Comic Con Report, volume 6

This was from the most entertaining panel I saw at this year's Comic Con. It was called "Actors Turned Comic Book Writers"--In the picture, from left to right, is moderator Jordan Blum (co-creator of M.O.D.O.K. and Minor Threats), Hannah Rose May (Ghosts, The Exorcism at 1600 Penn, Curb Your Enthusiasm), Aimee Garcia (Dexter, Day of the Dead Girl), AJ Mendez (WWE, Day of the Dead Girl), and Patton Oswalt ( Ratatouille, TV's Son of TV's Frank, Young Adult, Sandman, Agents of SHIELD, and about ten billion other projects). Oswalt was of course the funniest one there but Hannah Rose May was surprisingly salty while also being charming. A very small child asked the panel what their favourite comic was and the group struggled to recommend titles that weren't adult but couldn't help mentioning The Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke, and Aimee Garcia even recommended a title called Killing Children. The moderator expressed his astonishment that Killing Children was recommended to a child.

Oswalt talked about his writing process a little bit after someone else in the audience invited him to compare comic book writing to the narratives he weaves in a stand-up routine. Oswalt made the point that comics, more than any other medium, allows the creator to direct the reader's attention. He discussed changing an entire script for Minor Threats, the series he writes with Jordan Blum, just so particular page would be on the other side of another, instead of beside it, in order to achieve an impact.

Before this panel, I saw two DC panels in the same room, the one immediately previous being a panel for DC's Absolute series, for which everyone in the audience received this very cool pins:

This Supergirl looks like Eva Marie Saint to me, about as far from the Millie Alcock version as you could get, I guess. I had no idea Green Arrow had a skull mask these days. The button is so cool it kind of makes me want to be a Green Arrow fan. That's how they get you.

The Absolute panel was very popular. Of the many people on the panel, creators Scott Snyder and Tim King seemed to be the most popular. Snyder seemed to speak more than the others but everyone talked about how much they enjoyed the creative freedom the Absolute series afforded them.