Overthinking Comics

For the second year in a row, Wondercon is not having an in-person event due to the ongoing pandemic.

They are, however, continuing with Wondercon@Home! This is similar to the ComicCon@Home from last summer, and mostly consists of online panels to check out.

The great thing about these panels is that they are available on Comic-Con International’s YouTube Channel, even now that the Con is over. The panel videos can be enjoyed at your leisure.

This availability after the fact is fantastic. I did not have the time over Wondercon weekend to tune in to these panels, so I was able to tune in as I have time in the week after.

Let’s dive in to day one! These are the panels that I tuned in to.

Jack Kirby Tribute

Check out the Jack Kirby Tribute panel on YouTube.

Another enjoyable Kirby celebration! One of the takeaways was an appreciation for the work ethic that Kirby applied to his illustration. There are several stories about him changing his artwork after drawing it because he was not satisfied with the page. He would sometimes think of a better way to tell the story, so he redrew the page.

I also got an appreciation of the energy and imagination that Kirby put into his stories. Neil Gaiman brought up a Kamandi story that Kirby created that had Superman in it (by corporate mandate), and still Kirby was able to find the interesting angle to the story.

They also talk about how Kirby embraced a lot of the trends and styles of youth culture. He appreciated new ways of thinking, and in particular the ways that youths of each generation where different from their parent’s generation.

I really enjoyed when the panel veered away from Mark Evanier’s talking points. At times Jonathan Ross expressed views that countered Mark Evanier’s Kirby appreciation, and that is where it really got interesting.

Check it out and savor the Kirby appreciation!

Don’t savor Mark Evanier’s inability to control his audio, resulting in echo whenever anyone but him talks!

Taking It Personally: Comics & Politics

Check out the Taking It Personally: Comics & Politics panel on YouTube.

They have a few interesting things to say about how more prominent and out in the open the white supremacists and fascist-leaning individuals have been lately.

This was a bit of a low energy panel, and the panelists seem to be channeling how much of a downer the last year has been.

If you are a fan of any of these creators, it may be worth checking out.

Image Comics Writers

Check out the Image Comics Writers panel on YouTube.

Pornsak Pichetshote, Scott Snyder, Rodney Barnes, Kieron Gillen, and Alex De Campi (who joins late) talk about their creations at Image Comics.

“Comics doesn’t pay enough for it not to be fun”. One of the members on this panel says this, and it sets half of the tone of this panel, the other half is people who are very serious about their craft discussing their craft.

They start with the best question there is: “why comics?” That is my favorite question to ask people, because everyone seems to have a different answer, but everyone has something that draws them to this medium that we love.

Scott Snyder talked about how comics lends itself with collaboration with other creators that all want the story to succeed, which doesn’t always exist in other mediums, as other interests start to interfere.

Kieren Gillan talked about collaborating with artists, and how that works, and how that process varies from artist to artist. He tends to write the story, then Kieren and the artist collaborate on the execution of the story. Scott talked about his development as a collaborator, and how that grew working with Greg Capullo on Batman. And, well, everyone piles on to the discussion and adds some info about how they work, and how the collaborative nature of creation effects how they write the stories.

As a group, they chime in on the lettering pass, and how they revisit the script and lettering after the book is drawn. Sometimes, once a book is drawn, it needs more dialogue, or less dialogue, or different sound effect lettering, or other changes and updates.

How does the writer write a book that will allow the artist to succeed? The panelists talk more about how they choose what is in the book with the artist in mind, to give them stuff that they want to draw.

The writers talk about writing characters that are outside of their lived experience, and how they balance the desire to tell stories with a diverse cast of characters, and depicting characters in a way that is disrespectful of the diverse experiences of people. The authors talk about how they approach this, and also what they do when they get it wrong.

They finish the panel with a round of advice for aspiring comic book writers. They all have interesting things to say, but I will let you tune in to hear it.

Lord of the Rings Retrospective

Check out the 20th Anniversary Retrospective on Lord of the Rings panel on YouTube.

This panel has several people from many walks in life, but all of those walks have made them great Lord of the Rings fans. This panel focuses on the movies, and focuses on and celebrates those.

The panel starts with a discussion of the differences between the movies and the books, and what changes are to the movies advantage, and what may have been missed from the adaption.

They discuss some of the origins of the movie, and how the pieces fell in place to make such fantastic movies. This includes the cast, and how in retrospect the casting seems perfect. They also discuss some of the other potential casting. Sean Connery as Gandalf? Whoa…

How well does Fellowship of the Rings work as an introduction for new viewers? They discuss. Spoilers, it works well.

Finally, they wrap up with the scene that each of the panelists were most excited to see in the movie. I won’t spoil what it is for each of the panelists, but some great things are mentioned.

Overall, this is a great revisit of Fellowship of the Ring, and the Lord of the Rings in general. If you are a fan, like I am, you will likely enjoy indulging a bit with this panel.

Valiant’s Shadowman

Check out the Exclusive Look at Shadowman panel on YouTube.

Cullen Bunn and Jan-Davis Hunt talk about the upcoming Shadowman book from Valiant Comics, with Senior Editor Heather Antos moderating.

After briefly talking about their first exposure to Shadowman, Cullen Bunn talked about how they are leaning into the horror side of Shadowman, and are making something something with a different tone and approach to the character.

One interesting take on Jack (Shadowman) is that he does not know everything, so many times he is encountering things that he does not know, or encountering things for the first time. He is an interesting point of view character in this way.

Jon-Davis Hunt talked about how much fun it was to draw Baron Samedi, since he is just a skull, so there isn’t as much facial expressions to work with.

Cullen talked about how they are doing some new things with Shadowman, in terms of his powers and how they work, and that will effect the stories they can tell. Jon-Davis Hunt talked some about the unique takes on the visual look of Shadowman he developed, and tried to keep in the tradition of what came before while doing something new also.

They joke around a bit about what Jack would do on his day off when he gets out of New Orleans, and there are some hijinx.

They wrapped up the meat of the presentation with a reminder that the remastered Shadowman video game is coming out soon, and with a tease that there is more Shadowman news coming soon.

That’s a wrap!

That is what I tuned in to on Friday of Wondercon@Home. Check back for a recap of the panels I viewed from Saturday!