Good Golly, Miss Molly! Day 2 of the Las Vegas Comic Con is in the bag and what a day it was! I’ve got John Carpenter, Sandy King, Todd McFarlane, and even some good ol’ fashion Doctor Who mixing it up with some Mud Bloods. We’re off to the races and our first stop is Horror land.
Sandy King brings in the graphic novel goods. Sandy King hosted a seminar about the graphic novel and entertainment industry in general. I’m a huge fan of hers and Storm King Productions. Her co-host, James Ninness, put on quite the graphic novel shop for the crowd. James made a great comment about doing what you love and doing it smart (don’t mortgage the house for your ‘one big shot’) and they both echoed the idea of ars gratia artis. Sandy King hit home the importance of storytelling and creating the art because it is the art that you need to create and not because you think it is the one that will sell. If you start to write because you think ‘this is going to sell!’ and not because you want to write it or draw it, well, it’s going to suck. The product might sell, but it will be inferior to anything you would put out because you believed in it.
I write for a living. I am lucky enough to include SexyFandom as a client, but let me tell you first hand–not everyone is SexyFandom. I’m lucky to have this gig. Sandy has called herself one of the luckiest people in the business. It isn’t just monetary ‘luck’, but rather being able to do what you truly believe in and get paid for it. That’s the luck that every artist needs in his or her life. Exposure doesn’t put food in your mouth, and Sandy King puts her money where her mouth is for her artists. She has this new graphic novel anthology based on horror. In it, she pairs up some rather kick-ass writers from across the globe and industry to create this artistic vision of pure horror. This is a passion project for her and it shows. I bought a few copies (almost everything they had on the damn table) myself. I love it. This is exactly what I try with my publishing corner of the world–giving a voice to those who have a story to tell. If anyone can do that and at a far larger scale than my house? Gotta love them. Gotta love them. Gotta support them. Can you imagine a world without people like Sandy King? It’d be a bunch of never ending Pirates of the Caribbean Transformers reboots. So let’s give thanks (and a collective sigh of relief) for Sandy King and her award winning–female owned–house, Storm King Comics.
Sandy King is a humble, sharp-witted, consummate producer of fine entertainment–and she loves to give artists their break. She spent her time at the Con talking to her fans, to aspiring artists, and even looking down the art gallery rows to find new talent. Pro tip, folks–if you have a booth somewhere, make sure you display some sequential art, too. You never know who might be looking.
I forgot to mention, Sandy just happens to be married to John Carpenter. Yeah, that guy who put out this one movie called Halloween. I think you may have heard of him. Halloween was one of my first horror memories as a kid. That scene with the coat hanger? That haunted me for ages. I think I slept with one under my pillow until I was 12. I had nightmares about Michael Myers coming in (Schwing!) to my room and the only thing to stop him was my cat and trusty coat hanger. We all know the genius behind the movie is John Carpenter. Sandy and company dropped a bit of knowledge for what’s coming next for John. Two major announcements here–Sandy King let us all in on the new Halloween movie that Danny McBride is in the middle of writing but she wanted to make darn certain that we knew this wasn’t some studio remake of the film but the inspiration comes from Carpenter himself. In fact, he is playing a rather large role in the production of this version. What does this mean to us mere mortals? Gone are the days where the Halloween franchise made no damn sense. This Halloween (okay, technically, next Halloween), it’s back to the lab again and Carpenter gets to craft the story’s rebirth in only a way he can. He’s had almost 40 years to mull this one over and see his original walked on by studio heads. You think Michael Myers is a vengeance machine? You ain’t seen John Carpenter take artistic wrath upon the Hollywood machine yet.
Oh and the second part to this news? Carpenter is known for his world creation. The big screen is a great example of this (Prince of Darkness is vastly underrated and if you haven’t seen They Live yet…), but a movie is a snapshot in time. Imagine something bigger than a movie. Imagine something a lot more immersive. Imagine a technology that was not around when John Carpenter was making his hallmark horror masterpieces. Imagine the ‘scary’ video games we have now written by Carpenter fans. If a writer inspired by Carpenter can scare you, then imagine what the master himself can do. That’s right folks, after hints and drops and further allegations–horror is coming to a whole new dimension, up close and personal. When I broached the question about what form will the destruction of all humanity come and poked around the Virtual Reality industry, ‘Hell, you could call the game Heartattack and it could double as a warning and a sales pitch’, the conversation became rather interesting. When I kept pressing VR and world creation for his next big project, the answer that I *finally* received was…
What? Do you think I’d just drop that bombshell right here? Right now? If you think I am a tease, then you need to try to get that answer out of Carpenter’s crew!
One person who definitely is no tease when it comes to dropping the goods is Todd McFarlane. I got to see McFarlane a few times over the weekend and I have to say, I’m impressed. I’m impressed with how big of a geek he is (in a good way, always mean that in a good way). He is the uber fan who made it big. This points back to Sandy King’s advice of doing it because you love it. McFarlane is part super fan and part artistic god. He discussed everything from why Spawn’s costume is alive to Venom to this one dude you might have heard of called ‘Stan Lee’.
Spawn–he’s back and this time he’s under McFarlane’s control. If there is one theme to today’s review, it’s ‘ownership’. I hinted at it for Carpenter and this time Todd McFarlane is screaming it from the rooftops (or at least the table top he was standing on for Vegas). McFarlane is not only rebooting Spawn under his creative control, but he’s going all-in with this re-visioning of his classic franchise. From what I hear, this script is Logan meets Deadpool and they have a lovechild. In short, it’s the emotional horror movie we all wanted since the ink dried on the first issue way back in the 90s. Oh, and did I mention there is a cameo for someone in it? There’s no secret that McFarlane wants Stan Lee to make an appearance and, from all appearances at the Las Vegas Comic Con event where they both took over the main stage, that wish is nigh.
Speaking of wishes and magic, the best Harry Potter fan shop made its way into Vegas for the weekend. Mud In My Blood is, by far, the best Harry Potter store I have seen–anywhere (and that includes Oxford and the studio lots). The female-owned small business (Hey, are you catching my THEME yet?) is a work of love by one rather talented woman. She might not be affiliated with the franchise, but she is a creative force. If it’s in Potter, it’s in her shop in one form or another. I was drawn to her shop by a woman displaying samples of small potions for me to use (known by you Muggles as ‘hand sanitizer’ aka ‘Jim’s best friend’). I loved trying them out. I am a sanitizer junkie and Comic Con is, well, it’s a lot of sweaty, clammy palms. There were a lot of palms to shake that day and (thankfully) a lot of anti-germ potions. Each is handmade and each carries its own unique scent (Amortentia is my favorite). But what if you aren’t an OCD freak like your good ol’ uncle Jim? Well, this shop has you covered. Everything from wands to chocolate frogs to All Flavor Beans to candles (home made kick butt ones) to Butterbeer mixes (the best Butterbeer I’ve tasted!). Everything you could possibly want from the Harry Potter world is here at your fingertips. If you ever wanted to take home a bit of the magic but were too far from the (rather expensive) theme parks, then this is your answer. Sincerely, I love Mud In My Blood’s Butterbeer so much, I declare it to be better than anything you can get at the parks. Plus, you can’t go wrong supporting a superfan and a creative craftswoman who brings the Potter world into ours.
Before I go for the night, I want to remind everyone there is only one ‘best’ (superlative by definition, eh?) Doctor and that Doctor is, of course, Tom Baker. Yes, I know David Tennant is the modern Who choice, but Baker is the overall and eternal Who. I don’t fanboy much at the Cons, but I was ecstatic to see a younger fan dressed as good ol’ ‘4’. After all this time, Doctor Who still goes strong for fans young and old–for series original and new. It just goes to show, when it comes to the longest running show in history, Who knows, eh?
Still coming for Day 3: Vagina and Stan Lee!
