New publicity photos

When I was at the New York Comic Con in October I ducked upstairs to a makeshift photo studio DC Comics had set up in a press booth overlooking the main hall of the convention. I was on my way in as Jim Lee was wrapping up and on his way out. DC was using the convention as an opportunity to nab many of its creators for quick photo sessions to get some nifty new publicity photos for the revamped Talent Profiles section of their web site. The photo shoot itself probably only took two or three minutes with a variety of quick poses, some dignified and some silly. It probably took a good half an hour to actually get to the press booth and back, given the crowds at the convention!

These were the three best shots from the photo shoot. I didn’t even realize at the time they were taken that they were going to be in black and white. I think they turned out fantastically well. I don’t normally care for the way I photograph but I like these a lot!

You can visit my page on the DC Comics web site’s Talent Page to see which of the three was used there. Now we just need to get some of the credits there updated. Ironically the only credit I have listed there with a thumbnail image is for my sole DC Comics writing credit (I co-wrote The Batman Strikes #35), which features cover art by another artist. So the only art seen on my page isn’t by me! What are you gonna do…?

How to support your favorite comic book(s)

At The Source Comics and Games with my current comics.

I was just asked on Twitter how someone could buy Young Justice in a way that was sure to benefit me. Here’s the basics:

Any sales of a comic through a local comics shop or in digital form through an official outlet will help earn royalties for the creative team. But regarding comic book shops, it gets a little tricky.

As far as the publisher is concerned, the sale of a comic is made when the comic book shop orders the book from the distributor. Whether the comic is then purchased, taken home and read, or sits indefinitely in the shop’s inventory matters to the shop, but not to the publisher.

A Dwayne McDuffie memory

Dwayne McDuffie

I was already a fan of Dwayne McDuffie’s writing for comics and animation when he attended the convention I helped start, CONvergence, as a Guest of Honor in 2009. I got to interview Dwayne for a panel, escort him on a tour of the convention parties, and spend some good time with him over the weekend. It wasn’t until the weekend was over that I showed him some of my own comic art, which included art from The Batman Strikes, the series I had been drawing at the time. He said some complimentary things as he flipped through the binder of art, and then upon getting to a page with a streamlined silhouette of Batman said “Yeah, you GET IT.” That made my weekend.

If I’d been a fan before of Dwayne’s work, that weekend made me a fan of Dwayne. His warmth, humor and generosity really blew me away, so I was glad to have played a role in creating a warm welcome for him.

First of all, I had done the badge art you see above. I do custom badge art for all of CONvergence’s guests. Dwayne’s badge featured a face to face meeting of the comic book and animation versions of Dwayne’s signature Static character.

I also play a role in crafting what goes on at the convention’s opening and closing ceremonies. In researching Dwayne to plan for his time at CONvergence, I came across this “ProFile” of Assistant Editor Dwayne McDuffie from a 1988 Bullpen Bulletin page from Marvel Comics.

Dwayne McDuffie – ProFile

In the questionnaire, Dwayne said “The reason I got into comics” was “So I could hit Wolverine in the face with a pie.” This was too good to pass up.

At Closing Ceremony when Dwayne was brought up on stage to say goodbye to the convention, we brought up this ProFile and this quote, and told Dwayne that CONvergence was the place where dreams come true…

Ready… aim…

I would have preferred a volunteer Wolverine cosplayer, but you work with what you’ve got, so I brought out a color marker drawing of Wolverine I’d done on foam core board and Dwayne was given a cream pie to use as ammunition. I was half-expecting that the pie was going to hit me rather than the 2-dimensional mutant, but Dwayne took careful aim at Logan and nailed him square in the puss.

SPLAT!!!

After that, Dwayne left the stage and as I went backstage with the remains of the comedy bit, I heard our next Guest of Honor horror author Brian Keene say “That’s funny. I got into writing so I could hit Chris Jones in the face with a pie.” Before I finished laughing, another pie had been readied and was being delivered to Brian and I dutifully marched back out on stage for the sake of comedy. But that’s another story.

I still have that rather smeared Wolverine drawing. I also have the copy of Dwayne’s script for the Justice League episode “Epilog” that Dwayne had donated to our charity auction, which features an original Bruce Timm Batman sketch on the cover page!

I’m happy to have those treasures but I’d rather still have Dwayne around. I miss you, Dwayne!

Cosplay Appreciation Day: Creators for Cosplay

One of my favorite parts of appearing at conventions is the cosplayers – not just seeing them walking around, but when they come up to my table to talk to me and it’s so very clear that their costume comes from a place of love for the character. They have such a passion for the character that they literally have to wrap themselves up in it. I love fans in general, but this variety is probably the most delightful and they just fuel me through a long day of sketching and working at the table.

I enjoy seeing cosplayers of all sizes, shapes and skill levels at conventions so much that I’ve been collecting photos at my recent convention appearances and sharing them on my Facebook Page. You can find some of them here:

MCBA Springcon 2012
Free Comic Book Day 2012 at The Source Comics and Games
MCBA Fallcon 2012
New York Comic Con 2012

Comics scribe Gail Simone dubbed today Cosplay Appreciaiton Day, and who am I to argue? #CosplayAppreciationDay is trending on Twitter. I’d like to put #CreatorsForCosplay out there as well for those of us in the industry.

So, comic creators across the world, won’t you join me in showing some love for cosplay by sharing pictures on your Facebook, Twitter and Blogs?

#CreatorsForCosplay

Comic Book Storytelling: Wally Wood’s Panels That Always Work

A lot of comic book storytelling is an art that is hard to quantify and distill into set rules. Some of the best analysis of this subjective art form has been written by master for the form Will Eisner in books such as Comics and Sequential Art, and by the great Scott McCloud in his seminal work Understanding Comics.

But rarely has there been anything as simple, and elegant as Wally Wood’s Panels that Always Work.

Wally Wood is one of the comic book greats of the 20th Century, and not much was known about the origins of this piece as it began circulating among comics professionals and fans, first in the form of photocopies and then on the internet.

In 1980, Wood’s original, three-page, 24-panel (not 22) work was published with the proper copyright notice to Wood, in The Wallace Wood Sketchbook (Crouch/Wood), but the most widely-distributed version of this work was an unauthorized one. Around 1982, Wood’s ex-assistant Larry Hama, by then an editor at Marvel Comics, pasted up photocopies of Wood’s copyrighted drawings on a single page, which Hama titled “Wally Wood’s 22 Panels That Always Work!!”  Hama left out 2 of the original 24 panels as his photocopies were too faint to make out some of the lightest sketches. Hama distributed, what has been called, Wood’s “elegantly simple primer to basic storytelling,” to artists in the Marvel bullpen, who in turn passed them on to their friends and associates.

Wood’s “Panels That Always Work” is a trademark of, and is copyright, Wallace Wood Properties, LLC as listed by the United States Copyright Office which assigned the work Registration Number VA0001814764. The Wallace Wood Estate has released the ONLY official, authorized print of the work. Larry Hama appeared in support of the Estate’s official print, at the 2012 Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Aritst Rafael Kaynanan assembled 22 Panels Revisited, recreating the 22 examples with actual panels from Wally Wood’s completed comics work, rather than quick thumbnail sketches.

Wood’s 22 Panels Revisited

And finally, cartoonist and publisher Cheese Hasselberger created 22 Panels that Never Work, featuring… well you get the idea.

22 Panels that Never Work