Yes, I’ve been busy contributing and making the Internets a better place with my work. You want examples you say? Well, come close and take a look at these: My latest BSG Weekly article and also my article about the Six Worst Movies Adapted from Comic Books.
And of course, it being Tuesday and all, how about some photos? Sure, what the heck. Here’s a couple taken by me on my recent trip to New York.
Here’s some photos for ‘Photo Tuesday’ from the recent New York Comic Con. These were taken by my pal Tony Mark at the show and feature some people you may know and characters you may recognize. Enjoy.
Milo Ventimiglia from Heroes
Rehka Sharma from Battlestar Galactica
Selma Blair
Some Slave Leias
Colonial Tigh himself, Michael Hogan
Hellboy’s Ron Perlman
You know, maybe I won’t bother to do a brain dump post about the NYCC after all. Sure, I could hit you with all the things I liked about the Con from the not overly-crowded show floor to the weather in NYC to the well-run and often interesting panels.
Or, I could complain about the few things I didn’t like about the Con such as the sometimes lateness of the panels which caused us a bit of trouble, the overpriced food and the extra-super-crappy wireless internet which they should not charge for and give money back to anyone dumb enough to get it. But really, what do I have to complain about?
Life is pretty good. I got to spend several days “working” with some of the most talented, interesting, gracious and fun people around. Yes, I’m talking about the ComicMix team. In short, I had a great time and one that I hope to repeat come San Diego Comic-Con in July. Which, hopefully, I will be attending again under the gracious auspices of ComicMix/Crowd Fusion and its super-talented and benevolent rockstar Brian Alvey.
Who knows, perhaps I will even be able to do a bit of work for some as-yet unrealized movie and TV related sites? Anything is possible and I will not speculate further because I think certain people may read this blog and I don’t want them to get angry at me for giving away too much or saying things I’m not supposed to say. Whew, that was a close one.
Sure, the week in NYC was not without its few glitches. But come on, I got paid to go to a comic book convention and meet writers, artists, film directors, actors and hang out with the best team working in journalism today. I don’t know about you or what you happen to do to make ends meet, but I can tell you, my life is pretty sweet — at least where my “work” is concerned. I also managed to take care of some “personal” business while in NYC as well, which was the other reason I was in New York. Lucky for me, I was able to do both while there.
As for my my personal life? Well, don’t get me started on that as its a long and winding road to be sure. Its been an interesting six months to be sure. By way of explanation, did I happen to mention how much fun I had in New York at the Comic Con? Did I tell you how great it was to be working shoulder to shoulder with people like Mike Gold, Rick Marshall, Glenn Hauman, Michael Davis, Kai Connolly, Mike Raup, Matt Raub!, Martha Thomases, Karl Cramer, Alan Kistler and the rest of the team, friends and support system.
And yes, even if Glenn did forget to bring me my “official” ComicMix business cards, I still think he’s a great, funny and intelligent guy who really knows his way around comics. Glenn, I’m sorry again that everyone gave you such a hard time about forgetting my cards. I didn’t put them up to it, I promise. Still, it was kinda funny, at least to me. And Matt Raub!
See what I did there? A little sleight-o-hand to make you forget to ask me about my personal life. We’re talking about all good things right now so I won’t muck it up with anything not good. Suffice to say that life is good but sometimes you gotta make sure you tell yourself that a lot to help get you through the times when life isn’t like that.
I’m still gathering my thoughts (such as they are) about the New York Comic Con. Rest assured I will eventually do a brain dump of whatever is left in there to dump. I know, without reservation, it will be well worth the wait. Of course, I’ve also been known to drink a bit now and then, so who knows?
Meantime, feel free to take a look at what my learned colleagues at ComicMix have to say on the subject. Here’s Mike Gold’s perspective and here’s Rick Marshall’s. Both of them are smart and have a lot of experience at these types of events so you will find what they have to say very interesting, no doubt about it.
I’ve also managed to post a few photos from my trip over at my Flickr pages. So those can also serve to give you something to look at and help pass the time between now and when my no doubt brilliant insight into the Con will arrive.
Well, now that I’ve way over-sold the whole thing I guess I should probably put my head down and write it. Ok, I will. Check back later.
I’ve been in New York the past week for the Comic Con and all I can say at the moment is that I’m tired. When I can put more that a few sentences together I will thrill you with my thoughts and feeling about the people in attendance, the panels, the con in general and more.
Until then, let me leave you with this picture of a happy but somewhat worse for wear Brendan Frasier that we took during the Con. Enjoy.
Not that Marvel really needs any more hype about this but I was thinking about doing a review of my own about the new Secret Invasion story that started yesterday. However, I decided not to offer much in the way of a review because in several ways, my review would be very similar to what others around the Internets are saying.
Basically, I’m a big fan of Brian Bendis and glad he’s writing Secret Invasion. I liked the first issue of it so far, have a couple of concerns, but hope it will get even better as subsequent issues hit the stands. However, even though I mostly enjoyed Issue #1, regardless of its problems, the whole Secret Invasion story does have to contend with an even bigger problem I’m having with Marvel and DC of late: big “event” stories both publishers seem determined to do.
I know, you gotta do something to keep people reading and sell comics, but I sometimes wish that they wouldn’t make such a big deal about it. Every one of these “Universe Shattering” events like World War Hulk, Messiah Complex, House of M, Final Crisis and Civil War has a dramatic effect on the Marvel and DC Universes and a dramatic effect on how much the reader is willing to put up with.
Really, how many times can the Marvel and DC U survive all these events? It seems that the pieces are barely being put back together and then another major “event” comes along and takes it all down. Plus, how much can the reader be expected to follow this story when its spread across so many different comic titles and characters? And, with comics getting more and more expensive, how many times can you ask the reader to keep buying all these tie-in issues so you can tell a big “event” story like Secret Invasion?
I counted and so far, according to the list in Secret invasion #1, there are going to be 33 comics that tie-in or tell some part of the Secret Invasion story. And that only gets us through July! If each one has a cover price of $3.99 like Secret Invasion #1 does, that’s $131.67 to get you through July and Secret Invasion #4, X-Factor #33, She-Hulk #31 and the rest of the tie-in and one-shot issues.
To me, that seems like a rather large commitment that Marvel expects the reader to make. Although, I probably spend that much on comics in a month already, so I suppose its relative. Maybe that isn’t much money to you. However, I don’t think its just a cost in terms of dollars and sense, I think its potentially a cost in terms of readership.
At some point, and I’ve already heard some of the grumbling at recent conventions and elsewhere, readers are going to get weary of these kind of “events” and just want their favorite characters to have their own stories again so they can enjoy them. At a recent Con, for example, one fan even asked this directly during a Marvel panel, saying: “Can’t you just leave them alone for a bit?”
As someone who still prefers the feeling of printed paper in his hands and reads his comics that way, instead of online (and I’m even a Marvel Digital Comics subscriber and write for ComicMix, a site that publishes digital comics) I don’t want printed comics to go away any time soon. I also want Marvel and DC to be as successful as they can be so they can keep printing comics and bringing readers more and more great stories.
I feel for Marvel and DC (and all publishers who print comics), I really do. In a world where consumers are turning more and more to the Internets for entertainment, reading far fewer printed publications and where a comic book that sells 60 or 70 thousand copies is considered a major hit, they have to be a bit nervous.
I just hope this nervousness and desire to boost sales by pushing more “event” stories doesn’t drive readers away more than it brings them in. That would truly be a shame.
For actual reviews of Secret Invasion #1, check out the ones at Comic Book Resources and ComicMix.
When sitting down to write a blog post, sometimes its kinda difficult to think of something to write about. As most of my writing these days is about things I really like, that leaves fewer of those things to talk about here at my own blog.
So, rather than bore you with a lot of nonsense and try to fill, vamp or otherwise make stuff up, I’m just going to plug some of the articles I’ve done recently at other sites to which I contrbute. So, without further to do, here goes:
Dark Horse Comics Editor Scott Allie talks about Serenity, Buffy, Joss Whedon, Mike Mignola and potential new Serenity comics (pitched by yours truly).
Writer Brandon Jerwa talks about his comic book: Battlestar Galactica: Season Zero
Also, here’s a couple photo galleries from the recent Wizard World show in Los Angeles:
Speaking of conventions, I’ll be heading to New York mid-April for the New York Comic Con, which takes place April 18-20 at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC. If you happen to be attending, be sure to say hello if you see me. And, if you happen to be a comics pro looking to plug any of your upcoming projects, feel free to contact me as I am in the process of scheduling interviews during the show.
Last, but not least, the search for an artist to collaborate on my two comic book projects is almost over. I’ve narrowed it down to the final ten and will be doing some interviews next week in LA and perhaps one or two in NYC following.
Then, I’ll make the selection and that lucky person will be able to get to work helping me create some very cool comics. More on that as it develops. Meantime, have fun watching these New York Comic Con videos.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXRpPja3AMA&hl=en]
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgQBVVdL2Nw&hl=en]
Sometimes in my travels I come across cool things and want to share them. Here’s an example of that:
These panels were part of the ‘Mondo Marvel’ presentation at Wizard World LA this weekend — which even though it was pretty small was still a great time. I attended the panel for ComicMix and was pretty impressed with this Thor artwork by Patrick Zircher. This guy rocks and I think will have along career in comics.
I also got a chance to interview a bunch of other cool people at WWLA including another artist whose work I like very much: Jacen Burrows. That interview is already up over at ComicMix. Here’s a couple of things from him including a page from 303, which he did with Garth Ennis, and a Blackgas cover, a book he did with Warren Ellis:
I also had a chance to talk with X-Force and Dark Tower writer Peter David, Battlestar Galactica Co-Executive Producer Mark Verheiden and superstar screenwriter Zak Penn. Look for those articles soon.
You know, its pretty cool to work in the business I work in. This writing thing is pretty darn fun.
I’ll be at Wizard World LA this weekend checking thing out, doing interviews with some cool people and generally getting into trouble. So, if you happen to be going yourself, feel free to say “hello” if you see me. Or, look for me on Twitter @chrisu.
I’ll be hitting the show floor and visiting a few panels in particular. Among the panels I’m most interested in are the Marvel Ultimates panel, Mondo Marvel, DC Nation, X-Men, anything Indiana Jones and Star Wars related, the Screenwriters panel on Saturday and anything else that seems interesting, unusual or worth a look.
Also, during the show I’ll be interviewing some cool writers, artists and other creatives, mostly for Comicmix, so stay tuned for those to show up during and after the show. Its gonna be pretty fun.
In other news, I recently went back home to Encinitas for a few days to help Mom look through some stuff. Mostly boxes that were stored in the various places my father used to keep things that I asked him to hold onto for me.
While going through some of this stuff, I was thrilled to discover some of my old comics that I thought were gone long ago. It was great to see them again and think back to a simpler time when I was a kid and first started reading the adventures of Captain America, Green Lantern, Superman and Spider-Man.
Finding these comics was also great because some of them featured the work of one of my favorite artists of all time: Jack “King” Kirby. The ones I liked the most were for Kirby’s Captain America “Mad Bomb” story, starting with issue #193 and leading up to Caps’ 200th issue.
I’ve since brought all those recovered gems back with me to LA and they are currently enjoying a place of honor, complete with new bags and boards, in my current collection. Seeing the old and new comics together really shows how far comics have come in terms of print quality and presentation.
However, that doesn’t take away anything from my older “classic” comics at all. In spite of their age and less-advanced printing and presentation, they’re still a great read and the art still packs as much of a punch as it ever did.
Why says newer is always better?
Even though its not practical at all, I really want one of these. Why? ‘Cause its cool. Anyone care to order one for me as a gift? I don’t mind, really. I like gifts.
On another note, I’ve been working quite a bit at ComicMix this week trying to help raise the page views by having more regular content. So, if you get a minute (or ten) be sure to click on over and browse as many of the articles as you can.
In fact, if you really want to help out, try reading and then commenting on a few. That would be nice. If you do that, you don’t have to get me a Han Solo desk.
Sounds fair, right?