For my final interview of the convention, I spoke with Jamie Portillo who wrote Hell Paso. He has a passion for history that he’s converted into a series of historical fiction graphic novels. https://youtu.be/pK8Vem9HsEU
Intrigued by Mercy Sparx, I decided to speak with Josh Blylock of Devil’s Due Entertainment. (Which has just merged with 1st Look) The books turned out to be deeper and more exciting than I expected. https://youtu.be/YJzfPES9U0Q
I was told that I had to go talk to the guys at PLB Comics. Turns out they’re a local publisher putting out neat, pulp comics. There’s a lot more to what makes then unique. Check it out: https://youtu.be/0n-i6Mk61Ak
Volume 5 is all over the place, but it does seem to continue to follow Willingham’s trend of providing some thematic respite after a heavy plot. So this volume starts off with the notion of Bigby’s spies around the world, particularly Cinderalla who, with me reading this in 2015, I know will have her own miniseries in which she continues her spy adventures. Cinderella uncovers that Ichabod Crane was selling information to The Adversary. Bigby Wolf kills him, inviting the question of whether this makes sense after he was unwilling the kill the mundy who was going to out the community. After a bit of thought, it’s apparent this is an entirely different situation - Ichabod is committing treason. Additionally, it’s possible Bigby is not quite as ready to compromise as he was before the attack of the wooden army. ...
Back in 2012 when I was writing for Player Affinity (now called Entertainment Fuse), I had the opportunity to s peak with Cara Nicole aka Arizona Powergirl. This year she came back to Baltimore, so I took the opportunity to catch up with her. https://youtu.be/uRWSXylkf5o Yes? I'm here. Officer? Powergirl Emma Frost
Really, the only bad thing about this panel was that it could easily be a semester at college. So it felt a bit compressed for a one hour panel. https://youtu.be/FgXn9-Dqo-Y
After the Boom! Studios panel I started thinking again about gender and sexual fluidity in comics. Long-time readers will remember I recently wondered about this in the Sunstone article. As James Tynion IV had spoken about his experiences growing up and being excited just to see acknowledgement of LGBT characters (even if they were being made fun of), I wondered if he’d speak to me about the issue. To my delight, he was available to speak for a few minutes. ...
The biggest takeaway I got from Scott Snyder’s panel at Baltimore Comic-Con was that Scott has a thesis for each story arc he does on Batman. Each is him exploring a new idea with Batman - including recently the father/son relationship he has with Alfred. He also mentions his time on Batman may be coming to a close, but that he’s working on a Batman graphic novel. https://youtu.be/frs7I1nrufg
This year’s show was, like any other, a mixture of the usual characters in their usual costumes, the usual characters in unique permutations, and characters rarely seen at Baltimore Comic-Con. Overall, the level of costume quality continues to increase year-on-year and it’s exciting to see how much love and care goes into many of the costumes. Saturday, the day of the costume contest, remains the best day to see the most elaborate costumes, so if you only buy a day pass and want to look at the great cosplay on hand, that’s the best day. That said, I happened to see great costumes on Friday and Sunday. It’s just that the huge, “I can’t really walk in this” costumes were only there on Saturday. Enjoy the gallery! ...
Sword and Sorcery are back! With Robert Kendzie at the helm, you’re in for a romping good time. As you hear during our interview, he’s got a fun little twist on all the usual adventure tropes. Dire Destiny is a series to watch! https://youtu.be/6pZqV0daUHs