Overthinking Comics

Sunday of Comic-Con is usually recovery day. It is the day I walk around the show floor for a couple hours, make any last purchases I have had my eye on, and soak it all in for a few more hours before heading home for the year.

In a way, that’s what I did at the Sunday of this con. I watched a few more panels, and enjoyed being surrounded by comics for a couple more hours.

As with the rest of the con, the main activity I partook of was the panels. Sunday always has fewer panels than the rest of the show, but still some great choices to check out.

Anyway, onward, to the panels!

25th Anniversary of Witchblade and Beyond

This panel was actually a Saturday evening panel, but I caught up on it after the fact.

This highlights one of the truly great things about this online panel format — you can watch it any time, you don’t have to be in the room where it happens to catch it. Bravo, Comic-Con!

I have been a minor fan of the Top Cow Witchblade stuff, especially in the Ron Marz era of the run. That’s good stuff, so I thought I would check out this panel.

Stephanie Phillips talks about A Man Among Ye. It is the story of two actual historical female pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, and then tells stories about what draws a person to piracy, and the end of the golden age of piracy. Stephanie comes from the world of academics, and she describes the research that goes into this book, which makes me more interested in checking this title out.

Matt Hawkins and Colleen Doran talk about The Clock, a eugenics conspiracy thriller about a disease that seems to be effecting people inexplicably. On the publishing side, this book was effected by Covid-19, and the 3rd and 4th issues won’t come out in single format, they are instead going to release the remaining issues in the trade paperback.

Stjepan Sejic talks about Sunstone and The Queen and the Woodborn. The latter will be a single volume series about a queen that finds herself in the garden of the gods, and hijinks ensue. I have always been a fan of Stjepan’s artwork, and he discussed how he spent the first 10 years of his career emulating the style of others, but when he decided to let go of that notion and draw the way he wanted, that is when Sunstone happened. There are 20 volumes of Sunstone planned!

The panelists talk about the effect Covid-19 has had on the convention scene, and how much they miss the personal interaction. The life of comic book creators is largely one of being in isolation while they work, and conventions are often their chance to interact, so that is currently missed.

Matt Hawkins talked about Swing, which seems to be about a swinger couple, an also seems, on the surface level, to be an indulgence. Matt and Stjepan both commented, however, how writing this sort of “slice of life” stories has improved their writing abilities in general. They both see a big difference in their writing ability after working on this sort of book.

This year marks 25 years of Witchblade! It is rare that a character lasts 25 years, the creators are very proud that they created such a lasting character. At the time of release, this notion of a strong, headlining female character was a newer and growing trend, and they enjoy the character’s place in that tradition.

Top Cow is running a talent hunt running from Spring 2021 through Fall 2021. They are proud of this program, and how it gives people a chance to get a foot into the comics industry. Marc pointed out that there are less professional comic book writers than there are professional Basketball players in the NBA, which point out how few writers there are, and the talent hunt may increase that number by a few.

Jack Kirby 101: An Introduction

Yet another Kirby panel! Oddly, this one probably would have been best off as the first Kirby panel of the weekend, rather than the last.

This panel talked a bit about who Kirby was, and his history before doing the work he is most well known for in the 60s and 70s.

The panelists talk about the various eras of Kirby’s work, including his Marvel work, the 4th World, Kamandi, and later Marvel work. They also talk about the type of person Kirby was, how his imagination worked, and how he interacted with people.

Overall, just a great introduction to Kirby and his work, and why it is so important. After watching all of these Kirby panels, I am planning to break out my Fourth World Omnibuses and rading that seminal work of his from start to finsh.

Long live the King!

Celebrating 80 Years of Will Eisner’s The Spirit

This panel was a great primer on Will Eisner and The Spirit.

Will Eisner, of course, is a legendary illustrator. He came to prominance with The Spirit, which ran in newspapers in the 40s as a competitor to stand-alone comic books. This panel describes the origins and creation of The Spirit, and a little about its place in the comics world.

The panelists talk about some of the ways that The Spirit broke new ground in comics, and added a lot to the visual language of comics.

This panel rounded itself out by talking about some of Eisner’s later work like A Contract With God and other stories.

Overall, this was a great primer, that made me interested in tracking down the old Spirit comics from the 40s to check them out for myself.

Sunday wrap-up

Today was a much more mellow day of ComicCon@Home. I didn’t watch as many panels, and balanced my attendance with other household duties.

Still, I got to watch a couple panels that pushed me to revisit some of the great, historical comics works (Fourth World and The Spirit), and check out some new stuff that I didn’t know about before (A Man Among Ye).

I should have one more overall wrap up article about the experience, stay tuned for that!