Tales of Syzpense #62
NYCC recap, guest-starring Larry Lieber, P2025 Comics, upcoming Syzygy releases and convention appearances, and the Halloween Spinner Rack, part 1
NYCC
I’m flying back from the New York Comic-Con as I type this. I haven’t been to that show, or to New York, since just prior to the pandemic, so it felt great to be back in that city and that convention.
The con was full of interesting moments and some really encouraging, new opportunities, and the usual combination of happiness at seeing old friends, meeting collaborators in person for the first time, and that unfortunate thing of just not being able to see everyone or do everything you hoped to do while there. That last part being especially challenging this time around since I was only in the city for two days and at the convention for barely a day and a half.
But lots happened in the amount of time I was there.
Before making it to the show, we had a meet-up at Marvel Comics’ offices to tour the office and celebrate the recent release of Origins of Marvel Comics. Among the attendees was journalist and comic writer Frank Lovece, my Simon & Schuster editor Kimberly Laws, Marvel’s Sarah Stone and Jeremy West… and perhaps the only living creator to have worked on one of the comics in Origins, writer/artist/editor Larry Lieber.
Larry worked alongside his older brother Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby on Journey Into Mystery 83, the first appearance of Marvel’s Thor. (Larry also worked on the first appearance of Iron Man, Tales of Suspense 39, which appears in the second volume of this same Fireside Books line, Son of Origins of Marvel Comics.)
Larry contributed a very sweet remembrance of working with his brother Stan and with Jack on Journey 39 for my deluxe edition of Origins, so I thought it would be a particular thrill to meet him, and it was. Larry, who turns 93 this week, enjoyed the walk-through the office and seeing some nice remembrances of his own with the various Marvel Bullpen artifacts and posters Marvel has on display, along with their impressive array of statues featuring the MCU version of characters Larry helped bring to life in the first place. All of which was a pretty special way to start the convention weekend.
The tour concluded, we said our goodbyes, and then it was off to the convention and my first official signing for the Origins Deluxe Edition.
Following the signing, I connected with a lot of great people but rarely got the phone back out of my pocket to take additional pictures. Although I did have to get this shot of longtime G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero writer (and so much more!) Larry Hama getting inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame.
One more pic from the Harvey Awards was this chance meet-up with the owners of Wonderland Comics, one of the 2024 Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Best Retailer Award nominees, a great place to visit online or in person whenever you’re near their Putnam, Connecticut location.
In all, NYCC is exhausting in ways most other cons aren’t, but that’s nearly always a mess of my own making, since it’s within my power to get more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep per night even though that never seems to happen. But some great things happened in the little moments and meet-ups, and even better, some exciting things are going to come down the line as a result, too. It felt good to be back.
2025
Feeling less good, per se, but more necessary, is a recent project I assisted with that launched earlier this month but is being updated frequently with additional stories, too. And that is, a group of comic creators got together to illustrate the damage that the Heritage Foundation’s proposals in their quite terrible Project 2025 plan will create if it comes to pass. The full P2025 document is a staggering 900 pages, so to simplify and visualize many of the perils contained within it, we’ve all put together this Stop Project 2025 initiative.
Within that link, you can find information about the overall project and why it’s so potentially harmful, individual stories categorized by their respective topics, and a full downloadable PDF of all the stories, should you prefer to read them that way.
Should you feel any urgency to help spread a link to these comics too, here are various links for most social media platforms:
Bluesky • Threads • Tumblr • Twitter • Instagram
Early voting has already started in many areas but for everyone, it’s great to be educated about what could be coming down the line if this initiative somehow comes to pass. So no matter where your head is at, I’d encourage checking out
https://stopproject2025comic.org/ so you can be informed and aware. Maybe much of this project will never affect you personally but it will assuredly have negative impact on people you care about.
Along these same informative and empathetic lines, writer Greg Pak also put this together, too, while I’m talking up comic-creators’ grassroots pre-election efforts:
Word Balloons
A week or so back, I talked up the launch of Origins of Marvel Comics on the great John Sinutres’ Word Balloon podcast — available as an audio pod from the usual places as well as on YouTube now, too. It was a smart, informed, and suitably geeky chat, as is John’s and my way, and I enjoyed it. We recorded it live and had a couple fun comic-creator cameos ask some questions during the show, but it’s now parked and available for anyone by clicking the image here:
Dread Tidings
The Syzygy/Image holiday horror one-shot, Dread the Halls, is available for pre-order through comic shops now.
The brains behind the operation, writer Jordan Hart, and I, did a nice interview with Byron Brewer at Dynamic Forces to discuss the project at length.
And Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles has invited Jordan and I to do a signing when the comic launches on December 4. They’re taking pre-orders now for signed copies for anyone not able to attend. But for those who do come by in person, I’ll also bring some copies of Origins, my coming Marvel Calendar book, and a few presents for all attendees, too.
• In other Syzygy news, Daily Dead showed off some covers and interior pages from Ashley Wood’s coming Les Mort 13 Giant-Syz Special here.
• I’ll be a special guest at this coming weekend’s San Diego Comic Fest in Carlsbad, too, both signing books at my table and also doing a panel on October 26 at 3pm that details the history of San Diego as it’s appeared in comic books over the decades.
• I’ll be doing a similar variation of that panel two other times coming up, too: at my local library on October 29 at 4pm and again at the Comic-Con Museum during their one-day Storytelling Across Media event on November 9, too. My version of a TedTalk or something, only with some fun and screwy visuals. Maybe at some point if invited I’ll take this little show on the road,
The Halloween Spinner Rack, Part 1
I outfitted both racks with comics a couple weeks ago but have held off in showing the various titles I included this year until after NYCC was concluded, in case I found anything good to add at that show. And I did. So I’ll start with a dozen of ‘em this week and will keep it rolling next time around, too… assuming I get the next newsletter done ahead of Halloween. Then again, if The Simpsons can run their annual “Treehouse of Horror” episode in early November this year, I guess even if I’m a few days late with the next round of covers, it’s still close enough…
Jurassic Park: The Connecticut Experience
A day head of NYCC, I stopped in to have lunch with John Byrne but got sidtracked by his latest pet, Trixie the Triceratops…
Which isn’t the first time Byrne has played around with a scenario involving me and Jurassic-era creatures…
Ahh, that's a cool Triceratops statue JB has there! And I never knew that was you and your family in that Jurassic Park comic. Nice!
That's fantastic. Now there's a brain to pick.