Today felt like two days tapped together.
- Marvel Digital Comics Panel. I think out of everything this weekend I was the most excited to see this. There were promises of screenings of the Spider-Woman motion comic and the Astonishing X-Men motion comic. And these promises were kept. The Spider-Woman motion comic wasn’t as bad as I fear or as good as I hoped. I would argue that it got better as it went along: the animation, the dialogue, the all of it. The Astonishing X-Men sure moved a lot more. This is more of a straight-up adaptation with an attempt to make the animations look more three dimensional. It worked in some places, but looked really odd in others. However, you could really tell that Whedon had a career in television and Bendis in comics: Whedon’s words just worked so much better. Highlight: learning that Spider-woman will be released as a motion comic in Canada in September.
- The line. Okay, I shouldn’t complain because I got to jump the line for ticket purchase, but the line to get it the exhibition space was ridiculous and show some of the worst planning ever. Highlight: the pair behind me who flirted endlessly behind me. Geek flirting, lots of him being a joke-ass and her playfully punching him. I almost turned around to tell them to start making out already.
- The costumes. Highlight: hot people cosplaying takes the edge off of everything.
- Uncharted 2. I dropped by the Sony booth for a taste of the game I’m most looking forward toin 2009, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. They had a level playable and, man, that game looks great. Just, wowza — amazing animation and textures. Highlight: sneaking up on a dude and taking him out all stealth-like to the approval of the small crowd behind me. Felt pretty cool. I’ll be back tomorrow for a taste of God of War 3.
- Marvel Trivia. A lot more popular than last year, at least in terms of attendance. The Marvel guys asked quick-fire questions to the audience, handing out variant covers and a few signed comics as prizes and ended with the audience challenging the staff to trivia. Good clean fun. Highlight: well, I got a variant cover for New Mutants, but who wants to read New Mutants?
- Cup of Joe. Quesada made a couple of those announcements that I was craving. Both were pretty interesting to be because they concerned creators I really like. First, my beloved X-Factor isn’t being cancelled, instead it’s getting a month off and coming back with a combined numbering, #200 in December. Also Jeff Parker, writer of the wonderful Agents of Atlas and The Hood, is penning a tie-in to the World War Hulks event next year. Highlight: my question got to close out the panel and I thought I was a pretty decent one. Also, more X-Factor. I love that title.
- Darwyn Cooke. This man lives up to his reputation as one of the nicest men in comics. Cooke talked a lot about the craft of his stories, his animation work, and a lot about the state of the industry in general. He also had a great answer to my question about if there’s a great Canadian crime story from him on the horizon — “There’s a great Canadian story but it might not be crime.” That he was working on some treads but they havnt gelled yet. I call that a scoop. Well, kinda. Also, he’s working on more Jonah Hex stuff at the moment, which is pretty awesome. Highlight: before the panel Cooke signed my copy of The Hunter and accompanied it with an amazing sketch of Parker. What a class act.
That’s funny, I thought Cooke had the reputation of being the biggest dick in comics. Or at least, hard to work with. Glad to see he’s good to the fans though.