Comic-Con

For comic book fans of the 1960s and 1970s, the name Neal Adams was an especially electrifying signature to see on a cover — there was no artist in the era that was more distinctive or dynamic than the man who brought an especially evocative commercial art sensibility to Batman, Green Lantern and the X-Men. For the newest episode of “Hero Complex: The Show,” we talked to Adams about some of his most memorable covers and the unpredictable art of superhero iconography. The interview, the first of two parts, was conducted on the floor of Comic-Con International in San Diego – it was on the convention’s second day in the hour before the show opened, in case you were wondering why the crowd was so thin. – Geoff Boucher RECENT AND RELATED Women in comics and the tricky art of equality Joe Kubert, the good soldier […]

Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, Captain Hook and Jack and the Beanstalk are coming to Season 2 of “Once Upon A Time,” creators revealed during Comic-Con International. The new season will also reveal the identity of Henry’s father, what happened to Rumplestiltskin’s son Baelfire, and the fairy tale alter-ego for mysterious Dr. Whale, the series creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis told their panel audience of roughly 4,000 in Ballroom 20 at the San Diego Convention Center on Friday. Kitsis and Horowitz were joined on the panel by Lana Parrilla (the Evil Queen), Ginnifer Goodwin (Snow White), Jennifer Morrison (Emma Swan), Emilie de Ravin (Belle), Meghan Ory (Red Riding Hood) and Josh Dallas (Prince Charming). ABC’s “Once Upon a Time” has become a smash hit, drawing an enthusiastic audience despite its small budget and unconventional story line. The show is set in […]

You hear a lot of bizarre alien conversation at Comic-Con International, but the strangest one I heard this year was between a vintage comics dealer and a shocked collector asking about a nice copy of “Iron Man” No. 55, the February 1973 issue that features the first appearance of Thanos. “I’m asking $6,000 for it,” the dealer said Sunday afternoon without irony or wink. “I know that’s high — hey, that’s really high — but that’s next year’s price.” The issue was a nice one (a slabbed copy, a certified 9.6 grade in appraised condition), but that sounded like an example of galaxy-level overpricing to me. I walked over to an adjacent booth where I saw a familiar face, Ted VanLiew, the owner of the Hampton, Mass.-based Superworld. He seemed only mildly shocked by the Never Never Land negotiation and the number of zeros involved. A year or two after you could […]

Kyle Higgins, best known as the writer of  “Nightwing” for DC Comics,  is a guest blogger for Hero Complex at Comic-Con International this year. Here’s a time lapse of Francis Manapul, artist and co-writer on ‘The Flash,’ doing a Supergirl piece with an ink wash And, the final piece: Plus two more that Francis completed for the show: –Kyle Higgins RECENT AND RELATED ‘Dark Knight Rises’: Nolan’s masked ambitions Dark Knight Rises’ hits the road Bat flight, Cat fights, Gotham falls Hans Zimmer explains Christopher Nolan’s secrecy Hathaway: Catwoman modeled on Hedy Lamarr Christopher Nolan opens up about Bane choice Christian Bale says goodbye to Gotham ‘Dark Knight Rises’: Tom Hardy as Bane Nolan on his favorite scene in ‘Dark Knight’ Nolan: Hollywood takes too many shortcuts

Kyle Higgins, best known as the writer of  “Nightwing” for DC Comics,  is a guest blogger for Hero Complex at Comic-Con International this year.    I was a part of DC’s “Batman: Beyond the Night of the Owls” panel with Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Gail Simone, Gregg Hurwitz, Scott Lobdell, David Finch, J.H. Williams and Jonathan Layman. I thought it’d be fun to take some pictures from our POV, as DC handed out a surprise gift to everyone in attendance. The creepiest image is, fittingly, from Scott’s phone. You’ll know it when you see it. – Kyle Higgins RECENT AND RELATED ‘Dark Knight Rises’: Nolan’s masked ambitions Dark Knight Rises’ hits the road Bat flight, Cat fights, Gotham falls Hans Zimmer explains Christopher Nolan’s secrecy Hathaway: Catwoman modeled on Hedy Lamarr Christopher Nolan opens up about Bane choice Christian Bale says […]

Kyle Higgins, best known as the writer of  ‘Nightwing’ for DC Comics,  is a guest blogger for Hero Complex at Comic-Con International this year.    Of all the sights and sounds that Comic-Con International has to offer, my favorite is Artists’ Alley. This is the area in the far south end of the convention hall (next to Hall H) that features hundreds of incredibly talented artists, most of whom have original pages, prints, commissions, sketches and so forth available for purchase. For comic fans, this place can become mesmerizing. Hours slip away unnoticed. As I was heading down to meet up with Francis Manapul, I passed an exhibitor’s booth called Comic Art Ink. What caught my eye was something I was quite familiar with, yet had never seen up close: Eddy Barrows’  original Nightwing pages, from our first seven issues of the […]

Peter Jackson unveiled more than 12 minutes of footage from “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” during his Comic-Con panel Saturday, giving fans a glimpse of Martin Freeman’s performance as Bilbo Baggins, a new female character not from the J.R.R. Tolkien universe and some scenes with familiar characters Gandalf, Gollum and Galadriel. Jackson, who directed “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy before taking on Tolkien’s smaller adventure, was joined on the panel by cowriter Philippa Boyens, Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins), Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Andy Serkis (second unit director and, of course, Gollum), Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield) and surprise guest Elijah Wood, who played Frodo Baggins in the trilogy and did “a bit of work” for “The Hobbit.” The panel was the capstone of the Hall H lineup this year. Thousands of fans — more than a few in Middle-earth garb […]

Is “Man of Steel” laying the groundwork for a Justice League movie? Director Zack Snyder may have been hinting at that during the Warner Bros. panel at Comic-Con International on Saturday. “Superman is the jewel in the DC crown,” Snyder told the Hall H audience of about 6,500. “And really what we’re trying to do is get his house in order, and then who knows what’s possible.” Snyder and actor Henry Cavill answered audience questions after screening footage from the film, slated for a June 2013 release. The footage began with glimpses of Clark Kent’s hometown and his childhood while a voice narrated, “What if a child dreamed of being something other than what society intended? What if a child aspired to something greater?” The clip continued to explore the theme of Kent trying to find his place in a world […]

Flashy footage from the upcoming fifth season of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” on Cartoon Network made a convert out of one fan during the show’s Saturday afternoon panel. During the question-and-answer session a guy in a baseball cap got up to inform supervising director Dave Filoni and writer Matt Michnovetz that he’d never seen the show and was just hanging out in the ballroom for the “Halo 4” presentation that was to follow, but after seeing the footage, he’d become a fan. He planned to go out and watch every episode right away. The jovial Filoni and Michnovetz fielded all kinds of questions from audience members more familiar with the show during the hour-long panel, which featured the two men and the panel moderator flanked by four clone soldiers in full armor. While Filoni could only tease certain developments […]

“True Blood” creator Alan Ball received a warm send-off in his final Comic-Con International appearance as the showrunner of the HBO vampire series, with fans and many members of the show’s cast rising to applaud the man who brought Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels to graphic life for five seasons and is now stepping down from his top post. Aside from that emotional moment, though, the tenor of the panel was high-spirited and even silly with many, many references to romance, nudity, sex and stripping, the latter courtesy of Joe Manganiello’s recent cinematic turn as a male dancer named Big Dick Richie in Steven Soderbergh’s film “Magic Mike.” The panel kicked off with a preview of the latter half of Season 5 that revealed Manganiello’s Alcide will step up to become pack master and Russell Edgington will create all kinds […]