writing and revision of Wise Man’s Fear, what happened to the “yearly” release of his books and woman cats.

You’ll see what I mean.

Enjoy!

Click through to watch Part II! And then come back tomorrow for the release of Parts III and IV!

Predicting outcomes is fun. Checking your predictions can be fun. Finding out that you predicted incorrectly? Maybe not so much fun. But then when it comes to the Eisner’s, there are so many talented nominees in each category, you have to go into your predictions knowing that you’re probably going to get it wrong. This year followed that model, with a few notable exceptions: Mike Mignola was the safest bet on the block, walking away with three Eisner’s and securing his place as the winningest individual of the night, and Dark Horse, the publishing outfit, that won eight Eisner awards. For those of you crunching the numbers, that means they walked away with nearly one-third (30%) of the Eisner awards. Wow.

So how did our predictions turn out? Take a look…

Best Short Story

I said: “Freaks,” by Laura Park, in Superior Showcase #3 (AdHouse)

Actual Winner: “Murder He Wrote,” by Ian Boothby, Nina Matsumoto, and Andrew Pepoy, in The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror #14 (Bongo)

I wasn’t confident in this pick from the get-go, acknowledging that the competition here was fierce. Still, I chose, and chose wrong. “Freaks” is still a great story, but so is “Murder He Wrote.” So I have no complaints.

Also, an in-house congratulations is due to Nina Matsumoto for this Eisner victory. Nina publishes Yokaiden through Del Rey Manga and the home team couldn’t be happier!

Best Limited Series

I said: Hellboy: The Crooked Man, by Mike Mignola and Richard Corben (Dark Horse)

Actual Winner: Hellboy: The Crooked Man, by Mike Mignola and Richard Corben (Dark Horse)

Mike Mignola’s big night begins. He would go on to collect two more Eisner Awards, making him the night’s biggest individual winner.

There are all kinds of good reasons to go to Comic-Con: the freebies, the previews of upcoming projects, the chance to meet your favorite author or illustrator, the opportunity to attend professional or informational panels, chances for interviews, autographs, and networking. And then there’s the other reason: the spectacle.

I spent a lot of time at the Suvudu “booth,” that gray area between the Del Rey booths and the Crown booth*. But on occasion I extricated myself from those tight confines to wander the floor and take in the sights and sounds, which were both bright and loud, respectively.

In fact, that’s kinda the problem. Just walking around you are pounded with so much sensory intake that overload can occur within just a few paces. The sounds begin to blur and bend, forming one loud off-color chorus of explosions, booth music, half-yelled schmoozing, and jangling, rattling costumes. The closer you get to the bigger event areas (the movies, games, and special theme places), the more difficult it can be to separate what you’re trying to listen to from what you’re trying to ignore.

The sights suffer from a different problem: the crowd. It’s hard to admit that Comic-Con needs more space than the several-city-blocks long and wide San Diego Convention Center, but walking the Con is an exercise in moving with and against the mob. So you end up flowing past displays without necessarily noticing them.

Still, despite all this, Comic-Con is a helluva lot of fun to attend in person. It almost demands that you attend in person, but because not everyone is able to hop on a plane and jet off to San Diego (though you should at least try it once, you won’t be disappointed, even if it isn’t for Comic-Con), I took it upon myself to attempt to capture a few of these sights for you.

It wasn’t easy.

Some of these pictures I’m quite pleased with, others I’m not as pleased with, but considering I was in the middle of the crowd at almost all times, I’m not that displeased with any of them. Some of the more interesting displays, in my eyes anyway, were the Lego creations (especially the Star Wars items, which you’ll see below) and, of course, the replica items scattered throughout the Con floor. I wish I could have captured everything there, but I couldn’t; it’s too big a task to even attempt. Instead, I captured what follows. I hope you enjoy the show.

Oh, and if you have pictures of your own in a Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, or other photo site that you’d like to share, why don’t you tell us about them in the comments section?

As I showcased yesterday, Todd Lockwood is an artist.

He spends his time in the Pacific Northwest doing exactly what he loves—bringing the fantastical to visual light. When he isn’t sketching at Comic Cons, Todd has a moderate office in his home where he spends his time painting book cover art for authors, Magic: The Gathering cards, magazine covers and many other similar fantasy and science fiction graphic designs.

He does leave his home several times a year to take part in conventions all over the world. He spends a lot of his time looking over portfolios of burgeoning artists, giving his advice where appropriate, but he also takes his art to sell to his fans as well as talk about each piece he hangs on his booth.

Despite it being late in the afternoon Comic Con Saturday and both of us being reduced to wilted shadows of our true selves, I decided to put Todd on camera so he could talk about the Comic Con and highlight some of his new artwork.

Here you go:

If you love Todd’s artwork and you want it to hang it in your own home or office space, visit him at his website and order a giclee of anything you see!

More soon, including interviews with Patrick Rothfuss and Terry Brooks!

Anon!

This is what two Neil Gaiman fans look like when they are shut out from seeing one of their favorite writers at a Comic Con!

The bald bloke on the left happens to be me. You can’t see it but there is an actual tear falling with melancholic slowness down my right cheek. The beautiful but just as sorrowfully pouty woman on the right is author Diana Rowland. We both, along with author Jackie Kessler, woke up early Comic Con Friday to try and win a lottery to see Neil, get some things signed and bask in his presence.

None of us won.

It was not meant to be.

It’s just one of those things at Comic Con. Even if you show up early and have saved a dozen kittens from drowning in the last week—supposedly giving you a great deal of karma at these events, I am told—you still might not get to meet the people you want.

So, Neil, we missed ya, buddy! Hope to see you soon though!

I have returned to Seattle from the 2009 San Diego Comic Con.

I am tired. Wiped out. Done in. A stiff breeze would push me over (or destroy me like the Magic: The Gathering Path To Exile card above). And yet I also feel great gratitude for the time I was able to spend at the convention, the work I accomplished, and all of the friends I got to see and make. It was four days of high stress, high takes and high octane.

As Lev Grossman said in his recent Time article, “I don’t think humans were meant to go to all four days of Comic-Con.”

I don’t know about Lev, but I attended all four days and normalcy is at least a week away from happening for me.

Anyway, I have a lot of great posts to write about this week. I thought it would be fun to start with the original essence of Comic Con—penciled and sketched artwork. I stopped by to see my friend Todd Lockwood at his San Diego Comic Con booth. Todd is a super nice guy, extremely talented—to the point I actually do hate him at times for his genius—and I thought it would be fun to interview him and put him on the internet(s) for all of those artists either wanting to break into the field or those who are fans of Todd’s work.

Turns out as soon as I walked up two fans were requiring Todd’s attention, one of whom wanted a sketch done. I snuck into Todd’s booth on cat’s paws, his wife Rita grinning in amusement at me, and I turned on my cam without Todd knowing.

This is the sketch he produced:

It was very cool to see that pen dance over an empty white page.

I will post the interview with Todd tomorrow. By the time the interview was conducted, he and I were both dreadfully tired, it being late in the day on Saturday and our life force slowly bled away by the pumped in air, false light and rampant misty body odor. But you will see some of Todd’s newest art as well as what he thinks of it.

In the meantime, I need a vacation from my vacation!

Until anon!

Zombies are huge at this year’s Comic-Con, and zombie authors don’t come any bigger than Max Brooks. Max has been everywhere this Comic-Con and it’s a good thing, because he’s one of our most asked about authors this year. The Zombie Guide, World War Z (especially the audio edition and potential movie), and the forthcoming Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks have given fans ample reason to be excited.

Max stopped by to talk to us about putting together the audio editions of his books, especially what it was like to work with the star-studded cast that came together to produce the World War Z audiobooks. Here’s what he said:

Jackie Kessler, co-author of Black and White, and Diana Rowland, author of Mark of the Demon, set off across the San Diego Convention Center to talk to Superheros great and otherwise. Their question was simple, “Are supervillains evil or just misunderstood?”

Here is what they found:

These are not toys. You’re about to enter the world of collectible statues from one of the best studios around: Sideshow Collectibles. I stopped by their display booth to take a few pictures of the amazingly detailed figures they have on display (and for sale). They sweetened the pot though, as they were giving out mystery gift cards to each person who stopped by. So if you’re heading to Comic-Con, make sure to stop by their booth - you’re getting some free money.

Now, want to see everything from Cobra Commander to the Tick? I know you do. Here’s some of the great work that Sideshow does (a word of warning, protect your bank account before viewing the pictures below):