SDCC 2012: Image Comics Presents Panel
The first Image panel of the con took place Thursday as some new creators talked about their new projects and such. Here's the panel description followed by the highlights from the panel:
2:00-3:00 Image Comics Presents -Some of Image Comics' most exciting new creators assemble to talk about their new work and life as independent comics creators. Join these rising star creators for a lively conversation, and discover your favorite new creators and titles. Panelists include: Tim Daniel (Enormous), Jim McCann (Mind the Gap), Sina Grace (Li'l Depressed Boy, Not My Bag), Ales Kot (Wild Children), Michael Moreci (Hoax Hunters), and Kurtis Wiebe (Green Wake, Peter Panzerfaust, Debris), with moderator Sarah deLaine. Room 23ABC
Sarah deLaine opened things up talking about Image's creator-owned model and how there are no editors trying to tie the books into events or micro-managing costume choices and so on and so forth.
Then we got basic intros to the various titles. Grace called Li'l Depressed Boy "a kind of ragdoll boy looking for love and happiness." Weibe called Peter Panzerfaust as the Peter Pan story slammed into WW II Germany more or less. In issue #6 this September, the Lost Boys fight Nazis and Tiger Lily is a resistance fighter starting in issue #7. There is a motion comic that may be ported into the new BBC animated Peter Panzerfaust series as well.
Wiebe continued on talking about a new project. He and Riley Rossmo wanted to work together again after Green Wake ended, so the story of Debris was born based on a single image from Rossmo. The book is a future-set story where they've "covered the Earth with garbage," and the spirits of the Earth are rising up against mankind combining with the garbage.
Wiebe is a busy boy as he then talks about Grim Leaper, which is a man cursed to keep dying in ridiculous ways, and when he awkes up he's in another body. "It's a love story, because he finally meets a woman with the same exact curse." Wiebe added.
Enormous, the gian-sized monster one-shot book from Tim Daniel was up next. It sees an ecological disaster create this race of giant beasts, beautifully illustrated, and human agents, which have a different agenda, are involved. It has an oversized format measuring at 10" x 13.5".
Wild Children, the first graphic novella of Alex Kot debuts this week. He described it as "five children walking into a school with guns," but that's not all there is to it. He said it takes twists and turns, and is not a movie, being that there will be no sequel. You may like it, you may hate it. Kot is also doing a miniseries called Change in November where three unlikely heroes have to save Los Angeles before it sinks back into the water. Morgan Jeske illustrated it, and illustrate he did as some of the pages have over 20 panels!
Michael Moreci's Hoax Hunters was up next. The series began as a back-up story in Hack/Slash and progressed to its own series starting this week. It's about a reality TV team who debunk the supernatural, but are actually covering up the real events.
Jim McCann's Mind the Gap sees a woman having the ultimate out of body experience after an attack. "This is no random mugging, this is part of a widespread conspiracy." said McCann said. He contined on to say that their tag line is "Everybody is a suspect, no one is innocent." Not every character knowns what their role in all of this is. He compared it to classic mysteries in the style of X-Files and Twin Peaks among others.
Ed Brisson and Michael Walsh have a new series called Comeback that sees an organization which has invented a very limited form of time travel technology. They hire it out to rich clients so they can save deceased relatives and re-stage the deaths to cover it up.
And that's all for announcements (or rather descriptions). The panel was then opened for questions. Here are the highlights:
- There are a lot of music references in Wild Children, and Li'l Depressed Boy features real bands. This is in answer to a question about indie music in Image titles.
- The mysterious gradually shrinking hat that appeared in Green Wake was something artist Rossmo tossed in there for fun, it wasn't part of the script. Wiebe was surprised no one had ever asked about it before.
- Speaking of Wiebe, he did not read comics as a kid, but started in his 20s. It was actually The Walking Dead that drew him in, and the first book he put in his pull file was Fell by Warren Ellis.
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