Terry Moore ran the show when it came to his Comic-Con spotlight panel, sharing news on “Rachel Rising,” “Strangers in Paradise” and an “Echo” feature film.
At Wondercon Archaia Comics sat down with fans to discuss the “Immortals” anthology, “The Dark Crystal,” Jim Henson’s “A Tale of Sand,” “Mr. Murder is Dead,” and more.
About seven years ago I was making ends meet as an assistant in the Videogame division at Twentieth Century Fox. I can’t say the position was a nonstop cavalcade of fun, but it did have its moments, especially when it occasionally involved one of my favorite pursuits: Comics. My good friend David Stalker was looking for a writer for a licensed game relaunch, and shared with me his idea of using a comic book writer to remold an intellectual property that was long in the tooth. I had recently come across writer Grant Morrison‘s website, so I took a shot in the dark and sent an email to the site’s webmaster about Morrison potentially writing for the game, hoping that they would forward along my inquiry to him. It turned out that Morrison’s manager & girlfriend-now-wife Kristan actually ran the site, and we started talking about the possibility of getting together the next time they were in Los Angeles. After a few months and a dinner that involved a bit too much wine for my bodyweight, Morrison got the gig, and I got an inside look at how a genius writes for a project with a million moving pieces while simultaneously assuaging the proprietal concerns of a vertically integrated media monster. For an aspiring writer like myself at the time, this was priceless.
Needless to say, the experience inspired me to keep up with all things Morrison, and when I read that Meltdown Comics in LA would be screening Patrick Meaney’s documentary Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods, I made a beeline down Sunset Boulevard to check it out. The store’s gallery where the screening was held was packed, but they squeezed me in after a quick handstamp from the ever-vigilant Chris Rosa.
The documentary is impressive, not just in terms of its production value, but in terms of its structure. Most documentaries are structured to tell a narrative, but GMTWD is actually a polymyth, layered to tell multiple narratives. In addition to the narrative of Morrison’s own journey as a writer, the documentary presents the evolution of the superhero in American Comics, and ultimately the arc of the mindset of Morrison’s audience and how we view the world, from the decade of potential that was the 90s, to the low of 9/11 to the uncertainty of today. The doc will be available to purchase at Amazon next week, but if you live in LA, you can get it for $15 at Meltdown right now.
Here’s the trailer:
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Scientists and Hollywood Special Effects experts gathered at Caltech to discuss the real world science and technical wizardry behind “Iron Man 2″ and present extended scenes from the “Iron Man 2″ home video release.
Here’s the inked pages for the basic drawing class final at Meltdown University taught by Jim Higgins. I think these came out okay for a first attempt, but I still prefer the pencils to the inks. I was going to re-letter the pages and touch up the inks before posting these, but I think it makes more sense to focus on new pages, applying what I’ve learned from working on this set.
One of the highlights at SDCC for me was the inking demo that Paul Pope gave for the CBLDF. Pope inked the skull of Yorick from Hamlet for the demo. The process really came together for me when Pope added the shadow of the skull on the fingers of the hand holding it, establishing the relation of the hand and the skull in a 3d space.
Some of my notes from the demo:
-Pope uses Koh-i-norr & Sumi ink, and a ceramic dish to hold the ink when working.
-For Paper, Pope uses Strathmore Hot press 2-ply, or cold press for an “old masters” effect.
-Pope uses a variety of brushes for inking, including Windsor Newton Series 7 & the University Series.
-Fill in large black areas with a small sponge to save time.
-Don’t store your brushes in the jar point-down.
-When inking with a caligraphy brush, plant your pinky on the paper to steady your hand.
-He uses Masters Brush Cleaner for cleaning brushes.
-Pope likes to “activate” his brush before use by allowing the ink to soak into the bristles for a few minutes.
-He likes to watch episodes of the Outer Limits for lighting ideas.
Check out some video clips of the demo from around the web:
Comic-Con International hosted the world premiere of Marvel Studios’ animated series “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” in a panel which also announced an upcoming “Ultimate Spider-Man” cartoon.
Comics legend Jerry Robinson sat down with fans at Comic-Con International to discuss his tenure on Batman and discuss “Jerry Robinson: Ambassador Of Comics,” the new book on his contribution to comics.
Creators sat down with fans during the publisher’s Hasbro-themed panel at Comic-Con International to discuss what’s coming up next in the worlds of Transformers, G.I.Joe and Dungeons & Dragons comic series.