SDCC 2017 Panels Part 1: Composers and Jim Lee

* Anatomy of a Superhero Panel

I went to this panel by accident, thinking it was the Anything Goes with John Barrowman one. This one had a variety of superhero movie or TV composers talking about their craft, challenges, and projects. Mark Isham, famous for the TV soundtrack Once Upon a Time, composed the soundtrack to the upcoming Marvel show Cloak and Dagger. Ludwig Goransson composed the soundtrack to the upcoming Marvel film Black Panther. Brian Tyler composed the most superhero soundtracks with Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Mark Beltrami unfortunately couldn't make it to the panel. David Russo composed the soundtrack to the DC show Gotham. Lorne Balfe, who composed The Lego Batman movie, moderated the session.



A video montage of each composer with snippets of their work and the TV and movie played on the screen. Each talked a little about their projects and played a clip. Brian Tyler's was my favorite because he talked about using music to portray the aftermath of Frigga's death, a beautiful funeral rite with no dialogue. Goransson talked about recording the music for Black Panther in Senegal and Africa. Russo talked about the swift schedule for Gotham where he had a lot of freedom to explore themes with the trust of producers. The consensus of the panel was that film is a medium to luxuriate in themes and explore more while TV is more about speed and making fast changes when needed. They all have different opinions about conducting their work in the studio. Brian Tyler prefers to conduct as a self admitted control freak, which makes sense since a different conductor can make a work sound vastly different. Mark Isham, on the other hand, prefers to be in the listening booth to address producer problems quickly sometimes only based on their facial expressions. He also admits to not being a great conductor and wants to take lessons to improve his skill.

Audience questions were decent. One asked if failed or rejected themes ever came back in different works. Only Brian Tyler had done so and realized it after the fact. Another asked about the lack of diversity in their industry, which stunned the panel a little bit. Balfe tried to clumsily dismiss the woman's criticism, but others like Isham talked about steps they were personally taking to help with the issue. Russo was the first to admit that the industry is mostly comprised of white men, which is an uncomfortable thing to address on a panel of white men. Another question was if they miss performing. Goransson performs regularly with Childish Gambino as a DJ. Russo was in a band for years before composing and misses it. Overall, the panel was an unexpected delight. I was especially excited to see Brian Tyler as he was the only one I recognized from my movie soundtrack collection.

* Jim Lee

Jim Lee is always a delight to see in any panel situation. He draws art filmed on a projector while answering various questions or generally talking about his life and career. He drew a portrait of Wonder Woman during most of the panel and did a hurried portrait of Batman at the end. He talked a lot about his life. He moved to the US as a child from Korea and didn't know how to read or write English. Comic books helped him learn English first from following the action with just the art and transitioning over time to reading the words. His parents wanted him to be a doctor, but he chose to follow his passion for comics. However, they still hold high expectations for him. Lee started out as a huge fan in a time when the audience for comics was much smaller. One of his big motivators for the job was not having to interact with a lot of other people, but the industry has vastly expanded and meeting fans at convention became a regular part of his job. When he first started his job, he expected the writers to have years of plot planned out and was very surprised when a writer asked him to choose his favorite Marvel characters to write a story about.



Lee talked about how his style of art changed as he has gotten older. As a young artist, he packed each frame full of stuff to impress and become a sought after artist. As his career solidified and he didn't have to try to impress anymore, he was more contemplative about conveying the story and what is needed in each frame to do that. He answered quite a few audience questions and it would have been nice if less of those audience members treated it as a signing session when it wasn't. My favorite audience member didn't ask a question, but gave Jim Lee his own drawing of Wonder Woman. The best moment of all was when Jim Lee gave Scott Williams a Batman Rolex watch as a surprise gift for their 30 years of work together and gave a heartfelt speech about their relationship (video above). Williams in turn gave an emotional speech about their collaboration in the X-Men issue 258 cover and how it was a huge turning point for him. If you ever get the opportunity to see Jim Lee in person, go! He's always hilarious, very kind, and incredibly talented.

Keep an eye out for more SDCC!

SDCC 2016: Panels Part 2: Bunches of Them!

Because Luke Cage was in Ballroom 20, I got to see quite a few panels that I wasn't super interested in. So I will smoosh them all into one post and talk briefly about each of them.

* Teen Wolf

I'm barely getting my hearing back after all of the high pitched squealing and screaming from this panel. I've never seen the show and I had no idea it had such a big following. It was announced that this next season would be their last, so there were some tears as well. The panel as a whole was fun even though I had no idea who anyone was. The cast gave some surprises, joked around, and fondly talked about their time together. The plot of some of the seasons seems kind of ridiculous. I'm not sure how ghostriders that steal souls figure into it all.

* The Strain

I've read all the books of The Strain series and have seen none of the show. They debuted a cute video with the stars dancing and singing a rap song called Vamps BOOM. Then a clip was shown of the new season with a brand new opening. I don't recognize much of the characters and it seems like the show has deviated a lot from the book. The clip itself was way more overdramatic than I expected. It was cool to see David Bradley who I know as Filch from Harry Potter or Walder Frey from Game of Thrones. It's interesting to actually see him as a good guy. The only really intriguing part of the show was Richard Sammel who plays a villain on the show and how they depict the Master.

* MacGuyver

I remember enjoying this show as a kid and I didn't think it would translate well as a modern show. First, the new MacGuyver is super young, portrayed by Lucas Till (who honestly seemed pretty bored throughout the panel). I think it made sense that he was older in the original show because his knowledge of solutions to impossible tasks comes from experience. This new guy just seems to be a genius which just feels a bit cheap and of course his youth is supposed to draw in a younger crowd. Second, the scenes shown of the show are pretty cheesy and more akin to James Bond than MacGuyver. I was surprised to see that James Wan, director of Saw and The Conjuring, is executive producer and the director for the first episode. I personally won't be watching, but those who like the CSI shows will probably love it.

* Batman Unlimited: Mechs vs. Mutants

This is an animated Batman movie that has the Penguin and Mr. Freeze amassing other villains (Bane and Killer Croc) to make them Godzilla size and take over Gotham. Of course Batman and Green Arrow just happen to have mechs already made to combat them. The dialogue is cheesy and the plot isn't the most coherent. I'm sure kids would love it. The only really funny part is when Batman is asked if he had fun on a theme park planet (???), he says in a super serious voice "It was entertaining.) I had no idea there would actual be people to talk about it but John DiMaggio (who I LOVE) and Roger Craig Smith spoke about the film and gave away merchandise and signed posters.

* DC All Access: No Boundaries

This panel was an overview of the DC comics coming out in their Rebirth series following the Batman vs. Superman film. Some of them seemed interesting like the Batgirl series, which is continuing in the same vein as the previous one, and the Supergirl series, which is being rebooted after years. Others seemed kind of awful (Harley Quinn). The Cyborg comic had some pretty cool art in it. The writers and artists were fun to listen to and even talked about their heroes' hobbies.

More posts to come!

Panels Part 3: Magic, Jim Lee, and The Sandman

1) Magic: the Gathering

This year, Wizards of the Coast celebrates Magic: the Gathering's 20th anniversary! Yay! The panel consisted of Mark Rosewater, Mark Purvis, Jenna Helland, and Dave Guskin. One of the celebratory things is the upcoming From the Vaults: 20 that rereleases a card from each year that changed Magic in a significant way. Unsurprisingly, the most coveted and expensive card is Jace, the Mind Sculptor, which made standard play hell for its entire run. I was most excited by the alternate art to Akroma's Vengeance and Guilded Lotus.

Other cards in the set include Hymn to Tourach, Dark Ritual, Green Sun Zenith, Chameleon Colossus, Kessig Wolf Run, Char, Chainer's Edict, Fact or Fiction, Tangle Wire, Thran Dynamo, Wall of Blossoms, Fyndhorn Elves, Swords to Plowshares, Cruel Ultimatum, Venser Shaper Savant, Ink Eyes Servant of Oni, and Impulse. You can buy this for about $200 online or at a local game store. They talkd about the new versus deck, Heroes vs. Monsters, which plays into their new set. They also mentioned that a new Commander preconstructed decks would come out November 1st. These decks feature many reprints of older cards and 51 brand new cards, including this one:

Then they moved on to the upcoming set in a new block: Theros. It's heavily influenced by Greek mythology (which I love! It makes my nerd heart sing!) and features 3 main factions: gods, monsters, and heroes. Here is some of the gorgeous art of this set.

This last art is my absolute favorite. No cards were spoiled, but the new border for some of the cards was revealed and of course it's beautiful.

For the prerelease, events will give players packs in a way similar to the faction packs from Return to Ravnica except they will be monocolored and are different paths for the hero (you) and each pack comes with a different hero card that can be used to fight a hydra on game day.

I can't wait for this new set and I'm so excited to find out about the different cards. Not many cards have been spoiled yet, but I hope all the gods are enchantment creatures, which hasn't been common before.

2) Jim Lee

Jim Lee is a comic book artist for Marvel comics and Image comics. This panel is a live demonstration of his art. I expected it to be mildly interesting, but he was hilarious. He talked about his life, his family, and his art. His family really wanted him to be a doctor or a lawyer when he was growing up. He talked about choosing the name Jim (after James T. Kirk) when he moved to America from Korea. There was no real organization to anything and he just commented on what he drew or whatever he wanted while he drew. He called up 3 people from the audience to help him fill in some areas in black and then gave away the art using a bizarre method of serial numbers on money. Here are the completed works that he gave away. (Sorry for the bad pictures. His hands moved a lot.) This first one is of Death from The Sandman.

This next one is of the Joker from Batman with very scary teeth.

This last one wasn't completed, but it was of Superman bursting through some boulders. There were lots of jokes about the sleep-like face and the fascist arm position.

The panel was unexpectedly delightful and I will definitely go see it again next year.

3) The Sandman: 25th Anniversary and Beyond

The Sandman series has been completed for quite a while and this year marks its 25th anniversary. Recently, it has been announced that a prequel will come out. Most of the panel was dedicated to looking back on The Sandman and the great many comic book covers for the artists, author, and others to reminisce. The panel consisted of Dave McKean, Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, Todd Klein, and J. H. Williams III. The interesting thing to note about these mixed media covers is that there was no photoshop then. It's an amazing feat to create them anyway, but when limited to actual photographs and drawings that can't be easily resized or manipulated in photoshop is even more amazing. Here is one of my favorites.

The new Sandman comic is called The Sandman Overture, written by Neil Gaiman and J. H. Williams III. The first issue will be released October 11, 2013. They showed the cover art, an alternate cover art, and then the first couple of pages.

I can't wait to read this, but I will probably wait for the trade paperback just because I don't have much room for individual comic books.

That's all the panels! I count myself very lucky to have gone to so many.

Panels Part 2: Lockwood, Penguin, MLP, and Monster High

1) Todd Lockwood

Todd Lockwood is an extremely talented fantasy artist who has done lots of work for Dungeons and Dragons, Magic: the Gathering, and fantasy book covers. His panel was based on looking at his work over the years. He talked about how he started in advertising. This is his favorite ad because he had to make a streamlined plane into something super bulky.

Then he worked for TSR, the creators of Dungeons and Dragons, which led to being hired by Wizards of the Coast and becoming successful as an artist. His work is singular, recognizable, and beautiful. His dragon work is amazing because he thought out what kind of musculature and skeleton that would actually make sense.

Here are some of my favorite works by him.

2) The Penguin Books panel was kind of boring. They just read the synopses of upcoming books and gave some away. There were some interesting ones like a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, but nothing super amazing. I didn't win anything and it kind of dragged on. I won't be going to the panel next year.

3) My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

I was pretty lucky to get into this panel. My Little Pony has lots of rabid fans, as does Monster High (which was the panel after) and Magic: the Gathering (which was after Monster High). There was lots of fans cursing other fans for taking up space when they might not want to see whatever that panel was, but they really should be in a bigger room to accommodate more fans for each fandom. Anyway, My Little Pony was pretty awesome. The panel included Daniel Ingram (composer), Tara Strong (voice of Twilight Sparkle), Megan McCarthy (writer), Cathy Weseluck (voice of Spike), Andrea Libman (voice of Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy), and Jayseon Thiessen.

They started talking about Equestria Girls, a film about the ponies as humans. I initially thought it sounded pretty dumb, but the story sounds interesting where Twilight travels to our world and finds people who remind her of her friends. Plus the song they showed is super catchy and awesome.



Then they talked about Season 4 and showed a few clips with the mane 6 as superheroes and Luna turning back into Nightmare Moon. They promise more movie references, more Zecora, a soundtrack (yay!), and a Rarity episode (finally). Then they showed this clip, which obviously isn't finished, but the song is adorable.



Can't wait for season 4!

4) Monster High

I had heard of the show and dolls, but never really knew much about it. Apparently it's about a high school with classic movie monsters with a focus on fashion. The problem I have with it is it doesn't seem to be very well written and appeal for those outside the focus age group is low. It seems to be trying for a teen audience, but the writing is more suited to middle school or elementary school aged children. They also seem to care more about selling and producing more dolls rather than making good stories and developing the characters they already have. The only thing I really like about it is that it's marketing horror specifically to young girls, which doesn't happen that often.

More panels to come!

Panels Part 1: Soska Twins, Bones, and SHIELD

I went to tons of panels this year, mostly due to the fact that my boyfriend and I got 4 day tickets with preview night. Before, the time seemed much too precious to waste standing for hours in line just to get into a panel. I still like to stick with the smaller panels, but I did get into one or two popular ones.

1) The Soska Twins

The Soska Sisters, twin directors extraordinaire, were in 2 panels. The first was on Warp Comics, an indie company actually called First Comics that published comics from 1983 to 1991. They are reopening and publishing new material. The majority of the panel was Ken F. Levin talking about the history of the company. While interesting, no one else on the panel really got to say anything. The time could have been used more effectively and even having the audience ask some questions would have been nice too. It was just kind of dull and sad.

The other panel was called Horror on the Panelled Page. In this one, all of the panelists, which included Mark L. Miller, the Soska sisters, Tim Seeley, Brandon Seifert, Matt Pizzolo, Mark Miller, and Adam Egypt Mortimer, were asked questions about their opinions on horror and there was time for questions from the audience. The most memorable question was one from a woman asking how they felt about violence in the real world, heavily implying that it was at least partly their fault for creating horror fiction. Some said that making horror helped them cope with horror in the real world. It allows the viewer to get close to something they normally would not be able to walk away from and leaves them unscathed afterwards. I really enjoyed the panel and I want to read more of some of the panelists' work, such as the Hellraiser graphic novel and the Witch Doctor comic books.

2) Bones

I waited in line for Ballroom 20 for about 2 hours to see Agents of SHIELD and got in just in time to see the Bones panel. I don't watch the show, but I'm a fan of David Boreanaz ever since he was Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I figured it would be cool anyway. It turned out to be a blast. The two stars started out by reading scenes from the last season finale, but reading as the opposite character. Deschanel as Booth had a deep, surfer dude kind of voice and Boreanaz as Bones was super high and squeaky. There were spoilers galore. Booth and Bones will finally get married and Boreanaz showed what a proper proposal to Bones would look like. Most of the fan questions were directed at Boreanaz and mentioned his previous Whedon work like what kind of character would Deschanel be. The panel was awesome and hilarious even though I have never once seen the show.

3) Agents of SHIELD

I purposefully avoided any sort of spoilers involving this show so I would be surprised if I somehow made it into the panel. So the panel started with a Q&A, which I thought was odd since they hadn't talked about the show at all yet beyond introducing those on the panel, which were Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Clark Gregg, Ming Na Wen, Iain DeCaestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Chloe Bennett, Brett Dalton, Jeffrey Bell, and Maurissa Tancharoen. The last question asked about a clip. Joss Whedon mentioned some legal difficulties with Disney, but said we would then watch the whole first episode. It was amazing! There were lots of Whedon alums, such as J. August Richards, Ron Glass, and Colbie Smulders. The writing makes the characters come alive. Each of them has their own flaws and fully realized personalities. Of course there is the trademark Whedon humor and rapidfire dialog. The episode introduces SHIELD outside of the Avengers, some sort of nefarious and unscrupulous organization, and a conspiracy theorist that lives out of her van. I can't wait to see the rest of the show, which premiers September 24 on ABC. Because it isn't FOX, maybe the show will last more than a season or two.

More panels to come!

SDCC 2012: Panels Part 3: Ponies and Magic

On to Friday! I really, really, really wanted to see the Firefly 10th Anniversary panel. However, people started lining up the night before and I just didn't want to sleep outside in line. It did seem like everything else was a little more empty because of the thousands of people lined up for that one event. So instead of saving a futile and very far away spot in line for Firefly, I waited in line for a much shorter amount of time for the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic panel. If you haven't seen it, it is much more awesome than the My Little Pony of my childhood. These characters are dynamic and interesting. Everyone can find aspects of themselves and their friends in these ponies because the writing and character development are exceptional. There are also really awesome references specifically for adult viewers to such things as Trainspotting, The Big Lebowski, Dr. Who, Star Trek, I Love Lucy, and Star Wars. If you are still incredulous, go watch the first few episodes on Netflix and judge for yourself.

* My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

This panel was packed! Lots of bronies and fillies and the odd child gathered to see what was in store for the next season and hear what the voice actors had to say. The panelists were Tara Strong (voice of Twilight Sparkle), Andrea Libman (voice of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie), Tabitha St. Germain (voice of Rarity, Luna, and Granny Smith), Cathy Weseluck (voice of Spike), and Megan McCarthy (writer who makes all the characters go insane). At the beginning, they played the extended version of the theme song, which was awesome.



After some questions like what's your favorite episode and how like your character are you, the fans got to ask some of their own questions. I'm glad someone asked about the future of Derpy Hooves. In case you don't know, she is a clumsy pony who has usually been in the background. It all started when they accidentally made her eyes all crazy or "derpy" looking. She was given a speaking role this last season and was deemed offensive largely by uppity parents because they felt she was making fun of people with disabilities even though removing a pony that they felt represents these people from the show seems even more offensive. I think she is merely a clumsy, sweet pony. She will remain a background pony for now, but may become more in the future. They were pretty close lipped about season 3 as a whole except when Tabitha St. Germain said that Fluttershy is turned into a dragon at some point and this clip (where Spike sings for the first time!).



There were a couple of pretty lame questions (like is Rainbow Dash a lesbian and a practically unintelligble question about Lauren Faust) but as a whole, the discussion let us know the actors and their inspirations better and see what direction the show will be going. I had no idea Cathy Weseluck was a classically trained musician or Tabitha St. Germain based Rarity's voice off of Audrey Hepburns. Hasbro is supportive of its adult fans and have shown that through the Comic Con exclusive doll, numerous references, and the names of many background ponies (Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Dr. Hooves, etc). I'm honestly glad that there are so many adult fans of this show because I think it's great. Adult males are a huge part of the demographic and I think people get mad when traditional gender roles are called into question, even if it is just with a bunch of guys liking an awesome children's show. The bronies and fillies are awesome and are the most creative and prolific fans, creating wonderful art, music, fanfictions, and generally enjoying a good show about the magic of friendship.

* Magic the Gathering

I've been playing Magic the Gathering for a long time and it's actually my boyfriend and I met. Ah nerd love. Anyway, I knew we HAD to see this panel even if we saw no others. The panelists were Mark Rosewater (head Magic designer), Aaron Forsythe (Magic R&D), Matt Cavotta (senior creative Magic art director), Mark Purvis (Magic senior band manager), and Scott Larabee (Magic organized play program manager). I was so excited to see what was coming up next for Magic and it was more than I was expecting. A few lands from the collection From the Vaults: Realms were revealed, including Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Glacial Chasm, Grove of the Burnwillows, Murmuring Bosk, Forbidden Orchard, and Dryad Arbor.

Then the next duel deck was revealed: Izzet vs. Golgari. The main 2 cards are Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind and Jarad, Galgari Lich Lord. That will be out in September. In November, the Commander's Arsenal will come out for those people (like me!) that like to play the Commander (or EDH) format. October 5th is the release the next set, Return to Ravnica. Here are some of the awesome lands to come:

Like the last Ravnica block, this block will feature 10 guilds of allied and enemy colors.The guilds will work be presented differently: 5 guilds will be in Return to Ravnica, the other 5 guilds will be in Gatecrash (the next set), and all 10 guilds will be in the last as yet unnamed set. These guilds will have one particular creature as guild leader. I am most excited for the red/white Boros angel and the black/white ghost.

Unfortunately, none of the actual cards were revealed. The prerelease will be interested because each player will choose a guild and receive a guild sticker, a letter for their guild leader, a guild themed achievement card, a guild spin down life counter, 5 Return to Ravnica booster packs, 1 guild booster pack, and a guild prerelease card that can be used during the tournament. That is super amazing and a good change to prerelease play. The next few months are going to be fun!!

More panels tomorrow! Last one!