Emerald City ComiCon - SQUEE
This was my first comics convention and I loved it. I'm definitely going again next year. It was a thrill to meet a few of the folks who bring us comics and even have short (or not so short) conversations with a couple of them. Very humanizing.
I also picked up a few sketches, chatted with other fans, ran 'missions' (i.e. requesting sketches, and getting prints and signatures) for literaryll - who had to work the con, attended three panels (but only took notes and pics at two), searched in vain for Birds of Prey #8, and miscalculated the going rate at auction of something I really, really wanted. Overall, lots and lots of fun.
I was prepared to take notes on the "Sunday Conversation" with Didio and co. (Sattler, Busiek, Willingham), but it really felt like a 'conversation' and so I opted to just enjoy it instead. CBR has an excellent write-up, anyway. I was the fan who mentioned Blue Beetle. It came out of another fan's comments about a balance between 'grim' and 'fun'. I said I liked Blue Beetle (crowd: silence) and JSA (crowd: "YEAH!") for those reasons. Didio's response was that "Blue Beetle is a labor of love and that's why we've stuck with it," and that "Geoff's doing a great job for us on JSA." His response to the fan who missed Ted ("He's got a bullet in his head.") seemed more funny than mean-spirited. I was a bit surprised that both Sattler and Busiek came to comics through X-Men. In fact there was a lot of X-Men (and Marvel) discussion. Ha!
The con had seventy items listed on their website up for charity auction. There were actually about 120. Lot Number seventy-five was an original page (George Perez's pencils and inks - not a copy) from New Teen Titans #60. The page where the Titans are in Dick's apartment and they discover the safe and that there's a photo missing from Dick's scrapbook. Yes, Tim's origin story. I literally squeeked out loud. I asked for permission to take a picture (it turned out blurry). Several items in the auction started bids at $120 and one item went for $1300. I figured the Perez page would be way out of price range and wasn't there when it was auctioned. It went for fifty bucks. *headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk* *whimpering*
Spoiler Warning: Vague for Trinity, specific for Birds of Prey, and implied for Batman: R.I.P.
Anyway, conversations/encounters/impressions of professional comics folk:
colleencoover had her naughty books for sale. She drew a cute sketch of Emma Frost for literaryll. Colleen and I agreed that Emma was better evil. Take that, Ashley! Colleen seemed a bit overwhelmed with her popularity at the con, but also good natured about it. Jeff Parker stopped by her table while I was there and signed Ash's X-Men First Class hardcovers. He asked what I liked about First Class and I told him I like having new stuff with the first five.
literaryll requested Dustin Nguyen draw Dick Grayson as Robin. Apparently, this confused Dustin, who maybe didn't hear the request clearly and didn't quite get who I was talking about ("The first Robin.") until I explained that Dick is now Nightwing. Then he drew Nightwing. Fortunately, to counter our miscommunication, he had this print available for purchase and with a purchase, his gorgeous sketch of Nightwing!Dick was free, so it was all good and Ashley was happy when I brought her goods to her booth. Meanwhile, I complimented him on his extremely detailed backgrounds in Detective. He was very gracious and I noticed he smiled a lot throughout the weekend.
Greg Rucka signed Gotham Central: Half a Life with this quote from Bob Dylan, "It is impossible to be both wise and in love at the same time." So, of course, I had to tell him about seeing Dylan in concert last year and consequently didn't get to hear any of his stories. *rolls eyes at self*
I talked with Tony Bedard about his upcoming run on Birds of Prey. He was most excited about an upcoming face-to-face confrontation (about four issues in?) between Babs and The Joker. SQUEE! I asked him about Misfit and he said he thinks it's time for her to grow up a bit, to tone down some of the 'brattiness'. I made sure to let him know Charlie's my second favorite character on the title. He also mentioned how much fun Zinda is to 'throw into the mix occasionally' and that the new villain in Platinum Flats is 'just the beginning'. He was really selling it and I totally admit to being excited now, too.
Embarrassingly, I don't read Gail Simone's Wonder Woman, haven't quite caught up to her run on Birds of Prey, and still haven't read her Justice League. Thus, while getting literaryll's comics signed, I asked her about Devin Grayson. Gail's face lit up when I mentioned Devin's name. She said she loved working with her and that she misses her, but she thinks Devin really needed to take a break and 'recharge'. According to Gail, Devin's keeping busy writing games. As for Gail herself, she talked a bit about the recent Wonder Woman Day in Portland and how much she loved coming home for it (she's from Oregon). She also said that she was enjoying the more intimate feel of ECCC as compared to New York or San Diego.
When I gave Matt Wagner literaryll's request for a Dickie!Robin sketch since we hadn't seen his Robin, he countered that he thought we had. So, we opened up Trinity and sure enough about half-way through there is one tiny panel of just Dick's face. Sans mask though, so not Robin. His sketch was adorable.
At his table, Kurt Busiek had a preview of the brand-new Trinity weekly. The first word that comes to mind to describe it is 'jam-packed'. It looks exciting and fun. I actually got to speak with Busiek for several minutes. His daughters were drawing and coloring on the floor behind him, and his wife was next to them. I think it was cool that he brought his family with him. We talked a little bit about his Superman run, but after I told him how much I liked Superman #661 our conversation focused on Supes' relationships with Diana and Lois. I told him that I really appreciated the trust Lois showed in Clark in the book. He was suddenly passionate. "THANK YOU!" He gesticulated while he told me that his editor wanted him to make Lois jealous, but that he argued that Lois is married to SUPERMAN. If you can't trust Superman who can you trust. "It's not like she's married to Batman. Then I could understand a little jealousy." It was great.
Phil Jimenez shook hands and thanked every person who came to his table. I was two people behind his last person on Saturday and kept trying to catch him on Sunday. He seemed mostly absent that day. Since, he's on the board of Prism Comics, I asked them about it. Seems he partied hard Saturday night. *G* Anyway, after waiting in line for one and half hours, I finally got to the front of his line. Since it was still stretching quite a ways behind me, I just asked for a sketch and didn't really chat with him. He drew me Nightwing and Robin with bats behind them like you see in all the batbooks. He was being nice - most artists had a policy of drawing only one person, but he drew them together. I really, really like it; the wait was completely worth it. The folks behind me 'ooh'ed when he started in on the bats. Hee!
Tim Sale was wearing a Seattle Rainiers (ca. 1940's Pacific Coast League) cap on Saturday and a current Seattle Mariners road jersey on Sunday. Sale signed for autographs for the last hour of each day only. Saturday afternoon, I asked him what is his favorite comic he's ever worked on, and he replied, "Sam's story" because of the personal emotional resonance. When I got in line with Superman/Batman #26 on Sunday for him to sign, the fan behind me seemed to think I had very poor taste/tact. Maybe I do, but Mr. Sale was gracious about it. When I set it in front of him, he drew in his breath and stared at the page for a long moment, and I tried to explain. "I wouldn't have brought it, except when we talked yesterday..." He interrupted to say, "No. It IS my favorite." Then he signed the book and stared at the page for a while again. When he was done, he shook his head, blew out and said, "Mariners win. Mariners win." with a smile.
After the con closed, literaryll ran back to his table and he signed her vendor's pass and included a little drawing of wee!Dickie. :)
Moose Baumann and Ethan Van Sciver seemed to go together. They were stationed next to each other and talked about and with each other quite a bit. I know they left together. Ethan said 'good-bye' to me when they did. (I was waiting for Ashley.)
Moose has (apparently) recently parted ways with DC. He had a book of prints for sale, and there was one in the back of his book labeled "Not for Sale": All four flashes, Jay front-left-center, Bart behind him in Impulse uniform, Barry right of Jay, and Wally behind Barry in Kid Flash uniform, red background, with a lightning bolt casting light between Jay and Wally and onto their uniforms. Gorgeous. He explained it's a cover and hasn't been released yet, but that it's not a spoiler, as the book will be a kind of "Encyclopedia of The Flash". He told me who's writing it and who drew it, but I'm a bad fangirl and don't remember. He also said, he didn't think DC would be bringing Bart back anytime soon because they didn't "want to admit they made a mistake."
Ethan said it took about five days to map out and draw just the bodies for the Sinestro Corp War splash page. (Moose said they talked about it for five hours and that it took about fifteen days before he got the completed illustration.) Ethan also said he really admires Reis's work and that he likes working with Geoff. There's a lot of freedom for the art in Geoff's scripts.
The fan in front of me asked him to sign New X-Men #118 and he told a very brief version of this story. He says he was 'pissed off' at Marvel at the time (something to do with them sending him Grant Morrison's private emails...), so he included the word 'sex' on each page of that issue. A fan in Brazil(?) found them all...
Van Sciver stayed an hour after the con closed to get to everyone in his line. "I'll stay as long as you do." He also ate lunch with the fans - he was getting up as I sat down to eat my lunch, recognized that he'd talked to me and waved. [ETA: I forgot to mention, he drew a sketch of Superboy for me that is perfect. He also drew Guy Gardner for literaryll.]
Bill Willingham talked with me candidly about Robin for about twenty minutes on Saturday. I asked him if he was satisfied with the way his run on Robin turned out. If it was how he had wanted it to be. He told me that when he was assigned the run, he read the back issues and decided that he'd like to tell the story of Tim's relationship with his dad since he felt it hadn't been explored and that it was unique in comics. He planned for an approximately nine-issue arc for Jack to slowly discover Tim's secret as Robin. He was then informed that Jack would be dying in Identity Crisis and he was forced to truncate the discovery into one issue. He said in retrospect, he would have found some other way for Jack to make the discovery than the uniform behind the door, but that it hadn't been the original plan for that to happen in the way it did.
He also said that he was told Stephanie was scheduled to die as he was going into the run. It wasn't his decision, but it was something he was aware of from the beginning. It was his idea to make her Robin first. He was in a bar with the writer and editor and pitched it to them and got the okay right then and there. He agreed that Steph had the right temperament for a Robin, as she was cheery and optimistic. When the sales numbers went up with her as Robin, he argued to give her more time. "We only get to do this once. The first female Robin only happens once. We've got to do this right." However, his argument was shot down. The editorial board had declared someone had to die and the Batfamily was lucky they were only losing Steph. He was forced to cut her tenure short as she couldn't die as Robin. He was also assigned her torture in War Games. On top of all that, editorial decided to kill Darla Aquista, too. [ETA: Finally, Leslie Thompkins betrayal and neglect of Spoiler was also mandated by editorial.]
All in all, he found the entire experience of editor edicts frustrating and 'a learning experience'. He said if he ever works on a mainstream comic again, he would do a few things differently.
On a positive note, I told him I loved Bernard. He grinned and said, "I love Bernard. I knew Bernard, only his name was Tom -----. He's based on a guy I knew in high school." We also talked a little bit about how Tim plays roles, including "normal boy". It was a fascinating and fun conversation.
Ian Sattler is DC's Senior Story Editor. After picking up my pin (and one for Ashley, too) at the DC Nation panel, I approached him and told him that Tim Drake's my favorite character, but that I had dropped Robin and Teen Titans due to Tim's abysmal characterization on those titles. He was on the stage and I was on the floor, so he knelt down to talk with me face to face. He told me "fan to fan" that he's knows what it's like to drop your favorite book and that he's been there. "There was a writer on X-Men who just didn't get it and I had to drop the book." I asked him if it was Morrison and he smirked and nodded. I told him Morrison scares me, tugged at my pin and said, "But I'm okay with this as long as it's not Tim's idea. He's never wanted to be Batman." Sattler flinched, "That doesn't mean he's right." I could see him thinking hard how to respond to that before he did. Anyway, he encouraged me to give it six months. Now, I don't think for a minute that this was really "fan to fan"; it was fan to senior story editor, but that's not important. The most important part about this exchange was that I felt listened to, like they actually care what fans think of their story decisions.
I arrived a little early for the Sunday conversation panel to see Dan Didio and Sattler being interviewed in the hall. Didio was wearing a 1977 style Seattle Mariners cap. The previous day he'd mentioned taking a tour of Safeco Field. I'm a huge baseball fan, so these little things delighted me. Anyway, I approached a little close to see if I could eavesdrop on the interview, but was soon distracted talking with another fan and starting the line to get into the panel. Sattler and Didio wrapped up their interview and disappeared for awhile, but when they came back, Sattler asked me if I wanted "to talk to Dan". I explained that my "internal baseball geek temporarily trumped my comics geek". He laughed out loud and told me, "You have to tell him that." Then he pulled Didio aside to talk to me. I told Didio and he got excited and whipped out his phone. "You're really going to hate me for this." ('Oh, you have no idea', I thought.) He showed me a picture of himself in the Mariners' dugout on Saturday while he grinned at me. "I got to go in the DUGOUT. The White Sox were taking batting practice." He gestured for 'right in front of me.' "And the team was in the dugout. My hands were shaking like this." He demonstrated his hands shaking. "I just got to get a picture on the steps." He pretended to pose on the steps of the dugout. He was so excited telling me this story! He told me they try to catch a MLB game and maybe tour the park in every city they go to. He told me the the ballpark is gorgeous, but the M's hitting is awful. I told him about our poor pitcher with the (at the time) 1.99 ERA and 2-2 record. He nodded, "Believe me, I heard all about it." He took off his cap and showed me the 1977 embroidered on the back. He practically squeed. So, I told him I've taken trips just to go to games at MLB parks. It's absolutely impossible for me to hate Dan Didio after geeking out with him over baseball. In fact, it was probably my biggest squee of the weekend. *throws up hands* I can't help but like him and possibly even forgive him for all transgressions, even if he's most likely a Yankees fan.
All that and there were still several DC folks I wanted to talk with, but ran out of time to meet (Aaron Lopresti, Steve Sadowski (Who does full-body, full-color watercolors with backgrounds for $75; Well worth it if you plan for it - they were absolutely stunning.), Stephane Roux, Philip Tan, J. Michael Straczynski, and Stephen "J.B." Jones.)
I'll post again soon (with pictures) about the Jamie Bamber and DC Nation panels. dm_wyatt and miss_tress, please accept my apologies for choosing DC Nation over the Tim Sale interview.
ZOMG! It took me three days to write this from my notes. O_o I had lots of interruptions, but jeez.
I also picked up a few sketches, chatted with other fans, ran 'missions' (i.e. requesting sketches, and getting prints and signatures) for literaryll - who had to work the con, attended three panels (but only took notes and pics at two), searched in vain for Birds of Prey #8, and miscalculated the going rate at auction of something I really, really wanted. Overall, lots and lots of fun.
I was prepared to take notes on the "Sunday Conversation" with Didio and co. (Sattler, Busiek, Willingham), but it really felt like a 'conversation' and so I opted to just enjoy it instead. CBR has an excellent write-up, anyway. I was the fan who mentioned Blue Beetle. It came out of another fan's comments about a balance between 'grim' and 'fun'. I said I liked Blue Beetle (crowd: silence) and JSA (crowd: "YEAH!") for those reasons. Didio's response was that "Blue Beetle is a labor of love and that's why we've stuck with it," and that "Geoff's doing a great job for us on JSA." His response to the fan who missed Ted ("He's got a bullet in his head.") seemed more funny than mean-spirited. I was a bit surprised that both Sattler and Busiek came to comics through X-Men. In fact there was a lot of X-Men (and Marvel) discussion. Ha!
The con had seventy items listed on their website up for charity auction. There were actually about 120. Lot Number seventy-five was an original page (George Perez's pencils and inks - not a copy) from New Teen Titans #60. The page where the Titans are in Dick's apartment and they discover the safe and that there's a photo missing from Dick's scrapbook. Yes, Tim's origin story. I literally squeeked out loud. I asked for permission to take a picture (it turned out blurry). Several items in the auction started bids at $120 and one item went for $1300. I figured the Perez page would be way out of price range and wasn't there when it was auctioned. It went for fifty bucks. *headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk* *whimpering*
Spoiler Warning: Vague for Trinity, specific for Birds of Prey, and implied for Batman: R.I.P.
Anyway, conversations/encounters/impressions of professional comics folk:
colleencoover had her naughty books for sale. She drew a cute sketch of Emma Frost for literaryll. Colleen and I agreed that Emma was better evil. Take that, Ashley! Colleen seemed a bit overwhelmed with her popularity at the con, but also good natured about it. Jeff Parker stopped by her table while I was there and signed Ash's X-Men First Class hardcovers. He asked what I liked about First Class and I told him I like having new stuff with the first five.
literaryll requested Dustin Nguyen draw Dick Grayson as Robin. Apparently, this confused Dustin, who maybe didn't hear the request clearly and didn't quite get who I was talking about ("The first Robin.") until I explained that Dick is now Nightwing. Then he drew Nightwing. Fortunately, to counter our miscommunication, he had this print available for purchase and with a purchase, his gorgeous sketch of Nightwing!Dick was free, so it was all good and Ashley was happy when I brought her goods to her booth. Meanwhile, I complimented him on his extremely detailed backgrounds in Detective. He was very gracious and I noticed he smiled a lot throughout the weekend.
Greg Rucka signed Gotham Central: Half a Life with this quote from Bob Dylan, "It is impossible to be both wise and in love at the same time." So, of course, I had to tell him about seeing Dylan in concert last year and consequently didn't get to hear any of his stories. *rolls eyes at self*
I talked with Tony Bedard about his upcoming run on Birds of Prey. He was most excited about an upcoming face-to-face confrontation (about four issues in?) between Babs and The Joker. SQUEE! I asked him about Misfit and he said he thinks it's time for her to grow up a bit, to tone down some of the 'brattiness'. I made sure to let him know Charlie's my second favorite character on the title. He also mentioned how much fun Zinda is to 'throw into the mix occasionally' and that the new villain in Platinum Flats is 'just the beginning'. He was really selling it and I totally admit to being excited now, too.
Embarrassingly, I don't read Gail Simone's Wonder Woman, haven't quite caught up to her run on Birds of Prey, and still haven't read her Justice League. Thus, while getting literaryll's comics signed, I asked her about Devin Grayson. Gail's face lit up when I mentioned Devin's name. She said she loved working with her and that she misses her, but she thinks Devin really needed to take a break and 'recharge'. According to Gail, Devin's keeping busy writing games. As for Gail herself, she talked a bit about the recent Wonder Woman Day in Portland and how much she loved coming home for it (she's from Oregon). She also said that she was enjoying the more intimate feel of ECCC as compared to New York or San Diego.
When I gave Matt Wagner literaryll's request for a Dickie!Robin sketch since we hadn't seen his Robin, he countered that he thought we had. So, we opened up Trinity and sure enough about half-way through there is one tiny panel of just Dick's face. Sans mask though, so not Robin. His sketch was adorable.
At his table, Kurt Busiek had a preview of the brand-new Trinity weekly. The first word that comes to mind to describe it is 'jam-packed'. It looks exciting and fun. I actually got to speak with Busiek for several minutes. His daughters were drawing and coloring on the floor behind him, and his wife was next to them. I think it was cool that he brought his family with him. We talked a little bit about his Superman run, but after I told him how much I liked Superman #661 our conversation focused on Supes' relationships with Diana and Lois. I told him that I really appreciated the trust Lois showed in Clark in the book. He was suddenly passionate. "THANK YOU!" He gesticulated while he told me that his editor wanted him to make Lois jealous, but that he argued that Lois is married to SUPERMAN. If you can't trust Superman who can you trust. "It's not like she's married to Batman. Then I could understand a little jealousy." It was great.
Phil Jimenez shook hands and thanked every person who came to his table. I was two people behind his last person on Saturday and kept trying to catch him on Sunday. He seemed mostly absent that day. Since, he's on the board of Prism Comics, I asked them about it. Seems he partied hard Saturday night. *G* Anyway, after waiting in line for one and half hours, I finally got to the front of his line. Since it was still stretching quite a ways behind me, I just asked for a sketch and didn't really chat with him. He drew me Nightwing and Robin with bats behind them like you see in all the batbooks. He was being nice - most artists had a policy of drawing only one person, but he drew them together. I really, really like it; the wait was completely worth it. The folks behind me 'ooh'ed when he started in on the bats. Hee!
Tim Sale was wearing a Seattle Rainiers (ca. 1940's Pacific Coast League) cap on Saturday and a current Seattle Mariners road jersey on Sunday. Sale signed for autographs for the last hour of each day only. Saturday afternoon, I asked him what is his favorite comic he's ever worked on, and he replied, "Sam's story" because of the personal emotional resonance. When I got in line with Superman/Batman #26 on Sunday for him to sign, the fan behind me seemed to think I had very poor taste/tact. Maybe I do, but Mr. Sale was gracious about it. When I set it in front of him, he drew in his breath and stared at the page for a long moment, and I tried to explain. "I wouldn't have brought it, except when we talked yesterday..." He interrupted to say, "No. It IS my favorite." Then he signed the book and stared at the page for a while again. When he was done, he shook his head, blew out and said, "Mariners win. Mariners win." with a smile.
After the con closed, literaryll ran back to his table and he signed her vendor's pass and included a little drawing of wee!Dickie. :)
Moose Baumann and Ethan Van Sciver seemed to go together. They were stationed next to each other and talked about and with each other quite a bit. I know they left together. Ethan said 'good-bye' to me when they did. (I was waiting for Ashley.)
Moose has (apparently) recently parted ways with DC. He had a book of prints for sale, and there was one in the back of his book labeled "Not for Sale": All four flashes, Jay front-left-center, Bart behind him in Impulse uniform, Barry right of Jay, and Wally behind Barry in Kid Flash uniform, red background, with a lightning bolt casting light between Jay and Wally and onto their uniforms. Gorgeous. He explained it's a cover and hasn't been released yet, but that it's not a spoiler, as the book will be a kind of "Encyclopedia of The Flash". He told me who's writing it and who drew it, but I'm a bad fangirl and don't remember. He also said, he didn't think DC would be bringing Bart back anytime soon because they didn't "want to admit they made a mistake."
Ethan said it took about five days to map out and draw just the bodies for the Sinestro Corp War splash page. (Moose said they talked about it for five hours and that it took about fifteen days before he got the completed illustration.) Ethan also said he really admires Reis's work and that he likes working with Geoff. There's a lot of freedom for the art in Geoff's scripts.
The fan in front of me asked him to sign New X-Men #118 and he told a very brief version of this story. He says he was 'pissed off' at Marvel at the time (something to do with them sending him Grant Morrison's private emails...), so he included the word 'sex' on each page of that issue. A fan in Brazil(?) found them all...
Click to view
Van Sciver stayed an hour after the con closed to get to everyone in his line. "I'll stay as long as you do." He also ate lunch with the fans - he was getting up as I sat down to eat my lunch, recognized that he'd talked to me and waved. [ETA: I forgot to mention, he drew a sketch of Superboy for me that is perfect. He also drew Guy Gardner for literaryll.]
Bill Willingham talked with me candidly about Robin for about twenty minutes on Saturday. I asked him if he was satisfied with the way his run on Robin turned out. If it was how he had wanted it to be. He told me that when he was assigned the run, he read the back issues and decided that he'd like to tell the story of Tim's relationship with his dad since he felt it hadn't been explored and that it was unique in comics. He planned for an approximately nine-issue arc for Jack to slowly discover Tim's secret as Robin. He was then informed that Jack would be dying in Identity Crisis and he was forced to truncate the discovery into one issue. He said in retrospect, he would have found some other way for Jack to make the discovery than the uniform behind the door, but that it hadn't been the original plan for that to happen in the way it did.
He also said that he was told Stephanie was scheduled to die as he was going into the run. It wasn't his decision, but it was something he was aware of from the beginning. It was his idea to make her Robin first. He was in a bar with the writer and editor and pitched it to them and got the okay right then and there. He agreed that Steph had the right temperament for a Robin, as she was cheery and optimistic. When the sales numbers went up with her as Robin, he argued to give her more time. "We only get to do this once. The first female Robin only happens once. We've got to do this right." However, his argument was shot down. The editorial board had declared someone had to die and the Batfamily was lucky they were only losing Steph. He was forced to cut her tenure short as she couldn't die as Robin. He was also assigned her torture in War Games. On top of all that, editorial decided to kill Darla Aquista, too. [ETA: Finally, Leslie Thompkins betrayal and neglect of Spoiler was also mandated by editorial.]
All in all, he found the entire experience of editor edicts frustrating and 'a learning experience'. He said if he ever works on a mainstream comic again, he would do a few things differently.
On a positive note, I told him I loved Bernard. He grinned and said, "I love Bernard. I knew Bernard, only his name was Tom -----. He's based on a guy I knew in high school." We also talked a little bit about how Tim plays roles, including "normal boy". It was a fascinating and fun conversation.
Ian Sattler is DC's Senior Story Editor. After picking up my pin (and one for Ashley, too) at the DC Nation panel, I approached him and told him that Tim Drake's my favorite character, but that I had dropped Robin and Teen Titans due to Tim's abysmal characterization on those titles. He was on the stage and I was on the floor, so he knelt down to talk with me face to face. He told me "fan to fan" that he's knows what it's like to drop your favorite book and that he's been there. "There was a writer on X-Men who just didn't get it and I had to drop the book." I asked him if it was Morrison and he smirked and nodded. I told him Morrison scares me, tugged at my pin and said, "But I'm okay with this as long as it's not Tim's idea. He's never wanted to be Batman." Sattler flinched, "That doesn't mean he's right." I could see him thinking hard how to respond to that before he did. Anyway, he encouraged me to give it six months. Now, I don't think for a minute that this was really "fan to fan"; it was fan to senior story editor, but that's not important. The most important part about this exchange was that I felt listened to, like they actually care what fans think of their story decisions.
I arrived a little early for the Sunday conversation panel to see Dan Didio and Sattler being interviewed in the hall. Didio was wearing a 1977 style Seattle Mariners cap. The previous day he'd mentioned taking a tour of Safeco Field. I'm a huge baseball fan, so these little things delighted me. Anyway, I approached a little close to see if I could eavesdrop on the interview, but was soon distracted talking with another fan and starting the line to get into the panel. Sattler and Didio wrapped up their interview and disappeared for awhile, but when they came back, Sattler asked me if I wanted "to talk to Dan". I explained that my "internal baseball geek temporarily trumped my comics geek". He laughed out loud and told me, "You have to tell him that." Then he pulled Didio aside to talk to me. I told Didio and he got excited and whipped out his phone. "You're really going to hate me for this." ('Oh, you have no idea', I thought.) He showed me a picture of himself in the Mariners' dugout on Saturday while he grinned at me. "I got to go in the DUGOUT. The White Sox were taking batting practice." He gestured for 'right in front of me.' "And the team was in the dugout. My hands were shaking like this." He demonstrated his hands shaking. "I just got to get a picture on the steps." He pretended to pose on the steps of the dugout. He was so excited telling me this story! He told me they try to catch a MLB game and maybe tour the park in every city they go to. He told me the the ballpark is gorgeous, but the M's hitting is awful. I told him about our poor pitcher with the (at the time) 1.99 ERA and 2-2 record. He nodded, "Believe me, I heard all about it." He took off his cap and showed me the 1977 embroidered on the back. He practically squeed. So, I told him I've taken trips just to go to games at MLB parks. It's absolutely impossible for me to hate Dan Didio after geeking out with him over baseball. In fact, it was probably my biggest squee of the weekend. *throws up hands* I can't help but like him and possibly even forgive him for all transgressions, even if he's most likely a Yankees fan.
All that and there were still several DC folks I wanted to talk with, but ran out of time to meet (Aaron Lopresti, Steve Sadowski (Who does full-body, full-color watercolors with backgrounds for $75; Well worth it if you plan for it - they were absolutely stunning.), Stephane Roux, Philip Tan, J. Michael Straczynski, and Stephen "J.B." Jones.)
I'll post again soon (with pictures) about the Jamie Bamber and DC Nation panels. dm_wyatt and miss_tress, please accept my apologies for choosing DC Nation over the Tim Sale interview.
ZOMG! It took me three days to write this from my notes. O_o I had lots of interruptions, but jeez.