DesignerCon Interview with Camilla d’Ericco: The Most Down-to-Earth Surrealist Painter

Saying that it was a pleasure to interview with Camilla d’Errico, is an understatement. Her passion for her work, and fun-natured personality were infectious. Never mind that we dig her work, talking with d’Errico made us bigger fans of her as an artist and a person. She was kind enough to share some of what makes her works what they are and gave us some insight into what drives her creative choices.

Coffee, Comics, and Listening to Her Parents
d’Errico started early on as an artist in comics making ends meet as a barista. She remembered her first San Diego Comic Con in 1998, when she was one of just a handful of women at the show. Looking around DCon, d’Ericco expressed her excitement at the representative diversity in a typical pop culture convention these days.

She remembered how tough it was starting out and how her parents supported her pursuit of art as a career. But seeing her struggle, they suggested she go to college as most parents would. They felt getting a degree would help her cause. Looking back, she thanks them for that nudge. d’Errico explains that going to Capilano College is where she learned about painting. She also remembers being told she wasn’t a good painter. Looking at her work, the list of gallery showings, and successful collaborations, we’d beg to differ.

In fact, d’Ericco shared a story from early in her career of how she wandered into a gallery in Vancouver where they were doing a snowboard show. She had just finished a series of snowboard artwork for Ride, who sent samples of all eight boards to her. d’Errico thought it was a perfect match, she can’t house eight snowboards in her studio apartment, maybe they can be part of the show.

Unfortunately the gallery didn’t take the snowboards but instead were more interested in selling the actual art, which d’Errico explained were just on paper, but they sold. Later, the gallery owner asked her for more artwork but this time on canvas using acrylics. d’Errico said to herself, “Yeah, I’ll give it a shot.” And that’s what launched her into being a painter.

Beyond Canvas
These days you can find d’Errico’s work on more than just snowboards and canvas. She shared that about 10 years ago she realized that people only have so much wall space for prints, and decided to branch out into merchandising. With dye-sublimation becoming more common, so was the trend of wearing art. d’Errico’s work lends itself to fashion and so her fashion line was born.

About two years ago she was wandering around San Diego, where d’Errico ran into a shop that had an amazing collection of vintage plates. She fondly remembered the one piece that grabbed her attention; it was an ostrich head on a woman’s body in a Victorian dress. She was so amazed by the work; d’Errico hunted down the plate designer and started collaborating to start her plate series.

d’Errico explains collaboration has been a big part of her work. She goes out into the world and sees something then reaches out, or someone reaches out to her. If a project feels like the right fit and the timing is right, she’ll go for it as a way to stretch her creative legs into different media. Some of these collaborations have gone into bigger partnerships with Disney, Vizkids, and Hasbro to name a few.

Documentation and/or Commentary
Authenticity in the emotion of d’Errico’s paintings is important to her. The paintings she creates come from some place within her, to drive the concept. When talking about her works, d’Errico described her paintings as her diary and how each show is an entry in that diary. She talked about how she can look back at past shows and remember where she was in her life at the time.

A recent example of this was her show, “Sky,” at the Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles. The concept was a reaction to the division happening in America, a country she has family in, and a country she loves deeply.

“My show, ‘Sky’, was me showing the world, we’re all connected, and we’re all multi-cultured. Every single person here comes from multi-culturalism, and especially America.” She explained that every piece has a sky in it, which was inspired by an Italian saying, “We all live under the same sky.” d’Errico talked about the usage of butterflies, “to show the connectivity. Butterflies migrate and they’re everywhere in the world. They’re transformative; they bring life to the world because they’re pollinators.”

The collection of paintings and drawings d’Errico created was to empower people, “and to show the world that we should love each other’s uniqueness.” She did this by making her most diverse works to date.

Looking to the future she describes the next show will be her interpretation of the Zodiac at the Haven Gallery. This will not be as politically charged but it will be inspired by what she’s connected to. An example is that she might make the Cancer interpretation in honor of her friend/coordinator, who is a Cancer herself.

Camilla the Fan
We asked, “If you didn’t have deadlines and had eight hours to do whatever you wanted, what would you work on?” Without hesitation, d’Errico exclaimed that she would work on her fan fiction, specifically her stories from The Walking Dead. Oh, yeah, she writes too and has gotten some great responses. If you’re interested in her other hidden passion, join her Patreon to get access. Here’s another one that may get you to click, she’s written and vampire novel series. Yeah, you’re interested.

One of our favorite nuggets about d’Errico was finding out she is a big Masters of the Universe fan. Unintentionally, she happened to see a text during the interview that seemed to pull her out of what she was saying. She apologized then explained there were limited Skeletor cereal bowls at the Funko booth and was excited to get one later during the show. No apologies, that got nerd-points with us. She’s just as much a fan as she is a creator.

Which brings us to Bee-ra, one of many of what d’Errico calls her Fuzzbutts. Last year she partnered with Planet Bees to raise funds by doing a series of bees. And the response was so overwhelmingly positive; her Fuzzbuts became another extension of her personality, the fun cute version of herself. She took the opportunity to celebrate her 20-year anniversary at SDCC by creating POP Bees, where Bee-Ra, Harbee Quinn, and BeePool made their appearance.

One Person Making a Difference
We ended our interview on a somber but good note with d’Errico about Stan Lee, no words, we shared sad smiles and the feeling of eyes welling up. Earlier in the interview she reflected on how much Stan Lee meant to her, knowing him and seeing what he has done inspires her. “It made me realize that one person can change the world.” She made the point that everyone starts small but can make an impact. Again, it was more than a pleasure to converse with Camilla d’Errico; she was inspirational. If you get the chance to catch her at one of her many shows, stop by and say, “Hi.” She’s as fun, charming, and inviting as her work.

…

Website: camilladerrico.com
Instagram: instagram.com/camilladerrico
Twitter: twitter.com/helmetgirl
Facebook: facebook.com/camilladerricoart
YouTube: youtube.com/user/camilladerrico
Deviantart: deviantart.com/camilladerrico
Etsy: etsy.com/ca/shop/TheCamillaStore

RIP Stan Lee

It has been a week since pop culture icon and legendary comic book creator Stan Lee passed away at the age of 95. While the world remains in mourning for a man that has touched so many lives, it would be remiss for the contributors here at Convention.Life to bare witness to this watershed moment without sharing in the celebration of his life and work.

I just wanted to take this opportunity share a memory. That’s all. My personal tribute to Stan.

When I was younger, I was your typical latchkey kid. My parents both worked during the day, one as a nurse and one in the military, and for a majority of my youth, that would mean that when I got home from school, I was to adhere to the strict rules of my parents: “Don’t open the door for anyone. Don’t use the stove. Just do your homework until we get home from work.” That was fine with me. I was a responsible kid. “Helicopter Parents” didn’t exist yet. I was completely happy being home alone for a short time.

Sometimes, though, I would forget to put my house key in my backpack, which meant that I couldn’t get into the house for a couple hours until my parents came home. When this would happen, unfortunately ever so frequently, I would open the door to my garage and stay in there.

We kept an old leather couch in one corner of the garage. It was next to the garage door, so ambient light from outside could leak in while I laid down on the couch. After the first couple times this happened, I ended up hiding a few comic books under the couch cushions, so I could lose myself in stories of Spider-Man, The Avengers, the Hulk, The Fantastic Four and The X-Men. There wasn’t enough light in the garage to do homework, but there was enough to flip through my stash of comics.

Those characters, those comic books, reaffirmed important lessons that my parents tried to teach me. They taught me to be a good person above all else. They taught me the importance of family. They taught me we aren’t all the same, and that we are all flawed, but that being different is okay. They taught me that teamwork makes the dream work. They taught me that “With great power, comes great responsibility. They taught me that the ideas of a single person, when put out into the universe, can effect change for generations to come.

They also taught me different languages. They taught me new words. They taught me alliteration. They taught me onomatopoeia. They taught me about the subtleties of dialogue. They taught me negative space and forced perspective. I learned how to draw human figures in motion.

There are an innumerable amount of lessons that I have learned, both directly and indirectly, from comic books.

As I grew older, my interests naturally expanded into other things, but I still had a passion for comic books in one way or another.

Many things have happened since my days on the garage couch. I inherited my Uncle Noel’s collection of comic books that reached back into the early 1970's. I’ve attended San Diego Comic-Con almost every year since 1993. I’ve worked as a photographer, covering conventions throughout Southern California. I’ve traveled to different countries, meeting some amazing people along the way - celebrities, authors, illustrators, Hollywood studio executives, cosplayers and comic book fans alike. I’ve even had several opportunities to speak to Stan, The Man, himself.

Regardless of where my life has taken me to this point, I can trace a lot of it back to an old leather couch in my garage. I can trace a lot if it back to the comic books stashed under the couch cushions. I can trace a lot of it back to a single guy, and the characters he created.

Thank you, Stan Lee. Thank you for speaking your ideas out into the universe, and planting seeds of imagination. It is an invaluable legacy you leave behind.

Prospect has what other SciFi movies are missing, the human element.

Within seconds of the film starting, I felt the need to put on a space helmet and ensure my air filter was fresh. Prospect didn’t use too many high production tricks, just a few tastefully sprinkled visual notes to immerse you in this world. I’m a sucker for a slow burn with the time being spent on showing me who the characters really are, and I got that with this feature film.

A strong side note: the wardrobe/costumes were beautifully crafted and intentionally created, they were characters themselves. The individual suits felt like visual representations of each character’s traits.

I can’t recommend this film enough to those tired of SciFi movies that build a script around a new visual effect, or a ridiculous catastrophic event, especially the ones that don’t show how people would actually react in those situations. Prospect is the type of movie that will have a strong cult following and I’m excited to be there from the beginning.

Prospect stars Sophie Thatcher, Pedro Pascal, Jay Duplas, and is written and directed by Zeek Earl and Christopher Caldwell. This is also the first feature film distributed by Gunpowder & Sky’s label DUST. DUST is now on my radar thanks to this movie and I can’t wait for more innovative storytelling from these creative minds.

SYNOPSIS: A teenage girl and her father travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich. They've secured a contract to harvest a large deposit of the elusive gems hidden in the depths of the moon's toxic forest. But there are others roving the wilderness and the job quickly devolves into a fight to survive. Forced to contend not only with the forest's other ruthless inhabitants, but with her own father's greed-addled judgment, the girl finds she must carve her own path to escape.

If you’re still reading and are the type to be the above mentioned ravenous cult following movie goer, come back here after seeing the film and check out the early short film from 2014. It’s amazing to see this concept evolve but keep to the original intent. I’m officially a fan of Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell. Creatives like them inspire me to stay up and keep writing my own work.

Ain't no party like an HT party

This year, Los Angeles Comic Con had approximately 100,000 attendees over its three days from October 26, 2018 through October 28, 2018.  On Saturday night, 75 lucky fans were awarded with the unique opportunity to attend a special after-party on Hot Topic’s tab! It was an amazing night full of food, fun, drinks, exclusive Funko-sponsored giveaways, and the company of a bunch of toy collectors talking about all things vinyl and pop culture. 

What better way to end a long day of awesomeness at the 2018 Los Angeles Comic Con than to party on into the night as a guest of Hot Topic, hosted by Hot Topic’s Nerdette, at an intimate meetup at Downtown Los Angeles’ Lucky Strike bowling alley and restaurant?   

Convention.Life joined in on the festivities.  Consider us lucky beyond words. 

After the convention floor shut down, we made our way past The Staples Center, through LA Live, and to the front doors of Lucky Strike, where we checked in and got our super swanky Hot Topic private event wrist bands. We were also handed a non-descript red raffle ticket that would turn out to be the key to hidden Hot Topic gold. 

For the next two hours, we traded stories, compared collections, and shared a post-convention dinner against the backdrop of neon bowling, free drinks and Game 4 of the MLB World Series playing on four giant TV screens.  HT Nerdette made sure everyone felt like they were at home, and talked to every single person at the meetup. One of the nicest people you’ll ever meet at a convention.  Hands down.  High fives and a bunch of laughs.  Genuinely happy to be there. 

As the night drew to a close, we all gathered at the front of the room, non-descript red raffle tickets in hand.  Usually, when you’re given non-descript red raffle tickets, it usually means that a few huge prizes are given away, to a few lucky people, while everyone else walks away with a non-descript red raffle ticket souvenir.  This was definitely not the case at the meetup.  At the end of the night, EVERYONE at the meetup went home with a Funko-sponsored / Hot Topic Exclusive raffle prize.  EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. These prizes were nothing to sneeze at, either.  We saw Harry Potter prototype figures, autographed exclusive cereal boxes, New York Comic-Con Exclusives, Conan O’Brien San Diego Comic-Con Exclusive Pop figures and Disney prototype mystery mini figures, just to name a few. Suffice it to say, everyone walked away from the event happy.  

Thank you for an epic night, HT Nerdette.  We can’t wait until the next meetup! 

Check your local Hot Topic stores, or go online, to find exclusive Funko merchandise.   

You can find HT Nerdette on Periscope, where she lets viewers in on all upcoming Hot Topic merchandise. 

L.A. Comic Con: Screening the Future of Pop Culture

We go to these conventions to celebrate pop culture and the worlds they transport us into. This time I decided to take an early look at future pop culture influencers by checking out a few screenings. My two favorites were the first episode of Deadly Class, of course, and the wild ride that is Mandy, goodness gracious almighty. Or maybe just I like posters that are heavy on the redish/purpleish/pinkish hues. Don’t worry, these are spoiler-free comments.

Of course I covered Deadly Class’ screening at LA Comic Con, it’s no secret I am a fan of Rick Remender and especially this book. And if I’m going to get the opportunity to see the first before it airs in 2019, damn right Imma be up in there. And it was glorious. As Remender said in our interview at SDCC, he ensured fans we would see a live-action version that is true to the book. The casting couldn’t have been more spot-on and director Lee Toland Krieger captured the tone and mood felt as I flipped through the pages when originally taking in the story as a comic. If you have the chance to see it at a convention ahead of time, don’t hesitate. If you have to wait until 2019 to catch it on SYFY, it’ll be worth it. Thanks to the Russo brothers for giving this the push it needed and giving Remender the room to make it what he wants it to be. I can’t wait for the rest.

Then there’s Mandy. Oh, my goodness, Mandy. The Halloween season may be over but fans of this genre should be happy this wonderfully gratuitous gem is now available outside of the theaters (Youtube, Amazon). If you’ve seen it, buy it. If you haven’t let your senses get washed over with full-Cage awesomeness, grab at least one friend because everyone knows a trip is better with company. Go see it and know you’ll never be the same, but we still love you.

2018 LOS ANGELES COMIC CON, LOS ANGELES CONVENTION CENTER, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

We’ve posted some of our favorite shots from Los Angeles Comic Con this past weekend! Check them out here or visit our Photos gallery above.

LBCC 2018: Royal Rumble of Comics, Collectibles, Wrestling, and The Mighty Luchador

When we first walked into the exhibit hall we heard a muffled clashing sound toward the right/back wall area. It was early, so we figured it was the sounds of setting up and we didn’t think twice about it. As we walked the exhibit hall and got closer to the noise only got louder. Then we saw it, a wrestling ring?

I’ve seen wrestling stars at conventions before and have seen a wrestling ring with some quick demos or two but the difference this time: there was a full program with a set area for a crowd to gather and get in on booing the bad guys. There seemed to be a storyline building throughout the day and the narrative was paid off with a headlining event at the end of the night. Click here to watch the main event unfold with none other than 2015’s WWE Hall of Famer, Rikishi!

Rikishi’s KNOKX Pro Entertainment did a great job putting together an integrated, fun, and inviting, space for the kids (and parents) to enjoy live wrestling. The interactive experience was a bonus added layer of entertainment. As fans of wrestling during the Attitude Era, Steve (fellow Convention.Life correspondent) and I had a blast watching it all unfold.

The wrestling didn’t stop there, even the exhibitors "brought it." In this talent highlight we met with Carlos Flores, and when we say talent, Carlos is brimming with it from all directions. We were greeted by Carlos' fully branded booth promoting The Mighty Luchador, specifically his latest vinyl creation, Señor Fuego. Standing at a full 7” tall and a removable jacket, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. I came back a few times and debated spending $65, show special price ($74.99 online).

I think I will regret not picking up this vinyl awesomeness but even more, I’m upset with myself for having such tunnel vision. I was so focused on the purchase of Señor Fuego, I forgot there were so many other options. At the very least a comic or even one of the sweet shirt designs. Well, if he doesn’t sell out before the next show I see Carlos, I HAVE to get something. All of Carlos’ works displayed at LBCC was just a taste of his talents. After chatting with him I learned he’s an Art Director, Filmmaker, and a well-versed Motion Designer. After checking out some of his projects on his site, I recognized seeing most, if not all, of them as a consumer. He’s created works for clients such as Beats, to The CW and some of the DC T.V. show opening titles, to Disney Infinity demos, to Coors Light, and even stage graphics for Demi Lovato. Here’s the best part about all of this, I had to dig this info out of Carlos. He didn’t blurt any of these things out to try to impress, he was there to share The Mighty Luchador works. He was so excited to talk about this passion project of his and what a fun creative outlet this it is for him.

It shows in the craft and care he puts in the work. Super talented and humble, I don’t think Carlos would say that about himself because, well, he’s so humble. But I’ll say it for him, he’s super talented and very humble. Next time you’re at a convention and you see The Mighty Luchador, don’t make my mistake of not getting something. Trust me, I won’t do that again. Señor Fuego shirt, I’m looking at you.

As for the rest of LBCC, it had everything else we love and look for in comic conventions from the comic books themselves, to rare collectibles, and the creative mashups represented in the many pieces of apparel and pins. Now that it’s over, the bad news: the next LBCC is a year away. The good news: LBCE is happening in only five months, oh yeah!

…

KNOKX PRO ENTERTAINMENT
Website: https://knokxpro.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KnokXProEntertainment
Twitter: @knokxpro
Instagram: @KnokXPro
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Rhyno2012

The Mighty Luchador
Website: https://www.themightyluchador.com/
Twitter: @mightyluchador
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMightyLuchador/
Instagram: @themightyluchador

Carlos Flores
Website: https://carlosoutpost.com/
Twitter: @carlosoutpost
Instagram: @carlosoutpost
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/caflores


Rick Remender at SDCC: Deadly Class and His Creative History

Welcome to the most brutal high school on Earth, where the world’s top crime families send the next generation of assassins to be trained. Murder is an art. Killing is a craft. At King’s Dominion High School for the Deadly Arts, the dagger in your back isn’t always metaphorical, nor is your fellow classmates' poison. – Image Comics

Writer Rick Remender (left) and artist Wes Craig's Deadly Class will be a live-action series coming to SYFY in 2019, produced by the Russo brothers (Directors of Captain America: Winter Soldier and Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War). Photo by Joel Feria

We started taking stock in Rick Remender's writing during his time in the Marvel NOW! era, back in 2012. Joel followed Remender's Marvel stories while I dug into his creator-owned works. I'd like to think, combined, Joel and I equal one complete almost super-fan. Considering Remender's rare appearances at comic conventions, Joel and I were fortunate to get one-on-one time with Rick at San Diego Comic-Con to learn more about Deadly Class, what drives his creative brain, and how he balances all his projects with his amazing creative partners.

How faithful do you feel the TV adaptation of Deadly Class is to your books?
I don’t have to feel because I'm writing it. So, I know that it's very much the books. That was one of the things when we had a lot of various parties that were interested in this. I said, "I'm going to be with it from top to bottom." I'm going to be involved and make sure that what we create here is a representation and true to the intent of what Wes and I have created in the book.

And so to honor that, I live in L.A. now and I've just been giving my life over to ensuring that what we do is, top to bottom, exactly the same as the book and the same spirit. The joy of it is being able to take those stories and instead of just having 22 pages to tell the story. I can take that chunk and now we have an hour of television. And so, we get to go in and we get to talk about other characters. We get to talk about other storylines, we get to unpack them and get to live in the world. We get to immerse ourselves deeper in the stories and we have a great room of writers. And me and my co-showrunners, we all get together with them and it's a pleasure to be able to take the intent and the tone and the world of Deadly Class and unpack it and really start to explore all aspects of it.

How is it working with screenwriters versus writing on your own for print?
It’s an interesting thing that there’s any sort of delineation there, because comic books, especially something like Deadly Class, is a serialized story. And I write it in final draft, it’s still images as opposed to moving images, but good dialogue is still good dialogue. Good stories are still good stories. So translating it has been quite easy. I have a history where I ran an animation studio and I've written video games and done a few features that didn’t get made. But I spent a lot of time in the production side of things as well as doing comic books. And so I do have a background in that stuff, which I think has enabled me to transition to the showrunning fairly seamlessly. But in terms of script, I've always had an opinion that a good script is a good script and the formatting is really just a matter of formatting. Like, being able to unpack something and go, it's not a still image, it's not just this and this equals that. It's actually this walks into this, this person says that then moves on and the camera drifts, it's not that big of a leap. You just have to then start animating it in your head and you know, written enough animation that wasn't much of a step for me.

Is it natural, when writing, to consider the script for possibly going to screen?
No, the approach I take to writing translates pretty seamlessly into the television. I think that when we were writing the pilot episode I ended up using probably 40% of scripts from the comic book. And then I would take those and then instead of just being a still image that I'd given to Wes to draw, it would be a matter of unpacking that and being able to move and have the characters actually there and consider camera directions a little bit and transitions and things like that. But I think, it really just is a matter of formatting. I think that there's this idea that, can TV people write comics? Or can film people write comics? Or can comic people write film? And it's just telling a good story and then knowing the limitations of the medium you're telling it in.

Based on your animation background. Did you see Deadly Class as possibly an animated feature or animated show, or any of your other books possibly being animated?
Animation is definitely something we've had some meetings and got pretty far down the field with one property and is still talking about it. And then there are a lot of aspects of Deadly Class where we're trying to find ways to incorporate and use Wes Craig’s art in the show. That will be a nice surprise for people. I love animation. I especially love 2D animation. If we could translate any of them into that with the right team, becomes it really comes down to having a bunch of people who are passionate and want to do it because it is such a labor of love, anytime your hand animating anything. I love animation, it would be great to see some of it translated that way. 

Tell us more about your professional animation career?
I spent three years in effects animation before moving into character and then running a satellite studio to WildBrain, funded by Yahoo during the dot com stuff, where we were producing cartoons that never saw the light of day because the dot com bubble popped and Yahoo! pulled their funding. So, I had spent a lot of time creating cartoons from top to bottom that were just never seen and I was pretty heartbreaking. In fact, led me back to just making comic books, because comic books get made. I don’t know how many people are going to read it. I don't know how far to go. But I know what I know it exists. And the process of building up an animation studio getting to work spending a couple years grinding out a bunch of cartoons and doing it top to bottom, only to have those disappear into the ether was like, okay, I am fucking done with that. And then when I went back to comic books after that. 

Talk to us more about how you went from being a visual artist realizing someone else’s story to becoming this story originator.
There was never a separation, there was no wall there. I think that most artists have stories in their head and most writers have visuals in their head and art direction ideas. I grew up writing stories and drawing and animating. I used to take novels, and animate them in the corner, so you get the flipbook. I was always just really drawn to pop culture art. And grew up as a skate punk grommet reading comic books and watching things like Evil Dead 2 and Big Trouble in Little China and all those things. Better off Dead and all that culture. And then Robert Williams paintings and then Robert Crumb and Zapp Comics. And then that led me to Adrian Tomine and Dan Clowes and Evan Dorkin where I really got an eyeful of, "Oh, we can do anything with comics. We can tell any kind of story." So I was always doing both. Deadly Class is based on journals that I wrote from those years. Most of Marcus' journal entries are altered up versions of things that I wrote in my journals when I was a young man. So when I was animating full-time and drawing comic books, I would then spend my nights writing in my journal and writing stories to decompress from the art. And then I started writing stories for artists that I knew. I think the first one that I wrote for someone else was Doll & Creature, John Beebink and Mike Manley drew that, quite beautifully. I then started getting more artists and people that were interested in working with me and had other pals like Kieron Dwyer and Tony Moore and Jerome Opeña and any number of people that were willing to draw the story side. And so then I found a balance for a while.

Around 2005, I was writing four books and was also starting to write Dead Space for Electronic Arts. And then I was also storyboarding From Russia with Love for Electronic Arts when I was drawing a book for Bruce Campbell called a Man with the Screaming Brain at Dark Horse. Then year by year, the writing work kept coming and coming and I started turning down art jobs and then I was just full time writing. And so, then it was probably you know, I don't know about inevitable, but it was a natural transition for me. It was kind of where my head was at because I can generate a lot of ideas and I when you’re drawing you can only do so many of them. And so being able to write, I spent the last 15 years now, locked in a room typing 14 hours a day because I have to get them out. You have to spit these things out of my head. And the more I do the more I want to do. So, it’ll kill me. They say, find what you love and let it kill you. And so I'm in the midst of doing that. 

Deadly Class cast (left to right): Benjamin Wadsworth (Marcus Lopez), Luke Tennie (Willie Lewis), Lana Condor (Saya Kuroki), María Gabriela de Faría (Maria Salazar), and Benedict Wong (Master Lin). Photos by Joel Feria

Do you find it hard to find that team to take your properties to the next level?
That’s the other reason I moved to L.A.. I'm going to be involved in my shows. I'm writing a film based on one of my books. I've got another TV show in development based in one of my books. I've got a few things. I've got another one of my books going into production and starts filming soon that hasn't been announced yet. And I'm there, so that I can be as involved as possible in ensuring that the translation is pure to what the intention of the book was. And if better idea comes along, then we take the better idea. But I make sure that it's not something where I am doing a yard sale of these things that means so much to me, so that other people can come along and thumb print it and turn it into their work. It's a collaborative effort, you want them to feel that it's something that they're involved in. That everybody is having a lot of fun and as it goes down the line you have to be comfortable with letting the next line of people, you have to hire the right people. Then it's a joy, because other artists are coming in and expressing themselves with something that you lit the fuse on and you get to see their interpretation of things. You have to find a balance between being sort of protective and vetting those things and letting people be artists and express themselves. And then also making sure that you stayed sort of true to the intention and what the thing actually is.

What's your conceptualization process and organizational workflow to keep these stories as fresh and original they are and also to give these projects the time you seem to be giving them. Do you just not sleep?
(Pause and smile) It’s gnarly. I've had to turn down wonderful trips to Spain to Brazil to Ingelum to England to Canada, all over the world. I just don't have time, but I also feel like it’s an incredible blessing to be able to make art and tell stories that people actually read. I've always said I would be doing this even if it was just for my friends, there's no stopping this. Whatever it is, whatever this is that propels me to do it. I just have to do it. So being in a place where I can do it and do it the way I want to do it, and people want to pay and buy a ticket to join in on that, is such an incredible privilege. I feel like I have to do my best work on every project and that they deserve the best from me. And so, to that end what I end up doing is, 14 to 15 hours a day seven days a week and I've been doing that for so long, that's just normal now. I don't know how long I can keep it going. Maybe I've got another you know four or five years in me before I hit a wall in and my heart explodes, but for now, I'm holding it together. I've got a great team of co-showrunners and some of the best artist in the world in comic books. So provided I'm giving them great stories and able to do my best work on the dialogue end, when the pages come in, it really helps to be surrounded by incredibly talented people for sure. 

You always find the perfect artist to go with your stories. How do you get these great artists lined up?
We cook up everything, I come to them with ideas. And then we bounce designs back and forth and I'll take a stab at drawing some. And they’ll take a stab a drawing some in some cases and other cases I don't draw anything. We'll talk about the characters we develop it together. So it's a partnership they co-own the properties. They are not hired hands.

In terms of finding the artist, I've been following Matteo for years before I hired him to come onto Secret Avengers with me. We had such a great time working together on Secret Avengers, I pitched him the basic idea of Black Science and he loved it and he came onboard. Black Science exists in the form that it exists in because of his dedication and his craft. You can see trade by trade of that book, you can watch him go from a really great artist to a world-class dominating force of power. He is an absolute mother-fucker. And Moreno Dinisio has been coloring him for the majority of the series, you can watch Moreno also progress from a really good colorist to probably one of the very best working colorists in the world right now. That's because of the dedication and the staytuitiveness and people who find a project they love it and they build it. There's nothing harder because the comic book industry has such a short attention span that after issue one the comic book press can't pay attention. People just can't pay attention. So, when you're keeping a book going for a long period of time, past issue 20, past issue 30, past 40, it becomes very difficult, it's a lot of work. And especially for an artist who sometimes can feel that they're working in a vacuum, doing they're very best work. But these guys just do it for the work. That's something that's beautiful about Matteo is that he manages, in a very Zen way, to turn everything else off and just make the best pages every single time.

Rick Remender's artistic partners (left to right): Matteo Scalera on Black Science, Jerome Opeña on Seven to Eternity, and Bengal on Death or Glory

In terms of how I find them, I'm an artist myself. I'm an art appreciator. I spend a lot of time in the art communities and on the art boards and following people. So, I have a wish list. I wanted to work with Bengal since 2008 when I saw one of his art books. And so we started talking five years ago about a book, and how to do something that was not what you expect from him. To take something in the American Southwest and modern Western mixed with Convoy mixed with Bullet, and to do something that was completely not what you expect from his wheelhouse. To push him the same way that Mobius does Western in Blueberry. And what comes out of it is spectacular. He really pushes himself to do things. He brings so many wonderful sensibilities to that book that you just don't see in most places. Or something like, Jerome Opeña and I talk about fantasy and he loved the idea. And I said, let's do a Jodorowsky style fantasy where we go nuts but at the core of it is just a really simple story, about a guy trying to get a bad guy to a place and the compromises that he's making along the way.

I got very fortunate in starting to work with Jerome. He was at the Academy of Art University when I was teaching there. His sketchbooks were being passed around and we ended up meeting each other. He came in to help out on Strange Girl, one of my very first books, and then that led to him joining us on Fear Agent. There wouldn't be Fear Agent without him. He was penciling by issue four to hold that thing together, Tony had gone off to do The Exterminators at Vertigo, and Fear Agent would have disappeared without Jerome Opeña. I'm very fortunate because not only have I found great artists, I found great friends and people that I identify with and love. And their staytuitiveness and their hard work are the reason these books exist and the reason I'm here.

We really liked your work on Captain America, with John Romita Jr., on Castaway in Dimension Z, we’d put it up there with Daredevil: Father.
Thank you, that's really high praise. Being assigned Captain America after Ed had done such a wonderful job on the series for so many years is a poison chalice and I knew it. No matter what you do, if I had emulated Ed perfectly, and had done espionage then the fans would have been pissed off. And so, I just went back through Jack Kirby's career. And I found when Jack Kirby had pissed the most fans off was when he had started being his most creative, is when he created Arnim Zola, was when Jack was unbridled off the chains fucking Jack Kirby. So, I just I reread that stuff and I said, "Alright, I'm going to do a love letter to when Jack got shit on by the fans and I'm going to do a love letter to Jack." I'm going to try to take his character and dig in to the Arnim Zola stuff he created and tell a human story that hopefully sheds a new light on Steve and gives him an adoptive son and just really ties that up and makes Arnim somebody who really matters to the cannon. And the character changes and then something feels like it was human and mattered to him and really dig into his past in a way that we haven't seen. Some people liked it, some people didn’t. All I can do with any of these things as bury in and pour my heart out and that's what I did on that. So, it's nice to hear when people dig it.

…

Maybe that's why we love Rick Remender's work so much. We can feel him pouring his heart out on to every page. Deadly Class is a humanly connected action-packed coming-of-age story, with an 80's punk vibe. While reading it, I can't help but hear an 80's soundtrack running throughout. Give it a read, if you haven't yet, and see what soundtrack plays in your head.

You can learn more about Deadly Class the comic here or the live-action SYFY show here, coming in 2019 produced by the Russo Brothers. 

Rick Remender
Website: rickremender.com
Instagram: @rickremender
Twitter: @Remender

Rome West with Justin Giampaoli at SDCC

In AD 323, a fleet of Roman ships is lost in a storm, and they find themselves on the shores of the New World, one thousand years before Columbus. Unable to return home, they establish a new colony, Roma Occidens, radically altering the timeline of America and subsequent world events as seen through the eyes of one family. – Dark Horse Comics

This exploration of alt-history is what writer Justin Giampaoli calls Rome West. We sat down with Justin and talked about his first San Diego Comic-Con signing, the genesis of Rome West, and learned more about his path to getting his book published through Dark Horse Comics.

How did your first signing at San Diego Comic-Con go?
It went pretty well overall, a good mix of family and friends, and the random people that rolled through. It was the first time that the cover artist, Matt Taylor, had been to the U.S. and been to Comic-Con. I think it was a really cool experience for him. 

How did you get teamed up with Matt Taylor?
I met Matt through Brian Wood. Matt had done some covers for the Rebel series at Dark Horse, the Revolutionary War comic that Brian Wood and Andrea Mutti did. And we really never considered anyone else except Matt.

Brian showed me pictures of the Rebels covers before they went to print and said, “Hey, how would you like to have this guy do to cover for Rome West?” I was like, “Yeah, sold, that's it. He's the top of my list.” Our editor approached him and made it happen.

Matt's work is really good. It's got sort of a warm depth to it that I really like, and kind of a painterly aesthetic that I feel transcends the world of comics and is almost at the level of Fine Art. It was a really great, eye-catching cover. We're really proud of it.

Brian Wood, how are you two connected? Give us a little about your path and how you got to Rome West?
The arc I'm on now started in 2005. I started a blog, Thirteen Minutes, where I reviewed comics because I just wasn't really seeing the type of critical work that I wanted to read. You sort of had the frat boy humor of Wizard magazine on the lower end of the spectrum and then you had kind of this like haughty erudition of The Comics Journal on the other side, which was very academic and there was nothing really in between.

The blog ran for 10 years from 2005 to 2015 and through the course of doing that for a decade, I met tons of writers, artists, editors, industry folks, and kind of struck up a relationship with Brian right around 2007. I've known him for more than a decade now. And that morphed into doing some editorial work; writing introductions to books, contributing to back-matter of some of his books, and other friends' books. Then in 2015, we decided to co-write a project together. After pitching a couple different things, that became Rome West. Now I'm kind of branching off and doing my own writing as well.

Do you have any other books, or projects, coming down the pike?
Nothing that has been announced, a little bit of a scoop for you. What I can say, Andrea and I will be doing another mini series at Dark Horse. We hope it's out about this time next year and it's sort of a Sci-Fi drama.

Andrea Mutti is your illustrative partner for both Rome West and this new book. You feel like there’s a solid combo there?
Andrea, again, I met through Brian, is a really prolific artist in Italy and in Europe, and he's done a lot of Italian comics. Particularly, a series of Dylan Dog, which is a huge comic in Italy that's a very long multi-year ongoing series that different people have contributed to and he's really been breaking big into American comics.

He recently relocated to the U.S. as well. He lives in Florida. That happened just this summer in July, literally like a week ago. Andrea is a great collaborator, he's full of energy. He's always willing to jump in and do thumbnail sketches, redo pages, do character designs, he's just an endless ball of energy.

I like his style because he really fills the panels with a lot of detail. He also works traditionally still, in pen and ink, and he's not digital yet. Because of that I feel like he has the ability to really load the pages with a lot of detail and he'll kind of spatter and speckle the page with flecks of ink. He has a willingness to really dirty up his pages that I think a lot of other artists don't do. That gives a lot of grit and realism to his pages.

How is the collaboration like with Andrea?
I would say it's become collaborative the more projects we've done together. Doing Rome West was really the first project I'd worked with him on, so I tended to write more full scripts and kind of went in as an egotistical writer and expected him to just follow my script. With our next project at Dark Horse I scripted a little looser and I sort of went into it asking him, “What kinds of things do you like to draw?”

He's a big Sci-Fi fan. He actually worked for the Italian government in a certain capacity that I can't really reveal but it ties directly to the nature of this book we're doing. So, he has a background in this and he was a lot more involved collaboratively in doing character designs, what to include in certain sequences, and in story.

Like I said, I'd scripted a lot looser. I will typically just tell him know, “Hey, these three things need to happen on this page. However you want to do that and whatever panel configuration that you feel would tell the story the best visually, go for it.” And so, I think we learned to trust each other a little bit more now that we've been collaborating for about three and a half years now.

Rome West is your first project to get yourselves out there and get exposure at Comic-Con. Are you going to try something different for this new book?
Not totally different, the big difference is that Rome West was serialized in a digital book at another publisher first. At Dark Horse, we went straight to trade (paperback) and it's basically being solicited as a graphic novel for the book market. Our next series at Dark Horse will be a little more of a traditional comic. That will come out as a four-issue miniseries first, we'll get to have floppies, and go on to a monthly cycle. But after that, I'm assuming it'll be collected. I'd say it's more of a traditional approach to the comic book industry.

Does Andrea plan to go to Comic-Con next year, if you two go that route?
We've talked about it loosely. We're really trying to get him out here. I'd love for him to come to San Diego. He's never been to San Diego Comic-Con before. He's done New York Comic Con a couple times. So, I'd love to be able to get him out here for our next series. Maybe line that up with a store signing as well at our local retailer.

How is it going from a creative/creator mindset to thinking about the business end of it?
I think it's been maybe a smoother transition for me than other folks trying to break in, basically, because I've had Brian Wood as a mentor. He's been in the industry for 20 plus years now. Not only did I feel like I had good mentorship from him in terms of how to approach a script and actually hammer out the writing end of it but on the business side.

I really learned a lot from him, in terms of how to interact with editors, how to pitch, how to speak to artists that are involved. I've learned more about coloring, and lettering, and color theory but also about the business side, how to self-promote, market, and particularly, how to read the contract. That’s something that you never really get trained for anywhere. But really looking critically at the contract in terms of of the big three R's, as we call it; Rights, Reversion, and Royalties are the three things you want to look for. That's been tremendously helpful and sort of eased my transition into that business end of the industry as well.

It's not a world of showing your portfolio, or sample writing, to get your story out there is it?
It really doesn't work that way anymore. Maybe at the big two but when you're talking about pitching creator-owned work, most companies now, whether it's Dark Horse, Image, or some of the smaller publishers, Black Mask, or Vault. They really want you to come to the table with an assembled creative team ready to go. In that case they want you to have writer, artist, inker, letterer, colorist, and when you're pitching they're asking for sample pages up front. So, you're no longer in the concept phase, really. They want to see finished work. Having at least half of the first issue done, maybe the whole first issue. You've really got to have the team assembled and present them somewhat of a finished concept that's ready to roll.

What’s your pitch to those who have not heard of Rome West and why should we consider it?
The pitch was basically one line. What if the Roman Empire found the New World a thousand years before Columbus? That was really the pitch and we wanted to, sort of, acknowledge the fact that in real life we had the New World, had pre-Colombian contact with the old world. Right?

We know that Vikings came over from Iceland to Greenland to Canada. But you never really heard about that in history books. And so, I started reading a bunch of different articles, I was a history nut about real Roman artifacts that were found in the New World. There's been Roman coins found in California Central Valley or in the Ohio River Valley, there was a fossilized ship down in Galveston Bay in Texas that look like a Roman Galley ship. There's been daggers found in Canada. And no one can really explain how these artifacts got to the New World.

We wanted to really create a What-if scenario that would explain how those artifacts got here. One of the things we wanted to avoid was the Roman's just coming over and exterminating, systematically, Native Americans because it wouldn't really deviate from real life and Western European colonialism. We went out of our way to look for excuses why the two cultures would coexist. Whether it was similar beliefs about the afterlife or having a polytheistic society that believe in a Pantheon of gods.

One of the early ideas I had was that I wanted to see a Cherokee Legionnaire, whatever that would look like. It's sort of was a personal challenge to me, figuring out what has to happen in the writing to get us to that point where we have a Cherokee Legionnaire. It created a great visual storytelling opportunity for Andrea to design something like that from scratch. What does a Cherokee Legionnaire look like after hundreds of years of Romans and Native Americans coexisting, and kind of creating this hybrid culture. So, there was really limitless storytelling opportunities there.

Rome West is currently individual stories, it's not a serial-based. Why this format?
Originally, it was 12 individual chapters that ran digitally. To tie it together we follow the descendants of one family through several hundred years of history as a kind of the through line from chapter to chapter to give it some cohesion and through the course of doing that we try to explore multiple different locations, multiple different characters, even multiple genres. There's a chapter that's a love story, a chapter that's a war comic, a detective story.

Is this the end of Rome West for you, did you have more planned for it?
It really depends on the interest level. There's sort of a finite story presented in the graphic novel that's currently out but we certainly have ideas for additional chapters. One of the great things we did, we tried to really build a storytelling engine, we call it, where it's something like Gotham City or the reservation in Scalped, the Jason Aaron series, where the environment, the world is the main character. We cover something like 1700 years of history in 112 pages. You could literally go up and down that time line at will and pick out any setting, any location, any character, and tell additional stories in this fictitious world. If the interest is there we would certainly be willing to do more.

Were there any stories you didn’t get to tell or really wish you had time to explore?
You know, one that I really wanted to do is a story set in the world of Rome West but it takes place in the future. Maybe at the year 2100. And one of the ideas I had is that this fictional society we created would be colonizing the moon and trying to apply the lessons learned from both the real world and the world of Rome West and colonization that occurred in the New World. And trying to apply those lessons to colonizing the moon and maybe trying to do it the right way that didn't subjugate cultures.

We always thought we got the interesting play on words, not only was it the Roman Empire, Rome West, but they were traveling, or roaming West, right? Now we could tell story where we roam to the stars. That would be a fun way to kind of punctuate the series as the final chapter.

…

Rome West is an unexpected take on what America could have been with commentary on how we're functioning now socially. It's an interesting mirror but even more, a thoughtful read.

You can get Rome West here or here.

Justin Giampaoli
Twitter: @ThirteenMinutes
Blog: thirteenminutes.blogspot.com

Andrea Mutti
Website: andrearedmutti.com
Twitter: @andreamutti9

Brian Wood
Website: brianwood.com
Instagram: @brianwood.writer
Twitter: @brianwood

Matt Taylor
Website: matttaylor.co.uk
Instagram: @matttaylordraws
Twitter: @matttaylordraws

AMC's "The Walking Dead", The Interview, SDCC 2018, Friday, July 20, 2018

The Sapphire Ballroom at San Diego’s Hilton Bayfront Hotel has been silent for a the last few minutes.  Handheld digital recorders have been placed on the long table at the front of the room, a small sea of blinking red lights, ready to soak up every word our incoming guests are ready to offer up.  There are around 40 of us in the room, in rows of chairs facing the long table, staring at placards with the following names written on them:  Scott M. Gimple, Greg Nicotero, Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurira, Norman Reedus, Angela Kang, Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.  No one is talking, but there is a nervous rustling sound around the room, because we all know, that in a moment, we are all going to be front-and-center to the beginning of the end of Rick Grimes.  We are here at Comic-Con San International San Diego 2018, and we’ve been invited to speak to the cast of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” as they prepare for season 9 of the zombie-filled apocalypse.

AMC

Executive Producer Scott M. Gimple, Director and Special Effects Make-Up Supervisor Greg Nicotero and Rick Grimes himself, Andrew Lincoln, enter the room first.  We are informed that the rest of the cast has been held up at their panel in Hall H, but will arrive shortly.  Comic-Con attendees have just been treated to the newest trailer for the upcoming season, which has created an anxious swell in the room.

We learn that season 9 will begin with a 2-year time jump from the end of last season, and that the survivors have taken serious steps towards bringing civilization back from the brink.  Old enemies have become productive pieces of a new, flourishing community, bent on fulfilling a vision of a better future for everyone left alive.  Leaders have been chosen.  New relationships have been established.  New faces and new stories have emerged from the wastelands. 

As it so often is, however, things aren’t always what they seem.  Long-standing friendships are being tested.  The citizens of The Kingdom, Alexandria and The Hilltop are still dealing with unresolved tragedies.  Carl is gone.  Morgan has left, and is headed west, joining the cast of “Fear the Walking Dead”.  Rick has been holding Negan in a cell for the last two years, which has drawn a hard line between him and the rest of his extended family.  And to top it all off, it has been publicly confirmed that Andrew Lincoln is leaving the show this season, and that Rick Grimes is going to die.

Then, like a swift, barbed wire wrapped baseball bat to the head, we begin.

AMC

ANDREW LINCOLN:   "Hello, hello."

When asked about the new trailer and the upcoming season, secrets are held close to the vest, but cast and creators are able to share a few things about the tone and direction or the show moving forward.

GREG NICOTERO:   "It’s a slightly new timeline. It’s new, interpersonal kind of issues that lead not only to different kinds of conflicts, but seeing new character combinations so deeply tied up with each other. Even though we’ve seen these characters for years and years, we just haven’t seen this."

SCOTT GIMPLE:   "We really wanted to come out of the gate this year, showing you guys the show has been reinvented.  We get to see Washington D.C., and that great shot of Rick on horseback, riding through and bashing the head in of a walker.  Also, with the new characters that you saw in the trailer, and that little tease at the end.  For me personally, I think it’s one of the most exciting times there has been on the show in a long time, because we have this new threat that was really well introduced in the comic book, and it’s something really exciting. So, knowing that we get that little bit of a tease, I love that that’s where the show is headed. It’s just different. It’s something we’ve never done before."

We are then joined by the rest of the cast, to a raucous applause that brings the throwing of chairs, group hugs, and sharing of a single, chocolate lollipop between Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus.  When pressed about the upcoming season, the rest of the cast joins in.

ANDREW LINCOLN:   "I think we’re just telling a story, and trying to tell the best story we can."

JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN:  " I think we’re going to find out a very different side of Negan. Quickly as season 9 starts. There has been a growing period in trying to figure out how he got to the position he’s been in.  Is that a good thing or bad thing? I don’t know. But I think there is redemption to be had for Negan."

DANAI GURIRA:  " It’s people who love each other, and it’s people who want to be on the same page, but really, really aren’t. It’s a family feud that’s actually much scarier, and feels much more volatile and dangerous. Much deeper."

LAUREN COHAN:   "Honestly, it’s a whole new world. Even at the beginning of the season, and how we all interact, and how things have changed after the time jump, and how things have progressed with all these new characters, it’s like, ‘It’s still the show you know.’  We’re definitely going to see us in disagreement, but we are still a family."

ANGELA KANG:  " Its huge. Its epic. Just even the art direction alone, it blows me away."

AMC

The conversation then switches to how the story of our survivors is going to move on without Rick Grimes.  When asked how they will carry on, the cast hints that the upcoming season is sort-of a throwback to the series’ first episode, 8 seasons prior:

DANAI GURIRA:   "I think the best way to honor Rick and Andy is to stay true to telling a really honest story, and not to go to some big bold place that’s out of the realm of that tone that we’ve been trying to connect to since he set the tone in the pilot.  We were able to do that, to find those connections through characters being connected in very different ways this year than we’ve experienced in the past, and got to that very key example that he and Lennie (TWD alum, Lennie James) set in that first episode."

NORMAN REEDUS:  " To stay true to Andy and to Rick, we are telling the truth. We’ve had a season or two of two guys chest bumping and shooting each other, but no one ever really killed each other. This is a very female-driven season, and it’s nice to have that happen. The stories are told in a different way. It’s less bravado and more real depth.  It’s like were shooting a western with feeling.  I’m loving  this season."

AMC

On how long it took to decide to leave the show, and how it’s eventually going to happen, Andrew Lincoln weighs in:

ANDREW LINCOLN:  " I think Lennie James is a perfect example of leaving without dying and doing rather well on it.  I just saw him about 5 minutes ago and he looks terrific.  (LAUGHTER) So yes, there is that way. And then there’s obviously the other way, which we’ve done quite a lot.  And I’m not going to tell you which way. I mean, I’d prefer the Lennie James of it all, but I think what we have in store this season is truly remarkable, and I’m very, very proud of the work that we’ve done.

9 years I was thinking about it. I suppose it was a lot to do with a conversation that Scott and I had a few years ago. Maybe season 4, about a ‘shape’, and finding some way to complete something that was never going to be completed, and then not obviously disturbing the mothership. There was a certain sense that the story has been: 'a man waking up, so you experience this world through this one man’s eyes, and it opens up into the extended family'. Now the narrative is being freed up, and it has already been freed up from the beginning of this season. You’ll see from the trailer, it’s a different tone.  It feels like the show that I always felt we would head toward when we wrapped the pilot. In short, it was something I started to think about as my children got older and less portable."

AMC

Everyone in the ballroom, actors, creators and press included, sense the end is drawing near, so the conversation swings away from the story of Rick Grimes, and towards the void that Andrew Lincoln’s inevitable departure is going to leave with his fellow castmates and crew.

NORMAN REEDUS:   "You can’t take Rick’s place in the show. That’s not even possible. Everyone is branching off and doing different things, but everyone’s playing the same characters.  No one is, like, “the lead now”.  I don’t think we talk like that on this show."

DANAI GURIRA:  " I always say this, and I truly mean I, and I say it to him as well, I truly believe this (to Lincoln) is the best leading man in television. He has made us all better. His leadership, his character, his discipline, his heart, his generosity, and his kindness have really paved a path for all of us to understand how to carry on without him, even though it’s extremely painful to. The death of the relationships that happen when Rick exits are very real, but at the same time, he has so equipped us to carry on, which is what a great leader does. So, I can’t be thankful enough for the time I’ve gotten to work with him, and learn from him, and understand him. It’s been a true joy to get to explore my character’s growth. She’s grown, basically in connection with him, since the second she meets him, and saves his ass a bunch, but because she can see the goodness and the strength and the power in this man, and how he takes on what he HAS to take on from a place of understanding of what he must do, versus any sort of ego or pride. 

It’s all heartbreaking, as ‘The Walking Dead’ always is. But this is a special kind of heartbreak. The biggest yet, really.  But it’s been an honor, sir (to Lincoln)."

ANDREW LINCOLN:   "I’ve loved this season, and I don’t think there’s any desire to try and make it anything but telling the best story possible, and to continue the story.

I’ve loved this season so far, and I love working with all my buddies. I got to do scenes with all of my favorite people this season.  And as a farewell, it was the greatest present I could’ve got. The reason I became an actor is to work with these people here.  I love this relationship. After 9 years, these guys still want it to be great for you.

At the end of the panel, it sort of hit me a little bit. I got kind of choked up.  It’s been 9 years of coming here (to Comic-Con).  I love this place and I love seeing the fans. And you’ve been such a vital part of this experience. As I’ve said, my relationship with Mr. Grimes is far from over."

Looks like there’s hope for the future yet.  Even in the apocalypse.  Long live Rick Grimes.

AMC’s “The Walking Dead” returns for season 9 on Sunday, October 7, 2018.  Check your providers for time and channel.

CCR Ontario: The Cure for the Common Con

2017 was the inaugural year for Comic Con Revolution in Ontario and it was an impressive first showing. A full lineup of panels, a great mix of exhibitors and artists sharing their works, amazing cosplay and of course comics. You can’t have a real comic con without tons of comics. CCR wasn’t just full of what you’d want in a comic con but it was highly organized and presentable, something not too common. We’ve seen other first-year-conventions; they looked like it was their first year. CCR had their stuff together. What’s more impressive? CCR put it all together in only three months. (Slow clapping) Now that's impressive. With year one out of the way, a whole 12 months to prepare, and more than double the size and dates, we can’t wait to see what’s up their sleeves on when the doors open on May 19th.

We had the chance to ask the co-founders, Drew Seldin and Mike Scigliano, more about how they pulled off their first year and what they have planned for CCR Ontario in 2018 and beyond.

Convention.Life: As co-founders, Drew and Mike, tell us what Comic Con Revolution is. For those that missed out on the inaugural year in Ontario, how it is different from other pop culture conventions?

CCR: Comic Con Revolution is the culmination of years of experience working in the industry. We have been a part of so many different shows and always said if we were in charge we would have done this or we would have done that and now we are. Our shows primary focus is comics and the artists and creators who make them. Comic Con Revolution is 90% comics and 10% pop-culture. That is what makes our shows a unique experience for attendees as well as guests. People are there to meet creators and artists.  

Convention.Life: How did you know Ontario was the right place and that CCR would do so well in it’s first year there? And you accomplished this in just three months, how?

CCR: To be honest, you can never know something can do what we did in year one of Comic Con Revolution Ontario. We took the time to find an untapped area like the Inland Empire, we reached out the industry’s best and brightest and planned down to the smallest details. We looked at message boards and took into account the complaints we saw and called upon our years of experience to make processes that can ruin an attendees experience and fixed them. People have lots of options when looking at shows to attend and if you can’t set your show apart with guests and back it up with great family friendly day then customers won’t comeback. As for how? Well, hard work, sleepless nights, blood pressure medication and a love for doing what we do.

Image by Comic Con Revolution Ontario

Convention.Life: This year CCR Ontario is more than doubling its footprint from one exhibit hall to both halls plus the Mayoral Ballroom. What’s one new thing each of you are especially excited to share or at least tease?

CCR: Yes, we doubled the size of the show in year two but that had a lot to do with the reception we received from the Inland Empire in year one. Exhibitors were excited and the community as a whole embraced what we were doing and supported a first year 1-day show like I have never witnessed. When you have that kind of support in place it goes a long way. When we closed the show in 2017 we had pre-sold so many booths that we knew we had to grow the show. It became an easy decision and the team at the convention center was tremendous in helping us grow the show as quickly as we did. We have so much to talk about for Comic Con Revolution 2018 I don’t even know where to start.

Images by Comic Con Revolution Ontario

Convention.Life: CCR talks about it being a family friendly event, what can the parents tell their young comic book fans to look forward to?

CCR: In this day and age it's important to create events for families to be able to attend together. We offer free children tickets for kids 12 and under and discounted teen tickets. It makes it affordable for a family of four or six to attend our show. Parents won’t have to worry about seeing inappropriate booths on our show floors. We avoid selling to companies that don’t have family friendly products and avoid celebrities that are outside the family friendly vibe.  

Convention.Life: From the legendary Chris Claremont to hot new legends in the making like Dustin Nguyen, they're just the tip of the iceberg of talent CCR is bringing in 2018. How did you get such a star lineup in just your second year?

CCR: We have been in this industry for a long time and have met a lot of people over the years. These artists and creators know that if they come to a show of ours we will make every effort to run a professional show that provides an incredible experience for everyone that attends. Fans have plenty of choices on which shows to attend and if we don’t provide them guests like Chris Claremont or Kevin Conroy then they can spend their hard earned dollars elsewhere. In the end the show needs to be about comic fans and our goal is to make them happy.

Dustin Nguyen (Descender, DC Secret Hero Society, Batman L'il Gotham, Batman, Wildcats),  Jace Norman (Nickelodeon’s Henry Danger), Cooper Barnes (Nickelodeon’s Henry Danger), Kevin Conroy (Voice Actor: Batman), Loren Lester (Voice Actor: Nightwing/Robin), Diane Pershing (Voice Actor: Poison Ivy), Andrea Romano (Batman:TAS, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Teen Titans)
Images by Comic Con Revolution Ontario

Convention.Life: The panel schedule last year was stacked for the one day. There were so many informative and entertaining programs to choose from. Now that CCR is two days long and has more than double the space, does that mean that much more programming and workshops?

CCR: Of course it does! We have over 100 panels this year. We run the spectrum from panels for the comic collector, want-to-be artist, cosplayer, movie fan, you name it and we have it! Panels are such an important part of building a show like ours. We have a building jam packed with exhibitors, dealers, artists, celebrities etc. but some guests don’t come in for that and the panels they attend make the day a unique experience for them. In the end we want all our attendees to have that unique experience at Comic Con Revolution.

Image by Comic Con Revolution Ontario

Convention.Life: CCR is currently in Ontario and West Palm Beach, are there any plans to expand into any other markets?

CCR: As the saying goes we could tell you but then we would have to kill you ☺. I am teasing and yes we have plans to expand, we will be announcing our 2019 West Palm Beach dates shortly and a new city as well. We are adding a third part of the country that we know loves comics.  Stay tuned.  

Convention.Life: What’s your elevator speech for those who just need that slight push to get them to go to CCR if they won’t listen to us?

CCR: If you are looking for a great affordable day of fun with the entire family, Comic Con Revolution has something for everyone. You will see incredible artists at work, amazing cosplayers and tons of pop culture items that will bring a smile to your face.

Learn more about CCR Ontario at comicconrevolution.com/ontario, get your tickets here, and plan your program schedule here.

Images by Comic Con Revolution Ontario

GraphicLab Tees: Nailing that Shi(r)t

Look, we’re proud of our pop-culture passions. Not just those of us at Convention.Life. I’m talking about US: you, Convention.Lifers, and the rest of the pop culture convention-goers. We’re unapologetic and love what we love about this world. Nothing represents who we are better than a shirt that nails it. Nails that one obscure reference. Nails that look that needs you to take another look. Nails it so tastefully you can wear it almost anywhere but dang does it make a statement. Nails that statement so well when one of our own sees us wearing that shirt, they give you that, "Oh, snap, I get that shirt and it's dope" look. Then you give them that, "Yup, we cool" look right back at them. We've all had that moment and we love it.

Meet Rob and…Rob from GraphicLab Tees. They nail it. They nail it when it comes to shirt designs and, just as important, a comfortable fit. It’s that soft somewhat fitted fit, that makes you feel confident but relaxed. You know that fit.

Photo by GraphicLab Tees, instagram.com/graphiclabtees

But they don’t do it on their own. They know it takes a village of artists and they acknowledge it. Their shirts are a combination of their own designs and creations by other artists through online submissions. If the design nails it, they’ll make it and sell it, give the artist their cut and most importantly their credit. All designs have credits attributed to the artists in social postings to the signs on their convention booth. Think of Rob (x2) as curators. Wait, I got that wrong. Their tagline is, “The Cure for the Common Tee.”

Designs and photo ©GraphicLab Tees

Booth goals. GraphicLab Tees in all their glory at WonderCon (photo by GraphicLab Tees, instagram.com/graphiclabtees)

I'm going on six shirts and three hats, below are my two favorites from the Robs. These are just a small sampling of what they offer. They’re always surprising us with new pieces at every convention. As for the Zombie’s design, it’s no longer available and I don’t think it will be coming back. That one is my, “I got this early in their career before they were cool” shirt. I mean, they’re still cool but I’m just saying, I knew them when...

For more info on GraphicLab Tees:
Website: graphiclabtees.com
Instagram: @graphiclabtees
Facebook: facebook.com/GraphicLab
Twitter: @graphiclabtees

WonderCon Anaheim 2018 Cosplayer Spotlight

Convention.Life's visit to 2018 WonderCon Anaheim brought us back in touch with some amazing cosplayers we haven't run into for a while, as well as some cosplayers we had the great pleasure of meeting for the first time.  Here are a few:

@AlinaMasquerade as Rainbow Brite; @WindStriker007 as Ruby Rod from "The Fifth Element"; @VertVixen as Garrison from "Battle Chasers"; @natty.lou.creations as a stylized Dalek from "Dr. Who"

Hailing from Arizona, Alina Masquerade rocked an inspired Rainbow Brite costume, throwing us all the way back to our favorite Saturday morning cartoons. She was also spotted in the classic Jessica Rabbit cosplay from Disney's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" as well as the Sorceress from the "Dragon's Crown" RPG video game.  This was our first time meeting her, but I'm sure it won't be the last.

Facebook: Alina Masquerade
Twitter: @AlinaMasquerade
Instagram: @AlinaMasquerade
YouTube: Alina Masquerade
For business inquires:
Alina
PO Box 41792
Phoenix, AZ 85080
Email:   alinamasquerade@gmail.com

LeQuan Bennett was arguably the hit of WonderCon this year, with crowds regularly gathering in the aisles to take photos with Ruby Rod, from the film "The Fifth Element".  You can dress up like Ruby rod, and you can carry a cane like Ruby Rod, but LeQuan truly embodied the spirit of Ruby Rod.  Chris Tucker would be proud.  We were so happy to meet him.  We hope to see him again sometime in the future.  We are excited to see what comes next from this dynamic personality, coming out of Anchorage, Alaska.

Twitter: @WindStriker007
YouTube: WindStriker007
Instagram:   @WindStriker007
Facebook:   LeQuan Bennett

We had the pleasure of running into one of our favorite cosplayers VertVixen this year at WonderCon at the MatterHackers booth, bringing to life artist Joe Madureira's Garrison character from the popular comic book / video game "Battle Chasers".  The last time we ran into VertVixen was 2013 WonderCon, when she stole the show as one of the most realistic Wonder Woman cosplays we have ever seen.

Facebook: Vertvixen
Twitter: @VertVixen
Instagram:   @VertVixen
YouTube:   VertVixen Studios
Email:   vertvixencontact@gmail.com

Renetta Lloyd (aka Natty Lou Creations) comes to us from from Vista, California, and has designed and produced costumes for a number of theaters in the San Diego area.  The unique vision of her creations is only rivaled by her skill to actually bring the designs to life.  She was such a pleasure to meet in her inspired Dalek cosplay from the "Dr. Who" series.  WonderCon was her cosplay debut, but she handled herself like a veteran.  We cannot wait to see what comes next from this talented designer.

Website:   http://www.nattyloucreations.com
Facebook:   Natty Lou Creations
Instagram:   @Natty.Lou.Creations
Email:   nattyloucreations@gmail.com

2018 WonderCon Anaheim, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California

Check out some of our favorite shots from this year's WonderCon! Click on our galleries here,  or we'll send Rainbow Brite to get you... Which I'm sure you'd be absolutely fine with, I suppose.

Rainbow Brite cosplay by @AlinaMasquerade.  Photo by Joel Feria.

2018 LONG BEACH COMIC EXPO, LONG BEACH CONVENTION CENTER, LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA

Some of our favorite shots from our quick day at the 2018 Long Beach Comic Expo. Click here to see what we've been up to.

LBCE Spotlight: Chris Ayers - Keeping the Doctor at Bay with a Drawing a Day

This is Chris Ayers, yup, he looks like a nice guy with some exceptional character design skills. This is what we thought as we approached his booth at the Long Beach Comic Expo. Nope, I'm not going to tell you he has some underlying mysterious mad scientist skill or that he's saving the world. But his story and the reason for what he does has fully affected my point-of-view of myself as a professional artist, a parent, and as someone trying to fulfill a passion project.

Chris is a classic success story of pursuing your dreams. In 2000 he left Minnesota at the age of 24, with just a packed car and a passion to make it in LA. Montage forward, 2005, he's made it. He's worked on Men in Black ll, Fantastic Four, Penguins of Madagascar amongst others. But then he was diagnosed with leukemia, cancer of the blood. He spent the next year experiencing all the scary, painful, and hardships you would expect.

In 2006, on the one-year anniversary of his diagnosis, Chris decided to start a sketchbook as part of his personal healing process. He set the goal to draw an animal a day, a subject matter he loved drawing, to give him a focused opportunity to appreciate the gift of each healthy day.

Chris' drawing at the first anniversary of his diagnosis.

Amazing designs on American Apparel?! Comfort and style guaranteed.

The good news, Chris has been in remission since and is going strong with his goal of an animal drawing a day. He's a family man with a 5-year-old and has taken this experience on the road to share his story with students, and other cancer patients/survivors. He's created The Daily Zoo book series which you can find here, documenting his drawings, each having a tie-in to what he was feeling that day. A portion of proceeds supports cancer-related charities and research. I'm proud, and inspired, to have drawing #559 as a new favorite shirt.

If you want more information on Chris and his works, see the following links:
Website: ChrisAyersDesign.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chris-Ayers-The-Daily-Zoo/34718362718

100,000 Strong, And Growing - 2017 Stan Lee's L.A. Comic Con

Year seven and this once small expo has officially broken the 100,000 attendee mark, making it the biggest pop culture convention in L.A.’s history.

When we left Stan Lee’s Los Angeles Comic Con I said to myself, “Wow, LACC has come to play!” Convention.Life-ers have been going to this event since it was an “Expo”. My, how it’s grown. The first couple of years, it contained the standards of a comic/pop culture convention: an exhibit hall with vendors and artists showing their wares, separate rooms with panels from how-tos to meeting the casts-ofs. One of the more curious distinctions for this convention was the integration of the Hot Topic Main Stage within the Exhibit Hall. The first couple of years the stage felt more like a show to walk by and check out in passing, the Exhibit Hall’s vendors were the draw. The guests and topics on stage were fun and informative but nothing I could really highlight.

This time, as we entered the convention we had decided on a plan: find some innovative vendors from the Exhibit Hall to cover, catch a few panels and share fun stories we heard from celebrities, add to our Instagram stories, and of course, cosplay pics! That plan blew up quickly, and not in a bad way, the second we decide to “check out” the Hot Topic Main Stage. We were sucked in.

Left: Fully radio controlled Wall-E from (The Wall-E Robot Project), Right: Spot-on Snake Plissken cosplay by Byrne Owens

Together Joel and I found a nice spot close to the front of the stage to get pics and take down notes for the upcoming panel. The usual move from panel-goers is to take in the panel and then move on, as that happens, the people in the back move up to get closer for the next panel. That’s the rotation. Most of the panels in these conventions don’t cater to everyone so people move in and out.

While we were waiting for the Stretch Armstrong & Flex Fighters panel to start we REALLY looked at the upcoming schedule then realized the onslaught of awesomeness coming and knew we were going to be in for a long day in that one spot. I’m not complaining because it was a treat of a long day. Following Stretch Armstrong was the Power Puff Girls original voice reunion, then came the Sabrina the Teenage Witch Reunion, we then got sucked into the funny but personal stories of Katee Sackhoff, then up next we watched Drew Carry’s 2017 Comedy Legend induction.

Original voice cast of Power Puff Girls reunion:  Tara Strong, E.G. Daily, Cathy Cavadini, and Tom Kane

We noticed this year, the crowd just grew as the panels went on, the rotation barely existed. Each panel was only 30mins, just enough to be insightful and fun, then the hype level rose again as we waited for the next panel. It was just celebrity-appearance-high after celebrity-appearance-high. At this point, we broke; we didn’t prepare to be in this one place all day. We reluctantly left our spot to get some food then quickly came back. Well, Joel did. I decided to cover some of the Exhibit Hall, but as far as I got away from the stage I can hear the crowd roaring. It was electric.

Hanging with Manuela Arbelaez, Rachel Reynolds, and George Grey at The Price is Right wheel.

Joel was there getting pics of Scott Bakula, as a huge fan of Quantum Leap, he had to. The super talented people who made up the Cosplay National Championship immediately followed that panel. I barely made it through The Price is Right wheel line on the other side of the convention floor when I ran back to see what all the hubbub was about. I reached the Main Stage just in time to catch the ridiculous line up of musicians along side the Black Eyed Peas, my face was melting. My creative heart was crying as Will.I.Am expressed his passion for the making of Masters of the Sun, an amazingly innovative book with so many ways to entertain from the illustrations, to the star-studded voice-overs within the fully animated VR experiences, to the music. It has over one and a half hours of recorded content, all in one book, that’s just crazy.

After we thought we couldn’t have any more celebrity power as the Black Eyed Peas left the stage, I looked around and see the floor around of the stage is completely full. No one has left to rotate out. It’s standing room only, and it’s a sea of people waiting because… “FINALLY, the Rock has come back to Comic Con!” Joel and I have been fans of Dwayne Johnson since he was a wrestler. This was work and fun for us. Joel and I were separated at this point but I know we could hear each other “sqweee” across the crowd. Johnson played his best card, interacting with the crowd. He is such a likable and humbled person, it didn’t feel like a pitch for us to watch Jumanji as much as it was supposed to be. He was asking the crowd for questions, and then came the one question he didn’t confirm or deny, “Will you run for president?” Johnson gave a long pause as the crowd chanted, “Rocky, rocky, rocky.” His response with a strong smirk was, “I think the ‘People’s President’ has a really nice ring to it. I’ll just say that.”

Dwyane "The Rock" Johnson, “I think the ‘People’s President’ has a really nice ring to it. I’ll just say that.” (Photo by Joel Feria)

Mic drop, our night was over. There was more from Johnson but that was it for me. Wow, what a crazy fun convention and that was just Saturday. Look out SDCC, NYCC, ECCC, C2E2, and others receiving votes, LACC is making its move and is only getting bigger and better.

LBCC 2017: Exhibitor Highlights

Long Beach Comic Con embodies the lifestyle of its namesake. Laid back, open and inviting, while giving you plenty to do without the feeling of haste. We enjoyed our time strolling up and down every aisle, stopping to really get to know more about what caught our eye. Below are some of many exhibitors we got to know:

PinkOwlet: Dana Duncan

By day Dana teaches Design and Illustration at Art Center in Pasadena, where her students refer to her as the digital dominatrix—she whips pixels into shape on a daily basis. Her well branded booth caught our eye and we were rewarded with visual eye-candy from patterns put on dresses to pins to fun greeting cards.
http://www.pinkowlet.com
https://www.instagram.com/pink.owlet/
https://twitter.com/d2designishere
 

Gears & Roebuck - Rust Junk Emporium

Shannon Hoage started as a Prop Master's apprentice when she was 14. Her love for props and painting came together in what she likes to call wearable Steampunk. Most of her products use already existing toys, or masks, that are then repainted to have a worn metallic feel. Watching anyone who came by the booth, you saw a similar reaction when they realized how light the items were since they are not actual metals. Very comfortable indeed.
https://www.facebook.com/GearsAndRoebuck/

Tee No Evil

The brothers behind Tee No Evil - Zany Zombie Shirts, got the Kickstarter backing to make their dreams come true. These high quality shirts are hand inspected by them to ensure each one meets their standards. They want to make sure the quality matches the art, and the art is great.
https://www.teenoevil.com/
https://www.instagram.com/TeeNoEvil/
https://twitter.com/teenoevil
https://www.facebook.com/TeeNoEvil/

Will Terry

Will Terry has been an illustrator for over 25 years with over 30 children's books and clients ranging from Time magazine, Pizza Hut, and MasterCard. He's now taking those skills to the masses for consumption in the form of prints while still finding time to run an online school.
http://willterry.com
https://www.svslearn.com/

What's next? Not a LONG wait.

If you feel like you missed out on the fun, you did. But you don't have to wait a year. The team that brought you LBCC has Long Beach Comic Expo, February 17-18 2018. Tickets just went on sale today, click here to get yours and we'll see you then.

2017 LONG BEACH COMIC-CON, LONG BEACH CONVENTION CENTER, LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA

Check out some of our favorite shots from this year's Long Beach Comic-Con! Click on our galleries above!

Long Beach Comic Con 2017

We will be covering Long Beach Comic Con 2017! LBCC is upping their game again, making it more than just another comic convention. There's a good chance I'll be spending most of my time covering the panels in "The Garage," see full program schedule here. But I'll have to choose my panels wisely to make sure I get to experience all the other exciting festivities:

- SpaceExpo fills a chunk of the show floor and an entire dedicated panel track with experts in their respected scientific fields talking about our biggest and most current findings alongside displays from actual space exploration and interactive experiments your kids (or big kids) will be talking about for weeks!

- Burger Con provides a fantastic option for Saturday night fun as music tastemakers Burger Records roll out a lineup of incredible bands to keep you rocking into the night. This year's lineup includes DJ DON BOLLES, NOBUNNY, DWARVES, THE ZEROS AND WHITE FANG. Note that this event has a nominal, separate fee for entry. Further Info HERE!

- GeekFest Film Festival will provide two solid days of indie movie bliss, often with the film makers themselves on hand to discuss the ins and outs of their creations. See the full schedule of films here.

- South Bay Gaming Community's “Fighter's Ring” where gamers can challenge their friends and rivals at: Super Smash Bros.Wii U, Street Fighter V, Injustice 2 and more. For those looking for an eSports experience, sign up for tournaments throughout the day and compete for special prizes against the best!

- The LBCC Fashion Show will feature ladies and gentlemen modeling the latest trends from top-level chic and geeky designers who are on the verge of breaking into the fashion world.

- LBCC's Cosplay Contest will give the West Coast's most inventive and artistic costuming wizards the chance to show off their fantastic talents and compete for prizes in categories including Best in Show, Best Fabrication, Best Construction, Best Couple/Group, Best SciFi, Best Anime, Best Villain, Best Hero and Best Kid! Register now. Spaces are going fast!

- Star Cars! Relive your favorite high speed chases and escapes from certain doom as you take pictures alongside instantly recognizable, film inspired vehicles including the Blues Bros Bluesmobile, the Back to the Future Delorean, Jurassic Park Jeeps, the Jokermobile, Bumblebee from Transformers, Speed Racer's Mach 5, KITT from Knight Rider, the Eclipse from The Fast and the Furious and many more!

- Comic Creator Conference on September 1st is an event designed to connect professional comic creatives with other high-level industry professionals to empower them with exclusive and personal insight, as well as providing access to decision makers, peers, publishers, and other leaders within the industry. Learn how to make smart business decisions on the path to taking your creations into film, television, and interactive entertainment. Note that this event has a nominal, separate fee for entry and is open to industry professionals ONLY. Further info HERE!

Tickets are on sale NOW at LongBeachComicCon.com. Check in for details on limited VIP packages and photo ops with your favorite guests. Kids 10 and under get in FREE! If we don't see you there, follow us on Instagram to enjoy LBCC with us.