R.I.P. 1,2,3...

Following the new controversial trend of revealing major plot points to major media before a book hits the shelves, DC once again gave the NY Daily News the exclusive. Superman's dad, Jonathan Kent is dead. Again.

The action happens, appropriately enough, in Action Comics #870. While Superman is busy fighting Brainiac and restoring the recently bottled Metropolis and the Bottled City of Kandor, his father has a fatal heart attack. Sound familiar? It should. Versions of Jonathan "Pa" Kent have succumbed to the same affliction before. Newsarama has compiled a nice list of those and other hardships that have fallen on Superman's Pa in the past.

The real shock to fans was not Jonathan Kent's death, most read the signs and knew it was coming, but that DC used the Daily News as an outlet to "spoil" the event. This has many fans fuming mad. Read the comments on the Comic Book Resources and Newsarama articles and see for yourself. It's clear DC is trying to gain new readers by exposing them to comics in the mainstream media but is it at the expense of die-hard fans?

I find it hard to take a side here. I'm a big avoider of spoilers and I've become awfully adept at it over the years. Unfortunately not everyone can do that nor can they live their lives wary of spoilers at every turn. That being said, if this tactic can get more people into their local comic shops and boost the industry as a whole, that's a good thing. 

You and I both know nothing that happens in comics is heralded as the "right move" by everyone who reads them. I'd imagine it would signal the coming Apocalypse if that day ever came. What makes me chuckle the most is the fact that the fans who seem to be making the biggest deal out of the spoiler are the one's who said they already knew it was coming, just not when, and/or the one's who don't think the death of Jonathan Kent is that big of a deal anyway. All I know is now that a parent has been taken from Superman and given to Wonder Woman, it seems almost a given that a resurrection is in store for one of Batman's fore-bearers. Ya think?

STELLA!!!!

They say, "You can't go home again." Does that apply to college too? As my friends and I discovered last night, turns out you can go back to college. You'll just feel like a dad walking in on his teenage daughter's sleep-over if you do.

Why would my friends and I go back to visit our alum Ramapo College you ask? My friend Kevin found out Michael Ian Black, best known for VH1's I Love the...series, Wet Hot American Summer, Ed and the comedy group Stella, was going to be appearing in our very own Berrie Center. Quite an achievement considering the most exciting thing I've ever seen there was an opera called Lucia di Lammermoor. I only attended that because it contained the opera piece "Il dolce suono" that was sung by the Diva Plavalaguna in my favorite movie The Fifth Element. You can see where my cultural priorities lie.

Our plan was to see Michael perform then head over to the Birch and get Late Night. The Birch is one of the dining halls at Ramapo. Late Night was the greatest thing ever invented, a meal after 10 o'clock. We've talked about going back for Late Night before but we couldn't bring ourselves to be that pathetic so seeing Michael first was a perfect excuse. Tickets were actually sold out for the show when we arrived but Kevin was able to somehow convince them to give us "standing-room." I didn't mind, I always bring my own seating with me. :)

Besides the fact that this story involves me, you may be wondering how it qualifies making a blog entry for it here on my nerd blog. Michael was about half-way through his "no material" act when he told us a story about a recent trip to the airport. It went something like this. He got to the gate and, clearly through the very large windows, could see his plane was not there yet. A woman standing next to him asked, "Do you think we'll be boarding soon?" He debated whether or not he should joke with the woman and couldn't resist. "Not unless we're traveling on Wonder Woman's invisible jet," he replied. She was not amused but I howled for that one.

Late Night was a strange yet wonderful experience. We noticed the same people working there four years later. My friend and I fell back into our usual routine of helping me get my food onto my tray. After grabbing just about every culinary masterpiece they had to offer and getting jealous because they now have Cookie Crisp we realized how awkward this all was and left.

Besides the Wonder Woman knowledge he possesses, my other favorite selection from last nights performance was when Michael talked about feuds he's started with other writers (David Sedaris and Tucker Max) on his blog in order to garner more attention for his own book, "My Custom Van: And 50 Other Mind-Blowing Essays that Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face." It gave me an interesting idea. Michael challenged Tucker to a fight. I'm going to challenge Michael Ian Black to a date. Yes, I am aware he's a married man with children and yes, I'm obviously aware I have a boyfriend but seeing as how Michael took my stand-up virginity last night I say he owes me one. What do you say Michael?

Nerdy News - Fun with animation!

Buffy: Willow, short of the Apocalypse, nothing's gonna keep us from that party tonight.

Giles: Ahh, Buffy, good. We're having an Apocalypse.

Poor Buffy can't catch a break but it seems we have. Remember Buffy the Animated Series? Well, neither do I. That would be because it never aired.

Initially developed in 2001, Buffy the Animated Series was to be produced by Joss Whedon and Jeph Loeb for Fox Kids. Unfortunately, after Fox Kids ceased development no other network was willing to purchase the series which would have been set during the latter half of Season 1 with Dawn included in continuity.

A few years later Fox tried again to create interest for the show and even went so far as to create a four minute pilot with the original actors providing the voices for Giles, Willow, Xander, Cordelia, Angel, Principal Snyder, Joyce and Dawn. The voice of Buffy was recorded by Giselle Loren who voice Buffy in two video games. This pilot has just surfaced online for the first time. Here it is via YouTube:

Looks like a lot of fun right? Joss Whedon thought so too. In 2003 he told the Hollywood Reporter, "We had a great animation director, great visuals, six or seven hilarious scripts from our own staff - and nobody wanted it. I was completely baffled. I felt like I was sitting there with bags of money and nobody would take them from me." Maybe with a little luck it could get made now, especially since the comic is doing so well. 

With our first look at this new genre of Buffy some fans have decided it's worth pulling for. Check out the Buffy the Animated Series Facebook page and of course the comments over at Whedonesque to see just how far their willing to go.

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In continuing Ghostbusters news, (no, not about the video game) come November Time Life will release the complete collection of the Ghostbusters animated series. No, not Filmation's Ghostbusters, The Real Ghostbusters. It's a 25-disk set that includes all 147 episodes plus an amazing twelve hours of bonus features. 

Are they trying to bribe us now for the whole no-video-game-thing? Who cares?!

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Last, but certainly never least, Princess Diana a.k.a. Wonder Woman, is going to kick some major mythological ass in her animated DVD movie! Some heroes were made. This one was born.

The trailer for Wonder Woman is now up at Yahoo! Movies and it looks awesome! Though I'll admit, I don't think I've ever or could ever be disappointed by anything DC animated. This time around Kerri Russell is voicing Diana and her co-star from Waitress, Nathon Fillion (a.k.a. Captain Hammer), will be voicing Steve Trevor. It's a great cast all-around but I kind of wished they had stuck with Lucy Lawless for Wonder Woman. I thought she did a great job in The New Frontier and I always thought she would have made the perfect Wonder Woman. Anyway, can't wait!

Lego Man-Bat

Yup. He's in the game. And, he's kinda adorable.

It was previously rumored but it's now confirmed that Man-Bat will be a playable character in Lego Batman being released in September. Since Man-Bat is actually Doctor Kirk Langstrom transformed, it stands to reason normal Langstrom will be playable as well.

Here's Man-Bat making the Mad Hatter very angry. Well, most likely it was Batman who made him angry but I'd like to think it was Man-Bat. Maybe he pooped in his favorite hat.

At this point it would probably be more productive to try and figure out which Batman characters AREN'T going to be in the game. The Lego series usually has over 80 which leaves a lot of room for even the lesser-knowns, though there will be multiple Batman's, Robin's and Nightwing's for sure . We'll probably wind up getting some non-Batman characters as un-lockables as well. Maybe Superman and Wonderwoman? (Crossing my fingers for Zatanna!)

Nerdy News

A few blog-worthy bits of Nerdy News today...

Via AintItCool.com we have this lovely Watchmen cover from this weeks Entertainment Weekly. Likely one of the many that will be appearing between now and when it's released in 2009, this one in particular seems to be filled with nerdy bits. Star Trek, Terminator and more!? I'm sold. Here is the link to the article itself online with some other pictures.

Of course your Watchmen fix could not be complete without seeing the first trailer which Apple posted today. I haven't watched it yet actually, I'm waiting until I see it in theaters before The Dark Knight this weekend.

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Once again, The Sun has solidified it's foothold as one of the most dedicated media outlets in the world. They've discovered our sweet, charming Black Canary has dabbled in S&M. I know, I know, it's tough to hear. Personally, I'm holding back tears. Not our Dinah!

They're actually reporting that the Christian Voice has an issue with this new Black Canary doll. She's part of Mattel's fall line of collector edition Barbie's that also include Batgirl, Supergirl, Wonder Woman and some REALLY creepy baby dolls of Batman and Catwoman. 

"Barbie has always been on the tarty side and this is taking it too far," the Christian Voice said, "A children's doll in sexually suggestive clothing is irresponsible - it's filth." 

Sigh. Where are the days of innocent Malibu Barbie? Oh wait, we all know how well THAT turned out.

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And last, but not least, it is my pleasure to inform you that a geek-filled show from Britain is about to be available in the U.S. Oh yeah, I'm talking about Spaced.

I remembered seeing it was going on-sale months ago but completely forgot about it until Freakgirl and Geekboy reminded me today. I was turned on to Spaced this year by my boyfriend and a few other friends who told me I'd love it. I'm usually hesitant when people push something on me like that but I eventually gave in and...I loved it of course. 

It's a fairly simple comedy, starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson (Hynes) about a girl and a guy who pretend do be seeing each other in order to get an apartment. Throw in a few crazy neighbors, two best friends and almost non-stop geek references and you've got yourself a winner. There were two seasons but they are both on this version coming out Tuesday. 

If you've never seen the show, do yourself a favor and just buy it. I can't give you a money-back guarantee but I'm pretty confident in saying you'd be making a fine purchase. But if that's not good enough you can get your look at the series on BBC America starting July 21 at 3 a.m. Ok, you might have to DVR those, you're not all night owls like me.

DCU: Crisis Now! If not now, when?

Misdirection is a common form of deception often used in magic. Nothing up my sleeve, right? What people often forget is that misdirection is also a literary device most commonly used in detective novels. If you don't get my specific meaning there, I'll just go ahead and say that DC Comics is no stranger to misdirection.

Ok, was I being too vague? Of course by detective I'm referring to Batman. There couldn't be more misdirection going on in Batman R.I.P. if they tried. Possibly in an even further move towards that direction, the mysterious identity of the villain actually responsible for what's going on in that book wasn't mentioned once at Saturday's DC panel at Wizard World Philly. That's not to say that other huge story points weren't given away. Spoilers for the current and some of the future projects in the DCU ahead.

"I apologize if I'm gonna take six or seven of your questions. This really is the FINAL CRISIS. Ok? We're really going for it this time," said Senior VP/Executive Editor Dan Didio, "When we come out, we come out with a clear cohesive direction for the DCU." Didio led the DCU: Crisis Now panel that included Senior Story Editor Ian Sattler, Jimmy Palmiotti (Jonah Hex, Powergirl), Jim Calafiore (Gotham Underground, Batgirl mini-series), Tom Derenick (Reign In Hell), Shane Davis (Superman/Batman, Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns), Franco and Art Baltazar (Tiny Titans) and Ethan Van Sciver (Green Lantern, The Blackest Night). Didio gave the readers a guide to the coming crisis, "The official rule of Final Crisis is it doesn't cross off into the monthly series. Anything that takes place that has to deal with the particular story of Final Crisis is all going on in different mini-series and one-shots."

Final Crisis: Superman Beyond is one of the new mini-series and it's going to be a little different from the rest. "This is probably the thing Grant Morrison is most excited about, even more so than anything else, because he's gonna take Superman through the Multiverse and he gets to do it in 3-D," said Didio excitedly. That's right, you're going to be getting a pair of 3-D glasses with this issue. But wait, there's more. "It's not only just 3-D for us but it's also 3-D for Superman. He has his eye colors changed, one eye is blue and one eye is red," revealed Didio.

If you've been following the K story arc in Superman/Batman you've only got one issue left. Artist Shane Davis hopes everyone has been enjoying it and says we're all going to be surprised by the ending. "There's been hints at things in every issue that I haven't really seen anybody pick up on on the message board at all," he said. "You shouldn't be reading those things, you know that right?" scolded Didio.

Conversation did eventually turn to Batman R.I.P. but Didio didn't need to bother telling us about it. Instead he had a fan fill everyone in on what's been going on. This actually happened a few times during the panel, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. A fan also thanked Didio for bringing back Stephanie Brown, a.k.a Spoiler. Didio said you're welcome but continued ominously, "It's nice to bring somebody back in case somebody else goes away." When Stephanie returned in the last issue of Robin it all seemed a bit too easy. "You might have gotten a neat little answer there but there's a lot more intrigue that comes out from this story," Didio explained, "It's not that simple." If you thought you'd start getting your answers in this weeks Robin/Spoiler Special, you were wrong, that was just some alone time for the pair.

Of course Batman is also involved in DC's new weekly series Trinity, along with Superman and Wonder Woman, in stores today. The first half of the book is told by the same creative team every issue, Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley but the second half will change. "We don't even want to call it a back-up anymore," said Didio, "it's really a story that supports what's going on in the front without focusing on the three leads."

Reign in Hell is a new mini-series that will involve most, if not all of the magic characters in the DCU. Keith Giffen is the writer and Tom Derenick is now the artist. "[Keith] has a vision for what the DC Universe's version of Hell should look like and feel like and it's nothing you've ever seen before," Derenick said, "Think H.R. Giger on acid." A fan asked if there was any chance of tying DC's hell into Vertigo's hell. "The easy answer is, no chance in hell," laughed Didio.

The subject of Barry Allen was eventually brought up. A fan talked about him like he was already back to which Didio had to respond, "Did we ever officially say Barry Allen is coming back?" Didio posed the question to Ethan van Sciver who got very scared and didn't want to be asked about it. Ian Sattler didn't want to be asked either so Didio settled on this hypothetical situation, "If Barry Allen ever came back, a perfect place for him to come back is the middle of a major crisis event. Just the same way, but if we did a Final Crisis it should not just be about one Flash, but ALL Flashes." Bart too? "All Flashes," Didio put simply. 

As far as a new creative team for the Flash goes Didio was trying to pass the buck, "Um, I don't know, Ethan, what's going on with Flash?" Van Sciver replied emphatically, "Don't ask me!" The games continued later on in the panel after a fan asked Van Sciver about Plastic Man, which he said is shelved for now. "I just have something really big that I'm working on now that I'm NOT GONNA TALK ABOUT," Van Sciver said, raising his voice. Assumptions should not be made, Van Sciver is also rumored to be working on something with Wonder Woman writer Gail Simone.

As usual, there was a lightning round for fans to ask yes or no questions. Here are a few:

Is Damien really Bruce's son? - Met with silence and uncomfortable looking faces.

Will Selina Kyle ever emerge again in Bruce Wayne's life? - Yes (We saw her in todays issue of Detective Comics and she was PISSED.)

Martian Manhunter really dead? - Yes. Sorry.

Barry Allen coming back? - Yes.

Will Barbara Gordon walk again? - No. Never. (Thank you Dan!)

Shane Davis, Franco and Art Baltazar

On the less serious side of comics we have the new kid-friendly Tiny Titans series by Art Baltazar and Franco. There seems to be almost no limit on the team members they might be using, not to mention the cuteness level. Blue Beetle apparently has a talking back-pack. "They just think he's a weird kid," said Baltazar. A fan asked if Terra would be making an appearance, Baltazar responded, "She throws rocks." Though Dan Didio had to give the team a call at one point to ask them why the Tiny Titans were going to be in outer-space, "[Baltazar] said, 'Oh, they're flying home to Starfire's house to clean her room,' I'm like, oh ok that makes sense." But will Connor Kent be showing up? "Maybe in their hearts for right now," says Baltazar.

At one point a female fan asked where the long-awaited All-Star Batgirl was. "J.G. got a little busy," said Ian Sattler. That wasn't a good enough answer for her though and she continued to press for answers as to it's completion. "Actually it's fully complete, we all have copies, we're not sharing it with you," joked Didio, "Now that you put it that way, we're NEVER going to share it with you."

Some of the other women from the DCU will be getting some more attention soon. Arist Jim Calafiore will be doing a Batgirl mini-series that he says will address the changes she went through in the One Year Later stories. It will also include a new character who is a relative of hers. While living in Wayne Manor, "She's not supposed to be going out and doing any super-heroing," said Calafiore. But of course she can't help herself. The much talked about, but rarely seen, new Batwoman will apparently be making an appearance in Final Crisis: Revelations fighting Killer Croc.

Jimmy Palmiotti couldn't pull himself away from the innuendoes to tell us much about the new Powergirl series he's working on with Amanda Connor. "Everything about this book is big," he said, "We also have in your face action. I could go on ALL day." He pretty much did, Ian Sattler started to wrestle the mic away from him whenever Powergirl came up.

Magic is also considered an art that entertains. Captain Carrot and the Final Ark was definitely an entertaining little series. Any plans to pick up on it's mysterious ending? Didio hopes so, "Did we ever announce the Zatanna book?" The panel became confused. Did they just slip up? It was said something with Paul Dini and Zatanna was a possibility during the NY Comic Con panel but no, nothing had actually been announced. Didio needed to go hypothetical again, "If Zatanna had her own book, you might see something along those lines somewhere down the road. Just saying if."

Now have you seen through my clever ruse? I used the art of misdirection on you just like any great magician would have. I told you everything that was going on in the DCU just so I'd be able to tell you Zatanna is getting her own book. !ahctoG ;-)

DC Comics at the NY Comic Con - One Liners Galore

"How many people here want to know what's going on in the DC Universe?" That question was posed by Sr. VP/Executive Editor of DC Comics Dan Didio at the start of Friday's "DC Nation" panel of the NY Comic Con. It was met with a decent amount of applause and lots of laughter when some of the DC editors raised their hands. After two DC panels I'm still in the dark about what's going on in Supergirl but at least I now know lots of new and exciting things about to happen in the DCU. Here's some news from both.

Gail Simone filled us in on what's coming up in Wonder Woman. "Some of the best scientists in the entire world have the mathematical formula to take down Wonder Woman, so we're going to create a new Rogues Gallery for her," she said. As if that wasn't scary enough she followed it up with this, "Someone believes the Amazons are a failed experiment and is going to create their own Amazons. However, we are going to have a new Wonder Woman -- who is a man." No one in the audience knew quite how to respond to that so Didio asked if we liked their working title of The Manazons. It was a resounding no from the audience. One fan yelled out, "It sounds like a drag show!" Here's hoping it doesn't stick.

Peter Tomasi and Geoff Johns

Senior Coordinating Editor Jann Jones has been working hard on comics aimed at kids. She introduced a new six issue mini-series on the way called Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. "We have a real commitment to taking our characters and making them really accessible to young kids," said Didio. And yes, 8th grade Supergirl will have a super cat.

The subject turned to the new Blue Beetle. After the crowd hollered that most of them read it, Didio admitted it is one of their weaker sales but, "one of the books that has the most support right now." Senior Story Editor Ian Sattler announced something different that would be happening in May. "Blue Beetle #26 is actually entirely in Spanish with English script in the back of the book," he said. Sadler and Didio said it is a good spot to jump on board. Blue Beetle is one of my favorite books so I was concerned about it's sales. At the second panel I decided I'd ask a question to see if I could help things along. Basically, I figured most people who weren't reading the book were big fans of Ted Kord and were still sour over his death during Countdown to Infinite Crisis. I stated that fans could still see him in recent issues of Booster Gold and asked if he was sticking around for good. "I can't tell you that," said Geoff Johns. What can I say? I gave it a shot. Speaking of Booster Gold Johns said that in issue one-million, "We find out who Rip Hunter is."

Of course the panel would finally get around to discussing Batman R.I.P. When asked directly by a fan if Batman was going to die, Didio put it to the panel. Keep in mind, most of their answers were in jest so there's no way to tell if they were telling the truth. Though by process of elimination one of them has to be right, right? Here were their varying answers:

Ian Sattler - "Someday."

Peter Tomasi - "Mmm could be?"

Geoff Johns - "Uh, no."

Sean McKeever - "Absolutely yes."

Jimmy Palmiotti - "Twice."

Gail Simone - "Of course."

Keith Giffen - "God willing."

Bob Wayne - "Not in a movie year!"

Jann Jones - "Mostly?"

Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones and Gail Simone

During the second panel the writer of Batman R.I.P., Grant Morrison, got a chance to speak. Didio asked him what that stood for and Morrison replied, "'Rest In Piece' apparently -- but he doesn't." Morrison sounded excited that this would be the culmination of all his Batman work. "Basically if you miss this one, you miss your chance to say goodbye," he said.

Geoff Johns announced that in the JSA Annual in July, called "Welcome to Earth-2", Power Girl finds herself back home there. Jimmy Palmiotti then announced some of the biggest news of the day. He and Justin Gray will be working on a new on-going series with art by Amanda Connor called Powergirl. "It's one of the books we've been asked for the most," said Didio, "I'd just like to say, we heard you. We just wanted to get the right team, the right style and the right jump-off point." Hooray for Powergirl!

About forty-minutes into the first panel and numerous questions being directed at Geoff Johns he finally decided to say, "You know what's weird, is that most people call me 'Geoff Johns' instead of Geoff." That didn't stop the fans, they kept calling him by his full name. Though one younger fan finally just said Geoff, with emphasis.

Gail Simone, Geoff Johns and Stephan Roux

In the second DC panel, just before she had to leave, Gail Simone delivered what was probably my favorite news all weekend. "We are doing a new Secret Six, ongoing," she announced. She anticipated us asking who the six would be, "Catman, Deadshot, Scandal, Ragdoll -- an A-list Batman villain -- and a new character that I've created with Nicola [Scott]." She revealed the new characters name is Jeanette and she has a secret that even the Secret Six do not know. She added, "It is going to be literally, the most ballsy DCU comic out there and it's going to be done by two redheaded women. So how cool is that?" Pretty cool if you ask me.

I was saddened to learn that Catwoman is getting canceled. A fan said he heard a rumor online and Didio confirmed it saying, "Catwoman is canceled, but that doesn't mean you won't be seeing the character in the DC Universe. By the next day of course news of the books demise had spread and by the time the second panel rolled around there was one very angry female fan who go up to demand an explanation. "I heard you're canceling Catwoman and I'm pretty pissed off about it. I just wanna know what's gonna happen to her," she said. Ian Sattler fielded this one, "She'll be in the Batman universe." But she quickly replied, "That's not good enough." She left unsatisfied with their answers and scared the panel so badly Didio felt the need to ask the next fan to, "Please be nice to us."

For the record, I did ask about Supergirl after my Blue Beetle question. I asked them what was going on, because I had no clue. Ian Sattler told me to hang tight, "Supergirl is gonna be a lot closer linked to Superman and Action shortly." Johns decided to add, "Supergirl is gonna be intricate, the character in the book is intricate to all the Superman plans for the rest of the year."  He continued to say she was an important character to the DCU, "We've got a story that's gonna kinda tilt her on her head but in a good way." I'm happy to hear that obviously because I think Supergirl deserves a lot more attention than she's gotten lately. But did you notice none of them actually told me what's going on right now in Supergirl? Nothing to do but wait I guess.

Grant Morrison

I think a good place to end would be with the fan who asked if Zatanna would be showing up anytime soon. After a few jokes about how she was sitting in the front row, i.e. me, Didio replied, "Reign in Hell and possibly something with Paul Dini coming very soon." Sounds good to me.

NY COMIC CON Day 1 - The Day I Got To Breathe

After a very long (but fun!) weekend at the NY Comic Con I'm back to present you with Day One's events. Last year I only made it to one day. This year I was only planning on attending two, but figured what the hell, I'll go for all three. I would have tried live blogging from the event but I was having too much fun to bother. However, I did use a digital voice recorder and took notes. So here we go.

I arrived early before the general public was let in. All I can say is thank god for that because I was able to scoot around the show floor without being walked into. It gave me the chance to buy myself a stuffed Weighted Companion Cube and this Wonder Woman action figure that I've wanted for a while but kept missing in stores. The con had a bigger space to work with this time around. That meant wider isles and artists alley being on the same floor this year.

I had five panels I intended on going to. The first was "Choosing the News: The Changing Face of Online Journalism." Moderated by Heidi MacDonald from Publishers Weekly's The Beat, panelists were, Matt Brady from Newsarama, Rick Marshall from ComicMix, Richard George from IGN Comics, Brian Heater from The Daily Cross Hatch, Jonah Weiland from Comic Book Resources. Beside the moderator, Matt Brady and Johan Weiland were the most talkative of the bunch. The consensus about getting your blog to be popular was hard work and regular posting.

The topic that garnered a lot of discussion from the panel was viral marketing and whether it should be considered news or advertising. "Personally I find viral marketing just distasteful," said Brady, "that it's taking advantage of the gullible audience and tricking them even more so than regular advertising." Jonah Weiland thinks viral marketing can be fun if it's done respectfully, "Viral marketing can be very successful, can be very exciting. I don't know that the comic companies have it totally figured out yet and by the time I think they figure it out viral marketing will probably be dead." Weiland thinks Warner Brothers has done a great job viral marketing The Dark Knight but he also warned, "As a journalist you have to take a step back and you have to be skeptical of pretty much everything now. Brady agreed, "You have to be very careful, especially when it does come to viral marketing because, I mean, it's always been we've kind of regulated it to the blog section to do any kind of reporting on it. Because if you're reporting on a viral marketing stunt, a cake showing up at your door from the Joker with a cell phone, that's cool. Is it news or then you actually marketing or using your outlet then to advertise and that's, that's a huge gray area to go into."

Next up was the first Vertigo panel of the weekend. Sr. VP/Executive Editor Karen Berger was the moderator for this one. Grant Morrison was the biggest name at this panel and therefore introduced first as one of the founding foursome fathers of Vertigo. This was my first time seeing and hearing him and saying I was enormously entertained by him is a gross understatement. Also there were Amy Hadley who is the artist on Madame Xanadu, G. Willow Wilson who wrote Cairo and is now in the midst of a new comic called Air, writer of the upcoming Unknown Soldier Josh Dysart, Jason Aaron the writer of Scalped, writer of DMZ and Northlanders Brian Wood, Brian Azzarello the writer of 100 Bullets and Loveless, Bite Club writer David Tischman, and artist Russ Braun from Jack of Fables. Berger's fellow Editor Shelly Bond also sat in to talk about her new project MINX which are graphic novels aimed at teenage girls. Editors Will Dennis and Jonathan Vankin attended as well. I was very happy to see Mark Buckingham, artist of one of my favorite comics Fables, slip in just as the introductions were finishing up.

The panel mostly consisted of slides of upcoming Vertigo titles with each artist or writer talking about their own and then questions directly mostly at Grant Morrison. There were a lot shown and I don't read a lot of Vertigo titles so I'll just talk about the few that I already know or that peaked my interest. Air is the new title from the creative team behind Cairo which I did not read. G. Willow Wilson said the idea came about after she got stopped by a stewardess in Amsterdam who thought visa's for Iran and Egypt made her a suspicious person. She said Air is, "a really weird surreal look at sort of the way flight has remained sort of magical to us." Wilson also said, "The thing that we've been telling people that they've liked is if Umberto Eco and Hayao Miyazaki had sort of, you know, been in on Alias the TV show it might be something like this," which is what sold me on trying this one out.

I was very excited to find out Vertigo is going to sell a coffee table book of Fables covers come October. If you haven't seen any you're really missing out because James Jean's art is gorgeous. Mark Buckingham talked briefly about issue #75 of Fables called "War Pieces," which will be double sized. "Lots of dramatic things happen, um, you know, nobody's safe. I know they say that a lot in comics, but no, this is one of those moments we will make big changes," he said.

Finally, Grant Morrison spoke about continuing and finishing up Seaguy, three books of three each. He told part of the story which I could never accurately describe how funny it was, I really wish I had video. It involves Seaguy in Spain in a new identity as a professional Matador As a result of mad-cow disease they can no longer kill any cows or bulls therefore they are now known as "Bull Dressers." Morrison explained what that meant exactly, "The Matador buys all these really sexy clothes and stuff and he has a hat and the bull charges up and he just goes whoosh and the bulls like wearing a hat. And then it charges again and he's got a pair of stockings and whoosh and the bull's suddenly dressed in stockings. And the idea is eventually if you're a really good Matador you've got this thing going around in high heels and you win." Hearing him tell that story almost made me pee my pants. He was convinced to tell it again during his spotlight panel the next day.

Finishing up my Friday panels was "Women In Comics" moderated by Abby Denson. Panelists included Karen Green, a librarian at Columbia University who started a collection of graphic novels for them, she also writes for Comixology, Heidi MacDonald once again, artist of American Virgin Becky Cloonan, Shelly Bond also again, collections editor at Marvel Jennifer Grunwald and newly appointed writer of Wonder Woman, Gail Simone who outshined everyone on the panel with her bright red hair. If only I hadn't dyed my hair recently that would have been the perfect open to a conversation.

The ladies discussed how being a women affects their individual work, but did not touch on if they were ever hindered in the comic industry because of their sex, which I found odd. Denson asked them each if they considered their work feminist. Green replied, "I find that a really fascinating question. I think because 'feminism' has become this kind of dirty word and people all over the world want to say, 'oh I believe in equal rights for women but I'm no feminist.' I think that feminism needs to be redefined as basically the right for any woman to have the same opportunities as any man and I can't imagine that anybody wouldn't believe in that." She continued. "I would hope that everyone in this room is a feminist and it's not something that you have to be it's just something that is." Gail Simone felt a little differently. She thinks she has good reason to call herself a feminist, "I grew up in a family that was mostly strong women, there wasn't any really strong father figures to speak of that stuck around for any length of time." She added, "My great-grandmother was a Suffragette and she was in jail many times for, you know, women's right to vote, handing out birth control to women, I mean, it's always been women's issues in my family."

I hopped into the screening of the trailer for X-Files: I Want to Believe before I left. It was about a minute of pure awesome. Fans went wild when the familiar theme tune was played. Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz were brought out for a Q&A session directly afterwards. I stayed for a few minutes then beat it when I realized it was going to be a lot of questions involving the movies plot and a lot of "watch the movie" answers.

I attended the "DC Nation" panel that day also but there's a lot to talk about there so I'm going to do a separate post and include the "DC: Countdown to Crisis" panel I went to on Saturday afternoon as well. All in all it was a fun-filled day but it was time to head home. I needed to rest up for my day in costume. Speaking of costumes, here's a shot of three awesome Indiana Jones cosplayers. Unfortunately for me my camera didn't take pictures very well on the show floor with or without flash but you get the idea.

From left to right:

Jamin the Slavemaster (he runs LeiasMetalBikini.com),  Jedi-G and Jedi-J (who run CONiVERSE.com)