coverage of

 

Saturday, November 24th (9:00 PM) - I'm going to start my look back on Saturday at Mid-Ohio-Con with a tip of the metaphorical hat to the small press creators at this weekend's show. I think the product being presented this weekend by the independent creators is stronger than any show I've been to this year. I will temper that remark with the fact that I wasn't able to attend SPACE, APE, MOCCA or SPX (a fact I plan to remedy in 2008). That said, for the mainstream shows I've attended I came away from Saturday at Mid-Ohio-Con blown away by the quality. Title after title I found books I didn't just want to read, I wanted to own (and in many cases I now do own). I can sum up my feelings here in two simple words... "more please".

 

A couple interesting stories coming out of the day today...

Chris Yambar (who will talk about more in an upcoming story on the site) has done quite a bit work for Bongo Comics writing numerous stories and contributing to nearly every title the company has (including his main gig as writer for their Simpsons comic line). Long story short, I got a chance to take a look at an amazing 10 second animated clip of his character El Mucho Grande, Wrestler for Hire. The character has been picked up for a animated treatment and Chris has promised us more on this little tidbit of news. Checking out the early animation, it's in the style and quality of The Incredibles. It's movie guilty animation to say the least.

 

Brian Polido, who many of you know from such titles as Lady Death, Unholy, Belladonna and a host of other horror franchise based series is launching a new company called Coffin Comics. He's promised he'll have details headed our way soon.

I spent much of my time today meeting new creators. That, as always, is my main reason for attending these shows. Between those great conversations, I was able to step into Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier's "Brave Groo World" panel for a few minutes. Sergio and Mark are great to listen to and their storytelling style makes for a fun panel. Plus... it's Groo... how can you not love it?

 

 

I also settled in for the last 2/3rds of the "Comic Folks You Should Know... But Probably Don't" panel. I could make the joke that I can't remember a singe name from that panel, but in the end that's anything but true. The panel was staffed (from left to right in the photo above) by Scott Crawford, Joe Gentile, Paul Storrie, George Broderick Jr., Eddy Newell, Danielle Corsetto, Marc Sumerak and Chris Yambar.

 

During this panel, Moonstone founder Joe Gentile discussed the Phantom, the Phantom film (and how he thought it was "okay") and celebrated the con-exclusive Moonstone Holiday Super Spectacular.

 

We can share a few notable quotes from the panel...

"I'm here today doing this because of Adam West's portrayal of Batman. To me that will be the ultimate Batman ever" - George Broderick Jr.

 

"For me it was the desire to do something creative. To not sit behind the desk and push papers all day kind of job. I always loved to write and I narrowed it down to either writing comics or being a muppeteer and the college I went to didn't have a good muppeteering program." - Marc Sumerak

 

"Barry Windsor-Smith taught us a very important lesson when he first started in this business and they said draw like Jack Kirby. If you look at his early X-Men stuff it was some of the weirdest looking Kirby art I've ever seen in my life. Then he disappeared and he came back and you pick up Rune and a bunch of other stuff he did, whether you like it or hate or not, he had his own thumbprint. It's essential that you become your own thumbprint in this business." - Chris Yambar

 

On breaking into comics "You have to be too stupid to quit" - Paul Storrie

 

"If Disney or someone comes to you and offers you a high six figures for your character, SELL IT, because you will have more than one good idea. If you only have one good idea, you shouldn't be doing this." - George Broderick Jr.

 

"I'm going to tell you that some of the strongest stuff that's being produced today is not by the big three, it's independent comics because this is the blood and the soul." - Chris Yambar

There are many more tales to tell, but we'll save those for another day as I really want to get this update posted and move into sharing some photos (if you are up later, please check back).

 

I will close with a special word of thanks to Columbus based independent creator Max Ink who I had the good fortune to meet for the first time today. We talked comics, the indy market and a host of other topics throughout the day and, eventually, along with a group of friends we moved the conversation to Barley's Brewing Company. He was a great Mid-Ohio-Con host and was even good enough to draw what has become the best sketch I have in my sketch book from 2007. I invite you to check out his title Blink at artist table #57 tomorrow.