Art Communication

Neal Adams

The trading card company Upper Deck interviewed Neal Adams, a famous comic artist.  I was pleased by this statement he gave, 

"I believe that a drawing is a communication between 2 people: the artist and the person who receives the artwork."

I think almost everything has a story.  Sometimes it takes a while for a viewer to come along to join the conversation.

Below are a few sketch cards by Neal Adams.

Iron Man

From Guardians of the Galaxy

Here's the second trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy with more details about the movie:

 

SD Comic Con

Hello! Sorry I haven't posted for a while. This summer has been busy (such as working at Legoland), but great.  I want to share some photos and panel news from the San Diego Comic Con this past July.

I love how even the attendees are a part of the experience. In the photo below, I stand next to a cosplayer from The Green Hornet (2011):

Me with a Kato (Green Hornet) cosplayer!

Cosplaying is dressing up as a fictional character. I have cosplayed before, but now I just dress-up somehow. On the second day, I wore my Super Maio Bro's mushroom hat along with a blue vest and blue pinstripe pants. Next year I'll wear my new Luigi hat. ;)

More cosplayers:

Kiki and Tombo from Kiki's Delivery Service

Luna and Artemis from Sailor Moon

On the right: Frank the 6-foot bunny in Donnie Darko

Planet of the Apes

Angry Birds the game

Katniss from The Hunger Games

I appreciate the cosplayers who depict small details. The Katniss cosplayer is not only carrying her bow, but also the bright, orange pack used in the game!

Speaking of The Hunger Games, I stopped by their booth and got THE golden mockingjay pin as a freebie!

Movie posters as big as a door were also handed out.

Some Panel News

There were at least two panels that discussed fandom and cosplayers. I had hoped to attend one of the panels but I volunteered and had other panels as a higher priority. I also did not have a chance to stop by David Malki's booth to say I submitted to the Machine of Death anthology. Accepted entries are announced in October.

Anyway, here are some lines from the two panel descriptions:

Comics Arts Conference Session #1: Fan Studies

Scott Daniel Boras (Arizona State University) relates his experiences as "Ethnography Man," researching the world of cosplay at Comic-Con and investigating how cosplay both subverts and reinforces codes of conduct, and in the end is more about transcendence than escape. Beverly Taylor (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) presents her research into how the culture of physique athletes -- body builders, figure, and fitness athletes -- is influenced and inspired by superheroes, even to the point of considering their lives outside the gym to be their secret identities. ...

Obsession: How TV and Movies Go from Fascination to Phenomenon

 ...what does it take to turn a series or movie into something special that we can't live without? This panel from BuddyTV.com examines that topic from all points of view: the writers and producers who create the projects, the actors who star in them, and the fans who consume them. ...

Hopefully, the discussions can be found online or in print.

The IDW panel mentioned its program "Sparkles for Blood." You can trade a Twilight book for their comic "30 Days of Night" to learn what a real vampire is.

 The IDW staff even gave away traded Twilight hardback novels which can be traded back for the vampire comic.

Last bit of news I'm sharing is that even Football players co-write comics.

Lance Briggs at Top Cow panel

Lance Briggs joined the panel of comic-distributor Top Cow to discuss his comic idea, Seraph, which combines his Christian faith with his passion for comics. The comic is about of a man who committed suicide, and then he is given a second chance as a warrior for Heaven. He must follow God's guidelines in his battles.

Lance Briggs' comic pilot Seraph

Lance Briggs is a co-writer of the story and competing with other new comics in Top Cow's Pilot Season. More may  be stated Brigg's social network of comics at Lance's Comic World.

And Legos!

Because I'm working the summer season at Legoland, I had to check out the booth for Lego. I saw smiling, engaged children like I do at work plus Scrappy!

Scrappy cosplayer crawls over legos to his father dressed as Scooby-doo.

 Iconic figures made from legos were found in the whole exhibit hall.

Batman made from legos

Well, I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of my visit at SD Comic Con. If you are interested in going, then I have to warn you that this past year, tickets sold out on the first day of registration. So start checking for the day of registration in Feburary at www.Comic-Con.org. There you can also find out about a few other comic cons such as APE and Wonder Con.

began reading The Unwritten

In my post "Meta," I mentioned an interest in the comic book/graphic novel series called The Unwritten by Mike Carey. I've read vol 1 and am still interested.  There was a lot to like.

The introduction is by Bill Willingham, who wrote the comic series Fables. He talks about comics since the golden age of superheroes.  Then he describes a new type of comic, literary comics. I like comics like Hush and Superman/Batman with my favorite superhero, Batman, but I felt like Willingham addressed craving for literary. So I'm happy to hear about this new wave of comics. The introduction was a good note to start with.


The comic itself parodies Harry Potter and even states the similarity in a comic con scene. haha. There are depictions of fans from causal fan to online debater to the obsessed and delusional. Along with the commentary on fans, the main character stumbles upon a horror writers workshop where each contemporary type critiques the other. I laughed at and admired this setup.  There are also allusions to existing writers and a side story depicting Rudyard Kipling's career as a writer. This comic is packed with literary and commentary.


The main element is the boundary between fantasy and reality. The comic is certainly meta (metanarrative and metafiction I think).  There is a note stating that the author, Carey, had wanted to use prose format somehow with a book actually inside of another book to understand the boundary being crossed.


All these aspects I enjoyed in vol 1.  Before I reached the Kipling side story at the end, I had satisfied my crave for literary.  My taste buds for had a taste of many flavors. So by the time I finished the book, I felt I had just been through a workshop or had enrolled in a genre/author class.  I had gained more than I had craved. And this satisfaction was just from vol 1.


I recommend The Unwritten and hope you get a kick out it too.