Tales of Syzpense #55
"How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Con." Also: Michael Zulli, The Lost Landers, the Mighty Marvel Calendar Book lives, and the Jaws 2 of Spinner Racks
Inevitably, the week before SDCC is a mad scramble, as all of us attending the show try to leave various bits of work in good enough place to then ignore it for a week. While also trying to wrangle meetings, any needs for panels, try in vain to build in time to eat three meals a day, and, this year, try to concentrate on all these things while the country is entering into some pretty uncharted political waters even while many of the convention attendees also had to deal with an historic travel nightmare, too. It’s a lot to cram into our headspace, but luckily, the general stress leading up to the show isn’t anything new, either.
But amidst all the chaos of the Week Before the Con, the Monday of convention week itself is often somewhat calm. Gone is the expectation of getting any more work done before the show, and with so many people traveling today, things get quiet. Before they get real loud.
The stabilizing factor to all of this is the building sense of anticipation. I do love this show — it’s complicated since I live in town and so have to try to pay some semblance attention to my real life even while spending roughly 16 hours in and around the convention each day, too — and so the dread is cancelled out by the excitement of being back in the convention center; of seeing old friends and meeting new people; of discussing exciting new projects with boundlessly creative people; of celebrating all the different parts of pop culture we all enjoy; and of coming away from the show re-energized and eager to get back to making comics and books.
And seeing all the new creations, expressions of art and joy, and for me, picking through longboxes of old comics remains a highlight.
We do also have serious challenges in this business—all of entertainment does—and this convention also always convinces me that we can address the in smart ways and make comics and comic culture work in 2024 and into the future. There are too many smart, passionate people in this business who recognize how we need to break from doing things the way they’ve always been done and instead, keep pushing to find ways to excite people about comic-book storytelling and find new platforms and audiences to reach people. But that’s not something to solve this weekend — this weekend is about celebrating the medium, its creators, its retailer base, and the fans. I’m excited to be on panels discussing the kinds of books that helped grow this market, and also helping build some new initiatives for the future, too. I’m both ready and not ready. Welcome to Comic-Con Week once again.
Land of the Lost Landers
Speaking of talented pals doing exciting things, artist/designer Guy Dorian Sr., my frequent convention table-mate and artist on some of my Rom Spaceknight comics, is part of two big new initiatives on Kickstarter.
One of them, Mounties vs Werewolves, is launching soon enough and you can join the pre-launch campaign now. He’s doing this one — and you know how I love a good “Versus” comic — with comic legend Larry Hama.
The other is an even more ambitious venture. Guy and his partner, Thomas Chillemi (who also owns the great Comics and Gaming Outpost in VA), have created a new toy line and comic series called The Lost Landers.
The Lost Landers Kickstarter is live right now, and among its rewards are comics with stories by other equally legendary creators like Walter and Weezie Simonson; I wrote one of the stories that guy illustrated, too. The character designs alone made me want to get involved, and the world that Guy and Thomas, with our aid here and there, have been building out, in both comic form and the toy line, too, is a blast. It reminds me of the best parts of things I loved as a kid like Masters of the Universe and The Herculoids.
These are a couple of pages from the comic—the page on the right is the story Guy and I are doing with their character Fusion (this particular page features an homage to a beloved old issue of Fantastic Four).
Michael Zulli, 1952 - 2024
We lost artist Michael Zulli on July 8. Zulli didn’t do a massive amount of comic book work but the work he did do was always lush, detailed, and gorgeous. I probably first saw his work on Swamp Thing or on The Sandman. It always stood out as something special. Here’s a proper obit for Michael, but I also wanted to share a short comic story that Michael did more recently. For a while, maybe 10 years ago, I’d been talking to writer/publisher Joe Pruett about doing a new illustrated magazine in the vein of Marvel’s Epic Illustrated. Joe had this Zulli story and we intended it to be one of the lead stories. The project itself fell apart, and Joe did eventually publish these stories in an anthology when he was at Aftershock.
But before that, I had the original pages in my office for a few months. They were larger than normal comic art — I don’t remember the exact size but certainly somewhere larger than 11 x 17. As great as they look in the images below, being able to see them at full size in all this glorious detail was really something.
Anyway, any time I could experience Michael’s work, it was something special. I’ll miss seeing his art.
Turn the Page
Charlie Kochman, EIC at Abrams ComicArts, was kind enough to send me an advance copy of my Mighty Marvel Calendar Book just ahead of the convention, and it’s somehow even bigger and more cool than I expected. I’ll be talking it up and we’ll have a copy of the book on the Abrams panel this Thursday, but even more excitingly, it’ll be available to anyone and everyone on October 15.
Song of the Summer
The Jaws 2 of Spinner Racks
I know I did already tackle a theme of shark-related covers so on one hand, this is lazy, but on the other hand, it’s Comic-Con Week and I’m a bit harried, and I also just acquired the ridiculous Flash Gordon comic below, which is too good not to show. So these are all different covers than I ran last time I looked at shark-related covers. And if I somehow find another goods series of shark covers I’ve not showcased yet, well, I’ll eventually aim to release the Jaws 3D of spinner rack covers… but for now, enjoy these 2D, 4-color beauties:
And with that, I’m off to attack some last-minute urgencies before I head out, but will see what I can off to the wilds of Comic-Con for the next week! If you see me roaming the floors, stop and say hello!