Con Report Interlude: Dead Space

I received an e-mail today from a fellow affiliated with Electronic Arts today. After my sole prior incident, you might think I'd be used to people I don't know delivering warm, filling content... but I'm not. (It's all rather flattering, really.)

After a brief introduction, he moved on to the game, Dead Space. (For anyone who isn't aware, despite this being a Comics blog, I'm a voracious devourer of video games. As a rule, I don't discuss them here, but it's another subject that feel very strongly about.) Aside from the game, he wanted to make sure I knew about the accompanying comic book that was being released prior to the game's release.

Truth be told, though the game definitely had my interest, I hadn't paid any attention previous to his e-mail. As with anything else, a licensed comic book can range from very good (Image's adaptation of the PC game Freedom Force to Marvel's embarassing Marvel Nemesis: The Imperfects, tying into an equally bad game. I'm ashamed to have to admit that I actually own three issues of the latter.) With a few links provided, I figured I'd give a look to the material provided. Below should be the video feed for the online viewing of issue #3. In a move that's been popular over the past few years, the comic serves as a prequel to the game, explaining the initial situation when you put the disc into your system and turn it on.




Now I'm not sure if this is a preview, or if it contains the entire issue, but it strikes me as something with some promise. The art looks strong to me, and the creative team (Ben Templesmith and Antony Johnston) seem to have some work to their credit. Blending science fiction and horror has always struck me as one of those things that's very difficult to pull off well. When I stop by Ye Olde Comic Shoppe tomorrow, I think I'm going to see if I can find an issue or two.

Heroes Con 2008 - By The Power of Fraction!

The personality who impressed me the most at the convention had to be the guy in line asking Roy Thomas to sign about fifty different copies of the same trading card, despite a good dozen people behind him.

But if you asked me who made the best impression on me at the show this year, the answer would undeniably be Matt Fraction. Not only does the guy have a solid grasp on what makes many of the Marvel Universe's most interesting characters tick, but he's also just so darned cool to talk to. Whether he's running a panel single-handedly (with only Ed Brubaker via cell-phone to back him up), diverting a line to keep the aisles of the convention free, or just chatting... he makes it all look easy, and he does it with style.

He was the writer I was most looking forward to meeting at this year's show. As such, I'd brought more of his books to the show to be signed than anybody else. I brought enough that I didn't feel comfortable carrying them in one shot. After presenting him with the Marvel stuff in the morning, I caught back up to him in the afternoon. The day was wearing on him, and talking with fans (and possibly mugging with Rick Remender seated next to him) was drying out his throat. As he was talking to a convention employee, Official Comic Shelf Photographer Hilary dug into a bag, producing a bottle of the Hilton's best water on the spot. (She was carrying around several of them.) Matt was so grateful, he included the following inscription on my Casanova: Luxuria hardcover:

To translate: "thank you for water. you have saved my life. Fraction!"

And that's the coolest thing I got at the show.

Heroes Con 2008 - Post Con Report The First

Another year is past, and at this moment, HeroesCon is officially over. I'm back in Columbia, trying to digest my experience as I gaze at the small mountain of bronze-age Marvel books that I gleefully carried home.

Each year I attend the convention, I find that it's less and less about acquiring comics. I mean, check this out... I was at the show for three days, and got six more books than I did two years ago. I was late Friday, and left a little early today, but that's still plenty of time to go shopping. I think it's a key change in how I experience the convention. Whereas initially it was a big shopping spree, it's become the way in which I connect with the folks who create this entertainment that I enjoy.

I waited in line for a good half hour to let Roy Thomas sign two issues of King Conan that I picked up the previous day. While in line, I thought... this guy worked right alongside Stan Lee. Ron Wilson signed Marvel Two-in-One Annual #7, where the Thing decided the fate of the world in a boxing match. Matt Fraction signed... well, he signed a whole lot of stuff, while sharing anecdotes and and telling me how much he appreciated the fact that I purchased his work.

And at the advice of my friend Chad, I bought a small sketchbook and took the experience a step further by asking several artists to grace it's pages with a picture. And I think that those sketches are the most treasured items that came out of HeroesCon with me. While I'm sure that those artists draw plenty of sketches like the ones they did for me, those sketches are still unique.

I'll provide more details later, possibly with pictures taken by my official Comic Shelf photographer (and unofficial Matt Fraction Watergirl) Hilary. But to close out, here are some statistics. I took my laptop up with me, and updated my database each day.

• 118 Books purchased at a total price of $111.64
• Average purchase price: $0.95/issue
• 31 Books signed at the convention this year

An Existential Quandry!

I'm in the middle of preparing for HeroesCon. I'm going to be tired at work tomorrow, but I don't particularly care. As I'm pulling books to take with me to the con, I decide to pull Avengers #350. Steve Epting, known across the country for his work on Captain America, pencilled this book and I figure he might want to sign something that isn't Captain America #25 on Saturday.

So imagine my surprise when I find that the book is already signed by Steve Epting! I've only met the man once, last year at Free Comic Book Day when I got him to sign my copy of Captain America #25. I'm almost positive I didn't have this book with me. I'm completely stymied, because I don't think I could have gotten this book signed. But unless someone else was in the habit of writing the name 'Steve Epting' in their comics, what else could this be?

Can I legitimately ask the man to sign this book... again? I'll take it with me anyway, but I'm really not sure what the etiquette is here. Anybody have any suggestions?

DC Has Issues...

There's a great article over at the Comics Should Be Good blog discussing the astonishing silence of DC Editorial in regards to both Grant Morrison dishing on the inconsistencies between Countdown, Death of the New Gods and Final Crisis. It also goes into the matter of Chuck Dixon's mysterious, and apparently unsought departure from DC.

While both issues strike me as being Editorial in nature, the occurences themselves don't disturb me. Stuff happens all the time, right? But the deafening silence from DC is astonishing. You'd think that as a major publisher, you'd want to keep plot points straight for your major Summer Event... especially on obscure little details like who dies and when.

But I can look at that screw up, roll my eyes and forget about Death of the New Gods. I did that about Countdown months ago. But when DC made such a noise about the return of Chuck Dixon not just to DC, but to several of the Batman-related titles to see that they almost don't want to acknowledge that he's gone is shocking. I know we don't have any right to the details, but right now all we have is Dixon's terse confession that his departure from DC was not voluntary. It's showing a lot of restraint and professionalism on Dixon's part while DC continues in an ominous silence.

I don't know what's going on over there, but it would be nice to hear something from them. Especially at a time when I'm dropping DC books with greater and greater frequency. I don't see myself staying with Batman and the Outsiders beyond Dixon's last issue... and I'm not exactly joined at the hip with Robin either. Dixon's return to the book, and the return of Stephanie Brown kept me from dropping it a couple months ago. Looks like it might be headed back to the chopping block after Batman: R.I.P.

Sightings - A Rant

It seems like only yesterday that DC's editorial staff told it's readers that special books with something important would carry this special 'SIGHTINGS' banner, and that within those issues would be something the readers would want to see. My personal understanding of the concept was that when something big enough to reflect notice in the DC Universe at large happened, this banner would appear on the cover of the book, so that fans would know to look. It's a good idea.

In my opinion, it's been misused completely in the two books I know of that have carried it.

Justice League of America, Vol. 2 #21 carried thie banner. What happened in Justice League #21? Libra recruited a loser criminal called the Human Flame for his new incarnation of the Secret Society, or Injustice League, or whatever they're deciding to call the faceless mass of supervillains for this Crisis. And I guess they beat up a few Leaguers doing it. Well... was there anything in this mess that wasn't covered by the first issue of Final Crisis? Not that I'm aware of. By comparison, Final Crisis #1 did not carry the 'SIGHTINGS' banner, and in that issue they killed a prominent mainstay of the Justice League. That would seem slightly more important to me.

Action Comics #866 arrived in stores today, and once again, another book bearing the banner. I've been steadfastly ignoring Geoff Johns' run on Action Comics for several reasons, so once again... a book that I wouldn't have normally read has a banner telling me something important is happening. It's a light week, so I nibble. I don't see anything noteworthy in the title, except that Johns is now apparently re-telling or re-imagining Brainiac's pre-Crisis history. (For the sake of further spoilage, I won't go into it here, but Wikipedia sums it up nicely.) Where's the landmark event in this book that makes it a must-read? Could someone please tell me?

Well, THAT'S pretty sudden...

While peering through my RSS feeds during my siesta, today, I observed a short post on Occasional Superheroine indicating that Chuck Dixon is no longer employed by DC Comics. Seriously, the post on his own forums is right here. It's too short to be cryptic per se, but it does lead me to wonder what precisely happened?

What... did he kill Dan Didio's dog or something? Did they just hire him back to revive Spoiler, and salvage a few issues of Batman & the Outsiders?

On that note, does anybody think that Batman & the Outsiders will continue beyond what Dixon already had in the pipe?