Friday I attended a panel "In Conversation: Bill Willingham & Matt Kindt - Worlds & World-Building" moderated by Tom Spurgeon. Also "The New Horror Comics," with Bernie Wrightson, Steve Niles, Michael Alan Nelson, and Van Jensen (writer of Pinochcio: Vampire Slayer). I was already a fan of Wrightson and Niles, so I especially enjoyed their contributions. And "In Conversation: Brian Bolland" with Tom Spurgeon, which was full of interesting stories. Bolland has been working entirely digitally since about halfway into his run of covers on The Invisibles, something I had never heard, and can't see at all in the final work.
Saturday I attended the Heroes discussion group devoted to Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, which I mainly focused on in the Fables thread. And "In Conversation: Mike Mignola" with Tom Spurgeon, which was a fascinating look at Mignola's career, the Hellboy comic, and the Hellboy movies. Also "In Conversation: Ben Templesmith & Guy Davis: Monsters & the Macabre In Comics," again moderated by Tom Spurgeon. Very interesting conversation. Templesmith is also a nice guy: he drew a vampire in my copy of 30 Days of Night (which Niles had signed last year), and added a red Snowtown tag to my first copy of Fell, which Warren Ellis also signed at Heroes a couple years back.
Sunday I caught a bit of "In Conversation: Tim Sale & Scott Hampton" with Tom Spurgeon. I'm not a big fan of Sale, and don't know Hampton's work at all, but it was very interesting to hear them talk about their artistic influences. Did you know that Sale is color blind? I didn't. Also "In Conversation: Jonathan Hickman & Jeff Parker" with Tom Spurgeon. This was mainly devoted to their breaking in with Marvel & what it's like to work there (answer: it's pretty easy, Marvel is very artist-friendly, despite their need to protect long-running franchises). But they both talked about their independent work also, which is especially important to Hickman. I had to break away from Sale & Hampton to make sure I wouldn't miss Brian Bolland's signing. He only signed for an hour each day, and I was out of days. There was a limit of three items, and one of mine was Animal Man #26, Morrison's final issue. He agreed that it was a very special story, saying that it was the story that convinced him of Morrison's talent as a writer.
This was my first Heroes Con under the shadow of potentially being out of a job, which severely limited my shopping. I was afraid the con would be less fun because of that, but found that spending less time shopping left me free for the panels and meeting creators. It helped that there were more than usual who were down my alley. I got two more free sketches in my new sketchbook: Guy Davis did Abe Sapien (from BPRD) in pencil, ink, & wash; and Richard Case did Cliff Steele (from Doom Patrol) in pencil & ink. I did buy a few things. All of the trades were $5: Elk's Run; True Story Swear To God Vol. 2: This one goes to 11; Haunts of Horror by Richard Corben (a Marvel Max title I almost overlooked); George Khoury's The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore: Indispensable Edition; and Veils by Pat McGreal & Stephen John Phillips (a Vertigo OGN which I had read but didn't own). Got an $8 hardcover of In The Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe by Phillips & Jonathon Scott Fugua. Wasn't looking for individual comics (except for a few recent uncollected Hellblazers, which I didn't find). But I ran across all 6 issues of The Last Days of Animal Man, and two issues of Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye for fifty cents apiece. Picked up the missing issue of the second Seaguy series at the Heroes shop on the way home: my first $4 comic! Last but not least, I couldn't resist a Doctor Manhattan porcelain bust (from Watchmen) for only $20.
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Richard Case, Brian Bolland, Jill Thompson, Mickey Eye.
Sounds like you're due a meeting with the God of All Comics himself soon...
You probably mean Grant Morrison...that would be great. Some might think of Alan Moore as that god, and that would be pretty great too.
Just noticed that you met with a lot of Baldy's colloborators. Did Thompson or Case say anything about working with Morrison?
Meeting Thompson is as close as you'll get to meeting Crazy Jane, too!
Also "In Conversation: Jonathan Hickman & Jeff Parker" with Tom Spurgeon. This was mainly devoted to their breaking in with Marvel & what it's like to work there (answer: it's pretty easy, Marvel is very artist-friendly, despite their need to protect long-running franchises). But they both talked about their independent work also, which is especially important to Hickman.
Did they say much else about working within the constraints of Marvel's licensed characters?
I asked Thompson about the difference between her work inked by someone else (in the 1st collection) vs. inked by her (in the 2nd collection). She confirmed the suspicion I had during our discussion that she wasn't happy with the inking in the earlier issues, even though she had requested that inker. But I didn't ask about working with Morrison.
I told Case that I had read the entire Doom Patrol run since we last spoke, and wondered aloud how he drew some of that stuff. He replied "I get that a lot." He said that Morrison knew how "out there" some of his scripts were, so he was pretty flexible about the visual realization of them. I guess his dissatisfaction during The Invisibles might have come from a few of the artists not even trying to do what he asked.
The constraints at Marvel seem to vary a bit by editor, as well as by how central to the Marvel Universe the characters are. So Parker gets a lot of freedom with Agents of Atlas. He still doesn't plan in detail more than a few issues in advance, both because that's how he works and because cancellation is always a possibility. Obviously Hickman doesn't have to worry about that with the Fantastic Four. He likes to plan well in advance, which is where the famous yearly Marvel story summits come in. That gives him what he needs to make sure his plans will work with everyone else's. He really didn't seem to find it too difficult. Of course both writers said that they have had ideas shot down by editorial, especially when they were starting out at Marvel.
We get this story about Morrison's late scripts again and again. Sadly it has lost him a few great collaborations along the way. This is why Jiminez left The Invisibles, probably why JG Jones ended up doing so little of Final Crisis, and most recently looks like the reason Cameron Stewart is tragically not contributing an issue to Return of Bruce Wayne. The artists all seem to like Morrison and like working on his scripts, so they don't give their reasons clearly for bailing, but a pattern formed after a while.
Tut, Tut, Grant!
It may explain why he was matched with fairly pedestrian artists for a lot of his Batman run.
He said that Morrison knew how "out there" some of his scripts were, so he was pretty flexible about the visual realization of them.
That comparison I did between the few script pages at the end of Seven Soldiers and the corresponding comic pages was really eye-opening. So long as they bring their A-game, he seems ok with a pretty free interpretation, and at the same time, it looks like a lot of what he puts in his scripts would be impossible for any artist to try to draw, so he'd be unreasonable to expect them to attempt it.
Matching him with the very down-to-Earth art style of Richard Case on Doom Patrol and the Animal Man artist paid off, even though you'd think it wouldn't.