After my previous experience at a Wizard World show, I approached day one of Austin’s first Wizard World Texas with some trepidation. Back in 2008, I wrote this about the show, then in Dallas:
| Quote: |
| found the whole experience depressing. When Mojo Press started, I proselytized the coming graphic novel boom and how reaching a mainstream (i.e. non-geek) audience would save the shrinking medium. This idea was the entire raison d’être of Mojo Press. Although the company closed before the vision became a reality, graphic novels now dominate many aspects of popular culture — novels ape their structure and content, comic-influenced or derived films routinely top the box office charts, and TV shows rely on sequential storytelling methods. Perhaps most telling, bookstores and respected reviewers such as The New York Times devote prominent space to graphic novels while "legitimate" publishers routinely produce and promote comics on a variety of subjects in many different genres.
Apparently no one at the Wizard World Convention had heard or even cared about the current graphic novel publishing realities. None of the new talent promoted graphic novels or comics that would remotely interest a fan above the age of fifteen. They seemed content staying in the leaky kiddie pool, waiting for the water to run dry. |
Thankfully, my initial impressions after touring the convention floor ran closer to my hopes for the comics field. Mature and accomplished works dominated.
I chatted at length with The Intergalactic Nemesis writer Jason Neulander and artist Tim Doyle (who is currently producing an educational comic book for Texas prisoners!). Neulander is taking the radio show on the road in 2011. Watch for The Intergalactic Nemesis in Houston, Dallas, and even Kansas.
Art by Tim Doyle
Rob Guillory gladly signed (complete with an original sketch of Mason Savoy) my copy of Chew Omnivore Edition Volume 1. More on the talented artist later as I’m interviewing him tomorrow.
Sketch by Rob Guillory in my copy of Chew Omnivore Edition Volume 1
House of Mystery and JSA All-Stars scribe Matthew Sturges introduced me to Dean Trippe and his amazing retro artistic stylings.
Art by Dean Trippe
Even though we share countless friends and acquaintances, oddly Ape Entertainment Director of Marketing Brent Erwin and I had never met until today. After our brief discussion (with promises of more later), I’m glad we finally rectified the oversight.
I wandered the halls with fellow RevolutionSF editor Alan J. Porter, blogger/critic Sarah Arnold (expect a major RevSF announcement concerning Ms. Arnold soon!), and musician/writer/animator Tony Salvaggio.
The only book I bought shocked me not for the content but rather than I had never head of it!
How had a graphic novel about King Kong creators Cooper and Schoedsack escaped my notice? Based on Spawn of Skull Island: The Making of King Kong, adapter Susan Svehla relied on a fumetti style for The Amazingly True Adventures of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack.
After an unexpectedly fun and productive day, I’m looking forward to tomorrow.