Mike Guardabascio's Daily Report

March 17, 2006 (Day One)

It was a damn fine day to be inside for a comic book convention today, and not much else. The now-familiar bustle and flow of a con stood in stark opposition to the frigid overcast sky outside of the Los Angeles Convention Center, as some of comics’ biggest names came out to meet their adoring (and occasionally heckling) public. Since it was Friday, it wasn’t a heavy panel day, but Marvel and DC each did a big one, with a few announcements.

DC’s panel focused on answering questions about current events as well as future probabilities, and I didn’t attend, opting to cruise the floor for a bit. Marvel’s always-enjoyable Cup ‘O Joe Panel held a few big surprises, most notably the announcement that J. Scott Campbell has signed an exclusive deal with Marvel. Even more exciting was the news that he’ d be illustrating an as-yet-unnamed Spider-Man project written by Jeph Loeb. Loeb and Campbell were both there for the panel, and while no details were given about what title their run would be on, Loeb did promise fans that this would not be a “hit and run,” that they were both in it for quite a chunk.

Marvel EIC Joe Quesada also announced that Marvel will be publishing an original graphic novel set in the HALO universe, as they’ve partnered up with Bungie Studios, who produced the video game sensation. The book, set to come out in July, will be a 128-page hardcover illustrated by several artists including Moebius and Tsutomo Nihei. The third announcement was actually made by a special guest: Lisa Kirby, Jack Kirby’s daughter. She was there to officially announce a new, King Kirby-related book, called Jack Kirby’s Galactic Bounty Hunters. Do not take this book for one of those recent Mario Puzo novels, where a famous dead creator’s name is slapped on a cover to shove sales up. Lisa discovered the sketches and outlines behind this book while going through her fathers things, and realized that there was enough there to support a book. The series (at least the first series), which does not yet have a solid release schedule though it will be debuting this year, will consist of six issues, two of which will be double sized. More info to come.

Once the shilling, as Quesada described it, was through, the panel was opened up to fan questions. As usual, the questions didn’t yield a whole lot more news, but were funny as hell. Quesada informed the audience of the ease with which he approved the death of Banshee (editor Tom Brevoort then wished us all a happy St. Patty’s day), and shared similar feelings about the potential upcoming death of Speedball and other New Warriors. About halfway through, Brian Bendis joined the panel and fielded a few questions from the audience––the most interesting thing he discussed was the difficulty that Civil War was creating for his biggest book, New Avengers. Since the split comes right down the middle of his team, he’s had to restructure his stories, and toss aside some ideas, including a potential relationship between Tony Stark and Ronin.

There look to be more announcements in the works for Marvel, and they have a slew of panels left this weekend. DC, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have much up their sleeves, and it looks like their panels are going to run more in the vein of Crisis Counseling.

It wasn’t just the panels that were rolling today––the floor was great. The organizational staff did a commendable job, as all the aisles were wide enough, there was room to move around, and all the lines were kept form blocking too much traffic. Kudos to WWLA’s staff as well as the staff of the Los Angeles Convention Center. Hopefully tomorrow will run just as smoothly, once all the huge crowds start pouring in. If you haven’t heard already, Sunday is going to be miserable since the LA Marathon is going to be running, and the Convention Center rests squarely within the restricted traffic area. Should be a fun ride. Stay tuned to this website for more updates, and more pictures.

March 18, 2006 (Day Two)

The weather was a little bit better today, and the traffic was a big bit worse––still, fans turned out in droves. I spent almost all of the day trapped in one of the humid rooms upstairs in one panel or another, so I missed out on the floor action, but saved my back some pain. The first panel I hit was the 11AM Comic Book Legal Defense Fund sketch-off with Jim Lee, Ale Garza, Amanda Conner, Skottie Young, and more. I’d never been to an art auction before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. It ended up being a great opportunity to watch some of the industry’s hottest hands at work, while the CBLDF made a hefty chunk of cash (and plastic and check) off of generous fans.

The best pieces for the most part were the jam sketches, such as an amazing Jim Lee/Skottie Young Batman/Daredevil, or the Ale Garza/Amanda Conner Red Sonja/Robin sketch. The piece that fetched the highest bid was a beautifully detailed Jim Lee drawing of a pouting Wonder Woman, which brought in $600, with Lee himself offering to spot various bidders $25 of his own money if they kept going higher. All in all, the CBLDF raised about $2,800–– money well spent by the bidders on a worthy cause, with a hefty, tax-deductable reward.

After that I cruised the floor for a while with my fiancé/photographer, the lovely Sharleen Higa, and we managed to snatch up some pretty great buys on the floor (I got all of Brian Vaughan’s Mystique run for about ten bucks), before heading back upstairs to cover the Vertigo/Wildstorm panel (I won’t recap this for a second time, but if you’re interested in what went on, I was lucky enough to be covering this panel as a special to Newsarama.com, so head over there and check it out some time). After that, I went to the Top Cow panel, which was also a Newsarama gig, before crashing the floor once again to scoop up some issues of Powers.

The day wasn’t heavy on announcements, as DC closed its final panel with a grand total of ZERO announcements for the con. Marvel did have a few cool new projects they announced at their Civil War panel to end the day––namely, Rober Kirkman will be writing a new ongoing with Phil Hester called the Irredeemable Ant-Man, and Matt Fraction will be writing the brand new Punisher: War Journals, a regular-Marvel Universe Punisher ongoing. Both of those projects are pretty exciting, and both will be debuting, I believe, just after the close of Civil War. Keep your eye out tomorrow for a huge Marvel announcement during their Ultimate Universe panel, which I’ll be covering live.

All in all, another great day at the show. Alright, I’m going to sleep. Tomorrow the LA Marathon will be encircling the holy land, and I have no clue how I’m going to break their ranks. Guess I’ll just cross my fingers…see you tomorrow.

March 19, 2006 (Day Three)

So, if you’re one of the two dozen other people or so who managed to find their way to the convention center…I’m glad you were there. I would have been lonely without you. As all who attended noticed, and maybe a lot of you who didn’t, the Los Angeles Marathon was held today, in a giant ring surrounding the convention center. We were lucky enough to grab parking a mere four blocks away and scoot across the marathon line in-between straggling elderly runners.

Once inside, it quickly became apparent that Sunday of Wizard World LA was a fan’s dream: the floor was empty, the creators were all there, and the low attendance was the result of a poor planning decision, so we didn’t have to worry about whether there would be a con next year or not. As for the planning, I heard from various professionals that it was the Marathon people’s fault for scheduling it after the convention center was booked, and more often that Wizard made that up to cover their own asses.

In any event, Shar and I took full advantage of the free floor space, hitting the shops and hitting them hard––we scored a number of really cool deals, and Shar haggled a great price on a full-sized statue of Bruce Timm’s Nightwing about twenty minutes before the floor closed. We only sat in on one panel today, the Ultimate Marvel panel, since there really wasn’t much going on. Many of the big names, including Joe Quesada and Brian Bendis, had already left the convention, so it was Nick Lowe and Jeph Loeb handling almost all of the questions.

The big announcement of the panel had already been leaked online Friday, which probably accounted for the absence of Quesada and Bendis. In case you haven't heard the news, which is pretty cool, is as follows: JMS’ Supreme Power will be crossing over with Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, in a huge book called Ultimate Power. The bigger news though, is that it will be written in three parts, with the first part being written by Bendis, the second by JMS, and the third by Jeph Loeb. No artist has been announced yet, but Loeb promises the announcement will knock all of our socks off, and he rarely lies.

All in all, it was a great low-pressure day, with plenty of time to shop and say goodbye to our favorite creators, as well as check out anything we may have missed on the floor. I had a great convention and it looked like everyone else did too, although it was probably smaller than Wizard would have wanted. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for one last bonus column, with some of my favorite personal highlights that didn’t make it into these newsier recaps.

March 20, 2006

Wizard World Bonus Highlights:
Why a Bad Day at a Con is Better than a Good Day at Home

I'm not going to deny that Wizard World LA 2006 had its shortcomings: it was smaller than last year's con in Long Beach, and in the larger Los Angeles Convention Center it looked even smaller than it actually was. The Marathon, regardless of whose fault the scheduling was, shouldn't have been on Sunday, and shouldn't have been run in a perfect ring around the convention. But every convention has its drawbacks: after all, at the end of the day, it's a collection of thousands of the world's most anti-social people. The drawbacks though, are not the point. For me, it's the moments when comics creators go from names on a cover to real writers and artists that make every con I've been to special in its own way. Here's a sampling of my favorite moments from WWLA 2006.

• Before the con opened on Friday, they were letting in exhibitors and VIP guests, but not professionals or press just yet. It just so happened that I got stuck outside the entrance right next to Marv Wolfman, who was trying to explain to security that if the professionals didn't get in, the VIP guests weren't going to have anyone to talk to. He turned around and I made some dumb comment about how silly they were—then he smiled and said, "Oh I don't really mind, it's just more fun to grouse."
• I was at David Mack's table on artist alley when Brian Bendis came over to say hi to him for the first time early on Friday. They're friends from way back, and it was great to see the two of them making fun of each other. Then Mack pulled out scans of a few of the covers he's done for the White Tiger series, so I got an early look at them (they're beautiful), before Bendis signed some books for me (line-free I might add) and showed off my Powers Hardcover to Mack' s girlfriend, the lovely Mandy Amano.
• I was at the DC booth when Ethan Van Sciver and Marv Wolfman met for the first time, and Van Sciver got appropriately geeked out about meeting the legend, and showed him some art from his upcoming run on Superman/Batman. I think Wolfman liked the art a lot, and I know I did—Van Sciver's take on Batman will please a lot of people, I think.
• On Saturday morning, I almost literally bumped into Joss Whedon (who was not listed as a guest of the con and did no signing or appearances) in the hallway outside the panel rooms. He made it about five feet before a few people snagged him for autographs.
• The coolest thing was getting to wear my press hat and approach various writers/artists that I've admired for years and ask them for interviews, and have it be legit, and not a fanboy ploy like I see people do occasionally. Tim Sale in particular treated my fiancé Shar and me very well—he's going to do a commissioned painting for us (it's our geeked out wedding present to ourselves), and we got to discuss the details over lunch, as well as discussing a television show he's working on, Jack Kirby, and a thousand other things. To Mr. Sale and all the other creators who were kind enough to take a pause from their busy schedules to talk to me, a heartfelt thank you, especially to those who were super duper kind enough to commit to interviews in the near future.
• The last really cool moment of Wizard World was in the last few hours of Sunday, just when I was beginning to fear it would never happen: the random book pick-up! Every con I've ever been at, Shar or I have discovered a totally random table with a totally random amazing book I've never heard of. This year it was Dan Goodseel's Mister Toast, which everyone should go check out at mistertoast.com immediately. It's the kind of awesome, quirky, hilariously pointless stuff that we need in the world.

I hope everyone had a good con, or a good time reading about it on this website—everyone bring the esteemed webmaster flowers and candies at his shop. He kicked his own ass day after day to make sure that everything got up on time, and it really paid off. I loved being a part of the coverage as a writer, and I loved checking it all out as a reader—I hope you did, too. See you in San Diego for Comic-Con this July!