Finally, a report of Wizard World LA

So, here I am, only a few weeks behind the wave, getting around to a brief report of my excursion to Wizard World LA in mid-March.

Friday, March 14, I took the day off-work, in order to go down to the LA Convention Center for the opening day of Wizard World. The show opened at noon. I hadn’t preregistered, so I had to find the right light to do their pro registration. WW (the LA show, at least) isn’t quite as scrutinizing about credentials as the San Diego ComicCon. Especially on the days of the con itself. Wave a comic book with your name in the credits at them, and they’re content. I paid up the $10 for the late registration, they whipped up my nametag, and off I went. It wasn’t until later that I really looked at the nametag, and found that they’d given me an “Exhibitor” badge – even though I wasn’t. Weird. Apparently their workers at the registration booth didn’t or couldn’t distinguish between Pros and Exhibitors. I didn’t care particularly, as long as it gave me access to the show.

First stop was the Golden Apple booth. My friendly local comic shop has had a nice large booth at the WW shows the last three years. Ryan Liebowitz does a great job setting it up, and planning signings and appearances at it (last year, they almost had a mini-con inside the con, with programming that rivaled WW’s). Ryan and his mom Sharon are fun people to know, so I like checking in with them at the start of the con. As it was, Sharon was chatting with Bob Wayne of DC Comics, the VP of Sales. They’ve known Bob for a long time. And the connection (me, one of their “valued customers”, him being a friend of theirs) has made an opening for me to do mild schmoozing with Bob.

So, we chatted a bit. I mentioned that I was working toward getting into print a book on mythic motifs that had been inspired by a conversation I’d had with Denny O’Neil back in 1999. (That is, The Scribbler’s Guide to the Land of Myth — coming soon!) He said, back in the day during his brief stage of trying to be a writer, he’d sat himself down at Denny’s feet to learn anything he could from the Sensei. I smiled at that, acknowledging that Denny’s an inspiration to me too. Then I added that when it came to comic book writing, I’d also set myself to learning at Chuck Dixon’s feet (he’s a friend, and I moderate his message board, after all). Bob smiled, but then warned me that might be dangerous — he firmly believes that Chuck writes with his feet too. (For those who don’t get it, Chuck has a reputation for incredible productivity, writing faster and more than most people – and all of it good stuff.) That was a fun way to start the weekend.

Marv Wolfman

Later, Marv Wolfman did a session on writing characters for comics. It was fairly well attended.

And then I remembered I actually had my camera with me.

Afterward, I stopped to chat with Marv for a bit in Artists Alley, before moving onward to talk with Tone Rodriguez at his table. Tone’s a terrific artist, and it was cool watching him doing sketches for fans — starting in INK! No pre-penciling on some of them.

Later in the day was the DC Nation panel. Where Bob and Dan DiDio would hold forth about upcoming DC projects. Well, actually they would tease a lot of things, but not give out too much solid information.

Dan DiDio

Just prior to the panel starting, as people were taking seats, I found Dan hobnobbing with some folks near where I was  sitting. So I listened & chipped in. Dan had been mentioning how people are always complaining about something. I humorously made a comment about how people call Jeopardy! when they think something was wrong on the show, and sometimes they’re thinking the show is live in the studio “right now”. This led Dan to relate a story (which he then repeated for everyone when the panel began) about being in the office late recently, in a meeting. Someone was on the switchboard who apparently wasn’t entirely clued in. Dan was also expecting a call to come through. So when the phone rang in the meeting, Dan picked it up, saying “This is Dan.” On the other end of the line, the caller went “Hooooly Sh——t!” It was actually a fan calling to complain about something, and shouldn’t have been put through. But Dan took it in good humor, putting the guy on the speaker phone – because the situation (the working meeting, what the guy was saying) was just too much.

Bob Wayne

After the panel, Dan and Bob both did a little chatting with the fans who approached them up front.

I spent a lot of free time inking a sketch I was doing for a friend. I’d been inspired watching Tone the day before.

Peter David

But I also checked out Peter David, in his session on writing characters. This was the first time I’d heard David in person. He’s quite engaging.

Out of curiousity, since I don’t really read much from Marvel, I went to the Marvel Comics panel. Jeph Loeb served as the front man for the company.

Jeph Loeb

He didn’t seem to enthusiastic about it. So it was almost a relief for him when his partner on the panel (sorry, forgot who that was) got a cell phone call from Joe Quesada. They put Joe on speaker phone, and held it up to the mic. It was mildly interesting to me – but certainly had a different dynamic when compared with the previous day’s DC Nation panel.

The big news at that panel was that Tim Sale (whose exclusive with DC has ended) will be doing some projects with Loeb for Marvel. That might actually get me to buy some Marvel books, as I like the teamwork of Loeb & Sale.

Other sights from the Con….

Wizard World LA 2008 Chalk Drawing

There’s a guy that does huge sized chalk drawings on the floor. Well, on paper gridded out on the floor. This year’s featured the main characters of the expected movie blockbusters for this summer.

Customized Punisher Car

On the Exhibit hall floor there were also some customized cars done on Marvel comics themes. The guys who do them show them around at special events. They were pretty cool. I took pictures of the Punisher vehicle, because I thought it would really amuse Chuck Dixon – given that he’s written the character a lot, and is fond of “good” ole Frank.

Customized Punisher Car

It wasn’t a bad day. I sat in on most of the DC Countdown panel, which covered some of the same territory as the DC Nation one. But the audience was larger, and they had more questions. I was tempted to throw out a Stephanie Brown/Spoiler question at Dan, but didn’t. Chuck’s back writing Robin, so I’ll just wait and see what he’s going to do.

I left before the end of the panel, because I had to get to something else in Studio City. But that’s a different story and calls for a different post.