Collateral Damage Issue #1: Electric Ninja Boogaloo, Part 1
Welcome true believers to a series describing the antics of the newest super hero team: Collateral Damage! I hope you’ve caught our special pre-launch issue where we showed you the nitty-gritty aspects of our creation process. Now get ready form pure raw action and laughs as only the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game can offer you!
Setting the Scene
The Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game supports many playing style, from the more traditional “Game Master describes stuff, players react” to the Writer’s Room approach where the Gamemaster (called The Watcher) acts like a comic book’s editor and the players are as much the writers and artists of the whole series as the voice of their own characters. I really like this approach. Thus, while I get to set and run scenes, I encourage players to butt in and propose cooler ways for things to go down. It’s one of those “Shared Narrative” experience that jargon-laden game designers like to write about. Trust me, it’s a lot more fun than it sounds.
When we finally were ready to start playing, my heart started pounding as I had ABSOLUTELY no plot prepared for the session, having decided to trust the setting elements we’d create earlier in the session and our combined creativity. I picked the index cards unto which I copied the setting elements we created earlier (see previous post) and picked the following (with ideas I got while reviewing them):
- The Circus: Something happens at the show (Nightcrawler and Tsunami are working there. This would let Tsunami shine with her water powers)
- Sharon S: The S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison to the yet-to-be-formed team (She brings the other 2 heroes to introduce them to form the team).
- The Obsessed Scientist: Hired thugs to try to kidnap/coerce Tsunami back to Japan (Opposition!).
I had a scene. I just needed some supporting characters above and beyond Sharon. I started looking through my list (in the Breakout Mini-event that comes out with the Basic game) for an appropriate super villain. I kept going back to the Silver Samurai and that clinched it for me.
The Nipponese scientist pays Clan Harada huge sums of money to send a band of ninjas in LA to track Tsunami and apprehend her. The scientist INSISTS that the Harada himself be there to oversee operations and get involved if necessary.
I stated a large group of ninjas (the game has mechanics for mobs of identical minor characters) within seconds and I was ready to start. [Read the rest of this article]
Collateral Damage #0: The Making of a New (Marvel RPG) Series
I have a gaming group that meets monthly on Sundays. It is composed of my close friends Yan, Franky, (Ubisoft) Alex and PM.
Not too long ago, they approached me to let me know they wanted to go back to classic campaigns. We spent most of the last 2 years playing one-shots of mini-campaigns of various game systems. When I asked what game they’d like to tackle, the answer was unequivocal: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. They wanted to play with heroes they’d make from scratch and participate in home brewed adventures.
This request brought quite an interesting challenge for em. You see, the Marvel game is principally presented to play out specific events set in the Marvel Universe using pre-established heroes. These events will be based on published plot arcs like the upcoming Civil War or Age of Apocalypse. The events will mix events that occurred in the official storyline with ”what if” elements where players make decisions that may send the story in directions not covered by the original stories.
Thus, what my players requested was not something that I felt entirely comfortable doing right off the bat. Thankfully, I wasn’t without options. The basic rules provide plenty of guidance to make/adapt characters and create your own adventures. But I wasn’t sure I could pull off what they expected: a structured campaign based on my own ideas and my (still) limited knowledge of the Marvel Universe.
(Game designer aside: With over 70 years of history and 9000 characters, I’m not ever going to be a Marvel expert. I joined the team as a Game Designer and as the token “13 y.o boy who played FASERIP“)
Then it dawned on me, I have the tools I need. All those different game systems I’ve been playing these last 2 years give me a lot of options. much like the stuff that Dave and I blogged about here. The Marvel system itself doesn’t inhibit telling my own stories.
Thus I hatched the following strategy to prepare my first RPG campaign in over year.
Character Generation
First, we’d take a whole session making characters. The game provides clear guidelines to create/adapt your own hero but they do require a certain level of rules mastery to get exactly what you want. We spent a few hours individually then together at the table picking Distinctions (personality traits and catchphrases players), Specialties (skills), Power Sets and, more importantly, Special Effects (ways to use powers that bend the rules of the game, like Captain America’s area attack). Getting special effects right was what took us the longest as we wanted to go beyond those found in the book and tweak/create effects that went perfectly well with each hero’s powerset.
We ended up with the following four characters:
Nightcrawler (Franky): Using the available rules, we were able to create a faithful rendition of our favourite swashbuckling mutant teleporter. We established that the character was not being held to canon unless Franky felt it was fun and didn’t constrain his creativity.
The One Man Army (Yan): Inspired by Multiple Man, the self-duplicating mutant seen in X-Men 3 (and X-Factor), He’s a wisecracking troublemaking ex-con who’s idea of problem solving is throwing more manpower at it until the problem vanished under a pile of clones.
The Great Gregory (PM): Inspired by Nick Cage’s character in Next, Gregory is a jaded low-end stage magician and casino cheat with the ability to see one minute into his future. I must say that making a precognitive character was quite a challenge but as you’ll see in Issue #1, the game’s engine can support it much better than I expected.
Tsunami (Alex): A water elemental-like creature that looks like a Japanese idoru. Ami Tsun used to be a physicist who got caught in the Fukushima nuclear reactor in last year’s catastrophe. She got caught in one of the flooded reactors and developped Water Controlling powers.
Player Generated Setting Elements
In order to have something upon which to build our campaign world, I suggested an overarching setting based on the Marvel Universe. Using my recent research for the upcoming Civil War event books, I proposed that the players could be one of the federally-backed supers teams assigned to a specific American state (very loosely based on Marvel’s Fifty State Initiative). They agreed and we chose California.
Borrowing from my own “party generation template” and Dave’s excellent Gammarizer, I asked each player to come up with one setting element (places, recent events and minor characters) linking their character to the setting. Here’s what we came up with.
Sharon S.: S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and former actress. She was to act as the team’s liaison to her organization.
Tow-Wing’s Garage and Halal Fried Noodles: The One Man Army’s work place. I apologize if you find the name culturally offensive, but Yan’s PC is named “Mohammed Chang” a Muslim born from a Sino-Arab union. We all assumed that the business was named by a socially incompetent person… Which kinda fits TOMA to a T.
Hiroito Takashima: A crackpot scientist conspiracy theorist (or is it terrorist?) obsessed with the origins and powers of Tsunami. He has been diverting his own research grants into tracking her to America.
Thomas Redgrave: A Paranoid Casino Security Consultant who once caught Gregory slipping from his usually disciplined casino cheating routine (win slowly and quit before being noticed). He lost many jobs in various Las Vegas casinos trying to convince people of Gregory’s threat. The man is on a vendetta.
Father O’Reilly: Kurt’s Irish confessor and local community leader. Recovered alcoholic, of course.
Le Cirque: A seedy ripoff of Le Cirque du Soleil featuring a pool and scantily clad acrobats. Tsunami works the show’s controls and mechanical sharks. Yes, you read that right.
The Circus Act: Nightcrawler makes occasional guest appearances at the circus in a cheap Houdini act featuring an iron coffin covered in chains, dunked in a pool and stabbed by sword-wielding acrobats. Of course, when that happens, Kurt is safely reading magazines in his dressing room.
Your Mutant Past Will Bite/Help You Someday: In TOMA’s recent past, he dealt with Magneto and Mystique in some undefined way. There’s a good chance they’ll be back to follow up on that.
This setting element brought another one that Franky didn’t want to assume initially but he chose to go with Canon.
Nightcrawler’s Parents: As established, Kurt was born of Mystique and Azazel.
That’s so much material to pick from to create a game.
Milestones
The last element that we needed to establish before the game started was to give character milestones (the game’s experience system based on rewarding specific actions). According to the game, players get to choose 2 from an established list of event or character specific milestones. We took the time to generate one character-specific milestone per hero, agreeing to make setting specific ones in later sessions. I won’t go into specifics as they”ll likely change with time but here’s a summary of each.
TOMA: Dealing with his criminal past. Bring criminals to justice and get his record clean.
Nightcrawler: Being a devout catholic. Putting himself at great risk or even exposing himself in order to save ordinary people. Possibly becoming a priest even.
The Great Gregory: Deal with his boredom by choosing ways of putting his allies in trouble and letting villains escape for a later confrontation. Might even go as far as putting a friend or himself in mortal danger.
Tsunami (To be further defined): Retain her link to humanity or chose to forgo humanity altogether.
Armed with all these, I was totally ready to start a campaign. And let me tell you, it started with a BANG!
Up Next, Issue #1: Electric Ninja Boogaloo!
Let’s Talk About Superhero Movies
I know a few people who are getting sick of superhero and comic book movies, and with good reason considering this year’s offering of Thor, X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern, and Captain America to name a few. Back when I was young you could still consider superhero movies to be a new thing, but here in 2011 we have more comic book movies than I could have ever dreamed possible as an adolescent. You’ll notice I use the terms “superhero” and “comic book” interchangeably here, but that is simply for ease of use – rest assured I am well aware of the inherent differences and that there are non-comic book superhero movies and non-superhero comic book movies.
Ever since 1989, when I saw the first Tim Burton Batman movie in theaters at an extremely young age, I have been hooked on superhero movies. Around that same time I became interested in comic books, but it wasn’t until highschool and college that I started actually reading more than single issues of titles like Batman or Uncanny X-Men. Due to this odd mixture of nerducation I have a decently even nostalgia for both the film versions of superheroes and their original, printed inspirations. I know that the Joker didn’t actually kill Bruce Wayne’s parents, but I didn’t know it the first time I saw the movie and still enjoy it even after learning “the truth”. Now when I go to see a movie like Thor or Green Lantern if I’m not already intimately aware of the source material I will take a decent amount of time to educate myself so that I can approach the movie from both perspectives and have a deeper understanding of both what has inspired the movie and also what has changed in order for them to make this material into a movie.
I’m Getting Sick of Origin Stories
When it comes to many superhero movie franchises, you can generally predict that at least 1/4 of the first film is going to be dedicated to the origin story of the main character(s). In some cases, like with the Punisher movie, you can consider the entire film to be origin story. In the case of Punisher, I didn’t mind this so much but I was disappointed that the main actor changed to the second movie which created a disconnect in my mind. The same is true of the Incredible Hulk movies, though I feel Ed Norton did a good job making the change in actor painless, and though the movie effectively retold the origin story briefly at the beginning it wasn’t blatant about it and still treated itself like a good sequel to the first movie. [Read the rest of this article]
RPGs and Fiction: An Interview with Alana Abbott
I have spent the better part of the last three years with my head buried deep in the Forgotten Realms, a game world that lives and breathes at least as deeply through its fiction as through its game products. My background and education are tied to fiction-writing, first and foremost. As I become more familiar with the craft of designing games and adventures, the contrast and the synergy between the stuff of games and the stuff of fiction always leaves me pondering: What game design skills carry over from fiction-writing skills, and vice versa? Can fiction capture the essence of a game system or a game setting, while still working as good fiction?
I have enlisted someone to help me look into those questions. I first met Alana Abbott while writing adventures for the Living Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign, where she was the campaign’s director. Even then, before I knew her well, I was impressed with her chops as a writer. When I heard that she’d written a novel as a tie-in for an RPG game and setting, I was intrigued. I read that first novel called Into the Reach, and I was taken with how much the characters and the story drew me into that world. Despite my love of fantasy RPGs, I was never much a fan of fantasy fiction. The field is no doubt full of talented authors, but the redundancy of the tropes within the genre just didn’t do it for me.
At the time, I was also teaching fiction writing at the college level, so my brain was engaged in a sort of “read and feedback” loop that led me to contact Alana, offer my admiration for the work, as well as providing some (hopefully) constructive criticism. I was surprised and flattered when Alana suggested to her publisher that I take over as editor for the second novel in the trilogy. It was a pleasure to do so.
Alana’s talents have been noticed by many others, and her resume speaks for itself. As long as it is diverse, her list of credits includes the Origins Award-winning supplement Serenity Adventures for the Serenity RPG from Margaret Weis Productions. She was also the writer for the comic Cowboys and Aliens II. (A film version of the original Cowboys and Aliens hits theaters soon, starring Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig.)
The first two novels in “The Redemption Trilogy” — Into the Reach and Departure — are available now available as e-books at DriveThruRPG, and they are well worth the read for fans of well-written fantasy literature. Alana’s vision of the setting, game, and characters is expertly rendered on the page, and I hold the novels up as an example of what can happen when a very talented writer finds a way to turn an RPG into excellent fiction.
I recently got the chance to ask Alana about the intersection of RPGs and fiction, as well as a number of other topics of interest to gamers, fantasy fans, and would-be writers. I hope you find the results enlightening: [Read the rest of this article]
Review: “DC Adventures: Hero’s Handbook” RPG
My only major purchase at Gen Con was the DC Adventures: Hero’s Handbook RPG, which is an updated version of Mutants and Masterminds. After playing in a demo run by (I believe) game designer Steven Kenson, I was certain it was just the superhero flavor I had been looking for many moons. I haven’t run my own adventure yet, but I did play a demo. Here are my thoughts:
Critical Hits
- Emphasizing Style Over Crunch: Make no mistake, this system is EXTREMELY crunchy. There are rules for the entire gamut of comic books, but the game does a great job emphasizing the difference between mechanics and the in-game explanation of powers. If you shoot a bolt of energy, it doesn’t matter if its fire, lightning, awesomeness, or willpower, it all has the same basic framework with tons of modifiers to suit your fancy. [Read the rest of this article]
San Diego Comic-Con 2010 Sunday
Fulfillment Room
Our first stop of the morning was the fulfillment room, where you go to pick up swag using tickets they give out at panels. I ended up with a leather Spartacus: Gods of the Arena armband, a Thor t-shirt, and a Cowboys and Aliens t-shirt.
11:00 Archaia: Jim Henson
I actually caught only the tail end of this panel. We were going into the room for the next one, but we did hit a major announcement: Archaia will be developing one of Jim Henson’s scripts they found in the Henson Company archives. Nobody even knew about it outside the Henson Company. It’s called “A Tale of Sand,” and it’s from the beginning of Jim’s career. He was working on it from the early sixties to the early seventies. It’s very existential, and shows Jim struggling with ideas that would shape his later career. They’ll be turning it into a graphic novel to release in summer or fall of 2010. Jim will never get the chance to make the movie he would have made, so they’re presenting it in a different format. Lisa Henson is supervising the process.
12:00 Spotlight on Dennis O’Neil
Denny O’Neil made huge strides in comics with his work on Batman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, and other titles. This entry will be abbreviated, since my pen died mid-seminar!
Moderator: Scott Peterson
Scott was assistant editor to O’Neil in 1991. He remembers when an A-list painter was in town and they went to dinner. They had a great time till the painter said Denny’s work changed his life. Denny’s midwestern roots won’t let him accept praise, so Peterson really looks forward to this panel.
Peterson got many of his questions from other comic creators.
Q: From Chuck Dixon. Your heroes are human, with failings. Are you just drawn to those types of stories, or did you incorporate that side to make superhero comics more believable?
A: All heroes used to be the same. They had this Midwestern Boy Scout version of virtue. It just seemed natural to add some complications to that.
Q: From Chuck Dixon. When you were doing this, did managers see it as a stunt?
A: I don’t think they really knew what they were doing. They didn’t become aware of it until we started getting a lot of press.
Q: From Paul Levitz: When you were editing Levitz, he learned that his dialogue had a lot of extraneous words in it. Do you think you focused on that sort of thing due to your background in journalism?
A: Working as a reporter is the best training you can have as a writer. It teaches terseness. For comics dialogue, you have to sound colloquial and use 35 words per panel, give or take 10. Theater work also helps, teaching you to write with your ear. I always tell people to read their dialogue aloud after they’ve written it.
Q: You often take things away from your characters, from powers to gadgets. It’s sort of zen. Do you think this has anything to do with your interest in Eastern philosophy?
A: I was aware of it, just barely, back then. I have a formula for superheroes. One, what is this about? Batman was affected by his parents’ murder, Flash runs fast, etc. Two, if this guy really existed, how would he have to be. Gaining powers doesn’t change your nature.
Q: We did a count of editors at DC. There were 40, and 38 were Jewish or Catholic. You were raised a devout Catholic. How do you think that draws people into comics?
A: Louise Simonson says from an early age we’re told fantasy stories on an epic scale, and they’re about good and evil. We learn myths from age 5. It had to have shaped our zeitgeist.
And, sorry, that’s all I’ve got! He later covered stuff like trying to write feminist stories before he really understood what feminism was about (the “Harpies” story from GL/GA, for example).
Exhibit Hall
I went to the exhibit hall for the rest of the day, picking up a few things. I caught one of MC Frontalot’s performances at the Penny Arcade booth. I stayed until the hall closed at 5:00. And that was San Diego Comic-Con 2010 through my eyes!
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- Similar shirt brigade in line for the fulfillment room. (I’m on the right.)
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- MC Frontalot performing “Tongue-Clucking Grammarian” at the Penny Arcade booth
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- Tron Legacy Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers.
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- Tron iPod dock
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- An amazing Iron Man costume
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- The “Sexy Skeksis”
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- Thanos’s gauntlet, near the Thor video game booth.
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- Darth Vader and Boba Fett, but with style
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- Kermit was interviewing people after the hall let out. He has a press badge.
Complete Comic-Con 2010 Coverage:
San Diego Comic-Con 2010 Saturday
When you go to Comic-Con, you’ll want to spend some time in Hall H, the giant room where stars come to talk about huge Hollywood projects and show off the biggest stars at the show. This year, I went all day Saturday.
11:45 Warner Bros
Moderator: Geoff Boucher
Green Lantern
First, Green Lantern writer Geoff Johns came out to introduce some footage. It showed some effects shots, including a green fist coming from GL’s ring, a shot of Oa, and Tomar-Re. No shots of GL costume. Then they brought out some of the cast and crew. [Read the rest of this article]
San Diego Comic-Con 2010 Friday
Liz Smith (@Dammit_Liz) is Boba Fett.
This day was a little less busy, with fewer panels and a little more wandering in the exhibit hall. I caught the Batman: Under the Red Hood premiere with Chris Tulach at night.
12:00 IDW and their ‘Bro
Panel for Hasbro tie-in IDW comics. I went hoping to get some info on the D&D comics. There was…a little.
Moderator: Andy Schmidt
- Larry Hama (G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero)
- Robert Atkins
- Mike Costa (G.I. Joe titles)
- Denton Tipton (editor, Dungeons & Dragons comics)
- Michael Kelly (from Hasbro)
- Alex Irvine (writer, Dark Sun miniseries)
Transformers Ongoing Series
- Mike: They’ll go into space, find Hotrod, bring back Decepticons, 5-part arc.
- DRIFT 4-issue miniseries by Shane McCarthy, Alex Milne. Origin of Drift, introduction of Lockdown.
- Last Stand of the Wreckers TPB
- Transformers: Sector 7 (movie universe). John Barber and Joe Suitor.
- Transformers Prime (Oct.), prequel to November TV series on The Hub. By Mike Johnson.
Dungeons & Dragons Comics
- Denton Tipton: Aug. 11 issue #0 comes out for $1. Ongoing series (Nov.) by John Rogers (Transformers, Leverage) with art by Andrea DiVito and covers by Tyler Walpole (Wayne Reynolds for launch books).
- Dark Sun miniseries. Writer is Alex Irvine, artist Peter Bergting, covers by Andy Brase (a friend of Brom).
Alex: The main character is a broken-hearted mul gladiator. (Didn’t quite get the name; something like “Grupic.”) He was sold back into slavery, and believes he was betrayed by a noble woman he loves. He breaks out and escapes into the desert. There, he meets Aki, a bard/dune trader/slave hunter. They come to find the mul carries an artifact that causes people to come looking for them. They have to sneak back into Tyr.
I asked during the Q&A which classic monsters might be appearing in the two series, but had no luck getting an answer. [Read the rest of this article]
San Diego Comic-Con 2010 Thursday and w00tstock 2.4
As I trudged to the convention center in the morning, I noticed the usual crush of hired guns foisting advertisements wasn’t in full effect yet. (But no worries, they’d be crowding the streets by lunchtime.)
10:00 “Spark of Imagination” Panel
Guests
- Tony DiTerlizzi (Planescape, Spiderwick Chronicles)
- Travis Knight (lead animator, Coraline)
- Mike Mignola (Hellboy)
- John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda)
- Doug TenNapel (Ghostopolis, Earthworm Jim)
- Moderator: Geoff Boucher (Hero Complex blog, L.A. Times)
As soon as DiTerlizzi gets introduced, a guy in the audience says “Planescape!” in that growl usually reserved for dudes yelling “METAL!” This session is about the creative process and what inspires the panelists to create.
Q: Do you start small and grow big, or come up with the big idea first?
Tony: Start with character. The audience has to care about the character before caring about that character’s struggle. [Sort of a side track] We’re encouraged to imagine as children, but this becomes “There’s the art guy. Get him!” in high school. Working on The Search for Wondla, about the only human on an alien planet, raised by a robot. His take on Star Wars meets Miyazaki. He loved the maps in fantasy books like The Hobbit and the Chronicles of Narnia. Created an augmented reality map for Wondla. Video show uses mostly 2D images in a 3D space.
Travis: It’s hard to pinpoint the stop-motion creative process. “Artists in general, and stop-motion people in particular, are weird people.” You draw from the things to create: research, life experience, and imagination. When you get “first frame-itis” (animator’s block), you break it with research and thinking about the characters and how they behave. Researched how supermodels move to give the Other Mother in Coraline an “evil supermodel” look. Rehearsed in a mirror; not pretty. Used own experience with daughter for a scene with Coraline and her father, drawing specific expressions he’d seen his daughter and himself make.
Mike: Hellboy started as a sketch. He usually drew Batman for people, but a fan who already had a Batman from him said to draw whatever he wanted. He drew the first incarnation of Hellboy. The sketch kept popping up, and one time he randomly put “Hellboy” on its belt buckle. Later, he had an offer to do a comic and had no idea what he wanted to do. Hellboy was the only original character he had. At first, he didn’t know who HB was, and started vague until the characters took on a life of their own.
John: Put Mike’s art up in office while working on Kung Fu Panda to get inspiration to do the best work he could. The Sinbad movies originally inspired him to pursue a movie career. He worked on The Muppet Show early on, the creative cauldron where he learned most of the things important to his work, primarily from Jim Henson. Collaboration was extremely important to Henson, and he was one of the few people who would say “Thank you” for a good idea. Paraphrasing Frank Oz, “Jim wouldn’t have been such a great creator if he hadn’t been such a great appreciator.” So collaborate, and avoid fearing putting your ideas out there. When you have a big project, you have to say, “I need help to fulfill this vision.” Showed a video of some of his work on The Muppet Show.
Doug: The easy part of imagination is coming up with stuff, and some develop their imaginations more for jobs. Execution is the hard part. You have to communicate ideas to the crew, editor, yourself, or the audience. Separating the good ideas from trash is the hard part. Develop the skill of executing ideas. Really skilled creators, like the rest of the panel, show that it’s a “human trait” to be that good. It’s not impossible to achieve that level; use them for inspiration. Comics are great because they’re a “friendly medium.” You can just get a pencil and paper and write a whole book by yourself. Projects can fall apart, so there’s a whole lot of “nuttin’ to show for it” in the arts. Comics and novels let you have an end product, even if no film version comes through.
From the Q&A
Tony: I think, “What would 10-year-old-Tony want that 40-year-old Tony can make?”
Tony: (Ref: The specifics of inspiration for Planescape) People working with me on Spiderwick and Wondla wondered how the world was so fleshed out. If you played D&D, you have to design a world from soup to nuts. The design is Zeb Cook criscrossing world myths. The art was inspired by Arthur Rackham in large part, along with the otherworldly feel of Yoshitaka Amano.
Q: Do you feel a master plan or outlines constricts your creativity?
Mike: A really big idea is daunting. Start small.
Tony: Make a general outline.
Doug: Break into small, workable pieces.
John: Doing one piece will lead to the next.
After the Panel: Everybody around me was talking about Planescape and D&D.
11:00 The Red vs. Blue Infiltration
Guests
- Geoff Ramsey (Grif)
- Kathleen Zuelch (Tex)
- Gustavo Sarola (Simmons)
- Monty Oum (animator)
Jerry Holkins introduced them. I don’t think most of the audience recognized him. They’re wrapping up the RvB: Revelation DVD for Sept. 14. They’ll have a boxed set, RvB: The Recollection, with 3 most recent series and a bonus Grifball disc. They showed plenty of videos.
Protestors
The Fred Phelps crew had a few protesters outside Comic-Con, but they were far outnumbered by counter protesters. These included Bender and people holding signs saying things like:
- ODIN IS GOD
- Magnets: How the #%$! do they work?
- GOD LOVES FSM
- Jesus was nailed to a cross—Thor has a hammer
4:00 Robert Kirkman
***HERE THERE BE SPOILERS***
Much of this panel was Q&A. A summary follows.
He has a new imprint: Skybound. He is overseeing books by new creators. Skybound is not currently looking for pitches, but scouring online to find interesting talent.
In Walking Dead, expect turmoil arising in the community and trouble for Rick.
The first Skybound title is Witch Doctor by Brandon Seifert and Lukas Ketner. They came onstage for a bit. It’s a horror medical drama—Dr. Strange meets Dr. House. All the supernatural stuff has a basis in the weirdest phenomena of real biology.
Where’s the Walking Dead TV series filming?
Atlanta. The first season is almost done.
Did you give up creative control for the AMC Walking Dead series?
Kirkman is executive producer, hired Frank Darabont (The Stand, The Shawshank Redemption) to write and direct the pilot. Very experienced with adaptations that are true to the source material.
Is there an oversaturation of zombies?
No. Not as many zombie comics as there once were, and there hasn’t been a zombie TV series before.
Will you come back to write more Marvel Zombies?
No. Said his piece with 1 & 2.
What’s your favorite rock band?
“Probably Rock Band 2.” [Joking. Kirkman's very funny. See him in person if you can.]
[Skipping a bunch of questions. If you want to know about anything specific, ask in the comments.]
Did you consider doing the TV series in black & white to match the book?
Thought about it. Felt it would be too “stunty.” People might skip the channel thinking it was an old movie.
How do I break into comics as a writer?
Find an artist and make a comic.
Will the high mortality rate in Walking Dead affect how you cast?
We’re hoping we’ll get more big actors who can do short runs but not commit to an entire series.
I heard there’s a Science Dog t-shirt in Walking Dead TV.
Yes, but they had a bad reference for the symbol, so it looks more like a bear’s claw. I want to put a donut shop in the series called Bear Claw so it becomes an internal reference.
6:30–?1:00? w00tstock
There was a long line for w00tstock 2.4. They had two screens instead of the usual one. I had a special pass thanks to Liz Smith, the w00tstock Dungeon Master. I was in the top VIP area at first, the first guest there, and managed to contain myself when the next guests were Jamie Hyneman and his wife. Show was very cool. More controlled, focused than usual, but about the same length since there were more performers. Molly Lewis had to wait outside when she wasn’t on stage since it was a 21+ venue. (Free Molly!) Performers were:
- Paul and Storm (they are the opening band)
- Wil Wheaton (blogger, ubergeek, Wesley Crusher)
- Adam Savage (Mythbusters)
- Marian Call (folk musician, plays a typewriter)
- Matt Fraction (comics writer and madman)
- Jamy Ian Swiss (the Honest Liar, magician)
- Molly Lewis (ukulele YouTube sensation)
- Phil Plait (Bad Astronomer, showed trailer for new Bad Universe show on Discovery)
- Len Peralta, drawing the special show poster on stage throughout the night (Geek a Week)
- Jason Finn (drummer, member of Presidents of the United States of America)
- Chris Hardwick (Nerdist podcast)
- Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett (Rifftrax)
Themes of this show included double, triple, etc. rainbows, “Free Molly,” and beer. Special guests ranged from Jamie Hyneman (Mythbusters) to Aaron Douglas (of BSG, in his flight suit for a cheap “toast” joke) to Grant Imahara (Mythbusters, escorting Chewbacca) to Bill Amend (Foxtrot). Hope I’m not forgetting any people! Molly gave a free concert outside during halftime.
In a few days, you should be able to find videos of the show on YouTube. I’ll try to remember to post them to comments.
It was a late night, and it’s another late night typing this the next night. I’ll recap today tomorrow, and confuse you more.
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- Optimus Prime stands guard near the entrance to the convention center. As far as I know, he didn’t blow up any innocent cars, thinking they were Decepticons.
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- A shot of the (modest for SDCC) crowd in one of the large areas between the seminar rooms and outdoors.
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- This year, there were a couple massive ads that covered the faces of buildings. This is one, the other is for the Scott Pilgrim movie.
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- A promo area for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World outside the con. Long line is long.
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- Across the street from the con, you can see a few protesters from Fred Phelps’s group, and a BUNCH of counter-protesters.
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- Seen at the Splatterhouse booth
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- The open gaming area
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- The line for w00tstock
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- Bunch of folks doing autographs this time: Marian Call, Len Peralta, Jamy Ian Swiss, Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer), Paul, Storm, Wil Wheaton, Aaron Douglas, and Matt Fraction (who later did get a table).
San Diego Comic-Con 2010 Preview Night
Here’s a quick post to cover the tiny bit of Comic-Con that’s happened so far.
After a mistake that put me on the wrong shuttle and a nearly hour-long drive around downtown, I arrived at the house Chris Tulach and I have rented a room in. Then after a 30-minute walk back down to the convention center, I snagged my professional badge and headed toward the exhibit hall that was just opening up.
The first thing I saw when walking into the hall was a massive image of anime-style comic heroines with their boobs hanging out. Way to break those comic fan stereotypes, Comic-Con! Chris headed for the Hasbro line to pick up some Transformers Blaster exclusives while I wandered the hall. First awesome freebie: cardboard Alien face-hugger on a stick. The exhibit hall seemed really segregated, perhaps more so than last year, with video games on one far end, big movie company booths next them, then toy manufacturers, then comics, then small press. They carted in some huge movie props, like a giant golden throne from Thor. The Stan Winston booth had three Iron Man suits, Iron Monger, and the mecha from Avatar.
Preview night doesn’t really lend itself to details beyond “I saw this and this and this and this.” It’s just a night that’s not quite as busy and has all the stuff set up. So look forward to my recaps of the remaining days (and w00tstock!), where I’ll be taking more notes about panels and announcements.
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- Stan Winston props from Iron Man and Avatar
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- THRONE USED IN THOR MOVIE. ALL THOR CAPTIONS WILL BE IN ALL CAPS. MIGHTY!
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- Tron: Legacy light cycle
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- Statue at the Weta booth, promoting…a line of steampunk/retro future guns. I guess. Hard to tell what this really was.
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- Mecha for Red Faction: Apocalypse, cold and aloof
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- Mecha from Red Faction: Apocalypse, now open for business
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- Rock Band 3 on display at the EA booth
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- MJOLNIR, THOR’S HAMMER
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- I totally want a gladius flash drive from Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
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- Billboard for The Walking Dead
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- This house set (post zombie attack) promotes the AMC series of The Walking Dead.
