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.

A Month After SDCC: Adventures in Trying to Making It (Happen)

By trade I’m an Art Director in advertising. I’m responsible for coming up with new creative ideas and concepts to present to clients to choose from. This means only one of those ideas lives, while the others go away into oblivion. When I was an illustrator, there was a saying, “You have a million bad drawings in you, hurry up and get them out.” I regularly go through critiques with my creative teammates, agency partners, and clients. Over the years, I have grown thick skin when it comes to feedback, it’s part of the process, and most of it helps make the idea stronger. Critiques and feedback, they’re expected.

That’s creative in the world of commerce. It is hired work with a goal to make someone take action. I love it and it’s a creative challenge that will never get old. But it’s rare for me to find time to make art for myself. Art to share, without any tangible goal other than the hope it will move someone. I’ve always wanted to write my own story but haven’t found a concept strong enough to keep my attention. And by story I mean a comic book. And when I say comic book I don’t mean superhero in tights, I’m talking about stories like Walking Dead or Preacher or Secret Service (Kingsman).

Over the last year, I had one concept that wouldn’t let me go. I knew I had something I could really spend time with. I gave myself a Stuart Smalley pep talk and started writing.

Over the last few months I put my idea down on paper. I then pushed it through my close friend/comic book editor, Justin Giampaoli, and completed my first issue. After writing the first draft, it took me a month to share it with him. A whole month, why was I so afraid to share it? This was my first story; do I have a million bad story ideas I need to get out? I was dumb to wait because Justin liked it, enough to give me notes to tighten it up. He encouraged me to pursue it!

A few weeks before San Diego Comic-Con I gave myself two goals: finish the first issue and complete my pitch document. It’s Comic-Con and at Comic-Con you bring comfortable shoes, deodorant, snacks, water, a phone charger, and your pitch doc. It’s on the list.

Comic-Con was closing in as I tried to find time to work on the above goal and I did it. I got it done. Justin gave me the thumbs up on the progress. As we talked, he mentioned a new up-and-coming publisher making a name for themselves in the industry, Vault Comics. They were having a two-hour open pitch during Comic-Con for new story ideas. And I thought, “This might be my opportunity!” My next gut reaction wasn’t as excited. I thought of the producers of Vault as the judges on America’s Got Talent, being bombarded with bad idea after bad idea, from people with wild and not-thoroughly-thought-out concepts. I didn’t want them looking at me through that lens. I shared my concerns with Justin, he said when I’m ready he can send it in via e-mail. That way it’s coming from someone they know, it had been vetted. Phew! I felt better.

Flash forward, it’s the first day of Comic-Con. A buddy and I just attended a few panels on storytelling and how to break into comics. The overwhelming takeaways; make something (don’t just talk about it) and get it out there (don’t just sit on it). It was a different vibe this year; the panels were less about what inspired a creator or how hard it is to get noticed. It was a strong, “It’s a great time for creators, take advantage, and feed the masses who are looking for new and fresh stories.”

It was around 3:30 in the afternoon when we ran into the Vault Comics booth. We decided to check out their books. As we approached the table we noticed the pitches were happening right there at the open booth! I looked over to see three guys behind a table being pitched to. On the left was the taller and slender of the three, Oliver Ridge (Producer, Blue Moon). In the middle was Adrian Wassel (Editor, Vault Comics) and to the right of him was Damian Wassel (Publisher, Vault Comics). All three of them were dressed professionally casual, very approachable, very sharp looking guys. The two Wassel brothers had full but very kept beards, I noticed that kind of thing because I’m almost 40 and I can’t do that with my face. I hesitated and thought of pitching my story, but decided I was going to stick to my original path and have Justin send it to them when I was ready.

About 30 minutes later the idea of pitching was eating at me. I felt my script taunting me from my backpack, “Why did you struggle to make me for this event if you’re not going to take your shot?” The Art Director in me was calling myself names for not doing what I do, pitch. Then I remembered something I always give out as advice, “What’s the worst that can happen if you try? You’ll be exactly where you’re at now and nothing will change.” I agreed with me. If it didn’t work out, nothing in my life changes for the worst. If I went for it, I got experience, exposure, the chance to not only pitch my story but show how passionate I am. Those benefits outweighed sending it in an e-mail. At least there, at the open pitches, they’re waiting for it and were looking for a great idea.

I headed back to the Vault booth and jumped in line. My buddy was great at keeping my confidence up, I know he saw the sweat beading around my forehead. After 15 minutes it was my turn. I took a few steps forward and pulled out copies my packet, pitch document with the first script. I started by telling them I didn’t know why I was nervous but I was, I’m in advertising and this kind of encounter is regular. Oliver and Adrian offered friendly smiles and assured me there was no reason to be nervous. Damian quickly clapped his hands once in an ok-you-got-this kind of way, pointed at me, smiled and said, “Pitch us like it’s advertising.” And with that friendly confidence boost, I did.

I won’t go into the details but their approachable candor put me at ease and my pitch went better than I expected. I felt like we were just talking and I was leading them into a world I created. Their body language was forward leaning with engaged nods and followed by specific questions to further understand my story concept. Then it was done. I pitched my idea. I didn’t die.

I may have fumbled a few things here and there but I didn’t crash, at least not in my eyes. The panel was every bit as cool and professional as they looked. It was only Thursday with three and half more days of Comic-Con to go but my convention was already made.

Another takeaway from the Comic-Con panels I attended; once you get the first idea done and out, you’ll be less afraid. And they were right. I was wrong. I am not exactly where I was before the pitch. I now have more confidence in myself to write and to share my stories.

Well, just yesterday I received an e-mail from Adrian saying that my story didn’t get picked for publication at Vault Comics. It made sense, they were specifically looking for heavy Science Fiction or Fantasy based ideas. My story was a stretch to fit into Sci-Fi, it's mostly geo-political with mild hints at futuristic tech. Back to the world creative and the world of rejection. Adrian assured me that it wasn’t a reflection of my concept or my pitch but more that my story is not the right fit for their position in the market. He did encourage me to pitch any future story concepts that fit in those two genres. It was a kind personal note that took effort from someone with a very busy schedule, and for that I am grateful.  

What’s next for me and my story? Justin and I are moving forward to get this book made, he’s really excited about it. I also have a second story I’m feeling pumped about; it may be harder to share because it’s so personal. But it’s so important to me I have to write it.

Me and Justin at last year's SDCC enjoying each others' company.

I try to find comfort in the new normal of vulnerability as I push out more of my writing, like this article. This is more of a cathartic exercise to hopefully inspire anyone hesitant to start something new in their lives. If you’re thinking it’s too late for you to try something different check out this list of 20 People Who Became Highly Successful After Age 40. The first one was purely coincidence but Samuel Jackson at 43 gives me hope.

AMC's "Fear the Walking Dead", 2017 SDCC, The Interview, Friday, July 21, 2017

Convention.Life was fortunate enough to score some face-to-face time with the cast and creators of AMC's hit show "Fear the Walking Dead" at this year's San Diego Comic-Con.  We were joined by actors Kim Dickens, Colman Domingo, Mercedes Mason, Michael Greyeyes, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Frank Dillane, Dayton Callie, Sam Underwood and Daniel Sharman, as well as series writer and producer, Dave Erickson.  We took a few minutes to catch up with our survivors, as they head into the second half of season 3 of the apocalypse.

"Fear the Walking Dead" Mercedes Mason, Colman Domingo, Kim Dickens and Dave Erickson.  Photo by Joel Feria

SPOILERS AHEAD! 

Season 3 finds our survivors separated.  

The Clark Family (Madison, Nick and Alicia) have cautiously taken refuge in a community of doomsday preppers run by a tough-as-nails rancher named Jeremiah Otto.  Jeremiah's two sons, Troy and Jake, have differing ideologies when leadership of the ranch is thrust upon them, with Jake being the level-headed peacemaker in direct conflict with Troy's hot-headed sociopath.  The ranch is built on Native American land, and is under siege by the tribal owners, demanding its return.  Ofelia has returned, but on what terms?  To make matters worse, The Clark Family's moral compass, Travis, is gone, and is probably not coming back. 

Strand is wandering, looking for friends in the apocalypse.  He finds out very quickly that friendships of the old world don't necessarily translate into the same friendships in this new apocalypse.  In the end, he drives around in a Jaguar and celebrates the end of the world on his yacht, so things may be looking up for him.

Finally, a ghost from the past makes his return to the land of the living dead.  Daniel Salazar is looking for his daughter, and he is prepared to kill a few people to find her.

"Fear the Walking Dead" Alycia Debnam-Carey. Photo by Joel Feria

"Fear the Walking Dead" Kim Dickens. Photo by Joel Feria

CONVENTION.LIFE:  From season 1 to season 3, how has your character evolved to adapt to the apocalypse?

KIM DICKENS:  For Madison, she's definitely become more of a merciless character.  In the beginning, she was probably a merciless high school counselor, but she was really beholden to her morality, her compassion and her heart.  By season 3, she realizes the currency is more brutality when required.  Her main goal throughout has been to survive and protect her family.  And now, it's at a higher cost.  I think Madison has been quick to realize that.

CONVENTION.LIFE:  One of the themes of "Fear the Walking Dead" is that they can't seem to stay, or find a home or place to rebuild.  Is there hope that this crew can rebuild somewhere?

COLMAN DOMINGO:  I think there's always hope.  I think that's the nature of all these characters, that you're constantly going to this new place to build and rebuild.  And you see them fall apart, like great civilizations crumbling down.  That's just the nature, the humanity that we're exploring in the show.  That we're always hopeful, and seeking this place we can build on.

KIM DICKENS:  The nature of the human spirit is resilience.  That's a human instinct to survive.

MICHAEL GREYEYES:  The narrative also plays with the tension created when people are homeless.  It asks, "What do you do when you don't have a home?"  It presses on the nerves of the audience, and I think it immerses us in that kind of tension.

MERCEDES MASON:  I think it's more exciting for the fans, too.  I remember, in "The Walking Dead", when they're stuck in one location for too long, I'm like, "C'mon, c'mon!  Let's move on!"  I love getting to see all of the different places.

"Fear the Walking Dead" Dayton Callie. Photo by Joel Feria

"Fear the Walking Dead" Sam Underwood. Photo by Joel Feria

CONVENTION LIFE:  At this point in the show, we all know that no one is safe from being unexpectedly killed off for the sake of progression of the story and characters.  If the producers of the show came to you and said, "We are going to kill of your character tomorrow, but you get to decide how your character dies", how would you choose to go?

DAYTON CALLIE:  I don't have a choice, do I?

(LAUGHTER, AS WE REALIZE THAT DAYTON'S CHARACTER HAS JUST BEEN KILLED OFF IN THE MID-SEASON FINALE)

SAM UNDERWOOD to DAYTON CALLIE: How WOULD you have wanted to die?

DAYTON CALLIE:  Heart attack... with Alycia.

(LAUGHTER)

SAM UNDERWOOD:  I love that this show is such a female-driven, female-empowering show...

(LAUGHTER)

SAM UNDERWOOD:  There was a lake that I took Alicia to in episode 5, and one of the things that wasn't left in the episode was that was the lake where I was taught to swim.  I had this line with Alicia about how you start learning to swim, and you drown a couple of times, but you keep going.  So, I think poetically, if Jake was to die, it would kind of be cool if he walked into the lake, and just kept walking into the lake.  That would be cool.

ALIYCIA DEBNAM-CAREY:  I would think being a zombie is too much hard work, to be honest.  That's all I've decided.  Doing the whole makeup, the eyes, everything.  I don't want to have to do that.  It seems really hard.  So, I'd have Madison shoot me in the head or something.  That would be crazy.

"Fear the Walking Dead" Mercedes Mason.  Photo by Joel Feria

CONVENTION.LIFE:  What is one key thing to know about your character in the second half of the season?

ALYCIA DEBNAM-CAREY:  We get to see (Alicia) stake out her path.  I am really looking forward to her character's journey.

DANIEL SHARMAN:  Finding out who Troy is.  Finding out what it is he really wants out of life.  

SAM UNDERWOOD:  Assuming Jake wants to lead or be a leader is not necessarily true, but we'll see how that plays out.

DAYTON CALLIE:  I don't know this, but I think the camp is gonna' go to Hell without me.  I don't know this, but I think so!

FRANK DILLANE:  I have a 9mm, now.  With notches on it.  I'm gonna' use it.

CONVENTION.LIFE:  Looking forward to it.  Stay alive.  I'll find you.

- CONVENTION.LIFE

"Fear the Walking Dead" returns on September 10, 2017, and can be seen on Sunday nights on AMC.  Check your local cable provider for time and channel.

2017 COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL SAN DIEGO, SAN DIEGO CONVENTION CENTER, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

Check out our coverage of this year's Comic-Con international San Diego in our gallery!  Or this guy will show up at your house.  Yes, the guy behind the Joker.

The Law Before Preview Night

Most fans start San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday. The hardcore SDCC-goers get in a little early with Preview Night the Wednesday before. The super-nerds (two thumbs pointing at this guy, then they point to the side at Joel, who’s pointing at himself) kicked off SDCC week on Tuesday. We attended The Lindley Lecture of Law & Comics: The Business of Comics, at the San Diego Public Library, hosted by San Diego Law Library.

The panel was made up of Ryan Benjamin (20 year comic book illustrator and creator, one of the original artists behind the start of Image Comics/Homage Studios), Rob Salkowitz (author of Comic-Con and The Business of Pop Culture), and Stu Rees (Specializes in newspaper cartoon syndication contracts).

This experienced panel covered a wide range of legal questions and scenarios for new creatives trying to get into the comic industry. One thing they all agreed on was the rise of the digital age and how it has changed the landscape for comic creatives, writers and illustrators, to their benefit.

Unlike the music industry where digital pretty much destroyed the stores, digital only helps the creatives more while leaving room for physical comics and stores to thrive. A new pattern out there is getting your work (Web comic, or as an artist, on Instgram or DeviantArt) out into the digital world. Over time your work builds a following, the work gets noticed, and then you’re approached to either join a creative staff or get your story published. You have work, you have an Internet connection, then you have a chance to get your work noticed.

I’m an Art Director by trade and love what I do in advertising but now I’m just tapping into my writing side and have been slowly creating stories I plan on sharing later down the line. Panels like this help me make smarter decisions about how to put my work out there. It’s one thing to be a great artist, it’s rare combination to be a great artist and business person.

With the first panel for SDCC week in the books, it’s time to hit the ground running at Preview Night tomorrow. Hope my fellow nerds warmed up and stretched it out, ‘cause I’m coming in hot for some panel-learnin’ and toy (ahem, collectible) buying!

.Life Behind the Scenes, Mike Tyson

"Expect nothing, and you have everything to gain."

One of the biggest lessons I have learned from covering conventions is that while you can try, to the best of your ability, to prepare for everything coming your way, the reality is that you can only take what the day gives you.  The Con gods are fickle like that.  At the end of each day, you walk away with your victories, and move on to the next opportunity.  It's not a game of win-some, lose-some, because it's never good to dwell on the things that didn't pan out. Spilled milk and what not.  Instead, it's a game of enjoying the victories you rack up during the limited time you're given, and being satisfied.

Mike Tyson taught me this.  Well, not directly.  Mostly by example.  But with some words.  And a little bit of Fear-Of-God sprinkled in.

When someone tells you that you have the opportunity to meet boxing legend Mike Tyson, you drop everything and make the time in your schedule.  It's not every day that you get to meet "Iron Mike", "Kid Dynamite", "The Baddest Man on the Planet", the youngest man to ever win a heavyweight boxing title, and the only heavyweight to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles and successfully unify them.  

Sports icon.  OG video game final boss.  Convict.  Ex-con.  Movie star.  Broadway darling.  Author.  Entrepreneur.  Seeker of Redemption.

When someone hands you that opportunity, you just go. No-brainer.  You just go.

That day in 2014, Mike Tyson was attending San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California.  He was promoting his new cartoon, "Mike Tyson Mysteries", in which Mike, the ghost of John Douglas the 9th Marquess of Queensberry, Mike's adopted 18-year-old Asian daughter, and a talking, alcoholic, sexually deprived pigeon go around, solving mysteries. Imagine Scooby Doo, but filtered through the wacky minds of Adult Swim.  At 3 seasons, it's still running strong.

So, I stroll into the press room, and carve out my little piece of the universe in the line of photographers and videographers.  Mike walks into the small room, and everyone grabs their gear, like it's 1988 again, and we're in the locker room after Mike's 91-second, first-round knockout of Michael Spinks for the title.  I'm here to cover a cartoon, but I'm all jittery and more anxious than I should be.  Mike's wearing a tight, white t-shirt and a WB Comic-Con attendee backpack.  "Supernatural", I believe. He's lean, and arguably in the best shape he's been in since his fighting days.  The face tattoo takes on a life of it's own when you're up close.

Mike only stops for a handful of photos and moves right along to the interviewers.  Did I get my shot?  Absolutely not.  Did I miss my opportunity.  Unfortunately.  Was I done trying?  No friggin' way.

At this point, you may be thinking, "What about all that talk a few minutes ago about 'walk away with your victories, and move on to the next opportunity' or 'it's never good to dwell on the things that didn't pan out'?"  C'mon.  This is MIKE TYSON. I'm not walking away from this.  If this is the day I get punched in the face by Mike Tyson, then I am going to get a photograph of him doing it.  The lesson is coming.

So, there I am.  I'm just waiting around.  Maybe he'll get done with the interviews early, and will come back for photos.  Maybe I can snap a few photos of him during his video interviews.  Maybe he will see me lingering, and he'll take pity on me.  

I decide to be proactive about the situation and make small talk with one of Mike's handlers.  I ask his handler very politely that if Mike has a few moments, could he spare them for a few more photos.  His handler kindly says that Mike's time is limited, but he'll ask.  15-20 minutes roll by, and Mike is finishing up his video interviews.  Most, if not all, of the photographers have left.  His handler turns to me and says, "Since you've been so patient and have been so nice about it, we can do a couple more photos. Just hang back here."  Score.

"Expect nothing, and you have everything to gain." 

Mike strolls over to me and he is happy.  This isn't the stone-faced killer I expected, stalking his way down to the ring with the towel draped over his head.  I shake his hand, and he smiles.  "Nice to meet you, Champ".  To which, he responds in kind.  I tell him I'm a big fan of his boxing career, as well as his Broadway show, which brings an even bigger smile to his face. He is funny, introspective, inspirational and verbose.

I pick up my camera.  I want to make these photos count.  I want to impress my editor with shots that no one else is getting.  I want something iconic that I can be proud of.  I don't want to waste this opportunity with mike Tyson.

This is about the time I almost royally screw things up, and throw my victory out the window.

I politely ask him to simply flex for me.  I immediately get stopped by his handler, and told that Mike doesn't do that anymore.  Mike's face has turned from smile to annoyance, and I know he's on the verge of leaving if I can't salvage this.  He's looks nervous now.  Uncomfortable.  I swear, there is a flash of light, a glow, that briefly envelops his entire body, and I freak out, knowing that a series of Razor Uppercuts might be coming, and my game will be over.  I am Little Mac, and I don't have the secret code to make this moment happen again.

I don't understand why it's such a big deal, but he's knocked people out for a living, and I've been in two fights my entire life, so I relent.  I apologize and say, "Sorry, champ.  It's just that you're in amazing shape.  Like, fighting shape."  The steam goes out in the room, and he lets me grab a couple of shots of his choice that I'm more than happy with.  The smile comes back to his face, and his handler is no longer kicking himself for extending me some courtesy.  Mike and I exchange a few more words about boxing and Broadway, and I wish him the best on his cartoon.  I just met Mike Tyson.  I just inadvertently pissed off Mike Tyson.  And I'm still alive.  Buster Douglas.  Lucky, lucky Buster Douglas.

I didn't let the opportunity pass me by, but I knew that I needed to take my small victory and walk away.  You take what the Con gods give you, and move on to the next opportunity.  I didn't get the photo I planned on getting, but I got my photos nonetheless, and was satisfied.

"Expect nothing, and you have everything to gain." 

In hindsight, I think the lesson also applies to my subject, Mike Tyson.  He has seen countless opportunities in his life, and has squandered some of them.  He's had some victories.  He's had some defeats, both professionally and personally.  He planned for greatness, but has taken what the gods have given him, and made the best of it.  He came up from nothing, and had everything in the world to gain.

One of the best moments I've ever had at a convention.

.Life Behind the Scenes, Olivia Munn

"Deer in the headlights".  At the time of the above photo, I wasn't completely sure if that phrase applied to me or to Olivia Munn.

With the release of the major motion picture blockbuster "Wonder Woman" by Warner Brothers this weekend, I felt that this photo was somewhat apropos, given that she has always held a public admiration for the comic book icon. 

2009 was the first year that I had the opportunity to shoot for Fox 5 News San Diego at Comic-Con international San Diego, and I was nervous.  I hadn't gotten my sea legs yet as a working photographer, and I was surrounded by professionals who had been at this for years.  These pros knew who to look for, where to look for them, and how to get them to stop for a photo - all the while, with poise and professionalism, choking down any fanboy excitement that we all knew was just simmering below the surface.  I, on the other hand, was still secretly following people down the exhibit floor aisles, deciding whether or not I was going to summon up the courage to ask them to stop.  Sometimes I did. Sometimes, I missed out.

One of the first celebrities I ever had the opportunity to shoot at Comic-Con was Olivia Munn.  At the time, she was riding high off the success of her television show, "Attack of the Show" on the G4 network.  She was the cute girl-next-door that grew up and became a sex symbol for the new nerd generation. Nerd girls wanted to be her, and nerd boys wanted to be with her.  One moment, she could be broadcasting in a Chun Li or Princess Leia cosplay.  The next moment, she could be dancing seductively with a dead octopus stuffed down her shirt, or trying to figure out exactly how many sausages she could fit into her mouth.  Complete package. Smart, funny, beautiful and down-to-earth.  Belle of the Nerd Ball, as it were.

And this was BEFORE she would go on to write a best-selling book entitled, "Suck It, Wonder Woman! The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek". This was BEFORE she would date Green Bay Packers superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers.  And this was definitely BEFORE she would move on to Hollywood, with memorable roles in "Magic Mike", "Iron Man 2" and "X-Men: Apocalypse" as fan-favorite mutant ninja assassin / psychic Psylocke.

Knowing this, I decided that this was going to be a defining moment for me behind the camera.  It was time to decide whether or not I was going to do my job, or let the opportunity fall by the wayside. 

I choked down my inner fanboy, took a few steps ahead of her, flashed my press badge (to help avert the notion that I was just a "creepy guy with a camera"), and politely asked if I could take a few photos.  I took 5 or 6 photos, the last of which, my favorite, is the one you see above.  She was friendly and generous with her time, which luckily, in the end, made the experience of my first celebrity photo easy for me.

Unfortunately... for Ms. Munn, our encounter lasted a little longer than it should have, as she was then mobbed by a thousand people wanting selfies (or whatever people called them in 2009).  Yeesh.  Seriously.  My bad.

 I like to think that her expression in the photo is one of awkward understanding, knowing that I was new to this element, and she was trying to help me "fake it until I make it."  I was a deer in the proverbial headlights, and she was going to slowly pump the brakes, and gently nudge me off the road.

In reality, her expression was probably more indicative of the fact that I just stopped Comic-Con's most sought-after deer in the middle of the road, asked her to wave, and invited a thousand cars, with a thousand headlights, to run her over... one at a time... for the next ten minutes.

A learning experience for me on multiple fronts: 1) If you don't step up, the opportunity won't happen. 2) Act like you belong there, and most people will unknowingly believe it.  3) Be ready with your camera, because moments are fleeting. 4) Be quick but efficient with your photos, mostly because nobody really wants to wipe deer blood off of their windshield.

Well done, CCR17. See you in 2018.

When you read a company’s About page, or their Mission Statement, it’s usually something they spent months on to help position themselves in a market. They find their space to own, to show how they're different from the rest. Then when it finally comes down to execution, some companies worry too much about what the competition is doing. They resort to copying the competition because, "Well, if it works for them." Then all that time and effort to set them apart is lost and they are just another one.

Comic Con Revolution (CCR) states in their Info page, "Comic Con Revolution was founded on very simple principles. We are excited to celebrate comics and the creative arts. At the absolute core of what we do are the creators themselves. The people who create the comics, games, toys, film, movies and more that we all love. Without their tireless dedication to creating the fantastic worlds we all get lost in events like Comic Con Revolution would not be possible.” After experiencing CCR's first showing, they did just that and lived up to their brand promise. The physical center of attention, and floor, was Artist Alley. It felt like most of the exhibitors were presenting something new of their own creation (a few highlighted here), and the panels where filled with creators sharing tips on how to get to where they're at. From learning more about writing to pro tips on how to shoot cosplay photography to how to start a podcast, CCR kept their focus on the creator, even more, how to be a creator.

Walking around I felt the excitement from the exhibitors to the attendees, it was as if we were all thinking the same thing, "Wow, this is really nice. Like, it's really well organized, this is legit. Are we in on something cool?!" Many of us gave each other that look, there may have been some unspoken high-fives. Speaking with some of the exhibitors who've worked with Atomic Crush Events (ACE), they were not surprised. Because ACE was putting this event together, they said it was a no-brainer to participate. What's amazing is the team put this together in about three months. I'm excited to see what they can do with a full 12 months to prepare and even more room to play in 2018.

With an official count of 5449 attendees, excluding exhibitors and staff, CCR was no doubt a hit. The Inland Empire has a Comic Con of their own and it's something to be proud of. With even better news, CCR has announced, "Comic Con Revolution will grow in 2018 taking over both exhibit halls as well as the Mayoral Ballroom." and staying true to make the show about the creators, "The event will add additional features including a Professional Creator's Summit on Friday, May 18th, play host to the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles as they complete their Comic Book Artist badge while growing the exhibitor and guest lists."

It wasn't all work for the Convention.Life team. I got to meet my favorite color artist Dean White! (Yup, I follow colorists. A great artist is a great artist) If you like Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force or the earlier issues of Black Science, you've seen his amazing painterly approach to color. The best part was when we discovered we went to the same small art school in Sherman Oaks, CA at the same time. 

I caught The Strength of Independent Comics, an insightful panel, with Ray-Anthony Height, Ron Marz, Karl Altstaetter, Joshua Hale Fialkov, and Hope Larson. Moderated by Beth Scorzato.

I couldn't leave a comic convention empty-handed. Only a monster would do that. I met Derek Fridolfs and picked up the second volume of his and Dustin Nguyen's Secret Hero Society for my son, we had such a great time reading the first one together. Derek was kind enough to sign and sketch it for my boy. If you aren't POP! hunting in any way at a convention, you're not living. I found myself a very rare Chuck D for my collection. And I had to remember this inaugural event with a souvenir pint glass. With that, I raise this cold beverage to you for making it to the end of this post. If you want more on this event, be sure to check out the gallery of cosplayers here and be sure to follow us on Instagram.