James-Tynion-Iv

It was Batman Day on Saturday and so a panel of Batman and Bat-Family creatives came together to celebrate. It was the most interactive panel of the weekend and I loved that about it. They mentioned Harley would take over (a reference to Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner), but it did happen as the audience had many more questions about Harley than Batman. Check out this video with John Timms; James Tynion IV, who I interviewed at Baltimore Comic-Con two years ago; Peter J Tomasi; Jimmy Palmiotti; and Amanda Conner. ...

Comics might not contain music, but music can be a big part of comics. This panel discusses all the ways music intersects with comics - inspiration, background noise to help the writers, and as the subject of comics themselves. https://youtu.be/0xv3_OIE6Bo This is another one of those panels I wish lasted longer. Here are some topics I wanted to bring up: Had Amy Chu heard of or read Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor and did it inform her musician-based comics. What they thought of the soundtrack that accompanies Kyle Higgins’ C.O.W.L. How the music writers felt about the parallels between the fact that despite only a few possible chord progressions we have so many creative songs and the fact that there are only like five story archetypes, but we still have such fabulous stories in comics.

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

There were lots of great reveals during the IDW panel including: Walter Simonson will be continuing his Thor story, Ragnarok. I’d never heard of it, but the artwork looked stunning and his description of the plot made me want to pick up the trade for the first arc. James Tynion IV will be writing the book in which Batman meets up with the Ninja Turtles. He explained how he had to make sure to service the story rather than write pure fan service, but he seemed to have so much enthusiasm about the project that I can’t help but expect good things. Just in time for the theatrical re-release, IDW will be releasing a B ack to the Future comic. I asked the marketing guy afterwards when it takes place, but that’s currently a secret. Finally, they will be doing some reprints of the Marvel Star Wars materials in a special edition that lets readers see the rough drafts of the comic. Unfortunately, my video equipment malfunctioned, so all I have is audio, but enjoy - there are some good, juicy stories in here. ...